Tin Thoughts (The Downfall Saga Book 2) Page 9

  His only lead was the map of the island that his father was apparently looking for. Haven contained a plethora of information. Hidden within one of its libraries may be a map which would lead him to the island, and hopefully his father. Even if he didn’t find the information he sought at Haven, he could ask Prince Caddaric for permission to search the royal library in Kendra.

  “Let’s head to Haven.”

  Chapter 9

  “What are you two talking about?” asked Donovan, sitting down at the table across from Ravyn and Caddaric.

  “We’re comparing our schedules,” said Ravyn. “Can you believe that we want to take exactly the same classes without talking to each other first?”

  “I’d say no, but clearly you’d tell me that I’m wrong.”

  Ravyn gave him an icy glare before going back to the papers on the table before her. She had a soft, round face, framed by her dark hair. Her pale skin looked as if it hadn’t seen a drop of sunshine all summer.

  Donovan thought back to the previous year where she had proved herself to be the most driven student in their classes. She placed high expectations on herself, and usually met them. As a result, she was one of the best wizards in their year.

  “If she didn’t, then I would,” said Caddaric.

  Prince Caddaric was the youngest member of the Kelvin family. With his father in good health and two brothers ahead of him in line for the throne, he was destined to live his entire life in somebody else’s shadow, until he found out that he was capable of using magic. With years of training ahead of him at Haven, he had the opportunity to live the life that he wanted before returning to his life as a prince.

  Caddaric had filled out over the summer, and it looked like he’d spent most of his time indoors as well.

  “Wait, is your mother okay with you training to become a War Wizard?” asked Donovan.

  “Well,” said Ravyn, “not in so many words.”

  “How many then?”

  She studied him for a moment before answering. “One. No.”

  “Finally choosing your own future,” said Caddaric, “I never thought I’d see the day.”

  “You can’t say anything. Promise not to say anything to my parents.”

  Donovan leaned back in his chair and gave her a cocky grin. “I’d have to meet your parents before I could tell them anything.”

  “Then you’re never allowed to meet them.”

  “They’ll find out eventually.”

  “I’ll deal with it then.”

  “It’s your life.”

  “So, what classes are you taking?” asked Ravyn, changing the subject.

  “I was waiting to see if anything you two were taking interested me, so I wouldn’t be all alone.”

  Donovan had arrived back at Kendra a week earlier. He collected his belongings from the inn before he and Osmont headed back to Haven. He’d spent most of the last week playing his lute in the courtyard by the main gate, trying to distract himself from what had happened at Lornell, while he waited for some familiar faces to show up.

  “Well, are there any?” asked Ravyn, sliding a piece of paper across the table.

  Donovan spun the page around so it was right side up. It was easy to recognize Ravyn’s precise hand. Both of her parents were scribes and they had forced her to practice writing from a young age.

  “Swordsmanship sounds interesting. Tactics? Put me to sleep right now. Well, I don’t think that I’ll be in many classes with either of you this year.”

  “It won’t be the same without you,” said Caddaric.

  “I know. You won’t have an easy target to show up anymore.”

  “Well ... I,” started Caddaric.

  “I’m just messing with your head,” said Donovan. “We’ve put all of that behind us.”

  “Speaking of behind us, who’s that stranger behind you?”

  Donovan turned around in his chair and saw a familiar figure strutting towards them. The sunburnt skin and thick forearms spoke of the hard work that Kort had done on his parent’s farm over the summer.

  Kort and Donovan had become close friends the previous year. Between his good natured disposition and sense of humor, Kort was the type of person who could put anyone at ease.

  “Kort!” said Donovan, knocking over his chair in his haste to stand up.

  “Donovan!” said Kort, quickening his pace.

  Donovan hurried to meet him halfway, and they engaged in an awkward non-hug which turned into a handshake.

  “I thought you weren’t coming back?”

  “You mean she actually kept quiet.”

  “Hey,” said Ravyn, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Wait. How would she know?”

  ”Why don’t you boys sit down and we can talk about it.”

  Donovan slapped Kort on the back, and the two of them sat down at the table. Kort reached across the table and gave Ravyn’s hand a gentle squeeze.

  “My parents had some work in the village near their farm. I got to spend a couple of days with Kort while my parents were working.”

  “You got to meet his family?” asked Donovan. “Even little Eireen?”

  “She’s not so little anymore,” said Ravyn.

  “Now I wish I had stopped by to say hello on my way to Lornell.”

  “Lornell?” said Ravyn. “Did you find Eamon? What did he say?”

  “Let’s talk about it later,” said Donovan.

  “Let’s go claim our rooms, and explore the new areas of Haven while we talk about our summers,” said Kort.

  “I’d love to, but someone insisted on getting everything ready for our classes first,” said Caddaric, twitching his head towards Ravyn.

  “What classes are you taking, Kort?” asked Ravyn.

  “Who knows? Probably something to do with healing or herbalism. Things that will be useful around the farm. I’ll look tomorrow to see what’s offered.”

  “Tomorrow!” said Ravyn.

  “I’m glad we’re in agreement,” said Kort, standing up. “Let’s get our rooms.”

  Kort started towards one of the room’s exits and Caddaric quickly followed. Ravyn pressed her lips tightly together as Donovan started to get up. He gave her a shrug.

  “Don’t you want to hear about what everyone’s been up to?” she asked.

  Ravyn made a show of slowly gathering her stuff from the table and carefully stowing it in her pack, while everybody waited. When she was done, the two of them hurried after their friends.

  They headed towards the main administration desk, but stopped to look at a schematic of Haven on the wall.

  “I was talking to Osmont on our way back here and he told me that there are three main residences,” said Donovan, scanning the map with his finger. “The Burrow is the most popular spot. The rooms are carved into a giant cliff face, accessed by tunnels running through the mountain. The rooms are large, and the view is supposed to be beautiful out the windows.”

  “It’s all the way over there,” said Ravyn. “I don’t want to walk that far to get to my classes.”

  “The Warrens are rooms carved far underground. They’re central bu—”

  “I’m not living underground,” said Kort.

  “Then we should get rooms close together in the Complex.”

  They walked up to the young man sitting behind the desk.

  “We’d like to get our rooms,” said Caddaric. “In the Complex, and close together.”

  “Names?”

  “Caddaric Kelvin, Ravyn Thaliard, Kort Byron, and Donovan.”

  “Last name?”

  Caddaric looked over at Donovan.

  “Some of us only need one name.”

  “Give me a minute.”

  He disappeared through a door behind the desk. They could hear the shuffling of paper and he returned several minutes later.

  “Here are your room numbers,” he said, passing each of them a sheet of paper. “The room keys should be in the lock. I see that none of you have
registered for your classes yet.”

  “Tomorrow,” said Kort, already walking away.

  They took a few wrong turns on the way, but luckily Haven had good signage hanging on the walls to get them back on track. The tunnel that they were following opened up into a broad valley. Many grey, squat buildings covered the valley’s floor and sides. The map on the tunnel wall near the exit showed that the buildings were grouped into complexes which had letter designations, and the rooms within each complex were numbered. After they had found all of their rooms, they gathered together in Kort’s room.

  The rooms were small, but private. Kort had a corner room with windows in two walls. A small bed ran along one wall, and a desk and dresser on the opposite wall. One of the glowing red orbs rested in a depression carved into the top of the desk, with a metal cover beside it to conceal the light.

  “At least the rooms are clean,” said Ravyn sitting down on the chair by the desk.

  “Kean and I shared a room about this size,” said Kort, as he perched himself on top of the dresser.

  “My closet is bigger than this,” said Caddaric, plopping down on the bed.

  “I didn’t see you much this summer,” said Donovan, sitting on the floor near the door.

  “My mother didn’t want to let me out of her sight,” said Caddaric. “My only reprieve was going to my lessons.”

  “Lessons?” said Kort. “Why didn’t you remind your parents that you were coming back here?”

  “I wish I could live in your world for a while. My father decided that Haven doesn’t provide a broad enough education for a prince. You wouldn’t believe how exciting it is to learn about how much pig manure we ship up north each year.”

  “That stinks,” said Donovan, causing a round of laughter.

  “The only thing worse than learning about manure is reaching your hand into its source,” said Kort. “Mrs. Winslow has helped care for the animals near our farm for years, but her joints have gotten stiff and she’s having difficulty getting her work done. I spent every free moment this summer helping her, and learning a lot along the way. I gave Eireen every penny I made, and made her promise not to give me any of them back until the end of summer. We counted it up a couple weeks ago, and I was still short for my tuition, but then my parents ...” His voice broke, and it took him a moment to regain his composure before continuing. “My parents sold a couple of their sheep to make up the difference. Now I’ve got to do well, so I can go home and make enough money to pay them back.”

  “You’re being awfully quiet, Donovan,” said Ravyn. “What happened in Lornell?”

  Donovan sat there, trying to silently fight back the tears, but failing.

  “I killed a man.” He went on to tell them about what had happened, haltingly, between sobs.

  Chapter 10

  Donovan rose with the sun the next morning and headed out to meet up with his friends. Ravyn had been quite insistent before they headed off for bed, that they get all of their classes sorted out before breakfast.

  He followed the path out of the Complex and climbed the gentle hill to the tunnel leading back to the Nexus. The Nexus was an hourglass shaped valley which connected to the rest of Haven via tunnels carved through the mountains of either side. The wide area on the southeast side contained the tunnel which led to the area where they had taken their classes during their first year at Haven, and was the only way out of Haven, short of scaling the steep mountains.

  The end of the tunnel was hidden by a glamour which made it blend into the surrounding rocks. This prevented the first year students, and any non-magical folks, from accidentally wandering through. A handful of students volunteered each year to wait by the tunnel’s entrance to show the students returning for their second year of studies how to remove the glamour and access the rest of Haven.

  Donovan stepped into the Nexus and found a pleasant day waiting for him. The temperature was cooler than the typical August day, but warm enough that he didn’t need his cloak. The sky was clear and in the process of transitioning from grey to blue as the sun poked into the sky.

  Donovan chose to eschew the stone paths and walked across the springy green grass that blanketed the valley floor. Many well-tended trees grew around the valley, many with benches or tables positioned under their boughs. Flowers and mosses grew in patches, perfuming the air with their sweet aroma.

  He didn’t see anyone sitting in the valley at this early hour, so he continued southeast through the narrow section to see if Ravyn was there.

  He saw a couple of silhouettes at the far end, and hurried over to greet them.

  Ravyn and Kort sat side-by-side on a bench beside a wooden table, their foreheads pressed together, lost in a quiet conversation.

  Donovan coughed well he was still a fair distance away to alert them of his presence, before sitting down across from them.

  “Morning,” he said.

  “Yes it is,” said Ravyn, barely glancing up from the book in front of them.

  “Can we get this done quickly, so we can get something to eat?” asked Kort.

  “You can’t take the farm out of the boy,” said Donovan.

  “I bet you’ll eat as much as I do.”

  “More if the foods as good as last year.”

  Ravyn marked the place she was reading with her finger before looking up. “Focus.”

  “Right. What have you two came up with?”

  “Kort can’t take most of the Healer classes until he is accepted into the program. The guide recommends that students take a mix of classes in their second year, and apply for entrance into the program at the end of the year.”

  “I’m not interested in learning how to fight or any of those elemental magic classes,” said Kort.

  “Maybe you could learn how to summon rain for your crops or how to dig a hole without a shovel,” said Donovan.

  Kort looked over at Ravyn.

  She shook her head.

  Donovan glanced over at the piece of paper in front of them. He had to read the list of classes upside down, but he could see that most of them didn’t interest him.

  “Any of these supposed to be interesting?” asked Donovan.

  “Better than what we learned last year,” said Kort. “Intro Physiology and Anatomy sounds interesting. You get to learn how our bodies work.”

  “Food goes in and ... well, you know what comes out the other end.”

  “I’m sure they go into more detail than that,” said Ravyn.

  “I can live without those details,” said Donovan.

  “You know what I meant,” said Ravyn, her face starting to turn red.

  Kort spun the piece of paper around so it was facing Donovan and slid it across the table.

  “Come on,” he said. “We need to take at least one class together.”

  Donovan pretended to study the list intently. “I guess we could take Physiology together.” He withdrew a sheet of paper from his pocket and added the class to it. “My schedule is full enough, how’s yours?”

  “Good to go,” said Kort.

  “Let’s hand them in, and get something to eat.”

  Donovan pushed himself up from the table. He pocketed his class list and waited for Ravyn to pack up her book.

  “It’ll be a shame when the snow covers all of this,” said Donovan, surveying the Nexus.

  “You don’t have to worry,” said Ravyn. “I was reading a brochure this morning, and apparently the temperature stays the same in the Nexus all year round, so the snow turns to rain before it hits the ground.”

  “Why didn’t they have any of this neat stuff last year?” asked Kort.

  “I don’t think they want to appear too powerful to the outside world,” said Donovan.

  They started across the valley towards the Administration Building built into the mountain on the far side.

  “I wonder where that goes?” asked Donovan, looking at a narrow, dilapidated path running up the side of the mountain to a dark opening high above.


  “It’s missing from most of the maps I looked at,” said Ravyn. “Even the ones that show a tunnel, don’t show what’s on the other side. It must be blocked off or something.”

  “That’s strange,” said Donovan, making a mental note to explore the tunnel at some point.

  “I know,” said Kort. “Who looks at more than one map of an area?”

  “Someone who needs to know where they’re going,” said Ravyn.

  They passed through the throat of the valley and cut across the grass towards the Administration Building, its marble construction at odds with the dull grey mountainside that it was built into. A tunnel to their left led to the large valley containing the Medical Center, a series of hot springs scattered around the valley floor, and the Burrow carved into the mountain on the far side. The rest of Haven lay on the far side of the building they were heading to.

  They climbed the marble steps and walked through the heavy wooden doors. A woman sat behind the desk this morning. They gave her their names and the list of courses they wanted to take, and she told them that their final schedules would be available on Friday, with classes commencing on Monday.

  Many eateries were scattered around Haven to service the students between classes. They found an empty table at one, and all had a plate of greasy eggs and burnt toast, with coffee that tasted like a warm cup of liquefied paper.

  After the disappointing meals, their spirits were dour as they spent the day exploring Haven. The maps didn’t do it justice. It was much larger than Donovan had expected, covering an area larger the capital, but spread out in small clusters in the various valleys between the mountains and in tunnels dug out from beneath the mountains long ago.

  When Friday finally came, the four of them met for breakfast before heading to get their class schedules. After waiting for half an hour in a slow moving line of students waiting to pick up their schedules, they finally got to the front of the line.

  Three people were crowded behind the desk. What must have started as a series of neatly stacked piles of paper, was now a chaotic mess. They rummaged through the mess and finally found all of their schedules before turning their attention to the next people in line.