to follow. The wounds in my hand throbbed as the window banged against them, but I paid them little heed and focused instead on squeezing myself out.
Eventually making it out into the cool night air, I took another a deep breath and filled in my lungs. The damp earthy scent of dew and soil and just sheer goodness rose to my nostrils, and I closed my eyes briefly, savouring the moment. Then I took a quick glance around, registering the absolute stillness of the night and the fact that I was, indeed, truly alone. Moving forward ever so slightly, my foot caught the edge of the crumpled Initiate robes that I was still wearing. I barely hesitated before pulling them over my head and leaving them in a pile beside my feet. I still had my underwear on underneath, if the unlikely happened and I ran into someone while I was out here. Personally, I doubted whether anyone would be all that keen to view my greying and now somewhat holey smalls anyway. Besides, just for now, for this moment, I needed the sense of freedom and the connection, however tiny, to my old life.
And then I took off. The mage issue shoes weren’t really designed for running, but it didn’t matter. I was out and in the open. Life was good. I jogged at an even pace round to the back of the house, occasionally jumping over the odd bush. Once in the garden where I’d taken the oaths, that somehow seemed almost lifetime away now even though it had actually only been a couple of days, I skirted round the statue and sped up, sprinting now. I passed perfectly planted rose-bushes, void of flowers now it was the dead of winter, but with thorns still gleaming in the moonlight; and pruned hedges and carefully raked soil just waiting for the first sneaking sign of spring before being sown and tended. There was no wind, but the cool night air still brushed arrogantly past my naked skin as I continued to pound my way around.
After a while I veered off left and ended up on the cobbled pathways, which twisted through the buildings that housed the different disciplines. I reached out and scraped my fingertips along the rough walls as I ran, almost as if I was double checking that they were real. When I reached the door that led through to Illusion, I slowed for a moment. The gateway remained firmly in place this time. Then I dismissed it and continued on.
By the time I got back to the windows of the cafeteria, I was breathing hard. My skin and muscles felt pleasantly tingly all over as the enjoyment of exertion rippled through me. I felt better than I had done in a long time. Picking up the robes from where I’d left them, I decided not to bother trying to strain myself to clamber back inside them. Instead I jumped up and clung onto the edge of the window frame and shoved them through, pushing myself after them. The sleeve of the robes caught against something so I tugged hard without thinking, realising too late that had been a dumb move as the fabric ripped violently. Oops.
I yanked them off whatever had snagged them and peered down in the darkness, trying to ascertain what damage had been done. The moon took that opportunity, however, to sneak its way back behind the clouds. Shrugging to myself, I balled them up in front of me and headed back to my room to sleep.
Chapter Seven
When I woke again a few hours later, I stretched out lazily like a cat, enjoying the slight tautness in my muscles. Then, humming to myself, I sprang up and padded over to the sink, splashing my face with water. My night-time jaunt had clearly done wonders for my mood, and I felt lighter and more carefree than I had done in a long time.
Craving several cups of dark chewy coffee, I picked up my robes from where I’d left them in a haphazard heap on the floor and shook them out. The only other replacement robes I’d been given had already been sent to the academy’s laundry room the previous morning, and I knew from what Mary had said that I could expect them back by Saturday, but, even in this era of attempting to conserve energy and water by not continually washing, I felt that I – and everyone else in fact - deserved