Summer's Cauldron

by G. L. Breedon

  “And the jealous girl loves herself a little too much,” Alex said. Anna’s eyes flickered with fire and Alex knew he had struck a nerve. He wanted to strike something else, but he held back. He and the Guild could not be the first ones to start a fight. Not with the Mad Mages. Not with Dillon being the Mayor’s son.

  “Oi!” a voice shouted from beside them. Alex and Anna continued to stare at each other, unwilling to look aside. “What are you lot doing here?”

  The owner of the Scottish accented voice stepped between Anna and Alex and looked at them both. The voice belonged to a tall girl about fifteen years old. Not a human girl, Alex realized. An elf. A mountain elf, he guessed, by the stone gray color of her eyes and the midnight black hair pulled back in a long ponytail that hung to the middle of her back. She carried a long wooden bow in one hand and had a quiver of arrows slung over her shoulder. Another girl stood beside her. This one had the same dark African features as Clark and Earl, and stood as tall as Alex.

  “Who let you in?” the elven girl repeated, this time turning and facing Anna and the Mad Mages.

  “Who are you?” Anna said, straightening herself slightly.

  “I’m the one what’s asking you who you are,” the elven girl said, her eyes squinting as she stared down at Anna.

  “We have permission to be here,” Dillon said, stepping forward to stand beside Anna.

  “Not from me, you don’t,” the elven girl said. “So move it along.”

  “We don’t have to listen to you,” Anna said. “You’re not in charge here.”

  “That’s where you wrong, little miss muffin face,” the elven girl said. “I give the orders around here. Want to see one? Kenda, show them why they should leave.”

  The girl next to her, who Alex assumed must be Kenda, smiled and shook herself. There was a short burst of green light and suddenly Kendra was no more. In her place stood an eight-foot tall hairy beast with large yellow tusk-like teeth and a shaggy coat of black fur. Her clothes, simple pants and a t-shirt, stretched to fit her new impossibly large form. Alex guessed Kendra’s clothes must have been enchanted in order to remain whole and untorn. Although Alex had no idea how she had done so, when he looked to the elven girl, he realized she had knocked an arrow and held the bow drawn, aimed at Anna’s head.

  “You won’t shoot me,” Anna said, glaring up at the elven girl.

  “Victoria,” the elven girl said, with a nod of her head in Victoria’s direction, “would I shoot her?”

  “She is well known for her impetuousness,” Victoria said, blinking in surprise at the sudden turn of events.

  “She means I tend to do things without thinking about the consequences,” the elven girl said.

  “I know what it means,” Anna said between gritted teeth.

  “My father’s the mayor,” Dillon said, his fists balled in fury.

  “And I’m the Queen of England,” the elven girl said, still staring at Anna, tilting her head to look down the shaft of the arrow at the smaller girl.

  “Let’s go,” Anna said, sniffing slightly. “There are too many freaks here anyway. They smell bad.” Anna turned and started to walk away.

  “My father will hear about this,” Dillon said as he scowled and followed Anna.

  “Just so there’s no confusion,” the elven girl said, “when you whine like a baby to your daddy, tell him it was Elaeda that spanked you and sent you packing.”

  Alex watched Anna and Dillon and the rest of the Mad Mages retreat into the growing shadows of the carnival. A burst of green light revealed Kendra standing next to the elven girl Elaeda again, her clothes back to normal size.

  “Wow,” Ben said, stepping forward and offering Elaeda his hand. “I’m Ben.” Alex blinked in surprise. Ben shook Elaeda’s hand and grinned up at her.

  “I’ve heard of you,” Eleada said. “Heard of all of you. But her we know well.” She turned and embraced Victoria. “How have you been, Vic?”

  “Better now that I have seen you again,” Victoria said, hugging Eleada tightly. “You really didn’t need to do that. They’re more bark than bite.”

  “I’m more bite than bark.” Elaeda grinned.

  “You certainly are,” Victoria said with a genuine smile.

  “Thank you,” Alex said, stepping beside Victoria.

  “Not a problem,” Elaeda said. “I can’t stand kids like that. Thinking they’re special because they’re born human. Or because they’re born the mayor’s son. I’d ban them from the carnival completely if it was up to me, but rousting them out tonight will have to do. They don’t seem to like you lot much.”

  “We have a long history together,” Alex said. “None of it pleasant.”

  “That was an impressive transformation,” Rafael said as he stepped over to Kendra. “How did you manage to become so large?”

  “It’s a changeling thing,” Kenda said. “It’s complicated.”

  Raphael briefly glowed red, but retained his human form. “I think I can follow the conversation.”

  “Oh, you’re a changeling, too,” Kendra said, excited. “It’s been so long since I’ve met another changeling.”

  “So, what’s the secret?” Rafael asked.

  “Mass,” Kendra said. “It’s all about distribution of mass.”

  As he turned away from Rafael and Kendra, something flickered at the edge of Alex’s vision. He could have sworn he saw the shadowed figure again. There was someone following them, he was certain of it.

  He looked back at his friends. Rafael was quizzing Kendra on the finer points of shape changing while Ben was admiring Elaeda’s bow almost as much as he was admiring Eleada. Clark and Daphne were engaged in some kind of conversation together. They seemed to do that a lot lately. Stick their heads together and laugh about things. Alex could only guess at what. Nina was excitedly explaining the relationship between the Guild and the Mad Mages to Elaeda, who laughed. Alex heard Eleada mention Nathan to Victoria as he caught another glimpse of the shadowed figure behind a wagon.

  It took Alex only a second to decide he would rather be chasing after some shadow-shrouded pursuer than listen to more about Nathan. He would only chase the person in black for a little bit. Just to prove someone was there. The others wouldn’t miss him. He stepped backward around the edge of a wagon in the direction he’d last seen the shadowed figure. He’d only be gone a moment.

  Chapter 6: Chasing Shadows

  The shadowed figure was elusive, always slipping around a corner, always at the edge of sight, fading into the darkness between tents and wagons and carnival booths. Alex, however, had plenty of experience tracking the elusive. That experience led him to an inescapable conclusion. Whomever he was chasing wasn’t trying to lose him. The path through the carnival grounds might have seemed random to someone else, but Alex could tell he was being led somewhere. But where? And for what purpose?

  He considered briefly going back and getting the others, but he knew that wasn’t really an option. The shadowed figure was interested in him. It was leading him somewhere. It might not reveal itself at all if the others were with him. Alex weighed the risks, the danger inherent in following a shadowed figure alone through the ever-darkening carnival grounds, and decided curiosity might be his greatest weakness.

  Alex stepped around the corner of a wagon and into a row of small tents, each set up to display a particular sideshow act. As he did so, a warm wash of light suddenly illuminated the row of tents. Alex looked around to see magic glow-globes hanging from the edges of the tents, each one casting a pleasant yellow radiance. Alex stopped and stood in the middle of the lane between the tents. The light from the glow-globes eliminated most of the shadows, but also seemed to deepen the darkness in those places where no glow-globes were present.

  As Alex looked around, searching for the familiar flash of black cloth signaling the cloaked figure’s presence, he noticed the whole of the carnival grounds were now lit up. The setting of the sun must have triggered the magic glow-globes to act
ivate all over the carnival. He sighed. The addition of the lights diminished his chances of following his mysterious prey.

  “Looking for something?” a sandpapery voice said. “Maybe someone. Maybe some young girl?”

  Alex turned to see an old woman with long gray hair pulled up in a bun setting up a small folding table and chairs within one of the sideshow tents. The painted cloth banner hanging over the edge of the tent read: “Fortunes Told, Futures Revealed, Fate Uncovered — Madam Fortuna.”

  “Maybe you’re looking to have your fortune told,” the wrinkled woman who Alex took to be Madam Fortuna said.

  “No,” Alex said with a weary smile as he looked into Madam Fortuna’s kind, blue eyes. “I’ve already seen my destiny.”

  Madam Fortuna cocked her head in puzzlement a moment and then chuckled to herself quietly. “Yes, I believe you have.” She smiled and placed a deck of cards on the small wooden table. “But maybe there are other questions that plague you. Romantic questions, maybe? I could read your cards. Wouldn’t take long. I’ll give you the first reading for free.”

  “No thanks,” Alex said. Although he was tempted by the possibility of the old soothsayer reading the cards to see what the future might hold for him and Victoria, he had finally caught sight of a black cloak dashing between the tents at the end of the lane. “Maybe some other time,” Alex said, running toward the tent where he had seen the shadowed figure make an appearance.

  “There’s always time,” Madam Fortuna said with a sigh. “Only not as much as we think when we are young.”

  Alex slid around the corner of the tent at the end of the row and caught another glimpse of the shadowed figure. He slipped through a gap between two wagons and followed the evasive black shape through another, even more slender space between two tents. Alex found himself in a dim and narrow channel between the backsides of two rows of medium-sized tents. He looked both ways down the thin, shadow-drenched path between the tents, but saw no sign of his elusive quarry.

  He walked silently between the canvas walls, gently stepping over the safety lines crossing the path, each pinned to the ground with an enormous iron spike. Then he heard something. A word. A word spoken by someone in a tent nearby. A word he would not have heard if he had not been accustomed to moving so silently. A word he should never have heard. A word only a handful would know. A word no one should speak. A word whispered and carried by the still night air. A word at the beginning of a sentence as frightening as the word itself.

  “Kal’Etrim shall be free within days and all that is required is your courage and my cunning.”

  Alex froze where he stood, stilling his lungs into long shallow and silent breaths.

  Kal’Etrim.

  That was not a word he should ever hear, especially not here in Runewood. It was a word known only by a few scholars. Only by those who would have need to know it. Only by two kinds of people — those who studied the history of the Shadow Wraith, of Shan’Kal — or those who were its servants and sought to set it loose upon the world again.

  Alex listened closely. There were others in the tent. At least two more. He could discern a difference between their whispered voices, could tell two were women and one a man, but could not determine if he had ever heard them before. He doubted he would be able to identify the owners of the voices even if he heard them speak aloud. It meant only one thing — he’d have to get closer and try to see their faces. Maybe through a loose seam in the tent fabric. Maybe from the gap between the tent wall and the ground.

  Alex crept slowly toward the tent where the whispered voices continued to speak.

  “Is it really there?”

  “Do you question me?”

  “I only question your sources.”

  “It is there.”

  Was what where? Alex slowly lifted his foot over the safety rope at the edge of the tent.

  “It will still be risky even with the device.”

  “If he still has it.”

  “Are you afraid of risk?”

  Device? Alex leaned in toward the tent. There was a dim light inside and it revealed small holes in the canvas wall.

  “I am not afraid of risk. I am afraid of failure.”

  “As well you should be.”

  “A bank will have more protection than walls.”

  Bank? Alex slid his eye close to one of the holes in the tent. It was too small to see through properly, but he could make out three shadowed shapes within the tent.

  “I have made preparations for…Quiet.”

  Alex held his breath, locking his limbs into place.

  “Someone is nearby.”

  “Where?”

  “Very nearby.”

  Alex heard motion within the tent. The sound of feet crossing the ground and heading directly toward where he stood.

  “Where?”

  “Here!”

  A knife blade slid through the fabric of the tent, slicing a long, clean gash as the blade flashed past Alex’s face.

  He thought of running, trying to leap between the safety ropes and through a gap between the tents, but some instinctive part of his mind knew there was no time, he would be seen, would be caught. Before he was even conscious he had spoken, he whispered the rune-words for air and motion and his body thrust upward into the black sky above. There was a reason mages did not try to fly. It was too hard to control the variables of flight with an ever-changing chant of rune-words. But Alex did not need to fly. He only needed to get away. Away from the owner of that knife blade.

  Alex landed five tents away in a part of the carnival grounds where the mechanical rides were staged and constructed before being hauled to their final place of assembly. Most of the rides were in wagons of one sort or another, with long metal arms and various cages and cars for passengers to sit in. No one else was around. Alex heard feet behind him and looked around for a place to hide or an avenue of escape. Running a few paces, he picked up a rock and threw it with all his strength to the far side of the clearing. It bounced off the steel sign of a ride, The Pirate’s Revenge, with a clattering echo.

  Alex dodged between two girder-like metal legs of one of the rides and stopped. He crouched down in the middle the metal framework of the ride and hid in the shadows. He heard the feet of three pursuers cross the grounds and head to where the rock had struck the sign. They stopped. Then moved again. Closer. Alex could see nothing. The bulk of the mechanical apparatus around him blocked his view. He thought he heard them getting closer. Then they stopped again.

  The metal around him creaked. Alex looked around frantically, afraid the sound would draw the Shadow Wraith’s minions to him.

  The metal around him creaked again. Then groaned. Then squealed.

  Alex looked up to see the metal legs of the contraption he sat in begin to collapse down upon him. There was no way to escape. No time to crawl between the steal arms of the ride. No time to even to call for help. He flattened himself back into the ground and said aloud the first rune-words that came to mind as he focused on the magical energy of the land. The metal machinery of the ride broke apart in unnatural ways, becoming sharp-edged talons plummeting toward Alex’s chest.

  “Jenu-Ka!”

  A wall of air, hard as iron, erupted around Alex as he repeated the rune-words. The metal shards and truss crashed into his protective bubble of air with a clangorous boom. Alex yelled the rune-words as the heavy parts of the machine continued to fall down around him, metal shrieking as it pressed down upon his shield of magical protection, bringing a spear-like shaft of metal closer and closer to his face.

  Alex continued to chant the rune-words keeping him from being impaled as the metal mass around him finally settled and ceased its collapse. Alex fell silent and listened. Although the metal pressed down upon him was now more likely to crush than skewer him, it held him as tightly as if he had fallen into a bear trap. That didn’t seem like a simple accident. It seemed intentional. It seemed like someone had tried to kill him. If the three minions of t
he Shadow Wraith were still present, they would finish their work.

  He heard one set of footsteps. Or were they feet? He struggled to move and see which direction they were approaching from, but only succeeded in banging his head against a hard steel gear shaft. The feet stopped and Alex thought about the most dangerous and powerful rune-words he knew.

  “Are you okay?” a soft female voice said. “Are you hurt?”

  The heart-shaped face of a girl with deep green eyes and short cropped brown hair slid into view above his face. She didn’t look like an agent of the Shadow Wraith. She actually looked rather concerned. And quite cute. Alex noticed her pointed ears and something about the moment felt altogether too familiar.

  “I have a giant mass of crushed metal on top of me,” Alex said to the girl, “but other than that, I’m fine.” He realized he was being flippant, but it was true. If the girl was there, others would come soon, as well. She looked over her shoulder. Alex could hear other footsteps now. People running toward him. Whatever the identity of the evil carnies, as Alex had already started to think of them, they would not attack again with a crowd. They would know who he was for certain now, but they wouldn’t be able to do anything about it. Not yet, at least.

  “Can you move?” the girl asked, looking back to Alex. “See if you can slide out.”

  “I’m stuck,” Alex said. “The beam over my chest is too close.”

  “Don’t move, I’ve got an idea,” the girl said and disappeared from view. Alex tried to watch her go, but the movement of his head was restricted. He could hear more people arriving on the scene. Gasps and exclamations filled the night. The sound of more feet moved toward him. A crowd. He could hear the girl saying something, but couldn’t make out what it was. Then the girl’s smiling face popped into view again.

  “I’ve gathered some people and we’re going to lift the beams pinning you down and pull you out,” the girl said, her voice a mixture of excitement and worry.