The Chrysalis Key, page 16
“Key bearer,” called Calomere. Henry felt his heart leap up his throat. “Come forward, Henry. The Key has a new master now.”
Julian’s steady gaze swivelled to rest on him, and Henry felt his face go hot. He stood and slowly placed his hand in his pocket. The Key practically jumped into his hand. Startled, he quickly brought it out and walked over to the man, offering it to him in an open palm.
Julian simply stood there staring at the Key. In confusion, Henry looked at Calomere, who nodded at him encouragingly. Henry raised it higher towards Julian, and the older man raised his gaze to meet Henry’s eyes. He smiled at Henry in a kindly way.
“The Key has known select masters during its time,” Julian said softly. “And not many of them have not been Headmasters of Chrysalis.”
Henry nodded, feeling that he had been a part of something bigger than him. Bigger than Breakfast Creek.
Julian lowered his voice so that only Henry could hear him. “The Key will not forget you, Henry.”
Henry didn’t particularly understand how the Key had gotten to him, and despite his eagerness to be rid of thing, as it had caused him so much trouble, he couldn’t but help a little sad to part with it. He’d gotten used to having its reassuring weight in his shorts pocket. But golden metal shimmered and buzzed in his palm as if it were excited. He couldn’t deny the Key had returned its rightful place. And this man, Julian, held the Power of someone who knew how to use it.
Julian took a deep breath and, with both hands, took the Key from Henry’s palm and set it flat on his own.
A startling light erupted from the metal, and a miniature glowing figure emerged, wrapped in light. A tiny woman in a long gown stood on the Key looking up at Julian, her mouth moving in a speech Henry could not hear. Julian bent his ear towards the woman and, after a moment, straightened with a sniff. In a motion similar to a prayer, he looked upwards briefly before his eyes fell to the figure on the Key, nodding sincerely.
“I will,” he said formally.
The figure bowed and disappeared back into the Key, taking the light with her.
Julian put the Key into his pocket, and Henry suddenly felt empty. He awkwardly walked back to his seat between Aiden and Melanie, each step bringing him a deeper sense of deflation. Behind him, Calomere embraced Julian, thumping him on the back. “It’s good to have you back, my boy!” he said, laughing.
“He’s not a boy, Calomere!” said Rose, wiping a tear. “He is the Headmaster of Chrysalis now!”
The other adults from around the table stood and congratulated Julian in turn, introducing themselves.
Henry exchanged a look with each of the four teenagers from Breakfast Creek. They no longer had the Key. Would this man be able to get them back home? Did this mean they would get to see the famous school in person? What had he meant when he spoke about the other things he had seen and visited?
“I will go to Chrysalis first,” announced Julian, “and make sure that the Library and grounds are safe. Then I will escort you though, and we will see what needs to be done.”
“Go and talk to her,” urged Calomere cryptically. “See what she has to say.”
Julian paused on his way to the painting and turned to the old headmaster. His smile held a whisper of sadness. “I suspect I’ll be back sometime tomorrow.”
He strode towards the painting and did not stop when he reached it. Instead, a haze of gold light reached out to him from the painting and swallowed him right up. The children gasped and clapped, while the teenagers’ mouths dropped open. Hugh let out a choking laugh, and Aiden looked like he wanted to leap out of his chair. Melanie discretely wiped a tear, but Henry noticed. The girl seemed to feel more than she let on, and he couldn’t blame her; he felt a little teary himself. Perhaps she was as overwhelmed as he was.
They all left the table to join the Asimovs at the portrait-portal to Chrysalis.
Staring into the night time scene, a small movement could be seen in the green field leading up to the school. Julian’s tiny figure was striding towards the crystal monolith. They stared in wonder as the single light coming from the window of the school flickered once before being joined by the rest of the windows as they all lit up. Brilliant yellow beams of light streamed from Chrysalis, lighting up the entire painting. The children cheered and clapped, and Henry couldn’t but help clap along. So, this is what Calomere had meant about getting to Chrysalis in a different way. He couldn’t believe his eyes.
“This is just the beginning,” Amos said, grinning at the teenagers and clapping Hugh on the back. “Wait ‘til we can actually go inside.”
After they had cleared dinner, the children were ushered back to their rooms for a last bit of study, and Amos turned in for the night. The five teenagers sat in the empty dining room.
“I can’t wait to see Chrysalis in real life,” Aiden said, “It must look even better than in the painting.”
Henry nodded, thinking back to Calomere’s story. “I really want to see if I can get more information on my family curse. Maybe the famous library will have the answers.”
“Excuse me,” said Julia in a cold voice. “Shouldn’t we be focusing on getting back to Breakfast Creek? We’re going to be in so much trouble. Now we’ll be missing for a second night. Tomorrow will be Saturday. What are we gonna tell our parents?”
Aiden scoffed. “I don’t want to go back. I’m staying here.”
Julia turned on him with her mouth hanging open. “You’ve got to be kidding, Aiden!”
“I don’t blame you, Aiden,” said Melanie earnestly.
“Yeah, I get it,” shrugged Hugh. “That place sounds mad. I mean a magical island...”
“Don’t encourage him, Hugh, you’re not thinking!” said Julia, turning to Henry. “Come on, back me up here. We all have lives back where we came from. We all have to go back.”
“You’re right, Julia,” said Henry. “I need to get back to talk to my grandad about what’s going on with the curse and my Powers. But….” He stared out at Chrysalis, now brilliant against the night sky.
“But look at it, Julia,” whispered Melanie. Then her voice became more confident, and she looked around at them all. “What if this is our only chance to see a place like that? Why not check out Chrysalis for a bit? We probably won’t be able to get back once we leave. Calomere said building a portal is almost impossible, remember? After this we go back to our normal lives at Breakfast Creek.” Her voice trailed off towards the end, as if she didn’t quite believe her own words.
The thought silenced the group for a moment. Not only was that probably the most Melanie had spoken at any one time to them, but it made Henry think about their impossible circumstances. What did going back mean?
“Fine,” said Julia, crossing her arms. “If you’re all against it, then fine. But we are going back. And soon. The longer we stay here the worse it’s gonna be when we get back.”
“Agreed.” Hugh nodded. “The sooner the better. Just after we see inside that place. That… Chrysalis.”
Normal lives. Melanie had said, but now Henry’s thoughts faltered. Did he really believe that his life would go back to normal now? That part in him that was white, hot, blazing, and dangerous, whispered to him. As much as he didn’t want it. As much as he wanted to give it all up. It told him that his life was definitely never, ever going to be the same. And as he looked around at the faces of the four of them he had only previously known in passing, he knew none of their lives would also never be the same. There were some things that happened in your life that never left you. And this was definitely one of them.
That night Aiden could not sleep in his comfy, white bed. Now that he had met the headmaster, Julian, the confident man who oozed Power, his mind raced at all the possibilities. There were other schools as well—Morktalis Academy and Sacrilis School. How were they different? There was so much to know, and it felt like there was not enough time.
He needed to go and see the painting of Chrysalis again. Perhaps he’d be able to see Julian doing magic down on the island.
Quietly, he pushed back the covers of his white cotton quilt and listened. Henry was breathing deeply in his sleep, and Hugh was snoring softly. Rolling out of bed, he padded towards the door, pulled it smoothly open, and slipped into the corridor. He walked down the long floorboards, past the other bedrooms and the two classrooms. He came to the dining room and was about to enter when the sound of hushed voices stopped him in his tracks. Aiden had lived in the B.C. school library attic long enough to know when adults were talking about something they wanted to keep quiet. So, he receded into the shadows and waited as the voices of Rose and Calomere Asimov soared and fell.
“— been on my mind,” Calomere was saying tiredly. “Did you hear what Melanie said last night?”
“No, what was it?”
“I swear I heard her right, Rose. She said Henry’s grandfather’s name was Deagon Jolt.”
Aiden shrunk back further into the shadows, his ears perking up.
“That’s Henry’s curse?” Rose exclaimed in a loud whisper. “The Malhaven curse?”
There was silence for a moment, and Aiden’s heart thundered in his chest.
“It was the second night of battle, wasn’t it?” Rose whispered. “That’s the disturbance we felt that night, the one that shook us so badly. The one Clementine volunteered to investigate.”
“Yes,” said Calomere. His voice was croaking with tiredness. “Deagon was always clever. Of course, he kept everything quiet from his family. Who wouldn’t? Making them think it was genetic disease put the blame off him.”
“How are we supposed to tell Henry that his grandfather is a monster?” asked Rose, distress palpable in her voice. “That man should not have had children. How could he do that Calomere?”
The old man sighed. “I think not knowing will be a blessing for Henry.”
“Will he fall to it, Calomere? The curse?”
“The construction in his blood is like nothing I’ve seen before. Something is protecting him. He is safe for the moment at least. But did you see his Power, Rose?” Calomere breathed. “I have not seen Power like that before. It was bright white, pure as anything.”
Calomere sighed, and Aiden heard the scrape of a chair being pushed back.
“Let’s think on it in the morning, love,” said Rose. “I know this is all taking a toll on you, though you won’t say it.”
A second scrape and footsteps, Aiden retreated back down the hallway and jogged back towards his bedroom.
19
To her parent’s great displeasure, the girl in the room grew into a young woman seemingly overnight. One day she was happily playing tea party with her brown bear, and the next she had torn him to pieces and flung him out the window, his fluffy white innards scattering the front lawn like snow drifts. She had kept the red tartan bow tie, however, and set it on her desk as a sort of tribute.
The cause of her sudden aggression was largely unknown, and her parents put it down to the tumultuous hormonal time that was puberty.
But this was not the case at all.
On her sixteenth birthday, the girl locked her room door with her Power. She buried herself deep in her mind and had finally, unfortunately, terribly, breached the defences that had stood sentinel around her home for generations.
It had taken her three days. Three full days of deciphering the code and infiltrating the fine lines of encryption. It was marvellous and fascinating work. It was fine magic tinged with old blood and entombed within something darker than night. These were centuries-old defences that kept her family’s lives private from any querying eyes. But one question rang clear and heavy in her heart. Thick were the walls protecting ancient secrets. So what type of secret required a defence that ran so wide and deep even the bones of the house creaked under its burden?
When she finally broke through, it was like breaking the surface of water after a long dive. She breathed deeply, her lungs filling with well-earned relief.
Behind the hedges. Behind the hedges. Behind the hedges. The whole manor was bordered by hedges.
Behind the hedges she journeyed, casting her mind into the parts of manor she had never been able to see.
The hedges formed a maze, coloured ribbons danced along a rainbow path leading to the side of the manor.
At the end of rainbow path, in the side of the house was a tiny red door. A glossy candy red. Child sized and complete with a sparkling bronze handle and knocker.
She went through the door.
Five children played in a wonderland of glitter, riding trains on a track, swimming in a pit of sparkling, multi-coloured balls. Each clutching a brown bear with a red tartan bow.
Green jealousy filled her belly like a poison. It rose like acid in her throat. She had missed out. Why had she missed out?
Magic billowed out of vents in the wall. Red tinged with shadow.
The girl frowned.
On the train and in the ball pit, the children swayed like flowers in a breeze. And then they fell.
The girl’s mind reeled. Her body shook. She wanted to scream.
And then her cook was there. Kind, sweet Miriam was binding tiny gold collars around tiny, delicate throats.
She felt the shape of the magic on the gold collars and recognised it to be her own. Her heart leapt into her mouth.
Her father carried the children through a hidden door into a waiting truck marked with the letters ‘RG.’
No. No. No. No.
The truth struck her heart like an axe.
Her parents were servants of the Red General.
The vision shot violently through her like a bullet, and she scrambled for composure. But there would be no exit wound. There would be no composure. She brought her mind back into the safety of her room and found that her fists had bunched her dress in a white knuckled grip. Her mind roiled in a spinning hurricane, trying to find some way it could not be true, some way she had misunderstood. But she had seen it. She had made those collars. They had told her the order had come from a man trying to catch rabid monsters. They had lied. They had lied. They had lied.
Until the day she died, that image of the falling children would stay with her. She would keep it close to her like a talisman. In time, that pain would come to serve her, and she would wield it like the greatest weapon ever made.
In their first raid, the officer of law and his team darted around the manor and found nothing. There was no evidence of dark magic or dark activity, as the inside tip-off had advised. Then he and his team went upstairs.
The girl in the room was sitting on her bed, her arms crossed, facing the open door as if she had been waiting for them.
“Search the room,” she said to him, her gaze fiery but level. “I will not stop you.”
Her anger was palpable as a roiling heat emanated off her skin. It made the air shimmer around her, but she sat still. As still as a tiger watching its prey.
The officer watched her carefully. She fumed, but he got the feeling that the law enforcers were not the cause or focus of her anger.
The room was bare but for a wardrobe, a pot plant, a long mirror, a bed, a desk, and a corkboard. She had politely laid her papers out on the desk in neat piles for them to sort through. But when the officers scanned the papers, they exchanged wide-eyed looks. They glanced at the young woman sitting primly on her bed and then back at the papers, quite unable to believe it.
“That is my work,” she said tightly. “Take them if you must. Unfortunately for you, they are copies.”
The team, did indeed, take them, for sorcery such as this could not be permitted out in the world. The danger of it was unthinkable.
The officer turned to look back at her before he left, and she raised her eyes from the floor to meet his. He blinked, and she did not. His gaze was troubled as he looked upon her. Because in her silver eyes he saw a great and terrible sadness that he had never seen in a person so young. But then again, he thought, I have never seen work such as hers either.
Two thoughts came to him as he left her room, shutting the door softly behind him. The first was that there was no doubt in his mind that this woman was the silent kind of dangerous, the type only found in nature. In the subtle steps of a lion or the magnetic tides of the ocean. And the second thought was that such forces could not be kept in a prison for long. One could attempt such a thing, but in the end, such wild Power took their freedom and turned on their captors. Beatrice Malhaven was a lioness waiting to be released.
20
Henry
Late the next morning, Henry and Calomere were practising together alongside the children while Aiden and Melanie sat nearby and watched intently, whispering to each other. Hugh was sitting at the dining table, wolfing down a second breakfast with Rose sitting next to him sewing, and Julia sat opposite them, watching Hugh with a glum expression. Henry jumped when she let out a sudden cry. She was pointing at the Chrysalis portrait where the tiny figure of Julian was walking towards them down the long path leading towards the jungle.
Everyone hurried to gather in a semicircle around the portrait, and little Emily squealed excitedly. “I want to see the magic plants, mummy!”
Her parents laughed and gathered their children into an excited, bouncing huddle.
“The first thing I’m going to do is check out the enchanted library!” said Aiden excitedly. “It sounds crazy in there.”
“I’m sorry to tell you, Aiden,” said Calomere. “But we don’t advise anyone to enter the Library.”
“Why?” said Aiden, his face falling.
“Oh Chrysalis has the most magnificent open library you’ll ever see,” said Calomere. “People come from very far to study there. As for the other Library, the one Chrysalis was built to guard, it’s not that you’re not allowed to go into it, it’s just that it’s extremely unsafe. It’s haunted by malevolent beings that are stuck in there and covet the knowledge. Don’t think of it as rows of books on shelves, the place is very much alive, and knowledge exists in different forms. Anyone who goes through those doors simply doesn’t survive or goes mad within minutes of entry. Only the professors attempt an exploration. The place is huge, it crosses the multiverse. I’ve brought a couple of books back myself, but in my old age, I am definitely not keen to try again. I do believe…” he turned around to glance at Aiden in thought. “You met a man who entered the Library and came back quite damaged. They call him the Architect now.”
