The Silver Dwarf (Royal Institute of Magic, Book 4) (13 page)

He missed by miles, and fell, unconscious on the marble floor.

Ben woke to the pleasant feel of clean, crisp sheets and the wonderful absence of pain. His eyes shot open, and he found himself looking at an unfamiliar
ceiling, in an unfamiliar room. He was lying in one of a row of empty beds.

“Morning!” Natalie said brightly.

Ben lifted his head, and saw Charlie and Natalie sitting on a couple of chairs that had clearly been pulled into what looked like a very clean hospital
ward. There were no medical instruments, but several jugs of various brews and a dish of fresh fruit were placed on top of a table. There were also
vases of flowers all about, giving the room a sweet, fresh smell.

“What time is it?” Ben asked.

“Just gone eleven o’clock,” Charlie said with a grin as wide as Natalie’s.

“What? How’s that possible?” Ben sat up, suddenly aware that he wasn’t wearing very much. “What day is it?”

“The day after the exam,” Natalie said. “By the way, those clothes at the end of the bed are yours. Charlie got them from your house this morning.”

A quick change later, and Ben was sitting at the end of the bed, admiring his skin, which now showed only faint scratches and scars.

“Wren herself did the healing,” Natalie said, sounding suitably impressed. “It was a combination of magic and herbs. Some of the cuts were pretty deep.”

Her green eyes were full of curiosity, but it was obvious she was doing her best to resist asking what happened.

Charlie had no such restraints. “Why did you try to hit Aaron in the face? I’m sure he deserved it, but it has certainly got people talking, and not in a
good way.”

Ben frowned. “Who’s talking? There were only a few people there at the time.”

“True, but by the time Aaron had done a full stage reproduction, most of the apprentices probably think they were there too.”

Ben clenched the mattress in frustration. “I should have waited until I got my energy back, so I could have done it properly.”

“What did he do?” Charlie asked.

Natalie raised a tentative hand. “You don’t have to tell us if you don’t want to. We’re curious of course, but maybe you’ll feel better once you’ve
recovered first.”

“Personally, I’d rather hear it now,” Charlie said matter-of-factly.

Ben felt his anger bubbling just recalling the incident, but he forced himself to tell the short but sorry story. When he was finished, both Natalie and
Charlie were looking at him with open-mouthed astonishment.

“That’s absolutely horrible,” Natalie said, her hands going to her face.

Charlie nodded. “I have to admit, that’s a new low, even for Aaron.”

“Yes, it’s pretty sick,” Ben said grimly. Certain unpleasant thoughts materialised involving what he might do to Aaron when they next met, but he dismissed
them when something far more important crossed his mind.

“The exam! Have we had the results? I think I’m in real danger of failing after what happened.”

“After lunch,” Charlie said, suddenly looking anxious. “And if anyone has anything to worry about, it’s me. I’m not sure there was a single department,
except maybe Scholar, that I feel I did okay in. It was a disaster from the first minute to the last, and I can’t even blame it on Aaron.”

Natalie stood up. “I’m sure you’ll both be fine. Come on, a good lunch will calm your nerves. Personally, I’m excited for both of you.”

Excited wasn’t exactly how Ben felt, but with a good night’s rest, a fully healed body, and then a hearty lunch, he felt slightly more relaxed as he waited
for muster with the rest of the apprentices. On Dagmar’s desk he could see six small envelopes. The contents inside would determine whether they remained
at the Royal Institute of Magic or not.

Dagmar marched in right at one o’clock, ignoring the envelopes completely, and circling round to the back of her desk, where she stood, as always. Muster
was rattled off quickly. Ben wasn’t the only one who almost forgot to answer his name, so fixated was he on the envelopes. With no further announcements,
Dagmar dismissed the apprentices, ordering only the six who took the exam to remain.

“Good luck!” Natalie whispered, as she left with the rest.

Dagmar gave them the merest flicker of her wrist, beckoning them forwards. The six envelopes were now laid out neatly on her desk, each labelled with the
relevant apprentice’s name. Ben felt his hands twitch, but resisted the urge to grab his one until instructed.

Dagmar inspected each of them, looking even more severe than usual.

“I don’t know the results. As apprentices, it is always your right to see first. However, I will be at my desk for the next seven minutes, if you need to
see me.”

Without further ado, she left them alone with the envelopes.

Ben frowned. That seemed an odd statement for Dagmar to make, given that she knew nothing about the results. Did she suspect someone had failed? Ben
glanced around, and saw six sets of nervous faces. Aaron was the first to grab his envelope, snatching it from the desk, and drawing it up to his face.
Ben’s eagerness to wallop the idiot was still strong, but there was a time and place for everything.

“Here goes nothing,” Aaron said with a smile that somehow managed to look relaxed, despite the pressure.

Ben watched Aaron’s expression as he tore open the envelope, and took out a small piece of card.

He burst into a grin. “As across the board!”

Amy and Georgia burst into applause, and Frederick gave him an envious smile. Charlie looked disappointed. Ben expected Aaron to stay and watch them open
their results, but, to his surprise, he immediately left the room. Ben caught the merest flicker of annoyance on Aaron’s face as he left. What was that
about? He turned to Charlie, but he clearly hadn’t noticed.

“No!”

Ben turned, and saw Georgia staring in horror at her results. Hand on mouth, she suddenly burst into tears and fled the room. Amy tried to console her, but
Georgia was gone before she had the chance. With growing alarm, Amy and Frederick grabbed their own results. They both sighed with such relief the moment
they scanned the results, but their smiles were less than they might have been, with Georgia still fresh in their minds.

“I passed,” Amy said. “I can’t believe Georgia failed. She was getting special guidance from Aaron. Do you guys mind if I go find her?”

Ben was more than happy to usher Frederick and Amy out of the room, leaving him alone with Charlie, and just the two remaining exam results.

“I don’t know what you’re worried about,” Charlie said. He grabbed his envelope from the desk. “Time to put myself out of my misery.”

Holding his breath, Charlie pulled open his results, and stared at the card, inches from his face.

He broke into a broad grin.

“Passed!” he said, flashing the card wildly. “I even managed a B in the Department of Wardens. That’s ridiculous!”

Ben enjoyed Charlie’s elation, but at some point he had to confront his own results. He suddenly found his hands were sweaty and they stuck to the envelope
when he picked it up. With a silent curse, he tore open the score card, and devoured its contents.

Name: Ben Greenwood

Exam: Second Grade

Department Results:

Diplomacy: B

Scholar: B

Spellsword: A

Trade: B

Warden: A

Overall: A (pass)

Ben’s first thought was that someone had made a mistake. His second thought was drowned out by a feeling of sheer elation that ran from his head right down
to his toes. He almost collapsed onto the floor with relief.

“I’m not even remotely surprised,” Charlie said with a grin.

“I am,” Ben said earnestly. “I thought I’d blown it with my stupid heroics. Come on, let’s go tell Natalie.”

They found her in the common room. The moment they made eye contact, she squealed and practically leapt on them with delight. It took several minutes
before they could disentangle and calm her down.

“That’s a shame about Georgia,” Natalie said, when she finally conceded to sitting back down. The common room was pleasantly empty, with most of the
apprentices working on their handbooks.

“Yeah, it is,” Ben said. “I quite liked her. What’s weirder, though, was Aaron’s reaction. I could have sworn he was angry about something, which doesn’t
make sense if he got straight As – unless he was lying.”

“Which, knowing Aaron, is entirely possible,” Charlie said, helping himself to a cup of tea.

They talked enthusiastically about the third grade. Ben kept on glancing at the three colourless diamonds now hovering over his shoulder, trying to get
used to the increased number.

“They say the apprenticeship really starts in the third grade,” Natalie said. “It’s definitely harder, and there are a lot more practicals to do. Remember,
this is the last grade where you have to do all departments. In the fourth grade, you can ditch two and focus on the three that most interest you.”

“I know what I’ll be dumping,” Ben said. He regretted the words as soon as they came out of his mouth and turned to Charlie, who was looking at him
silently. The obvious question went unspoken. Were they going to focus on different departments? If so, they would surely see a lot less of each other.

“Oh, don’t look so miserable,” Natalie said, reading between the lines. “You’ll both be fine, no matter what you choose.”

Natalie’s words cheered Ben a little, but as he glanced down at the Institute handbook on his lap, he found himself strangely reluctant to crack on. With
such a big step finished, it was sometimes hard to start the next one. His mind was already turning to something even more important than the
apprenticeship and, with the common room temporarily empty, now was a good time to bring it up.

“We need to focus on the next piece of Elizabeth’s Armour,” Ben said. He wasn’t sure why he spoke so softly; there was nobody in the room, but it felt
appropriate.

“Yes!” Natalie said, clapping her hands with unexpected exuberance. “I’ve been wondering when you would bring that up. What are we going to do about the
dark elf symbol we found in that dwarf settlement? That’s our only lead.”

“We need to find someone who can tell us what it is,” Charlie said. “And then, we have to hope that it somehow leads us to one of the pieces of armour.”

“You don’t sound that optimistic,” Ben said.

Charlie looked unusually downbeat, given that mysteries like this one normally had him bubbling. “I still believe that the key Winkleforth gave us was
meant to show us something different.”

“Like what?” Ben asked. “We searched the whole place – there was nothing else there, except for the dwarf mage, who wasn’t exactly forthcoming.”

Charlie raised a chubby hand in defence. “I know. Right now, the symbol is our only lead.”

Ben couldn’t help wondering if Charlie was trying to imply another possible solution, but what else was there? Natalie, however, was clearly more
optimistic about the symbol than Charlie.

“So, how do we find out about the symbol? I’m open to suggestions,” she asked.

“Plompton,” Ben said immediately.

“You what?”

In all the hubbub of the apprenticeship and the War Room, Ben realised he hadn’t told Charlie and Natalie about his discovery of the small West Sussex town
with an unusually high population of registered dark elves. He quickly told them now.

“Wow, I didn’t know they let so many dark elves into the Seen Kingdoms,” Natalie said.

“I guess if they are properly registered like all the other Unseens, it shouldn’t matter. Just as long as they’re not running around causing chaos,”
Charlie said.

Ben took a bite of a bun he’d been holding out on. “The hard part is going to be finding them, as they will obviously be disguised as humans. I’ve already
had a look at Plompton on the map. It’s not big, but it’s not exactly a village of five people.”

“Well, we’ve always got spells, right? You can fire some serious ones now,” Charlie said.

Ben gave him a look. “I can’t just whip up a spell out of nowhere to track down a dark elf. In fact, dark elves are much harder to track than your average
goblin or troll. I would need a very specific spell, and I would need to practise.”

“I’ll get you the spell,” Natalie said with a look of determination. “I feel like I haven’t done much recently, and you guys have been so busy.”

“It won’t be cheap,” Ben said. “And I might need a few of them.”

Natalie narrowed her eyes, taking up the challenge. “I’ll get you the spell. Stop worrying.”

“Good. So we have a plan. Now let’s go have some more lunch. All this snacking is making me hungry again.”

*

Their plan, like most plans, turned out to take longer in practice than they would have liked. The third grade threatened to take over their lives
completely and, as Natalie pointed out, it was a huge step up from the second. Dagmar was quick to drive that into them the very next day at muster.

“The third grade can take anywhere from four to six months,” Dagmar said. With Georgia gone, there were now just five of them listening to her lecture, the
rest of the apprentices having been dismissed. “What I do not like to see is slow starters, apprentices who barely move on their checklist for the first
few weeks, thinking they are on some sort of holiday. I want you to start hard and fast. I will be reviewing your progress weekly and getting updates from
all departments. Do I make myself clear?”

If Ben thought Dagmar was making empty threats, he soon found out how wrong he was. For the next week, it felt like she was hovering over his shoulder
every morning, whenever he had the Institute handbook open. To make matters worse, Natalie was just as busy and finding it difficult to get hold of the
exact spell needed to track down the dark elves in Plompton. Ben, who had been so determined to start tracking Elizabeth’s Armour, found himself treading
water just to stay afloat. If that wasn’t enough, they had to resume their studies at Barrington School, which ate up a few hours each day.