Avis Blackthorn: Is Not an Evil Wizard! (18 page)

Tina frowned at him. “What on earth is that?”
she looked peeved that Robin knew something she didn’t.

“Well, the Spell makes the channeller learn
from Spells that are put on it, making it defend itself and reflect
them in the future. Before he changed his amulet he must have put
what protection he could on it, just in case someone did find
it.”

Tina huffed, “I’ve never heard of such a
thing!”

“Nor me,” I said huffing, I was the only
person who knew the true name of Malakai and I had no way of saying
it!

Robin swallowed. “What I don’t get is… If
he’s been in the school, why hasn’t he been back to destroy it? He
knows where he left it surely?”

I had wondered that too. “Ah but…” I said.
“What if he only started coming to the school after I took this
from the lost property? What if this is what he’s looking for?”

Tina clicked her fingers at me. “Bingo! Only
explanation. No one else in the school has ever heard of, as far as
I know, Malakai coming in and doing as he pleases.”

“Yeah but, surely he would have come here
years ago and found it?” said Robin, causing Tina to deflate.

“Hmm, yeah that’s true.”

“Why don’t you tell the Lily?” said Robin.
“He will be able to stop your tongue bleeding when you try and say
the name, and his revealing Spell will be loads more powerful.”

“No,” said Tina.

“Why not?” I said, I thought it was a good
idea.

“If you tell the Lily then Malakai will find
out, Malakai has a hold over the Lily… he must know his true name
or something. If you tell the Lily, he will be forced to tell
Malakai, I am sure.”

We all sat silent. “Oh, I’m never gonna
avenge my brother!” said Tina standing and leaning on the long arm
of the clock face. “While
he
is out there… I have failed my
quest!”

“What?” I said trying to be calming. “Failed?
This is our first year, our robes and ties haven't even changed
colour yet! You can’t expect to just blow the most evil Wizard of
all time out the water in our first few months at Magic school.
Don’t be so hard on yourself.”

She turned on me. “What, you want me to wait
until the last year of school do you? And then sort him out?”

“No… just, let’s not rush anything.”

“Avis is right,” said Robin. “I mean, we know
hardly anything yet, Magic wise, he’ll just kill us if we try
anything now.”

“Not Avis,” she said. “He can’t kill him,
he’s a seventh son, and Avis knows his true name.”

“But I can’t
say
his name, and just
because I’m a seventh son, doesn’t mean he can’t kill me does
it?”

“
OHH
!” Tina cried into the rafters.
“You’re both scared!”

I shook my head. “I’m not
scared
…”

“You are! You are the only one who can stop
him Avis! You are the one who can avenge my brother and all the
countless others!”

I swallowed, I was scared. I was scared of
Tina, who looked positively crazy, her hair wild and eyes
murderous. “I think…” I said trying to slow the conversation down.
“That we need to sleep on it, and search for some Spells that will
enable me to say his true name.”

Robin nodded with me.

“There is no
time
!” Tina cried. “Do
you think if there was, I’d be waiting until my last year too?”

I frowned, what was she getting at? “I don’t
get it. Why isn’t there any time?”

“It’s the last quarter of the sign of
Handen
.”

“Come again?” said Robin, who shared my
perplexed expression.

She huffed, and I half expected steam to
shoot out of her nostrils. “The
last quarter of Handen
, the
Magical Star Sign? It’s all to do with the Book of Names. At the
end of the sign of Handen, the Book of Names vanishes to another
place. If Malakai has the book at the end of April, he will have it
for twelve years more! And I won’t be able to get my brother
back!”

“Get him back?” said Robin. “What do you
mean?”

Tina was breathing hard. “Anyone killed by
dark Magic is able to be brought back with their true name from the
Book of Names…”

Me and Robin didn’t look at each other, but I
felt uneasy at the prospect of bringing the dead back. “Is that a
good idea?” I said slowly.

“What?” Tina spat. “To get my brother back
and bring an end to Malakai? Yeah, it’s a pretty GOOD IDEA!” she
cried. “You know what…” she said throwing her arms in the air. “I
don’t need you, either of you. I can do this on my own!” Her fuse
had blown. I’d never seen her so fraught, and she wasn’t even
shouting. She was shaking with anger.

“Thanks for all the help you guys! Nice one!
I don’t need two sad, scaredy nerds anyway!”

“Wait,” I said, my bones creaking as I stood.
“Don’t
go
…”

“Get away from me! You’ve proven where your
loyalties lay. If you won’t help me get my brother Ernest back then
sod you!”

With a slam of the roof hatch she was gone. I
turned back to Robin who was staring after the roof hatch, then
looked up at me with a weak smile. “She doesn’t mean it mate, she’s
just angry. She’ll come round I’m sure…”

***

“
It’s clear where your loyalties lay,
”
I thought. Did she mean because I’m a Blackthorn? And what was that
last thing she said: “
If you won’t help me get my brother Ernest
back
…” Ernest? Why was that familiar?

I thought about the Book of Names
disappearing every twelve years — why?

I sighed and wondered about Malakai’s true
name, Steve Malcolm, being Jarred. Memories of my parents kept
jumping to attention. I remember them talking about removing a
Jarred name, but I can’t remember what it was. What on earth would
they think of all this? And what would they do if I did manage to
say Malakai’s true name and end him? Sure, I would be in Tina’s
good books, very good books, but what would they do? It would show
them. And… what if I managed to get the Book Of Names? I would have
the power over all of them. I laughed to myself at the possibly as
I drifted into a cold sleep.

***

“
AVIS
!” cried a loud, familiar voice.
I woke with a start.

“What? Hello?” I looked up to see a glowing
figure bobbing in front of me. “Ernie?” I said.

He looked frantic and was sobbing hard. “It’s
all my fault!” he cried. “All my fault!”

“What is? Calm down… tell me what’s
wrong!”

Ernie looked terrified. “I couldn't let her
see me. This year, so hard…” he said in between sobs. “She’s in the
Healer’s room…”

“Who is?” But I already knew the answer.

“T-t…
Tina
!”

“What happened?” I stood and threw clothes
on.

“She went looking for him. Followed him. It’s
all
my fault
!” he wailed.

Now I knew what she meant when she said…
my brother Ernest
… “Why couldn't you let her see you?”

“I’m her… her
BROTHER
!” he wailed. “He
attacked her! Malakai attacked her!”

I ran as fast as I could, ignoring the sharp
pain in my sides. “It’s up here!” Ernie cried zooming along the
corridors ahead of me. My heart was throbbing in my chest as I
skidded round corners. Finally Ernie zoomed through a set of large
double doors. I crashed into them and ran inside. Then stopped
still. This was the Healer’s room? I stood now in awe. Dull green
light was coming from, what looked like, a miniature sun which hung
high in the middle of the huge room. I couldn’t take my eyes away.
It hung graceful and wonderful. A million shades of green swirling
imperceptible strands of beauty and light. Green rays gliding
downwards to people in beds. It was so beautiful. As I moved slowly
into the room, transfixed, I saw the rays drift my way. As it
touched me, it became bliss. All pain eliminated, all thoughts
vanished, all aches and pains gone. I couldn’t help but stand and
stare, soaking up the green goodness.

A beautiful woman in a long, white robe
walked elegantly towards me. Her blonde hair hung down to her
ankles, her face radiant, with eyes the same green as the sun. And
then she spoke with an angelic, soothing voice. “You are here to
see Tina Partington?”

“Yes… wait, Partington?” something else
smacked me in the face. Tina and Ernie’s Dad was… my form tutor…
Magisteer Partington
?!

Ernie was bobbing up and down near a bed in
the corner of the room. “This way,” said the Healer.

Tina lay unconscious. Green rays coursing in
and out of each breath. She looked bad. Open wounds lit her face
scarlet red and her hair was matted with dried blood. The soft
white clothes she had been put in were running red. The Healer
dabbed at the wounds with a white cloth, soaked in a bowl of water
and soft smelling potions. As the green light and the water touched
her face, the wounds knitted back together. It was strange to
watch. Her beautiful face returning in some part back to the one I
knew. Tears welled up in my eyes now at the sight of her. Her words
reverberating around my mind from the last time she spoke to me.
Ernie bobbed by her bedside, sobbing into her pillow.

“All my fault,” he mumbled.

“Ernest Partington? Why didn't you tell me
that you were a Partington?”

“I… don’t… know,” he said in between sobs.
“Easier… not to.”

“So your the dead brother who set her the
quest?”

“Yes, in my ignorance! After I
passed
over
, I realised what I had done, how stupid I was to have left
the quest to someone so young and innocent. The grief led me back
here as this…” he indicated his see-through form.

“But you couldn’t show yourself to her?”

“No. However hard I tried, she couldn’t see
me!” he wailed.

“And your Dad?”

“Him neither, although, maybe he once saw me.
I don’t know.”

“She wants to bring you back to life…” I
said.

Ernie stopped wailing and nodded. “Oh, I
would like that so very much. To be with my family again. I don’t
want to be stuck like this forever!”

I turned to the Healer who was quietly
dabbing. “How long will she be like that?”

“A while,” she said softly.

I took a final look at Tina and Ernie
Partington, then turned away. “I’m going to sort this,” I said
turning and walking out of the Healer’s room. “I promise.”

Something inside me clicked, Tina was right,
I did have the power to end Malakai. All I needed was the courage.
And now he’d given it to me. The Partington family had been ripped
apart by this man Malakai. And the girl I… loved, yes loved… had
nearly been killed by him.

As I left the Healer’s room, the content
feeling drained out of me as despair and anger pulsed back into my
veins. I heard a man running up the opposite corridor and bursting
into the Healer’s room. I saw the flick of Partington’s brown robes
flash into the green light. As I walked further and further away
the more and more determined I became to end Malakai - the evil,
lower than amoeba, thing that he was.

I had the clues.

All I needed was a plan.

That first night I sat and stared out of the
clock face, running it all through my mind. Robin came to see me
and asked if I’d heard about what happened to Tina. I didn't feel
like talking but went through my thoughts with him.

“I know his true name but I can’t say it…” I
said. “If I can find a way to remove the Jarred Spell, then I can
say it.”

Robin sniffed, his beady eyes blinking
rapidly at me. “You have to be careful Avis. Don’t go through with
any of this as an act of revenge. This Malakai is the most evil
person in the history of Magic, I’m sure he’ll be more than ready
for you.”

“Yes. But he can’t hurt
me
…” the
thought had come to me before, why, when I saw him, did he not
Spell me? But instead went for Hunter.

He nodded stiffly in agreement. “I get that,
he Spelled Hunter and made it look like you, but why didn’t he spot
the channeller on your arm? If he knew it was his?”

I looked down at my channeller and then saw
why. I indicated to Robin - these robes were too big for me — the
sleeves overlapped my arms and hands, the channeller covered over.
“And, why would Malakai even think for a moment that I would have
to get a channeller from lost property? I’m a Blackthorn!”

“True that, did you know you’re in that
encyclopaedia of black Magic… well, your family is.”

“I know.” Our family was notorious, one of my
great-grandparents could have given Malakai a run for his money.
And then… my thoughts kept coming back to the fact that my parents
had me, even though they knew I was a
seventh son
. Something
didn’t add up there.

“I have to do this before April.”

Robin whistled. “Don’t have long then.”

“I just need to follow him, to find out where
he is going when he comes into the school. It might lead to the
book. And then I need to find out how to say his true name.”

“What you gonna do if you get the book?”

I hadn’t thought about that. “I don’t know,
it doesn’t matter. I need to find out what this key does first and
who it’s from.” I held up the key that I’d got in the present at
Christmas. “Look into it for me…” Robin nodded curtly as I tucked
it away. Perhaps I was pinning too much hope on things, perhaps the
key was for someone else and the presents had been mixed up?

In the meantime I realised, I needed to find
Ernie again.

I searched high and low for that ghost but
Tina’s brother Ernie couldn’t be found no matter how hard I looked.
It was annoying, because I had left him not two days ago, next to
Tina’s bed. I got so desperate I even stopped passing ghosts,
asking them where he was, but, if they even bothered to answer me
back, all had no idea. Each day, I would go to the Healer’s room
and sit by Tina’s bed. She was still unconscious, but the loving
Healer lady with the green eyes said that this was a good thing,
more time to heal. Her wounds had sealed up nicely now and she was
resembling more of the Tina that I remember. Flowers and cards
littered the table and floor all around her bed. I sat for hours on
end, hoping that Ernie would make an appearance. But I caught not
even a sniff of him. Time was running down quickly and I
desperately needed to ask him some questions. How did he die? And
what did he know about the quest that would help me finish it?