Axel Light Trilogy: Wands and Shield

Chapter 19-B

Axel swore that the symbol right in front of him was the same symbol at the back of his letter – a shield with a horse and a ram at either side. He had looked at the letter and the envelope many times.

Why was it in the newspapers? thought Axel bewilderedly.

The Magical reading the newspaper had turned the page before Axel could get out of his shock. Axel thought that he had lost the lead but in the next page, the same symbol appeared again. He sat at the edge of his seat now, his neck outstretched and trying to snatch a read.

This time, he managed to read the news title besides the symbol:

New bill to be passed to encourage Inter-Magical commute.

But before Axel could read on, the Magical turned the page again. Either Axel was an extremely slow reader or the Magical in front of Axel was leafing the newspaper quickly just to waste some waiting time.

The symbol appeared again, this time, next to the headline:

New generation of leaders appointed Ministerial Posts.

It seemed like the symbol was connected to the government or the Ministry or the city. Axel was anticipating the Magical in front of him to turn the page again when he suddenly felt an urgent nudge.

'What?' snapped Axel impatiently.

He turned sharply and fiercely to look at a nervous Elliot who had slid next to him. Elliot pointed a shaky finger to a few rows in front of them on their right – there were some MaxPol checking queue numbers from those waiting. Which meant that theirs would be checked too.

Axel took a quick intake of breath and they quickly stood up. They slid from their seats and tried to be as unnoticeable as possible while moving out of the room. They did not dare to look around or at anyone and walked as quickly as they could without running, out of the Enquiries, and eventually down the steps of the Headquarters.

Still holding their breaths, Axel and Elliot walked quickly back to Lyra Lane. They did not stop until they stood in the shadows – and they started breathing again. They looked at each other in disbelief.

They had just walked in and out of MaxPol Headquarters without getting into trouble.

'That was alright, wasn't it?' whispered Elliot.

Axel nodded and patted Elliot's shoulder. Luck was still at their side.

'We should go to the campsite,' Elliot continued to whisper, 'We need to rent the site before MaxPol starts looking for us.'

'I need a newspaper!' whispered Axel more urgently, looking up and down the street, 'I saw something in there! But I wasn't sure...'

'There's one on top of the bin,' said Elliot, pointing to a bin just outside the junction.

Sure enough, there was a folded newspaper right on top of it. Someone had read it, had enough of it and left it there. Someone had just thrown a coffee cup into the bin too. Elliot walked up to the bin, glanced around and when no one was watching, he quickly took the newspaper and stuffed it in his jacket.

They quickly made their way back to Central Square. If anyone would go missing in Xeliq, they could always go back to Central Square and they could start the journey again. Ironically, the shape of Central Square was circular instead of a square. Axel wondered why it was called a square in the first place.

The campsite was on Gemini Street, off Sirius Road, which was the road leading to the school. Right at the start of Gemini Street, they stopped in front of a large sign that said: