The Secret of Spellshadow Manor by Bella Forrest (classic english novels txt) 📗

Alex thought for a moment, his silence hanging in the chilly air as thickly as his breath did.

“It looks like something happened in the middle there, something devastating.”

Aamir nodded. “It does indeed look like that. Any theories?”

“Magic?” Alex suggested.

“Yes,” said Aamir, a hard edge to his voice now. “I think so too.”

“Why are you showing me this?” On the strange breeze, his own voice sounded thin and alien.

Aamir exhaled slowly and set his chin. “I do not think you take magic seriously, Alex Webber. It is not all conjuring leaves and glowing with pretty golden light. We can create marvels, yes. But there are those who also wield magic to destroy, and to destroy utterly.” His words drifted into the deadened landscape.

“I do take magic seriously,” Alex retorted. “Of course I do. I’ve seen how powerful it is. I saw what the Head can do.”

The older boy turned to face him and looked him deliberately in the eye, the moonlight casting half his face in darkest shadow.

“No, Alex. I do not believe you did.”

Alex paused. Had he been rushing headlong into a dangerous situation without considering the consequences? He didn’t think so. He felt he had played it pretty safe so far, and acknowledged that the manor was likely rife with unknown dangers. But he could see how Aamir could have gotten that impression. He had been secretive, and probably seemed reckless and desperate to the oddly rigid boy.

Aamir’s shoulders relaxed a little, his voice softening. “I don’t mean to frighten you. In fact, I completely understand. If you think you are the first student here to think of escape, you are mistaken.” He paused, gazing into the bleak distance. “I merely wanted to impress upon you the gravity of our situation, the power of the forces you contend with when you push too far.”

“What happened to the people who have tried in the past?”

Aamir shrugged. “Some never even find their way out here.”

“And those who do?”

“They fail.” He looked down. “I cannot stop you from trying, Alex. But please, tread carefully. I should not like to see harm befall you.”

A silence settled between them, interrupted only by the sound of dry branches rubbing against each other in the wind.

“You mentioned graduation earlier,” Alex said eventually, thinking of the only certain way out of Spellshadow.

Aamir stood a little straighter. “So I did.”

“What does that word mean here?”

“That,” said Aamir, “is the right question.”

“And that’s not an answer,” replied Alex.

A strange look stole over Aamir’s face. “All we know is that those who graduate vanish completely. We never hear from them again, and they are never spoken of.”

Alex wet his lip. “And you don’t think they’re just off making their way in the world?”

Aamir scoffed. “Wouldn’t we have heard of them? Wouldn’t one of them slip up somehow, lose control? Wouldn’t the professors boast of their favorite students’ success? Wouldn’t we have role models, positions to which we should aspire? Wouldn’t their names at least be spoken?” His eyes flashed in the moonlight, his expression grim and tight, carefully controlled. “No. I do not think they are off making their way in the world.”

And suddenly Aamir’s odd vehemence when discouraging Alex from finding trouble, from pushing boundaries, made perfect sense.

Aamir was afraid.

Chapter 15

Aamir led Alex through the gardens once again, stopping near a tree that looked like it had been ripped in half. He bent down, wiping some gravel and dirt away from a patch at his feet, and Alex saw a small wooden door there. Aamir eased it up, and they gazed down a wooden ladder into the darkness below.

“This place is secret, as far as we know,” said Aamir. “But let me go before you, just in case.”

He lowered himself carefully down the ladder, disappearing into what looked to be a dirt cave. Alex stood alone in the garden for a moment, the silence and the moonlight beating down upon him, their conversation reverberating in his mind. Musty smells of wet wood and dust drifted up through the hole to him.

“Come on,” Aamir called. “It is empty.”

Alex turned, grabbing the ladder and descending slowly.

By the light trickling in through the hole, he could see Aamir squinting as he examined the dark. Then, Aamir made two swift gestures. A pair of torches at the far end of the room burst into flames, crackling happily, and the room came into focus.

It was a wine cellar. Or at least, it had been. Like everything in the manor, it seemed to have fallen into disuse, the great wooden racks now covered in cobwebs and dust, housing only a few bottles of wine now. The dirt ceiling was held up by wooden frames at regular intervals. Aamir looked around the empty space once more before moving toward the ladder.

“Jari and Natalie should be here momentarily. You are fine alone?” He paused, one foot on the bottom rung, waiting for Alex’s answer.

“Yeah,” said Alex, looking around him. “I’m fine alone.”

“Good.” Aamir left without a backward glance, leaving the door above open.

Alex stood in the empty cellar, thinking of Aamir’s warning. Maybe he should proceed with greater caution, be more fearful of punishment. But failure to escape Spellshadow was not an option. What else did Aamir know that he wasn’t saying? Alex had the impression that the older boy was holding back quite a bit.

He wandered over to one of the remaining bottles on the wine rack and idly tugged it free of the cobwebs and clinging dirt, trying to remember the way through the maze of hallways. The bottle fell into his hands with a puff of dust, and he turned it over to read the label.

Fields of Sorrow, 1908.

“Hello.”

Alex jumped and looked up. Sitting in one of the slots meant for a bottle of wine was the small black cat. Its shadowy head was turned away from him, and as he watched, it let out a mighty yawn.

Alex stared at the shadow creature, replacing the