– Blackrock, follow me! – the headmistress commanded, interrupting the flow of my thoughts.
Picking up my half-empty suitcase and coat, which were already waiting on the bed, I joyfully left the room, hoping that I would never return here again.
Still, something bothered me. For example, exit time. It was planned to leave only in the morning, but now, even though it’s evening, it’s not even dark yet! However, I did not dare to ask why this was so. Once again, it’s better not to contact Grymza first – it’s a bad omen. And it was not a matter of superstition, but of her bad character. Now I was most afraid of frightening off my luck, so I was silent until we went out onto the back porch, next to which a gig with a folded phaeton was already waiting on the driveway, Bathmore, the boarding house’s regular driver, was sitting on the box.
Autumn this year came ahead of time, and as soon as the sun leaned towards the horizon, it became chilly, and at night it was downright cold, so I, instantly shivering, began to hastily put on my coat.
“Bathmore will take you to the South Station of the Travel Bureau,” the director deigned to inform Ashsheri, condescendingly watching my awkward attempts to get into the sleeve.
Out of confusion, I couldn’t catch him, and besides, the bag hanging on the crook of my elbow got in the way.
– Right now? But the academy stagecoach will only arrive in the morning!
I really didn’t like the idea of spending the night right at the station.
– The stagecoach is already waiting at the Travel Bureau station. I was informed a little less than half an hour ago, so I came to hurry you up. Are you ready?
Grymza's question confused me. Usually she was not interested in such trifles as the readiness of her pupils.
“Y-yes…” I answered, finally mastering the sleeve and began to fasten the buttons. But having fastened two, she stopped. – More precisely, no! Ashsheri Director, everything is so sudden! I didn’t have time to prepare to leave… – Seeing that Grymza’s eyebrows were converging on the bridge of her nose, she hastily explained in a whisper: “Can I go to the restroom before the road?”
The face of the woman, whose age had frozen somewhere between the sixth and seventh decades for thirty years, smoothed out.
– Certainly. But hurry up.
– Thank you, eshsheri director!
I put the bag right on the porch and rushed back to the door.
– Blackrock, what kind of gait is that? Why are you rushing like crazy? Where is the dignity? – the whip whistled from behind.
– Sorry!
I straightened up, turned my shoulders and hastily trotted off, as decency required. I broke into a run again when my inappropriate behavior was hidden by the door. I still looked into the toilet. It was true that the matter was necessary, but the main purpose of the absence and the choice of place lay elsewhere. Climbing onto the wide windowsill, I opened the sash of the window overlooking the park and, looking outside, called quietly:
– Simka!
Simka is my familiar Simuran. Actually, elementals don’t have such familiars, but I’m not a completely normal elementalist. I was born an empty nester, and received the gift just two years ago. At sixteen years old, and not at twelve or thirteen, as expected. And even then I received it in an unusual way, but that’s a completely different story*.
My older sister Talaria gave me the SIM card. She saved a little simuran with a broken wing. While he was being treated, the baby’s mother disappeared somewhere, and he had to be left behind. But Simka grew up to be such a hooligan that they willingly gave him away to me, which made me incredibly happy, because I had a pet and a true friend that I had always dreamed of.
