The Old Gods

A Dead Man's Skull

Amir, Robin and Leigh snuck out into the courtyards, taking special care to keep to one side and stay out of sight of the guards. Entering the auditorium was going to be hard, but it wasn't impossible. It just required a bit of finesse. The Lecture Hall, much like the other buildings in Helmsley Academy, was made entirely out of red brick, wood and marble. The bricks were chipped and eroded from weathering countless Twistrosier storms, leaving rather convenient handgrips for the students.

"Robin! Boost me up!" Amir whispered. Robin held out his hands, allowing Amir to stand on them and hoist himself up onto the ledge. Once he was up there, he helped Robin and Leigh up. The coast was clear for now. Most of the Scholars were probably listening to the talk being held inside, leaving them with ample time to climb up the walls without detection.

Amir fit his fingers into one of the crevices and started to climb. Wedging his feet into another brick beneath him, he soon found himself going up the wall at a steady pace. Robin and Leigh were right behind him, looking down and every now and then to make sure no one was watching. They made quick progress, and were almost at the glass dome covering the Lecture Hall when a horribly mangled catcall hit their ears.

"What is that noise?" Leigh asked, grimacing. Amir cautioned a look at wherever the catcall had come from. It wasn't much of a surprise when they saw Davis standing there. He raised an eyebrow at Leigh.

"Oi! Davis! Stuff a sock in it!" Leigh shouted. Davis wasn't about to give up, though. He jumped onto the ledge without much trouble and started climbing after them. He closed the gap between them in less than three minutes, drawing equal with Amir.

"You're doing this all wrong, Amir. I'm just doing this for Leigh, but watch and learn."

Davis pushed off the wall, and for a moment it looked like he was free-falling. But his hand shot out and he grabbed on to one of the wall-mounted stone gargoyle's wings. He heaved himself up onto the gargoyle's head, and from there he made his way to the glass dome. Davis did all this without breaking a sweat, leaving Amir, Robin and Leigh, as much as she hated to admit it, gawking in admiration.

Davis helped the three of them up.

"Don't go getting into trouble now, you three. And Leigh? Consider this a favour from yours truly."

Leigh rolled her eyes at Davis. But her parents had raised her to be polite, even to the most annoying human being in all of Helmsley Academy.

"Thank you, Davis." She said reluctantly.

"Anytime, milady."

When Davis had finally got back on solid land, Amir felt it was safe to proceed with their mission. He lifted one of the glass panes out of position and poked his head inside. None of the Scholars were there. It was only Hollandair Cull, the man whom they'd heard speaking earlier on. He was practicing for a speech.

Amir motioned for Robin and Leigh to follow. Cull seemed fairly absorbed in his own speech, as he paced around the stage and flashed pictures on the screen using a photogram projector.

"How are we gonna get down there?" Robin asked.

"Look," Leigh said, "If we get our jump right, we can land on that couch." She pointed at a long, velvety sofa that was meant for the Scholars to recline on in the Lecture Hall. They were standing right above it.

"Nuh uh. No, Leigh. We are not making that jump. Not over my dead body-"

"COWABUNGA!"

Leigh hopped through the hole Amir had made and she landed on the sofa with a soft thump. A cloud of dust floated up, but otherwise Leigh looked all right. Amir and Robin looked at each other. And back at Leigh.