Free Return to Groosham Grange by Anthony Horowitz Page A

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    The lower floor was empty, the ground strewn with rubble, a few nettles and poisonous herbs poking through. David sniffed the air. Although it was faint, there was something that he recognized, a smell that was at once familiar and yet strange. There was a sound somewhere high above, a sort of fluttering and a high-pitched whine. Ahead of him, a stone staircase climbed upward, spiraling around on itself. David knew that the whole building was condemned, that any one of the stone slabs could crumble and send him crashing to certain death. But there was no other way. He had no choice.
    He began to climb the stairs. The East Tower was six hundred feet high. The staircase, pinned precariously to the outer wall, seemed to go on forever and David was beginning to get dizzy when at last he found himself at the top. There was a coin in his pants pocket and on an impulse he flicked it over his shoulder, into the hole at the center of the stairs.
    “One . . . two . . . three . . . four . . . five . . .”
    It was a long time before the coin reached the bottom and tinkled on the concrete floor below.
    Something moved. David heard a thin clatter like two pieces of cardboard being ruffled against each other. One step at a time, he moved across the concrete flagstones of the upper chamber. He had forgotten to put on any socks and he could feel the frozen air writhing around his ankles. For a second time he heard the strange, high-pitched whining. It was some sort of animal. What animal? What was this place?
    He was in a completely circular room. Two of the narrow windows, quite close to each other, had moldered, and now there was only a large, irregular gap. Opposite this, right up against the wall, there was a long wooden table with what looked like two or three baskets on top. Also on the table were an open book, a pile of paper, two candles, a quill pen and a leather-bound book.
    David whispered three words. The candles ignited.
    It was easier after that. David crossed over to the table and picked up one of the baskets. He felt something flutter between his hands. The front of the basket was a barred door, closed with a twist of wire. David looked inside and now saw what the animal was. A bat. Blind and frightened, it tried to fly, ricocheting off the sides of the cage.
    What was Vincent doing with a collection of bats? David put down the cage and went over to the book. He scooped it up and examined it. It was an old exercise book, each page packed with writing so cramped and tiny that it was unreadable. David flicked through the pages. At last he arrived at a section he could read in the light of the candles. A poem:
    Beware the shadow that is found
Stretching out across the ground
Where Saint Augustine once began
And four knights slew a holy man
For if the Grail is carried here
Then Groosham Grange will disappear
    The Grail! Groosham Grange . . . What did it all mean?
    David concentrated on the text. Saint Augustine. He was the man who had brought Christianity to England in the first century. But where had he begun? David racked his brain, trying to remember his history lessons with Miss Pedicure. Augustine had first landed in Thanet, Kent. But that wasn’t right. Of course . . . it was Canterbury! Canterbury Cathedral where four knights had slain Thomas à Becket during the reign of Henry II. Suddenly it was all crystal clear.
    Carry the Unholy Grail into the shadow of Canterbury Cathedral and the school would disappear!
    So that was what Vincent was planning. He wanted to destroy the school and had learned that the only way to do it was to get his hands on the Grail. But first he had to get rid of David—and he had done that brilliantly, baiting him to start with, then framing him and finally cheating him. In just three days’ time, Vincent would be presented with his prize. And what then? Somehow he would smuggle it off the island. He would carry it to Canterbury. And then . . .
    But what about the bats?
    David put