Witch - By Fiona Horne Page 0,13

held up something in his left hand. It was a copper penny. ‘Turn this into gold,’ he said. He placed the penny on the desk in front of me.

I almost laughed. Surely he was joking?

‘You can stop smirking. You are not leaving this room until you do,’ he said.

‘Mr Barrow, that’s impossible!’ I almost whimpered.

‘Alchemists of old claimed otherwise,’ he sneered. ‘You tell me, you’re so very clever – surely you can work it out? You being so . . . talented.’ His mean eyes glinted.

‘Mr Barrow, I have no idea how to do that,’ I said.

‘Then it’s going to be a long afternoon.’

The man was insane, I decided. Why was he always picking on me? Well, it didn’t look like I had much choice. I set my jaw, picked up the penny and walked over to the beakers, hotplates and burners. I didn’t know where to begin. Or maybe I did? Suddenly a sense of calm came over me, as I remembered that under heat zinc reacted with copper and could turn the copper silver . . . that was halfway to gold. I decided to start there.

I heated water in a beaker, added zinc sulfate and waited until the water was hot and oily-looking. I retrieved some zinc filings from a box on the shelf and placed them in the mixture. Using forceps, I picked up the penny and carefully dropped it into the beaker. As it touched the zinc it started to change colour. Ten minutes later I removed a silver penny from the beaker. I looked over my shoulder at Mr Barrow, but he seemed engrossed in some papers he was marking at his desk.

I knew he wouldn’t accept half a result. But I really had no clue what to do with this penny to make it gold. I had once read an alchemy book that said it was possible to turn base metals into actual precious metals. But that was way beyond anything I could achieve myself.

If only magic were real . . . Maybe it could be if I decided to believe it was?

‘Magic is the art of creating change with will.’ I mumbled the words softly and focused on the silver penny gripped in the forceps. I don’t know how long I stood there gazing at it, willing it to turn to gold.

‘Vania Thorn!’ Mr Barrow said loudly, making me jump and drop the penny onto the hotplate.

‘Yes, Mr Barrow?’ I tried to slow my pounding heart.

‘Are you prepared to admit that you cheated on your exam?’ he said.

‘No, sir!’ I said. ‘Because I didn’t.’

He shook his head and went back to his papers. I turned to retrieve the penny, which had fallen on the hotplate. To my astonishment, it was a dark golden colour!

Had I willed it to be? Had the magic started to work before I’d dropped it? I grabbed the forceps and carefully picked up the penny. It was too hot to touch, so I placed it in a beaker filled with cold water.

And in front of my eyes it transformed into perfect, lustrous gold. I felt dizzy but managed to conceal my shock and delight as I took the penny out of the water and turned off the hotplate, putting away the beakers and zinc. I steeled myself and walked over to Mr Barrow.

‘Sir,’ I said, placing the penny on the desk in front of him.

He picked up the shiny gold disc without saying anything. The silence in the lab felt thick and claustrophobic. Just when I thought I couldn’t bear it anymore he finally spoke.

‘Well done, Vania Thorn. I’m not sure how you pulled this off – are you?’ Far from praising, his tone was sinister.

‘No, I’m not sure, sir,’ I answered truthfully. The words caught in my throat.

‘Well, I expect you are going to find out.’ He turned the gold penny slowly in his fingers.

I stood there, not sure what to do.

‘You may go,’ he said, without looking up. I got out of there as fast as I could.

Five

‘So how did you turn the coin to gold?’ Amelia and Alyssa asked.

The twins, Dean and I were sitting at the back of the history classroom. The teacher was running late, so I was telling them about my bizarre run-in with Mr Barrow.

‘Well, I already knew the trick to turning it silver. I looked up the rest when I got home,’ I said. ‘Turns out I accidentally got the science right – placing the silver coin on the hotplate