A Storm in the Making

Chapter 28--I Acquire a Shadow

Mauk cast longing glances at William Helm who had been standing outside Dr. Spinner’s study, waiting for me, I presumed, when we emerged, the coward, and had doggedly followed us from Dr. Spinner’s to the Monastery dining hall like some dark cloud that would neither evaporate nor rain.  

When I wondered what the longing glances from Mauk was all about, Julius informed me Mauk aspired to be a Knight of the Black Rose like William Helm.   

The Knights of the Black Rose, Julius told me mind to mind, were a group of rogue mercenaries, hired guns, so to speak, who had gathered themselves into a organization second only to the Death Riders in mystery and power. 

Within their power structure, each knight is a law unto himself, not accountable to any man, priest, emperor or king, unless they have been paid, and paid well to be so.  Many of them are actual knights that have rebelled against either the church or the king.  Some, but not all, are assassins. They have a code of honor, of sorts, that, when once hired, keeps them loyal to that person or group for the duration of the contract they have been hired to do, to the point of death, if necessary. 

The members, he told me, when contacted, arrive in stylish heavy black robes, the capes partially concealing their face, and of course only around midnight. They demand respect and good conditions for their work. Their specialty (and reason why they are hired) is tracking people and objects.  The only reason they are so tolerated is their surprising success at detective work.  You want to know, you have to pay, is their unofficial motto . In hard cash and often also otherwise.

Woe to the person who finds a black rose lying on their doorstep.  They have betrayed the knights in some way, or have otherwise run afoul of them.

It is the power, mystery, and other hoopla surrounding The Knights of the Black Rose,that attracts so many young wizards to attempt the arduous and often dangerous tests acolytes must pass to become a Knight of the Black Rose.

It took a lot longer to write this down, of course, than it did for Julius to transfer his knowledge of this group to my mind.  That only took a second, so no one but he and I were even aware of what had passed between us.

I thought back to that almost worshipful look on Mauk’s face when he looked at William Helm.  I thought Mauk was a visionary until I remembered seeing him on the testing field, and what he was capable of, and concluded he probably would make a good, loyal knight. I hoped he made it when the time came.  Right now, he was just one of our group of young people.

Despite our attempts at cheerfulness, however, our last meal group was destined to be plagued with doom and gloom.  Between the girls, obvious disappointment at losing my brothers company so soon after meeting them and the overshadowing presence of William Helm who insisted on sitting catty-corner from us so that even while eating he never lost sight of me, we were all subdued. 

William Helm sat in solitary splendor at the huge table.  He had an entire section to himself, though the dining room was crowded.  No one ventured near him, that is, until Nigel came in.

Nigel came into the dining hall looking for me, if his expression of relief when he spotted me was anything to go by.  He started in my direction before he realized my dining companions included Julius.  He stopped abruptly in his tracks, nearly causing a lady behind him to crash into him. She glared hostilely at Nigel, who returned the look in kind as she passed him.  

I was in the middle of a conversation with our group about the move. We had been all picking Julius’ brain about what to expect at the castle, when I paused in the middle of a sentence, looking past our group.  Caught by surprise when I realized I could sense Nigel observing me from across the room.  Glad to see him, I smiled, though I was puzzled at how I could sense him like that.   Everyone followed my gaze, including William Helm who seemed to miss nothing that concerned me.  It made me wonder how high-profile people back on earth stood having a bodyguard all the time.  Having William Helm close by was like acquiring an extra shadow. 

dIdentical frowns plastered three men’s faces.  Nigel, Julius, and William Helm.  I waved Nigel over, but he shook his head, and went to sit by William Helm, who looked like he’d bitten into something sour.  Nigel sat down in the forbidden zone no one else had had the temerity to breach. He winked boldly at me, and grinned from ear to ear, which made me blush, of course, darn my fair skin.  Needless to say, what little appetite I’d had for the weird foodstuffs to begin with, evaporated  like water on a hot skillet.  I was thankful when I could politely take my mostly untouched plate of strange foodstuffs to the scrap basket.

After Last Meal, the ones of us without assignments, pitched in and helped those who did, laughing and teasing each other as young people will.  We were just being young, happy and some of us half-way in love. Chloe and Princess Ranaloxa definitely had stars in their eyes.

We ignored William Helm as he had followed me over to the kitchen entrance and propped himself negligently against the wall by the double doors. For once his overbearing presence didn’t affect me. I shrugged and scrapped plates into the scrap basket. Maybe I was getting used to him.  If so, that was just wrong on so many levels, I didn’t even want to consider them.  Stockholm syndrome came to mind, and I shuddered.

Julius had been called away by a young Derger male who came up and whispered in his ear. He mumbled something about the demands of a healer and excused himself. I sighed with relief when Nigel stepped in and took his place. I so I didn’t want to feel like a fifth wheel.  He jumped in and scraped plates alongside me for Chloe and Andrew, who were trying to get ahead of the never-ending stream of dirty dishes. The amount of dishes gave me some perspective of how many students were enrolled in this strange school that was so different, yet in a way, so much like school back on earth.

Nigel had me laughing and blushing with his stories of some of the sillier adventures he’d had getting the perfect photo for this or that photo shoot back on earth.  I, in turn, regaled him with how my family and I had been in the wrong spot at the right time to wind up on Dardara.  The sad part was, we were both exchanging our tales like they were fond memories from a distant past in another lifetime. 

As I lay there on the bed pondering that thought, another lifetime, I felt a tear slide down the side of my face for my earthly home that I had lost. I rolled over onto my stomach and let the tears come then.  I guess that’s why I didn’t hear anyone enter my room.  What happened next was only one more horrible reminder of just how dangerous and alien a world that my family and I had been thrust into through no fault of our own.