Mirage of the Magic Room

By Deepa Banerjee

Once again Arko and Adi are back along with Adrija and their new found friend Omu, to continue on their quest to give Arko a long life and Omu his revenge. While trying to hide the wand, they will have to travel to a magical place to fulfil their dream. There incidentally, they will be trapped by the other, less wanted side of magic. To survive their nemesis and the magical world they will have to do some quick thinking and rely on compassion and the faith in life itself which have been helping them for so long. What will happen at the end? How will they face all the adverse situations? Will they encounter anyone else on the way? Will they use the wand finally? And most importantly, will they survive?
All these answers and much more are stored in this exciting book where each chapter will project a new aspect of life which will prove once again the power of hope at the end.
Happy Reading.

• Language: English
• Publisher: One Point Six Technologies Pvt Ltd
• Release date: Mar 8, 2022
• ISBN: 9789355592125

Deepa Banerjee

Deepa Banerjee worked as a teacher for almost twenty years before turning her hand to fiction. Born and brought up in Kolkata, in the eastern part of India, she lives with her husband and son. The Adventure of the Violet Hill is the first novel of her trilogy. She also writes in Bengali, her mother tongue, from childhood. Besides being a writer she is a voracious reader and an enthusiastic traveller.

Book preview

PROLOGUE

The boy was fully awake when his mother switched off the lights, kissed him and closed the door. After that he waited for five minutes and slowly got up from the bed. It took some effort but he didn’t mind. Slowly turning the mattress he took IT out. He didn’t need to turn on the lights as it was glowing on its own. The WAND- the magic wand was glowing with its magical red hue. He knew he was making it a habit, a compulsion to see it every night, but he couldn’t control himself. The dark night, the silence, the lonely feeling - all added to the fascination. He just kept looking at it. Could this amazing thing save him in the next adventure? Could he wait that long for the magic to happen? With his thoughts to encourage him, the wand seemed to glow brighter. Then he thought that maybe it was due to the bright moon outside that the violet-red light engulfed the small room. The boy seemed to be mesmerized by the wand. The whole world was of no meaning to him, he was oblivious to everything.

May be that was the reason he missed the lone, tall, dark figure looking inside the room, following his every action intensely. He was so motionless he could be taken for a statue. He remained there sitting on the windowsill till the boy put the wand back under his mattress. Then he silently got up, leapt down effortlessly to the ground and vanished into the dark night.

CHAPTER 1

NEW AMBIENCE

Arko got up with a start. After a long gap he was having the same dream these days which had once haunted him every day for months. The same scene - a semi dark place illuminated only by a vibrant violet light and the two unusual and watchful eyes looking straight at him. Some of the uneasiness persisted although he was now fully awake. The place and the owner of those eyes were known to him. But they were in his past. Why had they suddenly started haunting him? He had no idea. Actually the feeling of being observed continuously disturbed him. But immediately he shook off the feelings. He thought he was becoming paranoid as in reality no one was looking at him then. However the feeling persisted and once again he looked in all the directions to be sure. He was in the veranda of their guesthouse. Bright sunlight was pouring through the shining trees in the garden. The mild, pleasant weather was making him sleepy once again. He didn’t want to go back to sleep but couldn’t keep his eyes open and slowly went back to sleep. To his dismay the haunting eyes came jumping back into his dream and started observing him once again.

When Aditya came running to tell Arko about the lighthouse, he was disheartened to find him sleeping again. That was the third time in one day when he came to Arko and found him asleep.

But he didn’t complain as it was more than enough for him to have Arko here with him than seeing him only during the short visiting hours in the hospital.

They had arrived at the Dariapur guesthouse yesterday. The weather was good, the ambience excellent and Arko was with him. Their parents were chatting leisurely in Arko and his parents’ room. The front porch was bathed in sunlight. Still Adi could not enjoy this lovely place. He would never acknowledge this in front of his parents but to tell the truth he was feeling lonely. His best friend was not giving him company. In fact Arko had been barely awake since they had come. Adi argued with himself. Wasn’t it enough that Arko was with him and that too outside of Kolkata? That in itself was miraculous enough. He should be grateful to God. Moreover Arko was also recovering, slowly but steadily.

He thought about his other friend Amar or Omu. He frowned as he was remembering him. He didn’t know where he was or what he was doing at the time. The not knowing part bothered him tremendously. By nature he was an easy going and caring person. He knew Omu needed help but he didn’t know how to help him. Many times he and Arko had discussed Omu’s whereabouts and debated whether to tell their parents his actual identity. But each time they considered it, they rejected the idea as it would reveal all the component parts of the incident which took place last year. They knew that they were not ready yet. So Adi slowly stretched down on the sofa next to Arko and closed his eyes and once again the memories came running, jumbling, overlapping and he felt he was slowly sinking in them.

CHAPTER 2

ONE YEAR BACK

The ritual of going to the hospital had almost become part of the daily routine for Adi. He would finish his school, get into Arko’s car and then reach the hospital. There he would either meet his own parents or Arko’s (who were almost always there). There waited his best friend, Arko, eager to listen to all the school news. Spending some time there he would return back home in Arko’s car once again. To anyone other than these two boys it would seem that they were talking about their school and school friends only, but only if one came closer they would change their mind. As the main topic they would discuss the incident which took place on the last full moon. Then they had encountered the evil Master, found their new friend Omu but had lost Omu’s father, Ashimda. But they had also found the most enchanting thing– the beautiful magic wand, which could cure a dying person with magical power. The magic could only act five times, of which three chances were still left. They had the wand with them but the evil Master was after it and he had vanished after the incident on the violet hill. The major problem they faced was in hiding the wand. As per the magic poem, the wand only worked in Arko’s hand and he was in hospital. So, Adi had to keep it and that made him extremely tensed. He couldn’t sleep, relax or concentrate in his studies. It seemed to him that the Master could reappear anytime and snatch the wand. But he did not come.

Along with the wand they had another big problem - Omu. Omu, though a bit younger than them, was not an ordinary boy. The simplicity once he had had vanished with his father’s brutal murder. He had become a brooding, introverted person. Unlike the other two boys he was not recovering from the incident but rather the incident was engulfing him. He was not very talkative in the beginning but at present he had almost stopped talking. Surprisingly though, he continued to meet Adi regularly, if not Arko and listened to everything intently. How Omu reached him and when was a total mystery to Adi but Omu seemed to have a special talent for this. It seemed uncanny to Adi sometimes. Adi and Arko wanted to do something for their friend but didn’t know how to do that. Arko’s parents were so overwhelmed to find Arko surviving that they were ready to do anything for his new found friend. Even Adi’s parents, who, after getting over the first emotional rush (they still didn’t know the actual story behind the boys’ temporary absence), were reluctantly accepting Omu’s presence in their lives. Adi knew it was their problem. They couldn’t tell their respective parents about the heartbreaking death of Ashimda or the real identity of Omu. Omu was also not helping much. He had a perpetually brooding expression on his face and never made the slightest effort to interact properly with their parents. Still the days passed by.

The first striking change occurred in their lives when suddenly one month after returning from the violet cave Omu requested Adi to help him to meet Arko. Till then he had received news about Arko through Adi and didn’t show any inclination to visit him personally. Instantly Adi felt enthusiastic. Finally the monotony of everyday life was taking a turn. He could feel something was going to happen. Immediately he asked permission from both the parents and on the next Friday they were scheduled to meet Arko.

When Arko met his new friend, the first thing which struck him was that Omu had grown up a lot in the intervening month a lot. Not only his height but his whole attitude had changed radically.

He seemed much more matured and more hardened. His dress was not clean and he seemed starved.

The first thing Omu asked them was what their plan was? Arko felt perplexed and looked at Adi, who seemed equally clueless. Simultaneously they said that they didn’t have any idea. Suddenly it struck Arko how different Omu was from them. After the sensational experience of the violet hill the two of them had come back to their normal lives (if lying on the hospital bed could be considered normal).They were with their parents, their friends, in their own sphere. However, for Omu everything had changed