Chapter Sixteen: First Mission

   I remained silent, instead I thought about what we could possibly end up doing. We waited for some time. Eventually, Merlin appeared in the wide space between the bed and the balcony window. Delrand and I looked over to him. He didn’t look happy, something must have come up on the Mordred situation.

   ‘We may have a spy problem in the school to deal with,’ he hinted.

   I looked sideways at Delrand; he looked reasonably unconcerned, as though he had expected it to be inevitable. ‘We can easily render it. All it takes is sneaking around and creeping along the corridors.’

   ‘Alright, I’ll leave it to you two. Watch out for anything and be careful; knowing you, Delrand, you’ll probably try to blast them into little pieces.’ I smiled at the comment. ‘And keep the power and noise as low as possible. We want them alive if you can manage that.’ With that he disappeared. Delrand turned to me, with a slight smug smile on his face. I narrowed my eyes lightly.

   ‘Best go, we need to be as stealthy as we can once we’re inside.’ He got up off the covers and walked to where Merlin had just stood.

   ‘Finally, all my months of training have paid off,’ I mused as I followed him. He held out his hand and in return folded my arms. ‘I don’t need your assistance with travel, Delrand. I’ll meet you there.’

   He vanished without a word, not even a resounding smile. With closed eyes, I pictured the school and traversed from the room to near the front gate.

   In the darkness I could make out his figure near the high wall, a darker shadow than the surrounding blackness. Mordred’s spies are highly trained in sensory, they may already have felt us arrive. If we took opposite wings and worked from bottom to top we will be able to locate them quicker. Don’t forget to kept to the walls and listen outside doors with light beaming out.

   This will be very time consuming. I hope you keep to Merlin’s warnings, don’t kill them and keep the noise down.

   We crept inside using the ‘secret’ way (who knows if the signal had been passed directly to Mordred), and went our separate ways. He took the west wing, I took the east. If anything comes up tell me and I’ll come to help, he assured me.

   You do the same with me, then.

   You know where to cut the main building once you’ve finished each floor?

   The main stairwell, I answered as I walked through the nearest doorway. All was quiet, including myself. I had always been a silent walker, no matter whether I was walking or running my feet never resounded thuds as I contacted the ground with each step, excluding unexpected crunches of leaves or grass (if I was outside).

   I wandered around each floor and checked every doorway, passage and corridor with my mind before walking through or along. I couldn’t feel any active minds apart from Delrand’s (who was being a little too swift, for my liking, with his half of the search). I traversed the last passage of the school before I could finally reunite with Delrand downstairs. There had been a few rooms whose candle light flickered from within but all were empty. The tedious task seemed pointless after stepping onto the landing. Hesitantly reaching out with my mind and expecting blankness, there came a gash in the veil of my shield; a heavy blow from a nearby door that was silhouetted from within. I took in a deep breath and pressed my back flat against the wall. Letting go of the magic, I returned my attention to the handle. It didn’t move and the light across the floor did not shadow over. Hoping my luck was true again, I crept step-by-step along the floor, still in contact with the wall. When the handle was in arm’s reach I stopped and listened intently. I heard hushed whispers that an untrained ear might have mistaken for the wind hissing through a small gap between the window and the sill. Magnifying my hearing and trying to focus on the more vigilant voice, I defined a few meagre words. Then was able to pick up complete sentences in streams.

   ‘We shall have to resume this debate some other time. We haven’t the resources to start our cause yet.’ This was the voice I had decided to focus upon. The owner was a male by the deep bass-toned notes within the words just spoken. By the tone I guessed he might be around forty years of age. There were others in the room, possibly another two, I could not be certain.

   ‘Still, now is a dwindling time for those who we oppose. Now may be the only chance we have at striking down our enemies. Each day that passes gives them more time to mature the minds of the students. If it means killing many of them, so be it, but there are some who would not dare to challenge us,’ replied another. This time, the voice belonged to someone around Delrand’s own age, may be a little older.

   Delrand, I’ve found them, I called out to him, careful not to include those whose minds I was secretly channelling to. I’m in the highest eastern corridor.

   One second. A second passed and he materialised on the other side of the door frame. He motioned with a finger for me to remain silent while he listened to our prisoners, who still remained oblivious to our presence by the sound of it. After a minute, he looked me in the eyes and nodded his head. I smiled back. What do we do? I asked.

   Stand back, let’s see how much training these have had in dealing with surprise attacks.

   Don’t try anything stupid or spontaneous, it never works the way you want.

  Would I really be that reckless? I rolled my eyes at him knowing he wouldn’t be able to see in the lack of light in the passage.

   I tip-toed away from the door, placing each step carefully on the floorboards beneath my body. Step by tranquil step I neared the opposite wall. Though my stealthy caution was to be vanquished from my last step. As pressed a little too quickly and hard and a creaking rebounded off the walls and intensified into an echo through the cool air. I screwed my face up, drastically wounded by my resilient carelessness. I bit my lip  and waited for the inevitable. The voices inside stopped abruptly. Delrand stood motionless beside me, I had opened my eyes, the look on his face was blank as he quickly thought of a plan to replace his now diminished one.

   Sorry, was all I could say right then. Footsteps sounded from inside, each one subtly louder than the previous, declaring our enemies approach to the door on the other side. I poised myself ready for the spell I had in mind to channel among each of them in turn to bind their limbs and minds. No shadow brushed away the light that shone through the gap between door and floor, yet the door swung open with a similar creak to my disturbing blunder. Hurriedly, without a second thought, I brushed the magic inside and tied it’s invisible ropes around each mind I stumbled across through my quick expedition around the room. Realising that it hadn’t worked made me stumped and empty for a split second.

   A gruff chuckle sounded from within. Then, ‘Your mindless tricks will not work on us, princess. Give in or risk capture.’

   How... why? What didn’t I do? I mumbled on my thoughts.

   Duck!

   Wha..! I started but was stopped by him dragging me down to the floor by the shoulders. A blast of magic struck the wall where my head had just been. Thanks. I looked up as he leapt to his feet in front of me. ‘Delrand, don’t! Spells won’t work against them,’ I warned him but he didn’t retreat from his position.

   ‘Hello, Breska. What predicaments have you got into this time?’

   ‘How long have we known each other, Delrand? Hmm? Yet still you haven’t got it into your head that I never leave myself vulnerable.’

   ‘No, perhaps not. Though there is one thing you, yourself, always seem to forget.’ By this time I had pulled myself onto my feet. I stood with my back pressed against the wall, as I had done while I was stalking the corridors; only now it was in fear not stealth.

   ‘Oh, and what might that be?’

   ‘This...’ Without a second thought, a source-less flash magnified throughout the length of the corridor blinding those who were still shadowed from the room’s light. On instinct, I covered my eyes with my arm and waited for the sharp brightness to dim.

   Seconds later and a hand touched me on the shoulder.

   ‘Hey, it’s alright now. They’re stopped.’

   ‘What was that? No, don’t tell me. You haven’t killed them have you?’

   ‘No, I haven’t killed them, just tied them up,’ he reassured me. ‘I wouldn’t consider breaking Merlin’s orders. Anyway, we need hos... prisoners to give us leads on Mordred. It won’t be hard to gain information out of the younger two. It’s very likely that they were influenced into their positions. We can give them a chance to repent but their minds will need to be accessed to find their true reasons for betraying us and for making them realise what they have done.’

   ‘I’ll leave that job to you. I’m not one for interrogating.’

   ‘But you still have to be there when I do.’ He turned around and walked into the room. They lay on their backs on the floor. Their limbs were bound tight by strong cords of magical rope. Each one was unconscious, the older of the two (the one whose name was Breska) had very short, dark blonde hair. A scar ran from his left temple, across his left cheek and down to his chin. I guessed it to have occurred from a hex of some kind. Apart from the scar, he looked about forty, as I had guessed from hearing his voice. The other two, younger men both looked around twenty to twenty-five. One had short light brown hair, no distinguishing features. The other had slightly longer hair of the same colour.

   ‘What do we do with them now we’ve caught them?’

   ‘Wait until morning. Help me get them downstairs. Merlin won’t be happy with it being Breska. He always suspected him but I doubt he believed he would turn against us.’

   ‘How do you know him?’

   ‘I’ve been coming to this school for many years. The more times you come here the more familiar you become with various faces. That’s basically how I met Harrod, Justin and Oscar. And I doubt you would forget Breska’s face easily after the first look.’ He nodded his head towards Breska, indicating his facial disfigurement. He sat the younger two up with their backs against each others. Their heads lolled forward because of their temporary paralysis. In the brief moment I had before traversing back to the hall, I looked around the room for the first time. Their was nothing extraordinary about it; it could have been an abandoned class room, no longer needed because of the dwindled amount of students.

   Something worried me and I knew exactly what it was. With a deep sigh I stepped over to Breska’s motionless body and pulled him up by the scruff of the collar. He was heavy considering he had a regular stature.

   With a nod to Delrand, I disappeared from the room and appeared in the hall on the lowest floor. After landing I went and sat down on one of the benches around the tables. Delrand magicked himself and the two younger traitors beside Breska. I looked over at the front door and dwelt upon my growing predicament.

   ‘To be perfectly honest, I was expecting more than three,’ Delrand began. ‘Though I suppose there are more spies within our circles. All is left now is to uncover them.’ I wasn’t really listening and I felt his wondering eyes on me. I looked sideways at him and then turned my head a second later. ‘You seem a bit down. Something bothering you?’

   ‘My spell didn’t work and it makes me wonder if I’m losing it. Remembering I have a greater test still to come, makes it a lot worse. No matter how much you tell me I’ll pull through, there’s always that feeling that I won’t.’

   ‘The spell didn’t work only because they had protection around them that you weren’t expecting them to have. Otherwise that charm would have stunned them straight away.’ He sat down beside me and leant backwards against the edge of the table behind us. His arms were spread length ways across the surface so his right arm lay flat behind me.

   ‘Are we going to wait here all night until tomorrow?’

   ‘There’s nothing else we can do or nowhere else we can go. We have a responsibility to watch over these three and make sure they don’t escape.’

   ‘I wonder what I’d be doing right now if Mordred had got hold of me before you and Merlin did?’ I asked it so unexpectedly that Delrand looked at me as if I was a little crazy.

   ‘Probably practicing really powerful enchantments or torturing people or even twisting and bending others minds to suit your purpose,’ he said half-heartedly. ‘But there is no need to dwell on what might have been. Only to look at what may happen in the coming months,’ he added more sternly. ‘Aren’t you happy that we did get to you first?’ he questioned.

   ‘Why wouldn’t I be? I met you and that was the best part of what happened to me that week and everyday ever since. I just don’t want it to be that I can’t be with you.’

   ‘How do you mean?’

   ‘Most of the lords and ladies will expect me to marry someone who is either born of noble birth or is of similar stature to myself and is from, if possible, another country. Though we both know that I’ll never agree to those terms. Love can’t be won simply by position and power.’

   ‘And I completely agree with you.’ He smiled gently at me and rubbed my shoulder with his right hand. I leant back into a more relaxed position. He pulled my body sideways closer to his and I rested my head on his shoulder. Laying my hand on his chest so I could feel his heartbeat, I closed my eyes and feel asleep.

   A trickle of sound filled my ears and I half-opened my eyes from sleep. Trying to suppress the noise, I realised it was laughter that I heard. I opened my right eye completely to see the source. Stood around the space where I had fallen asleep on Delrand was a small group of students. They looked so young in the morning light that streamed down from the windows, that I mistook them for mere eight year olds. I opened my eyes, sat up, stretched and yawned. Then, looking at them more individually I noticed the boys were a mixture of ages. Delrand was awake, as usual, and wore a smug smile on his lips. I shook my head to clear my mind of any leftover drowsiness.

   Morning. May be you don’t know but you are a very deep sleeper.

   No, I didn’t know. Why are they laughing?

   I tried waking you before but you were just too reluctant to even shrug away my attempts of poking and nudging. ‘Breakfast?’

   ‘Yes, please.’ He handed me a piece of toast off the table behind us. The boys gradually dispersed to sit with their friends. Our prisoners still lay unconscious on the floor where we had left them the night before. ‘How did that light happen to make them be out for so long?’

   ‘By blinding them it also paused their ability to keep up any enchantments they had active about their bodies. In the moment I had, it was easy to gain control of them and charm them into a deep sleep. This morning I wondered if I had mistakenly passed it to you as well.’

   ‘You didn’t, it was hard work with all that sneaking about and listening for any voices down each corridor. I could do with a little more sleep than I got, but they woke me up and I can’t get to sleep until tonight, now that I am awake.’ I yawned again and continued talking. ‘Do I have to be with you when you interrogate them?’

   ‘Unfortunately, yes. I can’t do it alone in case they try to take me on and it will give you any information about how best to go about the whole Mordred problem. Who knows if I might miss a vital clue.’

   ‘Can’t you leave it to someone else? I mean... why us?’

   ‘No and because we are the ones who this whole dilemma is based around. Anyway, I doubt anyone else would volunteer to do it. Merlin might, but I don’t want to ask him. It’s best we try and keep less people involved as possible.’ As he spoke he softly brushed aside a string of hair from in front of my eyes.

   ‘Fine. But once we get what we need out of them, what do we do with them?’

   ‘We have two options. One is to kill them. The other is to erase their memory of anything and everything related to their actions and connections involving Mordred.’ I took his hand in mine and entwined my fingers in his.

   ‘I’d prefer we left them as they were, but I do see the problem with that. I think it best we take away their memory. On the basis that if the other two, as you said, repent and regret what they did and see the error of their ways.’

   ‘I can’t do that.’ He stopped short and looked around behind us. He continued from where he had stopped, sure that none of the students would be able to hear what we were talking about. ‘Leaving them with those memories will turn them against us. They will know that they would only be accepted into Mordred’s lower circles and that we, here at the school, would shunt them away.’

   ‘But it may not have been their fault that they betrayed us. What if they’re innocent? I can’t stand by and let you reluctantly ruin who they are.’

   ‘Don’t think I’d do it for my own protection. It’s sort of expected of me to do things for the better. If I had a choice I would leave them alone but since I haven’t, I can’t.’

   ‘Well, as long as that’s the case. Breska I don’t care about. If he tries anything later and we have no choice but to kill him, then so be it. There are some things that have only one consequence.’

   We were still sat at the table. Looking closer at his face, I could depict out the worry lines on his forehead and between his eyebrows. He looked tired and I wasn’t really surprised; though we had spent so many nights together, I still wasn’t sure whether or not he did actually sleep at all at night. It was impossible for anyone, even Delrand, to stay awake all the time and never seem to find time to sleep. He couldn’t be busier than me, after all, we spent most of the time together so I personally knew what he was doing almost all the time. Though I had to admit, what he really got up to at night was still allusive to me.

   The rest of the day was spent on me having to stand in the corner of a relatively small room and Delrand staring at our ‘prisoners’ trying to discern as much information as possible from their minds or (in Breska’s case) trying to break the mind barrier before he could finally make sense of his (Breska’s) position and reasons. In the end though, I had to step in to stamp out any remaining resistance. After all the questioning I left Delrand to sort out the problems we had agreed about earlier on.

   ‘Can we stay here tonight?’ I asked him at dinner. The masters had been kind enough to allow us to stay but Delrand didn’t seem to want to.

   ‘Why? It won’t make any difference whether you’re here or there.’

   ‘No, but I don’t think I have enough left in me to get back home. Breska had a strong shield on his mind and I don’t think he was behind the magic to it.’

   ‘That’s what I suspected. Alright, if you want to stay then we can.’

   ‘Can we get my old room back?’ I wasn’t keen on having to be put in another. The more familiar I was with somewhere the more at home I’d feel if I was back there again.

   ‘Most probably.’ I couldn’t understand why he was so unenthusiastic lately.

   We were sat up on the bed in my old room. As he had guessed it was not being used. My arms were around his chest, my hands locked together and my head was resting on his left shoulder. His arms were folded around me and he was rocking us back and forth. Every time I was with him like this I never wanted to let him go and I didn’t want to fall asleep. Deep inside was an awful sensation, not connected with being here in this room. It was to do with the future and everything that I knew was to come. I was afraid; afraid of who I was, afraid for myself, but mostly afraid of what would happen to Delrand. Remembering the words he had said when I first met Mordred, ‘even if it means one of us dies,’ made me want to cry and scream. Even deeper though, I really wanted to track down Mordred now and kill him where he stood; get rid of him before he could get to me. Get to Delrand.

   Without my subconscious consent, my shoulders rolled back and my muscles tightened. My breathing shallowed and my grip tightened around him. In response, his hands moved down my arms and onto my elbows. I tried to not allow him to push me back but he was much stronger than he looked. I lifted my head but kept my gaze from meeting his. Concentrating on my breathing and not on what he was doing, didn’t help. My arms fell from around him and down onto the covers beside me.

   ‘Elara, look at me.’ It was only a request, but I couldn’t keep my eyes away for much longer. My gaze rose up to meet his eyes and he simply looked back solemnly. A gentle smile touched his lips when he knew I wasn’t going to look away. ‘Now, what’s the matter? Hmm.’ He kissed me once on the cheek and once on the lips then continued looking at me.

   ‘I’m scared.’ I thought it best to own up to my fear. Out of experience I knew that built-up fear can turn into hate and anger and I wasn’t one for being able to control my anger well.

   ‘Scared of what?’ His smile faded to be replaced by a sharp frown. So I told him about my unpleasant feeling and that I just wanted to run away and turn my back on my so-called destiny. He remained silent for some time after I had finished. Then he said, ‘I can’t understand completely how you’re really feeling but I did have something like this when I first met Mordred.’ He held me tight before he considered asking me anymore.

   ‘Is there anything that would help? I’ve had enough of feeling weak.’

   ‘You’re not weak. Fear is something we all have to experience, otherwise we wouldn’t be human. Even Mordred feels fear, especially of you. He knows that you can beat him and that is something he can only diminish by making you serve him. Here, this worked a little for me.’ He nodded his head once, up then down. In automatic response, I shut my eyes and cleared my thoughts. ‘Do you trust me?’

   ‘I trust you.’

   He pressed two fingers of each hand onto my temples and rhythmically massaged the area in small, slow circles. It smoothed out my mind and washed away some of the main tension. A minute passed until he stopped, though he lay his hands on my lower jaw. Pulling his hands off my face and holding them in mine, I was able to concentrate more on the present and forget about everything in the future.

   ‘Did that help?’

   ‘Very much. Delrand, why does he hate you so much? Yet, though he does, he seems to hold back when you’re with me. Alone in the forest, if you remember, he was using all his power on me. But as soon as you turned up he went away. Don’t lie to me, I have the right to know.’

   ‘I shouldn’t be telling you, not now anyway. Though you ask out of friendship, I guess you won’t let me not answer.’

   ‘No, please tell me. No matter how bad the reason, I’ll still love you, if that’s what you’re afraid of?’

   ‘Not quite. You won’t like what you’re about to hear.’ He fell silent.

   ‘I hate waiting,’ I hinted but not in a warning voice.

   ‘Mordred and I are not related.’ He paused to allow me to cope with the brief answer. I was actually expecting him to say he was related to him. ‘We’re not brothers, and we’re not cousins. That’s not why he holds back. He has done ever since I declared my allegiance to this side. I despise him more than you do because of the feud we have. Anything that might endanger your safety is a challenge for me to vanquish. I love you, that’s something that grew unexpectedly between us. My watch over you is split in two. One half is because I love you. The other half is because the kingdom cannot hope to succeed if you die.’

   I knew there was a bad reason for Mordred’s suppressed character around Delrand but what I heard from him was not what I had anticipated.

   ‘So you’re not related to him. That’s a good thing isn’t it?’

   He looked away before answering, his vision seemed far away by the look in his eyes. ‘Yes, but things are more different than they always appear to be.’ On this last sentence he looked me full in the eyes and I saw his real self. His green eyes held fear, worry, faint hope and ‘hidden’ anxiety.

   ‘I think nothing less of you, or more of you; nothing I didn’t expect. What you expect me to assume or think is never how I really am. It’s hard to know you have a relative that you never knew could be so different to your own personality. It’s harder still when you know that person but you never find out what they’re really like until it may be too late.’ The fear in his eyes was replaced by relief. He straightened up and his shoulders stiffened. ‘Relax, I’m not going to change the way I feel for you overnight. Or ever in fact, no matter what secrets you have still to conceal or still to tell me. I love you.’ The last three syllables I spoke with a slight pause between each word. I leant forwards, and slightly upwards, and kissed him on the lips before he could say anything back. Actually, I stopped him from saying anything back for quite a fair amount of time. Though an urge built up inside me each time we were so alone, I had enough mental strength in me to be able to prevent it from making me start a conflict between us.

   Stop. He didn’t think it harshly, rather in a shocked way. I released my contact on him.

   What’s wrong?

   I’m not sure. Hold on for a second.

   On to what? He didn’t answer but closed his eyes for a second, as he had said (or thought).

   It’s him, if you want to know. What do you want? I knew immediately who he meant. I opened my mind so I could speak to him and see if I could persuade him to forget about me.

   Mordred, I swear to you that if you don’t banish your want of me, I’ll personally track you down and force your mind to crumble.

   Such harsh words. I thought you weren’t capable of such ferocity. Now I see that there is a more ruthless side to you.

   You wish.

   Hello, Delrand. Almost forget about you. The last word held as much depth to it as the Atlantic Sea, except similar to a blizzard day rather than calm. In physical response, Delrand grinded his teeth behind his lips, his jaw moved from left to right.

   Hello, you still haven’t answered my question. What do you want?

   What do you think I want?

   He knows, and so do I but I don’t think you’re just here... well, in contact with us here, because of me.

   Very good, it seems you’ve taught her much about quick thinking, he spoke to Delrand.

   She already had that in her, it’s nothing to do with me.

   Whatever you say. What I’d like to know is why you betrayed our  oath to her? At that I looked at Delrand with confusion.

   What  oath? It makes no difference whether I was related to you or not. Her bond with me is too strong and you must know that anyway.

   We may not be related but I would appreciate it if you didn’t go around making everyone assume that I am related to a deceiver like yourself.

   I doubt she would bother making it seem that we are related. He looked at me sternly and I nodded in agreement.

   Can we three agree to not mention this ever again until the last day? I couldn’t believe I was really trying to get into a contract with Mordred.

   Of course, Mordred answered first. I looked at Delrand expectantly but he still didn’t answer straight away.

   ‘Alright, but when it comes to the last fight between us know this, no bond, whether blood or not, will stop me from challenging you.’ Delrand spoke this strongly verbally and mentally. I knew he meant it to be and I knew that he wouldn’t let anything get in the way (not even me) of his chance to prove to himself that he wasn’t a coward.

   Breska had said that Delrand only pretended to love me in order to better protect me from any conspirators. Although we both knew strongly that Mordred had corrupted Breska’s mind so much that it was too late to bring him back to normal.

   Mordred’s consciousness evaporated. Delrand closed his mind as well.

   The end of a long battering day was the right time to begin a very long sleep.