Avis Blackthorn: Is Not an Evil Wizard!

by Jack Simmonds

  Rory once told me that when you fall in love these demons grow inside you and tear your insides out, I believed him for ages. Outside I was sure I could see a tall, dark shape moving in the shade of the hedges. I slid back against the wall hiding behind a tree. The moonlight shimmered on this thing’s back, I say thing, because whatever it was, it gave me the shivers. It looked like a tall man, with a long head and small horns and… long blackened, charred hands.

  It was Malakai!

  The evil high lord of darkness, his form horribly disfigured due to workings of dark Magic, was strolling across the moonlit lawn into the school!

  I jumped away from the window. I didn’t want to scream again, but I had to tell people that Malakai was here. “Robin… Robin!” I shook him, and he shot up. “What is it?”

  “Wake the others, quietly. Malakai’s here!” Then I realised he didn’t know who Malakai was. “The evil lord of darkness… he’s here.” I think Robin got the urgency from the tone of my voice.

  “What does youw’ mean Malakai is ‘ere?” said Jake rubbing his eyes.

  “Over here,” I said. “Look out the window!”

  All of them, except Hunter, sleepily trudged over to the window. “Careful,” I said. “Keep to the sides…”

  “I see nothing,” said Graham.

  “What are we looking at?” said Dennis. I scoured the darkness where moments before Malakai had been. But now I couldn’t see him anywhere.

  “He was there, right there!” I whispered, it only took a minute to wake them up, he couldn't have walked all the way up the courtyard in under a minute. Mind you, this was Malakai. “I saw him, bold as brass, head like a goat, hands like a… dragon.”

  Jake sighed deeply. “I think, per’aps you were ‘avin a bad dream.”

  “No I wasn’t asleep, honestly!” They all began to groan and moan that I’d woke them as they drifted off back to their beds.

  “Even if he is here,” said Simon. “Nothing we can do about it is there? Might as well be tucked up in bed while he murders us. Oh and put that fire out.”

  I trudged off to my bed. Sick of it. I had definitely seen Malakai. Or had I? I was sure I had. Perhaps it was someone doing an illusion? I lay there for ages, even the comfy bed couldn’t send me to sleep. I lay for ages and ages and ages until the clock above the mantelpiece showed half past three. Then, I felt a twang in my bladder, I needed the toilet. And knowing my bladder, I couldn't wait - but I didn’t want to go on my own. I only just about knew the way and it would be dark. And I didn’t have a chamber pot, not after that ghost smashed it. But imagine the embarrassment if I wet the bed! Oh jeez, that would just cap it all off.

  That made me get up. I put my dressing gown and slippers on and crept out of the room as quietly as I could, there was this floorboard right near the door that squeaked loudly. I made a mental note to avoid that next time. Out into the corridor the fire brackets were on the lowest setting, I could barely see my own feet. I kept my head down as I was frightened silly. Left, right, left, right, I recalled… then the toilets are on the right. Yes, success!

  I did the business and sighed happily, ahhhh, that was better. I washed, glancing at my haggard, tired face in the mirror. And I tell you the next second, my bowel’s nearly dropped. A face appeared in the mirror behind me, out of nowhere! Scaring the living bejeezus out of me. “AHHHHHH!” I yelled turning quickly, ready to attack.

  “Ah! Don’t hurt me!” said the tall cowering frame of Robin. I dropped my fists, breathing hard. “Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you,” he said. “I just heard you leave and realised I needed a widdle. Just about remembered the route.”

  I clutched my chest and leaned against the sink. “Christ, don’t do that to me… I thought you were… Never mind.”

  After he finished we walked back together, my heart coming to rest. “Warn me next time, you could have said something, instead of creeping up behind me.”

  “Yeah well, I was kinda sleepy.”

  I berated Robin some more, I was never gonna be able to sleep now! Not after that shock. Then, as we turned out of the bathrooms I saw something out of the corner of my eye — I was sure I had just seen someone dart behind a suit of armour just a way off down the corridor.

  “You’re not dreaming again are you?” said Robin.

  “No, I wasn’t before… just down there. I’m sure I saw someone. Come on.”

  Robin protested but soon followed. I was sure I had seen a person dash behind a suit of armour to the right. We tip toed along the corridor. And then, I knew I was right because I could see them, illuminated by the fire bracket above.

  “Hello?” I said quietly. “I know there’s someone behind that armour.”

  “Go away,” said the voice.

  I looked at Robin who wanted to take it’s advice, but I was curious.

  “It’s alright, we’re not Magisteers or anything.”

  I heard the person sigh then step out. The gas lamp above illuminated the golden skinned, sparkling eyes and brilliant white teeth of, “Tina?”

  “Avis?” she looked like she had been prepared to give me a mouthful of verbal abuse, but she completely softened when she saw me. “What are you doing here?”

  “I could ask you the same,” I said.

  “Who’s lanky?”

  “That’s Robin,” I said, as Robin waved awkwardly.

  “We just went to the toilets,” said Robin. “Not together, well together but…” he stopped.

  “Right,” said Tina eyeing him suspiciously.

  “So what are you doing out here, creeping around?” I said.

  “None of your business,” she said curtly, then sighed again. “Oh fine, look, you both better promise not to say a word!”

  I swore, sealing my mouth. Tina looked all flustered, her brilliant white teeth glowing in the darkness, her eyes perpetually scanning the hallways all around us. “I was trying to get into this door. I have a skeleton key but it doesn’t seem to be working.”

  “A what key?” said Robin.

  “A skeleton key,” she said impatiently, holding it out. Robin was fascinated, he said he’d never seen a key made out of bone before. “It’s supposed to open any lock, but it won’t,” she said.

  The door looked pretty plain to me. “What’s in there?”

  She flicked her hair back, she was wearing her pyjamas too. “Well… that’s kind of a secret I’m not willing to divulge.”

  “What if someone catches you?” I said.

  “I’ll just pretend I’m sleepwalking,” she said matter of factly. “I’m in my jim-jams already… I shouldn’t be telling you this… Let’s just say, someone close to me, whom isn’t with us anymore left me a quest, a big quest…” She turned away and fiddled with the key. “He was my older brother, he went to this school a few years ago. But he died and no one knew why… and then I found this note in his room with my name on. I’ve been trying to figure it out from then on,” she didn’t say anything else and after a few goes of the door each, we gave up. We walked back to our dorm, at the entrance to our corridor she gave me a rib cracking hug.

  “Promise you won’t say anything?”

  “I promise,” she waved goodbye to Robin and went, back into the darkness towards her dorm.

  In bed, I continued to not sleep, but now for different reasons. After an hour Robin sat up and whispered through the darkness.

  “Avis? You awake?”

  I sat up slowly, “Yeah.”

  “What do you think was behind that door?” he sounded like he had been thinking the same as me.

  “No idea. It’s a complete mystery…” I was thinking more about the hug that Tina gave me than what was behind the door, but still.

  “It is… I wish she’d tell us. Wow, imagine being left a quest.”

  I nodded in the darkness, then realised he couldn't see me. “Yeah, I know.” I lay back and wondered what she was up to, did she even know? She certainly had guts to be creeping round the castle on her o
wn at night, all alone on a quest left by her dead brother. How did he die?

  Then I thought about seeing Malakai earlier, I know I saw him. But what would he come to Hailing Hall for? Perhaps he was after the same thing that Tina was. I laughed and finally slipped into sleep.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  An Evil Humiliation

  The next few weeks were ok. I coasted along quite nicely. Me and Robin became good friends again, the incident with Tina seemed to bond us together. Anyway, Graham and Simon seemed to strike up a pretty good friendship. We sat together in all our lessons, which at the moment were just with Partington and Straker. The lessons with Partington increased in interest, as we learnt more and more theory, and he started setting us homework all about Spells which I worked through each night, next to the fire with great gusto. Robin next to me, would say things like:

  “Is a Solvent-Spell under the Law of Richardson, or is it an Unrestricted?”

  I’d scoff and say, “Unrestricted of course! Says it right here…” But, if I was honest, he was much cleverer than me. He picked up Magic a lot quicker seeing as he was an Outsider and I had already done five or six years of basic theory at my last school.

  The first Sunday was a full day off, my god that was a sweet day off. It was a gloriously sunny day and I woke up really early, lit the fire then went down to breakfast with Robin who had toothpaste all round his mouth. When I told him he went mad.

  “Why didn’t ya tell me earlier, instead of letting me walk round like a berk?”

  We were pretty much the only ones in the Chamber that early, which was quite nice actually, sometimes it can get too crowded and because there are no windows, you can get a build up of condensation on the roof which periodically drips on you. I sat down as food burst onto the table, I loaded my plate with bacon and sausages and eggs and fried bread. Robin tucked into some porridge, orange juice, tea, then a full breakfast like mine, and some croissants for afters. He could certainly put food away, but I wasn’t sure where it went. He was so skinny you could almost see his heart beating through his skin, like a transparent fish. Newspapers popped into life on the table in front of us too now. Two copies of the Herrald. On the front page at the bottom was a small headline about Hailing Hall:

  “New Pupils Start a New Year of Magical Studies.”

  “Wow,” said Robin. “We’re famous!”

  The front page of the Herrald was pretty boring, something about Sorcerers refusing to pay tax, and the leprechauns scrounging off the Magical Council. I never really read newspapers before, but I felt quite civilised as I sat there nibbling a croissant, sipping my tea and thumbing through the Herrald. There was some good stuff too, this is what I learnt:

  • The pig people who are in charge of all the gold want to go on strike because they are not allowed massive gold bonus’s.

  • Mr. Wolfe, the conductor on my train is up in court, responsible for biting a piggy banker (the consensus seemed to be that he was more of a hero than a villain, even though the judge was a piggy.)

  • Malakai and his supporters had stormed a local council in Gilliggan and taken it over, (so that’s what my parents had been up to).

  Robin was very interested about anything Magical and asked me constant questions whenever they popped into his head. He was fascinated with that fact that I was born into the Magical world. Over breakfast he seemed to think of more questions, perhaps the newspaper had sparked a few more ideas.

  “So do you have different races or species in your Magical Kingdoms?”

  “Yes,” I said sagely, folding the newspaper. “There’s the pig people, leprechauns, fauns, Imps, Gnomes, erm… loads really.”

  “Cor, in my world, we were always taught that those things were made up, myths and fairytales.”

  “Yeah, course you were,” I laughed. “Who do you think wants you to think there a myth?” He looked at me blankly. “We do of course, there’s more of you than there are of us.”

  When me and Robin went back up to our dorm the others were just rising and milling about like zombies. Me and Robin had just started a game of backgammon, before there was a knock at the door. It was some of the girls. I was quite glad because Robin was beating me and I didn’t like losing.

  “Do you boys want to go for a walk around the grounds?” said Jess, who was joined at the doorway by Gret, Ellen, Joanna and Florence, who winced at the apparent smell that emanated from our room.

  “Sure,” I said grateful for a reason to abandon the game. Hunter grunted something and turned back over to sleep, Jake nodded at his sister and Simon snored louder, which I guessed was a no.

  So we all went for a lovely stroll. The grounds of Hailing Hall are truly spectacular. We went down these big stone steps in the hill, that wound down to the forests. Far ahead lay the cliff edge and a huge canyon. Floating just above the cliff edge was an island. A great big lump of rock, covered with a wonderful, heavenly garden floating on a bed of cloud. A long drawbridge hung across shrouded in cloud. The floating island had a big fountain in the middle with a stone angel statue fluttering her wings, the water from the fountain went off in a stream and fell off the edge of the island in a long, white waterfall down into the canyon. There were benches, vines and little rabbits running all over it.

  “We must go to that at some point,” said Robin.

  “Hmmm…” I said, I wasn't too sure. I especially wouldn’t be crossing it with Hunter, he was too accident prone.

  “Oh yes, we must!” Florence said, clapping her hands together.

  The rest of the gardens were like some horticultural heaven. The statues all spoke to each other gracefully, and the trees sometimes decided that they didn’t much like where they were rooted, so pulled their roots out with this weird snapping noise and re-rooted themselves somewhere else. The forest to the left was lit up by the morning sun and you could see all the way through it. I could see some of the older years messing about and chasing each other. Now and again they would do a Spell and someone would be launched into the air by their backside, where they hung limp, robe over their heads.

  “Apparently,” said Jake, whose English was getting much better. “Dat game ‘dey are playin’ is called Riptide… you have to work in teams to get as many of ‘de other team in the air…” It actually looked really fun.

  The path led down through the forest and on the stroll, we met many more people. A lot were just sitting in the sun, in the large grassy open land near the floating adventure play area. Some were doing work where they sat, others leaning against a tree and reading, or sleeping. Surrounding the forest and grassy expanse was a great river, big and wide with a gentle current. We all sat and watched it for a while. It was so relaxing. Some older years were sailing past on this handmade raft, we were surprised because there wasn’t much wind. One of them, at the back, was sitting there with his hands outstretched muttering something. The sail on the front was caught, as if by huge gusts of wind.

  “He must be a weather worker,” said Joanna fascinated.

  Some part of me really hoped that Tina would walk past and join us. Only once had I seen her, on the way to a lesson with Straker as we came out, but she didn’t see me. She was deep in thought and not paying much attention to what was around her, I am sure she would have said hello, had she seen me. Robin wondered if she had been caught sneaking around yet. I imagined saving her from Straker’s icy grip as he interrogates her about the quest, then she hugs me and calls me her saviour.

  She was very mysterious. I didn’t know what form she was in or anything. Over the coming weeks me and Robin caught a little more sight of her. She would eat lunch and dinner at funny times, often when we were just leaving late. But when she did eat with her form, who we couldn’t distinguish, she ate without talking and would be the first to leave.

  Me and Robin, whose interest was caught by her… and her quest, wanted to find out more. So, during free time on Saturday we went in search of her dorm room, hoping she would be in there. We searched high
and lo, but couldn't find anything.

  I had seen a rather haggard ghost float through a wall towards us near the numerology rooms. Bloody thing was deaf as a stone. I had to shout at it to stop, then when we asked it (loudly) where Tina’s dorm might be, it just looked haughty and said: “Boys are not allowed anywhere near girl’s dorms!” Then it floated off back through the wall in a huff.

  Our attention with Tina’s quest (and Tina herself) was all but abolished by Partington in one fell swoop the next afternoon, when he announced the most terrifying news ever.

  He ran into the room two minutes late, skidding on the stone, sweating at the temples and looking round at us with a terrified expression.

  “Now, there has been a slight… oversight in this area and… it’s not my decision,” He said, polishing his glasses, wiping his brow and pacing up and down. “But because of Magisteer Grenadine’s illness, her form will not be taking part in the friendly Riptide match tomorrow afternoon. Which means one form had to take their place, and er… well, we were chosen.”

  There was a horrible intake of breath and much farting. “What?…” called Simon. “But we don’t even know how to play!”

  “I know,” said Partington. “If I would have known our first game was tomorrow, we would have been out on that pitch the very first day practicing! Our first match was not supposed meant to be played until the second year!”

  Call me naive, but I didn’t know we had to do any type of sports or activities at Hailing Hall. I just assumed that we studied Magic and it would be a quiet boys utopia, but this was beyond my coping mechanism and I felt a full blown meltdown ready to exude at any moment.

  Partington carried on rather hurriedly. “So today’s lesson is cancelled, instead we will be learning the rules of Riptide.” Partington carried on in this rather rushed tone, before Graham and Dawn managed to convince him to take ten minutes to himself and come back. He said that was a good idea, and that he would return with the rule book.