This must mean that the prank spell had finished now. Corkoran took the noise-abatement spell off his ears and thankfully climbed the stairs – which had a clean, sand-blasted look to them – on his way to bed.
At the top, he encountered Wizard Dench the Bursar. Dench came shuffling across the landing wearing old slippers and a moth-eaten grey dressing gown. “Oh, there you are, Corkoran,” he said. “I’d been to your rooms to look for you.” For some reason, Dench was carrying a black cockerel upside down by its legs.
Corkoran stared at it, wondering if Dench was taking up black magic and if he ought to sack Dench on the spot. “Dench,” he said, “why are you carrying a black chicken by its legs?”
“On the farm when I was a boy,” Dench replied, “we always carried them this way. It’s the best way to capture them. That’s why I was coming to look for you. I don’t know if I was dreaming or not – I was certainly asleep – but while it was climbing through my window, I got the idea it was a man. But when I woke up and looked, it was a cockerel. Running everywhere, making a dreadful noise. What do you think I should do with it?”
“Wring its neck, I should think,” said Corkoran. “It’s only another student joke. The kitchen might be glad of it.”
“Er – well – in that case,” said Dench. “That’s why I came away from the farm. I can’t bear to wring necks. Could you – er—?”
He held the hapless cock out to Corkoran. As Corkoran sighed and reached out to take it, the bird began twisting about, flapping its wings and screaming. Almost as if it understood, Corkoran thought.
“Hang on,” he said. He seized a flailing wing and murmured the spell of enquiry again. “What are you?” he asked.
“An assassin of Ampersand,” the bird replied. “And my curse on you for causing me to break my oath! A thousand, thousand curses—”
“Shut up,” said Corkoran. “It’s another one of them, Dench. I caught one just now on the stairs. They must be partners. I think someone knew they were coming and set up traps for them. Not to worry. I know how to deal with them now.” He rapidly shrank the cockerel to the size of a bumble-bee, caught it as it whirred free from Dench’s fingers, and stuffed it into a bag made of Inescapable Net, which he sent to join the other one hanging from the light fitment. “There. Now we can both go to bed.”
“But, Corkoran!” Dench exclaimed. “We could be dead in our beds!”
As Dench spoke, there was a thunderous banging on the main doors below. Dench clutched at Corkoran’s arm, and Corkoran said, “Oh, what now?”
“Corkoran! Dench!” It was Finn’s voice, amplified by magic. “Are you all right in there?”
Corkoran remembered that the doors had locked behind him. He went galloping down the stairs, with Dench in his slippers flip-flopping after. When he reached the place where the pit had been, there was such a stench of oranges that Corkoran automatically detoured in case the pit opened again. It had seemed to close, but he was taking no chances. Dench, however, flip-flopped safely straight through the spot and clasped Corkoran’s arm again.
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