Summer's Cauldron

by G. L. Breedon

  “Why must you always put yourself at the center of every awful thing that happens in this town?” she asked as she sniffed back tears brimming at the edges of her eyes.

  “I know it’s a bad habit, Mom,” Alex said, trying to smile against the tears threatening to well up within his own eyes, “but at least I’m not smoking.”

  His mother laughed and bent down to kiss him on the head. “I might prefer you tried something that would only kill you slowly.” She frowned. “Forget I said that.”

  “We have to tell Dad,” Nina said, her eyes still wide from the recitation of Alex’s adventures.

  “Yes,” his mother said, turning to include Nina and the rest of the table in her words as she removed the apron and stepped over to where the family shoes lined the wall beside the back door. She slid off her slippers and pulled on a pair of leather boots. “I will go immediately and tell your father what has happened. Alex is right, based on the fact the mayor thinks you all tried to rob the town museum, Logan may not be able to make any arrests. But, we can keep them all under observation.

  “In the meantime, Alex, I want you to go to the top of the attic stairs. Three steps up on the right you will find a book on ancient magical armaments. I could swear I’ve heard the phrase Sword of Silas before. That book may have some clue as to what it is and what it can do. I’ll be back, but while I’m gone, you are all to remain here. And I will know if you have tried to leave.” She locked eyes with Alex and Nina for a moment, then kissed them each quickly on the forehead and strode to the door. She paused and looked back over her shoulder, directly at Alex.

  “Don’t do anything stupid or reckless or heroic,” his mother said, holding his eyes with hers.

  Victoria burst out laughing, throwing her hands to her mouth to stifle her giggles as she blushed. “I’m sorry, Mrs. Ravenstar. That simply sounded so ridiculous when you said it.”

  “You can’t ask him not to be stupid,” Nina said as the others joined in at laughing at Alex. “It’s what he does best.”

  “It’d be like asking him not to fart,” Daphne said.

  “Impossible,” Ben said. “He can’t not fart. He’d explode.”

  “He’d probably explode if he didn’t do something stupid,” Rafael said.

  “Hmm, we’ll keep an eye on him, Mrs. Ravenstar,” Clark said.

  “Right,” Daphne said. “If it looks like he’s going to be reckless or heroic or stupid, we’ll stop him.”

  “Yes, I’m sure you will,” his mother said with a sarcastic sigh. “You’re all so good at discouraging his wild ideas. I can’t decide who’s the fox and who’s the hen.” She sighed again. “Take care of each other. I’ll be back soon.”

  As Alex’s mother closed the door, Alex turned to look thoughtfully at Nina and his friends. “What eats a fox?”

  “A wolf?” Victoria suggested, raising her eyebrows.

  “Then I’m a wolf,” Alex said, with a sly grin. “I think we’re all wolves. And we know who the foxes are.”

  “Then who are the hens?” Nina asked, looking puzzled.

  “The whole gorping town,” Daphne said, sounding exasperated.

  “So what are we really going to do?” Victoria asked, looking at Alex expectantly.

  “Plan?” Ben said, sitting up taller in his chair. “Do we have one this time?”

  “For now, exactly what Mom said,” Alex replied, looking around the table at the others. “I’ll find the book on magical weapons and we’ll see if we can figure out what Esmeralda and the others are up to.”

  “For once, being a wolf might not be so bad,” Rafael said, taking the last sip of his orange juice.

  “Hmm, Daphne and I have something else to do,” Clark said, looking down where Daphne sat beside him. “Out in the Guild House.”

  “What’s more important than figuring out what Esmeralda is up to?” Alex asked.

  “Clark has a hunch about what the cauldron might do,” Daphne said with a mysterious smile. “I and I have a hunch we might need it to stop the evil carnies.”

  “What hunch?” Alex said, his voice cracking slightly. He suddenly realized how annoying it must be when he made cryptic statements about plans that might affect the Guild in their adventures. It was very annoying.

  “It’s only a hunch for now,” Daphne said. “We’ll work on the cauldron while you research the sword.”

  “Me too,” Ben said. “I’ll help Clark and Daphne.”

  “That will leave the four of us to read the book,” Rafael said.

  “We can do the dishes,” Victoria replied. “I’m sure Alex and Nina’s mother would appreciate coming home to find a clean kitchen.”

  “You know, in your own way, you’re as crazy as my brother,” Nina said, frowning at Victoria.

  Alex changed into his clothes and retrieved the book his mother had mentioned while Victoria enlisted Nina and Rafael to help with the dishes and Daphne, Clark, and Ben headed out to the Guild House in the backyard to continue the examination of the magic cauldron.

  Alex was surprised to discover the book was only two steps up on the attic stairs from where his mother has said it would be. His mother had a very peculiar system of organization for the thousands books stacked around the house and it was a methodology that eluded the rest of the family. Alex was impressed she had known where it would be.

  The dishes proved a much easier task to accomplish than finding any hint of who Silas might have been and why Esmeralda might want his sword. Nearly an hour after his mother’s departure, Alex sat at the kitchen table, Rafa on one side, Nina on the other, and Victoria looking over their shoulders as they slowly flipped through page after page of the book, hunting for any hint of the information they sought. Finally, near the end of the book, they came across something that raised Alex’s hopes. Victoria spotted it first.

  “There, in the last paragraph,” Victoria said, leaning down over Alex’s shoulder. He only found her breath on his neck mildly distracting. “Lord Elvodar claimed Silas’s sword and wielded it against the mighty Stone Mountain Monster, shattering the creature into vapor and ash. The Sword of Destruction so frightened Lord Elvodar with its power that he ordered his most trusted vassal to bear it to a far land and hide it forever from human hands. Hammered with blows of magic in a forge of dragon fire by Silas of Abeldeen, the Sword of Destruction was said to annihilate anything it touched, except its own sheath. Lord Elvodar’s vassal hid the sword well, for it has never been found in over three thousand years.”

  “A sword that can destroy anything it touches,” Rafael said, leaning back from the table. “That sounds bad.”

  “What do they want it for?” Nina asked, running her finger over the passage on the book Victoria has just read aloud.

  “To destroy the rune keeping the Shadow Wraith in its prison,” Alex said with a sigh.

  “But how could they get into the cave without the whole town knowing?” Victoria asked. “It’s buried under half a mountain of rubble. She isn’t planning on using the sword to excavate, is she?”

  “I don’t know,” Alex said. “At least we know what they want it for.”

  “But how do they plan to find it?” Nina asked.

  Just then, Ben burst through the door, his eyes alight with excitement and his face drenched with sweat.

  “Cauldron,” Ben practically shouted. “You have to come see what Daphne and Clark discovered about the cauldron.”

  “I’ll catch up,” Alex said as the others all made for the door. “I’ll leave a note to let Mom know where we are.” It would not be good for her to come home and find them all missing.

  “What’s taking her so long?” Nina asked as she reached the door.

  “Probably helping Dad keep track of evil carnies,” Alex said, snatching a note pad from the kitchen counter and scribbling out a quick message to his mother explaining where they were.

  When Alex stepped into the Guild House a minute later, he instinctively leaned back from the wall of heat that h
it him in the face. The air in the small Guild House felt twice as stifling as the heat that had been oppressing the town for days. Alex immediately saw the source of the heat. A large fire blazed in the belly of the cast-iron woodstove. In top of the stove sat the cauldron. Clark and Daphne stood beside the stove, dripping wet with sweat. Daphne stood on a chair so she could see into the bowl of the black cauldron.

  “We figured it out,” Daphne said, barely able to contain her excitement.

  “Hmm, mostly Daphne figured it out,” Clark said, nodding toward her.

  “We couldn’t have done it without your nose,” Daphne said, grinning at Clark. “And your stomach.”

  “Fire,” Ben said, stepping up to the stove and cauldron. “I started the fire.”

  “Fire is part of it,” Daphne said, “but the wishing is the important part.”

  “What does it do, already?” Rafael said, wiping his forehead with back of his arm.

  “It’s a gorping cauldron of transformation,” Daphne said, beaming. “I was thinking we could examine the cauldron by starting a fire under it and testing things we put inside. We started with water, but the water only boiled.”

  “Ah, then we tried different rune-words,” Clark said. “But nothing worked.”

  “Rumble,” Ben said. “Then Clark’s stomach started making noise.”

  “Mmm, I should have had another pancake,” Clark said.

  “And then the water in the cauldron started to change,” Daphne said.

  “Soup,” Ben said. “The water changed into soup.”

  “Beef barley soup with carrots and peas,” Daphne said with a laugh.

  “Well, I was hungry,” Clark said, his face serious. Clark was always serious about food. “Soup sounded good.”

  “Are you telling us that the cauldron transformed water into soup because Clark was thinking about it?” Victoria asked, stepping closer to examine the cauldron. “Daddy would love to know how that works.”

  “It works for more than gorping soup, too,” Daphne said.

  “Yeah, we tried a stick from the yard that Daphne turned into a flower,” Clark said. “And Ben turned that old baseball that’s always rolling around into a pile of poop.”

  “My lucky baseball?” Rafael said with a yelp.

  “Concentration,” Ben said, pointedly avoiding Rafael’s eyes. “You have to concentrate. I lost focus. I needed to go.”

  “But it only works for things that aren’t alive,” Daphne said, wrinkling her nose.

  “Mouse,” Ben said. “The mouse was a bad idea. My fault.”

  “Hmm, never had to heal a mouse before,” Clark said.

  “Daphne, Clark, Ben,” Alex said, grinning at his friends, “this is great. You were right, Daph. We can use the cauldron. If we can find the Sword of Silas before Esmeralda and the evil carnies, maybe we can destroy it.” Alex quickly told Daphne, Clark, and Ben what he and the others had learned about the Sword of Silas.

  “Dionysus’ diarrhea,” Daphne said. “How are we supposed to find the sword?”

  “Don’t even think about suggesting that crazy dog,” Rafael said. “It couldn’t find a bone it hid in its own bed.”

  “Beowulf is better with people than things,” Nina said, her tone a little defensive.

  “Maybe Daddy could think of a way to find it,” Victoria suggested. “Magic that destructive must leave a trace somehow.”

  “Jail,” Ben said. “Your dad needs to lock them all up before they can find the sword.”

  “Yeah, you should tell your mom and dad about the sword,” Clark said.

  “As soon as…” Alex began to say and then jumped as something sharp poked into his chest. Alex looked around, but his friends were all too far away to have been responsible. His first thought was that the Mad Mages were nearby and pulling a prank. Then the poke came again.

  “What’s the matter?” Nina asked, looking at Alex with sudden concern.

  “I’m not sure,” Alex said, taking a seat on the nearby couch. “I think Batami is trying to make contact. Keep an eye on me.”

  Alex leaned back into the deep cushions of the couch and closed his eyes as his friends watched with apprehension. Alex took a deep breath and willed himself into his astral form. As he did so, he saw Batami floating before him, a hint of anxiety on her face.

  “I have some news,” Batami said.

  “What’s happened?” Alex asked.

  “I’ve been at the carnival since our meeting last night,” Batami said. “I used the method you described to get past the astral barrier. I had hoped to search out the followers of the Shadow Wraith you were unable to uncover. Instead, I found the necklace, hanging on a mannequin, but there is no sign of Esmeralda or any of the carnival folk you described.”

  “Are you sure?” Alex asked.

  “I think it would be hard to miss a fifteen foot giant,” Batami said with a frown.

  “Maybe they fled town when they realized I could identify them,” Alex said, knowing such hopeful thoughts never turned out to reflect reality.

  “More likely, they have moved up the timetable for their plans,” Batami said. “And left the necklace behind, with the astral barrier intact, so we would think Esmeralda was still in the carnival grounds.”

  The world outside the Guild House lit up with a blinding bolt of lightning. The thunder that followed was so loud it shook the walls of the old horse stable. Alex saw his friends dash to the door and swing it open as a wall of rain began to pound the ground.

  “That does not seem like…” Batami said and then paused, her face twisting as though in pain.

  “What is it?” Alex asked, floating closer at Batami’s astral form.

  “I must go,” Batami said, her concern and pain seeping directly into Alex’s mind with the words she thought to him. “The White Forest is on fire.”

  Chapter 20: Bank Robbery

  “But it’s raining,” Alex said, glancing out the window of the Guild House. “How can the White Forest be on fire?”

  “It seems this was part of their plan,” Batami said. “To keep me from helping you.” She winced in pain and her astral form flickered. “I must go. I will come to you again when I can. Take care.”

  “Batami…” Alex began to think to his mentor, but she faded from sight. Alex knew Batami and the White Forest were magically entwined in ways that allowed her to live much longer than normal, but that this magical bond also tied her to the life of the forest. If the White Forest were on fire, it was as though Batami herself was aflame. He had to help her if he could. Alex let himself slip back into his physical body and sat up.

  “It was Batami,” Alex said to the others as they turned from watching the rain to the sound of his voice. Only Victoria and Nina had maintained their vigil over his seemingly sleeping form. “The White Forest is on fire.”

  “In this gorping rain?” Daphne said, her voice nearly squeaking.

  “The weather and the fire must be the work of Esmeralda,” Alex said as he sat up. “If the forest is on fire, Batami can’t help us.”

  “Rain,” Ben said, looking out the window again. “Then why all the rain?”

  “To drown the rest of us?” Rafael suggested with a shrug his shoulders.

  The piercing sound of a ringing bell filled their ears and Victoria jumped, her hooves clattering along the wooden floor in her surprise. She reached into the leather satchel she always carried and withdrew a large alarm clock, its little hammer swinging wildly between the two metal bells atop its round clock face. Victoria silenced the bell and looked at Alex and the others.

  “Someone is breaking into my house,” Victoria said, her eyes wide with worry.

  “Esmeralda,” Alex said, jumping to his feet. “She must think one of your father’s inventions will help her find the Sword of Silas.”

  “I have to go,” Victoria said, slipping the clock back into her satchel.

  “You’re not going anywhere without the rest of us,” Alex said. He looked around the
room at the others. Events were happening far more quickly than he had anticipated and he knew too little of Esmeralda’s plans and how they might unfold. They needed to act, but they also needed to be prepared. The last thing Alex was going do was lead his friends into another trap. The concern on the faces of the Guild paradoxically increased his confidence and resolve. It was times like these, when someone needed to lead, that Alex felt closest to being the person he imagined himself to be in his dreams.

  “Okay, here’s the plan,” Alex said, clapping his hands together. “We can’t leave unprepared. Nina, Daphne, and Rafael, head to the house. Nina, show them where the raincoats are. Daphne and Raphael, gather up anything you think might keep us dry. Nina, write Mom a note and tell her where we went and why, and leave it on the kitchen table. She’ll know from her magic that we’ve left the house, but this way she’ll know why. Victoria and Clark, douse the fire in the woodstove and empty the cauldron. Then help Ben pack up everything you think we might need from the storage locker. Rope, canteens for water, compass, flares, glow-wands, smoke bombs, firecrackers, anything you can think of. We meet back here in two minutes.”

  “What are you going to do?” Daphne asked as she headed to the door with Nina and Rafael.

  “I have some magic to work,” Alex said, pulling three coins from his pocket. “I’ll explain later.”

  The others quickly ran to their tasks as Alex placed the three coins on the table at the side of the room. One of the coins tugged slightly against his finger in the direction of the carnival grounds. That must be where Anna was with the coin’s enchanted companion.