Aldwyn's Academy Read Online Free PDF Page A

completely unheard of, but second to her amazement was the cold truth that her people hated orcs completely.
    “Thanks for the help, second year,” the half-orc boy said, voice slightly mocking.
    Helene flushed, embarrassed. The half-orc had protected her. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t the one who’d been spying on her.
    “What are you doing sneaking around like that!” Helene demanded.
    “There was a
banshee
in the dining hall!” The student looked at her. “That doesn’t surprise you?”
    “I didn’t know who to be more frightened of, a banshee or an orc.”
    “No need to thank me. Your prejudice is welcome enough, elf. But I’ll thank you to call me by my name, Caleb, rather than orc. You make it sound like a dirty word.”
    Helene blushed.
    “Why were you following me?” she demanded.
    “What are you talking about? You ran into me.”
    “Yes, while following someone who was spying on me in my room!” Her cheeks were red now, “and I find you in the company of an evil spirit.” She forced her words to come out cold and pointed.
    “What!” The half-orc student sputtered. “I saved you, elf! Do you know what the touch of a banshee can do?”
    From the east hall, a large group of students entered the room.
    Helene sighed. The half-orc was probably innocent, Helene had to admit to herself. He wouldn’t have attempted to save her otherwise.
    Perhaps it had just been the wind pushing on her door and not a spy at all. She shuddered to imagine what else it might have been. In any case, she had no more time to waste speaking to dirty orcs. She had to meet up with that little bother, Dorian.
    Her mother would never let her hear the end of it if she was late bringing him to Lowadar for his tour of the school grounds.
    Helene drew herself up very straight.
    She chose her words with the clever way some people of position have of saying one thing out loud but having the meaning of that communication be quite the opposite.
    “Thank you, first year. My name is Helene Miridori. I’m needed by the headmaster. I must go now.”
    She turned on her heel, head held high, nose pointed upward, and strode down the hall and out the front gates of Aldwyns Academy.

Chapter 9
    D orian hurried out of the shop.
    He pushed through the door and rushed outside, feeling the sudden cold bite into him. He bumped into someone and staggered backward.
    The girl spun away from him, bounced off the wall of the building under a window of dark glass, and landed in a pile of dirty, slushy snow.
    She opened her mouth to speak and a pile of snow hanging from the eves of the shop slid free. The wet, slushy snow drenched the girl’s head and shoulders.
    Ice slid down the neckline of her cloak.
    “Oh!” Dorian got out. “I’m so sorry—”
    “You
fool
!” the girl hissed.
    Her hair lay plastered against her face and skull as if she’d dunked her head in a bucket of water.
    Instantly, any sympathy Dorian might have felt for her evaporated. Those were the words his mother had used at the carriage.
    “I’m trying to apologize!” he shouted back.
    The girl stood up gracefully. Her hair hung in sopping wet strands.
    Dorian felt his mouth pulling up at the corners. He bit his lip. “I
am
sorry.” He began to laugh. “But you just look so ridiculous …”
    She narrowed her eyes.
    From out of nowhere, a beautiful peregrine falcon swooped down out of the gray sky and landed on her shoulder.
    The bird cocked its head and stared at Dorian with sharply intelligent eyes. The creature’s feathers were a rich, dark brown shot through with lines of black and topped by a hooded mantle of taupe.
    “Wow, is … is that your familiar?” Dorian asked. “You wouldn’t think a graceful bird like that would choose a grump like you.”
    The bird thrust his beak forward and screeched at him.
    “Now Mordenkainen is angry with you,” she said.
    Dorian frowned, feeling stubborn. “Who cares what a silly bird thinks anyway?”
    “You