“Are you okay?” asked Alex, suddenly concerned by the pieces of Elias that had simply vanished.
Elias tilted his shifting features in a nod. “I will be.”
Taking the proffered book, Alex looked up at Elias’s starry eyes with a frown. “How are they going to use me? These royal mages?” he asked.
“It’s funny,” mused Elias, “that you come to me with all these questions, when a source of great knowledge is in your midst every day. I must say, he’s doing a rather good job of keeping his mouth shut. I suppose he wouldn’t want to spoil things, now that he’s one of you again.” Elias grinned sharply, his black eyes teetering on the edge of menacing.
“You mean Aamir?” whispered Alex, as the seeds of distrust started to sprout again. They had never truly gone away, but he had hoped he had learned all he could from his friend—he had just begun to trust Aamir again. Glancing at Elias, he wasn’t sure whom to believe, though Elias seemed to be on a roll of generously giving information. Surely, the shadow-man had no reason to lie? Alex was about to ask another question when the wispy figure of Elias simply disappeared into the shadows, with a whorl of his transient body.
The last thing Alex heard as the shadow-man evaporated was a whisper on the wind, murmuring. “You think Aamir hasn’t been here before? You’re smarter than that, Alex. Not much, but definitely smarter than that.”
Left alone with his thoughts, his mind full to the brim with yet more mystery, Alex looked down at the book he had been given. It had a plain, brown cover and did not seem to have a title on the front or the spine. Flipping through the first couple of pages, Alex saw that they were blank, though he could tell there was definitely text later on in the book. Just as he was about to turn to the page he hoped the title might be on, he found himself distracted by the sound of more scuffling around the side of the cottage. It sounded oddly like somebody trying to creep away. Knowing it couldn’t be Elias, Alex moved around to the other edge of the cottage, in time to see the familiar figure of Ellabell trying to leave as stealthily as she could. It was almost comical, her movements exaggerated, like she was a cartoon character trying to slink away.
“Ellabell?” he called.
She froze, then turned slowly, a look of concern in her eyes. Alex walked toward her.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“I didn’t want to interrupt,” she said quietly, bashfully lifting her gaze. “I shouldn’t have spied on you, but I saw Elias, and—he worries me, Alex. I don’t believe he is a friend to you. He’s capable of dark deeds, and I just don’t want you getting caught up in them. I’m sorry… but I just can’t believe his intentions are good.”
Alex felt the urge to defend himself, to convince Ellabell that he wouldn’t willingly associate with her attacker. “I know Elias is a tricky creature, but I don’t have any say in when he visits me. This wasn’t planned—he comes to me when he feels like it, and I take the information he gives with a pinch of salt. Most of the time, it’s all just riddles anyway,” he assured her, resting his hand on her arm. She seemed a little shaky at the sight of the shadow-man, and Alex couldn’t blame her, after what Elias had done, but she was putting on her bravest face.
“What is that?” she asked, pointing at the book in his hand.
“A book Elias gave me,” he replied.
She sighed sadly. “You shouldn’t trust him, Alex. I know he’s useful, but you can’t trust a word he says or a gift he gives—promise me you’ll be wary of him?”
Alex nodded with vigor. “I don’t trust him either! I just have to hope there’s some good in him somewhere, that’s driving these visits and all the information he gives me.” Swiftly, he tucked the book into the waist of his pants.
Ellabell shook her head. “I don’t think that’s why he does it. Anyway, we should be getting back. The others were missing you.” A worried look passed across her face, quickly hidden behind a half-smile, and she took his hand in hers.
As they wandered back toward the villa, Ellabell’s words left Alex a little uncertain. He knew she was right, but he also knew how much better he seemed to feel after many of Elias’s visits. They were his only window into the unknown, and, as much as Alex hated to admit it, he looked forward to them. Although it made him feel somewhat ashamed, part of him was glad Elias was still around.
As they grew closer to the villa, however, he began to feel a strange sensation prickling at his skin, raising the fine hairs on his arms. It was an uncomfortable feeling, as if there were eyes on him, peering through the darkness in his direction. Shrugging it off as Elias, he tried to ignore the sensation.
On his way over the wall, with Ellabell already over and down the other side, out of sight, Alex paused for a moment and darted across to one of the statues that lined the battlements. Glancing around, he no longer sensed eyes on him. Elias must have gone back to whatever it is Elias does, he thought. Reaching up, he tucked the book into the folded stone arms of the chosen statue, pushing it right back into a natural well that dipped at the back, perfect for the safe-keeping of Elias’s gift. Alex still wasn’t sure how scrutinized they would be within the villa walls, but he figured the Headmistress and her cronies were less likely to find the book here than if he stashed it away in his room somewhere, where they’d have easy access to it.
He’d return for it when he had a better idea of how safe they were.
Chapter 29
Elias’s words plagued Alex, as they had a nasty habit of doing. Lying back on his bed, staring at the ceiling, his mind was drawn to the faint movements of the older boy in the room next door. It pained him to think it, but he knew he had to confront Aamir on what Elias had alluded to; with everything going on, if there was anything Aamir wasn’t saying that could be helpful, Alex needed to know.
Dragging his feet, he moved out into the hallway and paused in front of Aamir’s door, his knuckles poised above the wood. Softly, he knocked.
“Come in,” called Aamir.
Alex stepped inside, his reluctance made all the more difficult by the grin that lit up Aamir’s face. He didn’t want to have to question Aamir again, but the pull of what Elias had said was too strong.
Closing the door gently behind him, Alex wandered over to the desk and sat in the chair opposite to where Aamir was sitting, at the edge of his bed. Instantly, Aamir’s face fell, seeing Alex’s grim look. It was no doubt a look he had seen before, so he knew what it meant.
“There are some questions I need answered, Aamir. I hate to do this to you, but I can’t leave this room without asking them,” muttered Alex.
Aamir rolled his eyes as if to say “not again,” but Alex wasn’t going to let it go this time. Elias’s words had given him a renewed desire to dig into the wells of Aamir’s untapped, hidden knowledge. But that made Alex wonder at Elias’s motivations for telling him about Aamir in the first place. Had he even been telling the truth? Ellabell’s warning flashed in his mind: “You shouldn’t trust him.” Alex knew he was about to see how far Elias could be trusted.
“When were you taken to Spellshadow Manor?” he asked, not wanting to jump in with the big queries. There was still a lot he didn’t know about Aamir, he realized, glancing at the older boy with his copper skin and dark hair.
Aamir seemed surprised. “What?”
“When were you taken to Spellshadow Manor?” he repeated.
Aamir frowned. “I must have been fifteen, maybe,” he replied after a long, thoughtful silence. “It seems so long ago, now.”
“Do you remember it?”
Aamir smiled sadly. “Some of it. I remember being out in the garden. It was hot, and the sprinklers were on. I’d been reading, I think, and I heard something. There was a fence behind the trees, where the garden backed onto a field. Perhaps it was a whisper—I can’t remember, I just know something distracted me and I put down my book and went to investigate. I remember my grandmother calling to me from the veranda, but I was already in the shade of the trees, trying to find whatev
er it was… That was the last thing I remember before the manor. My grandmother’s voice calling me and the sound of sprinklers. Funny, the things you remember.”
“Do you miss it?” Alex wondered, trying to picture Aamir’s world before Spellshadow.
“Of course I do,” he breathed, as if there were a great weight upon him. “I miss it every day, but if you think about it all the time, it will drive you mad. I tried that once—it was more painful to remember than to forget.”
“I hear that,” agreed Alex grimly. “Who’s waiting for you, back home?”
“My grandparents, my parents, my little sister,” he replied.
“You have a sister?” Alex hadn’t known about a sister. It reminded him of the promise he’d made to Natalie’s little sister, to get her back safely. He was still determined to make good on that promise, no matter how long it took.
Aamir smiled. “Samaira. She was only five when I disappeared. I doubt she even remembers me.”
“I’m sure she remembers you, Aamir. She’d definitely want you back home, where you belong,” Alex encouraged.
“You really believe we’re going to get out, don’t you?” he remarked kindly, though there was uncertainty in his eyes.
“I have to. Don’t you want to get back to them?” Alex asked, wanting to gauge Aamir’s reaction. When Aamir said nothing, Alex pressed him. “The thing is, I need to know who I’m taking with me, when I figure out a way back. I need to know if that includes you.”
Aamir sighed heavily. “I’m up for leaving… Of course I’m up for leaving this place. Home is all I have ever wanted, though it has long seemed impossible,” he replied quietly, with such emotion in his words that Alex half-believed him.
Talk of family seemed to have relaxed Aamir somewhat, though he kept glancing anxiously around, speaking only in a hushed, whisper-like voice, as if they might be overheard. Seeing this shift in Aamir’s manner, Alex seized his opportunity, though he almost regretted having to; he was enjoying hearing about Aamir’s past and the people from Aamir’s reality, outside in the non-magical world.
“What did they do to you, back at Spellshadow? When you became a teacher, what happened?” ventured Alex.
“It’s like I said, there are gaps in my memory, and there are things I was never told. The teachers certainly know more than the students, but they are still not told everything. Some things are reserved solely for those in charge,” he explained, no longer seeming disdainful of Alex’s line of questioning. He almost appeared eager to answer him. “What I do know is, the Head wanted me to be the new Finder—he wanted to turn me into some magic-seeking specter, but it turned out I didn’t have the natural knack he needed, for seeking out magical talent in the outside world.” He smiled bleakly.
The idea still horrified Alex, making him wonder how things might have turned out, if they had not reached Aamir in time. Perhaps the Head would have tried anyway, doing to Aamir what he had done to Malachi Grey, all those years ago, in the garden of Spellshadow Manor. He shivered at the thought of that day in the tombs when he had touched Finder’s gaping skull.
“Is that why you came back?” asked Alex, recalling the night in the manor when the dark-cloaked figure of Aamir, then Professor Escher, had chased them. “Why you were in the manor that night, when you came after us?”
“I had been sent back, that much is true, but I chased you because I caught Jari searching for a book on necromancy—a very dangerous, awful book. I wanted to stop him, so I pretended to be someone I wasn’t and ran after him, forcing him to abandon his search,” he explained.
Alex frowned. The tale was deeply reminiscent of Elias’s, in which he had tried to prevent Ellabell from reaching out for a particular book, hidden away in the depths of the Head’s library. He wondered if the incidents were somehow related, but shrugged it off for the moment as he turned back to what Aamir was saying.
“I realized then that you had come on with your powers. You gave me quite the shock with your snowy barricade,” he chuckled softly.
Alex smiled. “Sorry about that.”
“No apology necessary. I threatened you; no doubt I deserved it.”
“What were you doing at the manor? I mean, nobody knew you were there—we all thought you’d gone with the Head,” said Alex, remembering the terror he had felt when he heard the heavy footsteps on the flagstones, running after them.
Aamir nodded. “The Head had sent me back to guard the school in his absence, after realizing I was truly useless at magic-finding, but I wasn’t supposed to make myself known to anyone. I think he hoped the students would believe he was still in the manor, somehow—an omnipresent being, that could be both away and there, at the same time. He’s not, if you were curious. He can appear quickly, if he wants to, but he can’t be in two places at once,” he assured Alex with a wry smile.
“So, was there ever a time he didn’t have eyes on the place?” Alex asked curiously.
“Yeah. I was sent back shortly after the new rules were put in place, so there were, maybe, two weeks when he didn’t have anyone watching over the manor. Except Siren Mave, who checked in from time to time, I believe. She’s always flitting about, though, by all accounts. He could never get hold of her when he needed her. So I suppose he relied on your fear—the students’ fear—and it failed him.” He shrugged.
Not for the first time, Alex pondered the curious entity that was Siren Mave. This strange being that seemed to be everywhere, able to move easily from place to place, not really belonging to the faculty but not belonging to any one school either. She seemed to be a law unto herself, and it made Alex endlessly curious to know more—though, if what Aamir was saying was true, he wasn’t sure how he’d be able to pin her down to ask. Like Elias, she never appeared when you wanted to see her; she simply showed up when she felt like it.
“What about once we discovered you? Did that get you in trouble?” mused Alex, feeling slightly sorry for the extra drama they had put Aamir through.
He nodded. “As soon as you realized somebody was in the manor, watching over things, I had to travel back to the Head and explain what had happened. I didn’t want to. I’d have been quite happy for you to discover me, but the combination of the golden band on my wrist and the mask on my face drove me to do it. Besides, thanks to the mask, he already knew I’d been detected.”
“What do you mean?” Alex frowned, puzzled. He had thought the mask was there simply to cover Aamir’s true identity, but it appeared there was more to it than he had first thought.
“The band and the mask were both used to control me, meaning I pretty much always had to tell the Head what I had seen or done. But through the mask’s eyes, he could see everything I did—like a camera, almost. When it broke on the ground, it severed the connection, I suppose; he couldn’t see anything anymore,” Aamir elaborated.
That made sense to Alex; it would explain why the Head hadn’t known there was an uprising going on until it was much too late. “Wait a minute. How did you travel to the Head, to tell him you’d been discovered? I mean, you showed up the next day—how did you get from the manor, to the Head, and back again so fast?”
“Magical travel. Once you’re outside the manor walls, the magic barriers preventing it don’t work anymore,” he said, gesturing to the air above them. It made Alex thoughtful, wondering, as he had on the lakeshore, if the crackling magic in the air here had the same effect as those barriers.
“So, you flew off to see him?”
Aamir nodded. “Yes, I zipped off and explained what had happened—he gave me that poor kid he’d found, told me to put a spell on him to make him compliant and take him back to the manor under the ruse that I was some new professor, here to take over Deputy Head duties, while the Head continued his search. He told me he’d be back in a week or so, once he’d tried to acquire some more magical recruits. I think your uprising put a wrench in the works there, though, seeing as he came back empty-handed.” He grinned, his eyes glittering with merrime
nt.
Alex almost didn’t want to ruin it with his most pressing question—the one that still bugged him. “And the offer you made me?” he said, as lightly as he could.
A strained silence stretched between the two young men.
Eventually, Aamir sighed, breaking it. “I’ve had the chance to think long and hard about this… and I believe it was something the Head asked me to do, though I have no idea why. I can’t come up with a reasonable explanation behind it, and I know for certain the Head would never have told me his reasoning for it. I only know that it was him who made me do it. I wouldn’t have been able to, with the band on my wrist. I know that now, and I’m sorry for any pain it caused you. I can only imagine—being offered that freedom, only to have it snatched away.” He gulped, trying to clear his throat.
It was exactly as Alex had imagined, and to finally hear it said brought him a strange sense of peace. At least this way, there had never been a hope of seeing his mother. It had been a cruel jest, or something more sinister, perhaps, but it had never been real.
“What about the notes? Was that you?” Alex ventured, recalling the clockwork mouse, still in his pocket, and the warning messages the little creature had delivered in the dead of night. He still had not found the culprit, and had long thought it to be Elias, but with Elias’s admission to having little control over his faculties, Alex had begun to think otherwise. There was only one other culprit, as far as he was concerned.
“I thought you might have forgotten about those,” said Aamir quietly.
“So, they were you?” Alex breathed.
“Those, I know for certain I was responsible for,” he said sadly. “They were my way around the mask and the band.”
“But why?” Alex’s brow creased in disbelief. “Some of the things they said—why would you say that?”
Aamir ran an anxious hand through his hair. “Too many people were finding things out about you—you needed to be more careful, but you didn’t seem worried. A secret is only a secret if one person knows it. After it spreads beyond one person, it becomes a liability, and that’s what you were becoming.” He coughed nervously, catching sight of Alex’s disapproving glare. “Despite what you might think of me and what I did, I was only trying to protect you. I didn’t want the Head finding out what you were, fully. I knew he’d try and use you for his own purposes, if he discovered the truth, and you were making it so difficult to keep your secret hidden.” He looked down into his lap, his shoulders slumped in remorse.