William Calhoun and the Black Feather. Book I

After Frau Bertha had disappeared inside the castle, the dazed enrolees couldn’t move from the spot for quite a while, shocked by the terrifying dragon stairs. Towering over the mountain area, Alpurg was situated on one of the most unreachable tops. Not unlike prisoners on an island without a boat, the enrolees were standing on the edge of the cliff, unable to tear their eyes away from the dark abyss, with the castle front doors open wide behind them. The fog, thickening over the mountains, submerged the area into darkness. Brightly lit windows of Alpurg were the only source of light.

“Alrighty, the show’s over! If you feel faint, dizzy, sick or unwell in any other unacceptable way, let me know! And now into the castle, all of you!” Morty’s cheerful voice brought everyone back to their senses.

The next moment, enrolees dashed into the open front doors of the castle, eager to get away from the dangerous abyss. Junior curators were waiting for them in the entrance hall. Not only them. The entrance hall of Alpurg was full of wizards and witches. Some were strolling up and down the stairs, cheerfully talking to each other and paying no attention whatsoever to the enrolees. Others were talking quietly, laughing from time to time. And some were whispering conspiratorially in the corners. After all the enrolees had gathered around their curators, they started instructing them. Morty, who seemed to be the only cheerful adult in the whole castle, took his group to the side and said in a low voice:

“Listen up, kids! While you’re here, remember one simple rule: if you don’t want to get in trouble or get me in trouble, don’t argue with Frau Bertha! So be quiet as a feather, lay lower than the Six O’Clocker when it travels!”

At that moment, a wizard in yellow robes appeared behind Morty and waved at the enrolees in a friendly way. They started waving back, which puzzled Morty. He turned around quickly and jumped with surprise when he saw the newcomer.

“President Albertson! Would you be so kind and not bother me while I’m instructing the enrolees?” he said impatiently. The wizard in yellow robes turned around, clearly offended, and walked away.

“He’s been driving me mad this whole week!” Morty rolled his eyes as he turned back to the enrolees.

“Why did you call him president?” a tall boy to the right of William asked. “Doesn’t the president have a different name?”

“It’s not the president, Johnny!” Morty replied quickly. “Well, he is a president, but a former one! It’s Henry Albertson, who ruled over five centuries ago.”

“So he’s a ghost?” Johnny continued.

“No, Johnny, he’s a sculpture of himself! In Alpurg, you can see sculptures of all the presidents who were in power at some point. They still live here without leaving their former residence, which helps us remember them. Some of them can see us and can bother us everywhere we go, like Mr. Albertson, but some cannot see us and just wander around the castle, which I prefer much more! So,” Morty pointed at the crowd of wizards in the entrance hall, “they are all presidents or their assistants! As ironic as it can seem, only one president isn’t present at the castle – the current one!”

William had recently seen live sculptures in the Waiting Hall of the Cabstation, but it was one thing to see realistic sculptures of elks, and it was a completely different thing to see real wizards and to learn that they were merely statues. Still, the wizards didn’t look like stone creations at all. Sculptures weren’t big, like statues are supposed to be. On the contrary, they were of a completely normal size, and they behaved rather lively and cheerful. At the sight of the enrolees, some of them, like president Albertson, welcomed the youth to their castle. Others continued going about their business, as if nothing was happening around, yelling at each other, arguing loudly, talking in all the different languages. Judging by their solemn appearance, they still considered themselves the most important people in the castle and still in power.

“And now,” Morty addressed his group, seeing that other groups were heading slowly somewhere along the corridor, “please, follow me to the Dining Hall! There you’ll have warm dinner and cool instructions from Frau Bertha, whom you have had the pleasure of meeting already!” At that, he led his groups to the Dining Hall, following the other curators.

Alpurg turned out to be a more mysterious and terrifying place than it could seem back on the stairs. Even thirty-four giant dragons coming alive and breathing fire proved to be not the scariest thing. Frankly speaking, the enrolees were feeling pretty nervous because of all those strange creatures and weird furniture. Moreover, they were really taken aback by mirrors, spread around the castle in great amount. William had never been in a place with so many mirrors.

“It’s a security system!” Morty explained when they were walking along a long corridor lined with big mirrors. “You have probably noticed that there are mirrors everywhere around here.”

He said that in such a casual tone as if he came here every day and knew every corner around here.

“Alpurg is also called the Castle of Mirrors. Mirrors serve as an entrance to castle rooms. Those who aren’t supposed to enter will only see their reflections. Those who can come in will see the mirrors as a door to the room they need.”

After turning right at the end of the long corridor, the enrolees found themselves in the Dining Hall, which was as large as the Cabstation building. William thought that all rooms around here were huge. There was a long table in the middle of the Dining Hall and two benches along it, just as long, where the curators sat almost all the enrolees.

“Take your places and fast!” Morty told them. “Frau Bertha will come soon and tell you about tomorrow’s schedule. I’ll be in the curator room – it’s the second door to the right in the corridor, just in case. See you after dinner. Enjoy your meal!”

William’s group came last, so it took him quite a while to find a vacant seat at the table. William saw Wayne sitting near another boy and was already at peace with the fact that he would have nobody to talk to at dinner. Noticing a vacant seat, he headed towards it.

The table was full of numerous dishes and plates with food. However, the steam rising up from the hot dishes wasn’t accompanied by delicious and appetizing smell, which was usually the case. Moreover, when the boy sitting opposite to William attempted to grab a piece of ham, his spread fingers, ready to grab the appetizing treat, pierced it and bumped into the table. It was clear that they weren’t going to try anything until Frau Bertha’s arrival. Grimacing unhappily, the hungry boy froze in expectation, like all the others. However, Frau Bertha didn’t make them wait for too long and she was soon standing at the front of the table, with a piece of parchment in her hand.

“Your attention, enrolees!” she addressed everyone in strict voice. “Before you start your dinner…”

“As if there is anything to start…” the boy who had failed to the take some ham a moment later said under his breath. His eyes were still on the ghostly food on the table.

And Frau Bertha continued:

“…I will explain some rules for your staying here! I would like to remind you that while you are in Alpurg, you should remember at all times about the great honour shown to you. Today you have come to the residence of the president of the International Federation of Wizards, Baron Quincy von Bulberg himself, which, in its turn, should be reflected on your behaviour within the castle walls!”

“So great I’m going to starve to death! It’s hard to forget about that…” someone said into William’s ear.

Turning his head, he saw a dark-haired boy sitting next to him. William, who was quite hungry after the journey, gave him an understanding smile in return. Meanwhile, Frau Bertha continued:

“Tomorrow, the Annual Enrolee Ball is going to take place here, which will be attended by rectors of Templedoor, Wingville, Findsor, and Garville.” Enrolees cheered to that. “Usually, Enrolee Balls are attended by delegations of only teachers. But this time, due to the anniversary date of the Ball, rectors of each MUni will visit the festivities, which makes your participation in the event twice as honourable! Now, let us talk about your behaviour while you are staying at Alpurg!”

She opened her parchment and started reading:

“No wandering around the castle on your own; no disobedience of curator’s instructions; no using magic in the castle and no touching the exhibits during the tour around the castle. As for the tour itself,” she rolled the parchment up, “it starts tomorrow morning and will last until evening. After which you will need to change into garments prepared specifically for the ball and come down to the Ball Hall with your curators, where the festivities will take place. Also, let me inform you that those of you who disobey the abovementioned rules or will come out of your curator’s control will be severely punished and won’t take part in the ball”.

“I wonder how many birds have made their nests on her head?” a voice in his ear said again.

William had just noticed that Frau Bertha’s hairstyle was indeed too puffy and tall.

“It’s hard to say. I think, no more than ten!” he replied to his neighbour knowingly, and the next moment, the two of them were laughing, covering their mouths with their hands, so that Frau Bertha wouldn’t notice them accidentally.

But their laughter didn’t go unnoticed. She interrupted her instructions and suddenly looked directly at them, easily identifying the source of noise among the enrolees sitting at the table.

“You two!” she pointed at them. “Come here!”

At this, everyone turned to William and his neighbour. The two exchanged looks, got up silently and trudged along the long table to Frau Bertha. As they approached, they stood silently before her and she spoke again.

“Based on the impression I’ve got from your sense of hairstyle humour,” she emphasized the word ‘hairstyle’, “I’m sending the two of you to think about your behaviour while you are drying the dishes in the kitchen! Ask one of the curators to take you there after dinner! And I’ll come later to check your progress,” she gave them a mocking smile and then added in a more serious tone: “Now I’d really appreciate it if you hurried and took your places,” and then she almost shouted: “And quick!”

After such a public reprimand, William and his neighbour trudged back to their places, heads low and trying to avoid looking at other people. Out of the corner of his eye, William could see that everyone in the Dining Hall was staring at them and some were sneering.

When Frau Bertha had finished her speech, indicating what they were supposed and not supposed to do inside the castle, she waved her magic feather, and the next moment, the steam coming from the incorporeal dishes became tangible. And when it reached the noses of the hungry enrolees, they started their long-awaited dinner.

“Enjoy your meal, everyone!” she said loudly and left.

The enrolees started their meal greedily. It was clear that today’s events only made their appetite stronger.

“I’m El Gibbs,” William’s neighbour introduced, mouth full of chicken. “What’s your name?”

“Will Calhoun!” William replied, helping himself to some fried potatoes and veal.

“That’s some coming to the ball!” El grunted after finishing a glass of chocolate wine. “Others have come to the ball and we have come to dry the dishes.”

“Do you think our opinion about her hairstyle hasn’t been a secret to her?” William asked, smiling.

“I don’t know!” El was devouring the second chicken breast, washing it down with pumpkin juice now. “But this hasn’t made her hairstyle any nicer to look at.” He moved a really big piece of a pie closer to himself and added: “In any case, I refuse to believe she likes us.”

“Hear, hear!” William grinned.

William liked El’s carefree and ironic demeanour. They spent the rest of the dinner talking, discussing the incident with the stairs made of living dragons, Frau Bertha’s horrible hairstyle and no less horrible personality. By the end of the dinner, they had come to a certain opinion that Frau Bertha was the most wicked creature in the whole Germany. When all the enrolees were full of food and drinks, William and El, as instructed, approached Morty and asked him to direct them to the kitchen. When he learned that they had been punished, he was outraged:

“But I’ve asked you to be quiet as a feather and…”

“And lay lower than the Six O’Clocker when it travels!” William finished for him. “Yes, yes, we remember!”

“So what went wrong? What did you do?”

“Almost nothing! We’ve just complimented her hairstyle and she heard our compliment!” El said casually.

“Try not attracting attention to yourself in the future if you don’t want to clean the entire castle as well!” Morty advised, then he took them to the kitchen and retreated back to the curator room.

Left alone, William and El’s jaws dropped as soon as they entered the kitchen. There was a whole pile of dishes on the table in the middle of the kitchen, waiting to be dried. There were also small cloths on the table, prepared by Frau Bertha for them.

“What a snake!” El couldn’t hold himself as he stared at the pile of wet dishes. “Has she washed all the dishes today left during a whole year?”

“Looks like it!” William replied, then looked at the wet pile and asked sceptically: “Is she sure the two of us can deal with this amount of dishes before we get back to London?”

“Of course not! I swear she’s decided to teach us a lesson!”

Then he added: “But let me tell you this, Will, I’ll fall asleep soon if I don’t entertain myself with something!” He looked at William. “Are you with me?”

“Do you know many kitchen entertainments? Everything entertaining in here has died long ago.”

“You can find something entertaining anywhere! Here, catch!” he took one of the plates from the table and tossed it to William, who barely caught it. “Do you know any spells? We can practice them on the plates! Do you like this idea?”

“It’s a nice idea, but I know only probatos and obnoxus spells,” William confessed. “That’s all I know.”

“Yeah, this isn’t much!” El replied. “There’s one spell...” he lowered his voice a bit, “I’ve heard it from my ma! She uses it to dry the dishes all the time! It is called the Exiccare spell! But I’ve never tried it before, you know, you don’t have to dry dishes every day…” at this, he grabbed the drying cloths and tossed them aside.

“Great!” William joined in. “I’ll learn to use my magic feather, I haven’t used it before.”

“Never at all?” El stared at him.

“At all! Well, only the obnoxus and probatos spells, like I said!”

“Those aren’t spells! They just for wizard identity and feather obedience,” El pursed his lips. “Well, it’s time to learn some magic, what do you say?”

“I say I agree! What do we need to say?”

“Put the plate on the table.” After that, El took out an orange magic feather. “Take out yours, too!”

William took his magic feather out of his pocket and the mere sight of it made El whistle. His feather was obviously smaller than William’s.

“What a feather! It’s beautiful, mate!”

“Thanks! But I need to get used to it! I can’t do anything with it yet.”

“Direct it at your target,” El advised, “and then say clearly ‘Exiccare’!”

William aimed his feather, like El told him, at the plate and said: “Exiccare!” And the wet plate rose into the air, turned a few times and slowly came down back on the table, completely dry.

“Awesome!” El whistled. “I didn’t even think it would be so simple!”

“Yeah, me too!”

William was so happy to have used his feather for the first time and to see the result right away. Even though it was just a plate, he had done magic and he could call himself a wizard now! This thought had even made the pile of dishes Frau Bertha had left for them as punishment not seem like something unbearable and impossible to do. Other plates followed the first one. Soon they had dried all of them. And a pile of dry dishes replaced the pile of wet ones. El suggested practicing magic a bit more instead of just waiting stupidly for Frau Bertha to come, doing nothing. William was definitely for it!

“Right, let me think which other spell we can try!” El put a finger to his chin, trying to remember at least one spell, then he announced: “There! I remember! The spell is called…”

But he was interrupted by voices of wizards passing by the kitchen doors and stopping near them. They didn’t notice William and El standing several steps away from the doors. They had the look of conspirators and this had only made the boys even more interested in their conversation. One wizard was dressed in black robes and the other one was wearing a white doublet and a white wig, like those medieval noblemen used to wear. They were glancing around all the time and, judging by their conspiratorial look, they were clearly unwilling to be overheard.

“…but we cannon focus all of our efforts on catching him, Bardalf!” the one in the black robes was saying nervously. “You keep forgetting that our not less important task is still the search of the grave of His Grace, and we have to…”

“Grace?” the wizard in the white wig, whom the first one called Bardalf, interrupted. “Do not make me laugh! He is more likely to drive all of us into grave than be gracious to anyone who has not been looking for His grave, Geldern!”

“That is why we should not focus all our efforts on finding Calhoun!” Geldern snapped.

When the name Calhoun was mentioned, William and El, who were watching the two wizards indifferently until then, exchanged looks quickly. William couldn’t understand why these two decided to talk here, when he and El were standing so close and could clearly hear everything. Bardalf’s voice interrupted his thoughts:

“But we have to save him! Without him, the search for the Duke is a bit premature, don’t you think, garafa?”

“Quite the contrary! This will save us time and energy, and then we’ll be among those who have tried more than others by the time He returns!”

“What about the Calhouns?” Bardalf asked.

“We will wait, like before, and watch, at the same time we will keep searching for the Duke’s grave. And when the time comes, we will simply not allow Calhoun to die. After all, His Grace will be able to deal with him himself later. It will be rather stupid to risk our position or, worse, our feathers too early.”

They exchanged meaningful looks and hurried further along the corridor to the stairs, as if somebody had called them at that moment.

“Come on, El! We need to find out which Calhoun they have been talking about! It could be one of my relatives I know completely nothing about and it is my chance to know more about my family! Are you with me?”

“Are you kidding? It is much better than dealing with the dishes at this toad kitchen! Let’s hurry before we lose them!”

To William’s surprise, when El and he left the kitchen, they saw that the wizard in black had disappeared somewhere and his companion Bardalf was going up the stairs in a hurry. They all but ran after him and when they reached the stairs, they saw him turn right further along the corridor. They ran up the stairs and followed him, but he was already going through the large doors at the end of the corridor. They quickly followed him and when they went through the same doors, they found themselves in a hall full of portraits and sculptures.

The wizard in white was nowhere to be seen.

“We ran as fast as we could!” William was trying to catch his breath. “How did he manage to get away?”

“Here he is,” El pointed at one of the pedestals by the opposite wall, which the one called Bardalf quickly stepped on, “come!”

When they reached the sculpture, William said with disappointment:

“We didn’t have time to ask him about everything, El! It was my chance and I lost it!”

“Ask?” El looked at him in surprise. “I thought you knew why we were following them, Will.”

“I don’t understand!”

“But it’s simple! Once a day, at the same time, each sculpture leaves its pedestal and follows the same route, talking to the same sculptures. Of course, if nothing happens. It’s a sort of living history. So, each president has a memorial to honour them.” El glanced at his watch. “Quarter to one!”

“What does it mean?”

“It means that if we come here after midnight, we will find him just before he leaves his pedestal to go to his pal downstairs to tell him the same things as today. And meanwhile, we can listen to the whole conversation, from the beginning to the end!”

“Great!” The thought that it wasn’t all lost yet gave him hope. “But what about the ball? Shouldn’t we be there at this time?”

“Ah, come on, Will, we will be able to slip away when the dancing begins! I could never dance decently and I doubt I’ll learn by tomorrow night.”

“It’s settled, then. Tomorrow after midnight we’ll return here. But we need to make sure that Bertha woman doesn’t see us!”

They left the spacious Portrait Hall and were returning to the kitchen in a hurry, when Frau Bertha spotted them on the stairs. Judging by her angry look, she had just visited the kitchen.

“You two!” she called them loudly. “Come here, quick!”

William and El exchanged looks hopelessly and hurried to get down to her.

“What were you doing up there and who allowed you to walk around on you own?! Where were you? Confess, now!”

“We…” William drawled, unable to come up with an excuse.

El quickly came up with an idea.

“We got lost when we wanted to find our rooms, Frau Bertha.”

She gave them a suspicious look. And El continued casually:

“We’ve dried all the dishes and…”

“I know that! How did you do it?! Are you trying to fool me?!”

Two friends exchanged looks, then El asked, innocently and meekly:

“Did WHAT, Frau Bertha?” his face looked naïve and innocent.

“DRY ALL THAT SO QUICKLY!” she shouted.

“Weeell, we were just doing it eagerly and with great pleasure, partially because we wanted to do something nice for you. That’s why we’ve managed to do it so fast and…”

“I remember being very clear when I said that I’d come to check! This meant that you had to wait for me before going anywhere! You aren’t fooling me! You’ve been up to something when I’ve caught you!”

“It was my idea!” El interrupted. “You see, I was so tired after the day’s events and was falling asleep on my feet. And William was trying to talk me out of it, saying: “No, El, wait, don’t go… let’s dry something else until Frau Bertha comes…”

“And then I started yawning and became so sleepy…” William added. “We’re just very tired, Frau Bertha…”

She gave them an unbelieving look, then turned around and said over her shoulder:

“Follow me!”

They followed Frau Bertha in silence, exchanging looks and barely keeping themselves from laughing. Frau Bertha was walking in front and even her back showed that she was enraged. When they reached a huge mirror, she took out her feather, directed it at the mirror and ordered: “Adaperio!”

The mirror disappeared instantly and a wooden door with a feather-shaped handle replaced it. Frau Bertha turned the handle, opened the door and said in a calmer voice: “Inside, quick!”

El and William entered the room silently, and when they were inside, she added:

“If you are late for breakfast, you’ll be drying plates after breakfast as well! But this time I will personally watch you taking pleasure in it!”

And she slammed the door shut with a quick wave of her feather.

“No wonder she’s so nervous. There are thousands of mirrors in Alpurg and she sees herself in there every day. And I suspect mirrors always tell her very bad things,” El said, when they stepped deeper into the enrolee living room.

“Thank you for standing up for me while risking your reputation.”

“No problem!” El waved his hand. “We aren’t popular in Germany, so there’s nothing to risk! You’d better tell me about yourself, because we’re going to do all these heroic deeds tomorrow and I know nothing about you.”

“Alright. Just a warning, though, I don’t know much about myself either – that’s why I ran after that Bardalf.”

They sat in the armchairs opposite each other and William started his tale from the moment he had found himself in “Well-Fed Wizard” and met Nymus there. He told El how he’d enrolled in the Preparatory Course and all the rest, until the arrival to Alpurg by the Six O’Clocker.

“Seventeen wizards killed in one night…” El said after William had finished his story. “I’m sorry, mate! It was probably hard for you to learn about it.”

“Yes, it wasn’t easy. But you see, El… maybe it’s a bad thing, but I…” he stumbled, but then said quickly: “I don’t feel any pain from not having them near, you see? I know, it’s not supposed to be like this, because they were my parents and all that, but I find it hard to grieve for real. I live with Hoggarts and I’ve got used to not having any other family.”

“Come on, Will, you’ve never known your parents and it’s not your fault you didn’t have time to get to love them.”

“Yes, but I have to know more about myself! All this time, I’ve been living as William Hoggart, and until recently I haven’t even suspected who I really am. No matter what, I need to know everything about my family and relatives.”

“I understand, mate! I’ll help however I can,” Ell cheered him up and said after a short pause: “I’ve been thinking about that conversation between the sculptures… Maybe they were trying to find you? Maybe one of them was your relative? After all, they could have just lost you and not just give you up intentionally to demits.”

“Yes, but at the same time their conversation looked rather eerie, don’t you think? I’m not sure, maybe it was just me, but I think they were talking about saving that Calhoun at one point and about dealing with him at another.”

“I agree. It was hard to tell from their conversation what they were going to do. And they chose the kitchen as the place for their conversation for a reason. They didn’t want to be overheard. But during their lifetime they probably haven’t thought about being turned into brainless sculptures and that living wizards would be able to overhear them.”

“But even if it is so, you should agree that we could barely make out anything from their conversation,” William noted with disappointment and then asked: “Listen, El! Have you heard about anyone from my kin? Nymus said that it is rather famous. Perhaps, we will be able to find a clue that will allow us to learn more.”

“It’s not that simple!” El pursed his lips. “You see, wizards never tell their children about other wizards. They think that this information is unnecessary for us. In our childhood, we just read fairy-tales about the adventures of different wizards, but it’s mostly all the rubbish that had happened thousands of years ago. So I can definitely say that you’re the first Calhoun I know.”

“Well, let’s hope we’ll be luckier tomorrow.”

“Do you think we’ll be able to learn something important?”

“I hope so, at least. Anyway, we’ll learn that only tomorrow. And now let’s go to bed or we’ll be late for breakfast and then even the Exiccare spell won’t help us with that pile of dishes.”

“You’re right!” El agreed. “I don’t want that hag to yell at me in front of everyone again! I wish I could see her sculpture one day…”

At that, they headed to the only door in the wall. When they opened it, they entered a room full of beds, where road-weary enrolees were already sleeping soundly. They found two unoccupied neighbouring beds and settled down. In just a few moments, El was snoring as if it was his last time. And William lay sleepless and kept silently repeating the words from the overheard conversation: “…That is why we should not focus all our efforts on finding Calhoun…” Why were they looking for someone named Calhoun? He thought, then remembered Bardalf’s words: “…After all, His Grace can deal with him himself…” Who was His Grace?! Was William in any danger? Or was it about another wizard named Calhoun? After all, he grew up away from wizards and knew nobody from his family. So, it was very unlikely they were talking about him! All these thoughts slowly made his head foggy and it started to grow heavy with every moment until he fell deep into sleep.