C20 Chapter 20

Thursday, May 22, 1681

Carol and Lindsey heard a rumor that afternoon. A new Kiltish exchange student had been admitted to Harborne and had started classes that day. This brought back bad memories, which were accentuated by their powerlessness to help Jeff and Enrique, who were still in police custody. However, there was a change that day. That afternoon, two Blue Hawks arrived to ’replace’ the two policemen. After a short discussion, the two Hawks forced the police officers to leave. Carol Flightrod did not understand exactly what had happened, and when she tried to ask one of the police officers who was leaving, all he said was ’these guys again . . . ’ She found his response strange as she believed that the police still had certain control over the investigations, and that Boldmir had avoided giving her information about it because he did not want her to know too much.

When their classes were over, Carol and Lindsey headed over to Enrique’s room. The detective had said that his building did not have as much security as Jeff’s building, which was almost impossible to enter. Carol had the drawings she had copied with her, and she planned to show them to Enrique so that she could ask him some questions. Lindsey agreed to the plan although she thought it was a bit risky. In her opinion, it was dangerous to walk around with the drawings as there was always a small chance they could get lost or fall into the wrong hands. Carol assured her that everything would be fine, and made a gesture with her hand close to her face to calm her down. Nevertheless, Lindsey’s fears materialized right at that moment, when they were walking down a quiet avenue.

All of a sudden, an explosion went off in front of Carol. Lindsey stood frozen with fear, her friend’s face engulfed in flames. The explosion threw her backward two feet; her body fell to the ground partially alight and stopped burning in a matter of seconds. Seeing her friend’s burnt face and realizing she only had three fingers left on her right hand, Lindsey panicked and fell to her knees. She couldn’t process what had happened, her body trembled and she could not speak. A scream from a passerby snapped her out of her state of shock.

People started to gather around and murmur, at the same time she could hear gasps and shrieks from those nearest to them. Lindsey turned and covered her eyes for a moment; she did not want to see her friend in such a terrible state. As she stood up, the smell of burnt hair made her feel sick. She raised her eyes and saw that there were a lot of people around her. Some people looked disgusted and afraid, others simply looked curious.

"Somebody call a doctor!" she screamed, looking into the faces of the bystanders. As she scanned the crowd looking for someone willing to help, she came across a man with deep lines on his forehead, who looked neither afraid nor surprised. It was Leid Braghest, the author of the attack. He stayed to confirm the damage, before turning away coldly and walking off through the growing crowd. Lindsey Whitelock found his attitude very strange and memorized every detail of his face.

Almost an hour later when they arrived at the hospital, Lindsey remembered that the drawings were in Carol’s bag. Without thinking about it, and before getting any kind of answer, she gave her personal details and said that she would take her friend’s belongings to her family’s home. She did not remember where Carol lived, but she did not want to run the risk of losing the drawings. As she walked hurriedly down the street, Lindsey quickly pulled the papers out of the bag to put them in her backpack. She did it just in time, as soon afterward she was stopped by a female police officer who told her, in an unfriendly tone, that she was in charge of taking Carol’s things to her house.

When she arrived home, Lindsey ran into the house and straight up to her room without stopping to greet anyone. She took the drawings out and put them in one of the drawers in her desk, which she locked with a key. After doing this she became weak and her vision blurred; she walked to the side and let herself fall backward on to her bed. She stared up at the ceiling, still feeling shaken, and as she tried to process what had happened that day, she fell asleep.