The Night Sorceresses

by Erica Griswold

  Chapter Nine

  Riordan said, “Let’s go to the library and tell the other sorcerers what happened.” They got on their horses and rode back to the secret entrance to the library that Safire used. Riordan knocked on the door. It opened, and an elderly gentleman with a long white beard stood in the door. “Oh, hello, Riordan!” he said as he opened the door.

  Riordan threw his arms around him and sobbed. “Andrew, Frances, and Vincent are all dead! We came here because we had information that a warlock was going to come to the vault and steal the rings. When we got here, the rings were gone, and my friend’s bodies lay on the ground, slashed to bits in Tristan’s vault. Tristan is dead too! Even Safire was not able to prevent the break-in.” Riordan sobbed into the man’s robe.

  “I know. She came and told us this morning,” the man said as he patted Riordan’s back.

  Riordan dried his eyes and said, “Oh, and these are my friends Angelina, Willow, and Christabel.” He pointed to each woman.

  “It’s nice to meet you all. My name is Melvil,” the elderly man said. He narrowed his eyes. “Are you the sorceress who killed King Banderon?”

  Y”es, that was me!” Willow said.

  “Well, come on in,” Melvil said.

  He backed away from the doorway and gestured toward the interior of the room. Willow walked inside and was shocked by the number of books she saw. Thousands and thousands of them lined the shelves, and Willow estimated that the room stretched for at least a mile. Sorcerers and sorceresses were everywhere, reading and writing at tables. She felt rather ashamed that she thought the library back at Tareth’s castle was a real Knowledge Sorcerers’ library upon laying eyes on an actual Knowledge Sorcerers’ library.

  “This place is huge!” Willow gasped.

  “It’s the largest library in the entire world,” Melvil replied.

  They descended the steps and walked down to the floor of the library. “Well, Tareth is back in our world, but this time we have his journal and know what he is up to,” Riordan said.

  Melvil’s eyes widened. “You have his journal?” He gasped. Willow reached into her bag and pulled out the journal. Melvil grinned happily. “How on earth did you get that?”

  “I guess studying magic with an evil warlock by accident had its perks. After Riordan’s grandparents rescued me, I turned into a cloud and floated back into the castle. I thought there might be some kind of clue about what his plans for Ethermoor are among his things. He wrote that he wanted to make Princess Desdemona and Princess Ambrosia immortal, along with the name of the book that had the immortality spell in it. I looked in the book and saw information on how to kill an immortal.”

  “And how is that?”

  “By exposing an immortal to their greatest weakness.”

  “And what is his?”

  “I don’t know. But we will try to find out.”

  Melvil pointed to Angelina’s ring and asked, “Young lady, what is that ring you are wearing?”

  Angelina said, “Oh, it’s just a family heirloom.”

  Melvil raised his eyebrows. “A family heirloom? That ring?” he asked. Angelina remembered that Knowledge Sorcerers could sense lies. It wasn’t a lie, just only part of the truth about the ring.

  “Well, it’s a world turner ring. At least, that’s what my father told me. I am . . . not from here. By that, I mean that I am from a country called the United States of America. I was living in the state of Florida. Riordan says that Tristan lived in Florida and used the state’s name as the spell to melt the snow off the doors to the vault and the library. I was traveling on an airplane to move from Miami to Boston. All of a sudden, there was a burst of light, and everyone on the plane disappeared but me. Suddenly, I looked out the window and saw trees where there had previously been an ocean. I wondered if I had gone through some kind of inter-dimensional portal. I jumped out of the plane and into the woods. That’s my story of how I came to Ethermoor,” Angelina said.

  To her surprise, Melvil did not appear in the least surprised by the story. “Could you hold your hand up so that I can see the ring?” Melvil asked. Angelina held her hand up, and he studied the ring very carefully. His face was grave. “It’s apparent to me that you have never used this ring. If you had, you would not have been shocked by the experience of traveling to another world.”

  Angelina replied, “It has never worked for me, and it didn’t work for any of my family members who owned it before I did.”

  “It probably isn’t broken; it’s just missing something. Come with me,” Melvil said.

  Was he finally going to get Angelina’s centuries-old family heirloom to do its intended purpose? Angelina was elated at the idea, and nervous at the same time. They walked through the massive library and into a room. The floor space was taken up by a vast chemistry apparatus that sat in the middle of it. Angelina and Willow paused to look at it.

  “Come here,” Melvil said, calling them out of their amazement-induced haze. They walked around the apparatus and saw Melvil unlock a cabinet. There were all kinds of potions, herbs, and chemicals in a variety of bottles sitting inside. He reached in and pulled out a jar. “Take off your ring, please.” Melvil’s eyes sparkled as he spoke.

  Willow took her ring off and handed it to him. He stuck a pin in a hole in the side of the ring, and an odd little compartment popped open.

  “How do you know about this ring?” Angelina asked.

  “We have information in the library on all the items that belonged to Tareth that were taken by the fairies when they left our world,” Melvil replied.

  He held up the bottle and said, “Observe, Angelina. This is real fairy dust that a sorceress donated to the library. The ring operates on fairy dust because fairy dust enables travel between worlds.” He uncorked the bottle and poured a tiny bit of fairy dust into his hand. It glowed so brightly that it nearly blinded Angelina. Melvil put a pinch of fairy dust in the compartment and closed it. Nothing happened. “Now, each of the symbols on the ring represents a world that is known to fairies.”

  “I know,” Angelina said.

  “You know?”

  “Yes.” She pointed to each of the runes and said, “This one stands for Morvogoth, Tareth’s realm. This one stands for Mandaria, the realm where Ethermoor is located. This one stands for Kalmovar, where I am from.”

  She proceeded to point at the runes for Danvorian, Halvaroth, Janiria, Zanzamoria, and Yanrith.

  “You’re from Florida in Kalmovar?” Melvil said, eyes wide with interest.

  “Yes, I am,” Angelina replied.

  “Tristan lived there for a few years before he fell through the inter-dimensional crack 498 years ago.”

  “But Florida didn’t exist 498 years ago.”

  “Remember that the fairies went to different worlds and different centuries within those worlds,” Riordan said to Angelina.

  Angelina asked Melvil, “Did Tristan ever say what year in the Kalmovarian world he lived in?”

  “He said the year was 2016 in that world,” Melvil replied.

  “That’s just a few years ago in my world!” Angelina gasped. He knew about modern life in America!

  “Are you ready to try the fairy dust with your ring?” Melvil asked.

  “Yes, sir!” Angelina said excitedly.

  N”ow, put the ring on, spin the little dial on the top of it, and see if it works,” Melvil said.

  Angelina was very nervous about inter-dimensional travel. “What if I get stuck in some other world?” Angelina asked.

  “Just spin the dial on top of the ring and say ‘Ethermoor.’ At least, that’s what I’ve learned about it from books,” Melvil replied.

  Angelina was still very skeptical that the ring would work. She placed it on her finger and turned the little dial. A bright light illuminated the circle on top of the ring where all the runes were. The circle on top spun around violently. Suddenly, Angelina saw the world spinning around her in a white blur. She saw all kinds of strange scenes fr
om places she had never been before, along with an image of her mother back in Boston. It made her feel homesick for her family. Angelina knew that she could not leave her new friends and return to her world when an evil warlock was pursuing them.

  “Ethermoor!” she screamed. She was suddenly standing in the middle of the library again, and was dizzy from all the spinning.

  “Well, how was it?” Christabel asked.

  “It was definitely an adventure!” Angelina breathed as she tried to regain her balance.

  Willow was curious about how Tareth had gotten to Ethermoor. “The stories say an evil fairy named Garavind traveled to another world to bring him here,” Willow said. She had always heard that Tareth was brought to Ethermoor by an evil fairy.

  “He did. Tareth only made the ring after he came here. He conspired with Garavind to destroy the other fairies and sorcerers. Garavind died for his crimes,” Melvil replied.

  Angelina said, “This ring was passed down through my family for generations. The oldest child got it on their eighteenth birthday. My father said my ancestor was Queen Zadelia of the Ethermoorian fairies, and she took Tareth’s most powerful object with her to Earth when she left Ethermoor. It was the ring that allowed him to hop worlds.”

  She decided to confess her intention to stay in Ethermoor for the time being. “When I was in between worlds, I saw my mother in Boston. Even though I can now go home, I have decided to stay and help you defeat Tareth.”

  Willow threw her arms around Angelina and hugged her. “Oh, thank you!” she squealed.

  “Now, that doesn’t mean that I will try to run the country,” Angelina said, wagging her forefinger at Willow.

  Melvil blinked twice. “Pardon me, but . . . run the country?”

  “We’re trying to get her to help us set up a new government when we dispose of Tareth,” Willow said. Angelina rolled her eyes.

  Melvil asked, “Young lady, do you know anything about ruling a country?”

  “Not really, but my mother was a politician in America, so Willow thinks I’d be the best one for the job. I have tried my whole life to stay out of politics.”

  “But, you can help us, right?” Willow asked.

  “Yes, I can help you.” Angelina sighed. She looked up and saw a bulletin board with all kinds of newspapers tacked onto it. The headlines were all stories about mysterious disappearances. There were papers about Banderon’s assassination and the killer going missing.

  “What are all these papers here?” Angelina asked.

  “Our sorcerers who are working as newspaper reporters have informed us that these papers are full of lies. They sent us copies of them so that we can have records of the moves that Tareth and his students are making. Tareth’s name started showing up in the papers after the king’s assassination,” Melvil said. He pulled open a drawer and pulled a newspaper out. “This is one that your sister, Piper, sent us from Seaside, Riordan.”

  Melvil put the paper on the table with the apparatus on it. He opened another drawer and took out a canister. Once he opened the canister, a terrible whiff came from inside it. He stuck his hand inside and pulled out a handful of black dust. He blew the dust on the paper, and all of a sudden, the letters began rearranging themselves.

  “What is that dust?” Angelina asked, wrinkling her nose in disgust.

  Melvil replied, “These are the ashes of pants that were set on fire and burned. We say a spell as we are burning the pants so that the ashes can help us when we sense a lie in print form.”

  Angelina burst out laughing. “As in, ‘liar, liar, pants on fire’?” The others just looked at her. “It’s a saying we have back in my world.”

  “I guess so!” Melvil chuckled. The letters rearranged themselves into the words. The message that spoke the truth the lie was hiding came through on the paper.

  “Cool!” Angelina gasped.

  The words “Sorcereress Killed in Seaside. Faeblood Wraiths Suspected” appeared on the headline. All of a sudden, Willow heard the sound of the ocean coming from her bag. She pulled out her shell cauldron, and sure enough, she could hear the sound of the ocean coming from it. It was as if it was telling her that it had belonged to that sorceress.

  “I believe her cauldron came to me after she died,” Willow said.

  “That is what happens after a sorcerer or sorceress dies—their most prized magical object falls into the hands of the next most qualified sorcerer or sorceress if the previous owner had not already chosen someone to take care of it. It chooses them,” Melvil said.

  Christabel asked, “Um, do you have a newspaper article that details why Prince Gregory’s men attacked my carriage? Do you have any papers from two mornings ago?” Christabel asked.

  “I think there are two of them here,” Melvil said. He opened a drawer and pulled out two newspapers. He put the newspapers on the counter, opened them up, and took them apart, placing each page of the paper on the counter.

  Melvil dumped the firepants soot on the papers. Nothing happened. He turned each of the pages to the other sides and dumped the soot on the other sides of the paper. Again, nothing happened.

  “There must be something written about a noblewoman getting attacked by soldiers in the middle of a forest!” Christabel squealed.

  Melvil blinked and said, “A noblewoman?” He was surprised that Riordan had brought a noblewoman to the library.

  “She’s on our side. She is one of the lunatics who has strange experiences the night of the full moon,” Riordan said.

  “Well, no. We haven’t seen any stories about a noblewoman getting attacked by soldiers,” Melvil replied to Christabel.

  “But my mother saw the carriage! She screamed! I heard her! Certainly a noblewoman’s daughter’s death would have made the news!” Christabel whimpered.

  “But you aren’t dead!” Melvil replied.

  “When the attackers came, I faked my death to get out of marrying a man I’ve never met!” Christabel said.

  Melvil eyed her sternly and said, “There are a great many things that are being kept secret since Tareth’s return. Your faked death is probably among them.”

  “What kinds of things are being kept secret?” Willow asked.

  “Things like the disappearances and deaths, mostly,” Melvil replied. Willow opened the journal to the entry Tareth wrote about the man who brought magic back to Ethermoor.

  “Also, there is something written about that terrible explosion that happened several months ago. Here it is,” Willow said as she handed the journal to Melvil. He flipped through the pages and read the entries with great interest.

  “Well, I’ll be! A non-magical human taught himself how to read fairy runes and found his way to Zadelia’s castle,” he said. He closed the book. “There’s only one way to find out what happened to the professor and the fairy he summoned, and that’s to go to the University of Aralin and ask the police about his murder and the people he knew. Or perhaps you should try to find the fairy first.”

  “Ask the police? When two of us are wanted by the law and one is trying to hide from her noble family members?” Angelina asked, wide-eyed.

  “Well, that’s true. You can’t go to the police,” Melvil mumbled.

  “Well, I guess we’d better get going. Let’s form the line,” Willow said. Riordan, Christabel, Angelina, and Willow stood in a line and held hands. An alarmed expression came over Melvil’s face, which Willow found odd.

  “Line? What kind of sorcerer needs a line of other people to perform a spell?” He gasped.

  Willow replied, “Tareth taught me a traveling spell, and we have been using it to get from one place to another. The trips would otherwise take weeks.”

  Melvil’s face suddenly turned bright red. “No, young lady! You must NEVER perform any of his spells, ever!”

  “It’s just a traveling spell!” Willow said, confused.

  Melvil lowered his voice. “It’s one of Tareth’s spells and is most likely full of dark magic!” he hissed.


  Willow knew it would take them weeks to get to Aralin from the Celexia Mountain Range without the spell. “Nothing has happened to me yet,” she said.

  “You don’t know what will happen! Maybe nothing has happened yet, but something terrible might happen!” Melvil begged.

  “It will take us weeks to get to Aralin if we don’t use the spell, and who knows what kind of damage Tareth can do in that amount of time!” Riordan said. Melvil closed his mouth.

  “Well then, very well, do what you like since that’s what you are going to do anyway! Just be careful! And don’t cast that spell in here!” Melvil said.

  Angelina stifled a laugh since that statement reminded her of her parents lecturing her when she was younger.

  “I thank you very much for all that you have done for us,” Willow said. She shook hands with Melvil, and he walked with them to the secret entrance. The horses had been tied up outside and were waiting for them.

  Willow opened the door to the outside. A massive blast of freezing wind hit them. Willow wished that Melvil would have allowed them to recite the spell in the library, but she knew that they would only be standing in the snow for a short amount of time.

  “Maybe we should try to find the fairy helper Dr. Smith summoned first. Her name is Aslin,” Willow said.

  They all stood in a line and held hands. Willow waved her wand over her head three times and recited the transporter spell. She said, “Fairy Aslin,” at the end of it in hopes the spell would transport them to wherever she was. Nothing happened.

  “Uh-huh! He was right! We shouldn’t be reciting such spells!” Christabel squealed.

  “No, we didn’t go anywhere because I don’t know where she is. You have to say the name of the place you want to go to for the spell to work,” Willow replied.

  Willow knew the university was in a town called Shimmerwater. She said, “All right, we will go to Aralin University in the town of Shimmerwater.”