Druid Academy Trilogy Special Edition Paperback Set

Chapter Two

As predicted, my summer disappeared under a pile of books. I wasn’t sure how many strings my dad had pulled to allow me to retake the entire year’s classes, for which I was sure I’d one day find some way to repay him, but he seemed content that my future was secured, at least for the moment. I didn’t want to find out what his reaction would be if I failed a second time, so I obligingly spent long summer days buried under an ever-growing pile of texts books, trying to appear grateful. At least once a day I would head back to my favourite clearing, with my favourite cranky old tom cat. Nothing else ever burst into flames.
It was on one of those days, as summer was drawing to an end, that I saw him. At first, I thought I must have spent too much time studying and my brain had taken a little time out, because no-one ever came to the clearing, and certainly no-one who looked quite like him. In fact, I didn’t think I’d ever seen anyone who looked quite like he did. He was tall and scrawny, with a slicked back hair streaked with grey. He wore what appeared to be a cloak, bright yellow and trimmed with blue, with some sort of black robes underneath, and a pair of wire-rimmed glasses that seemed to be perpetually sliding down his nose.
Stranger still, as he stepped out from the bushes, he looked around, fixed his eyes on me, and stepped forward with a curt nod.
“Ah, good, you’re here. And on time, too. Excellent. Talendale abhors tardiness.”
He spoke with an upper-class twang, and it took me a moment to process his words.
“Um… excuse me?”
I glanced over my shoulder in case he was talking to someone behind me, but we were quite alone, other than Toby. The tom hopped to his feet and rubbed himself against the strange man’s legs. Traitor. The best I’d ever managed with him was not being bitten.
“You are Lyssa Eldridge, correct?”
“Well, yeah, but–”
“And you did receive your letter, correct?”
“Yeah– Well, no, I mean– What letter?”
“Rather small, this druid grove, isn’t it?” he said, squinting around the clearing as though seeing it for the first time. “Still, I suppose you are the only druid in Haleford.”
“I’m sorry, this what grove? Wait, did you just call me a… a druid?”
He pushed his glasses up his nose and looked at me like I was the one who’d gone mad, which was rich.
“Well, of course you’re a druid, what else would you be? And this–” he swept his arms, gesturing grandly to my humble little hideout, “is your druid grove, your protected space in which to practice magic. It’s shielded from outside observers, and of course mundanes can’t enter, though–”
“Mundanes?” I interrupted.
“Humans and creatures without magic – are you sure your mentor didn’t tell you any of this?”
He peered at me over the top of his glasses with a frown.
“This really is all rather elementary.”
“Uh-huh. I’m sure.” This whole conversation was getting ridiculous. Shielded groves and druids and places non-magical creatures couldn’t enter, and–
“What about him?”
I nodded to the cat that had stopped rubbing against the stranger’s legs and had started washing his whiskers.
“Hm, Toby? What about him?”
“He’s a cat, he’s not a mag– Wait, how did you know his name’s Toby?”
“He lives at the academy, when he’s not wandering through the mortal realms. Everyone knows his name.”
“Then, how do I know his name?”
The stranger’s forehead creased, and I replayed the words through my head and tried to work out how to reword them so that they sounded less ridiculous. How exactly was it I was the one needing to explain themselves in this particular conversation?
“I mean, I’ve never been to this… academy, or whatever, so no-one could have told me. It’s just what I’ve always called him.”
“Oh, I see. Well, Toby isn’t actually a cat, he’s a wampus. This form is just the one he chooses to assume outside of the academy’s grounds. Which is where he should be right now.”
He raised an eyebrow at the cat – wampus – whatever, apparently completely oblivious to the fact that he had in no way answered my question, but had managed to raise at least a dozen more. Toby hissed at him, then darted into the bushes.
“Toby prefers not to portal in front of people.”
“Uh-huh. Of course.”
He was obviously crazy, and possibly not the harmless kind, so I figured going along with it all was probably the best option right now.
“Well, it’s been lovely meeting you, Mr, uh–”
“Oh, where are my manners?” He looked startled at his oversight and hastily composed himself, pushing his glasses up his nose another time, and straightening the clasp on the front of his cloak.
“Rufus Oswald Hamilton Pembington the Fourteenth, recruiter for the Dragondale Academy of Druidic Magic, and assistant to Professor Talendale, at your service.”
He folded one arm over his waist and gave a curt bow.
“Right. Well, Mr… Pembington, I really should be leaving now.”
“Pardon me? Leaving? Oh no, I’m afraid that’s quite impossible. We’re already late, and the headmaster will be expecting you.”
I frowned, replaying his words. Headmaster Talendale. Dragondale Academy of Druidic Magic. Those were all names from that letter Holly wrote me right after I got rejected from Bristol University. How did Rufus Osmond the whatever know about a hoax letter? I never showed it to anyone. I never even got around to talking to Holly about it. I took a breath.
I mean, what if… what if Holly didn’t write the letter?
I laughed and shook my head. Dragondale Academy of Druidic Magic? Of course it wasn’t real.
“Something amusing you, Ms Eldridge?”
“Yeah, look, no offence Mr Pemberton–”
“–Pembington.”
“–But I’m not going to any academy.”
“All juvenile druids are required by law to attend the academy of their patriarchal line. And if we don’t leave immediately, we are going to be late. Professor Talendale abhors–”
“Tardiness. Yeah, you said. There’s no way I’m getting into a car with you.”
“A car? One of those mundane contraptions? Certainly not. We shall travel by portal.”
“Por–” Whatever smart mouthed reply I’d been about to deliver was cut off by the sudden appearance of what could only be a portal. One moment I was staring at a patch of grass in front of a wilting bush, and the next there was an image of what I could only describe as a castle set behind iron wrought gates, floating in the air in front of me.
“What is that?”
“That,” Rufus said grandly, “is the Dragondale Academy of Druidic Magic.”
“No, I mean,” I gestured to the floating patch of colour, “What’s that?”
“Why, that’s a portal, of course. Surely you’ve seen a portal before?”
His brow furrowed in concern that would have been condescending if it wasn’t all so bizarre. I ignored him and peered cautiously round the back of the portal, where the rest of my little clearing was exactly as it always had been. It was as if someone had suspended a movie screen in mid-air. I stretched a hand out towards the image on its front.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Rufus said, clearing his throat. “You wouldn’t want one part of you to be here and the other in the academy now, would you, hm?”
No, probably not. I dropped my hand back to my side.
“It’s all real? The portal, the academy… magic?”
“Are you always this slow on the update, Ms Eldridge? Professor Talendale won’t be happy.”
“Well, excuse me if this is all a bit of a shock,” I snapped, putting my hands on my hips and then immediately feeling like an idiot.
“You did receive your letter,” Rufus reminded me.
“Yes, I know I received the letter, but–” I cut off with a groan of frustration. This bizarre conversation was going round in circles, and frankly I wasn’t convinced that stepping into a floating movie screen was going to do anything other than give me a bruise on my face. I looked at it again. The castle – or academy, I supposed – was easily bigger than any building I’d ever been in, maybe bigger than any I’d ever seen. It was made of chiselled grey stones and what looked to be stained glass windows, and it had several towers at either end. It was set in an endless expanse of green, with a backdrop of the brightest blue sky, and flying around one of the towers was…
“Is that a dragon?”
“Hm?” Rufus peered into the portal. “Ah, yes, they must be exercising Paethio. Don’t fear, he’s quite tame. It’s Dardyr you need to watch out for.”
“There are… dragons?”
“Why, of course. You could hardly have the Dragondale Academy of Druidic Magic without dragons now, could you, hm?”
Dragons. Right. I was staring at a portal to a magic academy that had dragons. If you’d said that the king of rock and roll had stepped out of his grave and popped by for a cup of tea, I don’t think I could have been any more surprised.
“Come now, we mustn’t linger. The whole school’s schedule will be disrupted if we’re late, and Professor Talendale wouldn’t like that at all. Not at all.”
“Right. Can’t keep Professor Talendale waiting.”
“Quite,” Rufus agreed with a sage nod, as if he hadn’t noticed the sarcasm in my voice. “After you, Ms Eldridge. Simply step through.”
Nothing about the idea of stepping through a magic portal sounded simple to me, but I stepped closer to it anyway, and tried to line myself up – because I didn’t want to leave a bit of me behind. I sucked in a deep breath, exhaled it slowly, and then stepped into the portal.
I made it to the far side with all of my fingers and toes, and no small amount of relief. I looked around me and burst out laughing.
“Is something else amusing you, Ms Eldridge?” Rufus asked, stepping from the portal behind me and looking mildly irked – although given that all his emotions appeared mild, he could have been absolutely fuming for all I knew. I made an effort to stifle my laughter.
“I’m sorry, it’s just… it’s all so ridiculous.”
And it was. I wasn’t standing in my clearing in Haleford anymore. I was standing outside the gates of the building I’d seen in the floating movie screen – the floating movie screen I’d somehow walked through – and any time soon I was going to wake up in my own bed and laugh about this whole ridiculous dream.
“There is nothing ridiculous about the Dragondale Academy of Druidic Magic,” Rufus hmphed.
“No, I didn’t mean…” I trailed off, peering through the gates at the vast castle. It was even bigger than it had appeared through the portal. “This place is incredible.”
Rufus seemed placated by my obvious awe, and smiled with a touch of smugness.
“Rather. It is quite something to behold. Over fifty thousand druids have studied in our ancient halls. The Dragondale Academy of Druidic Magic is a noble institution, steeped in honour and tradition.”
“Student name?” The voice came from what appeared to be a solid wall beside the gate, but as I looked closer I saw a hatch in the brickwork at about knee-height. Through the small window, a pair of yellowish eyes stared at me.
“Um… Uh… Lyssa Eldridge,” I managed after a moment.
The eyes disappeared and I fidgeted, staring at the hatch and wondering what very short creature with yellow eyes was concealed inside it.
“Goblin,” Rufus whispered from the corner of his mouth. “Excellent gate guardians, not to be trifled with.”
“Lyssa Eldridge,” the goblin said, making me jump and sounding like the words left a bad taste in his mouth. “You’re late.”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t know,” I tried to explain, but the eyes had vanished again.
“Why did he say my name like that?” I whispered to Rufus.
“Hm? Oh, try not to pay attention to that.”
I was about to press him for more answers when the gates swung inwards with a creak.
I took a hesitant step through, wondering what on earth had happened to my nice, normal life. Rufus swept his arm towards the huge oak doors and smiled broadly.
“Welcome to the Dragondale Academy of Druidic Magic.”