Rick bound Will in magical ropes. Kenny scooped up his wand and stood behind him, propping him up lest he lose his balance and topple over.
"I must say, William," the ghost who now called himself Argyron Goates said, "your attempts to thwart me, though ultimately futile, have been quite impressive. Yes, Richard has kept me apprised of your exploits."
"Y-you can't…"
"Oh, I can do a good many things, young man. Just you wait and see!"
The ghost turned to Rick. "Richard, I trust yesterday's venture was successful?"
"Yes, sir," Rick said. He strode to the Potions table and snatched up the silver ring from the book on which it lay. He extended his hand so the ghost of Argyron Goates could examine it. It must have been the antique ring from Ms. Goates's office. At last Will got a good look at it. Instead of a gemstone, the setting was a silver dog's head emblem.
"Your plan worked perfectly. The Shrinking Solution let me slip beneath the cracked window with no problem. Then it was just a matter of a Summoning Charm and a quick getaway on my broom."
The ghost smiled his unseemly smile. "Excellent!" he said. "And my great grand-niece doesn't suspect you?"
"That part of your plan worked best of all," Rick said. "Between Guinfort, Proctor here, the townspeople up in arms, the secret dueling clubs—not to mention the brawl at the last Quodpot game… Well, Ms. Goates has had too many suspects to keep track of!"
"No less than the descendant of my traitorous brother deserves!" the ghost said. "Do you know," he turned to Will, "that my despicable brother, Mopsus, had the nerve to spy against his own father?"
He gazed once again at the ring in Rick's hand. "This ring belonged to my father, Actaeus Goates. Mopsus pulled it from my dead hand when he killed me beyond these campus grounds. He had no right to it, after what he did!""
Will was still too stunned to speak.
"It's true! Actaeus Goates was one of the greatest wizards ever to grace this continent. He and my uncle, Lycus, learned secrets of magic deeper and more powerful than anyone had ever dreamed possible. They could have been gods! But my brother didn't have the stomach for the kinds of sacrifices their magic required.
"The Goates brothers brought suffering to everyone!" Will protested. "Bloodshed, hatred, panic…."
"You can't brew a potion without first lighting a fire," Argyron said with a shrug. "You may not know it, William, but there is great power in 'bloodshed, hatred, and panic,' as you say. You just have to know how to capture it." He gestured toward Rick. "A wand, please, Kenneth." Kenny drew in a breath.
With trembling hands, Kenny held Will's wand stomach-high in front of his teacher.
"Take, for example, that spectacular performance at the Quodpot stadium. Up until last month," the ghost said, "I of course was completely incorporeal. But that brawl unleashed such an explosion of bile and fury…. The only way I can describe it is to compare it to a fireman throwing more wood in a steam engine's firebox. The hotter the fire, the greater the power.
Will remembered the sudden thunderstorm that broke out during the brawl and the maniacal laughter he thought he had heard.
"Since then," the ghost continued, "I've become nearly as solid as a haint or poltergeist. I get more solid every day. And with a bit more practice…"
He reached a ghostly hand into Kenny's body. Kenny held his breath. He winced and shivered. Will watched as his face grew pale and he seemed to slouch forward.
"My students are so kind to share a bit of their life force with me. But soon they will be generously rewarded."
The ghost withdrew his hand. He screwed up his face in a grimace of deep concentration. He put forth his hand and wrapped his fingers around Will's wand. Will couldn't believe his eyes when he pulled his hand a way—and the wand went with it!
He turned the wand against Will and said, "Avada Kedavra!"
Will shut his eyes tight.
Nothing happened. He opened his eyes to see a fizzle of green light sputtering from his wand.
"Alas," the ghost said, "I'm not quite up to casting a proper spell yet. Remind me and I'll kill you later."
Argyron returned Will's wand to Kenny. He received it into his trembling hands.
"Anthony and the others are late," the ghost said, frowning.
"About Tony…," Rick began. Then he paused, unsure how to continue. At last he said, "He betrayed us, Sir—but I've taken care of him!" he added when he saw the look of surprise and anger in his teacher's ghostly eye. "As for Greg and Ann, I don't know what's happened to them."
"No matter," the ghost said. "Your work so far has been exceptional," he said to Rick and Kenny. "I have shared with you my skills, my knowledge. I have even worked to strengthen your abilities through my ghostly intervention, and in return all I have asked is a bit of the vital essence of each of you. Tonight, you will feel my power coursing through you. You will become stronger than ever before."
Rick licked his lips. Kenny gazed up at his teacher with a mixture of wonder and apprehension.
The ghost studied Rick, Kenny, and Will for some time. "Richard," he finally said, "put my father's ring on your finger. Bring the knife on the table and come stand with me in the circle."
Rick grinned. With only a slight moment of hesitation he seized a small, sharp knife from the Potions table, the kind students often used to prepare potion ingredients in Madame Glapion's class. Rick stepped into the circle, slipping the ring of Actaeus Goates onto the middle finger of his right hand.
"Now, if you please," the ghost said slowly and softly. "A drop or two of your blood upon the ring."
Rick started, but took a deep breath and complied with his teacher's instructions. He tucked his wand underneath his left arm. He pressed the knife into the palm of his left hand. He shut his eyes, then slashed the blade downward to make a long, shallow cut. He grimaced but he didn't make a sound. He held his left hand over his right, made a fist, and watched open-mouthed as a couple of drops fell onto the head of the ring.
"This should only hurt for a second," the ghost whispered into Rick's ear as he floated behind him. "Wand ready." Rick held his wand upright in front of him. He sucked in a breath and color began to drain from his face. A second later, Will understood why. The ghost was superimposing his arm over Rick's like a silvery shadow. This second arm slid down Rick's until the ghostly hand folded its fingers around Rick's wand.
"Follow my lead," he whispered. Very slowly, the ghost traced a pattern in the air with Rick's wand. Rick allowed his hand to follow, but it was obvious that he wasn't the one in control of his wand. He seemed almost in a daze. Will didn't know if this was because the ghost was draining so much of his energy or whether he was simply paralyzed with fear to see his hand move at the direction of another.
All the while, the ghost muttered an incantation and slowly turned Rick's wand around the circle, tracing more shapes and figures at each of the cardinal points. At last the boy and his spectral teacher returned to their starting point, which, Will realized, was facing toward the east, where the planet Saturn, the bringer of Darkness, would by now be high above the horizon.
"Fiat!" the ghost shouted. There was a flash of crimson light. The room was forcibly shaken. Tables and desks shook in their places. Vials and cauldrons wobbled on the workbench, and Will fell to the floor as Kenny let go of him in order to keep himself standing upright.
When Will opened his eyes, the ghost of Argyron Goates was no longer there. Rick was on his knees, still inside the circle.
He began to titter. Then the titter became a laugh. At last, the laugh became a loud, barking guffaw. He flung his head up and raised both his arms in triumph.
"At last," Rick said. But in a way Will couldn't quite put his finger on, it wasn't exactly Rick's voice. "At long last…"
He struggled to his feet. He was still pale, however, and seemed shakier than before.
"Kenneth," Rick said, stretching out his left arm. Kenny stood above Will, frozen to his spot. The truth dawned on both of them at once. Argyron Goates wasn't gone at all. He was inside Rick!
"Kenneth!" Rick said more forcefully. This shook Kenny from his daze. The Strongfoot boy hurried to Rick's side and offered his shoulder as a support.
"You have no idea what it's like to be deprived of one's body," the ghost inside Rick Lombard said, as much to himself as to Kenny and Will. "There is no sensation. There is no hunger or thirst, no cold or warmth. Year after year, decade after decade, with nothing but…emptiness. I haunted my brother until the day he died, but even that failed to satisfy the craving in my soul. I wanted to finish what my father started, to revive the Dread Arcanum. But mostly I wanted vengeance on a world that held the name of Goates in contempt!
"Eventually, I returned to the place of my death: the old Powler Creek dueling grounds where I confronted my brother after I learned of his treachery. It was only fitting that I would find my way back here. It was the only place left for me. After all, even my own family did everything it could to sever its ties to Lycus and Actaeus Goates. Mopsus taught his children nothing about the Dread Arcanum! And their children taught the next generation to hate and disown their heritage. My own great grand-niece had the audacity to accept an award for opposing the so-called 'Dark Arts'!
"But then, wonder of wonders, I encountered a kindred spirit—if you'll forgive the expression. Young Richard and his friends had a deep interest in the sort of magic they don't teach inside these walls. Imagine my delight when they gathered at the old dueling grounds to practice their craft. They were young, to be sure, and there was much they didn't know. But that merely made them eager to learn—and I was happy to serve as their teacher."
Kenny turned his head in revulsion from the form of Rick Lombard that now leaned against him. He glanced down at Will, still bound with ropes and lying on the floor, with an imploring expression.
"I taught them curses that haven't been used in a hundred years. Potions and conjures to afflict the body and mind of enemies, tactics of deception and misdirection…and ways to avoid being caught."
"The Cynocephalus…" Will whispered.
"It is a bit flamboyant," Argyron mused. (Will wasn't sure if he should think of the boy who towered above him as Rick or Argyron.) "But it serves its purpose. As does the potion I taught them to defeat Prior Incantato and—my favorite—a subtle hex to enhance a victim's feelings of agitation and suspicion. Why destroy someone directly when you can set your enemies at their own throats, eh?" he laughed coldly.
"The truth is, I needed to, shall we say, raise the temperature at Malkin Academy for my plans to succeed. But to be honest, I had no way of knowing what would boil over first: the animosity between the students and the villagers, or that between the students' several houses. But at last the fire was sparked, and the outpouring of hatred and fury that day at the Quodpot stadium was…delicious!" Rick—or Argyron—quivered with pleasure at the memory.
"But now we come to the part of my plan that not even Richard could have guessed. The fact is—and Kenneth, I do hope you'll accept my apology for deceiving you all—I missed living in a body. The more I drew vitality from my students, the more I craved to feel blood pulsing once more inside my veins."
Kenneth dared to glance in Rick's direction. He shuddered and his eyes darted between Will and the ground in front of him.
"I knew, of course, that some spirits were quite adept at possessing living bodies. I befriended a wendigo once, long ago, for whom it came as naturally as slipping on a fresh set of clothes. The trick, it told me, was to find a victim whose soul had been so damaged by evil that it left cracks and weak spots a resourceful spirit could exploit.
"And the ring?" Will asked.
"Ah, the ring," Argyron—or Rick—said. "My father gave it to me shortly before he died as a token that I was to lead his Dread Arcanum. You see, he had already come to suspect that Mopsus was a traitor. That is why I summoned him to the dueling grounds, to confront him and repay him for his treachery. When my brother stole it from my corpse, it was the final insult to my father's memory—not to mention my own.
"We ghosts have an affinity for the places and objects that most deeply touched us in life. It was natural that I would be drawn to the ring. I visited it in Strigia's office many times in the wee hours of the night when no one was about. I suspected it would make a suitable focal object for an incantation I thought might bring me back into a flesh and blood body. And so it did."
"What did you do with Rick?" Kenny asked, his cracking voice little more than a whisper.
"My dear Kenneth," the ghost said. "How admirable for you to be concerned about your friend. Richard is still here, somewhere," he patted his chest, "at least for now. He has provided me a young, strong body to live in, however, and I doubt I'll be giving it up soon." He smiled a wry, mirthless smile.
"Is he…Is he okay?"
"To be honest, I haven't the slightest idea, nor do I care. We mustn't be sentimental, Kenneth. Some causes are worth the greatest sacrifice."
Argyron didn't notice—and there was no doubt now in Will's mind how to think of the creature above him who merely wore the skin of Rick Lombard—but out of the corner of his eye Will caught Kenny's fist clenching and unclenching around his wand. Will's own wand was still in Kenny's left hand, tapping nervously against Kenny's thigh.
"So you just used him?" Will said, glancing at Kenny. "Was he ever anything to you but a means to reach your goals?"
"This past year, teaching my students some of my deepest secrets, has been the most fulfilling experience I've had in nearly a hundred and fifty years," Argyron protested. "To see these youngsters learn and grow! To watch them reach toward their full potential. I'm shocked, William, that you would even ask such a question."
"And Rick?"
"I never said they weren't expendable," Argyron shrugged. "Leaders have to make difficult decisions all the time, William. I decided that it was time for Richard to…step aside. There is nothing you—or you," he glared at Kenny, "can do about it."
"You've got a funny way of rewarding your followers," Will said. "Some might even call it 'treachery.'"
Rick's eyes flashed with Argyron's cruel expression. He aimed his wand at Will and spat, "How dare you?"
"He's right!" Kenny said. Both Argyron and Will turned in amazement toward the Strongfoot boy. "We did everything you asked of us! Even when we didn't understand, even when we were afraid. We trusted you! But all you did was take from us! And now you even took Rick's body!"
"And your point is…?"
"Crucio!" Kenny shouted. But his curse bounced harmlessly off of Argyron's Shield. Will had never seen anyone conjure a Shield Charm so quickly.
The now-embodied ghost seethed. Kenny had raised his own Shield Charm. He tossed Will's wand onto the floor in his direction. "Relashio!" he cried. The magical ropes that had bound Will slipped off him and vanished into thin air.
Will scrambled to reach his wand as Argyron's Scorching Curse blasted against Kenny's Shield. With a flash of transparent blue light, it burst like a soap bubble, leaving him unprotected.
Argyron aimed again. But by now Will was finally on his feet. "Tenebra!" he shouted. The lanterns on the wall went out. The room was plunged into perfect darkness. In a heartbeat, his hand was in his pocket. Grasping his Shiny Thing, he flung it high into the air. It twinkled in the darkness—and reflexively Argyron aimed his next curse directly at it.
"'Cawch!" he bellowed. A jet of fire shot forth from his wand, striking the Shiny Thing to create brilliant multicolored fireworks, then proceeding to the wall behind Kenny, where it made an ugly black scorch mark.
Kenny and Will attacked at the same time, aiming by the light of both the Shiny Thing and Argyron's second Scorching Curse.
"Stupefy!" Will cried.
"Crucio!" Kenny shouted.
Argyron reeled. Will could see his chest heaving. He hoped the ghost was unused to living inside a body and had forgotten the strain of physical exertion. But if that were true or not, Will knew his only hope was to keep him busy.
He attempted a Disarming Charm just as Kenny fired a Stunner. Argyron's Shield Charm held, but Will saw his eyes dart back and forth between his two attackers.
"'Cawch!" he shouted again. This time the jet of fire grazed Kenny's elbow as he dove underneath a desk. He rolled on the floor to extinguish the flames. Will moved toward the Potions table, but Argyron sensed his movement and slammed a desk into him using a Levitation Charm. His head was on fire with pain. Warm blood flowed down his neck and onto his collar where the edge of the desk tore open his scalp.
"Well played," Argyron said. "But I'm afraid the two of you together are not yet my match. Expelliarmus!" Will's and Kenny's wands sprung into the air. "Mobilicorpus!" Kenny was jerked into the air and flung viciously into Will.
"Crucio!"
Kenny and then Will felt the sting of Argyron's Cruciatus Curse. Will felt as if a thousand knives had dug into his flesh. Kenny, who had apparently never been on the receiving end of the Cruciatus, shrieked like a frightened puppy. The two twitched and writhed on the floor in pure agony.
Argyron's maniacal laugh deepened into a low, thunderous bark. Will opened his eyes long enough to see that Rick's face had turned into the face of a vicious dog. He continued to Cruciatus both Will and Kenny. It was far worse than anything Rick had inflicted upon Will before. This was a curse thrown by a sadistic expert in the art of torture.
Will whimpered and fought to remain conscious. Kenny lay still at his side. Part of Will's mind hoped the other boy had merely passed out. Most of his mind tried to maintain its sanity against the unceasing barrage of pain.
"Expelliarmus!" a feminine voice shouted.
For a second, the pain subsided. Someone had entered the lair and captured Argyron's attention. Will struggled to open his eyes. The Disarming Charm failed to wrest Argyron's wand from his hands, but it did get his attention.
"You!" Argyron growled with his doglike muzzle of a mouth.
Will tried to focus past Argyron at the tall, slim figure at the foot of the stairs.
It was Ms. Goates, and she seemed as stunned to see the dog-headed figure in front of her as he was to see her.
"Mr. Lombard, I presume?" the Vice Principal hissed.
"I was hoping to kill you before making my escape," Argyron snarled.
"M-Ms. Goates," Will groaned. "It's Archie. The ghost. He's possessing Rick."
The Vice Principal arched her eyebrows at this news. She shot a glance at Will, then fixed her gaze once more upon the re-embodied brother of her ancestor.
"Remove yourself from my student, Archie," Ms. Goates said. "Now."
"Not Archie!" the ghost bellowed. "Call me by my true name: Argyron Goates!"
Ms. Goates's jaw dropped.
"Sanguilutum!" Argyron barked. The black fire struck Ms. Goates's Shield Charm head on. It collapsed in a blue flash.
"You can't beat me, you old hag!" He fired a Scorching Curse. She ducked out of the way and only barely re-formed her Shield Charm in time to deflect the curse toward the wall above her head. "One hundred and fifty years!" he thundered. "I have hated you since before you were born! Your family disowned me, disowned its own noble heritage! But things are about to change."
He fired another curse—one Will didn't recognize. Once again, it dissipated against Ms. Goates's Shield. Once again, her Shield seemed to weaken and she struggled to remain upright.
"As long as I draw breath," she whispered, tight-lipped, "I shall tell the world the truth about the Dread Arcanum, that it is nothing but a pathetic, twisted insult to the magical arts and a stain on my family's honor." She attempted to Stun him, but the crimson jet of light glanced off into the ceiling.
"You don't have the stomach for the kind of magic I'm willing to use against you," Argyron taunted.
"Quasso!" he cried. Once again, the curse was deflected. The lintel to one side of the entryway shattered as if a giant had stomped on it from above. Dust and plastered rained down on Ms. Goates's shoulders. Her Shield Charm collapsed completely for the second time.
"I'm only getting started!" Argyron cried. "Crucio!"
The Cruciatus Curse knocked Ms. Goates to the ground. She cried out in pain, but quickly recovered.
"Why do I even waste my time with you?" he scoffed. "Do you even know any curses?"
Ms. Goates stood up once more and brushed the dust from her robes. There was a moment's pause. Only the sound of the Vice Principal's breathing interrupted the excruciating silence.
"Precious few," she finally answered, her voice flat and even. "I find a truly resourceful witch or wizard rarely needs them." And with a subtle flick of her wand she added, "Myomorphus."
A soft white light emanated from her wand, spun and circled through the room, divided into two, then four, then eight or more whirling white comets, which each struck Argyron's Shield Charm from different angles and slowly penetrated his defense.
As soon as the first white tendril of light touched him, there was an odd sucking sound and a flash of even brighter light.
At first Will thought Argyron had disappeared. Then he saw on the ground in front of him a tiny white mouse. It squeaked frantically and bounded away from Vice Principal Goates.
Will scrambled to capture the fleeing mouse, but it slipped through his fingers and under the door at the back of the room that led into the tunnels that connected the carriage house to Osserly Hall.
"Are you boys all right?" the Vice Principal called. Will nodded. Kenny was still unconscious.
"H-how…?" Will tried to speak.
"Mr. Segola survived Mr. Lombard's attack," she said. "Nurse Choake was able to revive him long enough for him to write a note." She pulled a slip of parchment from inside her robes and handed it to Will. In big, barely legible letters, it simply said,
Rick Lombard has a gang of Dark wizards. They meet beneath the carriage house.
Will looked up at his teacher. "I expect this has been a difficult semester for you, Mr. Proctor," she said with her usual formality. At the same time, she performed a Healing Charm on his injured forehead. "I'm pleased that not everything I suspected about you has been accurate." She looked around the room at the obvious signs of a struggle and said, "Well done."
Will somehow remembered to exhale.
Ms. Goates had already turned to check on Kenny. She performed a Reviving Charm upon him, and called Will over to help her lead him up the stairs.
With Kenny under Will's care, Ms. Goates turned toward the rickety wooden door and called, "Blossom!"
A second later, there was a pop! and Blossom the elf appeared before them. She scanned the room: the overturned desks, the scorched walls, the shattered doorpost, Kenny dazedly lolling on Will's shoulder, Will's bloody face. Her eyes grew wide with wonder.
"Yes, Vice Principal, ma'am?" she squeaked.
"Blossom, there is a white mouse loose in the tunnels. You are to find it and return it to me immediately. This is very important. Enlist all of the Yunwi Tsunsdi if necessary. It is a student who has…gone astray. Do you understand?"
"Yes, Vice Principal! And we'll be sure to punish the naughty child, too!"
"No, Blossom," Ms. Goates shuddered. "Please leave punishments to the teachers."
The elf frowned, bowed, and then vanished as soon as she had appeared.
"Now, Mr. Proctor, we should go. I expect there will be people outside who are waiting to see you."