The Black Amulet

by J. R. Wallis

  After cutting almost all the way around the hole, Ruby stopped.

  ‘Try pushing now,’ she said. Jones and Thomas Gabriel pressed their hands flat on either side of the hole and pushed. The circular flap Ruby had cut started to move.

  ‘It’s heavy,’ puffed Jones. Thomas Gabriel was straining too. But they managed to press the dark in further and flipped up the small circular hatch Ruby had made.

  They all saw the small gold box at the same time. It seemed to be floating in the air.

  ‘Hurry up, Ruby,’ gasped Jones. ‘This stuff is heavy.’ Thomas Gabriel grunted in agreement. So she reached an arm in and plucked the box from the secret space.

  It was cold. Like taking something out of the fridge.

  Jones and Thomas Gabriel let go of the piece of night air and it flipped back into position with a clunk. The incisions Ruby had made started healing up almost immediately.

  Ruby turned the golden box in her hands and opened it carefully. Inside was a small heap of fine black ash.

  Jones and Thomas Gabriel peered over her shoulder.

  ‘I wonder which bits of Drewman are here?’ she said.

  ‘It doesn’t matter as long as we find the rest of him,’ replied Jones. ‘There’s two more golden boxes hidden somewhere.’

  NINETEEN

  It was easy enough for Thomas Gabriel to find the next hiding place. He didn’t bother going to bed when he returned to his house in Hampstead.

  The invitation was still ticking, of course, reminding him there was less than a week now until his test in front of the High Council. But that wasn’t the only reason he was so keen to cast the spell. Using the Black Amulet made him feel invincible. Having used it a lot now, he seemed to be in tune with it. His body felt cold and hollow whenever he wasn’t wearing it. So he had taken to keeping it on his wrist all the time. As long as he kept taking the bitter potions as Drewman had said, he knew he’d be okay.

  Once more, he channelled the magic, his hand being moved to draw a picture of an island he didn’t know. The image was more detailed this time, the spell seeming to work more precisely than before, and Thomas Gabriel knew it was because his mastery of the Black Amulet was growing.

  The name of the island he wrote down was Lion Island.

  Keen to use the Black Amulet once more, he cast the spell again to find the location of the third golden box. Another island came into focus, but it was hazier this time, and his drawing was loose and basic, nothing like the detailed one for Lion Island.

  He urged the amulet to give him more power and it did so, allowing him to produce a more accurate drawing. But the name eluded him. Without it, the drawing was useless.

  ‘Give me more!’ he shouted at the amulet and he felt his heart tighten as he tried to squeeze the spell harder. ‘MORE!’ he roared and he saw the two snake heads on the amulet come alive, wriggling and hissing.

  ‘More!’ he roared and he saw the two snake heads on the amulet come alive, wriggling and hissing before biting down into his arm. A surge of magic rushed through him and he knew at once the name of the island he had drawn.

  He went to consult the maps in Simeon’s collection, but not one of them was detailed enough to find out if the islands were on the River Thames like Chiswick Eyot as he suspected.

  His mind started to drift. He knew he was tired. But he wondered if it was more than that. Ever since the two snake heads had bitten him, a slight buzzing had been ringing in his ears and he had felt drained, despite the puncture marks having disappeared, leaving no trace on his skin.

  He drank down a bitter potion and decided to get a few hours’ sleep. As he fell into a dream, he saw the Black Amulet spinning in front of him. It was bigger than him. And then the snakes’ mouths opened and they fell upon him with a scream as though ready to tear him apart.

  When Ruby opened the curtains, Thomas Gabriel stirred. She gave him a shove and sniffed at the empty bottle by his bed. The smell of bitter potion wrinkled her nose.

  ‘Wake up, sleepyhead,’ she said as Thomas Gabriel groaned. She held the gun to his ear and it shouted loudly, giving him a shock that made him sit bolt upright, making Ruby chuckle.

  ‘What . . . what time is it?’

  ‘The afternoon.’

  Thomas Gabriel licked his lips. His mouth was dry and he was very thirsty. ‘I was tired. I think using the amulet wore me out.’

  He beamed as he remembered what he had done. ‘I got the locations for the other two golden boxes, Ruby.’

  ‘I know.’ She held up the two drawings he had made.

  ‘You shouldn’t go through my stuff,’ complained Thomas Gabriel.

  ‘Lion Island,’ said Ruby, ignoring him, ‘and Appletree . . .’ She paused to make sure she pronounced it properly. ‘Appletree Eyot. Are they on the River Thames too?’

  ‘I’m not sure. I need to consult a detailed map to know for certain.’

  ‘It wouldn’t take a second to find out where they are on a phone or a computer.’

  ‘I’m a Badlander, Ruby. I don’t use those sorts of devices. And neither should you if you really want to be a Badlander too.’

  ‘Hmm, well, we all know the Order needs updating.’ She clicked her fingers when something occurred to her. ‘We should ask Jones to look this up for us. He’s not a Badlander, or so he keeps telling us, and it’ll be much quicker to find these islands on the Internet than searching through maps.’

  ‘I don’t think he’ll want us turning up at his house. He’s trying to keep the Badlands and the ordinary world separate. And what about us? Do we call him Jones or Ed if we go to see him? I get confused.’

  ‘We’ll call him Ed and we won’t mention anything to do with the Badlands at all. It’ll be fine. He needs to find the rest of Drewman as much as we do if he wants that magic out of him. And . . .’ She pulled back the covers and ushered Thomas Gabriel out of bed. ‘You need to make sure you pass that test of yours in front of the High Council.’ She waved a hand at him. ‘Come on, up! Jones should be back home from school by the time we walk there.’

  They walked from Thomas Gabriel’s house through his æhteland of Hampstead. Spring was bulging in the buds on some of the trees. In others, pink blossom had already grown like coral across the branches. Tulips and daffodils stood tall in people’s gardens.

  ‘The Order could do with a fresh start too,’ said Ruby, stooping to sniff a bed of purple flowers which she thought might be pansies.

  ‘Yes, I know, blah-blah-blah, girls in the Order, blah-blah-blah,’ said Thomas Gabriel.

  Ruby looked like she’d bitten into a lemon. ‘Actually, I meant they should update everything. Use all the technology there is now. Like phones and the Internet and cameras.’

  ‘We’ve got magic – why do we need anything else?’

  ‘Apprentices can’t use magic unless they’ve Commenced. And just think how much easier it would be not having to look things up in books all the time. Why not use magic and technology? It would make the Order better.’

  ‘Books are important. They’re a tradition.’

  ‘But they’re not as quick as the Internet at giving you the answer.’

  ‘You can trust what’s written in a book. Who writes this Internet thing?’

  Ruby puffed out her cheeks.

  ‘The Order will die out if it doesn’t modernize, you know.’

  Thomas Gabriel burst out laughing. A couple of people on the other side of the street looked up in their direction.

  ‘It’s done all right so far,’ said the boy.

  Ruby kicked at a stone and sent it spinning into the road. ‘You’re just like all the rest of them,’ she muttered. ‘You shouldn’t be wearing that amulet all the time, by the way,’ she said.

  But Thomas Gabriel didn’t seem to hear her.

  The moment Ed opened the front door and Ruby stepped into the house, something changed gear inside her and she forgot how annoyed she was with Thomas Gabriel. For the first time since running away, she began t
o realize how much she was missing out on things ordinary kids her age took for granted. Like feeling safe when you shut the front door. And how little responsibility there was, meaning you only had to worry about things important to you. But above all, she realized, she missed talking to people.

  Ed’s parents knew all about the Badlands of course, but they chose not to mention the place at all when they realized Ruby and Thomas Gabriel were avoiding it too.

  Ed beamed as the conversation developed a friendly life of its own, pulling everyone into it. Ruby could see he was happy. His mum and dad were making him feel like any ordinary boy whose friends had turned up. Ruby was happy for him too.

  But then she noticed both adults glancing at the Black Amulet bobbing up and down on Thomas Gabriel’s wrist.

  Suddenly, the atmosphere changed. There was a strange prickle in the air and both adults began to pant. Their brows glistened. A second later, they started to shout, their anguished voices rising louder and louder.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ asked Ed as he tried to calm his mother down. But she just lashed out at him and sent him lurching back, dodging her nails, which slashed through the air in front of his face.

  Ruby grabbed Thomas Gabriel and dragged him as far as she could down the hallway, away from the two screaming adults. He was too shocked to say anything until they were almost in the kitchen and then he was pushing her away and straightening his coat.

  ‘Get off me! What are you doing? I can help. I’ll calm them down,’ and he conjured a set of white sparks round his fingers.

  ‘Is that so?’

  ‘Yes! Obviously, they’re having some sort of episode, something to do with the after-effects of the Witch’s curse.’

  ‘That’s the problem,’ she said, pointing to the Black Amulet. ‘You’ll only make it worse if they see it again.’

  He extinguished the sparks around his fingers and began playing with the amulet, spinning it round and round.

  ‘That thing’s dangerous,’ she continued. ‘Drewman made that very clear.’

  ‘I don’t think it’s that evil—’

  ‘All Jone— I mean all Ed’s parents did was see it on your wrist and look how it affected them. The power inside it must have sparked some leftover part of the Witch’s curse.’

  Thomas Gabriel glanced back at the adults. They were recovering, shaking their heads, and shooting looks down the hallway at him.

  ‘You shouldn’t be wearing the amulet all the time,’ said Ruby. ‘There’s no reason to.’

  ‘You shouldn’t tell a Badlander what to do on his æhteland when it comes to magic.’

  ‘Sounds like another stupid rule to me.’

  Thomas Gabriel folded his arms and smiled. ‘That’s what’s really wrong, isn’t it? All those rules. All those things girls can’t do or use. Or even wear.’ He grinned and waggled his hand, making the amulet wobble on his wrist. ‘You’re jealous.’

  Something hot and red welled up in Ruby at the boy’s knowing smile and she took a step forward, ready to shake it off his face.

  ‘I’m not taking it off!’ hissed Thomas Gabriel, thinking Ruby was reaching for the amulet. He flashed out a hand and white sparks erupted, making her stop.

  She took a quick step back, but not just because of the threat of magic being used on her. Ruby had been shocked by something else too. A ghostly version of the boy’s face had leapt out at her for a split second. It was as if Thomas Gabriel had been jerked backwards, leaving a part of him behind that had been kept well hidden up to now. The face had looked vicious, with a mouth full of jagged teeth. Its hollow eyes had bored into Ruby, not seeming to recognize her or care who she was.

  And then it had slipped back into the boy in the blink of an eye.

  Thomas Gabriel didn’t seem to be aware of what had happened. As he toyed with the sparks around his fingers, Ruby stared into his eyes, trying to see what might lie behind them, at this darker part of him that had wanted to protect the amulet. But she could see nothing.

  When she blinked, she saw the ghostly black face again on the inside of her eyelids. She rubbed the goosebumps off her arms.

  Thomas Gabriel snuffed out the sparks at the ends of his fingers as they vanished.

  ‘I was only trying to give you a little fright,’ he mumbled. He lowered his voice. ‘It’s a shame about Jone— I mean Ed’s parents. But you can’t know for sure it was the amulet that affected them. It could have been our fault. Maybe we sparked some part of the Witch’s curse left in them. They haven’t seen us since she was killed. No one really knows what effects a curse like that can have on people. We should be careful and considerate around them.’

  Thoughts fluttered inside Ruby. Thomas Gabriel was right about her feeling angry about the Order and its rules. And, deep down, she knew she was jealous of him being able to do magic too. But she also knew that, despite all of that, she was right about the amulet being dangerous. And maybe not just for the person wearing it, but perhaps for other people too.

  Ed was proud of his laptop and took great pains to show Ruby he knew exactly how to use it given she had taught him how to get on the Internet soon after they’d first met.

  Thomas Gabriel was less impressed. Ruby noticed him fiddling with the amulet. It annoyed her and she grabbed his arm at one point to stop him. He shot her angry looks after that as Ed tapped on his keyboard.

  ‘There,’ said Ed, pointing at the screen. ‘Lion Island is definitely on the River Thames. But it’s outside London, in a place called Old Windsor. Appletree Eyot’s even further up the river.’ He ran his finger over the touch pad, zeroing in closer on the satellite map on the screen.

  ‘It’s just green trees,’ said Thomas Gabriel, peering at the pixelated canopy covering the island.

  ‘Well, it’s hardly going to show pictures of monsters, is it?’ snapped Ruby.

  ‘Well then, your stupid technology isn’t as good as magic after all. If you’d scryed to find the islands then it would show any monsters too.’ He smiled smugly at her.

  ‘Wrong!’ chimed Ruby. ‘Any scryer knows you can’t scry on a place you’ve never been to.’

  Thomas Gabriel tutted. Rolled his eyes. ‘Then how come you can go back to somewhere in the past you’ve never been to before then?’

  ‘That, Thomas Gabriel, is a very good question. I’ll get back to you on that. Maybe I’ll write a chapter about it in my book on scrying through time that every Badlander will want to read.’

  Thomas Gabriel just shook his head and grumbled something under his breath.

  Ed ignored their bickering as he brought up various images of the two islands. There was nothing out of the ordinary about them that he could see.

  ‘I think the first finding spell you used flagged up Chiswick Eyot cos it was the nearest. That’s why you found out about Lion Island next, and then Appletree Eyot, the furthest one away,’ said Ed. ‘Whether it works by location or not, finding the other two golden boxes means going out of London.’

  ‘That doesn’t matter – we can use Slap Dust,’ said Thomas Gabriel.

  Ed shook his head. ‘Not without knowing what might be there first.’ He tapped the screen. ‘Could be anything lying in wait. We’ll have to go in the van.’

  ‘A road trip?’ Ruby looked at Ed with some surprise.

  ‘Yep. Me and Maitland always kept the van stocked with things we might need on a trip, unless you’ve been using them?’

  Ruby shook her head. ‘No, everything’s just how you left it,’ she said. ‘But what I meant was . . . what about your parents? And what about school? I wouldn’t have thought you’d want to miss that for Badlander stuff.’

  ‘School’s finished today. It’s the Easter holidays now. I’ll speak to my parents. I have a feeling they’ll understand.’

  ‘But are you sure you want to come?’ asked Ruby.

  ‘Don’t you want me to?’ said Ed, sounding a little crestfallen.

  ‘Of course. But . . .’ She looked at Thomas Gabriel who just
shrugged.

  Ed studied the toe of his shoe for a moment. ‘You were right what you said last night,’ he said quietly. ‘I do regret giving up being a Badlander.’

  Ruby sat back in her chair and nodded. ‘I knew it,’ she said and threw Thomas Gabriel a triumphant stare. ‘I knew there was something up.’

  ‘But Ruby, I want to be an ordinary boy too and I can’t be that with magic inside me. It’s not meant to be in the regular world. It needs to come out of me. And, besides, you need my share of magic if Drewman’s gonna fix our Commencement, so you can cast spells and prove girls can be Badlanders. But without magic I can’t be a proper Badlander either. So, however much I want to be both, I can’t.’ Ed sighed and shook his head. ‘That’s what’s been bothering me.’

  Ruby leant forward and took his hands in hers. ‘You can still be both if you want to.’ Ed looked at her, unsure what she was getting at. ‘You don’t have to be a regular Badlander. I won’t be, even if Drewman fixes our Commencement. I’ll always be a girl. I’ll be different to other Badlanders. So why can’t you be a different type of Badlander too?’

  She waved her hands at the computer. ‘One with technology and things from the ordinary world instead of magic. Who says what being normal is when it comes to anything, even being a Badlander?’

  Ed stared at her. Blinking. His mouth opened and shut.

  Thomas Gabriel waved his arms. ‘Hell-oo? What about the Ordnung—’

  Ruby whirled round and looked at him. ‘That’s my point, Thomas Gabriel. He doesn’t have to follow it. He can be something new without it. Just like being a girl Badlander.’

  Ed sat there, thinking about that, and then he reached forward and gave Ruby such a big hug she thought her ribs might break.

  ‘Thank you,’ he said.

  ‘You’re welcome. Now let’s go and find those two other golden boxes and get this thing done.’

  Ed nodded. And then something occurred to him, and he got up and opened his wardrobe. Reaching into the back, he dragged out a plastic storage box. After flipping up the two blue clips at either end, he took off the lid and lifted out his old grey overcoat. Shook it out. And put it on.