Bloodrage - Helen Harper Page 0,4
There aren’t many mages who are skilled in that area. It’s when you, like, summon spirits to do your bidding. You know, fight for you, or create things. That sort of stuff.”
Interesting. None of this sounded like anything I could do. I wondered if they’d let me off if they realised that I was utterly unskilled at anything other than lighting a funny looking fire? It was worth investigating.
I smiled my gratitude at Mary for her explanations. “That was really helpful.”
She beamed back. “Why don’t I show you around the school? That’ll help you too. It’s a bit of a maze until you get used to it, and you’ll want to make sure you’re on time tomorrow to take your oath. The Dean gets a bit angry when people are late, especially when it comes to the ceremonies and stuff.”
“Thanks, Mary, I appreciate all the help I can get.” And I really did. It was refreshing to have someone being nice to me. “I should probably stay here though. The not quite so helpful and forthcoming guy who brought me here is bringing some robes. Hopefully some toothpaste and a toothbrush too.”
“Oh, you mean Jeremy? He’s an idiot, but he’s okay when you get to know him. In fact…” Mary’s voice trailed off when the door creaked open, and the man himself stood in the threshold.
“Initiate Mary, you do realise that vespers are about to begin?”
She scrambled off the bed. “Sorry, Mage Thomas.”
“You’d better run,” he said pointedly.
She shot me an apologetic look, and a rueful grin, then escaped behind Jeremy – Mage Thomas – and out of the door.
Once she’d gone, he held out a bundle for me. “Here you go. Inside you will find a blue robe, some soap, toothbrush, toothpaste, electric razor, scissors and,” his lip curled distastefully for a moment, “clean underwear.”
I almost laughed for a moment but then paused, thinking about what he had said. “Um, electric razor and scissors? Why?”
“You need to shave your head, of course.”
I gaped at him, my stomach dropping. “What?”
“You heard me. All initiates are required to do so.”
“But why?”
He shrugged. “Tradition. Who knows really? You need to have it done regardless before the oath-taking ceremony tomorrow. It starts at dawn so you’ll need to be dressed and ready before 5am. I will come and pick you up here and take you directly there tomorrow morning. You will need to dispose of everything you are currently wearing.” He nodded at my neck. “Including that.” My hand flew to the necklace I’d worn every day since Mrs Alcoon’s alleged friend had placed it around my neck and caused all these problems in the first place.
“I was told not to take it off.”
“Well, now I’m telling you to take it off.”
It was becoming hard to ignore the supercilious tone in his voice, but I focused on the orders themselves instead to avoid snapping unhelpfully back at him. I wasn’t sure if I was going to be glad to get rid of the necklace, or sad that I’d miss its now familiar weight. I was damn certain, however, that I was going to miss my hair. Mage Thomas for his part seemed to know exactly what I was thinking because he placed the bundle down on the bed and smirked at me again as if he was suddenly amused. My eyes narrowed. Was he one of the telepathic mages?
He winked at me and made for the door. “Sweet dreams.”
Tosser.
Chapter Two
I woke early, well before my 5am pick up time. It was probably something to do with having the lumpiest, most uncomfortable mattress this side of the Equator, but at least it gave me enough time to sort myself out – although it didn’t help that I’d had several disturbing dreams involving a lithe black panther stalking me through the empty cobbled streets of London. I did not have a crush on Corrigan, I told myself firmly. That had been a mere blip caused by feeling a bit lonely and needing someone to reach out to. Shaking off the vestiges of the dream, I pulled myself off the bed and splashed my face with water to wake up and get a grip of myself.
It took me several moments to find my way into the blue robe that I’d been given to wear. There was some kind of strange complicated twist of fabric involved that had me cursing aloud. When I finally managed to fit myself into it properly, I sat down heavily on the