Wandmaker's Apprentice
Page 24
Coralis blinked until he finally seemed to recognize his apprentice. “Henry,” he croaked through parched lips. “How … ” He grimaced in pain as he pulled himself upright.
“Save your breath,” Henry said worriedly.
“My boy, you are a sight for sore eyes.” Coralis chuckled weakly. He suddenly looked puzzled. “I sense great power.” Henry withdrew the Roc feather, which reacted to Malachai’s spell like a sparkler on the Fourth of July. The Wand Master smiled. “Do you remember how I once told you that every victory relies on an element of luck? Well, I believe you’ve found some.”
Henry managed to drag the chair into the foyer, where his wand power could function. Coralis gave him explicit instructions to release the binding spell. As Henry proceeded, he realized that his power alone would not have been enough and he silently thanked the Roc.
Henry uttered the final words and Coralis fell forward into his arms … where he promptly passed out.
“Keep hitting them!” Luis yelled, though he could hardly be heard over the war cries of the Strix. Their original plan had been for Bryndis to take control of the water from the fountain so that Serena could pressurize it and slice the birds to ribbons. But a sudden fireball had vaporized every last drop and the rain wasn’t falling hard enough to accumulate.
Luis quickly improvised and used his power to atomize the cobblestones. Serena then pummeled the birds with powerful bursts of tornadic, pebble-strewn wind. She managed to repel them, but their armored shells prevented any lasting harm. They no sooner were blown high into the sky before they regrouped and mounted another attack.
Brianna left Katelyn in the care of Natalia and chose her moment to sprint across the blackened square to join them.
Serena smiled at the sight of her. “Brianna. I knew you’d be okay. Where are the others?”
“They’ll be here soon,” Brianna said, but couldn’t keep the worry from her voice. She explained what had happened to Katelyn and told Serena to be ready for the jolt as she gripped her shoulder and focused on the wind element.
Serena shuddered as a wave of power nearly overwhelmed her, but she steadied herself. She directed the energy from her wand into an ever-increasing funnel of wind. As it widened in diameter, cedar shingles were ripped from rooftops.
Several dive-bombing Strix streaked into the vortex and immediately joined the debris that spun out of control with blinding speed. Unable to control it any longer, Serena pushed the tornado skyward, where it struck the evil horde with deadly force, capturing all but a dozen and whirling them into the stratosphere.
Serena cried out as she collapsed with the effort, pale and drenched with sweat. Brianna, too, doubled over and rested her hands on her knees while she tried to catch her breath.
A dozen Strix was still a lot to contend with. Bryndis created a series of small fire clusters that she hurled at them like a child in a snowball fight. As the softball-sized spheres of fire raced toward their targets, she uttered a spell. She hadn’t mastered the fire element and knew she could not generate enough heat to destroy them. Instead, the fire clusters wrapped around them and sealed them in with a series of loud pops. Unable to flap their wings, they plummeted to the ground, where they thrashed wildly. The fiery cages held firm, but no sooner did the apprentices stop to rest than the other half of the horde screeched in the distance to announce their return.
Katelyn staggered through the doorway and tripped her way toward Serena, totally exhausted. “I don’t understand,” she panted. “Why can’t I recover my strength?” She suddenly realized someone was missing. “Where’s Molly?”
“She was injured.” Bryndis frowned. Katelyn was right. They shouldn’t be losing their strength so quickly. She thought back to their lessons, then put her nose to Katelyn’s hair and sniffed. She did the same to Serena and cursed under her breath. Their hair had a slightly smoky scent with subtle notes of exotic spices. “A parasite spell,” she said ominously. “As we expend our power, the energy is siphoned off. The more power we use, the faster it is depleted. Which means we are going to have to be smarter about how we fight these things.”
Brianna squinted as the black cloud drew nearer. “And hope that Henry finds Coralis. Very soon.”
“Can you walk?” Henry helped Coralis stand and slung one of the Wand Master’s arms over his shoulder for support. The Wand Master’s face was bleached of color. His breathing was labored to the point of wheezing. Henry had seen a classmate suffer from an asthma attack, but that was different. It almost looked like Coralis didn’t have the energy to breathe. “Coralis!” he whispered urgently. “What happened to you? What should I do?”
“Malachai.” Coralis attempted to take a deep breath. “Draining my aura.”
Henry’s eyes widened in shock. “But that’s your life-force. How is that even possible?”
“Should not be,” Coralis wheezed. “Must be something with the Pangaea … ” He slid down against the wall to sit. “Energy stabilizing now. But I’m useless.”
“Well, we have to do something! The others are out there facing a horde of Strix.”
Coralis closed his eyes to gather strength. When he opened them, they burned with fury. “Where is the Roc?” Henry explained the invisible chains that held the giant bird captive. “You must release her. The way you released me.”
Coralis grunted and arched his back in pain. Henry remembered all too well what it had felt like when Coralis tried to remove the evil moonbeam that had attacked his aura. He could not imagine the agony of having his entire aura stripped from him. It had to be like a slow, painful …
“Death.” Coralis silently projected the word into Henry’s mind.
“No!” he screamed. “You can’t die! We need you!”
“They need YOU!” Coralis forced the words upon Henry with as much Voice as he could muster. “Go … before it’s too late.”
“Promise me you won’t die!” Henry cried. “Promise or I’m not leaving.”
Coralis reached a withered hand up to tousle Henry’s hair. “Bahtzen bizzle,” he said with a warm smile. “You are one stubborn young man. But I cannot make a promise I cannot keep. However, I will try to stay alive.” The Wand Master closed his eyes until he heard Henry’s feet pounding down the stairs.
When he opened them, he was barely breathing.
Katelyn, Serena, Brianna, and Luis moved like toys with their batteries run down. Between the four of them, they had been able to destroy a handful of Strix, which left Bryndis to try to stave off hundreds. But the Strix had gotten smarter and managed to penetrate their defenses. Each of them wore battle wounds where the terrifying birds’ claws and beaks had left them battered and bruised. Most of the damage occurred to their hands and forearms as they instinctively used them to shield their faces.
Bryndis felt momentum shifting against them and had to take charge. She used a break in their attacks to create a small dome of protection—a disorientation spell that muddled the birds’ sense of direction. As they approached it, they suddenly found themselves veering away from their targets and had to flap wildly to regain their equilibrium.
Then Lady Luck intervened in the form of a dark storm cloud and renewed rain. Streams of water cascaded from gutters and downspouts on homes, giving Bryndis some much-needed ammunition. She came up with a few clever water formations that Serena blasted with enough pressure to take out dozens of birds at a time. But their power was draining quickly.
In a last-gasp effort to destroy as many as possible, Serena urged Bryndis to erect a wall of water that looked like an enormous shield. She had Luis add all the earth elements he could muster. Brianna placed a hand on Serena’s shoulder and used every ounce of reserve strength she had left. The effect was devastating on two fronts.
Strix exploded en masse. Their black blood erupted into a mural that looked as if a mad artist had thrown a bucket of paint at a dirty canvas. The blood rained down upon the ground, where it mingled with the scorched earth and created a field o
f toxic sludge.
But this also left the five apprentices completely spent. They collapsed in a heap and stared upward with blank eyes. And as most of the black blood mist cleared, the worst of their nightmares still filled the skies.
They were doomed and they knew it. In a last-ditch effort to protect them, Serena held her coat out like a winged bat and threw herself on top of their prone bodies. A sudden gust of wind swept across her with tremendous force. She screamed in anger and frustration at her failure until Bryndis shoved her off.
“Look!” she cried.
Serena’s eyes fluttered open; she was prepared to face her fate. She weakly swiped at the rain to clear her vision … and laughed. Each of the other apprentices in turn propped themselves up by their elbows to watch.
“What is that?” Luis asked.
“It’s a Roc,” Katelyn said as she squeezed Brianna’s hand. “Henry did it.”
The gigantic bird swooped over them like a low-flying jumbo jet. Her wings filled the skies as she glided upward with majestic grace and confronted the Strix with a shriek so loud it shattered windows throughout the village.
While the Strix of lore knew the Roc as their greatest enemy, the new breed that Malachai had created was clueless. But they did know that they had to attack such a humongous foe in force. Just as a school of fish will move as one, so did the Strix. Their remaining numbers gathered into a tight wedge and streaked toward the Roc as a solid mass.
The Roc made an enormous roller coaster loop in the air. With her head pointed skyward and her wings fully outstretched, she awaited the onslaught. The Strix came at her with their vicious claws extended. The Roc not only absorbed every impact; she began to glow.
As the last of the Strix made contact, the Roc snapped her wings shut in front of her body and trapped them against her. Her glow grew in intensity until it was too bright to look at. She opened her mouth and a noxious black vapor spewed forth and hovered above the bird like a soot-laden cloud. She clamped her wings even tighter, somehow remaining aloft as she did it.
The air around her shimmered. Remarkably, the raindrops solidified into hail, for it wasn’t heat the bird was generating, but intense cold. The Roc suddenly snapped her wings open. Her light flashed out. And the brittle skeletons of hundreds of Strix tumbled to the ground, where they shattered upon impact.
The great bird floated gently downward and landed at the edge of the square. She faced one of the intersecting alleys, where Henry emerged and walked toward her. He held the feather out for her to take back, but she refused and turned her head toward the place where Malachai had held her captive.
The earth shook as the Roc began to tremble violently. Then she let out a mighty roar of victory that shattered the remaining windows. She thrust herself upward and, with two powerful flaps, cleared the rooftops and glided out of sight.
“Henry!” Serena shouted.
Henry waved to her from across the square. But instead of joining them, he cocked his head as if he had forgotten something and sprinted back down the alley as the apprentices gazed helplessly at his retreating form.
Henry’s legs had never moved so fast in his life. Even through the cacophony of noise at the battle scene, he had clearly heard Coralis calling to him for help. He had sounded so weak. Henry knew he didn’t have much time. He had barely freed the Roc in time to save his friends. Now he hoped he’d be in time to save Coralis.
He pressed the Roc feather against his chest, where it still tingled with power. He knew their paths would cross again—hopefully under better circumstances.
Henry sliced through the alleys like an Olympic sprinter, then skidded to a jarring halt. He had entered the street directly across from Malachai’s home. The evil Wand Master—or what was left of him—stood outside his front door. He held the Pangaea Particle as if it were a sacred object. There was no skin left on his hands—only exposed muscle tissue. A dozen tendrils from the Particle were attached to his decomposing face. Several of them wove in and out of his exposed facial muscles like a needle and thread, creating some kind of demonic quilt. Off to the side lay the unconscious body of the human stink machine.
“Hello, Henry.” Malachai spoke, but it was an exact imitation of Coralis.
Henry swallowed his fear. “Where is Coralis? What have you done to him?” His voice projected loud and clear and with authority born of anger.
“You are not afraid of me? First poor, misguided Puteo tries to steal my particle of power. Now you—the underachieving son of a failed Wandbearer—seek to challenge me,” Malachai said mockingly. “What’s the world coming to? Let’s see if we can fix that.”
Malachai’s hand moved like a blur as he whipped out a wand and zapped two lightning bolts at Henry’s feet. The blast tossed him backward, where he slammed against a stone wall, whacking the back of his head hard enough to draw blood. He stood shakily and staggered as he attempted to regain his senses.
“Oh, come on, boy,” Malachai chided. “This is going to be too easy. Did Coralis teach you nothing? I’ll tell you what … give me your best shot. See if you can hurt me.” He cradled the Particle in one hand and lowered the wand to his side. “Please? Surely you have something.”
Henry’s head throbbed. White dots floated in front of his eyes. The realization that Malachai could destroy him with a flick of his wrist was horrifying. He was suffocating under the pressure. Coralis was the only one who could defeat Malachai, and he was … where?
“Coralis!” He reached out with his mind.
“Coralis can no longer hear you,” Malachai silently answered. He sneered.
Henry wiped his sweaty palms on his pants before taking his wand out and leveling it at Malachai. If he was being given a free shot at the Wand Master, he would make it count. He shut down access to his thoughts.
He felt Malachai prodding unsuccessfully at his mind. “Impressive,” Malachai sneered.
Henry concentrated on all four elements at once. Coralis had shown him a technique in which the elements would actually decide the correct course of action for him. He had practiced and improved but was far from mastering it. He was about to give up when he sensed an opportunity.
If Henry were to succeed in somehow separating Malachai from the Particle, perhaps it would confuse the Wand Master long enough to give him an advantage. He closed his eyes and raised his arms out perpendicular to the ground. He called upon the air molecules to levitate him off the street—an imitation of what he had just seen the Roc do.
Malachai continued to jab at Henry’s mind, but he couldn’t get through. Henry leveled a steely gaze at the Wand Master, whose puzzled expression told him his plan might just work.
Henry held himself steady at a meter off the ground, then began to assemble the rainwater on the roof over Malachai’s head. Within seconds, he had gathered hundreds of liters of water and pooled it into a cylindrical column. Appearing as though he had failed, he lowered himself to the ground. He summoned enough heat to form a fireball, which he purposely threw short of his target, and he looked helplessly at Malachai, who smiled wickedly.
“Oh dear. Coralis is worse than I thought. Couldn’t even teach the simpl—” Malachai never finished his taunt, as Henry suddenly whipped his wand in a downward motion. The cylinder leapt from the rooftop and pummeled into Malachai like a giant fist.
But the evil Wand Master was too quick. A nanosecond before impact, he erected a narrow, invisible dome over himself. The deluge of water split into two frothing rivers that temporarily flooded the streets. Malachai laughed at Henry’s attempt as he waved away the protective dome.
But Henry wasn’t finished. He subtly flicked his wrist and brought another thirty-liter fist of water that hammered Malachai squarely on the head. Caught completely by surprise, Malachai fell to the ground. He used his hands to brace his fall.
The Particle rolled from his grip.
Henry surged forward to kick the Particle out of Malachai’s reach, but stopped and watched, horrified, as the t
endrils held tight to the Wand Master’s ruined face. One detached and whipped at Henry. He ducked and nearly avoided contact, but a tiny barb on the end of the tendril nicked the base of his palm and broke the skin. He cried out. The pain was excruciating, as if his hand had been dipped in a caustic acid.
He arched his back and screamed, but it wasn’t from the pain. The tendril had given him direct contact with Malachai’s hideously twisted mind and revealed his vision for Earth’s future. Just before the vision ended, something else came into focus—no, someone.
“Dad! Are you there? Help me!”
Slowly Malachai stood and wiped the water from his face. He quickly reclaimed the Particle. “Now look at what you’ve done,” he growled. “But then again, I did offer you a free shot. And now … it’s my turn.”
Leonardo had been in his workshop putting the finishing touches on the tranquillityite net when a primal scream echoed across the courtyard of Sforza Castle. His head snapped up. The falcon screeched from the rafters.
“It is time.” He grabbed a large satchel and packed the neatly folded net, along with carefully wrapped vials of the mandrake solution. Thunder rumbled overhead as a storm blew in on wind gusts that tore flags from their posts and sent them soaring. As Leonardo opened the door, a sheet of rain greeted and immediately soaked him. He called to the falcon and allowed it to crawl into his bag; then he leaned into the wind and forced his way across the courtyard.
He entered the dungeon to the sounds of Henry’s father wailing as if he were being tortured. And in a way, he was.
“Leonardo!” Markhor shouted. “My son! Help me!” He squeezed his head, not to block out the vision but to try to maintain contact. His only son was in trouble and the mind-link was the only way he could try to help.
“Leach!” Leonardo yelled. “Cover your eyes!” Leonardo pulled out the net and tested the weight in his hands. Tossing a fishing net took skill born from years of experience—something he didn’t possess. But in his head he had worked out trajectories, weight balance, velocity, and force of impact. He knew he had only one shot at breaking the spell. Through another dream with the falcon, he also knew the fate of mankind rested in him getting it right.