Bloodrage - Helen Harper Page 0,11

looks,” I commented, wiping my brow with my sleeve.

“Ah, you’ll get the hang of it in no time. You’ve got a bit of time now to grab a bite to eat, and then you need to hit the library.”

“Library? Thank God – maybe this is something I can do.”

Mary grimaced. “Yeah, perhaps. You’ll need to start with all the Level One reading to match your practical skill sets in the different disciplines. Everyone starts at one. There are five levels to get through and, believe me, it gets harder as you go along. At your level right now, most of it is pretty dry. It’s a lot of background knowledge, history, that kind of thing.”

I felt relieved. At least I knew that I could read. “Sounds right up my alley. When do I start the other disciplines?

“You’ll begin Illusion and Divination tomorrow.”

“And Protection?” I tried – and failed – to keep the hope out of my voice.

Mary’s expression, however, was rueful. “Sorry. The trainers have decided that you’ve already passed Level One in Protection, even though you can’t throw a basic ward yet. I guess they want you to focus on the other disciplines rather than the stuff that might, you know, kill people.”

Fuck. That had been the only discipline that I felt I really needed to learn something in to help me control myself a bit. Not only that, but it was definitely the only discipline that appeared I’d have any hope of mastering.

“So,” I began, not entirely sure I wanted to hear the answer, “I need to pass Level One in all disciplines before I can move up to Level Two?”

“Yeah. And then you need to achieve Level Two in all disciplines also, although after that you can specialise in just the one or two that you’re particularly talented in.”

Great. Forget this taking five years, it was more likely to take me five hundred. That is if I didn’t get thrown out beforehand. I wasn’t a quitter, however. I wouldn’t let myself become defeated after just one morning.

“Forget the food,” I said decisively. “Show me where the library is.”

Mary looked surprised, but shrugged and nodded acquiescence, and we headed off.

I hadn’t quite been prepared for the grandeur that the training academy’s library was going to suggest was on offer. Up until now, the rooms had looked much like those of any other institution, strange metal surrounding the Evocation room aside, of course. However, even on approach, the doors of the library proclaimed both style as well as substance. They were vast creatures of construction: heavy oak panels with carved designs of different flora and fauna expertly inlaid into them. I couldn’t help but trace my fingers over them in awe, coming to rest at the edge of a dragon’s tail that curved its way across one of the panels.

“Wouldn’t it be cool if, like, dragons really did exist?” commented Mary, wistfully.

I looked at her sharply but she didn’t really seem to notice. “Well, they do exist,” I said, trying to aim for a matter of fact air.

Her brow furrowed for a moment, then cleared. “Oh, you mean the wyverns, right? But they’re not really dragons, are they? They’re more like dragon-lite.”

“They’re apparently distant cousins,” I said absently, still running the tip of my finger over the dragon’s body.

“Of creatures that don’t exist any more though.”

I made a non-committal noise. This probably really wasn’t the time to be getting into chats about dragons.

“Have you ever seen one?” Mary asked suddenly.

“What? A dragon?” Only every time I look in the mirror, I thought. “Um…,” God, I was useless liar.

“No, silly – a wyvern.”

“Oh, yeah, sure. I had to take lots down when I lived in Cornwall.” Funny how those memories were now so precious. I smiled to myself. “There was this one wyvern that was so brightly coloured blue and with such a loud shriek that we were sure that the villagers nearby were going to either hear or see it and come and investigate. You know us shifters don’t have skills like you do. We can’t just wave our hands in the air and make things appear to be different to what they are. It’s a lot more complicated for us to hide the otherworld from humans than it is for you.”

Mary was staring at me. “What?” I asked.

“You said ‘us shifters’.”

I squirmed, suddenly embarrassed. “Oh. I didn’t mean that. I’m not a shifter, I just…I just spent a lot of time around them that’s all. I grew up