Riddle Of The Owl - YA Fantasy

Chapter Three

Alleria shifted aside the pink lace curtain and watched the goings and comings down below. She could see the brown and orange tiled roofs of the other buildings, the chimneys, the church bells and the deep blue October sky. She liked the slanting ceiling of her room and the two large wooden beams that held it up. The bed, the desk, the bookcase, the cupboard and the vanity were all made of white-painted wood giving the room a bright and calm atmosphere.

She felt content. She had everything she would need to study well. As far as she was concerned, their attic flat was perfect. When it rained, she'd be able to hear the tapping of the raindrops over her head, when the wind blew, she could listen to its strange howl through the streets of Callivar. It was warm and safe up here, but close enough to the world so as not to feel isolated.

A knock at her door, she drew a deep breath. Everything had happened so fast. Here she was, in Callivar and about to meet Mr. Malluri for the first time.

She opened the door.

"Alleria, it's time to go." Mam said.

Light blue was the colour of scholars, but the silk dress made Alleria look like a child in a doll's costume and not a leading mind of the Empire.

"Society is like a stage, baby," Zalee Salah had told her once. "You'll simply have to act the role according to the script." Alleria had no clue what her role was supposed to be - nothing seemed to fit.

The expensive shoes pinched her feet and made every step a small torture. She leaned into Mam who gave her an anxious smile as she helped her down over the crooked stairs from their attic flat to the courtyard where a sleek black car was waiting. An elegantly dressed man with white gloves and gold thread lining the collar and cuffs of his jacket opened the back door for Alleria. Gingerly, she slid onto the fragrant leather seats, collecting her skirt in such a way that it wouldn't wrinkle.

Worried and self-conscious about the place she was going to and the situation she was in, she watched as the driver lightly settled into his seat, shutting the door. His white gloved hands turned the steering wheel, and her new city home slipped away as Callivar's narrow, cobbled streets bathed in yellow lamplight opened up before them.

Mr. Malluri's street was wide and clean, the two lanes separated by a boulevard of tall white-trunked aspen trees. The car paused before a high, wrought iron gate that was opened electronically. Turning in a half-circle around a sparkling fountain, they stopped so that Alleria's door was aligned with a broad marble stairwell.

She looked up and up at the building that loomed before her. Was all this Mr. Malluri's house? Dozens of windows glinted in the moonlight. Why would anyone need so many rooms?

An attendant dressed in a similar fashion to the driver opened Alleria's door and offered her a gloved hand. Once she was safely out of the car the attendant bowed and retreated.

"Miss Bellencreek." A boy, not much older than Alleria, ambled down the stairs towards her. "This way, please."

He was quite tall and noticeably thin with sleek black hair, silver-rimmed glasses and a bored expression. "Father wants to meet you in his study before the party," he explained calmly.

He didn't wait for her and began leading the way up the stairs. She struggled to keep up without losing her balance on the high heels. She couldn't comprehend how anyone's ankles could tolerate this for long. As they stepped through a spacious high-ceilinged foyer, its wall inlaid with crystals and up another stairway it occurred to her that she should say something about the fact that this boy had failed to introduce himself.

But she knew who he was. Mr. Malluri had only one son, Willum, and if he chose silence, she didn't object.

Their footfalls fell noiselessly over richly deep carpeting. Alleria fought the temptation to stop and admire the Balvaric artwork hanging on the walls. Willum walked briskly, though, and it took all her concentration to keep up. Finally, they stopped before a double wooden door. He knocked once and then opened it for Alleria to enter.

"Miss Bellencreek!" A tall, thin, silver-haired man leapt to his feet the moment she was inside. "It's nice to finally meet you." Mr. Malluri had sparkling grey eyes and a thin moustache. He extended his hand to her and when she took it his handshake was so powerful it felt like her arm would be torn out of its socket.

"Nice to meet you too, Mr. Malluri," Alleria said.

"Come, there is someone else you should meet," he led her into his study where a thin, middle-aged woman rose up to shake her hand. She had cropped hair dyed red and wore a smart black jacket and a long black dress that brushed the floor hiding her feet from sight.

Her dark eyes dug into Alleria's. There was something cooly calculating about that look.

"Irene is my business partner and, ah, former-wife," Malluri explained. "She advised me with this... endeavour. You see, it was high time I attempted my hand at this sort of thing. Oh, have a seat please, we'll discuss the details with you."

Alleria sat in the chair Mr. Malluri directed her to and put her palms neatly in her lap like Mam had told her proper ladies did - thank goodness for Mam's instructions at times like these. She tried not to look too intrigued by the fact that Mr. Malluri's business partner also happened to be his ex-wife. In Sereby and surrounding villages, divorce rarely happened and was then spoken about as if it were some kind of terminal illness.

"So, as you've probably noticed, there are only six more months till the Exams for the High Academy. As I've mentioned in my letter, I've entered you into a seminary that will assist with your studies. Though a few people have already pointed out to me, because I am your patron, you will be representing me wherever you go. For that we must arrange for you to attend some etiquette classes as well as proper wardrobe and so forth. You see, your mission is not only to get as far with your studies as you can, but also present yourself to society in a way that will be appealing to my image..." Mr. Malluri went cross-eyed for a moment and he turned to Irene. "Was that all I needed to tell her?"

"Yes. Do you have any questions, Miss Bellencreek?"

"How should I go about presenting myself to society, sir?"

"Haha, as expected of a prodigy, she asks the right questions, doesn't she, Irene?" Mr. Malluri cleared his throat. "What you need to do is obtain a fixed character that will be both interesting and unthreatening to everyone you meet. Irene's idea was to build on your youth. As you well know, normally people attending the High Academy are twenty or even thirty years your elders. So, we will be presenting you as a pure, innocent yet brilliant child. It would be wonderful if you would be seen as a little angel filled with wonder."

"I can try that," Alleria said with a shrug, "but I don't look very innocent, is what everyone tells me." She was a relatively tall girl, and her face was thin, her nose slightly hooked and sharp - she had always looked older rather than younger. "Even though I am capable," she went on, "anyone could hear I speak in dialect." It was becoming increasingly clear to her that when city people heard a country dialect, they instantly assumed the person using it was illiterate. She wasn't going to change how she talked just to seem smarter. She knew how to shift and change the syllabus to be clearly understood - that was enough. Alleria was what she was, nothing could change the fact that she wasn't a city girl.

Mr. Malluri nodded thoughtfully as if this was all a philosophical debate. "Yes, you may have a point," he said, rubbing his chin. "Your mother also explained to us that you find social situations with adults... challenging?"

"Yes, that's right, Mr. Malluri. I'm... unaccustomed to them."

"Well, maybe the combination of this and that will have a good effect." He scratched the back of his head. "This is really why I've never done this sort of thing before, there's no knowing where it will go."

"We should just wait and see," Irene advised.

"The guests will havearrived already, we best make our way to the dining hall, Willum will be yourescort for this evening, Miss Bellencreek. You can rely on him."