E.C. EDWARDS - The Mighty Antimagic Spell
Chapter 14 - Magic Portals and Moving Statues

Yet, she had no time to wonder more, for in a moment Johnny began to disintegrate slowly, slowly, smiling as if his gradual disappearance was something as normal as opening a door, until he completely vanished. His clothes vanished too. That mysterious tree seemed to have absorbed him. So no one could blame on Elizabeth that she was even more terrified now.

There was some very fine, tickling dust rising slightly from the girl’s left hand. The girl was terrified ... She had her reasons. How would anyone feel if his hand becomes dust instantly, after which the same thing happens to his body?

But when she felt Knudlac's palm clutching her hand gently and when she saw his soothing gaze, kinder than a father’s for his daughter, Elizabeth became much quieter.

"Don't be scared," the professor explained. We will go together in a much friendlier place, a place where you will be pleased to be. I promise."

And after he saw that the girl also answered with a big smile, Mr. Knudlac again said those words, bluntly and clearly, after which the two disappeared as Johnny did.

…

After a few seconds when Elizabeth screamed as loud as she could, only seeing black and white stripes and blinding lights through her half-open eyelids, hearing only loud and deafening noises as if she were in the middle of a hurricane, she finally heard a gentle voice saying:

“Here we are, dear. You can open your eyes now.”

The girl had both arms clasped around Mr. Knudlac. Hearing his words, she looked up and saw Mr. Green had completely vanished, leaving behind another gentleman ... Mr. Knudlac, completely different. The man was dressed in a hooded cape, dark-green, with long, dishevelled, slightly grey hair.

“We got to the other side ... or as we call it, the Enchanted and Unusual Land of the renowned Elmbridge School of Magic, where you will learn about magical transformations, spells and special and unusual incantations. Here, I am Professor Eadan Knudlac. And, among others, the director of the Elmbridge School of Magic. Besides, I am the one who teaches the courses of ...”

Anyway, the professor was interrupted by a young lady, with gracious voice like the merry song of a mermaid:

“Professor, you are awaited. The ambassador of Charles McAbsey Magic Consulate is in your office ...”

The one who interrupted him was a very beautiful woman, not more than twenty-five years old, dressed in a cape with a hood on her head, but with short sleeves, so that one could see her fine and delicate hands.

The young lady got close to the professor's ear and whispered:

“It seems that Dragoesti again attacked some members of the Consulate. One of Vlad's cousins was injured and captured, and two of his acolytes are killed. Though, our losses are higher...”

Mr. Knudlac gazed at the beautiful garden in the inner courtyard. It could be clearly seen from the expression of his face that he did not enjoy the view, but thought of something else.

“Dear Elizabeth, I have to go for a while, but my colleague Harmony Kingsley ... will show you the room where you will live and the surroundings of the Elmbridge School of Magic.”

“We will get on well, Elizabeth,” Miss Harmony agreed, obediently. And indeed, with a person with such a smile and such a warm look, it could only be… harmony.

The woman took the little girl by the hand and began to present the glamour of that magic place. In that huge courtyard of that school, of that charming palace, for Elmbridge School looked like that, at one point they came in front of a fountain. Elizabeth had never seen such a wonderful fountain before, and not because the only fountain she knew was the one made of stones laid on top of one another, from which she would draw water with Dorothy whenever their turn was to fill heavy buckets with water, but because it was a fountain as many ... have not seen.

“Miss Harmony ... were my parents at this school too?”

“Don’t know, dear. But I didn’t hear about them beiing neither as students when they were your age, nor as professors. I know they didn’t met Knudlac too often when they were alive. I think you came here because it looks like Eaden Knudlac ... is your only relative ... you know.”

Miss Harmony’s gaze let her know that the truth was too delicate for the girl to tell her. So Miss Harmony claimed she didn't know much about the Edwards' life and changed the subject.

“I’m amazed whenever I see these fountains.”

The well by which they stood was adorned with a few moving statues.

You could hardly accept that what happened was real, but those statues were indeed lively.

What Elizabeth saw was not a common artesian fountain, in which everything was static and water flowed, but statues of all kinds, shapes and sizes, winged horses, angels, sea creatures you could not even imagine if you did not see personally, and many other human or less human creatures made up the fountain, moved freely playing with water making it run continuously in various ways.

Furthermore, those statues moved their body, as if they were not built of stone, but had joints and were made of flesh and bones. However ... they were petrified.

“Gargoyle”, said Mrs. Harmony. “Magic statues came to life. You will meet them everywhere. In various forms ... Human, or mermaid, or fantastic creatures like chimeras, dragons or griffinigri.”

“What are grifinigri?”

“They have half eagle and half ... leopard body.”

The girl had a hard time imagining exactly what those creatures looked like.

"You will certainly meet them and see what they look like," Harmony answered her question obviously bugging her. All these statues make these places look as they are ... magic.

They make them more beautiful for us, and instead we provide them with the buildings to stay on. Their house is actually ... outside. You see, they like to live outside their homes. The exterior of the buildings they stick to is for them the most welcoming place they could wish for.

As the story goes, Miss Harmony showed the girl how many of these gargoyles decorated the walls and the towers of Elmbridge School. Only the living statues did not move like those in the majestic fountain, but remained motionless.

“Statues on buildings move very rarely. Only once in a while ... If you sit and stare at them for several days, you can see how sometimes a gargoyle shakes dust off top. But ... only once a few days, after which it is again still for other days. This is how a group of students from this school told me they watched day and night over these ... fantastic creatures.

The girls took part in a small show started by one of the statues, a small winged child, who took a mouthful of water from the fountain and flew to a giant, a warrior armed as if he were to face an entire army. Reaching him, the water he drank was eliminated through the bottom, annoying the giant. Even though it was water, because it could not be anything else, the giant was so furious that he tried with all might to catch with the free hand the naughty angel. The latter managed not to turn into dust, because the huge warrior had to keep the fountains on which the other statues stood with the other hand.

The girls started laughing loudly at such revelation.

"Maybe statues on the buildings are quiet because they are not touched by water," Elizabeth said, trying to understand the difference between the statues in the fountain and the others.

"I never thought of that," Miss Harmony replied, smiling. “Interesting statement. Maybe, who knows? Anyway, they are all very beautiful ...”

And the two continued their journey through the magnificent courtyard of the Elmbridge school of magic.

“Miss Harmony, can you tell me where we are and what this place actually is?”