by E. G. Foley
“Please be careful, Derek!” Dani begged him. “We need you!”
It was true. Jake felt a threat of tears rising in his eyes. No wonder the warrior’s last name was Stone—heaven knew he had certainly become their rock over the past year, at least for Jake and Dani.
They were the last two who still clung to him, refusing to let go even after the others had gone to wish Tex and the mysterious djinni a safe trip.
Wiping away a tear, Dani reluctantly stepped away from Derek, knowing Jake would want a moment alone with his mentor.
Jake looked up at the tall, rugged man with his wild mane of dark hair, a short scruff of a day’s beard on his jaw. He shook his head as the threat of tears got stronger.
“This is all my fault,” Jake whispered. “You shouldn’t have to do this. If I had never fought Garnock—”
“Hey. Listen to me.” Derek took him by the shoulders and held him at arm’s length to stare sternly into his eyes. “You are not to blame. These are evil wizards we’re dealing with, Jake. Starting wars is simply what they do. If it wasn’t you killing Garnock, they’d have simply found some other excuse. Now, you keep your eyes open and look after everybody for me. Your Aunt Ramona’s going to be taking you lot out of England for a while. For your own safety.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know. Somewhere they wouldn’t think to look for you. Just in case.”
“You think they will come hunting for me, then?”
“I don’t want to worry you,” he said tactfully, “but it’s possible. Even so, you’ll be quite safe. You’ve got Red to protect you—he’s almost done molting. And Helena—you saw in Wales how fierce she can be when anyone threatens one of her charges. And of course, Lady Bradford. Between you and me, your aunt is one of the most powerful witches who ever set foot in Merlin Hall. She doesn’t often use her skills, but when she does, look out. Oh, and I’m also sending Maddox with you till I get back. I know he’s not a full-fledged Guardian yet, but he’ll fill in the gaps. I figured you’d prefer someone closer to your own age instead of having another adult breathing down your neck.”
“That’s for sure.”
“So, you think you boys can get along?” Derek paused, looking from Jake to Maddox, who stood nearby. “It’s important to me that you do. You both mean a great deal to me.”
Jake and Maddox exchanged a glance. “Yes, sir,” they both answered, with very different looks on their faces than when he had forced them to apologize to each other back in dragon-land.
“Now, Dani girl,” Derek said, turning to the carrot, “I’ll want a full report on these two blockheads when I get back. You’re to let me know if you see any fighting.”
Dani saluted him. “Yes, sir. But I’d only be a tattletale for your sake!”
He rumpled her hair, then squared his broad shoulders and stalked toward his colleagues for this mission.
Jake took a deep breath and somehow swallowed down his roiling emotions, nodding at the Lightrider. “Careful out there, Tex.”
“You too, boy. Vaya con Dios.” He punched the Grid coordinates into the Flower of Life, and the portal appeared.
“Finally!” the djinni said, rolling her dark eyes. She drew a nasty curved knife from its sheath at her side. “Let’s go hunting.” Dainty yet sinister, she sauntered to the portal, bells jangling. Then she stepped inside, and whoosh!
Off she went.
“See you soon,” Derek said. Then he, too, stepped into the portal and turned into a man-shaped cloud of tiny golden molecules, all of which whisked off down the ley line in the next instant, bound for who-knows-where.
Tex glanced back over his shoulder and tipped his hat with that mad twinkle in his blue eyes. “Yee-haw,” he murmured.
Then he took a big stride forward with his alligator boot into the tunnel, and swept off on the adventure.
Seconds after he had dematerialized, the portal winked shut.
The lawn was dark once again and Miss Helena was fighting to hold onto her composure. “Children, it’s almost bedtime.”
“Oh, Miss Helena!” they started to protest, for they still had to free Nixie from the Bugganes tonight.
She held up her hand amid the chorus of their complaints, in no mood to argue with them right now after watching Derek go. “Fine! Amuse yourselves a while longer, then. But stay out of trouble.” She directed this warning at Jake, then pivoted and hurried back into the palace. They heard a low sob escape her as she ran.
Henry had been standing there silently. He gave the kids a rueful look, then strode off after his sister to try to comfort her. When he had gone, it was just the kids. They looked around at each other, realizing anew just how serious this was, to say nothing of the dangers they were about to face personally tonight.
“Everybody ready?” Jake asked at last.
Maddox nodded. “Just need to get my weapons.”
“My stuff is ready back in the lab,” Archie said.
“My potions are as ready as they’re going to be. It’s in the lab, as well.” Nixie hesitated, looking around at them. “You really don’t have to do this for my sake. It’s not too late to back out.”
“Nonsense,” Jake told her gruffly. “We all need our friends more than ever now.”
Everyone nodded, moving closer into a tightknit group.
They looked around at each other for a long moment, then Jake swallowed hard.
“C’mon, you lot. We’ve got monsters to fight.”
CHAPTER THIRTY
The Battle of the Bugganes
The wheels on Archie’s handcart made an ominous clatter and squeak that echoed down the long, dim hallway where they had decided to stage their ambush.
Maddox had advised that they start with the least threatening foe, and that meant the Boneless.
This preliminary skirmish would give them a taste of what they were up against, and more importantly, would eliminate a nuisance enemy. Then Boneless couldn’t get in the way and complicate matters when it came time to deal with the scarier Bugganes.
They chose their battleground with care, picking a spot that the creature was known to haunt—the same lonely corridor where Jake had chased the Boneless on the night they had first met Nixie.
Tonight, however, they weren’t leaving anything to chance.
Jake and Maddox went ahead, systematically removing any mirrors off the walls so Jenny Greenteeth could not come through and interfere with their capture of the Boneless.
In tense silence, the two-boy advance team locked away all the mirrors and shiny objects they found in an empty parlor. Whatever reflective surfaces they came across that could not be moved, such as windows without drapes, they covered them with black oilskin raincoats.
This left the watery hag no point of entry. Not only did the black oilskins let in no light at all, but they were also waterproof, which they reasoned might help, since Jenny Greenteeth was associated with water.
A few yards behind Jake and Maddox, Archie pulled the handcart with an unusually grim expression on his face. The moment of truth would soon be at hand. He had not been this nervous since he’d had to give his presentation at the Invention Convention in front of Mr. Edison and Mr. Tesla; he was, however, confident in his contraption.
It should do the trick. The rotating motion of the amber ball rubbing against the rabbit fur had already charged up the whole mesh surface of the Faraday cage. With an occasional spark from the Leyden jars, the cage seemed eager to receive its prisoner.
The girls walked cautiously beside it. He had warned them all not to touch the metal, lest they get a shock.
As for the desiccant, Isabelle was carrying the sprayer over her shoulder. Frankly, she was the only one Archie trusted not to break the big glass jar beneath the nozzle if anything went wrong. Moreover, she knew how he worked. For years, his sister had acted as lab assistant for him now and then.
Lastly, Ogden Trumbull padded along softly, bringing up the rear. The big half-troll kept watchin
g behind them for any sign of the Bugganes. So far, nothing.
Which was good.
For this gave them time to get into position once they found the perfect spot. Nixie was to be the bait, but Archie assured her he wouldn’t be far away, nor would the others. Nixie nodded bravely and looked into his eyes, determined to trust him—to trust all of them.
“Archie, you’ve really thought of everything,” Dani remarked, gazing at his Boneless Catcher in awe.
“I hope I have. Nixie’s safety depends on it.”
“Come on, everybody,” Jake ordered. “The Boneless isn’t going to show itself if it sees all of us hanging about. Let’s get out of sight.” He glanced at Nixie. “Good luck. Don’t worry, this is nothing compared to that Hieronymus Bosch painting.”
“You can say that again,” she said with a wry smile. “Boneless isn’t as bad as those awful Torso Men.”
Jake smiled back, then they all sought out hiding places, crouching down behind the heavy baroque furniture here and there in the hallway. Maddox nipped around a nearby corner, keeping Dani behind him. Jake and Isabelle followed Archie into the darkened room right across the hallway; he pulled the handcart just out of sight, but the cage door was open and the electrical charge hummed along the metal wires. They made Ogden hide by the window, through which a little starlight gleamed.
Out in the corridor, Nixie began to wander back and forth, making a show of looking at the paintings, just like she had been doing the other night the Bugganes had attacked her.
Everyone waited in their hiding places with bated breath, Maddox knowing that his sword was of no use against the Boneless, Jake equally well aware that he, too, could do nothing, not even with his telekinesis.
The ball was entirely in Archie’s court, and he had never been more ready. Heart pounding, he took the sprayer from his sister and slipped the leather strap over his shoulder.
As an afterthought, he took off his bowtie and tucked it into his pocket. Jake looked at him in amazement in the moon-silvered darkness.
Archie just shrugged. There was a time and a place to be a gentleman, and it was definitely not when some slimy blob of a creature set about harassing a chap’s young lady. No, indeed. Boneless was in proper trouble now, Archie vowed. Then he set his jaw and gripped the nozzle on the sprayer.
He did not have to wait long.
Eventually, the Boneless glided through the solid stone wall of the corridor and floated toward Nixie. Formless as it was, its face came and went, but even Archie thought it looked happy to see her.
“Oh, not you again,” she greeted the creature in contempt, taking a step backward toward the room where Archie waited. “Shove off! I’m in no mood for your tricks.”
Boneless played its usual game, zigzagging across her path to prevent her from walking away. Little did it realize she was moving it into position for capture.
“Oh, you missed me, did you? You and your friends had to go a whole day without harassing me, eh? Poor Bugganes!” she taunted—and right then, Archie made his move.
He kicked open the parlor door with a barbaric yell and lunged out into the hallway, taking aim. He pulled back the handle on the sprayer and doused the unsuspecting Boneless with the desiccant.
Nixie dove out of the way of the arc of powder, which, in seconds, proved to have the desired effect.
Boneless didn’t know what hit it.
As the sea salt and gypsum and silica began evaporating the water out of it, Boneless could no longer maintain its cloud-vapor form, but started materializing. For the first time perhaps ever, it had weight, and though it could still float, this strange experience startled it. It had to strain to fly.
But Archie was already on to the next step. He whirled around and grabbed the handle of the cart, hauling it out into the corridor. “Jake!”
“Got it!”
Now that the Boneless had substance, a tiny shove from his cousin’s telekinesis helped to tap the creature down through the square top opening of the electrified cage. Boneless actually whimpered in confusion, but Archie showed no mercy, yanking the rope he had attached to the cage door.
“Ha!” It slammed shut, and the sturdy metal latch clicked at once into place. Through the mesh of the dog kennel, Boneless stared at Archie in shock.
By now, the creature, thought Archie, resembled a giant, floating potato chip.
With a face.
A face that wore a look of confusion as the crisped Boneless hovered in the middle of the cage.
“That’s that! You’re good and caught now, aren’t you?”
Boneless glared and tried to zoom through the mesh walls. When the spark flashed in its face, it squeaked with pain and zoomed backward, but only succeeded in sparking itself in the rear, and squeaked again.
“Don’t touch the cage walls,” Archie instructed the creature succinctly. “You cannot pass through them, understand? Now, we’re not going to hurt you, but you’re not getting out of there. Your days of bothering Miss Valentine are through.”
Boneless whimpered pitifully with fright, and Archie almost felt bad. But he shook his head sternly. “It’s no good. You’re going to stay in there until I’ve figured out what the deuce you are.” Archie turned to his friends to give the all-clear, and only then realized everyone was cheering for him.
Nixie was clapping the loudest and gazing at him in starstruck delight.
“Here, here!” Jake shouted amidst the hubbub, clapping him on the back, but Archie barely heard a word.
As calmly debonair as he acted on the outside, nodding his thanks in answer to their praise, on the inside, all he could do was keep shrieking to himself: She likes me, she likes me!
# # #
“Next up, Nuckalavee,” Jake announced a few minutes later, glancing around at his accomplices. “Let’s go.”
Off they went, out into the landscape, trying to look casual as they walked past a group of adults.
No doubt the kids made a strange sight with their Boneless in a cage on the handcart, Leyden jars sparking; Isabelle the debutante nonchalantly carrying the sprayer on her shoulder, in case their prisoner needed another puff of the desiccant; Og the Troll Boy lurching along after them, trying to look as innocent as his homely snout could manage.
Jake, for this leg of their mission, was carrying a great loop of heavy rope on his shoulder, while Maddox had a crossbow slung across his back, a spear in his hand, and a look on his face like he knew just how to use both and would not be deterred.
“Oh, hullo, good evening,” Dani said sweetly to the staring strangers as they all walked by.
The adults gawked after them. Jake hoped they weren’t friends with Uncle Richard and Aunt Claire.
Or worse, Great-Great Aunt Ramona.
“This way,” Maddox clipped out as they proceeded up the drive. “Nuckalavee’s upstream of the bridge, hiding in the reeds. That’s where we last saw him, anyway. Nixie, have you got your potion ready?” The warrior boy glanced at the young witch.
“Ready,” she replied.
Obviously, this close to the water, they had to anticipate the possibility of Jenny Greenteeth joining the party while they were engaged in killing Nuckalavee.
For that reason, Jake ordered Archie and all three of the girls to keep their distance on the drive, staying well back from the river. Best not to tempt the watery hag if it could be avoided.
Divide and conquer, he reminded himself. One Buggane at a time.
As they neared the water-horse’s hideout, they heard a single note from the Headless Highlander’s bagpipes echoing ominously from the woods.
Jake and Maddox exchanged a dark glance.
Neither of them knew what to expect from the fabled, skinless water-bull, but they definitely weren’t looking forward to facing down the murderous Scot with his massive claymore.
“Shall we?” Maddox said.
“Wait, Jake, don’t forget this!” Dani handed him his birthday telescope with the night vision lens. “Good l
uck.”
Jake took it and gave her a cheery wink.
“Be careful, Maddox,” Izzy said fretfully.
Maddox turned and kept walking backward toward the fight, spear in hand, as he gave them a final warning. “If Nuckalavee should get past us and heads in your direction, hit him with the desiccant,” he said. “Nixie said the beast has got no skin, right? That’ll hurt like salt in the wound—should drive him away if he comes anywhere near you.”
“Good thinking!” Archie said. “Sis?”
“I’ve got it,” Izzy said with a pleased nod at her hero’s advice.
Malwort, meanwhile, sat on Nixie’s shoulder while she reached into her big black bag and carefully lifted out a few of the small, glass, globe-shaped vials in which she had stored her deadly potion. These were meant to break on impact. If Jenny Greenteeth came anywhere near her, she would throw them at the hag like grenades.
Dani O’Dell watched her intently.
Nixie looked askance at her. “How’s your aim?”
“Ask me five older brothers,” the redhead replied with a fierce smile, which Nixie returned before offering her one of the stoppered vials.
“Here. But mind you don’t drop it. It’s extremely poisonous. In other words, could kill you.”
Dani nodded and took the glass globe gingerly.
Jake and Maddox headed for the river—but they were missing someone.
“Come on, Og!” the Guardian called. “Here’s your big chance to show us what you’ve got. Time to put those muscles to use!”
“Go, Og!” Archie cheered him.
The lonely Troll Boy looked delighted at the chance to be a part of the monster hunt (instead of being the monster himself for once). Og dashed after the two young, would-be heroes. Jake tossed him a loop of rope. Maddox glanced at him in amusement, then loosened his throwing arm like an athlete before the javelin competition.
As they approached the river, they glanced at each other, signaling for silence. Then they crept stealthily down the grassy banks below the bridge to the water’s edge.
Jake had a loop of rope ready in his hand, just like Tex had used to catch the dracosaur.
