The Shadowseeker - Victor Kloss Page 0,33

turned back to where he had last seen the prince, thoughtful. He remembered Natalie's words when she had described the prince. “Instead of leading the Institute, he spends his time travelling to the most obscure places in the Unseen Kingdoms. It was the same with his father; in fact, the last three commanders have all died while travelling. They become obsessed with it.”

Ben hadn't thought much about Natalie's comments until he had been thrown into a memory spell left by his parents, where he saw his ancestor Michael entrusted with Elizabeth's sword and re-uniting her Armour. But that wasn't all – the Queen had issued a firm warning about her son. “If Henry has even the slightest inkling of the Armour's whereabouts, he will go mad searching for it. Should he don the Armour, the consequences would be dire.”

Which begged the question: was Prince Robert looking for the Armour? Was that why he had been searching for Ben's parents?

— Chapter Thirteen —

Apprenticeship Training

“There are other departments besides Spellsword, Ben,” Charlie said.

They had changed into their spare clothes and went straight to lunch, where they had far too much to eat. They were letting it digest by relaxing in the common room – a place full of squishy armchairs, low-lying tables, and a thick red carpet Ben longed to sink his feet into. In the corner was a snack bar, manned by an apprentice, serving hot drinks and freshly baked treats. The smell filled the room and, despite Ben's full stomach, he had to use considerable willpower not to grab a sticky bun. There were others reading, chatting, and Ben even spotted two playing Captains of Magic, the multi-tiered chess-like game Charlie had tried at the hotel a few weeks ago.

“Charlie is right, Ben,” Natalie said. “I think it might be a good idea to try out each department before racing ahead in just one.”

“We're not racing ahead,” Ben said firmly. The three of them formed a small triangle of chairs, with a table in the middle. Charlie and Natalie had their handbooks open on their laps. “I just think we should do the practical step that accompanies the theory before moving on to a different department. That way we can practise what we learned, else we might forget it.”

That certainly wouldn't be the case with Charlie, who rarely forgot anything. The Spellsword training involved the least theory and Ben hadn't found the first theory test easy. He had passed, with 88% (Charlie got 100%), but wasn't looking forward to future tests.

“Fine,” Charlie said, slapping his handbook shut. “But tomorrow I'm choosing the next department to study.”

“Let me guess – something boring?”

“Scholar.”

“What a surprise,” Ben said.

“The Department of Scholars isn't as bad as it sounds,” Natalie said. “There's a lot of really interesting knowledge that will help you better understand the Unseen Kingdoms.”

“Like history,” Charlie said, pointing a chubby finger on the cover of his book. His eyes had lit up. “There's some incredible stuff about what really happened during the Spanish Armada. You know the Institute helped us win?”

“Really?” Ben, who hated history at school, suddenly had a feeling it would be different here. But he was determined to hold his ground. “No, we do the Spellsword training practical first.”

Charlie reluctantly agreed.

“I need to get going,” Natalie said, glancing at her watch. “Let's meet up again at 3pm.”

As Ben climbed the stairs with a slightly downbeat Charlie, the excitement started building. Would they get their own spellshooters? Visions of loading it up with some serious spells and fighting mock battles with spell-generated bad guys filled his head all the way through the department's double doors and along the hallway to a door marked “Spell Training”.

“Here we go,” Ben said, rubbing his hands.

“Let's just hope I don't embarrass myself too much,” Charlie said, rubbing a hand on his forehead.

The room was exactly as Ben remembered. The high ceilings gave the room a feeling of space. There was a large table, chest high, and a few apprentices were sat on stools, fiddling with their spellshooters. All the action was to their right. A series of long, narrow rooms were partitioned by glass walls so that you could see through each one. At one end of each room was a circular target, and at the other was one or two apprentices, taking turns to shoot spells at it. There were balls of fire, ice-like spears and many other spells of different elements and shapes, all bombarding the targets with varying degrees of effectiveness.

“Ahah,