The figure on the throne shuddered violently, drawing itself back together, and the tendrils of mist roared toward it, solidifying now with terrible speed. The bones grew muscles, layer upon layer. Organs bloomed inside the chest and abdomen, forming from the veins out. The body filled the robe, and the robe took shape over it. Skin collected on the body like dew, first as a filmy membrane, but thickening, growing ruddy and tan. The fingers clutched the staff, which had grown to a length of six feet, tapered gently at the bottom and with a heavy, knobbed end. Runes ran up and down the staff, pulsing with a faint green light. The noise of Merlin’s return resolved into a long scream, and the wizard finally ran out of breath, his head thrown back, the chords of his neck drawn taut as wire. After a long moment, he drew his first breath in a thousand years, filling his huge chest, and lowered his head.
Master! a ghostly voice cried out. James looked from the figure on the throne to the shape that had resolved out of the awful talons. It was a small man, almost invisible. He panted, his bald head glistening in the faint moonlight. You have returned! My work is complete! I am released!
“I have returned,” the voice of Merlin agreed. The face was stony, the eyes locked onto the ghost. “But what time is this you have returned me to, Austramaddux?” Th-the world is made ready for you, Master! the ghost stammered, its voice high and frightened. I… I waited until the perfect time for your coming! The balance of the magicked and the m ag i c less is ripe for your hand, Master! The time… the time is come!
Merlin stared at the ghost, utterly unmoving. Please, Master! Austramaddux screamed, falling to his ghostly knees. I have watched for centuries! My duty… my duty was more than I could bear! I waited as long as I could. I only helped a little! I found a woman, Master! Her heart was open to me! She shared our goals, so I… I encouraged her! I helped, but only a little! A little!”
Merlin’s gaze moved from Austramaddux to the wraith of Madame Delacroix, which had mostly reconstituted itself. It flung itself to its knees, and when it spoke, the voice sounded as if it came through a mouthful of dirt. “I am your servant, Merlinus. I have summoned you to fulfill your destiny, to lead us against de Muggle worms. We are prepared for you. The world is ripe for you.”
“This puppet of filth is to be my muse?” Merlin said, his voice low but nearly thundering with intensity. “Let us see her as she is, then, not as she wishes to be seen.” Delacroix straightened herself and began to speak, but nothing came out. Her jaw worked, almost mechanically, and then, chillingly, deep choking sounds began to emerge from her throat. The wraith’s hands floated upwards, rising to clutch at the neck, then to scrabble at it, digging in with long fingernails so that strips of muddy flesh began to peel away. The throat bulged, almost like that of a bullfrog, and the wraith suddenly bent at the waist, as if it was going to be sick. Merlin’s eyes blazed at the wraith and his staff glowed softly, the runes rippling with their inner light. Finally, violently, Madame Delacroix’s wraith heaved and the jaw split wide open, far past its logical limits. Something ripped forth from the yawning, horrible mouth. It poured out onto the ground before it. The wraith’s body shrunk as the mess poured from its mouth. It was almost as if the wraith turned inside out, emptying itself out of its own mouth, until all that was left was the thing lying prone on the ground, writhing and awful. It was Madame Delacroix as she really was, somehow transported from her remote place of safety and vomited from her puppet form. She wracked against the floor as if in great pain, her shape emaciated and bony, her eyes blank grey orbs, staring blindly at the ceiling.
“Austramaddux, you have brought me to a dead time,” Merlin said, his low voice filling the grotto like the roar of a thousand deeps. He turned away from the pathetic shape of Madame Delacroix, returning his gaze to the cowering ghost. “The trees have awakened for me, but their voice is nearly mute. Even the earth sleeps the sleep of centuries. You have returned me to suit yourself and yourself alone. You were a faulty servant when I agreed to apprentice you, and I have returned only to realize the depth of that mistake. I discharge you from my service. Begone.”
Merlin raised his free hand and held it, palm out, toward the ghost of Austramaddux. The ghost paled even further and shrank away, raising its hands as if to deflect a blow. No! No, I was faithful! Please! Do not discharge me! I fulfilled my duty! I was faithful! Nooo!
The last word elongated and rose in pitch, climbing the scale as the ghost seemed to shrink. For a moment, it assumed the form of the blue dryad, cringing and desperate, then it began to lose its shape entirely. It dwindled, and James saw that it contracted in the same proportion as Merlin’s closing hand, as if the wizard were squeezing Austramaddux in his outstretched fist. The ghost’s last word bled into a wail of horror, diminishing even as the ghost collapsed into a bright, flickering point of light. Merlin squeezed his fist, and then opened his hand with a roll of the fingers. The ghost popped, vanished, leaving only the echo of its final scream.
Finally, as if noticing them for the first time, Merlin turned his attention to James, Ralph, and Zane. James moved forward, not sure what he would do, but knowing in his heart he had to do something. Merlin raised his hand again, this time towards James. James felt the world soften around him, darkening. He fought it, tried to shout out against the descending oblivion, but it was no use. He could fight the power of Merlin as much as a gnat might fight a gale. The world streamed away, funneling down to a point, and at the center of the point was the upraised hand of Merlin, pulling him in. There was an eye in the center of the hand, blue like ice. The eye closed, and Merlin’s voice said one word, a word that seemed to fill the blackness where the world had once been, and that word was ‘sleep’.
18.the Tower Assembly
Dawn was a faint pink line on the rim of the horizon when James opened his eyes. He was lying uncomfortably on the grass at the bottom of the Grotto Keep, and he was cold to the bone. Moaning, he rolled to a sitting position and took stock of his surroundings. The first thing he noticed was that the Merlin throne was gone. There wasn’t as much as a depression in the grass where it had stood. The second thing James noticed as he raised his head and looked around was that the Grotto Keep was no longer a magical place. In the absence of the Merlin throne, the island was quickly returning to its wild, random nature. The sense of haunting, gothic architecture was slipping away. Birds sang in the thatch of tree branches overhead.
“Oh-hh,” a voice nearby groaned. “Where am I? Somehow, I have the terrible feeling that a cup of coffee and a fireplace is not about to appear before my eyes.”
“Zane,” James said, getting shakily to his feet. “Are you all right? Where’s Ralph?” “I’m here,” Ralph muttered. “I’m just taking inventory of all my bones and major bodily functions. So far, nothing alarming, except that I need a bathroom even more than St. Lokimagus.” James climbed the steps into the gloom of the upper terraces of the grotto. The early morning light was faint and grey, barely making it through the brush and trees of the island. Zane and Ralph were climbing unsteadily to their feet.
“Merlin’s gone,” James said, looking around. “And I don’t see Jackson or Delacroix, either.” He stepped over the broken bits of Jackson’s wand and shuddered.
“Guess we were wrong about him, weren’t we?” Ralph said.
“We were wrong about loads of stuff,” James agreed softly. Zane rubbed his lower back and groaned. “Hey, we didn’t do too bad, considering everything. We almost stopped Merlin’s return, thanks to a handy length of log and my catlike reflexes.” His voice sounded hollow in the flat echo of the grotto, and he fell silent. The three boys found the opening that led out to the dragon’s head bridge, hacked through some weeds that had grown up to choke the space, and stumbled out into the dawn. The bridge had partially collapsed, and bore almost no resemblance to the frightening dragon’s head anymore. The bank bordering the forest was muddy and wet, covered in morning dew.
“Hey look,” Ralph said, pointing. There were tracks in the
fresh, slippery mud.
“Looks like two people went that way. Away from the school,” Zane said, bending over to study the sloppy markings. “You think one of them was Merlin?” James shook his head. “No. Merlin wasn’t wearing shoes. That looks like Delacroix and Jackson to me. She probably left first, and then he set out after her when he came to. Besides, something about Merlin tells me he doesn’t leave tracks unless he makes a point of it.”
“I hope Jackson breaks her in half when he catches her,” Zane said, but without much passion.
“I hope she doesn’t break him,” Ralph replied morosely. “You saw what she did to his wand.” “Don’t remind me,” James muttered. “I don’t want to think about it.” He began to walk forward, heading generally into the woods where they’d left Prechka, but with no real destination in mind. He had a terrible suspicion about where Merlin had gone, and he, James, was responsible for that. Twice, Delacroix had called him her apprentice. She had influenced him, somehow, and he’d allowed it. He had played right into her plan, bringing the robe to her. She was right. She hadn’t had to lift so much as a finger. True, things hadn’t seemed to work out very well for her in the end, but that didn’t mean much. A lone, rogue Merlin might be even more dangerous than a Merlin in league with people like the Progressive Element. At least they tried to operate under a guise of respectability. Merlin was from a different time, a more direct and deadly time. A nearly crushing weight of guilt and hopelessness pressed down on James as he plodded forward. Zane and Ralph followed quietly.
Prechka was gone. James wasn’t surprised, really. Her footprints were pressed into the dewy earth like dinosaur tracks. Without a word, the boys followed them, shivering and wet with dew. Mist filled the woods, reducing the world to a handful of black trees and dripping bushes. As they walked, the mist grew bright, absorbing the sun, and finally began to burn away. The forest awoke with bird song, and the scampering of unseen creatures in the brush. And then, surprisingly, there were distant voices, calling for them.
“Hey!” Zane said, stopping and listening. “That’s Ted!”
“And Sabrina!” Ralph added. “What are they doing out here? Hey! Over here!”
The three boys stopped and called to the two Gremlins, who responded with hoots and hollers. A gigantic shape loomed out of the mist, moving almost delicately through the trees.
“Grawp!” Zane laughed, running to meet the giant.
“Boy, you three look like Inferi leftovers,” Ted called down from Grawp’s shoulders. “You spent the whole night out here?”
“It’s a long story, but yes,” Zane called up. “Short version: Merlin’s back, the voodoo queen’s on the run, and Jackson was a good guy after all. He’s after her as we speak, results unknown.”
“Is there room up there for three more, Grawp?” Ralph said, shivering. “Only, I think if I have to take one more step, I’ll drop dead.” Grawp knelt and the three boys clambered onto his back, crowding in with Sabrina and Ted. Before climbing up, James flexed the fingers and wrist of his right hand. There was no pain, and the bones of his arm seemed sturdy and straight. He stripped off the splint and jammed it carelessly into his pocket.
“How’d you two get out?” James asked Ted when he was crammed in next to him, holding handfuls of Grawp’s straw-like hair for support. “I thought all of you were under house arrest.” “That was last night,” Ted said simply. “Things have gone pretty crazy at the school since then. Merlin showed up in the middle of the night, and let me tell you, that bloke knows how to make an entrance.”
“He rode Prechka right into the courtyard and had her kick the front doors in,” Sabrina explained. “He obviously speaks Giant, and he had her really wild. Then he climbs off and just puts her to sleep. She’s still there, snoring next to the main entrance like the world’s largest pile of laundry.”
“We all woke up when we heard the noise of the doors being smashed in,” Ted went on. “After that, it was pandemonium. Students running all over the place in their night clothes, trying to figure out what’s going on. People were already pretty uptight, what with that Prescott guy still on the grounds and nobody knowing what he’s up to. And then here’s this bloke who’s built like a boulder and dressed like a cross between a druid and Father Christmas, stalking through the school, putting people to sleep with barely a look, clacking this enormous staff on the floor as he goes, loud enough to echo around the whole place. Then he sees Peeves and the weirdest thing happens!”
“What?” Zane asked hopefully. “Did Peeves blow a raspberry at him and get turned into a floor lamp or something?” “No,” Sabrina said, “Peeves joined him! He didn’t seem to want to, but he did anyway. Merlin stopped when he saw Peeves, and then he spoke to him. None of us knew what he was saying. It was in some really weird, flowery language. We were worried that Peeves would do something stupid and get us all zapped with that creepy staff, but then Peeves just grins, and it isn’t like any of his normal grins. It’s the kind of grin you see on a house-elf when the master is just as prone to wallop the elf with a frying pan as look at it. A whole lot of teeth and not much humor, you know? And then Peeves swoops down next to the guy. They talk for few seconds in low voices, and then Peeves moves off, slow enough for Merlin to follow. Merlin had a place in mind he wanted to go, I guess, and Peeves took him there.”
“Peeves?” Ralph said incredulously.
“I know,” Ted replied. “It isn’t natural. That’s when we knew we were dealing with somebody really scary. Most of us Gremlins had already guessed he was Merlin, but that proved it.”
“So where’d they go?” James asked in a quiet voice.
“Sylvven Tower,” Sabrina answered. “At least that’s what it used to be called. Nobody uses it for much anymore. Word came down that he was awaiting a ‘parley with the Pendragon’, whatever that means.”
“I don’t like the sound of that one bit,” Zane said. “Nobody does,” Ted agreed. “Apparently, he thinks that this ‘Pendragon’ is the king or leader. It’s some kind of medieval challenge or something. Anyway, McGonagall gathered the faculty to go and deal with him, and that’s when she realized that both Professor Jackson and Delacroix were gone. Then word comes that you’ve gone missing from the hospital wing, James. Next thing we know, McGonagall is sending us off to find the three of you. She was too busy to come herself, but she knew if anybody could sniff you out, we could. She seems to suspect you three might know something about this ‘infernal mess’, as she put it. Suspicious old girl, isn’t she?”
As Ted finished speaking, Grawp finally carried them out of the edge of the forest. The castle shone in the brilliant morning sunlight, its windows sparkling gaily, despite the turmoil within. The Garage of the Alma Alerons was quiet, its door flaps closed and tied shut. James remembered the time difference between the Hogwarts and the Philadelphia side of the Garage, and knew that those on that side would still be fast asleep. When Grawp turned the corner into the courtyard, Ted called for him to lower them to the ground.
“Great job, Grawp!” Sabrina said warmly, patting the giant on his enormous shoulder. “Go take a rest with Prechka, why don’t you?” Grawp grunted agreeably and lumbered over to the she-giant, who was indeed snoring loudly next to the steps into the castle. The massive wooden doors were hanging from one hinge each, smashed inward and gaping. The Entrance Hall was eerily empty and silent. As they entered, Ralph gasped and grabbed James’ arm, pointing. There, lying awkwardly on the floor near the door, were Mr. Recreant and Ms. Sacarhina. Both had their eyes open and were grinning unnaturally at the ceiling. Sacarhina’s arm was outstretched, sticking up and looking pasty white in the morning light.
“Are they… d-dead?” Ralph stammered. Ted lightly kicked Recreant’s foot. “Not likely. They’re still warm and they’re breathing. Just really, really slowly. They were apparently down here in the hall when Merlin arrived. Looks like they tried to greet him and he just zapped them, somehow. He put loads of students to sleep, but these tw
o got some special freezing treatment. Anyway, we pulled them out of the way so people wouldn’t trip over them.” He shrugged and led them past the two prone figures, into the halls beyond the staircases.
“Where’s Sylvven Tower?” James asked as they hurried through the corridors. “It’s the tallest tower in the old part of the castle. Narrowest, too,” Ted answered, his voice uncharacteristically somber. “Not used for much anymore except stargazing sometimes. It’s too tall and treacherous to climb. Petra says that it was an important part of the castle a long, long time ago. Every castle had one, and it was considered neutral ground, sort of like a universal embassy or something. Meetings between warring nations and kingdoms were held there, with one king on one side and the enemy king on the other. Four advisors were allowed to accompany them, but the rest had to wait below. Occasionally, wars would be decided and ended right there, sometimes with one leader killing the other and throwing the body from the top of the tower for all to see.”
James felt his heart sink even lower. “So who’s up there with him, then?” Ted shrugged. “Dunno. We got sent off to find you three while McGonagall was still getting everybody together. I assume she meant to meet him herself. She was looking pretty peaked about it, if you ask me.”
The five students walked through a wide, low arch, entering the oldest and least used section of the castle. After several curving, narrow corridors, they finally encountered people. Students were gathered in the corridors, lining the walls and talking in hushed voices. Finally, Ted led them into a round room with a very high ceiling, so high, in fact, that it was invisible in the dark, foggy heights of the tower. The floor was crowded with students, muttering in nervous anticipation. A rickety wooden staircase spiraled up the throat of the tower. After a cursory glance upwards, Ted began to climb the stairs. James, Zane, Ralph, and Sabrina followed.
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