by E. G. Foley
He gave Maddox a stilted nod of thanks, but all he could think of to say was: “Derek Stone doesn’t train quitters.”
“True,” Maddox agreed.
Still, hesitating, Jake could not bring himself to tell Maddox that he had done an outstanding job today, too.
Instead, they took leave of him.
“Isabelle’s going to be so disappointed,” Dani said as they headed back to Merlin Hall. She looked askance at Jake. “I told you he was nice.”
“I guess he’s not that bad,” he admitted. “Especially since he’s got no designs on Izzy, after all.”
“And especially since he’s not a spy for the Dark Druids, hmm?” Archie taunted, elbowing him.
Even Jake laughed at his earlier suspicion. It did sound a bit silly, now that they had had a conversation with the Guardian kid.
Of course, Jake still did not particularly want Maddox St. Trinian for a friend, any more than he wanted him for an enemy. He just wanted the interloper to keep his distance and not try to push his way into their close-knit group. Because if he did that, Maddox might make him look bad.
In truth, being around the older boy made him feel like a bit of an idiot, hiding behind woodpiles. Maddox seemed so mature and superior by comparison. It irked him.
Putting the whole matter out of his mind, Jake accompanied his companions back across the bridge and made sure to look again for the strange creature he had seen in the brook, but it was gone.
They paused on the bridge to listen raptly to the gathered naiads singing before they continued on their way. In the ordinary world, a mortal might be dragged underwater and drowned for daring to listen to the water nymphs’ songs, but at Merlin Hall, such hostile traditions were suspended.
“Maybe we should go have a peek at the fairy market,” Dani suggested at length, gazing at it across the fields.
Colorful lanterns winked and beckoned. Accordion music invited them to dance. Bursts of laughter echoed from the carnival games on offer amid the vendor stalls. But the veiling fog that twisted around the camp gave its allure a tricksy air of danger.
Archie shook his head. “Aunt Ramona told us not to.”
“I know, but aren’t you the least bit curious what might be for sale over there?” Dani asked.
“Only things that would get you into trouble,” Archie said.
“Come on,” Jake urged his companions before Dani took it into her head to insist. “Let’s go.”
Heading back toward Merlin Hall, they chatted idly about what they might like to do next, but Jake paused when he heard eerie music coming from the woods. “Wait—do you hear that?”
“Hear what?” Dani asked.
“Somebody playing a bagpipe. You don’t hear that?”
Archie squinted at him. “I don’t hear anything, either. Maybe you’re still not right in the head, coz—”
“I’m fine,” he retorted, all the more intrigued.
Logically, if only he could hear it, it would seem to mean the piper was a ghost…
Curiosity got the better of him. He headed for the woods. “Wait here, I’ll be right back,” he said.
Famous last words.
CHAPTER TEN
Headless & Boneless
Leaving his friends behind, Jake strode to the woods on the far end of the moonlit meadow.
He spied a path among the trees and ventured down it, until, amid the doleful wailing of the bagpipes, he heard slow, heavy footfalls marching ominously ahead. Back and forth they trod, in time with the dark song.
He moved closer. “Who’s there?”
In the forest shadows, he could just make out the spectral form of a tall, brawny figure in a kilt. The piper turned, and Jake’s eyes widened as he realized the ghostly Scotsman didn’t have a head!
Though the bellows of the bagpipe was tucked under his arm, the long, flute-like reed was merely propped against the top of the ghost’s neck, just above his neck-cloth. Considering that the headless Scot could somehow play the bagpipe without a mouth, perhaps Jake should not have been surprised to discover that the ghost could also sense him there somehow, even though he had neither eyes nor ears.
Indeed, if the headless ghost had possessed a face, Jake might have been able to read the angry expression there and realize the spirit did not wish to be disturbed. But as it was, he got no prior warning that this ghost was a murderously angry chap. Not until the bagpipe in the Highlander’s hands turned into a great, sharp claymore.
Without warning, his giant long-sword in hand, the mighty Scot came charging at him like he was in the midst of fighting the bloody Battle of Culloden.
It was one of those rare occasions where Jake was so taken off guard that he responded in a most un-Lightriderly fashion: He screamed and ran away.
“What’s wrong?” Archie yelled as Jake came barreling out of the woods and raced breathlessly across the meadow.
“Run!”
Dani screamed, too (just because), and both of them immediately did as he commanded.
To his relief, however, strangely, the Scot stopped chasing as soon as Jake rejoined his friends. When he looked back, the Headless Highlander twirled his broadsword impressively and slung it on its strap across his back.
He produced his ectoplasm bagpipe once more out of thin air and resumed playing, marching slowly back into the woods.
“Sweet peat moss!” Jake panted, bending forward to prop his hands on his thighs as he strove to catch his breath. Then he started laughing in belated humor and relief.
“What did you see?” Dani cried.
He told them, concluding with this advice: “Probably best to stay off that particular path.” He pointed at it. “The ghost seems to think that’s his territory.”
“Somebody ought to put up a sign to warn people off!” Archie said indignantly.
Jake agreed with a rueful nod. “At least I can see why Lady Oriel didn’t use that ghost in my Assessment. He’s mean.”
With that, he suddenly remembered to tell his friends about Constanzio, King of the Tenors, who had been his favorite ghost of the day by far. Jake’s loud, off-key attempt to imitate the opera ghost’s singing soon had all three of them laughing again after that brush with danger.
Nevertheless, Jake wondered privately if a ghost with a sword could really hurt anyone or just scare the blazes out of them. That much the Headless Highlander had certainly accomplished.
At last, the three of them stepped back into Merlin Hall, where the chandeliers blazed with light, chasing off the darkness outside.
The orchestra’s music boomed through the closed doors of the ballroom. Only a few servants and bored kids stood around here and there in the grand foyer, excluded from the adults’ festivities.
“Well?” Archie turned to Jake and Dani. “What now? I don’t want to go to bed yet.”
“Me neither. It’s too early.”
Dani pointed at the art gallery off the entrance hall. “Let’s go see the paintings.”
The boys followed as she led the way, her patent-leather shoes clicking over the marble floors, the busy rhythm of her footfalls echoing under the high ceilings.
Soon they were admiring the great classical paintings hung upon the red walls in ornate, gilded frames. Every palace this size had an art collection, Jake supposed, but he wasn’t sure why these particular paintings should be hung at Merlin Hall. They did not look magical to him.
He was soon rather bored, especially when Archie started explaining the various paintings to him and Dani. Jake only half-listened.
First was a fairly typical foxhunting scene of some aristocrat jumping his horse over a hedgerow while a pack of sleek hounds flowed around him, chasing after some unfortunate fox.
Next came a Turner painting of a beautiful old sailing ship sinking in a storm; then an unsmiling portrait of a Dutch merchant sitting in his kitchen, looking overly intense beside a bowl of potatoes and a dead rabbit meant to be for dinner.
Fourth was a frothy French ro
coco fantasy, with giddy shepherds and ladies in huge fluffy skirts chasing each other around some garden, while a cupid hovered in the clouds shooting arrows at them. Jake rolled his eyes at that one, then followed as Archie moved on.
The next scene was more his style, full of action, danger, and adventure: Mount Vesuvius erupting. As the volcano spewed fire and brimstone all over the Italian islands, tiny people were fleeing into their boats to try to escape their ancient doomsday.
“Wouldn’t want to be them,” Jake remarked.
The sixth painting could only be described as disturbing in the extreme. Jake and Dani looked at each other and blanched.
It was by some demented medieval chap whose name Archie gave as Hieronymus Bosch. Monsters, devils, and grotesque creatures worse than the Venemous Tython were depicted gleefully torturing wicked souls in the afterlife.
“Ew,” said Dani, moving past it with a shudder.
In sharp contrast to the hellish scene by Bosch, the last painting on the narrow end of the long gallery showed an idyllic farm landscape on a lazy summer’s afternoon, with a field of sunflowers in the foreground, and a grove of trees in the distance, a soft blue sky overhead.
The peaceful country scene made you want to lie down in the tall grass and snooze in the sunshine.
They stood around staring at it for a long moment.
“It looks so real,” Dani remarked, tilting her head.
Archie gave a slight yawn. “This one makes me sleepy.” He checked his fob watch. “Well, it’s ten o’clock now. Getting late.”
“Maybe we could send down to the kitchens for a snack before we head off to bed,” Jake suggested.
“Do you think the kitchen gnomes are still working?” Dani asked hopefully.
He shrugged. “Worth a shot,” he answered.
The others agreed to this, but when they all turned around to leave the gallery, they promptly learned that the adventures of the night weren’t over yet. For, at that moment, the formless, shapeless blob that Jake had seen earlier today on the Field of Challenge floated right out of the gallery wall and hovered in midair in front of them, blocking their way in a menacing fashion.
“What the dash is that?” Archie shouted, pointing as he skidded to a halt between Jake and Dani.
“You can see it?” Jake exclaimed.
Even Dani nodded. “Aye, but what the devil is it?”
“Not a ghost, apparently,” Jake mumbled in confusion. “It showed up earlier at my Assessment. I thought it was some sort of spirit, but if you two can see it, too, it must have some sort of substance…”
“I say!” Archie marveled, studying it. He took a step toward the creature. “Hullo, what are you, then? Hold still, let me have a look at you…”
Whatever it was, it didn’t like the young scientist trying to come closer.
“Archie, be careful!” Dani cried, but her warning came too late.
As Archie reached out to try to touch the thing, the boneless blob attacked, engulfing the boy genius in the mass of its thick gray fog.
An angry, non-human, yet oddly comical face formed on the surface, glaring at Archie.
“Get off o’ him!” Jake and Dani both reacted at once, trying to pull the creature away, but their hands went right through its cold, clammy cloud of a body.
Inside, Archie waved his arms wildly like someone trying to escape a swarm of mosquitoes.
The blob retreated as quickly as it had pounced, leaving the boy genius spluttering and shuddering with disgust, coated with a light layer of clear-colored slime. Other than that and a bit of coughing, Archie seemed more or less all right.
“Stay with him!” Jake ordered Dani, running after the blob as it zoomed away down the long corridor of the art gallery and out across the entrance hall.
“Get back here!” His eyes blazed as he chased it. Nobody, living or dead, attacked his best mate and got away with it.
The Boneless glanced back at him, but swept on, leaving a few of the kids staring after it.
Only Jake chased.
As he ran, a shocking thought occurred to him. For all he knew, that bizarre creature might be the Dark Druids’ real spy!
The night’s playful spy-hunting mission had just turned possibly dead serious—and real.
“Come back here, you…thing!” Jake tore after it as it sped into a shadowy corridor that branched off the far side of the entrance hall.
Like many palaces of its era, the main block of Merlin Hall had been built as a massive quadrangle, with a grassy courtyard in the center, and two large wings branching off the sides.
The whole structure easily covered several acres, offering an endless row of formal parlors, dining rooms, music rooms, studies, meeting rooms, lecture halls, ballrooms, and all manner of gilded staterooms for large gatherings. There was even a theatre and concert hall.
In short, the sprawling size and grandeur of the palace gave the Boneless plenty of room to run.
Or float, as the case might be.
As Jake raced into the dimly lit medieval corridor, a shout from behind told him that, thank goodness, Archie had recovered.
“Jake, wait up!” Dani yelled.
He glanced back and shook his head, then waved them toward the other side of the quadrangle. “You two go that way! We’ll trap it in between us! Block it if it comes your way, but don’t get too close!”
Dani bobbed her head, grabbed Archie, then the two dashed off in the opposite direction.
Jake continued running down the long corridor before him. To be sure, this night was turning out to be more interesting that he had anticipated.
First a strange animal in the river, then a headless Highlander, now the Boneless.
Whatever it was, it was fast. He could hardly keep pace with the floating blob. He could not imagine where the thing was going, hurrying on as if it had some important business to attend to.
Somehow, despite the day’s draining ordeal, he found the strength to pour on another burst of speed, refusing to let the thing escape him. It turned the corner, but Jake kept after it, his jaw clenched with determination, his heart pounding from this unexpected exercise.
Suddenly, he heard a banging sound ahead, followed by a gleeful cackle that promptly sent chills down his spine.
He paused to listen, chest heaving, and heard a second, softer voice that was not quite crying, but definitely pleading for mercy. Jake’s first thought was that the Boneless was about to attack another victim.
“Don’t you dare!” he hollered after it, once more in motion, scrambling to catch up. He yelled ahead to warn the blob’s would-be victim. “Look out up there! Don’t let the blob thing near you, it’s dangerous!”
But when he flung around the corner, to the rescue, he ran smack-dab into a mere slip of a girl and knocked her off her feet.
She went flying and landed with an indignant “Ow!”
Jake skidded to a halt. He glanced around; the Boneless was gone.
“Did it get you? Are you all—” When he turned to help the girl up, he interrupted himself in surprise. “You!”
It was none other than Nixella Valentine, the gloomy but brilliant young witch from today’s Assessments.
She ignored his offered hand and climbed to her feet, scowling at him and brushing her black skirts neatly into place. “Watch where you’re going, fool!”
“I-I’m sorry. I thought you were in danger!” he stammered, taken aback by her rudeness. He glanced around. “Did you see which way it went?”
“What are you talking about?”
“The Boneless. It was headed your way. Didn’t you see it?”
“No.”
“But…weren’t you crying?”
“I don’t cry,” she said. “What’s the matter with you, anyway, running about like a crazy person?”
“Sorry—I was chasing something,” he said in confusion. “I’m not really sure what it was. Some sort of apparition. It attacked my cousin—”
“What?” s
he asked, not quite hiding her blanch.
“I don’t think it really hurt him.” Jake eyed her in suspicion. “It’s just like a blob or a cloud of fog. Really strange. Are you sure you didn’t see it? It was coming right this way.”
She shrugged. “No. But why so surprised? We’re at Merlin Hall. Everything is strange here. Especially the people,” she added pointedly.
Jake ignored the barb, rather sure she was lying. “Well, if you do see it, I suggest you keep your distance. It might be dangerous. And sorry I knocked you down. It was an accident.”
At that moment, Archie and Dani appeared at the other end of the corridor.
“Jake! Did you find it? Where did it go?” Archie yelled as they pounded closer.
“It disappeared!” he called back as they approached, then gestured at Nixella. “All I found was her.”
As Archie skidded to a halt, his eyes widened behind his spectacles. “M-Miss Valentine?”
She frowned and drew back in wary disdain. “Do I know you?”
“Well, no, but I saw your Assessment today. Absolutely brilliant!”
The black-clad girl seemed genuinely shocked by his enthusiastic praise. Indeed, her tough veneer cracked ever so slightly. She ducked her head as though confused and a little tongue-tied at his compliment.
“Uh, thanks.” She glanced at Jake. “Is this the cousin you claim got attacked?”
“Claim?” Jake echoed, offended.
She shrugged. “He looks all right to me.”
Jake glanced at Archie. “I told her about the blob attack.”
“Oh, no worries, I’m right as rain!” Archie said cheerfully. “Didn’t hurt. Just a horrid, nasty, slimy thing, that’s all.” He shuddered for effect. “I’m Archie Bradford, by the way. That’s Jake and that’s Dani. I trust you two remember Miss Nixella Valentine?”
“Just Nixie,” she muttered. “And yes, my mother must’ve hated me, giving me a name like that.”
Dani bit back a giggle at her admission, but Archie frowned. “Aw, it’s not so bad! How do you think I feel having the full name Archimedes?”