Chapter Nineteen
“ELLIOT’S AMAZING, isn’t he,” Barve said, smiling as if lost in a daydream.
“He’s a real Prince Charming,” Farlden answered, thinking about that dig the Sap had made about him being scared of doing more magic with Elliot. The fact that Fal was nervous about the result of deepening the magical connection between them just annoyed him more. Elliot couldn’t have known that. He had seen into Nolan’s mind, not Fal’s. They had also experienced Nolan’s desperate, helpless love and Fal, with a pang of sympathy for him, found himself hoping the romance would survive.
“Do you think I should ask Elliot out?”
Farlden stared at his brother, heartbeat speeding up. “I don’t know.”
“Do you think it’s too soon?” Barve asked, sitting next to him in the library, a couple of books on the table in front of them to make it look as if they were studying. “We have only known each other for several weeks, although it feels longer because everything’s been so intense.”
Whatever Elliot thought about Fal, he was clearly fond of Barve. Why should Fal mind the idea of them getting together so much? As Saps went, Elliot was one of the better ones, always kind to his brother. “It’s up to you.”
“There he is.”
Fal looked round for Elliot, confused, then saw Nolan and realised that, of course, that was who Barve had been referring to. Nolan had spent nearly an hour in the computer room, working. Fal was impressed, having assumed from Nolan’s appearance and attitude that he was only interested in getting drunk and having fun. Then again, he wasn’t sure why he’d thought that since it didn’t match the view of his mind he and Elliot had seen. Fal wasn’t sure if he’d made a wrong assumption or if there was something about Nolan that didn’t make sense. Perhaps Saps were always this complicated.
He passed them by and they got up, hastily put the books randomly back on the shelves, and followed him to a lecture theatre. When he went inside, though, there didn’t seem much point in going with him.
“Investigations seem more interesting than this on the telly,” Barve said. “What should we do now?”
“It’s a shame we can’t get a look at his room and, no, we can’t break in,” he told his brother. Everyone thought that Fal was the wild one of the two, but Barve had an equally crazy side to his character. “The lecture will either be one or two hours long. We may as well go back to the canteen and return here in fifty minutes to see if he leaves.”
They had bottles of water with them, filled up from the tap at the residential halls this morning to save a bit of money. Their student loans would probably take decades to pay back as it was, without spending money they didn’t need to. Fal thought of Elliot’s careless spending with a frown, then wondered how much he had saved them on bus fares and thought about the time he took to chauffeur them about with never a word of complaint.
They bought a couple of packets of crisps and sat down by a window that looked out over the fields at the back of the building. The room was peaceful, nearly empty now that the lunchtime rush was over, so Fal got out his sketchpad and a biro. Barve took a notebook, pen and book on the history of art from his backpack and they both got to work, relaxed but silent.
Fal’s mind went back to what Barve had said about asking Elliot to date him. Elliot was the most annoying person Fal had ever met – which, considering the number of Saps who’d made his life difficult, was saying a great deal – but he was okay. Fal didn’t know why the thought of Barve and Elliot getting together seemed so wrong. Perhaps some instinct was telling him not to completely trust Elliot. His mother’s Nean agenda was a deadly one but that thought clashed with the memory of Elliot telling them what the Vice Chancellor had said about magic being dangerous. Elliot had been genuinely concerned for them. Fal didn’t believe that it could all be a lie.
“Where’s Nolan?”
Fal looked up into Elliot’s blue eyes, the tall, elegant boy appearing as if in answer to Fal’s thoughts about him.
“Are your lectures for the day over?” Barve asked.
“Yes. I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to find you.” Elliot had been shocked to discover, in their first week, that they didn’t have mobile phones. The idea that they might not be able to afford them never seemed to have occurred to him, one more instance of the way he took his wealth for granted.
“So far following Nolan has been as interesting as watching paint dry,” Fal said, putting his sketchbook away. “He worked in the computer room and now he’s at a lecture. Clearly he’s a master criminal.”
Elliot sat down next to Barve, put down his briefcase – Fal was sure no other student in the entire university took a briefcase to lectures – and took off his jacket. Fal watched as Elliot folded it and put it down carefully on the spare chair.
“If he’s doing something illegal or dangerous, he’s more likely to do it at night,” Elliot said. “Eva gave me her phone number so perhaps we should check with her where Nolan lives and watch him for a few hours this evening.”
Fal shrugged – unable to refuse since his only plan for later was to phone his family for a chat – and Barve nodded in agreement.
Elliot got out his mobile and dialled a number. “Eva, it’s Elliot. No, we haven’t found out anything yet, although I can promise you that, having looked into Nolan’s mind, he really loves you. Yes, definitely. We’re wondering if you could be right about drugs or if it’s something else like flunking Uni. Could you tell us where he lives so we can see what he does tonight? That might tell us more.” Elliot gestured to Barve’s notebook and pen and Barve handed them to him. He wrote down an address. “Right. Okay. You’re welcome. Bye.”
He pressed a button to end the call and Fal asked, “What did she say?”
“She doesn’t have any plans with Nolan tonight so she thinks our plan is a good one. She sounded happy and relieved when I said Nolan loves her. If it is something straightforward like bad grades or trouble at home, I’m sure they can get through it together. Shall we have dinner and then go over there?”
Fal thought of sitting in a car for hours alone with his brother and Elliot. Barve might even take the opportunity to ask Elliot out. “I’ll bring plenty of alcohol.”