The Bad Luck Lighthouse

by Nicki Thornton

  ‘And Tiffany?’

  ‘Tiffany’s magical power had grown unbelievably – she’d tapped into the firefly cage. But we won.’

  ‘Off to MagiCon HQ for her, then,’ said Nightshade, shifting her claws like needles into Seth’s legs. ‘Hope they don’t let her out in a hurry. Then there’s Brockler and the maid’s bodies to be shifted somewhere. And I guess an S3 team will come in and clean this place again and make it properly tidy. Case over.’

  Seth was aware of Dex and Angelique talking in low voices. He could make out Angelique telling the story of how the firefly cage had ended up in Tiffany’s hands. A story that Seth had been part of, but that already seemed like a long time ago.

  ‘Its inventor, Dr Thallomius, had been trying to locate it for years. Only it was snatched by Tiffany.’

  Dex lifted a cloth out of an inner pocket of his leather jacket and unwrapped it to reveal the dragon’s tooth carving.

  Angelique sucked in a hesitant breath. ‘You should be careful with that.’

  ‘Oh, I intend to be. I certainly don’t want to be hanging on to it longer than I need to. Celeste Crackling and Hari Brockler were both wearing this when they died.

  ‘So –’ he fixed Angelique with his lop-sided smile – ‘Tiffany. What do you think? Did she manipulate the shadows, or was the carving somehow programmed to get the shadows to attack? What I’m saying is – did she mean to kill Mina or the maid or Brockler?’

  Angelique was shaking her head and frowning. ‘Magic is so complicated,’ she sighed. ‘It’s possible we’ll never know how much harm she actually intended. Perhaps she really didn’t know what she was doing.’

  If Seth wasn’t so weary he’d have spoken up and said he thought differently. He knew Tiffany. Those scorch marks in the room where she’d been hiding out told how hard she’d been working to discover the power of the firefly cage. She wouldn’t have wanted to use that power for anything good. He could easily believe everything bad about Tiffany, but he also knew it would be almost impossible to prove.

  ‘I guess that will be the focus of the magical interrogation,’ said Pewter, strolling in and snatching up one of the chocolate digestive biscuits Angelique had put in front of Seth. ‘Hope it’ll put a stop to her having any magical ambitions. But actually, somehow, I doubt it.’

  He went on cheerily. ‘So, Rendleton’s in a better place. Tiffany probably in a worse one. Who or what is next?’

  Angelique slid a book alongside the biscuits. Seth glanced at the cover. The Shocking Secrets of the Firefly Cage.

  ‘You’ve been working out what to do with it once you tracked it down?’ said Dex, helping himself to three biscuits, taking the seat next to Seth and flicking through the book.

  Angelique nodded, but sighed. ‘But there is so little we know. That is about the only book I could find on the subject and it doesn’t really tell us anything.’

  Pewter placed the tiny, intricately carved cage in the centre of the table so they could all study it closely. It was only the size of a tin of beans, but beautifully crafted. The difference now was that it had lost its magical light.

  ‘I guess the best thing is just to have a little go ourselves and hope for the best,’ said Pewter.

  It was hardly reassuring.

  Seth knew that for everyone else, today might be just another job, another few dangerous magical artefacts taken out of circulation. But Seth stroked Nightshade and waited. For him it felt so much more personal than that.

  He felt Pewter looking at him earnestly. ‘Now, Seth, you need to understand. Miss Squerr and I have tried to research this. But a firefly cage is a rare thing. I have to be honest here, no one knows what’ll happen if we open it. So maybe we shouldn’t.’

  ‘You can open it?’ asked Seth, stroking Nightshade more rapidly.

  ‘I think we can, yes. But, really, it’s up to you.’

  ‘Me? I don’t know anything.’

  The firefly cage looked dark, with none of that flowing golden light. Had the sorcerer inside been alive up until tonight? It didn’t look anything more than a piece of fancy metalwork. Had they recovered it only to fail at the last minute?

  ‘Seems not to be glowing now. But it’s been used a lot today,’ said Dex.

  ‘And it ended up at the bottom of the sea,’ muttered Seth.

  Pewter put his hands in the pockets of his shiny suit. ‘I guess the sensible thing would be to deliver it to the Elysee. Put it in the hands of the best people.’

  ‘Like the ones who cleaned this place?’ added Seth.

  ‘There are a lot of risks if we just open it,’ said Angelique.

  Nightshade leapt from Seth’s lap on to the table and nudged it with her pink nose. ‘Of course he wants it open,’ she said.

  ‘Or,’ said Angelique timidly, ‘we could wait and do it in a hospital. In case—’ she didn’t finish. ‘Seth, you do realize that we think—’

  ‘What if someone else snatches it on the way to the hospital?’ scoffed Nightshade. ‘If it was me trapped in that thing, I’d just want it opened as quickly as possible.’

  Pewter looked at Seth and all he could do was nod.

  Pewter moved towards the cage, something already in his hand. He reached towards one side of the intricate metalwork, there was a small click, and Seth saw he had used a tiny key – a small piece of bone carved with symbols – to unlock the firefly cage.

  Seth suddenly panicked. What was the hurry? Angelique was right – they should do this somewhere safer, better equipped. He moved to stop Pewter, to snatch his hand away. But before he could, a blinding flash of light filled the room and they all had to turn away.

  Seth blinked away the white blobs that floated in his vision. He could see the door to the firefly cage was standing open. And he was looking at a woman, small and delicate, looking wan and drawn, with tiny hands and feet and untidy light-brown hair, but with kindly eyes. A woman he didn’t recognize at all, but whose eyes widened as she lifted her arms and stretched them towards him.

  And before she even spoke, something inside of him told him who it was.

  ‘Seth, my boy, you found me.’

  ‘Mum?’

  She stretched out her arms further and Seth ran towards her – just as she collapsed on to the kitchen floor.

  47. She Was Already Gone

  Seth knew he shouted something. He’d been thinking, Pewter didn’t know what he was doing. He’d let her out too soon. He had killed her, but he was too horrified, to traumatized, too out of his depth to do more than garble gibberish at the inspector, who, anyway, took no notice.

  ‘I told you we should have done this in a hospital,’ said Pewter.

  Angelique and Pewter knelt alongside the prone body on the kitchen floor.

  Seth saw the inspector gather air, as he’d seen him do before when he was sparking a light for them to see ahead, or creating a force to throw at something in their way. But this time, Pewter was reaching further, and Seth saw a telltale shimmer in the air.

  ‘I’m taking her to where she’ll get the best care, Seth,’ said Pewter, scooping his mother into his arms and stepping towards the teleport. And then he was gone. She was gone.

  ‘Where? Which hospital?’ said Seth desperately. He’d seen his mother for a few fleeting seconds after years of believing she was dead and now she was already gone.

  He turned desperately to Angelique. ‘He’s taken her. Where have they gone? Can I go too?’ he asked in a small voice.

  ‘She’s been under a severe magical enchantment and attack for a long time,’ Angelique said gently. ‘Inspector Pewter’s got a brother who’s the very best at this kind of thing, or it may be a cousin. He’s got a pretty big magical family. He’ll come and take you to her – but when the time is right. Seth, you must trust in that.’

  ‘Must I?’

  ‘Has he let you down before?’

  ‘Frequently.’

  But she was right. If ever Seth doubted Pewter it was usually because Seth had g
ot it wrong. Pewter, in fact, had never let him down.

  Angelique poured him more tea.

  ‘That magic you did, Seth, that was amazing. You have been studying a lot harder than you let on.’

  Seth was suddenly back on that windy clifftop, standing side by side with Angelique and Pewter as they’d fired shots and made the waves huge.

  ‘I was just there, Angelique. You, Dex and Pewter were doing all the magic. You may as well know I’ve been practising basic spells for weeks . . .’ He thought of that blackened door, the sour burning milk. ‘It was all mixed up out there. None of it could have been mine. I haven’t been able to master a single spell.’

  He felt better and worse at the same time for having admitted it. He was exhausted. He’d been trying to do magic for weeks with only disasters and humiliation to show for it. It would be a relief to give it all up.

  He’d captured Tiffany and recovered Dr Thallomius’s firefly cage. There was a chance his mother might recover enough for him to one day be with her again. Did he really need magic? He could manage without it.

  There was a long silence. Long enough for Seth to start thinking how much he wanted to go home, back to his hotel, to cooking – he was good at that. He guessed someone had to tell Mr and Mrs Bunn that their precious daughter had been found, but that she was under magical arrest. He also guessed that pleasant little duty would fall to him.

  The silence was broken by Pewter, who suddenly stepped through the back door. ‘OK, we’ve got one injured, one dead – no, two.’ He slapped his forehead. ‘The body in the cellar. One of Red Valerian’s followers, at least an ex-follower, wouldn’t do to leave a body lying around for someone to stumble on. Oh, and Tiffany under magical arrest. It’s going to be a long night with some very uncomfortable paperwork. Decided where you want to be dropped off, Seth?’

  ‘I still don’t understand why I can’t be with my mum.’

  Pewter laid a warm hand on his shoulder. ‘All in good time, Seth. She’s in the best place and there is nothing you can do for her right at this moment. All I can ask is that you trust me with her care.’

  Seth nodded, having no choice but to hope Pewter was right. ‘Then home, please, Inspector. I’m going back to the kitchen at the Last Chance Hotel. But don’t leave me there with no news – I want to know how she’s doing, good or bad.’

  Pewter nodded. ‘I’ve done my best to explain everything to the remaining Mintencress party. Don’t know if they understood a word of it. One does one’s best with magic. I’ve also explained about the cleaning. Should be safe enough here for them – eventually. I wish that things would work out more simply for me once in a while. I have a feeling two bodies may well make my bosses think I’ve been rather careless. All in all, though, we’ve done rather a good job here.’

  Seth nodded. Things really had turned OK for him too. ‘I’m pretty tired,’ was all he said.

  ‘Expect you need a break from magic!’ said Pewter, clapping him hard on the back and making Seth slop his tea. ‘I understand if you don’t fancy giving me a hand for a while.’

  ‘It’s kind of worse, you know,’ Seth tried to explain, ‘knowing about magic but also knowing you’re not any good at it.’

  He looked up and saw the confused faces of Dex and Pewter. Angelique was shaking her head. He realized the feeling must be totally alien to them.

  ‘I really can’t do magic,’ Seth whispered. Then said louder: ‘I told you, I’m no good at all. I’ve tried and tried the basics. I know when it’s time to give up.’

  ‘Not magic?’ Pewter looked at him with his brilliant blue eyes. ‘Seth, even terrifically talented sorcerers had to start somewhere. But you – you’ve got magic pouring out of you. I can smell it on you. You’ve got enough magic that if you sprung a magic leak you wouldn’t even notice it dribbling away. Your trouble is that magic wants to flash out of you like a firecracker. It’s the holding it in you’re struggling with. It’s the controlling it – making sure it doesn’t control you. And that is particularly important for you, with your mother, you know that.’

  Seth took a moment to take this in. His first thought was not to believe it. Then he was thinking back to that clifftop and how that summoning spell from his mother’s book had flown into his mind. He felt the black book glow warm against his chest, his only connection to his mother. Had he really done magic? And if he had, was it of the wrong kind?

  ‘Practising somewhere quiet where no one’s going to get hurt is a smart place to start,’ went on Pewter. ‘Thought the Last Chance Hotel could not be more perfect – in case there were a few false starts and out-of-control explosions.’

  ‘What you need is some nice, safe, simple spell you can demonstrate without blowing anyone’s ears off,’ advised Dex, who had been silently munching his way through the biscuits. ‘It’s not doing the magic – it’s doing it well and in a controlled way. My advice is to try to avoid turning up at the Prospect and doing a spell that ends up blowing up the Sorcerer General. Might take longer than you realize.’

  ‘I could help,’ offered Angelique in a small voice. ‘If you’d like.’

  Mina, Lark and Alfie arrived before Seth could reply.

  Mina looked so different in her smart clothes, her long hair no longer under a cap – it was like looking at a different person to when she’d sort of helped out Seth as the maid.

  Pewter turned to them. ‘Dazed, beautiful and bruised! But ready to carry on, I hope.’

  ‘Ready to take a holiday!’ snorted Lark.

  ‘That will give us the perfect chance to arrange for the Snakesmouth Lighthouse to get a proper cleaning. But that can be completed with little inconvenience to yourselves. Take a short holiday, why not. Builders will probably come back now we’ve removed the mad woman from your annexe. And no ghosts! Isn’t that fortunate.’

  He moved forward, extended his hand. ‘Good luck with this place. Sure you’ll have fun and it’ll be a great success, what with all those waves. You could set up a surf school for people who have had enough of just watching them. And so very pleased, Miss Mintencress, that you are not dead.’

  Mina was looking at him grimly. ‘You don’t think we’re staying? You are so wrong.’

  ‘But it looks like you’ll make a terrific go of this place, now the sinister magic’s gone. And not being dead is surely the best news of all.’

  ‘What do you think we’ve been doing all this time you’ve been dealing with dangerous witches and dead bodies? We’ve been packing. We’re going back to the mainland.’ She took Alfie by the hand. ‘I should have listened to everyone a long time ago.’

  Lark looked at her friend with concern. ‘Are you quite sure, Mina?’

  ‘Everyone’s been telling me this place is cursed, but I wouldn’t listen. Now I think it’s me that’s cursed. I managed to buy a building that was being used as a hideout by a criminal on the run from magical police that had once been home to a dark sorcerer who was skilled at getting magical shadows to strangle people for him.’

  Pewter shook his head. ‘Doesn’t sound so bad. Could be worse.’

  ‘I don’t need another building project, I need a holiday,’ said Mina. ‘Rendleton is welcome to it.’

  ‘Rendleton?’ said Angelique and Seth together.

  ‘Yes, I’m giving the lighthouse to Rendleton. Mr Stormforce was right to tell us Zachary has something of a claim on it.’

  Dex looked at Angelique and Seth’s bemused faces with a knowing grin. ‘Come on, I didn’t spend a whole day with a guy trying to interest me in duct-work without discovering some of his secrets. Why does everyone think I am totally useless? Weren’t all of you curious as to why he was so keen to come out here and stuck it out despite all the setbacks?’

  ‘We had a few other things to think about,’ said Angelique.

  ‘He’s Snakesmouth’s son,’ explained Dex. ‘His mother fled once she realized how dangerous her lovely husband was. And when she realized she was going to have a baby. She moved as
far away from her husband as she could. But Rendleton got curious when he grew up, came to check out his old dad.’

  ‘Luckily, I don’t think he has yet grasped the idea that magic can be passed on in families,’ said Pewter. ‘I predict a bit more damage to this place if he tries to discover if he’s inherited any of his father’s talents.’ He looked at Seth. ‘Another one who will have a tricky path to navigate towards magic.’

  Mina approached Seth uncertainly, then flung both her arms around him. ‘Thanks, Seth,’ she said, squeezing him hard, ‘for everything. I would never have— Without you I would have— Anyway, if you ever need anything, just call me, OK? I mean, when I get back from this very long holiday. Don’t call me for at least a year, OK? Now, Mr Pewter, I believe we were promised a quick, dry route off this island.’

  Moments later, Pewter had vanished them away in a teleport, and was just as quickly back, rubbing his hands. ‘Holiday? I don’t think so. My guess is she’ll have another exciting project lined up in no time. This is going better than I thought. We are all wrapped up.’ He turned to Seth. ‘Next – back to the Last Chance Hotel, you said? No, wait – keep forgetting that body in the cellar!’

  Pewter vanished for a few more moments.

  ‘Er . . .’ Seth glanced at Angelique. ‘What you said a moment ago . . . sure you’ve got time to help me?’ he asked her.

  ‘From what I’ve seen and heard of your magic, Seth,’ grinned Dex, ‘you’re going to need all the help you can get.’

  Angelique simply nodded.

  ‘OK,’ said Seth, breathing hard, once Pewter was again standing before him expectantly. He knew the decision to go with Angelique was going to lead to a lot more hard work and would be a difficult path, but he felt strangely prepared for many more disasters along the way. ‘I’ll go wherever she’s going.’

  ‘Great. I love a last-minute change of plan,’ said Pewter, rubbing his hands together again. ‘Is that everything?’

  ‘I do have one final question, sir,’ said Seth. ‘Why were you so interested in the seagulls? It’s the one thing I’ve completely failed to work out.’