“Someone’s been here recently,” I said. I mooched around the room quietly. It looked like someone was using this room to work, the books that lay around were some that I’d never seen nor heard of, some were foreign and some were so old they looked like they would fall apart if touched.
I sat down in the chair, ahhh, that felt nice. My legs eased their appreciation, my back smiled, everything in my body thanked me. Robin tutted at me for sitting down as he scanned around the room for signs of Djinn.
As I sat there, I saw the spine of a book at the bottom of a large pile — ‘The Seventh Sons’ read the title. Curious, I pulled it out. It was a small, thin and bendy. I opened and had a look inside.
Seventh Son — myth or real?
A seventh son is a term used to describe the seventh male born to two parents — in myth, this is a good omen for the parents, for a seventh son is blessed with immeasurable power. Several stories have led to the idea that seventh sons are so powerful they are dangerous to the magical kind.
From my own findings, seventh sons are more compassionate, open minded and curious, even when their hereditary nature is not to be so, or their environment disruptive. This is interesting, the fact that because they are a seventh son, this influences their personality — changing their hereditary traits.
When the myth was prevalent in the 1500’s, many families tried to have as many sons as they could until they reached the seventh. Alas, it seems many attempts were thwarted by nature. Many parents couldn't cope to feed so many children, or fend off diseases, many died. And many grew frustrated when females were produced. The famous incident of Margret and Humphrey Grubriller, who in 1629, attempted magics to influence the sex of their unborn baby — while it worked, they were sentenced to a lifetime imprisonment for Magical Acts Against Nature.
There are many conditions that have to be met to make a seventh son. Some known, some not known. The magic of a seventh son is still firmly in the hands of nature.
I looked up from the book, wondering if it would fit in my pocket for I was just about to read a chapter about the ‘powers of a seventh son’, before looking up to see what Robin was doing.
“What are you doing?” I said.
“What does it look like?” he strained, winding up what looked like a silver thimble. “Laying some booby-traps. These should tell us if anyone comes in here, and what they are — human or Djinn,” he winked. “Got them from the back of the Herrald. Pretty cool huh? If it finds something, like a Djinn… it will alert me.”
“How?”
“I don’t know, it didn’t say… It was only two gold coins.” Robin finished winding the little objects up and placed them in cracks around the room. I stood, my body screaming out for my bed. Light was just starting to come in through the window above.
“It must be past five!” I said. Robin gave me a grimace and we set off extra fast for our beds, the tunnel sealing shut behind us.
I felt buoyed, we had found something… whether it belonged to the Djinn or not, it was a start I supposed.
Half way along the corridor, Robin stopped me with a long arm — up ahead was the spiral staircase. And now, I could hear small padded footsteps coming up them. “It’s the dark thing again, in fact…” Robin gasped, passing me the spectacles.
Putting them on, I scrambled to look — up ahead I could see through the stone to the thing climbing slowly upwards. Dark light surrounded the body, an aura of black, spitting off dark sparks of energy. The figure was tall, cloaked, horned and masked. My heart started to race, my legs turning to jelly. He was coming up the stairs towards us — Malakai was back!
Robin snatched the glasses back and tried to pull me into a shadowy alcove. All I could do was stand, frozen to the spot. The dark figure emerged from the spiral staircase, but… it wasn’t Malakai at all… it was someone else, someone very familiar. It was Jasper.
He looked up, saw us and stared with cold uncaring eyes. It was as if he was sleep walking, barely registering our existence. Blinking rapidly, he began to shake, then came back to himself.
“What are you both doing up here?” he spat, glancing around at his surroundings.
“Nothing to do with you, why are you here?” I called.
Jasper looked around, settled himself, then said. “I like… early mornings.” He was lying, I just knew it. For it all made sense now in my brain — he wasn't Jasper Gandy… he was Malakai!
“I knew it!” I said. “I knew there was something odd about you.” The black energy that had surrounded him before was gone now I didn’t have the spectacles — but I knew what I had seen — a full outline of Malakai surrounded him.
“Excuse me?” said Jasper affronted.
I pointed, my heart racing, in equal measures terrified and angry. “You’re him aren’t you? Out for revenge, out to get me?!”
Robin shuffled next to me. “Avis,” he whispered. “I don’t think that’s—”
“Shh…” I said turning back to Jasper. “Now I know and I’m gonna let everyone know what you are!”
Jasper stared at me before spluttering with laughter. “What on earth are you talking about?”
***
Jake excitedly reminded us over breakfast, that we were practicing Riptide that night as a form with Partington. I heaved my consciousness back into this reality, for it was beginning to droop into my porridge — I’d barely had an hours kip and I was exhausted. Robin however, seemed absolutely chipper.
“I can’t come…” I said. “Oh, what time are we doing it?”
“After lessons?” said Gret.
“Yeah I can’t do it then.” I said, closing my eyes for a minute.
I heard some of them round the table winding up for giving me abuse. “And why not?!” said Joanna, sounding like my Mother.
Robin piped in for me, saving my bacon. “Detention with Straker,” he said. “That’s why he’s so tired, makes Avis walk about the school at night as punishment.”
“What for?” said Hunter aghast. Jake and Graham looked at Hunter as if to say isn't it obvious? When he still looked blank, Simon chipped in.
“For that poxy black-magic jumper he wore,” he said.
I quietly began to eat some toast hoping the subject would change quickly. I had a plan — go to the first lesson with Wasp, get shouted at for not doing the homework, sneak away just before lunch and sleep for an hour, before an afternoon full of lessons — one with Simone no less.
I was already annoyed because I’d tried to get out of today’s lessons by pretending I was ill. I told Partington that morning in form that I wasn't feeling good, he looked at me, said I did look pale and sent me to the Healer with a ghost. I was hoping the lovely Healer would say I looked awful and I must have a lie down. She did say this in fact, but the poxy ghost that was escorting me, consorted a paper list and decreed that tiredness was not a suitable reason for having the day off ill. So, the git escorted me all the way back to form — I even tried to sneak back to my dorm, but it began shouting at me.
Back in the Chamber, Joanna put her toast down and got out a piece of paper. “Look at the glut of games we have coming up!” she said. “We need to be fully prepared in all our tactics to be able to have any chance of winning.”
“Yeah especially since we’ve got a cup game soon,” said Graham. “And that’s likely to be against an upper year form…”
“We need to train, all together,” said Ellen.
“Lunchtimes and evenings!” Hunter said with his finger in the air like he was passing a law.
I was terrified. On one hand, I could join them at practicing Riptide, and make sure we didn't embarrass ourselves again. On the other, I had to explore the school with Straker and look for the Djinn and banish it — otherwise there would be no more Riptide, no more lessons, no more school. I can’t survive outside of an institution. I’d have to go home, be treated like a sprat, be bored to my back teeth, or even worse, go to another magical school — I’ve heard how terrible they are
.
Jasper’s voice travelled across the Chamber as he boasted about something to his form. I knew what I had seen in the spectacles, he looked like Malakai, and the odd behaviour as he looked at us. My brother Ross used to sleepwalk, and it looked exactly the same as that. But then, Jasper had seemed to wake up and be fully aware. If in fact he was Jasper? A pupil was the perfect disguise for Malakai…
***
After Simone’s exhausting lesson in which she had us do at least five hundred sit ups, I went to the Chamber to get some food. I placed some sandwiches in the hubris hide, along with some biscuits and carrot cake, Straker’s favourite. My hands felt clumsy, as the tiredness seemed to exude from my every pore. I was surprised I’d made it this far through the day.
“Hello friend,” said a cold, slimy voice, dripping down my spine like a slug. I didn't bother turning, I knew who it was.
“What do you want?” I said.
“I want nothing from you,” said Jasper, standing close on purpose as I picked at the food. “Do you really think I’ll forget about seeing you and your deluded friend poking about the castle in the dead of night?”
“Us poking about? What about you? What were you doing up there?” I said turning to face him, unable to help the angry tone creep in. His eyes were even the same glowing blue colour as Malakai’s. His face the same pale white. It made sense, he was Malakai. He’d come back here to get me. “I know what you are!” I said. Jasper smiled amused, which just infuriated me even more.
“Here we go again…” he muttered as people in the Chamber began to look round — I felt my face grow red, my voice rising.
“You’re him… And I am going to prove it to everyone… that you are… Malakai!” I announced. There was a short silence before, an explosion of laughter.
— “He’s off his rocker!”
— “Pahaha! Paranoid or what?”
— “He can’t be serious?!”
The next moment I was being escorted from the Chamber by Magisteer Mallard who told me in no uncertain terms that I could not go around accusing people of that, before slamming the Chamber doors.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
The Volumino
“AND HERE COME THE CONDORS!” The stadium announcement rang around the stadium to a series of shouts, roars and boo’s. We were playing the third year form Mermaid’s (not real ones — that would be impossible), in our first ever cup game ever.
Unfortunately, I had been unable to attend any of the extra Riptide practices my form had arranged, all my time had been taken up with searching for the elusive Djinn. The crowd roared hard and I felt the familiar terrified gurgle in my stomach. Joanna was reminding the team of our tactics — she had briefly told me at a hundred miles an hour in the changing rooms, but I’d forgotten already.
Robin was warming up close by a collection of third year girls. One of which was looking purposefully the other way. Felicity sported a purple Mermaid scarf and flag and had a snooty look. Hunter stood near the bolt-hole primed like a cheetah, but looking like a fat human. The noise of the crowd electrified the stadium. My eyes drifted into the crowd — the Lily sat straight backed with a bored expression — he kind of looked like he wasn't really here, mind you, he knew magic some people could only dream about. I bet his body was here at the stadium, but he was actually in his office reading or something. Straker and Partington stood close on the Magisteer’s plinth, but were not talking. Mallard and Dodaline were in a deep conversation with Commonside, who was pointing angrily at a sheet of numbers. Wasp, Yelworca, and Yearlove were sitting, Wasp talking softly to Yelworca, probably telling him who was going to win because he had predicted the outcome from the stars.
Then, the Mermaids, who were a tall form, made their way out. It didn't take long before I was standing on the line, waiting for the whistle to go — my shoes ready to tap, my hands ready to spell and the crowd awaiting with bated breath.
***
“WE DID IT!” Gret cried embracing Robin and Simon in a rib cracking hug. I turned round as Dawn picked me up off the floor.
“You were amazing!” she cried.
Joanna was beaming at me. “You didn't follow any of my tactics, but I am so pleased you didn't!”
“Thanks!” I said as Dennis and Jess began a victory dance. It had been a cracking match. The Mermaids were great — scoring three goals in the first five minutes. We thought we were onto a hiding, but then Underwood sent off their captain for two games for an illegal spell — Ruby Knight, charmed the rook turret on the habitat to come alive and start smashing at us. I don’t think she quite realised the extent to what she had done. Anyway, we took advantage and won the match with a “LIBERO-MANUS!”
“And when you jumped off that mound and exchanged the pass with Jake!” Gret cried aloud, causing everyone to clap in agreement. “That was something else!”
In the end we had won the match by four games to one and were into the next round of the cup. I’d scored five goals, and by the end of the match the crowd had come round to applaud me softly — even though some refused. It was the most elated feeling I’ve ever had. They were applauding me, even though I didn’t have the jumper.
On the way back up to the castle some first years waited behind for us, greeting us like we were celebrities and following us all the way back up the hillside to school.
“Think about it for a second!” cried Roger Zapper (Jack Zapper’s little brother). “You are second years, and you just beat a third year team!”
***
At first I thought that I and the Magisteer assigned to me would be able to sniff the Djinn out in a couple of hours, then work it back into the incense holder and everything would be fine again. But now I realised how ridiculous this was. Every night Straker and I wandered the school trying to get some sight or sound of it. But we got nothing. Zilch. Nout.
Walking around at night with Straker had it’s up sides. I got to see things I wouldn’t normally. A few times now, we would be walking along and he’d get an alert from a ghost that someone was out of bed. He would then start to march in the direction of the culprit, me in toe, and I’d get to watch Straker give them an ear-lashing.
Three times now Straker had caught a boy in the sixth year called Aaron Fulford, who had been seeing a girl in the same year called… Frankie or something — they kept sneaking off together in the middle of the night. So Straker split them up.
“It is your own fault for getting caught. You’re sixth years, I would have assumed you could have thought up something a little more ingenious to cloak yourselves. This is the third and final time. You can see each other in break, lunch times and after lessons,” said Straker sounding thoroughly bored with them. Aaron and Frankie stood like naughty toddlers in the bathroom staring at the floor. “Until then, you can’t be trusted…” Straker raised his hands towards them.
“NO!” cried Aaron, but he was too late. A red crack split the air between them.
“There. Now you are invisible to each other outside of the times allotted. Come to me at the end of the seventh year and I shall remove it.”
Aaron looked around madly, so too Frankie — when neither of them caught sight of the other, both burst into tears. “Bed!” Straker cried. “If I were you, I would concentrate on my studies. It probably won’t work out between you both anyway,” he said slyly as they made their way out of the bathrooms and back along the corridors to their dorms, completely invisible to each other. I didn't know whether to be fearful, amused or to just not care about what Straker had done.
***
“One more match in the cup and we’re in the final!” said Robin. “How mad is that?” We were staring up at the Riptide Schedule that had been painted large on the wall in the Hall outside the Chamber.
Condors with a picture of a brown bird and yellow and black frame sat in the list of the last four teams, underneath the words Semi-Final. There was an excited buzz in the air, a lot of people had filed into the Hall to check out who would be play
ing who — at midday, the schedule would be chosen.
In a shock happening, the favourites to win the Riptide cup and league, the Centaurs, had been knocked out by a second year team — the Swillows. Unfortunately, that was Jasper’s form. In my mind, that was just another reason why he was Malakai, he could use dark magic to defeat the best Riptide team in school.
In our previous cup match, the quarter-final no less, we were drawn a fortunate game against a first year side the Tiddlegawks. It was the easiest game I’ve ever played and we felt bad, but managed to get three Libero-Manuses.
The Manticores were watching the draw with bated breath, hanging on to each other. Even some of the Magisteers payed an interest — I could see Straker, standing in the shadows upstairs, casting a cold eye over the proceedings. Jasper and Tina were hanging off each other, with the rest of the Swillows watching on nervously. The draw was between us, the Condors, the Swillows, the Hesserbouts and the Manticores — two second year teams and two sixth year teams. I was excited, everyone was excited to see who we would play in the semi-final. Naturally the two sixth year teams, who saw this as their perfect opportunity to win the cup, now that the Centaurs had been knocked out.
The Hall was packed and as the clock hit twelve there was a whistling noise. The huge painted schedule started to fizz and crackle. Then, the icons moved. Our Condor’s brown bird, the Swillows white bird, the Hesserbout’s silver sprat and the Manticore’s scorpion-tailed-lion, all began to move.
Avis Blackthorn and the Magical Multicolour Jumper (The Wizard Magic School Series, Book 2) Page 25