Avis Blackthorn: Is Not an Evil Wizard!

by Jack Simmonds

  So this was how Riptide was meant to be played!

  The Manticores didn’t stand a chance. The Centaurs were just too good. Their captain was barking orders continuously and soon enough a loud “LIBERO-MANUS!” rang true across the stadium. The crowd stood and applauded, but the Centaurs didn’t hug or smile, they looked resolute and focused, their captain calling out to them, “Four more games!”

  The Second match, ten minutes later, was played on this habitat like the Outsider’s City of London, with all these garages, concrete roads and lampposts. It was very interesting. I’d only ever seen London on TV. Robin said he didn’t like London, he’d been there before with his family and managed to get totally lost and no one could find him, so refused to ever go back.

  The Centaurs repeated their winning ways, trampling the Manticores 5-1. The epic partnership of Compton-Campbell, Zhu and Icke obliterated any reserves of confidence the Manticores had. They did score however with “Herbert Hanningshire!” being called out to a mute applause as he darted round the back of the large Centaur captain and put the flounder in the bolt hole. She immediately Spelled him, raising a wall of fire all the way around him so he couldn’t move for the rest of the game.

  The third match and the Manticores put up a much better fight. They became more physical. When Gemma Icke was in mid air, one Manticore turned her boots to lead and she plummeted to the floor, slamming her face into a wooden bridge, and they still lost 3-2. The large Centaur captain was sent off by Underwood for:

  “An illegal Spell!” She had set a swarm of Wasperats on three of the Manticore forwards and the game had to be stopped temporally while they were removed.

  Half way through the fourth match, me and Robin were sharing a box of Sweet Newt Eye Popcorn. I decided I really liked the Centaurs. Some people around the stadium were moving seats, so I didn’t take much notice when someone new stood next to me.

  When I turned and glanced to see who it was, I nearly dropped the popcorn. David Starlight was looking grim, wrapped in a purple scarf and watching the game. He sidled closer to me.

  “Hey Avis,” he said. I didn’t know what to do, what did he want? Was he going to put a Spell on me and embarrass me in front of the whole school again? “I just need to tell you something.”

  “Okay,” I said, still wary. Robin was too, he kept shifting around and sniffing - he always did that when there was someone around he wasn’t keen on.

  Robin sniffed. “What do you want?”

  “I wanted to speak to Avis, and you I suppose. You were there that night,” he looked grave.

  I frowned, curious. “Go on…”

  “Well, look, I told Straker that it wasn’t you who did that to Hunter… eventually. But, it’s just.”

  “Spit it out,” said Robin.

  “Just wait…” said David whispering and looking around as the crowd roared at another goal. “I saw him, that night, Malakai,” he mouthed. “So I knew it wasn’t you. I told Straker it wasn’t… anyway… this is about, something I saw the other night,” he played with the end of his scarf. “I was coming out of the boys’ bathroom on a midnight toilet dash. I had to go to the old ones, because they closed the toilets near us, and as I came out I saw… him.”

  “Who, Malakai?” I whispered.

  David nodded, his face hangdog and limp. “Yeah.”

  “Why are you telling us this?” said Robin suspiciously.

  “I just thought, well, I think he saw me… and I don’t want what happened to Hunter to happen to me. And if we all go to Straker and the Lily, everyone who’s seen him can tell them and let them read our memory, they will see we aren’t lying! And they can stop him coming here and attacking me! And others of course,” he added.

  “Pah,” said Robin, turning to me. “He’s only telling us so he can get his ass off the line.”

  “What was he doing?” I said, inspecting David’s patchy face for clues.

  He blinked. “Just going through this door, when he turned I think he saw me…”

  Something dropped in my stomach. “Did you say going through a door?” David nodded. I turned to Robin, the eyebrows on my face must have been raised very high because he blinked rapidly trying to work it out before I told him. I turned back to David, speaking quickly. “What door? Where was it?”

  “It’s the door near the old bathrooms…” said David in a small voice.

  “No, no, more specifically than that!” I said, my voice rising.

  “I don’t know the exact door!”

  “If you don’t tell Avis,” said Robin. “Then you will be got by Malakai, that I can state for certain, but if you do tell him where that door is, I’m pretty sure you’ll be spared.”

  David looked from Robin to me before getting some parchment and a pen out of his pocket.

  Me and Robin looked at each other with incredulity, we knew what door this was. Neither of us could believe we’d forgotten! It was the door that Tina had first attempted to get through at the start of the year, the one we saw her outside, near the boys bathroom!

  “We have to get out of here and get to that door!” I said to Robin who began to look around for a way out of the stadium. I had already noticed that it was particularly strict. There was a sixth year guarding every entrance and two ghosts! But then, Robin tapped me, his face white as a snow.

  “What?” I whispered. His eyes were fixed on a place just over the rim of the stadium, in the distance. “What Robin?”

  He pointed. “It’s him.”

  I followed his gaze. My heart beating fast, as chatter and noise around me faded. Adrenaline began pumping through my body. It was Malakai. Gliding along the surface of the grounds, hidden only by a long hedge. He was making his way into the school to stake his claim on the Book of Names. And I was the only one who could stop him.

  I jumped across the gang way. “Oi! Watch it!” called a couple of third years.

  “Sorry, sorry!” I said, pulling Robin by the sleeve along behind me. We had to get out of here and get to that door. I tried to sneak past the sixth year guarding the stairs down.

  “Stop,” he said. “Where you going?” He was tall and bullish, with eyebrows that could rival Magisteer Simone.

  “Toilet,” I said.

  “Sorry, don’t believe you. Go back to your stand please.”

  Me and Robin lumped back to the stand. There was a great roar of light and fireworks as the Centaurs gained another Libero-Manus! The sixth year guarding the exit began jumping around.

  I began to panic, this churning ball in the pit of my stomach, time was fast vanishing and we had to get out of the stadium. “I didn’t realise we would be here all day and night!” I said.

  “I know,” said Robin. “I expected to at least be able to leave for the toilet!”

  I cursed the fact that I had even come to this match, I should have just stayed in the clock tower and fulfilled the plan and saved Tina. The sun was setting and a cold chill moved in. I looked all around for potential exits but all were guarded. I watched as one boy, a first year like us hopping around on the spot pleading with them to let him to go to the toilet.

  “Please!”

  “No… orders are clear, no one is allowed go to the toilet during matches,” said the sixth year. I realised the only way I was going to get away was to create a distraction. The ball of panic in my stomach grew as Robin showed me the time. It was time to act, even though everything in my body was screaming NO!

  “Robin,” I passed him the letter. “This explains everything you need to do. Don’t open it yet. And give this one to Partington when you see him. Open it at 11pm…”

  He blinked at me as there was another loud roar of applause for the Centaurs. I turned away, and held my hands directly above my head. “Avertere…”

  I knew it worked because Robin began looking all around, his eyes darting here and there for me, but averting away from where I actually was.

  My heart was thumping so loud in my chest I almost thought it mi
ght eclipse the noise around the stadium. For a moment, I just stood and watched. Everyone’s faces so entranced in the game, even the Magisteers. Flags and scarves waved in the air across the rickety hexagonal stadium. I hoped I would see this again. But, this was it, taking a deep breath I raised my arm high into the air.

  “Beratater-Lut…” my channeller lit up white hot with the effort of the Spell as directly above the pitch, a bright orange circle appeared. Then, a spectacular thunderstorm erupted above the habitat.

  CRASH! BANG!

  Long streaks of blue light lit up the sky, scorching across the stadium. There were muffled screams from all around the stadium as people ducked. Magisteers stood as one and raised their arms. The Centaurs and Manticores ran for cover as Magisteer Underwood began scouring the pitch for the culprit - thinking that it must have been one of the players. I took my chance, as the bullish sixth year guarding the nearest exit left his post to help. I jumped up onto the rail and, balancing nimbly, ran all the way along to the stairs. I jumped the rickey stairs three at a time as the crowd in the stadium began to boo whomever had just ruined the game.

  It felt incredibly lonely going back to the school. Tiny gas lamps popped on up the hill as darkness set in. Large black clouds overhead thundered once more then stopped. I jumped the last of the steps and climbed the hill back to school. I could hear all the people in the stadium still shouting, annoyed and confused as to what just happened. The large black cloud overhead began to rain. I made it inside the main hall just in time. The school was eerily silent. No noise, no movement, nothing. I had just one pit stop to make…

  “Hello again,” said the Healer. “Has the curse cleared up?”

  “Yes, thank you,” I said. “Just came to see her one last… I mean, to see her again.”

  I took a seat next to Tina’s bed. Green light folded around me once more. Tina’s wounds had completely healed now, all that remained was tiny, barely noticeable, white scars. She looked so peaceful.

  “I know I am a weakling, that it takes you to be cursed for me to be able to tell you how I feel. But, I… really care about you. More than anyone else I’ve ever met or had the privilege of knowing. I had a dream a few weeks ago, at least I think it was a dream. You and me, we, grew old together. And we, told our Grandchildren all about the time we saved each other, in the first year of school,” I sighed. “Please don’t wake up and be mad with me. Just know that I had to return the favour. You saved me, so I must save you.”

  I stopped talking. She lay peaceful and quiet, her chest rising and falling, eyelids fluttering.

  A few ghosts gave me confused, apathetic looks as they whizzed past me in the corridors, carrying their dirty laundry and huge boxes of dirty dinner plates. My heart was hammering. Something in the back of my mind was telling me that there were holes in my plan, there had to be, there had to be Magic that he knew that could counteract mine. Perhaps he would just laugh in my face. But, I had to take this chance, there would never be another opportunity like this one again. The clock in the bell tower began to chime, calling ten o'clock.

  CHAPTER TEN

  The Golden Escalator

  This was the door I had been searching for. I just knew it. The one I had forgotten about the first time me and Robin caught Tina behind that suit of armour. I wondered what would have happened if I hadn’t have spotted her there. How would things have turned out?

  How could something so wooden and plain lead to something so unknown and mysterious. Yellow light flickered from gas lamps on the wall behind me. The key felt cold and dead in my hand. I pulled the string off round my neck and checking the corridor one last time, put it in the lock. A loud clunk echoed along the corridor. I twisted the golden handle slowly, readying myself for him. Inside was darkness, it was impenetrable. All I could hear as the door shut behind me was the beating of my own heart. The stairs leading down were uneven and I had to hold onto the wall to remain steady. I was going down to the same place as Ernie had in the vision, I just knew it. After a long way down I finally saw light. Flickering yellow firelight, just a dot at first but growing. At last, they stopped. I tip toed along a long dark passage towards the light. Then, I faced three entrances. The light was coming from straight ahead. But in the alcoves to the left and right were small rooms filled with stuff, hidden by greying cloths. Up ahead, the passage got tighter, the walls closing in, the ceiling just an inch from the top of my head.

  And then I saw him… The huge, hunched figure of Malakai.

  I put my hand over my mouth. Gas lamps around the side of the room hung wonky, casting a dim light over the man who stood seven feet tall. He was stood bent over a tall lectern, on it I could see the edges of a humungous old book. Silver instruments lay half covered in dirty cloths around the filthy, cobwebbed room.

  He hadn’t spotted me - I could Spell him now, the one I’d agonised for months over. I raised my hand.

  “Don’t even think about it…” his voice rumbled.

  My heart jolted as his long white face turned slowly, independent of his body. “Avis Blackthorn…” I was paralysed by fear, frozen to the spot as if a shard of ice had run down my spine and freezing me to the floor. His glowing blue eyes bored into me. “And how did you get in here?”

  “I… I… a key…” I managed. The Book Of Names behind him was shimmering with golden light.

  “So it’s the runt of the Blackthorn family!” he said. “Come to get revenge for his poor, little, meddling girlfriend.”

  The blood began boiling in my veins as he mentioned her. “How dare you talk about her,” I said, my voice rising high.

  He didn’t move. “Is that why you’re here? To stop me?” he mocked.

  “Yes!” I called.

  He let out a raucous laugh. “You?” he continued laughing, his skulled face rocking. “All I needed was you to do something like this and it would give me the perfect excuse. I promised your parents that I wouldn’t harm you, even though you’re a seventh son. They are very useful to me.” His words whirled through my head. “Yes, your brilliant parents do have one weakness. Their remaining ounce of compassion. But now…” he said, chucking his huge skeletal arms in the air. “Now you have forfeited that promise. Under my terms and conditions your are now in my way!”

  I had to act. “Go ahead, do it! See if I care!”

  “You were already this close after that stunt - pretending to be me. I could have set that demon on you…”

  My legs shook and I did everything in my power to try and steady them. “Instead, I realised how much more fun it would be for everyone to think it was you. I mean, who on earth is going to think it was Malakai?” he laughed to himself.

  “Flutteryout!” I cried. A white light burst from the amulet as Malakai toppled. I lunged forwards as quickly as possible, hands outstretched for the Book of Names. A single sharp swipe sent me sprawling backwards against the wall. “DON’T!” I called as Malakai who rose instantaneously, raise his arms. “I know your TRUE NAME!”

  Malakai stopped dead. A long hand an inch from my throat.

  “What?!” he said deathly slow. His boiling hot breath scorching my face.

  “Yes,” I said panting. “I know your true name. St- Steeeee… Owww!” My tongue cut again. But Malakai stepped back, dropping his hand. For the first time I saw fear in his eyes. “I will stop you from getting the Book of Names!” I said as blood dribbled down my chin.

  His blue eyes dimmed. “How?”

  “By telling everyone your true name.”

  “You can’t even say it!”

  “Curse me the same as Tina, go on, then we’ll see who can say it!”

  “Curse you, pah… No, no, no, I am not that stupid. I’ll kill you instead…”

  I felt a horrible sinking feeling. “You can’t. I’m a Blackthorn!”

  “You’ve forfeited your name by attempting, pathetically, to thwart ME!… Goodbye Avis Blackthorn.”

  Then, it happened. His hands shot into the air. I saw as if it
was all slow motion, happening to someone else. Crackles of blue light, like tiny stars, danced in his hands as a high pitched whistle filled the air.

  “No! Please!” I cried. In an explosive burst of twinkling light the stars shot towards me. I screamed as light erupted through the room. The pain was unbearable. Every pore in my body on fire. I felt myself writhing on the ground, the room spinning violently, all I could think of was the pain!

  And then quiet.

  Deadly, heavenly quiet.

  I felt my last breath leave me.

  ***

  I sat up.

  Malakai was looking over the book, hunched back rising up and down.

  A crack split the wall to the right. White fluorescent light, smattered with transparent mini rainbows, began to fill the room. Malakai hadn’t noticed and now I knew why. I was dead.

  I looked around. I was hovering just above the floor. Below me was my body, lying in a sorry sprawling heap in the dirt. The strange thing was, I wasn’t shocked. All my pain was gone, in fact every pain I had ever had was gone. It was as if I didn’t even realise some of the aches and pains I was carrying around with me. All I felt now was a gentle, relaxed, peaceful bliss. My thoughts felt the same.

  The crack in the wall widened with a splitting sound, spilling more starry light into the room. A strange noise suddenly came across me as this time, golden light reflected off the walls. A huge golden escalator appeared through the crack. Without thinking I drifted towards it and stepped on. It moved upwards slowly, through the crack and up into the clouds. The hole in the wall sealed and that sorry room disappeared. All around me was the most wonderful, lustrous twilight with a humungous starry sky with soft clouds moving daintily. The midnight blue spread into violet and indigo the higher we climbed, the texture like that of running paint on parchment.