William Calhoun and the Black Feather. Book I

Aik Iskandaryan

William returns to the world of wizards and finds out that an ancient and mysterious place called the «Magic Feather Graveyard’ has chosen him as its new Keeper and now he is connected to it by an unbreakable Magic Contract. He also reconsiders the mysterious legacy from his unknown ancestor – the Magic Feather. And soon it turns out that together with William, a powerful killer of wizards has returned to the Wizard Community and William is his #1 target.

William Calhoun and the Black Feather

Book I

Aik Iskandaryan

Illustrator Karina Alexandrovna Bezlepkina

Translator Irina Anatolievna Stoliarova

© Aik Iskandaryan, 2018

© Karina Alexandrovna Bezlepkina, illustrations, 2018

© Irina Anatolievna Stoliarova, translation, 2018

ISBNВ 978-5-4493-4108-2 (С‚. 1)

ISBNВ 978-5-4493-4109-9

Created with Ridero smart publishing system

William Calhoun and

the Black Feather

Chapter one

William named after two Williams

Number 7В inВ the Green Wiz Street belonged toВ an old woman, Mrs. Oliver, who was much over seventy. With each day, moving around was becoming more difficult for her, not mentioning walking near the house. She lived together with aВ boy called William Calhoun. Exactly seven years ago, as she was strolling around her house inВ the evening, about toВ head home toВ get ready for bed, Mrs. Oliver noticed aВ small bundle inВ the middle ofВ the road opposite her house. The bundle looked like aВ piece ofВ crumpled fabric thrown out ofВ the passing car. However, since cars on the roads around here were rare, this find was quite aВ surprise. It was very quiet. Thinking that one ofВ the locals must have thrown out some old clothes, Mrs. Oliver turned around and started walking towards her house. But she stopped when someone started crying. It was aВ baby cry, no doubts. She looked around and saw no one, but inВ aВ few seconds, she realized where the crying was coming from. Her walk somewhat unsure, she headed toВ the road and, as she came closer, took aВ good look at the bundle. It turned out toВ be aВ baby, wrapped inВ rags.

Mrs. Oliver picked the baby up. Sensing her care, he fell quiet. His big blue eyes stared at Mrs. Oliver and then the baby’s tiny mouth opened in a smile.

«Stop it,» Mrs. Oliver grumbled. «I’m not that old for you, young man, to make fun of my looks!»

No more doubts left, she took the baby home and brought him up as herВ own.

A teacher of literature in the past, Mrs. Oliver had retired long ago and now lived alone. Her husband passed away a year ago and they didn’t have children of their own. After that, the lonely widow lived waiting for the hour she would follow her husband. But she was destined to keep living for seven more years, which she had fully devoted to young William.

She came up with the name for the boy right away. She called the baby boy after two worthiest people, in her opinion, – William Shakespeare and William Blake. Besides that, there was a small white feather sticking out of the rags the boy was wrapped in. Pale yellow word was visible on the feather «Calhoun’. So Mrs. Oliver didn’t think on the last name much either.

«Some are born to sweet delight, some are born to endless night…» she quoted as she took the dirty rags off the boy. «What are you born to, mister?!»

From the very first day, she grew quite fond ofВ theВ boy.

«You are likely destined to a very rare fate and a long life if you’ve ALREADY survived,» she told him each time.

It was probably a teacher habit to call her students «mister’ and «miss’ or, perhaps, she really thought the child to be special, but she always addressed the boy politely «mister Calhoun’!

Seven years have passed since that memorable event. Mrs. Oliver decided that the day the baby came into her life will be the boy’s birthday. So it was William’s birthday today. Mrs. Oliver had spent the whole day inВ the kitchen and made William’s favourite strawberry cake. As aВ gift, the boy got aВ set ofВ