Benjamin Forrest and the School at the End of the World

by Chris Ward

  Benjamin jerked, trying to rub his back against his school uniform, and the three teachers flinched. Apparently they hadn’t realised he was awake.

  ‘What’s going on?’ he asked.

  Ms. Ito put a hand on his shoulder and he felt an immediate sense of calm. Her palm was unnaturally hot, but this heat seemed to spread out through him.

  She glared at Professor Eaves and Professor Loane in turn, as though defying them to speak, then turned back to Benjamin. ‘You’ve had a long first day in Endinfinium,’ she said. ‘And the most important thing for you right now is to get some sleep.’

  PART II

  THE ROAD INTO DARK PLACES

  20

  EDGAR

  The old wizard lived in a cave under the headland, halfway across a wide bay an hours’ walk south of the school. It wasn’t just any cave, carved out so cleanly as to be perfectly smooth and decked out with an assortment of furniture and personal items that their owner had reclaimed from the arms of the sea and lovingly restored. He had fitted in a snug door that kept out the draft, and was in the process of carving out a window so he could see the edge of the world and watch the red and yellow suns in their sunset dance, though he was still waiting for something that resembled glass to wash up onto the beach before he knocked through the last little bit of rock.

  He called himself Edgar Caspian. It wasn’t his real name. He didn’t know what that was, but from the day he had woken up in Endinfinium without a name, he had decided to choose one for himself. He had played around with the sounds of names from the spines of storybooks in the school library until he found one that sounded right.

  And then he kept it.

  Almost every day—unless she had a special evening class—Miranda made her way down a crumbling cliff path to the beach to knock on Edgar’s homemade door. After letting her inside, he would offer her something he had caught or baked that day—Edgar lived entirely from what he caught in the sea and plants growing on the stepped cliff ledges—and then she would sit down and continue to learn how to control the strange pulses of energy she called magic.

  ‘He isn’t really a wizard,’ she said, stopping to wait on a ledge farther down as Benjamin picked his way carefully over an especially treacherous outcrop. ‘He just doesn’t know what else he should call himself. Hurry up, won’t you? We have to get back before the yellow sun sets, or we’ll be in trouble.’

  This far south were fewer scatlocks; it seemed the creatures stayed near inhabited places, like irritating next-door neighbours who would call in for the sole purpose of making a complaint. As Miranda constantly reminded Benjamin, though—and he had experienced plenty on his first night for himself—other creatures were far more dangerous.

  ‘Why does he live down here?’

  ‘We’re not allowed to admit to the existence of magic. They’ll send you out to the Haunted Forest and the ghouls if they so much as catch you talking about it. I’ve seen other kids disappear. Edgar used to be a professor, but he didn’t agree with how the other teachers viewed magic.’

  ‘But magic is everywhere. All that reanimation, deanimation stuff. It’s all magic. I can’t explain it. Can you?’

  Miranda shook her head. ‘It’s not “real” magic, you idiot. It’s “science” magic. At least that’s what they expect us to believe.’

  ‘What’s the difference?’

  ‘That’s simple,’ came a gruff voice from above them. ‘One is easier to control.’

  They both looked up, and Benjamin gaped at an elderly man floating in the air, arms folded. He was neater than the storybook kind of wizard that Benjamin knew well, with a short, manicured beard not even all grey, tidy hair, and clothes that looked more akin to a Medieval pub than a mountaintop.

  ‘So, you’re Miranda’s friend. Nice to meet you, I’m—oh, sorry, got to go!’

  He began to drop straight down, like a lift, and Benjamin leaned out over the cliff edge to watch. The old man gave him a smile and a wave before he dropped out of sight.

  ‘I forgot to mention he’s a little crazy,’ Miranda said. ‘I think it’s the solitude.’

  By the time they had reached the beach, Edgar had disappeared back into his little house. The door stood ajar, which Miranda said was a sign they should enter. Inside, the old wizard stood at a bar counter, cutting into strips something that smelled fishy.

  ‘All they let you eat up there are vegetables out of their school gardens and from the fields behind the school,’ Edgar said. ‘I bet you’re desperate for a bit of variation, aren’t you?’

  Benjamin and Miranda both nodded, and Edgar handed them each a strip of dried meat. It tasted like tuna jerky, but the flavour was so strong, Benjamin finished his in a single bite. A hundred times better than anything he’d been served for school meals.

  ‘What is this?’

  ‘Why, it’s fish. The same kind of fish you might have eaten back home.’

  ‘Captain Roche said they don’t trust meat.’

  ‘It’s true. Didn’t your mother ever tell you never to eat anything you found in the garden that looked like a mushroom? Just in case it was poisonous?’

  ‘Yeah, but—’

  ‘Same thing. Reanimates are incredible things. Many of them can breed just like anything else that’s alive, but you have to be careful what you eat, because something evolved from a plastic box or a tin can isn’t exactly fit for human consumption. Too many mercury-laced steaks on the menu, and the whole school will end up with mad hatter’s disease.’

  Benjamin took another offered piece of the dried fish. ‘But this is—’

  ‘Fish. Just like I said. That’s an ocean out there, and oceans have fish in them. You just have to be really, really sure that it’s what you think it is.’ He grinned. ‘Allowing myself the freedom to do what those clowns up in the school refuse means I’m far better than they are at figuring out where something came from.’

  ‘Well, it’s good,’ Benjamin said.

  Edgar smiled. ‘Miranda here says you might need my help.’

  ‘I think I’m in danger.’

  Edgar laughed. ‘Really? Isn’t that the very definition of this place? We live within a couple of miles of the edge of the world. We could slide off it at any time.’

  ‘The teachers … Ms. Ito … she said something that I wasn’t supposed to overhear. They thought I was unconscious.’

  Edgar leaned forward. Old fingers stroked his chin. ‘Tell me.’

  Benjamin relayed, word for word, what the teachers had said. ‘And when I asked them to explain what they meant, they just brushed it off. Told me I was hearing things. That they were just speculating.’

  Edgar frowned, leaning forward on his hands and staring into Benjamin’s eyes until Benjamin became unnerved and looked away. His head had started to ache.

  ‘Are you reading my mind?’

  Edgar laughed. ‘Goodness, boy. No one can do that. No one I know of, at any rate. I’m just picking up on your feelings.’ He turned to Miranda. ‘Do you ever think about going home?’

  Miranda gave a powerful shake of her head. ‘No! I don’t want to go back. The only people I remember … I don’t want to see them again.’

  The wizard nodded. ‘I’ve been here for a long time, and perhaps soon I’ll take my own personal trip over the edge of the world. But what memories I do have—as vague as they are—were the same. This place … Endinfinium … it was a second chance for me. A place to be—’ He paused, cocking his head and frowning. ‘Hmm. A place to be … repaired.’

  ‘I don’t want to stay. I want to leave. That thing was looking for me, I’m sure of it.’

  ‘The ghoul?’

  ‘Or whatever it was.’

  Edgar nodded. ‘I can sense your inner turmoil. You’re like a glowing ball of anger and frustration. The truth, as you’ve probably figured out by now, is that if anyone knows why they woke up here, they’re not telling. Endinfinium is a country that makes its own rules. And you, my dear Mr. Benjamin, appear
to have broken them.’

  ‘How?’

  ‘If I knew that, we could swiftly end this discussion.’ He turned to Miranda, who sat on a rug at his feet, the swirling colours of an old mosaic that had been almost entirely bleached out by the sea. ‘Miranda here is what, in my day, we called a miscreant. Someone who refuses to honour the Oath and deny the existence of what passes for magic here in Endinfinium. Such people were considered dangerous. Back when I first arrived, miscreants were given the choice of leaving by their own accord, or being forced out. Don’t ask me to explain in what ways such things were executed. Believe me, Ms. Ito, Loane, and the others might appear harmless, but they’ve continued with the same old witch-burning tradition as their predecessors. If they think the school is threatened by someone who won’t toe the line … over you go.’

  ‘I don’t get it,’ Benjamin said. ‘What magic? I have none. I can’t move things. I can’t look into people’s minds, or see the future.’

  Edgar smiled. ‘You’d be surprised what each of us can do that we don’t yet understand,’ he said. ‘We each have what we consider normal, but just look around you. Have you seen anything you consider normal?’

  ‘Not really.’

  ‘Yet in Endinfinium, where the very buildings are coming alive, it is you, a simple human, who is the deviant from the norm. Everything is connected, but here, in Endinfinium, it is connected in a different way. Things that one wouldn’t expect to have sentience are not just walking and talking like us, but in many cases, they are setting the rules.’

  ‘Is that what Endinfinium is? An entire world that came alive?’

  Edgar laughed. ‘Your guess is as good as mine, but it’s possible, I suppose. I’m an old man now, but when I was young like you, I hunted for answers, too. They’re out there. Never give up on them.’

  Miranda nodded at Benjamin. ‘Show him your hand.’

  Benjamin pulled off the thick plaster the school nurse had given him. A little ointment still congealed around the scratch, but even now, three days after the event, there was no sign of healing. The skin was red and sore, the scratch itself so dark as to be almost purple.

  ‘Hmm. That’s not good. Not good at all.’

  Miranda sniffed. ‘It’s my fault. I came here to see you, and left him to cross the bridge alone. His book fell into the sea; otherwise, he would have read the warnings about the Locker Room.’

  Edgar shook his head. ‘Not at all, my dear. By coming here to see me, that makes it my fault.’

  ‘I didn’t mean—’

  ‘And by coming to see you in the Locker Room, that makes it a fault of Benjamin’s very sense of kindness. You see where I’m going with this?’

  Miranda gave a confused shake of her head, red hair rustling like leaves in the wind.

  ‘He means you shouldn’t blame yourself,’ Benjamin said. ‘It’s not your fault.’

  ‘Oh.’

  Benjamin looked back at Edgar. ‘The nurse keeps telling me it’ll heal. I’m supposed to see Professor Loane tonight. I’m worried they’ll throw me off the edge of the world, or worse, give me to the ghouls.’

  ‘I don’t think you have to worry about that. I think they’re more interested in seeing what happens. Have you met the headmaster, Grand Lord Bastien, yet?’

  Benjamin shook his head. ‘They keep telling me he’s gone away on business, and that I have to wait until he comes back.’

  Edgar frowned. ‘They do, do they? And where exactly is he supposed to have gone?’

  ‘I don’t know.’

  ‘I do!’ Miranda blurted. ‘Wilhelm told me something—’

  ‘Wilhelm? The curly-haired boy who refuses to go to classes? I thought you didn’t get on with him.’

  Miranda blushed. ‘I-I-I decided to give him another chance.’

  Benjamin felt a strange knot in his stomach, and Edgar glanced at him, flashing a smile. The old wizard felt his feelings, too: jealousy.

  ‘What did he say, Miranda?’

  ‘He was spying again. He said that Grand Lord Bastien went west, on a diplomatic meeting.’

  ‘When?’

  ‘Five days ago.’

  ‘I’d be happy to talk to young Wilhelm. Could you not have brought him, too?’

  Miranda shook her head. ‘He got caught. He’s in the Locker Room now.’

  Benjamin smiled. ‘He volunteered to do a thousand cleans.’

  ‘Volunteered? Is that so? I heard he was quite the rebel.’

  ‘He was, until he met Ms. Ito. Now he sits at the front of every art class. I think he’s got a crush.’

  Edgar gave a wistful smile. ‘Indeed. Quite a woman, she is. Back in the day, I was rather taken with her myself. That monstrosity of a woman has broken every rule of attraction ever written. There’s just something about the way she drags that oversized plaster cast….’

  The old wizard appeared to have drifted off into some ancient memory, and Benjamin exchanged glances with Miranda, who quietly got up and sneaked a couple more pieces of the dried fish off the plate. They had both finished eating before Edgar sat up with a jerk.

  ‘Well, where was I?’

  ‘We were talking about Grand Lord Bastien.’

  ‘Yes, yes. Indeed. Well, I think we need to investigate where exactly the old chap has gone, and why he’s not back yet.’

  ‘What’s to the east?’ Benjamin asked.

  Edgar let out a long sigh. ‘Things you don’t want to know about, believe me.’

  21

  MESSAGE

  ‘On the count of three … climb!’

  Benjamin was slow out of the marks. Godfrey, two ranks to his right, was nearly at the foot of the cliff before Benjamin had even taken two steps. By the time Benjamin had his fingers on the first handholds, the taller boy was already ten feet up, and moving fast.

  Fifty feet above, holding on to her harness, Miranda leaned out, one hand cupping her mouth. ‘Come on, Benjamin! Hurry up!’

  Behind her, Wilhelm had wrapped his arms around their bracing pole, feet digging into the dirt. Benjamin pulled himself up as quickly as he could, but he had no chance; Godfrey’s team was simply too strong. As Benjamin scrambled, wheezing and gasping, over the edge—managing to beat just two of the nine other teams—Godfrey and his crew had begun to howl with laughter.

  ‘You’re useless!’ Godfrey shouted. ‘You couldn’t even climb stairs!’

  Benjamin was getting tired of Godfrey’s constant goading over the last few days. They didn’t share every class together, but when they did, the bigger boy made it clear who he considered was at the bottom of the class. While some of the teachers—Ms. Ito and Captain Roche, in particular—were quick to crack down on any obvious bullying, others turned a blind eye, pulled in by Godfrey’s otherwise flawless class performance.

  Miranda put a hand on Benjamin’s arm. ‘Leave him,’ she said. ‘Just let it go.’

  Benjamin shook his head. His body ached from the climb, and the scratch on the back of his hand throbbed.

  ‘I’m tired of this.’

  Captain Roche was still down on the beach, supervising the next climbers. Benjamin glared at Godfrey, wondering if the crab-shaped teacher could scuttle quick enough to catch someone if they were pushed off the edge.

  ‘Okay, time to unharness and get back up to the school,’ the captain bellowed. Benjamin breathed a sigh of relief. Their next class was advanced math taught by Professor Loane. Godfrey was in the lower group, so for a couple of hours, at least, Benjamin would have some peace.

  He was walking back up the steep path toward the school when someone tapped him on the back. He turned to find Simon, one of Godfrey’s regular wingmen, and whom, on account of his nose, Benjamin had learned everyone called Snout, standing at his shoulder. Benjamin had quickly discovered that, while harmless and relatively amiable when alone, Snout wasn’t the sharpest knife in the rack; therefore, he was perfect cannon fodder for Godfrey’s errands.

  The dopey-looking boy grinned a smile so w
ide it stretched his nose, flattening it out a little like a ski jump.

  ‘Hey, Forrest.’

  ‘What do you want?’

  ‘Godfrey says he has something important to tell you. He wants you to meet him in the disused gym on level four.’

  ‘But I have math.’

  ‘Skip it.’

  ‘No. Go take a hike.’

  ‘He says someone called David has a message for you.’

  Benjamin stumbled, his heart feeling like it had skipped a beat or two, while a sudden flush of heat filled his cheeks.

  ‘What are you … what are you talking about?’

  Snout shrugged. ‘That’s all he said.’

  ‘I’ll be there.’

  Snout grinned. ‘Good.’

  As the other boy slowed and slipped back behind him, Miranda came up alongside Benjamin, her crimson eyebrows folded together in a frown like two crayons trying to reach each other.

  ‘What are you playing at?’ she snapped. ‘He’s just going to beat up on you or something. I’ll come with you. And Wilhelm.’

  ‘I’m not going!’ Wilhelm protested. ‘I don’t want to get my butt kicked. I suggest we all just go to math as planned, then straight back to the dorms.’

  ‘He said David has a message for me. David is my little brother. Back … home.’

  ‘He’s lying.’

  ‘How could he know my brother’s name?’

  ‘A lucky guess?’ Wilhelm said. ‘You were shouting stuff out in your sleep the other night. Maybe he heard you.’

  ‘What did I say?’

  Wilhelm shook his head. ‘I don’t know. I stuffed bits of tissue in my ears and went back to sleep.’

  ‘Benjamin, promise you won’t go,’ Miranda said. ‘At least not alone.’

  ‘All right, all right.’

  ‘Promise?’

  Benjamin sighed. ‘Okay, sure.’

  They had a twenty-minute break before the next class. Math wasn’t his favourite, but it was better than quantum physics or philosophy or particle mechanics, none of which he could even spell, let alone understand. Art was okay, even if Ms. Ito was a loose cannon ready to explode the moment anyone said a word out of place, and he enjoyed biology and ecology well enough, even if they ignored the glaringly obvious: that certain things that shouldn’t be were alive.