Chapter 25

As ‘the Old Man’ had warned me, the work at the library wasn’t at all glamorous - especially in the beginning. Almost nothing I did had anything to do with the books, except carrying heavy piles of them from one place to another. I wasn’t even allowed to touch the books the Magicians had used and left behind. Patience. I was now here where I wanted to be and I didn’t even have a plan how I was going to achieve what I wanted. In fact, I didn’t even know exactly what I wanted to do. Patience.

Luckily for me, I had the full support of my ‘local’ families - that’s how I thought about them, my local families - here in Aston, and my real family out there. Sometimes I wondered how I could have believed that I would have been able to do all the things I wanted to do - all alone. Maybe I could have, but it would have taken decades, at least. Somehow I was afraid that we didn’t have decades. A decade plus a few years? Just how long did it take to raise and train an army of Trolls? Not much longer.

Via Elise’s contacts we learned that some girls had gone missing even before this latest incident, but last spring was probably the first time they had tried it on a larger scale. Of course we had no way of knowing what had happened, or what was happening in other places, in other towns. The limiting factor for them probably was that those Guardians who were truly behind this scheme were stationed here in Aston and, according to Elise, they were also so paranoid that none of those on the top level really wanted to leave Aston. Yes, the incident at the warehouse had really scared them - but that was just about all we knew. Our informants in low places could only get a certain amount of information.

Besides the work at the library, I didn’t have much to do, since there was only a limited amount of studies that you could officially do during the summer. Most of the teaching staff couldn’t care less about the students during that time, and the ones who cared were usually those who had problems attracting students during the regular terms. However, I noticed there was a group of those who were on the verge of being dropped and kicked out of the University. Some of those people were offered a yellow pass and a secure position within the Church. There were people who took that option instead of returning home with their tails between their legs. In a way, I could understand them.

However, I found a way to use the sudden free time I now had - I had heard about the forest that started somewhere north of the University area and I decided to pay it a visit. When I asked Frode about that, he frowned.

“Stian, please keep in mind that the forest is part of the hunting grounds of the Royals. Even touching something that they can hunt is considered a serious offense.”

“They would need to catch me first.”

“They often use dogs. Can you handle trained dogs?”

That made me think. While cats seemed to be able to absorb magic around them without any difficulty, I had no real experience with dogs and how they behaved. I knew that most of the dogs followed the scent of the game they were after.

“I have no idea, but most likely I should be able to avoid them. Besides, I’m certain that Mrs. Ness could make an excellent stew from a few rabbits.”

“Just be careful.”

“I will, but I need to get into the forest at least for a while. It’s been almost a year since I was in a real forest.”

A real forest. The place I entered early the following morning didn’t look like a real forest to me. There were zig-zagging paths and no trace of anything bigger than a few rabbits or squirrels. I was certain that some people from Aston visited this area quite often and captured whatever game they could get. Still, just the scent of fresh leaves instead of the continuous stink of human bodies or waste made me smile. Maybe this wasn’t a real forest, but this already felt much better to me than those city streets.

It was past midday when I finally stopped and dared to sense my surroundings without restricting myself. I closed my eyes and breathed out and in again several times. Out and in. The scent of fresh air in my nose was so wonderful that I wanted to laugh aloud. There was also the fact that I could sense the living things around me. I was sure that there were several rabbits, and some other animals that I assumed to be foxes. There was even a small herd of deer north of my position; not to mention a flock of people, some horses, and possibly some dogs west of me. I sighed. It seemed that, besides me, some other people had decided to take good use of the nice weather. I guess that I just needed to stay away from them. Still, I couldn’t help smiling. It just was so good to be inside a forest.

It was almost difficult to walk back to Aston the next afternoon, and the smell the city made was only part of the problem. The bigger issue was once again the huge number of people, the crowds that forced me to almost turn off my sensing, which had again started to feel quite natural to me. Turning that skill down wasn’t really a big problem anymore, I just didn’t like to do it.

However, the look on the face of Mrs. Ness almost made all that worthwhile. I guess it had been a while since she last saw three fat rabbits, all nicely cleaned. I was sure that she started humming to herself when she started planning what she could do with them. I almost wished that I could offer her some deer, but that risk probably wasn’t worth taking. Besides, I didn’t have my crossbow here.

I did a few more trips to the northern forest during the summer. Those short trips were small miracles for my mental state. Even if those visits were short, I felt better for several days afterwards and so it was easy to make a decision to continue those trips in the future.

When the autumn term at the University started, I soon noticed that being able to work on the Dark Floor of the University didn’t exactly make you popular among the other students. Those studying to become Magicians were mostly disliked and feared, and sometimes for good reason. They were privileged, sometimes - or quite often - arrogant bastards. The only thing that kept things mostly tolerable was that those wanting to become Magicians were kept busy and they usually moved in their own groups. I soon found out that by working on the Dark Floor, I was considered to be one of them, but that they didn’t need to be afraid of me. In a way I didn’t care, since my main goal at the University was not to make friends. Still, it hurt somewhat. It might have hurt more if there had been some natural Mages among those people who looked down at me.

One of things that kept me in my senses were the things that I was able to do with Frode, either practicing with Geir or some of his friends, or some mission on which Elise sent us. There weren’t many of those missions and we were very careful with them, since we wanted to avoid any extra attention on our family - or the restaurant. There were a few times when I saw Ylva, but besides some quick greetings we both almost avoided each other. I made a note keep an eye on her. I had already asked Elise to keep her safe, if possible. I had made the same request regarding Hakon, the ex-Guardian whom the restaurant family now had working for them in their remote warehouse.

The other thing that helped me stay sane were my visits to the northern forest, even though it didn’t really feel the same as the real wilderness close to my old home or even the forests in the Hidden Valley. My sensing ability had become so much better that the closeness of Aston and all the people there was always present if I tried sensing it at all. Still, the fresh air and sensing the wild animals was something I had missed. Even if I didn’t really dare to hunt anything larger than rabbits, or pick some berries and mushrooms, I enjoyed those visits.

We were closer to the winter solstice than the autumn equinox when I was once again visiting the forest. There had already been some frost, and that meant that most of the mushrooms were gone, but some yellowfeet chanterelles were still there. I knew that I’d probably need to prepare the first dish myself if I wanted to convince Mrs. Ness to use them as food. However, the soup would be so good that it would be worth the trouble. If we could also have some smoked deer, too ... I sighed. You couldn’t have everything, here. The soup would still be good, and the rabbits would make a nice stew. I sat down on a log and ate some of the food I was carrying with me and used the peaceful moment to sense my surroundings a bit more.

While turning my attention further north, I suddenly had problems swallowing the bread I had been eating.

During my visits around this large forest I had always done my best to avoid any other visitors, even if I had no idea who they were and what they were doing. Most of the time it had probably been the most sensible thing to do, since the few times I had sensed others there, they had most likely been a hunting party with their horses and hunting dogs. Since I wasn’t quite sure if I’d be able to hide from the dogs, I had avoided all contact with such groups. If I had sensed right, somebody else might not be quite as lucky.

I sighed and re-wrapped the piece of bread I had been eating and concentrated on the scene north of me. To me, it seemed like there were pieces of wood waiting for the first piece to fall. Once that piece fell, the others would follow. Dominoes - that was the name of the game - but that wasn’t how the game was actually played. I shook those thoughts away quickly, since I had to decide. Or maybe not. I now knew that it was true what Frode had said. Killing a deer in these northern forests that those Royals considered as their own private hunting ground, was something that was probably punished by killing the hunter while hunting him down.

Although I didn’t like the Magicians or the corrupted Guardians, I couldn’t really make myself love the Royalty, either. Even if they sometimes took care of widows and orphans. I wondered if they would like to care for those who had become widows or orphans because of poaching. I forced those thoughts to the background when I started running towards the area, wondering what I could do, how I could save the person who was trying to catch a deer.

I soon figured out that I would be too late to prevent him - or her - from killing that deer. I almost guessed that the other group didn’t want to prevent that from happening, either. Once the deer was killed, they probably felt that they were justified to hunt down the hunter. Maybe I shouldn’t do this. The hunter must have known the risks, and there seemed to be four dogs and six riders. I started running even faster. I was almost certain that the hunting party wanted the single hunter to do all the work. They would then pick up a cleaned deer and hunt down the hunter.

I entered the scene just as the hunting party had started their descent from the small hill. They seemed to have had a single observer there while the others had been waiting on the other side of the hill. The deer had been killed in small clearing where it had been eating some grass. The second hunt was just getting started and now the hunter was supposed to be the prey.

The guy was young, younger than me, maybe fifteen or sixteen years old. It was hard to say, because he was so skinny, and the clothes he wore were so loose on him. The next thing that I noticed, was that he seemed to be a natural Mage.

“Leave that deer! There are four dogs and six riders coming after you!”

I didn’t shout, but I added as much command to my voice as I could. Yet, he hesitated. He didn’t question me but he hesitated. “I can’t ... they will die without food.”

“And if you die first, they will still die without food. Come on, I’ll help you get food for them, but now we need to run. Look, is there any river or stream nearby? I don’t fancy the idea of dogs running behind me.”

It probably was a faint bark from a dog that finally convinced him. He put the knife into a pouch he had been carrying on his shoulder. His home-made bow was already on the other shoulder. Then, as he rose, he quickly looked towards the forest from which they should come. Then we started running, first uphill for a moment and then downwards, hopefully towards some stream.

Even though the young guy was all skin and bones, he almost outran me. Okay, I had been running already for a while, but even though I had been training with Frode and Geir it was totally different than running in a forest. Luckily this forest wasn’t anything like those thick, almost impenetrable spruce forests that had been common on the west coast. Of course the trees would have stopped the riders, but not the dogs. The idea of facing four hunting dogs didn’t feel very alluring to me.