The Rossem Project

A Perfect Day - Part 2

If the contents of the fifth room were terrifying to contemplate, though, the thing that occupied the sixth room was a thousand times more so.

No-one Thomas had spoken to could say for certain what was in there, but one story Thomas had heard from several independent sources was that it contained one single book. A book containing such terrible knowledge that only a handful of the very wisest wizards in the world had the mental stability and strength of will to read it without their minds being permanently warped by it. No-one ever went into that room alone, the stories went. On the thankfully rare occasions that the knowledge it contained was needed, three wizards had to go in together, one to read the appropriate passage and the other two to keep a close eye on him and drag him out the moment he showed any sign of instability. Even these precautions were apparently not always successful, though. One wizard who'd read a single page of the book, it was said, had been found dead in his rooms the next morning, apparently of a heart attack, while another wizard, on arriving back at his rooms, had taken a hot bath and quietly slashed his wrists.

Thomas smiled to himself. He half suspected that most, if not all, of these horror stories had been made up by the senior wizards themselves to discourage interest from their younger colleagues. One day he intended to find out for himself, on the wonderful day when he was considered ready to turn the pages of those dreadful books. That they contained terrible truths that could give a man bad dreams he had no doubt. The things he'd read in the Derronian Pardatano had taught him that the world contained many dark and loathsome secrets. Knowledge that maybe ought to remain lost forever (except to him, of course). But the idea that they could drive a man to such depths of horror and fear that he took his own life seemed improbable to him. What could possibly be that bad?

The fifth room was for the future, though. For now he'd have to be content with the contents of the fourth room. He looked around, glancing at the titles as he tried to choose where to start, and gave a sudden start when he realised for the first time that he was not alone. Over in the corner, sitting in one of the padded chairs and crouched low over the heavy, yellowing book that was lying open on the table in front of him, was a small, elderly man. Shriveled and shrunken by the years and wearing a heavy black cloak that hid all but his knobbly, arthritic hands and the balding top of his head. He looked up as he heard the shuffling of Thomas's feet and the younger wizard opened his mouth to utter an apology, realising that the old man had probably come here for some peace and quiet. Before he could speak, though, he gave a second start. He recognised this old man, or at least he thought he did.

"Excuse me, sir," he ventured hesitantly, "but are you Elmias Pastin?"

"I am indeed," replied the old man, squinting at the newcomer through a pair of thick lensed glasses. "What can I do for you?"

"Er, nothing, I wasn't looking for you or anything. I was just surprised to see you, that's all. You probably don't remember me. My name is Thomas Gown and I used to be one of your apprentices."

"One of my apprentices, eh?" said Elmias in his thin, wheezy voice. Now that Thomas was closer, he could see that his face, hanging in loose folds from his skull, was a tangled mass of broken blood vessels. He looked old, really old, and Thomas reminded himself that he'd been getting on in years back when he'd been one of his teachers, and that had been a quarter of a century before! "Well, young man, I have had many apprentices. Many, many apprentices. What, may I ask, makes you think..." He paused, and his eyes seemed to glaze over as if he was trying to remember something. "Thomas Gown you say. Now that you mention it, the name does seem to... If only I could remember..."

"I graduated twenty five years ago," prompted Thomas. "Back in ninety eight. I cast an invisible servant spell in the fifth year common room to complete my final test. You saw me off when I left on a flying carpet with my friends; a nome and a demi shae."