If that was a clue, it was a horrible one. Wizards did everything by either raising their fingers or waving their hands. Tom decided to hazard a guess.
“I did it,” he said, trying to fake enthusiasm, “I made the glass appear.”
He looked up at Madam Stewart and smiled. She did not smile back. Her eyes narrowed as laughter rang out through the class. He had guessed wrong.
***
Tom sat in the lunch hall, poking the fish with his fork. He was supposed to fill the glass with water by drawing it in from the moisture around him, not make the glass appear from thin air.
Madam Stewart could have told him that. But no, it was never that simple with him. With everyone else it was a “very good”, “good” or “awful”. With him, there was always some elaborate foreplay before she told him how rubbish he was.
“Not hungry then?” Saafir asked, staring at the disfigured remains of the fish.
Tom shook his head. Lately, he hadn’t had much of an appetite and it wasn’t even because of Madam Stewart. The old man from his dreams, he couldn’t get him out of his head. Was it weird that he had never had a dream before and now it was four in a month? The pain that followed definitely was... Maybe he should talk about it?
“Had a dream last night,” Tom said as he poked his fish again.
“A dream?” Saafir stopped chewing and looked up from his plate. “I’ve never had one of those.” He paused before adding, “Don’t know anyone who has either.”
The boy who dreamt, was that going to be him? Because the boy from the Other Side, the Wanderer and the Breeder weren’t enough, there had to be something more about him that was totally unique. But then Tom remembered his sister telling him about her dreams. And he had heard children in school on the Other Side talk about theirs. Dreaming was normal, wasn’t it?
He didn’t get a chance to ask as both the chairs on either side of him slid out and a person took a seat in each. They leaned forward until their faces were just inches away from his.
“You had a dream?”
“What did you see?”
“Who did you see?”
They had purple eyes, purple hair, and purple lips. Some people in Atlantis had very distinctive features... It was the twins, Gemma and Jenna. He had never spoken to them before and now they were sitting uncomfortably close to him. He could feel their breath on his skin.
“Go away,” Saafir said.
They ignored him and leaned even closer.
“You do know what dreams are?” Jenna asked.
“Of course he does,” Saafir said indignantly.
The truth was that he probably didn’t. If there was one thing he had learnt since arriving on this side, it was that he didn’t really know a lot. Not much of a lesson if you thought about it...
“Tell us your dream and we’ll tell you what they are,” Jenna said.
Tom didn’t really care about knowing what dreams were right then. He just wanted his personal space back. So he told them.
“I was an old man, walking in a house, looking for something or someone. I was afraid. Something was after me and I knew that but I was still going towards it, looking for it,” he said hurriedly.
“That’s it?”
He nodded. That was the gist of the dream: an old man walking towards something that he thought was going to do something bad to him.
“So, what are dreams?” Saafir asked.
“The dead communicating with the living,” Jenna said.
“Oh. I actually knew that,” Saafir said.
Tom’s eyes widened. “What?”
“The dead,” Gemma repeated with eyes that bore into him as if he were an idiot. “They’re communicating with you.”
“Why?” Tom asked, bewildered. “Why are they communicating with me?”
“They were unjustly killed,” Gemma said, as if that answered his question.
“So?”
“So,” Gemma began, placing a lot of emphasis on the word, “you have to avenge them.”
“I-I... What? No.” Tom shook his head.
He hated this about Atlantis. Everything went from normal to suddenly way over the top.
Just writing lines in detention – no, you’re going to be caned.
Just being bullied by children – no, these people might want to kill you.
Just dreaming – no, someone’s been murdered.
Tom closed his eyes and covered his face with both his hands. Not for the first time, he wished he were home. This place was too exhausting. He felt someone nudge him. He moved his hands away and opened his eyes. It was Jenna.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
He shrugged. “Nothing.”
“I need you to think,” she said. “Where were you? Whose house was it? Who died? Were there any clues?”
He didn’t even know the person had died, but he wasn’t surprised. The old man did walk towards whatever it was, knowingly. And that was why it was universal to run away from bad and scary things. Although actually, they never did that in films, did they?
“Sensavil,” Tom said. “He raised his hand like this and said ‘Sensavil’.” He raised his own hand to imitate.
“It’s a spell,” Gemma said.
“We have to meet in the library after classes finish,” Jenna said.
“Why?” Saafir asked hostilely.
“To go through the spell books,” Jenna said. “It could be a family spell, and if it is, all we have to do is see if anyone from that family died recently, preferably under suspicious circumstances.”
“What are the odds of that?”
“Do you have a better idea?” Gemma snapped at him.
Apparently Saafir didn’t as he stayed silent and instead folded his arms and looked cross. So it was agreed. They would meet in the library after classes.
“But he’s a Wanderer,” Saafir said, just as the twins were about to leave.
“That’s true,” Jenna said slowly. “He is a Wanderer.”
“...So?” Tom asked, slightly confused.
“Wanderers' dreams don’t mean anything.”
“Huh?”
“Wanderers just dream... they fall asleep every night and dream and then they wake up and it means nothing.”
“How do you know it means nothing?” Tom said defensively.
“Everybody knows,” Saafir said unhelpfully.
“Wanderers close their eyes and they see so many different things and then they wake up and that’s that.” There was an almost yearning in Jenna’s voice as she explained. “Dreams are rare for us. If we do have one, it’s not a good thing. It means someone we know has been murdered.”
Tom was reminded of Madam Stewart. In class, when he failed horribly at something, she would wonder aloud if he really was a wizard. That was the question now, wasn’t it? Was he really a wizard?
“How do we know if my dreams mean anything?”
“Have you ever dreamt before?”
Tom shook his head. “This is the first.”
“Well, that’s settled then,” Jenna said. She stood up and grabbed her bag. “In the library after classes,” she added.
“Don’t be late,” Gemma said sternly.
An image of him standing over a grave in the middle of the night suddenly popped into Tom’s mind. What was he getting himself into? Maybe it would have been better if the dreams meant nothing. As the twins walked away, one thing they had said didn’t make any sense at all.
“Jenna,” he called after her. She stopped and turned. “You said dreaming is bad because it means someone you know has been murdered,” he said and she nodded.
That was the thing, see. He had only been in Atlantis a month. He knew very few people. And they were all still alive.
Chapter 13
Neither Tom nor Saafir had ever been to the library before, but they knew it was on the third floor. They headed up there after classes expecting to find it quickly. But the third floor wasn’t like the first two with long str
aight corridors and staircases.
It was more like a maze. There were long corridors, short corridors, curvy corridors and even one that led to a dead end. They wasted a lot of time standing there wondering what the point of that was.
They found the library in the end after asking for directions. Once in, they wasted more time wandering around aimlessly, looking for the twins. In their defence, the library was enormous.
“You’re late,” a voice whispered.
It was Gemma. She stared at them sullenly, looking a touch bored. She sat opposite Jenna, a stack of books piled in-between them.
“That’s a lot of books!” Saafir said.
“It’s a library, you idiot,” Gemma hissed at him. “Whisper.”
Saafir’s eyes narrowed as he looked at her, but he said nothing.
“Sit,” Jenna said authoritatively and they did. “Read.” She waved her hand and two larges piles of books slid towards them.
They were one-word spell books. Tom read everything at first – the spell name and what it did. But after a few pages, he began to read only the spell names. He had a lot of books to get through. He hadn’t read more than a few pages when he felt them staring at him. He should have been used to it by now, the staring. But he wasn’t.
He put his book down and sighed. “What?”
Jenna stared at him, seemingly amused. Saafir had a smirk on his face and Gemma glared at him like he was an idiot – which he probably was in her books.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Reading...”
“That a Wanderer way of reading then?” Saafir’s smirk grew.
“Are you sure you’re not memorising?” Jenna teased, smiling.
He couldn’t believe it. They were mocking the way he was reading? How could he possibly be doing that wrong? There was only one way to read – you looked at the words and... you read them.
“How do you read?”
Apparently there was another way as the three promptly showed him. They moved their right hands over the page on the right, then the page on the left before lazily flicking their left fingers to turn the page. They did the same again, moving their hands over both sides before turning, all the while staring at him.
“I...I don’t know how to read like that.”
“Of course you don’t,” Gemma said haughtily.
“It’s OK,” Jenna said quickly. “You read your way.”
Tom picked up his book, wondering what Gemma’s problem was. He hadn’t grown up around magic like her. Everything here was new to him. He would love to give her a computer and see how well she did with it...
He was on his third book when the others finished their piles and waved over books from his. They quickly finished those too.
“Was that all the spell-books then?” Saafir asked.
“The entire one-word spell-books... yes,” Jenna said.
“Where is it?” Gemma demanded of Tom. “Where is the spell?”
How was he supposed to know? It hadn’t been his idea to search the books looking for it. He didn’t even know it was a spell. She was still staring at him though, waiting for an answer. Tom shrugged. He didn’t know where the spell was, but he did know something – he didn’t like her much.
“Sensavil,” Jenna mouthed the word. “Sensavil...” She paused. “Maybe you heard wrong?”
The dreams were too clear to confuse, too hard to forget. He hadn’t misheard. Sensavil was what the old man said, and he told them as much.
“What are we supposed to do now?” Jenna asked, looking despondent.
“Sleep on it,” Saafir yawned. “Maybe you’ll see something more than an old man running around.”
“That’s a murdered person you’re talking about.” Jenna’s voice rose a little as she scolded him.
“I’m tired,” Saafir replied grumpily.
“It might work...” Gemma said as she too yawned.
Maybe it was the tiredness, but they all agreed that that was the best thing to do, to wait for him to have more dreams, different dreams. Tom didn’t think it was a great idea. The last thing he wanted was more dreams, and none of them could explain why he was having them. The only old person he knew in Atlantis was the headmaster, and he was still alive.
***
He hated this part – walking down the path that led to the tree house alone at night. It didn’t improve much once he was in his room. It was dark in there. He still couldn’t light the torch.
As Tom approached the tree, he stopped in his tracks. Something didn’t seem quite right. Light was shining from within... someone was in his room. He thought about turning and running. It seemed like the sensible thing to do.
Instead, he found himself climbing up the tree slowly, trying to be quiet and stealthy. He could hear voices coming from inside, familiar voices. Tom stepped onto the porch. The door was open and sitting inside, slouching comfortably on his bed smoking a pipe that gushed out purple smoke, was Fredrick.
He wasn’t alone. His two friends were with him. One sat on the sofa, the other on the table. They hadn’t seen him yet. He wondered if he should leave quietly. But where could he go? Where would he sleep the night? Why should he go? It was his tree house. He stepped in.
“Ah, Thomas,” Fredrick greeted him.
“Breeder.” His two friends nodded.
“Sit, sit,” Fredrick said, pointing to the chair Malcolm pulled out.
Tom almost did. But then he remembered that Fredrick had beaten him a month ago. He wasn’t going to listen to him. And it was his room. He would sit where he liked. He took a step back and stood against the doorframe.
Fredrick blew smoke towards him and laughed. “Well, we were about to leave anyway,” he said and he stood up. “I’ll see you in class tomorrow.” He grinned as he walked out.
His two friends followed after him. One of them had something in his hand, something that belonged to Tom. It was his Magical Development book. He had wondered why they were here, and now he knew. They had come for his book.
They thought they were being clever, but they weren’t. It was stupid. They were stupid. Tom sat down on his bed, suddenly feeling nervous. Madam Stewart had caned him the last time he attended her class without that book.
Chapter 14
Tom decided to give classes a miss the next day. Oddly enough, he wasn’t really in the mood to be caned again. No teacher came looking for him. Maybe it wasn’t such a bad thing, not attending school. It was late in the evening before his first visitor arrived. Tom stood by the door as he heard footsteps climbing up the wooden planks.
Saafir’s head popped up on the front porch. “You’re face-” He stopped and stared at it curiously. “It’s normal.”
Tom wanted to say something sarcastic. He was in that kind of mood. But the right words escaped him and the moment passed. Saafir climbed up, followed by Gemma and Jenna. Neither acknowledged him as they walked into the room. No, they first opened the doors that led to the bathroom and back porch. Then they opened his wardrobe. Their hands even shifted through his clothes.
Finally, they flicked their fingers and drew two chairs out from under the table. It was only after they were seated and seemed reasonably comfortable did they greet him and that too with curt nods. Tom didn’t nod back. He stared at them, speechless. He had thought Saafir to be nosy, but these two...
“Why didn’t you come to class?” Saafir asked.
Tom sat down on the bed. “Didn’t feel like it,” he muttered.
“Fredrick took his Magical Development book,” Gemma commented.
“How do you know?”
“He told us.”
“You talk to him?”
“No,” Jenna said, “we listened to him as he told us and everybody else.”
“He’s an idiot,” Saafir said and Jenna nodded diplomatically.
Tom could see it, Fredrick bragging about what he had done. He thought it was really clever. But it wasn’t. It was stupid. Just thinking about it made
him want to punch Fredrick in the face – repeatedly.
It wasn’t about the book anymore. Atlantis, the School of Merlin, he knew early on things would be difficult. He wasn’t going to fit in like Cindy had said. He tried to make the best out of a bad situation. But no more, he’d had enough.
“I’m not going to school anymore.”
“Why?” Saafir asked. “Because of Fredrick?”
Tom shook his head, but said nothing. He didn’t want to talk about it.
“It’s the others, isn’t it?” Jenna said knowingly.
He didn’t reply. But she was right. It was the others, the children in school. They would snigger as he walked past, whisper nasty things in his ear, bump into him roughly, push him from behind and laugh as he stumbled to the ground.
They said things about his family. What they thought of them, what they would like to do to them once the Great Barrier was down. He could ignore what they said about him, but not his family. They had no right. He hated them for that.
“What others?” Saafir asked.
“The others,” Jenna said again. When Saafir glared at her, she shrugged and added, “The Le Fays.”
They were mostly curious at first, the other children. He heard whispers from the first day, wonderings about him, what he was, how it was possible. But they changed. Breeder, Infiltrator, and Diseased were some of the names they began to call him. He could handle that. It wasn’t so bad. They left him alone in class, and oddly, whenever he was with Saafir, they didn’t bother him.
But then they began to say things about his family, horrible things that stayed with him long after he had walked away. And there was that boy, much bigger and probably older too. He had pushed Tom to the ground and stepped on his hand in front of a large crowd. Some had turned away, but most laughed.
“We have people like the Le Fays on the Other Side,” Tom said quietly. “People who hate others because they're different... But they’re always a small minority.”
It was different here. The Le Fays weren’t the minority.
“Le Fays are cowards,” Saafir said dismissively.
The Other Side (Thomas Skinner Book 1) Page 7
