Sky Dust

Chapter 3

"It says... Wait a second, the handwriting's weird..." His father came back in, and Spencer hurried in his direction.

"Don't... Don't go?"

"And there's something else. Don't go or... Bad... Something."

"Basically, they're telling us not to go," Spencer concluded.

"Not to go where?"

"To the North, obviously. Where the Dapheni people live."

His father threw the piece of paper on the table without taking his gaze away from it.

"This is weird," Spencer narrowed his eyes.

"Nothing weird. There's always some idiot who doesn't like something we do. We should just ignore it."

"But they're threatening us!"

"What could they do?"

"But why would they prevent us from going to the Dapheni?" His mother questioned, watching the note herself and leaning back on her chair.

"First we should get proof that something serious is going on. This could have been just a stupid prank."

"Wait... Do people know about what we're about to do?" Spencer asked, panicking.

"Yes, I said that in an interview yesterday evening."

"Oh, right."

Spencer paced around the room quickly, trying to gather his thoughts. Someone didn't like the fact that they were going to explore the North.

What could be so bad about it?

Relax, he told himself. Nothing serious was going on. He started to relax slowly and sat back down. Soon he would forget about the note and simply stop caring. Going to the North had always been his dream, and no one would stop him now.

After dinner he went back up and opened the book that he'd been reading. The first line he noticed was one that his father had highlighted in red.

The Dapheni have blue blood that protects them from the cold and helps them survive.

Above the sentence, his father had written the word "magic" with a question mark next to it.

This was something new, he thought. Spencer had always known about the blue blood of the Dapheni that kept them warm. However, he had never thought of it as a proof of their magic.

He scanned the rest of the page. The only other note was next to a picture of a Dapheni woman. Her eye was circled, and the note was simply an exclamation mark. His father had probably meant that the black irises were somehow related to magic.

He turned the page and sighed. This was the end of the Dapheni section, so he closed the book carelessly. It made a loud noise as the pages met, and Spencer lifted it. The book felt too heavy for him to carry, so he promised himself to pick a smaller one next.

Spencer flipped through the next one, carefully checking every page for a word about the Dapheni. He was still hopeful to find something, but the book didn't seem to have a word on the topic.

Now he was so tired, his eyes felt like they were burning. The next moment he was running to his bedroom, wondering how much time he had spent studying. Today had seemed like a lucky day, though. The theory about eyes and blood could be useful. For a moment he thought of actually bringing the book with him, but the idea of carrying it around in his bag made him feel dizzy.