Soul Stealer (28 page)

As quickly as it started, so did the flare die down. The transformer continued to burn, the steel casing dripping like wax
into the grass, which began to smolder.

Pip climbed down from the Land Rover roof. Tim walked over to her and helped her down.

“High five, sis!” he said jubilantly.

They jumped in the air, their right hands clapping together.

“And this is?” Sebastian inquired imperturbably. “You’ll learn, my man!” Tim retorted. “You’ll learn.”

Mr. and Mrs. Ledger sat in silence before the television as the
News at Ten
introductory music faded and the anchorman came on.

“Our top story tonight,” he began. “A nuclear emergency at the Jasper Point power station was averted this afternoon by the
swift actions of three secondary school pupils who happened to be on a guided tour of the facility at the time.” The screen
was filled with a wide shot of the power station. “According to an official spokesman, a cover on reactor-A was blown off,
causing the release of carbon dioxide gas. The pupils not only succeeded in evacuating their fellow classmates from the danger
area, but were also instrumental in containing much of the released gas within the reactor building. However, the two teachers
accompanying the school party were killed. An official spokesman said this was regrettable. Both men were standing very close
to the gas escape. A pupil is still missing and inquiries are continuing. The public have been reassured that there is no
danger of radioactive contamination from the incident.”

The picture changed to Tim, Pip and Sebastian standing by the school bus with the police officers.
“The pupils, twins Timothy and Phillipa Ledger, and their friend, Sebastian Gillette, were praised by the rescue services
and power station staff for their quick thinking. Dr. Singall, headmaster of Bourne End Comprehensive School in the town of
Exington, which the trio attend, stated that they were a credit to the school.”

Mrs. Ledger put her arms around Pip and Sebastian. Tim, sitting in an armchair, grinned expansively.

“We’re so proud of you!” she said, with a catch in her voice. She smiled at Sebastian and tousled his hair. “All three of
you,” she added.

“Thank you very much, Mrs. Ledg— Sandra,” Sebastian replied.

The picture on the TV screen changed to a brief interview with Dr. Singall standing on the area of short lawn outside the
school gates, the school name board beside him.

“This is what we expect of our pupils,” he said, looking at the interviewer to one side of the camera lens. “They are a credit
to their school and young people in general.”

The camera focus pulled back to show the school buildings.

Tim looked at Sebastian, then at Pip, then at the television screen. They had all seen the same thing.

In his hand, Dr. Singall was clearly holding a gold noble while, in the distance, in the top branches of the horse chestnut
tree across the playground, was perched a black shape.

It was definitely not a crow. For a start, it had pointed ears and yellow feet…

It was late afternoon. Leaves drifted down from the trees. On the river, half a dozen mallards were swimming in and out of
a reed bed on the opposite bank, up-tailing in the shallows. The bulrushes had gone to seed, their mace-like heads breaking
up into fluffs of gossamer drifting away on the breeze.

“Think we’ll get a medal?” Tim wondered as he lowered himself down next to his sister on the bench in the Garden of Eden.
Then, putting on a plummy voice, he continued, “‘And what have you done, young man?’ I fought off evil and saved a nuclear
power station, Your Majesty. ‘I say, jolly good show, what! Arise, Sir Timothy.’”

“Single-handed, was it?” Pip said sarcastically.

“Only joking,” Tim assured her. “If there’s medals, there will have to be three of them.”

“Do you think we shall hear of Yoland again? Or de Loudéac?”

“After they’ve been radiated, frozen stiff and fried? I think not. That’s pretty final, don’t you think?”

Sebastian, who had been at the far end of the copse, approached them.

“The climate is indeed very different from my childhood,” he remarked. “There are both orpine and southernwood in flower on
the meadow rim. Both should bloom in July and fruit in August yet now, in late autumn, their buds are opening.”

“How’re you feeling?” Tim inquired.

“In what respect?”

“Don’t you feel sleepy? Isn’t it time to pay a trip to hibernation land?”

Sebastian sat down next to Pip. One of the mallards took to the wing, circled once over the copse and settled back on the
river with the others.

“I have been considering that,” Sebastian admitted. “By all intents and purposes, I should by now have withdrawn to my slumber,
and yet I have no desire so to do. I have, I sense, some other matter to address.”

“Dr. Singall?”

“I think not,” Sebastian declared. “It is true he possesses one of Yoland’s nobles, and yet I do not feel great evil surrounding
him and it will exercise no power with Yoland gone.” He looked out across the meadow. “This is a most beautiful location.
It was ever thus is my early days.”

“Strange how such beauty can hide such wickedness,” Pip observed.

“It is always thus. Remember what I have said. One cannot have a light without a darkness in which to put it. Without evil,
how can there be goodness?”

Pip got to her feet. The edgy mallard took to the wing again, its neck outstretched, its feet tucked in and its wings working
hard to gain altitude.

“Time for tea and scones,” she announced.

“And potassium iodide pills…” Tim went on, crinkling his nose “… the price of being radiated.” He held up his dosimeter badge.
“Now is that a souvenir or what?”

“I could perhaps prepare an alternative infusion of vulnerary herbs,” Sebastian said meditatively, “… hare’s foot, comfrey,
plantain, with common kelp…”

The look on Pip and Tim’s faces was sufficient to give Sebastian an answer.

They reached the gate by the coach house.

“So,” Pip said as she opened the latch, “it seems you’ll be here for a while longer.”

“Indeed it does,” Sebastian answered. “For better or for worse.”

Soul Steader
Reader’s Guide

Like its companion book,
Doctor Illuminatus, “Soul Stealer
merges present and past and science and suspense as it explores the ancient practice of alchemy. Here are some questions
that probe further into the many deep (and dark) layers of this novel.

1) Sebastian reminds Pip and Tim of the main aims of alchemy: to make a homunculus, turn common metals into gold, and achieve
immortality. He mentions a number of potions and elixirs throughout the book, including
caput mortuum, aqua soporiferum, elixir vitae,
and
aurum potabile.
How does each of these terms relate to alchemy? Do you agree that alchemy has a valid purpose? Why or why not?

2) Tim describes his homeroom teacher,Yoland, as a “murderer, a mind-bender, and a traitor.” How does Yoland fit each characteristic
of this three-part description?

3) Pip and Tim are faced with the challenge of converting the fifteenth century—born Sebastian into a regular twenty-first-century
kid. What are some of the “modern” words they teach him? Are these words still used today? Which are used in England only,
and which are used in both England and the U.S.? What are some other steps Pip and Tim take when they give Sebastian a makeover?
What other steps would you take to make him fit in at your school?

4) When Tim suggests to Sebastian, “Can’t you sort of use magic to make your way [to school]? Turn up as a bird and change
into human mode in a stall in the boys’ room or behind the bike sheds?” Sebastian says that this is possible, but not wise.
Describe Sebastian’s powers. What kinds of responsibilities go along with using those powers? Why do you think he chooses
not to follow Tim’s suggestion, but cures Julia of her warts?

5) Sebastian alludes to several figures from British history, including Queen Elizabeth, Queen Victoria, Queen Anne, Queen
Joan, the Duke of Gloucester, Henry IV, and Henry V. Based on the descriptions of these figures from the text — and on your
own research — which is the most interesting figure to you? Why?

6) Sebastian describes to Tim and Pip some ancient medicinal practices used in his father’s time. Since it was believed that
noxious odors caused disease — and that the risk of infection was reduced if they could be counteracted with a pleasant smell
— people carried lemons and other fruit with them, often pierced with cloves, to produce a strong and beneficial scent. Sebastian
also mentions that a powder of dessicated sowbugs taken with warm milk was used to help ease stomachaches. What unusual ancient
medicinal practices can you think of that are used today?

7) Sebastian tells Pip that what she sees through the camera obscura is her chimera, “the beast of your fears and nightmares.”
What other meanings of “chimera” are
mentioned in the book? Look up “chimera” in the dictionary — what different meanings of the word do you find there?

8) When Tim goes fishing, he is startled to see not one but several Scrottons. Sebastian explains that, like a butterfly,
replicates of the original Scrotton emerge from the shell of a chrysalis. How does this process of creating replicates of
one species compare to the process of cloning as we know it today? In your opinion, what are the positive and negative effects
of creating replicates/cloning in this book and in real life?