“It was a deep gash,” said Tara, bending down to wash her hand in a small pond. “You better take it easy for a while.”
“In that case, I’ll leave you the task of raising the first shield,” he suggested. He was moving slowly, so as not to revive a killer migraine.
Cal drew a rough sketch of the island and its surroundings.
“Robin and I will take the east shore of the lake,” he said. “The vampyrs can take the west. The rosebushes are thickest in the north, so you should be out of sight until you’re above the water. With a little luck the tentacles will be too busy fighting us to realize that you’re attacking at the same time.”
Tara carefully studied the sketch.
“That’s fine,” she said. “We’ll ride Gallant, which will save us having to cast a levitation spell. He’s able to carry us for as long as an hour, so a few minutes won’t be anything for him.”
“In that case, we’re all set,” said Magister.
They climbed onto the pegasus, who didn’t flinch under the double weight. Master Dragosh shifted into wolf shape and called his pack. The vampyr wolves appeared in a few minutes. Half of them had gone back to Krasalvia to warn of the danger they faced, but there were still a dozen left—plenty for a diversion. Five of these shifted into bats. They agreed that the signal for the attack would be a wolf howl, and silently disappeared. The half-elf and the little thief left just as quietly. Soon only Magister, Tara, and Gallant were left.
“Your friends are very loyal,” observed the Bloodgrave.
Great! Now he wants to talk. Tara was so afraid of Magister that she was struggling not to throw up, and he was feeling chatty. Super.
“Of course they are,” she answered distractedly, praying that he would shut up. “They’re friends.”
Magister seemed to have trouble grasping the concept. “They’re drawn to your power. That’s why they’re loyal to you.”
For a moment, Tara wandered if the Bloodgrave was a complete idiot, or just pretending.
“No. I’d do the same thing for any of them. Wouldn’t you?”
“I beg your pardon?”
“If one of your friends was in danger and needed your help, wouldn’t you risk your life for them?”
“If it served my purposes, of course I would,” he answered arrogantly.
Tara sighed. “No, I mean if you weren’t getting anything out of it. You just help them, that’s all.”
Magister mulled this over.
“No,” he admitted. “In that case I’d have no reason to risk my life.”
“That’s the main difference between you and me,” Tara concluded. “I don’t help people because I expect something in return. I help my friends because I love them. And love is a lot more powerful than greed.”
“And you don’t love me.”
“Not in the least!” she exclaimed. “Why would I? You killed my father and you kidnapped my mother. You robbed me of ten years of life with her. Besides, you’ve been trying to kidnap me just to get your hands on a few powerful objects. You already have power. What more do you want?”
“I want to get rid of the dragons,” he shot back. “And I won’t be able to fight them until I have supreme power.”
This came as a surprise. It had never occurred to Tara that Magister might want to seize demonic power for a specific reason.
“What have the dragons ever done to you that you should ally yourself with the demons to destroy them?” Tara asked.
“I have no intention of allying myself with demons,” he said scornfully. “Once the demonic objects are in my possession, I’ll seal the rift forever, and no demon will ever be able to enter our universe. That’s what Demiderus should’ve done.”
“But what about your hatred of the dragons?” Tara insisted. “Where does that come from? To me, they seem pretty benevolent toward the peoples of OtherWorld.”
“They control us!” said Magister sharply. “There’s no reason for humans to be controlled and directed by overgrown lizards, supposedly because of a battle between them and the demons. We’re powerful. We don’t need them!”
Tara didn’t quite agree. “But the dragons saved our race, didn’t they? I heard the demons had already invaded Earth when the dragons intervened.”
“That’s actually not clear. The archives don’t spell out exactly whether the demons or the dragons invaded Earth first. It’s commonly believed that it was the demons, but maybe history was rewritten by the winners.”
“But the dragons are peaceful, and they don’t enslave people, the way the demons do.” She paused. “For the sake of argument, let’s say that the dragons exercise some control over the peoples of OtherWorld and Earth. So what? Everyone here seems pretty happy. People are free, and the dragons don’t ask for anything. In fact, aside from Master Chem, I don’t know that there are dragons on the other nations’ High Councils.”
“Except for Omois, and among the dwarves and the giants, there are dragons everywhere,” said Magister bitterly.
Tara was about to ask another question when they suddenly heard a wolf howl.
“Let’s go,” she whispered.
Tara activated the shield and cast a spell that combined a Protectus with the Camouflagus Cal had used, making them completely invisible. From the outside it looked as if a giant hand had erased the pegasus and its two riders.
Gallant took off, and within a few seconds they were over the lake-shore.
The battle was raging. The vampyrs had borrowed the Mud Eaters’ rafts, crude craft that they used to harvest the lake’s blue water lilies, whose root was a favorite food. The rafts had been launched, and a magic spell had peopled them with dark figures, one of whom was holding a white statuette! It was a very clever ploy. The tentacles immediately attacked the rafts, while carefully avoiding the one carrying the fake statuette. Meanwhile, Robin and Cal had done the same on the other side of the lake, and the tentacles didn’t know which way to turn.
There was a lot of noise, splashing, and screams.
As a result, Tara, Magister, and Gallant flew over the lake and were able to reach the island’s north shore undetected.
Magister took the White Soul from his pocket.
“We’ll be over the center of the island in a minute,” he said. “Is everything all right?”
“Yes,” answered Tara. “As long as the tentacles don’t touch the shield I can maintain it almost indefinitely.”
Eventually, though, they were detected, but it was completely by accident. One of the tentacles was racing toward the attackers when it bumped into the cloaked bubble. The Ravager immediately realized that an invisible enemy had infiltrated his lines and gotten terribly close to the middle of the island.
A dozen tentacles immediately fastened onto the shield, and Tara began to struggle. She was joined by the living stone and its enormous power and this fried the tentacles like hot dogs on a grill, and they fell away. Gallant forged ahead, beating his wings with all his might. Then new tentacles gripped the shield and the struggle began again.
Tara and Magister had underestimated the Ravager’s power. The tentacles were immobilizing them. They were inching ahead when Tara felt her shield about to collapse under the strain.
“Now!” she screamed.
Magister immediately created a shield a little smaller than the first, just in time. Tara’s shield collapsed and the victorious tentacles closed in . . . only to slam into the second shield.
They clearly heard the Ravager’s scream of fury.
Tara, who had stopped breathing in the thick of the struggle, began again. Magister seemed to be blocking the tentacles’ attacks easily, but looking at his clenched hands and tense body, Tara knew he was actually struggling.
Gaining ground inch by inch despite the tentacles, they finally flew above the center of the island.
The blackish magma that filled the pit had doubled in volume. It was now blistered like some horrible boil oozing black, nauseating pus.
“Your turn, Tara!” Magister suddenly cried.
Feeling somewhat refreshed, Tara took over. By now, the tentacles had gone berserk and were sucking her power with all their might. It was an accomplishment just to hover over the pit.
“So, what do we do now?” asked Tara, gritting her teeth with the strain.
“Drop the shield! Now!”
Without thinking, Tara obeyed and Magister dove headlong toward the tentacles, which immediately reached for him. Screaming in horror, Tara instantly raised her shield again, in the process lopping off the tentacles stuck to Gallant. As she desperately strained to see what was happening in the furious bubbling around Magister’s almost inert body, Tara could feel tears of despair running down her cheeks.
Now completely powerless, the Bloodgrave had stopped moving. They had lost.
Gallant, who was beating his wings furiously, gave a piercing whinny. They couldn’t give up now! But the tentacles had surrounded them and were sucking Tara’s power. She could feel her strength ebbing. If she’d been alone, she probably would’ve succumbed under their number. But the need to save her pegasus was stronger than her fear and her pain, and she reinforced her shield.
In the center of the blackish pit, Magister’s body was gradually sinking out of sight.
Suddenly he waved, like a dying man in a final spasm, and Tara started.
His arm was holding something. Something shaped like a statuette!
The panicked tentacles tried to get clear, but it was too late. Magister firmly pressed the statuette into the magma.
And the White Soul made contact with the Ravager.
Amid something like an explosion of light, the Ravager’s scream of pain practically shattered their eardrums.
With incredible speed, the tentacles turned white, and so did the roiling magma pit. The change spread outward to the entire island, and the black roses became white as well.
The tentacles surrounding Tara faded to white, then disappeared. The white magma sloshed furiously and for a moment Tara thought the Ravager had managed to resist the White Soul’s power. Then, to her disbelief, the magma condensed into two pale clouds that gradually took human shape.
Tara cursed. Instead of a single Ravager, now there were two of them! Determined to fight, she gritted her teeth and reinforced her shield again. To her alarm, though, the two translucent shapes suddenly soared out of the center of the island. One had taken the form of a beautiful young woman, the other a stocky spellbinder with a somber gaze. They came to stand in front of Tara.
“Are you responsible for this?” growled the spellbinder figure.
Tara hesitated for an instant, then answered curtly: “Yes, and I’m prepared to fight you—”
The spellbinder interrupted her: “You have our deepest thanks, Miss. You’ve just accomplished what Demiderus undertook thousands of years ago. I never realized what he was up to, but now I understand. And I regret all the harm I’ve done.”
Tara was wide-eyed for a moment. Then it dawned on her. “You’re Drexus, right? And the White Soul is—”
“Deselea, my beloved wife. Demiderus was forced to kill my wife and our children during the battle against the demons. To counter his horrible but unavoidable action, he spent years trying to find a way to reunite us. The White Soul wasn’t a weapon against me. It was my salvation!”
“You’ve always been so stubborn,” said Deselea sweetly. “I tried to communicate with you during all the time I was held by the Mud Eaters, but you weren’t listening!”
“I . . . I know. My hate and my thirst for vengeance were too great. Let’s leave now. I don’t want to remain in a place that has seen so much pain and sadness. Let’s go find the children.”
Under Tara’s and Gallant’s shocked eyes, the two figures joined in a sparkling whirlwind and disappeared.
She was speechless. What? All that pain, all those deaths, all that destruction and fear, all that for . . . nothing? Just a thanks and goodbye! She felt her anger rising, as great as the terror she had just experienced.
Cal, Blondin, and Robin soon joined them. They were accompanied by Master Dragosh, now in bat shape.
“Is everything okay, Tara?” cried Robin.
“No, it isn’t!” she answered, still furious. “The Ravager turned into a ghost, he found his wife, and poof! they disappeared. They’ll probably live together for eternity and have lots of little ghosts! It’s unfair! They should have been punished!”
Cal stared at her, wide-eyed “Er, how do you intend to punish a ghost? By killing it?”
Tara opened her mouth, then closed it again. The little thief was right.
Then she remembered Magister. Gallant landed, and Tara ran toward the pit that the Bloodgrave master had dived into.
When she leaned over the rim, all she saw was an empty pit. Magister had disappeared!
CHAPTER 19
TRAPPING A SPELLBINDER
Suddenly Tara heard a muffled cry behind her. She turned around and stifled a shout of dismay.
Magister was standing before her, and Cal, Blondin, Robin, and Gallant were his prisoners. What looked like silver mittens were clamped around their hands and arms. They were gagged, and their legs were tied. Apparently, only Master Dragosh had escaped Magister’s sudden attack. He must have quickly flown away as soon as the Bloodgrave started to cast a spell.
“Now that the Ravager is out of commission, let’s get back to business,” cried Magister. “Come here, Tara!”
“You’re alive!” she said in astonishment. “I thought the tentacles had crushed you to death.”
“Ho, ho! Do I hear a touch of relief in your voice, dear Tara? Were you afraid for me when I jumped out? Did you consider me . . . a friend? If that’s the case, friend, I’d like us to have a chat about a certain demonic scepter I could use. Those-Who-Guard and Those- Who- Judge won’t let me get to it, because they answer only to you. Will you kindly do me this little favor?”
Tara snorted with rage. Magister was turning her own arguments against her, using the fact that he had risked his life to save them to bargain with her. Seeing her expression, the Bloodgrave burst out laughing.
“No, I can tell that my proposal doesn’t appeal to you. Well, too bad. We’ll have to use stronger measures. Although to be honest, I would’ve been very disappointed if you had agreed.”
“There was never any chance of that!” she said, mopping her sweaty brow.
Master Dragosh suddenly appeared, shape-shifted back, and stood next to her, his hatred for Magister reflected in his eyes.
“It’s you and me, Bloodgrave!” the vampyr growled. “I’m finally going to pay you back for what you did to my fiancée!”
Tara gave Dragosh a perplexed look. His fiancée? What was this all about?
She would come to understand later on. For now, they had a fight on their hands. Tara turned her attention back to her enemy, ready to do battle. But the vampyr was way ahead of her and began the duel by firing a Carbonus at Magister.
Dragosh was powerful, but Magister was much more so. He protected himself with a shield that absorbed Dragosh’s spell. Then, seeing that Tara was about to join the fray, he shot a Quakus at her. The resulting mini-earthquake shook the ground, and Tara lost her balance. The spell she’d just fired turned awry and missed its target. With his other hand, Magister shot an incredibly powerful Knockoutus. It slammed into the vampyr, and he crumpled to the ground.
When Tara was back to her feet, she was the Bloodgrave’s only remaining opponent.
“Well, well, well,” he chuckled from behind his mask. “We’re face to face at last. But you have an advantage, Tara. I don’t want to kill you.”
“Which isn’t the case for me,” she said, trying to hide her fear. “I wouldn’t hesitate for a second.”
“You certainly are bloody-minded for such a little girl!”
“No, I’m not,” she said, as a fresh spell lit up her hands. “I don’t have any taste for fights, assassinations, or any of those
OtherWorld pleasures. But with you, I really don’t have any choice.”
“Wait a minute!” said Magister. “Don’t you want to hear about the trap?”
So Magister wants to talk—great! Tara was all for talking and for as long as possible. Hope and fear were contending in her head. She lowered her hands a little.
“What trap?” she asked innocently.
“The one you fell into, you and the dragon.”
Tara had since figured it out, of course, but she played along, praying that Master Chem and the full pantheon of high wizards would make a magical, thundering, lifesaving appearance at any moment.
“Well, when we overheard the conversation between the two Bloodgraves, we suspected you were involved in that whole trial business.”
Magister stiffened, clearly surprised. “When? Where? What conversation?”
“During the hearing, one of you Bloodgraves cast a spell on Manitou to read his mind, didn’t you? We figured you wanted us to know about your plan to steal The Forbidden Book. I thought it was it a bit complicated, to be honest.”
Magister’s mask turned an irritated orange.
“I never cast a spell on that stupid dog!” he exploded. “And when I want to steal something, I don’t usually tell the owner beforehand. I bewitched Brandis’s parents to make you come to OtherWorld and keep the old dragon stuck in Omois. I was planning to kill Bandiou myself, who was taking too much power within the Bloodgraves, and have you accused of the crime. Then, after that, I was going to steal the book and kidnap you. I’m going to cure those two Bloodgraves for their habit of discussing my plans in public.”
“Oh, so it was a coincidence?” exclaimed Tara, honestly surprised. “That’s unbelievable! If Manitou hadn’t left the hearing room—”
“You wouldn’t have known I was behind that business. You wouldn’t have tried to free Caliban,” Magister continued, “and you wouldn’t have escaped me. Unfortunately, you mysteriously disappeared before I could step in. After that, my spies sighted you in Lancovit, but you didn’t stay there long enough. Later, I was pleased to hear that Bandiou had an accident, a fatal one. For which I must thank you, since I suppose that was your doing.”
Tara Duncan and the Forbidden Book Page 34