Avis Blackthorn: Is Not an Evil Wizard! (12 page)

“Gret is fine,” said Jake. “She a tough
cookie, like you say.”

“Fine, Gret is fine…” I said. “But this has
torn all our form up, the least we can do is ask them.”

Jake led the way to the girls dorm. We had to
walk through three tapestries and up five flights of stairs until
finally, along this well decorated hallway with lots of pictures of
famous Witches lining the walls, we knocked on the door. None of
us, apart from Dennis, who slept in there most of the time, had
ever been in the girls dorm. When Dawn opened the door and let us
in, we were shocked. I mean, we didn’t say anything, but it was a
complete mess. Clothes and stuff just chucked all over the floor.
There was even a ghost in here which lit the room up a silvery glow
(as the curtains were drawn), it was aimless picking stuff up and
putting it into piles looking stressed.

“Oh hey boys,” said Florence looking
uninterested. She had a crush on a boy the year above, since then,
she didn’t really like to talk to any other boys. Girls are
weird.

“We need to ask you something,” I said.

Needless to say, their apathy was contagious.
They were not interested. You couldn't blame me for trying. Ellen
thought the plan was good, but had a few flaws — our ineptitude for
Magic for a start. Jess, who was applying copious amounts of
Beatle Bum Gel
to her face, thought it was an awful idea and
Dawn, who was really quiet, just sat and poked the fire.

This, if anything, made me more determined. I
wanted to raise the morale of the girls, and the boys for that
matter. In fact, I would be the saviour of the Condors!

“
Severton
…” I said. There was a
sealing noise as the black river froze.

“It’s way too dark under here!” said Graham,
as Robin shushed him. We were in the tiny passage, facing the black
river leading to the Library. We’d all just climbed down through
the grate in the boys’ bathroom. It was my idea, I kind of thought
it would be the only way back in the Library as I couldn’t remember
the door unlocking Spell that Tina did. The freezing Spell was
Robin’s idea.

“Come on…” I said, putting my foot onto the
ice, crouching and moving along the frozen river gingerly.
Surprisingly, it didn’t crack or anything.

“This is crazy,” said Graham who quite
possibly, was right.

“Just space out,” I said as Hunter stepped
onto the ice and there was an ominous splitting sound. We stumbled
and slipped through the blackness, crouching all the way along the
river, until we stepped into the light of the locked Library.

“Woah…” Graham and Hunter echoed.

“Off the ice now,” I said. “Up here…” I
climbed up the small stone staircase out of the river and looked
around. Moonlight streamed in through large cathedral like windows,
casting red and yellow amongst the silvery blue across the
teetering oak bookcases.

This was my plan… find some books with evil
Spells and plans in. Make ourselves known so that no one messes
with us again. And, perchance find the book that Tina wanted for
her quest and regain her friendship.

“I am going back,” Graham whispered, halfway
up the steps.

I turned on him. “You can’t!”

He frowned. “Yes, I can!” with that he
turned, walking back out of the Library, down the frozen river and
away. Stupid idiot.

“We need to look for a book,” I said.

“You don’t say,” said Hunter gazing
around.

For four hours we searched, Hunter was
surprisingly diligent, the embarrassment of being the
‘losers of
the school’
, as he kept repeating, had seemed to spur him on.
We grabbed books from all corners of the Library that looked like
they might be of interest and laid them out on the table and one by
one and leafed through them.

“There’s a Spell here,” said Robin. “That
seals up someone’s mouth!”

“Err nasty,” said Hunter. “Might be useful
though. Hey, I’ve got an evil plan. What we do is: ask the Eagles
form to join us in the grounds on Sunday for a kind of rematch, but
then somehow take them to that floating island, cut the ropes and
leave them there!” he laughed.

“Yeah,” I said slowly. “I can see a slight
hole in that plan.”

I was leafing through a book about demons,
which sent chills down my spine. It was a horrible, nasty old book,
something that my parents would love. In fact, when I was young I
always had this nightmare, except, I later found out, it wasn’t a
nightmare at all. It was real.

In this nightmare I am in the dungeons at
home, hanging onto my Dad’s leg. He and Mum were raising demons in
this salt circle. And then this thing, horrible, transparent and
black, rose up from the ground like drooping tar or an waxwork
melting upwards. Then it emitted this piercing scream that went
through me. It stared at me with no eyes. Then I wake up sweating.
Still gives me the shivers.

“Why don’t we raise a demon?” I said, joking
and shivering a little as I tried to imagine it.

“No!” said Robin. “Straker told us about
them, you never interfere with their world, they are dangerous and
unpredictable.”

The contours of a plan were enfolding around
my mind, but to do it would take serious guts. I wasn’t sure if I
had those guts. Also, I didn’t know who I was maddest at, my
brother Ross, or David Starlight. My secondary mission of finding
Tina’s book had failed completely, I mean, it would help if I had
any idea what I was looking for.

Hunter was asleep on the table and snoring
loudly by three in the morning. I was knackered as well, but I
still hadn’t found what I was looking for. We’d found loads of
Spells but none that were particularly useful to what we wanted to
do. But then, a breakthrough…

“Look, I think this will work,” Robin passed
me this dusty old book. After I read I smiled and nodded.

***

It took me, Robin and Hunter a week to
prepare and collect the relevant bits that we needed. In Straker’s
boring-ass lesson, in which he continually teased us about our huge
loss, Hunter found an old suit of armour head, covered in a dirty
cloth that had gone all rusty.

But, even better… after leaving that lesson I
spotted something on the wall. The corridors down in the dungeons
always had something frightening, but this was another level. Me,
Robin and Hunter had walked another way out of Straker’s lesson to
avoid being rumbled as we made away with the suit of armour head,
hidden under Hunter’s jumper.

“Stop,” I said, standing back. “Look at
that…”

Robin and Hunter turned. “Woah…”

On the wall around us was the biggest
skeleton I’ve ever seen. I didn’t know what it was, but it’s spine
curved around the ceiling and down. Robin and Hunter didn’t know
what I was so impressed with it, until they saw me pull off two
long, charred, skeletal hands.

“Ahh, I see…” they chorused.

Robin took three large bedsheets from the
Ghosts’ laundry cupboard and, panicking when they asked why, he
said he wet himself in the night.

“Next time, use the chamber pot we provide!”
called the Ghost.

Robin returned to the dorm very embarrassed.
“The ghosts better not say nothing!” he spat.

“Hey,” said Hunter. “We’re already a laughing
stock. Don’t think it’ll make much difference.”

While the dorm was free during lunch the next
day, I had a scout around the room. I needed something blue and
reflective. But I couldn’t find a thing! Then, it hit me. I was
wearing it! Taking out a pair of scissors on my desk, I cut off two
squares from the bottom of my robes, and cut them into circles. My
robes looked even shabbier now, but at least they didn’t trail on
the floor anymore. Pleased with myself, I returned to lunch to tell
Robin and Hunter what I’d done.

It felt strangely exciting, standing in the
boys bathroom, in the dead of night, over our collection of props
and objects. Robin had a list of Spells to perform individually on
each object so it most resembled what we were after. We practiced
all night in that bathroom, trying out different Spells for this
and that, arguing which was best.

“I think that will do now, I need my bed,”
said Hunter yawning.

“It has to be perfect Hunter!” I said,
rubbing my eyes and scanning the list of Spells for an
alternative.

Robin took off the armour head, “I agree with
Hunter, for once, Avis it’s really late, I’m really tired. Honestly
what we’ve got looks good…” Robin backtracked as I gave him a funny
look. “You know what I mean… not
good
… terrifying.”

“Okay fine…” I said smiling, as we stashed
the objects away under the grate. For once, this plan felt like it
might really work!

After a few more days of planning, the plan
finally came to a head - we were finally ready for the first stage
of being evil.

The target, was David Starlight…

Me, Robin and Hunter prepared ourself down a
dark, empty corridor lined with animal skulls. We couldn’t use the
boys bathroom as it was in use. A small grandfather clock on the
wall chimed for ten o’clock, lights went out in five minutes.

“It’s time…” I said.

Robin climbed on top of Hunter’s shoulders
and I threw the huge grey sheet over them. I passed Robin the
armour mask, the shiny blue eyes and the long skeletal claws.
Together, we said the Spells that transformed the collection of
objects into a terrifying effigy. Small horns poked out of the
armour head, which now looked like a long skull. The blue robe
patches now shined bright beneath the skulled face. The long grey
sheets, now a seamless black cape covering them in shadow. And the
long skeletal, charred hands needed no Spellwork.

The person who now stood over me was not
Robin and Hunter… it was Malakai.

They looked pretty dam terrifying in the
darkness as they stood over me. Robin had found this Spell that
deepens your voice and when he spoke it made the floor rumble.
Hunter wore these big, thick black boots that he said didn’t make a
noise, a gift from Partington who grew impatient with Hunter’s flat
footed stomping. But, as Hunter said, “
Wearing these will make
it seem like we’re gliding along…
”

Moving was a little trickier, Robin wobbled
around on Hunters shoulders.

“Hold tighter!” I said. “Right, come on,
let’s do this.” We walked slowly, through the darkness until we
reached our destination. Outside the Eagle form’s dorm room. We
waited, breath held, hearts beating. Any minute now David Starlight
and the other Eagle boys would turn round that corner and see us.
We had tracked them all week, found out where their dorm was, what
time they use the bathrooms, everything.

Then at last, the sound of footsteps. I drew
myself up to my full height and glanced one more time, up at the
huge cloaked, skeletal face and blue glowing eyes of Malakai.

I heard the boys laughing jovially, light
from the fire brackets illuminating the path ahead of them. But
then, as they turned the corner the lights went out. Four of them
stood there in the darkness looking about.

“That’s strange…” one of them said.

They didn’t see us at first… but then, with a
click of my fingers, one fire bracket nearest us sparked blue
flame. Slowly their eyes all moved as one towards us. Their faces
froze, eyes wide, petrified to the floor. I recognised all of them
from the Riptide match, their faces were the ones that laughed at
us on the floor. You could have cut the silence with a blunt
blade.

I looked down at my nails, inspecting them
thoroughly. “Oh…” I said gently. “Hello boys.”

It was then, that David Starlights voice
echoed along the corridor.

“Oi Jason! … Jason? Steve? What are you guys
looking at?” he called in his bullish manor.

As he came round in his spotted pyjama’s, he
circled his frozen friends, then caught their gaze and followed it.
He saw me, grinned then as quick as lightning, his whole mouth
dropped. Wiped from his face in one swipe. His eyes rolling upwards
at the fake Malakai.

I stepped forward and spoke slowly. “Not so
confident
now are we boys?” Taking a moment to enjoy myself
and mentally photographing their terrified faces, I did my best
Blackthorn act. “Did I not mention it? I’m Malakai’s
apprentice…”

David’s mouth twitched, his eyes gazing at
the immense Malakai. “
You
? Why you?” He said it in a small
voice, clearly some bravado remained.

“I’m a
Blackthorn
. This is who we are
and believe me, the Spells he’s already shown me…
Reptlylidiulis
!”

From the ends of my hands grew a green and
brown light that morphed into a giant snake. Giant neon fangs
snapped the air in the front of them.

“
AHHHH
!” they all cried, stepping
back.

“Please Avis,” gibbered one of them, hiding
behind David. “We’ll do anything, please!”

I smiled. “Yes you will. If I hear you say
anything nasty to anyone in my form, then something much worse than
a
snake
will be after you…” My eyes rolled upwards to
Malakai and with a loud
poof
of green smoke
,
the
snake disappeared.

David was breathing heavily, his eyes darting
around. “I’m not scared… you can’t do anything to us. We haven’t
done anything wrong!”

I tried to smile confidently, but it was
rather weak. David seemed confident all of a sudden.

“…YOU…” said Robin in the deep rumbling
voice. “WILL OBEY AVIS BLACKTHORN.”

David backed away. “Yes… yes…” he said in
small voice. “Anything…” The voice had scared him into submission!
For once, Hunter had actually come up with an idea that worked!

But then, the worse possible thing happened.
I was about to tell the Eagles to go, to run away and tell everyone
that Avis Blackthorn is Malakai’s new apprentice, when… I… we all…
heard this muffled…
ACHOO!