The Serpent in the Glass (The Tale of Thomas Farrell) (13 page)

Thomas’s legs ached and he had a stitch. Gallowglas had made them do sprints before the end of the lesson. ‘Well, at least we get four days to recover.’

Penders snorted, massaging his lower back. ‘I think I need a month!’

‘You’ll get used to it sooner than you think, Mr Penderghast. Constant and consistent training is the key.’ They turned to see Mr Gallowglas behind them. Somehow he’d managed to walk up behind them again without Thomas hearing.

‘Training for what?’ Thomas asked timidly, surprising himself.

Mr Gallowglas looked at Thomas through narrowed eyes. ‘For life, Mr Farrell. And to stay alive.’

Mr Gallowglas moved in front of them as if to leave, but then turned back. ‘Oh, and if the ball’s lost again, you’ll ask for permission before leaving the field or you’ll receive a detention. And my detentions, I assure you, aren’t confined to desks, chairs and stuffy classrooms!’

And with that, Mr Gallowglas really did leave.

Despite a very nice lunch of shepherd’s pie followed by rhubarb and custard, Thomas still had a very bitter taste in his mouth. Even Penders seemed to have lost his appetite a little, though not until after his second helping. Thomas couldn’t stop thinking about Mr Gallowglas’s words. How did he know the’d left the field? Did he see them? Or did Guth say something? Penders thought the latter, and he’d made it very plain, between mouthfuls, during lunch.

‘I wonder what Mr Gallowglas’s detentions are really like?’ Penders pushed his empty dessert bowl aside and leant on the table. ‘A thousand press ups? Fifty laps of the field? Something like that I guess.’

‘I don’t intend to find out,’ Thomas replied as Jessica and Merideah approached. Most of the other students had left the tables by now. Lunch was almost over.

‘You two look like you’ve swallowed something sour,’ Merideah said.

Penders looked up through tired eyes. ‘No, we just had a run in with a very sour person.’

Merideah raised her eyebrows. ‘And who was that?’

Thomas shifted. He didn’t like being — or nearly being — in trouble, let alone telling anyone about it. ‘Mr Gallowglas threatened us with detention for wandering off the field.’

Merideah gave them both a quizzical look. ‘And why did you do that?’

‘Guth Roach threw our ball into the trees.’ Penders slumped down into his arms, still tired from the two-hour lesson.

‘You should be more careful.’ Jessica nodded approval at her own advice.

Penders opened an eye. ‘I think Mr Gallowglas has the eyes of a hawk, and the ears of ... of an animal that has very good hearing!’

‘A bat?’ Merideah suggested.

‘Sorry?’ Penders said.

‘A bat has good hearing,’ Merideah explained.

‘Oh, right,’ replied Penders, somewhat fazed. ‘And he never smiles either!’

Jessica smiled wryly. ‘I overheard some of the older students calling him “Grim Gallowglas”.’

‘I reckon that’s about right,’ Penders stated, with a light in his eye. ‘It’s a very good name, in fact.’

‘Still, we found the ball. Guth threw it right over by the tower,’ Thomas explained with some satisfaction in his voice.

Merideah straightened her Alice band. ‘The Headmaster said the tower’s out of bounds.’

Penders lifted his head. ‘Well, out of bounds or not, it sure made Thomas’s Glass glow.’

‘What Glass?’ said Merideah. Penders looked blankly at Merideah before turning to Thomas with an awkward guess-I-said-something-I-shouldn’t-have look upon his face.

The hall had nearly emptied of students now, so Thomas pulled the Glass from the bag of marbles in his blazer pocket.

Merideah looked concerned. ‘You carry a lizard in a glass ball around in your pocket?’

‘It was my father’s. I never knew him, and it’s all I have of his. I guess I like to keep it close. I’m not really sure what it is,’ Thomas explained.

Merideah frowned as she looked at the object. ‘May I?’ She stretched out her hand and Thomas, somewhat reluctantly, dropped the Glass into her small but steady hand. She put her eye to the orb and then gave it a small shake. ‘Hmm. I wonder how this lizard is suspended?’

‘It’s a serpent,’ Thomas corrected her, but Merideah didn’t seem to hear. ‘I suppose it’s just set in the glass.’

Merideah shook her head. ‘Too light. It’d be heavier if it was solid glass.’

He hadn’t thought of its weight before. It was too light to be solid glass.

Merideah passed the Glass back to Thomas. ‘And it glowed?’

‘Yes, when we went near the tower,’ Thomas explained.

Merideah tapped her chin. ‘Has it ever glowed before?’

Thomas shook his head.

‘Perhaps the Glass has some strange qualities,’ Jessica began. ‘One of my friends showed me this necklace once. It belonged to her mother and had a stone set in it that changed colour when a beam of sunlight hit it.’

Penders looked at Jessica. ‘There was no beam of sunlight. We were under the trees.’

‘I’m sure there must be some scientific explanation. There’s a lot of strange things in the world. My father showed me a stone once that glowed in the dark if you left it in sunlight for a bit, and another that he said had some form of radiation in it. Maybe the tower has some source of radioactivity that reacts with whatever the Glass is made of? Maybe that’s why it’s off limits?’ Merideah mused.

‘I’m afraid,’ began Penders, ‘we’ll never know, because the tower isn’t just out of bounds,’ — he glanced sideways at Merideah — ‘it also has no door.’

— CHAPTER NINE —

A Serpent’s Tooth

‘In science we’re concerned only with facts,’ Mr Goodfellow began, his earnest frown mirroring his ginger-brown moustache. ‘Science, and the scientific method, doesn’t deal in myth, in legend, in folklore or superstition. In short, our purpose in science is to discover the truth!’

Thomas continued to watch the lanky form of the science teacher as he gesticulated and waved his finger about in a passionate introduction to the first science lesson of the year, but soon he was listening only to his own thoughts as he stared unseeing at the various charts and tables on the wall behind Mr Goodfellow. One of them listed in pictorial form various discoveries made about the solar system. Thomas wanted to discover the truth too. Something was hidden and it needed unearthing. The Manor held a secret, and Thomas knew that it was connected with the tower. He couldn’t explain how he knew; he couldn’t make an appeal to Mr Goodfellow’s ‘scientific method’, but he knew it was true nonetheless.

‘Mr Farrell?’ came a voice for what Thomas suddenly realized was the second time.

‘Er — yes, Mr Goodfellow?’ Thomas said awkwardly. Everyone was looking at him. He reddened and instinctively grabbed the bag of marbles in his pocket.

Mr Goodfellow looked at him with one eyebrow raised. ‘I was asking the class if they could name the various branches of science. Now, young Miss Keavy here has offered ‘nature’ as an answer, and Mr Quaint has suggested ‘chemistry’. Can you think of another? I’ve mentioned them all this morning.’

Thomas cringed and silently rebuked himself for allowing his mind to wander. He thought hard. In his opening statement Mr Goodfellow had spoken about finding truth, that much Thomas remembered. Thomas had read a book about a man who’d found truth by making use of special powers he’d gained from an accident in a science lab. It was one of Jessica’s books, a science-fiction book.

‘Well, erm ... has science-fiction got anything to do with science?’ Thomas asked tentatively.

‘Not a thing, Mr Farrell. It’s fantasy, not fact. It’s about things that don’t exist, like myth, legend, folklore and superstition!’

Thomas felt his face flush red. If only everyone would stop looking at him. As if in answer to his wish, Georgiana Keavy suddenly screamed. Thomas turned to see her stand up and point. Within seconds the Thistlethwaite twins had jumped up on their chairs, also screaming. Thomas and Penders couldn’t see what they were looking at, but several others stood up or pushed their chairs away from the vicinity, all except Demelza Luard who stood up and moved to where Georgiana had pointed.

‘There you are!’ She bent down and then stood up with a rat in her hands, a rat that’s coat looked the same colour as Demelza’s hair. ‘Where have you been?’

‘Miss Luard!’ Two red cheeks now flanked Mr Goodfellow’s moustache. ‘This rat belongs to you?’

She nodded. ‘Yes, sir. His name’s Tregeagle.’

‘Don’t you know that you’re not allowed to keep pets in your room?’

‘Oh, I don’t keep him in my room. He sort of wanders around the building where he wants,’ Demelza explained, her face a picture of innocence. Several of the girls made gurgling noises.

Mr Goodfellow folded his arms. ‘And do you think it appropriate to allow a rat to roam around the school, Miss Luard?’

‘Well,’ Demelza began, looking a little confused, ‘there are plenty of other rats doing the same thing. I don’t think one more would make much difference. Tregeagle has made so many more new friends —’

At this several of the girls started looking about nervously, except Jessica, who was trying to keep from laughing out loud. Merideah sat there as if everyone — except her of course — was being thoroughly silly. The Thistlethwaite twins were now clutching each other as they cast furtive looks around the floor from their vantage point atop their chairs.

Demelza held the rat to her face and looked him in the eyes. ‘Tregeagle says he doesn’t mind. He thinks it’s quite a nice building actually.’

Mr Goodfellow held up a finger. ‘Now, now, Miss Luard. There’s no need to pretend you can talk to rats.’

Demelza walked back to her seat. ‘It’s not talking really, more a sharing of thoughts.’

‘Don’t lie, young lady.’

‘It’s not a lie!’ Demelza surprised Thomas with the passion of her response to the teacher.

Mr Goodfellow looked somewhat taken aback by the response from the small, normally quiet girl. ‘Well, do something with that rat, or it goes out the window.’

From her bag Demelza pulled a shoebox with holes in the lid. She opened it and gently placed Tregeagle inside before replacing the lid and putting it back in her bag.

Thomas awoke suddenly and found himself lying on his bed. How long had he slept? Five minutes? Fifteen minutes? An hour? He always felt so sleepy after dinner, and the science lesson at the end of the day seemed to have added to his tiredness, despite Demelza’s rat livening things up. He’d only meant to lie down for a minute. Jessica had challenged him to a game of marbles and he’d only popped back to his room to drop off his bag, not to drop off himself! He looked at the old brass clock on his table. It was half five but not ticking, which was strange because he’d only wound it up at lunchtime that day. Thomas sat up, grabbed it, and gave the key a few turns. It remained silent. He shook it, but it still made no sound. ‘Great!’ Thomas muttered, hoping that it had only stopped working in the past few minutes. The clock had never failed him from the day Mr Westhrop had found it in a charity shop on Thomas’s fifth birthday.

Thomas stood and made sure his marbles were still in his blazer pocket. The sun was westering, but Thomas had no idea how to judge the time from the position of the sun. Jessica wasn’t going to like him being late, and if Merideah was with her he suspected she might feel exactly the same way — and Merideah probably
could
tell the time from the position of the sun.

He didn’t want to be any later than he no doubt already was, so he didn’t get changed out of his uniform but made straight for his door.

Penders, quite to Thomas’s surprise, stood outside his room.

‘Penders? Am I late?’

Penders didn’t reply. Thomas looked at his friend more closely. Penders seemed frozen in mid-step as if he were about to open the door (though it was of course now already open). Thomas waved a hand in front of Penders’ eyes and even tried prodding him. There was no reaction.

‘Erm — Penders? Are you OK?’

Whatever could be wrong with him? He knew people had seizures sometimes due to illness, but he didn’t think people froze on the spot. They usually collapsed or at least thrashed about a bit. Thomas began to grow concerned. He needed to find a teacher. They would know what to do.

‘Hang on Penders, if you can hear me, I’ll be back as soon as I can. I’m going to get help!’ and so saying he ran down the corridor to the boys’ common room.

A few students dotted the chairs of the common room, all of them apparently in the same state as Penders, except in sitting positions. They didn’t seem to hear Thomas’s plea for assistance. Thomas stared around in disbelief. What was going on? Had everyone been struck down with the same illness? Perhaps a fast-spreading virus had swept through the Manor? Perhaps there’d been something in the food? But why hadn’t it affected him? Maybe there was something in the cauliflower. He hadn’t eaten that.

He flew down the stairs, reaching the assembly hall at a run. Here he stopped and looked around in amazement. Some students sat unmoving at their tables staring blankly into bowls of half-eaten lemon meringue. Others stood with open mouths, frozen in the middle of conversations. Three girls huddled together in one corner, staring at something across the room with what looked like wide-eyed wonder. Thomas followed their line of sight and saw Treice sitting alone at a table, his chair cocked back and his foot resting coolly on the knee of his other leg. He held a bowl in one hand and a spoon in the other upon which balanced a piece of crispy brown meringue.

‘What’s wrong with everyone?’ Thomas asked himself just before he spotted Jessica and Merideah in the doorway of the fire exit. They both wore quite composed faces, but Thomas could tell a storm brewed beneath Jessica’s and — if he guessed right — Merideah’s too. Like everyone else they were unmoving and unresponsive. By their posture they looked as if they were on the warpath, and probably to his room, even if it was against the rules for girls to go into the boys’ dormitories. As much as Thomas would’ve liked to avoid their combined wrath, he really did want things to return to normal.

Then something caught his eye behind Jessica and Merideah. Something actually moved in the trees near the very spot he and Penders had entered to find the lost ball during their first P.E. lesson. Thomas walked out onto the field. He could see nothing moving now, but became aware suddenly that the air was still, unnaturally still. Furthermore, he could hear nothing. No rustling trees, no birdsong, no grasshoppers chirping or whatever sound it was that grasshoppers made — and there were usually quite a few in the grassy clumps on the edges of the field.