Jacks School of Shines Read online

  As for Barns, the visitors provided a constant source of delight. He loved to read them the tales of great wizards, and the castle held more books than that love. Books were better than bread to his thinking, not the pages themselves, but what they contained — stories, reports, information of all kinds.

  Visitors also provided another source of knowledge, giving Barns new information to help create charms and spells. When of age, he joined the School of Shines as a professor and later, when Headmaster Parks died, he became Headmaster. Not only brave and handsome, Headmaster Barns was considered unique for his magical deeds. His replacement would surely be under qualified.

  Whose footsteps would I follow in now, I wondered? I always stood in the shadows, admiring those greater than me, and I wished nothing more than to achieve the greatness of my headmaster. However, how would I know what to do? Some members in the Council of the Ministry speculated that Shines had planned to name me after graduation as Barns’ successor.

  Books of natural and unnatural science filled up plenty of castle bookshelves. I liked them fine and was well read in most, but the other things the Ministry of Magic taught fascinated me most.

  I would turn eighteen soon, making me the youngest professor School of Shines ever had. I wanted to show my headmaster that I could follow his lead, but I knew that Professor Ezards would be devastated at not being next for the position.

  This thought bothered me. Darkness came in and out of my mind daily. Nightmares plagued me often. Why would the school staff choose me over my elder? Didn’t they know that Ezards pined to be in his spot? Didn’t they know that every day of his life, all Ezards ever wanted was to rule the school, just as his father wanted?

  Of course not, I concluded. School of Shines never gave Professor Ezards the time of day. Darkness took him over and he became evil. They pushed away everything Ezards ever did as though his very existence meant nothing. Many times I had seen this professor brooding in his room, angry that his staff had no faith in him at all. I always wondered why my school at times was so ignorant. Ezards deserved the chance just as much as anyone, and yet every time Professor Ezards had tried to prove himself, it would be shoved under the carpet. Now he seemed darker with each day that passed.

  Sometimes, I enjoyed the attention from schoolmates taunting but, when I would see Ezard’s crestfallen face, I wished that the school staff wouldn’t give me anything.

  * * *

  This day, this particular day, started as any other. Students headed down the halls toward morning classes. In most of our minds, we counted two more classes till lunchtime. Jenny, Tom’s friend, and another student ran down the stairs. I was talking to her friend Shannon. Tom’s sister, Casey, stood along the side. We shared the next two classes and I tried to get a glimmer at her notes.

  We all heard a student yelling at the top of her lungs from upstairs. We watched her push her way through the crowd of students. She ran up to her best friend in a panic, her red flushed face telling us something had gone terribly wrong. Being winded, we couldn’t make any sense out of what she said. When she spoke, she huffed and told us about a large group of robed men in the Headmaster’s office.

  “There was a scuffle…and a smell of bad magic brewing…We could hear our Headmaster arguing back at the men…” She still hadn’t caught her breath. “…and then an explosion went off inside the room…. Filled the hall with smoke…where me and my friend were standing. I could see the robed men dragging our Headmaster out of his office. They all had their wands out and the wands were black,” she told with a grim expression.

  “One of the Dark Robed men looks straight at us and said, ‘Look away little girls. This is not meant for your eyes. Move to one side, or you both get a taste of my wand.’” The girl rubbed her eyes in disbelief.

  My friends and I saw the men drag our Headmaster past the children’s classes as they were changing subjects. The screams echoed through the walkways in the castle. Word had gotten out swiftly through the entire school. The men dragged Headmaster Barns downstairs to the courtyard.

  Students peered through open windows above to look at the horror taking place. We yelled out the windows, telling the men to let him go. When their wands pointed up at us, we ducked back in panic. The flights of stairs to the courtyard seem to take forever to run down. There we gathered in a circle and watched ropes under dark spells wrap repeatedly around our dazed Headmaster. Intuition of what lay ahead chilled us to the marrow. The Dark Robed men stood in a horseshoe shape around our tied and gagged Headmaster. I watched him, feeling helpless.

  Chapter 3: The Wizard’s Light

  Some of the girls yelled, “Please let him go!” Others pleaded to the Headmaster to wake up and do something. Like the other students too horrified to move, I stood motionless, watching, looking at a dead stare, the dead man stare. Now, to think back, he gazed in the direction of his study on the lower floor. One Dark Robe stepped forward and spoke to us. He had a lot of darkness in him to be so bold and careless in his manner.

  “To the true bloods of Witches and Wizards of this school, this man here, your school’s best Wizard, with his magical knowledge accumulated through his long years of studies, could not stop us from taking him down. We are going to take the school over. This Wizard deserves your best ‘Ridicules’. The Dark and Evil is coming and we will run the School of Shines from now on! You will be taught well by us. Our teaching of eons of Dark and Evil wisdom will be cherished. The lies that you live by will soon be put out and rent asunder. This old Wizard is not to be pitied. He’s to be hated for his poor teaching.”

  The robed speaker stepped back and turned to our Headmaster. He placed his hand in his cloak and pulled out a Stone Age dagger etched in silver. Dried blood encrusted its fat handle which held an old script I’d never seen before. He raised the dagger up high for all of us to see. A roar from the students went out to stop.

  He yelled, “Your spells and charms now are useless to stop me from doing this to you, old man.” He bent forward, sending an evil stare into our eyes in the crowd. We couldn’t look at him, at that much hatred, at that much arrogance. He plunged the dagger into the chest of our Headmaster. The Headmaster held his head high and looked shocked for a moment, then his head dropped down and his chin touched his chest.

  We took a collective breath in, holding it, feeling tears of sorrow and outrage sting our eyes. The Dark Robe pulled the knife out and turned away. The hundreds of students who gathered in the tiny courtyard went crazy, demanding revenge. Some punched those men. The younger ones held out their wands and got off some good spells as the older ones took time to take better aim on those evil men.

  Some of the children were so overcome that the said spells bounced around, creating weird things new to us. Death and destruction reigned over that day’s events. Our poor Headmaster stood tied to that post in that courtyard, dead.

  The melee calmed down and all of us, even the Dark Robes, stopped to stare when Headmaster Barns’ chest opened up! Brilliant silver, white and gold energy radiated from him.

  “The Wizard’s Light!” I muttered, along with many of my schoolmates. We’d read of it, but no one had ever seen it.

  The greatness shined out of his chest and bounced over the schoolyard. My awestruck stare followed one beam hitting a low wall, then head for me. I backed up and tried to run, but too many students crowded around. A sizzling sensation filled my chest and, for a moment, I felt invincible. The light lifted me several feet off the ground and held me there. I could only look down at the upturned faces, bewildered just like them. To my left and right, four other students lifted up and it felt like an eternity while we hovered there, plain for all to see.

  The light dulled and slowly lowered us back to the schoolyard. When our feet touched the pavement, the spell broke and fighting resumed. That day, the Dark Robes found out the student body of Shines was a good match against them. Most of the men failed do to even the spells of our youngest students. Timmy, Jamie, Barney, Mar
cie, and Jenny cast the biggest and took out at least four of them.

  The large group of older students who jumped in showed what horrific feats of power they had to offer. A girl beheaded one of the Dark Robes. This proved that the men had no idea what they unleashed after they plunged the dagger into our Headmaster.

  The shock in their eyes remained in my mind always. For days after, as they lay in the courtyard to wither away by the Wind Spirit, the black crows feasted first on those open shocked eyes. A few Dark Robes who flew off were reported to the Wizard Council of the Ministry of Magic in West Chester. They were caught, held for questioning and later executed by a wand caster blast at ten paces in the Ministry courtyard on a miserably cold day. That same night, the Ministry agreed to fight to save all that was good. That bit of news rang in my head and lifted my spirits when I ever felt down.

  The Headmaster laid in state for the mandatory four days for a Great Wizard. The school property held the Wizard Cemetery where hundreds of great wizards lay buried. In a Grand Tomb in the Mausoleum he laid in rest. News went out quietly for his friends and family, and they paid their last respects.

  The School of Shines hosted their own cemetery since the building of the school in the year 1025. Merlin, our first Headmaster, wanted the school built along with Condon the Great, and Lady Bilatine of O’Brien. Merlin, the founder of the School of Shines, decided to have a place for the teaching of Wizardry, for the good and care of its knowledge to keep the Order of Wizards in the land. Our great Merlin rested well through his ten years of heading the school. He named the School of Shines after an old Dragon he took one hundred long years to battle, Griffin Shines the Terra.

  The professors only spoke of themselves fighting the Dark Robes. The welfare of the students concerned them most of all. They laid down several rules. The student body should be nowhere outside the main gates. The school hall monitors should not leave the school. All eyes must be on the students, unless they knew the students were in talks among themselves upstairs in the main room between dorms.

  The magically enlightened five hit by the Wizard’s Light happened to be the school’s best students. We five boys proved best in wand usage, spell casting and spells learned beyond our years, knowledge and the use of the prize of spells, the spell of the Change of Unbelievable, the dark between the light changing time, and the travel between realms. And many felt that Headmaster Barns knew ahead of time what was now apparent to us here at the School of Shines.

  The children spoke only of the black wands they saw on that morning and the Dark Robes’ evil deeds to their school. Students wanted to rush out the main gates and go crazy on who they believed caused the coming evil.

  The youngest students kept their eyes tightly closed as they hid, refusing to leave their rooms. Our poor little ones became lost in what they saw their first year here. They talked only of the five boys the Wizard’s Light struck that horrible morning.

  The light, the inexplicably enchanted illumination, hit us five boys in the forehead at the same time. Even now, in the lower house studies, the professors talked of the boys who got hit, that we witnessed the future through the Headmaster’s eyes.

  Upstairs, the students talked through the night. We five chosen should be the ones to go out and fight the Dark Robes. The students didn’t know that the evil men had regrouped and, in a few days, would strike the School of Shines again.

  Evil was never encouraged. If not for the dark ways, everyone would appear to be saints around here. There was a time when the School of Shines fought a terrible battle against the Dark and Evil, but the great Headmaster Barns won the battles and set Shines free.

  Now that he no longer led us, the best students decided to look for the Dark Robes’ whereabouts. The professors had no clue of the dangerous plan and would never allow students on the outside. However, the children made up their own minds and we five planned to leave by morning. When morning came, we packed our knapsacks with food and gear.

  The students had snitches all over the school to watch over the movements of the professors. They worked out a clever way of telling each room who might be coming by the use of Morse code through the tip tapping of their wands on the bedpost. Silent it needed to be for no sound should be heard or they’d be found out. The tapping was done magically.

  “It’s time to go,” one small boy said as we waited for a moment on the front lawn of the school. The castle sign said:

  The School of Shines

  Witchcraft and Wizardry

  Est. the year 1025 bc

  Merlin our King

  Shadowed by that image, we felt proud to take the first steps into internal glory. Our friends ran out to wish a sad goodbye.

  Eibhlin appeared at my elbow, rubbing sleep from her eyes. Pulling me to the side, she took something out of her pocket and gave it to me.

  “This is my magical quill.” Her glance darted around, making sure no one stood nearby, listening. “And here is parchment. Write whenever you have news. The parchment will find me.”

  “But…your mother gave you this quill. I can’t take it.”

  “Don’t be foolish, boy.” Her eyes glinted at me in a way I knew too well from arguing with her through many years of school. “I need to know that you and the others are alright.” Stroking my cheek, the anger disappeared, leaving sorrow in her brilliant blue eyes.

  “Alright. I’ll take it, and I promise to write.” The lump in my throat made it difficult to speak. The rising sun glinted on her honey brown hair, tingeing it with crimson, and her beauty at that moment caught me in the chest.

  “You’ll write no matter what!” Her hands fell to her sides and her mouth formed a pout.

  “I promise. No matter what.”

  “Are we ready yet?” Hunter yelled a few yards away, shifting his knapsack in impatience.

  I waved once at him, then leaned forward, my forehead touching Eihblin’s. “Take care.”

  “You, too.”

  I fell in with Hunter and the others, and we headed down the frost covered trail. The girls waved goodbye to us and one called out with a heartfelt cry, “Dark and scary times are coming ahead, boys. Beware of all things not from Shines.”

  Chapter 4: Bluebird

  Arguing among ourselves as we normally did, we carelessly waved our wands about, sending out shockwaves of spells on poor helpless rocks and old logs. As the oldest of the five, I said, “Oh boy, we’re in a fine mess.” I was a large boy for my age because of my parents’ part-giant heritage. Our family came from Castle Woods Road, London.

  Over there, kicking at the wet grass and dead leaves was Tom from Highbury Station Road. Throwing rocks and allowing everyone to know of our presence by blowing the rocks into outer space with a tiny flick of his wand was Hunter, a Castle Road boy. They were the toughest around East London.

  Behind me walked John, a quiet lad with a lisp and such a baby face. He shared most of my classes but I never got the chance to know him or learn where he came from. Nevertheless, I found him hard to speak to. However, he cast spells faster than I. A more nervous guy I’d never met.

  The guys in front of me walked so fast one would think we were going to breakfast. And last, Riley was obsessed about how his life should be. He didn’t like the fact we were out here in the forest, but I told him we hadn’t made it to the village yet. He explained the tears in his eyes came from his damp morning chill. Even though he felt a bit scared, he was a fine example of Kentish town people.

  As we came down this grassy hillside, I tried to hush the others because we were getting closer to the village of Quentin. I said to the boys, “Keep your eyes out for the black wands. Don’t just go by the color of the robe.”

  The boys nodded. Not a word came. Noisy just a few minutes ago, now, close to the village, all grew quiet. We walked in the main part as a group, looking for clues to the Dark Robes’ whereabouts.

  John said, “They’ll see that we’re from the school and warn the others. Look over there.”

/>   I told the boys, “Spread out. We are bunched up too tightly. A single wand blast could take us all out at the same time.” The other boys stepped quickly and hid by the first building, peering around the corner.

  “Shush,” I said to them. “John heard a wagon coming.” A horse drawn cart came click clacking by us five, our eyes wide to see all.

  John said, “That was lucky!”

  “Lucky in which way?”

  “That man might have seen us and told others,” John explained.

  “Man? What man? As the cart went by, we only saw a fine looking horse. There was no man or anyone driving it. It’s riderless. Stop worrying,” I said. Tom started to boldly walk in the middle of the street.

  We said, “What are you doing? Are you mad?”

  “No. There’s no one here. Can’t you tell?”

  We looked all around and saw no smoke coming from the chimneys, no store front doors opened, no smell of food from the square or the bakery bread. We walked lightly in dead quiet, and that couldn’t be a good thing. Something covered the sky, turning it pitch dark for a moment. A large group of sparrows flew away from the nearby fields. Not one, but all seemed to have left this village.

  * * *

  A week before the Dark Robes marched onto the school grounds, they holed up in the village of Quentin. Commanded by the Evil Goblin, they talked and planned the best way to do their evil deeds. The men stayed in the best lodges, refusing to pay for what they ate or drank, and terrorizing the Quentin women and children. When the men of the village spoke up and confronted them, they went into a rage, a fury. Madness came and went on the villagers and all now were gone.

  We walked through the empty village, looking around for any clues. Hunter seemed quite overwhelmed with nerves. We could see this when he saw his own shadow in the storefront window. When it mirrored his reflection back at him, he thrust out his wand and cast frightful spells to break the window in a million little pieces. The hair raised on the back of his neck showed and told us we were not the brave souls who left the school.