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

place where smoke was now rising from thin air. Her other two spheres winked out of existence.

“That…” she said, “was so cool!”

Alex smiled. “Let’s see if you can make it stay next time.”

Natalie pursed her lips, held out her hand, and tried again. The flickering orange light bounced off the great window of the library, reflecting up the columns and into the rafters high above. The distant city lights sparkled, unchanged.

Chapter 18

The regular tedium of class was interrupted the next afternoon when Professor Derhin strode into the classroom with a slightly vexed expression on his face. He looked around at his silent, attentive class and actually gave a small huff of annoyance.

“I’ve been informed,” he said, “that today will be spent reviewing student policy. Apparently, we need to touch base on school rules for the newcomers. So. Let’s get that out of the way, and then we can do some actual learning, eh?”

In spite of his protests, Derhin’s attempts to ‘get that out of the way’ seemed anything but hasty. He started with the smallest, most minute rules and worked his way forward, with a sort of enraptured glee, in what Alex quickly realized was alphabetical order. Aamir’s head sunk lower and lower until his brow was pressed against his desk.

“And that covers proper use of lighting during curfew hours,” Derhin said, rolling his knuckles along his desk. “Moving right along, you may have noticed that there are certain colored lines throughout the school. Blue and gold. Given that we haven’t had any trouble from the new students, I would imagine you were properly warned, but do not, under any circumstances, cross either. The blue marks where student territory ends and teacher territory begins. The gold lines, on the other hand, are only to be crossed by the administrative staff, which is to say the two heads of the academy or Siren Mave.”

Two heads? Alex’s eyebrows rose, but he refrained from raising his hand. Asking Derhin a question would likely get him a thirty-minute answer that would cause the lecture to bleed over into their other classes. Instead, Alex leaned forward and tapped Jari on the shoulder. The boy turned, looking bored, and it occurred to Alex that this wouldn’t be the first time that he had heard this lecture.

“What’s up?” Jari whispered.

Alex gestured at where Derhin’s nasal drone was flooding the front of the room. “Two heads of the academy?” he said. “I thought there was only the one.”

“Yeah,” said Jari. “You might know him as the invisible force that compelled you to come here.”

“Finder?”

“Yeah, that’s him.”

In all the time he had been at Spellshadow, Alex hadn’t seen so much as a hint of the man, though he was sometimes mentioned. Whereas the Head’s influence was visible at every turn, Finder seemed a reclusive sort. It was strange to Alex to hear them mentioned on equal footing.

He weighed his options, finally deciding that any information he could gather might be worth the risk. “He wasn’t invisible to me.”

Jari froze, his mouth half open. For the first time since Alex had met him, the boy seemed truly at a loss for words. “You…Excuse me?”

“I could see him,” Alex repeated, wondering whether he had just made a grave mistake.

Aamir glanced over at them. “What’s going on?”

“Alex saw Finder.”

The two exchanged a look.

“Let’s talk after class,” said Aamir.

When they met in the dining hall after class, Aamir’s interrogation was thorough.

Jari, while also interested, seemed perfectly content to let Aamir do the grilling, leaning back in his chair with a fascinated expression. Natalie had also opted to join them.

“He sounds less impressive than I had pictured him,” Aamir admitted, when Alex had finished describing Finder’s rotting clothes.

Alex frowned. It was hard to convey Finder’s unnerving quality with words, he was finding. He was both eerie and powerful, more like an omen than a man, an apparition that brought with him a sense of ending, of finality.

“Did you see him?” Aamir asked, swiveling toward Natalie.

She shook her head. “Alex mentioned him to me,” she said, “but I didn’t see him…I don’t know if I heard him either. I was in a weird way. I didn’t really understand what he was saying—or don’t remember it now.”

“Don’t worry,” said Jari with a bright smile. “Nobody can see Finder. It’s part of his magic.” He stared pointedly at Alex here.

Alex made a face, then turned to Aamir. “All right. My turn to ask some questions.”

Aamir nodded.

“Finder. Who is he, and how does he…‘find’?”

Jari leaned forward, answering before Aamir could. “He’s, like, this old master of the school,” he said. “Dedicated his whole life to scrying and detection magic. They say if there’s a drop of magical blood in someone’s veins, he can find it. That’s why he’s called Finder, see? Because nobody knows his real name; they just know what he does.”

Alex nodded slowly. “Doesn’t he have a more active role here? Beyond finding new students?”

Aamir shook his head. “No. At least, not that I know of.”

“He wanders the hallways at night sometimes,” Jari said.

“No, he does not.”

“Does too!”

As the two began to argue, Alex rolled his eyes at Natalie, to see her staring down at her bowl.

“Anyway,” Aamir broke off, all but palming Jari in the face to shut him up, “Finder has always been called one of the school’s Heads. Beyond that, nobody knows much.”

“But,” Jari interjected, “if you see him at night? Run. I’ve heard some nasty stories.”

Alex glanced at Natalie again. She was still looking at her bowl. She gave the contents an idle stir with her spoon, looking pensive. When she realized that Alex was watching her, she looked up.

“Alex,” she said softly, “do you feel like getting some fresh air? I am feeling restless in here.”

Jari broke away from his second argument with Aamir at once, gazing delightedly between the two of them.

Chapter 19

“So you’re ready to try the gate again?” Alex asked.

The crisp air turned his words to