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

ominously, appeared to be counting down, with only a few hundred hours left before it was out of time.

“So,” Alex said, interjecting himself into his roommates’ argument, “if technology doesn’t work here, how does all this function?” Alex had been carrying his cell phone when he left Middledale High to follow Natalie, but it must have slipped from his pocket during his struggle with her on Spellshadow Lane because he no longer had it. Natalie hadn’t been carrying a cell phone at all and neither wore watches, so he hadn’t been able to test the no-technology theory the boys had informed him about a few days ago.

Jari swiveled, and Aamir took the opportunity to begin poking and prodding at the piece of machinery that lay on the table.

“We mostly use clockwork,” the blond boy said, his expression sage-like. “Electrical engineering just doesn’t work, but we can use a little magic and good old-fashioned physics to keep basic things like this going. Not to mention, once you mix magic and clockwork, there’s really all manner of things you can do.”

Alex watched as Aamir reached down, a little bloom of golden fire slipping from his fingertips and into their machine, which shuddered, then lay still.

“Told you it wouldn’t work,” Jari said without looking.

Aamir let out a grunt of irritation.

Alex looked down at the gears. They fit together so elegantly, so precisely, that he found himself drawn to them. Here was something he could grasp easily.

“What does this do?” he asked, looking down at the project.

“Well,” Jari said, “it’s supposed to get up and walk around a little, only Aamir here doesn’t know how to make a proper set of hydraulics.”

“Oh, and you do?” Aamir retorted.

Jari leaned down, looking the device over.

“Pull your magic out,” he said.

Aamir sighed, then reached out, retrieving the little bloom of golden fire.

Alex watched with interest. “Couldn’t you have done that?” he asked Jari.

Jari grimaced. “It’s damnably hard to get someone else’s magic to do what you want—all the books on how to do it have been hidden away. And dispelling it altogether is…well, impossible, for us.”

He adjusted the magnifying glass over his eye, tilting forward until the glass lens was almost touching the machinery. He made a couple of minute adjustments with the tool in his hand, then looked over at Alex.

“Care to put the finishing touches in?”

Alex ran a hand through his hair. “Well, I would, but I still can’t do any magic.”

Jari laughed. “No need for magic. Here.”

He pulled a magnifying glass from nearby and handed it to Alex, who strapped it over his eye. At once, the machine below him lurched into focus, each tiny gear sparkling and plain to see.

“See where that cog connects to that other one?” Jari said, pointing the two places out.

Alex nodded.

“Now watch this.”

A lick of gold wisped its way out, settling into the gears. At once, they began to turn, ever so slowly, as if in response to the power. Alex stared at it with fierce intensity. The machine was almost ready to move, but there was something missing. A link between the two cogs that Jari had pointed out.

The boy handed Alex a small pair of tweezers, squeezing the end. He looked at the tips of the tweezers through his lens and saw they were pinching the missing piece.

Slowly, painstakingly, Alex inserted the gear, then fastened it in place. When he was done, his hand was stiff from having been held so still throughout the process, and his neck was aching, but he felt satisfied that he had done a good job. Jari made no comment throughout, only nodding, and Aamir stared down at the machine in concentration without interfering.

When Alex was done, Jari reached out, adjusting the magical flow within the machine. The gears started to turn. With a click and a whir, a little puff of steam boiled up from some hidden, internal organ. The machine’s little legs began to kick and flick the air like a beetle turned on its back, and Alex instinctively reached out, righting it. Its legs hit the tabletop, and it skittered off along the wood workspace to collide with another boy’s project.

A volley of curses, insults, and threats followed. Alex ducked away, moving to where the beetle had fallen and picking it up. Its legs continued to move, but they seemed weaker, less coordinated somehow. Little trails of steam rippled up through the gaps in its clockwork hide.

A shadow fell over the machine, and Alex looked up to see Aamir standing over him, his dark eyes sparkling with amusement.

“You have worked on something like this before?”

“Sort of,” said Alex. “When I was a kid I went to a robotics workshop. I’ve never done anything exactly like this, but it’s just basic engineering, isn’t it?”

Jari bounced up beside Aamir with a broad smile. “We’ll have to come more often!” he said. “We always mess up the engineering part. Magic is way easier.”

Aamir glared. Jari returned the look, then corrected himself.

“I guess Aamir doesn’t always mess up the engineering.”

Aamir let out an offended huff of breath, and Alex looked over to see him leaning toward Jari with a scowl darkening his features. The two boys were an odd duo, to be sure. Alex watched as they turned in unison to a diagram on the table, each making sharp gestures as they shot their opinions at one another.

In his attempt to become more friendly with them, he’d asked about their backgrounds. Aamir was taken from New Delhi, India, while Jari had Greek roots, though he’d been living in America when he’d been “found”. Both had been strangely guarded when Alex had asked about their families. They’d tensed up, discomfort tracing their eyes, and returned similar answers—they’d prefer to not talk about it. Their responses had left Alex’s stomach feeling like a hollow pit: why had they been so reticent? After considering it, he came to the conclusion that it must simply hurt too much. Both were convinced they’d never escape this place.