Read Online Avis Blackthorn: Is Not an Evil Wizard! by Jack Simmonds - Free Book Online

left
and Dennis on my right. The table we were on was just one long desk
facing Magisteer Straker who stood with his hands pressed tightly
together, as if in prayer.
    The joy that had been sucked out of the room,
remained sucked out. Magisteer Straker proved to be an immediately
dislikable Magisteer and person. He spent most of the first lesson
telling us about the numerous rules that we must abide, if we
didn’t, it was Magical punishment. However, the rules were so
convoluted and confusing and numerous that I, for one, lost track.
I got the impression that it boiled down to: don’t do anything,
unless Magisteer Straker tells you to. Instead of putting our hands
up to answer a question, he would just randomly point.
    “Most people who start these lessons with me,
think they would be jumping straight into some practical Magic.
Well, you are gravely mistaken,” he said with great pleasure. “In
these classes we will be learning the foundation for your studies
of practical Magic… and if I don’t pass you, hec, you might never
get to do any,” he smiled, his teeth were all brown in the cracks -
he needed whatever toothpaste Tina used. He had, I noticed, long
fingernails too. I didn’t like that on a man. It looks kind of
strange, like he was a part time mole. “You boy!”
    Hunter, who was staring off into space,
jumped and fell of his seat. “What was rule 37b? … Always look at
me, unless I expressly tell you not to.”
    “Right Sir, sorry Sir…” said Hunter getting
back on his seat.
    Straker was scanning a list of paper that he
made jump from the desk to his hand. “Ahh,” he said the most active
I’d seen him all lesson. “We have a Blackthorn.”
    I swallowed and cowered a little. I couldn’t
tell if he sounded impressed or wanted to take the mick. “Which one
of you is the Blackthorn?”
    All their eyes turned to me. I raised my hand
slowly. “ Me Sir.”
    “Oh,” he said as his black disappointed eyes
rested on me. “You weren’t the one snivelling in the Chamber
earlier were you?” I felt that stone drop again in my stomach.
    “Erm, yeah, kind of… my brother Ross he—”
    “Great boy! Great boy Ross Blackthorn, real
eye for Magic he has, just like his parents.” I was starting to get
a picture of who and what this man was, and it certainly meant
trouble for me. I kept my head down and stayed as quiet as possible
for the rest of the lesson.
    That night, I stayed up. All the other boys
were asleep by half past nine. I put a few more logs on the fire
and poked it a bit, trying to get the last bit of cold out of my
bones from Straker’s room. I went over and sat on the window seat
and stared out. Hunter was snoring softly, he sort of sounded like
bear choking to death. The moon was bright tonight, and it seemed
bigger from the grounds of Hailing Hall. I felt cosy sitting there,
with the fire crackling, my pyjamas and dressing gown on and the
glow from the moonlight streaming in. And then I thought how
grateful I was, that I was here and not at home. No matter how bad
it got here at Hailing Hall at least I was not at home. I thought
about my first couple of days at school: meeting Tina was the
highlight, every time I thought about her, my stomach went all
fuzzy, it was such a strange feeling, I wondered if it was
love.
    Rory once told me that when you fall in love
these demons grow inside you and tear your insides out, I believed
him for ages. Outside I was sure I could see a tall, dark shape
moving in the shade of the hedges. I slid back against the wall
hiding behind a tree. The moonlight shimmered on this thing’s back,
I say thing, because whatever it was, it gave me the shivers. It
looked like a tall man, with a long head and small horns and… long
blackened, charred hands.
    It was Malakai!
    The evil high lord of darkness, his form
horribly disfigured due to workings of dark Magic, was strolling
across the moonlit lawn into the school!
    I jumped away from the window. I didn’t