The Secret of Spellshadow Manor 2 by Bella Forrest (top ten ebook reader .TXT) 📗

through the familiar corridors of the boys’ section, pausing at each corner to listen for the sound of footsteps on the flagstones. In the silence, all they could hear was the distant rumble of other boys snoring, safe inside their rooms, and the steady tick of the clocks.

They moved quickly in socked feet, having left their shoes behind in favor of quieter fabric soles. Around the bottom half of their faces, they had wrapped black scarves, hoping it might make them less conspicuous, though they realized that, if they were caught, they’d have the scarves ripped from them regardless. Still, it made them feel more comfortable—stealthier somehow—as they tiptoed through the sleeping manor, toward the intersection where the two dormitories met. Natalie was supposed to be waiting for them on the corner, but neither of them could see her as they approached. Camouflaged in the darkness, Natalie startled the two boys slightly as she emerged, soundlessly, from the shadows. She, too, had socked feet, but no scarf around her face. She frowned at their rudimentary balaclavas.

“What are those?” she asked.

“Scarves,” Alex whispered.

“To hide our faces,” Jari added, muffled behind the fabric.

“You must take them off—they look ridiculous!” Natalie said. The two boys shuffled the scarves down, exposing their faces. They couldn’t deny it felt nicer to breathe properly than to have their faces covered.

Faces fully visible, they began the stealthy journey toward the blue line of the teachers’ quarters. They moved slowly through the dark hallways, the dimming torches barely shedding any light on the path ahead of them. They could have done with some moonlight, but the worlds and lands beyond the shifting hallway windows were having none of it; they refused to offer up any glimmer of light, giving only dark storms and savage tempests, clouds thick and furious, smothering any sunlight or moonlight that might have helped the trio find their way. It was as if the manor itself were angry at their disobedience.

Suddenly, Natalie’s voice whispered back to the other two as a dim blue light appeared in the distance.

“There it is,” she breathed, pressing herself flat against the wall. “We should check for any teachers.”

They crept closer to the glow of the blue line and stopped beside it. Natalie peered around the wall and looked up through the darkened corridor beyond, squinting to try to make out any shapes lurking in the shadows. It was empty—as silent as the rest of the manor.

“It is all clear,” she said. Alex shuffled past her to get to the blue line. He knelt on the ground, the stone cold beneath his knee, even through the fabric of his trousers.

Taking a deep breath, he found the energy coiled within him and felt it course through his veins as he willed it into his hands, the familiar sensation of it twirling around his fingers as he conjured a mass of anti-magic between his palms. Seeing the raw ball of anti-magic, rippling black and silver, he focused his thoughts upon it, manifesting it into something more useful. With a slight turn of his wrist, the anti-magic stretched out into a blade, the edge thinning to a point, as it pulsed and sparked with icy energy.

He lowered the blade toward the blue line, surprised to see the weapon holding its shape more easily as he focused his mind more intensely on what he wanted to see, using the turn of his wrist to build the definition of the long knife. As he touched the edge to the blue line, it cut through the stream of sapphire light as if it were butter, severing the connection as the two ends broke apart. Alex felt the push of the magic against his hands as he held the blade of anti-magic against the ground, but it did not creep through him or try to attack him. In fact, the blue line seemed to have very little effect at all on Alex, barely bothering him as he deflected it elsewhere. He moved the severed ends away, leaving a safe gap for the others to pass through.

“Nice job,” Jari whispered. They walked tentatively through, into the unfamiliar territory of the teachers’ quarters.

“Thanks.” Alex grinned as he drew his anti-magic back into himself. It looked as though the self-teaching might be finally paying off.

The teachers’ quarters were hopelessly steeped in pitch black as the three of them shuffled up into the first corridor. They could see nothing ahead of them, no light of any kind. Their only guide was the towering walls beside them.

“Wait one moment,” Natalie whispered as Jari bumped into her.

“Sorry,” he said softly.

A small golden glow trickled down toward the floor, meandering delicately from Natalie’s fingers. Suddenly, a thin stream of light shone beneath them, a snake of bright yellow, glowing in the center of the masonry below their feet. As they took a step forward, the snake of light moved ahead, showing them the direction they needed to go in.

“Nice trick,” Alex commended.

“It is a new one,” Natalie said.

They followed the ribbon of glowing energy, keeping an eye on it as it slithered along the floor, casting a dim glow on the walls on either side. It was not as bright as they might have liked, their eyes still squinting into the darkness ahead, but it was enough to see by, and the dim glow would provide some camouflage if they needed to cut and run. It was not bright enough for them to clearly see each other’s faces.

Alex paused when the snaking torch lit up a series of frames on either side of the corridor. In them were pictures of people he had never seen—stern portraits, all painted in the same pose, wearing the same black robes that marked them as teachers. At the bottom of each portrait, set into the varnished wood of the frame, was a small bronze plaque, bearing the name of whomever the image resembled. Alex didn’t recognize any of the names as his eyes glanced across the engraved