Jacks School of Shines, page 5
The professor walked bent over for even the smallest Shines child to hear. He whispered the words “delouses” over tones of the spells and stepped to the students. It became clear they all heard and nodded, for they got it the first time around.
The professor stepped back, for anything could go wrong or happen in a blink of an eye.
Out of his loud voice came the spell. “Delouses” rang clear in the room. Some didn’t say it right, and some didn’t say it at all, or at the right tone and the hall became a mess of owl feathers from a poor owl watching the children.
At the amazement of feathers raining down, the children felt disappointed in themselves. The disappointment came from the older students, because they needed a lot of extra care in saying that spell. They felt that they were of no help to us boys who went on the outside to fight. These uncommon spells would take time to become clear to each student’s mind.
But for now the professor said, “That’s ok! Let’s form a line for this spell. We will do it one student at a time. Please, over here. You can be the first,” he said to Christi Bravback, a second year student and smart as a whip.
She came from Nephrite Castle farms area. Stepping forward, she placed her feet together and took notice in what the professor said.
“You are one of the most powerful of all for your age, next to Eibhlin. Spells are like a fine wine; they taste better as they age. In our case, we hope that they age well with practice, in spite of our hurry.” He cleared his voice. “We will take great care in saying this spell and I’ll explain it to you first. Listen to the quiet of this room. Class, clear your heads of any negative thought. Heads up. Please watch me. Hold your wand in your right hand. Good! Now are your wands at the ready? Yes? Good! Steady now,” Professor Cavemen said.
“This spell is used to make one disappear into the unknown. Let’s start with you.”
Eibhlin stepped forward, trembling from being up front with the teacher. The professor told her to say ’expemaneo’. She wound up her wand three times with a flick of her wrist. Her wand tip spun out bingo sap. The orange glow of the casting appeared. The chair in the front of her in the hall went bang-boom into thin air.
“Well done,” he’s said, “Well done.” With a sigh and a nod, he added, “I think we will do nicely in our practices in the three magical spells of physiological.”
* * *
I’d been walking for more than two weeks and hadn’t seen any of my friends. I remembered the voice of that goblin, so familiar to me. The most unusual part of it was that a goblin led the Dark and Evil. Why would evil wizards allow a Goblin to lead them? Is he a real goblin or something else? The goblin’s voice sounded like he just might be Mr. Greeley who used to work at the school.
Last year, he got fired because of his demented ways. He used to be in charge of our most feared creatures here at the school. He was a wizard physiological of living things, but he had the ability to change them into the worst of creatures. I must write a note and leave it in the forest for Eibhlin to find and to warn the others about who’s really behind all this. It was Mr. Greeley, the animal caregiver, the dark arts professor at Shines.
Our Headmaster gave him a job when no other place would and he betrayed our school’s leader. He’s mad, that’s for sure. As I wrote down what had been happening out here and about our poor friend’s death, I let the wind catch the note from my hand. The wind guided the note by magic toward the school.
I walked north to see if I could find a couple of the boys that night. Weeks ago we suffered such a fright, I really didn’t blame them in the flight for their own life. Now they wandered lost in the Forgotten Forest.
I knew I was getting closer to finding the truth about why this man had become an evil goblin and turned against the School of Shines. Steps had been made in trying to take the wizardry school out of its curriculum.
I found it hard to swallow that thought. There had to be more than what I saw that night. It must have been just a gathering to bring out the evil. No man was born to evil. He must be led into it, but by whom? Back at the castle, before Mr. Greeley was fired, we used to notice that he seemed very different than the rest of the wizard professors. He was one man who I would not suspect to carry out this type of evil deed. So I decided to take this information back to the school. I would give one more day out in this part of the forest to look for the boys and then head back to warn the others.
Chapter 9: The Evil Goblin
The School of Shines took evil Goblin Mr. Greeley in way back when Headmaster Barns was himself a professor and Headmaster Parks ran the school. Placed in charged of the school’s most difficult creatures, Mr. Greeley always wanted to teach. He tried to hold self-made classes for the students about the creatures, but once the students attended, he turned the tables on them and taught dark arts. He also changed the creatures into horrible things that would get out of control and eat people. He pleaded with the old Headmaster to make him a professor. As time passed, his anger grew at being turned down over and over again.
The untimely death of Headmaster Parks, to my way of thinking with the help of the castle ghost, was because Mr. Greeley killed him. When they appointed the new Headmaster, Greeley went insane and caused trouble when the school asked him to leave. Much trouble brewed through his hatred against the school. He started his own band of evil students — now men — who follow him and want to take over the school and teach only Dark and Evil.
Eibhlin,
At last, I have some information for you. I know who the Evil Goblin is, Mr. Greeley from our school. Tell the professors and take extra care of everyone there.
I still haven’t found the others. I think this Forgotten Forest changes trails from one minute to the next. I’ve tried to retrace steps, only to find myself blocked. This is a new evil working.
Next time you eat a hot breakfast, take a bite or two for me, will you? Tell everyone I miss them and I haven’t given up.
Yours,
Colin
* * *
My ghostly friends in the castle couldn’t talk. I discovered if I held a piece of parchment with both hands outstretched and placed a quill nearby with a full ink well at their disposal, they would write or draw notes. I would find a quiet place in the castle and spend the whole afternoon watching what they wrote and drew. That helped me understand more about what they’d seen behind closed doors and what must be endured in the near future.
When we split up and ran in different directions into the dark forest, I didn’t know I saved myself by turning back to look for John. I lay down, out of breath, unable to run any longer. In the middle of trampled tulips, sleep came. The one whom they wanted most of all was me, for my power would come soon. The fire pit meeting marked the starting point of my rise to power. If we’d stayed any longer in the forest, we would have seen a few hundred more headed to the fire pit to meet up with the Evil Goblin.
Many Dark Robes walked through the forest that night in search of us. I told myself I was fortunate they didn’t discover me asleep. The sleep did me good and gave me new strength and insight on where to search for the boys the next day. But I had a new problem — hunger. My hunger pangs grew and made too much noise.
The other boys weren’t so lucky. Riley ran for miles, madness and fear tormenting that young boy’s head. Feelings of loneliness ran rampant, adding to his confused state of mind.
While trying to find my way back to the school, I ran into Riley’s remains embedded in the earth. To stumble across this discovery petrified me. I touched his face where he lay in the hard soil. He felt like stone. I broke down and cried out, “Why, why?” I knelt to look at my friend who’d died on our quest. This made me remember why we came here and I still felt determined to fight this evil.
I remembered what the shadowy ghost once drew on a piece of parchment just last summer of the seven deadly curses. One was the ability to predefine people who were true evil at work. With six more deadly sins to run across, I knew I needed to be careful. I dug out Riley’s remains to take back to the school.
I’d carried Riley for almost two whole days, but couldn’t find my way to the school. He was heavy and I had no choice but to lay him down. I made a grave out of bark and branches and rocks, using a large rock for the headstone. After saying a class prayer, the only one I could remember, I stood and dusted the dirt off my clothes.
That’s when I noticed that a body clothed in black robes and covered with blood laid a few yards away. The blood seeped from a large wound from a cast spell in the corpse’s chest, and the head had been severed from its neck. The head lay nearby, looking ghostly in the gloom of its red eyes once glowing with malice, but now dimmed in death.
“The wretched young man, whom might he be?” I asked myself. In a soft wisp of a glimmer I understood; the second deadly sin had been dealt: the ability to strike one down by one blow of a cursed black wand.
“One of us boys got one or the Dark Robes turned on one of their own. I wonder which one?” I asked Riley’s body at his graveside. “Is this your work, Riley, before you left us on this earth? Well, if so, good work, old boy.” With one final look, I promised Riley I’d return to take him home.
I headed out in the right direction — I thought. Nothing seemed familiar to me now in the daylight. I didn’t notice the corpse’s blood oozing across the ground. The Crimson Light in the forest was still at work. It reached out for miles. Wherever I went, I ran across traces of the Dark Robe’s blood creeping along the forest floor.
I stopped and watched a pool of blood coming closer. An eerie smell assaulted my nose, and heat came into the soles of my shoes. The burning sensation overpowered me. I jumped up and down, trying to stay out of the approaching blood. I had to get away and leave the valley where I laid Riley’s body. I tried to memorize the place.
“Can I find it again?” My question echoed off the high cliffs nearby. The Dark Robe’s blood engulfed Riley’s body and consumed it, leaving nothing for me to find.
* * *
At the school, the winter weather came in hard and heavy, and the rain fell like stones from the clouds above. The students stayed inside the castle for fear had worsened. Wizard’s weather nurtured the land, but of late the wicked weather wrecked havoc. The work of Dark and Evil surrounded everything.
Rains were the worst in seven years. One gloomy morning, several professors sat around the dining table, taking a midmorning coffee break. A pot of blackberry jam accompanied the platter of scones and plate of sliced lemon crumb cake. Instead of the usual chatter, the teachers listened to rain pelting the arched diamond-paned windows.
Professor Toms wiped crumbs from his curly brown beard and said, “Scary days we’ve had. Dark times are coming.” The slurping and clinking of coffee cups on saucers stopped cold.
For fear of the evil presence, the students broke up in groups to practice their three magical casting spells. The younger ones worked on saying such a tricky but most powerful spell.
I’d written over a dozen notes for Eibhlin, who only found a few. With no other way to get news, the school relied on Eibhlin and her third eye. If anyone remained alive fighting the Dark Robes, she would know, for a great magical sensibility touched her. The children hurried through the halls, never ever to make any noise due to Eibhlin’s third eye watching all movement.
Eibhlin got my notes about the Goblin, madness, and frightening encounters. It disturbed both the professors and students to read this grim news, and their imaginations of what could happen to us made it even worse.
* * *
As my mind raced, things started to heat up — if the blood of a Dark Robe touched anyone, it ate that person’s flesh so the Dark Robe could be reborn through its victim.
I took cover in a burnt out shack. I’d never felt such a heavy rain before and my clothes were soaked. I dug deep into my knapsack for dry clothes but they’d become nothing but rags.
The heavy amounts of unending rain had blocked the sun and my sense of direction. I thought I was headed north instead of northeast. Sitting in this shack, listening to the rain, my thoughts wander to my friends and to where I last saw them. Maybe I should go back there for one more look.
They went east. At least I think they did. My heart lightened at the thought of finding Tom and Harper again. But, the low clouds covering the sky also covered that hope. If I didn’t know the way home, I was lost — lost and alone.
How much more could I endure? I didn’t know, but it couldn’t be much. It felt so good and magical the morning we first set out. I had no idea then I’d be fighting hopelessness more than the Dark Robes. This blasted rain! It made things worse.
Just about ready to put my head on my arms and sob myself to sleep, a note fluttered through the door and landed at my feet. I picked it up, amazed that it was dry. I couldn’t open it fast enough.
Colin,
I don’t know where you are or if you’re even still alive, though my heart tells me so. Everyone here is so very proud of you. We talk about you all the time, wondering when we’ll hear from you next. I wish I could be with you now, playing tricks on old Professor Tuddlebee and hiding his glasses.
Come home soon, please. I miss you too much.
Your very own,
Eibhlin
I did my best, but tears burned my eyes. I read the letter at least five times. Feeling better, I lay down and slept better than I had in many a night.
* * *
Eibhlin and a few of her dorm room girlfriends snuck into the Headmaster’s downstairs study. They’d been planning for days on how to get in there. It’d been most difficult for the Bluebird kept a close eye on them. The study door, made centuries ago, contained no less than thirty-six clocks that locked it. The door, six inches thick, stood eight feet tall and reached ten feet across. The old, thin, tiny faces of the clocks were embedded into the door from top to bottom.
Old wizard’s script covered the clocks’ faces and was hard to read unless you were a wizard. It would prove most tough to copy when the beginning of the first chime rang. The girls stood ready to back up Eibhlin, but she had second thoughts. If they messed up the clocks’ locks, no one would ever be able to get into the Headmaster’s lower house study.
The first chime rang! There was no time for doubt. The chime echoed off the school’s main clock. Eibhlin raised her hands and set the first clock lock to the desired time. Click. It worked. The girls blew out relieved breaths. They had to rewind each clock and set it to the midnight chime of the school’s clock, a most difficult task.
Chapter 10: The Forgotten Forest
The girls had tried for seventeen days to work the locks, one at a time, sneaking down to the lower house study. Then they decided to form into groups of three. The magic of three worked every time.
The locks had been figured out, but only because of Eibhlin’s dream. It wouldn’t have happened in a million years if tried by any other means. The timing grew close for the school’s main clock to strike midnight. They listened for the first chime, then scrambled to set the first clock lock to one past midnight. The second one came loud and clear. They set the second clock on the door, two past midnight. The door opened a crack. The girls got excited and set the third one at three past midnight and so on to four past. Click!
The school clock chimed all to bed. The final chime came and students rushed through the corridors to their rooms. Downstairs, they set the final clock to thirty-six and saw the door stir. When it opened, the girls hurried in before the hall monitors searched the halls. Extra hall monitors had been added due to the extreme danger outside. Anyone out of their beds in the dark night could catch the eye of a Dark Robe. Many Dark Robes had gained access to the school through the lack of watchful hall monitors.
“Like Colin told us, we must stick together,” Eibhlin said. She’d seen what I did that night at the Dark Robes’ fireside meeting. Her imagination ran wild, for Eibhlin knew the name of the Evil Goblin and planned to get to the bottom of everything. She read the Headmaster’s private records, looking for any information on this evil man, Mr. Greeley, then she planned to go to the professors for help.
She told her friends what she was up to. They didn’t know why she was afraid to say anything until she checked things out on her own and got the news back to me somehow on what she’d found.
Searching through the office with her friends, Eibhlin found in one of the notes what happened to poor John. Sadness and sorrow overcame their hearts. Truly he was a great loss. In the days that followed, all of his family and friends were shocked to hear how he really died. She found notes dated months back, and couldn’t believe her eyes. They told what the Headmaster saw — the future written in great detail. He had set his affairs in order knowing the time of his own death.
Eibhlin sat down in the office, overcome by how tiny she appeared to the rest of the room. Small she looked compared to the enormous desk she sat at and she barely reached the top of the desk pad. Eibhlin read for hours into the night as her girlfriends went to bed. Bedtime came and went unnoticed and Eibhlin read till the early morning. Finally looking up and taking a breather, she saw the dew glistening on the grass from outside the window.
Moving the pile of parchments she’d been reading, and the various quills, she uncovered the desk. Something moved underneath the desk blotter. When Eibhlin lifted it, she saw a huge eye batting its eyelashes at her. She jerked her head back and quickly covered up the eye.
