Mostly Ghostly Chapter 1

"Reeve, pass me the bowl."

I looked over to the table. Twenty bowls sat all lined up on the edge; not very safe, considering what was inside.

"Which one?" I asked.

Maddie looked up impatiently from the long, thin table where she was working.

"Reeve," she said testily, "we’ve been over this fifty times. Nineteenth from the left, remember? Not second from the right though, that’s different. Got it now?" She glared at me in that especially evil way of hers, the one that makes you want whatever she wants because you suddenly remember that she is a sorceress-in-training, and could do some pretty unpleasant things to you. I hopped to it.

Now, personally, I didn’t see any difference between being nineteenth from the left and second on the right, but to make Maddie happy, I counted out loud for her benefit and brought back the nineteenth bowl to her. She took it without looking at me held it in front of her, eyeing the concoction inside. She sniffed it, then nodded, satisfied.

"Thank you, Reeve. You managed to get it right." She turned away, back to her Sorcerer’s Handbook for Intermediate Students, the one thing she was never without.

"Yes, very good job, Reeve," called a voice from the rafters. "You finally learned to count."

I looked up and glared at Gervaise, who was hanging upside down from the rafters. She glared right back at me, and I felt chilly all over. That’s the problem of fighting with a ghost; you just can’t win. Especially when she knows a little magic.

Gervaise was the castle ghost, and incredibly annoying. She was always trying to get me in trouble, and when she did, Maddie refused to see my side of the argument. That was because, of course, Gervaise had been "so kind" and "generous" to let Maddie use her castle and her father’s old spell supplies inside. Actually, what had happened is nobody in the whole Enchanter’s Guild wanted Gervaise’s castle because she tended to wail dramatically and be destructive whenever she got mad, and so Maddie got it at a cheap price. Luckily, she knew how to get along with Gervaise, a talent I would probably lack my entire life.

I felt a breeze and in the corner of my eye saw Gervaise move closer to the table Maddie was working at. Maddie was mixing the potion in the bowl with her index finger and muttering a spell. After a few minutes, she stopped, blew her dark bangs out of her face and called to me.

"Alright, Reeve," she said, "pull back the sheet."

I pulled the sheet that had been covering the table and everything on it with a flick of my wrist and gaped. It was a human skeleton. I wrinkled my nose. Maddie did the weirdest things sometimes. It seemed most humans, as a rule, were hard to understand, but sorcerers were impossible. I am human, by the way, but raised by goblins. It’s a long story.

I looked up at Gervaise, who was now hanging from the chandelier above the table and had made herself transparent so as not to block the light. Maddie hated people in her light.

"Hey, Gervaise," I whispered. "Anybody you know? A friend, relation, the last person you drove nuts?"

Gervaise refrained from looking at me and instead studied her fingernails. "Oh dear, you’ve found me out," she replied. "Maddie, do you need another skeleton?"

"Quiet, you two. This is the hardest part." I hurried to help Maddie. She handed me the bowl.

I took it, and looked a little nervously at the skeleton. "Doesn’t this count as necromancy or something?" I asked.

"Of course not. Why would I do something like that? That’s just… disgusting. Ugh." Maddie raised a lip in disgust and momentarily stared into the distance, picturing the scene. She shivered and came back to the present.

"Stop distracting me, Reeve. Hold this very steady, and don’t drop it, no matter what," she instructed, and turned to face the skeleton. "And Gervaise, don’t say a word." She flicked her eyes towards the chandelier, and Gervaise smiled sweetly back. "Actually, let me rephrase that. Don’t make a sound, Gervaise. Alright, here goes." She held one hand over the skeleton and dipped her finger into the bowl with the other. Then she nodded at her handbook and it floated in front of her so she could read it. Maddie cleared her throat and read aloud.

"Rutabaga, parsnip, head and eye of eft, mixed together in a bowl, the nineteenth from the left."

Well, what do you know? I guess it did matter which bowl.

"Apple peel, old shoe heel, tears of one in strife; I command you, at this moment, bring these bones to life!" Maddie smiled victoriously. An expectant silence filled the tower. Maddie frowned, then repeated the last lines.

"Apple peel, old shoe heel, tears of one in strife; I command you, at this moment, bring these bones to life!" Nothing happened. Maddie scowled and looked to her handbook.

"Oh, I see!" she exclaimed after reading for a few moments. She dipped her hand into the mixture and trailed it over the skeleton, wetting every bone with it. When she was finished, she nodded. "I thought it didn’t look right. Alright, here we go again. Quiet, please." Gervaise raised her eyebrows at me and I rolled my eyes back. My master, sorceress-in-training extraordinaire.

Maddie spread her hands once more and called out the spell.

"Rutabaga, parsnip, heart and eye of eft, mix together in a bowl, the nineteenth from the left. Apple peel, old shoe heel, tears of one in strife; I command you, at this moment, bring these bones to life!" Maddie looked triumphantly around as things began to happen.

The potion glowed green on the skeleton’s bones and soaked in, until it seemed the bones were glowing. A wind sprang up inside the tower and blew in circles around the table, whipping our clothes around. The skull opened its mouth and a yell came out, first soft, like it was far away, then closer and closer, until it filled the whole room. Gervaise covered her ears and if I hadn’t been holding the bowl, I would have too.

Suddenly every bone on the table began shaking and clattering something awful. The skeleton was starting to fall apart. Maddie threw herself on top of it, trying to pin it down.

"Reeve!" she shouted at me. "Hold it down! It has to stay together!"

I practically threw the bowl at Gervaise, who caught it, luckily, and threw myself onto the skeleton’s legs. They jittered under me like they were trying to get free, and I could feel the vibrations in my own bones. I put all my weight on the skeleton, holding it down. I looked to see how Maddie was doing.

She was frowning angrily at it as she struggled to keep everything together. Finally, it seemed as though she had had enough.

"WILL YOU JUST BEHAVE PLEASE!" She shouted over the clamor of the wind, the yelling, and the rattling of the bones.

It must have worked, because suddenly everything stopped moving. The skeleton’s jaw closed and the shouting stopped. Even the wind stopped. None of us moved.

I felt Gervaise glide up behind me. "Is it dead?" she asked apprehensively.

I rolled my eyes at her and she frowned.

"You know what I mean."

Suddenly the skeleton sat up, almost hitting Maddie, who had was still sitting on its chest. She gave a very un-sorceresslike shriek and fell backwards into me, knocking the both of us off the table. I would have slammed right into the hard stone tower floor with Maddie on top of me, but luckily Gervaise caught me right before I did. Maddie and I both quickly rose to our feet and stared across the table top.

The skeleton was sitting upright, staring right back at us with its empty eye sockets.

No one said a word.

The skeleton made a sound, like it was clearing its throat, and then held out its hand to Maddie.

"How do you do?" it asked, in a man’s voice. It looked down at its hand and gave a little jump, as if surprised. I think it had only just noticed it was a skeleton.

"Well," said the skeleton. "This is new."

Maddie found her voice. "How do you do?" she asked, nervously extending her hand out to it.

"Oh, I am ever so sorry," said the skeleton. "Where are my manners? How do you do." It shook her hand.

"How do you do," Gervaise said formally as she floated down to the floor beside me. "I am Lady Gervaise de Montmar, and this is my castle. How are you?" She held out her hand regally.

The skeleton quickly shook it and slid off the table. "Well, milady, I couldn’t really say. I haven’t ever been… well, deceased before."

Gervaise wrinkled her nose at him. "Yes, you have, you’ve been dead for at least two hundred fifty years, which still makes me older than you. And by the way, you-"

"This is fantastic!" Maddie interrupted, her enthusiasm suddenly returning with vigor. "I can’t believe it! It worked! How do you feel? Normal? Good! Ha, Reeve, just wait until I tell the Enchanter’s Council about this!"

"Oh, madam!" said the skeleton, getting down on one knee before Maddie. "Are you the one responsible for my return to the living world?"

"I am indeed!" Maddie answered proudly, then stuck out her hand to him. "Well, sort of," she added. "You see, you’re not technically… alive. I just animated your bones and gave you a character. We needed a butler, you see. I’m the only one who can cook, but I’m too busy studying most of the time."

She must’ve been using "cooking" in the loosest sense of the word, I thought.

"I’m Maddie, by the way," she added. The skeleton took her hand and brought it to his mouth as though kissing it, and Maddie’s flushed face turned even redder.

"Madam, I thank you from the bottom of-" he looked down at his chest, then back to Maddie. "-I thank you from my very bones, and I am eternally in your debt for this." He stood up and kissed her hand again.

"He didn’t kiss my hand," I heard Gervaise mutter behind me.

"You are welcome." Maddie replied imperially to the skeleton, then gestured towards me. "This is Reeve, my apprentice." The skeleton turned to face me.

The skeleton put out a hand and I shook it. "Nice to meet you."

"Do you have a name, sir?" Maddie asked. The skeleton nodded.

"Yes, I’m-" he stopped suddenly, and I noticed above his eyes were two tiny marks like that shadows of eyebrows that pointed downwards, like he was frowning.

"Hmmm," he said, "That’s strange. I don’t remember my name. You wouldn’t happen to know it, would you, madam?"

"No, I’m sorry. But I’m sure we’ll come up with something..." Maddie said reassuringly.

"How about Yorrick?" I asked. I had read a play once with a Yorrick in it, and it seemed appropriate.

Maddie frowned slightly. "Why not something more… original. What about-"

"How about Derrick?" interrupted Gervaise, who had resumed her perch on the chandelier.

"Derrick?" I asked incredulously. "Why would we ever name him that?"

"Why not?" Gervaise retorted. "There used to be a minstrel named Derrick who came around once a year, and he always brought me thing. It’s a nice name, and I, for one, like it. What do you think, Maddie?"

Maddie raised an eyebrow and looked at the skeleton. She thought for a moment, and then shrugged.

"Well, I really don’t see why not. I think that’ll work fine, don’t you, Derrick?" Maddie asked briskly.

"Whatever you desire, madam." He answered.

"Good," said Maddie. "Now, Derrick, would you mind cooking something this late? I’m absolutely starving."

"Of course not, madam. It’s the least I can do."

"That’s terrific," Maddie smiled. "Reeve, can you show Derrick where the kitchen is?"

I nodded. "Alright. Follow me, Derrick," I said, and led him from the room, with Gervaise floating regally behind us.