Tara nodded, shuddering as she remembered the horrible wizard.
“I suspected as much. So, thank you for ridding me of that troublesome prince. Then the Ravager showed up, and our little affairs no longer seemed that important.”
Tara could feel that Magister was reaching the end of his speech, and so she reactivated her power. No one was showing up to lend her a hand, so she would have to take care of Magister herself.
Then Magister tried one final appeal: “Tara, we made a powerful team in the battle against the Ravager. We could work together! I’m begging you, don’t make me force you, it really pains me.”
She knew he was telling the truth. He needed her alive and healthy. She sighed. “I’m sorry, but I’ll never join forces with you.”
“Never say never,” said Magister. “In that case, it’s too bad, but I—”
Tara didn’t give him time to finish his sentence. She activated a terrible Destructus spell.
Not to be outdone, Magister’s hands glowed red and he activated a Defendus. A powerful shield appeared in front of him.
Cast at the same instant, the two spells collided with a deafening crash. Each was buttressed by a magic anchor deep in the island’s soil, and the power of the impact shook them both.
“Stop, Tara!” cried Magister. “I don’t want to hurt you! If you join with me, I’ll make you a being of incredible strength. You’ll have power!”
“I already have power!” she retorted, shaking her head to get rid of the sweat dipping into her eyes. “In fact, it’s high time you got a taste of it.”
Tara took a deep breath. She had never really unleashed all her power at once. In the back of her mind, she’d always been afraid of hurting her grandmother. But not anymore.
In the surge of energy, her eyes became completely blue, her white forelock began to blaze, and her terrifying blue ray hammered Magister’s red shield mercilessly.
The Bloodgrave suddenly realized that she might defeat him. Which would mean death.
Magister then cast a spell he had sworn he would never use. The one that would force him to spend a year of his life in the service of the king of Limbo. The one he had obtained at the price of his soul—to the extent he still had a soul worth bargaining for, that is.
His shield became wreathed in a black glow, and from its heart a monstrous ray shot out that slowly, irresistibly repulsed Tara’s pure light.
Without easing the pressure, Tara then did the impossible. She transformed herself.
In her place appeared the magnificent golden dragon with the living stone on its brow. She shone with the blue light that continued its tireless attack on Magister.
“Ha, ha! A dragon!” laughed the Bloodgrave sarcastically. “All right, we’ll have a dragon!”
In the next moment, a terrifying black dragon appeared in front of Tara, roaring with hate and spitting hellfire.
Abruptly, Tara broke off the engagement. She leaped into the air so suddenly that the Bloodgrave’s burning ray passed behind her, destroying some white rosebushes and part of the island, and vaporizing the lake water so suddenly that the glurps found themselves swimming in midair.
“We’re of equal strength,” she shouted. “Since you don’t want to kill me, then face me in solo combat without any magic, if you dare.”
The black dragon ran a red tongue over its fangs. “With or without magic, you don’t measure up, sweetie. But if it amuses you, let’s see what you can do.”
If there was one thing Tara hated, it was being called “sweetie.”
She studied the black dragon carefully. Magister was bigger than she was, but Tara had an advantage over him. On Earth, she had occasionally watched sumo wrestling matches. She’d been fascinated by the grace, agility, and speed of those masses of muscle and fat. And she noticed several times that the smaller wrestler wasn’t necessarily at a disadvantage if he had mass.
So instead of making herself larger, she used her resources to increase her mass. The big black dragon noticed that something odd was going on when the ground around Tara slumped under her sudden weight, but he realized too late what that meant. Tara raced at Magister like a golden missile, and at the last moment, lowered her head and slammed into his belly.
The black dragon let out a “Whooof!” as he was tossed backward a dozen yards, half conscious. He’d had the breath knocked out of him and wasn’t able to strike back, but reflexively activated a defensive spell to absorb any opposition from her while he was recovering.
But Tara didn’t try to attack him. She had just gotten the few seconds that she needed. Then she did what spellbinders never do. The one thing Magister could never have imagined.
“Bond, James Bond!” she yelled, desperately hoping that Cal would understand.
Taking advantage of her opponent’s semi-consciousness, she released all her power and projected it onto Cal. It flowed into the boy with such violence that the impact left him speechless. The magic shackles binding him exploded under the shock, and he instantly changed back into gorgeous Cal. Oddly enough, Blondin also recovered his huge red lion body.
The power transfer was so total that Tara was unable to stop the internal bleeding she’d suffered in the collision. She lost her dragon shape, and her vision clouded. All Tara saw now was a wavering, blurry image of Magister getting up, roaring with rage.
With her last ounce of strength, she cast a Destructus.
The big black dragon easily blocked the spell, and laughed. “Is that it? Is that the best you can do? That spell’s so weak, a child could block it with its little finger. So, do you admit you’re defeated? Give up?”
Tara glared at him.
“In your dreams!” she managed to say with effort.
Then with graceful slowness, she collapsed. Magister stared at the girl’s inanimate body, puzzled. And that’s when Cal attacked him using Tara’s power.
Cal’s spell pierced Magister’s defenses as if they were paper, extinguishing his consciousness. Like Tara, he collapsed, but much less gracefully, and his brutal fall shook the island.
Cal removed Robin’s gag.
“Good going!” the elf shouted. “You killed him!”
“I’m not positive about that,” muttered Cal. “I’m going to give him another dose, just to be sure.”
But Robin noticed that Tara was still sprawled on the ground, motionless.
“Tara’s hurt!” he yelled. “Cal, do something, quick!”
Cal cast a quick spell that cut the bonds from Gallant and Robin, who immediately ran to Tara. Cal turned toward her and cast a spell: “By Healus, help Tara conquer strife, and fill her with the breath of life.”
When the spell shot out, it encompassed everything in its path. It hit Tara, then Robin, who was holding her in his arms, then the white roses, the lake, the Mud Eaters’ burrows, the Swamps . . . and then vanished from sight. Withered bushes suddenly bloomed, the parboiled glurps regained their green and brown scales, and Tara took a deep, ragged breath.
“Oops!” yelped Cal in surprise. “Hey, this power of hers isn’t easy to control. Look at all that! The Healus must’ve affected half the continent!”
“Well, maybe not that much,” said Tara with a weak smile, as she regained consciousness. “But thanks for reviving me. My heart had stopped beating and the living stone was about to give up. She thanks you, by the way. So, did it work?”
“For heaven’s sake, next time tell me your plan before you do something like that!” he shouted. “Good thing I understood what you wanted to do. When you yelled ‘Bond!’ I was ready to receive your magic. Otherwise it would’ve been a real mess. And yeah, it worked. We got rid of the Bloodgrave before he had time to say boo!”
Tara gave him a brilliant smile.
“In that case, it was worth it,” she breathed. And fainted again.
Robin checked Tara’s pulse, but found it strong and regular. She just needed to rest. Relieved, he turned and smiled at Cal.
“Oh, boy! Have you
seen that body of yours? You—”
“Yeah, I know,” said Cal with resignation. “When she shouted ‘Bond!’ the image popped into my mind and pow! it changed me again. With the dose of magic she’s stuck me with, it could last quite a while longer. I tell you, someone’s out to get me. It’s the only explanation!”
Robin couldn’t help but laugh at his friend’s comic despair.
“Okay,” said Cal, “let’s take care of this other jerk.”
They turned to the motionless black dragon and got a surprise: Magister’s body was floating in midair. Cal activated Tara’s power, ready to strike again, when he realized that Magister wasn’t conscious. Amazingly, it was being lifted by some invisible force. Before an astonished Cal had time to cast a spell, a sort of ripping sound was heard, two immense paws appeared out of the void, seized the black dragon’s body in their claws, and disappeared.
Cal was dumbfounded. “What was that? Did you see the size of the paws that grabbed him?”
“The only time I’ve ever seen something like that was when a twisted spellbinder used a spell against our hunter-elves,” said Robin, frowning. “He’d gotten it from the Demon King. My father managed to knock him out, but a pair of paws grabbed him, and we never saw him again. After that, we only heard rumors. Some ifrits told us that he was a slave in the kingdom of Limbo, for eternity. He had pledged his life to get the spell. I’m pretty sure Magister must have done the same thing.”
Cal shivered. “Yikes! I don’t want to know the details. Whether Magister is dead or a slave in Limbo, the important thing is that we’re rid of him.”
“You’re right,” said Robin. “In the meantime, we’ve got to take care of Tara and fast.”
“No problem,” said Cal with a satisfied smile. “I’ll transform myself into a dragon and carry you all to the Fortress.”
Robin couldn’t help but groan.
“A pegasus would be nice too,” he suggested hopefully.
“Nah, it doesn’t fly fast enough,” said Cal, drawing a scowl from Gallant.
Robin was desperately trying to think of other convincing arguments when a deep voice startled them.
“Ooh, my head! Is . . . is everything all right? Where’s Magister? And what happened to Tara?”
They had forgotten about Master Dragosh! The vampyr grimaced as he got to his feet, still groggy.
“Tara’s fine,” answered Cal. “Well, she’s sort of passed out, and I’ve got her power, but aside from that, everything’s cool. Magister is either dead or alive in Limbo; right now we aren’t sure. Naturally we’re hoping for door number one.”
The vampyr grimaced again, but not only because of his headache. “Then the fiend has managed to escape again!”
“Well, we can’t be too sorry he’s gone,” said Cal with some annoyance. “Right now what I’d like is to get rid of Tara’s power—or rather return it to her. And get my normal body back, which would be great. I don’t even know what I really look like anymore!”
“She transferred her spellbinder power to you, is that it?” asked Dragosh in some amazement. “That’s very unusual. Do you know how to reverse the process?”
“Er, not exactly, no.”
Robin stepped in. “Master, for all of our safety, not to mention the planet’s, you have to remove this power from Cal. Who knows what’ll happen the next time he uses it? He has to get rid of it, now!”
“That’s impossible. This power is frightening for such a young girl. Caliban can’t hand it over to her just like that. If it goes wrong, the power might scatter in all directions and Tara would die. I’m going to need Master Chem’s help in channeling it. Let’s go back to Lancovit.” Without waiting for Cal’s assent, Dragosh shifted into bat.
Feeling a bit nervous, Robin waited for Cal to turn himself into a dragon.
At first, everything went pretty well. In the blink of an eye the handsome spellbinder became a handsome red and gold dragon—very elegant and matching his familiar’s color.
Then Cal wanted to shrink Blondin so he would take up less room in the howdah.
“By Miniaturus,” he chanted in his booming dragon voice, “shrink my fox down to my knees, so I can take him where I please.”
Instantly, Robin was astonished to find himself in a forest of grass. The vampyr, now the size of a butterfly, was desperately dodging a ko-ax bent on eating him for dinner. All around them, little rosebushes furiously waved their tiny white flowers. Blondin gave a shrill, indignant yelp.
“Oops!” said Cal. “By Normalus, it would be wise if you all regained your normal size!”
With that, the ko-ax suddenly found itself with an enormous bat in his mouth that was looking at him with some annoyance. It immediately spat Master Dragosh out. In a fury, he turned on the frog, which wisely dove into the water. Robin and the rest of the island regained their usual dimensions. The bat said nothing in words, but its screeches sounded distinctly irritated.
Robin took charge of the miniaturization operation. He also created a wicker howdah for Cal’s back and strapped Tara and Blondin in. Gallant took off, followed by the dragon.
Cal paid attention, and his takeoff was fairly smooth. He had watched Tara’s maneuvers carefully and was beating his huge wings efficiently. Once airborne, he headed for the Gray Fortress. It was still dark and Robin suggested they gain some altitude so as not to smack into a mountain.
Then the sun rose.
Marveling at the beauty of OtherWorld as it slowly emerged from shadow, Cal looked down. Big mistake.
Suddenly, he felt terribly dizzy. His smooth flight turned chaotic, and he started flailing with his legs instead of slowly beating his wings. The howdah lurched from side to side.
“Hey! What are you up to?” cried Robin.
“I feel dizzy,” moaned Cal. “I’m afraid I’m going to fall.”
“You can’t fall!” Robin screamed. “You’re a dragon, you have wings!”
“But the ground is pulling at me! I’m falling!”
“No, you aren’t! You aren’t falling in the least! Look up, look anywhere you like, just don’t look down.”
But down was the only direction Cal was looking. His long neck followed his head, and of course so did the rest of him.
Now they really were falling. Cal was using his wings only to glide, since he was feeling too dizzy to beat them. This slowed his descent somewhat, but without stopping it.
The bat couldn’t speak, but Dragosh was clearly upset by the dragon’s behavior.
Robin looked over at the pegasus flying nearby.
“Gallant, come here, quick!”
The pegasus came alongside, clearly wondering why Cal was diving straight for the forest.
“You take Tara and Blondin,” cried Robin. “I’ll deal with Cal.”
He immediately levitated the two over onto Gallant’s sturdy back, who took the extra weight without batting an eyelash.
Just before the red dragon landed—or to be more precise, crashed noisily into the forest—Robin cast a cushioning spell to protect Cal, then a Levitatus for himself. The spell saved Cal from breaking his long dragon neck, though he cut a swath of devastation through the forest three-hundred-yards long.
“Ow, ow, ow!” he moaned, holding his muzzle in his claws and looking glassy eyed. “What happened?”
Robin was so incensed he could hardly speak. He floated around with Gallant at his side, glaring at Cal.
“Do you know how long it took those trees to grow?” he finally yelled. “I told you not to look down, you stupid idiot!”
Still groggy, Can nodded his dragon head.
“When I stared down before, this forest wasn’t there,” he muttered.
“It’s been here for five million years,” screamed Robin, out of his mind with rage. “Believe me, it didn’t just appear all at once. But you glided down, and instead of landing in the plain you veered off into the forest. I told you not to look down!”
“Okay, okay, I got it. You don’t ne
ed to keep repeating the same thing. When you’re flying and you get dizzy, don’t look down. Right!” Cal quickly changed the subject so his friend would stop yelling at him. “Is Tara okay?”
“She’s doing better than this forest!” roared the half-elf, who was still outraged by the destruction of the trees. “She and Blondin are on Gallant. Listen, Cal, I can understand that having Tara’s power is pretty heady stuff. But you’re a little dangerous in your dragon shape. So if you don’t mind, you, Blondin, and I are going to continue on foot. Tara and Gallant will fly directly to the Gray Fortress, and we’ll meet them there.”
“No, it’s okay,” answered Cal, gingerly feeling his muzzle. “I think I’ve got the hang of it now. I can do this.”
“I don’t want to take the chance,” retorted Robin stubbornly.
“We have to get to Lancovit as fast as possible,” said Cal. “I have Tara’s power, and Chem and Dragosh are going to need me to give it back to her. Besides, I don’t feel like walking for a whole day.”
“Well I do, as it happens!” answered the half-elf. “In fact, I’m going to start right away.” Robin gracefully floated to the ground, resolutely turned his back on his friend, and headed for the edge of the woods in the direction of the Gray Fortress.
Feeling annoyed, Cal watched him walk off as he thoughtfully sniffed a small flower he had plucked. Suddenly he felt a terrible sneeze rising in his muzzle. He stared at the little white flower in horror. Crap! It was a tatchoo, whose seeds are used as pepper on OtherWorld. He opened his mouth to warn Robin, but it was too late.
Cal’s flaming breath missed his friend by less than a foot, sent him diving to the ground, and incinerated the trees that had survived his landing.
Robin whirled around, his elfin blood boiling.
“By my ancestors!” he yelled. “What the heck are you doing?”
“Oops, sorry,” said Cal apologetically. “I just sneezed. You know, now that I think of it, I’m going to choose another shape. This one’s a little too hard to control.”
Robin stood up, pointed at the blazing trees, and quickly recited: “By Aquus, give me a drenching wave, and this poor charred forest save.”
Tara Duncan and the Forbidden Book Page 35