A Most Magical Girl - Karen Foxlee Page 0,15

tenement. Everyone in the city will bow to me. I have raised several shadowlings already, and they are as cunning and wicked as the books describe. I implore you, send notice to all members of your society and ask them to lay down their wands and pledge allegiance to my rule before Friday midnight, when the moon will rise. I offer you all a place in my dark empire if you obey.

“Dated this day, 13th June 1867, Mr. A. Angel.”

“You see, Estella!” cried Miss Henrietta.

“He has the Black Wand,” said Miss Estella. “It cannot be so.”

“And a machine!” cried Miss Henrietta.

“He will use his dark magic to raise the shadowlings,” said Miss Estella. “He might turn everyone to stone.”

“Dust,” said Annabel. “He told me dust.”

Both the great-aunts stared at her until she reddened under their gaze.

“We are the secretaries of the Great & Benevolent Magical Society,” said Miss Henrietta.

“From our birth day to our day of death,” said Miss Estella.

“Under no circumstances must this be allowed to happen. We must send word. We must make plans!” cried Miss Henrietta.

There was a long pause then, while the two old women thought, and the room seemed to Annabel to be filled up with their quiet cognitions. Miss Estella murmured, and Miss Henrietta wrung her hands, slowly, methodically, one inside the other. The sound of the river trickled and gushed and crooned and rushed.

“It was written somewhere, was it not, Hen?” said Miss Estella at last. “The very rules for what the society should do if good magic was threatened. If the Black Wand was found.”

“I believe you are correct, Estella,” said Miss Henrietta.

“There was the book,” said Miss Estella.

“The book?” said Miss Henrietta. And she wound her hands tighter, then said apologetically, “It has been long, Estella, since our mother taught us.”

“The…big book. The very big book with the purple cover. The Handbook of the Great & Benevolent Magical Society!” Miss Estella spat the last words out with triumph. “Fetch it, Henrietta. And I will tell Annabel of Mr. Angel.”

Annabel was used to perfectly normal conversation. Who was walking out in the afternoon at Kensington and what they wore and who was to be presented in the spring. Not talk of wizards and wands and shadowlings. She had no idea what a shadowling was, but just the word made her feel worried, deep down in the pit of her stomach.

“Come closer,” said Miss Estella once Miss Henrietta had gone from the room.

Annabel could think of nothing worse. She wanted to stay on her chair, where it was safe.

“Don’t be afraid,” said Miss Estella. “I can’t hear your thoughts all the way over there.”

Annabel stood and moved toward the bed. She tried a smile but abandoned it when Miss Estella grinned back at her wildly, providing a wide view of her brown teeth. Miss Estella patted the sheets beside her. Dirty, stained sheets. Annabel thought she would faint if she had to sit on those dirty sheets. But she lowered her bottom gingerly and found herself still conscious.

“Oh, but you are shaking like a little autumn leaf,” said Miss Estella, as though it pleased her greatly. “Tell me, then. You see things, do you not? And your mother knew it was time for you to be educated.”

“Yes,” whispered Annabel.

“And what has your mother taught you of the magical world?”

“She hasn’t,” whispered Annabel.

Miss Estella opened her mouth and let out a long high-pitched shriek.

“Wicked thing! She should have taught you, not turned her back on us. She should never have gone to Mr. Angel. He was a Finsbury Wizard, but they sent him out of the brotherhood, for he was always making bad machines and searching for a way to make dark magic. The Black Wand is the most powerful wand in the world. It was carved of ebony by hand long ago, and it is the only wand that can channel pure dark magic. The magic of destruction. The magic of chaos. It was hidden away, but now he has it—how, I do not know. But he will do great harm with it if we do not stop him.”

Annabel nodded politely to show she was interested. She wasn’t. She was scared and confused.

“But there is also the good wand,” Miss Estella continued. “The White Wand. Yes. It’s coming back to me now. It will be in the book. The Morever Wand. There is a map for finding it where it is hidden, deep down in Under London…where the faeries put it. Henrietta! I