William Calhoun and the Black Feather. Book I

«Can’t… breathe!» he managed with difficulty.

Reacting instantly, William rushed to his side and started slapping his cheeks, trying to bring him back to his senses.

«What’s the matter with you?» he asked quickly.

«My…» he pointed at his backpack, «…inhaler…»

Realizing at once what he was supposed to do, William rummaged in the boy’s backpack, took out a small breathing device and held it to the boy’s mouth. He grabbed it with his lips and started breathing greedily. After a few moments, the boy was already able to hold the inhaler himself. William was looking at him with pity and fear at the same time. Soon his companion started recovering. He put away the inhaler, made a few deep breaths and started talking, finally.

«Tha…. Thank you!» he said, his breathing still ragged.

«No problem!» William replied, calming down.

«Wayne Ferguson!» he introduced himself.

«Will Calhoun!» William replied automatically. «Does this often happen to you?»

«Not really. Only where there is little air,» Wayne Ferguson replied, still breathing heavily. «My lungs contract and I don’t get enough oxygen.»

«I see. Well, then, keep that thing closer to yourself from now on!» William took his seat again and gave Wayne another worried look: «Feeling better?»

«Yes, thanks! Where are you from?»

«London. And you?»

«Preston! It’s in Lancashire. There’s definitely much more air out there than here!»

«Yeah, that’s true!» William grinned. «I’ve never discussed the air of Preston being on the ocean floor before! Are you in the Preparatory Course as well?»

«Yes,» Wayne replied, «that’s why I’m going to this damn Ball!»

«You don’t really like it, do you?»

«Well, the Ball is okay, but the journey…» he nodded at the inhaler on the seat, «is quite uncomfortable.»

«So, you do know how the Ball is organized?»

«Who doesn’t,» Wayne snorted, «Everyone knows about it from early childhood. It’s a tradition to hold the Ball before the Preparatory Course starts.»

«I’d be happy if you share the information with me! I know nothing about it!»

«No problem. I owe you!» Wayne took a deep breath and started talking. «The ball itself has four stages. The first one is the opening of the Ball! Well, the choir sings its well-wish song, after which we’ll be given feathermaps…»

«What are these feathermaps, by the way? The letter from the Department mentioned that they’d be handing them out, but I didn’t understand what they were for.»

«Well, feathermaps are the things that will help us to peregrine to classes to the houses of the teachers. They can be located in completely different places and it would be quite difficult to get to them without feathermaps.»

«I see! What happens next?»

«The second stage – when delegations from all four MUnis arrive ceremoniously to the Ball. It’s always an incredible sight. They appear and start talking one by one of what awaits their students within their MUnis. This way the enrolees who haven’t decided which MUni to enter after the Preparatory Course get a more vivid impression about each of them, which makes their choice easier later. They learn about the history of each MUni, as well as about the teaching method, special subjects and so on. And after that, when professors end their speeches, the third stage comes – dancing. During the dancing part, enrolees get to know each other, find new friends, but mostly they just step on each other’s toes!»

«I can imagine that!» William said with irony. «What about the fourth stage?»

«The closing ceremony! After which we get into this death machine again and go back. That’s how this ball goes.»

«Awesome! And how do you know so much?»

«My older brother Ralph told me! He took part in the Annual Enrolee Ball twice! First when he was an enrolee like us, and the second time as a graduate curator of enrolees. We’ll be assigned one when we get there.»

«You’re lucky to have such a brother! Which MUni are you going to enter?»

«Garville, of course! My whole family studied there! I’m the youngest, so it’s my turn now!»

«Well, I hope that’s where you’ll go by the end of this year! I want to go to Templedoor!»

«Well, Templedoor is considered the best MUni by many people, that’s why the grades to enter it are higher than for other MUnis. But, personally, I don’t think that this makes Garville worse than Templedoor. Each MUni is unique, but Templedoor always takes special talented wizard kids. So, if you can’t get there, I recommend going to Garville without any further thinking!»

«Well, if Templedoor doesn’t work out, that’s what I’ll do!»

William looked out of the window. They were still moving along the ocean floor. Trying to keep it out of his mind, he decided to distract himself with Wayne’s stories.

«Tell me what is the Six O’Clocker famous for? My mailmage says that there are many legends and that…»

«You’ve got a mailmage?!» Wayne interrupted roughly.

«Well, yes,» William was puzzled by this question. «Why does this surprise you? I thought every wizard had one.»

«Every adult wizard – yes! Mailmages don’t serve children. They serve the head of the family.»

«Oh, I see! Well, I am the head of the family. I mean, the last representative of my kin.»

«I’m sorry, I didn’t know!»

«It’s alright! So what is the Six O’Clocker famous for?»

«Well, like my grandfather told me, and like his great-grandfather told him…» Wayne interrupted the story with another intake through the inhaler, «long time ago, when there were difficult times in the Wizarding Community and many families were forced to leave the country, it was the Six O’Clocker that took them away.»

«Why couldn’t they peregrine? Why use the Six O’Clocker when peregrining takes much less time and energy?»

«At that time peregrining was monitored by the enemies, and quite often, when wizards peregrined, they came not to their destination, but right into the hands of their enemies. Even before that, during battles, the Six O’Clocker delivered provision and backup troops to those who were forced to defend themselves in a castle or a fortress of some sort.»

«How long have the Six O’Clocker existed?» William was surprised by the historic scales the Six O’Clocker routes encompassed.

«Nobody knows. It is considered to have simply existed and that’s it. Even during the times of Goodwin of Essex, the Blue-eyed carried their legendary carriage to the most remote parts of the world, each time with an important mission.»

«And why is it pulled by elks, not horses, like usual?» The thought just came to William’s head.

«Usual where?» Wayne asked with a grin.

«Well,» William drawled, «among demits.»

«That’s right!» Wayne nodded. «Only they use horses because they are unable to tame other faster creatures.»

«Er… aren’t horses faster than elks?» William asked stupidly.

«Don’t make me laugh!» Wayne laughed as if he had just been told a very good anecdote. «Only White Elks are faster than elks. Well, except for all the flying creatures.»

«Are you serious?»

«Of course! It’s a well-known fact that elks can run at the speed of more than two hundred miles per hour. As for white elks, they pull their carriages at the speed of over four hundred miles.»

William was starting to feel irritated when he heard something for the first time, but this «something» was followed by «everyone knows». «Well, I’ll have to get used to it!» he thought to himself and asked:

«Are the Blue-eyed that kind of elks?»

«They are, but they are the only representatives of their kind!» Wayne said busy-like. «The others were driven to death.»

Meanwhile, the Six O’Clocker pushed from the bottom with the hooves of its Blue-eyed and was speedily going up to the shore. After reaching it, it didn’t go out of the water, but drove the horns of the Blue-eyed into the ground and submerged the cabin into the underground semi-darkness, illuminated by two dull lamps, as before.

«There,» Wayne looked out of the round window, «we’ll arrive soon!»

The Six O’Clocker moved underground for a short time, then it rushed to the surface, accompanied by the endless racket of the hooves of the Blue-eyed, until it was on the surface again, following its course, but moving at a slower pace than before. The underground darkness made way to the twilight of the majestic mountains. When William looked out of the window, he was able to make out only that they were moving on the ground, like a normal carriage was supposed to do. But it was impossible to make out anything else because of the stubborn fog and the mist on the glass.

«Is it far to the castle?» he asked Wayne.

«Almost there!» he replied. «The Six O’Clocker only moves on the ground in two cases: when it takes passengers and when they are to get off.»

He’d just finished talking, when the speed of the mysterious cab started to slow down, then it slowly came to a halt in a mountain area.

William reached out for his things, ready to get off, by Wayne stopped him:

«Wait, not yet! We aren’t supposed to get off until a curator comes to take us to the castle.»

«So we’re up for another journey, this time to the castle?»

Wayne just shrugged to that.

William sat down again, waiting for the curator to show, and soon the cabin door opened suddenly, letting in cool mountain air. He breathed it in deeply and sat with his eyes shut for a while, enjoying the work of his own lungs. Then a head showed up in the open door and an unfamiliar voice started talking, making them both jump.

«Are you going to sit here till morning? Do you want me to continue risking my health and freezing out here?» said a young wizard in purple robes. He had slick hair and an unhappy face. His robes had a red «G» on the front.

William hurried to get out, and Wayne, who had also been sitting with his eyes closed, doubly happy to feel fresh air, followed him at once. When they got out of the cabin, stepping out on the frozen ground, the young wizard headed to a group of enrolees waiting for them nearby. He made a few steps forward, then turned around and addressed the group:

«Alrighty, kids! I’m Morty, a junior curator. Don’t huddle and stand in a line! My task is to take you safely to the castle and stay at your side at all times, to make sure you don’t do anything stupid!» He glanced around the foggy landscape. «It’s easy to get lost here, especially with this visibility, so try to keep up and follow me!» At this, he turned around and headed to the castle.

After the enrolees had covered some distance, there was loud a echo from the thumping of hooves, after which the mountain area was filled with shrill elk cry, which made everyone slow down involuntarily.

«No stopping! Move along!» Morty’s voice said.

And they continued moving at a usual pace. Not far, on both sides, William could see other groups through the fog, which were following their curators to the castle, dressed in black hooded robes. He thought that from the side their silent procession looked more like a secret druid gathering.

They walked in silence. The atmosphere of this foggy area instilled some level of fear and everyone tried to keep close to the person in front not to stray from the path. Getting lost in the fog, in the mountains, seemed a rather gloomy and easily achieved prospect. Finally, they reached stone gates, passed through them, and came to the base of the stairs leading to the castle. Then Morty addressed them again:

«Everyone here? We haven’t lost anyone on the way?»

«All here!» the enrolees replied in a chorus.

«Great! Then follow me and step very carefully! Hold on to the railings in the middle of the stairs!» After saying this, he turned and started ascending the stairs slowly, leading the scared enrolees.

On both sides, the stairs were lit with torches hidden in mouths of stone dragons directed upwards. And their scaly stone wings towered over the stairs themselves, giving them a more frightening look. The patches of thin fog, pierced by the firelight, made it easy to imagine that these dragons were real. After making it up a few round stairs and nearly slipping on one of them, William realized that they were made of stone dragon tails placed close to each other. The long tails were stretched out to create a step when touching the tail of the opposite dragon. They intertwined in the middle of the stairs with their diamond-shaped tips, forming a kind of railing, which junior curator Morty advised to hold on to.

Finally, leaving endless steps behind, the enrolees reached a wide landing, finding themselves before the entrance to the castle. The doors were open wide, letting the light flow onto the landing. All curators moved forward and stood in groups on both sides of the oak front doors. There was short silence and the enrolees started exchanging looks, whispering quietly to each other. Soon this whisper turned into real hum. Glancing around, William couldn’t find Wayne Ferguson, then he decided that he would try to find him later in the castle, when the crowd dispersed.

«Welcome to Alpurg, enrolees!» came a female voice with heavy German accent.

William couldn’t make out the face of the one who spoke. The backs of the enrolees standing in front of him made it hard to see. But he managed to. There was a tall noble-looking middle-aged woman, with a high hairstyle and an arrogant expression, standing in the doorway. She was wearing emerald-coloured robes with very narrow sleeves.

«To the residence of Baron Quincy von Bulberg,» she continued, «the president of the International Federation of Wizards! I am Frau Bertha, and while you are at the castle, I will be your senior curator! If you have any questions, you should address them to me! And now come forward and stand along the walls, near the curators.»

Everyone did as told quietly and now the enrolees were standing close to the walls on both sides of the front doors. When no enrolees were left on the upper stairs, Frau Bertha took out her silver magic feather and ordered loudly:

«Avolare!» And a purple light came out of her feather and pierced the neck of one of the stone dragons.

To the utter horror of the enrolees, right before their eyes, the grey stone colour started disappearing gradually, revealing coal-black scaly bodies, before revealing their majestic bodies completely. When the transformation was completely over, dozens of huge wings waved, creating strong wind, and the gloomy abyss, hidden by the dragon stairs until then, was filled with blood-chilling roar. William clearly felt how this roar made the hooves of the Blue-eyed stump again, this time in his stomach. The dragons soared up into the sky and sat on the tall towers of Alpurg, after which they folded their wings and became stone again. Now, where the stairs used to be recently, the frightened enrolees could see dark-blue lifeless abyss, hiding barely visible snow tops of numerous mountains.

The thought that the stone dragons could have come alive and remove their tails back when they were ascending the stairs, made William tremble nervously. Because if that had happened, the enrolees would have inevitably fallen into the abyss, the stairs had been hiding. Now, Morty’s words about caution while they were ascending the stairs had a completely different meaning.

«Follow your curators now, everyone!» Frau Bertha said. «They will take you to the Dining Hall!» With that, she turned around and entered the castle.