Tara Duncan and the Spellbinders

by Princess Sophie Audouin-Mamikonian

  Manitou was still astonished.

  “Listen Tara, your gift is already powerful. And this stone you’ve accidentally bonded with is a reservoir of natural magic. It’s going to multiply your power enormously, so you have to be extremely careful. When you communicate with Master Chem, be sure to concentrate. If you just think about anything else, like swatting a mosquito that’s about to bite you, could be enough to destroy the mosquito, the island we’re on, the Swamps of Desolation, and maybe a chunk of the mountains a dozen miles away. Oh, and also be careful not to break the stone. That would kill it—or I assume it would, because I don’t know much about living stones.”

  Trembling, Tara set the stone down with infinite care. Couldn’t things just be simple for once? she wondered. No such luck. I have to keep bumping into weird stuff on this nutty world. Life here can really be a drag at times.

  “So what do I do, then?”

  “Put the stone in front of you and ask it to put you in contact with Master Chem. Theoretically, it ought to obey you.”

  “Theoretically? I hate it when you say that, Grandpa. All right let’s go. Living stone, connect me with Master Chemnashaovirodaintrachivu number 007 700 350. Now!”

  Nothing happened. The stone remained completely inert, and her song vanished from Tara’s mind. Oops! Tara had forgotten to say the magic word.

  “Er, please?”

  For just a moment the ball’s light shone unbearably brightly. Then an image appeared of an office, in shadow.

  “I’d give my kingdom to have a stone like that!” Manitou growled.

  “Why doesn’t this sort of thing ever happen to me?”

  “You can take my place any time you like, Grandpa.”

  They gathered round. Master Chem had apparently put his own crystal ball on his desk, because they could see papers and books all around it. His room was almost completely dark.

  Without waiting for Tara’s command, the living stone extended its power, and the crystal ball it was connected to began to glow as well. This allowed them to make out the enormous mass of the dragon sleeping near the table, and the pile of gold and jewels he was lying on. The high wizard had come back to Travia!

  Cal smiled mischievously.

  “Tell me, Master Manitou, would Chem be able to hear us if we asked the stone to enhance the range of his crystal ball?”

  “Of course, why?”

  “Because we can’t wait for him to wake up by himself. We need him now, not ten hours from now.”

  Manitou shook his head. “You want to do a number on Master Chem, don’t you? Don’t try to look innocent. I could see you coming a hundred miles away. But you’re right, for once, so go ahead.”

  “Master Chem, wake up!” Cal’s voice thundered. “It’s me, Caliban! Wake up!”

  The sleeping wizard shot straight up into the air, and when he landed it rocked the whole Castle.

  “What? What?”

  Awakened with a start, the dragon was completely confused. He stood up in a panic, scattered his papers every which way, stepped on his tail, lost his balance, flattened his armchair, and barely managed to steady himself with a ceiling ray.

  “By my ancestors, what’s going on?” he roared.

  Suddenly Chem realized he was alone in his room and that his crystal ball was glowing strangely. When he walked over to it, he got a surprise.

  “By my scales! Tara, Caliban, Gloria, Angelica, Fabrice, and Robin! Where are you calling from? Where are you? And why is my ball glowing like this?”

  Manitou’s head now appeared in the crystal ball.

  “We know where the apprentices were taken!” he shouted. “We escaped from the Fortress of the Bloodgraves, who kidnapped us. We’re in Gandis, on the Island of Black Roses in the Swamps of Desolation. Your ball is glowing because we’re communicating with you through a living stone that we just polished.”

  The dragon wizard’s enormous jaw dropped for half a second, then he started erupting with questions. “Are you safe where you are right now? Is there a chance that the Bloodgraves can find you? Are you in any danger? A what?”

  “There is every chance that the Bloodgraves can find us,” said the dog, “and I have no idea if we’re in danger or not. I wouldn’t waste any time, if you ask me. And yes, we’re communicating by way of a living stone. I’ll tell you all about it later.”

  “Give me ten minutes to put together an assault force,” said Chem. “Everybody here is on high alert. I’ll leave my ball connected. I’ll be right back.”

  “Wait!”

  Tara’s shout stopped the dragon in his tracks.

  “You can’t bring high wizards or ordinary spellbinders,” she said quickly. “There are more than a hundred Bloodgraves in the Fortress and at least three hundred young spellbinders. They’re the high wizards’ children, and most have been infected by demonic magic.”

  This took Chem’s breath away.

  “What? Have the demons broken the pact?”

  “It’s much more subtle than that,” answered Tara. “The demons are using Magister as their intermediary to infect humans. You dragons will have to not only fight the demons, but also the infected humans. The odds are stacked against you!”

  The dragon shuddered.

  “And I suppose we can’t even accuse the demons because it’s a Bloodgrave, and therefore a human, who’s at the bottom of all this. It’s fiendishly clever. The demons have turned our own allies against us. I’m going to immediately warn Chanvitramichatrinchivu, Mangourachivatrinchivu, Santramivinkratrinchiva, and the other dragons and dragonesses. I’ll be right back!”

  In spite of the urgency of the situation, Cal and Fabrice grinned at each other. Dragons sure liked complicated names!

  Master Chem changed into human shape, and his magically amplified voice woke the entire Castle. The travelers were able to follow the operations by way of the living stone.

  Chem moved incredibly quickly. In less than twenty minutes he had assembled a battalion of elves and their war pegasi spoiling for a fight, and almost as many dragons from every country on Other-World, who were just as eager to teach a lesson to whoever had dared kidnap their apprentice sorcerers. The old dragon refused help from the high wizards, to their great disappointment. But he couldn’t turn down Master Dragosh, who gave him a simple choice: take him along to fight the Master of Bloodgraves, or he would resign and immediately apply for a position in Omois. Master Chem sighed and frowned, but had to say yes.

  Then he took his crystal ball down to the Travia Castle courtyard.

  “Here I am,” he announced to Manitou through the ball. “We’re ready. Are you far from the Bloodgraves’ fortress?”

  “Two days away,” was the answer.

  “Hmm, that’s too close for you to risk creating a Transfer Portal. Okay, tell you what. I’ll create the Portal at my end. It will appear here and on the island simultaneously. I’ll then need a few minutes to generate enough magic power to get us through. I’m going to use the living stone to home in on your location and anchor the Portal. So pick it up, please.”

  “Er, I’m a dog, in case you’ve forgotten,” said the black Lab. “I have paws, not hands. In this shape I can’t do any magic.”

  “By Baldur’s entrails, you’re right! It slipped my mind. Ask Tara and her friends to pick up the living stone and hold it firmly while I target it to open the Portal.

  “All right.”

  Manitou dog turned to find six faces looking at him anxiously. The last time they’d seen a Portal, the boy who’d created it had died. They didn’t especially care to follow his example.

  “I know you’re frightened,” he said seriously, “but we don’t have any choice. Without the high wizard’s help, we have no chance of escaping the Master of Bloodgraves. If you follow my instructions carefully, everything should be fine.”

  Tara didn’t much like that “should,” but said nothing, concentrating instead on what lay ahead.

  Suddenly a shout from Fafnir startl
ed them.

  “By my mother’s hammer! They’re attacking!”

  Fafnir had her back to them and was holding her head in both hands, as if it might fly away. She was staring at the far shore.

  “What the heck are you waiting for?” she yelled. “They’re crossing over!”

  The others rushed to join her, and she pointed at the vague dark shapes moving across the water. “Look! They’ve built rafts! Oh, how my head hurts! I don’t understand. It isn’t normal!”

  “What isn’t?” asked Fabrice who was beginning to panic. “That your head hurts?”

  “No, the fact that they’re attacking at night! Mud Eaters are day creatures, they’re not nocturnal!”

  In the distance, they could hear the Mud Eaters’ litany: “Not stay on the island, danger! Danger! Take the children, bring the children back to nice Master, good Master, powerful Master!”

  “I don’t believe it!” said the astonished dwarf. “They’re so afraid of some sort of danger to us on the island that they’re daring to cross the water to capture and evacuate us.” Then she got a grip on herself. “We have to set up our defenses.”

  Robin looked at the thorny rosebushes, then at the twig that the living tree gave them, and asked, “Tell me, Fafnir, are those black rosebushes thick?”

  “Man, they’re more than thick!” she said, showing her lacerated hand. “Why?”

  “The tree said that with this branch, we can make anything grow that we want to. Care to give it a try?”

  “There you go again! With you humans, it’s always magic, magic, magic! As a dwarf, I probably shouldn’t say this, but when all you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail.”

  Robin grinned, then pointed the twig toward the rosebushes, and said, “By the tree that is alive, I want that plant to grow and thrive.”

  A ray of green light shot from the twig to the black rosebushes, surrounding them in a bright greenish glow. The bushes trembled, then responded to Robin’s will. They began to grow with breathtaking speed, sending out thorn-covered branches all around the island and enclosing it in a nearly impenetrable barrier.

  Fabrice watched open-mouthed. What wouldn’t his father give to have something like that? Nothing like it for tending his roses.

  Manitou was practically hopping up and down with impatience.

  “Look, that’s all very well, but we can’t deal with everything at once,” he snapped. “The Portal is more important!”

  “Wait, Grandpa,” said Tara firmly. “Do you need everybody to hold the living stone?”

  “No, three of you should be enough. Why?”

  “Fine then,” said Sparrow. “Go ahead and bring Master Chem and his dragons here. In my Beast shape I’m tall enough to see over the bushes and I can see very well in the dark. Fafnir, Sheeba, and I will take care of everything.”

  Fafnir had a request for her: “Can you bring me some rocks?”

  “Sure. I saw some sticking out of the mud over there. I’ll get them right away!”

  In a few moments, Sparrow had dug up some rocks that had been hidden by the rain and mud. They had oddly regular shapes, and she was stunned to realize that the entire island was cobbled with them! Well, that was a mystery she would clear up later, once they had gotten out of this mess.

  She brought Fafnir a supply of the big, square stones. The dwarf hefted one and flashed a wicked grin. She looked over the bushes, calculated her trajectory, and heaved the stone into the darkness with the grace of a trained shot-putter. A moment later they heard a scream, the splash of tumbling bodies, and horrible biting and gulping noises.

  “Ten at once,” Sparrow counted soberly.

  Manitou turned to the others:

  “C’mon, let’s deal with the Portal,”

  Cal, Robin, Angelica, and Tara joined him in a circle. Somewhat apprehensively, Tara held the living stone in her hand.

  “Chem is going to locate the Portal at the precise spot the living stone is placed,” Manitou explained. “So put it in the center, and use your magic to prevent it from moving. Any questions?”

  “I have one,” said Angelica, who was trembling with fear. “What happens if Master Chem can’t get through the Portal?”

  “Do you hear the Mud Eaters?”

  “Yes.”

  “If Chem doesn’t make it, we’ll have a long stay in the Eaters’ burrows and then we’ll be taken back to the Gray Fortress in chains.”

  Angelica swallowed hard and decided to concentrate.

  Manitou looked into the living stone.

  “Chem?”

  “Yes, are you ready? What’s the hang-up, for heaven’s sake?”

  “We’re being attacked by the Mud Eaters. Open the Portal, we’re all set.”

  “By Balthazar’s horns, Baldur’s entrails, and Grisol’s rotten teeth!” cursed the high wizard. Then he quickly said, “By Transferus, Portal, open wide. Transfer me to the other side.”

  An enormous Portal opened before him, big enough to allow the elves mounted on their pegasi to pass through. Almost immediately, an identical Portal appeared in front of the young spellbinders, in the middle of their circle. It was right above the living stone, held motionless by their power.

  Behind them, the sounds of battle suddenly intensified. The Mud Eaters had managed to set foot on the island. Protected by their thick fur and using their powerful claws, they were pushing their way through the rosebushes. That’s when Sparrow, Sheeba, and Fafnir fell on them. Baring her threatening fangs, Sheeba forced them back. Fafnir heaved them into the water, swamping the other rafts. And Sparrow grabbed them two by two and banged their heads together, knocking them out. But despite the trio’s fierce resistance, the Mud Eaters’ pressure gradually forced them to retreat. Suddenly Fafnir tripped over a body she hadn’t noticed and the struggling dwarf disappeared under a pile of Mud Eaters who started to tie her up.

  Terrified, Tara suddenly lost control of her power. Her eyes turned completely blue and her magic merged with the living stone’s. From the other side, she could hear the pegasi champing at the bit, waiting for the Portal to be ready to transfer them.

  Tara was sure of what she was doing and had no intention of waiting. Without bothering to see if the Portal was fully activated, she mentally seized the dragons and elves waiting in Lancovit and instantly transferred them to the island.

  In the next moment, Chem was stunned to realize that he, along with fifty elves on their pegasi, some fifty dragon wizards, Master Dragosh, and half the Travia Castle courtyard walls now found themselves on the Island of Black Roses, facing two hundred equally stunned Mud Eaters. Then the Portal slammed shut.

  Master Chem didn’t try to understand. Instead, he changed back into a dragon, and charged. The other dragons did the same, taking to the air while the elves and the vampyr leapt into action.

  They attacked the Mud Eaters en masse, who couldn’t understand what was happening to them. The dragons’ wings blew them down and knocked them out, their fierce flames singed their fur, and their huge jaws terrorized them. The Eaters must have thought that hell itself had swallowed them up. Within seconds they were destroyed or driven into the water, to be dealt with by its inhabitants. The elves did the mopping up, but there wasn’t much left to do. The Mud Eaters who weren’t able to flee on rafts tried to swim, screaming when a glurp came close. There were many hungry glurps, so there was a lot of screaming.

  In the darkness, nobody noticed the bushes stirring. Creepers with black, razor-sharp thorns moved toward the unconscious Mud Eaters. One of them came to, shaking his head as if dazed, and saw the tendrils reaching his companions. He let out a squeal of despair and tried to escape. But Robin had done good work, and rosebushes now covered almost the entire island. The Eater didn’t stand a chance. The creepers tracked him, tripped him, and quickly enveloped him, stabbing his body with their thorns. Curiously, they were careful to leave the spellbinders and the dog in peace.

  An evil laugh that seemed to rise from a thousand
voices then whispered in the darkness: “Free! I am free!” Tara was about to explore but the voice cautiously fell silent when the dragons returned, their fanged jaws open in wide smiles.

  “They’ll still be running tomorrow morning!” thundered a delighted Master Chem. “Come to my arms, children!”

  Tara, who was talking with the living stone and half hypnotized by the power of their symbiosis, didn’t stir. With a shout of joy Robin hugged his father, T’andilus M’angil, who was heading the elf group. The others looked nervously at the dragon’s sharp spines and scales.

  Chem suddenly understood, and laughed.

  “Oops, I’m sorry. I forgot. I’ll change again.”

  Once he was back in human shape, Sparrow happily hugged him, half burying him in her fur. Cal and Robin, who were more reserved, greeted him with pleasure. Fafnir held him so tight, she almost broke his ribs. Sheeba gave him a welcoming roar.

  “I’m so happy to see you all again,” the old wizard shouted. “I have to admit, you really scared me! And how the devil did you manage to transfer all of us here before the Portal was fully activated?”

  “We used the link that was already formed,” said Tara in a strange, lilting voice. “Saving our three friends was very urgent, so we extended our power to your entire group. We apologize for the Castle courtyard. We didn’t calculate that quite right.”

  “Bah!” said the wizard, puzzled by her tone. “They’re just some old stones. We’ll fix everything up when we get home.”

  Then he turned to Manitou and whispered, “What’s the matter with her?”

  “She’s in communion with the living stone,” said the dog. “I think she doesn’t know how to break the symbiosis. And when she says ‘we,’ I imagine she’s speaking for the stone and for herself.”

  The wizard heaved a worried sigh.

  “Goodness gracious, a living stone? I thought I hadn’t heard correctly earlier. I think I could break the link between the two of them, but her extraordinary power might be useful to us, so—”