by E. G. Foley
“Oh, we’ve got tons,” Brian said with artless enthusiasm. “I found an arrowhead there once!”
Jake drew breath to offer another cheeky quip, but Isabelle must’ve sensed it coming.
“Behave, coz,” she warned him, then rubbed her temples, still looking rather pained. “Can we please just focus on the plan?”
Jake swallowed his humor and tossed the new kid a breezy smile. “Sorry, mate, just havin’ a bit of fun. Plan’s simple.” He flipped his forelock out of his eyes and shrugged. “We stay put for a while here, like I said. Wait for things to calm down back at the palace. Then we’ll let the adults know where we ended up. We can call Aunt Ramona in a bit through that speaker thingamajig on Dani’s gauntlet.” He gestured at the redhead’s forearm.
Everyone agreed that all sounded acceptable.
For his part, Jake figured that giving his friends a tour of his old hideaway would help to keep everyone’s minds off their many justified fears. “Good,” he said with a firm nod. “Then follow me, you lot.”
* * *
“And me!” Spilling her dog off her lap, Dani jumped to her feet and ran eagerly after Jake as he began marching down the moonlit path.
Teddy bounded along by her heels, as happy to be back at Elysian Springs as she was. A city dog, he had always loved coming here, where he could run free.
Catching up to her beau, Dani seized hold of his arm, smiled at him, and privately breathed a sigh of relief. Trust ol’ Jakey-boy to know what to do.
Bossy and sarcastic as he usually was, she found his confidence hugely reassuring in a crisis. Never mind if it was half bravado. Somehow, it was enough.
It always got them through.
“Wait up!” Nixie called.
Jake and Dani paused and turned around. They’d almost lost their tour group already in their excitement to revisit their old stomping grounds.
Back in the grassy area where they’d landed, Archie was pulling his sister to her feet.
Dusting off her skirts, Isabelle glanced down at herself and saw where the blood had dripped from her nose and ear onto her pale gown. “Ugh, I look a fright. I hope we don’t see anyone, or I’ll probably terrify them. They’ll think I’m a ghost.”
“Nah, ghosts are sort of grayish and see-through,” Jake said cheerfully. “What you really look like at the moment is, ahem, someone’s vampire bride.”
Dani smacked him for his teasing remark, but any allusion to Janos was the one sure way to cheer Isabelle up.
The reminder of Janos’s flirtatious joke about marrying the girl someday when she grew up brought a startled smile across Izzy’s face.
“Very funny, coz,” she said wryly—but blushed.
“Uh, ’scuse me…” Brian was staring nervously at Red. “Does your Gryphon bite?”
Dani looked back and saw her friend standing frozen while Red sniffed him curiously.
“Only if you’re evil,” Jake said.
“I’m not!” Brian answered, shaking his head, his eyes wide.
When Jake furrowed his brow at the boy, Dani glimpsed both perplexity and mischief in his expression. Jake’s bemused stare seemed to say, “You’re kind of a sheltered one, aren’t you?”
She fought back a laugh. She’d been thinking the same thing.
Brian might have been born with the heightened senses and vicious fighting skills of a Guardian, but she doubted he would’ve lasted a day in the rookery.
Not with that gullible air of innocence he had about him.
Since the American’s naiveté was obvious, Jake, the street-smart Londoner, relented on him, much to Dani’s relief. She knew better than anyone that Jake’s teasing could be a bit much.
“Don’t worry, mate.” He took a kinder tone as he walked back toward Brian and the Gryphon. “Let me introduce you to Red. I inherited him from my family. He can be extremely dangerous in a fight, but he’d never hurt us. Just think of him as…I dunno…a giant, friendly guard dog.”
“That flies,” Archie added.
The girls laughed, and Red snuffled with indignation.
Teddy ran over to his large, feathered friend, yipping as if to say he’d suspected all along that the Gryphon might be a fellow canine.
“If you say so,” Brian mumbled uncertainly.
Then Jake hooked a thumb toward the young Guardian and looked at Dani. “Who is this chap, now?”
“Oh—sorry!” Still slightly in shock after the battle, Dani only now realized she had failed to do the formal introductions. “Everyone: this is my friend Brian from class.”
If he had a last name, she didn’t know it.
“Finnderool and Master Ebrahim had our groups—the Lightriders and Guardians—team up for drills, since that’s how we’ll work in the field. We always seem to end up as partners. He’s really nice,” she added sincerely, embarrassing the newcomer a little.
Then she told Brian everyone else’s names.
“Good to meet you all,” he said with a modest smile.
As the whole gang welcomed him into their midst, Dani was glad he was there. The sturdy boy had a calm, measured way about him, and besides, having seen him in action, she knew that if they ran into trouble, Brian could be a big help.
He wasn’t as tough or experienced as Maddox, but, then again, he did not bring all the tension that the moody older boy carried around with him into their group.
Poor Maddox, he really had become a bit of a malcontent, especially since things had gone wrong between him and Isabelle.
Of course, in Dani’s experience, bad moods in boys of seventeen or so were to be expected. Each of her rowdy elder brothers who’d attained that grand old age had gone through the exact same grumpy phase. For her part, she just hoped Maddox was safe back there at Merlin Hall.
Brian, for his part, looked impressed to find himself in the company of the semi-famous Jake, Lord Griffon, “the boy from the prophecy,” as well as the scientifically renowned Dr. Bradford.
Nixie, too, was highly regarded in magical circles for her advanced abilities. And as for Isabelle, well, most boys’ eyes nearly popped out of their heads when they saw her.
Dani was relieved that Brian managed not to act like a jingle-brains around the beautiful older girl.
He was, she decided, a good egg.
“Well, c’mon, you lot,” Jake said. “Come down to the edge of the water. I’m going to take you out to see my old island.”
He stepped off the path and marched through a dark grove of trees, striding down to the reedy edge of one of the old canals. “Grab a swan boat and follow me.”
Beaming, Dani ran after him down to the little canal, where a row of faded swan-shaped pedal boats floated, their white wings stained green with algae at the waterline. Tethered to a low beam that ran for several yards along the edge of the canal, the swans seated two people each. Dani climbed eagerly into Jake’s boat at the front of the line, taking Teddy with her.
Jake freed the swan’s tether from the beam and tossed the loose end of excess rope behind their seats. Then he stepped into the boat and sat down beside her with a smile, planting his feet on the pedals. “Just like old times, eh, carrot?”
Dani nodded, settled her dog on her lap, and put her feet into position as well.
Behind them, their friends followed suit. Archie and Nixie clambered aboard the second swan, while Izzy shared the third with Brian.
“You have to pedal backwards first to get away from the side, then go forward and turn the tiller to start heading that way.” Jake pointed toward the man-made lake, still concealed by the trees.
Red spread his wings and lifted into the air, hovering overhead as the three boats clumsily backed up and splashed loudly as they worked to turn forward. The process of getting faced in the proper direction was both frustrating and fun.
At last, they all managed to form a line. The Gryphon followed overhead as the three boats began trundling down the old, narrow canal.
Teddy’s little stump tail
never stopped wagging as Jake and Dani pedaled along. The dog had always loved going on the swan boats, and so did she.
The canal wound through the overgrown park until it joined the largest of Elysian Springs’ three man-made lakes. At one spot, a dead branch had fallen off one of the trees and blocked the way like a turnpike bar, but Jake moved it aside with his telekinesis.
They pedaled on.
Before long, the kids reached the sprawling lagoon and headed out across it in the moonlight, the ripples of their passing creating little waves.
Already, Jake’s island came into view out in the middle of the lake. Dani was relieved to see the gazebo still standing.
Though a cold breeze swept across the open water and chilled her, she couldn’t help but smile, gazing at the spot where they’d had so many fun times.
It had been ages since she had visited this place.
Back when her dear pickpocket had been homeless, the island’s fanciful gazebo—weathered and worm-eaten as it was—had become Jake’s castle.
Now he had a real one, and a title to go with it.
She shook her head and marveled as they floated toward it. Truly, those days seemed like a lifetime ago.
But one thing was certain. Of all the many wonders and amazing lands she had seen since their adventures had started, to Dani, Elysian Springs would always be the most magical place in the world.
In a strange way, this park was home.
Then a wave of guilt struck her. Here she was, feeling so happy to be here, safe with all her friends, while people were probably dying back at Merlin Hall.
Her smile faded and a shiver of fear ran through her.
Jake sent Dani a knowing look.
She could see in his eyes that he was worried, too. Though neither spoke the question aloud, Dani knew they were both wondering whether the battle at Merlin Hall was over yet…
CHAPTER 3
The Balance Keepers
Ramona Bradford’s gray hair had fallen from its usual tight bun in the fray. Strands of it blew in her face as the Elder witch stood panting, still clutching her wand in her bony fingers.
The battle had ended moments ago, more or less, except for a few small skirmishes between some Guardians and a handful of Noxu stragglers.
But Wyvern and his Dark Druid brethren had fled, routed by the mighty Ring of Negation spell that she had just unleashed.
Sweet Hecate, she had not needed to resort to a spell of such magnitude in centuries, but at least it had worked. She blew a strand of hair out of her face in relief.
Though the spell had drained her entirely, the blast of power had knocked the Dark Druids off their feet, then sent them fleeing like cowards, disappearing in black puffs of smoke.
They were gone.
Now the Order was left to assess the damage. The cost had been high. Ramona feared they were all but defeated. Eyes stinging in the smoke, she looked around slowly at the devastation in a state of disbelief.
In all her three hundred and thirty-three years of life, she never dreamed she’d live to see such things. The great maze was burning. The acrid smell of the smoke was awful, the screams from the tortured trees horrific.
It seemed impossible, but somewhere in the center of the vast green labyrinth, the Old Father Yew was dying.
Out by the meadows, the very ground had been vandalized, torn asunder by the tunnel that Lord Badgerton had dug to let the enemy in.
Traitor. Ramona quivered with fury at the thought of that vile, pompous shapeshifter. One of the Elders, no less!
She did not know for how long Badgerton had been secretly siding with the enemy, but she was certain that, one day, he would get what he deserved.
The Dark Druids were not foolish enough to trust anyone who’d already betrayed one side.
The fool might not realize it yet, wherever he’d slunk off to, but Ramona had no doubt that the shapeshifter lord was already doomed. It was only a matter of time.
Suddenly, she wobbled on her feet as a wave of exhaustion washed over her. Oh, I’m too old for this.
Coughing a little from the smoke, she turned to gaze toward the battered palace. Merlin Hall was locked down tight, but at least her wizard colleague, Sir Peter Quince, had put out the remaining rooftop fires.
As for her own role, Ramona had been kept busy stopping Fionnula Coralbroom from entering the great library of Merlin Hall. The obnoxious sea-witch had been trying to raid their priceless collection of ancient grimoires.
Precious as the spell books were, Ramona had been more concerned about the hundred youngsters and handful of adult civilians huddled in the library’s secure basement.
Still shaking with terror and rage, she wearily pushed her blowing hair out of her dirt-streaked face. It was all so shocking.
The lawn was littered with dead gnomes, a few warrior centaurs and humans, and charred Greenfolk. The groans of wounded Guardians reached her on the wind.
But, amid all their losses, Ramona was profoundly grateful for at least one thing: Jake and the children had whisked away to safety.
She’d seen the brilliance of the portal opening amid the fight.
Though she knew not where they had gone, the little band of rascals had been through so many scrapes before, always coming through reasonably unscathed, that at least she could take comfort in knowing they’d look out for one another until things settled down here. Then she could send someone to fetch them.
Probably Derek Stone and Miss Helena, Isabelle’s governess…
Then Ramona’s eyes welled with tears as she stared across the lawn at the spot where the chief Elder, Balinor, lay dead on the ground.
She closed her eyes for a moment. But no rest for the weary. Old and exhausted as she felt, she forced herself into motion, slowly heading over to where a few Guardians were standing around the body, looking at a loss.
One of them was Ravyn Vambrace, but Ramona didn’t see the warrior woman’s son, Maddox, anywhere. Perhaps the seventeen-year-old had gone with Jake and the others. She hoped so. He was a promising young fighter.
Then the soldiers stepped back to a respectful distance to let Ramona have a moment alone with her fallen friend.
Balinor’s owl let out a mournful screech, circling overhead.
Her tears thickened as she looked up at the old wizard’s grieving familiar, and then down at the Order’s slain leader.
She wasn’t even sure who had killed him.
She was still standing there in a most uncharacteristic daze when Peter (who ran Merlin Hall from day to day) walked over and joined her, looking battered and worn out.
His tortoiseshell spectacles were askew and his black scholar’s robe was singed, but at least he was alive.
The usually glib fellow stared down at the murdered head wizard for a long moment, then turned to Ramona, his silver tongue failing him for once. He said nothing.
At that moment, Prince Janos whooshed down from the sky, instantly taking human form again as he strode over to them.
When Wyvern had retreated, the vampire had changed into his bat form and followed the Dark Druids to see where they went. After all, a spy was exactly what the vampire prince had long been.
“Have they gone?” Peter asked dully, ashes streaking his face.
Janos glanced regretfully at Balinor’s corpse, then gave the two of them a grim look. “Afraid not. They’ve retreated into the Black Fortress, but it’s still parked on top of poor Aelfric. I saw no lightning on the towers yet,” he added with a halfhearted look of hope. “It seems they’re not quite ready to jump yet.”
Peter frowned. “I wonder why. Are they waiting to make sure they have everyone on board?”
“Or…” Janos hesitated.
“What?” Ramona said.
The vampire rested his hands on his waist. “I hate to say it, but they could be planning a second wave of attacks.”
Ramona nearly panicked. “We can’t hold them off again! We barely survived the first wave!”
/> “I’ll go collapse Badgerton’s tunnel,” said Peter.
“What good will it do?” she exclaimed. “The dome of charms that protected this place for centuries is all but gone! They’ll get through it easily right now if they try again.”
“How long to repair it?” asked Janos.
“Oh, many hours to regrow some semblance of protection, and the wands of all our best mages,” she said, shaking her head. “A full repair will probably take months, especially now, without Balinor’s help.”
Janos lowered his gaze. “I could try to get into the Fortress and, ah, cut Wyvern’s throat?” He arched a brow at Ramona.
“Egads, I’m sure that won’t be necessary!” said Peter. “You’ll never make it out alive.”
Janos shrugged. “‘Alive’ is a relative term in my case. Besides, I do have cause.”
“Indeed,” murmured Ramona.
Wyvern had killed the poor fellow’s whole family, burning his harem of vampire brides and their dastardly hatchlings alive.
Apparently, the Nephilim had used the same, strange, cuff-like Atlantean weapon to melt the very stone of Castle Gregorian that he’d employed tonight to set the roof of Merlin Hall ablaze. The silver gauntlet Ramona had seen on Wyvern’s arm shot forth blue flames. The whole palace could’ve been lost if not for Ramona’s genius nephew, Archie, who knew the secret chemical mixture required for putting out Greek fire. (Baking soda plus a few other items—but not water.)
She shuddered. It was all so horrible.
Janos awaited his orders with a dark look.
“I must say, it’s tempting,” Ramona admitted.
“Don’t encourage him,” Peter chided her, turning to Ramona again. “Come now, my lady. I highly doubt they’ll try again tonight. You battered the blazes out of Fionnula, and Wyvern was in very poor condition when we drove them off. Janos is simply thinking like a Guardian. As he should. Still, let’s not be hasty.” Despite his optimistic words, the scholarly wizard’s tone was uneasy, his face haggard. “There’s no need to jump to the worst possible conclusion. Believe me, I’ve done that once already tonight and have yet to learn the cost.”