Tara Duncan and the Spellbinders

by Princess Sophie Audouin-Mamikonian

  “Last night?” asked Fabrice cautiously.

  “Yeah. Either I dreamed it, or you let Manitou into your canopy bed.”

  “Listen, I don’t dare let him sleep in his kennel. What if he suddenly comes to his senses? So he sleeps at the foot of my bed— and man, does he snore!”

  Cal laughed. “Personally, I don’t care, but don’t let Lady Kalibris catch you.”

  That night Cal had trouble sleeping because he’d had too much dinner—mulberry tarts were served again, and he ate four of them—and he decided to go out for a walk.

  Passing Fabrice’s bed, he chuckled to hear Manitou snoring, then slipped out of the dormitory. On the way he noticed that Robin’s bed curtains were open.

  He was about to duck into one of the passages that led out of the Castle when he heard voices. Squeezing into a recess, he saw the silhouettes of two people next to the dormitory wall.

  “What are you doing here?” asked a woman.

  “I could ask you the same thing,” hissed a voice that Cal immediately recognized. It was Master Dragosh!

  “It doesn’t seem very healthy for a vampyr to be roaming the Castle hallways in the middle of the night,” said the woman coldly.

  “Come now, Lady Deria! You know that I feed only on animal blood. Human blood doesn’t interest me.”

  “All I know is that you have no business being around the apprentices’ dormitory, Master Dragosh. So I suggest you leave before I tell the high wizard about your odd habits.”

  The vampyr bowed to the young woman.

  “Then allow me to accompany you back to your room,” he said with icy politeness. “Since our rooms are next to each other, you’ll be able to see me go into mine.”

  Having no choice, the young woman agreed, and they left together,

  When Cal stepped out of his hiding place his heart was pounding. What was the vampyr up to? Was he in league with the people who had attacked Tara’s grandmother? She had sent Deria to protect her granddaughter, and Cal got the impression that this was exactly what she’d been doing.

  Reluctant to wake Fabrice, Cal decided to wait until morning to tell him, along with Tara and Sparrow. Their little group would have to be on its guard; they would figure it out tomorrow.

  It was a decision he would bitterly regret.

  Because the next morning, Fabrice had disappeared.

  CHAPTER 9

  VANISHED!

  T ara was the person they were after,” said Cal somberly.

  “I’m sure of it!”The three friends had gathered in Master Chem’s cavern office.

  “That seems clear,” said the wizard, who was pacing back and forth. “Tell me again everything that happened since yesterday, Cal.”

  The young thief didn’t need to be asked twice.

  When Fabrice didn’t get up, Cal said, he’d gone to take a shower. He then went back to his friend’s bed and called to him, thinking he hadn’t heard the eight o’clock bell.

  No answer.

  Now worried, Cal knocked on the canopy bed frame, but no one stirred. So he’d gone down to the dining hall, where Tara and Sparrow were waiting.

  “Cal, what’s wrong?” exclaimed Tara, upon seeing his anxious face.

  “I don’t know yet. Have you seen Fabrice this morning?”

  “No, why? Isn’t he up?”

  “I knocked on his canopy bed, but he isn’t answering, and I’m not allowed in without permission. Also, something very strange happened last night.”

  He then told them what he had seen.

  “See Lady Kalibris swiftly and speak to her!” said Sparrow. She had developed a fondness for s’s since she’d stopped stuttering, and it led to some strange turns of phrase. “Fabrice might have the sniffles, or be sick with something.”

  “She’s right,” said Tara. “This isn’t normal. Let’s go.”

  Lady Kalibris had come to supervise breakfast. When she learned that Fabrice hadn’t gotten up, her two heads exhibited worried frowns, and she rushed to the boys dormitory.

  Despite the straightening-up spells, the dormitory looked pretty much what you’d expect from boys. Odd socks hovered here and there, seeking their mates; unfinished models sprawled next to puzzles with missing pieces; and a pair of sneakers tried to hide the holes in its soles. All this amid a vague smell of stinky feet.

  Lady Kalibris opened the curtains of Fabrice’s bed.

  It held only a pillow and a cushion indented with the shape of Manitou’s body.

  Fabrice’s spellbinder robes were all hanging in the closet.

  “He couldn’t have gone far in pajamas,” muttered Lady Kalibris in perplexity. “I’ll have the Castle and the grounds searched. Meanwhile, go eat your breakfast. And thanks for alerting me!”

  With heavy hearts, the three friends obeyed.

  Moments later, High Wizard Chem interrupted the meal when he entered the dining hall accompanied by Lady Kalibris. He cleared his throat, and his magically amplified voice silenced everyone.

  “I have some strange, sad news to announce. This morning one of our apprentice spellbinders, Fabrice Besois-Giron, disappeared. We think he may have been kidnapped, as several of our appren-tices were last year.”

  An anxious murmur ran through the hall.

  “The Castle is now on high alert,” continued the wizard. “If any of you saw or heard anything, come to my office after breakfast so we can discuss it. We will do our best to clear up this mystery. Thank you for your attention.”

  As Chem was talking with Lady Kalibris, Sparrow whispered to Cal, “You ought to come forward right away about what happened last night!”

  “Why me?” asked Cal, who was never very comfortable with authority. “I’m sure Lady Deria told Master Chem about it. What if he asks me what I was doing up in the middle of the night?”

  “Don’t be so self-centered, for heaven’s sake,” cried Tara indignantly. “Even if there’s a chance you’ll be punished, Chem has other things to worry about besides your little affairs. Fabrice is our friend, and he’s disappeared. We can’t abandon him!”

  Feeling disgusted, Cal put down his fork. It went over to spear a piece of cheese and offered it to him, but he shook his head.

  “All right, I’m going. Anyway, I’m not hungry anymore.”

  In the wizard’s huge office, Cal related the odd nighttime conversation he had overheard.

  “That’s curious,” Chem said thoughtfully, “because neither Master Dragosh nor Lady Deria told me about this incident. Though I’m not sure you could call it an incident. My wizards are free to wander wherever they like. But Besois-Giron’s disappearance does cast a different light on it.”

  Tara agreed.

  “I don’t know that much about magic yet,” she said, “but let’s imagine somebody wanted to kidnap me or Fabrice. What would they have to do to grab us?”

  “Well, at least they would have to be able to see you. Fabrice seems to have been kidnapped in the dormitory, because the Memorus showed a brief flash in his canopy bed.”

  “But we were all asleep,” said Cal. “How do we know Fabrice wasn’t lured outside?”

  “A kidnapper could only do that by kidnapping a familiar and using its hair or feathers to attract their human companion. I was under the impression that young Besois-Giron didn’t have a familiar.”

  Tara and Sparrow exchanged looks.

  “Well, that is . . . not exactly,” said Tara.

  The old wizard straightened in his chair. “What do you mean, not exactly?”

  “Well, when I was chosen by Gallant, we thought it would look suspicious for me to have two familiars. Fabrice didn’t have one and was feeling left out, so I loaned him Manitou.”

  Chem couldn’t believe his ears. “You loaned him your great-grandfather?”

  “Er, yeah, sort of.”

  The wizard looked bothered, but then he sighed and muttered something like, “Ah, children!” Then he said, “In any case I don’t think Manitou could have been the l
ink, since his kennel was too far from Fabrice’s bed to affect him.”

  A very embarrassed Cal now spoke up

  “What if . . . what if Manitou slept right on Fabrice’s bed? Would that be a problem?”

  For a second, Tara thought the dragon wizard was going to start hiccupping in surprise, and she quickly examined the desk. Okay, all was well—there was plenty of room underneath to shelter the three of them in case of a fit of transformation.

  But Chem managed to control his hiccupping and didn’t turn into a dragon. He was furious, however.

  “By Demiderus! When we make rules, doesn’t anyone in this Castle follow them? We didn’t forbid familiars in the canopy beds because of hairs or feathers, but to keep them from being used as vectors by hostile spellbinders. Anyway, what matters isn’t the magical link, but how close the animal is to the person to be kidnapped. The apprentices who disappeared last year were probably kidnapped with the use of their familiars. It’s your fault that your friend disappeared. You should’ve come to see me right away to warn me that Fabrice was breaking the rules!”

  Cal felt terribly guilty and sank into the depths of his chair. But Tara exploded, barely containing her fury to keep from turning the dragon into dog food.

  “So you’ve been telling us more lies!” she yelled. “When are adults going to learn to trust us? If you’d told us how the apprentices were kidnapped—and especially why we aren’t allowed to keep our familiars with us—Fabrice would never have disobeyed your orders. It’s your fault! Anyway, you better tell everybody the truth, because I’m sure Fabrice wasn’t the only one letting his familiar sleep with him!”

  The dragon wizard seemed astonished at being reprimanded. He must not be used to having his orders challenged, thought Sparrow, who was scared he would turn them into toads to teach them manners. But Chem had no intention of punishing them.

  “I know,” he said, pacing back and forth. “We considered doing it, but we decided not to say anything because everybody was already so upset. Anyway, thanks to you I now know how Besois-Giron was kidnapped.”

  He paused and turned to Tara.

  “Tell me, Tara. Even though we forbade it, I suppose you told your story to your friends, haven’t you?”

  “Yes,” she said defiantly, refusing to feel guilty. “I couldn’t keep such a secret to myself. So they know what’s going on.”

  Cal, who had been thinking hard, spoke up somberly: “All this means just one thing: the traitor is one of us!”

  Chem nodded.

  “I realize that,” he said. “Only a high wizard or the most advanced spellbinder could have accomplished this. First the harpy cage was sabotaged, then Besois-Giron was abducted. But I really can’t see by whom.”

  “You know Master Dragosh well, don’t you?” asked Cal casually.

  “Mmm, what?” asked the wizard, lost in thought. “Safir Dragosh? Yes, I know him very well. Why?”

  “He has a strange attitude,” said Cal. “He seems to hate Tara. Also, he was prowling in the hallways the night Fabrice disappeared.”

  “No, it couldn’t be Dragosh,” said Chem firmly. “I trust him completely. He wouldn’t be capable of doing such a thing.”

  Tara had seen dozens of movies in which the good guy says that he absolutely trusts the bad guy, usually adding that he couldn’t hurt a fly. At that very moment the camera shows the bad guy chopping someone to pieces. So she was far from convinced by what Master Chem was saying.

  “Listen, children, I don’t think you can do much more for the time being,” he said. “Let me take care of this.”

  Once outside the office, Sparrow turned to Cal.

  “So what do you think?”

  “I think we should take turns watching our friend the vampyr to see what he does, who he talks with, what he eats—”

  “No!” she said with a shudder. “Not what he eats!”

  “All right then, who he eats with. Are you guys willing?”

  “Of course, but it won’t be easy,” answered Tara. “What if Lady Kalibris or Salatar catches us?”

  “We’ll just have to be careful. If we can prove Dragosh is guilty, Chem can hold his feet to the fire to make him say where he hid Fabrice.”

  “You’re right,” said Sparrow firmly. “We’ll set it up. We can take turns watching his room until midnight or one o’clock. If he goes out or does something unusual, we’ll follow him.”

  But though they watched Dragosh’s room for hours, the vampyr never left it.

  That same day, an impressive array of protective measures was taken in the Castle, which didn’t make the three spies’ job easier.

  By a trick Cal wouldn’t reveal, he was able to persuade the Living Castle to create a secret hiding place for them in the wall opposite the vampyr’s room. It was completely hidden behind the illusory landscapes, though Tara once broke into a cold sweat when the chimera suddenly started sniffing the wall. But Salatar walked off shaking his head, wondering where the suspicious smell could have come from.

  Meanwhile, they had to avoid the guards, sleepless courtiers, wizards, and familiars who wandered the Castle. Not to mention Robin, who seemed to spend so much time outside it that they began to wonder what he was up to every night.

  Late the next evening, the whole Castle was jolted by the sound of screaming.

  Cal, who was sleepily standing guard behind the illusory landscapes, nearly had a heart attack. Everyone came running, but surprisingly, nothing stirred in the vampyr’s room. So Cal was astonished when he saw Master Dragosh down the hall with the other wizards.

  The screaming continued, loud enough to wake the dead. It brought Master Chem running too. He had forgotten that he had turned back into his dragon shape to sleep and almost demolished half the Castle and ran over the king and queen, who were also racing toward the noise. The old wizard’s hair was standing straight up, and his fangs, claws, and wings had only just shrunk away.

  “What in the world is going on?” Chem roared at the enormous red demon who was in charge of security. Half the Castle was staring at the demon in terror.

  “Someone tried to go out without permission,” the demon answered with dignity. “I apprehended the offender.”

  He opened his enormous hands, revealing the unconscious body of Angelica.

  “Miss Brandaud?” blurted the surprised wizard. “What’s going on? And what is that racket we keep hearing?”

  Everyone listened, and the people standing closest to the Castle’s main entrance cautiously moved away from it. Outside the doors, something was causing an infernal din—shrieking, screaming, and pounding on the panels.

  Master Chem gestured to the crowd to step back, and ordered the doors to open. He barely had time to get out of the way when a small, glittering lizard flew to attack the red demon.

  Roused by the demon’s desperate attempts to avoid his attacker, Angelica opened her eyes, but promptly closed them again and resumed screaming.

  Lady Kalibris was the first to understand what had happened. Using both her voices to make herself heard, she yelled, “Let her go, demon. She’s been chosen!”

  The demon promptly released the tall girl, who tumbled to the floor. The flying lizard immediately rushed over to Angelica and began to stroke her cheek, while uttering little cries of encouragement. The lizard was absolutely beautiful, with a golden body and glittering wings—the perfect bauble to flatter Angelica’s vanity.

  She was struggling to gather her wits. Then, her eyes wide with wonder, she announced, “Kimi! She says her name is Kimi!”

  “Well, we’re all very happy to hear that,” said the wizard, who didn’t look happy at all. “Go back to bed, everyone, the choosing is over. Go on!”

  He bowed to the red demon.

  “Thank you for your prompt intervention. We are sorry to have bothered you.”

  “No problem, it was a good little scrap,” said the demon with a smile that revealed an impressive row of teeth. On his body, the wounds inflicted
by the lizard were already healing and fading. “I was bored stiff, sitting in my dimension, and this livened things up a bit. I’m happy to come back for guard duty whenever you like.”

  Bowing to the king, the queen, and the high wizards, the demon vanished in a cloud of sulfur.

  Angelica’s friends surrounded her, in raptures over the beautiful flying lizard.

  Finally, everyone headed for their respective dormitories.

  Cal signaled to Tara and Sparrow that he had discovered something. But Lady Kalibris accompanied them back to their rooms, so they had to wait until the next day to find out what it was.

  That night, Tara had trouble sleeping. She realized she was starting to enjoy her nightmares. They were all about power and domination, and she was always in charge, giving the orders.

  Next morning, Cal had some bad news for the group.

  “Master Dragosh is somehow able to come and go without my seeing him. All the racket last night should have brought him out of his room, but it didn’t. But when I looked down the hall, who do you think I saw?”

  “Dragosh?” guessed Sparrow.

  “Bingo! But I was standing right in front of his room, and he never came out. Which means he can come and go without our knowing it!”

  “Yikes! We’ve got a serious problem,” said Sparrow. “What do you know about vampyrs? I can tell you a lot about the habits of giants and dwarves, because we lived among them for a long time, but I don’t know the first thing about vampyrs.”

  “I seem to remember that they live a very long time, like human wizards,” said Cal. “They raise animals and drink their blood without killing them. They like the blood of sheep, cows, chickens, ducks, and pegasi. The only kind they can’t drink is human blood. If they do, it makes them crazy and cuts their life span in half. When they drink human blood they can’t stand sunlight and only go out at night. Oh, and they also can’t stand the blood of dragons and unicorns. That’s pretty much all I remember.”

  “On Earth, vampires are also able to change shape,” said Tara thoughtfully. “Is that true of OtherWorld vampyrs too?”

  “Of course, that’s it!” said Cal, slapping his forehead. “What an idiot I am!”