The next day when the bell for assembly rang, everyone was in a sombre mood. Masters rushed here and there, hurried and harassed, answering questions sharply. There was absolutely no question of a cover-up. All the boys with dorms that faced on to the courtyard had heard the disturbance. Some had seen what had happened. It was fast becoming a myth. Bartlett the Puppy Slayer.
The walls of Great Hall were lined with masters. They were all grave, in various pensive poses. The boys were all murmuring quietly as they lined up, which was odd, because usually they would be running around, playing games, until they were quietened down by the master in charge. Will came up to Edward.
‘Nice bags,’ he said.
‘Huh?’
‘Oh yeah. I couldn’t sleep last night.’ He didn’t want to say anything else, and Will didn’t push him.
Edward wasn’t really paying attention to what was going on. He thought about the raven, the prophecy, Mr Bartlett and the knight, and how they were connected. He wondered whether the raven had been a sign, who had written the prophecy. The knight had said, ‘You have seen what it can do.’ Could it be possible that he, through the Other Book, had caused Bartlett’s breakdown? And the awesomeness of the task which had been set him: restore the Other Book … but to whom?
Fraser was looking strained. ‘Sit down,’ he said, very quietly, but everyone heard him. Fraser glanced gloomily around the room. ‘Last night you may have heard, or seen, many things. I’d like to set the matter straight. Mr Bartlett has been taken ill. He has gone on an extended sabbatical and we hope that he will return when he is better.’
This blatant lie caused murmurings from the boys. They all knew that Mr Bartlett had done something horrific.
‘Silence,’ said Fraser, and there was silence for a moment, but then the huge doors of Great Hall opened. Everybody swivelled to look at the latecomer.
Lady Anne de la Zouche shimmered in, followed by Mrs Phipps. Lady Anne settled into a chair by the door, but Phipps remained standing. She began to shuffle, slowly, around the back of the room, her malign gaze grazing over every head in the room. Edward’s skin was crawling. She had stopped, deliberately, at the end of his row. He could feel her looking at him. It felt as if she could see deep into his brain, into its coiling, gleaming folds, and tear out the thoughts. Edward tried to make his mind blank, and focused on the comforting figure of Mr Fraser, though all he could think about was the Other Book. It hadn’t disappeared. He had locked it into his overnight case, and stashed it under some papers and boxes under his bed. He hoped it was safe there. The knight had said he could now control it. Maybe it only disappeared when it needed to make his thoughts real.
‘I have another announcement to make. We’re very lucky–we won’t have to look far for a replacement English teacher. One of our governors has kindly agreed to step in. Lady Anne de la Zouche,’ said Mr Fraser, and motioned to her to come up. She walked slowly, elegantly, up the middle of Great Hall. Edward stopped breathing, and elbowed Will in the gut.
She walked like a model up a catwalk–poised, confident. When she stopped by Mr Fraser, he looked wan and tired by comparison with her brightness.
The headmaster shook her warmly by the hand. ‘Lady Anne was at Magdalen with me. She read English literature.’ He glanced at her, and she nodded warmly. ‘Lady Anne is intimately connected to the school. Her family, the de la Zouches, were the owners of Oldstone Manor until the 1970s. It is an old, old title–and the only one that passes directly through the female line as well as the male. There are many de la Zouche tombstones in the churchyard, and indeed many portraits dotted around Oldstone. There are two or three in here.’ He pointed to the enormous portrait of the vicious-looking man above the huge fireplace.
Edward remembered that the tombstone he had put the raven on had been a de la Zouche grave … maybe that had something to do with Lady Anne. Was it possible that she could control people? Who was it that had made Imp leave the raven? Edward shuddered, imagining her as a mad puppet-master, swinging little figures from her hands.
‘Lady Anne will continue to stay in the guest house, which is, as you all know, strictly out of bounds. Now, boys. Let’s all give Lady Anne a Rousing School Welcome!’
This was the cue for the boys to clap and stamp their feet, which they did, very loudly. At Mr Fraser’s signal they gave three cheers. Edward thought that they were all deeply affected by Lady Anne. It was as if a magnet had been put down on a sheet of paper scattered with iron filings that grouped around it. He wondered if anyone would be able to resist her.
Lady Anne made a small gesture with her hand, and the school was silent.
‘Good morning, boys,’ she said. ‘I would like to say that I have been looking forward to returning here for many years, since my family left when I was a young girl. This place is extremely special to me. I am only sad that it is someone else’s misfortune that has given me the opportunity to throw myself fully into the life of Oldstone Manor. I hope that you will all help me to settle into the school as seamlessly as possible.
‘I have a special announcement for Eudoky. Instead of your usual English lesson this morning, I would like to meet you all individually so that we can get to know each other and plan the exciting things we shall be doing for your scholarships. So if you could all wait in the form room,’ she continued, ‘I will come to collect you at intervals. Thank you very much.’ She smiled the smile of a goddess, and melted to the side of the room. Mr Fraser took the floor again, and launched the assembly into ‘Onward Christian So-o-o-oldiers’, which the music mistress, voluptuous Mrs Frank, seemed to bang out rather faster than normal.
The boys all sang a little more loudly and brashly than usual, because they were showing off to Lady Anne. Assembly finished with a burst of school pride, Bartlett’s shame dispersed. The boys went straight out to their first lessons, which would start in a couple of minutes.
‘Hey, Strangore,’ said Edward as they filed into Eudoky. ‘I’ll talk to you at break, OK?’ He was nervous, excited, ideas flashing around his mind. Will nodded. Edward didn’t want to tell his cousin, but he had a plan. If he really was ‘chosen’ as the knight had told him, then would Will have the same experience as he did? He would have to find out.
Double Latin was seriously hard work that day. Everybody’s head was down, nibs scratched against exercise books, there was much consulting of grammar books and dictionaries, and before Edward knew it the bell rang for break, and as everyone else left Eudoky, he grabbed Will on his way out.
‘Strangore,’ he said, fiercely, tugging his elbow. Will peered at Edward as if he were a long way away. ‘I said I needed to talk to you.’ He realised quite how odd he sounded, gulped, and tried to calm himself.
‘OK. Let’s go. But be quick about it. I haven’t finished my maths prep. I don’t want to risk a kak. I’m in with a chance of winning this week.’ Strangore always took the competitions far too seriously.
They sneaked into the deserted dorms. No one was in the courtyard below, where the disrupted party had been. The whole place had been cleared by the efficient cleaning staff, and not a crumb, not a plastic plate, not a dropped strawberry remained. Edward took Will to the window seat.
Edward reached under his bed and unlocked his case. He took out the Other Book. It seemed to him as if it were alive. He shuddered as he picked it up. The pain was less sharp than it had been before, though, and it did not make him bleed. He laid it reverently on the bed.
‘It’s certainly real,’ said Will, suitably impressed, feeling the waves of power coming off it. He reached out a finger to touch it, and recoiled as if he’d been stung by a scorpion. A small drop of blood formed at the tip of his finger. ‘Ow! God, it’s really true!’
Sitting down on the window seat, they decided that Will would open the Other Book just as Edward had.
‘So what do I do?’ Will scratched his chin.
‘You just have to … open it.’ But Edward, in his excitement, had forgotten to tell him about putting up defences. And someone felt the power surge, someone felt their blood sing, and sent something out towards the source of it.
‘Here goes.’ Will took the Book and opened it. Watching him, Edward saw him cringe with pain.
‘Keep holding,’ he said. Edward watched Will stiffen, his eyes misting over. He waved a hand in front of him but Will did not register anything. He sat still, like a carved monument, eyes blank, face cold.
‘Will?’ said Edward. Will did not reply. Edward sat down on the bed and waited.
There was a trembling, so faint that Edward could hardly feel it at first. He wondered if it was coming from his own body. It happened again, much stronger this time. The room was definitely shaking.
Edward went to Will and shook him. Will was blacked-out, as if he’d been concussed. The room shook again. ‘Come on, Will, wake up,’ said Edward.
Hissing noises started at the edges of sound. The wallpaper, blue and white stripes, began to shiver, and then, to Edward’s amazement, patterns drawn on the paper began to unravel, and to snake out towards Will and Edward. The dimensions of the room changed. Walls bent in, curved.
Lines were drawing across Will, and he was becoming tangled in a net. A throbbing noise filled the room. Edward tried to reach him but he too was caught. Around his feet little loops had been drawn, and he could not move. Some horrific spider was drawing its web across them.
The loops were tightening around Will’s arms and neck now. Edward tore at them, but every time he broke one they came together again.
‘Will! Come on! Try and break free!’ But Will did not answer.
More and more of the living lines were enveloping them. And Edward could do nothing. The Other Book was with Will. He could not even hope to control it. How could he have let this happen?