The Chain (The Secret of Spellshadow Manor #3)(21)

“How horrible,” she whispered.

“The Head, too—he’s the worst of them all. He’s this strange, evil creature who hides beneath a hood so nobody can really see his face. He has fingers that are so thin they almost look like a skeleton’s hands, and he rules with an iron fist,” said Jari, his voice low, as if he were telling a scary story… which, Alex supposed, he was. “He’s probably after us right now. We caused a few issues for him, you see, when we escaped. But we couldn’t stay there any longer. We were tormented and miserable, missing our homes and our families. Running away was the only option—if we ever want to see them again.”

Alex noted a confused expression had crossed Helena’s face as she absorbed what Jari was saying.

“I don’t understand—why haven’t you seen your families?” Helena asked, concern furrowing her smooth brow.

“Students where we ran from are stolen from their homes,” said Jari.

“No!” gasped Helena, glancing for confirmation from the other members of the group.

Alex sighed. “Yeah… It’s true. There was another Head, not the skeletal one, who came out of the school into the non-magical world and snatched anyone who had magical potential, hypnotizing them and taking them back to the school against their will. Nobody was allowed to leave, once they had been taken inside—it was more of a prison than a school, really,” he explained grimly.

“Our families still don’t know where we are. As far as they know, we disappeared one day and never came back.” Alex was surprised as Ellabell spoke up, her voice thick with emotion. To hear his echoed thoughts coming from her lips made his heart twinge. It wasn’t something any of them spoke about much—their families waiting for children who never came home—but they all had them.

This news seemed to shock Helena to the core, her strange, pale gold eyes wide in horror. “How could they do that to you? It’s terrible! Nothing like that happens here. I can’t believe you have suffered these things—I am so sorry,” she whispered, her voice laced with empathy. It was the most genuine Alex believed they had seen her.

“So, that’s why we ran. We’re just trying to get home,” Jari concluded.

“You are lucky, to learn magic here,” Natalie remarked after a pause. “What is it like?”

“It is a great honor to be sent here to study. Though we are away from our families, we get to see them a few times a year when they visit,” she said shyly, clearly not wanting to rub salt into the wound. “Are you sure you want me to talk about Stillwater, after what you have just told me?”

“It’d be a nice distraction,” muttered Alex.

“Well… we are sent here at around nine or ten to begin our studies. There is a junior wing and a senior wing, and this is where we learn the ways of the Mage, beginning with the basics and working our way up to the more complex stuff. There are no barriers on the walls and no restrictions—we are free to walk the grounds and the nearby hills, if we so please. The teachers here are strict but fair, and treat us with a mutual respect, which is nice. They were students like us once, so they know what it is like. Our Headmistress rules over the school, but she is as strict and fair as the rest of the teachers. There are school rules she makes us abide by, like at any school, but they are not unreasonable. They are simply there so we get the most out of our education, and to keep us safe. There is free time too, to use how we please, and we are never forced to do anything.” She paused thoughtfully. “We are here, for the most part, of our own free will. Stillwater House is a necessary part of our transition into adulthood.”

Alex heard that curious robotic note in her voice again as she said the last couple of sentences; he could not get out of his mind how rehearsed they sounded.

“What if you don’t want to stay and study at Stillwater?” asked Alex.

Helena frowned. “Everybody here wants to stay and study.”

“You’re telling me nobody has ever tried to run away, or not wanted to stay?” pressed Alex.

There was a flash of confusion in Helena’s strange eyes. The question seemed to throw her for a moment, as if she had never fully contemplated it before. “I suppose there have been deserters,” she said finally, after a few moments of uncertain silence. Her choice of word concerned Alex. After all, it essentially described the five of them.

“What happens to the ones who try to run?” Alex ventured.

“They go somewhere else,” she said simply.

“Where?” Alex wasn’t dropping the bone; it was as he had suspected, and he was too intrigued to let it go.

Helena shrugged. “They go somewhere more suited to their needs, where they can get the help they require.”

It perplexed Alex that people who didn’t toe the line were always being sent ‘somewhere else,’ but nobody ever knew what or where that ‘somewhere else’ was. The memory of Blaine Stalwart rushed into his mind—that young man had been ‘sent’ to Stillwater, or so the Head had claimed. After discovering the manacles, with Blaine’s name written on the clipboard beside them, Alex had thought Blaine’s being sent to Stillwater House was merely a ruse. But now he was wondering if some part of Blaine had been sent here after all. It was a real place, but Alex couldn’t quite put his finger on how it related to Blaine’s disappearance. Alex had strongly suspected Blaine had been dealt with at Spellshadow itself—the slick, metallic-scented substance on the grim floor being a potent clue—but now, he couldn’t help thinking the result of Blaine’s demise might have been sent here for some reason. The thought chilled and confused him.