by Victor Kloss
Dagmar said no more, and promptly left them in the hands of Lorena.
“I am extremely busy, so I will be brief,” Lorena said in an appealing, but hurried voice. “See this table? We call that our incoming table.”
The table in question wasn’t as big as the one across the room, but it looked just as interesting. There were dozens of large bowls that were being filled with spells from Wardens. Each bowl was marked by county – Sussex; Surrey; London; Middlesex; and so forth.
“Each spell has been fired at an Unseen. Unlike most spells, these ones do not explode on impact, but return to the spellshooter with information that we can use to track the Unseen. Make sense so far?”
“I think so,” Charlie said. “The spells in the bowls contain data on Unseens we’re tracking in various parts of England.”
“Good. Now, look what happens to each spell.”
They watched as an apprentice took one of the spells, and squashed it onto an empty flag. Immediately the flag turned red and started vibrating. The apprentice did this at least a dozen more times with other flags, and then headed over to the large table on the other side of the room, dodging and weaving his way through all the members, most of whom didn’t notice his presence.
“The apprentice will run over, and stick all the flags in their correct places. The flags will vibrate until placed in the correct position.”
“What are the colour codes?” Ben said, already suspecting he knew the answer.
“They represent the different races. Red is goblin; green is troll; purple is dark elf; and so forth. There are more than a dozen different colours.” Lorena clapped her hands. “Right, I need to get going. Charlie, you take South London. Ben, I want you on West Sussex. Dagmar informs me that you’ve got only an hour, so you’d better get going. Your bowls are getting full. Come and see me before you leave.”
Ben and Charlie exchanged looks, and sat down in front of their respective bowls. There were already a dozen other apprentices on the table, working furiously, dipping their hands into the bowls and squashing the spells against the flags with frightening pace.
“Oh, hello Ben, I didn’t expect to see you here.”
“Abigail!” Ben said with a smile. “I didn’t expect to see you here either. How are you doing?”
Ben hadn’t had much time to check up on her progress since he had gone all-out on the apprenticeship, but was delighted to see how much she appeared to be enjoying herself. She looked as petite as ever, but her delicate features and long lashes made many of the younger apprentices give her a second glance.
“I’m doing fine, though they have me working here quite a lot at the moment. I don’t mind; the buzz is nice and you get to hear things.”
“What things do you hear?” Ben asked.
Abigail gave a gentle shrug. “Oh, you know – things. Mainly about the dark elves. They’re always talking about which towns they might have taken over. I even recognise some of them.”
Ben wanted to query her further, but Abigail seemed to recognise a passing Warden, and quickly got back to work.
“You’d better get going,” Abigail said. “The supervisor doesn’t like it when the spells in the bowls start to overflow. Just grab a spell, and squish it. You don’t need to be too delicate about it.”
“Thanks,” Ben said. He promptly got to work. Abigail was right: it was pretty straightforward. He would grab a spell, squash it into a flag, and watch in fascination as the flag coloured and began to vibrate. Ben knocked out twelve of them, and carried them over to the large map. He had to wiggle himself some room to get to the table, and then placed the first flag down in the centre of West Sussex. Immediately the flag started vibrating violently, and it took several minutes to locate the exact spot where the flag was happy.
“You’ll get faster,” Abigail said. She was putting up her flags on Surrey, and had placed three of hers in the time it took Ben to do his first one. “Looks like you have lots of trolls in Sussex. I hear they like the hillside.”
Ben noted the green flags he was placing. Yes, green was for trolls, he remembered. Ben wanted to get a better look at what else went where, but as soon as his eyes started wandering, he got a slap on the back.
“No slacking!” a passing supervisor said. “Lay those flags down and go get some more.”
Slowly Ben started to get the hang of it and, after half an hour, he was almost as proficient as Abigail. No longer having to give all his attention to the job at hand, Ben took the opportunity to look around the room. It was mainly filled with Wardens, but there was also a smattering of other departments, most noticeably Spellswords. The higher-ranking ones could often be seen huddled in a corner, talking in hushed voices, pointing at various sections of the map. Ben looked for Draven, but to Ben’s relief the Director of Wardens was absent.
“Ooh, look at that,” Abigail said.
She was staring down at the flags Ben had processed. He had been so busy looking about that he hadn’t noticed the similarity between them all.
They were all purple. All twelve of them. Twelve dark elves.
Ben’s heart skipped a beat. He checked to see if anyone had noticed; not yet. He picked up the dozen flags, and walked over to the map to position them. The first flag stopped vibrating over a small town called Plompton. The second flag ended up just inches away from the first. To Ben’s increasing amazement, all dozen flags were located right next each other, forming a perfect little circle.
Ben stared at the sight, his mind working furiously. He wasn’t even aware of the supervisor who had stopped behind him, until the man gave a cry of alarm.
“A dozen dark elves here, sir! Town of Plompton, West Sussex.”
Immediately a trio of Wardens made their way round the table. Ben quickly removed himself from the space, but not before he had taken one final look at the scene for himself.
Plompton.
Could that small town in West Sussex have been taken over by dark elves? If not, it could still be extremely useful. They needed information on the dark elf symbol. Who better to ask than a dark elf?
— Chapter Ten —
Second-Grade Exam
With one week to go until the second-grade exam, Ben started getting a little nervous, though it was insignificant compared to the others. Only Aaron remained calm, cheerful even, whenever they met in the common room or in class.
“It’s just about being thorough, that’s all,” Aaron would say, whenever he had an opportunity. “Make sure you have all departments fully covered, as I have heard the second-grade exam requires use of all of them.”
Amy and Georgia gave nervous smiles of thanks whenever he offered out titbits of advice, but Ben was pleased to see that Frederick, at least, was getting sick of it.
Dagmar had managed to get Ben and Charlie off War Room duty, enabling them to focus on the exam exclusively for the final few days. They spent every available moment finishing up the checklist and cramming as much information as they could into their heads.
With just a day remaining, Ben was feeling thoroughly frazzled. He and Charlie had gone back to the library, with books splayed in front of them.
“I can’t do this anymore,” Ben said, pushing away the tomes, and slouching back in the chair.
“Come on, Ben, this is our last day,” Charlie said. He was diligently poring over a book titled Tracking the Big Unseens.
“I don’t care anymore. I’m done,” Ben announced. “Either I’m going to pass this thing or I’m not. I can’t take any more studying or practicals.”
“Easy for you to say,” Charlie said, looking up for a moment. “You’ll just wing the whole thing and somehow end up with straight As. Some of us actually have to work to pass.”
Ben almost laughed. “You were always the exam genius at school, not me, remember?”
“That was school,” Charlie said, as if that explained everything. “Give me books and theory and I�
�ll be fine. But I bet the exam will have us tracking and shooting stuff as part of the Warden and Spellsword sections. Not exactly my strong suit.”
On Charlie’s insistence, they worked late that evening, and it was only Natalie who managed to drag them out of the Institute at a reasonable hour, so they could get a proper dinner.
Ben went home that night going over each department, wondering what he would need for tomorrow’s exam. By eight o’clock his head was spinning and it was only a good game of FIFA on the Xbox that managed to finally switch him off and eventually get him to sleep.
Ben’s stomach felt more than a little funny the following morning, but he forced down some eggs and bacon, before setting off to the Institute. He met Charlie on the Dragonway platform, his head buried deep in a book titled Last-Minute Second-Grade Exam Revisions.
“Why aren’t you reading?” Charlie asked, by way of introduction, as they boarded the Dragonway. “We’ve still got almost two hours of cramming we can get in.”
Ben shrugged. “If I read another book, I’m fairly sure I’ll vomit.”
The journey to the Institute was one of the least pleasant in Ben’s memory. By the time they arrived in Taecia and started climbing the hill to the Institute, Ben’s stomach was making peculiar noises with each passing step. He wasn’t one to sweat, but every time he checked his forehead, he noticed it was damp, despite the brisk morning weather.
Natalie waited for them at the door with a nervous smile, and they headed into muster together.
“Any last words of advice?” Ben said. “You did the second-grade exam not too long ago, right?”
“Yes, and you know I’m not allowed to say anything,” Natalie said with a gentle, but firm frown. “Just remember – the exam tests all departments. It’s up to you how to use them all. If you leave one out, you may fail that department.”
“Good, no pressure then,” Ben said, who had secretly been wondering if he could ditch Diplomacy entirely.
Muster was rattled off quickly. To Ben’s surprise, he noticed that even Aaron had a crease of anxiety on his normally ice-cool face. Dagmar dismissed the apprentices in double-quick time, and then beckoned the six of them forwards. Natalie gave them a thumbs up before leaving with the rest.
“Follow me,” Dagmar said.
She led them out of muster and along the hallway, stopping at a series of doors Ben rarely paid much attention to. They were labelled “Exam Room #1”, “Exam Room #2”, and so on. Dagmar stopped in between rooms five and six. From her pocket she pulled out six small, purple envelopes. Each one had a name written on it.
“Do not open these until you are inside the exam room,” she said, handing them each an envelope. “This is not your first exam, but the rules bear repeating. There are no questions; no right or wrong answers. You will be given a task, and it is up to you how you complete it. The more you can display what you have learnt in each department, the better your marks will be. You have until four o’clock to complete the exam, though the quicker you finish, the higher you will score. Your final grade will be comprised of individual marks for each department. Failure to complete the exam, or complete it with a score too low, and you will not be invited to continue to the next grade of the apprenticeship. Your performance will be closely monitored by an Institute examiner, though you will not see them, and they will not intervene unless it is a matter of life or death. Any questions?”
Ben knew he’d have some the moment he entered the exam room, but his mind had gone temporarily blank. Charlie looked incapable of speech. Even Aaron had gone slightly pale.
“Very well. You may start the exam.” She gave them a nod, and said, “Good luck.” That was all the encouragement they were going to get from her.
Dagmar walked away, leaving the six of them to their envelopes.
Aaron stepped into his room immediately. Ben exchanged glances with the rest of the group.
“Good luck, guys,” he said.
The others mumbled returned sentiments, with various levels of anxiety. With the envelope firmly in hand, Ben entered door number five.
It was very similar to last time. The room was bare except for a long table, covered with an expensive-looking tablecloth. On it was an array of items. There was a file, with several sheets of paper inside. Next to the file was a silver collar attached to a rope. It looked like some sort of dog collar, with a latch for opening. There appeared nothing else remarkable about it, except its obvious value in the metal. The only other item was money – two hundred pounds in used notes. Ben searched the room to make sure he had missed nothing, checking underneath the table. Once satisfied he opened the letter Dagmar had given him, and started reading.
“EXAM: Second-Grade Apprenticeship, Ben Greenwood
MISSION GOAL: Locate and remove the German kobold haunting the neighbourhood of Igloor, Taecia.
MISSION DETAILS:
A rare German kobold has been sighted in the neighbourhood of Igloor, causing unrest amongst citizens. Noted as the strongest of the kobold family, these creatures are notoriously difficult to capture and not to be underestimated. It is your job to locate the kobold, and take any means necessary to get it back to Germany.”
Ben re-read the mission several times, making sure he grasped its entire significance. The good news was that he didn’t have to leave Taecia, which also meant that discretion wasn’t as important as in the previous exam, where tracking a goblin in the streets of Sussex had been a nightmare.
The bad news was the German kobold and getting it back to Germany. Ben felt his stomach drop to his knees. He had run a few magic simulations against kobolds, and to say they were a pain in the backside would be an understatement. They made the goblin he had faced in the first exam look like a walk in the park. Ben hadn’t even heard of the German variety, but if the exam description was anything to go by, it might end up being really difficult.
Ben opened the file and read a very brief description of what a German kobold was and what it could do. It was a pitifully small read, and told him little more than what he already knew. It wasn’t going to be enough to get the job done. In times gone past, Ben might have tried winging it, but he knew better now. Grabbing the contents of the table, Ben stuffed everything in his pocket and left the room. Immediately he noticed the two diamonds on his shoulder flashing, an indication that he was now officially in an exam and should not be interrupted.
Ben took the stairs to the library, trying to gather his thoughts, which were already starting to scramble. It was ten o’clock; he had until four to complete the task. Plenty of time for a bit of research, providing he found what he needed in due course. This might be his only opportunity to display his Scholarly knowledge, and he didn’t want to blow it.
He found an empty table, and sat down. Now what? Books. Books on kobolds, ideally of the German variety. Silently thanking Charlie for his continued orientation on the library, it wasn’t long before he had a stack of books that could be useful. The German kobold, as it turned out, was as elusive in textbooks as it was in the real world, and it took Ben some time before he came upon a passage of use.
“ While the common kobold is generally considered less dangerous and intelligent than the goblin, the German variety is a noted exception. Similar in appearance to their goblin cousins, they are tricky, devious and take apparent pleasure in causing mischief. The German kobolds are particularly adept at this. They are noted for their ability to turn almost invisible for extensive periods of time and can climb like monkeys. Unlike goblins, they have little intention of mingling among humankind. Their only redeeming feature is that they are not truly evil. The German kobolds are magic-resistant, but are vulnerable to fire and silver.”
It was the best Ben could find, but he needed more. How do you find these German kobolds if they are so elusive? And once found, how do you convince them to stop causing mayhem? Ben decided to give himself until lunchtime
to solve these mysteries. But by twelve o’clock, he still didn’t have the answers, and was left staring at the textbooks with growing frustration, unable to discover anything further that might help. What he really needed now was Charlie.
Ben slapped his hands down on the table. He couldn’t afford to waste any more time. He ran up to the lunch room, grabbed a sandwich, and then headed out of the Institute, munching on a chicken baguette and making a beeline for the local spell market. Stuffed in his pocket was the collar and lead, along with the money he had to spend.
An hour later, Ben felt he had fully worked off the chicken baguette he had eaten, negotiating with some of the toughest traders to get the most out of his two hundred pounds for spells he might just need against the German kobold. Hopefully that took care of the Scholar and Trade departments. It was now two o’clock, which gave him a couple of hours to track down the kobold. Ben picked up the pace.
Ben knew the neighbourhood of Igloor fairly well, having passed through it regularly to get to one of his favourite restaurant districts. It was an uninspiring area, known primarily for housing people who couldn’t afford to live in the nicer areas of Taecia. Its only redeeming feature was a quaint bridge that ran over a bubbling stream and led to a pleasant green area. Next to it was a small woodland, famous for its apple trees, according to Charlie.
But on this occasion, the aromas coming from the restaurants could be a problem. Ben had read that the German kobold emitted a very specific smell from the household it chose to domesticate, and the smell of food from the nearby restaurants would only complicate matters. Ben was still debating the issue when he came upon Igloor Street. He stopped, hands on hips, examining the houses and the small stream that ran alongside them, already testing his sense of smell to see what he could detect.
“Ben?”
A familiar voice made him turn. To his great surprise, he saw Aaron strolling down the street towards him. He was looking at each of the houses with great interest.
