Xar was surprised at how lonely it was to be Bodkin. Of course the sprites and the animals couldn’t hang out with him as much, because that would have attracted attention, so they just suddenly weren’t there anymore, and it gave him a very odd feeling to be totally… alone.
Did Bodkin always feel this alone?
It wasn’t that anyone was positively mean to him. They just tended to ignore him when he said things. Their eyes passed over him as if he wasn’t really there.
Apart from Wish.
Xar could see why Bodkin liked Wish so much. She was the only person who seemed interested when he said something. When I get back to being Xar again, I’m going to be a lot nicer to old Bodkin, thought Xar.
And Bodkin found he learned a great deal from a day being Xar as well.
At first it was nice to have everyone laughing when he made a joke, everyone looking to him for guidance, all the attention from the other Wizards and the sprites. But then it began to feel like quite a lot of pressure to be funny, to be naughty, to amuse everyone. And being told off all the time turned out to be extremely wearing.
As for the hand with the Witch-stain, Bodkin didn’t see how Xar could stand it. He couldn’t remember Xar ever mentioning this (maybe Xar was too proud), but it hurt all the time, a burning, itching, yearning ache. And worse than that, he could feel it trying to control him, leading him in the wrong direction, confusing his thoughts, and turning them upside down and inside out. It was most unpleasant.
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear… thought Bodkin. I’m worried that time is running out for poor old Xar. I had no idea that the Witch-stain was such a burden.
Last lesson was with Madam Clairvoy.
After a whole day of being told off by teacher after teacher, Bodkin was thoroughly fed up, and he found himself answering back and being nearly as cheeky as Xar would have been himself. Madam Clairvoy was in a really mean mood, and she gave Bodkin two detentions for “rudeness and insubordination,” and Bodkin felt a little guilty about that until he realized that Xar wouldn’t turn up for the detentions anyway.
At the end of the class, Bodkin headed with relief to the door, for there were only a couple of more hours to go and then he could go back to being himself again. Xar followed, equally keen to get to the end of this stupid day as quickly as possible.
But Madam Clairvoy called Xar back.
“Stay behind, Bodkin,” said Madam Clairvoy. Xar couldn’t quite get used to being Bodkin, so he looked around him for a second, before he realized that Madam Clairvoy was talking to him. Why did she want Bodkin to stay behind?
Bodkin was wondering that too. And as he looked over at Madam Clairvoy, he had a sudden, shocking realization. A memory of something that he had seen once, long ago, in the dungeons of Warrior fort…
He knew why Madam Clairvoy wanted to see Bodkin, and he had to prevent that at all costs.
“Bodkin can’t stay behind, Madam Clairvoy,” said Bodkin with real urgency in his voice. “Madam Perdita wants to see him and Wish and me in the Lair of the Bear right now.”