Aik Iskandaryan - William Calhoun and the Black Feather. Book I

They walked in silence. The atmosphere of this foggy area instilled some level of fear and everyone tried to keep close to the person in front not to stray from the path. Getting lost in the fog, in the mountains, seemed a rather gloomy and easily achieved prospect. Finally, they reached stone gates, passed through them, and came to the base of the stairs leading to the castle. Then Morty addressed them again:

«Everyone here? We haven’t lost anyone on the way?»

«All here!» the enrolees replied in a chorus.

«Great! Then follow me and step very carefully! Hold on to the railings in the middle of the stairs!» After saying this, he turned and started ascending the stairs slowly, leading the scared enrolees.

On both sides, the stairs were lit with torches hidden in mouths of stone dragons directed upwards. And their scaly stone wings towered over the stairs themselves, giving them a more frightening look. The patches of thin fog, pierced by the firelight, made it easy to imagine that these dragons were real. After making it up a few round stairs and nearly slipping on one of them, William realized that they were made of stone dragon tails placed close to each other. The long tails were stretched out to create a step when touching the tail of the opposite dragon. They intertwined in the middle of the stairs with their diamond-shaped tips, forming a kind of railing, which junior curator Morty advised to hold on to.

Finally, leaving endless steps behind, the enrolees reached a wide landing, finding themselves before the entrance to the castle. The doors were open wide, letting the light flow onto the landing. All curators moved forward and stood in groups on both sides of the oak front doors. There was short silence and the enrolees started exchanging looks, whispering quietly to each other. Soon this whisper turned into real hum. Glancing around, William couldn’t find Wayne Ferguson, then he decided that he would try to find him later in the castle, when the crowd dispersed.

«Welcome to Alpurg, enrolees!» came a female voice with heavy German accent.

William couldn’t make out the face of the one who spoke. The backs of the enrolees standing in front of him made it hard to see. But he managed to. There was a tall noble-looking middle-aged woman, with a high hairstyle and an arrogant expression, standing in the doorway. She was wearing emerald-coloured robes with very narrow sleeves.

«To the residence of Baron Quincy von Bulberg,» she continued, «the president of the International Federation of Wizards! I am Frau Bertha, and while you are at the castle, I will be your senior curator! If you have any questions, you should address them to me! And now come forward and stand along the walls, near the curators.»

Everyone did as told quietly and now the enrolees were standing close to the walls on both sides of the front doors. When no enrolees were left on the upper stairs, Frau Bertha took out her silver magic feather and ordered loudly:

«Avolare!» And a purple light came out of her feather and pierced the neck of one of the stone dragons.

To the utter horror of the enrolees, right before their eyes, the grey stone colour started disappearing gradually, revealing coal-black scaly bodies, before revealing their majestic bodies completely. When the transformation was completely over, dozens of huge wings waved, creating strong wind, and the gloomy abyss, hidden by the dragon stairs until then, was filled with blood-chilling roar. William clearly felt how this roar made the hooves of the Blue-eyed stump again, this time in his stomach. The dragons soared up into the sky and sat on the tall towers of Alpurg, after which they folded their wings and became stone again. Now, where the stairs used to be recently, the frightened enrolees could see dark-blue lifeless abyss, hiding barely visible snow tops of numerous mountains.

The thought that the stone dragons could have come alive and remove their tails back when they were ascending the stairs, made William tremble nervously. Because if that had happened, the enrolees would have inevitably fallen into the abyss, the stairs had been hiding. Now, Morty’s words about caution while they were ascending the stairs had a completely different meaning.

«Follow your curators now, everyone!» Frau Bertha said. «They will take you to the Dining Hall!» With that, she turned around and entered the castle.

After Frau Bertha had disappeared inside the castle, the dazed enrolees couldn’t move from the spot for quite a while, shocked by the terrifying dragon stairs. Towering over the mountain area, Alpurg was situated on one of the most unreachable tops. Not unlike prisoners on an island without a boat, the enrolees were standing on the edge of the cliff, unable to tear their eyes away from the dark abyss, with the castle front doors open wide behind them. The fog, thickening over the mountains, submerged the area into darkness. Brightly lit windows of Alpurg were the only source of light.

«Alrighty, the show’s over! If you feel faint, dizzy, sick or unwell in any other unacceptable way, let me know! And now into the castle, all of you!» Morty’s cheerful voice brought everyone back to their senses.

The next moment, enrolees dashed into the open front doors of the castle, eager to get away from the dangerous abyss. Junior curators were waiting for them in the entrance hall. Not only them. The entrance hall of Alpurg was full of wizards and witches. Some were strolling up and down the stairs, cheerfully talking to each other and paying no attention whatsoever to the enrolees. Others were talking quietly, laughing from time to time. And some were whispering conspiratorially in the corners. After all the enrolees had gathered around their curators, they started instructing them. Morty, who seemed to be the only cheerful adult in the whole castle, took his group to the side and said in a low voice:

«Listen up, kids! While you’re here, remember one simple rule: if you don’t want to get in trouble or get me in trouble, don’t argue with Frau Bertha! So be quiet as a feather, lay lower than the Six O’Clocker when it travels!»

At that moment, a wizard in yellow robes appeared behind Morty and waved at the enrolees in a friendly way. They started waving back, which puzzled Morty. He turned around quickly and jumped with surprise when he saw the newcomer.

«President Albertson! Would you be so kind and not bother me while I’m instructing the enrolees?» he said impatiently. The wizard in yellow robes turned around, clearly offended, and walked away.

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