by D D Everest
There are so many things that I should have told you. But your father made me promise to keep you away from magic until you were old enough to make your own mind up. He was trying to protect you.
I write in haste because I must make a journey. There are some matters that I must attend to. I realise now that I should have acted sooner. But what is done is done and I cannot change it.
I will try not to worry about you because I know you are in the safekeeping of the Foxes. Life is a funny thing because up until a few weeks ago nothing would have worried me more!
Loretta and Woodbine know how to reach me.
There is one more thing I need to tell you. (I once told your father this.) There are many different types of courage in this world. But they all have one thing in common. You cannot be truly courageous if you are not truly frightened. Real courage is doing what we know to be right even though we are afraid for our own safety. Remember this. It will help you be brave when the time comes.
Love,
Gran
A postcard had been slipped in with the letter. It was marked Kathmandu.
Thinking about Gran made him think about his dad’s things. He wondered whether they would be able to help him with the magician’s riddle. He took out the shoebox that Thistle had given him, removed the lid and looked inside at an assortment of his father’s possessions. There was a pen, some faded black-and-white photographs, a pair of gloves and some books.
He picked up one of the photographs and examined it. It was a picture of a boy and girl standing together. The girl was wearing purple shoes and was clearly recognisable as a younger version of Loretta Foxe. She looked to be about ten. The boy was older, around Archie’s age and had to be his father. They were standing outside Quill’s.
Archie put the photo back in the box and picked up one of the books. It was an old scrapbook with some newspaper cuttings. He decided to look at it later. Another book was called Magical Greats: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. It was a list of all the most famous and infamous magical books ever written.
What was the book that Horace had mentioned? The Opus Magus. Archie looked it up in the index.
The Opus Magus: Perhaps the greatest of all the magical books, The Opus Magus was written during the Golden Age of Magic by an unknown hand and is said to contain the secrets of writing new magic. Once housed in the Great Library of Alexandria, it is believed that The Opus Magus was incinerated in the fire that destroyed the Library.
Archie flicked on through the book until another entry caught his eye.
The Book of Yore: An ancient codex that contains the history of magic, including many secrets about the past. The Book of Yore is sometimes included with the Books of Destiny, but strictly speaking it has no power to predict the future. Rather, the secrets it reveals about the past may alter the fate of those who discover them. The Book of Yore may be consulted by asking it a direct question, although what it reveals may not seem immediately relevant. The book never lies but it has a dark side, which makes it dangerous.
Archie put the book back in the shoebox. He noticed another called Creatures to Avoid If You Are of a Nervous Disposition by Timothy Tremble. It was full of descriptions of magical creatures, with drawings of dragons, unicorns and centaurs, and something called a flarewolf – a wolf-like creature that breathed fire like a dragon.
Archie shivered involuntarily. The creature sounded vile. He was still thinking about it when he fell asleep. He dreamed a fire-breathing dragon was chasing him and trying to burn his book.
17
Dark Magic
The next day, Archie stood beside Bramble as one by one the other apprentices arrived for the meeting. They were in a large room in the back of Quill’s Coffee & Chocolate House that was used for museum business. Chairs were arranged in neat rows facing a raised stage with a lectern.
‘I can’t remember another meeting like this and we’ve had Greaders in Oxford before,’ Bramble said. ‘The museum elders must be worried.’
Archie was feeling self-conscious. Most of the other apprentices were several years older than him and seemed much more sure of themselves. A tall boy of about fifteen entered the room. He had dark hair swept across his face that he kept flicking out of his eyes.
‘Who’s that?’ Archie whispered. Bramble grinned and raised her eyebrows appreciatively.
‘That’s Rupert Trevallen,’ she whispered back. ‘He works in the Natural Magic Department – in the mythical menagerie.
‘And that’s Enid Drew, from Supernatural Magic,’ Bramble said, indicating a girl with short black hair and glasses.
She suddenly nudged him in the ribs. ‘Look who else’s here! Your friend Arabella Ripley!’
Archie followed her gaze and spotted Arabella standing on her own by the door, with a bored look on her face.
‘I wonder what she’s doing here,’ Bramble said. ‘Oh look!’ she exclaimed. ‘Meredith is talking to Rupert. I’m just going to say hello. Back in a mo.’
She set off across the room with a determined look on her face. Archie watched as she kissed the auburn-haired girl on the cheek and beamed her best smile at the tall boy, whose face reddened at the sight of her.
Without Bramble at his side, Archie suddenly found himself in a roomful of strangers.
The only other person he vaguely knew was Arabella. He tried to make eye contact to be friendly, but she ignored him. Archie felt awkward. He was just wondering whether it would be better to stand there on his own or go over and join Bramble and her friends, when the door flew open and a tall man with grey hair and a silver moustache strode into the room.
He wore a dark suit with a crisply pressed white shirt and a pink bow tie. Under one arm he carried a silver-topped walking cane. Archie recognised him from the picture Old Zeb had shown him. The man marched up onto the stage and clapped his hands to get everyone’s attention. The room immediately fell silent.
‘Apprentices,’ he said in a loud voice. ‘As most of you know, I am Vincent von Herring, head of Mortal Magic. I am also the chairman of the Dangerous Books Committee, and it is in that capacity that I have called this meeting today. I have done so for your own safety and for the safety of the museum.
‘But before we get started, I would like to introduce two new apprentices. Archie Greene joins us as the new apprentice bookbinder.’ Archie felt his cheeks burning as all eyes turned to look at him. Embarrassingly, he had no control over his face, which had turned a bright shade of pink. ‘And our second new apprentice is Arabella Ripley,’ Professor von Herring continued, ‘who joins the Supernatural Magic Department as a bookminder. The third new apprentice cannot be here today for reasons that will become apparent.’
All heads swivelled to look at Arabella, who tossed her head imperiously.
‘That’s why she’s here!’ whispered Bramble who’d come back to stand with Archie. ‘She must have just had her twelfth birthday. I bet her parents pulled some strings to get her an apprenticeship. She would still have to pass the Flame test, of course, but all her family have been apprentices so it’s in her blood.’
‘Miss Foxe, please,’ chided Professor von Herring, glaring at Bramble. ‘We are here on a matter of the utmost seriousness.’
He paused to make sure he had the full attention of his audience. ‘As some of you may have heard, the other new apprentice was attacked outside of Quill’s – a boy by the name of Peter Quiggley. Luckily, he was released without serious injury. Mr Quiggley is at home and is expected to make a full recovery. But he was held captive for several hours and was threatened by a person or persons unknown who thought he had information regarding the whereabouts of a magical book.’
A hush fell on the room. From his breast pocket Professor von Herring removed some spectacles and put them on. The lenses were thick and made his brown eyes look like two trout swimming in bowls of water.
‘It has also come to the attention of the museum that Geoffrey Screech, proprietor of the Aisle of White bookshop, is miss
ing. Mr Screech has not been seen since Monday – the same day that Mr Quiggley was attacked. The two events may be linked. If they are then this could well be the work of Greaders operating in Oxford. If that is the case then they have almost certainly received information that a very powerful magic book is near by.’
There were around fifty apprentices in the room and all of them were hanging on Professor von Herring’s every word.
Von Herring peered over his spectacles with a solemn expression on his face. ‘There is a chance …’ he paused, ‘… that this book is one of the Terrible Tomes!’
There was a collective intake of breath. Von Herring continued.
‘As apprentices it is vital that you understand the seriousness of this threat. There are seven Terrible Tomes in all. I will not name them all here. But I can tell you that they include the dark spell book of Hecate the witch, known as The Grim Grimoire, and The Nosferu, which was written by Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia, in the blood of his enemies.’
He paused for dramatic effect. ‘Yes, that’s right, Count Dracula himself!
‘And that’s without even mentioning the darkest of all the books of supernatural magic – Barzak’s Book of Souls.’
The apprentices exchanged nervous looks.
‘Four of the Terrible Tomes are currently under lock and key in the museum crypt, but three remain unaccounted for. If one of the missing Tomes should fall into the hands of a Greader it could destroy the museum and all the magic in it.’
Von Herring looked around the room. ‘A boy has already been attacked. If any of you have information about this matter you must tell me immediately. Do you understand?’
The apprentices all nodded. ‘Good. Now are there any questions?’
There was a moment’s silence and then a voice spoke up. ‘Yes, Professor. How would we recognise one of the Terrible Tomes?’
Archie turned his head to see who had asked the question. He was surprised to see that it was Arabella Ripley.
‘Well, Ms Ripley, that is an excellent question,’ von Herring said, his trout eyes settling upon the new apprentice. ‘But I am surprised that with your family connections you do not know the answer already!’
A few of the apprentices sniggered nervously. Professor von Herring smiled unkindly. Arabella looked furious.
‘What’s the joke?’ Archie whispered to Bramble.
‘It’s complicated. I’ll tell you later,’ Bramble whispered back.
Von Herring was speaking again. ‘The answer to Ms Ripley’s question is that – as her grandfather discovered – it is almost impossible to tell the Terrible Tomes from the run-of-the-mill magical books that fill the museum bookshelves. Indeed, one of the properties that the seven share is the ability to disguise themselves as seemingly unimportant books. Only if they are threatened will they momentarily drop their guard to reveal their true nature. But such glimpses are very rare and take a trained eye to spot. They are also resistant to most forms of magical security so they have to be handled very carefully indeed.
‘That is why it is vital that you report any suspicious books or behaviour. Do I make myself clear?’
18
Dangerous Books
As they left the room, Archie’s head was buzzing with what he’d heard. All around him the apprentices were chattering among themselves. They sounded like a swarm of excited bees. They filed out of the function room back into Quill’s.
Archie was thinking about what von Herring had said about reporting anything suspicious. The books in the Aisle of White had told him that something was stealing their magic. He wondered whether he should tell someone what he knew. But it would mean explaining he was a book whisperer and Archie doubted that anyone would believe him. Just then, Bramble grabbed his arm.
‘There you are,’ she said. ‘Let’s get a hot chocolate and I’ll tell you about Arthur Ripley.’
A few minutes later they were seated at a table with a Choc-tail and two straws.
Bramble spoke in a low voice so that she wouldn’t be overheard. ‘Arabella’s grandfather Arthur Ripley was head of Lost Books. He persuaded the museum elders to give him special powers to track down the Terrible Tomes. But it turned out he wanted them for himself.
‘It was about twelve years ago now. Ripley got into the crypt somehow and tried to take the four Terrible Tomes kept there. A fire broke out. No one knows how it started – probably magical combustion. That can happen if a lot of magic is suddenly released. Luckily the crypt is enchanted so none of the books in there were damaged. But the fire spread to other parts of the museum and some books were destroyed. Anyway, by the time they put it out Ripley was burned to ash. They couldn’t even identify his body.’
‘That’s grim,’ said Archie.
‘Yes, but a lot of people thought he had it coming,’ said Bramble. ‘Arthur Ripley had made a lot of enemies.
‘After that, the Dangerous Books Committee was set up and von Herring was brought in to investigate what Ripley had been up to. He discovered a whole load of magic books that Ripley had been hoarding.’
Archie was about to ask what happened to Ripley’s collection when he caught sight of a tall, stooping man talking to Professor von Herring at the bar.
‘I know that man,’ he whispered to Bramble.
She nodded. ‘Yes, that’s Aurelius Rusp. I wonder what he’s doing here.’
Rusp strode past them, his face set in an angry scowl. The two cousins watched him sweep through the door ray and out the main door.
‘He’s not very friendly,’ Archie observed.
‘Rusp? No, he’s famously unfriendly. A right old grouch in fact. Funny that we should see him today, though, when we were just talking about Arthur Ripley, because Rusp was in the museum on the night of the fire. He was the one who discovered what was going on and raised the alarm. If it hadn’t been for Rusp the place would have burned to the ground.’ She paused. ‘He’s been a bit strange ever since. Very intense.’
‘You think it’s because of the fire?’
‘Yeah, it affected him. He’s always searching for books. Trying to replace the ones that got burned – that’s what Dad says.’
‘Why would he do that?’ Archie asked. ‘I mean it’s not as if it was his fault or anything.’
Bramble shrugged. ‘Who knows,’ she said. ‘Perhaps he feels responsible somehow or feels he should have said something sooner. But there are other rumours, too. Some people say he’s got links to the Greaders.’
19
The Almanac
After the incident with the poppers, Archie assumed it would be a while before he was allowed anywhere near another magical book. But when he arrived at the mending workshop a couple of days later, Old Zeb had put two books on the bench. Pages had been marked in each.
‘Right,’ said the old bookbinder, ‘orders from the elders are that we’ve got to speed up your lessons. With Greaders about, they want all apprentices to be ready in case of danger. Today, you’ll be learning about the different types of magical books.’
His serious expression dissolved into a gummy grin. ‘You’ll like this,’ he added, a gleam in his eye. ‘It will be fun.’
The old man tapped his nose with his finger. ‘Since you’re so fond of ’em, let’s start with the poppers. Poppers are enchanted books. They contain spells that are bound to the book until it is opened – then, ready or not, out they pop!
‘There are two types – pop-ups and pop-outs. With a pop-up, the spell pops up but it remains with the book it came from. Once they’re out, of course, it can be a devil of a job to get them back inside the book but at least they can’t wander off. So let’s see a pop-up in action.’ He pointed at the first book, which had a dark green cover and was entitled The Dodo Bird and Other Extinct Animals.
‘Go ahead,’ the old bookbinder urged, ‘open it!’
There was a loud popping sound and a large and very surprised looking woolly mammoth appeared in the room, still chewing a mouthful of grass. It had
long yellow tusks and a puzzled expression on its face. Its two small eyes regarded Archie down its long trunk.
‘A popper has no idea that it is only a temporary spell so it thinks and behaves just like a real animal or person – a mammoth in this case,’ Old Zeb explained. ‘This makes poppers extremely realistic but potentially dangerous because they don’t want to go back into the book once they’re out. That’s why popper stoppers were invented. It allows them to be safely stored until they ezaporate – which means the spell expires or they go back into their book of their own volition.
‘I hope we didn’t disturb your breakfast,’ the old man said to the mammoth. He winked at Archie and produced an apple from his pocket and gave it to the bemused animal. Then he took out a popper stopper and removed the top to release the white mist, which immediately surrounded the mammoth. When the mist was sucked back into the glass phial the creature disappeared with another loud pop.
Old Zeb handed the glass phial to Archie. ‘Put it with the one from the other day,’ he said. ‘It’s not much of a phialling system,’ he added, with a grin, ‘but it’ll have to do!’
Archie smiled at his joke and placed the phial with the mammoth on the shelf next to the one containing Sir Bodwin.
‘Now for the pop-outs. With a pop-out, the spells are not tied to the book so they can go out into the world. They are free-range spells, which can cause problems if the popper escapes. So let’s see a pop-out in action.’
Old Zeb pointed at the second book. Archie opened it and there was another loud pop. This time something blue fluttered from the pages.
‘Take this splendid dragonfly,’ Old Zeb said, his eyes sparkling.
Archie regarded the small blue creature that was now sitting on a bookshelf watching him. With a shock, he realised that it was a perfectly formed miniature dragon, about twelve centimetres long, complete with tiny talons and leathery wings. At that moment it snapped its tiny jaws and snorted a jet of fire from its nostrils.