The Spellbinder (Tom & Laura Series) (15 page)

Chapter 18
   
Snood Meets Laura

Snood and Laura had been avoiding each other, though neither was aware that their fear of meeting was mutual. For Laura, Bruno’s attack on the train and Tom’s subsequent beating had brought home to her the reality of the threat. Now she was about to face the man who killed
Carmichael
in cold blood and she was terrified at the prospect.

Snood also dreaded meeting with Laura. Class A’s were the things of legend and he was tasked with either getting her to join the Brotherhood or to kidnap her. Either course of action was fraught with personal danger. She might inform the Headmaster of his attempts at sedition and it went without saying that Her Majesties Government would chase the kidnappers of a Class A around the world and back again.

He also expected someone would contact him when he arrived at the school, someone working with the double he killed. However, all he received was a cordial welcome from the Headmaster and a tedious tour of Hobsgate. This served to set his nerves on edge as he still expected a tap on the shoulder at any time.

There were fifteen Spellbinders in Hobsgate, which was a staggering number for one man to tutor. However, with the exception of Laura they were all at Grade 4 or 5, which he regarded as hardly worth his effort. Their previous tutor had been the Headmaster, who was also a Grade 4 and appeared to be glad to be shut of the job.

Meeting the other students gave him the excuse to avoid Laura for nearly a week. He considered many possible strategies to win her over and decided to start by being nice to her and see what that produced. Despite his age and experience, he was still feeling nervous when she knocked at his door.

He would have been comforted if he knew how nervous Laura was on the other side of the door. It took all of her courage to knock. He called out for her to enter the room.

“Ah, Miss Young, the Class A.” Despite his best efforts, Snood’s voice sounded laced with sarcasm, even to him. “Please sit down.”

Laura sat down facing Snood across his desk.

“The role of a tutor is to instruct you in the physical and mental aspects of Spellbinding. This involves explaining the appropriate structure for spells and how to achieve the mental discipline required to force the universe to comply with your demands.”

“Yes, sir. My previous tutor taught me those things.” Laura meant simply to state the facts, but her nervousness made her sound arrogant.

Snood grimaced. It was hard to be nice. He didn’t do it very often and right then he wanted to slap the girl’s face hard enough to take her self satisfied smirk right off it.

“Do you know how to create partial binds?”

Laura looked puzzled and shook her head, much to Snood’s satisfaction.

“I can teach you how to write all but the last word of a bind and keep it ready until you need it. Many Spellbinders never discover that it can be done.”

And now that he had told her about it, she would be able to do it. Snood cursed his loose tongue, but he’d wanted to bring the girl down a peg and show her he knew more than she did.

Laura instantly grasped the new idea. It took her mind off Snood. “I think I see how to do that, sir. Let me try.”

There were paper, ink and pen in front of her. She wrote a bind to shape the paper into a bird and for it to fly around the room. The bind would create the appearance of life though the actuality was beyond any Spellbinder’s powers. At one word short of completion she turned the paper so Snood could read it.

He was astonished by what he saw. The complexity of magic required to do such a thing was well beyond his talent. Since she used ordinary paper, he doubted the bird would get into the air before the bind caught fire. He nodded his understanding and she took the paper back and completed the bind.

As soon as Laura added the last word the paper jumped up as if alive. It bent, curled and reshaped itself to that of a bird before taking to the air, flapping its wings, which now had paper feathers. The bird flew around the room for nearly a minute before bursting into flames and consuming itself before its ashes reached the floor.

Snood tested her on the more mundane aspects of the art to see her technique. Laura performed perfectly; she had an elegant writing hand that seemed to have been designed to write binds. He soon discovered her aptitude for linking with the universe was well beyond his own.

Snood should have been pleased, but instead he felt his anger rising. Why her and why now? He hated how calmly and arrogantly she performed everything he asked of her. It was if her purpose in life was to demonstrate how limited his own talents were.

Laura was finding it increasingly difficult to stay calm. She affected a distant pose, because she thought she might scream if she was her normal self. Every time Snood looked at her she felt a shiver of fear run down her back. This man killed young people and he was only feet from her.

Towards the end of the lesson things began to get out of hand. Snood was filled with an all consuming hatred for the girl who sat before him. Laura wanted to run for her life. She wondered how she could keep from running from the room.

“Well Laura, you have performed as well as my best students,” Snood said, a fake smile almost turning into the snarl that he hid beneath it.

“In that case, shall I stick a knife in my ribs or will you?”

Laura couldn’t believe the words had come from her mouth.
 
Snood couldn’t believe it either; it took nearly thirty seconds before he reacted by sticking his face inches from hers and shouting at her.

“What do you mean by that? How dare you.” Laura wiped her face of his spittle, leaning back in the chair to get as far away from him as she could.

“You arrogant little bitch. Even my breath is not good enough for you.”

Snood grabbed Laura by the arm. She resisted, but he was much stronger and he dragged her to her feet. “I’ll show you!”

He pulled her over the chair and reached for a cane from the rack on the wall. He chose a cane meant only for the oldest boys, but he was beside himself with rage and not thinking straight. He lifted her skirt and then struck at her with all his might.

Laura had never felt such pain; she thought she might expire on the spot. She tried to jump away, but he pinioned her against the chair. He struck again and again. Tears rolled down her face as she screamed in agony at every stroke. Snood was too carried away to stop and it was only when she slumped unconscious on the floor that he threw the cane away. He paced his study for over a minutes before taking hold of a water jug.

Laura woke as a wave of water poured over her face. The pain in her posterior and thighs were agony. She could not think clearly, it cut through her so.

“Get up, you witch. Go back to your room. But I will be inspecting your buttocks tomorrow, so don’t think of getting Carter to help you. Because if there aren’t any bruises, I shall do it all again, but twice as hard,” Snood was shaking as he spoke. He knew he had gone too far, but there was no way back. He had to carry on and to hell with the consequences.

He helped Laura to her feet, her bladder had emptied when she lost consciousness and her skirt was wet and stank of urine. Snood pushed her out of the room, before falling back against the closed door, trying to calm his breathing.

Laura found her way back to her room by instinct. No one was around to see her, but Tom was waiting for her. He was by her side in an instant and she told him what had happened between sobs. He insisted on examining the damage and she lay on the bed and lifted her skirts. He put out his hands to heal her.

“No Tom, don’t. I could never stand that much pain again, it was too hard. Don’t heal me.”

“Your body is healing anyway. It must be the bind.” Tom looked at the bleeding mess that was her backside. “Whatever I do or don’t do, he will think I have healed you.”

Laura pushed her face down into her pillow; there was no way out. She would be punished again and this time she would die. “We must escape, Tom. I can’t stand any more of this.”

Tom considered their options and then smiled.

“Or perhaps there is another way. Wait here and don’t move,” he said somewhat unnecessarily, as Laura had no intention of moving a muscle. It hurt too much.

Tom ran to
Cam
’s room which was three doors down the corridor. He was so energized he turned the knob and slammed his body against the door, breaking the bolt that locked it on the inside.

He stepped into a situation that stopped him dead in his tracks. Cam and
Leon
were on the bed naked, with
Leon
stretched out on his back. What Cam was doing to
Leon
was something he had never conceived of.
‘Probably illegal too’
a voice at the back of his mind insisted on suggesting. It was certainly enjoyable, judging by the look on
Leon
’s face. A look that turned to horror as he saw Tom and pulled his legs forward into a hunched position, which at least meant that Cam could speak.

Cam
turned and saw Tom. “How dare you….?”

Tom blushed and then remembered why he had burst into the room in the first place.

“Laura needs you now, bring your makeup bag.” Tom spoke so urgently that
Cam
stopped arguing, shrugged on a nightgown and hurried passed him.

Tom paused at her door on his way out. “Er, sorry Leon. Maybe she can…” He got no further as
Cam
dragged him down the corridor.

Laura’s bottom was fully exposed as
Cam
entered the room, she gasped in sympathy. “But what can I do, there are salves…?”

“No, I need you to copy how she looks now with your make-up. Then I can heal her. Don’t ask questions, just do it.”

Tom held Laura’s hand and winced as she squeezed hard when
Cam
started applying the makeup

“This will not work, Tom,” Laura said between squeezes.

“It will, give me a chance to explain.”

Cam
worked swiftly making an expert copy of the bruised area in wax crayon. It would fool anybody from a distance, but would rub off the moment Laura sat down.
Cam
wondered what Tom thought he was going to accomplish.

The moment she finished, Tom ran his hand above the wax and Laura sighed with relief as her pain began to ease. It didn’t take Tom long to complete the healing and she was about to turn over when Tom stopped her. He handed her parchment and pen and instructed to her to bind the wax to her body so would become like flesh. He told her to make a bind so the wax would look real.

Cam
gasped in astonishment as Laura completed the bind. Good as her makeup had been before; this was another level of reality.
 
She reached over to touch the puffed and brutalized flesh convinced Laura would scream in pain, but Laura barely noticed. Laura sat up, pulled down her skirt and sat on the bed, still looking dismayed.

“It’s a good try, Tom, but it will not work. Snood is a Spellbinder, he will sense that there is a bind upon me and guess what we have done.” She was composed now the pain had gone, but knew they would have to escape tonight. She could not endure that pain again.

It was
Cam
’s turn to look thoughtful.

Tom sat at Laura’s side and whispered, “But what about the binds you placed on us?”

Laura whispered back, “They are different; they bind us to be ourselves. I can barely see the one I placed on you; Snood is not sensitive enough to see such a bind on either of us”

“Why don’t you do this?”
Cam
grabbed parchment and pen and threw them at her. “Bind your hair to be blond,” Laura did as she was told, looking puzzled as she did it. Her hair changed instantly to an almost white blonde. “Now he can see a bind on you that can be explained. Tell him that I bet you a Class A couldn’t turn her own hair blonde for more than a week. Tell him I’m keeping the bind, so I can be sure you don’t cheat.”

Laura thought about it. “That might work. He will not be able to tell there are two binds on me.” She reached for
Cam
and they hugged. “Thank you, my darling friend; you have saved my life.”

Cam
grinned evilly. “Oh, you owe me big for this and I will take my payment now.”
Cam
turned to face Tom. “You will never ever tell anyone what you saw in my room. Do you understand?”