Avis Blackthorn: Is Not an Evil Wizard!

by Jack Simmonds

  “Pah! He won’t be coming back anytime soon. Anyway, if he does, we’ll be ready for him,” said Partington raising a fist in the air.

  “And he’ll be scared of you Avis,” said Robin.

  Yes, I thought, but, I can’t say his true name anymore. I kicked myself, I should have telepathically sent his name to all the ghosts. Not that I knew how to.

  “You know, when this gets out, and it will…” said Tina grinning at me. “You’ll be famous Avis. What are your family going to think?”

  I grimaced. “I dare to think.”

  “But Avis you will be the face of the uprising against Malakai! We can begin to dismantle his empire. Once this gets out it will be just what people need, they will have the confidence to confront him. His main power is gone! He doesn’t have the Book of Names anymore, he’s weak.”

  “He’ll be looking for it though, I bet ya,” said Robin.

  “He will,” said Partington. “Ernest is right though, Avis. If you become the face of the uprising, having already conquered him, you will give so many Wizards the hope to stand up to injustice again. And that’s very important.”

  “I am not the right person to be the face of any uprising, believe me! As I said, I just followed on from your quests. I’d prefer anonymity.”

  Ernie looked fit to burst. “But!”

  “He said he wants anonymity,” said Tina defiantly. Her stare enough to make Ernie and Partington back down. “But, there might be an alternative…” she said. “I mean, we’d have to figure out the right story, but, I don’t see why it wouldn’t work…”

  It was agreed and a Magical pact had been formed. If anyone even so much as breathed what we’d agreed to anyone but each other, then something very nasty would happen.

  “And you are sure that is ok with you Avis?” said Ernie.

  “I am one hundred percent sure.” It was a great plan, I had to agree.

  “Right,” said Partington as the Healer nodded that we could all leave. “Time to tell the world…”

  ***

  A special assembly had been called in the Chamber. I was sitting next to Tina and Robin, sipping kiwi juice, my heart thumping. The Chamber was packed to the brim and buzzing with excitement that an impromptu assembly had been called. They were all whispering, trying to guess what it could be about.

  The Lily prowled the front of the Chamber and once silence fell and addressed the packed room, beaming wide.

  “It has long been known…” he called. “That the man known as Malakai held a deep Magical power over a vast portion of our Society. He was schooled here, at Hailing Hall and all of you have heard of him, his evil ways and mysterious plans that we would all be entering into, with little choice,” he paused. “I am pleased to say then, that after an altercation in the school last night, Malakai’s powers have been severely weakened…” talking broke out. I saw Ross’s livid, confused face as he looked round at his friends. But then cheering. The whole school began cheering and screaming with joy.

  “NO WAY!”

  “HOW?!”

  “Impossible!” People cried, hugging each other.

  “Hush… hush!” cried the Lily over the impenetrable noise and excitement. “Let me introduce then… our hero. The person who did it, the one who has saved countless lives, not just from death, but from a life of martyrdom. Now, let us listen to his fascinating story… Ernest Partington!”

  The crowd roared and screamed as Ernie stood from the Magisteers table and walked confidently to the front. The whole school stood and cheered for ages. I smiled as he looked over at me. Tina was clapping and screaming all at the same time, she glanced at me once or twice to see if I was jealous. I wasn’t… not much, this was for the best. Huge drapes and posters fells from the rafters with Ernie’s face emblazoned across them. Ernie was a crowd pleaser. His good looks endeared him instantly to the girls and his confidence and bravado gave the boys a new hero.

  “So that’s what happened…” finished Ernie. “And now, I can finally retake my last year of school.” The crowd stood again and applauded. Some were crying, astounded at the brilliant story. And it was a brilliant story, mostly made up by me.

  Ernie had recounted to an enthralled audience how as a ghost he couldn’t be seen, how he lived in the clock tower and one day stumbled upon an old amulet with a name written inside. It was the true name of Malakai, the one who had killed him.

  “And I soon worked out, with some help, that I was the only one who could stop him… Ghosts are the only one’s who can say a Jarred Name.”

  We left the Chamber. Everyone in the school so excited that they began running around the castle sending firework Spells whizzing into the ceilings and off into the grounds. I realised that there were more people who’s lives had been touched by Malakai than I’d realised. Even the Magisteers joined in the celebrations, until the castle was a mass of colour, noise and excitement. The Lily was standing on the staircase above the hall, he caught my eye and winked.

  ***

  The last three months at Hailing Hall were what I thought coming to this school was supposed to be like. In other words, it was bliss.

  Ernie had managed to get himself on the front page of the Herrald for a whole week. We hardly saw him, as he was continually in meetings with journalists who wanted their five minutes with the now infamous Ernie Partington. Suddenly any doubt I had about not revealing it was actually me dissipated. The newspaper was very flattering about such a young, clever, handsome boy, yet still ran with the headline Ghost-Boy defeats Malakai!

  Of course, Ernie wasn’t impressed with it, the papers referring to him as Ghost-boy hit a nerve I think. Still, the school was walking on air, housing an A list celebrity. Someone who had won back the liberty of thousands of Wizards across all the Seven Magical Kingdoms. You know, I almost kept forgetting that it was me that did those things. He was the man of the moment and Partington was so proud. He knew it was a sham, but I think he was just pleased to have his only son back.

  I was glad now that I didn’t die. Just for those last few months at school. It took me a week or so to fully recover from dying, but after, I felt normal again. I slept in the Healer’s room a few more nights, under her orders, I didn’t complain. The sleep you could get in that room was unbelievable. When me and Tina left the Healers room after a week, Tina now fully recovered and back to her normal self, we danced and skipped along to the Chamber where we indulged ourself in a huge meal with three puddings! It felt so good to eat!

  “I want to get Robin something special,” I told her. “You know, for his heroics…”

  “Aw, your such a cutie…” she said pulling closer a copy of the Herald. We flicked through the paper and she showed me lots of stuff at the back with tiny order forms. “These catalogues are my favourite, I was obsessed as a kid!”

  I had to admit, my attention was caught by the many Magical things that the back of the newspaper housed. A few things that caught my attention like:

  Tait’s Walking Bookcase, have your books nearest you at all times! This Bookcase folds up into a piece of wood big enough to fit in a breast pocket. When tapped will open out into full-size, thus allowing all your books to follow you wherever you go.

  “I’d like that!” said Tina, her eyes wide.

  I couldn’t help a smile. “I was just about to say that…”

  “Or what about this…” she said pointing.

  We sat and had a think. I couldn’t order anything from the Herrald as I had lost all my gold on the train here. But then I kept getting this thought, tickling my brain - when I walked through the passage way towards the Book of Names, there were rooms to the left and right stacked with goodies and treasures, Tina didn’t need convincing.

  “Got the key still?” she said.

  “Of course,” I said. “But what if Mal… what if he’s down there?”

  “Pfft… do really think he will be?” she said laughing.

  As we left the Chamber, I saw David Starlight, sitti
ng quietly on his form table doing homework, he caught my eye and grimaced, looking away quickly.

  Tina unlocked the door and slipped inside as the cold, damp draft hit us. She held tightly to me as we went down through the blackness. Soon enough, we stood in the small, cramped room to the left. It took Tina over five minutes to find a Spell that would illuminate the room. Finally, one worked. Small clear stones dotted in the walls all the way around lit with dim, pulsing white light. “Hmm interesting…” she said.

  “Why?” I couldn’t see what was so interesting, the light wasn’t even very bright.

  “Well, Wizards stopped using Quartz to light a room about two hundred years ago… this room must be blooming old!”

  Tina began pulling the dusty rags off with gusto. This caused plumes of century-old dust to erupt everywhere.

  “Ahh!” I cried coughing.

  “Oh give over, you baby!” she laughed.

  But once we had a look, we realised this really was a treasure trove of stuff that Malakai, or whoever else, had collected.

  “Don’t touch anything,” said Tina. “On pain of death.”

  “Ok… what the heck’s that?” I said, looking at a tall thing that looked a food blender.

  “That looks like a Dehouser,” said Tina with awe. “It makes a house collapse in on itself and collects it into a tiny ball. Look! There’s some inside.” There sure was, it looked like some sort of gum ball machine.

  “Oh wow!” I said picking up what looked like a pair of dirty old shoes.

  “What?” said Tina.

  “These…” I said, unable to believe what I was seeing. “These are a pair of Seven League Shoes!”

  “No way!” she said, grabbing them to take a look.

  She turned them over, the soles were covered in the number seven, and inside had a label: Seven League Shoes, use me carefully.

  “They don’t make these anymore! There’s only seven made, in the whole world! My Dad’s always wanted a pair…”

  “Avis…” said Tina looking at something. “I think I’ve found the perfect present for Robin.”

  Soon enough, all our lessons had resumed. Things had got back to as normal as normal could be.

  I was back in my dorm room with the other Condor boys. Back in that comfy bed, homework by the fireside, communal trips to dinner and ridiculous chats about boy things.

  “You and this Tina are a item yes?” said Jake, smiling at me across the fireside. All the boys looked up over their parchment, smirking.

  “Pfft,” I said. “Naa, we’re just friends.” But my face burned red.

  “Well, if you are just friends you won’t mind if I ask her out then?” he said.

  I hope he was joking because I felt a jealous monster rise in my stomach at the thought. All the boys were silent for a moment. Then, the git laughed. “Your face!”

  “You sod…” was all I could manage in a small voice, but relief flooded back through me.

  “Well, Hunter’s doing pretty well for himself,” said Graham. “In fact, it’s caused a bit of tension in classes. He’s been seeing Jess and Florence at the same time.”

  I gasped. “No way! Where is he now?”

  “Probably trying to apologise to them both!” said Graham as the boys laughed.

  There was a moment of pens scratching across parchment, before Jake looked up at me again. “So… if your friends with Tina Partington, you must have some insider knowledge about Ernest Partington?” All eyes looked up, except Robin who smiled wryly over his homework.

  Dennis crooned. “Ah, I wish I was Ernie’s friend… do you think you can introduce me Avis?”

  I laughed. “I’ll see what I can do Dennis.” Simon didn't look up, he was jealous, I just knew it.

  “How well do you know him?” Graham placed his parchment down and was leaning forwards. I pretended to scratch away at my homework, being all mysterious, but the truth was I hadn’t thought up what to say. How much did I tell them?

  “Bah…” I said eventually. “Not that well, just, you know, when he was a ghost… and er that’s it really.”

  Jake placed his homework down now. “So, you knew him when he defeated Malakai?”

  “Erm… sort of…” I muttered, looking at Robin for help.

  “Because,” Graham said. “I remember when you said you could see Malakai out the window that time.”

  Jake narrowed his big eyes at me. “Yeah, and we was all talking and wondering about you when you disappeared after that accident with Hunter.”

  Graham nodded fervently. “And Hunter said himself, in so many words, that it wasn’t you that attacked him, but someone else… someone he wasn’t allowed to say?”

  “What are you suggesting?” Simon said, turning on Graham. “That Avis was framed by Malakai, so teamed up with a ghost to defeat the most evil Wizard of all kind?” he scoffed.

  “All I’m saying is, if it was Malakai who attacked Hunter, that means Avis was blamed for attacking Hunter, even though it was easy for the Magisteers to work out that he didn’t do it! And we were all led to believe it was him… I mean it made sense at the time, he was talking about all these evil plans.”

  “And, he vanished somewhere during the Riptide match, even though the exits was sealed off… the night that Ernest came back to life…” said Jake.

  “I am here you know…”

  Jake turned back to me. “I know you are. I am just saying that we are not stupid, we have all spotted these… what you call them?” he clicked his fingers trying to find the word.

  “Anomalies?” Simon offered.

  “Yes, these anomalies… we’ve all noticed. We just want to know the truth.”

  “Come on guys,” said Robin. “Let’s just chill, I’m sure Avis will tell you what happened in time…”

  “Yeah I know,” said Graham, sitting back. “Sorry mate didn’t mean to get carried away like that. It’s just, you know, you can tell us - we are your form. We’re not gonna say nothing…”

  I nodded and soon enough the scratching of homework restarted, a little tenser than before. My mind was working overtime not to compromise the story. I’d worked so hard making up Ernie’s story, that I had had completely forgotten about my own.

  Partington was in an immensely good mood and taught us lots of brilliant stuff, preparing us for our second year at Hailing Hall. Over the remaining weeks our lessons began winding down with more free time. Which was nice, because me, Robin, Tina and Ernie would meet up out of our respective classes and go for walks round the grounds, have dinner together and go to the weekly Riptide match. I liked the routine.

  Partington told us that, in our second year, he would only be our form tutor. We would be going off to have lessons with lots of new Magisteers and learn loads of new, exciting things. Everyone was sad, but he reassured us that we would see him every morning for form.

  Just before dinner that night, in the Condor dorm, I told Robin to wait behind.

  “What? What is it?” Robin said, looking worried.

  I laughed. “Nothing to worry about mate.”

  “Oh right,” he said. “Good, no more drama please.”

  “I erm, just wanted to give you this,” I pulled out the little wrapped parcel from under my bed and gave it to him.

  “For me? Why?”

  “Why? Why? For saving my life? For bringing back two dead people in record time!” I said as he smiled. He took the parcel and unwrapped it, pulling out a pair of old, wire framed spectacles.

  “Now, they don’t look like much,” I said. “But these are a pair of…”

  “I know what they are,” he gasped. “Wow, thank you mate, but… where did you get them?”

  “Secret. I just never got to properly thank you, cos’ you know you were the real saviour that night. If it hadn’t been for you… well.”

  He swapped his glasses for the spectacles. “Woah!” he called, jumping backwards. “Weird! I couldn’t wear these all the time!”

  “I know right,
weird aren’t they!” I’d tried them on in the passageway. When you put them on, they revealed every bit of Magic that had been done in the vicinity. The most recent Magic shows up bright and colourful, whereas historical Magic shows up faded and grey. It makes your eyes hurt seeing all the bright colours of recent Magic, but immensely useful and cool if you know what your looking at.

  A week later, I was down at Breakfast early. Me and Tina had agreed to go out in the grounds together all day. Just me and her. I met Tina in the empty hall. She was looking very casual in a pink hoodie and her hair perched up on the top of her head.

  “Your late…” she said.

  It was a hot and sunny all day. We found a spot by the lake and lay in the sun, chatting and watching the ducks.

  “What a year,” said Tina. “That curse he put me in, did I tell you, I could hear what people said to me, sometimes.”

  “Really?” I said, feeling my face grow red. “What was it like? Being cursed I mean?”

  “It was weird,” she said gravely. “I was in this horrible, nightmarish place, completely on my own. It was all grey, and dusty with rivers made of black gunge. And then these bars would just fall down and I’d be trapped in this tiny prison cell. But sometimes I’d wake up and hear people. But I couldn’t open my eyes, or move, or talk… I never want to be cursed again.” She looked up at the bright blue sky wincing. “Never thought I’d see that again… thought I was gonna stay like that. No offence, but I didn’t think you’d work out a plan like that, and… die for me.”

  “Yeah well, like I said, I owed you.”

  She smiled her brilliant shining smile. “Come on, lets go for a dip!”

  “Erm…” I said, looking at the big, cold river.

  “Where’s your adventure?” she clicked her fingers and a rope appeared, attached to the tall tree above. Then, she jumped on the rope and swung in a high arch through the sky. She let go at the height of the arch and soared through the air, hitting the water with a gigantic SPLASH!