by T. H. Hunter
We stopped, listening intently. She was right. Though very faint and muffled, they were undoubtedly of human origin.
“Amy, can you cast that silencing spell on shoes, too?” Val asked softly.
“Good thinking,” I whispered, drawing my wand.
Barry, of course, didn’t need it, so I cast the spell for Val and myself. It was a peculiar sensation, as though walking on gel, but it was certainly effective. We were able to approach the voices without making a sound.
Finally, a saw the outlines of a hut from the little moonlight that was able to penetrate the treetops. I was also able to make out specific words now. It sounded as though the voices were arguing.
“Told you… just stupid…” a female with a familiar Spanish accent was saying.
We were close to the hut now, within throwing distance. Inside, two shapes were moving about, clearly agitated. I signalled for Barry and Val to wait, while I crept closer to the window that was closest. It had no pane. Crouching in the earth beneath, I could now hear every word that was being inside.
“Why,” Isabella was saying angrily, “why do you have to do that? So foolish. If you get caught, there will be no hope for you left. They asked me questions after questions about the mark. They know I lied. I can’t protect you if you continue like this.”
There was silence inside the little hut. I didn’t dare move in my hiding place, though I was dying from curiosity to know who the other person in the room was. But the conversation didn’t continue. Instead, I saw the two shapes embrace. Suddenly, I felt like I was intruding in something very personal. There was only way to find out who it was.
I stood up and lit my wand, shining the beam through the window. The room inside was illuminated immediately. Isabella Villar, her face frozen in horror, jumped back and almost fell onto the floor. My eyes raced immediately to the other person. To my utter amazement, it was a face I had seen only a few hours earlier.
Chapter 7
It was Julian Ross, the youth who had been in the headmistress’s office when we had first arrived. Barry and Val had joined me at the window, too, and were now staring in disbelief at the unlikely couple inside of the hut.
“Ross?” I said. “Julian Ross?”
Unlike our previous encounter, he had lost his cheeky swagger entirely. Instead, his face white as a sheet, he was opening his mouth and closing it again like a fish. It was Isabella Villa, therefore, who took control of the situation and went on the offensive.
“How dare you spy on us like this?” she said. “You should be ashamed.”
“Perhaps,” I said, “that is true. But from what little I heard, I think Mr. Ross here has a lot more to be ashamed about.”
Even Isabella Villar was at a loss for words now. I pressed my advantage as best I could.
“There are two possibilities open to you both,” I said. “Either you come clean, right here and right now, or I will have to report you to the headmistress. But to be honest, I think expulsion from the school will be the least of your worries then, Mr. Ross. You will be facing very serious charges indeed.”
Isabella Villar turned on Julian Ross.
“Julian,” she said, “you must tell them.”
“No,” he said quietly. “I won’t. It’s pointless.”
“Please,” she said, grabbing his hand desperately. “Please, do it for me.”
“They won’t believe a word of it,” he said, shirking away.
“OK,” Isabella said, turning around dramatically towards us, “then I will. I will tell them everything you did. If you are too stupid to save yourself, someone else will have to do it. And if not your girlfriend, who else?”
Val opened the door to the little hut, and we filed into the crammed space within. There were no chairs and only a rotten table in the corner, so we just stood there, looking at each other for a moment.
“Tell us,” I said to Isabella, “about the necromancer’s sign. The whole story, this time.”
Julian Ross shifted uncomfortably on the spot, watching his girlfriend closely. But he was beyond protest even. The game was up. And yet, I felt, the circumstances were decisive.
“Julian drew the mark on the wall,” she said. “We had been quarrelling about it. I said that I would go down there myself and get rid of it. And so, I went to the dungeons.”
“But before you could wipe it away, the quarterwarlock caught you?” asked Val.
“Yes,” she said.
“Why did you draw the mark, Julian?” I asked him.
“You won’t believe it anyway,” he said sulkily, so unlike his former boisterous self.
“Why don’t you try me,” I said.
But he remained silent, looking out of the window instead. The first light was already appearing on the horizon. It wouldn’t be long before even this hut, tucked deep within the woods, would be bathed in sunshine. For a moment, I thought I heard a noise outside. Or had it simply been the whooshing of the wind?
“I trust you don’t want to go to prison?” Barry asked Julian Ross.
“Of course not,” the latter said at once.
“We are interested mainly in the people that are missing,” Barry said, pacing up and down in front of Julian and Isabella, “as well as solving the mystery of who is behind it all.”
“That’s right,” I said, walking slowly towards him. “We don’t care so much for the marks as for the disappearances. And, whatever else you are, Julian, I don’t think you are capable of kidnap, or murder even.”
He looked up in surprise.
“See,” Isabella said, turning on him, “I told you that they are different. They’re not just looking for a scapegoat, as you always say.”
“Why,” I asked, “did you draw that sign, Julian?”
“Well, isn’t it obvious?” he said, his nostrils wide. “They’re all so complacent. The MLE was at the school, what, how many times was it? Five times? Guess what they did. Absolutely nothing. NOTHING.”
He was suddenly shaking. But at least, I thought, he was finally talking.
“Robert, my best friend, was the first to go missing,” he said, his voice cracking. “And straight away I went to them and told them what was going on at the school. But they wouldn’t listen, of course.”
“Who wouldn’t listen?”
“Deputy headmaster Harper,” he said bitterly. “He thought I was just making a nuisance of myself, as always. Didn’t expect me to have anything useful to say, so he just ignored what I said.”
“And what was it that you said, Julian?” I asked him.
“That a necromancer is behind it,” he said. “Before Robert went missing I… I started seeing Isabella here in the woods. But one day – it was dark, much darker than last night – I lost my way. I must have taken a wrong turning when I left the road. The hut isn’t far, as you know, but I walked for hours and hours, scared stiff. I just couldn’t find my back nor the road back to the castle. Well, at some point I was just about to give up and sleep under a tree when I heard voices nearby. I thought perhaps that someone from the school had come looking for me, perhaps even Isabella, so I walked in their direction. But as I came closer, I noticed that they were singing or chanting. At first, I thought they’d be able to help me.”
He stared at all of us as though the next part was too horrible to relate. But the touch of Isabella’s hand on his shoulder seemed to enable him to press on.
“As I got closer,” he continued, “I saw that there were two warlocks wearing thick, black robes with hoods over their faces. They were in a wide clearing with three large trees in the middle of it. They were standing around a large stone. There was something on it, though I couldn’t see what it was at first. Up close, I realised that they weren’t singing. It seemed to me more like they were trying out some sort of complicated channelling spell.”
“Can you remember what it was?” asked Barry, intrigued.
“No, not the words exactly,” he said. “But as I moved closer, I saw that the thing
on the stone – which looked more like an altar – was a third person, just lying there. And… and on the ground, there were bodies of animals around him… I…”
But he broke off, tears filling his eyes.
“What sort of animals were they?” I asked patiently.
“S-snakes,” he said. “Lots of them. That’s when I started to panic. I tripped and fell into the bush next to me.”
“Did you recognise the third person, lying down?” asked Barry, who was wearing a very grave look on his face.
“No,” said Julian, “not directly, anyway. I don’t know whether they had heard me fall, or maybe something went wrong, but they suddenly stopped their chanting. In any case, they were in a real hurry. They levitated the figure off the altar and were gone before I could do anything. ”
“What happened next?” I asked.
“Well, I waited for the sun to set fully and also to make sure that they wouldn’t come back. When I was sure they wouldn’t, I stepped into the clearing. Among the snakes, I also found… I found a watch.”
“A watch?” Barry asked, bewildered.
“Yes, a wristwatch. I recognised it immediately. It belonged to my best friend, Robert.”
“But I thought they don’t work around magic,” I said, frowning.
“They don’t,” said Julian, “but, you see, Robert wasn’t born a warlock, he inherited his skills. He had been very fond of the watch as a heb so, even after it stopped working at Warklesby’s, he just continued to wear it.”
“Did you have any idea of the nature of the ritual you had just witnessed?” Barry asked.
“I guessed,” said Ross, “but I wasn’t sure until later, that the animals meant something very sinister. I think they had practised their spells on them first. In the library, I flicked through book after book until I found confirmation of what I had seen. It had been a necromancer’s ritual, designed to sacrifice another human being in order to resurrect another.”
“That sounds horrible,” said Val.
Julian nodded.
“It was even worse that the school authorities and the MLE weren’t on the right track at all. I decided to paint the walls of the school with the mark of the necromancer, so that they would understand what they were dealing with.”
“Why didn’t you tell them about this?” I asked.
“Of course I did that,” he said, his face contorting with righteous anger. “That was the first thing I did. But they just said I was cooking up trouble and that they didn’t believe a word of it. They said that I had planted the watch there, for all they knew. They left me no other choice but to draw attention to the truth by different means.”
“Who were they?” I asked.
But before he could answer, the door of the hut suddenly flung open with a crash. In the doorway, deputy headmaster Harper was standing with his wand pointed at Julian Ross. His slick blond hair was uncharacteristically untidy, thin strands dancing on his forehead.
“He told me, Miss Sheridan,” he said, a malicious smile on his face. “The whole pack of inventions and lies. That’s when I knew I’d have to watch him more closely. I’m surprised you listened for as long as you did. You have been wasting your time with Ross here.”
“But I told you,” Julian said, red in the face, “it’s the TRUTH.”
“Don’t you dare lie to me again,” Harper hissed. “You’ve committed nothing but mischief at this school from the moment you set foot in it. Do you expect me to believe you after all that?”
“But… but this is different,” Julian spluttered. “I’m telling you, this is what happened. Necromancers are behind the kidnapping of Robert…”
“ENOUGH,” Harper thundered.
And before any of us could react, thick ropes flew out of his wand and wrapped themselves tightly around Ross, who, losing his balance, fell to the ground.
“Stop,” I said, “deputy headmaster, I think you’re making a terrible mistake. I don’t think Julian is capable of…”
But Harper was maniacal and beyond reason.
“Not you, too!” he spat. “I should have thought so. Amateur fools, believing the first cock-and-bull story you hear. I warned against hiring you, and I was right all along.”
Isabella shrieked with fury.
“Julian is innocent!”
“LIES,” Harper cried.
I stepped forward, trying to calm the situation, but Harper pointed his wand at me.
“Not one step further, Miss Sheridan. I’m warning you. I’m taking the boy back to the castle, where he will await his lawful arrest by the MLE. Stand back, all of you. Or I will be forced to curse you.”
Then, he waved his wand at the helpless Ross, whose body was violently lifted up from the ground and levitated through the open window, hovering ominously outside.
“If any of you follow me, I will consider it as an act of aiding a criminal and a fugitive.”
He slowly backed out of the room, his wand covering all of us. Then, he vanished from sight.
Chapter 8
It took us a second to process what had just happened. Isabella collapsed, crying uncontrollably, and I was just about to catch her in time before she hit the floor. Barry simply stood there, unable to do anything.
“What on earth just happened?” Val said shakily. “I can’t believe it.”
“Were you able to read Julian?” I asked. “Psychically, I mean.”
“Yes, quite clearly,” she said. “He was telling the truth. He was very angry, which is understandable, of course. But it was what he saw.”
“Harper,” I spluttered. “He’s mad. Utterly crazy.”
“H-he always hated J-Julian,” Isabella said, sitting down on the floor and wiping the tears from her cheeks. “He didn’t believe a word of what he was saying, just because he had played some tricks. But they were harmless! Nobody was ever hurt.”
“I bet Harper is covering up for his own crimes,” I said. “I know, I know, he’s rather obvious, but so what? He tried to sabotage our investigation from the very beginning. He tried – and failed – to convince the headmistress not to hire us. He even quarrelled with her when we had already arrived.”
“That’s right,” said Val. “I didn’t quite understand it at the time, but he felt a real loathing of Ross. He wanted him expelled, remember? If it had been up to him – and not the headmistress – he would have kicked him out of the school. Looks to me like he’s just looking for a scapegoat.”
“It’s certainly suspicious,” Barry said, frowning. “But we’re running out of time. We’re still no closer to providing any actual evidence. Let us say that Harper is our man, what do we have against him? Nothing much except for bad manners. And even on the British Isles, that isn’t punishable by law.”
“Well, perhaps it ought to be,” I said moodily. “But you’re right, of course. We’ve got to do something. Perhaps we should approach the headmistress. Tell her what kind of a deputy she really has. She won’t believe that whole story about Ross being the killer. She said herself that Ross is just a prankster, a rascal.”
“Even she won’t be able to resist the authority of the MLE,” said Barry. “I don’t think the case looks particularly good for Ross.”
“But he is innocent,” Isabella said, her temper rising again.
“I realise that,” Barry said. “But the law, I’m afraid, might not be in agreement. It’s circumstantial, of course, but the more desperate the officials are, the more likely such a case can be made to stick.”
“That’s true, Amy,” said Val, turning to me. “Remember how PC Bowler tried to pin the murder on you six months ago?”
“Vividly,” I said.
“A closed case,” said Barry, “might be worth more to some than the truth, I’m afraid.”
“Yes,” I said. “The murderer might be thinking along the same lines.”
“What are you saying, Amy?” asked Val.
“I’m saying that, if I were the killer, I’d frame Julian Ross as
quickly as possible. Plant some incriminating evidence in his room and end the entire thing.”
“Yes,” said Barry, his face darkening, “they’d be free to continue their experiments without fear of repercussions.”
Isabella got up. Her face was blotched and swollen from crying, though there were no tears anymore. Instead, it had been replaced by a fierceness I hadn’t seen before.
“We will catch this murderer,” she said. “Julian did what he thought was right. I didn’t want him to draw those marks, but it was the only way that anyone paid any attention. He wants to save his friend.”
“Barry,” I said. “Is there any chance that… that the disappeared people might still be alive?”
But Barry shook his head.
“I cannot say,” he answered. “I am sorry, Amanda. Necromancy, well, let’s say only very few people are drawn to that branch of magic. By definition, I don’t think you can assume that they would behave in a normal and rational manner.”
“But if Julian is right and it was a resurrection ritual through sacrifice, they’d need time to do it,” I said.
“Yes,” said Barry. “As far as I know, it takes a long time to prepare, there is a special potion that is required. The dead snakes – a symbol of both death and healing – play a devilish part, but don’t ask me the specifics because I don’t know. Without sacrifice, there is no resurrection. Without the potion, the resurrected will remain lifeless.”
“Then there might still be hope,” I said. “And a little time. I don’t think they’d try it in daylight at any rate.”
“But we don’t even know where it’s taking place,” said Val.
“Probably in the same place as last time,” I said. “Isabella, did Julian show you the clearing with the three trees in the middle?”
“No,” she said miserably, “he didn’t. I’m sorry, I don’t know where it is.”
“The woods are very extensive,” said Barry. “We wouldn’t be able to find it very easily.”
“Unless,” I said ponderingly, “unless we could cover ground more quickly than on foot. Does the school have brooms?”