The Familiars #3: Circle of Heroes

by Adam Jay Epstein

  “If I had a golden toad on my side, I’d bring luck back to my people,” said Navid. “Put an end to our years of struggle. Allow every cobra to live in peace. Perhaps good fortune would rid our homeland of our enemies.”

  “Funny, I was going to say almost the same thing,” said Marati.

  “Look at that,” said Navid. “For the first time a cobra and mongoose actually agree on something.”

  “I would take the toad to Split River and let it sit on my old loyal Galleon’s shoulder,” said Banshee. “That’s someone who needs luck more than anyone else I know.”

  “The only thing we should be using that golden toad for is luck on this mission,” said Aldwyn.

  “We don’t need luck,” said Orion. “We have you, Skylar, and Gilbert. The Prophesized Three.”

  Not for the first time, Aldwyn’s stomach sank at the phrase.

  “Psst. Guys,” a voice croaked. “Over here.”

  Aldwyn and the others turned to find Gilbert coming up over the edge of the estate’s stone wall. He used his suction pads to scurry down it.

  “Guards!” Lothar shouted. “Guar—”

  But he couldn’t get the rest of the word out. Marati’s astral claw had gripped his throat and squeezed, allowing nothing more than a muted groan to wheeze out.

  “Gilbert,” said Aldwyn. “How have you not been caught yet?”

  “I dunno,” said the tree frog. “Maybe it’s my stealth, ninja-like skills.”

  He hopped closer to the cages, tripping and knocking over a wooden noose stick.

  “I have a feeling it might be something else,” said Skylar.

  “Remember how I told you that luck doesn’t affect golden toads?” said the pocket dragon. “I would venture to guess it doesn’t affect frogs, either.”

  “It would certainly explain why you were the only one who wasn’t trapped by those tree limbs,” said Banshee.

  “And how you made it all the way past the Baroness’s guards without being seen,” added Aldwyn.

  “Gilbert, you have to go get the golden toad,” said Skylar. “Until she’s on our side, there’s no way any of us are escaping.”

  “She’s up there.” Orion pointed his nose to the high balcony tower.

  Gilbert glanced up to see the golden toad staring out the window.

  “Okay. I can do this.”

  Gilbert readied himself and set off for the tower. Aldwyn, Skylar, and the others watched. The hippo guards had clearly become too reliant on bad luck to keep the Baroness’s prisoners captive, because they paid no attention to the tree frog bounding across the courtyard. He made it to the bushes beneath the balcony and disappeared inside them.

  Then after a moment, Gilbert popped up from the brush, making a speedy vertical ascent. He used the tangle of vines stretching toward the window as camouflage. Aldwyn smiled over at Skylar. Maybe their friend did have some stealth ninja skills, at least when it came to climbing.

  Watching from his cage in the courtyard, Aldwyn could see Gilbert go up onto the balcony and begin talking to the golden toad. He couldn’t make out what they were saying, but he saw Gilbert grab a decorative jewel-encrusted dagger off the wall and swing it at the toad’s ankle. Without hesitation, the two were fleeing down from the tower window. By the time they hit the ground, a hippo guard had spotted them and cried out.

  “The toad has escaped! Get her!”

  All the hippopotamuses in the courtyard began running after Gilbert and the golden toad, aiming their blowguns. The first volley of darts whizzed past Gilbert and the golden toad, narrowly missing them. Before a second round was fired, the toad reached Aldwyn’s cage.

  “Stroke my back,” she said.

  Aldwyn stretched his paw through the metal bars and rubbed her shimmering skin. At that, their luck changed.

  A sudden gale-force wind ripped through the still air. The strong breeze sent the newly fired poisonous darts flying back toward the hippos. Each one struck a different soldier, and one by one they dropped to the ground in a paralyzed state.

  A single dart strayed upward, disappearing into a cloud above. After mere seconds, the crow fell from the sky with the dart in its neck. The bird landed at Aldwyn’s feet with the key ring still in its mouth.

  “Wow!” Aldwyn nodded to the golden toad. “You really are good.”

  He quickly used his telekinesis to unlock his own cage, then began unlocking the others’.

  “Guys, this is Anura,” said Gilbert, introducing the golden toad.

  Aldwyn could already see stars in Gilbert’s eyes. The tree frog had a crush!

  “Follow me,” she said.

  The animals exited their cages. Not just the familiars and descendants but the pocket dragon and other captives of the Baroness, too. Banshee and Marati made sure that Lothar’s neck shackles were put back on and attached to Orion’s hindquarters.

  Anura’s gaze lingered on Aldwyn for a moment.

  “You know, you look exactly like a cat that was imprisoned here. Except for that bite taken out of your ear.”

  “Us Maidenmeres all look very similar,” said Aldwyn.

  “No, the resemblance is uncanny. It’s like she was your twin.”

  Suddenly, Aldwyn felt his heart beating in his chest.

  “What was her name?” he asked.

  “Yeardley.”

  If luck hadn’t been Anura’s natural talent, Aldwyn wouldn’t have believed it. But the fact that crazy coincidences happened around her all the time left little doubt in his mind. She was talking about his sister.

  “What happened to her? Where is she?”

  “She was sold to a justiciary from the Equitas Isles,” said Anura.

  Aldwyn’s head was spinning. His sister was alive and out there. He would find her as soon as he could. But first there was saving Vastia. And before that, getting out of the Baroness’s estate alive.

  The high courtyard walls were insurmountable for an animal as large as Orion. That meant the group had to leave the same way they were brought in: straight through the Baroness’s house.

  The inside was even grander than the outside. Crystal chandeliers hung above the long hallway, while countless paintings of the Baroness and her daughter covered the walls. Gold statues of them filled the halls. As the group followed behind Anura, Aldwyn was able to see into the dining room. There the Baroness sat at the head of a long table made of pearls and oyster shells. Her daughter sat at the opposite end.

  “I want my lobster in bite-sized pieces!” shrieked the Baroness to one of the dozen servants tending to them. “How dare you make me chew more than thrice?”

  Then the Baroness spotted Aldwyn running past the dining hall. She jumped to her feet and was about to scream when something got caught in her throat. All that came out was a gasp as she began to choke. She pointed frantically at the escaping animals.

  “What is it, Mother?” her daughter asked. “Do you want more lobster?”

  Tears were streaming down the Baroness’s face and she shook her head.

  “Oh, dear,” cried the girl. “She’s choking! She told you to cut those bites into smaller pieces.”

  As her butlers and servants ran to her aid, the Baroness helplessly watched her precious good luck charm disappear down the hall, along with all of her prisoners.

  Anura led them straight out the doors, into the estate’s front yard, and toward the gates. The Fjord Guard caught sight of them and began to swing his sword.

  Luckily his blade missed its targets and instead beheaded one of the Baroness’s statues. The marble head went rolling as the animals continued their mad dash for the gate.

  As the Fjord Guard chased after them, a sudden gust of wind tore a pennant from one of the turrets. The long strip of satin flew right into the giant’s eyes. The blinded guard’s heel landed on the rolling head and he fell like a freshly cut tree, crashing straight through the outer wall and slamming into the ground with a thud.

  The animals sprinted over the fallen Fjord Gua
rd’s legs and directly to freedom. They didn’t stop running—or in Skylar’s case, flying—until they could no longer see the Baroness’s estate behind them. Once clear of danger, they stopped to catch their breath.

  After saying good-bye to their fellow prisoners, Skylar, Gilbert, and Aldwyn shared a moment of satisfaction. All seven descendants had been collected. If Paksahara and her Dead Army had not yet destroyed the third and final glyphstone, a chance at victory finally seemed within their grasp.

  “I think I’m going to ask her out on a date,” said Gilbert to Aldwyn.

  “Aren’t you moving a little fast?” asked Aldwyn. “I mean, you only met her an hour ago.”

  “Beauties like Anura don’t come around every day.”

  “Well, don’t let me stop you,” said Aldwyn.

  Gilbert puffed up his chest and started for the opposite end of Orion’s back, where Anura sat talking with Skylar.

  Night had fallen again. Despite their exhaustion, the group moved as fast as they could. Orion was carrying all but Simeon and Lothar, and the stalwart lightmare was beginning to slow down. The tireless pace of their march across Vastia over these last few days had taken a toll.

  They had left the border jungles surrounding the Baroness’s estate and were heading north to the Ebs River, which would provide the safest and swiftest route to Bronzhaven. That is, assuming they could secure or build a vessel large enough to carry all of them.

  Gilbert hopped past Navid, Banshee, and Marati, then stopped behind the golden toad and the blue jay. He cleared his throat. The two turned to him.

  “Excuse me,” said Gilbert. “Anura, I wanted to ask you something.”

  Before the tree frog could finish, Skylar jumped in.

  “Poor Anura,” said Skylar. “She was just telling me how difficult it is being a golden toad. She barely knows someone for two minutes and they’re already trying to use her for her good luck. Everyone wants something from her.”

  Gilbert turned pale.

  “You wanted to ask me something,” said Anura.

  “Yes, right,” said Gilbert nervously. “Would you like some leftover maggots?”

  He reached into his flower bud backpack and held out a webbed handful.

  “Oh, thanks,” said Anura.

  She took the insects from him, and Gilbert quickly shuffled back over to Aldwyn.

  “I think I will give it a little more time,” said Gilbert. “I don’t want to come on too strong.”

  Just then one of Orion’s hoofs hit a large rock in the path, and the lightmare tripped, sending the animals on his back tumbling to the ground. As usual, Aldwyn landed on his feet. He immediately made sure that Lothar couldn’t run off. Then he checked up on his companions. Fortunately no one seemed hurt.

  Orion had gotten up again and turned to the others with an apologetic but drowsy look on his face.

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “I must have dozed off while I was running. There’s no way I should have hit that boulder.”

  “Let’s stop for a short rest,” said Skylar. “Even if it’s just for an hour. If Orion takes another tumble, we may not be so lucky next time.”

  Gilbert looked to Anura.

  “Or would we be?” asked the tree frog.

  “We can’t count on luck alone,” said Anura. “Just look at the Baroness. She thought her good fortune would never end.”

  Despite the urgency of their mission, even Orion agreed that it would be best to take a short rest before their final stand at the glyphstone. Marati volunteered to keep watch over Lothar, while everyone else closed their eyes, including Aldwyn, who knew that he would need his energy and wits about him when the time came to face the evil gray hare.

  14

  TWICE BETRAYED

  “He’s gone.”

  Aldwyn opened his eyes with a start when he heard Banshee’s panicked voice call out.

  “Lothar. He’s escaped,” cried the howler monkey.

  Aldwyn needed to look no further for proof than the empty dispeller chains fastened to Orion’s back.

  “How did this happen?” asked Skylar, who like the others had been jolted awake by Banshee’s cry.

  “I only closed my eyes for a moment,” said Marati, looking sick with guilt and shame. “At least it felt like a moment. I’m so sorry.”

  “I knew it!” hissed Navid. “I told you she would betray us. The mongoose set the wolverine free.”

  “No,” cried Marati. “That’s a lie.”

  “Let’s calm down for a second,” said Simeon. “We don’t know what happened here yet. This could have been an honest mistake.”

  “I checked those chains myself before I went to sleep,” said Navid. “There’s no way Lothar could have escaped them. Not without someone’s help.” The cobra spun toward Marati. “I say we chain her up before she tries to stab one of us in the back.”

  “How can I convince you that I’m innocent?” asked the mongoose. “Perhaps someone else among us had a motive for freeing him. Perhaps the same animal who threw away the neveryawn nuts. And if you remember, I was not even aware of their existence when they went missing. So it could not have been me.”

  “Whoever is responsible, arguing about it now is useless,” said Simeon. “We need to plan how we’re going to get Lothar back. Or track down another wolverine.”

  “If there’s a traitor in our midst, we had better find out now,” said Orion.

  “But Simeon’s right,” said Skylar. “Our best hope is to find Lothar before he gets too far. We could use the Olfax tracking snout to lead us to him.”

  She reached a talon into her satchel and began searching for the nose. When she looked back up, Aldwyn could tell by her expression that there was more bad news.

  “It’s not here, either,” said Skylar.

  If Aldwyn hadn’t seen Gilbert’s puddle viewing and the blackened feather on Skylar’s wing; if he hadn’t overheard her conversation with Lothar about the Yajmada’s Spear spell; and if he hadn’t known about her past dabblings in forbidden magic, he never would have considered that his blue jay companion could be involved in this betrayal. But that’s precisely what he was thinking right now. Accusing her here in front of everyone else seemed like it would have little purpose; he had no evidence, nothing more than a suspicion. If only he possessed the talent of telepathy, the ability to read minds, like his mother had. As it was, he would have to rely on his intuition—and he still wasn’t sure what it was telling him.

  “I don’t know how we’re supposed to find Lothar without that snout,” said Gilbert.

  “The mosaic,” Marati exclaimed. “The one on the divide at the fork of our canyon.”

  “What about it?” asked Navid.

  “The image of the circle of heroes,” she said. “After the lightmare left, a human stood in his place.”

  “I don’t know what her motive is,” said Navid, “but Marati speaks the truth. The king cobras believed that there were eight descendants, but only seven were needed to cast spells together.”

  “That’s fantastic!” said Gilbert. “We should be able to find a human in no time.”

  “Didn’t you listen to what I said when we saw the mosaic?” asked Skylar. “We need a human who has magic. And all human magic is gone from the queendom.”

  The silence that descended on the companions was deafening. They had gotten so close, but now all seemed lost. Aldwyn had been right to fear the words Kalstaff had written: the prophecy had been wrong about him and his fellow familiars.

  “Wait,” said Simeon. “What if we found a traveler, a wizard who was not in Vastia or even the Beyond when the dispeller curse hit?” The others looked at him without hope. “Or a baby born with magical ability in the last week?”

  They were farfetched, desperate ideas, but Aldwyn couldn’t really blame the bloodhound for trying.

  Then Banshee whispered: “Galleon.”

  Everybody turned to her.

  Aldwyn was the first to understand. “Galleon lost
his magic long before Paksahara’s dispeller curse.”

  “Exactly!” The howler monkey was lighting up with excitement. “When he was defeated by Coriander in their disenchantment duel, his magic was channeled into a protective vial. If we can retrieve that vial and uncork it, Galleon could get his magic back.”

  “Now that just sounds crazy,” said Gilbert.

  “But it’s also brilliant,” said Skylar. “Paksahara’s curse only affected those with magic when she first cast the spell. It would have no effect on Galleon if he regained his magic now.”

  The way forward was clear. They would travel back to Split River, to the Inn of the Golden Chalice, and get Galleon. Then they’d see about getting his magic back. As to who the traitor was among them—if there was one—there was nothing that could be done about it now.

  The lightmare had the group on his back once more and was galloping with renewed vigor through the Hinterwoods.

  The tall trees of the forest went by in a blur. Before Aldwyn knew it, Split River was coming into view for the second time on this journey.

  “Ugh, I’m feeling sick …” Gilbert started to say, before catching Anura’s eye. Then in an about-face, he continued: “… of how slow we’re going. Come on, pick up the pace, Orion. You know how much this frog loves speed.”

  Swallowing back his nausea, Gilbert smiled queasily at Anura.

  “Wow,” she said. “Your stomach is a lot stronger than mine. I feel terrible.”

  “So do I,” said Navid. “I’ve been nauseous since we left the border jungles.”

  “Oh, thank goodness,” said Anura to Navid. “I thought I was the only one.”

  Gilbert watched with a pained grimace as the golden toad and the king cobra bonded over their shared horseback sickness.

  Aldwyn looked over to Banshee, who was nervously tapping her drum. The upcoming reunion with her loyal clearly had put her on edge.

  “Everything okay?” Aldwyn asked.