by W. C. Peever
“Thank you for the heads up, Marley. It would seem that you were correct regarding the Minister’s intentions. How he found out about the fire so quickly, not to mention the intruders quite is upsetting. All of you, to my study, quickly.” The group eagerly made their way down the tower stairs and hallway and into the Headmaster’s study.
Bailey was the first to speak. “Can someone please tell me what is going on?”
“That, Bailey is a very good question,” said the Headmaster. A lot has happened since I sent you to bed. I believe Joelle should begin, and I will take over when we get to a part she does not know.”
“‘Does not know?’ I know everything about what happened.” The werecat scoffed. “Back at my library, all seemed to be in order, so I decided to finish collecting my thoughts over a few glasses of port. Then I heard an odd noise coming from the secret doorway that Charlie, his friends and I explored earlier. Naturally, I was concerned. I had almost made it to the door when it was flung open, and four hooded figures came running out with swords. Three of the figures seemed to be protecting the one who fled, as they charged at me. If I hadn’t changed into tiger form as fast as I did…Well, I dispatched my assailants quickly, but during the struggle they knocked embers out of the fireplace. Old tapestries do not take kindly to red hot coals. I had a choice at that moment, apprehend the figure, who undoubtedly had stolen Excalibur, or save the castle. Already the wall tapestries and the rug were on fire, so I ran for help.
I was able to raise the alarm and inform the Headmaster.”
“Which is where my story begins,” Grayson said. “Hearing commotion in the library, I raced there and used my Elementalist powers to contain and finally extinguish the blaze with water before it destroyed more of the castle. It was at that moment that Silace came and informed me that Marley had been sent to collect you for Minister Lapertine.”
“I am sorry, Charlie,” Marley said lumbering over to him. “I could not tell you what was going on at the time, because I could not trust the other Guardians. I suspected that Lapertine was using the confusion for his own means, but I was under his direct orders.”
“Which is why Marley had me contacted,” said Grayson. “Certain members of the council have been clamoring to sink their claws into you. They say they just want to welcome you into the fold. I told them that they are more than welcome to extend that message to the entire body of new students. Not that they took my suggestion very well. The truth is that I do not want you pressured into things that you are not yet ready for, Charlie. As long as you are in my school, they cannot take you without my permission.”
“Then, how were they able to do it tonight?” asked Charlie.
“If there is an emergency situation in which the Vanari have taken control, or are attacking the school, the council is obligated to come and protect the both the castle and its assets. Obviously Lapertine bent those terms.”
“But, Professor, if they want to talk to me so badly, why not let them? It can’t be easy for you to constantly keep fending them off.”
“No, Charlie it is not easy.” Grayson did not elaborate further, raising his hand for silence. “For now, dear boy, you must have faith that I have your best interests in mind. I will tell you everything in due time. Trust in each other is our best action.”
“I’m sorry Professor,” Bailey butted in. “Trust is important and all, but we lost the sword. None of this matters without that Excalibur, and now that the enemy has it we are –”
Ms. Welling burst into the room, waving a cane upright in the air, a circle of fire blazing like a crown above it. A ball of blue fire irrupted from the crown, hitting Marley square in the chest, and sending him sprawling on the floor. “You ignorant, presumptuous oaf! You force your way into my dormitories and abduct my children, with never a word to me?” Another blast of fire thundered at Marley, though he was able to deflect it into the fireplace with his staff. “I am more than a match for you, Marley, so do not try me,” she snarled, then hurried over to the children, inspecting each for any damage. Her immense bosom trembled in rage as she glared at the Headmaster.
“And you!” She picked up her cane and waved it threateningly at Grayson’s chin. “Have you anything to do with this? Answer me!”
“My dear Ms. Welling,” Grayson said contritely. “My uttermost apologies! In the confusion I forgot to send word to you. That which we spoke of earlier has begun to unfold.” Ms. Welling slipped her cane into the enormous blue and yellow striped apron that she was wearing over her robes and nodded. “Also, Minister Lapertine has revealed more than he intended to tonight. I am truly sorry for my negligence.”
Ms. Welling took deep breath. “May I take the children back to the dormitories then?”
“I will send them along shortly. For the moment, I believe they have more questions for me that, under the circumstances, need be answered.” Ms. Welling nodded curtly and walked briskly out of the room. “You all right, Marley? Do you need medical care?” Asked Professor Grayson, with the vaguest of smiles.
“That woman,” Marley puffed, “has not changed since I was a student here! Overprotective–” The rest of Marley’s words were lost to his accented mumbling.
“She is very protective of her charges, and rightly so. However, I will speak with her about using her ability against you, Marley. I do not think that she has quite forgiven you for the graffiti you left behind in the bathroom about forty years ago.” Marley grunted his acknowledgment and chuckled a bit, lost in memory. “Now Bailey, you were asking about the ramifications of the sword being taken?”
“Yes, Professor.”
“You will be glad to hear that the sword, at least for now, cannot leave the boundaries of the property. We have placed wards around the property, much like the anti-QILTing ones, and they will not allow any artifact from the Order or the Vanari to pass without my personal permission. However, if the perpetrator took Excalibur to the altar first and gained access to Merlin’s map, well, that would present another problem altogether.”
“Professor, the poem says that only a descendant of Merlin would be able use the sword at the altar,” said Mick.
“True, and that gravely concerns me. Whoever the perpetrator is, and however they got possession of the sword, we must assume he also knows where the altar is, and that he will be using the cumulative knowledge of the Vanari to find the map and discover its secrets. We should therefore make it our first priority to determine the whereabouts of the altar. If we can find it first, we will also find the sword and the traitor in our midst.”
“But Professor, where do we begin to look? The forest around the school goes on for miles, and what if it is just a stone with a slot in it?” Bailey’s voice betrayed her frustration.
“True, again, but I believe that the poem also implies that the truth will present itself in due course. For now keep your ears to the ground and your noses to your studies. Let us not forget that your first duty here is to learn all that you can. Also, I need to inform the Oracle that the prize has been abducted, and seek his guidance. Now, I had best not keep you children away from Ms Welling any longer, or I will be the one with singed robes.” With that he hurried the children out of the office.
“Bloody hell,” said Tillie, who had remained silent thus far. “We were so close.”
“Calm down, Till” said Mick.
“I will not calm down! You do realize we are being followed, don’t you? The very day that we find the resting place of the sword, it gets taken! We should have seized it then and there. We figured out all of the clues. Why did Joelle make us wait? It’s her fault we don’t have the sword. It makes me so angry.”
“Angry or not, Miss Hatfield,” came the unmistakably stern voice of Ms. Welling, “if you all are not in your robes and down to breakfast in ten minutes you will be more than just angry.” Charlie and his compatriots glared at the old wall clock and ran off to the dormitories to prepare for their day.
Chapter Eleven
A
Word in the Hand
Breakfast was all too brief, especially for Bailey, who was famished after their all night adventure, and soon the children found themselves shuffling into Professor Gannon’s classroom, tired and bruised. “I hope that you are more rested then you four look,” said Mrs. Gannon. “We are having an oral pop quiz on the homework material. After all, a small thing like a fire is no excuse for not doing your homework” All the students in the room gave a collective groan and quickly pulled out their text books to cram.
“We really need to start organizing our time,” said Charlie, “I have had no time to study.”
“Class, please close your books and open your ears. It would also be in your best interest to close your mouth unless spoken to, Mr. MacAlcester.” Lance glared at Professor Gannon, but stopped talking. “Fantastic. Well, let’s see…” The professor looked around the room for her first victim. “Meryl,” she called out and a mousy looking girl jerked her head off of the table and looked pleadingly at Professor Gannon.
“Yes, Professor,” she said in a squeaky voice.
“Meryl, which Vanari Emperor was the last in Egypt to hold power?”
“Um…” Meryl tapped her pen against her food encrusted braces, seemingly in deep thought, but the sweat beading on her forehead gave her away. “Ramses?”
“Good. Which Ramses, and when did he reign?”
“I forget.” Meryl replied, her initial happiness from being right quickly lost.
“Can anyone help Meryl out?” Tillie’s hand shot up. “Anyone besides Miss Hatfield? No? Fine, Tillie, go ahead.” Professor Gannon sighed.
“Ramses II reigned from 1303 to 1213 B.C. Although he was not one of the original emperors, he brought the Vanari to the height of power in Egypt. He used the Valley of the Kings as his mystic base. Ramses positioned his Oracle in the center between the three main pyramids. As a result the Oracle’s abilities became so great that it made Ramses the most powerful emperor the Vanari ever had, and for a time it seemed as if no one could topple Egypt.”
“Well put, but someone did indeed topple the Vanari. Bailey?”
Bailey stood reluctantly up. “Well,” Bailey began while looking from student to student for someone to rescue her. When no one did her heart sank. Still, there was something familiar about the story that Tillie had just regurgitated.
“Bailey? Are you still with us?” Ms. Gannon suddenly appeared in front of her table.
“Yes, Professor Gannon. Um… didn’t…” Bailey decided to hazard a guess. “Didn’t Moses take him down?” she said, staring down at her notebook to try and hide her indecision. Professor Gannon smiled. “Correct, though brief, Bailey. As succinct an explanation as I have ever heard. Thank you.” The professor smirked down at Bailey. It was becoming more and more apparent that Ms. Gannon was not happy with them.
Gannon continued, “The story is actually a bit more complex. Moses was, in fact, a descendent of Merlin, and inherited Merlin’s ability to Jump. He was the first Jumper since Merlin, and on Moses’ seventeenth birthday, he was able to bypass the Oracle’s sight by jumping into a dimension where the Oracle did not exist, and jumping back into the Nexus, where he surprised the Oracle and quickly QILTed back to Rome.”
“As we now know, the Oracle was being forced to do Ramses’ bidding, and was grateful to be released. With the base of Ramses’ power gone, the combined forces of the Order attacked Ramses, and brought the Vanari to their knees. The Egyptian empire would go on for many more years, but the Vanari no longer played any part in it. They escaped across the sea to their brothers in the Persian Empire, somewhere around 728 B.C.”
“How the heck did you have time to do the reading, Bailey?” said Charlie, half-amazed at her being able to answer the question at all and half annoyed that he would not have been able to do the same.
“Well, Tillie and I begun reading together before bed and in the mornings, but in this case, I just guessed.” The boys looked at her as if she had three heads, and snakes for hair.
“What are you looking at? Gosh, Charlie, how do you think I got the grades that I did back home? Osmosis? I have always worked really hard to get good grades. At least one of us will have the knowledge of the past we might need.” Tillie gave a slight cough. “Sorry, Tillie. Two of us.” She turned back around to continue listening to the lecture.
“Blimey,” said Mick. “That girl has moxi!” and chuckled to himself
“Tell me about it.”
Professor Gannon took a seat at one of the tables, the chair straining under her immense weight.
“At this point even you who did not grow up in a Manserian house should know the Arthur story.”
Charlie was excited that he was about to hear the true story of Arthur. When younger, Charlie had pretended to be on the quest for the grail with his trusty steed, the family dog, Fox.
“Merlin the Druid,” Professor Gannon continued, “went forward to sometime around 380 B.C., in order to help raise and mentor Arthur. While he was there he became fast friends with the king of the Britons, Ambrosius Emrys. Ambrosius was a mortal enemy of the High King Vortigen, who was an absolute tyrant towards the people of England. When it became clear that Vortigen was planning war, King Emrys asked Merlin for council.
Merlin told him to seek out the crater left behind by a shooting star in the northern Scottish Highlands. Inside the crater he would find a large stone buried beneath the earth that he was to bring back to Merlin.
“The King did as he was told and brought the stone to Merlin, who caused it to crack open and reveal a sapphire the size of a ripe apricot and the color of the Aegean Sea. Merlin removed the crystal and proceeded to melt the iron from the fallen star, and forged from it a sword like none other. He called the sword Excalibur, and into the hilt of the sword he placed the blue crystal. No one knows why the crystal is so important, but when the King Emrys led his troops into battle with the sword held high, no army could resist him, and Vortigen fell.”
The bell rang. “Don’t forget to read the next chapter in your book. Ten page essay due next Tuesday. You all should be thinking up topics!” Professor Gannon’s words were lost to the end of class clatter.
“Well, fat lot of good that does us. It was interesting and all, but it really doesn’t answer the question of where the altar is,” said Mick.
“What’s wrong, Till?” asked Bailey, who had turned to find her friend staring at the words left up on the whiteboard by Professor Gannon.
“The real history of the sword in the stone is actually the history of the stone – the sapphire – in the sword. There is something to that, but for the life of me I don’t know what.” Replied Tillie
“Well, let’s just hope that you’re the only one who eventually figures it out.”
“I don’t think we need to worry too much, Mick,” said Charlie. “After all, Tillie is the smartest girl in this entire school.” Bailey was taken aback, but did not let Charlie see her expression. “Anyhow, the Headmaster told me that new wards had been set up all around the perimeter of the school. No messages are coming in or going out.”
Tillie was startled. “How are we getting news in and out of the castle? We haven’t given up all communication with the outside world, have we? That could be very dangerous.”
“Paper letters and information can still be hand delivered, but everything is being examined and censored, even personal letters.”
Bailey looked alarmed. “That’s a violation of our rights. They can’t go through our stuff. It’s not right! We should talk with the Headmaster.”
“It won’t do any good, Bailey,” said Mick. “The sabotage can’t be allowed to continue. Someone could get hurt or even killed next time. It’s better for everyone’s safety.” Bailey didn’t have an immediate reply. “Anyhow, are you and Tillie coming to the lacrosse game this afternoon, Charlie?”
Charlie had almost said yes when he remembered that he was to begin his weapons training with Marley. “I can’t you guys, I have to
go to work with Marley. Headmaster’s orders.” All three friends eyed him suspiciously. He gave a nervous shrug in return. “Tell you later.”
******
Lunch lasted longer than Charlie realized, and he found himself running up the second flight of stairs to the armory, two steps at a time. Out of breath and ten minutes late he burst through the thick armory doors, and bent over with his hands on his knees. “I made it. Sorry I’m late,” he said, quite out of breath.
Marley was leaning up against the far wall, near a rack of staffs that Mick had been talking about and drooling over the night before. “It’s ‘bout time. I was givin’ ya ten more minutes, and then I had planned to drag you here if necessary.” His gruff voice echoed off of the rough stone walls of the room. “Well, you’re here, so let’s get started. From what the professor tells me you’re partial to the sword. That suits me fine, but first tell me how you decided to take up the sword as your weapon.”
“Well, in the armory the other night – you do know about that, right?” Marley gave Charlie a cool gaze and nodded. “Well, we were searching for weapons that would leave our hands free when we were not fighting, but would be easy to use in a close fight.” Marley nodded again. “I picked up a staff, and it just didn’t feel right, something about the way my fingers gripped it. I picked up a hand axe, which felt better, so I put it in my belt. But then I found a short sword, which felt like it was built for me, like an extension of my own arm. It was amazing.”
“You chose wisely, Charlie. That’s exactly how a sword should feel. But why choose a hand axe as well?”
“I’m not sure. I liked the feeling of having a weapon in each hand.”
“You should know how to use both hands at the same time. It is a type of fighting that was developed by the Persians. It’s a very aggressive way to fight. For today, however, let’s start with the short sword.” He handed Charlie a wooden dowel cut to about twenty four inches.
