The Sphere (The Magi Series #2) (15 page)

Master Lopez was a stocky man not much taller than Mr.
Button.  He had a trimmed goatee to go with his buzzed haircut and sideburns
that almost reached his cheeks.  Just below his sideburns on the left side, a
two-inch scar ran down to his jaw.  Elijah wondered if this was from natural
causes or if the scar was the result of a brutal fight.  If so, the other guy
must have been one brave person.  Master Lopez’s arms looked like they were
stuffed with baseballs.  Anyone willing to tangle with him was certainly
fearless.

To Elijah’s surprise, Lopez’s voice was gentle and soft. 
When he said, “Name, please,” Elijah almost had to ask him to repeat what he
said.  Lopez smiled and handed Elijah a paper with a list of names in
alphabetical order.  Elijah found his name, checked the box next to it, and put
down his signature.

“Is that all?” Elijah asked.

“You have your key and schedule?” asked Master Lopez.

“I have my schedule but not my key.”

Lopez turned around and dug through a huge box of envelopes
and files before he turned back around with Elijah’s room key.  “Here you go. 
You’re on the south side this year.”

Elijah looked startled.  “The south side?”

“Sure,” said Lopez, and when Elijah continued to stare
blankly, Master Lopez asked, “You didn’t know there was another side?”

“No,” Elijah said, turning bright red.

“You wouldn’t be the first,” said Lopez.  “Lots of preliminary
students never hear of the South Hall.  If you walk down the Preliminary
Hall—that’s the hall you lived in last year—all the way to the end, there’s a
walkway connecting you to the other side.  Do you want someone to show you?”

“No, thank you,” Elijah replied, not wanting to expose any
more of his ignorance than he already had, especially in front of all the
preliminary students.

“Don’t worry,” said Lopez.  “It isn’t the first time you’ll
find out something new about the barracks.  This place is full of surprises.

When Elijah reached the entrance to the walkway, he
understood why he had never seen the other hall.  It was at the very back of
the Preliminary Hall where Elijah never went.  A large set of double doors
blocked the entrance.  Elijah reached for the handle and turned, but it was
locked.  He dug into his pocket and pulled out his room key.  He wondered if he
was supposed to get a hallway key too, or if some mistake had been made.

Elijah turned the key, and the door knob released.  The door
opened and then slammed shut by itself as soon as he walked through, echoing
loudly throughout the hall.  All the noise and humming from the Preliminary
Hall behind him was immediately cut off as soon as the door latched, leaving a
very hollow feeling like he was inside a forbidden castle room.

The walkway was twice as wide as the Preliminary Hall.  It
seemed more like a lounge than a walkway.  Two rows of studying chairs and
tables and workbenches, very similar to the library three floors beneath, were all
set neatly, spaced apart for a roomy feel.  Along the wall to the right was an enormous
set of aquariums with saltwater fish, stretching for more than a hundred feet
with breaks about every twenty feet.  Elijah thought the walkway would be a relaxing
place to study when he didn’t feel like taking the long trip down to the
library or the fire pit.

He turned the corner onto his hall and suddenly wondered if
he was in the right place.  Not a single student was around.  Elijah was used
to the hallways pulsing with students hurrying to class or moving from one room
to another, but this hallway looked like a ghost town.

Unlike the bare, white walls of the Preliminary Hall, here
the walls were dark tan, and in between each of the room’s door hung a paining
on the walls or a plant or a table and chairs set on the floor.  There were
fewer torches lit and hung, so the lighting was dim and relaxing.  The same
banners with the elemental symbols hung strategically on the walls, just like
the Preliminary Hall.  Even the neutral area between the boys and girls halls
seemed fancier.

Elijah gazed up at the archway above the entrance to the
neutral area.  When he read the large wooden sign hanging above the archway, he
understood why the hall was deserted.  Above him, it read: 
NOVICE HALL
.  There was no one
here because the other novice students weren’t arriving for another three days.

No one was around to witness Elijah’s face turn into a
tomato, but he still felt like an idiot.  For an entire term, he had never even
noticed that the only kids on his hall were preliminary students.  He
remembered passing by older students on his way to the hall, but never put it
together that they were just on their way to their own hall.  He wondered if
his friends knew about the Novice Hall, although he would be too embarrassed to
ask.

Elijah looked at the key.  On it was the letter “L”.  He
searched the doors until he finally found his door.  It was directly across
from the washroom, which made him thankful.  No more walking down the long,
freezing hallway to get into a shower.  Now, he just needed to roll out of bed
and walk across the hall.

Unfortunately, when Elijah opened up the door, he found a
very large room with over a dozen beds in bunks and almost nothing else.  It
looked like a room at a work camp.  He looked around.  Where was he going to
put his clothes?  Last year, he had a rather large chest in which to keep his
things.  Now, he wondered if he was just supposed to create a nest on the floor
and live like a rat.

Then, he saw something else.  A boy.  Tucked away in the
corner of the room was a single desk where a young man with long, dark hair and
very pale skin sat reading a book.  Elijah shifted uncomfortably, not sure if
the boy noticed him or not.  He cleared his throat.  The boy didn’t look up. 
Elijah threw his bag on the floor, which made a thump.  The boy still didn’t
look up.  Maybe he couldn’t hear well.

“Excuse me,” Elijah said.

The boy made just the slightest turn with his head.  His
long hair covered the side of his face, so Elijah didn’t know if the boy looked
at him or not.  But clearly, he heard him.  Elijah didn’t give up.

“I’m sorry to interrupt you, but I just wondered if I had
the right room.  Is this
Room L
?”

The boy made a very subtle nod, but didn’t seem the
slightest bit interested in giving Elijah the time of day.  It was the most
uncomfortable moment with another student he’d had since he tried to talk with
Becca Uribe for the first time last year.  Maybe she would make good friends
with this boy.

Elijah decided to unpack.  If the boy was going to ignore
him, he could do the same right back.  There wasn’t any sense in trying to force
him to talk.

The bunk beds around the room worried Elijah.  Would there
really be this many boys living in one room?  Last year, he had his own room
with his own bed.  Granted, the room was much smaller than this one, but with
more than a dozen boys in one room, they would be absolutely cramped!  And one
desk?  He would
have
to use the walkway between the Novice and
Preliminary Halls to study.  Just a few minutes ago, Elijah was thrilled with
the fancy new hall.  Now, he thought he would do almost anything to go back to
his old room.

Elijah picked out a bed—mostly by eenie meeny miney moe—and
began to spread his things out on it.  The picture Mrs. Roddick gave him would
look great sitting on the floor in the corner next to his pile of clothes, he
thought.  He took out the clock he was given by Walter Henderson the previous
year.  He looked at the W.H. engraved on the top and once again thought of the
note he found inside his father’s pocket watch.  He would need time to decipher
what the note meant.  He hung his mother’s locket around the small clock and
opened it up to reveal the faded picture of his deceased family.  He smiled as
he thought of them for the first time in a long time, and then felt guilty for
his neglect.

Then he took out his sister’s diaries.  He fondled the
abused-looking diary with the lock that was forced open by the Maliphists. 
Elijah felt a twinge of sadness looking at the empty book with half of the
pages missing.  He had read the other diary over and over, but it still didn’t
fill the void of failing to read the very last words of his sister.

As he placed the diaries on the bed, the door to the room
opened slowly and in stepped Mr. Button.

“Oh.  Good.  Yes.  Well, here you are.  I’m glad you found
the overfill room okay,” he said.

“The what?”

“The overfill room.  Each year we have an overflow of novice
students,” Mr. Button said.  “We get ‘em all sorted out eventually, but in a
pinch, we use this room as a sort of temporary boarding room.”

Elijah breathed a sigh of relief.  Maybe he wouldn’t have to
make a nest after all.

“So this isn’t my room?” Elijah asked.

“For now it is,” Mr. Button answered.  “We’re putting all
the early folk in here until everyone arrives.  There’s no sense in getting you
all settled into a permanent room and then move you in a few days, eh?  We’ll
assign rooms the first day.  Why?  Were you nervous you were going to be
sharing a room with fifteen boys?”

Elijah nodded.

“Well, I don’t think that’ll be the case this year. 
Especially with enrollment bein’ the way it is.  Heck, you may get two rooms
when it’s all said and done.”  He looked over Elijah’s shoulder.  “Oh, that
reminds me.  Got us a new recruit.  Have you met Thomas?”  He said it loud
enough for the boy with the long, dark hair to hear, but there was no reply. 
Mr. Button stepped closer to Elijah and talked softly.  “He doesn’t talk much. 
Been here for over a week now.  Came from Malpetra, so he’s probably a little
mixed up an’ all.  He keeps to himself.  Hey.  Maybe you can get to know him. 
Make him feel welcome, eh?”

Elijah panicked.  He never had trouble being polite, and he
was willing to step out of his comfort zone every once in a while to make a
friend, but this seemed like a forced encounter, far from comfortable.

“Thomas, why don’t you come over here and say ‘Hi’ to
Elijah,” Mr. Button said.  Elijah wanted to crawl under a rock.

Thomas didn’t say a word.  He turned in his chair and stood
up.  His hair looked like a weeping willow as the tips lightly brushed his
shoulders.  It was perfectly parted in the middle which made just the slightest
vertical opening for Elijah to see his long nose and the edges of his eyes.  He
slouched as he walked, and his tall, skinny frame pronounced his hunch even
more.  He kept his head low, and Elijah wasn’t sure if that was by choice or
the only way he could see where he was going.

Thomas stopped more than an arm’s length behind Mr. Button.

“Well, I’ll leave you two here to get to know each other.  I
came by to tell you that you have one hour until we start orientation for the
preliminary students, so make sure to be downstairs by then, eh?  We’ll meet at
the pit and then go from there.  Good day!”

Mr. Button left Elijah and Thomas facing each other a good
twenty feet apart.  Elijah decided he was going to have to be the one to break
the ice.

He cleared his throat.

“Well…it’s nice to meet you.  I’m Elijah.”

Silence.

“I guess you knew that, didn’t you, since Button said that
already?”

Silence.

“Yeah.  You probably knew that.  So, you’ve been here a
week.  How’s it been?”

Silence.

Elijah scratched the back of his head.  His forehead began
to sweat.

“You’re from Malpetra, huh?  Do you know Becca Uribe?  I’m
pretty sure she was—”

In the middle of Elijah’s sentence, Thomas slowly turned
back toward his table, lumbered to his chair, and sat down.

Elijah wasn’t sure if he felt offended or relieved.  He
turned to continue sorting and organizing his things.  Then, out of the corner
of his eye, he saw Thomas’s head slowly turn, like it was stuck in slow
motion.  Elijah felt a sudden drop in his stomach and a chill run through his
body as he realized Thomas was looking at him.  The blood drained from Elijah’s
face.  If it was possible, Thomas looked even paler than before.  He was no
longer reading his book.  He looked tense.  On edge.  Thomas glared at Elijah
with his dark eyes behind his hair, almost as if he was trying to intimidate
him, like a dog baring his teeth at a possible threat.

Elijah wanted to look away, but he couldn’t.  He was
transfixed by the cold, dead eyes across the room.  If Thomas’s goal was to
intimidate Elijah, it was working.  Elijah could hardly breathe, and even
though he wanted to, he couldn’t stop looking back.  He was relieved when Thomas
finally decided to break eye contact and continue reading.  Elijah snatched all
his belongings back up, left the room, walked down the walkway back to the
Preliminary Hall, and sat by the empty fire pit.  It may have been an hour
before he needed to be there, but it was worth it.  The fire pit was not
producing heat, but it was much warmer than being in the room with Thomas.

Before long, clusters of boys and girls began descending the
staircases for orientation.  They were pushing and shoving each other, giggling
about silly things, making stupid noises and then laughing about it.  Elijah
wondered if he was ever this immature.  Clearly, these boys and girls were of a
different breed.  He and his friends could never have been like this.

Mr. Button soon stood in front of them all.  Not wanting to
be seen or forced to acknowledge himself to the entire group of new students,
Elijah made his way to the back of the crowd.  If he could just disappear for
three days until his friends arrived, he would be happy.

It took Mr. Button ten minutes to quiet them all down so he
could talk.

“Thank you boys and girls,” he said in his most important
voice.  “Now, I know you all have lots of questions and want to know lots of
things, but first, you all need to follow me down into the training arena.  We
will conduct our future meetings there as well.  Please keep up.”