SWNOVELS Chapter 6 The Six O-Clocker
Several hours had passed before Nymus appeared again. William busied himself with cleaning his room. As he was tidying up and dusting, he kept thinking about Mr. Wellington’s words and about that other Calhoun who used to wield this feather. Perhaps, that very night, when all Calhouns were killed, someone managed to place their magic feather beside him, right before their death. Because it was clear that the feather could have belonged only to one of his ancestors. But Mr. Wellington made it clear that feathers didn’t serve strangers. Whom did he mean by strangers? It must have been another wizard kin! But, according to Wellington again, feathers couldn’t be inherited! Why did he have this feather? And why did it obey him?
Then he remembered the morning at the Magic Post Office and Vulpik’s reaction to his surname. Vulpik’s reaction wasn’t much different from Wellington’s reaction at the Feather Nest. What could all that possibly mean? William had been pondering about those questions for a long time, but he failed to find an answer. Finally, he dropped this useless activity.
Not long before evening, Nymus came, as promised.
“Good Mail, Master Calhoun!” he raised his hat in a customary movement.
“Nymus!” William was particularly glad to see his mailmage. Because he was supposed to deliver him a letter from the Department with the results of his request about studying at the Preparatory Course. “Have you got any news?”
“Yes, Master Calhoun! I do not come empty-handed!” At this held out his large right palm. And that one clearly had something inside.
William realized that now the expression “not empty-handed” had acquired quite literal meaning for him. “Who knows,” he thought, “perhaps it was made up by mailmages!”
“Do you have a letter from the Department?” he pointed at Nymus’s swollen palm.
“I do! That letter exactly!” Nymus pulled out a blue envelope from his palm pocket and handed it to his master.
William took out the letter and read it aloud:
“Dear Mr. Calhoun!
The Wizard Education Department is happy to inform you that you have been officially granted the status of the Preparatory Course enrolee. You are to complete a year of studies of the special Enrolee Program, within which you are to study such subjects as Featherology, Wizard History Refutation, and Magiflorology. After the year of studying at the Preparatory Course, you will receive grades awarded for each of the abovementioned subjects according to the Fifteen-grade system, which will allow you to enter a MUni according to the total grades you will receive during the Preparatory Course! Please, note that each of the three subjects will be taught for two months. By the end of March next year, you will get a letter with your grades, where you will also find a referral to a relevant MUni.
Best regards,
Daphne Wootton (vice head of the training department)
Enrolee Training Department”
To William Calhoun
13, Blackfriars Lane,
London, England.
William finished the letter and gave the mailmage a happy look.
“I’ve been admitted, Nymus!” he exclaimed. “Admitted to the Preparatory Course!”
“Master Calhoun has chosen to read the letter aloud, so I am already aware of that! Please, accept my congratulations, Master Calhoun! But this is not the only news I have brought!”
He held out his other hand and pulled out another envelope, purple this time.
“Whom is the second letter from?” William asked, puzzled, as he took the envelope from Nymus.
“From the Department as well! It is supposed to come together with the letter about the admittance to the Preparatory Course!”
William opened the second letter and also read it aloud:
“Dear Mr. Calhoun!
The Wizard Education Department is eager to inform you that this Saturday the Annual Enrolee Ball is going to take place, which all enrolees of the Preparatory Course are to attend. Attendance is mandatory. In case you turn the invitation down, your further studies at the Preparatory Course will be annulled and the refusal to take part in the Annual Enrolee Ball will be viewed as disrespectful to the Ball regulations and its organisers. We would also like to inform you that because of the anniversary of the Annual Enrolee Ball, it is going to take place in Germany, at the residence of the president of the International Federation of Wizards, Quincy von Bulberg. To reach this destination, you will need to come to the Cabstation before 5:30 p.m. this Friday, where you are going to take the Six O’Clocker together with other participants of the Ball to travel to the castle. During the ball, all enrolees will receive feathermaps with addresses of the teachers where regular classes of the Preparatory Course will take place.
Please, find your invitation ticket enclosed to this letter. You will need to have it with you as a pass to the Annual Enrolee Ball.
Best regards,
Charlotte Walsh (Enrolee Correspondence Department)
Wizard Education Department”
To William Calhoun
13, Blackfriars Lane,
London, England.
“This cannot be!” William said after he had finished reading the letter. He took the golden invitation ticket out of the envelope and read:
William Calhoun
Participant of the Annual Enrolee Ball
At first, William was thrilled. And no wonder: he was accepted as a full member of the wizard community, invited not just anywhere, but to the castle of the president of the International Federation of Wizards, where wizards come to from all over the world. But in a moment, his delight was quickly replaced by disappointment.
“I’m afraid this isn’t going to work, Nymus!” he said gloomily.
The mailmage didn’t have time to say anything as William continued:
“What am I going to tell Hoggarts?” he pointed at the letter from the Department. “That I’m going to go to Germany to take part in the wizard ball?”
“Master Calhoun is free to act as he wishes!” Nymus said with respect. “If he wishes so, he will go to another place where he will not have to ask for a permission to move around.”
“But where will I go? Where will I live, how will I pay for my needs?”
“Do not worry. I can sign Mister Calhoun for a membership at the Carefree Wizard Fund, where he will be given accommodation, food, clothes, and other necessary things.”
“No, this won’t do!” William refused. “I love Hoggarts and I can’t just leave them like that. They are my family. Not by blood, but still. And they have been taking care of me for so many years and consider me their son. No! I’d better tell Mrs. Hoggart that I’ll spend the weekend at Bobby Atkinson’s place. She knows him, we go to school together, I mean we did, she won’t mind.”
“Well, Master Calhoun knows better!” Nymus agreed reluctantly and added: “It is Thursday already, tomorrow at half past five we need to be at the Cabstation.”
“By the way! What is this Cabstation?”
“Cabstation is the oldest station of London. It is famous for its legendary Six O’Clocker, which is surrounded by so many myths and mysteries it is even hard to imagine! Well, I am not going to spoil the impression with my stories! You will get the chance to see everything with you own eyes tomorrow!”
“Oh, I’m looking forward to it, Nymus! It’s decided, then! When should I expect you tomorrow?”
“Ten minutes before half past five Nymus will be here! Be ready by that time, Master Calhoun.”
“Alright! And now you need to go, Nymus. Hoggarts will come soon! See you tomorrow!”
“Good Mail, Master Calhoun!” Nymus raised his mailmage hat and disappeared with the already familiar sound.
***
It was bright already. And it was raining, quite usual for this time of the year, raindrops beating against the window of the room William was sleeping in. With his nose pressed to his pillow, he was still watching his last dream, when something barely noticeable and soft tickled his nose. For another half a minute William was resisting it, as he kept sleeping, but the insistent irritator covered his face completely. William sneezed loudly and tore his head from the pillow. As he opened one eye, he tried to see who had disturbed his sleep, but the only thing he saw were white hairs that had obscured the world. He pulled out the magic feather that had halfway come out from under the pillow. Lately he placed it there before sleep. Holding the feather tight in his hand, William sat up.
“Listen, buddy,” he addressed the feather strictly. “Let’s agree on one thing: if you want to continue being friends with me, you’ll never wake me up without a reason again. Like it or not, but I’m the boss around here! Otherwise, next time you’re going to sleep under the bed!”
As a reply, the feather seemed to have drooped in his hand, then William said to it, softer this time:
“No offence, alright? Just try not to wake me up in such an unpleasant way. And I was kidding about the bed…”
This made the feather straighten up again, but, probably to show obedience, it moved its hairs a little bit.
“Wonderful!” William said in a satisfied voice and jumped off his bed.
Since the day William stopped going to school, he couldn’t find what to do with his time when he stayed home alone. Before, he devoted all of the time to homework and now, when he stayed at home alone, he just paced his room, waiting for Nymus. This time he wasn’t just waiting for news from him, but Nymus himself. In a few hours, he was going to go to Germany, and since morning, he had an unbearable desire to speed up time to make the time of the trip closer. It wasn’t difficult to convince Mrs. Hoggart to let him spend the weekend at Bobby Atkinson’s place. William stayed with him for a day or two before. Hoggarts trusted William completely and he had never let them down before. So this time it went alright as well. William said that he would go straight to Bobby’s after school, so he said his goodbyes to Mr. and Mrs. Hoggart and wished them goodnight, then returned to his room and fell asleep soon.
Since morning, William was getting ready for his trip to Germany, pleasantly excited. Though, frankly speaking, the preparation consisted of him patiently lying on his bed, trying to imagine what was waiting for him out there, among other wizards, at the castle of Quincy von Bulberg, and what would the ball be like.
He glanced at his watch - they showed quarter past five. “Nymus should come soon!” he said to himself and started pacing the room again. He checked once again if his magic feather was with him, but it was, so he put it back into his pocket. Then he walked to the window, following some kind of instinct, to see if there was anyone by the door, but then he remembered that Nymus wasn’t in the habit of entering the house through the door. Hoggarts weren’t back yet. They were usually back home not earlier than six, but who knew what their schedule was today. “I wish Nymus would come!” he thought, glancing at the watch.
Nymus came very soon.
“Good Mail, Master Calhoun!”
“Nymus! Finally! I’ve started to worry! I’ve been just lying on my bed all day, having nothing to do, waiting for you to come!”
“You should have written to me! I would have come right away!” the mailmage replied.
“I didn’t want to waste your time! I’ve been at the Post Office and I still remember how many letters were there and other stuff! So I’ve decided to be patient instead and wait for the set hour!”
“Well, there was really a lot to do at the Post Office, what is written stays written!” Nymus sighed. “Has Master Calhoun taken the letter with the invitation to the Ball?”
“Damn!” William swore. “I’ve completely forgotten about it!”
He took the letter from the Department out of the drawer and pulled the invitation out.
“There, we can go!” he said.
“Then hold on tight to my hand!” he gave William his hand and they peregrined.
The familiar peregrining sensation didn’t cause discomfort anymore. Quite the contrary, in that little time that had passed since his first peregrining, he got used to it so much that he couldn’t imagine any other way of travelling. When the peregrining was over, he was terrified to find that he was standing two steps away from giant hooves rushing at him. Frightened, he was going to jump away to avoid being trampled, but large nimble hands of the mailmage held him, preventing him from doing it.
“No, no! It is but a statue, Master Calhoun! We are in the Waiting Hall of the Cabstation!”
It took William a few moments to catch his breath. Once he’d managed that, he felt embarrassed for being afraid of the harmless statue. He soothed himself by the fact that normal statues didn’t have a habit of scaring people, so he had nothing to be ashamed of.
“Even though they are carrying their carriage at full speed, they never leave their niche,” Nymus pointed at the pedestal below.
“It would have been nice to get a warning BEFORE peregrining!” he was still staring at the unusual sculpture. “What are they made of?”
“Common stone,” the mailmage replied casually.
“Yes, but stone has immobile nature, as far as I know. Or are you going to say otherwise?”
“No, I am not!” Nymus smiled. “Wizards have a way of treating stone, Master Calhoun! They are capable of turning it into anything at all. Long time ago, when demits were still in close contact with wizards, this skill made demits call wizards stonemasons. It is no secret that many sculptures of demits were made by wizards.”
“No secret for whom?” even though William got used to Nymus with his strange stories, but sometimes he had to struggle not to go mad from some of them. “Fine, forget it!”
He looked around. The Waiting Hall of the Cabstation was at least several times larger than those of demits. It looked like a giant building with stone slabs on the floor. Perhaps those slabs or perhaps something else gave this rather spacious hall a subtle resemblance to a medieval dungeon where they tortured people. A huge statue depicting a carriage pulled by three giant white elks, which stood in the middle of the Hall, made the atmosphere even gloomier. Stumping their hooves, yet not moving from their spot, the elks were tirelessly pulling the black carriage. But the walls were the most remarkable feature, they had dual nature and kept changing their appearance all the time. William was enjoying the view of the soft ground on the walls that surrounded the Waiting Hall completely when they started to change their colour to darker ones, right before his eyes, until they had completely changed into dark-blue waters of the ocean. Moving from one state to another, the walls filled the Waiting Hall with relevant colours, creating semi-darkness at one point, and submerging it into the ocean at another. William found it most remarkable when the shiny white humps of the elks were lit by blue flares of the water reflected from the walls. The elks seemed so life-like and realistic at that point, that if he’d met them at a zoo, he’d have had no doubts they were alive. His mixed feelings, caused by indescribable fear of the first seconds after arriving to the Cabstation, and now the incredible fascination with this building, were soon replaced by open delight. It was the delight that filled him as he looked around, examining large clocks on tall poles. There were so many of them he couldn’t have counted them all from the first attempt even if he wanted to.
“The mother of all London stations!” Nymus said. He was pleased to see the delight of his master at seeing the majestic Waiting Hall.
“But who built it all, Nymus?”
“Wizards! They are really good at installing such things in buildings,” he pointed at the changing walls made from living nature elements.
“This is incredible!” William cried out, giving the walls another look. They had just submerged the Waiting Hall into semi-darkness by turning into ground. “And this is merely a Waiting Hall! I can only imagine how more important wizard buildings look like!”
“Much more majestic and impressive!” Nymus assured him.
“And what are those clocks on poles? Their arrows move in the opposite direction.”
“They are supposed to be moving in the opposite direction, Master Calhoun. They do the countdown of all arrivals and departures. This clock,” Nymus pointed at the one nearby, “has arrows moving in different directions! For those waiting for this trip it serves as an indication that the trip was moved to a different time. And this one,” he pointed at the clock next to it, “is ours. It shows that three minutes are left until the arrival of the Six O’Clocker. So we should better find our way to the platform.”
“Where’s the platform?”
“Come!” Nymus headed to the window in the far corner that was located right in the wall made of living nature element. William followed him.
There were long benches all around, enrolees sitting there with their parents who had come to see them off to the Ball. Of course, William didn’t know any of them. For a moment, he felt really uneasy because he actually didn’t know any wizards at all. “But at least he had Nymus!” he kept saying to himself. He’ll have time to make friends with wizards. It was too early to fall into despair.
They walked past the endless rows of benches and finally reached the window, with the cashier sitting beyond it and reading a newspaper. William saw the name of the newspaper ‘Informed Wizard’. Nymus knocked on the window. The same moment the elderly wizard put his newspaper aside and gave the newcomers a questioning look. Nymus bent over William’s ear and whispered:
“Your invitation ticket! You need to show it to pass.”
William quickly pulled out the invitation from his pocket and handed it to the elderly wizard in glasses. He took the ticket and touched it with his feather. The invitation vanished from this touch. After this, the elderly wizard said politely:
“Please, step through, Mister Calhoun!”
At this, Nymus took William to the wall, which reflected them now. The water suddenly parted, revealing an oval oak door. They opened the door, stepped through and found themselves on the platform.
“Nymus, so the water wasn’t real, just an illusion?” William asked when they were standing on the platform among other wizards waiting for the Six O’Clocker.
“No, why? It is real, like the ground that replaces it regularly. It is a security system – only those that have the ticket may pass. Those who try to reach the platform without the ticket will simply step onto the ocean floor and drown… Excuse me!.. Make way!... Thank you!... Please, sir… What a lovely child… let us pass,” while explaining all that, Nymus was holding William with one hand and used the other hand to push through the crowd. “If the walls are in their earth shape at that moment, the frauds will bury themselves the moment they make a step.”
“But you’ve managed to pass somehow,” William noted, “and nothing happened to you.”
“Master Calhoun forgets that I am a mailmage! Mailmages do not need to cheat to get anywhere, because they have a special pass to all places. We can peregrine anywhere we want without breaking the law. However, it is prohibited to take our wizards where they are not supposed to be or they need a pass for. It is a blatant violation of the Post Office Code, and for this violation… Allow me the doubt of whether you have chosen the right place on the platform, Miss… For this violation we will never see letters again!”
After passing through the last row of wizards, they came to the front of the crowd.
“There! Now nothing will get in the way for Master William to enjoy the sight of the arrival of the Six O’Clocker!” he said in a satisfied voice and folded his arms on his chest.
They were standing in a gloomy dense forest. The only source of noise here were the loud voices of wizards, who, judging by the thickening crowd, were still arriving, and it was becoming hard to move. Instead of the rails William had expected to see he only saw a path leading from one part of the forest to another. When he turned around, he didn’t see the towering building of the Cabstation behind the crowd. He actually didn’t see anything towering there. Only the trees.
“If it has not been for the crowd, Master William would have seen a shabby hut, no longer than ten feet. It’s for diversion!” Nymus explained seeing his confusion. “Demits often come here, and the large building of the Cabstation in the middle of the forest would have caused, let us say, some degree of misunderstanding.
“But there’s a forest here! Besides, there are no rails. There’s actually nothing here except for the forest.”
“Rails?” Nymus looked surprised.
“Of course! We’re taking the Six O’Clocker, after all!”
“Master William, the Six O’Clocker is not a train,” the mailmage replied shortly.
“What is it, then?”
“A cab.”
“A cab?”
“Not an ordinary one, of course, but a cab!” Nymus replied in a busy-like tone.
“But is it possible to travel all the way to Germany by cab?! Even though the station is called the Cabstation, I thought it was merely a name, and we’re travelling by train.”
“I have already told master Calhoun that wizards do not use any kinds of digital or electronic devices, like demits. Magic Feathers do not allow them to work properly,” the mailmage reminded him.
“Oh, right… now I remember!” William said and they fell silent again. After a while, William asked: “When will I see you again, Nymus?”
“I will meet Master Calhoun here, when the Six O’Clocker brings enrolees back. And if you need me earlier, you know how to call me.”
“Alright, Nymus! I’ll let you know!”
Suddenly William felt something starting to vibrate deep down under his feet. The ground started moving – first slightly, then more and more, and then the whole platform was shaking, as if it was an earthquake. Soon the sound of hooves coming from underground turned into real thunder, followed by even heavier shaking of the ground.
“The Six O’Clocker is coming!” Nymus had to all but shout to be heard. “I wish you an unforgettable trip, my Master! Have a good journey!”
“Thank you, Nymus!”
The moment he said that, the thunder of hooves coming from deep under deafened all the other sounds. A part of the path not far from the place he and Nymus were standing, suddenly rose up. Small pieces of soft ground flew into the air and it seemed like someone large was making the way through the thick ground, struggling to get to the surface. And a moment later, the shovel-like powerful horns showed from under the ground and rushed forward, followed by hump-nosed heads, necks and, finally, white bodies of blue-eyed elks, pulling the legendary black carriage!
This process lasted for a while and soon, when the carriage was fully on the surface, it turned out that the Six O’Clocker had the same size as ordinary trains. It consisted of an endless row of connected cabins. Each cabin looked like a miniature cab. William suddenly realized he had no idea which cabin he was supposed to take. He turned to ask Nymus, but the mailmage was gone. There was an old wizard instead, who was holding his granddaughter’s hand.
“I must have missed the sound of him peregrining because of that racket!” William thought. “Well, now I’ll have to think on my own!”
He saw the enrolees taking seats in the cabins quite chaotically and he headed towards the one right opposite to him. But as he approached it, he saw through the round window on the door that all the seats inside were taken. The cabins were for four people each, with seats facing each other. William moved along the ‘train’ until he found a cabin with only one passenger. William opened the door and asked:
“Excuse me, are other seats taken?”
The passenger just lazily turned his head, gave William a look and said as lazily:
“Nah!” after which he turned to the other window again.
Then William jumped inside the cabin. Once inside, he looked around. The cab inside was rather tall, even an adult could sand here without touching the ceiling. It was rather roomy as well, to stretch out the legs. Round windows on the doors on both sides reminded illuminators in a ship cabin. The cabins had pillows and other necessary things to make the journey comfortable for the passengers. There were black hooded robes on the seats, neatly folded. After glancing at his travelling companion and seeing that he was already wearing the prepared garment, William took the robes and, following the example of his companion, threw them on. There was a letter “E” encircled by a feather embroidered on the chest. Finding his new outfit quite comfortable, he finally sat down, noticing how comfortable the seats were. Now William’s eyes focused on the companion sitting opposite him. It was a rather chubby pink-cheeked boy with tousled hair, about the same age as William. It seemed that the boy wasn’t interested in anything. He was staring at the trees in the forest and seemed to be lost in his thoughts. But William wasn’t too happy at the thought of spending the whole journey in silence. Besides, it felt like the right time to start making friends. So William decided to show initiative and start the conversation.
“A bit gloomy around here, isn’t it?” he said with irony.
The pink-cheeked companion didn’t even move after being talked to. Only after a few seconds, he turned his head lazily and looked at William:
“Only don’t think that if we’ve happened to be in one cabin, we can get to know each other, become friends, and die best friends in the old age!” he grimaced and turned away again.
William was speechless for the moment, taken aback. That was some damn luck! He thought that if somebody wasn’t going to opened the door of the cabin and seat with them, the journey would be a complete disappointment! But his thoughts were interrupted by a strong push that threw him back in his seat, followed by the sound of hooves. The Six O’Clocker started to move.
Slow at first, then faster and faster, they were moving forward. William couldn’t see how going faster and faster the blue-eyed elks thrust their hooves deeper into the ground until they started to submerge. Following the example of his unfriendly companion, he was staring out of the round window and he suddenly noticed that with each second the ground outside the window was going higher until it covered it completely. The carriage went underground.
“Oh no!” William thought. “However, I should have guessed that our journey would take place underground. Because if the cab came from underground when it arrived to the station, it means that it should continue its way underground as well!”
It became rather dark in the cabin, making it hard to see anything. Suddenly the light was lit, revealing the round face of his companion, who’d just added the brightness to the oil lamp that had been barely burning. William turned his head, saw a similar lamp to the right of himself and adjusted the flame in it. The next moment, the cabin was brightly lit by two lamps on both sides of the cabin. But William thought that this light made the atmosphere in the cabin even gloomier.
The cab was already underground completely, but William could feel the cabin dashing forward at great speed. At the same time, the Six O’Clocker wasn’t moving along the tunnel, it was digging it as it went with the horns of the elks. Fresh ground beating against the windows of the cabin was a witness to that. Frankly speaking, the sight wasn’t only rather unpleasant, but also quite scary. “Will they have to move underground all the way?” he thought. The journey by the Six O’Clocker didn’t seem such a safe activity anymore. His companion continued staring through the window, which didn’t show anything but the dirt, and it seemed that he was deeply indifferent to anything happening outside. William was going to take a nap to make the journey seem less scary and monotonous, when there was a slight difference in his companion’s behaviour. His hands, calmly lying on the seat just a moment ago, were suddenly holding on very tight to it. And he started sweating profusely, staring at the round window. But these weren’t the only odd things. As William followed his look, he noticed that the dirt on the window started disappearing, making way to water drops. There were more and more of those drops, and it was enough to make William’s heart sink. He immediately remembered the walls of the Cabstation Waiting Hall, and he clearly understood what was going to happen next. He was staring at the eerie window in fear, unable to tear his eyes away from it. And then the familiar thumping of hooves coming from up front stopped. The Six O’Clocker had come out of the gloomy dungeon and changed the nature element, now going at an incredible speed along the ghostly ocean bottom to the silent hooves thumping of its elks. Frightened sea creatures scattered away from the horrifying gloomy carriage and its just as gloomy helmsmen. Neither it was calm inside the cabins! Round windows showed wide-open frightened and excited eyes of young passengers watching the mud rise up from the bottom from under the wheels of the mysterious cab. William’s heart was all but jumping out of his chest and he turned to his companion to share his impressions from the eerie seascape. But as he looked at him, he was not less horrified to see that the boy had gone red in the face and was struggling for breath, as he attempted to undo the button under his neck.
“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.