The Curse in the Candlelight

by Sophie Cleverly

  Scarlet, apparently, decided to brave the question. “What happened?”

  The whole group turned round, almost at the same time. It made my skin prickle, and I realised it was reminiscent of how the ballet girls had looked at me on the first day of school. As though I was an outsider.

  But after a few seconds, the strange tension melted away and Ebony began to speak again. “Matron discovered my cat. I think someone must have told her.”

  I bit my cheek on the inside, hoping no one would notice.

  “Are you sure the cat didn’t just go wandering around the school of its own accord?” Scarlet suggested. She had a point.

  “I don’t know,” said Ebony, waving her arm as if wiping the suggestion away. “But he’s important. I need him.”

  Agatha leant over to us. “Midnight is Ebony’s familiar,” she hissed. Mary stood beside her, pale and silent.

  “I …” I started. “Midnight? Is that the cat’s name?”

  Ebony nodded slowly. “He’s important,” she repeated. “And someone is responsible for trying to get me into trouble.” She folded her arms and her stormy eyes stared down the hallway without blinking.

  I followed her gaze and saw where she was looking. Ariadne was standing there, talking to Muriel. She must have tracked her down again.

  Ebony didn’t move a muscle and her voice came out low and quiet. “People who stand in my way soon find themselves on an uneven footing. And who knows where they might fall.”

  With that, she turned and swooped away, her skirt sweeping out behind her.

  Chapter Twenty-three

  SCARLET

  f she touches a hair on Ariadne’s head, I’ll make her wish she’d never been born,” I hissed, my nails digging into my palms.

  “Shush,” Ivy silenced me. “Wait until we’re back in our room. Then it’ll be safe to talk.”

  My feet hammered on the stairs as I ran up. I should have listened to Ivy, I knew, but the words just kept on coming out. “Who does she think she is? It doesn’t sound like she even got into trouble over the cat. A cat! In her room! That’s against all the rules and yet they’ve said she can keep it till the holidays!”

  “I know, I know,” Ivy panted as she caught up with me. “Well, it’s Mrs Knight. She’s not really very strict, is she?”

  “I thought she was strict now. She said she’d kick us out!” I threw my hands up in disgust. “No, it’s Ebony. She’s doing something. She’s got this … this thing over people.”

  “Even us,” Ivy said quietly.

  I opened my mouth to protest, but she was right. As much as I despised Ebony and what she was doing, I was fascinated by it. With everything that I’d witnessed, I felt sure she had some sort of control. But how was that even possible? In the end, I said nothing.

  Which was probably a good thing because there was a ton of girls at the top of the stairs, all milling around their rooms, as often happened on a Sunday. Any one of them could have been a friend of Ebony’s. Ivy was right again (and it pained me to admit that). I needed to shut up.

  But as soon as we’d shoved through the crowd and made it to our room, I started again. “I’m serious; if she does anything to Ariadne …” I trailed off, letting my silence speak volumes.

  “Of course,” Ivy said suddenly. I looked up at her in surprise. “You think I wouldn’t defend Ariadne too?” She asked. “Of course I would!”

  “Probably not in quite the same way I’m thinking,” I said, kicking at my bed frame, making the whole thing shudder.

  “Well, no,” she admitted. “And you shouldn’t be thinking that either. You’re going to get us all thrown out, for one thing.”

  I screwed up my face. “All right, no more fighting. I promise.”

  She put her hands on her hips and gave me an expression that said she didn’t believe me.

  “I promise!” I said again. “And I promised about promises, remember? I’m not crossing my fingers behind my back either!” I waved my hands at her.

  “Perhaps rather than revenge, we ought to try and prevent her from doing anything to Ariadne in the first place,” she suggested.

  “We can try,” I said, rubbing my hand through my hair. The mist outside had turned it frizzy. “But we can’t follow her at all times. And who knows what she can do. She could be watching us right now—”

  I was interrupted by a knock at the door, which made both of us jump.

  With a glance back at me, Ivy cautiously went to open it.

  But it was only Ariadne and Muriel, who were laughing about something together.

  I felt an uncertain knot of jealousy in my stomach at the sight.

  “Yes?” I said, perhaps a bit more snappily than I meant it.

  Ariadne grinned at me and then pointed at Muriel. “I found her!”

  “I can see that,” I said. “How come you ran away earlier?” I asked Muriel, having to tip my neck up a little to direct the question at her face.

  “Sorry.” She stared down at her feet for a moment. “It’s just that I’m not feeling myself at the moment. I thought it would be crowded in the chapel, and loud with all the singing.” She winced and put her hand to her ear, which was half covered by the bandages that were wrapped round her head.

  I sighed, and felt the knot inside me loosen a little as I began to feel sorry for her again. She’d been badly hurt and had lost her memory. I had to remember that.

  “Can we come in?” Ariadne asked, and I realised then that I was blocking the doorway.

  “Oh, right, yes!” I moved out of the way and the two of them came in and sat on my bed.

  Ariadne looked over at me once I’d shut the door. “Anything to report? About you-know-who?”

  Ivy’s eyes had gone wide. She wasn’t quite shaking her head, but I could see the suggestion there.

  I sighed, perhaps a bit too loudly. “Not really.”

  I had to admit, it wasn’t just Ivy’s reluctance to talk about all this in front of Ariadne and Muriel that was making me keep quiet. What we’d witnessed the night before had been so strange, so out of this world, that it felt like some sort of bad dream. The words just wouldn’t form properly in my brain.

  “Oh,” said Ariadne. “I thought she’d be up to all sorts. I can’t have been worrying myself silly about you spying on her for nothing.”

  “Well …” There was something I wanted to say, despite Ivy’s face silently protesting. I couldn’t let it go unsaid, and I was sure I could do it while leaving out the gory details. “Earlier, we overhead Ebony talking outside Mrs Knight’s office. You know how we tried to tell Matron about her cat before?”

  Ariadne and Muriel nodded, Muriel’s brow furrowing slightly.

  “Well, it seems that someone finally saw the cat and tried to get Ebony into hot water. But unfortunately Mrs Knight went soft on her, as usual.”

  Ariadne’s jaw dropped open. “She got away with keeping a cat in her room?”

  “Indeed.” Ivy’s expression relaxed a little, now that she realised I wasn’t about to terrify them both to death. “She just has to take it home at the end of term.”

  The other girls muttered in disbelief. People didn’t often get off lightly at Rookwood.

  “But where does it go to the lavatory?” Ariadne whispered.

  “Outside, hopefully,” said Ivy.

  I knew I had to steer us to the point eventually, but I was approaching it carefully, like a mouse sneaking up to a crocodile. “That’s not the end of it, though. She started talking about her cat being ‘important’ and wanting to pin the blame on whoever spilt the beans. And … I think she thinks that’s you.”

  “Me?” both of them said at the same time.

  Ivy winced. “Both of you, we think. That’s what it looked like, anyway.”

  Ariadne gasped and her eyes darted around as if Ebony were about to burst in through the door at any moment. Muriel was gripping handfuls of my bedsheets.

  “But it wasn’t us!” Ariadne protested.


  “I know,” I said, though I wasn’t going to say how I knew. “But we have to stop her from targeting you.” I looked at Muriel’s frantic expression, at her lopsided bandages. “Again, in your case.”

  “She can’t keep up this horrible vendetta.” Ivy got to her feet. “Can she?”

  “At the moment,” I muttered darkly, “it seems like she can do whatever she pleases.”

  I couldn’t help but notice Ebony’s eyes following Ariadne and Muriel round the room at breakfast on Monday. She was planning something, that much was clear.

  Muriel seemed to be clinging to Ariadne like a limpet now. I didn’t know if it was as a result of her head injury, or whatever curse had led to it … or perhaps even just that she was nervous of what Ebony might do next. But now they were going everywhere together. Where they’d both been apprehensive before, it was like the gates had been opened and they were talking like old friends. It made me feel strange, and a little envious.

  Ariadne yawned as she talked and there were shadows under her eyes, but she seemed contented.

  “Aren’t you bothered about what Ebony might do to you?” I whispered to her when Muriel had gone up to clean her plate. “She’s been staring at you all morning. Something’s up.”

  Ariadne bit her lip. “A little,” she whispered back. “But I have to keep up appearances for Muriel. I don’t want her to get too upset about it all. It’s probably nothing.” She winced. “Isn’t it?”

  Part of me wanted to tell her exactly what we’d witnessed Ebony doing, with her bizarre candlelit ritual in the dark classroom. But just as Ariadne didn’t want to upset Muriel, I didn’t want to upset her.

  Instead, I’d written an account of the whole thing in my diary the night before. Pouring things on to the pages had a funny effect – they went from being something that haunted your mind to just being words on paper. You could crumple them up and throw them away if you wanted to (which I sometimes, but rarely, did). It made them less pressing, somehow.

  I realised, as I was thinking all this, that I hadn’t said a word in response to Ariadne’s question. I was just staring blankly at her.

  “Oh,” she said in a very small voice, and looked away.

  Oops.

  The first lesson on a Monday morning was Latin, which I thought should be some sort of crime.

  Miss Simons, the teacher with unusually long red hair, had apparently been persuaded to return after having a very public confrontation with Miss Danver the year before. She was still twitchy and nervous, and flinched whenever you handed her a piece of paper.

  We were halfway through the lesson. I was sitting next to Ivy on my left and Rose on my right, who I was surprised to see had been asked to do Latin.

  “Can you manage it?” I’d asked.

  She wrote something down on a note in tiny handwriting, almost a whisper, and passed it across to me.

  I read it and screwed up my face. “What?”

  She gestured to me to hand the note back, scribbled another line below it, and then returned it.

  It means ‘I am good at writing Latin’. I had a governess when I was young. I quite like it.

  I giggled and wrote back to her.

  Ergo … I am rubbish at reading Latin!

  Miss Simons looked up from her desk, then shot to her feet, pointing a quivering arm at us. “No notes! I will not have anyone passing notes in my class! Ever!”

  Rose went wide-eyed and held on to her desk, as if it were about to float away. I supposed she’d never been in trouble before. I tried not to laugh.

  “Well, at least they’re awake, Miss,” Penny called out.

  “What?” Miss Simons snapped her head back and forth like an owl. I turned too, trying to see what Penny was talking about.

  And I noticed then that Ariadne was fast asleep on her desk – and not only that, but the contents of her inkwell were rapidly spreading in a deep blue stain all over the classroom floor.

  Chapter Twenty-four

  IVY

  iss Simons made Ariadne stay behind after the lesson to clean everything up, and she wouldn’t even let Scarlet and me stay to help. Ariadne then missed the next lesson and we were only able to meet up with her at break time.

  “What happened?” I asked. We were sitting outside the school on the grass, since the sun had come out enough to make it bearable, though there was a chill in the air. Muriel sat beside Ariadne, tying plaits in her own blonde hair.

  “I fell asleep,” Ariadne said sheepishly. “That’s all.” Her cheeks were red (and slightly blue).

  “We know that,” Scarlet said. “But why? That’s not like you.”

  She yawned and rubbed at her skin in a futile attempt to get the ink off. “We were up rather late talking. We had some fascinating conversations.”

  Muriel smiled at her. “We did!”

  I was surprised, but I didn’t say so. I imagined they were both surprised about it too.

  “Were sweets involved?” Scarlet teased.

  “Naturally!” Ariadne laughed.

  I was glad she was happy with her new roommate, and especially so that Muriel didn’t seem to have any plans to bully her, but still … We’d kept Ariadne up late before with some of our night-time adventures and she’d always been wide awake for class the next day. She almost seemed to be fuelled by learning, no matter what the subject. Scarlet was right – it was unlike our friend not to be paying attention, let alone to fall asleep on the desk and spill her ink everywhere.

  It wouldn’t have been that strange on its own, but Ariadne managed to get in trouble twice more that day. In art class, she and Muriel got into trouble for passing notes. And when we met her after lessons had ended, she said she’d been sent off the hockey field for hitting someone on the leg with her stick.

  “Did someone swap Ariadne with me this morning?” Scarlet asked as we went back to our room to get ready for dinner after ballet. “Suddenly she’s getting in a lot of trouble.”

  It was only then that an odd little seed of an idea started to sprout in my mind.

  Ebony blamed Ariadne and Muriel for telling on her about the cat. She’s got it in for them … So could she have put a spell on them both?

  But that was a foolish thought. I knew it as soon as the seed sprang up. Ebony couldn’t make other people get into trouble when she wasn’t even there! I did my best to squash it down again. Still, I felt a vague sense of unease.

  A sense that wasn’t improved by finding Ebony standing right outside our door.

  For once, she was alone. She had her arms folded and her feet were tapping impatiently in her black boots. She was watching the other girls pass through the corridor, her eyes dragging over them.

  I considered for a moment that we could just run away, but it was too late. She had spotted us.

  “Ah. Just the mirror twins I was looking for,” she said as we got closer. “And alone. Good.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Scarlet asked, though she kept the edge off her tone. We were still supposed to be keeping an eye on Ebony’s activities.

  “You keep bad company. You should be careful.” She didn’t say it as though it were a warning – more as fact.

  Scarlet shrugged. I didn’t know what to say.

  “Anyway,” Ebony continued, “we meet again, Saturday night. In my room, this time. Are you in?”

  “At midnight?” I asked.

  That gave her a momentary pause. “No, just after lights-out this time.” She stared blankly away from us for a moment. “This ritual doesn’t require it to be midnight. Only moonlight.”

  I looked at Scarlet. Her face didn’t give anything away. “All right,” she said finally, without much conviction.

  Ebony nodded, content with the answer. “I’ll be seeing you,” she said.

  That sounded more like a threat to me.

  For the rest of the week, I began to notice Ariadne’s strange behaviour more and more.

  For one, she had forgotten to do her prep wor
k for English. Then, in French, she couldn’t remember any of the verbs. In chemistry, she and Muriel once again got into trouble for talking over the teacher. In arithmetic, she added up all of her numbers backwards and got the wrong answers. Even Scarlet, who hated arithmetic, had got the sums right.

  On Wednesday morning, she fell asleep again. On Friday, she got detention.

  Twice.

  Ariadne had once been expelled, through no fault of her own. She’d occasionally been in trouble for being part of whatever Scarlet and I were up to. But other than that, she was usually a model student. It was bizarre to watch this happen to her, like she was sliding down a slope and I couldn’t pull her back.

  I felt strangely distant from her, watching from behind glass. I only caught snippets of what she and Muriel talked about, which seemed to be a lot relating to their old school, or just what was going on around them. When we were all together, I didn’t feel I could talk freely with Muriel sitting right beside us. And I hadn’t told either of them anything of what we’d observed of Ebony. Whenever Ariadne asked, I just told her we hadn’t learnt anything.

  Which was partly true, I supposed. Ebony remained as mysterious as ever. We were no closer to finding out where her true power lay. That was why it was all the more important that we attended whatever she was planning on Saturday.

  On Friday afternoon we had ballet, as usual. It was always reassuring to descend those chilly steps into the basement studio.

  Ballet practice was where I felt most at home. No matter what else changed, Scarlet and I dancing side by side always felt right. We greeted Miss Finch and Madame Zelda cheerily.

  “Warm up, then, girls,” Madame Zelda called, clapping her hands sharply. She pulled out an incense stick and waved it around the room, filling the air with strange smoke that tasted of spice on my tongue. It was a habit she had, although no one was quite sure why. “You may talk during this, but then you will be silent afterwards.” Miss Finch sat at the piano, playing soft music that gently stirred the air.

  Scarlet and I began warming up together at the barre.