‘Well do you have something better to do?’ he demanded, feeling silly even as he asked it.

‘Yer jus haftu ask!’ Tyre assured.

‘What do you mean?’ questioned Elizabeth, ‘ask the wall?’

Tyre chuckled softly again. ‘Nae, nut tem wull, me! Eye no awl te secret passages thrue tem Orphanage,’ he said proudly, poking himself in the furry chest. Then, without a word of warning, he darted off down a narrow hallway, his little legs pumping,and his round stomach leading the way. James and Elizabeth took off in pursuit once they realised he was gone.

‘Eye’ll sho yu mi hydin place!’ Tyre called back over his shoulder, his little feet moving at an unreal pace. He stopped suddenly, at the end of the narrow hallway, and slapped a picture of a sleeping man. Quite suddenly the wall slid back, revealing a twisting stone corridor with many hallways branching off in different directions. Tyre led them swiftly through the maze of stone until they reached another dead end; this time however, there was no picture to be slapped.

‘Is this it then?’ Elizabeth asked, huffing. James too was out of breath; shocked at how fast Tyre could move.

‘Shh,’ Tyre hushed, looking around conspicuously, as to make sure they were not followed.

‘I think it’s just us mate,’ James assured, his breathing starting to return to normal. 

Tyre nodded and turned to the wall. ‘Let me in,’ he said quietly and very clearly. The wall rumbled out of the way, to reveal a neatly decorated room with couches and bookshelves, a large desk on a platform, and several bottles of things James wasn’t sure of. The companions walked around the room in awe. James scanned the bookshelves, where numerous books on hexing and enchanting sat in some unknown order. Every kind of magic one could think of was outlined in at least one book or another.

‘How did you find this place, Tyre?’ Elizabeth asked, still astonished by the magnificent hidden room.

‘Et wus here a lang tyme ago, langer ten eye’ve ben here. I was triein ter hyde frum summ’un an eye jus stambled in here.’ 

James laughed, ‘Look at all this.’ He turned to Tyre. ‘Does anyone else know about this place?’ he asked.

 Tyre shook his head. ‘Nut ta eye no ove. Maebi Master Fletcher, bu eye dunt think aniwun else noes bout et,’ he finished, surveying the room proudly, hands on his hips.

The three spent several minutes more looking around the room for things of interest. Tyre found a small piece of lasagne he had put there two days ago – or so he announced. James found a small book entitled: The Easy Method to Charms and Enchantments, and Elizabeth found a similarly sized book: Joke Jinxes and Hilarious Hexes. They pocketed the books and Tyre took them on a short tour of the back ways and secret passages that were all over the Orphanage. James particularly liked the empty picture frame that, when jumped through, would take the jumper into a narrow hallway that lead to the dormitory wing.

Before they realised it, curfew had come and gone. A teacher patrolling the hallways being their first clue. As Tyre led them away from the teacher with a long nose, they thanked him repeatedly for showing them the secret passages.

They hurried on another way, and presently they reached the intersection that separated the path to Centaur Wing and Panther.

‘Good times,’ Elizabeth grinned at James.

‘See you tomorrow,’ he smiled, and the friends parted ways.

 Tyre trotted behind James as they hurried up to a large ugly statue that, James thought, was supposed to be a famous Wizard or something of the like, but it looked more like a melted body with amateurish symmetry and proportions.

‘How do I get in?’ James asked Tyre who was still eating the two day old cold piece of lasagna.

‘Pat te hea’ o’ ter stachyu an sae “yem look byutiful ternyght”.’ 

James gave Tyre a disbelieving look, to which the small Stone-Hound gave an encouraging nod of approval. James shrugged, resigned to trying it. Tyre hadn’t given him reason to doubt him yet. Immediately after he had said and done what Tyre had told him to, the statue slid slowly to the right and revealed a small opening into his dormitory sitting room. James smiled as he jumped out of the hidden doorway down onto the floor. 

The secret passageway stood about half a meter above the floor, and after the two were out, the statue moved swiftly back into place and a painting slid in front of the hole in the wall. James smiled to himself as he walked to a soft chair by a large window that looked out over the vast grounds. 

The sitting room was thinly populated tonight by the odd person reading or arranging things for the school year which started on the following morning. James fished out the book he had taken from the hidden room and slowly opened it, reading the dedication and the preface. Tyre hopped up onto the armrest of the chair and scratched his head.

‘Dun no why yu dit’n wan som o’ mi lazania,’ Tyre commented, looking at the book as if it were something unpleasant and completely unlike lasagne.

‘This has loads of spells in it. I reckon it’ll help me learn,’ James said, flipping through the pages and showing the book to Tyre who took it, sniffed it, then tossed it back to James.

‘Eye ner’e was gud at majik,’ Tyre explained. Laying down on his stomach, he yawned and then continued, ‘Suppase eye ner’e coud focus thoe.’

James smiled as Tyre muttered a few more complaints about his lack of skill with magic and then drifted off to sleep. James flipped through the book and marked the pages of spells he wanted to practice. He stayed up until everyone had gone to bed, and then tried a few of the spells out, with a varying rate of success. 

He managed to change a smoldering piece of wood (which sat in the open face fireplace) into a dancing nymph for a few fleeting moments before it faded back into embers. James flipped through the book again and fell upon a wrinkled page he hadn’t looked at before. There were crude directions for wand position and a few scribbled words, a dozen or so spells in messy handwriting, and a note at the bottom of the page. 

James scanned the page and saw a spell that interested him, it was a non-verbal spell that was supposed to create a sticky tar. He tried it out several times but couldn’t pull off anything. He looked at the page again and flipped it over, there were more notes, this time more readable, but at the same time more complicated. James flipped to the back of the book that was reserved for making notes, but all the pages had been filled in. On each page the writing became more fluid and more elegant, and each page held more and more complicated spells. They became so complex that James couldn’t even understand the explanations of what the spell did. 

James looked at the notes in awe, and flipped back to the wrinkled page. At the bottom there was a scribbled signature, unreadable. Nothing more than a few intersecting lines. He flipped back to where the writing was silky and graceful. At the bottom of the page, in clear, readable handwriting, was a scrolling name. 

James slapped the book closed, his eyes wide, and his breathing fast. After a moment, he walked to his dormitory and stuffed the book in the bottom of the lowest drawer of his bureau. He tried to shake off the thoughts that swirled in his head. It couldn’t have been the Horace that he and Elizabeth had met; not that cackling, insane, Warlock in the mountain. 

James tried to dispel the conjured image of Horace laughing, and hoarsely proclaiming, ‘I told yous you’ds came back, now we’ll learn secret majiks!’  

James turned over on his pillow; the snoring of the others who shared his dormitory did nothing for his sleeplessness. All he could think of was the intricate spells and the scrawling name on the old page; Horace Bleggard. 

He turned again on his pillow and fell into dreams.