Riddle Of The Owl - YA Fantasy

Chapter Eight

The next day Alleria wasn't surprised when Cassel didn't wait for her outside the seminary. It was raining again, but this time she didn't have her umbrella handy. She stood outside the double doors of the seminary and watched the drumming drops hit the pavement. Her heart was heavy and she felt a weight behind her eyes and a lump in her throat. The thought that kept resurfacing was that she couldn't even tell what she had done to upset Cassel to that extent.

And why wouldn't he talk to her now?

"You forgot your umbrella, Miss Bellencreek?" Somia Dausarx had just walked out of the seminary. She was a short with a round face, big protruding ears and was only six or seven years older than Alleria. While sometimes they studied in the same group, Somia wasn't going to take the exam this time. She wasn't ready. Perhaps she would be in a few years' time. She could afford to wait, Somia's family was high class, she didn't speak in dialect or need a sponsor.

"Umbrella? I guess I did," Alleria said, smiling weakly. "Don't I feel silly! With so much to remember, I forget the simplest things."

"Actually, Bellencreek, I've been meaning to speak with you."

Somehow, something like that coming from someone like Somia Dausarx, who had never really tried to converse with Alleria beyond base formalities, sounded foreboding "You have?"

"I've seen you, you know. It isn't right."

Alleria's apprehension mounted. What was it this time? What had she done? She tried her best to keep her toes clean, but Callivar, and all its strange unwritten rules had her feeling like she was walking on eggshells. "You've seen me?"

"Reading and walking, alone. I know you're trying hard to be little miss prodigy and you can't disappoint that oily Mr. Malluri, but what if you were hit by a car? The poor undeserving driver would be traumatised for life just because you needed a few more seconds of cramming."

Alleria closed her mouth when she realised she was gaping at Somia. "I wasn't alone. I was with Cassel, Mr. Malluri's step son."

"Mr Malluri has a step son?"

She was beginning to feel worried for Somia. "You met him just the other day. You were with Gertrud Norberdink talking about the Calendrical Algorithm. She said her husband has the same shoes as Cassel does."

Somia was taken aback, obviously this conversation wasn't going in the direction she had intended it to. "Oh...Oh yes, I suppose there was someone with you..."

Just then, Gertrud walked out of the seminary, buttoning up her long ebony coat. "Afternoon Somia, Alleria, I see you're going home alone again. Somia, did you talk to her about reading and walking? I know walking alone every day can be boring, Alleria, but you must pay attention to where you're going."

It was like snakes had replaced the blood in Alleria's veins. She felt wrong from toe to crown. It was one thing for Somia to forget about Cassel, but Gertrud too? All of a sudden, breathing required thought. "I'm sorry, but I've got to go," Alleria said, rushing out into the rain.

How could they forget? What was going on? Cassel was real. Everyone had seen him, talked to him, called him her "intended". Alleria forced herself to calm, allowing the rain that pelted into her hair and the back of her neck to cool her thoughts. She had given Cassel her muffler, he still had it. She steadied her breathing. She would get to the bottom of this, she would somehow find a book about the occult, somehow find a source and understand it.

That was what she always did. If there was a mystery, she would bend her mind and thoughts and unravel it, contain it, comprehend it, study it.

Then the music started.