Jacks School of Shines, page 11
Eibhlin felt it best if she told the truth, but her true feelings were of me and an overwhelming desire to leave the school, despite the fear of getting caught by the Evil Goblin and his Dark Robes. She felt mad because I disappeared as a cloud of smoke took us away. I didn’t know it was her looking at us through the magical viewer, just like she didn’t know I created the smoke to cover our tracks. It caused the evil presence hunting us to see where we might be. Moreover, Eibhlin thought there was much undiscovered magic out there that she would have to deal with and learn quickly how to use or avoid its harmful way. She was very excited to try the outside again. The rebellion in her grew stronger.
The room turned itself into an amber glow through the house lights. All the crystals that undulated through its magical senses had come to life, shooting beams in all different directions, like a million stars. For a time, she fell asleep in that oversized chair, but when she awoke, she stood, needing to make her mind up as the house had calmed down for the night. Not a sound or a stir broke the silence; not even howls coming from the forest. Not even the swishes of the flying brooms that held the evil dark presence outside the protected realm, not even the brooms from the broom closets brushing up the halls, for they tended to keep themselves busy when not in use. The school looked very spooky she noticed for the first time.
Eibhlin crept through the room, hearing whispers of the forgotten past. When many invisible hands touched her body, she felt frightened at first, then really scared for she could not move another inch. But a whisper came into her ear and said, “Relax.”
Eibhlin headed for the door, but frosty fingers of hundreds of unseen hands grabbed her. She only could think of asking, “Why is this?” She pulled her newfound wand from her back pocket and didn’t feel it loosening, surprised when the wand hovered past. Eibhlin’s eye watched it float by, held by one of the invisible hands. The wand swooped around the room like invisible things passed it around and around to one another. All of these spirits looked at the wand. She knew it would be best to not worry and to calm her thoughts. She saw the images take wavering shapes as one or two slipped in front of the lights for the crystals.
Eibhlin said, “You all belong to the school. Who are you? I’ve seen and spoken to most of the school’s ghosts and met them on my first day here. I meet many of the forest spirits, but you all are quite remarkably different, aren’t you?”
The hands that held her let go and Eibhlin felt free to move about again. She turned and played it boldly. “Well, you’ve all had a look at the wand I found. What do you think? Do you know this wand for some reason? You keep passing it around. Is it a special wand?” The wand floated back to her hand.
When Eibhlin held the wand, they scattered clear of it and she laughed a little. “Don’t worry. I won’t hurt you.” She asked again, “Does this wand have some sort of special talent?”
One of the spirits came forward and whispered in her ear. She was a girl, Eibhlin could tell now. She asked, “Can this wand help you or someone you know?”
The girl tugged on Eibhlin’s earlobe and said, “The wand is a seeker of truth.” Plain as day, Eibhlin realized what she had and why it pulled up close to her to be grabbed in the forest floor.
“Wow. It thinks I’m a seeker of truth,” Eibhlin replied as if she were five. “The marvels of this one wand. It’s all over the history books. It’s Angel Bell the Blue’s wand, Lady Elfin. What a wonderful treat and gift to hold and to use, especially last night in the web.” Eibhlin gasped. The room cleared and she could feel the difference as the putrid stuffy air came back fresh. Eibhlin held Lady Elfin, her mouth open wide in awe. Such a magical wand she now knew and held with pride. She made her mind up.
“I cannot turn back now.” Eibhlin eased the study door opened and looked up and down the hallway. Seeing it empty, she took a step out, then darted back in to the desk and grabbed the magic feather, tucking it in her pocket. At the door, she turned left and pulled her robe’s hood over her head, scurrying to the passageway underneath the school. To her dismay, many fallen bricks and stones blocked the way for her escape. Taking a candle from its holder on the wall, she carried it closer and almost jumped out of her skin when she heard footsteps echoing nearer and nearer.
“Oh, what a time for no place to hide!” She twisted this way and that, biting her lower lip, looking for an escape. “I need to find a way out!” she whispered, her eyes wide at the footsteps growing louder. The tip of Lady Elfin began to glow, soft and orange, chasing out the shadows.
When Eibhlin turned one way, the glow faded, but when she turned another, it brightened. “I get it!” She walked in the direction of the glow, which led her to the pile of rubble blocking the passageway. “What? I can’t…” Before she finished the sentence, she saw a small trail leading to the door, just big enough for a large mouse or a young girl. With a sigh of great relief, she followed it, grabbed the brass ring and pulled the heavy door open just enough for her to slip through. It closed without a sound and a moment later, the footsteps passed by.
She saw the dark outside from where she stood and felt the breeze as she slipped through the bottom of the dungeons. As she crawled her way out of the dungeons, she chose to head down the old path where she walked with the boys, it felt like so long ago now. Eibhlin hoped she would feel our presence there. Besides, that was the best way to the village and best for her to head for light and a warm place to rest.
Running through the grounds, she saw her way clear to the forest. In her hurry, she stepped on something odd and stopped to see the remains of a dead bird. That drew her attention away from the fact the tree line was filled with Dark Robes dressed as children in hopes of grabbing one of the students.
The ground felt cold for the time of night to the Evil Goblin and his men as they lurked about. The most terrible of all had been watching this girl especially. The Goblin had seen some of what Eibhlin could do and knew she had the Sight to find us boys. I was a risk, for I’d killed most of his men. Knowing what a prize Eibhlin made, the Evil Goblin licked his chops and gave the signal.
They had a chance to jump her at first, but she took a different path and now they, too, had to creep and step quietly to sneak up on her. They took their chance because someone from the village or the school could walk freely about and see them. It took ten of them in a fight. They came from the earth and the sky and in back to surprise Eibhlin.
Looking forward to a warm supper, Eibhlin glanced to her right and did a double take. Did that tree just move? Rubbing her tired eyes, she shrugged and kept walking, the thought of melted cheese on hot toast making her mouth water. Wait! It did move! Wha…? Grabbing Lady Elfin, she held it straight, her knees bent, ready to fight. Over her left shoulder, something landed behind her. Whirling around, she saw a Dark Robe and muttered a quick spell.
ZAP! ZING! Lady Elfin popped him twice before a third Dark Robe grabbed Eibhlin and pushed her to the ground. She leapt to her feet, her eyes ablaze and her mouth in a tight line. Lady Elfin glowed and hummed with magic, just waiting for the word to hit one of them again.
Eibhlin counted at least ten surrounding her and jabbed the wand toward a huge Dark Robe in front. Before she could cast a blast, someone threw Spanish dust in her face and eyes, making her choke and blinding her with tears. Before she could count to three, her eyes rolled back and she fell to the ground, deep in a magic faint. She didn’t hear them gloat at getting their first captive.
The moon rose and set unnoticed by Eibhlin, for she’d been placed under that spell. Dark Robes dragged her from the field and took her by broom into the darkness of the tree tops. Shocked and determined to get out of their grip, Eibhlin came to and screamed.
Chapter 19: The Goblin’s Office
Once she saw them, she had no time to react. As she ran through to find me in her mind, I clouded the thought. It gave them the time to make her their captive on the back of a broom, held against her will. Flying off to their den, they became ill mannered and mean tempered toward this young schoolgirl.
Flown around high in the sky, Eibhlin didn’t know where she was at this time, dazed and placed under a spell. She only remembered seeing the moonlight. They had a captive from the School of Shines. They felt now they had a lever to use to get in the school and to bargain with for the book that no one knew its name. Flown wildly about, just these evil men knew where they were taking Eibhlin. Her mind gravitated to a higher level of fear as they whisked her away from all she knew. Leaving the school on her own proved to be a disaster. She let out a loud scream as they flew over the castle. Eibhlin feared that she would not ever see the school again.
No one in the school heard her, for it was late and all were down for the night. The guards for the school were changing over from one shift to another, so they were inside.
Dark Robes flew Eibhlin over the valley. All she could see through her hidden eyes glancing through her school robe hood pulled down tightly, was fog and tops of trees. Scared, she tucked her head in her robe as it flapped in the wind. For these evil men flew very erectly as she struggled now and again. It’d taken off to a greater height into the clouds as they all went streaming in. Scraping her in the face and tickling her neck was the creature’s long unusual feather that she had found in the office, now tucked away in her robe pocket.
The broom ride seemed to be ending. Coming down from the heights, she no longer saw a school nearby, but she did see a place like no other. She remembered reading about or heard tell of the mysterious lair and also heard before it was a place of death. Now it was clear to her.
I’ve been taken to my end. Goodbye, School of Shines.
* * *
Professor Toms stood outside of Eibhlin’s door, his arms crossed, his face red. “Young lady, we’re waiting for you downstairs. Please bring Colin’s notes with you.”
Silence met his demand.
“Do you want me to get Professor Woods?”
Still silence.
“Eibhlin! Answer me!”
Down at the bottom of the door was a tiny crack to peek in. Professor Toms took a look and saw that he’d been talking to Eibhlin’s empty room. She had taken leave long ago. He hurried downstairs and found her roommate, and got her permission to tear apart the room for a clue or a note telling where she was. Several professors turned the room upside down but found nothing of Eibhlin or my notes.
The professors asked the students who were a part of her little reader’s club to tell all that they may know, and what was going on out there with us boys in our plight. All heads turned to Eibhlin’s best friend, but she refused to talk.
Sue pulled her wand out in a desperate attempt to silence herself by waving it around her mouth and head to place a Silence Spell. The mouth went tight with a brass zipper across the lips and the face became taped, wrapping around her eyes so she could not give any information away in her look of despair.
The other students who sat in on the reading sprang out their wands too, and the mixed matches of hurried casting created more Silence Spells. The professors got angry and demanded to know why none of the children would tell them what they knew. As the day grew long and tempers rose, the heated discussion went on about how the students and the professors used to have a close and wonderful relationship. Now since the evil came, the students became closed mouth, not knowing who to trust. No word had been said at the Headmaster’s funeral. The students were glum, with revenge on their minds.
Evil made good children turn mean and vengeful. A young student, not wanting to betray her lifelong friend, took measures to cast upon herself a Silence Spell. With a flick of her wand, it sealed her lips tighter than if she used glue. To cast a spell on oneself was scary if the proper steps weren’t taken. This young girl would soon find out it couldn’t be reversed for she pronounced the words wrong. She was in a rush as professors headed her way up the stairs. Now she would be stuck that way either for a while, if a professor could help her, or all through her life. The rest of the children took quick measures to undo the spells they hastily said earlier and allowed themselves to speak again.
* * *
Touching ground, Eibhlin found she’d been brought to the Evil Goblin’s office, rushed through the ruins of an old deserted castle.
Dazed, the young girl tried to snap out of the spell, confused and disheveled in this barren old place, a remnant of a castle. She saw all of this in a glance before her captor grabbed her once more, rushed down the halls and pushed her into the Evil Goblin’s office.
All the evil one could collect filled the round room. The heads of dead unicorns lay about. Hanging on the walls were skulls of wizard men and woman who did not follow him in the years since leaving the school. Dust and dirt covered the old carpet, and green mold crept up the walls, for no one ever cleaned this round room, unfit to be called an office. Blasphemous art and grotesque sculptures befitting this evil man littered the walls and shelves.
The Evil Goblin sat behind a desk that matched his temper, its black wood twisted with huge, sharp thorns protruding all across the front. Befitting his state of being a lord of the dark, a headdress of horns sat on his head, and he wore a necklace of dozens of dried eyeballs. Pock marks pitted his skin and open sores oozed from his neck. Pointed at both ends, hairy ears the size of dinner plates adorned both sides of his head. His rubbery lips hid pointed and chipped teeth, yellow and gray. Eyes that once held a glint of sanity now bulged in their sockets, bloodshot and red with no pupils. One could see that his state of mental illness was derived by a book he taught to the school on how to become evil and dark.
To change back into what he once was, just a caretaker, proved impossible now. He became an evil dark killer. At the school, he passed for normal, but one could smell him out eventually, for he had not been normal since the day he was born. His looks changed from a creature goblin back to a human so many times that it added up and deformed his face as well as his body, for he had a limp and a hump grew on his back. The abuse of transformation took a great toll on his mannerism, induced nasty habits and made him foul of breath with smoke coming from a long stemmed pipe. A cherry tobacco flavor smelled up the room and wafted across Eibhlin’s face.
Eibhlin dared not to inhale or choke on the smoke, for it carried the puff of death. If he chose to blow it at anyone, they would have to duck and avoid the cloud of smoke for it would drop them to their knees. The cherry blend, a spell of death, was well known to be so.
He’d been waiting to question Eibhlin since he heard she’d been caught by his evil men. Knowing she refused to look at him, his presence forced her eyes to lift up. Her head trembled in the effort to stay down, but he proved too strong and she stared into those red bloodshot eyes. She could not avert away from the eerie feeling he gave her and her skin crawled with goose bumps.
“Well, well, well.” The Goblin pressed his fingertips together and tilted his head. “I’ve waited a long time for this, my beauty.” He stood and walked around her, looking her up and down. “You’ll be perfect. Absolutely perfect.”
Eibhlin refused to respond, her jaw muscles flexing.
“Don’t you want to know what you’re perfect for?...No?” His long, grime encrusted fingernail lifted a lock of her hair and he sniffed it. “You’re my bargaining tool. I think the School of Shines will do whatever I want to get you back home safely.”
Eibhlin tried to keep from gagging at his stench. “I’m no good to you. No one at the school knows where Colin is.”
“Colin? You think I’m doing all this for him? Oh, dear, dear, dear.” He picked up Lady Elfin from resting against the wall and waved it at her. “And I thought you were so smart. Don’t get me wrong. I owe the boy, but I’m after a certain…book. And that is at the school. So yes, you are going to be of use. Oh, and don’t worry.” He tossed the wand to his desk and leaned toward her. “We won’t hurt you…yet. Just be a good little girl and do what you’re told.” He returned to his chair and leaned on his elbows. With a dismissive wave, he nodded toward the door. “Take her away.”
Two men pushed her through the hall to a small room and threw her in a cell, cold and dark and dreary in its first appearance. Crawling on her hands and knees, she felt the ground move, clotted full of creepy slimy bugs waiting for her to stand still to crawl up her legs and eat her brain. Eibhlin didn’t dare lie down or stand in one place too long.
In a moment, the cell door clanged opened and she covered herself up the best she could with her school robe. The feather fell out next to her when she turned and saw the Evil Goblin standing in the doorway.
This odd looking feather shocked him as his eyes stared at it. The Goblin held her wand and a few of his men trembled and stepped back when they saw the feather lying next to her. No one dared to touch it because they didn’t know how to manage its power. For all they knew, picking it up meant instant death.
She didn’t know then they’d hunted for that feather to add to their power of evil use. It belonged to a mystic creature which they wanted to have on their side. Now to have a feather that belonged to it, they thought she had knowledge of the creature’s whereabouts or she attained the true power of the bird. They ran back, slammed the door and locked her in until they could find out how she got that feather. They stood outside the closed door, their eyes peering through the keyhole, watching every move she made.
“Oh, Colin, where are you? Are you nearby? I wish you were here now to rescue me.”
* * *
Tossing and turning, a nightmare plagued my sleep. Eibhlin stood in front of me, but I couldn’t reach her. She spoke, but I couldn’t hear her. I tried everything in my power to break through the barrier between us, but couldn’t find the right casting spell. I woke up trying to catch my breath.
