18
I Am a Wise One!
“Are you sure we can’t use your magic?” Edwin was finding it difficult running back up the secret stairs. “Just a teeny bit?”
“I am sorry,” said Inglenook. “But the worsening elemental imbalance is disrupting the magic signal from Wychetts, and I must preserve what energies I have to protect you from the Tome’s power.”
Edwin knew better than to argue with the Keeper of the Ancient Wisdom, and made a mental note that next time he made a bin liner skirt he’d need to allow more room for leg movement.
On the plus side, he was secretly relieved that Bryony had stayed in the tunnel to help her friends; that would avoid a lot of embarrassing questions when they finally caught up with Maddy.
He’d told Bryony that Maddy was his friend, but had failed to mention that his friend had trapped him down the pit and ran off with the Tome on purpose.
But perhaps now he should come clean with Inglenook?
“There’s something I need to tell you about Maddy.” Edwin cleared his throat before continuing. “I didn’t tell the whole truth back there. You see Maddy is really a witch, and she…”
“Trapped you down the pit and then ran away with the Tome?”
Edwin stared at Inglenook’s miniature face. “You know about Maddy?”
“I know many things about Maddy. And more than she has told you, I suspect.”
“Such as?” Edwin felt a growing unease about his newfound friend.
“Take her age, for example. Would it surprise you to know that Maddy is over eight hundred years old?”
“Eight hundred years old?” Edwin gasped. “Then what is she doing at school? And shouldn’t she be taking it easy at her age?”
“I did not explain properly,” said Inglenook. “Maddy is your age, but she is not of this time. She was born in the middle ages, and has somehow transported herself to the twenty first century.”
Edwin shook his head. “Is that possible?”
There was a pause before Inglenook replied. “I mentioned that this is not the first time the Tome Terriblis has been taken from the Library of the Wise Ones. The same thing happened eight hundred years ago. And the person responsible was none other than Maddy. Or to give the child her full name, Malady Maddergrub.”
“That is her name,” said Edwin. “That’s what she told me when she took the Tome. And she said this place was called Maddergrub Manor.”
“Indeed it was,” said Inglenook. “Maddergrub Manor was Maddy’s home, eight hundred years ago.”
“And those paintings in the corridor!” Another thought struck Edwin. “Those portraits of people with green hair aren’t her ancestors. They’re her family, her actual parents, brothers and sisters!”
They’d reached the top of the stairs, and after a bit of fumbling Edwin managed to prise open the secret door.
“The magic pulse is clearer now,” announced Inglenook as they emerged into the corridor. “Head right, then take the first left.”
“So what else should I know about Maddy?” Following his navigator’s instructions, Edwin hurried past the shattered door of Madame Voltaria’s bedroom. “How come she stole the Tome in the first place?”
“Malady was a trainee Guardian of Wychetts,” said Inglenook. “She was a bright pupil, but lacked concentration, and would rather play tricks on her tutor than commit herself to serious study. Maddy scored poorly in her tests, and was faced with expulsion from magic training class. Then somehow she discovered the Tome Terriblis, and stole it from the Library of the Wise Ones to use its power for her studies.”
“This all sounds very familiar,” muttered Edwin. “So what happened after that?”
“Terrible things.” Inglenook’s voice became grave. “Once the Tome was out of the Wise Ones’ guardianship, it was only a matter of time before rival forces were alerted to its power.”
Edwin gasped. “You mean bad guys, like the Shadow Clan?”
“They were certainly aware of the Tome,” said Inglenook. “But someone else got here first, a renegade warlock who craved the spell book for himself. He launched a vicious attack on Maddergrub Manor, and that is when Maddy and her family were believed to have perished.”
“Except she’s here, eight hundred years later.” Edwin still couldn’t believe it. “But how? Why?”
“Only Maddy knows the answers to such questions,” said Inglenook. “For now we must focus on retrieving the Tome before she unleashes its power. Turn right here, young Master.”
Edwin obeyed, and found himself in the corridor with the paintings. Except the paintings weren’t there anymore.
“They’ve gone.” Edwin slowed to inspect the empty walls. “Maddy’s family portraits have been taken.”
“As I expected,” said Inglenook. “Continue down this passage to the main hall. That is where you’ll find Maddy, the Tome and the paintings.”
Edwin wondered what Maddy could want with the paintings, and he suspected there was more information about Maddy that Inglenook had yet to divulge. But there was no time for questions; Edwin knew he had to reach Maddy before she could use the Tome’s magic.
Lightning flashed, and thunder rumbled as he ran into the main hall.
The hall looked different to before. The computer desks had gone, and at the end of the room was an ornate wooden stand with an opened book resting on it. A book with yellowed pages and a scaly purple cover…
“There it is!” Edwin raced towards the Tome, but froze when a green haired girl emerged from behind the book stand.
“So you escaped.” Maddy sounded more surprised than annoyed at Edwin’s appearance. “Maybe you’re not as useless a Guardian as I thought.”
“It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” Edwin held up the Wychetts Key. “This is Inglenook, Keeper of the Ancient Wisdom.”
“We’ve met before.” Maddy’s green eyebrows knotted as she regarded the face on the Key. “I was training to be a Guardian too.”
“But then you stole the Tome,” said Inglenook. “And everything changed. Forever.”
“But I’m going to change it back again,” said Maddy. “I’m going to use the Tome’s power to make everything right.”
“Things cannot be as they were.” Inglenook’s voice became sterner. “And using the Tome again will cause irreparable damage to the elemental balance.”
As if on cue, there was a flash of lightning and a clap of thunder.
“In this time, maybe.” Maddy smiled. “But not back in my time, which is where I’ll be headed as soon as I’ve finished here.”
“But I don’t get it,” said Edwin. “You’re from the past, why travel eight hundred years into the future in the first place?”
Maddy’s smile fell. “He left me no choice. He’d taken my family as hostages.”
“This renegade warlock guy?” Edwin was trying to piece together the facts. “He came here to take the Tome, right?”
Maddy nodded. “He attacked at night, kidnapped my family and threatened to harm them if I didn’t surrender the Tome. But I was too clever. Too clever for him, too clever for the Wise Ones, too clever for everyone.”
“How?” Although genuinely curious about Maddy’s past, Edwin knew that if he kept her talking it would help Inglenook conserve more power.
“I wrote a spell.” Maddy’s smile returned. “A brilliant spell to send me forwards to a point in time when the Tome would be once again free to claim for myself. Which is now, after the foolish young Guardians stole it from under the wooden nose of their wise old tutor.”
Maddy raised a quill in her right hand.
“And now I’m going to write another spell. A spell to put everything right, and to magic me out of this forsaken time zone forever.”
“You can’t,” said Edwin. “The power of the Tome will destroy the world.”
“We’ve been through that already.” Maddy tutted like an impatient teacher. “I’ll be back in my own time by then, where everything will be fine. You really should pay more attention. No wonder you finished bottom of the school.”
“Please listen, Malady.” Inglenook’s voice was loud and commanding. “The power of the Tome cannot make things right for you. But I can.”
Maddy fixed Inglenook with an enquiring look. “Are you offering to help me?”
“I can tutor you, complete your magic training.”
Maddy’s eyes widened. “You’d make me a Guardian of Wychetts?”
“No,” said Inglenook. “There are already Guardians. But you could still do good things, Malady. As a descendant of the Wise Ones your magic abilities should not be wasted.”
“I am not a descendant of the Wise Ones,” snarled Maddy. “I am a Wise One. The Maddergrubs are the most powerful family of all the Wise Ones.”
“They were,” said Inglenook. “Until you stole the Tome.”
Maddy glanced around her, and Edwin noticed the Maddergrub family portraits were now hanging on the walls of the hall.
He saw the grief in her moistening eyes, and felt a surge of sympathy for someone who had lost their parents, brothers and sisters.
“I’m sorry,” said Edwin. “It must be hard knowing they’re gone.”
“They’re not gone,” whispered Maddy, gazing at the portrait of her mother. “They’re here.”
“Those are just pictures,” said Edwin. “Blobs of paint on canvas. They’re not…”
“They were transformed by magic.” Maddy’s head snapped round to face Edwin. “The magic of the Tome. It turned them into paintings. Trapped them forever in their own portraits.”
Edwin’s lips parted with surprise. Now he realised why those faces seemed so real. It’s because they were real. Real people turned into paintings!
Edwin looked at Inglenook. “Can’t we help? We could turn Maddy’s family back into real people, right?”
“I regret not,” answered Inglenook. “The Tome’s magic cannot be reversed by Wychetts’ power.”
“Which is why I need the Tome to put things right.” Maddy lowered the quill, angling the nib towards the pages of the spell book. “And don’t try to stop me, because you can’t.”
“We’ll see about that.” Edwin aimed the Wychetts Key at Maddy. “Inglenook, do your stuff!”
A beam of white light shot from the Key, coiling like a rope around Maddy’s right wrist. Maddy struggled, but the beam lifted her hand from the pages of the Tome.
“This gives me no pleasure, Malady.” Inglenook’s voice was heavy with regret. “Surrender the Tome and there will be no need for further action.”
“You can’t stop me.” Maddy produced a quill in her left hand. “I’m ambidextrous!”
A second beam of light snaked from the Key, wrapping around Maddy’s left hand and hoisting it above her head.
Maddy grimaced, and her hands clenched into fists as she tried to resist Inglenook’s power.
“Now retrieve the Tome,” Inglenook ordered Edwin. “And quickly, I am not sure how long I can hold her.”
Edwin ran forwards and grabbed the Tome, but Maddy screamed and brought her fists together. There was a bright flash, and a surge of force hurled Edwin backwards…