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magical books.’

10
The Flame Keepers
    A rchie stared at his aunt. He must have misheard her.
    ‘Did you just say you are the Flame Keepers of … ?’
    ‘Alexandria,’ Loretta finished the sentence for him. ‘Yes.’
    Archie considered this for a moment. It had been a long day. He shook his head to clear it. It must be a family joke, he thought. He looked at the others around the table. Woodbine and his two cousins looked back at him with no hint of a smile.
    ‘And you said the books were … magic?’ Archie could hardly believe his ears.
    ‘Yes dear. We save them,’ said Loretta.
    Archie blinked. He felt that he had stumbled into some parallel universe. Here they were talking about magical books as if it was all perfectly normal. They couldn’t be serious, surely?He thought back to catching the flame in the bookshop. Or could they?
    ‘These magical books,’ he said. ‘How do you save them?’
    ‘We return them to the Museum of Magical Miscellany, of course,’ said Bramble. ‘Didn’t Old Zeb explain?’
    ‘The Museum of what … ?’ Archie spluttered.
    Bramble looked at her mother incredulously. ‘How can he be related to us and not know about the museum?’
    ‘Granny Greene thought it best not to tell him,’ Loretta said. ‘She had her reasons, but it is time now for Archie to learn about our world – his world.’
    She turned to Archie. ‘The Museum of Magical Miscellany is a closely guarded secret. It is hidden beneath the Bodleian Library in Oxford. But I think we’d better start at the beginning.’
    Dusk was falling outside, spilling darkness into the room where they sat. Woodbine took a box of matches from his pocket and lit two candlesticks on the kitchen table. The flames from the candles cast dancing shadows on the wall.
    ‘Most people have forgotten about magic or don’t know it ever existed, but there was a time when it flourished,’ Loretta explained, ‘a Golden Age of magic. In those days the most powerful magicians in the world created spells, enchantments andcharms, which they wrote down in books for others to use. These are the same books that magicians have relied on ever since.
    ‘When Alexander the Great built his empire he collected magic from every country he conquered. He amassed all manner of magical instruments and artefacts. He even had his own magical gardens and a menagerie of magical creatures. But what Alexander prized above all else was his collection of magical books.
    ‘It was the greatest collection of magical knowledge ever assembled and the most valuable as well. In Egypt, Alexander planned a great library to house his collection and keep it safe – the Great Library of Alexandria. He died before it was completed but he gave the task of protecting the magical books to his most trusted scribes.
    ‘In the harbour in Alexandria on the island of Pharos a great lighthouse was built to guide travellers to the Library. The Flame of Pharos lit that lighthouse and the Library’s guardians were responsible for ensuring that the Flame was never extinguished. It is the same flame that burns in Old Zeb’s Smithy and left that mark on your hand.’
    The candles flickered and Loretta fell silent. Woodbine took up the story.
    ‘For centuries Alexander’s collection was keptsafe until in 48 BC something terrible happened. A dark sorcerer called Barzak started a fire and the Great Library was burned down. When the scribes tried to salvage what remained of Alexander’s collection they discovered that the magic books had been corrupted – tainted by Barzak’s dark sorcery.
    ‘Years later the damaged books were brought here to Oxford where they would be safe.’
    Woodbine shook his head, sadly. ‘The burning of the Great Library brought an end to the Golden Age of Magic. It marked the beginning of a dark age. Ordinary people grew suspicious of magic, frightened by it, and with good cause. Spells were cast out of spite and to cause mischief. Alchemists experimented