Avis Blackthorn and the Magical Multicolour Jumper (The Wizard Magic School Series, Book 2) (23 page)

CHAPTER TWELVE

To Vanquish a Djinn

I
was in trouble. Jasper was about to tell the Lily everything. I wrenched at the jumper attempting in vein to remove it, but the harder I pulled, the tightly it clinged to me — until, after a few large yanks I was suddenly gasping for air, the wool strands contracting. Robin stood, looking melancholy at the now dirty pile of sandwiches that were laying strewn across the floor.

“I need to burn it!” I said.

“You can’t burn it off, you’ll set yourself on fire!”

I stopped and glowered at him. “No! I need to get it off and then burn it. If the Lily finds out the truth I’m done for!”

I pulled and pulled and pulled, but to no avail. I had to find out a way to get it off.

Yearlove’s voice began to echo round my head as we shot to the Library in a blaze of golden light: “
The spirits inside are immensely dangerous, and if they can cause you damage for any reason they will. Often the wish you request will come back to bite you
.
”

Why didn't I listen?

The book about Djinn that I’d stolen from the Library was still in my bag. I reached inside quickly and pulled it out. It was a black leather bound book with red scratchy writing on the side. ‘
The History and Process of Incarnate & Discarnate Beings and their Uses: A Practical Guide’
read the spine.

Robin didn't know what to say, he had run out of expletives. But I was panicking — I had to do something to save my place at Hailing Hall.

I flicked through the index and ran my finger down the subjects desperately hoping that
how to undo a Djinn’s magic
or something would be in there. Robin was sitting quietly, wrapped in a blanket, staring at the moon. The page before the evocation instructions had the chapter headline:
BEWARE
. I read on:

Before you think about raising a Djinn, you must think how much you value your life. As we’ve discussed in this book so far, the Djinn are an incredibly cunning, clever, and malevolent race. They will do anything to ensure their freedom. Many times, the lure of a wish is too much and one jumps in to get it. However, the Djinn are clever, they give you
exactly
what you wish for. But this can leave a lot of room for interpretation. Wishes always have a bite in the tail.

I sat back feeling glum. Why hadn't I read this sooner? “Hate to say I told you so…” said Robin still looking out of the window. I felt stupid. Very, very stupid.

All of a sudden, blue light lit up the clock tower, as a glowing ghostly face rose up through the floor. “The Lily would like to see you, in his office. Immediately.” Then, the ghost vanished with a pop. Robin turned and looked at me gravely. I felt a stone drop in the pit of my stomach.

Slowly as I could, I made my way down to the Lily’s office. Robin walked silently by my side, he knew I was about to be exspelled. I walked as slow as I could, taking it all in for what could be the last time. This school, my home — I had blown it.

The corridors were completely empty, thank goodness. My heart was beating at a frantic rate, my skin felt clammy and mouth dry as chalk. I didn't want to go home! He couldn't make me could he? The long corridor lay out in front of me, the Lily’s office with its huge white double doors stretched up as high as the ceiling.

“This is it then,” said Robin robotically. “Good luck.” I nodded once, unable to speak. For my fate was waiting inside that room. But as I began to walk, I felt something tingling in my arms. Then my chest. Then… my neck. I stopped walking, as I tried to work out what was happening. It was the jumper, it was tightening! The strands were contracting like a snake, squeezing me tighter and tighter. I bent forwards with the pain, all the air being squashed from my lungs.

Robin stopped dead staring at me. “What’s happening?!” he cried. “AVIS!”

All I could manage was gasping breaths as the jumper began strangling me with its thick woollen hands! I grabbed fistfuls of wool and pulled. But it was too strong — grip harder than steel. “HELP!
HEEEELLLPPP
!” Robin cried.

Running footsteps echoed up the corridor, then voices and blurred faces. “Oh no!” cried the voices.

Robin cried. “Please, you’ve got to help him, I don’t know what to do!”

“We must help Avis Blackthorn!” they said.

“I want to save him!” said another arriving on the scene.

“No!” cried the sixth years. “We are saving him, now go away.”

I couldn't hear the rest, my consciousness was fading. They were arguing about who would be the one to save me, as I lay struggling for breath. I started to see stars, and hazy colours. The energy was fading out of me as all noise and light began to dissipate.

A flash illuminated the hallway. I felt the strangling hands fall away. I could breath again — great lungfuls of air swept into my body. I could see again… the tall, white outline of the Lily stared down at me.

I
sat on a stool in the Lily’s office, dazed and emotionless. Clutching my neck and sides as he walked around me in long smooth circles, waving his arms like a conductor. The hole in the shoulder knitted back together, grey flashes sparkled around it.

“Take it off,” said the Lily. I felt weak, but stretched my arms out, pulling it up and off. At last. The Lily stared at it in the middle of the floor. White light burst from the seams. Exploding in a fierce fire, the jumper burned to ash. And, was gone.

The Lily sat back at his desk and turned away from me, staring out of the long, tall window that survey the entirety of the Hailing Hall — the grounds, the floating island, the hills and caverns in the distance. He turned back and indicated for me to stand before his desk. This was it, the part where he told me I was out of here and to get my stuff and leave.

“I am not just angry that you knowingly helped a known Djinn find freedom. I am not just angry that you broke into Magisteer Simone’s private living quarters. I am not just angry that you searched the Library at night, after you were caught by myself, to look for restricted material. But I am also disappointed because I thought
you
were different. I am disappointed that you demonstrated selfish, self indulgent and arrogant behaviours. I thought you were different from your family? You stood in here last year and told me that you were nothing like them, you were proud of that. And yet, I find myself having the exact conversation with you that I did with all of your other siblings…”

I felt awful, tears welled up in my eyes and a lump in my throat. I felt ashamed.

“Not just that, but I personally locked away the Djinn you released. In fact it took a team of us, and many months to track and defeat him. In the hope that he should never get to inflict his persons on anyone else in the magical society ever again. And now that work has been reset. Believe me, I can understand
why
you did it,” he said softly, his eyes pouring into me. “Don’t we all wish to be liked?” then he shook his head. “But that is not the way to achieve it.” He nodded towards the small pile of ash which sparked with multicoloured lights. “I would have thought after last year that you would have learned from your mistakes. And strived to do better, proving that you are…
a good Wizard?”

He had publicly backed me in front of the entire Chamber last year and said that I was a good Wizard. And now, I felt nothing but shame.

“But what are we to do now?” he said. “That is the question.” I looked up at him, waiting for the inevitable. The Lily stared up at the white pitched roof, then smiled. “You are the one who released the Djinn, therefore you shall be the one to vanquish it.” I swallowed, hoping he was joking. How on earth could I vanquish a Djinn? “Surely you know that the one who released a Djinn is the only one who can vanquish it?” he said, I shook my head slowly. “Djinn will do anything to maintain their freedom. The only way it can guarantee its freedom is… if you die.”

“If I die?” I said, and then something popped into my head. All the accidents—the attempts to kill me. They must have been the Djinn!

“The only way it can guarantee its freedom on this plane, is if the person who released it… dies. It’s not a nice fact, but it’s the truth. And you deserve the truth.” The Lily stood sharply and wrapped his knuckles on the table. “Don’t mistake this for being let off the hook. I am angry with you. But you can redeem yourself… by vanquishing the Djinn back to the holder it came in. I know for a fact that the Djinn must still be in the school somewhere — it would be too weak in it’s released form to travel more than a few hundred feet. It will have stayed here, hidden somewhere to conserve its energy. If you can’t do this, then I will have to seriously consider your place in the school. You have until the end of the year,” said the Lily finally.

“But, how? I mean, what do I do?” I said.

“You won’t go alone, an experienced Magisteer will go with you,” the Lily marched towards the big white doors. “Oh and Avis… don’t tell anyone about the Djinn or your mission — we will all be in trouble if certain people find out that a Djinn has been let free in school grounds.”

***

I
woke late and alone in the dorm room. Sunlight streamed in through tall windows showing up the dust in the room. I sighed. I should have been grateful, I was close to never seeing this place ever again.

Walking down to breakfast, I felt naked without the jumper. My stomach rumbling, I slipped into the Chamber as quietly as I could. Instantly, all eyes turned towards me, and then a low booing sound started to echo from all around. They were booing me! I saw the faces that had come up to me when I had the jumper on before, excitedly asking me to be their friend. Now, those same faces were stormy. They certainly did not want to be my friend now— now that they realised their love for me was…
synthetic
.

Jasper was sat with a pleased expression and David Starlight was glaring at me with little more than murderous contempt. I suppose this is what I deserved.

I scuttled, head down, to my table. Glaring embarrassment choking harder than the jumper had. As I sat down, the people on my table didn't look up. Not even Robin, who was staring into his porridge glumly — I saw why, Felicity, the girl Robin had a crush on, was glaring in his direction. I felt responsible.

Partington wasn't in the Chamber. I had almost forgotten what Tina had told me, up in the clock tower — they had been warned to stay away from me.

“Avis! You don't look as dashing in the cold light of day!” cried a voice — Jasper, he was standing, as if about to make a speech. “Everyone hates you for tricking them into liking you with
black magic
,” he announced.

Blood burned my veins with anger as he revelled in the audience of the entire Chamber, while I simultaneously tried to think of which invisibility spells I could get away with and which spells to attack Jasper with. “… And they said you were a
good
Blackthorn? Blood runs deep!” he called.

The Chamber watched Jasper with glee, turning from him to me with wide eyed expectancy. “And I am sure, they will all want to know what it was you did? Well… I will tell you all what Avis Blackthorn did! For I was the one who beat the truth out of him in a duel high up in the school tower!” The crowd bayed, looking around at each other muttering.

“
Don’t
…” Tina pulled his sleeve. But Jasper wasn’t listening, he was enjoying himself too much, finally the chance he had been waiting for had arrived, and he wasn’t wasting a second.

“Avis did black magic to conjure… a
demon
! He used its power to weave a jumper that made Tina,
my
girlfriend, fall in love with him! Because he was jealous!” the Chamber crooned. “But because it was black magic and he didn’t know what he was doing, it went wrong, and you
all
fell in love with him!”

Screams of
no way!
And
that’s why!
And
I knew there was something dodgy about him!
Rang about the chamber.

“And this is the worst bit…” Jasper cried, one long finger pointing at me. “He…
he
…” but Jasper stopped, shaking his head, as if struggling to utter the next words. Then he shuddered — he couldn't speak. His mouth was sealing shut!

“Spit it out!” shouted Jack Zapper. But Jasper couldn't. I watched on with the rest of the Chamber, as Jasper’s lips shut tighter, fading away until… he had no mouth! He snatched at them, trying to pull it open, but to no avail. It was sickening.

“His mouths gone!” shouted Rahmid Khan excitedly.

“That’s a black magic spell!” said a fifth year.

My brother Harold was the only one on the Magisteers table who wasn't looking up and continued to sit there while the other Magisteers rushed over to help Jasper. His dark eyes swam slow as a ship along the horizon to me, then away, back to his porridge. It was him. He did that to Jasper. I knew my brother, and I knew that look in his eye.