by SJB Gilmour
Sarah gulped.
Robert laughed. ‘Don’t worry, darling!’ he promised her. ‘She’s on our side.’ Then he blushed a little. ‘Now,’ he said, changing the subject, ‘I guess it’s time for us to chat about the birds and bees?’
At the mention of birds, Nathan gave a startled squawk and rushed back behind his counter, shivering in fright. ‘Don’t mention birds!’ he wailed in terror.
‘Nathan,’ giggled Sarah. ‘You’re much too big for any bird to eat!’ she scoffed.
‘Oh yeah?’ challenged the frightened purple bookwyrm. ‘When was the last time you came face-to-face with a phoenix or a golden ra? Nothing they like better than a nice plump bookwyrm like me for breakfast!’
‘Sorry, Nathan,’ Robert apologised. ‘I should have been more careful choosing my words. You’re quite safe now. You can come out. No bird’s going to go anywhere near two werewolves.’
‘It’s all right, Mr Robert. But if it’s all the same to you, I’ll just stay right here and quiver till Mistress Harding returns!’ Nathan quivered. ‘Oh dear, I’m all a-shiver!’
‘C’mon, Sarah, let’s go and sit down, shall we? We’ll leave Nathan alone. I’m sure he’s got plenty to do to keep his mind occupied,’ Robert suggested. When they were out of earshot, he whispered, ‘Lovely fellow, that Nathan, but a terrible wuss. No backbone.’
Sarah smiled. ‘Ha, ha,’ she said sarcastically. ‘Be nice to Nathan. I think he’s lovely.’
They both chuckled and sat down in the reading area. As they settled into the big comfy couches, Angela returned with a wild look in her eyes and her hair quite messy. Sarah had never seen her immaculate teacher so dishevelled.
Robert raised one eyebrow. ‘Why Angela!’ he exclaimed, quite amused. ‘Whatever is the matter?’
Angela sat down and delicately crossed one leg over her knee. ‘Now, Mr Coppernick, there’s no need for that,’ she advised him crisply. Robert however, continued to smile mischievously.
‘The elevator and I have just had a most interesting discussion,’ she told them as she looked in her purse for her enchanted mirror. When she found it, she held it up to repair the damage to her usually perfectly done hair. ‘It seems we have an issue with Masters Ottispuschenshuffen, Ottispuschenshuffen and Ottispuschenshuffen. Their latest product still has a few prejudices. However, it has agreed to be more polite from now on.’ She turned to Sarah once her hair had been restored to its normal perfection. ‘Sarah, I’m sorry the elevator was so rude to you. There’s still a lot you need to learn, and we’re going as fast as we dare, but machines like that are often incapable of learning any manners.’
‘It’s okay,’ Sarah replied politely. ‘I didn’t understand most of what it was talking about anyway. It accused me of summoning a storm. I think that thing’s mental.’
Angela chuckled. ‘That would imply it has a brain, dear. No, it’s just a machine with some dodgy wiring. Anyway,’ she went on. She appeared to be about to move on to another subject.
‘You mean we’re going to have that little chat?’ Sarah asked, feeling quite nervous.
‘No, Sarah,’ Angela told her warmly. ‘There’s no need to embarrass everyone when Cassandra can explain it all in the privacy of your own mind.’
‘And she’s certainly not the kind who gets embarrassed,’ remarked Robert dryly. Angela shot him a warning glance.
‘No mind-reading?’ Sarah hesitated.
‘Of course not, dear,’ Angela replied in a most dignified manner. ‘Even if it wasn’t terribly rude for me to do it during this kind of thing, I couldn’t anyway. It’s very difficult to read the mind of a werewolf when she’s working with sorcery. Didn’t you know that?’
Mutely, Sarah shook her head.
Robert chuckled wryly. ‘I guess it’s Roberta’s and my fault.’ He apologised to Sarah. ‘We had no idea how to go about bringing up a human child.’
‘What do you mean?’ Sarah demanded. ‘You’re human most of the time yourselves, aren’t you?’
‘We are now,’ Robert explained. ‘But your aunt and I were born wolves and were adult before we first went human. We had to learn how to act like mortals from watching them.’
Sarah shook her head. ‘Whoa!’ she uttered in wonder. ‘That explains a lot.’ Now Roberta and Robert’s odd behaviour didn’t seem so odd after all.
‘So you see Sarah, the one to blame for all this being so hard for you is the one who took your parents from you, depriving you of humans who could explain all this as you grew up,’ Angela told her seriously. ‘Instead, you got stuck with a pair of brown werewolves to guard you and a renegade witch to teach you.’
‘Renegade?’ Sarah asked, startled.
Angela flushed and was about to answer when Nathan appeared with two floating tomes in tow. ‘Ah, there you all are!’ he said. The big purple bookwyrm appeared to have regained his composure. ‘I’ve got Cassandra’s tome here,’ he told them, nodding at one of the big green leather-bound floating books. ‘And What Enchanted Species is That? It’s a little out of date, I’m afraid, but I thought young Miss Sarah might like to see what it says about Golden Manes. If there’s anything else you need, just give a quiet little shout and I’ll be here as quickly as I can crawl.’ With that, Nathan turned and slithered away.
‘Go on, Sarah,’ Robert encouraged.
Sarah picked up Cassandra’s ancient tome. It was quite well-worn and must have been used by thousands of people. It drifted up out of her hands to rest just in front of her, and opened.
Inside the front cover was a drawing, as in all the other tomes Sarah had read. This one, however, made her blush. The drawing was of a woman, and Sarah had never seen a woman quite like this. She was dressed only in the filmiest of robes that left very little to the imagination. Her hips were broad and her waist was very narrow. Her face had an angular beauty that made Sarah feel quite self-conscious and there was wickedness about her that Sarah sensed she really was too young to be confronted with just yet. Unlike Angela and Roberta, neither of whom wore any make-up at all, this woman wore so much that it seemed to border on the obscene. This, Sarah assumed with distaste, was exactly the reason for it.
‘I see what you mean, Uncle,’ she observed. ‘I’d be way too embarrassed to wear anything like that.’
‘Hello, Sarah,’ the woman said in a husky voice that was definitely more adult in nature than Sarah was prepared for. She knew she should probably not be talking to such a woman. Still, Sarah was not about to forget her manners.
‘Hello,’ she replied, hoping she had managed not to sound too much like a prude.
‘Ahh, the legendary politeness of wolves,’ observed the wicked-looking woman, shifting slightly underneath her robe. There was a lot of movement under there and Sarah didn’t really know where to look.
‘I’m guessing you’d like to learn about your near future?’ Cassandra asked a little more delicately. She crossed her arms in front of her chest. Sarah was a little relieved. She had no idea what was about to happen.
‘Here, just follow these simple instructions I’ve listed in Chapter Two, and everything will be made clear,’ Cassandra instructed and flicked the pages over until Chapter Two was open in front of her.
Sarah read the spell. It seemed very simple, even though she didn’t understand all of the words.
‘Remember Golden Mane,’ whispered the voices of Wolfenvald within her mind. ‘We can help you.’
Can you help me understand this stuff then? Sarah asked. Then she gasped. The words to the spell flashed through her mind and she immediately understood exactly what each one meant and how she should use it. The sensation of learning the meaning of just a few words in Magaeic was quite unnerving. She felt a rush through her body that felt very much like the tingling sensation she got after a long yawn or a really big sneeze.
Then she recited the spell, finishing it with the command word ‘Prestivo!’
At first nothing happened. Then Sarah shut her eyes and got quite a surpri
se. There, as if she was dreaming, she saw herself, only very different.
She was looking at a much older version of herself. She was taller, and her face was more angular and with fewer freckles. She was quite slender, yet obviously she had filled out into a most attractive young woman. Her golden hair was long and straight and shone magnificently. In fact, her hair was so shiny that it actually appeared to be real gold. Her eyes were more adult, but tinged with a hint of sadness. Then she smiled at herself.
Sarah’s jaw dropped as the vision of herself showed exactly what to expect and how it was going to affect her. She held her eyes tightly shut as the Sarah in her mind explained in embarrassingly frank terms all sorts of things. Finally, the Sarah in her mind showed her a calendar and pointed to a day just over a month away. Then her image vanished. Cassandra reappeared.
‘After you’ve taken care of the matters at hand, come back. I have a prophecy for you.’ Cassandra looked at her sternly. ‘You’re distracted right now. We’ll talk later.’ Then the barely dressed woman also disappeared and the tome shut itself.
‘Right,’ Sarah said, her cheeks flaming. ‘I think I know all I need to right now. Uncle Robert, do you have much money on you at the moment?’
‘Well,’ he hedged nervously. ‘I’ve a little…’
‘Good,’ Sarah replied briskly, ‘because we’re going shopping. I’m going to need some new clothes and a few other things as well,’ she ordered him in a no-nonsense tone. Angela hid a smile behind her hand as Robert sighed in submission.
Chapter Six
Sarah and Mel arrived in the classroom dressed in ordinary street clothes. Mel wore a pair of black jeans, black boots and a tight-fitting black t-shirt underneath an oversized black motorcycle jacket. When she took off her jacket, the straps of her first bra were quite visible underneath her shirt.
‘You goth,’ Sarah teased her friend. It didn’t surprise Sarah that Mel would fit in with the dark subculture.
‘Bogan,’ Mel replied, referring to the not-so-dark subculture that liked power ballads and flannel shirts.
Sarah wore her customary blue jeans and runners, a band t-shirt and an oversized flannel shirt. Her own bra was not visible because of any straps. Rather, it was the shape it held underneath her shirt that Sarah was proud of.
Angela tolerated their break from school uniform. ‘Mr Dyson almost certainly wouldn’t approve,’ she remarked dryly. ‘Good thing I know you’ll do well today.’
For once, Sarah wasn’t scared to see her old principal when he arrived a few minutes later. She sat quietly, holding in a grin as she waited for him to hand out the tests.
When he had passed the test papers to both Sarah and Mel in grim silence, he glared at Angela and sat down at her desk without bothering to be polite. Angela winked slyly at Sarah and left the classroom. Sarah was surprised to find the test remarkably easy. She managed to answer all the questions quite quickly then waited for Mel to finish. Mel was not far behind her and when they had both completed their tests, they proudly submitted them to Mr Dyson and sat down while he marked them. He frowned in frustration as he quickly ticked the box next to each question and added up the marks.
‘I don’t know what you two are cooking up, or what sort of funny business is going on in this place,’ he growled, ‘but it looks like I’ve got to give you both full marks.’ He pushed the papers away from him in disgust, got up and stormed out of the classroom. He slammed the door behind him and marched resolutely to the stairway, fuming as the two girls shrieked in laughter and gave each other high fives.
When Mr Dyson was gone, Angela reappeared suddenly, sitting on her desk with one leg crossed over the other.
‘Well done, ladies,’ she congratulated them. ‘Now, to reward you for your good results, I’m taking you both into town for haircuts and lunch.’
Sarah and Mel erupted in fresh cheering.
‘But!’ Angela held up one finger. ‘One condition,’ she paused while the two girls calmed down. ‘Your new clothes are lovely, but despite whatever else may be going on in your lives,’ she told them meaningfully, ‘you are still at school and that requires school uniform.’ She muttered something under her breath and nodded at both their desks. In a flash, two neatly folded school uniforms appeared. Grudgingly, the two girls put on the uniforms while Angela, with her back politely turned, readied her desk and did a quick inventory of her purse.
When they were dressed, Sarah and Mel looked at each other. Their skirts were dark green plaid with dark blue and yellow, their shirts were crisp white cotton and the blazers were dark blue with gold trimming. Sarah thought they looked much better than her old school uniform, which was an off-putting shade of brown unfortunately combined with pale green. Emblazoned on each right breast blazer pocket were the words ‘Heirogryph Girls School’ in gold embroidery. The coat of arms was the same as the one Benjamin used for Heirogryph. It was a wolf and a flying lizard standing back-to-back on either side of a book and quill.
‘What’s this?’ queried Mel. ‘Are we a real school now?’
‘Of course not,’ Angela replied with a wry smile. ‘That would be a little over the top, I’m quite sure.’ She nodded at the uniforms. ‘These are merely for the sake of appearances. They’re as much to remind you two that you’re still students as they are to let the general public think so too.’
‘But what about this?’ Mel demanded, pulling at the Heirogryph emblem on her blazer.
‘I’ve always thought,’ Angela replied mildly, ‘that hiding out in plain sight is the best disguise. It’s unlikely anyone will bother reading that emblem. They’ll just see the uniform and assume you’re ordinary students. Most private schools have similar emblems.’ She sighed to herself and made disappointed clicking noise. ‘They seem to think lions, gryphons and dragons are symbolic for some reason. Silliness. Most mortals would pass out if they ever came face-to-face with a gryphon.’
‘Is that what that thing is?’ Unconsciously, Sarah tilted her head sideways. ‘What is a gryphon anyway?’
Angela nodded. ‘They’re more like koalas than dragons. They have scales, tails and wings but they’re not reptilian. They’re marsupials. They carry their young in a pouch.’
‘But it looks more like a dragon than a koala,’ Sarah replied sceptically.
Mel shrugged and held out her arm. Jimbo flew down from his perch on top of the bust of Julius Cesar and came to rest on her forearm. She scratched him behind the eye-ridges affectionately.
‘Dragonkind have different bellies, Sarah.’ Mel advised her. ‘Koalas are just tree-hugging wallabies.’
‘But the scales and wings…’ Sarah began to argue.
‘Don’t mean much,’ Mel told her pointedly. ‘There are all sorts of creatures out there with scales and wings.’
Sarah shrugged to herself and looked back at her uniform. It did look quite fine and certainly appeared to be from a school that was definitely out of Uncle Robert and Aunt Roberta’s price range.
‘So we’re not really a school then,’ she said as they took the elevator down to the reception area. She looked up at Angela, who was smiling at her gently. ‘Doesn’t that guy Count Dracul run a school though?’ she asked.
Now Angela looked slightly disapproving. ‘He’s a Viscount,’ she corrected primly, ‘and I’d hardly call that madhouse of his a school.’ She gave Maddy at the counter a quick nod and led the girls out the doors and down the street. Once outside, she shot Mel an arch look. ‘Renfields was named after a lunatic friend of Vladimir. Most of Renfields’ so-called teachers are just as unbalanced as Renfield was himself.’ She looked up again, realising that she had gone off on yet another tangent and clapped her hands.
‘And now, girls, we’re going to walk over there,’ she pointed down past the corner of High Street to St Kilda Road, ‘and we’re going to catch the tram into town for your haircuts.’ She tousled Sarah’s shaggy hair. ‘We can’t have our students looking messy, now can we?’
Sarah was embar
rassed. ‘But Miss Harding, how do I get my hair to behave?’ I’ve tried everything except drinking blood or eating raw meat!’
‘Try these,’ Angela said, handing her a little orange cardboard box. Sarah read the packet as they walked to the tram stop.
‘Doggy Chocolates!’ she burst out indignantly. Now this was going too far!
‘Read the ingredients, Sarah,’ Angela advised, her eyes twinkling with mischief. Mel did more than smile. She howled with laughter and had to stop walking, she was laughing so hard. Sarah read the packet and saw that the ingredients had all the nutrients any dog needed for a healthy, shiny coat. Grumbling to herself and glaring acidly at Mel, who by now had tears running down her face, Sarah opened the packet and popped one of the doggy treats into her mouth. It was nice enough – sweet and vaguely chocolatey but kind of powdery. As she analysed the flavour in her mouth, she realised she could taste other things in it as well. There was iron and an odd mix of other minerals and vitamins.
‘A wolf’s tongue will always guide her to the foods she needs,’ Wolfenvald remarked in her mind. The forest voices sounded dryly amused.
‘Not bad,’ Sarah murmured, making a face at Mel. Even though she was shocked and insulted at the idea of having to eat dog food, she didn’t want Mel to think she was shocked and insulted.
The tram came and they clambered on board. Sarah had been on trams before, but this trip seemed exciting somehow. She gazed out of the window as the tram rattled mindlessly along St Kilda Road, past the Royal Botanic Gardens, the art gallery and on into Swanston Street. The tram rolled on up through the centre of the city until it came to a stop just past Melbourne University at Grattan Street. Angela stood up and ushered Sarah and Mel out of the tram and back out into the street.
Sarah looked around. ‘Where to now?’ she asked. All she could see was the university and across the road, yet another hospital.
Angela pointed up Grattan Street. ‘We’re going to Lygon Street, ladies,’ she replied.