Drakonika (Book 1)

by Andrea Závodská

  As soon as he said that, another triumphant cry resounded from the distant corner of the chamber. “Cool! Can we make them ourselves?” Darius interrupted Aedan for the second time. His friends were just grinning at the idea. Others didn't feel like laughing though. Who knows what rules Darius' Black Squad would create for them!

  “NO,” echoed another impatient answer from Aedan. “I have made them for you. And you are to see them right away.”

  Magnus was the first one to receive the “precious” document in his hands. In order to unwind the scroll completely, he had to use the whole space their table offered. When he laid his eyes on the numerous strict rules, he shared a look full of horror with Maren.

  “These are our sacred rules. Please, pass the scroll to everyone,” said Aedan, much more content now. But at that moment he had no idea that almost half of them wouldn't be able to read it. Not every child in Aria had the chance to study at a school. “My job is to prepare you to enter the higher guilds like the Mages Guild, the Fighters Guild and many others. However, I advise you to join the druids, it's the best choice for you,” he said in a ringing voice as he proudly lifted his druid staff that was made of hard wood and decorated with feathers. That was enough for Maren and Magnus to be fed up with their teacher pushing them to become druids. But Aedan continued in his boasting, “No one can surpass druids in their perfection. They are great fighters, they don't have a match among healers and they can cast the most powerful spells. And they do all that in harmony with nature!” Despite some novices being quite annoyed, he acquired a large audience that was listening to him closely.

  Maren leaned close to Magnus. “How can he say something like that? Everyone knows that mages and not druids can cast the most powerful spells,” she whispered angrily, but very carefully and quietly. Magnus had to lean incredibly close to hear what she was saying.

  Another group of novices sitting on the other side of the room clearly didn't show any interest in druids. Maren was distracted from her complaining by a crumpled paper ball that bumped into her shoulder. She quickly looked around the chamber to find out who did it. When she noticed it was someone from the Black Squad, she wasn't surprised at all. It didn't make her feel any better though. She made sure that Aedan wasn't watching her, then picked up the paper ball and threw it across the length of the chamber. But she missed the target completely and the paper ball landed on the table in front of Fjalldís.

  “You should think well about which profession you will choose and think about it twice, because your studies will depend on it. Druids are without a doubt the best choice,” said Aedan proudly. When he finished his speech, he look around the chamber to see the reaction of his novices. “So, what do you want to become?” he asked, expecting only one answer.

  “Druids!” squeaked a number of novices.

  Hearing that, a touched smile appeared on Aedan's face.

  “I don't understand how he could have brainwashed them so fast,” whispered Maren into Magnus' ear, but he just shrugged.

  Viktor reached out to the neighbouring table and grabbed the paper ball from under Fjalldís' nose. “Give it back, it's ours,” he barked fiercely, as though she had stolen a heap of gold from them. After that, they didn't look in her direction again.

  Maren noticed another attack of the paper ball, this time it flew just around Magnus. Maren's face became red with fury. She picked it up from the ground in order to throw it back, but Magnus stopped her. In the meantime, the Black Squad amused themselves with their great idea of how to shorten Aedan's boring speech.

  “Wait, let me do it,” said Magnus quietly as he took the ball from Maren's hand. Not long after he said that, Darius was rubbing the place where the ball hit him. It was a direct shot, straight to the head!

  Even though they were sure this wouldn't make their relationship with the Black Squad any better, both Maren and Magnus were thrilled. Those five finally got what they deserved!

  Unfortunately, they didn't enjoy their success for long.

  “And what do you want to become?” asked Aeden and immediately he got Magnus' attention back.

  Magnus thought of only one answer, “And how could I choose when you didn't tell us about any profession other than the druids?”

  Clearly, this sentence had a strong effect on Aedan. He stood up from his armchair at once and supporting himself with the long wooden staff, he came right next to Magnus. If they were standing outside, the small novice would be completely drowned in his teacher's shadow.

  “I have included all the other professions in my speech about druids, but you preferred to have fun with your friends. No wonder you didn't hear anything,” said Aedan strictly.

  He was bending so low that Magnus felt like an ant. He couldn't hold his tongue back though. He wouldn't take the blame for someone else! “But I didn't start it! They did,” he said in his defence, looking in the direction where the Black Squad was making fun of him.

  “I didn't say it was you. I said you and your friends,” hissed Aedan impatiently. His greyish hair nearly brushed over Magnus' face.

  Looking at the hard expression of the druid, Magnus understood it was pointless to oppose him any longer.

  Aedan decided that any attempt to explain to Magnus was utterly useless, so he strode back to the middle of the chamber. He didn't sit back into the armchair though. Everyone understood the introductory speech was over. “I will assign separate study rooms to each one of you. Girls will have study rooms on the right, boys on the left. I don't want you to be distracted. Furthermore, I'll split you into groups. Each group will get their own house where you can drop your luggage, if you have any. All of your houses will be on the same street as I don't want you to disperse throughout the entire town. After that, I will lead you to the dining room where all of us will eat together and then I will await you in front of the entrance of the citadel again. You'll help me prepare the picnic for your celebratory reception. And I am warning you once more - use only the pavements marked by me, the underground of the citadel, your houses and nothing else.” He paused for a while because a novice from the last table came to return the lengthy scroll with the guild rules. The eyes of the boy reflected great dread.

  Aedan put the scroll back above the mantelpiece and continued. “Of course, there will be those who pretend to be heroes. But no need to worry, they won't go unpunished.” With these words, his introduction to the novices of the town of Sinei and their guild.

  Maren and Magnus were lucky. Their houses stood opposite each other and were even connected with a laundry thread across the street. Each one of them resided with a few other novices.

  Fjalldís acquired a house near Maren's at the same side of the street, together with two other girls, who were about a year older. She didn't talk to them much though.

  And the famous Black Squad? Those five fought out a house at the very end of the street, as far from the others as possible. But then again, even Aedan himself deduced it would be for the best.

  VII. The Welcoming Toast

  Aedan didn't make them wait for lunch too long. Just because he was big and stocky like a bear, it didn't mean he wouldn't understand the empty stomachs of his novices. Many of them had traveled a very long and exhausting journey and he certainly didn't want them to limp around like a band of spooks. The first load of work was ready and they would need a lot of energy to help him with all of it.

  The druid strode to each house, shouting and bashing wildly on the doors with his long wooden staff, just to make sure that everyone could hear it.

  Shortly the street was flooded with children. Were they really so obedient? As Aedan lead them back to the citadel's courtyard, he decided it was only their hunger that made them leave their houses in such haste, not his voice. He was yelling at them all the way up to the citadel and they didn't seem to take him too seriously. They kept squealing, poking themselves off the road, running too much in front or falling too far behind.

  Once they made it to the courtyard
without their irritable teacher choking their souls out of them, they were all led to a side-door which was furtively creeping out from the shadows reflected on the left wall of the mountainous citadel.

  Magnus looked up. The courtyard wasn't big, but the towering turrets and the steep, tile roofing made him feel even smaller than he actually was. But as it seemed, he was the only one taking notice of the surroundings. The others were only interested in one thing: food.

  They must have smelled something very nice from inside. At least this was suggested by the actions of the Black Squad. Usually dragging by in the back, they were now waiting impatiently right in front of the door as if they were stepping on hot lava rocks. They could skip boring speeches and lame walks, but food was another matter. They would do anything just to grab the biggest dish.

  Viktor slammed on the door despite their strict teacher standing right next to him. “Knock, knock! Anybody home?” he said, sniggering along with Darius and their three friends.

  “Nobody's home,” said Aedan flatly. “Now move back from the door, unless you have the key to open it.” He shot them a furious look. It didn't seem like he could stand this behaviour much longer.

  The five boys backed away from the door but they were still the first in line. Darius' stepped on a stone. At least that's what he thought, but in fact it was too soft to be a stone.

  Fjalldís wailed quietly as she shut her eyes in pain. Somebody had just stepped on her foot with all his weight!

  Darius looked around his shoulder and surveyed her airily, but he didn't apologise.

  As soon as Aedan had pushed the creaking door open and crossed the threshold of the dining room, the Black Squad and a few others bounded in like a herd of wild horses, pressing their teacher against the door as though he was merely a fly. In this moment, his height and ominous expression didn't seem to matter at all. The Black Squad were among the first sitting behind the long wooden table. At the end on the right side, they were waiting for their “winner” dish which they expected to be the best and largest of all. Aedan threw them a fierce look and mouthed at them wordlessly, but before he could say anything that would make them regret their disobedience, the rest of the children ran inside. Their shrieking made Aedan clap his hands to his ears and forget about punishing the others.

  Seconds later, all of the novices were sitting at the long table, their legs swinging underneath it and talking so loudly one would think it was a market square. There was one unoccupied seat. It was the leader's seat at the very end of the room. But before Aedan could sit down, he had to fill the table with bowls of food and glasses of water to feed his novices.

  The dining room looked quite cosy. There were two windows on each side of the door which were throwing in light that faded gradually from the front to the back of the room. The thick walls were made of heavy stone blocks, scarcely carpeted with detailed tapestries that held back the chilliness of the citadel. It was quite clear why the Black Squad had chosen the seats in the very back. They liked to be engulfed in darkness, but they were also counting on their extraordinary ability of discouraging people from sitting near them. Apparently they didn't think that Aedan would resist any better than the novices.

  Maren, Magnus, and his two house mates found seats on the opposite side in the front while Fjalldís and her room mates were on the right near them. They were all looking forward to eating lunch just as well. It had been a long time since the morning and until now Maren and Magnus didn't have anything they could have possibly chewed on. That is, unless they wanted to grind their teeth to dust with Valezar's cookies which were already hard like stones.

  Aedan started serving food.

  There was a silent moment and everyone exchanged confused looks. As Magnus looked around, he understood it wasn't only his memory loss. It seemed, upon looking, that none of the novices had ever seen a meal like this in their entire life. Was this supposed to be the glorious lunch? This thought marched through the minds of all of them, but there were also a few who didn't want to keep their opinions just to themselves.

  Even if the others were ready to close their eyes and obediently take the abominable food of the weirdest consistency to their mouth, the Black Squad didn't feel like hiding their squeamishness.

  Darius poked into his dish. An undefinable, slimy stuff of green colour slithered down from his wooden spoon back into the bowl and with a splashing sound, it spattered a few drops on the table. “Yuck! That's disgusting!” he said, his face contorting with dislike. “Are we supposed to eat this? Is it even edible?” He looked around to see the expressions of others and it seemed that most of them agreed with his words.

  While Darius was raking in his bowl with the spoon, Viktor didn't even bother using one. He dipped his index finger into the green slimy stuff and painted a moustache under his nose, a wide grin on his face. There was a ripple of laughter coming from the five boys dressed in black clothes, but nobody else dared to giggle. Without any doubt, they were having a very good time, poking at Aedan's food. They were heard throughout the entire dining room.

  The tears of laughter were something they wanted to achieve but what they didn't want was getting Aedan's attention. He was already fed up with their behaviour and by doing this, the boys had spilled a barrel of oil onto the fire.

  Aedan slammed the cooking pot on a narrow desk by the left wall in the back of the room, making a deafening ringing sound. It seemed that he had heard everything. And when we say everything, it means completely everything.

  The druid turned around to face his novices. The laughter was instantly quelled by the look he gave them. He shot them such a rigid, deadly glare that it made everyone jump in terror and tilt away from Aedan as far as their seats allowed them.

  “Do you have any idea how long it took me to get everything ready for your arrival? And how early I had to get up and leave my lovely home just to cook so that you have something to eat? Of course you don't. But that's fine, you will learn. Breakfast tomorrow will be prepared by the five of you,” Aedan said resolutely. As soon as he uttered these words, his face lightened up. If this was to be their first lesson, so be it.

  The members of the Black Squad exchanged a few vexed looks mingled with surprise, sourness and terror.

  “What?” Rodrick breathed incredulously.

  Darius recovered first. “But we can't cook,” he said in a disbelieving tone, as though the task given to them was impossible to accomplish.

  Aedan bashed his foot against a wooden beam under the table and leaned over it, closer to the novices. “And can you read?” said Aedan in an almost mocking tone, glancing at Darius defiantly.

  Darius looked highly affronted. What kind of a question was this? “Of course we can read,” he said in the same tone Aedan gave him. But then he felt a poke from his left side.

  “Speak for yourself,” whispered Rodrick, but there was such silence in the room that it was certain everyone heard it. It seemed that their other two pals, Henry and Giselbert, nodded at these words as well while Viktor looked utterly disinterested in the whole matter, glancing into nowhere as though it didn't pertain to him at all. But the punishment didn't miss any of them. Darius' answer was sufficient for Aedan.

  “Excellent. The books are over there,” said Aedan with finality in his voice and pointed at a door in the back of the room. “That's the kitchen. You will go there from the other side; I'll leave the door unlocked.” And that's how he closed the whole case.

  It was final for Aedan, but not for the Black Squad. The worst was awaiting them and it was supposed to come the very next morning. None of them wanted to admit they were guilty and responsible for what happened.

  “Why did you have to do that stupid moustache joke?” growled Darius at Viktor, just to get rid of his part of the blame.

  “And why did you have to rake in the bowl?” Viktor shot back in a squabbling tone.

  Seeing those two, Magnus couldn't help letting out a snigger. Although he stopped immediately and looked elsew
here, the good mood abandoned him in seconds. He realised both Viktor and Darius were already shooting him hateful glances. They were so hateful that not even Maren could overlook it.

  But that wasn't the only thing she noticed. Magnus kept throwing Fjalldís covert looks. Clearly, he was thinking frantically when and how to speak to her. They had to resolve the misunderstanding! Although he felt like talking to her immediately to shake off the heavy boulder from his heart, he had to wait for the right moment. He surely didn't want to mangle it up even more than it already was.

  After seeing what fate the Black Squad had met, there was a rush to quickly eat and despite the horrible taste and consistency, everyone wolfed down their meal without leaving a drop in their bowls. It looked as though the dishes had been washed already. But even though Magnus didn't like Darius, he had to silently agree with him. It was utterly disgusting and he really hoped that not all of the druid food would taste like this.

  Before Aedan started gathering dishes, blankets and food for their later picnic he told his novices to wait for him in front of the dining room. It seemed he needed a moment of peace.

  The afternoon sun rays falling on the citadel courtyard were shifting the shadows to the travertine floor and walls of the tall towers that were circling around it. At this time of day, the shadows were cast on the side where the novices were standing right now which was the side with the entrance to the dining room.

  Although the shadow might have felt chilly to the others, the Black Squad standing in its midst couldn't feel better. The novices were afraid of them, keeping a distance of several steps away and yet something indicated that they considered the Black Squad some sort of leading group because nobody went too far. The most feared among them were Darius and Viktor. And all novices already understood that anyone who started a quarrel with them would not get out of it so easily.