The Dark Portal (The Gryphon Chronicles, Book 3) (36 page)

Archie
nodded. “I have no idea
how
he does it, of course. You’d know better than I, since you actually experienced it. Once he’s reached his quota, he’ll be back to his full strength. Except for, ah, one final step in the spell that’s, um, well, a bit worrisome.”

Jake paused with his fork halfway to his mouth. “What’s the final step?”

“After he feeds on a hundred people’s souls, he has to seal the deal, as it were, by feeding on the soul of, um…” Archie hesitated, glancing at his sister. “A unicorn.”

“What?”
Isabelle swept to her feet, the color draining from her face. “Over my dead body,” she declared, then ran out of the room.

“Isabelle?”
Dani jumped up and ran after her. “Isabelle, where are you going?”

Jake and Archie exchanged a grim glance.

“How can Garnock get anywhere near a unicorn?” Jake asked in the ponderous silence. “You and I can’t even go near them, and this sorcerer’s pure evil.”

Archie shrugged. “If Garnock’s
not in corporeal form when he approaches them…how will they even know he’s there? I mean, unicorns are like any herd animal. They rely on sharp senses and their instincts to flee from danger. But if he’s just a dark spirit, a black fog, they won’t be able to hear him coming, or smell him, or see him…”

“They won’t know to run away,” Jake
murmured, a cold shadow of premonition passing over his heart.

Just then, Isabelle ran past the doorway with the
ivory Keeper’s Staff in her hands. She must have gone to the Archive, Jake thought. She disappeared just as quickly, going past the doorway and pounding up the stairs, a girl on a mission.

“Where’s she going?” Jake called to Dani, who followed the older girl
just a few steps behind.

Dani came back and leaned in
the doorway. “We’re going to stand watch over the herd.”

“No, you’re not, don’t be daft,” Jake replied.
“It’s too dangerous.”

To which Dani gave him a withering look.

She
dashed upstairs without waiting around to argue, apparently off to change into her boots and warmer clothes for traipsing around in the woods.

Her silence spoke volumes. It told Jake she would not be dissuaded.
When she argued over something, at least she would listen to his opinion. Unfortunately, he knew her well enough to understand that in some situations, Dani would do what Dani wanted to do.

Archie sent him a worried look. “Jake, this sounds really dangerous. If Garnock means to go after the unicorns, I d
on’t want my sister caught in the middle of this.”

“I
don’t think the girls are asking our opinion, coz. Isabelle’s a Keeper. It’s her calling. And the carrot-head is obviously determined to assist her.”

“
Well, I don’t like it one bit,” Archie said, ever the chivalrous English gentleman.

“Neither do I. But
you know those two. I doubt they’re going to let anyone stand in their way. The most we can do is try to keep them safe. If they mean to go out into the forest, maybe we can talk them into walking up to the chapel ruins with us first. I have a little something to return to Brother Colwyn.”

“At least that would get us out there with them,” Arc
hie mumbled with a worried frown. “I’d better go tell Guardian Stone and Miss Helena about this.”

Jake
nodded and wiped his mouth with his napkin, then he rose from the table and gave the house brownie a grateful smile. “Everything was delicious as usual, Mrs. Fingle. Now then! Where the deuce did I leave that head?”

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Reunited

Some time later that afternoon, they gathered around Brother Colwyn’s tomb inside the ruined chapel.

Everyone was there. T
he girls had agreed to walk up with them before leaving to go and watch over the unicorn herd. Red had come along, as had Derek and Miss Helena, since those two had not yet seen the chapel ruins with the tomb of Sir Reginald.

The girls stood back while Derek and Archie used crowbars to loosen the s
eal around the heavy marble lid carved with the statue of the dead man inside.

Then Jake lifted it off t
he ancient stone sarcophagus using his telekinesis. With keen concentration, he levitated it to the side, then floated it down gently to the ground.

Letting out a low “whew”
that he had not dropped it, he stepped closer and braced himself to have a look inside.

The others did the same
; Dani grimaced.

Inside the coffin lay a headless skeleton draped in t
he tattered remnants of a simple ancient tunic, its bony arms wrapped around an illuminated manuscript.

Everyone was silent as Jake took the poor, murdered friar’s skull out of his makeshift satchel.

“This feels a little sacrilegious,” Archie remarked.

“We’re only doing it to help him,” Jake
said. Flicking a spot of dirt off the surface of the skull, he reached down into the sarcophagus and put it back reverently where it belonged.

He had
no sooner set the skull back in its rightful place when a dazzling beam of light suddenly blasted straight up from the coffin and filled the space.

Everyone stepped b
ack, gasping and shading their eyes. The brilliance grew until all of them were squinting and trying to shield their eyes with their hands.

Suddenly, a disembodied voice came out of the air
. “All of you, join hands.
Join hands!
” it repeated when they just stood there in astonishment.

They looked around at each ot
her in confusion, then obeyed. Even the Gryphon joined the circle, with Miss Helena and Archie on either side of him, each resting a hand on his tawny withers.

“Now,
look,
” said the disembodied voice.

The dazzling light beaming up out of the coffin expanded in a circular wave all around them; as it spread out, fading to a more tolerable level of brightness, it
surrounded them with a breathtaking vision of the church and monastery as they had been in their heyday, when Brother Colwyn would have lived and worked here.

They stared in wonder, craning their
necks to look this way and that at the towering sanctuary in all its glory, with the sunlight streaming through the stained-glass windows, plainchant hymns wafting out from the choir loft.

“It’s beautiful!” Dani exclaimed.

“How are we seeing this?” Archie cried.

“He must be chann
eling the vision to the rest of us through Jake and Isabelle’s psychic abilities!” Miss Helena replied.

“Who?” Dani asked.

“Brother Colwyn,” Isabelle said, smiling at a spot behind Jake’s shoulder, where the glowing spirit of the now re-headed friar stood, beaming.

“Welcome, friends,” said Brother
Colwyn, a humble, rather chubby man in a long white tunic with the oddly shaved tonsure haircut particular to monks.

They gazed at the
smiling apparition in amazement.

“It’s so good to be able to see you all
—and oh, thank you, Lord Griffon! It’s been centuries since I could talk! I owe you more than you can possibly know. Thank you for restoring what was stolen from me.”

“Well, t
hank you for getting me out of that horrible tomb,” Jake answered with a modest blush.

The smiling friar-ghost nodded. “Likewise! No
w then, I don’t know how long I will be able to sustain this vision before Celestus comes for me—”

“Dr.
Celestus?” Dani cried, glancing up at the last remaining stained-glass window depicting the angel.

Nodding, Brother
Colwyn hastily continued: “So, please, listen well. There’s something very important I have to show you. Take that book out of my coffin. Open it, please. And hurry.”

Derek left the circle to fetch it; the others quickly joined hands again.
The ghost hovered nearby as Derek pried the massive leather-bound tome out of the skeleton’s bony arms, then lifted it out of the coffin.

Brother Colwyn floated over to it.
“Ah, my dear old book! It was practically my life’s work.”

When Derek opened the book, t
he spirit made the pages flutter rapidly, finally arriving at one particular passage near the back.

There were still more blank pages after that, but this w
as as far as the friar had got during his lifetime.

Brother
Colwyn sighed, gazing sadly at the final page of his manuscript. “This was the last thing I was able to jot down before Garnock came for his revenge. I was lucky I managed to hide it from him in time.” He paused and glanced at Jake. “You do know by now you are dealing with Garnock the Sorcerer?”

Jake nodded.

“T
his is the spell the Lightriders used to bind him inside his workshop so long ago. Use it well. If he completes the Spell of a Hundred Souls and then takes his place as the head of the Dark Druids, he’ll free the demons under his command—and this time, there’ll be no stopping him.”

Jake nodded in grim resolve. “We had better go after him as soon as possible. The way he’s been feeding on those children at the school, he must be close to meeting his quota of a hundred souls by now. At least now we know where to find him
. But I’m going to need some reinforcements.”

“You know you’ve got me,”
Derek said at once.

“And me,” Archie chimed in.

“Becaw!” Red agreed.

Miss Helena glanc
ed at the girls. “We’ll watch over the unicorns. Last line of defense. If Garnock gets past you somehow and makes it to the final step of his dreadful spell, we won’t let him anywhere near the herd.”

“It’s dangerous,” Archie protested.

“Brother, this is bigger than all of us,” Isabelle said softly.

Jake no
dded, encouraged by all their offers of help, even though, deep down, he already suspected that it was going to come down to that hideous wraith and him. “Thanks, everybody. But there’s just one problem. He’s a spirit—at least for now—and none of you is a psychic. So, anyone fancy a trip into town? There’s somebody there I need to go and see.”

“I knew you had the gift.” Madam Sylvia fixed Jake with a piercing stare as they stood in her
charm-and-crystal shop. “Why did you try to hide it when you were here last?”

“I had
to make sure you weren’t a fraud,” he admitted.

She humphed. “
A skeptic. Well, I suppose that is understandable. But tell me.” Her dark eyes narrowed. “What happened that night? What was all the screaming?”

Jake shuddered at the memory. “That’s actually what I’
m here to see you about.” Then he told her everything about Garnock the Sorcerer.

She clearly didn’t like what she heard. She
pondered the information—and his perilous request—in silence for a long moment.

“Let me see if I’ve got this right. You sat here and watched this wraith, this Garnock fellow, tearing through my spirit guests, and you never said a word?”

“Madam Sylvia, please,” Derek said, “he’s only twelve.”

“People like us have a responsibility!
” She gestured at Jake in annoyance. “If we don’t help the spirits, who else can? Oh, I knew something had shaken you up, the way you ran right out of here that night with your tail between your legs. Apparently you were more worried about saving your own skin than trying to help those ghosts. So why should I trust you now?”

“
Because now I know what I’m dealing with!” Jake cried, red-cheeked with embarrassment at her blunt words. “It was extremely upsetting, ma’am. If you could have seen him! Besides, what point was there in telling you what had happened to those ghosts when there was nothing you could have done about it?

“
Honestly, be glad you couldn’t see it,” he continued. “It was horrible to watch. If you must know, I was terrified. But I kept my mouth shut because I didn’t know what the wraith could do to me if he realized I could see him. Bad enough he tried to feed on me! And right now, at this very moment, he’s up there at the Harris Mine School, feeding on the poor children. Please, won’t you help?

“
We have to stop him before he completes the Spell of a Hundred Souls and comes back properly to life. I can’t do it alone. I’ve got my team assembled and they’re armed as best they can be for this, but Garnock is still in spirit form. I need another psychic on hand in case he tries anything.”

Madam Sylvia frowned.

“I realize what I’m asking of you must sound mad,” Jake said. “I wouldn’t bother you if I could get a hold of my aunt. She’s a very powerful witch, but she isn’t answering my messages—which worries me enough in itself, considering her age.”

“Better not let Her Ladyship hear you say that,” Derek muttered under his breath.

“She’ll turn you into a frog,” Archie jested, trying to ward off the tension. “Temporarily, of course.”

“I just hope she’s all right,” Jake said.

He had given up on the Inkbug and ordered Nimbus off to the telegraph office in town to send a regular sort of telegram to the baroness.
Somebody
had to be at home at Bradford Park, if only the butler.

Jake
couldn’t imagine what was keeping the Elder witch from writing back, and he really didn’t need anything extra to worry about right now, like her health.

Provided she was all right, he just hoped she wasn’t angry about his mentioning magical matters in the dispatch. He’d really had no choice.

He turned his attention back to Madam Sylvia. “Obviously, what I’m asking of you is dangerous. I know that, and I’m sorry. I also realize you’ll be at a distinct disadvantage, since you can only hear the spirits, not see them.

“
If Garnock keeps quiet, you won’t be able to tell where he is; but I’ll warn you if he comes anywhere near you.” He glanced at Derek and Archie. “That goes for you two, as well. You’ve all got to trust me.” He turned back to the local medium. “I know we can do this. Brother Colwyn gave us the spell the Lightriders used before to bind Garnock’s power. It worked once. If we all say it together, we should be able to do it again.”