Chapter 20 – Hair-raising and Bloodcurdling Places
In Alexander's so extravagant bedroom, he, Elizabeth and Johnny got ready to take part in the second round. The only thing known about this second quest of the contest was that it would take place in the Burning Desert.
Alexander wondered how he could win this event, while Elizabeth hoped and prayed to stay alive during and after the event.
“Maybe we’ll have to fight with dragons ... I just hope we won't fight with the Northern Spotted Dragon from Iceland or the Danish Striped Spike ... I heard it can spit lava, not fire.”
The only thing Elizabeth managed to say with that mess in her mind showed how scared the poor girl was with every word of Soimesti:
“How to ... fight dragons? We’re just children…”
That beautifully set up bedroom at Elmbridge magic school was adorned and furnished to the boy's taste. Of course, everything happened following numerous insistences from the Magic Consulate, in which Soimesti the senior, Mr. Vasili, was a member, thus having some power among all ranks of wizards.
Knudlac Eaden didn’t like all this, because this room that looked like the inside of a royal palace gave rise to many discussions. But he managed not to let the Magic Consulate poke around into more important aspects related to the internal organization of the Elmbridge School of Magic, such as choosing professors to teach in the school, or much other important stuff, so director Knudlac eventually accepted this whim.
Prince Soimesti had in the castle of Elmbridge a room whose standards rose to the level of his pride and arrogance, similar to those in the mansion where his family lived.
The children read with Johnny about that Burning Desert, the hottest place anyone could get to.
“In the arena of the ice temple, if you had problems with the cold there, you could put on thicker clothes. But what can you do here? You can’t stay naked ... And I heard there are scorpions as big as a horse or basilisks as big as elephants, hidden in that hot sand ...” Johnny managed to scare poor Elizabeth even more.
Even though Johnny was eliminated from the team, without earning that parchment and the magic he could learn, he continued to help the other two.
“A team will be a team forever,” the boy said, smiling when the two still in the competition thanked him for the support.
But this help, as you can see very well, meant ruining Elizabeth's confidence in her own strengths and losing her courage. And maybe Johnny managed to scare even Alexander, but the boy was able to hide it.
“This challenge will certainly be much harder than Nakutsck's. I got that the emir wizard, the ‘Desert jewel’ as they call him, wants to show through his tests how strong and wise he is. So ... you have to fear,” Johnny expressed his precious, helpful advice.
"We'll create that potion that Pmyrie spoke to me about," Elizabeth said encouraging herself. “But for that we need freshly grown sprout from dry poplar root,” the girl read from a paper she wrote. “The elf girl told me these sprouts can be found at the end of the poplar roots. And this potion will help us cope with that extreme heat without losing our minds because of sunstroke. Though, I wonder where we can find those sprouts.”
This is reason for thinking. The three kids sat like Rodin’s famous Thinker.
“Doesn't this dry poplar have the root at least as deep as the crown height ...? Or am I wrong?” Johnny asked, hoping that this time he misunderstood or didn’t memorize correctly one of the lessons he studied at Mrs. Harmony's classes.
But Elizabeth's approving gaze that he was right, frightened him. Why was he right at that moment?
“But, the poplars outside are over 100 cubits high. And then the tip of the roots is at ... 100 cubits in the ground?”
“Wrong,” Alexander corrected him.
Johnny breathed in relief. But only for a moment, because the situation was actually worse.
“They have the root three times deeper. And that means 300 cubits.”
Alexander blighted their hope anyway destabilized by Johnny.
“What shall we do then? Shall we start digging?” Johnny started wincing. “For, to dig 300 cubits of earth would mean ... thirty years of work for us. And the test is next week.”
Elizabeth and Alexander kept thinking, but didn’t find the solution.
“Shall we speak to Miss Harmony, maybe ...?”
"I've already talked to her," Elizabeth replied. “She’s got dry poplar root, but she hasn’t got any new sprout. It must be uprooted and placed at once in an ice bottle to stay fresh. Otherwise it's useless ...”
Alexander's face expressed his disappointment. He didn't like it when his solutions didn't work out. For him this could only mean there were no solutions.
“What if ... if it won't be as hot as the others say?” Johnny found in his mind a personal solution to solve this problem.
“Yeah, how come we haven’t thought of this, Johnny? Let's leave everything to chance because we’ll freeze in the Burning Desert. And maybe the Arctic Ocean doesn't have ice-cold water, but it's as hot as tea. You're a genius ...” Alexander couldn't help being ironic with Davies.
Seeing the boy looked down in shame, Prince Soimesti continued in a quieter tone:
“My father told me that the Emir of the Desert wasn’t the host of an event for at least two centuries. I got a competitor was about to die because of poison from the beasts there ... or because of dehydration. So we pray in vain not to be hot, because it will be hot. The only difference between then and now is his promise that something like that will never happen again. That no one will be in mortal danger. But in Dad’s opinion nothing will be different from then. He came to talk to Knudlac to change location or I won’t compete anymore ...”
“Will you leave Elizabeth alone?” Johnny asked, scared.
“Of course not. I also talked to dad and told him that if I feel something is wrong, I’ll ask to be taken out of the game. Saved by those who watch over us. So he let me compete further. But we won’t have to leave the competition because we’ll find a solution. Finally ...” Alexander ended what he had to say.
“Why poplar roots? Why not cherry or apple tree roots?” Johnny complained louder than ever.
Again, silence. They were so quiet that the painting Elizabeth looked at began to show the construction of Elmbridge school and how it was founded.
The huge picture presented images from over a thousand years ago, when a group of wizards wandered over these lands, followed by several evil wizards who wanted to harm both magicians and sceptics who lived in that area.
That painting not only began to present various moments when the wizards, along with many sceptical workers, worked on the foundation of this school and its construction, but it also made various noises specific to the images that appeared. Noises from various tools and utensils, the sound of pulleys breaking and falling with load, lots of pictures and sounds that showed how exhausting the work was and how tired were the people who each day built the school, and many others ...
But it all disappeared when Elizabeth realized the boys were disturbed by her repetitive study of the painting, which actually she saw dozens of times, so she stopped looking at it again.
“I didn't realize I watched it,” the girl apologized. “I watched thinking about ...”
The boys said nothing but kept thinking again about the problem, especially now that it was silence again.
“If those builders thought to make some tunnels below the school, to be closer to those roots, to avoid digging, it would be ...”
“That's it!” Johnny screamed as if he saw a vampire, scaring to death both the girl and Alexander.
Elizabeth looked at Johnny, then at Alexander, hoping the latter would scold the boy for scaring them.
But Alexander was grinning from ear to ear, so if Johnny hadn't yelled, he would do it.
"Exactly," he said, and then he went to look for something in the shelves in the library.
The girl was the only one confused. She wanted to run after Alexander to ask for explanation but when she saw Johnny sitting quietly in a chair, she gave up this idea.
She kept thinking and when she wanted to ask Johnny, Alexander came with a pile of books, atlases and maps.
“The oldest plans of the school talk about ‘The Lost Lane’ or ‘The Labyrinth in the Basement’. Some areas that are no longer represented on the new maps, because ... nobody knows how to get to them.”
Johnny's smile faded, because he heard stories about these places too, but he thought they no longer visited them because they were forbidden, or dangerous, or because ... who knows why? But under no circumstances would he think it was because no one knew how to get there.
“What are we doing then?” he asked, scared.
“We must find a solution. Transmutation ... or translocation. Or a portal, a key something ... I have some books here that could help us. Elizabeth will read about them, Johnny, search in Elmbridge School History department, or renovation plans. See if you find something ...”
“And you?” Johnny asked unhappily, as he thought he had the most difficult task.
"I'm going to talk to ... my contacts," replied Alexander secretly. “Those who helped me ... helped us get into the Ancient Forest, they can definitely give me ideas or guide me in some way.”
The girl, without hesitating got the book "The corridors under Elmbridge, myth or reality?", opened it and began reading.
Johnny, far less enthusiastically than the girl, also took a map and began to ... leave the impression that he got what he studied there.
“See you at 11 p. m. in the library,” Alexander proposed.
“But you know they don’t let us walk through the school after bedtime. We don’t lose points any longer for we lost them all, but we risk being kicked out.”
The other two looked at him inquiring, so he had to tell them the reason:
“No one should know we are going there, because we could be sent home ... or worse, punished and eliminated from the competition. Surely, if we went down by day to look for the Lost Lne, the chances of being discovered would be much greater.”
He looked at Johnny, but it seemed Davies didn't understand.
“Certainly there are professors who walk at night in the school corridors after bedtime and there are stone elves whose job is to prevent anyone or anything to enter those lost corridors or vice versa, prevent something in the corridors from entering the school. By day anyone walking around can see us ... but at night we have the darkness on our side.”
Convinced that the two got his thinking, Alexander left letting them find out as much as possible about the underground tunnels beneath the mysterious Elmbridge Magic School.
Elizabeth had little chance to help Alexander pass this test too, so that the boy would participate in the last test and the reputation of Elmbridge Magic School wouldn’t be ruined. It would be a total disaster to be in the first team that failed without even participating in the last event. So she couldn't miss this chance to pick dry poplar sprouts and create that potion.
…
“Knudlac, is that you?”
Miss Harmony stopped the professor, but she didn’t smile as usual when she met someone.
“Is there anything wrong, Harmony?”
“No, I went to check Elizabeth in her room. You just know how much I love her. But I didn't find her there.”
“It's been at least 10 minutes until bedtime. She may be still in the library, you know she spends her time there before going to sleep.”
“Yes I know.”
Professor Knudlac looked with the same calm smile at Miss Harmony straight in the eye.
“Evanescet Cito!”
“Za Homo Immobiles!”
They cast the spells at the same time.
One of the spells helped Miss Harmony to disappear, and the other ... had no effect because Harmony disappeared just before Knudlac's spell had effect upon her. Only a small closet on that corridor got wrapped by some ropes.
Here she is again, Miss Harmony, her fiancé Jack and Rujnoiu.
A few doors opened and a few lookie-loos quickly stuck their heads out of the room.
“What happened, Knudlac?” Miss Harmony asked.
“I knew it wasn't you. There was a stranger in school, looking exactly like you.”
The professors looked at each other in horror.
“Get into your rooms! There’s nothing to see,” Rujnoiu snapped at those drifters with heads stuck out the rooms, that everyone fled shortly, like meerkat heads hiding in the ground when they see danger.
“Rujnoiu, please lock the main doors well after bedtime and talk to all elves to intensify controls on the corridors. Jack and Harmony, please discuss with the other professors to do the same. No stranger will come for sure, because I know from now on we’ll take drastic measures, but just in case ...”
“Of course, Professor Knudlac,” everyone answered in a voice.
Rujnoiu disappeared.
"I'm going to make sure there's no older student outside the bedroom," said Miss Harmony.
Harmony disappeared, taking Jack with her.
And Knudlac went down the corridor and stopped at Elizabeth's door.
“What did that stranger want?”
Knudlac approached the girl's door, looked to see if anyone left anything near her door.
“Reprehendo ... and he kept whispering, saying a few words in a too low voice to be heard, which sounded like a spell.
When he finished some sparks turned around Elizabeth's door, and then nothing happened.
“Nothing…”
The professor knocked on the girl's door, and the door opened in a few moments.
“Are you all right, my dear?”
“Yes, I'm all right. I got ready for bed.”
“I just wanted to see how you were doing and wish you good night.”
They heard a door open. The professor and the girl looked at that door. It was Johnny's bedroom door. They saw him quickly enter the bedroom, holding a box in his hand, then closing the door with noise.
“I go now. If you need anything, feel free to tell me, Harmony or any professor.”
“Thank you.”
The professor left, while the girl closed the door quickly behind her. She quickly threw off her nightgown, which she was wearing, revealing underneath it the clothes she used to wear during the day.
Elizabeth started to walk around the room, restless. She was clearly very excited about what she and her friends Alexander and Johnny were about to do. It was dangerous. She could be wounded, or even worse, kicked out of the school and forced to go back to the orphanage.
…
“Quiet ... I heard something,” a boy whispered.
In the hallway of Elmbridge magic school, near Elizabeth's room, three children stood behind the famous curtain, where Alexander hid some time ago before they faced that ogre. There were three motionless shadows. One of them had a hand clamped over another’s mouth. Anyone could get that the talking shadow was Johnny, the chatterbox, with Elizabeth's hand over his mouth.
Miss Harmony walked past them just as Johnny finally was silent. Lucky them for she didn’t notice them and kept going, because otherwise their adventure could end here now.
“What are we going to do? All the professors have now started to walk in the corridors. They’ll surely catch us.”
Alexander was no longer so confident now. He expected from time to time to run into someone, to be caught by a professor or a stone elf. They could pull the curtain aside and ask ‘what the eff are you doing here by midnight?’ before they really started to roam the school corridors. Yet, luck would come right when he expected less.
“If you obey me, they won’t catch us,” Johnny, their last hope, smiled.
Alexander looked at him with a gaze that would say “I feel like punching you right now” reproving him:
“I really don't want to hear your bad jokes.”
“But it's not a joke. Someone left something in front of my door and I saw it’s a strong potion. And I also have three brooms borrowed from Smart's workshop.”
As he realized that none of them got what he meant, Johnny continued:
“Drink from this potion, each of you and you will ...”
“ARE YOU INSANE?!” Alexander snapped at him to the extent permitted by the situation, paying attention to not be heard by anyone. “Do you think is the water from the fountain of the wise? Maybe it's something bad ... left by someone who wants to hurt us. Haven't you heard a stranger was on the corridors of Elmbridge?”
“That stranger couldn’t enter our rooms to hurt us ... he had no way, with no key.”
“Yes, smarty pants ... that's why he left that at the door ... who knows, maybe it’s poison or something stronger!”
After a few moments of silence, Johnny whispered again:
“It's not poison. I drank from this potion. The only effect is that it makes you very small.”
And without other explanations, the boy poured the potion on the three brooms that in a few moments disappeared without trace.
Then he drank from the potion and put the bottle in Elizabeth's hand.
“Trust me.”
Johnny's gone as well.
The girl sighed, then looked at Alexander.
“I have fairy tears. They are healing in case ... We are waiting for you ...”
The girl also drank and then handed Alexander the bottle and she disappeared as if by charm too.
Everything suddenly became so big for Elizabeth ... except Johnny and the three brooms.
“How interesting. How big everything is. Look ...”
But the girl couldn’t say anything anymore. Johnny swooped her onto his broom, then they flew away with the speed of the wind. They could hardly go round a giant at the last moment, as he began to walk dangerously chaotically through that huge corridor. They flew for a few moments and then landed back on the floor.
“Was that trying to kill us ?!”
The two children saw a huge Alexander almost as big as the lofty Mount Artpathi walking down that corridor. He was about to crush them a few moments ago. After taking a few steps down the corridor, he disappeared too.
“Finally, here he is.”
And taking the other two brooms, he flew with Elizabeth to Alexander.
“I told you to trust me. Now let's move on ...”
He handed the other two a broom, one for each of them.
“Elizabeth, can you fly on ...?” Alexander asked, showing the girl that magic flying broom.
“Yes. I learned at Smart's class. And I fly pretty well.”
“Then follow me.”
The three kids began to fly down that corridor, like little flies. They went past Rujnoiu without problems. They also went past Professor Jack, whom Alexander even teased a little, flying close to his face, getting big Jack react as anyone would do under a mosquito attack.
They went past Smart too, when he went down to his workshop.
As for doors ... what could be easier than getting through keyholes riding those flying brooms. Keyholes for human beings, wizards or sceptics are normally used inserting a key to close and open the door.
The kids were so tiny that the keyholes looked like really impressive arcades with enough room for an elephant to easily go through. Of course, an elephant after drinking that potion. So for the three broom flyers, there was no problem getting closer and closer to the place where Alexander headed them.
When they saw there was no one to find them, the children landed on one of Smart's work benches.
“From Smart's workshop you can descend to the crypt, and then you can reach the Lost Lane ...”
"We just have to find the entrance to that corridor and find a way to open it," sighed Johnny.
“Leave it to me,” Alexander smiled so sly that the other two immediately calmed down.
And the three kids flew to the steps leading to that crypt.
…
Back to their pre-shrinking size, Elizabeth, Alexander and Johnny strolled through the crypt, past the eternal resting places of the first wizards. That crypt was built on several levels, being joined together by quite narrow stairs, following a spiral pattern.
At the lowest levels were the graves of the oldest wizards ... the pioneers of human witchcraft.
Through the dim light in those corridors leading to the rooms that housed the remnants of the wizards, the same little shadows could be seen climbing down those rows of steps.
“I'm scared,” the girl said.
"Stay calm, I take care of you," Johnny whispered in a voice broken by the fear that came over him because of the journey among the lifeless.
They stopped again, as they heard several heavy steps, specific to the guards of the school rooms, those rock elves.
The heavy footsteps’ sound slowly faded away, so the three children continued on their way.
After other two levels towards the heart of the Earth they stopped, as the steps led up to a wall.
"I think the Lost Lane is behind this wall," Alexander said, holding a candle in his hand. “We just have to go to the other side. But how ...?”
Alexander looked at the other two to see if any of them had an idea.
“I saw in those books, more suppositions about this lost corridor design. Ideas wrote down about how the tunnel under the castle could be built. I guess we could get inspired from these notes and ...”
The girl stopped, because Alexander's gaze was like "do you know what you're saying?"
“That's what I read in books,” she continued. “And by translocation we could get right there.”
“Didn't you say there are too many versions when it comes to the place where we can get? We could get to a place where there isn’t enough space, there is no air ... and we’ll be lost forever. Dead for good.”
As Elizabeth's idea didn't turn out to be good, Alexander looked very briefly at Johnny. But, the best idea Johnny could have at that time was to open his mouth bored and tired and say nothing.
"Yes, I expected something like that," said the other boy. “You’re lucky with me,” he said, proudly. “Follow me ...”
What to follow, where to go? Elizabeth and Johnny looked at each other in confusion, but in a moment everything got clear. The wall as thick as the three of them altogether opened.
Alexander grabbed a bar that a long time ago was probably used as a torch holder and a hellish noise was heard as the wall moved out of the way.
The three listened for a few moments, as they thought the loud noise might disturb someone. But as nothing happened, Alexander started to move forward lighting the path with a candle, followed by the other two. They entered a corridor, took a few steps and stopped in front of another obstacle. It was a ... mirror.
“Why is this mirror in this basement?” Alexander said, annoyed. “I haven’t read anywhere about a mirror here ... And why is it here? Sure it's a spell, a magic mirror, but how could we activate it?”
Alexander began to inspect that wall that exactly reflected their image and which was huge, joining the ceiling to the floor and the wall on the left to the wall on the right. He wanted to say something, but a frightening noise stopped him.
Johnny, the genius, took a stone and threw it with full force at that mirror, so that it cracked from top to bottom, making a hellish noise as if the windows of a skyscraper went boom at the same time.
In the blink of an eye, all cracks disappeared suddenly, being absorbed by that mirror, which later became a living mirror. Its surface acted like a lake after a stone was thrown into it.
Alexander stretched a finger onto that surface that started moving when touched. It looked like a shivering puddle with the reflection of the children in it.
A creature’s face and body came out of that mirror. It was a creature with the face of a beautiful woman, a lovely fairy with long wavy hair. The only difference from the fairies we were used to was that this woman had huge eagle wings. Her body from the neck down resembled that of a lion, including the creature's "hands" ended with retractile claws like cat’s.
“WHO DARES GO PAST THIS GATE?!” the lion-woman asked in a thunderous voice.
But when she saw the children, she smiled, sly.
“What are you?” Elizabeth asked stunned at that glamorous creature, whose body from the waist down was submerged in that trembling mirror.
“I'm a sphinx ...” the lion-woman smiled in a way that didn't foresee anything good.
“I thought sphinxes lived only in Egypt, only by the pyramids,” Johnny said without being frightened at the sight of that beast so beautiful.
But what he found out changed his mind.
“The Sphinx's role is not to let anyone go into magnificent fortresses, mysterious pyramids or to pass through magic gates and doors ... Anyone who tries this, has only a chance not to become ... food. So your chance is to answer the question:
‘I have a house. When you enter it, you are blind, but when you go out of it, you can see. What is it?’”
She roared like a lion. Her beautiful hair turned into sharp, long swords that almost touched the three children, ready to tear them apart in a single movement of the creature's head. And the beautiful mouth became huge, full of tyrannosaurus rex kind of teeth.
Alexander relived significant moments of his life, while Elizabeth thought she had such a nice life at the Elmbridge Magic School ... but so short.
“The school”, Johnny said.
The other two kids looked at Johnny with a "you killed us" gaze, then the Sphinx started laughing. Her body grew longer and longer getting out of that mirror, approaching the three kids to blow them to pieces for the courage to face her.
It's just something that nobody expected happened... except Johnny who was calm.
Before Alexander looked into the Sphinx's eyes, which would normally meant thousands of swords feeling through his body, the ferocious monster became that beautiful, sweet lion-woman, with a roar able to wake up the dead in the crypt.
“How did you know?” the Sphinx screamed, angry.
The creature headed towards Johnny hatefully, but when she was at a few steps distance from him, the mirror fell apart in front of the children, turning into sand, without doing any harm to the children.
“ARE YOU CRAZY?! You could kill us!” Alexander had to let go the fear in him.
He looked at Johnny angrily, gasping for breath, then continued, calmer:
“How did you know?” Alexander asked in awe.
“Dad kept telling me all the time that I'm a blind man. I know nothing. And that only school can make me open my eyes ... so ...”
“Anyway, you shouldn’t have answered that way. You had to talk with us first ... you could kill us if you made a mistake,” Prince Soimesti scolded him, instead of congratulating him as anyone else would do, for saving their lives.
Johnny winced as he knew Alexander had to do it too. Still, unlike Elizabeth, because the girl hugged the young boy so tight almost tearing him apart, as if she wanted to do what the Sphinx failed. But at least a handshake or a “Well done, Johnny”. Yet, he was pleased with Alexander's reply, because Johnny knew Alexander couldn’t do more than that.
“You still can't see well,” Alexander tried to joke, but it was obvious he was happy and they were very lucky Johnny had come with them.
The children went on. The three kids felt a cold and strong air stream, carrying moisture as if it were a sea breeze beneath the earth, when they turned away from the mirror-sphinx. Besides, something was very foul-smelling there. Two silhouettes, looking like ghosts popped up instantly. They stared for a few moments at the children, which meant they were not used to being visited by people, then they disappeared through the walls of the lane.
“Have you seen?” Elizabeth asked, more amazed than scared. She saw so much weird stuff since she came to Elmbridge School of Magic, that few things might seem impossible to her.
“It was cold enough anyway. These ghosts came to freeze my blood even more.”
“Come on, stop whining. There was a time when ghosts roamed the castle. And it was natural then. Dad says something like this will happen again ...”
"I hope not," Johnny shivered, obviously unhappy about this idea.
The children kept moving, looking for directions to tell them how to get where they needed to be, looking chaotically at the walls of that corridor, as if they should see a sign saying "go there to find dry poplar root sprouts”. Nothing ... just a corridor with stone vaults here and there and in many others there were large piles of stones that made those vaults, so in some areas the corridor was about to collapse completely or that really happened.
Holding a burning torch, Alexander led the way in that lost passage. The further he went, the more he noticed the air was getting thinner, as the flame of the candle was getting smaller and smaller.
"The air is getting harder to breathe," the boy said. “Let's look for another way.”
Elizabeth understood what this meant, as for Johnny, his face looked as if he needed explanation.
So Johnny was helped by a hard sleeve pull to take another route and follow the other two.
Noises that only in the depths of the Earth could be heard, scared the three kids. And that awful feeling that anyone would have thinking that mountains could collapse over them at any moment, gave them even more thrills. As for the air ... every breath of them was a real struggle.
At one point the three children turned right onto a narrower corridor, which was derived from the main aisle. After a few dozen steps, they saw this aisle was much safer than the main one, because it was supported by strong roots.
"Dry poplar ..." Johnny told them, looking at those roots that were as thick as marble columns from an ancient temple, but these columns were wooden... made of woody roots.
"We've come down quite a bit, but I don't think we'll find a sprout here," Alexander said.
“And what are we doing?” Johnny asked.
“I don’t know. Maybe we can get even deeper.”
But the girl started digging into the ground there with her fingers. She discovered very thin strands, which came out of the thick root of dry poplar, looking like vine sprouts, green and fresh.
“Are…?”
“I think so. They’re similar to the ones I saw in the book of magic herbs botany,” the girl replied.
The girl tried to snatch some of those strands, but failed. Johnny also dug at another root and tried to help, but with all his man-to-be strength, he couldn't even get one sprout. Alexander, the same.
“What was heard?” Elizabeth asked, rising to her feet.
"The columns are crackling," Alexander said more calmly.
But something wasn't right. And this time it wasn't about the air that was difficult to breathe.
Elizabeth, who was a little further away from the two and closer to the darkness in that hallway, felt something different. Before, there was a colder breeze down the dark corridor, and now it felt warm.
"I think there's something out there breathing heavily," the girl said, scared.
Alexander also got to his feet, while Johnny looked at Elizabeth, scared too. There was indeed something behind her, for a growl and a kind of huge gear noise began to be heard, which seemed to go off after many years when they were no longer used. As if something enormous would gnash of huge, metallic teeth. And the "gear" now had a lot of red dots shining frightening in that deep darkness.
“Videntur esse videtur!” Johnny said.
“What magic is that?” Elizabeth asked Johnny, scared.
"A magic that helps me see what's hidden ... unseen," said the boy.
“There's nothing hidden here, smarty. It’s just in the dark ... and we only need a little light to see what's out there.”
Scared to death, Johnny began to think more clearly. While curiosity, not courage, prompted Alexander to go ahead and go past the girl with that little flame from the candle lighting his way up to a distance of one cubit, Johnny remembered that he had a small penknife on him which he used to cut some of those strands. He quickly put them in an icy bottle taken out of his pocket, and then he got to his feet too.
Alexander also felt there was something in front of him, just before he went past the girl. He got closer to that something, because its breath was getting warmer and the flame of the candle kept flickering almost going off.
Elizabeth didn't have the courage to turn around to see what it was, she was just stuck.
When he got to a very small distance from that "something", the boy reached out with his candle and noticed a horrible creature. A creature that resembled a mole, an elephant with multiple trunks, robust like a huge badger that almost didn't fit in that corridor filling it to the brim, appeared only for a moment at the light of that candle. Because as it felt the heat of the flame near the nostrils, the eyes or what those holes might be, the creature screamed so terribly that not only did it blow out the flame leaving them in total darkness, but it also began to get restless causing parts of the ceiling and walls to collapse.
“Run!” Alexander shouted, turning around in a fraction of a second, right when the breathing of that creature became faster and louder. He started with the speed of a bullet, panicked towards that entrance through which they got in the Lost Lane, terrified by the deafening noise of the roots of dry poplar cracking under the force of that beast.
“Lumina!” Alexander shouted and a flame came out of his wand so that the little corridor became lit in front of them.
He saw Johnny and Elizabeth running in front of him at the speed of thought, or anything like that, so they no longer waited for his urge but ran without having the curiosity to see what that creature looked like.
Lucky him for he was faster than the other two, so slowly, slowly Alexander managed to reach them.
But that mole-elephant-badger didn’t give up, because those crackling sounds similar to old bones crushed, but which actually came from the thick roots of dry poplar, were heard closer and closer and didn’t foresee anything good. The noise that was getting louder and closer similar to the noise where someone easily breaks some toothpicks, that terrifying grit of teeth, couldn't let the three pluck up the courage to see what chased them.
Elizabeth, who was a little ahead, noticed the chances of the beast would immediately increase, because at less than fifty cubits was that ... wall. Only this time there was no torch support that could open that wall-entrance.
“Alexander, the wall!”
Desperate and terrified, Johnny tried all sorts of magic, maybe, maybe he could manage to open or break that wall-door.
But everything was in vain. Everything Johnny did was pointless, increasing his fear:
“We'll die! I don't want to die ... I'm too young!”
Instead, Alexander had an ace up his sleeve. Not in vain did some of his friends call him the Door Opener.
“You have three moments to enter this portal, after which it closes and you’ll stay here, with everything behind us!” shouted Alexander and threw a small sphere into that wall.
No matter how long the three moments lasted, the children went through the portal in the blink of an eye. Then that portal closed, leaving total darkness and a huge bang behind, as if a mountain hit that wall.
Surely, on the other side, a dreadful roar was then heard, as if an animal crashed with all its might into the wall and either it hurt so hard, or it was very angry that it missed its evening meal. But where the little wizards were, nothing was heard anymore.
Elizabeth and Alexander gasped in relief, while Johnny had a face as if he saw not a ghost, since this was normal in the wizards’ world, but something much worse considering how pale and silent he was.
But he recovered for a moment, because the silence was disturbed by a thick and trembling voice:
“I had to figure it out,” said Tzurtzurk, the stone elf responsible for stopping unauthorized visits to the crypt. “Nonetheless ... to face such recklessly the terror in the ‘Lost Lane’? You should have been told at school about the dangers in here. What creatures escaped from the depths of the Earth, banished from the flames of hell, live there ... But no, who pays attention to Tzurtzurk?”
He looked at the children who didn’t understand him at all.
“You should be told. Do you know why the corridor is called like that? Not because no one finds it anymore, but because whoever enters it’s really lost. That’s why it’s called the lost aisle, of the lost one ... for anyone who dares to enter it ...”
The kids didn't say anything. Because what they experienced made them realize what dangers they faced and they could experience something even worse than that.
They looked down, ashamed.
Tzurtzurk waved his wand in his hand and they all disappeared from the crypt, reaching the place where ... they were likely to hear their punishment.
…
“You haven't been told since you came here that there are some places where you don't have to go?” the stone elf responsible for the surveillance of the crypt walked very furiously around the three children, in Mr. Knudlac's great room.
The children were very scared of the elf's words.
“You should be kicked out of this school. Sent back to your home ... or three months to the ‘Recovery Wizard School’ before being sent home. Yeah, better there. Eight rules of conduct violated ... Eight! Ever since I came here at Elmbridge School, I haven't heard anything like that, so many rules broken.”
"It means you haven't heard of the ogre adventure," Johnny tried to joke, though he didn't choose the right moment.
“What!? Are you joking?! Recovery Wizard School, all of you!”
The third time when they heard the same text of the elf, the children stopped even breathing ... they were scared to death, terrified.
Alexander thought what humiliation it would be for his parents and for him to have the Recovery Wizard School detention record. The famous school where most of the young wizards who took the wrong path returned to the right path of magic ... the psychological torture they were subjected to, helped them find the right path.
All those who used spells without hiding from the presence of sceptics, or used them against them, who tried to make harmful and powerful potions, or worse, who had "inclinations" towards black magic, returned to the right path of witchcraft. And they swore they’d never get there a second time, so bad it was for them.
“Anything but not Recovery School. No Recovery School ...” Prince Soimesti was talking to himself.
Johnny, on the other hand, thought if he went home it would be worse for him. His stepfather would turn him into a total sceptic. That would mean to become a postman, a factory worker, or something like that. No ... he didn't want to give up his wand, he didn't want to go home. Better Recovery School.
“Better Recovery school, better.”
Elizabeth ... she could get back to the orphanage. And there, apart from Dorothy’s memory, there could be nothing good for her.
"If only Dorothy were there," she sighed.
She knew her best friend was no longer there, so she was about to start crying, because she didn't have any reason to go back to the orphanage.
Mr. Harmony came into Mr. Knudlac's office, smiling and as sweet as ever.
“Hello, dear,” she greeted the children.
Her smile and her kindness when speaking made that grumpy elf even grumpier:
“I found them in the crypt ... they barely escaped alive. Eight rules violated in one evening!”
“I know, Mr. Tzurtzurk. In fact I think there are nine rules violated ... I think they woke up one more creature in the basement of Elmbridge school. A creature hibernating quietly for over thirty years,” Miss Harmony replied to the elf as kindly as usual.
“Where's Knudlac? He’ll agree with me. He'll send these kids back to where they came from. Or to the Recovery School…”
“To the Recovery Wizard School !?” Miss Harmony laughed. “Why? Did they try to kill someone?”
"Yes ... themselves," said the grumpy guy again very firmly, yet, sure that he couldn’t reach a consensus with this witch.
“They’ll certainly be punished, but I don't know how because ...”
“I know how. Let me take care of it!” intervened Tzurtzurk.
“I just hope they won’t punish you as well…They’d say it was your fault to let these kids go down into the crypt and get into the lost Lane ...”
“Are you blaming me?”
"I swear on Merlin's cape, of course not," completed Miss Harmony smiling as usual. “But…”
Mr. Knudlac entered the office. One could see clearly on his face that he was concerned about important things.
“Hello, Miss Harmony. Tzurtzurk, kids ... Did anything happen?” asked the professor, starting to look for something in his office.
For a few moments he forgot about the others, after which he seemed to wake up from a dream and saw them all again.
“If it's the contest, please handle it, Harmony ...”
He looked at the stone elf that was grumpier than usual, or at least so it seemed, because on his face one couldn't see a smile, neither a frown. His face was like a statue’s. When you spoke, though, he looked like a living being.”
“Or ... is there anything else, Tzurtzurk?”
“Yes, it's something else,” the little elf approached.
The children just froze there, while Miss Harmony's smile faded away, as lightly as the sun in sea waters at the end of a magnificent summer day.
“These children need to be better supervised ...”
No one breathed except Knudlac and Tzurtzurk.
The grumpy elf glared at the others, one by one.
“Because I want to take them to see ‘The Purple Oasis Depths’. There I know the second test will be held. A cousin of mine told me. And I want to accompany these kids for their safety.”
Everyone breathed again.
Knudlac, although very caught up with the school problems, focused on the contest for a few moments.
“So ... Big shot, this emir. Everyone prepared for an event thinking it would take place in a torrid, desert area, with no water. While he ... he’ll force us to stay in water. Great guy though... it's his own way.”
He thought for a couple of moments and then continued:
“Yes, it looks like he thought it right. Many will appreciate it. Not Nakutsck, for sure...”
Then looking at the children:
“Dear, thank Tzurtzurk and pay close attention to the details you’ll see in the Purple Oasis Depths. As for the other competitors, maybe ...”
“Everyone knows, Knudlac. My cousin already announced them.”
“Well then, you can go with Miss Harmony and Tzurtzurk.”
The children looked at Miss Harmony, who smiled again. The stone elf didn’t smile; not even when they thanked him.
The children were visibly pleased for not being accused and then punished. Moreover, the punishment became a real gift. At least for Elizabeth and Alexander.
“Knudlac ... a little detail. Can Mr. Tzurtzurk let the stone dogs into the crypt? Especially when he’ll be gone?”
Mr. Knudlac was very careful about some papers he held, but he nodded.
Finally, a slight lip movement, which could mean the first smile in Tzurtzurk’s long life.
He had his reason. It’s years since he had been trying to convince Knudlac to let the stone dogs free through the crypt. It would be as if ... he had nothing more to do, except to transmute where the dogs bark when they catch a student wandering through the crypt. As for the possibility of something inside the crypt from the other side, the dogs would keep any danger away. So Tzurtzurk felt he gained the most from this situation. He didn’t regret anything any longer.
On the way to the door, Miss Harmony could show her kindness again. With the risk of disturbing Knudlac again in his thoughts, she took advantage of his distraction:
“Can we take Johnny with us? He sacrificed himself for the team ... and the team loves him.”
The stone elf slightly turned up his nose as if he was sorry he didn't complain about the three students, but the thought that from now on he could leave his dogs free, those huge stone monsters, made him give up any opposition.
"Yes, do as you please," said Knudlac.
Everyone came out happily from Knudlac's office and left him with a lot of tasks to do.
Tzurtzurk was pleased, Miss Harmony as well, especially since it was difficult to get Knudlac change his mind.
As for the children, they were happier than ever. Including Johnny; he’d never hoped for such a trip, especially since he was no longer part of the team at the Magic Contest of the Decade.
Knudlac was alone. After a few moments he put the papers down, turned his wand made of magic ginseng and saw the three children followed by a huge and fierce beast.
“Carticors ... I haven't heard for a long time about someone meeting such creatures. Not to speak about facing them.”
He sighed.
“It was Dragoesti's achievement for sure. We felt much better when they were in the depths of the Earth.”
He smiled.
“And yet, these three children ... are incredible ...”
He smiled again, slightly when he saw four monsters, as large as elephants, running on the steps of the crypt, more precisely jumping over ten steps at a time. The beasts, those rock dogs, would guard the crypt with Tzutzurk from that moment.
The dogs were just as happy as the stone elf, because they were free. Some said they hadn’t seen the corridors of the crypt for decades. And now they jumped like lambs in a meadow, they were so happy ... those big stone sculptures, Tzutzurk's hounds.
But the frisky beasts kept jumping around until Tzurtzurk called them and they ran to him, waiting for their master’s directions.
“It’s better to have as many guards as possible, especially in such times,” the professor thought.
Then twisting his wand he wiped all those images and went about his business.
And once again he showed everyone there was nothing this great wizard could skip.
This was exciting and dangerous too. If he could know everything that happened in the Elmbridge School of Magic, someone else could also know it too for sure ...