Wizard (Troy Sanders Book 1)

6: In the Sanders Manor

The Sanders Estate manor house was as big as the entire property combined. Okay, that was an exaggeration; but it was really big though. It was a three-story mansion with balconies outside each window.

Either the lady of the house was around or Grandpa Blake had a big thing for gardening cos all around, beautiful flowers could be seen, their scents hanging heavily around the house in a sweet manner.

The front door- which looked like they were made out of incredible steel by the way- led to a really large room like a conference hall; Grandpa Blake referred to it as the receiving room. There was a large chandelier hanging from the ceiling and many candelabra like the ones in medieval-set movies.

The room was a little dark as the sun had almost entirely set when we arrived at the manor. “Told them to always keep this place lit,” Grandpa Blake said before taking a pinch of some sort of powdery substance and spraying into the air.

I half-expected the powder to fall to the ground and just make all of us feel dusty but the particles floated in the air for a little while before settling on the wick of the candles. Immediately the particles touched the wicks, they became lit almost as if by an invisible match. Guess that's another aspect of the powerful art. Cool too.

Just then, the helps came out to greet us. From the way they were treating me, it was no secret that they knew exactly who I was; plus they kept calling me “Master Troy,” making me feel like fifty or something.

“Get the boy settled in his room,” Grandpa Blake instructed them after he finally got them to stop with all the fawning and fussing.

“This way, Master Troy,” said a woman who looked fifty or fifty-five years old; she later introduced herself as Maggie.

I followed Maggie up the stairs to the second floor, glancing at the pictures on the way. The pictures appeared to have been arranged from the oldest to the most recent so I was able to see each member of the family as they grew. The very ancient ones appeared to have been taken down because the ones I saw were mostly of family members still alive and kicking; and if dead, hadn't gone into the “I’ve been here way too long” phase of decaying. At least that was what I deduced from Maggie’s explanation.

I saw Oliver, my father, from the time that he was a baby to the most recent time he took a photo and it made me envy the kind of complete family he had in his childhood I mean, how could a man who had a complete family growing up deny his own son of the same privilege? Well, that was something Oliver and I would have to discuss; whenever he finally found the time to come visit, that is.

As I looked at the pictures more and more, I learnt more about the family, especially about the man called Blake Sanders- Trust me, that chap might be the most mysterious person I’ve ever met but the love he had for his family was damn well real.

I thanked Maggie when she led me to my room and I pretended to study a painting to avoid responding when she said, “The room was your father’s.”

The bedroom was exquisite to say the least. It was painted in the natural color of stone walls; whatever that colour was. It had a fireplace, a recliner, a round table, and a queen size bed. There was also a flat screen TV and an Xbox with cool consoles just waiting to be used; not that I could picture Oliver sitting back on the recliner and handling a console from the recent images I saw of him- that guy really had to be most stoical person alive, and I only got that from the pictures.

For some reason, I was kinda glad he wasn’t around to help me grow up. I mean, what kind of person would I have become if he did?

Quickly, I got down to changing my clothes and would have been done with it earlier if I hadn’t spotted a shadow moving along the wall. I looked around for the cause of the shadow but couldn’t find it.

Suddenly, the shadow stepped out of the wall and became a living breathing cat right in front of me. I couldn’t control myself as I jumped on the bed and screamed like a big girl.

Immediately, Grandpa Blake and a few of the helps burst into the room, no doubt ready to “magic” the problem away. Quickly, I pointed the cat to them but got confused when Grandpa Blake started laughing.

“Jarvis is the family cat,” he said, still laughing.

“He jumped out of the freaking wall!” I screamed in anger, still unable to contain myself.

“That’s because he’s a shadow cat, son,” he replied, making a “Duh!” face.

“Shadow cat?” I repeated as if that was the first time I'd heard that word in my life, which it kinda was. “Isn’t that supposed to be a nickname or something?”

“Welcome to the world of magic, Troy,” he said as he scooped Jarvis off the floor to give him a light stroking which resulted in a gentle purr from the cat.

Dropping him on the table, he said, “He’s not gonna hurt you. He has been in the family for years so he’s fiercely loyal.”

Grandpa Blake left the room afterwards, saying he wanted to give Jarvis and me some space to get to know each other.

Needless to say, Jarvis wasn't the typical family house cat you see. For starters, he looked more like a miniature lion than a fluffy pet that got carried around all day. He was bluish-black; more blue than black in the room’s light. He had massive green eyes with jet-black pupils that at first glance were really scary. But when you looked at them long enough, they became kinda adorable.

I was feeling hungry at the time and not wanting to spend another second with Jarvis the “shadow cat”, I wore my white T-shirt and got into my sneakers as fast as I could, sprinting down to the dining room and hoping like crazy that another magic surprise wasn’t waiting for me.

Grandpa Blake was the only person I met in the dining room when I arrived and he sure as hell wasn’t waiting for anyone before digging in- So much for table etiquette, huh grandpa?

“Where’s everyone?” I asked, taking the seat closest to him.

“Just you and me, kiddo,” he replied, still munching. He must have caught on to my look of confusion because he added, “My wife insists that Paris is a better place to live out her golden years, Oliver is running the family business so he doesn’t have the time to stay, and every other member of the family is busy with one thing or another. So this manor also doubles as good old Blake Sanders’ retirement home.”

I couldn’t help but feel sorry for him in that moment; he sounded so sad as he spoke, kinda like the whole family had abandoned him on the large property with more money than he could spend and will only return to the house when it was time to celebrate his funeral. It was probably true that they were busy but that couldn’t help the loneliness he must have felt when he saw all those pictures and realised that he couldn’t do anything to bring them all back. He was left with only himself and a family legacy; the cat, not me.

And speaking of which. “You said that Jarvis has been in the family for years," I said. "How long are we talking about?”

“Two hundred years tops,” he replied with a shrug.

I opened my mouth in unabashed surprise. That cat could easily be among the oldest living felines in the world. I could just see him receiving that award; although it’d be tough to explain to the world how he managed to remain so young.

“How?” I pressed.

He pointed at the painting of a beautiful woman on the wall of dining room, her hair was a normal brown but you could tell from the brown eyes that she was definitely a Sanders.

“Grace Sanders,” he began, “first and only woman to ever own the Sanders Estate. She was as powerful as she was beautiful...”

Grandpa Blake explained that Grace owned the estate during the time of the great worldwide witch-hunt; and although the authorities weren’t looking at her side because of her prestige and influence in the community, she still wanted to be prepared in case things went south.

As a result, she decided to create a protector; in this case, a lion. It would be able to morph into a shadow so as to avoid suspicion and also be able to move faster. She used a drop of her blood to construct the spell so that the creature would be bound to the Sanders bloodline; just in case a rival decided to use it against her.

Unfortunately, instead of a lion, she got Jarvis. She tried everything she could to correct the spell but it was futile; Jarvis was here to stay. At the end, the barbarism stopped before she could be picked out and she had no other choice but to keep the cat in the family.

What he said gave me another insight into magic. It was beautiful and, at most times, magnificent. But it was also a source of alienation and hunting, most especially from the normal people of the world.

I had already had my fill; plus the story he just told me got my appetite filled up to the wazoo. So I kissed him goodnight and ran upstairs to my room. Thankfully, Jarvis had left me in peace and I had the room all to myself.

Walking up to a picture of Oliver, I said to him, “You really have brought me into a family of fun and crazy. But I’m sorry to disappoint you, Dad, I’m just not cut out for this. I’m getting out of this life first chance I get.”

I knew it would hurt Grandpa Blake because he had grown to depend on me. I was someone that mattered most to the old man, although I still couldn’t quite put my finger on what had triggered it in the first place. It would hurt me too, truth be told. In a little over the week, I’d grown to love this life with all its crazy and magic and family; especially the family.

But I couldn’t live my life in the fear of discovery and condemnation. So, the faster I learnt to control the magic inside of me, the faster I could let go of it. I’m not the wizard this family is looking for, I never will be.