Eleazar Goodenough
and the Mystery of the Scrying Inkwell

by Jerry Grimes

Chapter 13 - Breakfast with Spellbinder

Eleazar had a restless night. He dreamed that Wizards of the past were calling out to him, but he couldn't quite grasp what they were saying. They seemed to be warning him from taking a certain action, but what it was all about was just a muddle of whispered memories. Then he heard a loud, very clear voice: "Uncle Tory! Wake up!"

Eleazar opened his eyes and saw his friends looking down at him. Darcy was shaking him and saying "Uncle Tory! Wake up!" Carmen was there, too, looking concerned.

"What happened?" asked Eleazar.

"You were having a nightmare, I think," said Carmen. "Were we right to wake you?"

"Yes," admitted Eleazar, "but I wish you wouldn't call me Uncle Tory, Darcy. I'm not your uncle. I just have the memories he left behind."

"Sorry," said Darcy.

"That's O.K.," said Eleazar. "We'd better go down to breakfast. I need to talk this over with Professor Spellbinder."

"The rest of you children go down to breakfast," said a familiar voice behind them.

Jolly jumped. "Dragon's breath, professor! You really know how to scare a person!"

"Sorry, Jolly," said Professor Spellbinder. "Professor Goodenough and I need to talk privately, if you don't mind. We'll have our breakfast in my office and catch up with you later."

As soon as they were alone, Eleazar began telling Phineas all that had taken place the previous night, and by the time they reached the office door that had the carved letters "Spellbinder" on it, he had begun to describe what he remembered of his nightmare. Inside his office, Phineas led Eleazar to a pair of French doors that led out onto his own private balcony on the side of the castle. A table was set for breakfast on the balcony, and they sat a moment to absorb the magnificent view before Phineas cleared his throat to speak.

"I didn't expect the memories of who you were to start coming back for at least another few years," said Phineas. "In my case, they didn't come until I was fourteen years old and I could handle it better at that age."

"You were a reincarnate, too?" asked Eleazar in amazement.

"That's an unfortunate name for it," said Phineas. "It's not reincarnation. It's just that some Wizards have a way of passing on their memories to future generations. In my case, I have the memories of only one ancient Wizard named Le'Mage. You seem to have a long chain of Wizards' memories dating back to prehistoric times. Your meeting and talking with Darcy seems to have triggered the memories of the most recent of those Wizards, Darcy's uncle Tory Thurmond. That in turn may have triggered the other memories inside you."

"The nightmares?" asked Eleazar.

Phineas nodded.

"What can I do about it?" asked Eleazar.

"Just knowing about it is enough for now," said Phineas. "You will have to control the memories to keep them from trying to come back all at once. When you are ready to have another memory return, go into Tory's memory and find out what he knows about the Wizard that preceded him. Then allow that Wizard's memory to return, but only that Wizard. If they all flood in, they can overwhelm you and make you insane. Your friends were right to wake you from your nightmare. Talk to them and let them know what to do if it happens again. You are fortunate to have such good friends. You will need them to help you get through this.

"Having the memories of Tory Thurmond awaken inside you is actually a good thing. Tory was a good man and a good Wizard. He didn't fit in with the rest of his family. If you can use his memories to influence Darcy, you'll be doing the boy a great favor. Now let's have some of this delicious breakfast before it gets cold."

* * *

Eleazar didn't get to talk to his friends in private until later in the evening. They secretly met in Carmen's room after homework hour so she wouldn't be the one to get in trouble if they were discovered. Eleazar told them about what was happening to him and how they could help him by waking him up if he had any more nightmares. Then he got off the subject and reminded them that the next day was Saturday and they had planned to hike up the mountain behind the Castle.

"What should we bring?" asked Jolly.

"We'll need a picnic lunch," suggested Carmen. "I can take care of that."

"I'll need to bring my pendulum," said Darcy. "You said I should try it out on the mountain."

"Jolly, can you be in charge of keeping Hareek out of trouble?" asked Eleazar.

"Hareek is no trouble," said Jolly.

"No, but sometimes he goes flying off on his own and you need to whistle for him when he does. I don't want him running into any hawks or large birds that might hurt him," said Eleazar.

"You mean like that big eag..."

"Exactly!" said Eleazar, cutting him off so he wouldn't say 'eagle' in front of Darcy.

"What are you bringing, E.G.?" asked Darcy.

"I'm bringing this empty bottle Phineas gave me to replace my inkwell," said Eleazar. "I'm going to try to find the Fountain of Knowledge and use it to make ink for scrying."

"The Fountain of Knowledge?" asked Jolly. "I've heard about that. I thought that was someplace in Florida."

"That's the Fountain of Youth," said Eleazar. "The Fountain of Knowledge is hidden right on our own mountain in back of the Academy. That's why they built the castle on this spot."

Suddenly Darcy got down off the bed they all were sitting on and raced out the door, slamming it behind him.

"What's that all about?" asked Carmen.

"Maybe he had to go to the boys' room," suggested Jolly.

"No," said Eleazar. "Darcy is troubled about something and I think I know what it is. You two say goodnight and Jolly, you head back to our room. I'm going after Darcy to have a little talk with him."

Eleazar found Darcy crouched in a corner at the end of the long hall on the boy's side of the Castle.

"Go away, Professor," said Darcy. "I don't want to hurt you."

"I know that, Darcy. You're my friend. Why else would you have awakened me from my nightmare? If you had wanted to hurt me, you would have just let me dream on."

"I can't be friends with you," said Darcy. "He wouldn't like it."

"Your father?" asked Eleazar.

Darcy nodded.

"He told you to break my inkwell on the roof where he was sure I'd find it, didn't he?" asked Eleazar.

Again Darcy just nodded.

"Do you know why?" asked Eleazar.

Darcy shook his head.

"Your Uncle Tory's memories told me what he is up to," said Eleazar. "He wants me to make a new inkwell. The old inkwell was given to me as a birthday present on my first birthday. It was made by another Wizard, so it has none of my memories in it. When I make a new inkwell, some of my memories will be fused with the ink and that's what he wants to get his hands on. He wants to know if the memories of his brother, Tory, are inside me. He suspects so, but he can't be sure until he gets some of the ink."

"He told me to keep an eye on you and if you made a trip up the mountain I was to call him and then follow you up there," said Darcy, rubbing his face.

"And that's exactly what you should do," said Eleazar, "but instead of following me, you should come up the mountain with me as my friend. How are you supposed to call him?"

"I just say his name out loud over and over again," said Darcy. "Then he turns into the eagle and flies to my window."

"We'll make a slight change in plans," said Eleazar. "Suppose you don't call him until we have started up the mountain. You can say you just learned of my plans and called him when you started to follow me. We have to travel single file up the mountain, so you can be last in the line as if you were following us. OK? Is that a plan?"

Darcy nodded. "You promise you won't do any thing to hurt him," said Darcy. "After all, he is my father."

"I promise," said Eleazar. "I just want to teach him a lesson, that's all. But your friend Hareek is terribly frightened of eagles, so when your father appears, you and Jolly do your best to protect Hareek, OK?"

Darcy nodded. "OK," he said. "I won't let anything happen to Hareek."

"Then we'd better get to bed," said Eleazar. "Tomorrow we have a mountain to climb!"

To be concluded next month...

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