Tara smiled, thinking that Robin’s spells were usually more elegant than Cal’s.
Suddenly, Sparrow screamed. Her bike was out of control again and was heading toward a big rosebush full of long, sharp thorns.
Instinctively, the slim girl shape-shifted.
The curse that had affected her ancestor, changing him into a beast five hundred years earlier, acted instantly. Instead of the young Princess Gloria Daavil, known as Sparrow, riding the bike, it was a monstrous ten-foot-tall beast, a terrifying mix of bear, bull, and wolf, and equipped with enough fangs and claws to scare a psychopath.
Her transformation was fatal for the bicycle, alas, as it was for the rosebush and her clothes.
“Hoo, boy! I’m so sorry,” said the hairy beast apologetically. “I think I busted your vike.”
“It’s bike,” Tara corrected her automatically, while biting the inside of her cheeks so as not to laugh. “It’s no big deal. But Sparrow . . .”
“Yeah?” said the beast, pulling rose branches out of her fur.
“People around here aren’t exactly used to critters like you. Would you mind changing back, please?”
“Oh, sorry! I’ll go inside and get some other clothes. I’m pretty sure I ripped my jeans. Hmm—my shirt, too. Won’t take me a minute!”
With a quick magic pass, Robin made the crumpled bicycle good as new.
Finally, they were all ready. The familiars were tired from their recent adventures, so they elected to stay behind at the manor house.
The Earth summer was acting like a real summer for once: clear and warm. The gang toured the area, admired some old castle ruins, and had a picnic. (At first, the three OtherWorld spellbinders were perplexed by the PowerBars Tara brought along as a snack. When they wanted power, they didn’t unwrap it; they conjured it.)
Heading home, they were about to turn onto the main road leading to the manor when Tara, who was in the lead, suddenly slammed on the brakes. Twenty men dressed in black were standing in front of her house!
Without thinking, she laid her bike down in the grass and ran to hide in a small grove of trees. Greatly surprised, Cal, Sparrow, Robin, and Fabrice followed her.
“What’s going on?” asked Fabrice worriedly.
“There’s a bunch of suspicious guys near the manor house. They look like they’re trying to surround it.”
“Oh no!” he moaned. “Not again!”
“If they’re enemies and they’re here to attack Grandma, they’re going to get a big surprise,” said Tara, who was craning her neck to see through the bushes. “She and Chem and Mom will make hash out of them. Chopped nice and fine.”
“Spare us!” protested Sparrow, who had an overly vivid imagination.
“Actually, they don’t look as if they’re planning to attack,” announced Robin after taking a quick peek. “They’re just standing around, as if they’re waiting for something.”
“Something or someone,” said Sparrow, nodding at Tara. “Until I’m told otherwise, I’m assuming you’re Magister’s target.”
Fabrice’s eyes widened.
“So you think they’re from OtherWorld? More Bloodgraves here to kidnap Tara?”
“No idea,” answered Sparrow. “Bloodgraves are usually masked, and those guys aren’t. That said, it could also be a trap. Let’s stay hidden for the time being—especially you, Tara.”
Just then, Chem, Selena, Isabella, and Manitou all emerged from the manor. The young spellbinders tensed, ready to join the fight.
But nothing happened. The leader of the men in black said something, and then made a gesture. A kind of hologram instantly appeared in mid-air: a tiny figure who gravely recited a speech.
In case its hearers were deaf, its words also appeared in fiery letters above its head. A bit pale, but letters of fire just the same. Master Chem nodded, listening carefully.
From where the five friends were huddled, it was hard to make out his expression, but Tara sensed that the old wizard was very troubled.
“Listen, we can’t stay behind these trees all evening,” said Sparrow, who had become much less timid since conquering her childhood stutter. “I suggest Cal, Fabrice, and I go see what’s happening. Tara stays here with Robin to protect her. If everything is okay, I’ll signal you to come. If it’s dangerous, we’ll barricade ourselves in the house, and it’ll be up to you to somehow contact OtherWorld’s High Council of Wizards and have them send reinforcements.”
“But I don’t want to stay here!” protested Tara, who was now sick with worry.
“You don’t have any choice,” Sparrow countered. “If you come with us and those guys attack and try to grab you, we’ll have to defend ourselves. We’ll be risking our lives to protect you.”
“As arguments go, that’s completely bogus,” growled Tara. “Maybe,” Sparrow admitted, “but it can’t be beat. See you later.”
Before Tara could try to change their minds, Sparrow, Fabrice, and Cal hopped back on their bikes and raced toward the manor house.
Tara was very anxious and watched her friends while savagely chewing on her white forelock. Robin, who had taken human shape to disguise his half-elf traits, was feeling just as worried.
The three kids rode through the line of black-clad men without causing a reaction. Their leader was asking Master Chem a question and he responded by pointing at Cal.
Two of the men immediately grabbed the young thief, lifting him off his bike.
Frozen, Tara understood. The men in black had seized her friend! They were taking a hostage to force her to give herself up.
Well, she wouldn’t disappoint them.
To Robin’s surprise, she jumped on her bicycle and started pedaling furiously toward the manor house.
Since she’d started using magic, however reluctantly, Tara understood that she had to visualize what she wanted. So she now imagined herself striking her adversaries like a thunderbolt, blasting them away from Cal and the manor house.
Unfortunately, she had forgotten a small detail: that the living stone, the repository of OtherWorld’s magic, was in her pocket. The stone was an intelligent entity that Tara had freed from imprisonment on the Island of Black Roses, and it lent Tara its powerful magic. When their two powers combined, Tara became a disaster waiting to happen.
The stone had only a vague idea of how much damage it could do. It hadn’t yet absorbed the fact that humans were fragile.
“Power?” sang the stone in Tara’s mind. “You want power to destroy the evil people who are causing harm? Power I give you? Here, take it.”
Tara had no time to react. Her bicycle suddenly took off, soaring overhead like a hawk. Then it dove toward the men in black while she desperately clung to the handlebars.
Hearing a loud “Aaahhhh!” they looked up. For some reason, the scream sounded more like girlish panic than warlike fury.
They didn’t have time to think. Tara and the stone’s combined magic sent the attackers flying in all directions, and they had a painful landing twenty yards away. Isabella liked both roses and blackberries, and a thicket of blackberry bushes surrounded the property. The men in black yelped as they landed in the thorns.
Tara’s bike slammed to a stop an inch above the ground, and only then did she stop screaming in terror. She jumped off, glowered at the stone in her pocket, and lifted her hands, which immediately started glowing with blue light. She was ready to rescue her friends.
“Cal! Fabrice! Sparrow!” she yelled. “Run for it! I’ll cover you.”
But Cal didn’t budge, just gaped at her in astonishment.
“Tara!” roared Master Chem. “Stop that right now! These are imperial guards!”
Before Tara could obey, a new arrival added to the confusion by joining the fray: It was her familiar, Gallant, flying to the rescue. The lacerated leader of the black-clad men was limping toward them when he found himself facing the enraged pegasus’s claws.
At that, the guard captain lost his legendary cool. Pointing at Gal
lant, who had just ripped off a chunk of his trousers, he screamed: “By Pocus, I’m stopping this fight by force, and paralyze the winged horse.”
Unable to avoid the paralyzing ray shooting from the man’s hands, Gallant crashed to the grass with a loud thud.
Turning to Tara, he continued: “By the authority of the Empress of Omois, I order you to surrender immediately!”
Tara’s reaction was purely instinctive, unfortunately. This man had just paralyzed her beloved pegasus, and she hadn’t been fast enough to stop him. Now the imperial Omois guard captain flew through the air and landed with a loud splash, which told everyone that he had just met the manor house’s beautiful swimming pool.
He emerged spluttering and enraged. He’d lost his black cape during his short flight, and Tara could see that his uniform was indeed the purple and gold Omois livery. Also, his dissimulation spell had dissipated, revealing the guards’ characteristic four arms, which were very useful for carrying their array of both sharp and blunt weapons.
Surprised, Tara dialed back her magic power, despite protests from the living stone, who always enjoyed a little fight.
“But . . . but . . . didn’t they come here to kidnap me?”
“Not at all,” said the old wizard, frowning. “They came to get Caliban.”
“Cal?” asked Tara, completely at a loss. “Whatever for?”
“They came to arrest him,” Master Chem confirmed somberly. “He’s wanted for murder.”
CHAPTER 2
THE ARREST
“This is serious, Tara!” said Sparrow, pale with fear. “They arrested Angelica, too. And Master Chem has been summoned to the palace to explain the circumstances surrounding the boy Brandis’s death in the vortex. You and I have been ‘invited’ to come as well.”
This news hit Tara like a punch in the stomach. Even though it had been a tragic accident, Cal and Angelica had been partly responsible for the young spellbinder’s death.
“I’m going with you,” said Master Chem. “Tara, we have to get ready—”
“That’s out of the question!” interrupted Isabella sharply. “Tara can’t go to Omois.”
The guard captain frowned.
“And why can’t Miss Duncan visit our beautiful capital?” he asked very politely, his four hands inching closer to his gleaming swords.
“Because she can’t!” answered Isabella. “That’s all there is to it.”
The guard scowled and his hands moved a little lower.
Master Chem intervened. “There have been several attempts on Tara’s life,” he said diplomatically. “She can’t risk going to OtherWorld. It’s too dangerous.”
From the expression on the captain’s face, he seemed to feel that it was Tara who was dangerous to other people, not the other way around. Anyway, it didn’t really matter. His mission was to bring Cal back and not the two girls, whose presence had simply been requested.
“I would never do anything to endanger the young lady’s safety,” the captain said, bowing. “I will inform the empress.” Then, looking coldly at Isabella, he added, “However, I will come back if Her Imperial Majesty decides that Miss Duncan’s presence is required after all.”
“I’ll go,” said Sparrow to the guard. “I’ll represent you, Tara.”
“Is that okay with you, Cal?” asked Tara, trying bravely not to cry.
Still dumbfounded by what was happening to him, the little thief frowned, then forced a thin smile. “Let’s just say I’ve been in more pleasant situations. But don’t worry; this will all be cleared up real fast. The Truth Tellers will read my mind and see what really happened. I didn’t kill that boy. It was whoever tried to kill you by expanding the vortex.”
Tara gave Sparrow a look of anguish, then nodded and kissed Cal on both cheeks, to his acute embarrassment.
Robin and Fabrice merely gave him manly thumps on the back.
Without a word, the guard signaled to his men to take charge of Cal and Blondin, then released Gallant from the paralysis spell. The bleary-eyed pegasus stumbled over to Tara to be petted. Looking very preoccupied, Master Chem headed toward Count Besois-Giron’s castle, which held the Transfer Portal to OtherWorld. The imperial guards followed with Sparrow and Cal.
“Wait a minute!” shouted Isabella. She was rubbing her painful wrists and suddenly looked as pale as her silvery hair. “You can’t go walking around this planet looking like that. Dry your uniforms and put your cape back on, Captain. And don’t frog-march that boy along as if he were a dangerous criminal. The nonspells might get suspicious.”
The captain scowled at her. His velvet purple-and-gold uniform was soaking wet and looked ready for the garbage. Sighing, he summoned a hot blast of wind to quickly dry it.
Bad idea! Everyone knows that if you heat velvet too fast, it shrinks. In moments, the captain was gaping at his bare calves and two pairs of forearms sticking out of a mini-uniform.
Repressing a nervous giggle, Selena solemnly held his black cape out to him. The captain wrapped himself in it along with whatever dignity he had left, then strode in annoyance toward the castle, followed by his men.
Selena took Tara in her arms, but the girl tensed. She still wasn’t used to physical contact. But then she relaxed. Her mother didn’t want to strangle her, she realized, just to give her a hug.
“Are you all right, darling?”
Tara was also not used to having anyone worry about her, and she relaxed a little more, touched by her mother’s kindness.
“No, I’m not all right!” she blurted. “I’m scared to death for Cal. And I’m furious at him at the same time. I don’t know how he does it, but he’s always getting himself into impossible situations.”
“I’m worried for your friend too,” said Selena. “Murder is a very serious charge. And I thank Demiderus that you weren’t charged as well.”
Isabella rolled her eyes—she didn’t want Selena worrying Tara—and went into the manor, still rubbing her wrists. Before she was out of sight, both Selena and Tara glimpsed the two shiny red glyphs pulsing on her forearms. Tara frowned. She knew that if she became a wizard, the blood oath Isabella had sworn to her father would kill her grandmother. Tara forgot that when she flew to Cal’s rescue, but using her power so close to her grandmother visibly caused the woman pain. Tara absolutely had to be more careful.
Selena sighed and reluctantly released her daughter. As she turned to go inside, she said, “I think I’m about to get yet another lecture on how to raise children, and what they should and shouldn’t be told. I’ll see you later.”
Tara smiled slightly. Her mother and grandmother had spent the last week making up for their ten years apart. Isabella was surprised to discover that her sweet, gentle daughter had developed a strong character during her decade of imprisonment.
“So, what do we do now?” asked Fabrice.
Tara watched Cal and Sparrow disappear around the bend of the road and made up her mind. She took a deep breath, and said, “Let’s follow my grandmother.”
Without waiting for the others, Tara ran inside. They followed, surprised to see her sneaking from place to place to reach the living room without being spotted.
“Er, why are we hiding?” asked Fabrice, who felt silly crawling across the carpet.
“I want to find out what my grandma’s plotting,” whispered Tara. “And with her, the only way to do that is to listen at keyholes.”
“That didn’t work out too well for Cal last night,” he answered, nervously glancing around for Sembor, Selena’s familiar.
“Shhh!” Tara hissed. “Listen!”
When they put their ears against the door, the two women’s voices were clearly audible. It was easy to imagine slender Selena sitting in a comfortable armchair, carefully watching her mother.
“I can’t say that I ever much liked your late husband Danviou,” Isabella was saying, “but look at the wonderful surprise he left us!”
So, they had gotten past the child-rearing chapter and were
now reliving the “good old days.”
“What wonderful surprise?” asked Selena, clearly perplexed.
“That he was the emperor! The Emperor of Omois! Actually, I always suspected something odd was up with your husband. I saw how nervous he got whenever we met new people. I thought he must be some minor Omois nobleman who had run away from his family. I didn’t realize he was actually running away from an empire! And to think that I didn’t want him for you because I wanted you to marry someone more important. That little sneak!”
What Selena said next knocked Tara for a loop: “No kidding! But did you really hate him so much that you had to lock me up in that tower to keep him from seeing me?”
Isabella cleared her throat before answering. “Well, maybe I did go a little overboard.”
“Overboard? You had trolls guarding the tower! And then you sent those half-dozen ‘highly presentable’ princes and spellbinders to woo me—and then fried or flattened them when they failed. You should really quit reading those old Earth romance novels, Mom. They just aren’t for you!”
“All right, all right. I admit the trolls were a bit much. But I only wanted what was best for you, darling. And how could I trust some stranger who suddenly dropped into our lives and wanted to marry you?”
Tara was flabbergasted. Her grandmother had opposed her parents’ marriage? So that was why Isabella had always avoided talking about them! Lots of things were suddenly becoming clear to her.
But Selena wasn’t interested in bringing up the past. Changing the subject, she came back to the present: “Does Tara realize that by refusing the empress’s invitation she could be making her friend Cal’s situation worse?”
“I couldn’t care less about that boy’s fate,” said Isabella. “There’s no way my granddaughter’s going to Omois. It’s too dangerous. Just think, Magister could capture her again!”
“I’m not minimizing the danger,” Selena said calmly. “But Tara is very loyal to Cal, and she’ll never abandon a friend. Anyway, what would you do to stop her? Lock her up in a dungeon, like me?”
“I hadn’t thought of that,” Isabella answered slowly. “But it’s not a bad idea!”
Tara Duncan and the Forbidden Book Page 2