The soldiers in the front of the line had already dismounted from their horses and were untethering them from the pole. His horse came to a stop.
The sand fairy couldn’t help now, but the unicorns might. “Cecil! Nigel!” Hudson yelled. “Help!”
The soldier with the long mustache dismounted and shot Hudson an angry glare. “Quiet! We’ll have none of your begging for mercy, or for whatever a nigel is.”
Hudson saw no sign of the unicorns, and he wasn’t sure what they would be able to do against so many armed soldiers, anyway. Still, he called their names again. Loudly. Uselessly.
Nepharo strode over to Charlotte’s horse with two soldiers at his side. The soldiers grabbed her from the horse and dragged her in front of the wizard. He reached into his robes while giving her a thin-lipped smile. “It’s time to take you back to your old home. The king will want to give you a trial, just as the law demands.”
Her eyes were wide, frightened.
Nepharo kept smiling. He enjoyed this, the triumph of capturing her. “King Vaygran will present you to the people tomorrow and ask them what should be done with the intruder who broke into his room and stole his sword. That’s something an assassin would do, and you know what the punishment for that is.” Cold laughter trickled from the wizard’s mouth. “It can’t be counted against the king or me if they demand your death.”
Counted against them?
With a gnawing feeling of defeat, Hudson realized why the wizard cared who ordered her death. In this land, if you broke the law, that sort of deed could be exposed, written on your forehead if someone put revealing powder on you. So instead of killing Charlotte himself, the king would put her in a situation where the crowd called for her death.
Nepharo took hold of Charlotte’s hair with a yank and flicked his wand at her. She immediately shrank, growing dark and furry, smaller and smaller until she turned into a gray mouse. The wizard held her by the scruff of the neck. Her tail twitched wildly, and she twisted this way and that, trying to escape.
Hudson watched, horrified. Charlotte was so small and helpless—so breakable. She was going to die, and it was his fault. She came back to Logos to help him get rid of the troll mirror. Why had he thought they could fight wizards?
Nepharo handed Charlotte to a nearby soldier and tapped his wand to his own shoulder. His black cloak wavered like a convulsing shadow, and his arms shrank and sharpened into wings. His body folded in on itself, transforming from a man into a brown striped owl with piercing yellow eyes. He flapped his wings, hovering in the air, then grasped the mouse from the soldier’s hand in his talons. With a harsh screech, he flew upward into the sky.
“No!” Hudson shouted. “Don’t hurt her!”
Within moments, the owl had disappeared over the treetops.
The soldier with the long mustache pulled Hudson from the horse. A couple of other soldiers stood nearby with Hudson’s and Charlotte’s bags, rifling through them.
The mustached soldier took hold of the end of the rope that tied Hudson’s hands. “You must not be nearly as important as the girl. No fancy travel for you. And I see no point in tiring out my horse by making him carry you. You can walk for a while.”
Hudson didn’t respond. He felt numb.
The man tethered the rope that bound Hudson’s wrists to the side of his horse, tugging the rope to secure the knot. “Keep up or you’ll be trampled.” With that parting message, the man ambled over to the soldiers who were searching through the bags. “Anything good?”
“Aye,” one said, holding up Charlotte’s compass, “but Nepharo will want it.”
A soldier with a curly red beard led his horse past them on his way to the front of the group. He blew on a horn that looked like a twisted trumpet and sounded like a goat bleating in protest. “Formations!” he yelled. “We’re moving out.”
The soldiers shuffled off to their horses, mounted them, and moved them into a line. The mustached soldier tapped his heels into his horse’s flanks to prod the animal forward, and Hudson jerked along with it. He searched the forest for a sign of the unicorns but saw no shimmer of gold or silver hidden in the foliage.
The unicorns must have seen the soldiers pursuing Charlotte and Hudson across the Land of Desolation. Had Nigel and Cecil assumed they would be killed? Was that why they hadn’t stayed around? Hudson felt abandoned and then was struck by a worse thought. King Vaygran had outlawed unicorns. The soldiers might have already found Nigel and Cecil and slain them.
Not that, he thought. Hopefully, the unicorns had heard the soldiers coming and fled far away.
Whatever the case, Hudson needed to find a way to free himself. He had to help Charlotte. Had to. As he trudged through the forest alongside the horse, he desperately sifted through the possibilities. Was there some way he could knock the soldier off the horse and steal it? Probably not. Even if he managed it, he wouldn’t be able to get past all the other soldiers. Could he trick one of the soldiers into giving him the disguise paste in his bag? If he had it, he could change himself into a soldier. But that wouldn’t fool anyone. He would still have a rope tying him to the horse.
The horse trotted a few steps, catching up to the one in front of it. The motion yanked Hudson into a run and made the rope cut into his wrists. He would have some nasty welts there soon. Welts that …
And then the perfect idea occurred to him. He nearly laughed at the irony of it. The thing he wanted to get rid of so badly was about to help him. As loudly and firmly as he could, he shouted, “Listen to me, soldiers of Vaygran! I’m a wizard, and unless you let me go, I will poison all of you with a magic spell!”
Some of the soldiers snickered at this. The curly-bearded man in the front turned and sent him a hard stare. “Quiet, or I’ll give you five lashes.”
“You’ll suffer hideously before you die,” Hudson went on even louder. “It will start with boils covering your skin. Then your stomach will slowly dissolve with the rest of your insides.”
He put in the part about the stomach because once everyone saw the boils on their skin, their stomachs were bound to clench. He might as well use that to his advantage.
“If you’re a wizard,” the mustached man said in a mocking tone, “how come you didn’t change into a bird to get away from us?”
Good question.
The soldier behind Hudson let out a scoff. “You’re too young to be a wizard.”
“I’m not done with my magical studies,” Hudson conceded, “but I still know the spell to poison you.” He needed some words that sounded like a magic incantation, words the Logosians wouldn’t recognize. “Frodo Baggins Aragorn Darth Vader,” he intoned. “Hogwarts to you all!”
None of the soldiers snickered. Some checked their hands for boils.
They wouldn’t have long to wait. It had to be close to a half hour since the soldiers had taken him.
The man with the curly beard yelled, “Halt!”
The soldiers immediately stopped their horses and peered at their commander, waiting. The curly-bearded soldier rode his horse back down the line until he reached Hudson. “I warned you,” the man snarled. “Five lashes. Ten if you put up a fight.”
The man dismounted and strode over to Hudson, clenching his horsewhip. “Kneel on the ground.”
Hudson didn’t. The boils would appear anytime now.
The bearded man grabbed Hudson’s arm and yanked him as far away from the horse as his rope would allow. “Nepharo doesn’t care what happens to you now that he has the girl.” The man leaned in so close Hudson could see that his lips were cracked and that smudges of dirt lined his beard. “If you want to reach Grammaria alive, you’ll do exactly what I say. Otherwise, I’ll kill you now and be done with your nonsense.”
He lifted his whip.
The mustached soldier let out a gasp of shock. He held his hands up, staring at the red marks that covered them. “Sir, look!”
As everyone watched, boils the size of quarters appeared on the man’s face.
The bearded man dropped Hudson’s arm and stepped away from him. “What sort of trickery is this?”
“If you want to live,” Hudson said calmly, “you’ll untie me, give me my things, and let me take a horse. Once I’m a good ways away, I’ll counteract the spell.”
The bearded man unsheathed his sword. With one quick movement, he held the tip to Hudson’s throat. “You will undo whatever you’ve done right now, or I’ll run you through.”
As he spoke, boils bloomed on his hand. He let out a cry and dropped his sword, clutching at his hand as though he could scrape off the spots. All down the line, the men were groaning, calling out, cursing. They stared at their hands or felt the oozing boils on their faces. One called out, “My stomach, Captain. I think it’s dissolving.”
Another yelled, “Let the boy go!”
The bearded man pulled at a leather strap that hung around his neck, revealing a four-leaf clover dipped in silver. Hudson hadn’t expected anybody to have one of those.
The man checked to see that the clover was still there, intact, then glared disbelieving at Hudson. “You shouldn’t be able to cast a spell on me.”
Apparently, the clovers only protected against wizard spells, not troll curses. Hudson couldn’t let anyone figure this out. He shrugged. “Your clover must not be real. Who did you get it from? Nepharo?”
The man didn’t answer. His eyes bulged in anger, and he gripped the leather string harder.
“Nepharo must not have wanted you to have anything that could protect you from his spells. You didn’t really think you could trust him, did you?”
The man still didn’t answer. He dropped the clover, letting it dangle back around his neck.
Hudson pointed to the horse he was tethered to. “I’ll take this horse … unless you’ve decided you’d rather die instead?”
The bearded man narrowed his eyes, and his breathing came out in angry pants. “How do we know you won’t leave us to die after you ride away?”
“I’ll give you my word as a wizard,” Hudson said.
The bearded man broke the leather strap at his neck and tossed his clover onto the ground. “I don’t trust wizards. Swear by your life instead. Swear by the magic in you—that it will destroy you if you go back on your word.”
“Okay. I swear by all the magic in me.” Hudson lifted his hands, emphasizing that they were still bound. “Don’t attempt to recapture me, though. Next time, I won’t be as generous with you.” He gave them a smile to show he was sincere. It probably just came out looking smug.
Minutes later, he was on the horse with both his bag and Charlotte’s strapped on the saddle. He galloped through the forest, holding the compass. “Which way to Grammaria?”
The compass needle swung slightly to his right, and he headed that way.
15
WHILE HUDSON RODE, he pulled the falcon and eagle from Charlotte’s bag and changed them to their normal state. “Fly to Grammaria,” he told them. “Nepharo turned himself into a brown striped owl and Charlotte into a mouse. See if you can rescue her before they reach the castle.”
The birds streaked into the sky, leaving only a flutter of leaves in their wake. Hudson hoped they would succeed but knew it wasn’t likely. Charlotte had said shabtis had only weak magic. He was sending them up against a wizard with powerful magic.
Hudson galloped on through the forest, his mind churning. How could he rescue Charlotte? He couldn’t ride as quickly as an owl could fly, and besides, what could he do once he reached Grammaria? He couldn’t fight soldiers to free her. He didn’t have a chance against Nepharo. But Mr. Fantasmo did.
Hudson checked the compass face. “Where is the closest exit to my world?”
The arrow shifted sharply left. The words MERMAID LAKE emerged under the glass. He had no idea how far it was. He turned his horse in that direction, jumping over a succession of bushes that looked like large, sunburned hedgehogs.
The horse wound around trees and some mushrooms big enough to actually be rooms, then trampled through a patch of catflower that meowed indignantly at the treatment. A field of tiny toadstools hopped out of his way, ribbiting in protest. After a half hour, he came upon a trail. The horse could move faster there, and Hudson pushed it to a jarring gallop. Unicorns were a much smoother ride.
An hour and a half later, he reached a large lake with a small island not far from shore. The water was so blue, from the distance it looked like turquoise paint. The pink, lilac, and pastel-yellow trees surrounding the area made Hudson feel like he’d stumbled into his sister’s bedroom mural. He wouldn’t have been surprised to see a few pastel teddy bears lumbering by.
While the horse drank from the water’s edge, Hudson scanned the treetops, searching for something that resembled the box he’d used in the thorn tree. He didn’t see anything except for some fluffy white birds that looked like snowballs with eyes. The sun had already begun to set, and before long it would be too dark to find anything. Where was the exit? After a couple of minutes, he turned his attention to the island. And there, nestled against an outcropping of blue rocks, was a wooden box. It had to be the exit.
No boats sat on the lake’s shore, but a small rowboat lay pushed up on the island’s shore. It did him no good over there. He would have to swim across the lake to get to the exit box. Could he do that while carrying both his and Charlotte’s bags? Probably not. When he’d fallen off the valor boat in the Sea of Life, his bag had been so heavy he’d needed Pokey’s help to get it to shore. Well, it was about time for the bird to help again. Hudson took the magical items from Charlotte’s pack and put them into his. Even in their smaller sizes, her sleeping bag and pillow wouldn’t fit into his bag. He would have to leave them here.
While the horse was still drinking, Hudson dismounted and took Pokey out of his bag. With one zap from the compactulator, the bird grew, stretched, and gave a lazy yawn.
Hudson tucked the compactulator back into his pack. “I’ve got to get to the portal on that island. I want you to swim my bag across.”
“Swim?” Pokey said, brightening. He swiveled his head, noticed the lake for the first time, and gave a happy squeak. “Fish! Beware little minnows, a mighty…” He didn’t finish his sentence.
Something on the lake had caught his eye—a dark shadow below the surface moving toward them. Whatever it was, it was big. It skimmed along, swirling bits of leaves that floated on the lake. Hudson took a few steps away from the water.
Pokey waved his wings in alarm, scampered backward, and hid behind Hudson’s legs. “Never mind. I don’t want to swim anymore!”
Another dark shadow joined the first, coming toward the shoreline.
“Sharks!” Pokey squawked. “Why aren’t you picking me up and running?”
“Sharks don’t live in lakes,” Hudson said. “And even if they did, they couldn’t get to us onshore.”
Pokey tugged at Hudson’s leg, trying to get him to move. “Maybe it’s alligators, then. Or sea lions.”
The dark shapes kept coming toward them, ripples of water fleeing in their wake. When they were a few feet away from the bank, double splashes erupted in the water, and two teenage girls lifted their heads out of the lake. Mermaids. One had long dark green hair. The other’s hair was purplish brown. It swayed in the current, curling around her arms. Both wore tops made of strips of clinging seaweed.
“Look,” the green-haired mermaid cooed to the other. “It’s a boy.”
The purple-haired mermaid tilted her head and gazed at him like he was a lost puppy. “Ahh, isn’t he cute?”
They both giggled.
“Um, hi,” Hudson said. Charlotte had never said mermaids were dangerous, just that they were incurable flirts. Still, after his run-in with the trolls, he was nervous about meeting anyone not of his own species.
The green-haired mermaid looked Hudson up and down. “You’re from the Land of Banishment, aren’t you?” She swam a bit closer. “I can tell by your clothes.”
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�Yeah.”
“That’s so cool.” The purple-haired mermaid came closer, as well. Their voices had a quality to them that reminded him of wind chimes, light and tinkling.
Hudson gestured to the box on the island. “I need to get to a magical exit. That’s one over there, right?”
“Mm-hmm,” the green mermaid purred. “What’s your name?”
“Hudson. Listen, could you do me a favor and bring that boat over here so I can use it?”
The purple-haired mermaid blinked her eyes, fanning purple lashes at him. “I didn’t ask whose son you were. I asked your name.”
The green-haired mermaid flipped her tail fin out of the water playfully. It gleamed in the sunlight with turquoise highlights. “Maybe he wants us to guess it.” She giggled another wind-chime laugh. “I’m Micaiah, and this is my sister Marissa.”
Hudson shifted his legs impatiently. “Great. Nice to meet you. Can you bring me that boat?”
“Lance?” Marissa asked. “Arthur? Or maybe Orlando?”
“Alexander? Mark Antony?” Micaiah put in.
Pokey peeked around Hudson’s legs. “My name is Pokey.”
“Ahh,” Marissa drifted closer to the water’s edge. “It’s so cute! It’s some sort of fat, little bird with tiny wings.”
“I’m a penguin,” Pokey said, feathers ruffling a bit. “We live in the Antarctic, and in Chile, and on Hudson’s dresser.”
“I don’t mean to be rude,” Hudson said, forcing a smile, “but I really need that boat. A friend of mine is in serious trouble, and I have to go back home and get her father.” Somehow, he couldn’t bring himself to wade into the water and swim to the island with the mermaids right there. He had the uneasy feeling that if he entered their world, he would be in their power. It would be better, safer, to go by boat.
Marissa pouted, puckering her purple lips. “You don’t have to go right away, do you? We just met you.” She put her elbows on the bank and rested her chin in her hand. “Wouldn’t you like to stay and talk? People from the Land of Banishment are so interesting.”
The Wrong Side of Magic Page 19