A Tale of Magic... (21 page)

“As I was saying, apprentices are much more
advanced
than students,” she explained. “We’re going to assist Madame Weatherberry as she teaches the three of you to use your magic. And now that you’re here, I can see she’s going to need all the help she can get.”

“Tangerina, be nice to the new students,” Madame Weatherberry said. “We’ll all be learning and growing together, no matter how advanced some of us might be. But we can discuss all of that during our first lesson tomorrow. In the meantime, let’s give our new recruits a tour of the castle while Mrs. Vee finishes preparing dinner.”

The fairy escorted her students and apprentices up the front steps and through the castle’s front doors. Brystal’s mouth dropped open at her first glimpse of the castle’s interior because it was just as breathtaking as the exterior. The entrance hall had shimmering white walls, sparkling silver floors, and golden pillars that stretched into a towering ceiling above them. In the center of the hall was a gigantic tree that grew crystal leaves and blossoms. An elegant staircase curled around the tree and the steps floated in midair as the stairs spiraled toward the upper levels of the castle.

“This castle is one of the last magical residences left,” Madame Weatherberry said. “The majority of them were destroyed when King Champion I declared that magic was a crime. I inherited the estate from my family and I’ve kept it hidden and protected ever since. It’s very important that none of you leave the property without me. As you know, the In-Between is full of people and creatures who would like to harm us.”

Something about Madame Weatherberry’s warning didn’t sit well with Brystal.

“Madame Weatherberry?” she asked. “I thought you said your family was human?”

The fairy was pleasantly surprised by Brystal’s attention to detail.

“Oh, I forgot I mentioned that,” Madame Weatherberry said. “While my
birth family
were human, I was referring to the fairies who adopted me and taught me to develop my magic. You see, the magical community is lucky because we get to create new families if our relatives forsake us. The six of us may not be related by blood, but with time, I hope we’ll regard each other as a
chosen family
.”

Since they had all just met, it was hard for Brystal to picture becoming
that
close with the other students. Still, it was nice to imagine someone could fill the void created by leaving her mother and brothers behind.

“Now, if you’ll follow me, I’ll show you to the sitting room,” Madame Weatherberry said.

The fairy led them down a corridor to the right of the entrance hall and they entered a spacious room with silk sofas and tufted lounge chairs. The walls were covered in floral wallpaper and decorated with the heads of horned animals. Once they stepped inside the sitting room, the flowers and vines in the wallpaper became three-dimensional and a flowery aroma filled the air. The deer and elk heads mounted on the walls also came to life and snacked on the plants growing around them.

“Be careful around the decorative heads—they like to bite,” Madame Weatherberry warned. “Moving on, the dining room is just around the corner.”

Down the hall from the sitting room was another large room with a table made from a wide, flat rock. The dining room was illuminated by a cluster of glowing moonstones that hovered over the table like a chandelier. The walls were dark and decorated with twinkling lights so the room looked like a starry night sky. As Brystal examined the lights, she screamed when a shooting star suddenly shot across the ceiling.

“Breakfast is served every morning at seven o’clock sharp, lunch starts at noon, and dinner begins at six o’clock,” Madame Weatherberry informed them. “Please be on time for meals—Mrs. Vee is a perfectionist when it comes to her food and she hates serving her dishes cold. The kitchen is through the swinging door at the end of the dining room, and Mrs. Vee’s chambers are just beyond that. Well, that’s everything on the first floor. Now, if you’ll please follow me back to the entrance hall, I’ll show you to my office on the second floor.”

“But, Madame Weatherberry?” Xanthous asked. “You said this was a school. So where are all the classrooms?”

“There aren’t any classrooms in the castle,” the fairy said. “I’ll be teaching the majority of my lessons outside on the academy grounds. I’ve always thought fresh ideas are easier to retain with fresh air.”

The tour returned to the entrance hall and they carefully climbed the floating staircase to the second level of the castle. Madame Weatherberry’s office was through a pair of wooden doors. Just like the cover of
The Truth About Magic
, they were engraved with the images of a unicorn and a gryphon.

The office was a circular chamber with incredible views of the ocean and the academy property. All the furniture was made of glass, including a bulky desk that sat at the far end of the room. The chamber was lined with shelves of spell books and cabinets of potions and elixirs. The high ceiling was filled with white fluffy clouds that changed into the shapes of different animals as they bobbed up and down. Instead of fire, a stream of bubbles emitted from a grand fireplace and floated through the air. The entire wall above the fireplace was covered in a massive replica of the Map of Magic. To the students’ amusement, a rack of elaborate fascinators was placed by Madame Weatherberry’s desk, and the fairy owned a hat in every color.

“If you ever need something, please don’t hesitate to find me in here,” Madame Weatherberry said. “However, on the rare occasion I’m called away from the academy, my office is off-limits to students. Well, if there aren’t any questions, I’ll show you to your bedrooms on the third floor.”

“We have our own rooms?” Xanthous asked.

“Oh yes,” Madame Weatherberry said. “The castle has seven bedrooms and counting.”

“What do you mean
and counting
?” Emerelda asked.

“It’s one of the many perks of living in a magical residence,” Madame Weatherberry explained. “The castle
grows
extra bedrooms based on the number of residents, and it usually designs the chambers around the occupants’ specific needs. There were only bedrooms for Tangerina and Skylene on the third floor when I left the castle to recruit you, but there should be one for each of you now. Shall we take a look?”

The students eagerly followed Madame Weatherberry up the stairs to a long corridor on the third floor. Just as she predicted, the corridor had five doors, and the latter three looked much newer than the first two, like the corridor had recently been renovated.

As they passed the first door, the students peered inside Tangerina’s bedroom and instantly understood what Madame Weatherberry meant about the rooms being designed for the resident’s needs. All the walls and furniture in Tangerina’s bedroom were made of honeycomb and everything was drenched in honey. Just like her hair, the chamber was the home of a thousand buzzing bumblebees and the floor was covered with live daisies to provide the swarm with nectar.

The room across the corridor from Tangerina’s bedroom belonged to Skylene. The chamber had no floor, and instead dropped straight into an indoor pool. Every inch of the room was tiled with blue porcelain, and the only piece of furniture was a gondola-bed floating on the pool’s surface.

The third room in the corridor had a heavy steel door and Madame Weatherberry grunted as she heaved it open.

“Xanthous, I’m assuming this one belongs to you,” she said.

Inside, the entire room was made out of the same industrial steel as the door. There were no windows in the chamber and absolutely nothing was flammable—even Xanthous’s metal bed had foil sheets. Instead of carpet or tile, the floor was finished with metal grates, and instead of a ceiling, a brick chimney was built over the room.

“It’s like a giant oven!” Xanthous said enthusiastically. “Even if I took off my medal, I wouldn’t hurt anyone in here!”

“It’s the perfect place to blow off some steam,” Madame Weatherberry said. “Now, Emerelda, I believe your room is next.”

Behind the fourth door in the corridor was a dark room with dirt walls. There was a four-poster bed made from stalagmites, a wardrobe constructed out of a mine cart, and a workbench that held stacks of coal. Emerelda stepped inside her room and had a dizzying moment of déjà vu.

“It’s just like my cave at the mine,” she said. “It even smells like dwarfs in here.”

“Hopefully it’ll keep you from getting too homesick,” Madame Weatherberry said. “Last but not least, we have Brystal’s room.”

The fifth and final door in the corridor led to the base of a tower. There was a bed identical to the bed she had had in the Evergreen house and a big comfy armchair exactly like the ones she enjoyed at the Chariot Hills Library. But most amazing of all, the walls were covered with shelves of books from the floor to the ceiling. A display case in the corner of the room held over two dozen pairs of reading glasses, and like Madame Weatherberry’s collection of fascinators, there was a pair in every color.

As Brystal looked around her new bedroom, her eyes filled with happy tears, and her heart fluttered in her chest. She scanned the titles on the shelves and caressed the books’ spines like she was saying hello to long-lost friends.

“
The Tales of Tidbit Twitch
, volumes two through ten!” She was shocked to find them. “I didn’t even know there was
one
sequel, let alone
nine
!”

“Oh, and look at this,” Madame Weatherberry said, and pointed to another book on one of the shelves. “You even have a copy of
The Truth About Magic
. Perhaps you’ll be inspired to finish it one of these days—no pressure, of course. Well, children, that completes our tour of the castle. You’re more than welcome to inspect the other rooms and towers, but I’m afraid you’ll only find a century’s worth of storage and cobwebs.”

Suddenly, a chime rang through the castle to announce the start of dinner. Unlike the gong at the Bootstrap Correctional Facility, the chimes were pleasant and inviting, like they were announcing the start of a grand performance.

“Sounds like Mrs. Vee is finally ready for us,” Madame Weatherberry said. “Let’s not keep her waiting.”

The students followed Madame Weatherberry down the corridor, but Brystal stayed in her room for a few moments before joining them. Of all the astonishing things she had seen today, nothing was more beautiful than the sight of her very own library.

“May I have some more water?” Xanthous asked, after stuffing his face with a third helping of blueberry pie.

“I can help you with that,” Skylene said.

She leaned over the table and stuck her hand in the boy’s glass. A stream of water poured out of her index finger and filled his glass to the brim. Brystal and Emerelda were impressed by Skylene’s trick but Xanthous was disturbed by the liquid coming out of her body.

“Is there any
other
water?” he asked.

Of all seven people around the table, Tangerina seemed to be enjoying herself the least. She grunted at everything the newcomers said and rolled her eyes at every question they asked. She found their curiosity about magic to be incredibly irritating, like they should have been more prepared before arriving.

“So what do you
do
?” she asked.

“Sorry?” Brystal said.

“Well, I know you’re all here because you can do magic, but what are your specialties?” Tangerina asked.

“What’s a specialty?” Brystal asked.

Tangerina and Skylene were shocked by her ignorance.

“A specialty is your strongest magical talent,” Tangerina explained. “It’s usually the trait that reveals your magic and separates you from the rest of the world. Bees are my specialty, water is Skylene’s, and based on his room upstairs, I’m guessing Xanthous’s specialty has something to do with fire.”

“Ooooooh,
that’s
why his room is made of metal,” Skylene said. “I was hoping it had something to do with
barbecue
. How disappointing.”

Tangerina ignored her friend. “As I was saying,” she went on. “Xanthous’s was easy to figure out, but I’m still not sure about
you two
.”

Emerelda was a little annoyed by Tangerina’s need to categorize them. She closed her eyes, placed an open palm on the stone table, and transformed the whole thing into a giant amethyst.

“
That’s
what I do,” she said blankly.

Despite their best attempts to conceal it, Tangerina and Skylene were awestruck by Emerelda’s demonstration.

“What about you, Brystal?” Skylene asked. “What’s your specialty?”

“Oh, I’m not sure that I have one of those,” she said. “I’ve never done magic without the help of a spell.”

“All fairies have specialties,” Tangerina said, and crossed her arms. “Unless your specialty is that
you’re not special at all
.”

“Tangerina, please keep your stinger to yourself,” Madame Weatherberry reprimanded. “So far, Brystal has shown a talent for manifestation, and she had one of the brightest stars on my Map of Magic. Just because her specialty hasn’t revealed itself yet doesn’t mean it won’t do so very soon.”

Madame Weatherberry gave Brystal an encouraging wink, but it didn’t make Tangerina’s comments any less hurtful. Without an obvious specialty, Brystal felt inferior to the other students and she started wondering if she even belonged at the academy. The embarrassment made her blush and she counted down the seconds until dinner was over.

“Well, I know one thing for sure,” Mrs. Vee said. “My specialty has always been food, and if anyone disagrees after
that
meal, they can go catch a gryphon!
HA-HA!
”

After dinner, Madame Weatherberry excused the students from the table and they went to their rooms to get ready for bed. Brystal was still feeling crummy from Tangerina’s remarks, but fortunately, she knew the perfect remedy to take her mind off it. She selected
The Tales of Tidbit Twitch, Volume Two
from her shelf, chose a fresh pair of reading glasses, and crawled into her soft bed.

While Brystal read the sequel to her favorite book, an abrupt storm blew in from the ocean and soaked the academy grounds. Brystal was startled by the booming thunder and the flashes of lightning outside her window, but she wasn’t going to let the
weather
disturb her first night at the castle. Her floormates, however, weren’t so brave.

A few minutes into the storm there was a soft knock on Brystal’s door.

“Come in,” she called.

The door swung open and Emerelda peeked inside with large, fearful eyes.

“Sorry to bother you, Brystal,” Emerelda said.

“Is everything all right with your room?” Brystal asked.

“No, everything is fine,” she said. “I’m just not used to
thunder
. That’s one of the best parts about living in an underground mine—you don’t have to worry about the weather. If you wouldn’t mind, I was wondering… well, I was wondering…”

“You’re more than welcome to sleep here if the thunder is scaring you,” Brystal said.

Emerelda sighed with relief. “Gee, thanks!” she said. “What are you reading?”

“
The Tales of Tidbit Twitch, Volume Two
,” Brystal said. “It’s the sequel to my favorite book of all time. Have you heard of it?”

Emerelda thought about it and shook her head. “Papa used to read me stories before bed, but I don’t remember that one.”

“Would you sleep better if I read the first one to you?” Brystal asked.

“Really?” Emerelda said. “Are you sure you wouldn’t mind?”

“Not at all,” she said. “It’s on the shelf to your left.”

Emerelda retrieved
The Tales of Tidbit Twitch
and joined Brystal in bed. Brystal opened the book to the very first page, but before she started reading, both girls jumped at the growling thunder outside. It was followed by the sound of feet frantically running down the corridor. Xanthous appeared in the doorway, just as startled by the weather as Emerelda had been.

“Hi, girls,” Xanthous peeped. “Crazy storm, huh?”

“It’s wild,” Brystal said. “How are you holding up?”

“Me? Oh, I’m doing great,” Xanthous said, but his panicked face told otherwise. “I just came to check on you two.”

“We’re fine,” Brystal said. “Actually, Emerelda and I were just about to start a book, if you’re interested in hearing a story.”

Another crack of thunder influenced Xanthous’s decision and he leaped into the bed with the girls. Brystal and Emerelda were tickled by his reaction and they made room. Brystal cleared her throat in preparation for reading aloud, but just as she started the first sentence, Tangerina and Skylene burst into her room and shut the door behind them, as if the terrible storm had been chasing them.

“Hello, ladies,” Brystal said. “What seems to be the problem?”

Tangerina and Skylene were too embarrassed to admit they were scared. They looked to each other, hoping the other would come up with a good excuse.

“Umm…
I wet the bed?
” Skylene said.

Tangerina rolled her eyes.
“Skylene, your bed is always wet,”
she whispered.

“Oh yeah,” she mumbled back.

“We just heard noises coming from your room and wanted to make sure the three of you weren’t causing any trouble,” Tangerina said.

“Well, as you can see, we’re very well-behaved,” Brystal said. “We’re just about to read a book to calm our nerves.”

“Good, I’m glad you’re not up to any mischief,” Tangerina said. “Now that we’ve seen you’re acting appropriately, we’ll head back to our rooms.”

Although she said they were leaving, neither Tangerina nor Skylene moved a muscle.

“You know, just because apprentices are more
advanced
than students doesn’t mean they enjoy stories any less,” Brystal said. “You’re both welcome to stay with us if the storm is making you uneasy.”

Before Tangerina or Skylene could respond, the thunder roared louder than before. The girls shrieked and dived into bed with the others.

“I suppose we could stick around for a few minutes,” Tangerina said. “What are you reading?”

“
The Tales of Tidbit Twitch
by Tomfree Taylor,” Brystal said.

“What’s it about?” Skylene asked.

Emerelda grunted and eyed the others threateningly.

“If everyone would just shut up and stop interrupting her, we might find out,” she scolded.

All the classmates went quiet so Brystal could start the book.

“‘Once upon a time, there was a kingdom of mice,’” she read. “‘And of all the mice in the kingdom, none was braver than a young mouse named Tidbit Twitch.…’”

Brystal read the book for hours and she was delighted by what a captivated audience her floormates were. Eventually, all the students and apprentices began to fall asleep, and she marked their last page so they could continue the story later.

They all slept in a pile on Brystal’s bed while they waited for the weather to die down. It was only their first night at the castle, but thanks to a thunderstorm and a good story, the children at Madame Weatherberry’s Academy of Magic were already acting like the
chosen family
their instructor hoped they’d become.