The Serpent in the Glass (The Tale of Thomas Farrell)

by D. M. Andrews

  ‘Sorry, so what’s that again?’ Treice asked, indicating toward the Glass.

  Thomas replied, but didn’t take his eyes off the Glass. ‘It was my father’s. We’re not exactly sure what it is, Treice.’

  ‘Look!’ Penders said, pointing at the stones.

  The stones also glowed now, as if the moonlight reflecting upon their glittering surface had suddenly doubled its strength. More than that, the stones were making a noise.

  Jessica drew back. ‘Why are they humming?’

  ‘Perhaps they don’t know the words?’ Penders offered. No one laughed.

  Thomas moved closer to the stones and the humming seemed to increase in intensity. It wasn’t loud, in fact it was quite soothing, a bit like the effect of the sound of a babbling brook on a hot summer’s day in a peaceful meadow.

  ‘Be careful, Thomas,’ Merideah warned.

  But Thomas wasn’t concerned. Indeed, he felt very comfortable indeed. He touched the stones. Jessica was right: they weren’t hot or cold. But they weren’t warm. That wasn’t the right word. Living, yes that was the word. They felt alive. Intrigued, he moved around the pillar, and so through the hole the stones formed. A flash of golden light briefly surrounded him and he found himself standing inside a cavern made of the same glittering stones, except here their silver shimmer shone a lot brighter; their glow lit the whole chamber of the cavern. But where had the cavern come from? It was the size of a large room, so it couldn’t have just appeared. The glowing cavern seemed familiar to Thomas, as if it knew him, and he it. If ‘it’ was the right word, for it felt like a living being to Thomas. It seemed aware of him, or perhaps aware of the Glass. He looked at the orb in his hand. It glowed with the same light as the cavern now, its misty swirls seemingly responding to the glow of the rocks surrounding him. The cavern wall triggered something in his memories, but it remained just outside his reach, like a word on the tip of his tongue.

  He became aware of another entrance at the far side of the cave. Through it Thomas could see a moonlit scene of tall, thin trees. How could that be? It didn’t look at all like the wooded area that surrounded the Manor. These trees had silver barks, unlike those around the school. He looked behind and saw a similar entrance. This one, however, provided a view of the tower where stood a very confused-looking Penders, Treice, Jessica and Merideah.

  Thomas waved, but they didn’t seem to see him. Then Jessica came forward, concern on her face but mingled with determination. She approached the entrance to the cavern, but then disappeared.

  Concerned now for her, Thomas stepped back through and the same golden light briefly enveloped him again as he saw the others flinch.

  Jessica came up from behind, but Penders moved forward and spoke first. ‘Thomas! What happened? Where’d you go?’

  ‘It leads to a cavern, and there’s some sort of exit on the other side,’ Thomas explained, as the rest came forward.

  Jessica looked from the entrance back to Thomas. ‘Why’d nothing happen when I walked through?’

  Thomas shrugged.

  Merideah scanned the stones with her amber eyes. ‘Let’s try it together.’

  The golden light flashed again as Thomas stepped back through the stones, this time with the others.

  ‘Craters!’ said Penders, again.

  ‘Cool!’ said Treice.

  ‘It’s amazing!’ said Jessica, as she stared around the glowing cavern in wonder.

  Merideah said nothing.

  ‘That,’ Thomas began as he pointed toward the far side of the cavern, ‘seems to lead somewhere else.’

  Jessica moved toward the night scene.

  ‘Wait!’ shouted Merideah, as Jessica neared the other entrance. ‘We don’t know —’

  Merideah’s words were interrupted by Jessica stopping short of the entrance and giving a short squeal as she stumbled backwards almost losing her footing.

  ‘What is it?’ Thomas asked.

  ‘A sort of — well, like a sort of very strong wind you can’t walk against, except without the windiness, noise and cold,’ Jessica explained badly. She now seemed even more intrigued than before. Merideah shook her head as if trying to dismiss the whole affair as impossible. But no words came out of her mouth to reinforce the denial.

  Thomas walked over and stretched out his hand past Jessica, into the second entrance. He felt no resistance at all.

  Merideah, a frown now upon her features and fully recovered from her momentary stupor, moved up beside Thomas and extended her own arm and found that the invisible wall had gone. ‘Thomas, move back.’

  Thomas did as he was told and Merideah immediately had her own arm pushed back toward her. ‘Interesting.’

  ‘What is it?’ Thomas asked.

  ‘I think,’ began Merideah, ‘your Glass allows us to pass through. It must be why Jessica couldn’t enter the cavern in the first place.’

  ‘Come on,’ Penders said. ‘Let’s go through and see what’s on the other side.’

  They all passed through accompanied by a golden flash of light.

  ‘How beautiful!’ Jessica stood with Thomas, Penders, Merideah and Treice on a grassy patch of ground atop a small hill.

  Thomas’s senses seemed to sharpen. He could smell lush grass and see the silver barks of slender trees stretching out in every direction around them. The moon rode high and bright, and a near-cloudless sky held a multitude of shimmering stars. The enormous dark shape of what Thomas supposed to be mountains loomed up on either side of them. They must have stood in a deep and very narrow valley. The stillness of the night was deafening.

  ‘Look!’ Penders looked back, and Thomas and the others turned with him.

  The cave had vanished and, instead, a stone structure just like the one in the tower stared back at them. Perhaps it was the same one somehow in two different places. It was flanked by two identical structures, except they faced away from it. And, like a mirror image, yet another stone gateway sat on the far side of the hill.

  ‘What is this place?’ said Penders, but he didn’t expect anyone to know the answer.

  ‘Fascinating.’ Jessica touched the stones as if to make sure they were real. Penders and Treice did the same, though more cautiously.

  The Glass still glowed, but the moon provided them with enough light to see.

  Merideah stared up at the stones. ‘I wonder what those symbols mean?’

  Thomas looked up. Along the upper half of each of the upright stones, and along the whole length of the flat stone resting upon the latter two, a series of letters had been inscribed. Maybe this wasn’t the same stone they’d come through. He’d seen no such writing on the one in the tower. Although Thomas couldn’t understand their meaning, the symbols and their meaning did seem familiar.

  ‘They’re very old,’ Thomas said.

  Merideah shook her head. ‘They aren’t weathered. I’d guess they were quite new.’

  ‘The symbols don’t fade with time, those who put them there intended them to last forever,’ Thomas said. Merideah turned and looked at Thomas, her eyes narrowed.

  ‘How can you know that?’ Penders asked.

  They were all staring at him now.

  ‘Are you all right, Thomas?’ Jessica asked, concern in her voice.

  They were right, how could he know? But know it he did, somehow.

  ‘Yes, I’m fine. We should explore,’ Thomas said.

  ‘We must be somewhere near the Manor,’ Merideah said after a while. She didn’t sound too convinced though.

  Treice stared out into the sparse forest about them. ‘These trees don’t look like the ones around the school.’

  ‘They aren’t. These are aspens and silver birches. The trees around the Manor are oaks and beeches largely.’ Merideah glanced at the trees, but her interest still dwelt upon the inscriptions. She walked over to take a look at the other stones.

  ‘Be careful,’ Penders said. ‘You don’t know where you’ll land up if you walk through one of those.’


  ‘I’m always careful,’ she replied. ‘And I don’t think I’ll go anywhere without the Glass anyway.’

  Eventually the children began to drift down the hill to explore the area. Thomas hung back, still in wonder at the new sharpness to his senses. It was as if his ears had had water in them all his life, and now they’d suddenly been cleared. He’d always had good eyesight of course, but even that seemed sharper. Perhaps it was just a trick of the night. He noticed that Treice had turned his powerful torch back on and the group was moving away from him. Thomas moved to catch up.

  ‘Where’d you suppose we are?’ Penders asked as Thomas fell in beside him.

  ‘I don’t know,’ said Thomas. ‘I think we need to find some kind of landmark.’

  ‘Like that you mean?’ Merideah said from about ten paces in front of the boys. She’d stopped and shone her torch at something up ahead.

  Penders stopped in his tracks. ‘Whoa! That mountain’s made of huge stone bricks!’

  Jessica scanned the structure. ‘It’s not a mountain, it’s a wall!’

  Before them arose a stone wall made of the biggest blocks of stone Thomas had ever seen. He couldn’t imagine how heavy they were, or how they had been placed one upon another.

  ‘It must’ve been built by giants,’ Penders said, not content with his first announcement.

  ‘Treice,’ Merideah said, as she tried and failed to see up the wall with her own small torch. ‘Shine that fog light of yours up the wall.’

  Treice moved forward and swung the beam of his powerful torch up the stonework, but the strength of it failed before it reached the top — if it had a top.

  ‘Look there,’ Jessica said, pointing. Treice moved the beam back to a section of wall to which Jessica had pointed.

  ‘It’s a snake,’ Treice said.

  Thomas froze. A snake? He looked up and sighed. It was just a carving. ‘No, it’s a serpent.’ He held up the Glass. It was glowing only faintly now. The serpent shape on the wall bore a strikingly similar pose to that of the serpent in the Glass.

  ‘What’s that?’ Merideah spun around and looked into the trees to their left, the narrow beam of her torch strobing the silver barks.

  ‘What?’ Jessica asked, somewhat nervously.

  ‘I thought I saw something move,’ Merideah said.

  Thomas was the first to hear it, a sort of metallic noise as if someone was carrying a lot of pots and pans.

  ‘There!’ Penders said, pointing into the darkness.

  Merideah and Treice immediately swung their torches back toward the place Penders indicated. Not twenty yards from where they stood, a figure had appeared. A figure dressed entirely in bronze armour. Thomas couldn’t make out a face behind the metal visor, but upon its head sat a flat helm, and in a gauntleted hand a long spear that now pointed directly at them.

  ‘Run!’ said Merideah. ‘Back to the hill!’

  They ran, but as they neared the hill they found two more armoured figures blocking their way. They looked identical to the one following them. Seeing this, Merideah tried to lead them another way to circle around the slow-moving figures, but before they could do so, more of the armoured figures appeared and soon had them entirely encircled. Their pursuers moved in to form a circle around them, each an exact replica of the other. They lowered their spears and pointed them at the five children.

  Thomas stared at them as he and his friends huddled back to back. As Merideah’s and Treice’s torches darted about the circle, Thomas saw that each figure had the same red-lettered Roman numeral crafted into the front of its flat helm: the numeral VII. It was a strange thing to notice at such a time, but Thomas hoped it wasn’t the last thing he ever noticed. Treice’s torch lingered on the head of one of the figures. Thomas swallowed hard. There were no eyes. There was nobody in the suit of armour! Or, if there was, they were headless!

  ‘This isn’t looking good,’ Penders whimpered.

  ‘Disengage!’ came a stern and yet familiar voice from the top of the hill.

  The spears surrounding the children were lifted in one synchronized move, their blunt ends hitting the ground as one as the suits of armour froze to attention. All clinking and clanking ceased. The children looked up and saw Mr Gallowglas descending the hill. Thomas’s heart sunk, but he still had the presence of mind to conceal the Glass.

  ‘Stay back!’ Merideah shouted at Gallowglas.

  ‘And just what do you propose to do, Miss Darwood?’ Gallowglas lifted his hand and the armoured figures parted to let him through.

  Penders balled his hands. ‘Are you going to get rid of us the same way you did with Mr Goodfellow?’

  ‘Goodfellow was a snoop. He suspected too much, so we got rid of him,’ Gallowglas announced quite casually.

  Jessica gasped. ‘You and McGritch murdered the science teacher?’

  ‘No one said anything about murder, Miss Westhrop,’ came another familiar voice from behind Gallowglas.

  Mr Trevelyan appeared and, with him, Stanwell Clear. The latter held a lantern on a pole in one hand, briefly reminding Thomas of a carol singer. But Thomas didn’t think the three of them would be singing any carols. Was the Headmaster part of this too? Thomas couldn’t believe it. Thomas had looked to him as someone he might go to when all else failed, someone who would keep him safe from Mr Gallowglas. Now all that sense of security came crashing down. Thomas moved closer to Jessica. They, at least, had always been there for each other. Perhaps they’d been foolish to trust anyone else. Whatever happened, Thomas wasn’t going to let anyone hurt Jessica.

  Trevelyan blinked. ‘Miss Darwood, would you kindly stop shining that torch in my eyes. Mr Clear’s lantern is quite adequate I think.’

  ‘Sorry, Headmaster,’ Merideah said weakly, and pointed the beam back toward the suits of armour who didn’t have any eyes.

  Trevelyan and Stanwell walked through the opening in the fence of spears and flanked Gallowglas. ‘Well, Mr Gallowglas, we seem to have captured our quarry.’

  Gallowglas looked at the five of them grimly. Thomas couldn’t tell what he was thinking though. He always looked at everyone grimly.

  ‘We know about the missing students too,’ Penders said suddenly. ‘I suppose you’re going to just bump us off as well!’

  Thomas felt terrible. He’d started all this. If it wasn’t for him, none of them would be here now. ‘Please sir, it was my fault. I wanted to know what was inside the tower and —’

  ‘Yes,’ Trevelyan interrupted Thomas, ‘I guessed as much, though I’m sure Jessica and Merideah played their part too, eh?’ A smile played upon the Headmaster’s lips, then, to Thomas’s surprise, Mr Trevelyan winked at him.

  On hearing her name Merideah turned the torch toward Trevelyan, but immediately swung it away again when the Headmaster threw her a deep frown. He looked at each of them in turn before he spoke.

  ‘It’s never happened before.’

  ‘What’s never happened before?’ Merideah asked, keeping the torch firmly on the armoured figures.

  ‘First-year students in the Grange,’ Trevelyan replied.

  ‘The Grange?’ Jessica said.

  ‘Yes, you are in Darkledun Grange,’ the Headmaster explained. ‘But that is besides the point. Now, Mr Penderghast, it was I, not Mr Gallowglas, who ‘got rid of’ Mr Goodfellow. His services were no longer required. I believe he already has an offer of a job at another school in England, which is probably best for all concerned. And, you will be glad to know, we’ve not done away with any students either. ‘Blige me, after years of trying to teach them something, we’re not going to then ‘bump them off’, as you so eloquently put it. What a colossal waste of time and effort! I’m sure you’d agree?’

  Trevelyan paused and cast his eyes over the five children before him. ‘Now, Mr Gallowglas, what shall we do with our guests?’

  Gallowglas grunted. ‘Have them swear to tell no one of this place and to never return, or else.’

  Thomas gulped, and thought he heard Pend
ers do the same.

  Trevelyan brushed at his tie. Thomas couldn’t quite tell the colour in the light of the lantern, but it looked as if it might be bright yellow. ‘Or else what? We can hardly lock them up. I think their parents might notice if they didn’t return for Christmas.’

  Gallowglas didn’t respond.

  ‘I says we do give ‘em a very long detention with Miss Havelock. That oughta do it,’ Stanwell chimed in, but he smiled and cocked his head toward the children afterward.

  Gallowglas sighed.

  Trevelyan looked up at the star-filled sky for a moment before answering. ‘No, there’ll be no detentions. I think we shall go with an ‘or else’. We shall, I think, give them a tour of Darkledun Grange, and answer their questions, ‘or else’ I’m sure their curiosity will never be satisfied, and we shall have to mount a constant vigil on the tower.’

  ‘I would exercise more caution.’ Gallowglas eyed the children suspiciously. ‘They’re too young.’

  Trevelyan shook his head. ‘Sometimes caution makes one go backward when one needs to go forward.’

  Gallowglas folded his arms, his face unreadable.

  ‘Mr Clear,’ Trevelyan began, ‘have the carriage ready for Saturday morning will you?’

  Stanwell grinned. ‘I will do, sir! Oh, yes most certainly I will do!’

  Trevelyan approached the children and extended his hand toward Jessica. ‘I think we’d better get those keys back to Miss McGritch so she can finish locking up, Miss Westhrop.’

  Jessica handed over Miss McGritch’s keys. ‘We were just borrowing them.’ She smiled weakly.

  ‘Of course, of course,’ Mr Trevelyan said, as he took the keys and passed them to Gallowglas.

  With one final stare at the children, Gallowglas turned around and headed for the hill. He didn’t seem very pleased. Thomas watched as he disappeared though the stones, though he saw no flash of light.

  ‘Return to your posts!’ Trevelyan shouted, and the suits of armour started to shuffle off. Thomas watched them walk stiffly away into the trees until they were lost in the gloom.