The Breaker (The Secret of Spellshadow Manor #2)

Jari nodded. “Yeah, right away, and then the kid left and Aamir got all panicky and scared. You should have seen Aamir… He was a mess. He was shaking, and his face went white as a sheet. His eyes looked like horses’ do when they’re spooked, all wild and weird, and he was babbling. I couldn’t make out any of it, but he just kept muttering things under his breath, and I couldn’t get him to calm down. I tried to, but he was in such a state,” Jari explained miserably. “Then he walked out. He said he was sorry and just left.”


“I’m sure he will be fine, Jari,” Alex said, trying to reassure both himself and his friend.

Jari shook his head. “I don’t think so. You didn’t see him. He was a complete mess. Even before the kid came in. He just looks so tired all the time, like that thing on his wrist is sapping the energy from him. He’s in a bad way, Alex. I just know it. He kept trying to tell me things. But then his face would screw up like he’d been stung, and he’d just stop mid-sentence.” Jari’s voice caught in his throat as he spoke.

“What kind of things?” Natalie asked.

“Different things. He was telling me about how things were going, and then he just kept stopping, gritting his teeth in pain—then he’d just switch the subject.” Jari shrugged. “We weren’t even talking about anything we weren’t supposed to be. Nothing to do with the Head or the teachers, nothing! That stupid line is sensitive to everything.”

“Sounds like he was trying to tell you something,” Alex murmured.

“What do you mean?” Jari asked.

“Maybe Aamir was trying to tell you something he wasn’t supposed to, but tried to do it secretly and… well, the band on his wrist knew,” Alex replied.

“You really think so?” he said.

Alex shrugged.

“Do you think he is in trouble?” Natalie spoke, her voice hushed to a whisper as she glanced around, conscious of being watched.

Jari gave a tense nod. “Yes, I do.”

“Then what should we do?” Natalie said.

“We need to check that he’s okay,” Jari replied firmly.

“And how are we supposed to do that?” Alex asked, adopting the same hushed whisper as Natalie.

“We break into the teachers’ quarters and make sure he is,” Jari explained, matter-of-factly, as if the answer were a simple one.

“Seriously?” Alex did not like the plan one bit.

Jari nodded furiously. “Yes, seriously. We break into the teachers’ quarters while everyone else is asleep and make sure he is okay,” he repeated, as if it were obvious. “And, we can ask him what the Head wanted.”

“Jari, I hate to say it, but that’s insane,” Alex said. “You know Aamir won’t be able to tell us anything, even if he wants to. It’s too risky! What about curfew?”

“What about it?” Jari replied, shrugging.

“It’s a huge risk, Jari. I hate to sound like the killjoy here, but being out after curfew is a massive risk to take. What if we get caught?” Alex spoke firmly, a note of authority in his voice.

There had been much talk circulating about what happened if a student got caught after curfew: magical lashings with a golden cat o’ nine tails, spells of long-lasting silence, powerful curses to sap the strength from a student, and torture spells that left the sufferer walking on pins and needles for weeks, unable to soothe away the continual stabbing sensation beneath their feet. The worst, though, was the threat of an audience with the Head and the tales of his mind control, used to punish and torture those who disobeyed the rules. He would bend the world around them, tormenting them with nightmarish visions of family and friends back home. Alex knew what it was like to have the Head force his way into his mind and didn’t feel much like repeating the traumatic experience.

“If we get caught, we get caught. That’s it,” Jari replied with growing determination.

“No, Jari. I don’t think you quite understand how high the risks are. If I get caught and they decide to lash me with some magical whip, don’t you think the blizzard that will undoubtedly spring from my back will be a dead giveaway?” Alex asked, trying to make his friend see the problems in such a dangerous scheme. “And there’s no telling what they’d do to the both of you. It’s too risky, Jari. Surely you see that?”

“I don’t mind taking the risk,” Jari said desperately. “Our friend needs us. I don’t care what the risk is.”

Natalie glanced at Alex. “How about we all wait until tomorrow, when it is our first lesson, and we speak with Aamir afterward—we make sure he is all right then, when it is much safer?” she suggested calmly.

Jari shook his head. “I have to know he is okay tonight,” he snapped, keeping his voice low as he narrowed his eyes at Natalie and Alex. “If you had seen the state he was in, we wouldn’t be having this conversation! We would already be making a plan.”

“But the risks are—” Alex repeated, but Jari interrupted.

“Aamir would come for any one of us if we needed him. You know he would.” Tears sprang to Jari’s eyes. He wiped them away furiously, his voice thick with emotion.

It was hard to acknowledge, but both Alex and Natalie knew Jari was right. Aamir had been one of the first to befriend them and make them feel welcome at the manor, with his easy manner and his quick humor and his endless warmth. He had made them all feel safe. If what Jari said was true, then their friend was in real trouble. They owed it to Aamir to at least try to check on him, though none of them knew what state they might find him in.

“Then I suppose we are going to help.” Natalie smiled tightly, the dread evident on her face.

Alex nodded, his throat going dry. “I suppose we are.”





Chapter 9





The clock in the hall was sounding midnight when Alex and Jari stole out of their dorm room, slipping from shadow to shadow as they made their way through the familiar corridors of the boys’ section, pausing at each corner to listen for the sound of footsteps on the flagstones. In the silence, all they could hear was the distant rumble of other boys snoring, safe inside their rooms, and the steady tick of the clocks.

They moved quickly in socked feet, having left their shoes behind in favor of quieter fabric soles. Around the bottom half of their faces, they had wrapped black scarves, hoping it might make them less conspicuous, though they realized that, if they were caught, they’d have the scarves ripped from them regardless. Still, it made them feel more comfortable—stealthier somehow—as they tiptoed through the sleeping manor, toward the intersection where the two dormitories met. Natalie was supposed to be waiting for them on the corner, but neither of them could see her as they approached. Camouflaged in the darkness, Natalie startled the two boys slightly as she emerged, soundlessly, from the shadows. She, too, had socked feet, but no scarf around her face. She frowned at their rudimentary balaclavas.

“What are those?” she asked.

“Scarves,” Alex whispered.

“To hide our faces,” Jari added, muffled behind the fabric.