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

like either a one-way ticket to another school with another wall and another Head, or a one-way ticket to something far worse.

Whichever outcome contained the truth, Alex knew he had opened a can of worms he could never get closed again.

Chapter 12

The next evening, Alex found himself hauled to the library after the last lesson of the day, pulled along by Natalie’s eager hand. The sun was setting through the far window as they entered. He was tired and groggy, dreaming of the soft pillow on his bed, but she had been insistent that he come with her, not taking no for an answer as she dragged him through the hallways.

“I have had a breakthrough,” she explained, ushering Alex over to their usual spot in the corner. Stacked high on the table were columns of leather books, in various colors with brightly embossed lettering, teetering crookedly to one side. They reminded Alex of a game of Jenga, and he smirked as he sat down, wondering if he dared pull one from the tower.

“With what?” asked Alex, his brow furrowed in confusion as he sat back in the armchair, trying to resist the comforting pull of the soft cushions and the fire crackling in the grate.

“What you told us yesterday,” she began excitedly. “It made me think about the possibilities of magical travel.”

“Mmhm.” Alex’s eyes drooped shut as he sank deeper into the chair. Natalie smacked him lightly on the arm. “Magical travel, I was listening!” he yelped, rubbing his bicep.

“Well, I found out some things. I have been reading much on travel and transportation,” said Natalie gleefully, sitting down in the chair opposite.

“I can see that.” Alex grinned, still tempted to pull one of the books from the middle of the stack.

“Here.”

Alex couldn’t see Natalie over the vast array of literature as she spoke, but he saw the book coming as it flew through the air toward him, landing with a smack against his hands as he reached up and caught it, just in time.

“What is it?” he asked.

“Just read it, see if it has anything about travel in it,” she demanded, peering around the stack to shoot Alex a look.

“Sorry,” he muttered. He opened the book to the first page: The Limitations of Clockwork Machinery and Other Uses by R.B. Moxam. Before he even read a word, Alex knew the book was going to be dull. He wondered if Natalie would notice if he took a little nap. A second book flying through the air toward him gave him the answer to that question; even if she couldn’t see him to tell him off, the thrown artillery of books would certainly keep him awake.

“Ah, here it is!” he heard Natalie proclaim breathlessly as she rushed over to him. Perched on the armrest of his chair, she shoved a book under his nose, her finger pointing to one of the lines. Alex read it, but couldn’t quite make sense of it. As far as he could tell, it was simply a brief explanation of a group of spells that required a huge consumption of energy, and how they might be achieved.

“I don’t get it,” he said.

“Spells which require a huge amount of energy,” repeated Natalie, her gaze expectant, as if waiting for the cogs to click into place inside Alex’s head.

He smiled apologetically. “I have nothing.”

“Alex, the magic of the manor!” she squealed, rolling her eyes at his slowness. “The manor requires a huge amount of energy to function, no? It is always shifting places, from one land to another to another. Do you not think that must use up a lot of magic?”

“I suppose so…”

“Of course it does! A huge amount, Alex. One of the other books explains that to move a big object, such as an elephant or a truck or a building, you need a vast magic source. It is not easy and uses much magic. So imagine the magic needed to move this place,” she whispered, gesturing around the library. “It must take an exorbitant amount, even to just do it once! And this place moves every day. Can you imagine?”

“I have no idea,” he said, trying to take in the enormity of what she was saying.

“It takes a lot of magic just to move a pebble or a beetle or something small. Imagine how much magical energy is needed to move the manor, the grounds and every person within it, every single day!” Natalie explained, her voice quietening to a hushed whisper. “That would require a whole other level of magic, Alex. One which I am not certain any one wizard can possess.”

Natalie’s words began to make some sense to him. The shifting inner hallways of the building, with their windows showing foreign skies and wild landscapes, one moment in Southeast Asia, the next, who knew where. The changing view beyond the manor’s boundaries that he often looked out on from the library window, the building and its compound uprooted from one place to another, never settling. Alex didn’t understand how it all worked, and hadn’t thought about the energy needed to accomplish such a feat. Since he hadn’t even known magic existed until about a year ago, he supposed he had thought it par for the course—that all magical buildings and magical people could be moved and replaced at will. If any wizard was capable of such a feat, the Head was surely a contender; he had already shown Alex what appeared to be the whole world within his palms.

“So not even the Head can move the manor? Really?” he asked Natalie.

“Not even the Head, I do not think. Not without a lot of other wizards to help or extra magic to boost his strength,” she replied, shaking her head.

Alex frowned. “Then how is it possible?”

“There is no mention of any magic so large as this,” explained Natalie. “I have my thoughts on how it can be done, but I think I need more time to study it. When