Archie Greene and the Raven's Spell

by D D Everest

  Then he heard an urgent, raspy voice in his ear. ‘Book whisperer, you are in great danger. The Scriptorium is under attack – leave now or you will be trapped here forever.’

  For a moment he hesitated, trying again to locate his father through the smoke. He must be so close to him! Then he heard the voice rasp again. ‘Flee! Flee for your life!’

  Archie had no choice. ‘Gadabout!’ he cried, and a sound like wind filled his ears.

  He fell out of The Book of Yore, coughing and choking. He was back in the Scriptorium, but there was still smoke all around him. He was shocked to see flames leaping from the glass dome where the Books of Destiny were kept.

  A cloaked figure was moving across the room.

  ‘Stop!’ Archie cried.

  But the hooded figure was already at the door. With a last glance at the burning Book of Prophecy, the figure opened the door and vanished into thin air. Archie raced to the open door and looked out, but there was no one there.

  He turned back towards the glass dome. Inside, The Book of Prophecy was blazing with a black flame, giving off a vile-smelling plume of dense smoke. Archie felt nauseous, every sinew in his body ached and his head was spinning. The fumes were overpowering.

  He heard the door to the Scriptorium open and was suddenly aware of other people in the room. Bramble, Thistle and Arabella were there, with Gideon Hawke, Feodora Graves and Faustus Gaunt.

  ‘What manner of dark magic is this?’ cried Gaunt.

  ‘There must be something you can do?’ coughed Archie, weakly.

  Gaunt shook his head. ‘It is too late,’ he said. ‘The spell is too far advanced.’

  The other elders looked shocked by what they were seeing, but Hawke looked devastated. His face was leaden and he stared in horror as the flames consumed The Book of Prophecy, devouring it until all that was left was a pile of ash.

  *

  When she heard what had happened, Loretta insisted Archie be brought home immediately. Woodbine was dispatched to collect him.

  Pink had mixed him a sleeping potion to help him rest and as soon as he got back to Houndstooth Road Loretta made him take it and go to bed. Archie’s brain was still trying to take in what had just happened. He couldn’t get his head around the fact that The Book of Prophecy was no more.

  Whatever secrets the book might have been able to tell them about The Opus Magus and Fabian Grey were lost forever.

  14

  The Traitor

  When Archie woke the next morning, it was already ten o’clock. The memory of what had happened came flooding back to him. He couldn’t quite believe that one of the Books of Destiny had been destroyed and it was his fault. Then he remembered what he’d seen in The Book of Yore about his father saving Fabian Grey’s life. He had to tell Hawke straight away!

  He leaped out of bed. His clothes were in a pile on the floor where he’d left them the night before. They stank of smoke from the fire but he was in too much of a hurry to care.

  He tore down the stairs. Bramble and Thistle had already left for the museum.

  ‘Is that you, Archie?’ called Loretta from the kitchen. But the only reply was the sound of the front door slamming as he raced down the garden path.

  Bramble and Thistle were talking to Arabella when Archie caught up with them in the Great Gallery of the museum. When he recounted what he’d seen in The Book of Yore, they were shocked.

  ‘So your father saved Fabian Grey’s life!’ exclaimed Thistle.

  Archie nodded. ‘Yes, but he told Grey that he wouldn’t remember anything about it because the Grimoire has cursed him to lose his memory. So he had to write down the vision he saw in The Book of Prophecy. And there’s something else. At the first new moon he said that Grey would turn into the first beast that he saw. By then Grey was in the Tower of London so the first beast he saw would be—’

  ‘A raven,’ said Thistle.

  ‘Yes,’ said Archie. ‘And Grey said something about there being a raven in the prophecy.’

  ‘That could be a really important clue,’ said Bramble. ‘You have to tell Hawke immediately.’

  ‘I know,’ said Archie. ‘I’m on my way now.’

  *

  When Archie arrived at Lost Books, he found Hawke distracted. His normal calm manner had been shattered. He was pacing up and down in his study like a caged animal. His face was pale and he was muttering to himself as he walked up and down. Was he unravelling under the pressure?

  Archie noticed the glass bottle with the medication on the desk. It didn’t look as if it had been touched. Hawke stopped pacing and turned to him.

  ‘Tell me what you saw in The Book of Yore,’ he demanded. His voice was sharp.

  Archie repeated what he’d just told the others. When he got to the part about his father saving Grey from the cellar, Hawke stared at him.

  ‘Your father?’ he said, his eyes wide with surprise. ‘Alex Greene saved Fabian Grey? How is that possible?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ said Archie. ‘He must have used The Book of Yore to reach him.’

  ‘But it is forbidden!’ exclaimed Hawke. ‘No one may interfere with the past. It is one of the natural lores of magic.’

  Archie remembered that the bookend beast had said the same thing.

  Hawke studied him intently. ‘Did you see anything else?’ His voice was shrill and accusatory.

  Archie had never seen Hawke like this before. Archie felt himself wither under his gaze. He couldn’t think straight. ‘I don’t remember,’ he said, shaking his head.

  Hawke had crossed the room and his face was only inches from Archie’s. His eyes were wide and staring.

  ‘You must remember,’ he said. ‘It’s very important. Did Grey say anything about what he saw?’

  ‘Only that there was a raven in the vision,’ said Archie. ‘My father was trying to get him to write down what he’d seen in The Book of Prophecy.’

  ‘The Opus Magus!’ cried Hawke. ‘I knew it would be written down somewhere! No one believed me, but I knew it!’

  ‘I don’t know if it was The Opus Magus,’ said Archie. ‘And I didn’t see whether he wrote it down or not.’

  Hawke slammed his hand on the desk in frustration, making Archie jump.

  ‘We have to know what it was! It holds the key to defeating the Dark Flame!’ exclaimed Hawke, thumping his hand on the desk again. ‘Without that knowledge we are completely blind. We are so close,’ he said. ‘I feel like I am chasing my own tail.’

  Hawke glanced over his shoulder at the door. Then he lowered his voice.

  ‘If you remember anything else, tell me and no one else. Trust no one. Is that clear, Archie?’

  Archie nodded. Hawke was becoming increasingly paranoid.

  ‘I’ve just remembered something else,’ said Archie. ‘I saw a hooded figure in the Scriptorium.’

  ‘Did you see who it was?’ asked Hawke, his eyes burning into Archie’s.

  Archie shook his head. ‘I only saw him for a moment and then he seemed to disappear into thin air.’

  ‘It must be some sort of concealing magic,’ mused Hawke. He looked into the fire in the hearth. ‘So there’s a traitor in the museum,’ he breathed. ‘I thought as much. When they realised you were consulting The Book of Yore they must have feared you’d try The Book of Prophecy next. They destroyed it so that we could not discover its secret.’

  *

  Archie pondered all that he’d heard. So Hawke was convinced that there was a traitor working inside the museum, but who could it be?

  The newest arrival was Faustus Gaunt. Could it be him? Surely not. After all, Gaunt had been brought in by Hawke to help him with Dee’s prophecy and discover how to defeat the Dark Flame.

  Thistle suspected that Gaunt was their secret informer, FG, but there had been no more messages. The mystery seemed more baffling than ever.

  *

  News of the destruction of The Book of Prophecy was greeted with shock in the magical realm. The Books of Destiny were
among the most powerful and significant of all the magical books, and The Book of Prophecy was symbolic of the future of magic. People were stunned that an act of such wanton destruction could occur inside the museum – a place dedicated to the preservation of magic.

  ‘BOOK OF PROPHECY MEETS ITS DOOM,’ declared the headline in the Crystal Ball.

  The Book of Prophecy, one of the three Books of Destiny, was destroyed in a fire at the Museum of Magical Miscellany last Saturday. Foul play is suspected.

  This is not the first security breach at the museum in recent months, and the theft of The Book of Night from the Royal Society of Magic just a few weeks ago raises concerns that information has been leaked to Greaders. The latest disaster will fuel rumours already circulating of a traitor operating inside the museum.

  Uther Morgred, the head of magical enforcement at the Magical League, said: ‘This was an act of magical vandalism that wilfully ignored the Lores of Magical Restraint. It calls into serious question the security and competence of the museum elders, and there will be a thorough investigation. We will find the perpetrator of this heinous crime and they will be punished.’

  Everything the museum stood for seemed to have gone up in flames with the book. Its destruction added to the rumours already circulating about the Dark Flame. If ordinary magical households were concerned before, now they were really frightened.

  What made matters worse for those inside the museum was that the act of vandalism appeared to have been carried out by one of their own number. There were no reports of an intruder getting inside the museum which suggested that Hawke was right and there was a traitor in their midst.

  Archie blamed himself for what had happened. By consulting The Book of Yore he had forced the traitor’s hand. And he wasn’t the only one who thought it. Some of the other apprentices were whispering behind his back.

  When he passed Enid Drew in the Great Gallery he heard her say to Peter Quiggley pointedly, ‘If a certain person hadn’t poked his nose in, The Book of Prophecy would still be safe. Some people don’t know when to leave well alone!’

  15

  Back to the Asylum

  The end of May brought damp weather and a general feeling of melancholy.

  Summer still seemed a long way off. The air was chilly. Almost a week had passed since The Book of Prophecy had been destroyed and Archie was making his way to Lost Books one morning when Faustus Gaunt intercepted him.

  ‘Archie, can I have a quick word,’ he said, steering him to one side, his expression serious. ‘You mustn’t take the destruction of The Book of Prophecy personally. It wasn’t your fault.’

  ‘Hawke thinks it was,’ said Archie.

  ‘Yes, well, Gideon has his reasons. He’s taken the loss of The Book of Prophecy badly. Consulting it was always a last resort for him. But it was an option if all else failed. Now, well …’ His voice trailed off.

  Archie felt terrible. ‘So it is all my fault,’ he said. ‘I shouldn’t have acted without discussing it with him.’

  Gaunt twitched an eyebrow. ‘You acted rashly,’ he agreed. ‘But what’s done is done and can’t be undone. And besides, you didn’t destroy the book, someone else did – someone inside the museum,’ he added, grimly. ‘I think that’s what has upset Gideon more than anything else. He feels the museum has been betrayed. Of course, it doesn’t help that he’s not been taking his medication. Gideon is very gifted magically, but he’s also very highly strung. Magically talented people often are. There have been a couple of …’ He paused, picking his words carefully, ‘… incidents in the past.’

  ‘Incidents?’ asked Archie. He waited for Gaunt to explain.

  ‘Yes. On a couple of occasions Gideon used magic outside of magical premises and the authorities found out about it. It’s on his record and it looks bad. The Magical League takes a very dim view of such things. And there have been other … episodes. The last time was thirteen years ago, just before the first Greader plot. Gideon got it into his head that someone was trying to poison him. It was nonsense, of course, but he spent some time at the asylum. They calmed him down and helped him understand that he was being paranoid. He’s been absolutely fine since then. It’s not a problem as long as he takes his medication!’

  ‘And the medication – what’s in it?’ asked Archie suspiciously. Hawke didn’t seem the sort of person who would imagine things. If he thought someone was trying to poison him then Archie was inclined to believe him.

  ‘It’s all natural magic,’ Gaunt replied, ‘a calming tonic that Motley Brown mixes for him. Personally, I favour something stronger,’ he added, with a wry smile. ‘But the way Gideon has been behaving lately, I’d say he’s not taking it as regularly as he should.’

  Hawke could be a bit intense sometimes, but Archie liked him. He found it hard to believe that he was dangerous. It all sounded very suspicious to him. Was Hawke really ill or was it another attempt by the Magical League to blame him for the disappearance of The Book of Night?

  Gaunt saw the disbelief on his face. ‘Archie, your loyalty is commendable. Gideon is a great man, but he has his flaws like everyone else. You must see that. And that’s why the museum has been forced to take the steps that it has.’

  Archie gazed at him uncomprehendingly. Gaunt continued. ‘Gideon’s behaviour has been erratic of late. It could indicate that his judgement is impaired. Under the circumstances, we had to report our suspicions that he wasn’t taking his medication. And it was inevitable that the Magical League would want to investigate.’

  Archie was still not getting his point. But at that moment it became crystal clear. Striding towards them was the imposing figure of Uther Morgred, the Magical League’s chief enforcer.

  Morgred was dressed in black with a long leather coat trimmed with black fur. His face looked even more severe in person than it had in the oculus, if that was possible. His dark eyes glared at anyone who came into his field of vision.

  ‘Ah, Uther,’ said Gaunt. ‘I trust that you have all you need?’

  Morgred’s eyes flashed. ‘I have just come from the Scriptorium,’ he said. ‘Frankly, I am astonished at the lack of security. I understand that the room was left unlocked and that some of the apprentices have been allowed to dabble with writing magic?’

  Archie was about to protest but one look from Gaunt silenced him. He knew that the museum elders hadn’t informed the Magical League about the Alchemists’ Club rewriting the magical books. He wondered why. Perhaps the museum elders thought the authorities would try to stop them. From what Archie had seen, they were probably right. The Magical League seemed more concerned with suppressing magic than restoring it.

  ‘Who told you that?’ asked Gaunt, twitching his other eyebrow.

  ‘Dr Brown, the head of Natural Magic, informed me,’ said Morgred. ‘He also tells me that dangerous magical materials and creatures have disappeared from the mythical menagerie.’

  Both Gaunt’s eyebrows twitched. ‘Snufflings are hardly dangerous, Uther.’

  ‘But salamander blood could be!’ said Morgred, his dark eyes boring into Gaunt. ‘I understand that one escaped and was on the loose for a while.’

  The head of Mortal Magic looked awkward. ‘Yes, well, that’s a different matter. But I don’t see what any of that has to do with The Book of Prophecy?’

  ‘Lax security. Sloppy supervision,’ said Morgred, and Archie detected his voice had turned even colder. ‘It’s part of a pattern – an accident waiting to happen. And now it’s happened. First The Book of Night is stolen and now an irreplaceable Book of Destiny has been destroyed. Both happened on Hawke’s watch. It makes you wonder whose side he’s on!’

  Archie felt himself flush with anger. ‘Hold on a minute, that’s not fair!’ he exclaimed. ‘It wasn’t Hawke’s fault, it was …’

  Gaunt glared at him. He managed to bite his tongue.

  ‘The boy is right, Uther. You are jumping to conclusions,’ Gaunt said. ‘If the Royal Society hadn’t kept The Book of Night secr
et all these years it would still be safe.’

  ‘Would it?’ demanded Morgred. ‘Even if The Book of Night had been brought to the museum, from what I’ve seen it would have been at risk here. And now The Book of Prophecy has been destroyed! You can’t blame that on anyone else.’

  His eyes bored into Gaunt’s. ‘I will get to the bottom of this even if I have to tear the museum down one book at a time to get to the truth.’

  ‘But that’s ridiculous,’ said Gaunt. ‘It’s obvious that someone has managed to infiltrate the museum …’ His voice trailed off as he realised the implications of what he’d just said. The magic enforcer seized on his words.

  ‘So you agree that there is a traitor inside the museum? It’s just as I suspected. Well, when I find them they’ll wish that they’d never been born. And make no mistake about it, I will find them. There will be a full investigation and Gideon Hawke’s name is at the top of my list of suspects.’

  With a final hard stare, he turned and strode back towards the Great Gallery leaving Gaunt speechless.

  *

  After what Gaunt had said about his medication, Archie watched Hawke closely for the next few days. There was no sign of the green medicine bottle so Archie assumed he wasn’t taking it any more.

  And the head of Lost Books was definitely not his usual self. His appearance reflected his state of mind. He looked more dishevelled than normal. Archie wondered if he knew that Morgred suspected him. If he did, he didn’t show any signs of slowing down. He spent most of his time in the archive poring over ancient texts.

  ‘Archie,’ he said one day, doing his best to compose his face into a smile. ‘I think it’s time we found out what’s really going on at the Royal Society of Magic. But first we need to pay a visit to the asylum.’

  Archie looked up. Perhaps Hawke realised he needed help. Perhaps he was going to ask for some stronger medication. But Hawke’s next statement suggested otherwise.