“You’re not going anywhere, just stay here until I can think of a plan!” He marched out of the clock tower slamming the roof hatch.
I sat, on the hard floor feeling useless. Robin was at his wits end with me. I felt like I was treading on eggshells around him, if I said the wrong thing he would just snap at me. After half an hour, Robin hadn’t returned. I started to worry—what if they had cornered him demanding to know where I was? What if they had attacked him to get information out of him? But then, my worry subsided as the roof hatch squeaked.
“Your back at last! You took ages,” I said. But when I turned I nearly screamed with fright. It wasn’t Robin at all. Through the darkness loomed Tina.
“So this is where you’re hiding,” she said, opening the hatch fully and coming inside. “I should have known.”
Tina smiled, but it wasn't the beautiful white smile I knew. It was… different. With a knowing knot in my stomach at her presence I noticed that she had the same glint in her eye that the others downstairs had. She came and sat in front of me, cross legged.
“Jasper wouldn't want me to come here, but I did anyway.”
“Oh,” was all I could manage. She was wearing her polka-dot pyjama’s and a long red dressing gown.
“Avis, I am so, so sorry that I haven't been able to talk to you!” she cried, exploding with words. “Just so, so sorry! It was Jasper, he told me that I had to choose and that it would just make it all awkward if I continued to talk to you as well. I am just so sorry. So sorry that I never realised how… dishy you were.” Her tone changed in an instant — now slow and seductive — dark eyes blinking softly, face leaning in close to mine, her lips pursed. But for one awful heart bursting moment, I remembered why she was doing this. It wasn't me, it was the jumper. I lent back, avoiding her kiss. She looked annoyed.
“But Avis, I know everything is messed up and horrible, but you do still like me don’t you? I know you do.” She lent forwards again.
I scrambled backwards, along the floor. She followed. I backed away, wishing Robin could come back soon. “I just can’t help myself… it’s not my fault we were warned away from talking to you.”
I stopped. “What do you mean warned away from talking to me?” I said.
“Me and Erns and Dad, we were warned not to talk to you anymore, otherwise bad things would happen. But, never mind that we’re talking now aren’t we?” she smiled seductively again as I backed straight into the bell. There was no room left to back into. She approached slowly.
I swallowed. “Who was it who warned you away?”
“I don’t know, does it matter?” she was closing in, the evil glint in her eye gaining on me. Her lips moved in again.
“I see…” came a long slow, poisonous sounding voice from the other side of the room. “You lure her here to steal her away from me?” It was Jasper. Standing with a face like thunder. I had never seen him so angry. My heart jumped into my throat.
“It’s not like that…” I said scrambling away. “Seriously, look can both of you go away.”
“You don’t mean that!” Tina cried lunging at me.
Jasper jumped forwards and grabbed Tina, holding her tight and inspecting her. “What magic have you put on her? What have you done to make her like this?”
“I haven't done any magic!” I said, strictly this was true.
“Rubbish! This is dark magic,” he called inspecting Tina’s glazed, maddened expression.
“No,” I said, but in a flash, Jasper raised his hands behind his head and threw them at me. Red and blue fire spiralled in the air and catching me square in the jaw. I felt myself sailing backwards as bursts of hot and cold lit my skin on fire. “AHH!” I cried as vicious pain cycled through my body. Green wind shot towards me faster than lightning. “Dancidious,” I said limply through crippling waves of pain — the black paw swiped Jasper’s spell out the air, which spun into the bell — CLANG!
Jasper marched fast towards me. “TELL ME WHAT YOU HAVE DONE!” Hands raised high behind him, streams of red sparks began shooting at every available space of my body.
I jumped to my feet waving my arms in a circle. “Dancidious!” I screamed again, repelling most of the fiery balls. Before screeching with pain as one of them burned my ear with a fizzing sound. “Pasanthedine!” the wind shot from my hand, but Jasper cast it aside. “Sevhurton!” I called as ice flashed underneath Jasper who slipped, but in a second he reduced the ice to water and steadied himself. I couldn't think of what to do next, but I had to end this.
“STOP THIS! STOP IT!” Tina screamed jumping between us — with a flick of his hand Jasper made Tina slide back along the floor.
“Stay back from him!” He cried, raising his hands back at me, high into the air, a manic expression on his face. I jumped into the air and double tapped the shoes, gold light lit the room and with ten tons of force, charged at him. Hitting him hard in the chest, I knocked him to the floor, pinning his arms back using all of the force I could muster. He kicked hard, pummelling from all sides. But I stood firm. As Jasper struggled, I felt my grip loosen. In a flash he flipped me over.
“Tell me what you did to her!” he spat viscously, his face red and livid. “How did you charge me so fast? What dark magic are you using? Did your parents teach you it?”
“Get off me!” I called — as Jasper leaned over me, his pendant came loose. I stopped struggling for a second — for it was exactly the same as mine.
WHOOSH! — A sudden flash of blue and orange smoke made Jasper fly backwards into the air, hitting the bell which bonged loudly. I stood quickly. Robin was back, hands outstretched towards Jasper.
“What are you both doing here?” Robin called, observing Tina who was standing rather dazed in the corner.
Jasper peeled himself from the bell. “I came for Tina, she’s been… spellbound by him!” he shouted.
“We’re trying to fix it,” said Robin.
I stood panting and brushed the dirt off the jumper, the hole had got bigger after the tussle which would only make things worse. “Aha!” said Jasper slowly coming towards me finger outstretched at the jumper. “Now I get it. This all started when you got that jumper? You did something to get it, but what?” he said, more to himself. “You found something that had a spirit inside didn't you? And you released it. Yes, that’s it, it must have given you a wish and you wished for Tina!”
“Not quite,” I muttered.
Jasper huffed. “Not quite? So you did wish for Tina!”
“No, he didn't!” Robin cried. “How did you know he’d received a wish?”
Jasper grimaced. “Process of elimination, and certain things I’d spotted this year. The fact that you were sneaking around the school all year. The fact that you could hardly hide your excitement when Magisteer Yearlove told us about Djinn and incarcerated spirits. So you wished for Tina, to try and prize her away from me! You were jealous!”
“For the last time, I did not wish for Tina… anyway you can’t wish for love.” I lied. “I wished for… popularity.”
“Oh-ho-ho,” Jasper cried as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing. “That is a good one.” Then he turned back to face me. “You expect me to believe that? Blackthorns don't care about popularity, they care about power, greed and possession!” he gesticulated towards Tina. “Everyday I have to live with the fact that my father… my father…” tears split Jasper’s eyes but he didn't rub them, keeping his fists tensed. “He was a great man. And they… he… Malakai and his band of followers, including your parents… killed him!”
Robin sighed. “Look, Avis is a lot of things but I know full well, that he is nothing like his parents, or family. He is a victim of them as much you are.”
Jasper wiped his eye and nodded, smiling viciously. “I am going to tell the Lily everything. Raising a spirit in the school… You will get exspelled for that,” he said eyes lighting up.
“Please don’t…” I said, but it was no good — there was nothing I could do or say to sto
p him. He took the dazed Tina by the arm and left, smiling as he slammed the roof hatch.
CHAPTER TWELVE
To Vanquish a Djinn
I was in trouble. Jasper was about to tell the Lily everything. I wrenched at the jumper attempting in vein to remove it, but the harder I pulled, the tightly it clinged to me — until, after a few large yanks I was suddenly gasping for air, the wool strands contracting. Robin stood, looking melancholy at the now dirty pile of sandwiches that were laying strewn across the floor.
“I need to burn it!” I said.
“You can’t burn it off, you’ll set yourself on fire!”
I stopped and glowered at him. “No! I need to get it off and then burn it. If the Lily finds out the truth I’m done for!”
I pulled and pulled and pulled, but to no avail. I had to find out a way to get it off.
Yearlove’s voice began to echo round my head as we shot to the Library in a blaze of golden light: “The spirits inside are immensely dangerous, and if they can cause you damage for any reason they will. Often the wish you request will come back to bite you.”
Why didn't I listen?
The book about Djinn that I’d stolen from the Library was still in my bag. I reached inside quickly and pulled it out. It was a black leather bound book with red scratchy writing on the side. ‘The History and Process of Incarnate & Discarnate Beings and their Uses: A Practical Guide’ read the spine.
Robin didn't know what to say, he had run out of expletives. But I was panicking — I had to do something to save my place at Hailing Hall.
I flicked through the index and ran my finger down the subjects desperately hoping that how to undo a Djinn’s magic or something would be in there. Robin was sitting quietly, wrapped in a blanket, staring at the moon. The page before the evocation instructions had the chapter headline: BEWARE. I read on:
Before you think about raising a Djinn, you must think how much you value your life. As we’ve discussed in this book so far, the Djinn are an incredibly cunning, clever, and malevolent race. They will do anything to ensure their freedom. Many times, the lure of a wish is too much and one jumps in to get it. However, the Djinn are clever, they give you exactly what you wish for. But this can leave a lot of room for interpretation. Wishes always have a bite in the tail.
I sat back feeling glum. Why hadn't I read this sooner? “Hate to say I told you so…” said Robin still looking out of the window. I felt stupid. Very, very stupid.
All of a sudden, blue light lit up the clock tower, as a glowing ghostly face rose up through the floor. “The Lily would like to see you, in his office. Immediately.” Then, the ghost vanished with a pop. Robin turned and looked at me gravely. I felt a stone drop in the pit of my stomach.
Slowly as I could, I made my way down to the Lily’s office. Robin walked silently by my side, he knew I was about to be exspelled. I walked as slow as I could, taking it all in for what could be the last time. This school, my home — I had blown it.
The corridors were completely empty, thank goodness. My heart was beating at a frantic rate, my skin felt clammy and mouth dry as chalk. I didn't want to go home! He couldn't make me could he? The long corridor lay out in front of me, the Lily’s office with its huge white double doors stretched up as high as the ceiling.
“This is it then,” said Robin robotically. “Good luck.” I nodded once, unable to speak. For my fate was waiting inside that room. But as I began to walk, I felt something tingling in my arms. Then my chest. Then… my neck. I stopped walking, as I tried to work out what was happening. It was the jumper, it was tightening! The strands were contracting like a snake, squeezing me tighter and tighter. I bent forwards with the pain, all the air being squashed from my lungs.
Robin stopped dead staring at me. “What’s happening?!” he cried. “AVIS!”
All I could manage was gasping breaths as the jumper began strangling me with its thick woollen hands! I grabbed fistfuls of wool and pulled. But it was too strong — grip harder than steel. “HELP! HEEEELLLPPP!” Robin cried.
Running footsteps echoed up the corridor, then voices and blurred faces. “Oh no!” cried the voices.
Robin cried. “Please, you’ve got to help him, I don’t know what to do!”
“We must help Avis Blackthorn!” they said.
“I want to save him!” said another arriving on the scene.
“No!” cried the sixth years. “We are saving him, now go away.”
I couldn't hear the rest, my consciousness was fading. They were arguing about who would be the one to save me, as I lay struggling for breath. I started to see stars, and hazy colours. The energy was fading out of me as all noise and light began to dissipate.
A flash illuminated the hallway. I felt the strangling hands fall away. I could breath again — great lungfuls of air swept into my body. I could see again… the tall, white outline of the Lily stared down at me.
I sat on a stool in the Lily’s office, dazed and emotionless. Clutching my neck and sides as he walked around me in long smooth circles, waving his arms like a conductor. The hole in the shoulder knitted back together, grey flashes sparkled around it.
“Take it off,” said the Lily. I felt weak, but stretched my arms out, pulling it up and off. At last. The Lily stared at it in the middle of the floor. White light burst from the seams. Exploding in a fierce fire, the jumper burned to ash. And, was gone.
The Lily sat back at his desk and turned away from me, staring out of the long, tall window that survey the entirety of the Hailing Hall — the grounds, the floating island, the hills and caverns in the distance. He turned back and indicated for me to stand before his desk. This was it, the part where he told me I was out of here and to get my stuff and leave.
“I am not just angry that you knowingly helped a known Djinn find freedom. I am not just angry that you broke into Magisteer Simone’s private living quarters. I am not just angry that you searched the Library at night, after you were caught by myself, to look for restricted material. But I am also disappointed because I thought you were different. I am disappointed that you demonstrated selfish, self indulgent and arrogant behaviours. I thought you were different from your family? You stood in here last year and told me that you were nothing like them, you were proud of that. And yet, I find myself having the exact conversation with you that I did with all of your other siblings…”
I felt awful, tears welled up in my eyes and a lump in my throat. I felt ashamed.
“Not just that, but I personally locked away the Djinn you released. In fact it took a team of us, and many months to track and defeat him. In the hope that he should never get to inflict his persons on anyone else in the magical society ever again. And now that work has been reset. Believe me, I can understand why you did it,” he said softly, his eyes pouring into me. “Don’t we all wish to be liked?” then he shook his head. “But that is not the way to achieve it.” He nodded towards the small pile of ash which sparked with multicoloured lights. “I would have thought after last year that you would have learned from your mistakes. And strived to do better, proving that you are… a good Wizard?”
He had publicly backed me in front of the entire Chamber last year and said that I was a good Wizard. And now, I felt nothing but shame.
“But what are we to do now?” he said. “That is the question.” I looked up at him, waiting for the inevitable. The Lily stared up at the white pitched roof, then smiled. “You are the one who released the Djinn, therefore you shall be the one to vanquish it.” I swallowed, hoping he was joking. How on earth could I vanquish a Djinn? “Surely you know that the one who released a Djinn is the only one who can vanquish it?” he said, I shook my head slowly. “Djinn will do anything to maintain their freedom. The only way it can guarantee its freedom is… if you die.”
“If I die?” I said, and then something popped into my head. All the accidents—the attempts to kill me. They must have been the Djinn!
“The only way it can guarantee its freedom o
n this plane, is if the person who released it… dies. It’s not a nice fact, but it’s the truth. And you deserve the truth.” The Lily stood sharply and wrapped his knuckles on the table. “Don’t mistake this for being let off the hook. I am angry with you. But you can redeem yourself… by vanquishing the Djinn back to the holder it came in. I know for a fact that the Djinn must still be in the school somewhere — it would be too weak in it’s released form to travel more than a few hundred feet. It will have stayed here, hidden somewhere to conserve its energy. If you can’t do this, then I will have to seriously consider your place in the school. You have until the end of the year,” said the Lily finally.
“But, how? I mean, what do I do?” I said.
“You won’t go alone, an experienced Magisteer will go with you,” the Lily marched towards the big white doors. “Oh and Avis… don’t tell anyone about the Djinn or your mission — we will all be in trouble if certain people find out that a Djinn has been let free in school grounds.”
***
I woke late and alone in the dorm room. Sunlight streamed in through tall windows showing up the dust in the room. I sighed. I should have been grateful, I was close to never seeing this place ever again.
Walking down to breakfast, I felt naked without the jumper. My stomach rumbling, I slipped into the Chamber as quietly as I could. Instantly, all eyes turned towards me, and then a low booing sound started to echo from all around. They were booing me! I saw the faces that had come up to me when I had the jumper on before, excitedly asking me to be their friend. Now, those same faces were stormy. They certainly did not want to be my friend now— now that they realised their love for me was… synthetic.
Jasper was sat with a pleased expression and David Starlight was glaring at me with little more than murderous contempt. I suppose this is what I deserved.
I scuttled, head down, to my table. Glaring embarrassment choking harder than the jumper had. As I sat down, the people on my table didn't look up. Not even Robin, who was staring into his porridge glumly — I saw why, Felicity, the girl Robin had a crush on, was glaring in his direction. I felt responsible.
Avis Blackthorn and the Magical Multicolour Jumper (The Wizard Magic School Series, Book 2) Page 23