by J. R. Wallis
‘No, we don’t need a fæcce,’ said Thomas Gabriel. ‘We’ll get Givens himself to open the door this time.’ The others looked at him as though he’d just told them he wanted to be an ordinary boy. ‘I’ve got the Memory Leech. He won’t remember a thing.’
‘And how do we get him to open the door in the first place?’ asked Jones.
‘If he’s even there?’ piped up Ruby.
‘Oh, I reckon he’ll be there. It’s the High Council meeting: he’ll be getting ready for it. Wanting to look his best.’ He looked at Jones. ‘I’ll show you how we’ll make him open that door. Come outside.’
As they stood outside the van in the ever-growing daylight, Thomas Gabriel took out a silver pillbox and opened the lid. He held up the vial that was inside it on the red velvet inlay and tilted it. The yellowish mist inside caught the early rays of sunlight and glinted.
‘Givens will do whatever we want when I show him this,’ said Thomas Gabriel.
When Jones saw the mist in the vial, he could hardly believe it. ‘You’ve cursed Givens with wælmist?’ Jones heard the surprise in his voice and it sent Thomas Gabriel’s smile arching higher at the corners.
‘What is it?’ asked Ruby, straining to get a better look at the substance.
‘A fatal curse,’ said Jones. ‘The holder of the wælmist commands whoever’s been cursed with it on pain of death. Take off the top and let the wælmist out and they’re as good as dead. I ain’t never seen it before, only drawings in books. Where did you get it?’ he asked Thomas Gabriel.
‘Simeon owned it. He told me it was a present from his Master after he Commenced as a boy. But he never used it.’
‘There’s no cure once you’ve cursed someone with it,’ said Jones. ‘Not once the wælmist knows the name of the person you whispered to it.’
‘Givens’ll know that too.’ Thomas Gabriel held the vial up to the light and they all watched the mist twisting round in the bottle like a stream of water coming out of a tap.
‘You’re full of surprises, Thomas Gabriel,’ said Jones.
‘Just thinking ahead,’ replied Thomas Gabriel with a grin. He pointed to the wing mirror of the van that was catching the sunlight. ‘Can you use that to scry and see where Givens is? I bet he’s at home, just like I said.’
As Ruby stood in front of the wing mirror, she was aware of how tired and dishevelled she looked. The two boys looking on behind her did too. Although, as her eyes looked at the reflection of Thomas Gabriel, she thought that perhaps he looked a little fresher than he should. He seemed to have a glint in his eye. She wondered if it was because he was excited about his plan.
‘Come on, Ruby,’ said Jones. ‘Can you look or not?’
Ruby cleared her mind and asked to see Givens, wherever he was. The glass fizzed and an image of the man appeared. He was standing in front of a bathroom mirror in a bathrobe, snipping at his nose hair, tilting his head to trim a particularly troublesome tuft.
‘Looks like the bathroom we made the fæcce in all right,’ said Jones. ‘I recognize the tiles. And the towels.’
‘Told you,’ said Thomas Gabriel. ‘I think we should go and pay Givens a visit now, don’t you?’
TWENTY-FIVE
When all three of them arrived in Givens’s bathroom together, the Slap Dust still ringing in their ears, Givens was so surprised he almost snipped off the tip of his nose with the pair of scissors he was holding.
‘What . . . what are you doing here?’ he asked as he looked at Thomas Gabriel. ‘And you . . .’ he said, looking at Ruby. ‘You, girl . . . but you’re . . . you’re dead! The Slobbering ate you in the—’
Givens paled as if he really was seeing a ghost. ‘A girl,’ he stammered. ‘A girl here in the Badlands . . . in my house . . .’ And then he stiffened and raised his hand, little sparks of magic licking the ends of his fingers. Ruby thought about going for the gun in her waistband although she knew she’d never use it.
‘Stop!’ said Thomas Gabriel. ‘No magic.’ He held up the wælmist in front of the window. ‘It might be the last thing you do.’
Givens stared at the wælmist, watching it twist and turn in the vial. He seemed to deflate a little and then shook his head and raised his hand again. ‘You’re just bluffing.’
Thomas Gabriel prised the cork out of the vial a little way and the wælmist sensed it, rushing up into the glass neck. Givens gasped. He dropped the scissors and clutched both hands to his chest.
‘Can you feel it, Givens? Can you feel the wælmist wanting to hurt you?’ Thomas Gabriel drew out the cork a little further and Givens whimpered, clearly in pain.
‘Stop!’ said Ruby. ‘You’re hurting him.’
‘We just need him to open the door,’ said Jones. ‘You’re only supposed to be frightening him.’
Thomas Gabriel pushed the cork back in and Givens took a step back and crumpled against the wall, panting hard.
‘We’re not here to cause anyone any harm,’ said Jones.
‘What’s the meaning of this, Thomas Gabriel?’ asked Givens in a quiet voice, the colour slowly returning to his cheeks. ‘And who are these people?’ His eyes flickered towards Ruby. ‘You, girl. What are you doing here?’
Ruby cleared her throat and held up the string bag she was holding that she’d found in the van, the three golden boxes clinking inside. ‘To show you that girls are just as good as boys at being Badlanders.’ Givens gasped when he saw the golden boxes through the material of the bag, unable to believe what he was seeing.
‘What Ruby means is we’re here to see Drewman,’ said Thomas Gabriel. Givens opened his mouth to say something and then remembered the bottle in Thomas Gabriel’s hand. The boy waggled it.
‘Come on, we’re going downstairs.’
As they left the bathroom and walked down the landing towards the stairs, Jones could see that Givens was trying to piece everything together as he kept glancing at them and at the bag Ruby was holding, the golden boxes clearly visible through the string material.
‘What do you want with Augustus Drewman?’ asked Givens as they went down the stairs.
‘To fix our Commencements,’ said Jones. Givens frowned as he thought about that because he didn’t quite understand.
‘Don’t I know you, boy?’ he said.
Jones stepped off the last stair into the hallway and shrugged.
‘You were Maitland’s boy. But—’
‘No time,’ said Thomas Gabriel. ‘Study. Now!’
Givens paused to tie his bathrobe tighter. And then something occurred to him and he smiled at Thomas Gabriel. ‘So the rumours are true. You did steal the key from Simeon and Commence without his blessing and now your magic’s failing and you want Drewman to fix it.’ He started to laugh and a little spot in the corner of Thomas Gabriel’s jaw started to pulse.
‘Come on, Givens, move. I’ve got a test to do this afternoon in front of the High Council.’
Givens shook his head. ‘I don’t think so.’
‘You won’t remember a thing about this. I’ll be standing in front of you and the rest of the High Council this afternoon and I’ll pass with flying colours.’
‘I don’t know how this has all come about or who some of you are,’ said Givens, glancing at Ruby, ‘but it won’t end as you say it will, Thomas Gabriel.’ And, with that, Givens sat down on the floor.
‘To curse a fellow Badlander with wælmist is an act of treachery and dishonour. Your Master, Simeon Rowell, and your Master Maitland,’ said Givens, staring at Jones, ‘would never have believed such a disloyal thing could happen. But I must bow to the wyrd. It seems this is how my story is to play out.’ He folded his arms. ‘You may open the bottle of wælmist whenever you like because you are not going to get to see Augustus Drewman. Of that I am certain.’
Thomas Gabriel laughed. He couldn’t help himself. ‘Come on, Givens, there’s no point bluffing.’ He tweaked the cork halfway out of the vial with a rubbery-sounding squeak.
But, despite being in pain, Givens l
ooked up at him with grey eyes, as hard and glassy-looking as marbles, and Thomas Gabriel knew this wasn’t a bluff at all. The man was prepared to put his duty to the Order before his own life.
Thomas Gabriel looked at Jones and Ruby, unsure what to do.
‘Get on with it, boy,’ gasped Givens, his body juddering and twitching. ‘Or don’t you have the guts?’
Suddenly, a door slammed somewhere in the house and there was the sound of footsteps. Wilfried’s voice came ringing through the house.
‘Sir, I’ve picked some flowers to choose from for your buttonhole, just like you wanted.’ When the boy came strutting into the hallway, he dropped the flowers he was holding and ran to his Master as soon as he saw what was happening.
‘Stop!’ he cried. ‘Stop!’
As Givens tipped over in great pain towards the floor, Wilfried rushed to the man and tried to sit him up. He went round the back of Givens and pushed him back into a sitting position and crouched down behind him, trying to keep the groaning man upright.
As Thomas Gabriel wondered what to do next, he saw a flicker of gold out of the corner of his eye. Something came at him so fast, hissing through the air, that he didn’t have time to react and the next thing he knew, the wælmist was plucked from his hand by a golden rope that lassoed round it and took it back to Wilfried who grabbed it. The apprentice pushed the cork back firmly into the vial and Givens began to breathe more easily and a fire came back to his eyes. He whispered a word and magic appeared at his fingertips. He held one hand out at Jones and Ruby, who went for the gun in her waistband and then paused, to keep them at bay. He pointed the other at Thomas Gabriel.
‘He made me lie, sir,’ sobbed Wilfried. ‘It wasn’t the One Eye that attacked you – it was him. He has the Black Amulet.’
Thomas Gabriel felt something ping inside him, like a button bursting off an ill-fitting jacket, and a red-hot anger surged through him as Wilfried clutched the wælmist. He fired up magic in his hands, but all that came out were tiny sparks that flickered and drooped and died away.
Givens laughed. ‘The Black Amulet, eh? Well, I’d say he doesn’t have it any more, Wilfried, wouldn’t you?’
Givens fired a bolt of magic at Thomas Gabriel and sent him crashing into the wall. ‘Your Master, Simeon, was right not to want to Commence you!’ shouted Givens. ‘You don’t deserve magic. Because you don’t deserve to be a Badlander. Now tell me, is Wilfried right? Did you have the Black Amulet? And, if so, where is it now, boy?’
Thomas Gabriel’s shoulder was hurting from hitting the wall so hard. But his pride was hurting so much more. He sat up and looked at Givens as he felt something crawling down the skin of his arm, unseen, under his clothes. It tickled as it passed the crook of his elbow and it made him laugh.
‘Tell me where the amulet is, boy!’ said Givens.
‘It’s gone!’ shouted Ruby. ‘I threw it away!’
‘No, you didn’t,’ said Thomas Gabriel, laughing. ‘No, you didn’t.’
He held up his arm and his coat sleeve drew back to reveal the Black Amulet slithering down his forearm and curling round his wrist.
‘It was just a copy, Ruby. I knew you’d throw the amulet away if you had a chance. You said as much.’ Thomas Gabriel sniggered. ‘I lay in the grass and watched you do it.’
When Givens fired a bolt of magic, Thomas Gabriel reacted by firing an even bigger one back, vaporizing the one aimed at him.
No one in the hallway moved. No one dared. Everyone was staring at the Black Amulet.
Thomas Gabriel scrambled to his feet. ‘I don’t need Drewman. I don’t need to fix my Commencement and pass that stupid test today.’ He held out his hands, sparks dancing at the end of his fingertips, daring Givens to fire another bolt of magic. ‘I’m going to be a different sort of Badlander from now on, just like you wanted to be, Ruby, and you too, Jones.’
He made them all walk into Givens’s study, great licks of white magic rising out of his fingers.
‘Give the key you made to Givens, Ruby,’ said Thomas Gabriel. And she had no choice but to do so.
Givens didn’t want to go over to the picture and pass the Trolls’ inspection and then open the door to the hidden room, but Thomas Gabriel forced him, with hands raised high and the amulet bobbing on his wrist. Once the door was open, he gestured for them to go through it, one at a time. He plucked the wælmist from Wilfried’s hand and took the string bag containing the golden boxes from Ruby.
‘Why are you doing this?’ she asked in a quiet voice, not letting go of the bag.
‘Because it’s my amulet now,’ he hissed at her. ‘My secret. I’m going to go down in history as a great Badlander like Drewman did. But no one can know how I did it. That’s the mistake Drewman made. People found out about the amulet. But no one will know my story. It won’t be rewritten like Drewman’s was, because the only people to know I have the amulet will be in here. Forever. Drewman’s chamber is bound to be magically secure. Isn’t that right, Givens?’ shouted Thomas Gabriel, but the man just grunted.
Thomas Gabriel ripped the string bag from Ruby’s hands and waved her on through the doorway. When she didn’t go, he pushed her hard enough to send her stumbling through and Jones caught her before she fell.
Thomas Gabriel stared at Ruby and Jones as they looked back at him, a little twitch jumping in his jaw.
‘We’re your friends, Thomas Gabriel,’ said Ruby. ‘It’s the amulet that’s making you do this.’
Thomas Gabriel grunted and shook his head. ‘I always knew I’d be a great Badlander and now I will be. It’s the wyrd that’s going to make it happen. And now I’ll let fate decide what happens to you too.’
Before he could slam the door shut, Ruby grabbed hold of it. ‘Please, Thomas Gabriel, if you lock us in here, there’s no way out.’ Her voice was quiet and desperate. Her eyes were scared. Something quivered in her throat.
But not one bit of Thomas Gabriel cared about her. He tutted and shook his head. ‘Girls and magic don’t mix,’ he said, before slamming the door shut.
When he took out the key and put it in his pocket, the door vanished into the background of the picture.
The two Trolls peered out at him, sniffing the air. When they wrinkled their noses and looked at each other, they shook their heads and started to clamber out of the picture towards him.
‘Forbærne!’ White sparks rippled across Thomas Gabriel’s fingertips and he hurled them at the picture in the form of a fireball, causing a huge flame to sprout in the middle. It licked quickly across the canvas, consuming the picture before the Trolls had time to step out into the study and they were sucked back into the fire and burnt to a cinder along with the picture. The frame split into pieces with a great CRACK! before it, too, was consumed by the fire and turned to ash.
In a matter of moments, all that was left was a charred mark on the wall where the picture had been hanging.
‘Goodbye!’ shouted Thomas Gabriel.
After the door was shut, it vanished, leaving just a blank wall made of large sandy-coloured stones. The others had already started walking down the corridor towards the chamber where Drewman was on his pedestal, but Ruby had waited, hoping the door might reappear. The candles in their brackets on the walls flickered like the hope in her chest that, deep down, Thomas Gabriel cared and would have a change of heart. But, when she heard a loud noise from the other side, she wondered what had happened and then guessed as she heard Thomas Gabriel shout, ‘Goodbye!’
She turned and walked on down the corridor after the others.
Drewman’s head started chattering away, asking what was happening, when everyone appeared in the chamber, but nobody seemed to be interested in answering. Givens and Wilfried stood in one corner while Ruby and Jones stood in another. They watched each other in silence until Givens cleared this throat.
‘This chamber is magically secure as Thomas Gabriel guessed. A powerful hex keeps that thing . . .’ he waved a hand at the head on the pedestal, ‘
. . . locked in here. There is no way in or out of this chamber except through that picture. I suggest we resign ourselves to what the wyrd has decided for us. To die slowly in front of that,’ and he glanced at Drewman again.
He looked at Ruby, studied her and smiled. ‘At least perhaps the Order has been saved from the female of the species.’ He began to chuckle to himself and let rip into a great guttering laugh that made the candles swoon. ‘What a load of tripe,’ he said. ‘What rubbish! Girls are not worthy of being Badlanders.’
He ranted on, starting to curse and shout at the top of his voice, and Ruby knew that he was not angry at her, but at what had happened. But, even so, the man’s anger scared her and she tried to blot it out, touching the gun in her waistband to remind her it was there, just in case.
As she looked about the chamber, trying to find something to focus on other than Givens, she spotted something standing in one of the dark corners. It was difficult to see it clearly, with the candlelight barely reaching it, and she took a few steps forward, unable to believe what she had found.
‘Why is there a full-length mirror in here?’ she asked, turning to face Givens. The man stopped his shouting and scowled at her, his chest heaving.
Before he could say anything, Drewman piped up from his pedestal.
‘It’s to torture me. I told you before: sometimes they bring a mirror and force me to look at myself for weeks on end to try and break me and find out where the Black Amulet is.’
‘No need for that any more, is there?’ muttered Givens, giving a long, hard stare at Jones and Ruby.
Drewman made a strange yelping sound as he laughed. ‘You found it then! You found the amulet! Where is it? Where did you hide it?’
But Ruby ignored the head on the pedestal. She was already standing in front of the full-length mirror. It was difficult to see too much in the dark corner so she tried dragging the object out into the middle of the chamber. It was heavy and hard to lift.
‘Jones!’ Ruby looked back at the boy for help and he was already there beside her. They lifted the mirror into the centre of the chamber where the candlelight was strongest.