by Martha Carr
Headache gone, she reached the foyer and shouted, “Basement!”
The house rumbled, whirred, and transformed. “Come on, come on, come on.” She bounced in impatience until the descended staircase opened in front of her. Then she skipped down the stairs, leaping two at a time. Her bare feet echoed in the stairwell until she’d reached the landing. “You guys! I just—what is going on in here?”
Emily crashed against one of the shelves full of random tools on the wall as she tried to snatch a fluffy white creature cackling wildly just out of reach. “The teezlers have staged a mutiny,” she grunted.
The teezler above Emily stuck out its tiny purple tongue and blew a raspberry at her.
“Come here, you little—” Emily leapt and swiped at it, but the thing curled into a ball and rolled along the shelf before dropping onto the next shelf over.
Two more creatures rolled against the tin bucket of carbon and slag. In seconds, they’d pushed it all the way to the edge of the table.
“No, no—” Laura leapt toward them but wasn’t quick enough to keep the bucket from toppling over with a deafening clang. The black, soot-like particles and green-blue beads that had cooled into something like glass spilled from the bucket, bouncing in all directions and scattering across the basement. The teezlers on the table cheered, and the other three scattered throughout the basement with shrill cries of victory.
Laura put a hand on her hip and frowned. “That’s just dangerous. What if somebody steps on those and—”
“Whoa!” Emily demonstrated the peril by slipping on the tiny beads as she headed toward the table. She crouched and threw her arms out to keep from falling on her face. Her palms smacked the stone floor, and with a huge sigh, she hung her head to catch her breath. “Okay. Maybe we need to find another brainstorming activity.” Emily pushed to her feet and kicked the beads out of her path as she headed toward the table.
“I’m sorry I lost focus on the game, okay?” Laura ducked as a teezler swooped at her from the ceiling, whooping in glee. “What is that? An extension cord?” She frowned after the tiny creature. “There’s only five of them in here, but it feels like a hundred.”
“I know you got lost in putting all the new pieces together. But I—hey!” Emily tripped again and turned to glare at two teezlers tugging on her shoelace with surprising strength. “Are you trying to hurt someone?”
The furballs cackled, tucked into themselves, and rolled away in search of more mischief.
“They get upset if we don’t let them get all their energy out. I don’t know how whacking them back and forth fits that requirement, but it does. So just…no more teezler-pong if we can’t give them our full attention.”
Emily reached the table and smacked her hands down on it, leaning forward a little. “Whew. Your headache gone?”
Nickie stared at her sisters and the mess five tiny, crazed creatures had made of the basement. “Uh, yeah. For now. I think I figured out something important about the Gorafrex.” She walked toward her sisters but stopped when a teezler rolled under where she meant to place her foot. Its muffled giggle made its white fur tremble. Nickie stepped over it with a snort. “Did you guys notice anything familiar about the drumbeat when the Gorafrex switched hosts?”
“I mean, yeah.” Laura frowned. “I heard the drums when I…accidentally let it out. And when the Gorafrex dropped into the man with the ponytail.”
“Right. But I mean, did it sound familiar beyond that? Like you’d heard it before?”
“A little. Yeah. Why?”
“Okay. I might’ve left out the details of that headache I had—” Nickie closed her eyes when the drumming started over again in her head. “The headache I still have, apparently.”
“Bummer,” Emily said with a grimace.
“A little. But I think it’s to make me pay attention. Hold on.” Trying not to fight against the pounding only she could hear, Nickie joined her sister at the table and wrapped one arm around her guitar to free her other hand. She began tapping out the rhythm on the table with the drumbeat in her head.
Emily looked at her with wide eyes. “That’s exactly what the Gorafrex was drumming. Wait, how does it even do that, though? Without actual drums. Or hands.”
“I don’t think that really matters, Em.” Laura’s bobbed her head to the beat she’d thought was just angry, urgent pounding every other time she’d heard it. Now, though, with Nickie tapping it out on the table, it had a lot more definition. “I feel like I should know where I’ve heard that before.”
“So did I.” Nickie stopped drumming and looked at her sisters. “Okay, confession. The headache’s real, but I left out the part about me hearing the Gorafrex’s drumming in my head for the last, what? Two hours?”
Laura glanced at her watch. “Almost three.”
“How are you not insane right now?” Emily blinked.
Nickie chuckled. “I’m not ruling that out. But…I think Dad’s ring, my ring, has something to do with it. Like it’s trying to tell me something.”
Emily raised her eyebrows. “You do kinda sound insane…”
“Emily…”
“Laura, it’s okay. Do you—” Nickie swallowed against both the drums and the headache growing in her head. “You have your phone?”
“Yeah.”
“Record this, okay?”
“Okay.” Laura pulled out her phone and nodded. “Go for it.” She pressed record.
Nickie tapped out the rhythm of the drums. She skipped a few beats and didn’t quite get it on the first round, but the longer it went, the easier she caught on. Then, she stopped and nodded at Laura to stop recording. “Now, play it back.”
“Wanna tell us what’s going on?” Laura wiggled her phone.
“Please just do it. My head hurts so bad, and I want you guys to get this.”
“Okay.” Laura set her phone on the table and pressed play.
Somehow, it started in perfect time with the rhythm pounding in Nickie’s head. She gave herself a few seconds, squeezed her guitar pick, loosened her grip a little and played. For the first time in her life, she couldn’t have said what chords she played in what order, just that she knew they were right. With eyes closed, she focused on the drums instead of blocking them out. Then she hummed the tune she knew her sisters would recognize.
It took them a few seconds to get there. Emily drew in a long, astounded breath and whispered, “What?”
Laura stared at Nickie and tapped her finger against her lips. “No way…”
Nickie played until the headache left her and the drumming faded into blissful silence. She finished the melody from their childhood and strummed a final chord, then let out a deep sigh and smiled.
Emily cleared her throat. “You look better.”
“Thanks.”
Laura picked her phone up and tucked it into her back pocket. “Dad’s lullaby goes perfect with the Gorafrex’s creepy, foreboding drumbeats.”
Nickie nodded. “I have to admit I did not see that coming.”
“For real.” Emily folded her arms.
Nickie rolled her head from one shoulder to the other, grateful for the silence again. “I’m glad you guys picked up on that. It would’ve been kinda hard to explain.”
“No kidding.”
“So, I played that song, sang Dad’s lullaby, the drums went away. I mean the ones in my head.”
“Wow.” Laura put a hand on Nickie’s shoulder. “Maybe this is part of how we get the Gorafrex back to the Greenbelt.”
“I mean, the song gets rid of the drums in my head. Which is still weird. But I think that’s part of my magic, right? With music, just like Dad’s.”
“I wonder if the Hadstrom who made your ring played music.” Emily cocked her head. “That’s not just a coincidence, right?”
“I wouldn’t say it is.” Laura frowned and folded her arms. “Maybe you playing that song, or even just singing it like Dad is something that got, you know, passed down through the ages. Like
a piece of the legacy that’s supposed to…subdue the Gorafrex.”
“It definitely works on teezlers.” Emily pointed at the furry pile of white creatures, all of them nestled asleep on top of each other at Nickie’s feet.
Nickie laughed and shook her head.
“You know, it would’ve been really nice if our family could’ve kept all this information accessible somehow, you know?” Laura sighed. “Like even a guidebook. ‘This is why you don’t go past the wards. There’s a Gorafrex in there that you might let loose. And just in case that happens, follow these steps to put it back.’” She let out a bitter laugh. “How could everyone just…let themselves forget?”
Emily wrinkled her nose and shrugged. “I think you just hit the nail on the head…for humans, that is.”
“What?”
“You know. When their tiny magical brains wake up, I bet they ask the exact same thing—how did we let ourselves forget?”
“Yeah, well, we’re witches. This isn’t supposed to happen.”
“Our family didn’t forget about the rings, though,” Nickie said. “They kept that part of it alive, at least. And where the prison is in Barton Creek. Dad said he knew where, right?”
“Yeah, he did.” A slow, revelatory grinned parted Laura’s lips. “Nickie, I’m really sorry you had to have a massive migraine and those drums on loop in your head.”
“I mean, it’s—”
“But I gotta say you’re a genius. A musical genius. The most genius musical witch I’ve ever known.”
Emily made a silly face accompanied by a hint of laughter.
“Uh… thanks.” Nickie looked from Emily and chuckled at Laura’s uncharacteristic enthusiasm.
“You guys realize we have a real way to put that Gorafrex back where it belongs, right? Why else would Dad have sung that song to us every night for years? It’s almost as much proof as the rings that we can do this.” She blinked. “Though, honestly, I understand how the music part works a lot better than I understand the rings.”
“Well, mine pretty much made it impossible for me not to figure it out.” Nickie flipped her hand over and eyed the black ring. “I think the ring put the drumming in my head, actually.”
“That’s a little creepy.” Emily nodded. “But rings can’t actually talk, so I guess that’s the next best thing.”
“Who says rings can’t talk?” Laura winked. “We just have to figure out what language they’re using. And we’re a lot closer to doing that now.”
Nickie readjusted the guitar in her arms. “I don’t wanna bring down the mood, Laura. Trust me, I like it when you’re this excited. But I feel like I should remind you this is just one piece. The Gorafrex’s still out there. In a new host. And maybe my music and Dad’s song will help us lock it up again, but we still have to find it. And then we still have to test our little theory.”
“Yeah.” Laura pressed her lips together and nodded, then she frowned and began pacing. “Yeah, you’re right. I mean, short of driving around the city looking for creepy-looking humans who might be possessed by a Gorafrex…”
“Laura?”
“We need to find out how to actually track it down.”
“Hey, maybe you shouldn’t—”
“Or we need to figure out a way to summon it. Like call it to us.” She gasped. “Yeah, that’s—”
“Careful—”
Laura stepped onto a large number of slag beads, and her foot slipped out from under her.
Emily made an impossible attempt to catch her. Her copper ring lit up with a pink light that streaked toward the floor just as Laura landed hard…on a soft cushion.
Laura blinked beneath her bum at the cushion, then threw her head back and laughed. The pile of teezlers stirred, letting out a few high-pitched snorts and squeaks, then fell still again.
Laura flopped backward onto the cushion. She looked upside-down at her youngest sister. “Good spellwork, Em. Thanks.”
Emily let out a small, relieved laugh. “You’re welcome.” Then she gawked at the ring on her thumb. “You realize I didn’t use my wand or even mutter a spell, right?”
“Seriously?”
“As the only other witness,” Nickie said, clutching her guitar with one hand and lifting the other, “I can say that’s exactly what happened. No wand. No spell words. Just cushion instead of stone floor.”
“Cool.”
“Ha. Not as cool as making iron weapons by slapping a few rods together. Or shoving an ancient drumbeat to Dad’s lullaby into your head. Not to say the headache was awesome, Nickie.”
“All good.”
Emily raised an eyebrow. “I was kinda hoping for something a little more…I dunno. Badass.”
“Oh, come on. Saving your sister from bruising her bottom on the floor isn’t badass?” Laura rolled over onto her stomach and craned her neck to grin up at the youngest Hadstrom witch.
“I mean, I’m glad I did.” Emily shrugged. “But it’d be even cooler if I could cast that destruction spell with this thing. Or blast people backward or something. But, so far, I have a blast of air, extra-freezing AC, and a pillow.”
“Maybe it’s taking a little longer for you to get to know each other.” Nickie shrugged. “I mean, you’re a pretty complicated witch.”
“It’s a magical ring, Nickie. I’m not that complicated.”
“You’ll figure it out.” Laura pushed herself up off the cushion and looked around. “Man, those jumping furballs really did a number on the basement. Okay, second new brainstorming rule. Clean up first, then do the hard thinking.” Laura chuckled, then paused. “Do we need to write that down?”
Emily glanced at Nickie, who snorted and gazed around the mess the disgruntled teezlers had made of their basement. “I think we’ll remember.”
24
They put the teezlers away first, not wanting to miss the opportunity while the five little troublemakers were sound asleep. Of course, they woke up just enough to make a lot of noise when Emily scooped them into the empty tin bucket, which she covered with a frisbee to keep them from leaping out. She almost dropped the bucket twice, but Nickie knelt beside the gray plastic tote against the basement wall to open the tiny door in its side. A bright light spilled out across the floor from inside the tote, and Emily pressed the bucket against the plastic before sliding away the frisbee. The bucket rattled, the teezlers jumped around and jostled each other, squeaking and grunting, but they finally realized where they were and raced through the little door in the tote.
Emily pulled the bucket away to be sure they’d all gone inside, then she crouched down with her cheek against the stone floor and peered through the little door. The light in their magical pen illuminated rolling green hills and incredibly soft-looking grass. The mischievous critters bounced around in delight.
Emily squinted at them. “Don’t expect to get away with that kind of behavior again, got it?”
A teezler stopped, uncurled itself, and chittered at her before turning around and wiggling its behind in her face.
Emily laughed and pushed herself off the ground before shutting the door in the plastic tote. “Those things are nuts.”
“They make great ping pong balls, though.” Nickie shook her head and grinned.
“You know, Em, I’m really glad you’re the one taking care of those things.” Laura knelt on the floor and scooped all the slag pieces back into the tin bucket. “They’d drive all the other—uh…well, they’d drive me insane.”
“All the other what?” Emily crossed the room to start reorganizing the tools, cords, cleaning supplies, and magical hardware.
“Nothing. Totally not important.” Laura didn’t look up at either sister.
When the house stopped spinning and churning around them in the foyer, Speed trotted from the kitchen into the small dining room. “Hey, buddy.” Nickie knelt, meaning to pat him on the head until he dropped at her feet and rolled over onto his back. She laughed. “Okay. Belly rub it is.”
Emily eyed
the dining room table where they’d put all their daggers when they got home from Juan In A Million. “Any ideas what those metal balls are for?”
Nickie snorted.
“What?”
“The Hadstrom sisters and their balls of steel.”
Emily doubled over laughing.
Laura rolled her eyes and gestured toward the table. “They’re iron.”
“Yeah, but balls of iron doesn’t sound as funny.” Nickie grinned over her shoulder and stepped toward the table. “So your ring made these things.”
“I made them. With the ring.”
“Okay. But we still don’t know what they do.” Nickie picked up one of the iron spheres and studied it under the hanging light. “Would knowing what they’re for help us find the Gorafrex any faster?”
“Probably.” Laura joined her at the table, followed by Emily. “But we don’t know either of those things.”
Emily picked up the other orb. “Oh, hey. There’s a little button here or something. Oh!” The sphere clicked when she pressed it, and a tiny door dropped open on the bottom. A thin, dangling silver-glowing thread dropped out of the thing. “Wow. That’s cool.”
“Maybe don’t mess with it until we know what it—” Laura sighed.
“Look at this. It’s like magical iron dental floss.” Emily pulled the end of the string, which kept growing as she lifted it away from the orb.
Nickie giggled. “How the heck is this a weapon?” She rolled the other iron sphere around a little more until she found the button. “Hey, this one doesn’t work.”
“Laura, do you make us a dud weapon?”
Laura snorted, picked up a dagger, and pretended to study it. “My ring made those, okay?”
“Oh…nice double standard.” Nickie waited for her older sister to look up at her so she could wink at Laura.
“Yeah, okay. I still don’t know what it does.”
“Wait, lemme see.” Emily stood beside Nickie, peered down at the second orb, and pressed the small round button. The little door at the bottom opened like the other one did, letting out that tiny, glowing strand of iron. “See?”
