by Noel Pogson
“I don’t like the sound of that!”
“Me neither! Come on, same as last time, you hang back so that if anything happens to me you can get away and tell Professor Pectus.”
The girls moved quickly and silently along the passage towards the dark archway and stopped, listening carefully for any clue about what might be happening inside. They could hear voices, but they sounded to be a long way off.
“Come on, we’re safe to go through I think.”
“Okay, but let me go first this time. You’ve taken enough risks.”
“No problem, be careful.”
“Don’t worry, I don’t want to end up as Shaul Malchus’ slave!”
Andra walked forward and peeped round the archway, and then walked through it when she saw that the way was clear. Sartrina followed her a few seconds later. The archway led into a twisting passage with several solid looking wooden doors leading off it. The boys’ voices were coming from much further along though, so the girls ignored all the doors and headed for what sounded like a large cavern where the boys seemed to be arguing.
* * *
“I will not join you Shaul, let me go!”
“You think I can let you go now, after you’ve heard my plan and seen my hideout? No chance Logan! You’re going to serve me whether you like it or not, and you’ll never be free now, never again. You wanted glory right? Well you’ll get your glory, serving the dark side!”
“NEVER! I WILL NOT!”
“Ha!” sneered Malchus. “You’re a coward Logan. You’re too scared to join us, too scared to sell your soul for glory and for eternal life!”
“I don’t want your glory, Malchus, and I’m no coward either. FIRMUS!”
There was a sharp crack followed by a laugh, and the girls stared fearfully at each other.
“You thought you could stop me with a child’s spell Logan? Pitiful! INTORQUEO!”
“AAAGGHHH!!”
“Did you like that Logan, want another shot? INTORQUEO!”
“AAAGGGHHH!! Stop, stop!”
“Why should I stop, are you going to join us?”
“NEVER!”
“INTORQUEO!”
“AAAGGGHHH!! I will never join you Malchus,” said the breathless sounding Logan, “NEVER!”
“Oh but you will Rufus Logan. You obviously didn’t hear me properly, there’s no turning back now! Just like Hendry and Smith here, it’s too late for you to change your mind. You’re mine, and when I’ve finished here, you’ll enjoy being mine. INTORQUEO!”
“AAAGGGHHH!!”
“My uncle taught me much last year while my father was messing around with his foolish plans to take over part of Ireland. We have a much bigger goal, and he’s taught me spells and curses that even my own parents don’t know. He introduced me to the power of the dark side, overwhelming unstoppable power. It was he who showed me how to channel that power and use it as my own, and soon that power will be yours.”
* * *
The two girls looked at each other, horror struck by what they were hearing. Shaul Malchus was clearly torturing a fellow student, after tricking him with promises of glory and power, and it sounded like Rufus Logan was going to become another follower, whether he liked it or not!
“What do we do?” whispered Andra, her wand grasped firmly in her hand.
“We listen, and find out what he does, and then we tell Professor Pectus.”
“That’s all? You’re not going to help him?!”
Sartrina looked at Andra and realised why her friend was a Leo. She had no thought for her own safety, only a desire to rush in to help someone who was clearly in trouble. Sartrina had to admit that there was a previously unrecognised part of her own mind telling her to do the same thing, and to try to stop whatever was going on, but there was another quieter voice urging caution…
“Not now. If we go in there now, he’ll just torture us too, and force us to join him! You musn’t go in Andra, please, we’re more use when we’re free!”
Sartrina could see her friend struggling with her emotions, and she glanced towards the cavern with a perplexed look on her face as another cry of agony escaped from the tortured Rufus Logan. Sartrina grasped her friends arm to stop her rushing forward.
“Please. We can’t do it ourselves Andra! We need someone more powerful! Much more powerful!”
Sartrina’s thoughts flew unbidden to Zak and Tallion, and she began to understand the battles that lay ahead of them.
“Okay, but I want to try and see who’s there, we need to get closer.”
“Can you port by yourself yet?”
“No. You?”
“No. I’m just thinking that we have no way out of here, except the way we came in, and if they come out we’re done for!”
“I’m still going to look!”
“Please be careful Andra. I’ll stay back here and go for help if they catch you.”
“Okay. Thanks.”
“Don’t mention it!”
Andra smiled and tentatively made her way round the last corner in the passage. Shaul Malchus was repeatedly hitting Rufus Logan with the Intorqueo curse, and the boy was screaming in pain. More surprising were the voices of the other boys, Hendry and Smith, also shouting curses and casting stinging spells and powerful jolts at their fellow student.
Andra went far enough round the corner to see that the passage ended in a rough archway, which led into a huge ghostly cavern hewn out of solid rock. Flaming torches lined the walls, and the boys were standing in the centre of the cavern around Rufus Logan, who was twisting and writhing on the floor in agony as the three eleven-year-olds mercilessly tortured him!
* * *
“Enough!” said Shaul, just as Andra was getting to the point where she couldn’t watch it any longer without intervening. She took a few deep breaths, forcing herself to stay hidden.
“I know we can never torture you into joining us Logan, the temptation for you to leave would be too great. The torture was only to show you that we’re more powerful than you are, and that you have no choice. You’ll understand once you’re part of us. I have another way to make that happen though, an enchantment that will change your mind. Then you’ll be more than willing to give up your soul, just like I did, and just like Hendry and Smith have done. We already belong to the dark side Logan, and soon you will too!”
“When I finish my incantation you will say ‘Ego Assentior’, do you understand? Unless you want us to torture you some more of course, and leave you here in chains forever!”
Rufus nodded and mumbled his agreement, catching his breath as the pain all over his body started to subside. Inside he was determined not to say it though, no matter what happened to him!
“And just in case you still refuse, my enchantment will make your voice speak even if your mind tries not to!”
Andra was feeling terrible distress as Shaul Malchus then waved his wand in a complicated motion over the bruised and trembling body of Rufus Logan and spoke a long enchantment.
“Farok, Dominus tenebris, animae meae, mei lætus obtuli, et usus tui mecum.”
Andra had no idea what the incantation meant, and desperately wanted to intervene, but some force now rooted her to the spot. Then to her horror, she heard Rufus Logan’s voice clearly reply.
“Ego Assentior.”
It sounded very un-natural though, as though someone was talking through him, and not the boy himself speaking.
Almost immediately an overwhelming terror gripped Andra, a desperate crawling fear unlike anything she’d ever felt before! Something, some power, had come into the crypt in response to the incantation, and a guttural, rasping voice now scraped round the cavern speaking in a harsh tongue that she’d never heard before, and couldn’t understand. The three boys standing round Rufus fell to their hands and knees, and Rufus twitched violently as he arched his back once, and then lay limp and still.
* * *
Sartrina had heard everything that Andra had heard, and was tremblin
g with the same fear as she found herself running forwards to pull her friend away. She grabbed Andra’s arm without looking into the room, and dragged her backwards down the passage. The only thought in her mind was to get them away from the place, fast!
‘As far away as possible!’ screamed a voice in her mind.
Neither girl clearly recalled their flight from the horror of the cavern. Their desperate panic to escape made them rush blindly through the secret passages and hurl themselves back through the false wall into the school.
White faced and trembling, they rushed across the courtyard and through the concealed entrance into Leo house. The common room was almost deserted as they ran towards the door to the girl’s dorms, and up the stairs as quickly as they could, taking all the shortcuts they knew to get round the strange house, which was spread out along the castle walls, until at last they arrived in their own dorm which was, mercifully, empty.
They sat trembling together on Sartrina’s bed, arms round each other’s shoulders, hands clasped together, breathing deeply, trying to shake off the crawling fear that seemed to have followed them, and eventually Sartrina spoke.
“What on earth was that all about?! I’ve never felt so scared in all my life! And it all happened here in the school!”
“I’ve no idea. Was it some kind of pagan curse he cast on Rufus?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never studied anything about pagan magic Andra, nothing at all! All I know is that Rufus didn’t want to do whatever just happened to him. What did you see?”
“He was writhing on the floor as they tortured him, and then just before that evil feeling, his body twitched really violently and then went rigid and still, just before the voice spoke. It looked like he might have been dead or something!”
“We need to tell Professor Pectus. Straight away. They might catch them as they come out of the secret passage and they can force Shaul to tell them what happened and undo it all.”
“There’s no undoing it Sartrina, I’m sure of that. Rufus Logan just lost… his… his soul…”
Andra’s voice faded away as she struggled to speak the last three words, almost unable to believe what she was saying, but both girls had a horrible feeling it was true.
* * *
Sunday afternoon in Netherdale couldn’t have been more of a contrast to what was happening at Mhonarr Castle. Zak had enjoyed a good morning’s football training, followed by a proper traditional family Sunday lunch, which had left him feeling relaxed and happy.
His mind ran over the previous afternoon when Steven had showed them his new wand and related his trip to Upper Nettleton. Bjarne had provided most of the detail about the flight over the moor on the way home though, because Steven had been way too excited about his wand!
Tallion had showed Steven again how to use the wand pouch and fasten it to his leg, although Zak advised him to leave it at home during the week and not take it to school until he’d learnt a few defensive spells and could actually use it! The happiness Zak felt, now that his long standing childhood friend could share his new life properly, was overpowering, and he simply couldn’t stop smiling.
When Tallion arrived at The Copse in the early evening, they talked about it for a while before Jenny reminded them about school the next morning. Zak realised that they’d missed some French homework, so they quickly sat down to do it, and were only just finishing as Jenny stuck her head back round the door and announced it was time for bed.
As sleep overcame the eleven-year-old a few minutes later, Zak’s mind went back to Steven, and he fell asleep dreaming of his friend. His dream was a mixture of magical and non-magical life, and Steven even joined them at one point for half term at Mhonarr Castle!
* * *
Steven’s Sunday was full of farm chores, and he wasn't sure that he liked doing them on Sunday rather than Saturday. He’d had to do all of his homework during the afternoon too, and he flopped on to his bed at seven o’clock feeling well and truly done for. As he reviewed his very full weekend in his mind, he suddenly thought of Sartrina, and he smiled. She needed to know about it too, and especially about his wand!
With a new lease of life, fuelled by happy thoughts of his girlfriend, he jumped up, grabbed his pen and paper, and started to write a letter. He put his pen down half an hour later, and was shocked to find that he’d written six pages, more than he’d ever written before in a single sitting!
“I think I must be in love!” he murmured happily to himself, and stuffed the letter into an envelope ready to take to Zak’s house in the morning.
As he looked happily at his wand lying on his bedside table, he decided he needed to hide it. Sure, it really did look just like a twig with a carved handle, and non-magical people like his parents would never guess it was a wand, but still, better to be safe than sorry.
As he closed his wardrobe door, he recalled how Sir Philip had spoken with him on Saturday about telling his parents of his new found abilities. Steven knew he had to do it eventually, but every time he started to plan how, all he could see was looks of disbelief or pity on his parents’ faces! They would never believe him, he was sure of that, unless he did some magic, but even then they still wouldn’t really believe it!
The eleven-year-old wizard-farmer settled down for bed with the knotty problem still occupying his thoughts, but not for long. Thoughts of Sartrina soon took over his mind, and a smile crept over his face as he slept…
* * *
Restful sleep was not something that was occupying the minds of the senior faculty at Mhonarr Castle! Professor Pectus had immediately gone to the crypt as described by the two frightened first year girls, but had found it empty. If it hadn’t been for the lingering feeling of evil in the place, and a vaguely sulphurous smell, he might have downplayed the whole event, but something had definitely happened there, that was certain. So, he went straight to the headmaster and relayed the tale from his two first year girls. Orion Trell’s response surprised him.
“Vincent, you must not let young Malchus know that we’ve been tipped off about what happened today, under any circumstances. We’d be putting too many lives in danger. If he’s anything like the rest of his family, he won’t hesitate to do whatever it takes to protect himself, and I don’t suddenly want a spate of apparent student suicides in the school.”
“We can’t just let him continue though, Orion! We have to stop him, and we need to undo what he’s done! If we can prove it, then we can exclude him from the school as well! The sooner he’s out of my house the better!”
“Calm yourself Vincent. There’s a lot more at stake here than freeing a few students from enslavement curses, if that is indeed what they really are. I have to say that I don’t really agree with your interpretation of what the girls heard though. Who shares the dorm with young Malchus?”
“Tom Drake, Andor Tharsen, Jamie Styles and Victor Greatheart, and yes, they’re all worried about being in the same dorm as him already!”
“They’re all from long established wizarding families, with a history of leaning towards the light. Not surprising really for Leos, but there are always exceptions…” mused the headmaster.
“I assume you have lots of protection charms in their dorm, Vincent? We should put tracking charms on them all too that will reveal if they have any clandestine meetings with young Malchus, then we’ll know if something goes wrong. If I understand him though, and I don’t pretend to be an expert psychologist, he will prey on the vulnerable in the school rather than the strong.”
* * *
The headmaster summoned all the heads of house after dinner that evening and warned them that Shaul appeared to be recruiting followers, and was possibly using magic to ‘persuade’ them to join him, although that had to be verified. He asked them to be vigilant regarding their own students’ behaviour, keeping a close eye out for students developing a sudden affinity to Shaul. After the meeting ended, he asked the heads of Draco, Aquila and Taurus houses to stay behind, and then invited Professor
Pectus to repeat the story of what had occurred in the dungeon that afternoon. When the duelling master finished, the headmaster’s tone was sombre.
“We have three boys so far who appear to have fallen into the clutches of young Malchus, and the manner of their falling seems to be most disturbing. That’s three within the first five weeks of term. It took his brother Sargas much longer to gather his followers, and there can be little doubt therefore that young Shaul is at best bewitching them, and at worst, well… doing something else to them.”
“Please do not share any of these details with anyone else. It’s very important that young Malchus does not realise that we’ve been tipped off. I may have to remove the three victims from school for their own safety, and will be making that decision before morning. Vincent will keep a very close eye on Shaul, ensuring that he doesn’t work himself into a situation where he can prey on others. I will be investigating what’s happened intensively from now onwards until the truth comes to light, and we can set things right.”
A few minutes later the shaken heads-of-house found themselves, one-by-one, back in the corridor outside the headmaster’s study. Each slowly made their way back to their own studies, deliberating on their next steps.
21. That Sinking Sensation
Zak, Tallion, and Steven were already sharing the secret about the magic in Netherdale, which itself drew them closer together as shared secrets always do. Now that Steven had his own wand though, the friendship between the three boys intensified quickly. They worked hard to make sure that Sam wasn’t shut out though, going out of their way to include their non-magical friend as much as they could at school, and during weekday evenings. Life was getting very full for all of them, with Zak and Steven feeling it the most.
Zak was determined to keep up with his football, and his daily training got him out of bed at six thirty every morning to go for a run before breakfast and school. Tallion would often join him, and the two boys developed several circuits round the dale following the public footpaths and farm tracks.