Renegades Of Wolfenvald, Book Two of The Adventures of Sarah Coppernick

by SJB Gilmour

  ‘So where did they go?’ James demanded looking around. He looked at his cousin curiously. ‘What’s the matter with you?’

  Angela had shut her eyes and was smiling dreamily. ‘My Lord,’ she murmured to herself. Then she opened her eyes and shook her head briefly to bring herself back to attention.

  ‘The girl’s trail stops here,’ Robert said, pawing the ground.

  Benjamin, James, Angela and Aunt Roberta and Uncle Robert all looked at each other for a moment.

  ‘Wolfenvald,’ Robert sighed. Then he grinned.

  Aunt Roberta relaxed and gave a happy yip. ‘Of course!’ she exclaimed, wagging her tail. She spun round to Benjamin excitedly. The Silver Shroud also grinned and immediately changed form into his silver and black werewolf shape. He created a large shimmering portal and the three werewolves leaped through it.

  ‘Hey!’ Oliver protested. He watched the portal vanish and swore. ‘Stuff this,’ he grated. ‘I’m going home.’ He made to create his own portal.

  ‘Not yet,’ Angela told him firmly. She placed a restraining hand on his shoulder. ‘You’re the only one who knows how to get back to your island. We’ll have to stay here until they get back.’

  ‘But!’ Oliver stammered, gesturing at the devastation around him.

  ‘I know,’ she said, rolling her eyes supportively. ‘It’s disgusting here, but you can’t go home just yet and you definitely don’t want to follow them to Wolfenvald.’

  ‘Speak for yourself,’ James protested, looking about at the lush jungle. ‘I love it here.’

  ‘What would you like us to do?’ Princess Heather asked.

  Angela looked at the succubus with one raised eyebrow.

  Heather stepped off the tree trunk and shrugged. ‘I told you, Mistress Harding, we’re here to help.’

  ‘I don’t trust you,’ Angela stated coldly.

  Heather smiled, flashing her deadly white fangs. ‘I understand,’ she said calmly. ‘We are wraiths after all. If your Golden Mane saw fit to trust us, maybe you could too?’

  ‘Alright,’ Oliver announced. As Angela began to protest, he held one hand up to quieten her. ‘Go back to my place,’ he told the three succubi. ‘You’ve still got your invitations so you’ll find the place easily enough. When you get there, José will show you to the belfry, or there’s a nice dark cellar if you’d prefer. It’s quite dry. By now Marzdane’s probably got a good idea that I’m involved,’ Oliver told them. ‘But I doubt if he knows the Medici are as well. If he does send a greeting party to my island to look for me, he probably won’t be looking for you so he’ll most likely overlook a few bats. You should be pretty safe.’

  ‘Thank-you,’ Princess Heather said simply.

  ‘And what shall we do while we wait there?’ Princess Charity asked.

  ‘Just keep an eye on the place. José will make sure you’ve plenty to eat and drink.’

  ‘We are but three,’ Princess Elizabetha told him. ‘But we speak for the entire Medici sub-clan. If you wish, we could start bringing our sisters to join us at your island.’

  Oliver looked sideways at Angela. ‘You know, that’s not such a bad idea,’ he suggested to Sarah’s frowning teacher. ‘On their own, a few succubi aren’t much of a threat. A plague of them could come in very handy.’

  ‘Colony,’ Princess Charity corrected him primly.

  ‘That depends on who’s naming the noun,’ Oliver replied in an off-hand manner.

  Angela gave in. ‘Alright,’ she conceded. She turned to Princess Heather. ‘I’m sorry,’ she told the blonde Princess. ‘Old habits.’

  The three succubi all grinned happily and the tension in the air fell away. They stood in a circle and joined hands. Then, the three beautiful, deadly wraiths blurred and turned into mist and disappeared.

  James looked after them quizzically. Then he shrugged and rummaged in his enchanted satchel.

  ‘Mason should be here for this,’ he muttered as he dragged out a large tent. ‘He was always better with these things than I am.’

  ‘Relax Isaacs,’ Oliver told him darkly. ‘We’re better off than he is right now anyway.’ He began helping James with the tent. The two strange sorcerers chatted amiably while they struggled with the uncooperative tent.

  ‘Finally!’ Oliver declared when they finished. He paused to kick a goblin head out of his way. ‘Now,’ he said brightly. ‘Since we missed dinner,’ he said with an arch look at Angela, ‘I’m going to get us some food,’ and he marched off into the jungle.

  James was staring at the ruined temple. ‘Didn’t McConnell say Rufus had some notes with him when he got trapped in that blasted tome?’ he asked his cousin.

  She looked at him with dismay. ‘If he did, and this is where he disappeared then whatever’s left of them is under all that.’ She pointed at all the rubble.

  ‘You any good at reparation spells?’

  Angela shook her head. ‘Simple ones are easy enough, but Benjamin would be the one for this kind of work.’

  ‘And he’s buggered off to Wolfenvald.’ James sat down dejectedly. ‘We’ve lost the data.’

  ‘Whatever enchantment was on the place would have protected the notes as well as the tomes, James,’ Angela told him. ‘If the girls wrecked the spells then the notes have only just been exposed to the elements. We could erect an enchantment of our own to protect what’s left until Benjamin comes back. He’ll know what to do then.’

  James grinned. ‘In that case, let’s see what we can do about that.’

  The two sorcerers then stood side by side and held their hands outstretched towards the huge pile of rubble that was once the temple.

  ‘Confiniouso!’ they ordered simultaneously and a large shimmering dome appeared to cover the entire area surrounding the ruined temple.

  As night was falling over the steamy jungle, Oliver returned with the carcass of a small jungle boar slung over his shoulder. He dumped the boar on the ground near the fire James had prepared.

  ‘Barbecued boar, anyone?’ he asked cheerfully. Then he looked at the containment orb James and Angela had erected. ‘What’d you do that for?’

  James shrugged. ‘When this is over, I want to come back and have a poke around. That place is as old as the hills. There could be all sorts of isolated species of orchids and mosses growing in there that I’ve not seen before. The kids wrecked the place but whatever’s inside is still there. I don’t want to risk the chance of an old, isolated species hybridising with the rest of the plants in this place.’

  ‘You plant-lovers are all mad,’ Oliver muttered with a shrug. He began preparing a fire and a spit for the boar he’d caught.

  ‘You know,’ Oliver said after they’d eaten. ‘I’m quite proud of the way Troy’s turning out. Though if she does anything like this again, I’ll wring her scrawny neck.’

  ‘I wouldn’t worry about that,’ Angela told him with a mysterious smile. ‘The Archer God will keep her out of mischief.’

  ‘That’s all well and good,’ James observed sourly, ‘but who’s going to keep Sarah out of trouble? She means well, but by the Gods, I wish she’d think things through before she races off like that, and Mel just goes along for the ride. They’re as bad as each other.’ He turned to Angela. ‘You know that by now, her mother must have some idea about what’s going on,’ he stated. ‘She’s about to go into labour any minute, and her daughter’s run off on some damn fool adventure again. She must be beside herself.’

  ‘That’s the surprising thing,’ she replied. ‘I haven’t heard from either Susan or David. The baby must be due any day now—’

  The colour drained from James’ face. He stood up slowly.

  ‘What?’ Oliver demanded, looking from one to the other.

  ‘You’re right,’ Angela agreed, also standing. She too had gone quite pale.

  James swore vehemently. ‘They left my place about a week ago,’ he said quietly.

  ‘Where to this time?’ Angela asked in a quiet voice.

 
‘They said they were off to The Labyrinth,’ he said with a worried frown. ‘I didn’t pay too much attention because I was up to my ears in a nutsmeg harvest and those two are always off somewhere or other.’

  ‘They went to a maze?’ Oliver demanded.

  ‘Labyrinth,’ Angela corrected absently.

  ‘What?’

  ‘Labyrinth,’ she repeated. Mazes are above ground. Labyrinths are subterranean, and much more dangerous.’

  ‘Whatever,’ Oliver said, borrowing Melanie’s phrase. ‘Which labyrinth then? There are thousands of cave systems on this ridiculous planet.’

  ‘But only one my sister would ever give birth in,’ she told him bleakly. She began to pace back and forth. ‘She wouldn’t go on her own accord either,’ she surmised. ‘She’s been listening to Mother again.’

  Oliver looked at her blankly.

  ‘She’s gone to Crete.’

  ‘I still don’t understand,’ Oliver said, looking very confused.

  ‘It’s not just any labyrinth. It’s The Labyrinth. The one King Minos built,’ James told the confused necromancer. ‘He built it to hide his wife’s bastard son.’

  ‘Oh, I remember now,’ Oliver said with a grin. ‘Wasn’t that the beast young Pasiphae bore to the bull that Poseidon gave her husband? What did they call it,’ he clicked his fingers trying to remember.

  ‘The Minotaur,’ James replied.

  ‘That’s it!’ Oliver said brightly. Then he looked at Angela and James who were both looking very concerned. ‘So what’s the matter?’ he asked. ‘That thing’s been dead for aeons. Didn’t Theseus kill it?’

  James shook his head.

  ‘I still don’t see the problem. A minotaur shouldn’t be that hard to handle.’

  ‘One minotaur wouldn’t be,’ Angela told him. ‘There are thousands in The Labyrinth of Minos.’

  Oliver seemed startled.

  James sighed. ‘The popular story is that Theseus was in love with Minos’ daughter, Ariadne and that she gave him a ball of yarn so that he could use it to find his way out of the labyrinth after he went and killed The Minotaur so that Athens wouldn’t have to pay a blood tax any more.’

  Oliver nodded.

  ‘Well, that part is true, except after that, the real story is a little different. Theseus did use the yarn when he went into the maze and he did find The Minotaur, but he didn’t kill it. The Minotaur killed old Theseus. Ariadne went looking for him, using the yarn that he’d left behind. Of course, she found him and her dead boyfriend. That’s where old Poseidon’s curse took effect. The actual curse He laid on the bull was that the first set of female eyes that saw the subject would fall head over heels in lust for it. Like most of the Greek Gods’ curses, it was dynastic and rendered the subject immortal.

  ‘Poseidon cursed the bull. The bull’s son, The Minotaur, was also cursed. So, as soon as Ariadne saw The Minotaur, she forgot all about smelly old Theseus. She stayed with old bullhead. They started a herd that’s been multiplying for aeons. They’re a species now, not just one titan. As they reproduced, the curse diluted. Now, they’re only mildly good-looking to susceptible females.

  ‘The folklore goes that old Theseus returned to Athens but forgot to raise the white flag on his ship. So his dad, old Aegeus, committed suicide because he thought his boy had died. It was actually an empty boat that drifted back and the white flag was just Ariadne’s underwear—’ James chuckled and shook his head at what was obviously a fond memory. ‘Don’t ask me how her knickers ended up, up the mast. Anyway, Aegeus went off the trolley and drowned himself. That’s how the Aegean Sea got its name.’

  ‘Perhaps one or two of us should go visit this maze and see how things are going?’ Oliver suggested then.

  James began pacing back and forth. ‘I don’t know,’ he muttered. ‘We’re split up enough now as it is.’ He began ticking off on his fingers. ‘Mason’s on Gnumphlatia, the werewolves are at Wolfenvald, Melanie and Sarah are the Gods only know where, we’re here and the wraiths are at your place. Divided they fall, remember.’

  ‘I remember,’ Oliver muttered sourly. ‘I wrote it.’

  ‘So what do we do?’ Angela demanded anxiously.

  ‘There’s nothing we can do,’ Oliver replied coldly. ‘You said it yourself. We’ve got to stay here and wait for the others to get back. When the werewolves find the girls, we’ll go see about your sister. Till then, we’ll just have to hurry up and wait.’

  Unable to relax, Angela began to pace back and forth.

  ‘What’s the matter with you?’ James demanded.

  ‘All this talk about old history has got me thinking. I’m missing something. It’s right in front of my nose.’

  James peered at the air right in front of his cousin. ‘What do you mean? There’s nothing there.’

  ‘This is no joke, James.’

  ‘Perhaps you’re remembering something from the last time you were studying?’ Oliver suggested.

  ‘I haven’t studied any history for hundreds of years,’ she dismissed with a wave. ‘I don’t need to. This was more recent.’

  Oliver looked at her curiously. ‘The last time we were all together talking about history was back in my library.’

  James nodded. ‘Now that the girls aren’t here to press me about Medusa, I don’t have to pretend—’

  ‘No.’ Angela resumed her pacing, muttering under her breath.

  ‘Was it something you read or a conversation?’ Oliver pressed.

  ‘I don’t know!’ She swore again.

  ‘Never mind,’ James said trying to sound cheerful. ‘We might as well clean up some of the mess here.’ He nodded at the mess with an appreciating smile. ‘Goblin gore makes great fertiliser.’

  ‘What?’ Oliver asked him.

  ‘Goblin gore,’ James said with a nod. ‘Lots and lots of phosphates.’ He then closed his eyes and spread his hands out wide. ‘Horticus!’ he commanded in a great voice. The jungle quickly began to repair itself. Small seedlings shot up out of the ground and were soon tall saplings. Those trees that had been left standing but had lost their leaves, sprouted new shoots and leaves. Vines twirled up around the branches and flowers budded and bloomed again. Soon the forest was greatly restored and almost completely hid the containment orb protecting the ruins of the temple.

  Suddenly Oliver leaped to his feet. ‘Bingo!’ he cried.

  James and Angela looked at him.

  ‘Goblins!’ the excited sorcerer yelled. ‘Back in my library, remember? I said I’d lent my copy of The Babylonian Heresies to a goblin?’

  ‘No,’ corrected James pedantically. ‘You were annoyed that they never return anything. You implied you’d lent it. We inferred it. But, you never actually said it.’

  ‘Which goblin was it? Angela asked him intently.

  Now Oliver frowned dejectedly. ‘I don’t remember,’ he moaned and sat back down. ‘They all look the same to me.’

  ‘Well,’ said James, wiping his brow from the effort of casting the spell, ‘we’re probably going to be here for a while. I don’t know about you two, but I could use a drink.’

  ‘Where are you going to get anything cold in this wretched place?’ Oliver demanded sourly. ‘It’s prettier now, I’ll grant you that, but now that you’ve made the plants grow back there’s no breeze at all!’

  James grinned. He pointed to an empty spot on the flattened jungle floor and a large keg of beer appeared. Then he waved his hands again and produced a tiny, foot-wide portal, out of which blasted an icy wind.

  The freezing air blasted straight onto the keg. The ice-cold blast mixed with the humid air and the keg was suddenly frosted with ice. James grinned and quickly produced three large glass tankards. He filled them with the icy, foamy beer and handed one each to Angela and Oliver.

  ‘Cheers!’ the eccentric botanist said, raising his tankard. ‘May Mautallius pick up a disease!’

  Oliver took the tankard gratefully. ‘I’ll drink to that!’

  Melanie ste
pped through the portal and into the dusty Ottispuschenshuffen brothers’ shop. Laurence Ottispuschenshuffen was at his usual place behind the counter, arguing with a very angry vampire. The vampire, dressed in a business suit and tie, looked as though he would be perfectly at home in a lawyer’s office or a stock-broking firm. By his side was a shiny new Millennium model elevator, still with the price sticker on one of its doors.

  ‘I tell you, the damned thing is faulty!’ he yelled at Laurence.

  Laurence spread his hands out wide. ‘It got you here,’ he protested mildly. ‘It must be verking.’

  The vampire seemed about ready to explode. Melanie looked at him closely and was very surprised to find she recognised him. Carefully, she stuffed the tome she had retrieved from the temple into her back pocket. It didn’t fit very well and poked out uncomfortably.

  ‘Uncle Vlad?’ she asked in surprise. ‘What are you doing here?’

  Vladimir Dracul turned around furiously. His black eyes gleamed and his fanged teeth were bared dangerously. When he recognised Melanie, his demeanour softened.

  ‘Mel?’ he asked, forgetting about his argument with Laurence, who was also looking quite relieved. ‘What are you doing here?’ He looked at her filthy and sopping wet clothes and took a step back. ‘More to the point, young lady, what have you been doing?’

  The words of her mother rang in her ears. ‘I wouldn’t trust her as far as I could spit her,’ Susan had declared, referring to Vladimir’s new wife. Melanie realised she probably shouldn’t tell the vampire exactly what was going on. She paused, about to speak when Laurence shuffled out from behind his counter.

  ‘Vat are you doingk here messingk up my nice clean floor?’ he demanded, pointing at the puddle of water that had dripped from Melanie. ‘Oi!’ he said dramatically. ‘Some people!’

  ‘I’m sorry, Master Ottispuschenshuffen,’ Mel said carefully, ‘but I need to talk to you.’ She turned to Vladimir. ‘I’m sorry, Uncle,’ she protested. ‘But I have to talk to one of the Ottispuschenshuffens. I can wait outside till you’re done if you like.’

  There was a long uncomfortable moment while all three looked at one another in turn. Finally, Laurence’s eyes narrowed briefly, as he peered at Melanie through his bi-focal glasses. Then he quite dramatically changed his mind.