William Calhoun and the Black Feather. Book I

Next day after Magiflorology, Professor Rinian called William over, causing another wave of scathing looks directed at William from Roberta Brown and two of her friends.

“So, how is your progress with the Paleleaf, Mister Calhoun? I hope my little support didn’t cause envy from the other enrolees?” he asked with a smile.

“Yes, thank you, Professor! Everything’s alright! I’ve read the instructions given in the textbook attentively and I act very carefully!” William decided not to mention the fact that he had given his Paleleaf sample to El, so that Rinian wouldn’t see it as a sign of disregard to his favour.

“Wonderful!” Rinian said with satisfaction. “And why do you look so pale, Mister Calhoun? Has something happened or, perhaps, you’re feeling unwell?” he gave William a concerned look.

“No, everything’s fine, Professor! I probably just don’t get enough sleep.” He thought that Rinian noticed his frustration caused by Roberta’s Brown taunts during today’s lesson.

“Well, then, have a good day!” Rinian said, turned around and headed somewhere into the house.

William left the house and saw El waiting for him on the porch.

“Has Rinian given you another tip on negotiating with the Paleleaf?” he asked cheerfully.

“This isn’t funny, El!”

“And I think it is, if you see your face after today’s statements of that Roberta Brown! Cheer up and don’t pay attention to that hen. She’s used to being teacher’s favourite herself. So she’s jealous of you, because she failed to do it this time!” El reassured his friend.

They said their goodbyes.

Soon, William, who had just returned after visiting Gobry, was already lying on his bed. His duty of visiting the Magic Feather Graveyard daily and asking Gobry about the state of affairs had grown into a habit. By that time, he had become close to Gobry, and alongside Nymus and El considered him his friend. He liked his conversations with the hunchback, during which William learned many interesting things not only about magic feathers, but about wizards in general. In short, he was glad to have such a friend, to whom he could go at any moment of the day, to just chat about stuff.

“By the way,” he remembered suddenly, “where did Nymus go?”

He hadn’t appeared for a long time. More exactly, he had disappeared somewhere from the day he and El had returned Neuville’s letter to him. “I should write to him soon”, he thought and started to slowly drift into sleep, when the sound of crumpling paper came. He immediately looked at his feathermap and found that it had crumpled into a ball, on standby. He took his magic feather from under his pillow and touched the feathermap with the tip of his feather, it unfolded on his nightstand and displayed El’s pale face.

“Will… buddy…” he could barely speak and he looked horrible.

“El, what’s the matter? You’re so pale!” William quickly got up, locked the door to his room, then returned and sat on the edge of his bed, opposite to El’s head sticking out of the feathermap. “Just speak quietly or the Hoggarts may hear you.”

“Will… I’m dying… I’ve been sick all day… my bones feel so sore…” El spoke slowly, as if squeezing each letter out of himself.

“Don’t be silly, you’re not going to die! What happened?”

“Paleleaf…”

“Don’t tell me it bit you!” William got seriously worried for his friend at the mention of the Paleleaf.

“Not me… my magic feather…”

“How did it happen?” William asked immediately in fear.

“I came home and… started the next step of negotiating with that horrible being…”

“Did you do something not according to the textbook?! El! Rinian told us that we should treat it as carefully as possible!”

“No, I did everything according…” El’s face suddenly twisted, “sorry, Will… I’ll be ri….”

This was the last thing he managed to say, after which the feathermap crumpled again and when it unfolded, there wasn’t El’s head in it anymore.

After a few minutes, the feathermap turned into a ball again, and William touched it with the tip of his feather.

“Where did you go?”

“Sorry, mate, I threw up…”

“Is it that serious?”

“I’m telling you, I resemble a piece of a pie with bits of everything inside…” El had to pause, because he felt sick again, then he took a few breathes and continued. “And it comes out in bits as well… What should I do, Will?”

“Tell me how exactly you negotiated with the Paleleaf!”

“Well…” El winced again. “I wanted to apply the Sympathy Charm to it, like it says in the third paragraph of the instruction in the textbook, and…” El stumbled again, his face twisted.

“And then what?”

“That toothy critter bit my magic feather, taking off a couple of hairs!”

“And that’s it?”

“Yes… but… my feather…” El found it hard to speak.

“What happened to it?”

“It became black, Will…”

“What does Mrs. Gibbs say?”

“I haven’t told them yet… I’m hiding the feather for now… I told them that I got poisoned with spoilt dragon meat at the tavern.”

“And they believed?”

“Of course! I often eat it, they know it…”

“Don’t tell me you’re going to come to class tomorrow looking like this!”

“What am I supposed to do? Rinian told us clearly that he won’t forgive any missed lessons, so I’ll have to go…”

“Nonsense! I’ll talk to him! It’s not your fault the Paleleaf behaved differently from what is said in the instruction.”

“Alright, I’ll see how I feel tomorrow and decide… Bye, mate…”

“Bye, El! Take care!”

The next day, when he came to class, he was satisfied to find that El hadn’t come to Magiflorology and didn’t subject himself to excess strain and the danger of worsening his health. Everyone was gathered and waiting for Rinian to show up. This lasted for twenty minutes, but Rinian didn’t come. Finally, assuming that the professor simply forgot that the class had started, Roberta Brown accepted the mission to find him in the house and to politely remind him about the beginning of the class. She really tried to make an impression of a very honest enrolee. And now she got the chance of proving it, while the other enrolees suggested using the right to go home if a teacher is being late for more than fifteen minutes. But she and two of her friends insisted on going and calling Rinian and the others didn’t want the professor to come and find them absent. Thus, Roberta Brown and her friends left the classroom and headed to the other room, hoping to find the professor.

“Professor Rinian, we’re all here and we’re waiting for you!” her high-pitched voice was reaching the classroom from somewhere deep in the house. “Professor Rinian! Professor Rinian!” she kept calling him, when her high-pitched voice suddenly turned into a loud and horrifying yell.

Everyone sitting in the classroom rushed over to her to find out what had happened. William joined them as well, baring his magic feather just in case. But when he had reached the room where Roberta Brown’s yell was coming from he froze at once by the door, like the rest who had come over. And only Roberta Brown kept yelling hysterically, pressing her hands to her cheeks. There was a body of an unfamiliar wizard lying on the floor, dried blood around him. The body was lying on the stomach and the eyes on the face of the slightly turned head froze in silent horror. It was a horrible sight, and continued high-pitched yelling of Roberta Brown only intensified the feeling of desperation from the event.

“WILL YOU SHUT UP ALREADY?!” Ophella couldn’t stand it any longer, took the yelling girl by the shoulders, led her out of the room and seated her onto the sofa in the corridor. Brown stopped yelling, covered her face with her hands and started crying.

“He isn’t breathing!” William said, after approaching the body.

He turned the body over, trying to find out whether the wizard was dead or he could still be saved, but when he had done so, he paled, unable to tear his eyes from the wizard’s hand. All the children gasped at its sight. The hand of the murdered unfamiliar wizard was pierced with a black feather, which had turned it into a horrible charred mess. Somehow taking a grip on himself, William turned to the enrolees:

“He can’t be helped. He has been long dead.”

“But who is he?” Ophella asked in horror.

“I don’t know,” William replied, “but no matter who he was, he was murdered. I’ll contact El, his father is a wizhunter.”

William went out into the backyard of the house, opened his feathermap to contact El, but felt rooted to the spot. El’s featherdata had disappeared from William’s feathermap. He immediately recalled Nymus’s words, when he was telling him about the abilities of the feathermap and how it worked. According to Nymus, if featherdata of a wizard disappeared from it, it meant that either the addressee was no longer alive or in trouble. William felt his insides grow cold. Then it dawned on him. Nymus! He could help him now! He quickly peregrined home and ran to his room to find a piece of paper to summon the mailmage, but froze at the doorstep in surprise.

He saw Gobry sitting on his bed. The hunchback’s face was really worried and when he saw William, he jumped up, crying out:

“William Calhoun! William Calhoun!”

“What is it, Gobry? I’m busy right now, I need to…”

“Your friend! Elian!” Gobry wheezed.

William felt thunder-struck. Hearing El’s name from Gobry when El was in danger…

“What do you know about him, Gobry?!” William grabbed hunchback’s large shoulders, trying to bring him back to his senses.

“That wizard… in black… he, he…” Gobry’s voice trailed off again and William had to give him another shake.

“Take a grip on yourself, Gobry! Do you hear?! Calm down and tell me everything in detail!”

“He came again! This time he brought a magic feather with him and buried it…”

“El!” William realized. He dashed into the room, grabbed a piece of paper from his desk, wrote Nymus’s name, folded it and set it on fire. The paper flared up with green flame, then vanished in the air in a moment.

For a moment, there was tense silence and only Gobry’s heavy uneven breathing broke it. William expected Nymus to appear right away, but nothing was happening.

“Come on, Nymus! Where are you when I need you so much?!” William nervously paced the room, mad at Nymus’s tardiness. He was eager to ask him all about the location of the Empty Village, where, no doubt, Neuville took El! Because it was him, an impostor, presenting himself as Rinian! The hand pierced with the feather was the proof of that – it was the visiting card of the County Without Banners! Why hadn’t he recognized him earlier? He and El saw Neuville the night he killed von Bulberg! Yes, it was dark in the Portrait Hall and yes, they could barely make out the figures, but his voice! Why didn’t he recognize it? How could he forget that quiet snake-like voice! William hated himself for that! And that manner of his to stand with his weight on his left foot, and his short sharp feather!

“What a fool I am!” he was blaming himself for everything that could be happening to El right now. But no matter, Nymus would come and together they would find and save El! But where, damn it, Nymus was when he was so needed! He decided not to wait any longer and he was going to go down to the study, he even headed to the door leading there, when a sudden loud bang in the room stopped him.

“Nymus!” he cried out happily.

But when he turned around, he froze on the spot for the second time today, unable to move.

Instead of Nymus, there was a stranger standing in the middle of the room, dressed in mailmage uniform. He noticed Gobry right away and for a reason unclear to William gave a contemptuous sniff, saying:

“Really? Nowhere else to go?” he sneered and Gobry just hang his head in response.

“Who are you? What are you doing here and where’s Nymus?!” questions were flowing out of William, he couldn’t stop them.

“My name is Corry,” the mailmage replied calmly and friendly. “I am here to inform you that Nymus was suspended from the Mailing Department and demoted to the Stamp Department.”

“What?! Suspended?! What for?!” William couldn’t believe his ears.

“For an illegal entry to the Post Office Archive and for stealing letters not belonging to his wizard. He was caught when he was trying to get the letters back.”

“It’s my fault!” William cried out immediately, defending his mailmage. “He isn’t to blame! He was simply performing a task given by his wizard and he didn’t have a right to disobey…”

“The duty before the Magic Post Office, according to the Post Office Code, is much higher than the duty before the master,” mailmage Corry interrupted him coldly. “In the near future, you will get a letter from the Magic Post Office with a list of vacant mailmage kins, from which you are free to choose a new mailmage of the Calhoun family.”

“I don’t need a new mailmage!” William yelled, outraged and not even trying to restrain himself. “Bring me my former mailmage back! What did they do to him? Is he alright?!”

“He has dishonoured his kin and for mailmages that is the highest punishment. Well, I’m glad that he, at least, got what he deserved. Otherwise, if I hadn’t discovered missing letters and hadn’t reported to the Post Master…”

“It was you who reported my mailmage, you sneak?!” he was completely beside himself.

First El, now Nymus, too! Everything was crumbling before his eyes in mere hours.

“And I did it with pleasure,” Corry confirmed with a smile. “Because loyally serving the Magic Post Office is my…”

“Go away, you creep!” William snarled in anger, pointing his magic feather at mailmage Corry.

Corry’s arrogant smiling face now expressed open fear and he hurried to peregrine.

“Come, quick, Gobry!” William turned to Gobry, who had been standing where he had been before the arrival of the mailmage, shaking. “We need to save El!”

He rushed down the stairs leading to the study of Reginald Hoggart and Gobry hurried after him. After reaching the featherture, they peregrined quickly. Once at the Magic Feather Graveyard, William turned to Gobry.

“Show me the place where he has buried El’s magic feather!”

He quickly started walking along the graves and soon stopped near one of them, pointing at it.

“This one, William Calhoun!” the hunchback couldn’t hold back the tears any longer.

William, who had been following Gobry, approached the indicated grave at once and was horrified to read the inscription on the gravestone: “Elian Gibbs, 1988-2003”.

“Hang on, buddy!” he whispered, his hands growing cold at once at the sight of the inscription.

He took out his feathermap, making sure that El’s featherdata hadn’t appeared yet, and started thinking on how to save him. The only place he could be right now was the Empty Village! And since it wasn’t indicated on any map, El’s featherdata wouldn’t be shown on William’s feathermap. It was so obvious and logical! He really didn’t want to accept the first reason of the disappearance of featherdata from the feathermap. Because it would mean giving up and declaring his friend dead. But if, - the thoughts kept changing each other in his head at crazy speed, - he assumed that El was really at the Empty Village and his magic feather was buried…

“FEATHER!” it suddenly dawned on him.

“FEATHER!” he cried out loud, turning to Gobry. “MAGIC FEATHER, Gobry!” But he just gave him a puzzled look, probably, thinking that William was shouting because he was out of his mind.

William started desperately digging the ground under El’s feather gravestone, but it wouldn’t give in, he was simply scratching it with his nails, scraping his hands. Something was getting in the way. William immediately turned to Gobry, who was standing near and sincerely mourning El.

“A shovel! Quick, Gobry, bring me a shovel! We need to dig El’s feather out to save him!”

“It’s impossible to dig the ground at the Magic Feather Graveyard, William Calhoun!” the hunchback said through tears, sobbing loudly.

“WHAT?! WHY?!” William was getting mad because everything was turning out so horribly and there were obstacles on every step.

“This ground was enchanted with the magic of the magic feathers buried here long time ago, William Calhoun! It cannot be dug with a shovel,” the hunchback couldn’t stop crying. “Poor Elian! To die at such a young age!” Gobry’s tears were raining down his big cheeks.

“Stop saying that!” William snarled at him. “HE ISN’T DEAD! He can’t be dead!” And a bit later he added in a slightly hoarse voice, full of despair: “There must be a way out… There’s always one! There can’t be any other way!”

Suddenly it dawned on him again and he asked: “Gobry, that wizard in black! How did he manage to dig the ground?!”

“He…” Gobry was doing his best to speak clearly despite the tremble in his voice that was the result of his endless sobbing. “He said some sort of a spell, William Calhoun!”

“A spell!” William repeated. “Which spell did he use, Gobry?”

“Gobry didn’t hear… Gobry was scared and he hid in his hut… But if Gobry had known that it was Elian’s feather being buried, he would have interfered!”

“It’s alright, Gobry! Gobry! Calm down! Think! HOW CAN WE DIG OUT EL’S FEATHER? You’ve got a chance to save him now! So don’t lose it the second time!”

William’s words helped Gobry calm down at once and it was clear from his expression that he was quickly thinking over something. Then he said suddenly:

“William Calhoun is the Keeper of the Magic Feather Graveyard!” he cried out with sudden inspiration.

“It doesn’t matter now, Gobry!” William shouted at him.

“No, no!” Gobry said urgently. “William Calhoun is the Keeper! It means that he can dig out Elian’s feather!”

“How can I do it, Gobry?” he asked quickly.

“You need to… need to…”

“Need to what?!”

“William Calhoun must use his magic feather!”

William immediately took the feather from his back pocket and, remembering the spell of taking things out learned during Featherology, said loudly:

“Effodentes Calamum!”

The next moment the ground under the gravestone flew into the air, as if under a powerful stroke, and hovered over the dugout hole, whirling madly. William quickly looked inside and took the contents of the grave out. It was El’s magic feather, completely black. The moment he took the feather out, the earth whirlwind over the grave slowly went down and covered the hole that used to contain the feather. William hurried to open his feathermap, holding El’s feather in his other hand, but to his great disappointment, it didn’t show El’s featherdata, like before. He waited for a few moments that seemed to last like several years, but when he didn’t see the appearance of life signs of his friends on the feathermap, he crumpled it in rage and tossed it onto the ground with such force that it rolled over the round for a few feet before stopping. Drained and desperate, William slowly approached Gobry, still holding El’s feather in his hand.

“We’ve lost him Gobry…” he said in lifeless voice.

It had never been so painful for him as at that moment. Over those months at the Preparatory Course, he had become attached to El. They managed to become best friends. And now El was gone! Everything had happened so unexpectedly, so stupidly, and it was so absurd that even now, when there was nothing else to be done, he could barely take all of that for real. He placed his hand on the shoulder of sobbing Gobry.

“I did everything I could…” his hand trembled the moment he had touched Gobry’s shoulder and he started fainting slowly, but Gobry caught him and quickly brought him back to his senses.

“William Calhoun has nothing to blame himself for…” Gobry looked like a child sobbing hard from an irreplaceable loss. “William Calhoun did everything he was able to do, he…”

But Gobry’s speech, accompanied by tears, was then interrupted by a sound, coming from behind William’s back. William froze for a moment, well aware that the sound was painfully familiar to him! William turned at once and noticed that his feathermap had suddenly unfolded as it lay on the ground. And red words were shining bright on it. William was by his feathermap in an instant, dropping to his knees, and he saw an address in the area of the feathermap where El’s name used to be: “Number 4, Empty Village”.

William raised his triumphant eyes on Gobry.

“I haven’t done everything…” he smiled through tears, something sinister flashing in his smile. “Far from everything!” He touched the address with the tip of his feather and disappeared at once.