The Necromancer Trilogy - Black Magic

Chapter One - The Girl in Black

“What did you go and do that for?” Gus asked, exasperated.

David shrugged. “He had it coming.”

“And you’ve got a nosebleed,” Gus snapped, but it wasn’t in his nature to be angry for long.

“Look,” he sighed. “You can’t go beating up the whole world.”

David grinned through the blood. “I could give it a go.”

Gus shook his head. “But Peterson? Dave, you know how expensive he is! The headmaster will fry you!”

David shrugged again. “Deal with that when the time comes. But he’ll think twice about calling me that again.”

“He’s in the san,” Gus rolled his eyes. “Unconscious.”

“Good.”

David’s face was a mask of blank fury. Gus knew that look. It meant that if anyone ventured too close to him right now, they’d be lucky to crawl away.

“Get the blood off your face,” he sighed. “If a master comes up here and sees you like that…”

David gave his twin brother a raised eyebrow. Gus sighed and flicked his fingers. The dried blood vanished from David’s face.

“Thanks,” he winced. “God, Peterson’s jaw is like an anvil!”

Gus hesitated, and then burst out laughing.

  The Yale brothers had been at Hurlstone Academy for almost two months. It was a school run by the kind of headmaster who thought keenness was more important than ability, considered bullying to be the fault of the victim and thought that every boy was a “jolly good sport, when all is said and done”.

  All in all, this conspired to make the bullies and thugs powerful and the weak helpless. People kept away from anyone who could make an easy target. They’d kept well away from the Yales.

 However, things had changed a little since the first attempt at bullying Gus. While the smaller boy had just stood there and taken it, David had proved his worth in several sharp blows which left the thugs bent double making bubbling noises.

  Since then, people kept out of their way. David had decided early on in life that he would rather be dangerous and alone than weak with other people. He had a wary kind of respect, but sometimes people still hadn’t learnt the lesson, hence a few extra visitors to the san.

 They were coping, and they were going to keep on coping. That fact David was absolutely sure of. As Gus kept saying, “It’s only three more years.” Sometimes, that felt like no time at all.

“Well,” Gus sighed. “I guess I have to say thank you. But really, Dave, I wish you’d wait till I could be watching.”