by Victor Kloss
Ben was about to respond, when he felt Natalie tap him on the shoulder.
“Guys, look,” she said in a hushed voice.
A woman in a black tracksuit had just appeared and was coming down the street. She was speed-walking with headphones on and a water bottle in one hand. There was something exotic about her face. She looked European, with lush, brown hair swept back in a ponytail.
“Do you think she could be a dark elf?” Natalie said softly, still clutching Ben’s shoulder and staring at the lady, who hadn’t yet noticed them.
“I have no idea,” Ben said. If dark elves took on human forms that resembled their own figure, then it was possible. She even had slightly slanted eyes, though her ears appeared normal enough. Her skin was pale, almost white – typical of a dark elf’s.
“Do you want to fire another spell?” Natalie suggested.
Ben didn’t like the idea. “I just fired one here – it would only be for that woman.”
“I know, but I’ve got a feeling about her,” Natalie said, her green eyes suddenly intense.
The woman continued towards them. She was on the other side of the road, admiring each front garden she passed, and still hadn’t noticed them.
“I don’t know,” Charlie said. “Her disguise means she could look like anything – in fact, surely it would be in her interest to look less like a dark elf and more human, so she doesn’t attract as much attention.”
Ben fingered the trigger on his spellshooter. He couldn’t make his mind up, which irritated him.
“We could ask her,” Charlie said.
Ben looked at him with a raised eyebrow. “How?”
“The usual way – by using our vocal cords.”
“Sure, good idea,” Ben said, breaking into a smile. “Go for it. Natalie and I will watch from here.”
“Oh, I didn’t mean me,” Charlie said, going slightly red. “I meant you, of course. You’re the crazy one.”
The woman was now almost across the street from them. Charlie was right – that was one solution. But if she wasn’t a dark elf, he’d sound like a complete idiot.
“If you’re going to do it, you need to do it now,” Natalie whispered fiercely. “She’ll be gone in a moment.”
Ben stepped forwards just as the woman glanced their way. Ben froze, and gave an awkward smile. The woman returned it, and kept on walking. In the blink of an eye, she was past them, and walking down the street, around the corner and out of sight.
“Well, that didn’t work,” Charlie said. “Why did you freeze?”
“Because she looked at me,” Ben said with exasperation. “Anyway, we’ve just wasted five minutes looking like plonkers. Let’s keep going.”
The road wound gently left, and opened up to a series of even larger houses, with magnificent trees and tended gardens.
“There’s the house with the swimming pool,” Charlie said, pointing. “I recognise the white walls and thatched roof.”
“Do dark elves like swimming?”
Charlie shrugged. “No idea. Can’t see why not – they have the body for it.”
Ben drew out his spellshooter again and stared at the orb. There were just two dark elf detection spells left; his hands suddenly felt sweaty and his stomach felt funny.
“Are you sure you want to do it here?” Natalie asked. “I was thinking, we might want to save at least one spell for the town, or a crowded area, where by sheer numbers, the chances are better.”
“Natalie has a good point,” Charlie said, tapping his cheeks thoughtfully. “Here you’re only going to hit two dozen people at most; whereas if we did it in the centre of town, we’d hit hundreds.”
The reasoning was sound, but Ben couldn’t take his eyes off the thatched house with the swimming pool. Something about it made his skin tingle, a certainty he couldn’t place or rationalise.
“I’ll cast one more here. The last one we’ll save for town,” Ben said, raising his spellshooter.
Once more, Charlie and Natalie stepped back to give him room. Ben took several deep breaths, and focused more than usual. He fired, and the spell soared up into the air, exploding into an umbrella of sparks. Ben watched with bated breath, as slowly, the sparks hit the ground and disappeared.
His body jerked, as a small buzz pulsed through him.
“There!” Ben said, pointing.
From the corner of his eye, he saw one of the small sparks explode, forming its own mini shower. At the same time, a picture of the thatched house entered his mind.
“That’s the one,” Ben said, grinning.
Charlie let out a huge sigh. “Thank goodness for that.” He paused. “Now what?”
— Chapter Fifteen —
An Unwelcome Visit
Ben, Charlie and Natalie stared at the large house. It stood out even among the luxurious homes, with its thatched roof and white walls. There was a small treehouse tucked up in one of the many trees that were spread throughout the front lawn.
“Let’s knock on the door,” Ben said.
“Should we show our diamonds?” Natalie asked. “It might make us look more authentic.”
“What if the person who answers isn’t an Unseen?” Charlie asked. “The floating diamonds would freak them out. Warden rule number one: don’t freak out the Seens, remember?”
Ben weighed both options. “You’re right, Charlie, but I think the pros outweigh the cons. Let’s reveal them. It will save us a lot of explaining.”
The front path was wide enough so they could walk side by side to the house, up a series of steps, until they reached the front door.
Ben rang the doorbell. “Let me do the talking.”
“No argument there,” Charlie said.
Ben heard footsteps. He checked his right shoulder, and saw the three colourless diamonds. He took a deep breath and composed himself. He didn’t have an exact plan of what to say, but then he rarely did; spontaneity was his strong suit.
A woman opened the door. Ben was instantly reminded of the jogging lady who had passed just moments ago. She wore a shapely dress that highlighted her slim figure. Her skin was pale and her hair full and wavy. It was her almond eyes, however, that Ben was focused on. They widened in shock the moment she saw the diamonds on their shoulders.
“Nigel – they’re here!” she screamed in a frantic voice, and slammed the front door in their faces.
Ben, Charlie and Natalie stared at each other, open-mouthed.
“I hate to say it, but I think you were wrong about the diamond thing,” Charlie said, scratching his nose.
Ben was about to ring the doorbell again, when he heard a noise from the other side – a deep, rumbling noise. Ben recognised it immediately, his heart exploding from his chest.
“Get off the steps!” he screamed.
Grabbing Charlie and Natalie, he leapt over the iron railing, and landed head-first on the flowerbed below. A whooshing sound came from behind and he turned around just in time to see the front door blasted off its hinges by a huge, purple fireball so bright Ben was almost blinded.
“What the hell is going on?” Charlie asked, covering his head.
Ben whipped his spellshooter out. He turned and pointed it at the front entrance. Slowly, he crept back towards the steps, stopping at the bottom. He could hear Charlie and Natalie next to him, their own ragged breathing mirroring his own.
“Now what?” Natalie whispered. “Should we go in?”
“Are you insane? There’s a mad dark elf woman in there,” Charlie said.
“We go in,” Ben said, nodding. “Follow me.”
Ignoring Charlie’s groan, Ben tiptoed up the steps until he had a view of the inside of the house, minus the front door. The grand entrance appeared empty. Ben quickly entered the house, stopping just inside the doorway.
He saw them immediately, halfway up the stairs. The woman was now holding a baby, and there was a man, with the same pale skin and wa
vy, brown hair. He was staring at them with a look of pure hatred. There was a large backpack strapped over his shoulder. Were they trying to escape?
“Back off!” the man ordered in a quite distinct French accent. He extended his arm, and purple fire started to form around his fist.
“Stop!” Ben ordered, raising his own hands in peace. “We’re not here to harm you.”
“Liar!” the man said, and threw the purple ball of fire right at them. Ben didn’t need to bother firing his spellshooter – the magic connected to him from Elizabeth’s Armour deflected the dark elf magic harmlessly away, leaving the man momentarily gaping in astonishment. He recovered quickly, though, and the hand soon started glowing again.
Ben stepped forwards. Something drastic had to be done – the man had a crazed look in his eyes; he was defending his family, and Ben knew the lengths he would go to.
“Stop!” Ben said again. With great ceremony, he slowly laid down his spellshooter and raised both hands. “We’re not here to harm you. Can you please stop trying to kill us? We just want to talk.”
The man’s eyes narrowed, but Ben was relieved to see a flicker of sanity replace the rage.
“You lie. You are from the Institute. You have come to arrest us for illegally crossing borders.”
Ben kept his hands raised in a conciliatory manner. “No, we haven’t. We just want to ask a couple of harmless questions; then we’ll be out of here.”
The fire lessened from the man’s hand, though his eyes remained suspicious. “You know what we are, don’t you? You wouldn’t be here otherwise.”
“Dark elves,” Ben said, nodding. “I don’t care about that – well, I do, but not for the reasons you expect.”
The man glanced at his wife and the baby in her arms, and Ben felt his anger return, but the woman gave him a little nod.
“Questions?” the man said. The flame in his hand finally disappeared.
“Just one actually,” Ben said with an encouraging smile. “Then we’ll be gone, I promise.”
The man clearly wasn’t convinced, but he made his way slowly down the stairs, and approached them with caution.
“Ask your question,” the man said.
Ben turned to Charlie, who stepped forwards, pulling a crumpled piece of paper from his trousers. The man flinched, clearly expecting a spell of some sort, but he relaxed when he saw the paper. Charlie unfolded it, revealing a drawing they had Abigail do of the symbol they had found.
“Can you tell us what this means?” Charlie asked.
The man took the drawing. Ben watched him closely, looking for a sign of recognition as he studied the symbol. After a moment, he handed the drawing back to Charlie, and shook his head.
“It is not familiar to me,” the man said.
Ben wanted to curse in frustration, but instead he bit his lip. “Are you sure? Nothing comes to mind?”
“Nothing.”
Ben glanced at Natalie and Charlie, who looked as disappointed as he felt. It was a bust, and they had only one spell left to try to find another dark elf who might be able to help.
“What are you looking at?”
It was the wife, calling from the stairs.
Charlie lifted the drawing. “A symbol. Do you think you could take a look?”
To Ben’s surprise, the wife nodded, and came down, baby in arms. She took – snatched – the paper from Charlie, and examined it. Ben held his breath and tried not to get his hopes up, even when she scrutinised it far longer than her husband. Was that a flicker of recognition in her eyes? After a good minute of looking, she handed it back to Charlie.
“I can’t read it,” she said.
Ben cursed, unable to help himself. Charlie did the same.
“No dark elf could.”
“What?”
All three of them looked up.
The lady nodded, very sure of herself. “It is not our language. It looks like an old dwarf dialect. Some of our lineage parallels an old, now extinct race of dwarves.”
She handed the paper back to Charlie, who stared at it in wonder, as if he could suddenly read the thing.
“Are you sure about that?” Ben asked.
“I am sure it is not our language. I am almost certain it is of dwarf origin.”
“You mentioned a certain type of dwarf?” Natalie said.
“Yes, the arcane dwarves. As far as I know, they were wiped out several hundred years ago. Their language was similar to ours.”
Ben did his best to calm his growing excitement. “Thank you, we really appreciate that.”
“Is that all?” the man asked, clearly sceptical.
“Yes, that’s everything. We are sorry to have disturbed you.” Ben paused. There was something on his mind, and he knew it would bug him if he didn’t ask it.
“Why did you panic so much when we arrived?”
The man gave them an even colder look, if that was possible. “Your Institute has already taken all our friends. We have been living in fear, expecting you to find us any day.”
Ben was shocked, but he didn’t show it, though he could see Charlie and Natalie weren’t concealing it quite as well.
“Why don’t you leave, and go back home?”
“We can’t,” the man said, his jaw clenching. “We would get declared traitors and executed upon return.”
“So why did you leave in the first place?”
It was the lady who responded. “Many of us don’t like what King Suktar is doing to our nation and our people. Many have left; few will ever return, unless Suktar is overturned.”
Ben was struck by the lady’s honesty. They thanked her one final time, and finally left.
None of them spoke as they wound their way out of the private road, back towards the town centre.
“That was an eye-opener,” Charlie said, breaking the ice.
Despite the importance of the dwarf symbol revelation, Ben knew Charlie was referring to the dark elf family.
“I don’t know why, but I had this strange idea that all dark elves were evil,” Natalie said, sounding a little guilty.
Ben had been thinking a similar thing. They had practically started a war, they were ruled by a nut case, and they had his parents. But, he conceded, that didn’t mean the entire population was evil. Were all humans evil because Hitler had started a war? The more he thought about it, the more he realised it was often just a small minority of those in power who caused the problems. Could that be the case with the dark elves? Were they innately good? Ben grappled with the concept, but came to no conclusion he was happy with. It left an unpleasant taste in his mouth.
— Chapter Sixteen —
Research and Discovery
They met up in the library at ten o’clock the following morning. Natalie had a Diplomacy assignment she couldn’t avoid, and as Ben and Charlie were unwilling to do anything without her, they spent an hour working on the third-grade checklist. Ben’s initial reluctance to work on the Scholar Department was soon forgotten as he was tasked to study some of the great historic battles that would have been lost if not for the Institute. The pleasant silence and the calm, peaceful atmosphere in the library enabled Ben to lose himself in history. Natalie’s voice, when it came, was almost an inconvenience. He would have to wait to find out how the Institute had foiled Napoleon.
“I’m sorry,” she said, hurrying across to sit next to them.
It was busy this morning, but they had managed to acquire a small square table, and piled it with books, to discourage anyone from joining them.
“Diplomacy was a nightmare,” she continued, fixing her hair, though Ben couldn’t see a strand out of place. “Pretty much the entire royal court of Olag – the nation that was just defeated by the dark elves – have turned up on our doorstep. I know the Institute would rather just boot them out the door, but we can’t, so they’ve turned them over to any Diplomat they can spare, which right now are the dregs.�
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“You’re not dregs,” Charlie muttered, looking up from his book. He blushed when she smiled at him, something Ben noted he hadn’t done in a while.
“Thanks. I’m one of the few apprentices chosen, and the only third-grader, so I guess I should be flattered. But it’s a real nightmare. They’re not happy, and half my time is spent trying to assure them that everything will be okay, when I really haven’t a clue what’s going on.”
“Ah, the white lie route – one that I’ve taken many a time,” Ben said, smiling.
“Yeah, I guess so.” Natalie gave a light rap on the table with her hands. “Anyway, let’s move on to more pleasant things. What’s our plan?”
It was obvious what she was referring to, but, perhaps wisely, she didn’t mention it out loud.
“This is Charlie’s arena,” Ben said. “We’re basically just going to do whatever he says.”
“I’ve got no problem with that,” Natalie said.
Charlie closed his book and stood up. “Right, follow me.”
Ben never ceased to be amazed at how well Charlie knew the library. It was a mass of shelves and pathways – narrow; wide; zigzagging – and cross-referenced a dozen different ways, yet Charlie always seemed to know where to go. Ben was fairly certain Charlie knew the library better with his eyes closed than most did with their eyes open.
Ben watched the various sections go by – history; spells; Diplomacy; Unseens (categorised by size, danger and anatomy); as well as the more mundane areas, such as cooking, culture and social etiquette. Just when Ben felt he couldn’t be more lost, they walked into a large, circular room, surrounded by curved shelving that fit the space perfectly. On top of each shelf was a title: Battle Dwarves; Grey Dwarves; Street Dwarves; Trade Dwarves. Each shelf had a title, and there must have been at least a dozen of them.
“I don’t see arcane dwarves anywhere,” Natalie said.
“They’re not easy to find,” Charlie said, sounding pleased about it, as he delved into one of the shelves. “The dark elf lady said they were extinct, remember? They were probably always a small group. We just have to look. Let’s start digging.”
