Page 41 of Tendu: Dancing in the Castle

All I could see was the back wall. Historical implements of war hung against the large uneven stones: swords, shields, a pickaxe, chains with thick handcuff ends, and a rusty spear. A blue-and-black tartan wrap was draped innocuously among the rest.

I walked round, the voices of the others a distant hum, and touched a spiked ball of dark metal. The smell of iron merged with a scent of woodland, like blood mixed with earth. The wall displayed sharp things, impossible-to-escape-from things, and those designed to maim or kill. They were not replicas, I was sure of it. The horror of their reality gurgled in my stomach, the breakfast smoothie quickly turning to acid.

“Minging down here, isn’t it?” said Will.

Justin found the chains and pretended to be captured. “Is this what happens if we’re bad? Very, very bad?” It wasn’t funny.

Aleks played the grand piano, but its echoey quality only added to the nightmarish atmosphere of the place.

I studied a small stone family crest on the wall, like the one we’d been shown by the fireplace the previous night. A plump mermaid and a rearing bear regarded each other across a labyrinth design, while three thistles sat under them. The cutesy heart that topped it off seemed an ill-fitting motif for a family that decorated their walls with devices of torture.

“They were real people,” said Michelle from right behind me, making me jump. “The Mermaid and the Bear. The family crest was redesigned to mark their marriage in the sixteenth century. The angels in the foyer date from that time too. Are you all right, Amalphia?” she asked, studying my face, her expression that of a dark owl, big-eyed and alert to its prey.

“She’s tired. We were up really early,” answered Will, seemingly my only ally in the dank place, and Michelle backed off.

It was good to squeeze into the sardine tin of an elevator again, and be squashed and warm between Justin and Will. The doors to the right of the foyer took us into the newer extension part of the castle. A long hallway led through to an impressively large swimming pool. I imagined Simone falling in and looking like a drowned rat. We were shown round a small and modern theatre, all black and square and minimalist, and then Aleks marched us up the stairs, and we took the corridor to the left before the bedrooms.

There were three normal-sized studios on the first floor. They were light and airy and nice. I hoped one of these would be where morning class took place, but somehow doubted it. Next came a room filled with weights and other gym equipment.

“That’s more like it,” whispered Will.

Justin’s delight appeared in the meditation room with all the touchy-feely glitz. Colour-changing lights, spherical chairs and a fish tank in the wall made the world feel surreal again, though less scary than the dungeon. Michelle put on wafty music and talked about the musical notes it contained. We would focus on a different tone each week but always return to the first one, the one used in Amalgamation C.

“Did she say UT?” asked Will.

“UT,” nodded Justin.

Michelle believed the ancient tone of UT could help us manifest our deepest desires through the banishment of guilt and fear.

“Ooh, err,” said Justin.

“You may also find answers coming to you, questions being answered,” continued Michelle. “There are early indications that this specific combination of sound and movement stimulates an area of the brain used for collating information, or maybe it just allows you to access your own innate wisdom.”

“Place gets weirder,” murmured Will.

Class was short for our first day, which was just as well as it meant a return to the dungeon.

“You like it, Amalphia?” asked Aleks at the end of the lesson.

“Not down here, I don’t, no.”

“It is strange without windows,” he replied. “And we have to dodge the pillars.”

Michelle’s research, also taking place in the dungeon studio, came next. We were handed little metal-filled stickers and shown how to affix them to our scalps. Paul sat in keen anticipation at the front of the gargantuan studio, three laptops in front of him on a table. It was better away from the barre, further from the wall of artifacts. The best aspect of the research was that it all took place in the centre of the room. There were several amalgamations to learn, all as odd as the first, but none producing any strange effects.

Aleks took part in the class and the research too. “I am student also now,” he told us with a smile. “In some classes.”

“Hopefully it’ll keep you out of mischief this term,” Michelle said to him.

I sat by Justin at lunch in the great hall and watched Simone put her hand on Aleks’s arm. “Is it just me?” I asked my friend. “Am I being paranoid and jealous?”

“No, sweetheart. He’s doing nothing to discourage her. I fear we may be witnessing what the internet warned us of in the beginning. That blog woman said he was an awful flirt.”

It was true. Aleks appeared to be not so much ‘putting up with’ as ‘lapping up’ Simone’s attention. He was smiling, laughing and talking animatedly.

“Some men work like that,” said Justin. “Grand passion for a few weeks, and then they just drift off to someone else. Isn’t that right, Hearst? Love ’em and leave ’em. That’s your motto, isn’t it?”

“No,” said Will, laying his tray beside us and sitting down.

---