In the next few days, William realized that the wizard was more eager for an audience than for a fool. The old man seemed to relish the hours when he could trap William and tell him tales of the particularly evil spells he’d cast, of the bad children he’d turned into toads, and the young women he’d changed into crones. When the wizard told him about the apple-tree man, William smiled to himself, knowing Dick had been freed.
But Alastor did seem amused by William’s tumbling. He wanted to know the names of all the tricks, and for the next few days, he spent long hours putting William through various strings of exercises.
“Now do a round-off, a whip-back, and a back handspring,” he would say.
If William objected because he was too tired or if he could not force his body into the gyrations Alastor required, the wizard would go into a rage, shrieking at his fool.
“I control you. You must do as I say, Muggins. Do not cross me or I shall put you in the gallery,” Alastor would scream.
He was a tougher taskmaster than either Robert or Mrs. Phillips. William knew if he ever got home, he would be in perfect shape for his meet.
William’s guard, whose name was Brian, understood after a few days that his prisoner had no wish to escape from the castle, so he allowed him to roam more freely about the place.
“Keep out of Alastor’s way,” Brian warned. “And the old crone too. The wizard has sucked out her heart and replaced it with a stone. The only thing that can be said for her is that she hates him too. You can see it in her eyes when she watches him.”
“Why don’t you band together to overpower him?” William asked.
“He divides us so that each is rewarded if he carries tales of another. And all of us are afraid that we shall end up in the gallery. Now that the Silver Knight has been captured again, we have no hope left.”
William decided to say no more.
One morning about a week after William had arrived, he was summoned to the wizard’s chambers. A young man stood in front of the wizard’s throne, his hands bound in front of him.
“Ah, my fool has come,” Alastor announced, his shoulder jerking faster than usual. “Now we can begin. Muggins, this man was found cutting down a tree for firewood. The summer is over and the wind is blowing up out of the northwest. This man says his children are cold, but cutting down trees is against the law, is it not?”
The man spat to one side. “That is what I think of this wizard’s laws,” he muttered. “The wizard would have us starve and freeze. Soon there will be no person left in this godforsaken kingdom to follow his laws.”
“Silence!” Alastor screamed, rising from his chair. “How dare you speak, you churlish scoundrel.” He snatched the necklace from under his robes and pointed something at the man. As William watched, the man began to turn to lead. He screamed and clawed at his legs.
“Stop it,” William cried, reaching out to take the man’s hands.
He was pulled back by Brian. “Don’t touch him or you’ll be next,” the soldier whispered in his ear.
“There, Muggins,” the wizard spat when the man fell to the floor, a twisted metal statue. “A little demonstration for your further education. Now get away from me, all of you. Your faces sicken me.”
The room was emptied in seconds. “I hate him,” William said to Brian as they took the dark corridor back down to his room.
“Hate has no magic in it,” Brian muttered. “We need magic to defeat him.”
“Have you seen him do that before?”
The man nodded. Through the holes in his helmet, William could see the tears standing in the old soldier’s eyes. “Too many times to count. Other people’s agonies are the only pleasure Alastor takes from life.”
When the wizard didn’t need him, William spent long hours pacing the corridors, trying to devise a plan. He knew he had to get the necklace from around Alastor’s neck, but he could not think how. He found himself drawn to the gallery of lead people again and again. He went always to stand in front of the Silver Knight and stare into his eyes, as if they held the secret to the wizard’s defeat.
“What did you do?” he asked one afternoon. “March up to the castle waving your broad sword? What made you think evil like that could be struck down with an ordinary weapon?”
“Sir Simon’s subjects gave him away,” said a voice beside William. He turned, and to his horror he saw that Calendar had slunk up behind him. “The old wizard has spies everywhere who are so scared of him that they do whatever he tells them.”
William listened to her raspy whisper without moving. The old woman knew now that he was acquainted with the Silver Knight. Would she tell Alastor? She began to speak again in such a low voice that he had to lean closer to hear her.
“When Alastor heard the Silver Knight was coming up the main road, he went out to meet him. Before Simon could lift his sword, the wizard pulled out the lead disk and froze him.” She covered her eyes. “I had to watch it happening to him for a second time. Then he took the boy too. The people stood on the side of the road, their faces all twisted in despair.” Suddenly her voice changed. “They are fools all of them. There is only one way to defeat Alastor.”
William still didn’t speak. He willed her to go on.
“But why should I tell you my secrets?” she asked. “Why shouldn’t I save them for myself? Then the revenge shall be all mine.”
William took a chance. “Because this is your grandson, Calendar,” he whispered, nodding his head at the lead boy. “This is your daughter’s son.”
Her head swiveled back to the boy, and she stared into his blank, gray eyes. “The baby boy, the sickly one,” she cried.
William grabbed her by the arms. “What is the secret? How do I defeat Alastor?”
Her silence seemed to last forever. In the distance, they could hear the clank of an approaching guard. The wizard was coming.
“It’s the necklace first,” she muttered. “Get the necklace from him, and then all you have to face is the mirror. But nobody has ever defeated the mirror.”
“The mirror?” he asked in a hurried whisper. “What is the mirror?”
“It looks right through you,” she said, talking more to herself now. “Shows you all the horrors inside yourself. No way to hide from the mirror. Not even Alastor could hide from that. Or you.”
William sprang away from her as the large double doors were pushed open. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Calendar roll over to crouch in her usual position in the corner.
The wizard gave them an odd look when he entered the room. “I see you both are enjoying my little gallery,” he said with a chuckle. “I am usually the only one who likes to be in here. Perhaps we are three of a kind.”
William shuddered at the thought and turned abruptly away. “I must go,” he said.
“No,” the wizard said sharply. “You will stay here. Remember, you are my fool. And not a very good one at that,” he grumbled. “Guard, bring me a chair. I want my fool to give a performance for all these assembled.” He swept his hand around the room to indicate the motionless audience. “Go,” he shouted at the guard, who was not moving fast enough.
William didn’t bother to object. In the short time he’d lived in the grim bowels of the castle, he’d grown used to the whims of the wizard. Besides, he rather liked the idea of giving a performance in front of the Silver Knight. It seemed a fitting memorial to the bravery of his old friend, useless though it had been.
The chair was brought. William took some time at the opposite end of the room, warming up and stretching out his muscles. He had a feeling this was going to be a real performance, the last important meet of the season.
“Get on with it, fool,” the wizard called from his throne.
William walked to the center of the room. He bowed first to the wizard and then to the leaden audience along the walls. He felt their eyes and a curious tension began to build in him.
“Two round-offs, two back handsprings, and a cartwheel,” the wizard barked.
William nodded even though he had no intention of following the wizard’s orders. He had gauged the distance. He knew the routine he would use to cross the room. And when he ended with the Arabian front somersault, he knew where his feet would land. He started with a series of cartwheels that took him around the room in a whirling circle. From his first position in the corner, he hurtled toward the wizard with two round-offs. Coming out of the second one, he punched up high in the air for the line of back handsprings that brought him closer and closer to the silver robes. As the room turned upside down over and over, William saw the wizard reaching for his necklace. The old man jumped to his feet.
“Obey me, fool,” he screamed. “The Arabian.”
William twisted into the Arabian and ducked his head down to end in Mrs. Phillips’s special, the front somersault. As he came up, his feet caught the wizard full in the chest and knocked him to the ground.
William fell beside the wizard, shaken for a moment. It was the old crone’s voice that brought him to his senses.
“The necklace!” she screamed. He reached across the heaving silver chest and snatched it from the wizard’s neck.
A cry of pain and anger filled the room. William leaped to his feet and backed away from the curled silver figure on the floor. The wizard rose slowly. “Close the doors,” he ordered the guard in a steely voice, and the man jumped to obey. With the click of the lock, there was complete silence in the room.
“I am the boy in the legend, Alastor,” William gasped, his chest still heaving. “I have come to take back the Silver Knight’s kingdom.”
Then a low, horrible cackle bubbled up from deep inside the wizard’s throat.
“And now, fool, you think you have me. But you don’t know about the mirror, do you?” Both hands were thrust inside the pockets of his billowing robe, searching for something, as he advanced on William. The wizard had grown even larger and more menacing with the loss of his necklace, and William continued to back away until he felt the solid form of the Silver Knight behind him.
“Nobody escapes the mirror. When you look inside it, you will see all the cowardice and hatred and greed inside yourself. Won’t he, Calendar?” he called out to the old woman without taking his eyes off William. Her only reply was a moan of terror. “Calendar has seen the mirror do its work. Beggars and priests and kings have fallen in front of the mirror. What will it show you, fool? What are you but just a small, stupid, terrified boy?” the wizard shrieked as he pulled something out of his right-hand pocket and thrust it toward William.
William shut his eyes. He couldn’t bear to have his journey end this way, after everything he’d come through.
“Open your eyes, fool. You will have to see it. There is no resisting it,” the wizard crowed, certain of his victory.
William thought once more of Mrs. Phillips, the one person who believed in him. You have inside you the heart and soul of a knight, she had said.
He opened his eyes and looked into the mirror. All he saw was the figure of himself, William, walking slowly but surely toward him. As the figure got closer, he could see the picture of Mrs. Phillips imprisoned inside his heart.
“What does he see, Calendar?” the wizard cried.
“He sees himself, Alastor. And the lady he has taken prisoner. Nothing else.”
“But I’m here so that lady can go free,” William said, his voice powerful in the silent room. He took another step toward the mirror. It no longer scared him. It showed him only what he already knew. With every forward stride that William made, the wizard retreated until he was trapped in a corner of the room, his eyes wide, his mouth open and waiting for a scream that never came. William reached out and snatched the mirror, turning it on Alastor.
The look of horror on the wizard’s face was unbearable, and William was almost tempted to drop the mirror and break it.
Alastor sank to his knees, covering his eyes with his hands. “It’s the locust,” he moaned.
“The destroyer, the ravager,” Calendar shrieked, her arms lifted up to the ceiling. Hatred was etched in every line on her face. Before William could stop her, Calendar had snatched the necklace that dangled from his left hand. She pointed the lead disk at the wizard and mumbled the word “Saturn.” Alastor reached up and tried to grab the length of ribbon from her, but she swung it back and forth just above his grasp. His legs had already turned to lead from the feet to the knees, and he began to drag himself about the floor on his elbows, trying to catch her. He looked like a wounded animal.
“Calendar, no,” William shouted. “Stop it. We can take care of him some other way. Don’t do that to him.”
But she was lost to anything but her own revenge. Dancing around the twisted, gray form of the wizard, she flipped the lead disk and muttered another word William couldn’t hear. Alastor was gone.
Before anybody could stop him, William raised his arms and smashed the mirror to the floor. It shattered instantly into a hundred scattered slivers.