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

Undeterred, he moved on to the next mouse. This time, he managed to get three limbs twitching and the turn of one ear before the plume of acrid blue-tinged smoke rose from the inner clockwork. He was getting better.

The third mouse was the closest to success. The hind legs moved forward and backward, pushing the mouse across the splintering tabletop, though the front legs refused to budge. It lasted a good while, zipping along the surface, until the cogs jammed and disheartening spirals of thin smoke wisped in the air.

Realizing he had the rear legs figured out, Alex played around with the clockwork mechanisms of the front section, rearranging them before he was satisfied enough to run his anti-magic through the metal cogs. The mouse sprang to life, racing around the bench with its black eyes glittering. Alex grinned, watching the tail whip from side to side and the ears twitch as the delicate nose snuffled. He tried to manipulate the mouse again, drawing his fingers into a fist to get the creature to stop. To his delight, it did. As he released his fingers, the mouse set off again, scurrying lightly across the wood, easily navigating the dips and cracks in the bench with its graceful feet.

It had the same strange realism that the mouse in his dorm room had displayed, brimming with the magic of whoever had sent it, only it was his handiwork that had given the mouse renewed life. He instructed the creature to walk up into his hand and held it closer to his eye line, observing the intricate inner workings and the swirl of black anti-magic that spiraled within the small eyes. It was a beautiful sight to behold, and, as he removed his anti-magic from within the clockwork, he realized he no longer felt the course of anger and frustration rushing through his body, nor the foggy chatter of a thousand questions in his head. Lintz had been right; clockwork did calm the mind.

Alex was intrigued by the possibilities as he glanced around the room more closely. Lintz’s trunk lay in the corner, and Alex wondered how easy it would be to break the lock. Never mind magic, a hammer would probably do it, he thought. After a moment of half-serious contemplation, he pushed the idea away, knowing the chest was probably full of Lintz’s private creations. It certainly wasn’t for Alex’s eyes.

Seeing the mouse work had inspired him. He still had the list Ellabell had made him, of suitable books for learning more about clockwork and magical mechanics. The Battle book had spoken of bombs and traps, made from clockwork, being thrown across a battlefield or buried beneath the earth for wizards to fall into, setting Alex’s mind alight with all the possibilities that lay in the practical application of his hands and some metal. It wasn’t necessarily the defensive or offensive potential of the clockwork that drew him in, but those aspects certainly weren’t off-putting. In a place like the manor, Alex knew he needed all the help he could get, especially if it was something small enough to fly under the radar. Like a mouse, for example.

Frowning in thought, Alex picked up the fourth mouse he had experimented on and refueled it with his anti-magic, watching in childish delight as the creature burst into life once more. As it skittered across the workbench, Alex gathered the fingers of his right hand into a fist and made the mouse freeze. Concentrating, he turned his other hand in a circular motion, watching as the anti-magic within the clockwork spun, faster and faster. Finally, he extended the fingers of his left hand in a quick gesture and watched with a mix of awe and regret as the mouse exploded violently in a shower of glowing metal particles.

Where the mouse had previously been, there was a deep scorch mark burnt into the desktop, and the smell of singed wood and spent fireworks permeated the room. The glittering ashes of the clockwork creature settled on the workbench. Alex hastily swept them up in case someone should walk in. He felt bad for blowing up the one mechanism he had managed to get working, but he had the successful instructions written out on the sheet beside him, should he desire to try again. Slipping the piece of paper into his pocket, he put the remaining mice back in their place on the dirty lower shelf and smiled to himself as he lined them up in a neat row, two spaces now empty.

Indeed, the possibilities were endless.

Chapter 17

As morning dawned, Alex awoke slowly, rubbing his eyes against the sunlight glancing in through the curtains. He was mid-yawn when he noticed the bed opposite was empty. Alex frowned; Jari hadn’t been there when Alex had gone to bed, either, though he had been disturbed at some point in the night by the sound of soft footfalls on the dorm room floor. It hadn’t been enough to fully awaken him, but Alex remembered the sound and the sleepy guess that it was his friend, returning from wherever he had been all evening. Alex had no idea what time that might have been.

He checked the ticking clock on the bedside table. It was early still, and he had an hour before breakfast. Yawning again, he moved over to the edge of his bed and hung down over the side, reaching underneath the bedframe for the notebook he had hidden away. Pulling it back up, he propped himself against the headboard and opened the thin pages.

Since he’d been to see Ellabell, Alex hadn’t had much of a chance to read through the notebook. But as he held it in his hands, he felt a wave of sadness flood through him, knowing the fate of the man who had once owned the book. To have come so close to winning a fight, only to be