‘Right, I want you in pairs, boys with boys and girls with girls.’
The children were quick to act, eager to pair up with their best friend or, in the case of the boys, avoid the company of Guth Roach. The latter eventually ended up with a rather nervous-looking Reginald Quaint.
‘Miss Luard, you go with Miss McGritch,’ Mr Gallowglas said on seeing Demelza standing alone. She seemed quite unfazed at being left out by the other six girls.
The Housekeeper handed out a red ball to each pair and directed them to spread out across the field. Thomas and Penders, paired up together, made their way to the edge of the field, not far from the changing rooms.
‘Listen!’ Mr Gallowglass barked. Thomas wondered if the teacher had ever served in the army. His voice carried across the whole field. He instructed them to throw the ball to each other and to learn how to aim and catch effectively. Mr Gallowglas gave them two rules: not to stand less than ten yards apart, and not to lose the ball. It seemed simple enough.
Thomas threw the ball to Penders, who managed with a surprised look on his face to catch it first time. Penders, pleased with himself, threw it back a little harder than he intended and the ball flew straight over Thomas’s head. Penders shrugged innocently and Thomas turned to go fetch it. The ball came to a stop as a large foot came firmly down upon it. Guth Roach picked up the ball, looked at it, and then looked at Thomas standing with hands out ready to receive it. Guth leant back and threw the ball with a speed that shocked Thomas. Guth nodded, a big grin upon his broad features, as he watched the ball fly over Thomas’s head, over Penders’ head and then sail toward the Manor. Thomas turned to see the red projectile hurtling toward the roof of the Manor, but it disappeared into the trees before it reached the building.
‘Oh dear, silly me!’ Guth said with absolutely no sincerity in his voice as Thomas turned back to look at him. Reginald had come up behind Guth and now looked at Thomas and Penders with an expression halfway between pain and apology. Guth turned and gave Reginald a heavy slap on the back, almost knocking the boy over. ‘Come on, time to play catch again!’ he said as a very reluctant Reginald followed.
Thomas and Penders looked at each other. For a moment Thomas considered telling Guth to go and find the ball himself, but he didn’t think it would achieve anything, except perhaps getting punched on the nose or pushed to the floor.
Penders’ expression was one of both shock and confusion as Thomas approached him. ‘Why’d he do that for?’
Thomas shrugged. ‘Best go find it I guess.’
Penders glanced from the trees back to the field. ‘Gallowglas isn’t gonna like it if he finds out we’ve gone wandering off.’
Thomas looked back over his shoulder. Reginald was wringing his hands in pain, with the ball at his feet, as Guth looked on laughing. Mr Gallowglas and Miss McGritch were on the far side of the field and not looking in their direction. ‘Well, we’re going to get told off for losing the ball anyway, so we might as well try and find it. Besides, they won’t see us once we’re in those trees.’
Thomas and Penders were soon out of sight and tramping through the thin outcrop of trees that grew in the shadow of the west side of the Manor.
‘I don’t know how we’re gonna find it,’ Penders muttered.
Thomas led Penders on about another twenty feet before he replied. ‘I think it was somewhere near here. Let’s split up.’
Penders, somewhat reluctantly by the look on his face, started rummaging around in some nearby bushes. Thomas scanned the ground, moving away from Penders toward an area thick with tree roots.
‘Ouch!’ Thomas said as he landed on his side. He glared at the gnarly old root that had tripped him.
‘You all right?’ Penders asked, looking up from behind a clump of tall nettles in which he’d been searching with a fallen branch.
‘Yes, just landed on the Glass,’ Thomas replied as he fiddled around in his pocket for the item. He pulled it out. ‘Well, it’s not broken, but my hip feels like it is!’
‘What you carrying it about for?’ Penders asked.
‘I guess I just didn’t like the idea of leaving it where someone might find it,’ Thomas explained as he got up and rubbed his side. He checked and saw a mark developing that was most certainly going to develop into a nasty bruise. As he went to put the Glass back in his pocket — the other pocket this time — he thought he saw a glimmer of light come from within, as if it had momentarily caught a brilliant ray of sunshine. But Thomas stood in the shade of the trees.
He held it up. It looked quite normal. Maybe he’d imagined it, or some strong beam of sunlight had momentarily penetrated the branches above. Shrugging, he went to put the Glass back in his pocket, but as he did so it glimmered again. He moved the Glass about and found the glowing seemed to increase as he held it out toward the root-strewn path that led further into the trees. He took a few steps back from the path and the glow faded, then a few steps down the path and the light came into the orb again.
‘Penders! Look at this!’ Thomas called.
Penders abandoned his stick to the bushes and came running over. He saw the Glass immediately and looked at Thomas. ‘I never knew it could do that.’
‘Nor did I,’ said Thomas. ‘The glow’s getting stronger the further I go this way,’ Thomas explained, as he stepped cautiously along the ground so as to avoid tripping over the roots again. Penders followed, curiosity written all over his face.
The trees ended and they found themselves facing the wall of the tower. Thomas moved right up to the wall and the Glass glowed brightly. Thomas thought it must be as bright as a candle now.
‘Craters!’ Penders said. ‘Wonder what it means?’
‘Maybe there’s something in the tower that’s making it glow?’ Thomas suggested.
‘Maybe,’ Penders replied.
‘It won’t take long to check. You go that way, and I’ll go this way. First one to find the door, shout.’ Thomas moved off to the left.
The tower soon came to an end as it merged with the side of the Manor. There was no door this way. Thomas walked back and met Penders coming the other way.
‘Did you find anything?’ Thomas asked.
‘Yeah,’ Penders replied holding up a small, red ball. ‘Roach threw it further than we thought. I hope he never throws stones at me or I’ll be full of holes!’
Thomas smiled. ‘Any sign of a door?’
Penders shook his head. ‘Not so much as a window, I’m afraid. I thought you must’ve found it.’
‘No.’ Thomas looked up at the tower. ‘Strange that, a tower with no door.’
‘Yeah,’ agreed Penders, ‘but we need to get back before Gallowglas notices we’ve gone.’
They rushed back to the field, Thomas stuffing the Glass into his pocket just before they emerged from the trees. Thomas felt a flood of relief as he saw no sign that anyone had missed them.
As everyone walked back to the changing rooms, Thomas looked down at his dirt-stained clothes. Everyone had to do their own washing at Darkledun Manor. Thomas wondered why on earth the colour white had been chosen for a P.E. kit. It was probably Gallowglas’s doing. He just wanted to make things as difficult as possible.
‘I don’t think I’m gonna like Physical Education — indoors or outdoors. Gallowglas is a bit too demanding for my liking, and if that’s not enough we have Guth Roach to bother us as well,’ Penders moaned, as he traipsed beside Thomas.
Thomas’s legs ached and he had a stitch. Gallowglas had made them do sprints before the end of the lesson. ‘Well, at least we get four days to recover.’
Penders snorted, massaging his lower back. ‘I think I need a month!’
‘You’ll get used to it sooner than you think, Mr Penderghast. Constant and consistent training is the key.’ They turned to see Mr Gallowglas behind them. Somehow he’d managed to walk up behind them again without Thomas hearing.
‘Training for what?’ Thomas asked timidly, surprising himself.
&nb
sp; Mr Gallowglas looked at Thomas through narrowed eyes. ‘For life, Mr Farrell. And to stay alive.’
Mr Gallowglas moved in front of them as if to leave, but then turned back. ‘Oh, and if the ball’s lost again, you’ll ask for permission before leaving the field or you’ll receive a detention. And my detentions, I assure you, aren’t confined to desks, chairs and stuffy classrooms!’
And with that, Mr Gallowglas really did leave.
Despite a very nice lunch of shepherd’s pie followed by rhubarb and custard, Thomas still had a very bitter taste in his mouth. Even Penders seemed to have lost his appetite a little, though not until after his second helping. Thomas couldn’t stop thinking about Mr Gallowglas’s words. How did he know the’d left the field? Did he see them? Or did Guth say something? Penders thought the latter, and he’d made it very plain, between mouthfuls, during lunch.
‘I wonder what Mr Gallowglas’s detentions are really like?’ Penders pushed his empty dessert bowl aside and leant on the table. ‘A thousand press ups? Fifty laps of the field? Something like that I guess.’
‘I don’t intend to find out,’ Thomas replied as Jessica and Merideah approached. Most of the other students had left the tables by now. Lunch was almost over.
‘You two look like you’ve swallowed something sour,’ Merideah said.
Penders looked up through tired eyes. ‘No, we just had a run in with a very sour person.’
Merideah raised her eyebrows. ‘And who was that?’
Thomas shifted. He didn’t like being — or nearly being — in trouble, let alone telling anyone about it. ‘Mr Gallowglas threatened us with detention for wandering off the field.’
Merideah gave them both a quizzical look. ‘And why did you do that?’
‘Guth Roach threw our ball into the trees.’ Penders slumped down into his arms, still tired from the two-hour lesson.
‘You should be more careful.’ Jessica nodded approval at her own advice.
Penders opened an eye. ‘I think Mr Gallowglas has the eyes of a hawk, and the ears of ... of an animal that has very good hearing!’
‘A bat?’ Merideah suggested.
‘Sorry?’ Penders said.
‘A bat has good hearing,’ Merideah explained.
‘Oh, right,’ replied Penders, somewhat fazed. ‘And he never smiles either!’
Jessica smiled wryly. ‘I overheard some of the older students calling him “Grim Gallowglas”.’
‘I reckon that’s about right,’ Penders stated, with a light in his eye. ‘It’s a very good name, in fact.’
‘Still, we found the ball. Guth threw it right over by the tower,’ Thomas explained with some satisfaction in his voice.
Merideah straightened her Alice band. ‘The Headmaster said the tower’s out of bounds.’
Penders lifted his head. ‘Well, out of bounds or not, it sure made Thomas’s Glass glow.’
‘What Glass?’ said Merideah. Penders looked blankly at Merideah before turning to Thomas with an awkward guess-I-said-something-I-shouldn’t-have look upon his face.
The hall had nearly emptied of students now, so Thomas pulled the Glass from the bag of marbles in his blazer pocket.
Merideah looked concerned. ‘You carry a lizard in a glass ball around in your pocket?’
‘It was my father’s. I never knew him, and it’s all I have of his. I guess I like to keep it close. I’m not really sure what it is,’ Thomas explained.
Merideah frowned as she looked at the object. ‘May I?’ She stretched out her hand and Thomas, somewhat reluctantly, dropped the Glass into her small but steady hand. She put her eye to the orb and then gave it a small shake. ‘Hmm. I wonder how this lizard is suspended?’
‘It’s a serpent,’ Thomas corrected her, but Merideah didn’t seem to hear. ‘I suppose it’s just set in the glass.’
Merideah shook her head. ‘Too light. It’d be heavier if it was solid glass.’
He hadn’t thought of its weight before. It was too light to be solid glass.
Merideah passed the Glass back to Thomas. ‘And it glowed?’
‘Yes, when we went near the tower,’ Thomas explained.
Merideah tapped her chin. ‘Has it ever glowed before?’
Thomas shook his head.
‘Perhaps the Glass has some strange qualities,’ Jessica began. ‘One of my friends showed me this necklace once. It belonged to her mother and had a stone set in it that changed colour when a beam of sunlight hit it.’
Penders looked at Jessica. ‘There was no beam of sunlight. We were under the trees.’
‘I’m sure there must be some scientific explanation. There’s a lot of strange things in the world. My father showed me a stone once that glowed in the dark if you left it in sunlight for a bit, and another that he said had some form of radiation in it. Maybe the tower has some source of radioactivity that reacts with whatever the Glass is made of? Maybe that’s why it’s off limits?’ Merideah mused.
‘I’m afraid,’ began Penders, ‘we’ll never know, because the tower isn’t just out of bounds,’ — he glanced sideways at Merideah — ‘it also has no door.’
— CHAPTER NINE —
A Serpent’s Tooth
‘In science we’re concerned only with facts,’ Mr Goodfellow began, his earnest frown mirroring his ginger-brown moustache. ‘Science, and the scientific method, doesn’t deal in myth, in legend, in folklore or superstition. In short, our purpose in science is to discover the truth!’
Thomas continued to watch the lanky form of the science teacher as he gesticulated and waved his finger about in a passionate introduction to the first science lesson of the year, but soon he was listening only to his own thoughts as he stared unseeing at the various charts and tables on the wall behind Mr Goodfellow. One of them listed in pictorial form various discoveries made about the solar system. Thomas wanted to discover the truth too. Something was hidden and it needed unearthing. The Manor held a secret, and Thomas knew that it was connected with the tower. He couldn’t explain how he knew; he couldn’t make an appeal to Mr Goodfellow’s ‘scientific method’, but he knew it was true nonetheless.
‘Mr Farrell?’ came a voice for what Thomas suddenly realized was the second time.
‘Er — yes, Mr Goodfellow?’ Thomas said awkwardly. Everyone was looking at him. He reddened and instinctively grabbed the bag of marbles in his pocket.
Mr Goodfellow looked at him with one eyebrow raised. ‘I was asking the class if they could name the various branches of science. Now, young Miss Keavy here has offered ‘nature’ as an answer, and Mr Quaint has suggested ‘chemistry’. Can you think of another? I’ve mentioned them all this morning.’
Thomas cringed and silently rebuked himself for allowing his mind to wander. He thought hard. In his opening statement Mr Goodfellow had spoken about finding truth, that much Thomas remembered. Thomas had read a book about a man who’d found truth by making use of special powers he’d gained from an accident in a science lab. It was one of Jessica’s books, a science-fiction book.
‘Well, erm ... has science-fiction got anything to do with science?’ Thomas asked tentatively.
‘Not a thing, Mr Farrell. It’s fantasy, not fact. It’s about things that don’t exist, like myth, legend, folklore and superstition!’
Thomas felt his face flush red. If only everyone would stop looking at him. As if in answer to his wish, Georgiana Keavy suddenly screamed. Thomas turned to see her stand up and point. Within seconds the Thistlethwaite twins had jumped up on their chairs, also screaming. Thomas and Penders couldn’t see what they were looking at, but several others stood up or pushed their chairs away from the vicinity, all except Demelza Luard who stood up and moved to where Georgiana had pointed.
‘There you are!’ She bent down and then stood up with a rat in her hands, a rat that’s coat looked the same colour as Demelza’s hair. ‘Where have you been?’
‘Miss Luard!’ Two red cheeks now flanked Mr Goodfellow’s moustache. ‘This r
at belongs to you?’
She nodded. ‘Yes, sir. His name’s Tregeagle.’
‘Don’t you know that you’re not allowed to keep pets in your room?’
‘Oh, I don’t keep him in my room. He sort of wanders around the building where he wants,’ Demelza explained, her face a picture of innocence. Several of the girls made gurgling noises.
Mr Goodfellow folded his arms. ‘And do you think it appropriate to allow a rat to roam around the school, Miss Luard?’
‘Well,’ Demelza began, looking a little confused, ‘there are plenty of other rats doing the same thing. I don’t think one more would make much difference. Tregeagle has made so many more new friends —’
At this several of the girls started looking about nervously, except Jessica, who was trying to keep from laughing out loud. Merideah sat there as if everyone — except her of course — was being thoroughly silly. The Thistlethwaite twins were now clutching each other as they cast furtive looks around the floor from their vantage point atop their chairs.
Demelza held the rat to her face and looked him in the eyes. ‘Tregeagle says he doesn’t mind. He thinks it’s quite a nice building actually.’
Mr Goodfellow held up a finger. ‘Now, now, Miss Luard. There’s no need to pretend you can talk to rats.’
Demelza walked back to her seat. ‘It’s not talking really, more a sharing of thoughts.’
‘Don’t lie, young lady.’
‘It’s not a lie!’ Demelza surprised Thomas with the passion of her response to the teacher.
Mr Goodfellow looked somewhat taken aback by the response from the small, normally quiet girl. ‘Well, do something with that rat, or it goes out the window.’
The Serpent in the Glass (The Tale of Thomas Farrell) Page 10
