The Chain (The Secret of Spellshadow Manor #3)(23)

Chapter 9





All day the group was on edge, waiting for nightfall. At every moment, Alex expected to see a team of guards marching from the rising wall, ready to arrest them. The only one who seemed relaxed about the whole thing was Jari, who had wandered about the place in a daydream for most of the day, asking dumb questions every now and again about the beautiful Helena, like “How often do you think she brushes her hair?” and “If Helena were a sea creature, what kind of sea creature do you think she’d be?” It should have been a welcome distraction, but it only served to fray the nerves of everyone else.

It was only the knowledge of Aamir’s illness that kept the rest of the anxious group from up and leaving. Aamir’s condition was still bad, but it was no worse than it had been. Every hour, somebody changed the cold compress on his forehead and trickled water into his mouth. With the food Helena had brought, they found whatever was soft enough and mashed it up, feeding it him carefully so he didn’t choke, in an attempt to restore some of his strength. If it had, nobody could tell.

Natalie had even offered to try to break the curse, after a particularly nervous episode during lunchtime when they had been convinced there was a boat on the lake, coming closer. It had turned out to be a floating log, and Alex had persuaded her not to attempt any curse-breaking. She was mostly back to herself and still drinking the lake water regularly, but there was a tremor in her hands whenever she lifted them to try out a spell. She could perform intermediate magic like solid-bowl-forging, but anything greater quickly drained the returned color from her cheeks. Alex could tell she was definitely getting better, but she needed a little more time before she would be back to her usual, formidable self. She was frustrated by her unfamiliar weakness, but he warned her not to push herself, in case it set her back even further.

As the others busied themselves in anticipation of Helena’s arrival, there was little else for Alex to do except think. Sitting at the edge of the tree line, he gazed out at the glittering lake as it danced beneath the warm, glowing sunlight.

Spellshadow Manor seemed as if it belonged to another world entirely. In some ways, he supposed, it did.

Not wanting to dwell on the manor and the people they’d had no choice but to abandon there, he turned his mind to the people inside Stillwater House. ‘Magical nobles’ Helena had called them, but Alex still wasn’t sure where they came from. Where did these magical nobles live, and where did they send their children from? Did they live out in the real, non-magical world, just like Alex had, or was there a whole sphere of existence out there that he had no comprehension of? Were there worlds like this one, where the air crackled and buzzed with magical energy, just waiting to be discovered beyond the fabric of what Alex had always considered reality? It was a humbling thought, and Alex wasn’t sure he could deal with it on top of the fractious anxiety that coursed through his body. Just accepting magic was real had been a tough enough wake-up call, but it seemed the magical world wasn’t done surprising him.

He stayed, staring out at the lake for what seemed like hours, undisturbed by the others who were in equally solitude-seeking moods, with the thoughts of a million possibilities charging through his mind.

It was almost a relief when the sun finally went down, and they didn’t have to find things to distract themselves anymore. They had already packed up what meager belongings they had, leaving them with very little else to keep them busy. They just had to wait a short while longer for Helena to arrive, which was arguably worse than the stretching hours of the day. It meant the uncertainty of their move into the villa was near and they couldn’t run away anymore. Sitting together, they consumed what was left of Helena’s gifted food and drink in nervous silence.

They didn’t have to wait long, however, as Helena appeared just after the sun had sputtered out its last beam of light. They saw her this time as she approached, emerging ethereally from the shadows, her silver hair glinting.

“Shall we go?” she said cheerfully.

Taking her cue to leave, Alex and Jari ducked into the darkness of the cottage and picked up Aamir. He was awkward to carry, but they managed to run stealthily across the ground toward the wall with him, stopping only once to readjust their grip on his legs and armpits. Alex was almost glad Aamir was still unconscious, knowing the older boy would have hated the indignity. The girls were already standing beside the wall, waiting for the stragglers, when a sudden concern hit Alex. He looked up at the sizeable wall, then looked back down at Aamir.

“How are we supposed to get Aamir over that?” whispered Alex.

Helena smiled as a stream of liquid gold shot effortlessly from beneath her palms, snaking through the air toward Aamir, where it gathered beneath him. As she gracefully twisted her fingers, the golden energy puffed outward into a pulsing cushion of glowing light that held the weight of Aamir’s body with ease.

“Won’t someone see that?” Alex asked.

He thought he saw Helena roll her eyes at the insult of his question, before she twisted her right hand ninety degrees counter-clockwise, causing the bright glow of the cushion to dim down to an almost indiscernible mist of gold. It didn’t look as if there was anything beneath Aamir at all, once Helena was finished, which was both impressive and unsettling. It was obvious she was far more advanced than any of them, even Natalie, who was looking enviously at the spell and the powerful mage wielding it.