by R K Dreaming
The fact that Oberon had some kind of magic in his DNA that left him unharmed by sunlight and let him, a vampire, stay alive — rather than being undead — was remarkable. But it was not going to be able to help me.
Allegra was looking miserable, as if her mind was trying to puzzle out how Oberon’s intrinsic magic might help me but was completely failing to do so.
“There might be something,” I said to her hesitantly.
She seized upon this ray of hope. “What?” she said excitedly.
“Aunt Adele says that the Brimstone family grimoire is up in the Black Tower,” I said.
Allegra’s eyes went wide. “The grimoire? The lost Brimstone grimoire is up there? You can’t be serious!”
I nodded. “Apparently it’s what the seven ghosts in the Black Tower are guarding.”
“No!” It looked like this piece of information had boggled her mind. “No!” she said again.
It made me laugh.
I nodded. “Yes, according to Aunt Adele anyway. It’s up there just waiting for me to go up and beg the ghosts to let me take a look inside it.”
Allegra’s mind looked like it was racing. “You don’t think that’s the Key, do you?” she said. “The Key that Great Great Granny Flaffy was talking about?”
“To solve the family quest, you mean?” I shook my head. “I mean, the grimoire has been lost for centuries hasn’t it? Before she was even born. Aunt Adele said that the ghosts never even told any residents of the castle about it before she arrived, especially not the Hardwicks who used to live here. They kept it a big secret. Which means that Great Great Granny Flaffy couldn’t have known about it. So the grimoire can’t be the Key.”
“Oh my gosh!” said Allegra. “Imagine if Granny Selma knew it was there! She would be so…”
Her voice trailed off. The expression of astonishment and glee on her face said it all. Granny Selma would be seething with jealousy at the thought of the grimoire being there where she couldn’t touch it.
It made me giggle.
“So anyway,” I said. “Aunt Adele hinted that whatever answers I needed might be up there in the grimoire,”
Allegra looked at me sharply. “Does Aunt Adele know about what happened to you?”
I shook my head. “I didn’t tell her. I couldn’t face it. I thought even you would hate me for it and be scared. Actually, I’m kind of shocked that you’re taking this so well.”
She looked outraged. “What did you think I was going to do? You’re my favourite cousin! Did you think I was going to hand you over to the Conclave of Magic to take you away in chains and throw you into some deep dark dungeon or execute you on the spot? Who do you think I am?”
She looked so outraged that it was adorable.
“Of course I didn’t,” I reassured her. “Do you think I would be telling you now if I thought you were going to get me thrown into a dungeon? I always knew you were the best cousin in the world!”
“Too right I am!” she said.
“So anyway,” I said, determined to get this done. “If I’m going to find Oberon Maltei and save his skin today, I’m going to have to find him soon.”
“Who cares about saving his skin?” she said impatiently. “We’ve got bigger problems.”
“Allegra!” I chided. “His problems are the same as mine! He’s about to be punished for something that isn’t his fault. Punished by that horrid Hawke Hardwick who won’t care about whether he’s innocent or not. It’s not fair! And it’s not like Oberon has the most amazing cousin in the world watching out for him. Even his friends have turned on him. He’s got no one. I have to help him!”
My own little speech had nearly made me cry.
Allegra saw it and she groaned.
I continued determinedly. “Which means I’m going to have to go out in this midday sunshine, and the only way to do it is if there really is something in the grimoire that can help me. And if there is a spell, I’m not going to be able to perform it on myself, so that’s where you come in.”
“That’s a lot of ifs,” she said.
“A girl can dream,” I said. “After all, that’s all I’ve got left, isn’t it?”
“Right,” she said decisively, seizing hold of my hand. “Let’s go and face those ghosts together!”
21. The Ghosts Of Black Tower
“Here goes nothing,” I said, my heart pounding.
This was the whole reason that I had come back to Brimstone Bay in the first place, and now that the moment had come I was terrified that no such spell existed that could save me.
Allegra and I were standing at the foot of the Black Tower. The easiest way to reach it had been to cross the courtyard, but obviously I couldn’t go that way because of the sun. So we had taken the long way around within the castle corridors instead.
Allegra pushed open the heavy wooden door, and we both winced as it made a shuddering, juddering noise that echoed loudly all the way up the inside of the tower.
“Do you think we should have knocked?” she said.
I shook my head. “What difference does it make now?”
We stepped into the base of the tower, and saw a set of steps spiralling up ahead of us.
A little skittering noise on the stone ground made us both jump in fright.
I caught a glimpse of movement. A tiny ball of bright green fur was scurrying away into a dark corner beneath the steps. A tiny fuzzy creature with a long tail.
“A pufflepong?” I whispered.
Allegra chuckled. “That would explain why intruders don’t come here. Aside from the scary ghosts, I mean.”
I grinned. Pufflepongs were very cute, but were well known for the nasty smell they let out as a defence mechanism when intruders invaded their territory. The horrid smells magically targeted each intruder to be exactly what repulsed that person the most. And so Pufflepongs were very effective at keeping unwanted visitors away.
It seemed that we might not have been so unwanted, because no horrible stench suddenly filled the air.
All that I could smell was a hint of old smoke from the soot left behind by the ancient fire that had blackened Black Tower and given it its name. The walls here were encrusted with it.
Arm in arm, Allegra and I climbed the spiral steps together all the way to the very top, where we came across another stout door which was firmly shut.
This time we did knock.
Boom, boom, boom!
Our knock echoed thunderously within the cavity of the stairs, and probably inside the chamber beyond that door too. Hopefully not in a way that irritated its ghostly residents.
Allegra and I gave each other nervous grins.
“You’re the new owner,” she whispered, as if trying to convince us both. “So they’re not likely to push us down the stairs, are they?”
I made a face. “I hope not,” I said. “If they really didn’t want me here, they would have chased me off by now, wouldn’t they?”
“Too right,” said a high girlish voice.
Allegra and I took such a sudden step backwards at the unexpected sound that we almost fell down the stairs.
The voice giggled.
We looked towards it and saw a semi-transparent pearly head poking through the wall just above the door. It was a teenage girl with pigtails. She looked about fourteen years old. There was a mischievous expression on her pleasant, round face.
“So you’ve finally come to see us, have you?” she said, looking at me like she full well knew who I was. Her high voice was filled with more than a hint of disapproval.
“But you’re just a kid,” said Allegra in disbelief.
“I’m older than you,” said the girl immediately. “By hundreds and hundreds of years. You’ll never catch up no matter how hard you try!”
“I don’t doubt it,” said Allegra.
The girl turned to me, clearly intent on ignoring Allegra.
“We’ve been waiting for days,” she said. “Days and days! You are very, very rude. You’
ll have to be extra nice to us or we won’t forgive you!”
“What sort of nice?” I asked her suspiciously.
“Have you bought me a gift?” she demanded.
My eyebrows shot upwards towards my hairline. “What sort of gift could I possibly bring for a ghost?”
“That shows what you know,” said the girl sniffily. “You should do your research if you want to make friends.”
“Sorry,” I said.
“There are plenty of things we like,” said the girl. “Like cakes! Where’s my cake?”
My mouth dropped open. I quickly snapped it shut. “But you’re a ghost. You can’t eat cakes.”
She tossed her pigtails angrily. “That shows what you know!” I had a feeling that on the other side of that wall she was stamping her feet. “Just because I can’t eat cake doesn’t mean that I can’t enjoy looking at it and sniffing it!”
“Can you smell cakes?” I asked her curiously.
“Just because I can’t smell it doesn’t mean I can’t sniff it,” she said with annoyance.
Beside me, Allegra muffled a giggle.
“Greedy,” called a voice behind the stout wooden door. “Whoever are you talking to?”
A second head popped out of the wall beside the first. This one was a much older lady who appeared to be in her sixties maybe. She had very frazzled hair and a thin face. When she saw us her eyes opened wide.
“Ooh,” she said.
A third head popped out beside hers, this one a younger man with a long, thin face. Seeing us, his eyes went wide and he gasped in astonishment.
“Visitors!” he squealed. “I’ll go and make some tea!”
His head retreated back into the wall.
“He’d better not make tea,” said Greedy sulkily. “Prissy won’t like that.”
The frazzle-haired older woman floated right through the wall and stuck out her hand to grab mine. Her touch was icy. When she noticed me flinch, she immediately dropped my hand.
“Do forgive me, dear,” she said in a breathless, wheezy voice. “I always forget.”
She squinted at me, inspecting my face as I inspected hers.
She was wearing a great many ghostly cardigans and several ghostly scarves wrapped around her neck. Her thin fingers were fluttering restlessly, as if she couldn’t decide whether she was pleased to see me, or anxious.
None of these three were what I had expected.
“I’m Wilma Brimstone, dear,” she wheezed. “And you must be Esme Brimstone. Adele has told us all about you, of course. I am glad you’ve finally come to see us.”
“Thanks,” I said. “If I had known you were all so nice, I would have come earlier.”
“How kind you are, dear.”
“Ha!” said the teenage girl. “You won’t be saying that when you’ve met Prissy!”
“Don’t mind Greedy,” said Wilma. “She’s a naughty little scamp. You’ll soon get used to her.”
“I am not a scamp,” protested the girl. “And I am not greedy! My name is Georgie.” She turned to me. “You can call me Georgie!”
Wilma gave me a nervous smile. “You can call her Greedy,” she said. “Everyone else does.”
Greedy glared. “If she is calling me Greedy, then she can call you Wheezy! We all call you Wheezy, and you know it!”
“Don’t be rude, dear!” admonished Wilma.
“It’s lovely to meet you both,” I said. “And this is my cousin Allegra Westbrim.”
“Brimstone,” said Wilma immediately. “You’ll always be Brimstones to me.”
“You can’t tell them what they should be,” said Greedy. “They can call themselves whatever they like.”
Wheezy furrowed her brow at Greedy. “You’re only saying that because you’re a Hardwick. You’d love it if we Brimstones all died out.”
“I am not!” said Greedy.
“Away with you,” said Wheezy Wilma, flapping her hands. “Go and tell Primrose we’ve got visitors.”
An ominously excited look came on to Greedy’s face.
“Prissy old Prim is going to love this,” she said. She disappeared through the wall immediately.
Wheezy disappeared back through the thick wooden door, and opened it from the inside to let us in.
Esme and I stepped in, and were very surprised.
I suppose in my head I had always thought that the inside of the Black Tower would be a charred and blackened ruin. But despite the charring on the outside, the inside was a pleasant and very neat living quarters.
The big round room was filled with plump armchairs, and bookcases, and little pretty vases and statuettes and knickknacks. It was a very cosy space that made you feel like sitting down and having a cup of tea with the residents.
The thin faced male ghost we had seen earlier was nowhere to be seen. Aside from Greedy and Wheezy, there was only one other resident in here just now.
A very serious looking old lady ghost was sitting quite stiffly upon one of the armchairs before the fireside. She did not get up to greet me and Allegra. In fact, she practically glowered at us.
Wheezy floated over to her in a strange shuffling manner, as if nervous. She fluttered her hands as she made the introductions.
“Young ladies, may I introduce you both to Mrs Primrose Brimstone?” she said.
Greedy snorted. “Mrs Primrose Brimstone,” she repeated in a mocking tone. “She’s Prissy old Prim to the rest of us.”
“Be quiet, Georgie!” snapped Primrose Brimstone.
Greedy looked very annoyed at having been told off in such a sharp voice, but she shut her mouth anyway, and crossed her arms over her chest sulkily.
Wilma continued in her wheezy voice, “And this is Esme Brimstone, our new resident, and her cousin Allegra Brimstone.”
“Very nice to meet you,” Allegra and I said together.
Primrose Brimstone ignored Allegra and fixed her sharp gaze on me.
She looked even older than Wheezy. Maybe in her eighties. She was a tall, long-boned woman, who was elegant but not beautiful. Even as a ghost, I could tell that her eyes had once been dark and defined and had been her best feature. Her hair had been very white if its current ghostly paleness was anything to go by, and was neatly tied back. Beneath her ghostly witching robes was a long dress that covered her fully from its high neck down to its long sleeves and flowing skirt that swept the floor.
“So, you’ve finally deigned to pay us a visit, have you?” she said in a clipped voice.
Now this was the scary ghost that I had expected to find.
“My apologies,” I said a little stiffly. “I’m afraid your reputation preceded you, and I was a little anxious, I confess, about making your acquaintance.”
To my surprise this brought a small smile onto her face.
She nodded. “Your candour is refreshing. Most of the new owners these past couple of centuries have tried to tell us our place, and what we can and can’t do. As if we ghosts have not been the true residents of this castle for centuries before you new current generations. Naturally we’ve had to swiftly put them all in their places. But I can tell that you and we may get along somewhat better. Am I correct?”
“You are,” I said. “I have no intention of treading on anyone’s toes.”
“Very well,” she said with a small smile. “In that case, we shall rub along well enough.”
Wheezy, who had looked tortured throughout this whole exchange, issued a sigh of relief.
“Oh do stop fussing, Wheezy!” said Primrose. “And where have those others got to? I had hoped to make introductions all in one go. But I suppose you’ll have to meet them another day.”
“Jumpy went to make tea!” tattled Greedy.
“Oh do be quiet, Greedy,” said Prim.
“Shan’t!”
“Primrose, would you like me to go and find them?” volunteered Wheezy.
“You’re just too wheezy,” said Greedy quickly. “I’ll go. I’ll find them quicker than you will.”
<
br /> “There will be no need for that,” said Primrose. “I doubt that our visitors have come to stay all day with us. You’ve both come for something quite specific, if I’ve read the situation correctly?”
She looked at me sharply, her intense gaze seeming to see a little bit too much.
I swallowed hard. “Er, I was hoping you might let me take a look at the family grimoire?” I asked her hesitantly.
That small smile again, one of satisfaction, as if I had said exactly what she had expected me to say.
“I shall permit it,” said Primrose. “And we’ve taken the liberty of taking a look for you, and found something that you may find useful.”
“You won’t mind if we take a look ourselves?” said Allegra. “It’s only just that we were after something quite specific.”
Primrose looked sharply at her. “I am quite aware of what it is that you’re looking for,” she said.
“You are?” I asked, suddenly nervous.
“I am,” said Primrose. “You may think that we ghosts don’t notice such things, but we notice a great many things. Did you think that just because Adele was too polite to say so, that she had failed to notice your affliction?”
My mouth dropped open. “Oh,” I said.
She smiled. “Oh indeed.”
I was too shocked to say anything.
It was Allegra who said quickly “I think you might have misread the situation.”
“We have not,” snapped Primrose.
“Allegra,” I said quietly, giving her a look to back down. We could not lie to them. Cleary they knew what was going on.
Allegra’s mouth tightened. She looked determined to fight my case.
“Esme is not dangerous,” she insisted. “Her malady has not taken full effect. She’s going to be perfectly fine. We came here looking for a cure.”
“That may be greatly more difficult than you think,” said Primrose.
I was disappointed. “But I thought you said you had found what I need?”
“I said I had found something that might help your affliction,” said Primrose. “If you manage to cast the spell well, that is. I dare say that if you are true Brimstones with the powerful Brimstone magic running through your veins, then you shall manage perfectly well.”
