“Paltigar!” Eva called. Even her voice was weaker now. “Ego dico Paltigar!”
She must have guessed the right name, because all at once she and Olivia were hit by another blast of liquid. Olivia had thought she was getting used to it, but this stream stank worse than any that had gone before. It wasn’t even the same color as the earlier stuff—this was clearer and made the floor slippery. Eva stepped into a pool of it and fell. “Hugh Carey’s Odd Ox!” she yelled, holding her ankle. She looked up at Olivia and held out the wand. “You’ll have to do it,” she said.
Olivia took a step back. “I don’t know how,” she protested.
“Didn’t let that stop you before, did it?” Eva said.
“Why doesn’t Mr. Feldstein do it?” Olivia cried.
“He doesn’t bring his wand to school,” Eva replied. “Here.” She stretched her arm out toward Olivia. “Hold it on the same end I do, and just say, ‘Paltigar, ego vos dimitto!’“
Reluctantly Olivia took the wand. Something that felt like an electric shock went up her arm. She thought she would drop the wand, but then realized it felt like it was part of her body, allowing her to reach farther than she ever had before. It was such a strange feeling that she hesitated, and Eva called out, “Fast, now, fast!”
Olivia took a deep breath and said, “Paltigar, ego vos dimitto.”
“Camhcaid!” shouted Eva. “Make it sound like you mean it! You’re in charge here!”
Olivia nodded. Her whole arm felt like it was made of some incredibly strong metal, and she was ready to strike something with it. She raised the wand again, and screamed: “Paltigar! Ego vos dimitto!”
The last of the red and black smoke rose into the air, whirling like a room-sized tornado. A final stream of loathsome liquid shot out of it, hitting Olivia in the face. But she could feel that the spirit was weakening. “Ego vos dimitto!” she yelled back, sputtering and spitting.
The smoke collected itself into an arrow and headed straight up, through the ceiling. On its way, it knocked down several large metal pots, which fell to the floor, rattling and crashing.
And then... nothing.
They were gone.
Olivia stood there, wand still held in readiness, breathing hard. Magic did take a lot of energy. She didn’t know how Eva could have done this for as long as she had.
“Bernard!” Eva shouted. “Did any get by you?”
“None at all,” they heard him say. “It looked to me like you expelled all seven.”
“I did six,” Eva said. “Olivia got the last one.”
Olivia helped Eva to her feet, but then found she couldn’t let go of the wand. Eva had to mutter a little charm before she could pry Olivia’s fingers from it. She gave Olivia a curious look as she slipped the wand into her sleeve.
They walked back through the cafeteria and Olivia began to smell herself. She was still drenched from head to foot with the liquid.
“I’ve got to wash off this vomit,” she said.
“Vomit?” Eva said with a rueful chuckle. “That was no vomit. Trolls don’t fight that way. They aim at you with their rear ends.”
“You mean—?” Olivia said, horrified. She screamed and ran for the locker room.
As she burst through the door of the gym, Olivia came face to face with a gorilla. Her heart sank. The curse hasn’t been lifted. The more pressing problem, however, was going to be dealing with the gorilla, but as soon as it took a whiff of Olivia, it lumbered across the floor and hid under the bleachers.
Inside the locker room, at least the water was still running. Olivia took the hottest, longest shower of her life. Fortunately, she found the remnants of an old bar of soap and managed to lather it up in her hair. She giggled as she wondered what her mother would think if she saw her now. In fact, she giggled so much that she had to sit down right there in the shower. Assume control, she kept telling herself, but that seemed so funny that it started her giggling again.
Finally she turned off the water, toweled off, and found some shorts and sweat clothes in her locker. Nothing to do now but go looking for Eva. Maybe she went back to her veil, Olivia thought, wondering what to do about the school that had turned into a zoo.
Eva was in Mr. Feldstein’s classroom. The cat was standing on the teacher’s desk, hissing at Paul, who was unfortunately still a poodle. “Ah, there you are,” Eva said when Olivia arrived. “You didn’t have to take a shower. I used a magic rinse to clean the rest of us up.”
“Sometimes,” said Olivia, “only water will do.”
Eva smiled. “You’ll be glad to hear that Bernard and I have decided that the general charm that you placed on the school will probably wear off by itself, now that the trolls have been expelled.”
“We won’t have to wait until everyone inside has... um, died?”
“Bernard is going to hurry the process along with a few technical spells that you needn’t concern yourself with. In fact, he thinks everyone will return to their normal forms in time for the usual dismissal bell.”
“And they can all get in their limousines and go home,” said Mr. Feldstein. “There will be some interesting answers tonight to the question, ‘What did you do in school today?’”
“You mean they’ll remember all this?” asked Olivia.
“Most people soon forget the unpleasant effects of a charm that’s been lifted,” said Eva. “But I would think your friend there won’t.” She nodded toward the poodle, who barked. “Fortunately, they won’t be believed,” she added.
“Now,” said Eva, picking up the book that lay on Mr. Feldstein’s desk, “I will have a few questions about this book, and I expect so will Tilda. I’ll just take it for safekeeping, if you have no objection.”
Olivia hung her head. “No,” she mumbled.
“And this other device. The... Decodesphere? Where did you say you obtained that?”
“Oh!” Olivia said, suddenly remembering. “Alex! I told Alex I’d come back to help him. You’ve got to show me how.”
Eva and Brighde followed Olivia down the hallway, leaving Mr. Feldstein to attend to the technical spells.
“Whatever form your friend has taken, it will soon fall away,” Eva told Olivia.
“He was tied up too,” Olivia said. “The trolls must have done it.”
They found him bound to the chair leg, just where Olivia had left him. He mewed loudly as he saw them. Eva’s cat went over and sniffed him. Alex’s tail curled back and forth.
Eva took a look at the green strings. “These are typical troll bonds,” she said. “He must have tried to stop the trolls from getting out of this room. Pretty brave, I’d say. Brighde can cut him loose. She’s taken a shine to him, I think.”
Brighde went to work chewing through the green strings, and Eva said to Olivia, “This is the boy I helped you to charm?”
“Yes,” admitted Olivia.
“And according to Tilda, the one you thought was becoming your familiar?”
Olivia swallowed hard and nodded. “I know what you’re going to say,” she told Eva.
“But of course you’ll disregard it, just as you do everything else.”
“No,” Olivia protested. “I know. I can’t keep him. It’s wrong.”
“A step in the right direction,” Eva commented. “But there’s a long way to go.”
Alex was free now, and he and Brighde were licking each other. “Can you make him come back to his real form?” Olivia asked. “I mean right now?” She was feeling a little jealous, watching the licking.
Eva muttered something and reached down to pet Olivia’s cat. In the blink of an eye, Alex stood before them, as good as new.
“That was sooo cool!” he said.
Even Eva was surprised at his reaction. “You enjoyed being a cat?” she asked.
“It was just like in my dream,” he explained. “And I knew I would get free and come to save Olivia.” He gave Olivia a look that made her knees weak. Even though she knew he hadn’t saved her, she wished
he had. It would be such a good story.
Eva touched Alex’s arm and muttered something else. “It was a good day in school, wasn’t it?” she asked him.
“Uhh, yeah,” he said.
“You made your teachers proud of you.”
“I did?”
“Yes, don’t you remember?”
His eyes cleared, and he nodded and smiled. “Yeah. Everybody was pretty surprised.”
“Almost time to go home,” Eva said. “Better pack up your books.”
“Yeah. Want to come home with me and make out, Olivia?”
Eva squeezed his arm, a little harder this time. He winced. “Not today,” Eva said firmly. “And you won’t need the Decodesphere anymore, will you?”
“No,” he said. “Not at all.”
“I’ve got to get back,” Eva said after Alex had left. “No sense tempting fate. James Sheelin could always get lucky.”
“Can I go with you?” Olivia asked, wondering what it would feel like to ride on a broomstick.
“Don’t push your luck,” growled Eva. “But drop in and see me when you arrive. We have something to do.”
Chapter Eighteen
OLIVIA FOUND RENÉ waiting in the cab, as usual. The other kids were unusually silent, just glancing at each other without saying anything before getting onto their buses or walking toward the subway station.
“What happened at school today?” René asked Olivia.
“Nothing,” Olivia said.
“Must have been something. There’s a scent of magic in the air.”
“You can smell it?” she asked.
“When it’s this strong I can,” he replied. “And it’s not white magic, more like chaos magic.” He turned and looked at her. “You sure you’re all right?”
“Eva came and fixed things up,” Olivia said.
René whistled. “Must have been really bad,” he remarked.
Olivia went home and changed clothes. Julius was especially curious today and followed her everywhere. Olivia wondered what Tilda was going to say when she heard Olivia stole her book—and what she did with it. Maybe I should just pack my stuff and head for the airport, Olivia thought. If I go back to Los Angeles, some of the staff will still be at the house in Beverly Hills. They’d have to let me stay there. Nobody would care. Mother would just say, “That’s Olivia for you. Can’t ever make up her mind.”
She cried for a while and then felt better. She realized her choice was Beverly Hills or Eva’s.
She walked down the street and rang the bell. Eva was waiting with a steaming pot. “I just received some Keemun tea from China. You’ll find it a little different.”
“You’re not going to drug me again, are you?” Olivia asked.
“I should have put a forget spell on you when I did,” Eva said. “Then you wouldn’t pester me about it forever. Try it. Can’t be any worse than what you’ve already been through today.”
Olivia took a sip. “It’s like... chocolate,” she said.
“Now there. Wasn’t so bad, was it?”
They drank their tea in silence for a few moments. “What do you think Aunt Tilda is going to do to me?” Olivia asked.
“Well, it depends on her mood,” Eva replied. “But in case she decides to turn you into a mouse for Julius to play with, there’s something you ought to do first.” She pointed to the shelf. “The crystal,” she said.
Olivia took it down and held it on her lap. “I won’t have a single friend at school after this,” she said. “Everybody but Alex already hates me, and now—so will he.”
“Perhaps you’re wrong,” Eva said. “Did you ever hear this saying? ‘If you love something, let it go. If it comes back, it’s yours. If it doesn’t, it never was.’”
Olivia nodded. “He won’t come back,” she said. “I don’t really love him, but it was nice to think somebody loved me.” She sighed. “What do I have to do?”
“Think of him until he appears in the ball again,” said Eva.
It was easier to do this now, Olivia noticed. Alex always came when she called. She peered into the crystal. What was he doing? He was reading a book. An actual book, not a comic book. It looked like The Crucible. Olivia shook her head in amazement. “What else?” she said.
“Tell him ‘Good-bye, Alex,’” Eva replied.
Olivia took a deep breath and Alex looked up. “Good-bye, Alex,” she said. He turned and faded away. Silent tears ran down Olivia’s cheeks.
The door to Eva’s apartment opened and Olivia looked up to see Aunt Tilda there, followed by a heavy-set black woman with gray hair.
“Aunt Tilda!” Olivia said. “I thought you’d gone upstate for the day.”
“After I received Eva’s message, I borrowed a broomstick,” Tilda said. “It seems that I had to be here for an emergency meeting of the Greenwich Village Wicca Council.” Gesturing toward the black woman, she added, “This is Flora. I wouldn’t advise you to deceive her.”
“Why would you think I—” Olivia protested, but stopped to stare. Flora had just sat down, in a place where there hadn’t been anything but a messy pile of magazines before. Now there was a plush red armchair and Flora was seated comfortably in it. She waved her hand and another appeared behind Tilda.
“When people deceive me,” Flora said in a deep voice that sounded like Bob Marley’s, “they tongue no longer work.”
Olivia felt as if her tongue wouldn’t work, and rather than test it, she just nodded.
“Now then,” said Tilda. “The book, Eva?”
Eva handed her Dr. Dee’s magic book. Tilda examined it and asked Olivia, “Where did you get this?”
“Your library,” Olivia said in a small voice.
“Where in the library?”
“It was... on the top shelf.”
“How could you have gotten it from the top shelf?” Tilda asked. “Were you levitating?”
“Levi... ?” Olivia didn’t recognize the word.
“Floating in the air,” her aunt explained.
“No, no,” Olivia said, relieved that there was something she could honestly deny doing. “I don’t know how to do that,” she said. She reached for her teacup, but her hand was shaking so much that she couldn’t pick it up.
“There is no ladder in the library that would enable you to reach the top shelf,” Tilda pointed out. “Besides that, I had put a stay spell on this book. Even if you could reach it, you shouldn’t have been able to remove it. So how did you do it?”
Olivia tried to recall. “Oh!” she said. “I saw it and it looked interesting. I got a ladder, but you’re right, it wasn’t high enough. I reached up as far as I could and then the book sort of tumbled off the shelf into my hand.”
The three women made low noises like, “Ohhhhh,” and exchanged glances.
“Just fell into your hand, is that right?” asked Tilda.
Olivia nodded.
“Speak to me so we know your tongue still works,” Tilda said.
“Yes,” Olivia said, her voice sounding squeaky. She cleared her throat and repeated, “Yes, that’s what it did.”
“The book found her,” said Flora.
“So it wasn’t my fault?” asked Olivia.
Flora gave her a stern look. “Who reached for the book?” she asked.
There seemed no need to answer that.
None of the three women said anything for a little while. They just looked at Olivia and seemed to be reading each other’s thoughts, which was a lot worse, Olivia thought, than if they asked her questions.
Finally Tilda spoke. “Besides the trouble you caused today by calling up demons into a school where there were many innocent children,” she said, “what else did you use this book for?”
Olivia knew she had to tell the truth. “I caused a girl’s face to break out in boils and cysts.”
Flora put her hand over her mouth. Is that because she thinks it’s funny? thought Olivia.
“No,” Flora said, “not funny.”
“Maybe a little amusing,” Eva suggested. The other two women glared at Eva and she hastily added, “Of course not. How awful for the poor girl. Dreadful.”
“What did I tell you the first rule of Wicca was?” asked Tilda.
“If it harm none, do as thou wilt,” Olivia answered.
“Did you follow that rule?”
Olivia hung her head. “No.”
“So that indicates you are not suitable to practice Wicca,” Tilda said. “Yet the things you have done indicate that you have great affinity for the spirit world and that those of us who serve the Lady should welcome you.”
Olivia felt confused. “I’m sorry,” she said.
“You cannot help being what you are,” said Tilda, and Olivia thought of what Paul had said.
Tilda went on, “The decision, and the responsibility, that faces us is whether we should accept you and help you attain greater powers or—” She hesitated.
Flora finished for her. “Or wash all knowledge from your mind.”
“Not all knowledge,” Tilda added when she saw the look of alarm on Olivia’s face. “But all memory of what you have done in practicing either Wicca or the chaos magic of Dr. Dee.”
“You’ll remember most things,” chimed in Eva. “Just not the magic bits.”
Nothing else was any fun, thought Olivia, and then tried to banish the thought as she saw the three women frown at her. “When will you decide?” she asked them. “Right now?” She felt a little frightened, wondering if it would hurt to have her mind cleaned.
“We need more time,” said Tilda. “If we decide to accept you, we will let you know. If we decide... the other way, you will never know.”
“I’ll just forget,” Olivia said.
“It will be as if it never happened,” said Tilda.
The Knickerbocker School was closed for two weeks, to allow time for all the students to obtain counseling and therapy. There was an article about it in the morning newspaper, which Olivia read at the breakfast table. “It says that the students suffered from mass hysteria,” Olivia told her aunt. “Delusions of becoming wild creatures.”
Tilda nodded and said, “This blueberry jam that Agnes sent down from New Paltz is wonderful. Try some.”
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