The Chain (The Secret of Spellshadow Manor #3)(74)

“I hear that,” agreed Alex grimly. “Who’s waiting for you, back home?”

“My grandparents, my parents, my little sister,” he replied.

“You have a sister?” Alex hadn’t known about a sister. It reminded him of the promise he’d made to Natalie’s little sister, to get her back safely. He was still determined to make good on that promise, no matter how long it took.

Aamir smiled. “Samaira. She was only five when I disappeared. I doubt she even remembers me.”

“I’m sure she remembers you, Aamir. She’d definitely want you back home, where you belong,” Alex encouraged.

“You really believe we’re going to get out, don’t you?” he remarked kindly, though there was uncertainty in his eyes.

“I have to. Don’t you want to get back to them?” Alex asked, wanting to gauge Aamir’s reaction. When Aamir said nothing, Alex pressed him. “The thing is, I need to know who I’m taking with me, when I figure out a way back. I need to know if that includes you.”

Aamir sighed heavily. “I’m up for leaving… Of course I’m up for leaving this place. Home is all I have ever wanted, though it has long seemed impossible,” he replied quietly, with such emotion in his words that Alex half-believed him.

Talk of family seemed to have relaxed Aamir somewhat, though he kept glancing anxiously around, speaking only in a hushed, whisper-like voice, as if they might be overheard. Seeing this shift in Aamir’s manner, Alex seized his opportunity, though he almost regretted having to; he was enjoying hearing about Aamir’s past and the people from Aamir’s reality, outside in the non-magical world.

“What did they do to you, back at Spellshadow? When you became a teacher, what happened?” ventured Alex.

“It’s like I said, there are gaps in my memory, and there are things I was never told. The teachers certainly know more than the students, but they are still not told everything. Some things are reserved solely for those in charge,” he explained, no longer seeming disdainful of Alex’s line of questioning. He almost appeared eager to answer him. “What I do know is, the Head wanted me to be the new Finder—he wanted to turn me into some magic-seeking specter, but it turned out I didn’t have the natural knack he needed, for seeking out magical talent in the outside world.” He smiled bleakly.

The idea still horrified Alex, making him wonder how things might have turned out, if they had not reached Aamir in time. Perhaps the Head would have tried anyway, doing to Aamir what he had done to Malachi Grey, all those years ago, in the garden of Spellshadow Manor. He shivered at the thought of that day in the tombs when he had touched Finder’s gaping skull.

“Is that why you came back?” asked Alex, recalling the night in the manor when the dark-cloaked figure of Aamir, then Professor Escher, had chased them. “Why you were in the manor that night, when you came after us?”

“I had been sent back, that much is true, but I chased you because I caught Jari searching for a book on necromancy—a very dangerous, awful book. I wanted to stop him, so I pretended to be someone I wasn’t and ran after him, forcing him to abandon his search,” he explained.

Alex frowned. The tale was deeply reminiscent of Elias’s, in which he had tried to prevent Ellabell from reaching out for a particular book, hidden away in the depths of the Head’s library. He wondered if the incidents were somehow related, but shrugged it off for the moment as he turned back to what Aamir was saying.

“I realized then that you had come on with your powers. You gave me quite the shock with your snowy barricade,” he chuckled softly.

Alex smiled. “Sorry about that.”

“No apology necessary. I threatened you; no doubt I deserved it.”

“What were you doing at the manor? I mean, nobody knew you were there—we all thought you’d gone with the Head,” said Alex, remembering the terror he had felt when he heard the heavy footsteps on the flagstones, running after them.

Aamir nodded. “The Head had sent me back to guard the school in his absence, after realizing I was truly useless at magic-finding, but I wasn’t supposed to make myself known to anyone. I think he hoped the students would believe he was still in the manor, somehow—an omnipresent being, that could be both away and there, at the same time. He’s not, if you were curious. He can appear quickly, if he wants to, but he can’t be in two places at once,” he assured Alex with a wry smile.

“So, was there ever a time he didn’t have eyes on the place?” Alex asked curiously.

“Yeah. I was sent back shortly after the new rules were put in place, so there were, maybe, two weeks when he didn’t have anyone watching over the manor. Except Siren Mave, who checked in from time to time, I believe. She’s always flitting about, though, by all accounts. He could never get hold of her when he needed her. So I suppose he relied on your fear—the students’ fear—and it failed him.” He shrugged.

Not for the first time, Alex pondered the curious entity that was Siren Mave. This strange being that seemed to be everywhere, able to move easily from place to place, not really belonging to the faculty but not belonging to any one school either. She seemed to be a law unto herself, and it made Alex endlessly curious to know more—though, if what Aamir was saying was true, he wasn’t sure how he’d be able to pin her down to ask. Like Elias, she never appeared when you wanted to see her; she simply showed up when she felt like it.