Chapter 3
Chapter Three
Briony
There’s no way that Fox and I can displace Blaze without the help of the Princes.
I’m still new at that aspect of magic, and Blaze is gigantic, heavy, and not exactly keen on the process.
Which means the only way to return to the academy is to fly on his back.
Of course, the problem with that – like Fox pointed out – is that Blaze isn’t exactly small or discreet.
Fox sends the Eros brothers into the house to search for a map, and they return ten minutes later with one folded in their arms. Fox spreads it on the lawn in front of the house and studies it as Blaze and I survey the skies and the landscape, half expecting those soldiers to displace and arrest us any second now.
“I think if we fly out south to the mountain range, to the Highlands,” Fox says, “we can fly low and sweep round to the academy that way.”
“Will they be watching the skies?” I ask.
“Probably,” he says, “but it’s a roundabout route, and the Highlands are pretty treacherous and uninhabited. If we fly low to the ground, I don’t think they’ll spot us. We’ll have to leave Blaze at the edge of the Highlands, though, and find our way into the academy on foot.”
Fox folds the map up, tucking it into his blazer pocket, a blazer that is a little tight-fitting. I assume he’s taken it from the Eros house. Dirk shoves a bundle of food into my hands along with a bottle of water, and then we’re climbing onto Blaze’s back and heading off into the skies.
I peer over my shoulder as we set off across the prairie land, seeing the three figures of the Eros brothers shrink and shrink in size until I can no longer see them.
We stick low to the river, avoiding the other shifter houses out here in the prairie lands, all three of us watching and alert the whole time.
By nightfall, we’ve reached the relative safety of the Highlands.
Safe, because we’re less likely to be spotted out here, although the flying becomes much harder.
The currents that swirl above the Highlands are fierce, bitter, and violent.
They buffet and jolt and rock us, and Fox grips me to him even tighter than before, as the three of us square our faces to the onslaught and force our way onwards.
“I think we ought to land,” Fox yells above the turbulent wind. “Find somewhere to hunker down and rest. Start out again when this weather settles.”
“This weather may never settle! Besides, I think we’re less likely to be spotted flying in the dark, and I want to get to the academy and my friends as quickly as possible.”
“Always impatient,” he says, his arms wrapped around my waist as he nuzzles into my neck, scraping his fangs up and down that place where he’s fed on me.
It’s severely tempting – more tempting than I would ever admit or confess to him – to ask him to sink his fangs into my veins and to feed on me.
He wasn’t lying when he said the act was addictive.
It’s all I can think about with his breath warm on my neck.
And then I jolt. Fox’s breath, unlike Beaufort’s and Dray’s, has never been warm on my skin.
In fact, the Professor rarely has any breath at all.
I shift in my seat and peer over my shoulder at him.
That strange blue still swims in his eyes, that color in his skin.
I must be imagining it. Maybe his breath has always been a little warm.
Maybe I’m just freezing cold, sitting on top of the dragon in the frigid air of the Highlands.
Although, maybe I’m not. Maybe there is something different about the Professor. I’m just not sure what it is or what it can mean.
I’m guessing Blaze is not keen on the idea of the Professor and me getting frisky on his back because he makes his disapproval clear by jostling us about.
“What’s going on?” Fox says.
“He wants us to behave,” I say, lying down flat against Blaze’s neck and running my palm softly across his scales, and shushing him.
Before long, the landscape below us, even in the dark, starts to look familiar.
“This was the place we came for the last trial,” I tell Fox.
“There was a tunnel,” he says, “to a grotto?”
“Uh-huh,” I say. “It was somewhere over there.”
We’re low to the ground, and it’s easy to spot the entrance to the tunnel.
“Let’s see,” he says. “Can you tell Blaze to land?”
I don’t know why he’s keen to see it, but I tell Blaze to land nonetheless, and then Fox is striding over to examine the tunnel’s mouth.
“Why do you want to see it?” I ask.
“In some of the books I’ve read,” he says, “there were tales of magical tunnels that led from the academy out to the Highlands – an escape route, so to speak.”
“Why would there need to be an escape from the academy?”
Fox shrugs. “I don’t know, but this could be it, our way into the academy.”
“Do we need a way in?” I say. “We could just displace, couldn’t we?”
“If I were Sterling, guarding the academy with soldiers, I’d install spells to detect anyone attempting to displace into or out of the academy.”
“There are spells that can do that?”
“There are.”
“But why would he use them?”
“They may be watching for you, Briony. Or me. Or Veronica. Or anyone else the Empress suspects is on our side. Displacing is too dangerous. But this tunnel could be a way in.”
“Could be,” I say, “but the tunnels were like a maze. We’d never find our way through, Fox.”
He smirks at me, and then he’s sending his shadow magic shooting into the tunnel.
“I don’t see how that’s going to help,” I mutter.
“You know my senses are enhanced, Miss Storm,” he tells me, “and they are enhanced even through my magic.”
“But we’re miles away from the academy.”
“Trust me,” he says, with a confident smirk I find way too hot.
He closes his eyes, and the smirk melts away as his face hardens in concentration, two little lines forming between his brow.
I peer over at Blaze, who’s watching both of us.
He’s never been a fan of the Professor, and there’s a tension in his body as if he’d be half tempted to try burning Fox alive again, like he did once before.
When it’s clear whatever Fox is doing is not going to be over quickly, I unwrap the food parcel Dirk gave me, feeding a roll to Blaze, who swallows the thing whole, and then nibbling on one myself. Finally, Fox’s eyes snap open, and his shadow magic comes racing back to his outstretched hand.
“I think I found it,” he says. “A way through.”
“I don’t see how you did that,” I say in disbelief.
“There’s a scent in the tunnel. A breeze coming from the other end, carrying that scent up to me.”
“And what’s the scent of?”
“The academy.”
“Okay,” I say, jumping to my feet. “That looks like our way in.”
I turn back to Blaze. The last time I left him on his own, he wasn’t exactly thrilled by the idea. There was a lot of protesting, whining, and general guilt-tripping.
“You know what I’m going to say, Blaze,” I tell him this time.
The dragon tilts his head to one side. “You can’t come with us.
You’re a little too inconspicuous. So you’re going to have to stay out here like a good boy this time.
We’ll be back as soon as we can. And anyway,” I say, “there’s lots of great hunting here.
” I point in the direction of a small goat herd that is curled up for the night.
I pause, waiting for the puppy eyes, the whining, and the general cute onslaught to begin.
To my surprise, Blaze drops down to his belly, expelling a dramatic sigh.
It seems he accepts the situation, even if he doesn’t like it.
Maybe the group of goats huddled in the distance is just too much of a temptation for him.
“Good boy,” I tell him, stroking my hands down his nose and peppering him with kisses.
The bond between us seems to be growing stronger and stronger.
It’s becoming harder to leave him each time I have to.
It breaks my heart a little bit more. But this isn’t just to let us creep in; it’s once again to keep my friends safe.
“I love you, Blaze,” I whisper.
And he blinks at me rapidly. Surely I’ve told him before. But then maybe I haven’t.
“I do, boy,” I say. “I love you very much, and I’ll be back as quickly as I can.”
Then, before I can change my mind, I stride towards the cave entrance, beckoning Fox to follow me and using my magic to light our way.
We’re a few steps into the tunnel when the Professor takes my hand in his.
I expect that usual icy cold to spike through my hand and up my arm.
But once again his skin doesn’t feel as cold as it once did.
“Where do you think this tunnel is going to come out, Professor?” I ask him.
“Hopefully somewhere down in the dungeons near my room, maybe under the Great Hall.” He grimaces. “Hopefully not anywhere near Sterling’s office.”
“You know of him, then?”
“Yes.” He sniffs. “You could say we have history.”
“I don’t even know who he is.”
“One of the Empress’s most trusted allies.”
“Yeah, I don’t like the sound of him then,” I say. “What’s the history?”
The Professor doesn’t answer me, so I jab him in the ribs with my finger. “No more secrets, Fox. What history?”
He grimaces. “He was the one who sentenced me to death after all the,” he hesitates, “murdering.”
“Bastard,” I mutter.
“I killed people for their blood. It’s what I deserved. But still, I don’t like the guy.”
“Why?”
“He always gave me the creeps.”
“Exactly,” I say. “He’s really creepy. But Bardin changed his mind. About the death penalty, I mean.”
“No, he never changed his mind. He wanted me dead. I don’t really think it had anything to do with the murdering, personally. I think he just took a dislike to me.”
“Because you’re infinitely more handsome and charming than he is, Professor.”
The Professor scoffs. “I don’t know about that, but it was the Empress who changed her mind, overruled him.
I suppose, thinking about it now, it wasn’t that surprising.
She already had Bardin doing her dirty work.
I assume she thought I would be another useful asset.
He argued against Bardin, tried to persuade the Empress that I should die. She was unconvinced.”
“So Sterling and Bardin are enemies.”
“You could say that,” Fox mutters. “Usually I’d say my enemy’s enemy is my friend, but in this case, I think I’ll make an exception.”
Sterling seemed no better than Bardin. In fact, I suspect he could be worse.
I just hope my friends Fly and Clare are both okay – that they’ve stayed under the radar and haven’t attracted any of his wrath.
I can’t help feeling that is optimistic though.
People know that they’re my friends, and I am now a traitor.
It’s perfectly possible that people like Sterling will use my friends to get to me.
It puts them in danger. I pick up my pace.
I need to find them. I need to find them quickly.
We pass the tunnel that had led into the grotto, and we keep walking. The tunnel becomes lower and narrower. Fox is forced to duck his head, crouching over me as we continue walking.
“How far do you think this will take us?” I say. “How long will it take?”
“Like I told you,” Fox says, “it’s magical.”
“If it’s magic,” I say, “is there something we need to do to activate it, to make it to take us where we want to go?”
“No,” he says. “It’s all built in. It knows where we want to go, and it will take us there.”
As the temperature of the tunnel drops, as we seem to dive deeper into the earth, I’m not so convinced about that.
Finally, when I’m wondering if we’re just going to become lost under the mountains of the Highlands, the tunnel begins to incline upwards, the temperature rises again, and then we notice scratchings on the walls.
I pause, bringing my light right up to examine them.
They’re symbols and pictures, completely meaningless to me.
“What are they?” I ask.
Fox shakes his head. He doesn’t know either.
We continue walking. And finally, we reach what must be the end of the tunnel, a door blocking our way.
Fox presses his finger to his lips and then motions for me to step back. He leans into the door, pressing his ear to the old gnarled wood, listening. I listen too, even though my ears are not nearly as good as the vampire Professor’s. Eventually he straightens up.
“There’s no one there,” he says, sniffing the air just in case. “No one behind the door. But like I said, I don’t know where it might lead. If we’re unlucky, we’ll be stepping straight into Sterling’s office.”
I shake my head. “I don’t think we will. I don’t think anyone would build this tunnel and lead it straight into the path of whoever was running the academy. I think it will be somewhere safer.”
“Let’s hope you’re right.” He places his hand on the handle. “But be ready anyway, Briony. Just in case.”
I nod, and he twists the handle. I think he’s being optimistic.
I expect the door to be locked. But it isn’t.
The mechanism clicks, and Fox edges the door open cautiously.
Then he’s creeping forward, peering through the new gap.
No light spills through, just more darkness, and I watch as his vision swings through the gloom.
Then he opens the door some more and beckons me closer.
It isn’t Sterling’s office, or the Madame’s, or that strange doorless room I found myself in all those weeks ago.
It isn’t the Great Hall, or the great room that lay beneath the Great Hall with the giant dragon skeleton, either.
It’s somewhere I’ve never seen in the academy before.
Damp. Cold. Moss covering the ground in a carpet of slime. The walls wet and stony.
“Where are we?” I whisper.
“I think we’re down in the dungeons,” he says.
“I think my room is right above.” He peers upwards to the dank ceiling.
Then he drops his gaze and searches through the dark.
I follow suit, searching in this strange boxed room for any way out.
There must be one. The tunnel can’t have led us here simply to have disposed us in an inescapable room.
Fox spots it first: metal bars seared into the stone wall. They run all the way up, disappearing through a gap in the ceiling.
“Looks like we’re on our way out,” he says.
“I’ll go first,” I say, resting my foot on the first staple.
The Professor huffs. “No way, Briony Storm, am I letting you climb that ladder first.”
“Why?” I say. “My magic’s more powerful than yours.”
“‘Tis not,” he tells me firmly.
And then, before I can argue some more, he’s leaping over me and is already halfway up the ladder.
“Shit,” I say. I forgot about his supersonic speeds.