The Seventh Crow

by Tamara Geraeds

  The tip of the twig releases the ghost’s forehead, and he shrinks against the back wall of the cage, defeated. Only now do I remember what Mona once told me. ‘Using someone else’s name can sometimes give you power over them.’

  I hand the twig back to the fairy godmother and rise.

  “So now what?” I ask her, stretching my legs several times to wake them up.

  “Now, we use his real name to get what we need.”

  She turns elegantly, and while she walks back to the mansion, she reaches up and presses the twig into the air. It vanishes without a trace. “Come!” she calls over her shoulder. “We’ve got work to do.”

  Back in the kitchen, we all drop down into our usual seats around the table and wait anxiously for Mona to explain. She looks around the table with a satisfied expression. “With Shelton Banks’ true name, you can find out everything you want to know about the curse he put on Vicky.”

  I scratch my head. “I still don’t understand how this ‘using someone else’s name gives you power’ thing works. What does that mean?”

  “Well, there’s two ways to use that power.” Mona holds up one finger. “The first is to use a name in a spell, which makes the spell harder to counter or break.” She raises another finger. “The second method is to find out someone’s true name. This gives you more power over them than any spell.”

  Kessley shakes her head, making her bleached hair jump around her shoulders. “I don’t get it. What is a ‘true name’?”

  “Some wizards and witches bind their name to the darkness. This increases their powers in exchange for loyalty. They are given a new name, and the real one is erased from history. Only a select few will know it. If these wizards ever ‘stray’…” she makes quotations marks in the air, “… from the path of darkness, evil will find them and swallow them, using their true name to do so.”

  Charlie shivers. “What does that mean?”

  “I don’t have the details, but I think it means they will be tortured in Hell or some other evil prison for eternity.”

  “Lovely,” Vicky mumbles.

  Taylar’s face distorts with malicious delight. “Can we trick the darkness into locking up Shelton Banks?”

  Mona gives him a sad smile. “Unfortunately not. Or at least, I don’t know how. But his true name doesn’t only give power to the darkness, it gives power to anyone who knows it.”

  “But how?” I ask, my voice dripping with impatience.

  Mona sits back in her chair and rubs her chin. “Well, if you are face to face with him, and you call him by his true name, he will have no choice but to answer all of your questions. You can ask him why he put that spell on Vicky and force him to lift it.”

  “So we can control him with his name?” I ask. “Make him do whatever we want?”

  She lowers her hand and sighs. “Normally, that would be a yes. But with a powerful mage like him, I’m not sure.”

  Taylar throws his hands up in desperation. “What difference does it make? What good is his true name to us? He’ll kill us all as soon as he sees us. We would be lucky to get one question or command out.”

  Mona’s face lights up. I can almost see an idea forming in her mind. “There might be a way.”

  CHAPTER 28

  After Mona has explained her idea, the atmosphere in the kitchen brightens up considerably.

  Suddenly restless, because this could finally mean total freedom for Vicky, I stand up and pace back and forth between one end of the table and the other.

  I glance at the row of glass cages in the back garden. “I think it’s a great idea, but I don’t feel comfortable leaving those mages out there, even if they’re trapped. And I’m not taking them inside. So we need a way to get rid of them first.”

  “I agree,” Maël says. “The sooner we eliminate them, the better.”

  I lean against the kitchen counter. “Any ideas on how?”

  D’Maeo rises to his feet and turns to look at the cages. “It looks like their crow forms aren’t returning. Shelton Banks’ spell on them must be broken.” He shoots me a sideways glance. “Your magic will probably work on them now.”

  I sigh. “I don’t know, D’Maeo. Are we really willing to settle for ‘probably’? What if magic makes them grow or mutate again?”

  He smiles. “There aren’t many guarantees in life. I think you should try it on one of them first.”

  Since I’m still not sure, I turn to the others. “What do you guys think?”

  When they all start talking at the same time, I raise my hand. “Let me put it another way. Who thinks I should try a spell on one mage?”

  All hands, except for Jeep’s, go up.

  “Why don’t you want me to cast a spell?” I ask the tattooed ghost.

  He rolls up his sleeves, and for a moment, the tattoo on his lower arm seems to move again. I blink to lose the image that must still be stuck in my head, the image of how Jeep used to look. These motionless tattoos are still odd to me.

  “Forget it,” he says. “It’s a good idea.”

  “No, tell me what you’re thinking. Please.”

  He rubs his arm in thought. “It’s fine, really.” He hesitates. “But… they’ve tortured me for so long.” He rubs his arm harder. “I’m afraid it will feel like unfinished business if I don’t take care of them myself.”

  As quickly as I can, I go over the possibilities. Could he use his necromancer powers, or what’s left of them, to vanquish the mages? Can they be killed with non-magical weapons? Since they’re powerful, I would say no to both.

  A thought makes my lips curl up. “You know what? I think we can arrange that.”

  Jeep’s face shows a mixture of surprise and relief. “Really?”

  “Well, if we join forces, you can do the actual killing. Would that be enough?”

  “That would be great.”

  “Wait, wait, wait.” Vicky says from the other side of the table. “I don’t think that’s smart.”

  “Why not?” we ask in unison.

  “You want to put Jeep’s life in danger by putting him face to face with seven powerful mages?”

  I chuckle. “Not at the same time!”

  “Even one would be too dangerous.”

  Maël clears her throat. “I disagree. We will all be here to back him up in case something goes wrong.”

  Vicky lowers her gaze to the table. “I still don’t like it.”

  I want to walk over to her, but Jeep beats me to it. He apparates to her and takes her hands in his. “I understand why you’re worried, but we won’t get separated again. We’ll be fine.”

  Tears well up in her eyes, and she buries her face in his chest.

  My throat clogs up, and I try to think of a way to soothe her. I walk to the table and lean on the back of Jeep’s empty chair. “Okay, how’s this…” Vicky looks up and wipes her cheeks. “I try a small spell on one of the mages first. If that works, I’ll turn them all solid so that Jeep can kill them one at a time. We’ll all stay close and intervene if something even appears to go wrong. What do you think?”

  I can see the wheels turning inside Vicky’s head. Jeep strokes her back but remains silent. So do the others. Everyone knows it’s now up to Vicky to decide.

  Finally, she nods. “Okay.”

  Jeep hugs her again and kisses her on her forehead. “Good choice. I wasn’t looking forward to dealing with unfinished business.”

  I can tell by the relieved expressions around the table that the others are happy with Vicky’s choice too.

  She wastes no time with small talk and gathers some ingredients from her endless pocket.

  “What’s that?” I ask, pointing at some lime-yellow flowers.

  “Those are flowers from the lady’s mantle. You can use them for transformation.”

  Kessley stands up for a closer look at everything that Vicky puts on the table. “How come you know so much about this stuff? You’re not a magic
ian, are you?”

  Vicky shakes her head. “No, but I’ve always been interested in spells. My mother was too. We read all kinds of books about spells and herbs, and about the use of candles. I’m pretty good at spells too, but mages and magicians are born with spell-casting powers, so I leave them to Dante.”

  Kessley’s mouth falls open. “You can cast spells even if you’re not a magician?”

  Vicky smiles. “Technically speaking, sure. Anyone with magic can learn how to do it, but to do it well, you need talent. Without talent, things tend to blow up in your face, figuratively and literally.”

  “Can you teach me?”

  “If we ever have the time, I’d love to,” Vicky answers with a chuckle.

  “Woohoo!” Kessley does a little happy dance before sitting down again.

  “Anything else?” Vicky asks me, gesturing at the ingredients.

  I nod. “I was thinking of adding hemlock, to paralyze the mages.”

  “Great idea.” She adds some small, white flowers from her pocket and puts her hands on her waist. “That should do it.”

  I mix everything in a bowl and add some holy water. Meanwhile, my mind plays with words I can use. They dance through my vision, trying to find a spot in my spell. Slowly, the right ones slide into place, and I grab my Book of Spells to write the lines down.

  As soon as I put my pen away, Vicky takes the four candles─black for banishment─and walks around the table to the back door. I follow with my notebook and the bowl in my hands.

  I set everything up inside the protective circle and point at the glass cages. “Jeep and I will be inside the circle, and the mage we’re starting with will be outside, otherwise we can’t hurt him.”

  Charlie, Gisella, Taylar and Ginda place the other six cages at a safe distance.

  “We should surround the first cage halfway, in case something goes wrong,” I say.

  Within seconds, everyone has taken their place. I nod gratefully at Ginda and Chloe, who are also part of the semi-circle.

  The mages wriggle restlessly in their cages. Some of them are shouting things, trying to scare us or even bribe us into letting them go. No one listens to them.

  “Everyone, take your weapons out,” I instruct my friends. “If one of them escapes, hit it with everything you’ve got.”

  Vicky takes out the sword I had no idea she was hiding. “I’d love to.”

  I look at Jeep, who’s standing next to me empty-handed. “How do you want to kill them?”

  He tears his gaze away from the mages and blinks. “Oh… eh… with a sword.”

  “Do you have one?”

  For the first time since I met him, a blush creeps up from his neck. “I’ll go get one now.”

  He vanishes and apparates back in seconds with a sword in his hand.

  I give him a stern look. “Are you ready for this? Are you focused?” It feels unnatural for me to ask a forty-something man this, but I need to know. If he screws this up, if he gets distracted or hesitates even for a second, we could all get hurt, or even killed. Of course, there is the spell to protect us, but I can’t rely on that completely.

  Jeep straightens his back and clutches the sword he got from upstairs. “I’m ready.”

  “Good, here we go.”

  With the herb mixture, I draw a circle around Jeep, me and the first cage. Then I place a candle in each wind direction and light it. I return to my place next to Jeep and pick up my Book of Spells.

  “Take the mage inside this glass.

  Turn it into a solid mass.”

  I step closer to the cage, take a pinch of the mixture from the bowl and drop it.

  The candle flames flicker, and the herbs disappear into the cage. Coldness spreads from my foot to my leg, and I shake it before stepping back.

  “Block the power of this mage,

  until it breaks free of its cage.”

  A shiver runs from my waist to my neck. The candles burn brighter. What were the next words again?

  I glance at the notebook in my hand.

  “For this mage no man is safe…”

  “Stop!” The book and bowl are knocked from my hand. Vicky grabs my wrists and shakes me. “Wake up!”

  I blink. “What are you doing?”

  “You’re saying the wrong words. You’re giving him power.”

  “No, I’m not.” The cold crawls across my cheek and goes back down on the other side of my body. I want to rub my arms, but Vicky has me in a death grip.

  “Look at his cheeks,” Jeep says.

  Kessley’s voice is shrill with panic when she calls out, “Did it backfire?”

  Gisella breaks the circle and drops down at my feet. She pulls up my pant legs and grinds her teeth. “Just what I thought. Look.”

  They all gather around me and look at my leg.

  “What is going on?” I ask, trying to free myself from Vicky’s grip but failing. The cold is getting worse, making my teeth chatter a bit.

  Gisella lifts her head to look at me. “That mage touched you. It made you change the words of the spell.”

  “I feel cold.”

  Vicky rubs my bare arms, but since there’s no warmth in her body, it doesn’t help much.

  Gisella rises and holds out her arms. “Let me do it. I can heal him.”

  Vicky lets go of me, and I sway on my feet. It’s suddenly getting hard to breathe; the cold seems to freeze my insides.

  “Sit down.” Gisella gently pushes me onto the grass. She wraps her hands around my ankle, and heat shoots through it. I try to lean on my arms, but they’re shaking so hard it’s no use. My upper body falls backwards but is caught before it hits the ground.

  Vicky is kneeling next to me. “You’ll be okay.”

  I try to smile at her, but that only makes my teeth chatter more.

  Another heat wave goes through me. It feels as if I’m floating. My limbs tingle pleasantly.

  “Almost done,” the werecat-witch says.

  Calmness spreads from my feet to my neck, and I sigh.

  “Better?” Gisella asks.

  “Yes, thank you.” Vicky pushes me in a sitting position, and I glance at the mage in the glass box. “How did this happen?” I wonder out loud. “Why didn’t the protective circle keep me safe?”

  “Because you stepped out of it with one foot,” Taylar answers.

  Vicky stares at the glass box. “He must have touched you when you sprinkled the mixture onto the cage.”

  I kiss her on the cheek. “I’m glad you realized something was wrong and stopped me.”

  Charlie kicks the bars hard. “Your plan didn’t work, mate!” He turns his attention to me, stepping out of reach at the same time. “What now? Is there another way to vanquish them?”

  I raise my eyebrows. “Now I undo the wrong words and finish the spell the proper way.”

  “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

  I grin at him. “As long as I stay inside the circle, I’ll be fine.” I pick up my notebook and wipe the sand from the pages. “Let me write down the wrong lines backwards.”

  As soon as I place the pen on the paper, I realize something important. “Eh… does anyone remember what I said?”

  Chloe steps forward. “I do.”

  I hand her the Book of Spells, and she jots the lines down.

  “Thanks,” I say, taking the book back and scanning her writing. Coldness seeps into my veins again when I read the last line. Vicky stopped me just in time.

  Quickly, I write the words down backwards, like Charlie taught me when I accidentally made every evil creature in the Winged Centaur go berserk. Then I scratch my head. “What do I do with the candles? Do I light them again and blow them out?”

  Vicky shakes her head. “No, they’re already extinguished. You’re good to go.”

  “Efas si nam on egam siht rof.

  Egac sti fo eerf skaerb ti litnu,

  egam siht fo rewop eht k
colb.”

  With a hiss, the candles light up again. The cage shakes, and the mage shrinks into the corner.

  Vicky holds up her thumb and gestures for me to continue the original spell.

  I squat down to pick up the bowl, which has miraculously landed face up, keeping the mixture safe from contamination. Straightening up, I focus on the cage and say the correct words, loud and clear.

  “Block the power of this mage.

  Keep it trapped within its cage.”

  I hand the book to Vicky and take another pinch of herb mixture from the bowl. This time, I make sure I stay inside the circle while I release it above the cage. It falls through easily, and I read the last lines when Vicky holds out the book to me.

  “This mage has lost all of his power,

  and Jeep will end his final hour.

  But before that he will get,

  all of his own magic back.”

  “Sounds good to me,” Jeep comments, gripping his sword tighter.

  The candle flames are blown out, and I put down the bowl.

  I bend over to get a better look at the mage. He has placed his hands against the sides of the glass box, and the herbs I dropped crawl over his hands and arms. He shakes his head wildly and grunts with the effort of fighting the spell, but it’s no use. The herbs reach his face and disappear into his mouth. He makes a choking sound, retches and kicks his legs. Slowly, his face becomes solid, followed by his bare chest and then his legs and feet. His eyes, filled with hatred, meet mine. “You’ll never win! We’ll come back to get our revenge. You wait and see.”

  Without responding, I straighten up and nod at Jeep. “He’s ready.”

  Jeep takes my place at the edge of the circle. He sits down on his knees so he can look inside the cage.

  “This is your punishment for attacking my wife and torturing me for years on end,” he says calmly. He waits for the mage to open his mouth to answer and drives the sword through the bars and straight into the man’s chest. The mage groans in pain and slides down the wall when Jeep pulls the sword out. His head hits the ground, and blood trickles from his mouth while a stream of red leaves his chest.