Chapter Sixteen

One thing was certain, Caulin thought, as he continued to survey the tunnel passages of Gramway School leading to the Library, considering and discarding a succession of possible but unprofitable moves: he was not cut to be a coward. The operation strategy and tactics that were Jesi’s passion were like a bunch of incomprehensible languages to Caulin. With the appropriate diligence, and because Jesi’s strategies intrigued him, he spent quite a time analyzing how Jesi would make it to the library, fetch the required book and get the hell outta there all in the space of five minutes without arousing even an ounce of suspicion.

            Rarely had Caulin been so dismally aware of that fact that as he continued to stare at the passages beneath Gramway, Jaime Owls had tactlessly pulled up a mess up in the class with Jesi involved. By this time it had started to rain and Caulin could feel it hammering now on the room though he was a little below ground. Let’s just say he was audibly sound and privileged to catch the faintest of sounds. Those funny sounds of the rain added to his depression as he racked his brain trying to figure out the best route for the mission of Jesi. As one of Gramway’s means of temperature control, owing to the fact that many machineries lurked beneath its structures, a great deal of air blew through all the tunnels, getting it colder and gloomier. It was just like a storm; Caulin read the time on his wrist watch and it was only past noon.

            Perversely, he hoped that Ariadne and Jesi were getting ready for their various assignments as he was personally paving way for Jesi to execute his. Ariadne’s own was quite manageable as she was quite at the best part of Professor Shade Quist.

            As a matter of fact, maybe the book Caulin was after is the only means by which the Gore Trio can take any action in furtherance to the thought-out plan to uncover Professor Shade’s alliance with Drakeizar, the deathly wizard. Now, Caulin was done figuring out the path Jesi would take to the Library of Professor Grave for the book. He headed straight for the class. Rannistar was talking something with Hormil, the boy splitting on them to Chess, Rannistar’s cult definitely. He was not an expert at eavesdropping so he wouldn’t try to grasp the words they spoke. It was even more like whispers of a dark night; he could not make any hell out of it. He ignored them and paced for Jesi’s.

“All is clear,”

Caulin said and took a quick glance at the rest of the class.

“You see this? It is the sign indicating the passages you should use to get to the library. In fact, I placed one of these at every turning point required to land you at the Library. Note that the passages will help you to the store of the Library; meaning, you would have to get into the office of Professor Grave as quickly as you can. No mistakes, just results and don’t forget your limitation, five minutes.”

Caulin said, with an emphatic glare.

“Wish me luck.”

Jesi demanded nervously.

“You don’t need it just be the real deal. Don’t screw things up, go now.”

Caulin urged. Jesi walked out of the class, Ariadne casting a reluctant gaze at him but taking it off quickly in order not to stir up the attention of the class. Should they see the three of them looking anxious, it will be evident to all and sundry that those three were up to something disagreeable. Rannistar walked to Caulin and sat by him on Jesi’s desk.

“What are you up to this time? I know Jesi is on some kind of mission but what exactly is it?”

He asked.

“What do you want?”

Caulin demanded.

“What do I want? I want you to fucking tell me what the hell you are after in this School because I just don’t seem to get it.”

He said.

“I will tell you, Professor Quist is a wizard and he has an affiliation with Drakeizar, you know him don’t you…the deathly demon that wants to be a god in this wizarding world.”

Caulin said thoughtfully.

“You mean to tell me that Shade is a traitor too?”

“Hey bitch, I’m telling you this only because you are a wizard yourself. You are not going to screw things up for me because I won’t let you.”

            Hoffery Rannistar wore a surprise expression his face. He went to Ariadne and had her walk out of the class with her.

“You were after Professor Shade and you wouldn’t tell me?”

He asked.

“Tell me what you would have done. And what business has that got to do with you?”

Adne burst. Caulin came out of the class too.

“Why did you tell him, we swore not to let this out of our mouths why did you go against the decision of us three?”

She said angrily.

“You don’t get it Ariadne, it was imperative I did that.”

He defended himself.

“Ariadne, you should understand Caulin because even I have a lead on Professor Quist, I will render my help to the three of you. And Caulin, I’m sorry for the harm I caused your Division the other day with Professor Dunotdare. Adne, you get it now don’t you?”

Hoffery said calmly.

            Jesi walked into the washroom for the males and climbed through the top passage Caulin had first marked. He rushed through the dark cold passage and got caught in an awful ball of cobwebs that made him itch terribly.

“Cardol – Eb - Façade horg,”

Jesi cast a spell; a ball of fire swallowed the whole of the webs and rendered the tunnel passage web free. Unfortunately, a wave of excruciating pain washed over him too as the fire had affected him adversely.

“This bitch of a web; gosh, it’s so disgusting!”

Jesi uttered.

He continues down the passage and realized it was getting steeper. Apparently, Jesi thought, the library was quite down the ground therefore the steepness was nothing to warrant a shock. He sped down and found the last card. By virtue of that, Jesi knew without doubt that he was on top of the library and would get to the store when he gets down. Checking his wrist watch, he realized it was 9:56. He had gotten to the spot a little before Professor Grave would go for his brunch as he usually did. Taking in a deep cold breath, he waited for the next 4 minutes to execute his function with perfection.

“So Hoffery; why the sudden change of attitude towards us? I guess it is all part of a bigger plan to ruin everything we’ve built right?”

Ariadne said, not believing for a moment what Rannistar was putting up.

“Adne, Professor Quist and I have problems and he knows it. You see I can’t tell you certain things now because it will be too much for you to handle, trust me.”

Hoffery said.

“Tell us; there are mightier things that will come our way. Caulin, you said it yourself didn’t you?”

She said and glanced at Caulin slightly.

“Keeping that from us under the delusion that we can’t handle it is nothing but cowardice. That is not one of my best traits so don’t you give me that crab!”

Ariadne said, getting aerated.

“I give up; I will just let it out. But you would have to understand the fact that we can’t talk here for it’s dangerous. A lot goes on in Gramway that you have no idea about. If I had known that it was all about Professor Shade, then maybe we could have made a quick effective deal to eliminate him. He truly is a wizard if you’ve not yet proven that.”

Hoffery said.

“Right, understood,”

Ariadne said.

“If you would excuse us Hoffery, Ariadne and I need to talk.”

Caulin demanded. Hoffery managed an approval nod and walked away.

“It’s a minute more to 10:00 and Jesi would have to risk his life for us. You know that don’t you?”

He asked.

“You don’t say! I most definitely do know that. How about this? You go to the Library under the guise of a research work of some sort. And then I will go to the Pantry and do something to delay Professor Grave in returning to the Library. I strongly doubt Jess can complete retrieving that book in the space of five minutes.”

She suggested.

“Will that be necessary?”

“Of course it is, at least to avert any form of unforeseen contingencies. That is one of the least things we can do to help because we can’t risk Jesi’s reputation as being a thief too, don’t you get it?”

Ariadne said emphatically.

“Alright, let’s do it.”

Caulin decided. He walked into the class and straight to Hoffery Rannistar. He looked kind of sour and Caulin could not understand completely why that should be.

“You care for us don’t you?” Caulin asked calmly.

“Aye, anything I can do to help?”

That was Hoffery.

“You should cover for us in case any teacher demands our presence. Whatever happens, you should say, I’m in the Library working on an assignment; a research work or something alright?”

“Cool, be good.”

Hoffery admonished copiously, quite in spite of himself.

           

It was left with 20 cool seconds to go now and the fear of Jesi getting caught had climbed to the very top in his tender heart. He breathed very hard and grew terribly nervous as the seconds ticked with unconcealed carelessness. As Jesi was still hanging at the top waiting for the signal of his watch to alert him, the part of the tunnel he occupied lit up and he personally couldn’t remember casting a spell for the light. He did not need it actually. He instinctively glared down below into the store and there was, to his amazement, a Pantry assistant walking towards the stock of books on a section of the shelves. Without wasting a time she picked a book and slipped it down the apron she wore.

“What are you doing here, Mrs. Gilrae?”

Professor Grave demanded, standing at the entrance of the store.

“Oh – blow – Professor Grave, you weren’t in your office as you always do so I thought of looking in here. So then, always been your food is ready. Shall we?”

She stammered but found her way around the things she said. Professor Grave gave way for her to take the lead and then shut the door but deliberately left the light on. Jesi sighed, the time had come finally and he just had to do away with his fears and insecurities otherwise get everything ruined. He knew Caulin would not forgive him for that mess.

            The air was cold and very still as Caulin, the son of Granger the fierce witch, dominated on his way to the Library. As he climbed the last set of stairs leading down to the Library, he cast a reluctant glance back the way he had come. He and his incredulous plans also cast only an odd, truncated shadow on the virgin floor before the huge commodious library, for the light down there was unrestrictedly bright.

            Gramway School was an institution that was embraced with hugely established laws and which demanded strict adherence; otherwise attracted immediate expulsion. Quite unfortunately, Caulin was visiting the Library at the time contrary to the spelt out regulations regarding the consumption of that facility. He knew that perfectly before opting for the perilous part of the mission though he was completely oblivious of the fact that, 10:00 was the time most security personnel leave their posts for whatsoever he was not sure of.

            Few would dare to break rules, for some part of Gramway was believed to be haunted. The Library happened to be part of such areas therefore, only few people used that particular Library. That implies going there at the inappropriate time was suicide for most of the students. And even more there were various set Divisions instituted in the school. They were made up of Students with respective Professor Patrons and an overall head that supervises the doings of these Divisions. Any student who broke a regulation had marks deducted from the score of his Division. And Caulin was nowhere near the thought of risking his Division a deduction of marks. Therefore he had to be extremely careful not to be spotted peering into the Library at an odd time.

            But Caulin’s last ordeal still lay months ahead in the future. His dreams were gradually progressing in being fulfilled. Paige Granger could no longer bear to watch it happen many days ago; he had broken the secret to his best friend, Jesi Borden

Jesi cowered for a second and opened the trapdoor making into the store room. Three seconds had elapsed already and he had not commenced any action just yet. Smartly landing onto the ground of the store he stared frantically around to ascertain the absence of any a watching eye. There was not even a single individual, by virtue of that he managed an awesome sigh which only lasted a second.

There were many a shelve standing comfortably in the great store of Gramway. Jesi for a moment found himself in an unreal kind of trance that seemed determined to put him off his delicate mission to find the Gnome Throne, Lord Stag. Well nonetheless, he retired to search for the book immediately grace pulled him out of his tactless confusion. It was terribly laborious to say the least and he was getting tired rapidly. Incongruously, he had still not prosperously come to an end with the search on even a single shelve when there were thousands of them to work on. And awesome thought invaded his mind just suddenly. He thought of casting a spell to find the book because that will be far leisurelier. But he recalled what Caulin had said:

“I do not trust that Library and it could possibly be true that it is haunted as we’ve been told a million times before. Therefore you shan’t use magic in your search otherwise it will be easily detected and a backup will be sent immediately. You know what that means, you will undoubtedly be expelled. That will in turn get all of us implicated. You don’t want that to happen, I don’t want that to happen; moreover no one wants that to happen so play your cards just well. Take care bro.”

Caulin had said concisely.

“Even with the authorities, though they expel students with magic I believe without even an ounce of doubt something is going on behind the scenes. So just be careful and trust your instincts because you are just the perfect dude for this assignment.”

He had added as tersely as he could and rum off for something he wasn’t so sure of.

            Jesi breathed hard. He could not use magic and his strength was also limited in supply. He was now on the second shelve and the time senselessly read 10:2 with 20 seconds ahead to catch the third minute.

By this time Caulin had mindlessly entered the Library to be sure things were clear for the smoothness of Jess’ seemingly herculean task. He bypassed the shelves in the main Library towards the northern wall. The Library was a relatively huge one and it will take hours to walk through the whole of it. He getting anxious by the careless tick of each second but that could not did enthusiasm to discover the wanted book.

            Professor Grave, who had been grouchy and irritable all morning with his stupid cold, should have been glad that Mrs. Gilrae was making him feel at home in the Pantry.  She tried her best to keep him warm and dried and curled up with a fur-lined robe, a huge black cat and a funny little book to keep him company with humor.

As a matter of fact, maybe that little treatment was a good idea. Professor Grave was quite bored with living almost his whole life in the gloomy Library that only few daring students visited. He stood up, receiving his meal pack from an attendant and made to leave for the Library, but before he could decide how to take the first step, Elaina, the baby of Mrs. Gilrae, came pattering purposefully into the room, flaxen braids coming undone and her white cat, Bruno, in her arms. She had the cat just behind the front legs, its body and tail dangling almost to her knees. Oddly the cat did not seem to mind at all. And there was a layer of fear drawn on the infant face of Eliana.

“Professor Grave, Professor Grave, there’s somebody snaking around the Library!”

She whispered with six-year-old urgency pouring out with each utter of a word, scuttling past her mother and the attendant to pause at the shoulders of the old man.

            Professor Grave gave a sigh and lowered his gaze at Elaina.

“I’m sure there is,”

He croaked hoarsely.

“Professor Grave, I’m not joking!”

Elaina persisted.

“I heard those clunking things in the great store.”

She said.

“It’s probably the dogs, pretty angel. Lots of dogs are on campus today and they go everywhere. Don’t you worry?”

“The dogs don’t make noises like that, Professor Grave.”

She said hurriedly.

“Then it may possibly be the servants. I ordered them to do a real good cleaning at any time they so wish. They may now be there.”

“It isn’t the servants!”

She replied, stamping a little foot as if to exert emphasis. Professor Grave manages a sigh again and instead of taking a prompt action of some sort, sat down and pulled Eliana to himself.

“You asked me to fetch the Fiorella tale yesterday but somehow I couldn’t so just now as I was going to have it, I found Bruno running fiercely out from the store towards the main door and I grabbed him. He was afraid. He doesn’t run from the servants.”

She said.

“He probably got scared of the too much light in there and run out. You know he is not used to much light don’t you?”

Professor Grave said.

“He did not!”

Eliana insisted, hugging the cat closely.

“There’s someone in the store. Come and see. Professor Grave, please!”

“Eliana, I’m not going down into the store,”

Professor Grave snapped.

“I don’t feel like going into that messy store just yet. In any case you hadn’t noticed, this stupid cold is making me mean and grumpy. Why don’t you go and continue pestering the other kids down the Pantry?”

Professor Grave said with a tone of finality evident in his words. Elaina looked away a second and then sighed heavily. He had earlier realized the books had been somehow scattered all over the store so needed an urgent clean up by the servants. Founded on that, he in spite of himself decided not to go into the store precisely until it was cleaned up.

“They are all busy playing their dumb game! Just because I’m little, nobody ever listens to me!”

Mrs. Gilrae, who had been carefully following the exchange with compounding excitement, exchanged a conspiratorial wink with the attendant who had brought the meal pack; she had also sat back to grin.

            Eliana glanced at her mom, she only smiled ignorantly but of course it was all advantageous to the Gore trio as the time now read 10:6, one minute over time.

“Hey Eliana, we would listen to you won’t we?”

Baelor said, glancing at the other kids who had come up the stairs into the Pantry.

“I believe been a child is quite a curse!”

Greyworm said, delighted at the excuse to get away from the down side of the Pantry. That was because it was depressing and extremely boring to be kept there under curfew simply for the sake of misbehavior on the part of the kids.

“Of course I was mighty sure only other kids will listen to me. It’s always that way. Ah! I hate adults!”

Eliana said disgustingly.

Professor Grave now focused his attention on his cold for it was getting really bad this time. Mrs. Gilrae prepared some hot coffee to calm his system down. Of course he accepted the kind service of the lady and sat to gulp down the coffee.

“You know, I actually think you are an amazing woman. I mean it.”

He said.

“You’ve never said that before so why?”

She said, overwhelmed with some awesome kind of amazement.

“Well, times do change and maybe our time is about to change too.”

“Professor Grave, just what do you mean by that? I don’t follow.”

“We will talk later don’t you worry. I should be getting to the library now; I’ve been out for close to seven minutes and that is quite odd of me don’t you think so.”

“Yes I do. But you should keep away for some time. I seldom think you have any fun with those thick haunted walls.”

“I’ve been wandering why most students think my Library is haunted. It has decreased the total number of people that use this Library. I don’t know why anyway but do you also believe it is haunted?”

He asked.

“I sure do. I read that some avengers ravaged this school many many years ago and most of them perished in a war that broke over here. Their souls therefore took undue possession of the whole place making it haunted. I also found out from a friend that Drakeizar has been here before and it is widely known that where ever he goes becomes automatically haunted because he leaves his souls there. I think it is all true, what they’ve been saying.”

She recounted vividly.

“What! You read all that? From where did you read that nonsense?”

He asked, blushing scarlet all of a sudden.

“You should not get angry over this but I read from your library.”

“I knew it! You’ve been sneaking into my office because there is no such book in the main Library. How could you? Come here.”

He said calmly. Mrs. Gilrae paced closer to him.

“Should the authorities of Gramway get to know that you know this, you shall sure be killed. If you run away, your family will die in your place so you better shut up on this. Do you get that?”

He said on a note of conclusion.

“That means everything I’ve read is true isn’t it? Your Library is haunted right? Professor Grave, tell me the truth.”

She demanded anxiously.

“I got to go back to my office, how am I even sure you are not the only one who’s been sneaking around in my office at my blind side?”

He stood up and walked out of the Pantry, towards the Library.