Finally, she reached a small inn and there was a man who was supposed to take her up to the mountains with his small carriage. When she asked him why he didn’t meet her in the village square upon her arrival, as it was agreed, he just shrugged his shoulders, and spoke in broken English.
“I need drink first.”
Mina rolled her eyes, as she adjusted her heavy backpack. She hated the fact that she was in an unknown country without anyone to watch her back but she believed Emile was telling her the truth. Her gut told her he was to be trusted and her gut was usually right. The coachman offered no help with her backpack, so she just kept walking after him towards the village square, which was where she’d just come from. She was sweaty and annoyed, the worst possible combination when someone’s traveling.
She got into a carriage drawn by two horses and, immediately, felt like she was transported back a century or two. When she saw the condition of the roads and the high, winding paths that led even higher up the mountain, she realized that there was no way a car could ever go through here.
The road was long and full of potholes, making the carriage lean to one side, she’d bump her head against the wooden roof, then it would lean to the other side. There was no way she could close her eyes, even for a second, and maybe take a nap, which she so desperately needed. About an hour or so later, the carriage suddenly stopped. Mina looked out and she saw nothing but vast, endless fields of greenery and snow covered mountain tops which spread out before her as far as the eye could see. The coachman knocked on the top of the carriage a few times, to signal their arrival.
“Are we there?” she asked him.
“You go out here,” he told her angrily, almost shouting at her.
Mina looked around again. There was no one here waiting for her and no sign of any civilized life resembling the infamous vampire academy. She immediately thought it was a trap. Was Emile lying after all? Her knife was not in her pocket now. Too many airport checks wouldn’t allow that. It was well stacked inside the sole of her boot, all she needed to do was press on it with her heel backwards and it would pop out like a grasshopper, ready for action.
Mina jumped out, taking her backpack with her. She noticed that the coachman remained in his seat, the bridle still firmly in his hand. He showed no inclination of getting off or even helping her with her luggage. The horses were unsteady. Their soft whinnies started getting louder, more unsettling. Even the horses didn’t like being here.
“You wait here,” he told her.
“Wait for what?” Mina wondered, but before she could ask another question, the carriage rushed off, as if something had spooked the horses, as well as the man responsible for them.
“Miss Lucy Wing?”
She heard her made up name being spoken by someone behind her. She jumped and turned as quickly as she could, forgetting that she had a heavy backpack resting on her back.
She came face to face with a man whose age she couldn’t even venture to guess. His face showed wrinkles of many summers up in the mountains but the way he offered to take her backpack, and put it on his back so effortlessly, revealed a body which was not that old.
“Please, follow me,” he told her instead of a greeting, then started up a small, goat path towards the top.
He was climbing like a pro, even with that heavy backpack. She wondered if she’d be able to keep up.
“You’re kidding me, right?” she said, without moving.
“I beg your pardon, but there is no other way up the mountain, where we need to go.”
He sounded apologetic and almost sad. There was a quality about his voice that assured her he’d always been someone’s servant, never the master. She was pissed because the journey wasn’t finished already, as she’d had more than enough but even she couldn’t be upset with someone who sounded so genuinely penitent as this guy. As a result, instead of giving him a smartass come back, she just sighed heavily and started following him up the path.
After a while, Mina had no idea how long they’d been walking. They passed up beaten and unbeaten paths, went through small woods and over babbling brooks, where Mina almost sl
ipped and fell in the water. She’d already lost track of time. She was too exhausted to care any longer. All she wanted was to take a nice relaxing shower and hit the sack.
When she finally thought she couldn’t take it anymore, the anticipated view of a mansion opened up before them. Heavily surrounded by thick fog, it was old and grand, more majestic than anything Mina had imagined. It was surrounded by a heavy, iron gate which reached up almost to the skies. She wondered how come something this big wasn’t seen from any of the villages below. Apparently, being a vampire came with a few perks. She was sure that there was an ancient magic about this place, which had made it invisible to the villagers below them for centuries. There was no other explanation.
The heavy iron gate opened up and Mina walked inside following her guide, whose name she didn’t know. Amazingly, the thick fog dispersed and she could see the buildings inside the campus clearly now, the tennis court, the carefully arranged paths, the flower beds and even the small lake right in the middle, with a few ancient looking trees around it. It looked like something created out of a fairy tale. Only, its residents weren’t nearly as well mannered and innocent.
“I was told you were to stay in Dorm Two,” Mina heard the man address her.
He led her all the way to her room and she was surprised when he didn’t enter it. He remained at the threshold, offering her the backpack.
“The Headmaster wanted to welcome you himself,” he continued, “as he does with all our students but he has been prevented in doing so. He is on a trip to the human world and shall be back in about a month, perhaps even longer, after All Hallow’s Eve, depending on his obligations. He shall arrange a welcome meeting then. But, don’t worry. You shall be duly informed.”
“That’s fine,” Mina shrugged her shoulders, letting her backpack drop down to the ground with a loud thumping sound.
“Classes start tomorrow, at 7:00 am sharp. We have taken the liberty of putting all of your books in your locker. Your timetable is on your desk, with the list of classrooms and their locations in the school building.”
He offered her a key, but remained standing at the doorway. Mina frowned, then walked over to him and took the key from his hand.
“Thank you,” she replied, though there was no gratitude audible in her voice.