“Sh’tara!” Paige shouted.
Sh’tara’s biting grip dispersed in a shower of orb particles as Paige flung her into a boulder.
“Bend your head, Phoebe.” Piper pressed the engraved bracelet design against Phoebe’s forehead. Ce’kahn frantically fought to dislodge the opposite side of the metal band, which Piper held against her neck. “Say these words, Phoebe: Guh-sheen toh dak!”
“Guh-sheen toh dak!” Phoebe inhaled sharply as a cascade of blue sparkles shot from the reddened portion of the design and settled around her like a mist of cool light.
Ce’kahn screamed as red streaks of magic spurted out of her mouth, nose, and eyes into the bracelet.
The power conversion was over in less than a minute. Wind and thunder were silenced, and lightning flashed out, leaving only the moon to light the cloudless gray sky.
Ce’kahn, however, was not quite ready to surrender. When Phoebe stood up, the Dor’chacht sorceress sprang into a crouch. Crazed by hatred and fury, she leaped, her hands held like claws to gouge out Phoebe’s eyes. The bracelet slipped off her arm into the dirt as Phoebe levitated out of reach.
Beaten, Ce’kahn collapsed, her power and her spirit spent.
Tov’reh staggered out of the tangle of thorny vines, his face scratched and his eyes dull with defeat.
With Tov’reh and Ce’kahn powerless and Paige and Phoebe’s magic restored, Piper was no longer worried about winning the unauthorized rematch with the Dor’chacht. Getting her powers back was not a certainty, however.
Piper avoided looking into Sh’tara’s eyes as the bedraggled sorceress dragged herself to her feet. She suspected Sh’tara could drive her insane if she had access to her thoughts, but she didn’t want to test the theory.
“You may win this war, Sol’agath witch, but the price of victory will be high.” Sh’tara’s mouth twisted into a cruel smile as she pulled the flute off her belt.
A horrifying thought sent a jolt of nausea rippling through Piper’s stomach. Sh’tara’s powers had not been neutralized yet. If she had been the last person to touch the flute besides Karen, the instrument’s music might still be able to wreck havoc with her emotional equilibrium.
Paige closed ranks with Piper and held out her hand. “Flute!”
“I’m not sure just touching the flute will get my magic back, Paige,” Piper said as the instrument formed in Paige’s hand. “Or drain hers.”
“Why not?” Paige frowned and absently orbed Sh’tara farther away so the flute couldn’t influence Piper and they could talk without being overheard.
The ease with which Paige tossed the sorceress aside enflamed Tov’reh’s wounded pride. Although dazed, bruised, and bleeding from his close encounter with the thorny thicket, he barreled toward them with a shriek of maddened fury.
Paige orbed him back into the briar patch. Piper might have found the irony funny if she wasn’t so alarmed about her missing powers.
“The three of us can rush Sh’tara and hold her down like you and Phoebe pinned Ce’kahn.” Paige grinned. “We just have to be careful not to gaze into her baby blues.”
Piper wished it were that simple. She saw Phoebe walking over with her memo pad in hand and decided to wait before she punched holes in Paige’s plan.
“And after you’ve got them,” Paige continued, “you can blow up the Dor’chacht’s powers along with the bracelet, the staff, and the flute. Then that, as they say, will be that.”
“And it would probably work,” Piper said, “except Karen played the flute to drain my powers after I touched it.”
“Oh.” Paige slumped. “I forgot that she played the flute to commit her magical robbery.”
“And we can’t force her to play to reverse the process.” Piper covered her mouth, but she couldn’t stop the sobs. This sadness wasn’t a false response to Sh’tara’s melancholy music. Her powers were gone, and the pain of loss was unbearable.
On occasion, Piper had cursed the magic and the burdens that came with being a Charmed One, but she would never willingly give it all up, not even if she could have her normal life back. Losing her magic now, after they had thwarted the Dor’chacht’s dark vengeance and saved humanity from a darker destiny, just seemed like a cruel, cosmic joke.
“We can’t force Sh’tara to play,” Phoebe said, “but maybe we can force the flute to play itself.”
Piper eyed her younger sister skeptically, hardly daring to hope. “Is your memory back in sync, Phoebe?”
“Regarding the whole family feud in the mystical Valley of Ages program?” Phoebe nodded. “Apparently my updated memory came back with my powers.”
“Hey!” Paige blinked. “I’m not tired anymore!”
“Me neither!” Stanley snapped his eyes open. “Am I awake?”
“Oh, no!” Piper gasped. “It’s bad enough I’m going to end up being a witch with no magic, but there’s no way I can deal with being a weepy wimp the rest of my life.”
“I don’t think we can deal with that either,” Paige quipped.
“We won’t have to.” Phoebe held up the pad. “Anyone up for a Power of Three spell?”
Paige stole a glance at Piper, as though she was reluctant to crush her hopes. “Sure, but The Book of Shadows said there wasn’t a spell to vanquish the Dor’chacht.”
“Who said anything about vanquishing?” Phoebe grinned. “I don’t remember exactly when, but somewhere along the line I had the bright idea to write a spell to make the flute play itself. Apparently I kept one eye on my laptop reminder so I wouldn’t completely forget what I was working on.”
“Lucky for us!” Paige beamed.
“Lucky for us I couldn’t remember,” Phoebe said, “or Sh’tara would have found out about it with her spooky mind-meld thingie.”
“In the attic last night,” Piper said, remembering that Phoebe had also mentioned a spell right before they had been witch-napped from the living room, “you said you had an idea, and stupid me didn’t bother to follow up.”
Paige winced. “I thought she had just forgotten that there wasn’t a vanquishing spell, and I didn’t want to discourage her from helping.”
Sh’tara advanced toward them across the rugged terrain.
“So what’s the plan?” Paige asked.
“Tackle, touch, and recite.” Piper exhaled. “And since half my power is still in the flute, hope the Power of Two and a Half is enough to get the job done.”
“Ready?” Paige gripped the flute tightly.
Phoebe clamped the small memo pad between her teeth.
“Anytime.” Piper tensed as Paige held out her free hand and called Sh’tara’s name. The startled sorceress suddenly orbed across the remaining distance. The three sisters had her pinned on the ground before she finished re-forming.
“Lean over, Piper!” Paige placed one end of the flute against the struggling Sh’tara’s forehead and the mouthpiece against Piper. “Say the words.”
“Guh-sheen toh dak!” Piper’s voice sounded loud and clear as she spoke the Dor’chacht phrase.
Sh’tara seemed to wither as crackling wisps of red magic spewed from her mouth into the hollow, wooden cylinder.
Holding Sh’tara down with one hand, Phoebe flipped open the memo pad and held it so they could all see. As she began to recite, Paige and Piper joined in.
“Laughing then and crying now, undo this mystic music curse; the Sol’agath command the flute, play Piper’s powers in reverse.”
As the mellow sound of the flute filled the quiet that had settled over the valley, a blue glow enveloped Piper. The melody had the odd, disjointed cadence of a song being played backward. Piper could feel the sadness lift from her soul and the magic rush back. She laughed once when the backward jig resounded off the cliff walls, and felt an enormous relief when the instrument fell silent again.
“That was a pretty song.” Stanley shuffled over.
“Get ready, Piper.” Paige hesitated, then tossed the flute into the air. “Testing one, two—�
�
On three, Piper snapped her hands out.
The wooden flute pulsed with a sudden infusion of molecular velocity. Piper laughed when the cursed instrument disintegrated into sawdust.
“Yes!” Phoebe released Sh’tara and pocketed her pad to high-five the old man.
Thrilled, Piper targeted Tov’reh’s staff and Ce’kahn’s bracelet. She magically blew them to bits along with the Ks’ evil powers.
The ghostly figures of other Dor’chacht fighters and sorcerers suddenly appeared on the ancient battleground. Hundreds of the losing clan were shifted from a long suspension in time through the present on their way to the underworld.
“Do you go to the Fifth Street Shelter, too?” Stanley asked a stately old man with long white hair who had solidified in front of them.
“Shen’arch!” Sh’tara scrambled to her knees and bowed her head before the ancient master sorcerer. “All is lost.”
“Hoh kan vri-dit?” Shen’arch’s pointed gaze settled on the three witches.
Piper stared back, unwilling to be intimidated by the seething hatred the ancient sorcerer conveyed. Judging by his expression, she guessed that Shen’arch was astounded, appalled, and angered by his dark warriors’ failure.
“They were too strong.” Sh’tara began to keen in a high-pitched wail.
“And smart,” Paige added.
Phoebe nodded. “Resourceful, too.”
Piper smiled. Shen’arch’s cunning calculations and audacious plan to defeat the Sol’agath had been inspired, but his immense power and manipulations had not been enough. In the end, goodness and the Power of Three had still prevailed.
Shen’arch sagged as the certainty of defeat became apparent to him, too. Tov’reh scrambled back out of the thorny thicket on his hands and knees. Ce’kahn stood up, flapping her arms as though she were trying to chase away a swarm of invisible bees. Then the master sorcerer and his three chosen ones began to change.
Dropping shields and swords, all the Dor’chacht screamed as their magic was removed and released into the void. One by one, their fierce, primitive grandeur was transformed into the grotesque. Long blond and white hair turned to coarse gray tufts of fur, and statuesque bodies shriveled into misshapen, gnomelike forms. Blue eyes became beady black orbs set in wrinkled, brown-spotted faces.
Piper pulled Stanley and her sisters back when a dark maw opened up between them and the diminutive caricatures the Dor’chacht had become.
The black vortex expanded with a deafening roar and scooped the lowercase ks and the rest of their clan into swirling sands. When none but the astonished Charmed Ones and their innocent remained on the valley floor, the violent whirlpool disappeared with a whoosh and a sigh. The moon suddenly vanished below the horizon, and the sun began to rise.
“Is this the ticket home?” Paige asked when a golden light swelled in midair before them. She latched on to Stanley’s shirttail as he started to wander away.
“We’re about to find out!” Phoebe threw her arms around the group.
“Hang on!” Piper cried when the light irised open and swept them inside.
“Okay,” Stanley said.
Chapter
12
Except for the brighter color, the golden light ride home wasn’t much of an improvement over the black tornado that had taken them to the Valley of Ages. When she staggered out of the portal back into the living room, Paige’s stomach felt like it did on the first dip of a giant roller coaster or when she rode an express elevator down fifty floors: left behind.
“Did everyone make it back okay?” Phoebe asked, counting heads.
Stanley raised his hand. “I’m not sleeping now, am I?”
“No, Mr. Addison, you’re awake.” Paige let go of his shirttail.
“I need a nap.” Without waiting for permission, Stanley flopped onto the sofa. He was snoring before Paige finished covering him with a throw.
Leo and Cole ran in from the kitchen. “You’re back!”
“So are you!” Phoebe’s smile at seeing Cole lit up the room. “Catch anything?”
“No.” Cole embraced her and then gently pushed her back to look into her eyes. “Did you?”
“Just Stanley.” Phoebe glanced at the old man. “The Dor’chacht kidnapped him. I guess they thought the distraction of protecting an innocent would give them another advantage over us.”
“Apparently it didn’t.” Leo slipped an arm around Piper’s shoulders and squeezed.
“Nope.” Piper grinned. “Taking our powers didn’t help them either.”
“Is Stanley okay?” Leo asked with a worried glance toward the sofa.
“Yeah.” Paige gazed down on the old guy for a long moment, then looked up anxiously. “You don’t have to worry about him saying anything about what he saw. The magic and everything.”
“What did he see?” Leo’s worried frown deepened.
“A lot, but he’s not exactly… coherent,” Paige explained. “I mean, if he does say something about whirlpool transports or trees turning into giant snakes, nobody will believe him.”
“Trees turning into snakes?” Cole drew Phoebe closer. “That sounds ominous.”
“It was,” Piper said, “but even though we only had partial powers, we handled it.”
“That much is obvious.” Leo squeezed Piper again. “You’re here, the sun is rising, the Elders didn’t sound the emergency alarm, and I’m hungry. Being up all night worrying about you takes a lot out of a guy.”
Piper playfully cuffed his arm. “I could use a doughnut.”
“I’ll buy.” Cole held up his car keys.
Phoebe snatched them from his hand. “Wait until I change and I’ll go with you. It’s been a long five days, and I’m not letting you out of my sight.”
“So what finally happened to Kevin, Karen, and Kate?” Leo asked.
“Also known as Tov’reh, Sh’tara, and Ce’kahn.” Piper pushed Leo down into a chair and perched on his lap. She lowered her head to his shoulder with a contented sigh.
“Did you vanquish them?” Cole asked.
“Couldn’t,” Phoebe said. “The Book of Shadows was right. There’s no vanquishing spell, charm, or potion for the Dor’chacht.”
“They didn’t get away again, did they?” Cole clarified his interest. “A lot of high-level demons were upset because Shen’arch cheated fate.”
“Why would cheating bother demons?” Leo asked.
“In this particular case, it would have set a really bad precedent,” Cole said. “Evil thrives on tormenting those who lose in its name. The Dor’chacht haven’t suffered for their defeat because they’ve been suspended in time waiting for this stolen second chance. No one down there wanted them to win.”
“They didn’t.” Paige sprawled in another chair. She diplomatically didn’t mention that if Cole hadn’t been off fishing, he could have saved them a bunch of time and trouble. Phoebe’s ex-demon fiancé was an invaluable source of evil trivia and miscellaneous info.
“The Dor’chacht are finally in the underworld, where they belong.” Phoebe grinned.
“So is Gilbert,” Leo said.
“We’re gremlin free?” Piper sat up. “How’d you manage that, or shouldn’t I ask?
Leo’s face reddened slightly. “I…uh…turned off the water to the house for an hour, and he…left.”
“Just like that?” Paige couldn’t believe they had put up with gremlin slime all over the bathroom and gremlin chow in the kitchen sink for days when turning off the water would have solved the problem.
“Just like that,” Leo confessed sheepishly.
“How’d you turn off that rusty valve by yourself?” Piper asked.
“I helped.” Cole scowled. “After a week in the woods, I was unfit for human company when I got home. I didn’t appreciate sharing the shower with our uninvited guest.”
“Me neither.” Paige cast another annoyed glance at Leo.
Leo countered with more good news. “Mr. Cowan called about
fifteen minutes ago, Paige. Doug was worried about Stanley because he didn’t show up for lights-out last night.”
“I’ll call the shelter and let Doug know that everything is fine.” Paige sighed, feeling weary in mind and body. The trials of the past several hours added to her job, volunteering at the shelter, being power drained, magically fatigued, and trying to help Stanley had worn her out for real.
“Well, that’s not the only reason Mr. Cowan called.” Leo smiled. “He wanted you to know right away that Hawthorne Hill Home accepted Stanley. He can move in today.”
“Really?” Paige sprang out of her chair and gave Leo a huge hug.
Stanley was probably too exhausted from his adventure to wake up, but Paige knelt by the sofa to tell him the good news anyway. “Guess what, Mr. Addison? You’re going to have a new home with a room and your own bed, a shower, and three meals every day.”
Stanley rolled over and opened one eye. “Am I dreaming again?”
“No, this is real.” Paige’s smile faltered when Stanley’s placid expression became a disappointed frown. “Is something wrong?”
“No, but—” Stanley sighed. “I want to go back to that dream so I can see the part where the world eats the ugly little bad people again.”
“Yeah, I liked that part too.” Paige nodded. Watching the world eat the ugly little bad people was one of the perks of being Charmed.
About the Author
Diana G. Gallagher lives in Florida with her husband, Marty Burke, four dogs, five cats, and a cranky parrot. Before becoming a full-time writer, she made her living in a variety of occupations, including hunter seat equitation instructor, folk musician, and fantasy artist. Best known for her hand-colored prints depicting the dog-like activities of Woof: The House Dragon, she won a Hugo Award for Best Fan Artist in 1988.
Diana’s first science fiction novel, The Alien Dark, was published in 1990. Since then, she has written more than forty novels for Simon & Schuster in several series for all age groups, including Star Trek for middle-grade readers, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Charmed, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Secret World of Alex Mack, Are You Afraid of the Dark?, and Salem’s Tails. She is currently working on another Charmed novel.
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