Valleron (Book 2) Read online

  The Council members finally found their voices. Some nodded in agreement, some waved their arms in outrage, while others refrained from comment. An old dwarf at the end of the table sat shaking his head and muttering to himself. He bore a strong resemblance to Madame Persimmons’ assistant Dominic, except where Dominic’s hair and beard were red, his was pure white. Whatever he’d been silently debating, it appeared he’d come to a decision when he slowly rose to his feet and banged his hands on the table.

  “I be shamed t’ hear the comments comin’ from some of y’r mouths! O’course we be needin’ t’ help th’ other worlds! Gods! If no’ f’r the likes o’ these here chil’en, Florisia would still be sufferin’ under th’ rule o’ th’ kitsune Tyranius. Yet these chil’en dinna hesitate to come here t’ Ellissidil t’ help put things right. Now, hold y’r tongues and let the Oracle speak!”

  As the dwarf sat back down, a few of the other Council members applauded, those close enough patting his shoulder in pride. Raff had to cover his mouth to stop himself from laughing, as some of those who had been against the idea moments ago were now nodding in agreement with the old dwarf’s words.

  The Oracle smiled, and nodded at the old dwarf. “Thank you for your eloquent words, Dewar. So, we are agreed that the children should attempt to use the amulet to open the veil between Florisia and Valleron? As previously discussed, if the children are successful, four of the palace guards will enter Valleron at midday tomorrow. They will find out as much as they can about the state of affairs in that world, and come back through the veil at midday two days later.”

  Dewar scowled at the other Council members until they all nodded in agreement. He winked at Raff and stood up, a smile threatening to break through his gruff exterior. “Aye, th’ Council members be agreein’ to th’ plan.”

  The Oracle was obviously trying not to smile as well. “Excellent! We will leave you now to finish your Council business. Thank you all for your time and careful consideration of the situation. I will ensure that all is ready for the trip to the veil at first light.”

  * * *

  Raff frowned up at the dark grey clouds gathering overhead and hoped they weren’t a bad omen. They’d left Ellissidil an hour ago, accompanied by the Oracle, Dewar and twenty palace guards. Attached to his belt was the amulet, nestled inside its newly made leather sheath. At least the blade was neither warm nor glowing, which was usually a good sign that no danger was present.

  Not that he expected an attack; there were too many other people around. The attacks only ever seemed to occur when they were alone. So how did whoever sent them know where they were going to be and who’d be with them? He knew the kitsunes possessed the ability to control the weak-minded, so they probably had access to a never ending source of information, but how did the messages get through the veil? He sighed — more questions without answers.

  “Hey you… what’s up?” Leah’s knee nudged his as she moved Solange up to walk beside him.

  “Nothing much. Just thinking.”

  “Wanna think out loud for a while? I’m a bit sick of my own thoughts.” Her startling, ice-blue eyes still made his stomach do a back-flip when she looked at him like that.

  “Sure, but I don’t think you’ll want to discuss what I was thinking about.”

  “If it has anything to do with being attacked by beasts or re-uniting worlds, you’re right, I definitely don’t want to discuss it!” She smiled, but he knew she was serious.

  “Okay, so what do you want to talk about then?”

  Leah sighed. “Do you ever think about finding out who your parents were, or where they are now?”

  Raff shrugged. “Considering we didn’t even know what ‘parents’ were until a couple of months ago, I haven’t really given it much thought. The thing is, I figure if my parents tried to fight against giving me up, they’re probably dead, and if they didn’t, they probably don’t care enough to try and find me anyway.”

  “Well, I know Madame Persimmons has started to put together a register, with details of all the current students’ birthdays. Who knows, maybe our parents will come looking for us?”

  “Ummm, aren’t you forgetting the multiple doors we were offered in the portal? We may not even belong in this world.”

  Leah’s face fell, tears welling in her eyes. “Oh, I hadn’t thought of that. That means my parents could be in any of the three worlds. And I was so sure they’d turn up at the Fey Academy one day looking for me.”

  Raff felt terrible. He was such an idiot. Why did he have to burst her tiny bubble of hope with his negative ideas? He reached out and squeezed her hand. “Hey, they still might. But even if they don't, when this is all over, we are going to find your parents. Okay?” Raff grinned and nudged her knee, relieved to see a smile break through the tears as she nodded.

  Lyricus and Belle trotted up beside them. “Apparently the veil is just up ahead. Hopefully, this will all be over soon, and we’ll be back at the palace in time for dinner,” Lyricus said.

  Leah was looking ahead and frowning. “I hope you’re right Lyricus. I thought the bad feeling I had about this trip must have been because of the skeletal horse attack. But all of a sudden it’s back, and I feel sick to the stomach. I’m wishing I was anywhere but here right now."

  Chapter Five

  -The Veil-

  Belle took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. The veil in front of them shimmered, much like the shield Lyricus had erected around them yesterday. Except it was probably a million times bigger! It must have taken an incredible amount of power to erect and maintain its existence for over a thousand years. She smirked. And the Council seriously thinks three fourteen-year-old kids are going to be able to part it. Yeah right!

  Leah and Raff moved up beside her, the amulet out and ready to go. She smiled over at Lyricus, who stood stiffly to her left, a worried frown on his face. She so wanted to be holding his hand. Somehow it always made her feel more confident when he did.

  Raff looked at them and grinned. “Try to keep an image of the veil opening in your mind, like when Leah parted the waterfall. Okay, are we ready?”

  Belle smiled and nodded. His excitement at doing anything scary never ceased to amaze her.

  Leah placed her hand on the hilt of the amulet over his and shivered. “Ready as I’ll ever be. Can we please just hurry up and do this, so we can go home!”

  The amulet began to glow the instant Belle’s hand joined theirs. She tried to keep her mind focused on the image of the veil opening, but waves of dizziness kept breaking her concentration. It was as if a vortex had opened up in front of her, and she was falling, spinning out of control towards its centre. The last thing she remembered was the touch of strong arms reaching out to catch her, as everything went black.

  * * *

  Belle opened her eyes, and immediately closed them again. A wave of nausea washed over her, the blazing hot sun like daggers driving into her brain.

  What was going on? The pain felt somehow familiar, as if this had all happened before. A memory of the last time her head had pounded this bad seeped into her befuddled brain. It was in the cave, after they’d reunited the three pieces of the amulet. She was really starting to hate that stupid amulet!

  So had it worked? Had they at least managed to open the veil? She sat up slowly, holding her head in her hands and peeking through her fingers at the world around her.

  “What the…?” Panic raced through her at the sight of her unfamiliar surroundings.

  “My thoughts exactly!” Raff sat to her right holding his head. Leah lay unmoving beside him.

  As her eyes slowly adjusted to the glare, her head still pounding painfully, she took in the details of the scenery around them. A feeling of dread snaked its way through her body, nausea again welling in her stomach. They were sitting in what appeared to be the middle of nowhere, surrounded by red dirt broken only by the sparse, spindly looking bushes scattered here and there.

  Her eyes widened and her blood turned to i
ce at the sight of Lyricus lying unmoving behind her. Oh please no… don’t let him be dead. She leaned over to check whether he was still breathing, relief flooding through her as he stirred at her touch. He opened his eyes, only to groan and quickly shut them again.

  “So where are we? And where is everyone else?” Belle looked up at Raff, his pale face and uneasy shrug giving her the sickening feeling that she already knew the answer.

  “Ummm, I’m gonna take a wild guess and say we’re in Valleron!”

  “What?” Lyricus and Belle yelled at the same time. She instantly regretted her reaction, as pain knifed through her head. From the pain etched into Lyricus’ face, she knew he was having the same regrets.

  “Well, first of all, we were standing in a grassy field when we activated the amulet, and now we’re surrounded by nothing but red dirt and these pathetic looking bushes. Not exactly the scenery we’ve come to associate with Florisia right? Then there’s the matter of the weather. I distinctly remember it being overcast and cool, yet here we are sitting under a blazing sun. Which leads me to conclude that we are in Valleron, and everyone else is still on the other side of the veil in Florisia!”

  Belle turned to Lyricus. “Then how come you’re here?”

  Lyricus groaned and smiled sheepishly. “You started to sway, and I thought you were going to collapse. I reached out to catch you, and then everything went black. I assume that because I was in contact with you when the amulet sent you through the veil, it sent me too.”

  “I told you I had a bad feeling about all of this! Next time I say something feels wrong, would someone please listen?” Leah sat up slowly, cradling her head as they’d all done. “So this is Valleron, eh? Wow, remind me to delete it from my top ten places to visit!”

  Raff started to chuckle, and then they were all laughing, and crying, and holding their aching heads.

  Belle crawled over to Lyricus and put her head on his shoulder. His arm instantly snaked around her waist. “I know it sounds selfish, but I’m glad you’re here.”

  “Nowhere else I’d rather be.”

  “Liar! But thanks for saying it anyway.”

  Raff scratched his head, Leah leaning up against him. “Ummm… so what’s the plan? Should we try to go back through the veil straight away? Right now I can’t decide which is worse, the thought of putting my head through that experience again so soon, or continuing to sit here in the boiling hot sun with no food or water.”

  “Hey guys,” Leah said, shading her eyes with one hand and pointing to an area about fifty paces from where they sat with the other. “Has the sun cooked my brain, or does that cleared area look a bit like The Circles in Naissance and Florisia?”

  Belle looked towards where she was pointing and gasped. It definitely looked like a circular area had been cleared, leaving a few ragged trees around the outside in an attempt to provide a pitiful amount of shade. “You’re right Leah, it does. So this must be where the portal opens up in Valleron. Which means the school probably isn’t far from here? Madame Persimmons said there was a school like Fey Academy set up in all the worlds.”

  “Well, I think we may be about to find out either way. Someone is coming!” Lyricus was releasing the leather thong holding his hair as he spoke. “Belle, make sure your hair is covering your ears. I don’t think they would be expecting elves here. And if we want them to think we came via the portal, we also need to act as if we just met!”

  They watched as a man hurried towards them down the road. He was shaking his head, his lips moving constantly as if he were muttering to himself.

  “Where in the blazes did you lot come from? Infernal portal has been acting up lately, and some of the messages about arrivals have been coming through late. But four in one day? Ridiculous… unheard of!”

  Raff scratched his head, doing a great job of looking lost and confused. “Ummm… would you mind telling us where we are? And who are you?”

  “You’re in Valleron boy. My name’s Tomas, and I’m here to take you to Valleron College. Don’t bother asking me any questions, answering them is the job of the headmaster, Professor Goon. He’ll answer them all when we get there. Now let’s go. I have no intention of standing around in the hot sun chatting.” He turned and headed back the way he’d come, obviously expecting them to follow him.

  Belle scrambled to her feet, looking at the others as they did the same. “What do we do now?”

  Lyricus squeezed her hand. “I think we need to do what he says. Thanks to Raff’s quick thinking, he seems to believe we came through the portal. I’m afraid we’re going to have to go to the school and come up with a plan when we get there.”

  Leah was staring at Lyricus with her mouth open. “Are you serious? What we need to do is use the amulet to get back to Florisia… like right now!”

  Raff scratched his head, scuffing the red dirt and avoiding making eye contact with her. “Sorry Leah, but I agree with Lyricus. Not going with this guy would raise way too many red flags. He’s already said the portal messages have been coming in late, so hopefully by the time they realise there was no message about our arrival we’ll be gone!”

  “Fine! Obviously the subject is not open for discussion. But don’t blame me when it all goes wrong. I am sick to death of the whole thing!” She turned and stormed off down the road after Tomas.

  Belle sighed and rubbed Raff’s shoulder. “She’ll be okay Raff. She’s just scared like the rest of us. Come on, let’s go talk to this Professor Goon. With a bit of luck, he’ll be like Madame Persimmons, and be able to help us. Not only that, now that we’re here, we may as well find out as much as we can about what’s going on in Valleron. I’m sure the Oracle and the Council will be interested in anything we can tell them when we get back.”

  Chapter Six

  -Valleron College-

  Leah was furious at the latest turn of events. She followed Tomas down the road, not knowing whether the others were even following, and not particularly caring either way. She couldn’t believe Raff had refused to even listen to her thoughts on what they should do. When he’d sided with Lyricus, refusing to even look at her as he spoke, she’d seriously wanted to beat him to a pulp!

  This being one of ‘the-only-three-who-could-wield-the-amulet’ thing was getting ridiculous. Why did they always have to be the ones to deal with all the crap? If they ever got back to Florisia, she was going to tell them to find someone else to be the third sucker! Seriously, her days as an amulet wielder were over!

  Her eyes burned from holding back tears. She squeezed them closed, refusing to let the stupid tears fall. Crying was just another thing on a long list of things she was over! She’d tell this Professor Goon the whole story, and then maybe they could go home. Sneaking a look over her shoulder, she saw the others weren’t far behind. Raff looked miserable, kicking the ground as he walked.

  Good, so he should be miserable! If he’d listened to her in the first place, instead of telling her to think about the whole thing as a stupid school excursion, they’d still be at home safe in the Fey Academy where they belonged! But no, let’s not listen to Leah. What would she know? Well, she knew enough to know that if someone had bothered to listen to her warnings, they wouldn’t be here trudging through red dirt in the middle of who-knew-where on the way to who-knew-what! Fine, if they thought she…

  She stopped mid-tirade, rooted to the spot by the scene unfolding before her eyes. Dear Gods, surely this couldn’t be the school? As if in answer to her question, Tomas turned towards the ramshackle building ahead, looking back and waving to them to hurry up.

  Belle moved up beside her and threw her arm around her shoulder. “You okay?”

  “Nope. And I think things may have just gone from bad to worse. This can’t seriously be the school, can it?”

  They looked at what was apparently Valleron College in horror. What had once been a fence running across the front of the building had huge sections missing, as if someone had needed the wood for something else, and just remov
ed pieces at random. The sections still standing looked ready to topple over at the slightest breeze.

  Breeze? Here? Hah! There was certainly no threat of the fence toppling today then. The stifling air was devoid of even the slightest hint of any such relief. And then there was the building itself. What was left of the paint was peeling off everywhere, and boards had been placed across what could once have been windows. Leah grimaced. Maybe that’s where the fence posts had gone.

  “Doesn’t look much like Fey Academy does it?” Belle said sadly from beside her.

  Tomas had stopped waving, and started yelling, shuffling from one foot to the other impatiently. “Hey, move it! I don’t have all day you know. Of all the…”

  He was doing the muttering to himself thing again. They followed him silently through the broken fence and up the half-rotten stairs that led to the front door. Leah almost burst out laughing as he pulled an old key from his pocket and unlocked the door. Was the lock to stop others getting in, or out? Dear Gods, what was going on here?

  The temperature inside the building was only slightly cooler than outside. They stepped into a narrow entranceway with doors off to the left and right. Tomas opened the door to the left and led them into a cluttered room, where a long table surrounded by rickety old chairs held centre stage.

  “Professor Goon will be here shortly.” He nodded and was gone.

  Raff stood beside Leah, red-faced and looking decidedly uncomfortable. “Leah, I’m sor…”

  “Don’t! I know it’s not your fault, but I’m way too angry to be reasonable right now! So just save it, okay!” She pulled out a chair from the table and flopped down in relief. Her head was still throbbing from the crossing, and the heat was making her feel even more like a bear with a sore tooth.