The Spellbinder (Tom & Laura Series) by John Booth Read Free Book Online

Thomas Carter is not injured. He will be delayed because he is assisting them with their enquiries. He was near where the incident happened.   I must arrange a role call immediately to check that all our other charges are safe.” The Headmaster rushed away as soon as he finished speaking.
    Snood was stunned. Carter was alive, the authorities would be looking for the Spellbinder who did it and Carter would give them Carmichael ’s name. Moreover, Carmichael would break under questioning . Snood knew that. The boy was weak and easy to manipulate. After all, it was those very things which had made him useful in the first place. Snood turned and made his way back down the corridor towards Carmichael ’s dorm room.
    Carmichael huddled sobbing in a corner of the dorm. He had heard about the deaths and he could feel the hangman’s noose tightening around his neck. What should he do? On the positive side, nobody knew who he was, and he wasn’t powerful enough to have created that bind on his own. ‘ They would not look in the school, but what if they did ?’ Carmichael had never been so afraid in his life.
    He heard the door open and watched Snood enter the room. Snood wore a black gown that seemed to envelop him in darkness. Carmichael felt so happy to see him. He knew he would be safe with Snood beside him. He ran to embrace the man, regardless of how effeminate that gesture might appear. He needed the reassurance.
    Snood held him tight, putting a strong arm about him. The sobbing boy pushed his head deep into Snood’s shoulder. “We will be safe, won’t we?”
    “Well, I shall be, boy,” said Snood and thrust his knife deep into Carmichael ’s guts. The boy felt a deep burning inside and staggered backward before dropping into a kneeling position on the floor. He looked in astonishment at the knife hilt protruding from his belly, just above his waistband. Snood reached down and calmly twisted the knife, tearing open Carmichael ’s guts. The boy shuddered uncontrollably. Snood pulled the boy’s head up by his hair and looked regretfully into his lifeless eyes.
    “It’s a shame, boy. I shall amend my diary to indicate you were more powerful than I had told the authorities. That I lied to prevent you being placed in the hands of a better teacher. I shall tell them how much you hated Carter and how I tried to stop you from carrying out your plan, which I thought was to transform him into an animal. I shall tell them that when you discovered a more powerful Spellbinder protected Carter, you went into a blind rage. You committed suicide when the enormity of what you had done finally hit you. It’s a pity, boy; you could have been useful to me.”
    Snood left the dorm room quietly, checking no one was about as he opened the door. Carmichael ’s body knelt on the floor. His chest slumped over his folded legs, looking almost as though he was praying for his mortal soul.
    Birds were singing outside the dorm window as London experienced a glorious red sunset.

Chapter 7           Military Magic
     
    After retiring from the army, Lord Magus’s interest in the strange brought him to the discovery of Newton ’s papers on magic, thought long destroyed by Newton ’s vicar after his death.
    These defined magic into seven skills and gave instruction on how to discover and train the gifted. For Newton , it had been nothing but an intellectual exercise. To a retired colonel familiar with the arts of warfare, the papers provided a set of instructions on how to build a more effective Army.
    When he brought his squad of old women, scruffy men and children to the Ministry of War they would have laughed in his face but for his impressive war record. After his squad saw action things were never to be the same again. Lord Magus ended the witch trials and burnings across the Empire now the value of the resource was understood. He moved magic into the world of science by establishing it as the cornerstone of the Empire’s