by Victor Kloss
“Never talk about sensitive matters without casting a silencer,” Dagmar said, holstering her spellshooter. “Now more than ever, security is needed. Just yesterday we found a colony of ant pixies roaming the Institute, spying for the dark elves.”
“Ant pixies?” Abigail asked. “Those sound interesting. I’ve never read about them.”
“You won’t have,” Dagmar said, flicking a glance at Abigail, before returning her attention to Ben. “Now, I don’t have much time, so let’s get to it. What is happening with your search?”
Even under the silencer spell, Dagmar talked cryptically. It took Ben a moment to realise what she was referring to.
“We are looking for the next piece,” Ben said. He gave a subtle look around, double-checking that nobody was about, despite knowing it didn’t matter whilst under the silencer spell.
“Do you have a lead?”
“Yes. In fact, we were just about to discuss when we should pursue it.”
“Today,” Dagmar said. It wasn’t quite an order, though it sounded like one.
“Today sounds good,” Ben said with a small smile. “However, there are a few things we need.”
“Name them.”
Ben saw Natalie’s eyes light up beside him. “Dark elf tracking spells.”
Dagmar glanced at Natalie and, for a moment, Ben thought she might question the request. Instead, she just nodded.
“You will have them by lunchtime. Anything else?”
Ben suddenly felt rushed. Here was the chance to get pretty much anything they wanted, but when put on the spot, he couldn’t think of anything. Well, he could think of a few things, but nothing relevant. Fortunately, it was Natalie who came to the rescue. She gave Dagmar a small list, which Dagmar ran her eyes over and, once again, nodded without protest. Natalie, at least, had put some thought into the mission.
“Come to my office straight after lunch,” Dagmar said. She looked ready to leave, but gave them one more look.
“Time is running out. Unless you gather the Guardians and their pieces of armour soon, Suktar will have already caused irreversible damage. I know the Institute is clueless, but it is we, and more importantly you, Ben, who hold the real key to defeating the dark elves. It is time to stop dallying.”
She left the three of them dumbstruck, her footsteps clattering on the pathway long after she had disappeared round the corner.
It was Charlie who broke the silence, but only when Dagmar was fully out of sight. “Thanks. No pressure, then.”
Ben took a deep breath, and shook himself. It was then he noticed Abigail was staring at him, with a determined glint in her large, brown eyes.
“Dagmar said I should start learning more about the helm,” she said.
“Did she?”
Abigail nodded. “I think she is right. I won’t be much use if you’re ready to go and I can’t control its magic.”
“That’s true,” Ben said, considering his words. “But are you ready? You remember what happened the last time you wore the helm?”
Abigail gave a nod. “The dark elf king looked into my mind. It was horrible.” To Ben’s surprise, Abigail bit her lip, and narrowed her eyes, until they were almost entirely covered by her long lashes. “But that was only because I got his attention in the first place. If I don’t go near him, I don’t think he’ll notice me. I’m much too insignificant. And we don’t have much time, do we? I need to learn, or else I’m not going to be much good.”
Ben leant forwards on the bench, eyeing Abigail closely. He admired her bravery, though he wasn’t surprised by it. She was a Guardian after all.
“I will speak to Dagmar,” Ben said. “I’m sure we can come up with something.”
Abigail gave a relieved smile, as if she had expected Ben to protest. “Oh, thank you. Dagmar seems really knowledgeable, though she can be a bit scary sometimes.” She glanced down the path towards the Institute. “Would you mind if I go back to my studies? My friend Julia is waiting for me, and we have an interesting Spellsword practical.”
They watched Abigail return to the Institute.
“Thinking about her making the journey to Suktar scares me,” Natalie said.
“She’s braver than you think,” Ben said.
“Oh I know she’s brave. But will she be ready? The helm is so powerful, and having that connection with Suktar – how can she possibly control that?”
Ben had no answer. “Let’s hope Dagmar knows, because I haven’t a clue. We’ll worry about that later. Come on, if we’re going to go to Plompton this afternoon, we should probably start getting ready.”
— Chapter Fourteen —
A Visit to Plompton
They had a couple of hours until lunch. With Dagmar’s permission to pursue the next piece of armour rather than work on their apprenticeship, Ben felt strangely liberated. There was a lingering guilt that he would start to fall behind on the apprenticeship, but he cast that from his mind. The apprenticeship wasn’t important right now.
They hit the library first and went straight to the maps and guides section. It consisted of several great big shelves that were deep enough to stick a hand into and not feel wooden backing. It took almost twenty minutes to find a decent map of West Sussex County, where Plompton was located.
“It would have almost been quicker to go back home and load up Google maps,” Charlie muttered, as they headed back to the reading area, map in hand. There they commandeered an entire table and spread the map out. Ben smiled the moment he saw the layout. It wasn’t an ordinary map, but a magical one, rendered in 3D, so you could see and feel all the little buildings, cars and people walking around. The town was fairly typical of one in Sussex. It had the main centre and an old section dating back to the 14th century, where the architecture was similar to Taecia’s. There were also affluent, exclusive areas, with large houses and expansive gardens. The three of them pored over the map, their faces inches above the little figures and zooming cars.
“Do you remember where you placed the dark elf flags on the map?” Charlie asked.
“Over there,” Ben said, pointing at a private road just outside the centre of town.
“So they’re wealthy,” Natalie said. “Not surprising, I guess.”
“Makes it harder, though, doesn’t it,” Charlie said, staring at a house with an outside pool – a real luxury in England. “Those places are going to have lots of security.”
“We don’t need to break in,” Natalie said. “We only need to ask some questions and hopefully get some answers.”
Ben glanced up. He hadn’t even considered the fact that a dark elf might not know what the symbol meant, but Natalie was right – they might not immediately get the answers they needed.
“It’s a good thing you asked for lots of dark elf tracking spells,” Charlie said. He had a magnifying glass and was now looking at each individual house close up.
After studying the map, Charlie rather enthusiastically, bounded off to find out what else he could about Plompton. He returned swiftly with a small pile of books, and started reading. “Population: 24,952. Unseen population: 5,011. That means just over twenty percent are Unseens, which is way above the national average.”
Ben stifled a yawn. “Fascinating. Anything else?”
“Dwarves are the most common; dark elves are listed at less than one percent. It does say they are an affluent group, though, so those big houses are starting to look like a good bet.”
By the time twelve o’clock came round, Ben felt there was nothing more they could possibly learn about Plompton without actually going there. They ate a good lunch, which was peaceful enough until Aaron wandered over with a group of friends, talking and laughing good-naturedly. Ben hadn’t forgotten Aaron’s underhanded actions during the exam, but he had been so busy that he hadn’t put any thought about how to gain revenge. A quick rugby tackle wouldn’t go amiss. He was tempted, but warning glances from both Ch
arlie and Natalie kept him in his chair.
“How are you guys doing on the third grade?” Aaron asked. “I know we just started, but I’m finding it a level up from the previous grade, which is good, because I felt like I wasn’t being challenged before.”
Ben had to admire Aaron’s charisma; somehow he had distracted the entire table. Ben could feel several eyes on him, clearly awaiting his response, perhaps wondering if he might lash out. But it was Charlie who spoke up, dabbing his lips with a napkin.
“We’ve been a bit busy, so haven’t made much progress. But thanks for the heads up.”
“You’ve been busy?” Aaron said, eyebrows raised. Ben couldn’t be sure if it was surprise or disbelief. “What could be more important than the apprenticeship, especially after everything Dagmar has been telling us, with the impending war?”
Again, it was Charlie who replied, with a casual shrug. “Don’t know, don’t care. Listen, before you leave, could you pass me the ketchup? We’ve run out over here.”
There was some sniggering on the table, and Ben saw Aaron’s lip give a small spasm. For a minute, he thought Charlie was going to get hit with one of Aaron’s witty put-downs, but he merely gave a courteous smile and nodded to one of his followers, who passed Charlie the ketchup. Aaron departed without further ado.
“Nice one, Charlie,” William said, who was sitting a couple of places down. “Though I have to admit, I was hoping he got angry enough to try to hit you. That would have given me the perfect excuse to clobber him.”
“What have you got against Aaron?” a fourth-grader whose name Ben couldn’t remember said. “He hasn’t done anything wrong, and he has every right to be angry when around Ben, after what he did.”
“What did he do?”
“Assaulted him!” a young girl, one of Abigail’s friends, said, clearly unable to contain herself.
“If by assaulting you mean didn’t touch him, then yes, that’s true,” Charlie said.
“No, I mean punching him full in the face. Aaron even showed us the cut on his lip – it was nasty.”
The noise at the table swiftly grew, as people threw opinions back and forth like exploding spells. The majority of the table were on Aaron’s side, but what Ben’s friends lacked in numbers, they made up in volume. Ben was dearly tempted to stay and fight his corner, but he didn’t want to attract undue attention to himself, especially with their little mission this afternoon. He made eyes at Charlie and Natalie, gave a little salute to William, and then slipped out of the lunch room. The argument was now in full flow and nobody even seemed to notice him leave. Nevertheless, there was an air of discontent during afternoon muster. Ben searched out William, who gave him a little smile and a thumbs up. Ben was eager to find out what had happened after they left the lunch room, but thoughts of the argument passed aside as Dagmar entered.
It wasn’t often that Dagmar repeated something – normally there was no need; her words were rarely forgotten. But after muster, she repeated, almost word for word, her warning about the dark elf attack, and even allowed the apprentices to ask a few more questions. This more than anything reinforced the magnitude of the dark elf attack.
“You think Dagmar has got everything for us?” Charlie asked softly, when muster was finished and the apprentices started filing out. “I saw Natalie’s list; it was quite extensive.”
“Let’s find out,” Ben said.
They headed straight to Dagmar’s office and Ben, after only a moment’s hesitation, gave three firm knocks.
“Come in,” Dagmar said.
They found her sitting behind her desk. The place was tidy as always, but there was a remarkable amount of papers of different colours piled up in her baskets. Buried beneath the workload, Ben spotted a small spell pouch, which Dagmar grabbed and then beckoned them forwards.
“Normally I ask for an explanation of every spell used,” Dagmar said. “But this time I will make an exception. Just make sure you find that dark elf and get the answers you need. It wasn’t easy getting hold of the dark elf tracking spells – they are much in demand and we are running out of stock.”
Ben thanked her and took the pouch. “We’ll get the answers.”
Dagmar nodded. “Due to an unusually high percentage of dark elves in Plompton, there are several Wardens in the area. Don’t be afraid to use them if you need to. Even dark elves attempting to live peacefully in the Seen Kingdoms can be dangerous.”
They left Dagmar’s office and headed downstairs, towards the front entrance. It was still manically busy, and Ben had the uncomfortable feeling that they were escaping, especially when they passed a couple of senior members who glanced their way. For a moment, he thought they might be stopped and questioned. The urge to quicken his pace and get outside suddenly overwhelmed him, but he forced himself to walk calmly right out the door.
“That was strangely difficult,” Charlie said, wiping his brow, as they entered the gardens. A moment later, they were past the front gate and walking down the hill.
Despite the severity of the mission, Ben had a spring in his step, and took a deep breath of the crisp autumn air. It felt good to finally be doing something about the dark elf symbol they had discovered.
“Do we have a plan?” Charlie asked, as they boarded the Dragonway. They were taking their familiar dragon back to Croydon, and from there they would take public transport down to Plompton.
“We have six dark elf tracking spells,” Ben said, feeling his spellshooter. “They can detect dark elf activity within two hundred yards. I say we head straight for that private estate where most of the dark elves are located.”
“But what do we do when we actually meet a dark elf?” Charlie asked. “How do we convince them to answer our questions? I can’t imagine they’ll be too helpful, with everything that’s going on.”
“I’ll think of something,” Ben said.
“You mean you’ll wing it,” Charlie said with a frustrated sigh.
Ben grinned. “More or less. Don’t worry about it. Look, we’re here.”
They alighted at Croydon. With the heightened security threat, it took them a longer time to get through security, especially with their spellshooters.
“Be extra careful,” the guard warned them. “There have been quite a few Unseen sightings all over England, and it’s getting harder to quell them all. There have been rumours on the internet, and even in some papers, about weird goings on. Don’t give them a reason to write something else.”
It was close to two o’clock by the time they took a bus from Croydon down to the town of Plompton. They got off by the supermarket, and Ben got his first look at the town he had spent so long looking at in the miniature.
“Looks almost the same as the map,” Charlie commented. “Look, there’s the church, and the graveyard. I feel like I’ve been here already.”
The town was built on a steep hill, meaning they were either walking up- or downhill. They followed the main town road, and then veered off onto Haven Lane, which descended so steeply they had to hold themselves back from running.
“There it is,” Natalie said.
Croft Hill was a small road that ran off Haven Lane, and the two could not have been more opposite. Whereas Haven Lane was in dire need of resurfacing, Croft Hill was paved with pristine stone slabs, and lined with perfectly manicured hedges and fluffy, round trees. A sign by its entrance said “Private Road: Strictly Residents Only”.
“Should we be concerned about the sign?” Natalie asked.
“No,” Ben said.
Natalie relaxed a little when she saw that even Charlie was unconcerned.
The constant noise of cars quickly receded as they started walking. Despite its proximity to the town centre, they felt like they had been transported to the countryside. Each house seemed to be competing in the design and size stakes, and they all had large double garages for their multiple luxurious cars.
“So, n
ow what? Do you want to fire your first spell?” Charlie asked.
Ben had been thinking the same thing. The problem was that the houses were so far apart, the spell would at best catch only a handful of residents.
“Seems like here is as good as any other place,” Ben said, drawing out his spellshooter.
Charlie and Natalie stepped back, giving him room. The detection spell was level three, which required some concentration, but Ben was now competent enough to fire them without too much effort. He pointed the spellshooter to the sky, and summoned the spell forth. A deep purple pellet shot up into the air. It exploded at peak height, and purple sparks rained down on the neighbourhood like a giant umbrella. Ben watched intently as the sparks hit the floor and disappeared. His body was rigid, waiting for a buzz in his body that would signify detection.
“Nothing,” he said, letting his body relax after a moment. “That rules out these five houses surrounding us.”
Charlie and Natalie were clearly disappointed.
“For some reason I was sure we’d find a dark elf first time,” Natalie said.
“Well, we’ve still got five more attempts. Let’s walk a little further and try again.”
Ben hadn’t been unduly concerned when the first spell produced nothing, but he frowned when the second one also yielded no results.
“Are you sure this is the right place?” Charlie asked.
“Yes,” Ben said.
“Well, shouldn’t it be swarming with dark elves?”
“I only flagged twelve, not twelve hundred. In the grand scheme of things, that’s not very many,” Ben said. “We just need to get lucky.”
The third spell also produced nothing. As did the fourth, which they tried down a small cul-de-sac end that ran off the main road. Ben felt his orb, and gave a frustrated groan.
“Only two left,” he said.
“What do we do if we run out and don’t spot any dark elves?” Charlie asked.
“Let’s not worry about that now.”
“I disagree,” Charlie said, clenching his fists. “We only have two spells left. It’s time to start worrying.”
