The Serpent in the Glass (The Tale of Thomas Farrell) (17 page)

‘There must be at least twenty keys on that,’ Penders remarked with some alarm. ‘Are you sure it’s even on there?’

Jessica put her ear against the door. ‘Miss McGritch always has these keys on her when she’s downstairs.’

‘Jessica, try them.’ Merideah handed the bunch to Jessica, keeping the torch beam fixed on them.

Jessica moved her head from the door and picked a small bronze key, much the same as all the rest, and tried it in the door. It didn’t fit. Then she tried another and another. None of them seemed to work. Quite a few fit in the lock but they didn’t turn.

‘Wait a minute,’ Thomas said grabbing Jessica’s hand just as she was putting another similar-looking bronze key into the keyhole.

‘What, Thomas?’ Jessica asked. She sounded a bit frustrated.

‘Most of these keys look the same. Miss McGritch must have a way of telling them apart.’

Jessica pulled the key out of the lock and asked Merideah to bring the light nearer. She turned it in her hand and they all saw a small letter and number scratched into the surface.

‘6A,’ Thomas said. ‘There must be a 2B!’

Jessica flicked through the keys until Merideah’s light fell upon a scratching that resembled
2B
.

‘There it is!’ Jessica said as she sandwiched it between her finger and thumb and inserted it into the lock. She turned the key and pushed the door open.

‘Where’s the light?’ Penders asked.

‘Hang on,’ Merideah said. ‘Let’s all get inside first, just in case someone sees.’

After they were all inside, Treice shut the door carefully. The lights came on. Merideah had found the switch.

Penders surveyed the room. ‘See? Desks and chairs, yup, definitely just a classroom. Shall we go back now?’

‘Wait.’ Merideah switched off her torch and began looking around. ‘Mr Goodfellow must’ve been trying to get in here for a reason.’

Thomas studied the room. The blackboard was different to all the others at the Manor; it seemed to be a large, tall board built into the wall, whereas the other classrooms had blackboards mounted on rolls so the teachers could write their way around the whole thing — as Miss Havelock frequently did. By the blackboard hung a big blocky wooden clock with a large-chained pendulum. On both sides of the room, to their left and right, stood wide bookcases, but they didn’t just contain books. In small compartments sheets and scrolls had been neatly stored. Thomas walked over to one of the compartments and pulled out a sheet. Someone had written
1891
in the top left-hand corner. He scanned the paper. It seemed to be a list of names, though the handwriting proved very hard to read.

‘What are they?’ Penders asked.

Jessica appeared at Thomas’s elbow and pulled a sheet down from the bookcase. ‘Census reports. We had to research our family tree at our old school. I remember these.’

Merideah tapped her chin. ‘This must be where the club meets when they’re not out on a trip to a graveyard or something.’

‘Maybe that explains the mud,’ Treice said, more to himself than anyone else. He stood near the clock, peering down at the floor. ‘Oh,’ he continued when he noticed everyone looking at him. ‘Here, on the floor.’

Jessica and Merideah were the first to reach the front of the class. Treice backed away to give them more room.

Merideah bent down. ‘Lots of different sizes of footprint; must be the club members then. But why here?’

Jessica knelt on the floor. ‘Maybe the cleaner missed this spot?’

Penders yawned. ‘Thomas, let’s check the Glass so we can go.’

Of course, he’d almost forgotten, it was the reason why he’d first come to Block B. He removed the Glass from the bag and found it had a faint glow within it.

‘What’s that?’ Treice said, moving a little closer. ‘And what’s that light inside it?’

‘That’s what we want to know,’ said Jessica as she quickly got to her feet. As she did so she brushed Treice who was still staring at the Glass. He reacted by stepping back, but his feet hit the wall and he grabbed the only thing within reach to catch himself — the clock’s pendulum. The chain pulled and made a distinct click, but it didn’t come away from the clock. Treice hung there for a second before quickly recovering his position.

Just as Penders was about to laugh, and Jessica offer an apology, they heard a grating sound.

‘Craters!’ said Penders, as the blackboard disappeared upwards to reveal an entrance to a dark chamber.

Merideah moved into the entrance and the others cautiously followed. Once they realized where they were, Jessica turned to Thomas. ‘This is the tower. You were right, Thomas. The door was in the Manor, but it’s a secret door!’

Moonlight lit the large chamber better than any torch. Indeed the moon’s rays seemed to flow unnaturally bright into the tower from the multitude of windows high above. Most intriguing of all, however, was what occupied the centre of the chamber’s otherwise empty floor. Two large stones, each the height of three men, stood about three yards apart, and upon them rested a similar stone so as to form a sort of huge stone doorframe. The rock glittered eerily in the moonlight.

‘What on earth
is
that?’ Penders asked, his eyes wide.

‘I don’t know,’ said Jessica. ‘Looks like a bit of Stone Henge.’

‘I’ve seen stones like this before,’ Merideah announced. ‘I was with my father, somewhere in southern Ireland. They were cruder than these though. These are magnificent!’

As a group, they moved toward the stones. Jessica, first to reach them, touched one of the upright stones. ‘It feels —’ she hesitated and frowned as if trying to find the right words, ‘it doesn’t feels hot or cold — somewhere in between.’

‘Would that be ”warm“?’ asked Penders

‘Thomas!’ Jessica said, Penders’ remark forgotten. ‘The Glass!’

Thomas looked at his hand. The Glass glowed very brightly now. He’d not noticed in the moonlight. They all stared at the small orb as he held it out. It was as if the Glass were a small moon, such was the lustre of the light now emanating from it. Inside Thomas could see milk-coloured mists swirling about the unmoving serpent.

Merideah looked at the Glass and then back to the centre of the tower. ‘It’s the stones, Thomas. The Glass must be reacting to how close it is to the stones.’

‘Sorry, so what’s that again?’ Treice asked, indicating toward the Glass.

Thomas replied, but didn’t take his eyes off the Glass. ‘It was my father’s. We’re not exactly sure what it is, Treice.’

‘Look!’ Penders said, pointing at the stones.

The stones also glowed now, as if the moonlight reflecting upon their glittering surface had suddenly doubled its strength. More than that, the stones were making a noise.

Jessica drew back. ‘Why are they humming?’

‘Perhaps they don’t know the words?’ Penders offered. No one laughed.

Thomas moved closer to the stones and the humming seemed to increase in intensity. It wasn’t loud, in fact it was quite soothing, a bit like the effect of the sound of a babbling brook on a hot summer’s day in a peaceful meadow.

‘Be careful, Thomas,’ Merideah warned.

But Thomas wasn’t concerned. Indeed, he felt very comfortable indeed. He touched the stones. Jessica was right: they weren’t hot or cold. But they weren’t warm. That wasn’t the right word. Living, yes that was the word. They felt alive. Intrigued, he moved around the pillar, and so through the hole the stones formed. A flash of golden light briefly surrounded him and he found himself standing inside a cavern made of the same glittering stones, except here their silver shimmer shone a lot brighter; their glow lit the whole chamber of the cavern. But where had the cavern come from? It was the size of a large room, so it couldn’t have just appeared. The glowing cavern seemed familiar to Thomas, as if it knew him, and he it. If ‘it’ was the right word, for it felt like a living being to Thomas. It seemed aware of him, or perhaps aware of the Glass. He looked at the orb in his hand. It glowed with the same light as the cavern now, its misty swirls seemingly responding to the glow of the rocks surrounding him. The cavern wall triggered something in his memories, but it remained just outside his reach, like a word on the tip of his tongue.

He became aware of another entrance at the far side of the cave. Through it Thomas could see a moonlit scene of tall, thin trees. How could that be? It didn’t look at all like the wooded area that surrounded the Manor. These trees had silver barks, unlike those around the school. He looked behind and saw a similar entrance. This one, however, provided a view of the tower where stood a very confused-looking Penders, Treice, Jessica and Merideah.

Thomas waved, but they didn’t seem to see him. Then Jessica came forward, concern on her face but mingled with determination. She approached the entrance to the cavern, but then disappeared.

Concerned now for her, Thomas stepped back through and the same golden light briefly enveloped him again as he saw the others flinch.

Jessica came up from behind, but Penders moved forward and spoke first. ‘Thomas! What happened? Where’d you go?’

‘It leads to a cavern, and there’s some sort of exit on the other side,’ Thomas explained, as the rest came forward.

Jessica looked from the entrance back to Thomas. ‘Why’d nothing happen when I walked through?’

Thomas shrugged.

Merideah scanned the stones with her amber eyes. ‘Let’s try it together.’

The golden light flashed again as Thomas stepped back through the stones, this time with the others.

‘Craters!’ said Penders, again.

‘Cool!’ said Treice.

‘It’s amazing!’ said Jessica, as she stared around the glowing cavern in wonder.

Merideah said nothing.

‘That,’ Thomas began as he pointed toward the far side of the cavern, ‘seems to lead somewhere else.’

Jessica moved toward the night scene.

‘Wait!’ shouted Merideah, as Jessica neared the other entrance. ‘We don’t know —’

Merideah’s words were interrupted by Jessica stopping short of the entrance and giving a short squeal as she stumbled backwards almost losing her footing.

‘What is it?’ Thomas asked.

‘A sort of — well, like a sort of very strong wind you can’t walk against, except without the windiness, noise and cold,’ Jessica explained badly. She now seemed even more intrigued than before. Merideah shook her head as if trying to dismiss the whole affair as impossible. But no words came out of her mouth to reinforce the denial.

Thomas walked over and stretched out his hand past Jessica, into the second entrance. He felt no resistance at all.

Merideah, a frown now upon her features and fully recovered from her momentary stupor, moved up beside Thomas and extended her own arm and found that the invisible wall had gone. ‘Thomas, move back.’

Thomas did as he was told and Merideah immediately had her own arm pushed back toward her. ‘Interesting.’

‘What is it?’ Thomas asked.

‘I think,’ began Merideah, ‘your Glass allows us to pass through. It must be why Jessica couldn’t enter the cavern in the first place.’

‘Come on,’ Penders said. ‘Let’s go through and see what’s on the other side.’

They all passed through accompanied by a golden flash of light.

‘How beautiful!’ Jessica stood with Thomas, Penders, Merideah and Treice on a grassy patch of ground atop a small hill.

Thomas’s senses seemed to sharpen. He could smell lush grass and see the silver barks of slender trees stretching out in every direction around them. The moon rode high and bright, and a near-cloudless sky held a multitude of shimmering stars. The enormous dark shape of what Thomas supposed to be mountains loomed up on either side of them. They must have stood in a deep and very narrow valley. The stillness of the night was deafening.

‘Look!’ Penders looked back, and Thomas and the others turned with him.

The cave had vanished and, instead, a stone structure just like the one in the tower stared back at them. Perhaps it was the same one somehow in two different places. It was flanked by two identical structures, except they faced away from it. And, like a mirror image, yet another stone gateway sat on the far side of the hill.

‘What is this place?’ said Penders, but he didn’t expect anyone to know the answer.

‘Fascinating.’ Jessica touched the stones as if to make sure they were real. Penders and Treice did the same, though more cautiously.

The Glass still glowed, but the moon provided them with enough light to see.

Merideah stared up at the stones. ‘I wonder what those symbols mean?’

Thomas looked up. Along the upper half of each of the upright stones, and along the whole length of the flat stone resting upon the latter two, a series of letters had been inscribed. Maybe this wasn’t the same stone they’d come through. He’d seen no such writing on the one in the tower. Although Thomas couldn’t understand their meaning, the symbols and their meaning did seem familiar.

‘They’re very old,’ Thomas said.

Merideah shook her head. ‘They aren’t weathered. I’d guess they were quite new.’

‘The symbols don’t fade with time, those who put them there intended them to last forever,’ Thomas said. Merideah turned and looked at Thomas, her eyes narrowed.

‘How can you know that?’ Penders asked.

They were all staring at him now.

‘Are you all right, Thomas?’ Jessica asked, concern in her voice.

They were right, how could he know? But know it he did, somehow.

‘Yes, I’m fine. We should explore,’ Thomas said.

‘We must be somewhere near the Manor,’ Merideah said after a while. She didn’t sound too convinced though.

Treice stared out into the sparse forest about them. ‘These trees don’t look like the ones around the school.’

‘They aren’t. These are aspens and silver birches. The trees around the Manor are oaks and beeches largely.’ Merideah glanced at the trees, but her interest still dwelt upon the inscriptions. She walked over to take a look at the other stones.

‘Be careful,’ Penders said. ‘You don’t know where you’ll land up if you walk through one of those.’

‘I’m always careful,’ she replied. ‘And I don’t think I’ll go anywhere without the Glass anyway.’