“In this place, inside these halls/A terrible betrayal falls. Well, Morgana did betray your father here,” said the princess.
“Sure, but what about the rest?” asked Jez.
“Full-villain siblings, twins/One the other’s power wins,” continued Ileana. “Morgana and Dreadthorn are full-villain twins. She took his power as school Master and eventually took his crystal ball, too.”
“Go on,” I said.
“A long-kept secret is revealed/To one, the other twin must yield,” said Ileana. “We found out their secret, the one Morgana and Dreadthorn kept for so many years … that they were twins. And in the end one of them would have to yield to the other by force.”
“What about the last part?” asked Wolf.
“The traitor twin shall be betrayed/And villains into heroes made,” said Ileana. “Morgana was betrayed by Deven Do-Good when he made off with the crystal ball instead of giving it to her like she’d planned.”
“And the heroes?” I asked.
“We’re the heroes,” Ileana said with a smile. “Whether you like it or not, we saved your dad. We saved the lives of hero and villain students. We saved Doctor Do-Good. We rescued our parents and defeated Morgana. Heroes.”
“Would you keep your voice down!” I whispered. “Okay, okay. I get it. You know, I think you’re right.”
I reread the lines again. It all seemed to fit. By trying to outsmart the words of the prophecy, Morgana had actually fulfilled them and brought disaster on herself.
“Of course I’m right,” said the princess.
We talked a while longer. Classes had been canceled because of all the confusion and chaos, to resume once things were cleaned up. It seemed the hero-villain fight had done some serious damage to our school.
As we emerged from behind the Great Clock, we ran straight into Tabs, who hovered in the air with an envelope in her teeth. I plucked it from her. When she realized I didn’t have any treat to offer her, she promptly bit my shoulder. Then she nuzzled and purred against Ileana’s cheek and flew off.
“What’s it say?” asked Wolf.
“My dad wants to see me in his study.”
“Maybe he wants to thank you for saving him?” Ileana asked.
“Right,” I said skeptically.
I said good-bye to my allies and made my way to the old man’s office. As usual, it was crowded with old, musty books and jars crammed into cobwebby corners. His desk was littered with the familiar assortment of parchments. The skull still held a burning candle. The deathwatch beetle still ticked down the time to someone’s death. And I was still left to stand even though a perfectly good chair was just inches away from me.
“Rune,” my father said, looking up at last from his parchments.
“You could’ve told me,” I said. He didn’t have to ask what I meant.
“Well, you found out either way,” he said stiffly.
“I mean, what if I’d wanted to date her? She’s my sister! Eww!” I said.
“I would not have allowed it,” he answered.
“How? You don’t always know everything.”
“Don’t I?” he asked sharply. Then he stood and came around the desk to face me. I resisted the urge to back away. “I know that you stood up to Morgana. I know that you came to the hero school to rescue me. I know that you somehow stopped the attack on this school.”
I smiled at his unexpected compliments.
“However,” he continued. My smile faltered. “I also know you worked alongside one—what was his name, Tabs?” The cat-a-bat mewed at my father from her dusty corner. “Ah yes, Invis-a-boy. You made a serious mess of my corridors and nearly brought ruin on us all.”
“But—but,” I stammered. “I saved you! I saved the school! And you kept secrets from me! You never even told me Ileana was my sister, that the queen was my mother! And hey!” I said, just realizing something. “Does this mean I’m a prince?”
“I suppose it does,” my father said.
“So shouldn’t you bow to me or something?” I was joking, of course, but my dad didn’t seem amused.
“Time to fulfill your royal duties, Prince Rune. You can start with cleaning up the mess your little hero friends left behind.”
I remembered the scorch marks, the blasted cave walls, the melted and frozen and smashed chunks of debris that had fallen across the corridors like an avalanche.
My shoulders sagged as I left my dad’s study. Outside, Ileana was waiting for me.
“How bad was it?” she asked.
“I have to clean the whole school,” I said.
“Not so bad,” she said.
“Not so—? Have you looked at this place?”
“Want some help?” The princess poked me playfully with her elbow.
“Yes!” I pleaded. “Wait, you’re going to help me?”
“Of course!” said Ileana, already Spelling things back into place for me. “What are sisters for?”
Together, my sister and I worked the hours away until the school was back to normal. Exhausted, we walked back side by side until we reached the Great Clock. Then she hugged me.
“Hey, no hugging in the halls,” I said, but I might have hugged her back. That’s just a rumor, though. There were no witnesses.
Acknowledgments
I was about eighty pages into this book when I realized the story had somehow gotten away from me, and I couldn’t get it back. I was so frustrated. Then, one desperate night, I threw up my hands and said, “I have to start over!” My husband picked up a container I keep next to my computer labeled Random Plot Twists. In it are tiny pieces of paper with ideas from Internet plot generators. He pulled one at random and said, “Whatever this says, you’re going to write about it.” I laughed, filled with skeptical amusement, knowing nothing in that little box could really help me. Then my husband read the paper, and this is what it said: “There is a prophecy, and the villain is the one that’s described as the hero.”
You have just read the book I wrote based on that little sentence. So, my first thanks goes to my husband, Ben, for his uncanny knack to draw the right piece of paper.
Of course, writing a book is just one part of the whole process. Someone has to have faith in it, has to edit it, has to make it all come together. Thanks to the following: Nancy Gallt Agency and Marietta Zacker for your faith and encouragement; all the amazing people at Bloomsbury, especially Caroline Abbey, who makes my writing look good; Kyra and Kaelyn, always my first audience; and Victor Rivas, whose artistic talent brings my characters to life. Thanks above all to the Author of Life, my inspiration each day.
And thank you, reader, for sharing in the adventure.
A Note on the Author
Stephanie S. Sanders grew up on an Iowa farm surrounded by fields, forests, and a little river. As a child, she believed these were magical places, harboring the secret worlds of fairies and unicorns. Stephanie is all grown up now, but she still lives in Iowa with her husband, Benjamin, and their two daughters, Kyra and Kaelyn, in a rickety old house. She has a cat named Pudge, a dog named Buddy, and a fish named Speedy Tomato. Stephanie enjoys reading and writing fantasy stories. Her other interests change daily but usually include: steampunk, Renaissance festivals, Celtic music, old houses, graveyards, photography, hiking, and all things chocolate. She is also the author of Villain School: Good Curses Evil.
www.stephsanders.com
www.villainkids.com
Books By Stephanie S. Sanders
THE VILLAIN SCHOOL SERIES
Good Curses Evil
Hero in Disguise
Text copyright © 2012 by Stephanie S. Sanders
Cauldron illustrations © 2012 by Esy Casey
All rights reserved You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (including without limitation electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, printing, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission o
f the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages
First published in the United States of America in October 2012
by Bloomsbury Books for Young Readers
Electronic edition published in October 2012
www.bloomsburykids.com
For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to
Permissions, Bloomsbury BFYR, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10010
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Sanders, Stephanie (Stephanie Summer).
Villain school: hero in disguise / by Stephanie S. Sanders. —1st U.S. ed.
p. cm.
Summary: When two new students arrive at Villain School, Rune Drexler discovers that
one of them is a hero in disguise and Rune, Countess Jezebel Dracula, and Big Bad Wolf
Junior must protect their school from the heroes.
[1. Good and evil—Fiction. 2. Superheroes—Fiction. 3. Schools—Fiction.
4. Best friends—Fiction. 5. Friendship—Fiction. 6. Characters in literature—Fiction.]
I. Title. II. Title: Hero in disguise.
PZ7.S1978832Vj 2012 [Fic]—dc23 2011051124
ISBN 978-1-59990-730-7 (e-book)
Villain School Page 15