Royal Institute of Magic: Elizabeth's Legacy by Victor Kloss Read Free Book Online Page A

behind him. It was crowded and Ben squeezed into a seat on the
end, his elbow resting on the top of the small half-door.
    “All aboard – she’s
about to depart!” the goblin shouted.
    After a final flurry of doors
closing, the goblin stuck two fingers in his mouth and whistled. The
carriage gave a gentle jerk and starting moving slowly along the
platform. Ahead, Ben could see the mighty black tunnel. The dragon
broke into a gentle canter, flapping its stubby wings to help it
along. The black tunnel engulfed them. For a moment Ben couldn’t
see his hand in front of his face, then the roof lit up, casting a
soft, warm glow on the passengers. The wind rushed in, gently
buffeting their faces.
    Ben sat in silence until his
heart rate returned to something approaching normal.
    “Well, we’re on our
way,” he said with a smile.
    Thankfully, Charlie seemed to
have returned to the world of the living. He still looked pale, but
his crazed eyes had disappeared.
    “Where to?”
    “The Royal Institute of
Magic, of course.”
    “But where is that?”
    Ben shrugged. “We’ll
soon find out.”
    As the train trundled along, Ben
thought of his parents. Had they known about all of this? If so, why
keep it secret? Ben was starting to feel he had been missing out on
something huge.
    An announcement interrupted his
thoughts. It came from the ceiling, though Ben saw no speakers, and
had the same poorly masked boredom associated with most train
conductors.
    “Welcome, those joining us
from Croydon,” the voice droned. “We have a clear tunnel
all the way to Taecia this morning, which means our journey time will
be approximately forty-eight minutes. Thank you.”
    Ben frowned. “Taecia? I
thought we were heading to the Institute?”
    “Maybe the little green man
lied to us,” Charlie said.
    Ben glanced cautiously at the
nearby passengers, but thankfully nobody seemed to have heard
Charlie’s comment. With the noise from the carriage, plus the
general murmur of conversation, Ben was fairly certain no one was
listening to them. Nevertheless, he tried to keep his voice down.
    “The goblin, you mean.”
    “You can’t be
serious,” Charlie said.
    “Why – because
goblins don’t exist?”
    “I can’t believe I’m
saying this, but no, goblins don’t exist.”
    Ben didn’t know whether to
laugh or to slap Charlie round his ample chops.
    “Have you seen what’s
pulling us along?”
    Charlie gave a furtive glance
towards the back of the dragon’s mighty neck. He shook his
head, looking troubled.
    “I can’t,” he
said.
    “Try harder.”
    Charlie took his hanky out and
wiped his forehead. “How do you do it? How do you simply accept
all this?”
    “Because it’s
happening.”
    “I could be dreaming,”
Charlie mused. “Or maybe someone spiked our drinks. Maybe I’m
hallucinating. Or maybe—”
    “Do you want me to slap
you?” Ben asked.
    “Yes, please.”
    But Ben didn’t. “It’s
not easy for me either. Every time I look outside I want to pinch
myself.”
    This seemed to help Charlie relax
and he put his hanky away. “If the goblin ”
– Charlie faltered, but only a little – “isn’t
lying, then perhaps Taecia is where the Royal Institute of Magic is.”
    “That makes sense.”
    “A more pressing question,”
Charlie said, “is the location of Taecia.”
    “Have you worked out where
we’re going?”
    Charlie ticked off the facts on
his stubby fingers. “I’d say we are doing no more than
40mph and we are heading south-west. The conductor says we will be
travelling for forty-eight minutes, which means we will end up
somewhere short of Portsmouth.”
    Ben didn’t doubt Charlie’s
calculations or his in-built compass, which had saved them many times
before.
    “Seems like a lot of work
for a simple network between towns. We already have trains and
buses,” Ben said.
    The conductor’s voice
intervened before Charlie could reply.
    “Ladies and gentlemen, we
are about to take off. Please brace