They continued their silent ascent up the mountainside, moving from tree to tree and keeping low to the ground, a feat that would have seemed difficult for Clark and Victoria, but one which they accomplished with ease. Clark moved through the woods as easily as Alex, whose father had taught him the skills of hunting and tracking since he was a child. Victoria moved with a grace that was common to her people, seeming to be at one with the surrounding forest. The ancient centaurs had been forest people, after all, so Alex was not entirely surprised.
As they came in sight of the clearing, with the now-open cave in its center, Alex and the others stopped and held themselves still. Alex squinted his eyes to make sure he was seeing what he thought he saw. Ben and Daphne were standing in a circle around the entrance of the cave, flanked by Dillon, Anna, the rest of the Mad Mages, and five other children from the town. They stood like stone-silent sentinels facing outward and down the mountain toward the town. Their faces were as slack and expressionless as those of all the soul-enslaved townspeople had been. Alex gestured to his companions to back away quietly.
When they had gained enough distance from the cave to remain hidden and unheard, Alex pulled them close.
“What are they doing?” Nina asked.
“Why aren’t they with the others, heading toward town?” Rafael said.
“I think they were left behind to guard the cave,” Alex said. “In case someone found it.”
“So what do we do?” Victoria asked, glancing back toward the cave.
“We have to get Ben and Daphne free,” Alex said. “If we can get them alone, I might be able to free them from the Shadow Wraith’s spells.”
“Well, how do we do that?” Clark asked.
“I have an idea that might work,” Alex said. He said a silent prayer that it would. He noticed how the others were looking at him. The intensity of their stares. He had always wanted to be their leader, always tried to think of himself that way, and now it was clear that they needed his leadership. Ben and Daphne, especially. He tried to call to mind that feeling of confidence that he had consumed him earlier with his parents. He found a glimmer of that state of mind and clung to it as he explained his plan.
Minutes later, Alex, Nina, and Rafael were crawling on their bellies along the forest floor toward the cave. When they were as close as Alex thought they could possibly get without being seen, he stopped and the others halted beside him. Then he waited. He wasn’t sure how long it would take Victoria and Clark to sneak around behind the cave’s defenders, but he hoped it wouldn’t be too long. The longer they waited the greater the chance of being discovered. When he had waited as long as he thought it would take for his two friends to reach their assigned position, he waited a little longer and then turned to the two beside him and nodded his head. As he did so, he began to quietly chant a simple rune-spell, repeating the word for wind again and again. He looked to see Nina and Rafael chanting the same spell.
Within moments, a strong breeze began to pass through the trees. Soon the breeze became a stiff wind, and seconds later, a strong gale. Alex wrapped one hand around the trunk of a small sapling and reached out to take his sister’s hand as he continued to chant. The wind had begun to circle through the trees and around the clearing outside the cave like a small tornado. The Mad Mages and the other soul-captured children guarding the cave scanned the forest, backing themselves closer together and nearer the mouth of the cave. They did not respond as normal humans would have, with fright or curiosity. Their faces remained as impassive as ever, the stiffness of their movements making it difficult for them to remain standing. Daphne, the smallest of those assembled to guard the cave, looked as though she might be lifted from her feet and blown away at any moment. The howling of the wind was so loud that Alex could no longer hear himself chanting the spell that helped create the windstorm. That was the whole purpose of this miniature hurricane. To provide cover for what happened next.
Alex watched with mounting excitement and an equal amount of worry as Clark and Victoria simultaneously burst forth from the forest behind the cave. They moved so swiftly, and the wind was so loud, that they remained unseen and unheard until they were right on top of the cave’s guardians. Daphne just had time to turn her head as Victoria cast a stunning spell that caused her body to go limp. A moment later, Victoria swept Daphne’s slender form up into her arms and dashed away into the forest. Clark apparently knew no stunning spells and relied on a deftly placed fist to the top of Ben’s head to knock him unconscious as he picked up the small dwarf and ran back into the woods. It all took place so swiftly that most of the Mad Mages and the other children set to help them were unaware that anything at all had happened until the wind suddenly died down and they saw the absence of two of their number.
By that time, Alex and the Guild were running quickly through the woods toward a place they had agreed upon in advance. This part of the plan was crucial. Alex was counting on the Shadow Wraith retaining its guards rather than risk leaving the cave unattended. If instead the Mad Mages and the other soul-trapped children pursued them, Alex and the Guild would have to fight a pitched battle in the woods. One that he was not entirely certain they could win.
They came to a stop in a small hollow beneath the arching branches in a strand of evergreen trees and caught their breath. Victoria and Clark laid Ben and Daphne out side by side on the thick bed of pine needles that covered the soft earth beneath the trees. Alex looked to Rafael, who was scanning the woods behind them and sniffing the air.
“Anything?” Alex asked, following Rafael’s eyes as he searched the forest for movement.
“No,” Rafael said. “I think we’re safe. For now, at least.”
“Good,” Alex said as he knelt down beside Daphne and Ben.
“Can you free them?” Nina asked, bending down beside her brother. “The way you did me and Mom?”
“I don’t know,” Alex confessed. “I hope so.”
“Is there anything we can do to help?” Victoria asked, looking down at Alex, her face a mix of worry and admiration.
“Pray, maybe,” Alex said, trying to dispel the doubt that was feeding on his fears like a fox in a hen house. He knelt beside Daphne and focused his mind, trying to clear the thoughts that were rushing through his head. Thoughts about how long he had known Daphne and what a good friend she was and how she needed him not to fail, but to save her the way she had so many times saved him in the past.
He took a deep breath and slowly exhaled, feeling his mind calm and still as he forced the worry from his consciousness. He felt his perception shift a moment later and he could see Daphne’s astral form, her spirit body glowing a pale, sickly blue. He saw, too, the fire of her subtle soul-essence blazing at her heart, ensnared in a web of oily tendrils that coalesced and gathered at a single point and then drifted away from her body, back through the woods like a slender tether of ink-black smoke. Alex had no doubt that this dark spirit chain led back to the Shadow Wraith in its lair at the cave and that it was the means by which the vile creature controlled its soul-bound subjects. What he did doubt was whether the rune-spell he had used to free his mother and sister would work for this particular evil enchantment.
“Jah-Ne-Pha-Elon,” Alex said, reaching out to the magical energy of the land and focusing it on the net of black, smoke-like threads that encircled Daphne’s soul-essence. The mesh of black strands shifted and spun as Alex repeated the spell, but he could see that it was not working the way it had before. The black threads repelled Alex’s magic, seeming to draw power through the twisting, black smoke-tendril that drifted through the forest and back to the Shadow Wraith. That gave Alex an idea.
He shifted the focus of his magical energy as he repeated the rune-word of Spirit Magic and tried to form the magical energy into the image of a blade in his mind. A blade that would slice through the tether leading from Daphne’s captured soul and back to its enslaver. The slender thread resisted the cut of Alex’s magical energy. It felt like trying to slice
through a steel cable with a butter knife. Alex gathered more magical energy than he had ever attempted before, feeling it course through him like a mighty wave of water forced into a deep, but narrow riverbed. “Jah-Ne-Pha-Elon,” he said again, this time willing the dark filament of evil to grow thinner and thinner. To his amazement, it did. As he concentrated, the thread of power reaching back to the Shadow Wraith slowly evaporated until it snapped and disappeared altogether. When it faded, the web of black smoke encircling Daphne’s soul-essence withered and vanished.
Daphne sat up suddenly, coughing and wheezing. “Hades’ hat rack!” Daphne barked. “What the gorp was that?”
Alex was so happy he found himself hugging Daphne before he knew what was happening.
“Alex,” Daphne said in surprise as she looked around. “Where am I? How did I get from my bed? And why does everybody look like I should be dead? And what’s wrong with Ben?”
“The Shadow Wraith had control of your soul,” Alex said. “It has Ben, as well.”
“Alex was able to free you,” Victoria said, her voice filled with admiration.
“But most of the town is under its power,” Nina said.
“Yeah, or trapped in sleep,” Clark said.
“Thank you,” Daphne said, placing a hand on Alex’s arm. “So what are we doing about it?”
“After I free Ben, I’ll explain,” Alex said.
“Then what the gorp are you waiting for?” Daphne said, punching Alex in the shoulder.
“Right,” Alex said, repressing a grin and turning toward Ben. Much like what he had experienced with freeing his sister and mother, the process of severing the link to the Shadow Wraith was easier the second time. A minute later, Ben was standing on his feet and grimacing.
“Yuck,” Ben said. “I feel like I need bath from the inside.”
“Ha,” Clark said as he patted his friend’s back. “You smell like you need one on the outside, as well.”
“I thought that’s what I was smelling,” Rafael said, casually bending down to pick up a baseball-sized rock from the ground and toss it gently in the air. Alex saw the hint of a smile on Rafael’s face and knew that his friend was up to something. Rafael suddenly spun on his heel and threw the stone with all his might into a stand of blackberry bushes thirty feet away. The rock struck something soft with a loud thunk, followed swiftly by the sound of something heavy striking the ground. “Then again, it might have been Dillon,” Rafael said with a wrinkle of his nose. “He’s usually in need of a bath and too stupid to realize when he’s upwind of us.”
“Nice work, Rafa,” Alex said, slapping Rafael on the back.
“Well,” Rafael said, “I can’t let you do everything.”
A few minutes later, they had pulled Dillon from the bushes, and Alex had severed the connection that allowed the Shadow Wraith to control the leader of the Mad Mages. Dillon coughed and shook as he sat on the ground, surrounded by his sworn enemies, while Alex explained the situation to him.
“We have to free them,” Dillon said, his voice trying to sound commanding, but coming out like a plea. “We have to free Anna and the others.”
“There’s no time to free them now,” Alex said. “They’re safe as long as no one attacks the cave.”
“I have to save them,” Dillon said, standing unsteadily to his feet. Alex was surprised. He had never liked Dillon and had always thought of him as a coward. That he was willing to go back to the cave and attempt to save his friends gave Alex a deeper respect for the boy than he would have ever thought possible.
“I promise you they’ll be safe,” Alex said, putting his hand on Dillon’s shoulder. Dillon brushed it off and faced Alex.
“This is all your fault,” Dillon spat, anger rising in his voice.
“You’re right,” Alex said, stepping closer to Dillon with his hands spread open before him. Clark and the others took a step forward as well, but Alex gestured for them to stay back. “This is my fault and only I can set it right.”
“How?” Dillon asked, his hands clenched into fists. For a moment, Alex thought the boy might try to strike him.
“That would take too long to explain,” Alex said. “But you can help. You can help save the town by warning them that an army of their friends and family under the control of the Shadow Wraith are marching down the mountain to attack them. You can save the town.”
“How?” Dillon asked again, his eyes squinting in curiosity.
“We hid our bikes back along the main path about a half mile from here,” Alex said. “If you run now, you can take a bike straight down the mountain, though the trees. You’ll be able to reach the town well ahead of the Shadow Wraith’s creature and the people it has under its spell. You can warn them what’s coming. Who is coming. If they fight back without knowing who is attacking, they could end up killing the people they love.”
Dillon thought about it a moment, his eyes searching around the faces of the Guild members encircling him. “What are you going to do?” Dillon asked in an accusing tone.
“I have a plan,” Alex said, “but if it doesn’t work, letting the town know what is happening may be the only thing that saves us all.”
“Fine,” Dillon said between clenched teeth after another moment’s thought. “Where are the bikes?”
Alex gave Dillon detailed instructions on how to find the bikes and wished him well as the older boy turned and ran toward the main path. Dillon didn’t say goodbye. And he didn’t say thank you.
“Brave, at least,” Daphne said.
“But still an ungrateful lout,” Victoria added.
“And a smelly one at that,” Rafael said.
“Yup,” Clark added with a laugh and a clap on Rafael’s back that nearly knocked the smaller boy to the ground. “With a big knot on his forehead, too.”
“Plan?” Ben said to Alex. “What’s the plan now?”
“Now we wake the dragon for real,” Alex said, looking at the shock on the other’s faces as his words struck home.
Chapter 22: Dragon’s Fire
“One stupid thing after another,” Nina muttered as she looked up at Alex. “Mom and Dad are going to kill me if I live through this.”
“You can always head back home,” Alex said as he glanced at Nina.
“Stupid,” Nina said in reply.
They were creeping along the final hundred feet of the subterranean tunnel leading to the Dragon’s lair. Victoria and the rest of the Guild followed silently behind Alex, who held a barely lit glow-wand. The dim light of the glow-wand cast flickering shadows of the companions along the smoothly carved walls of the tunnel. Alex tried to ignore the shadows. They made him think of another shadow.
Alex had been relieved to find the entrance to the Dragon’s lair unchanged from their first adventure beneath the ground a few days past. He had worried that the dragon, Gall’Adon, might have altered the rune that opened the rock slab covering the entrance to the tunnel. Fortunately, the gigantic gate of granite had slid aside as soon as Ben and Daphne created the rune in fire along its surface. They had found the traps within the tunnel unchanged as well. The whole journey had taken them less than twenty minutes from the wooded glade where Alex had freed Ben and Daphne from the Shadow Wraith’s control. Now they were only paces away from the entrance of the dragon Gall’Adon’s inner sanctum.
Alex swiftly dropped back to walk next to Ben in the rear while letting Clark take the lead. “Are you sure?” Alex asked Ben, referring to a part of the plan he had discussed with Ben when running through the forest toward the dragon’s lair.
“Yep,” Ben said, staring straight ahead and ignoring Alex’s hand on his shoulder.
“You don’t have to do it if you don’t want to,” Alex said, quietly so the others wouldn’t hear. He felt torn inside about what he was asking Ben to do. “It’s very dangerous.”
“Done,” Ben said, a determined tone in his voice. “If it has to be done, no one else can do it.”
“I’m sorry I have to
ask you,” Alex said. “I’d do it myself if I could.”
“Glad,” Ben said, looking at Alex with a slightly wild glare in his eyes. “I’m glad. It’s a chance to show him who I am and what I’m really worth.” Alex didn’t have to ask who Ben was talking about.
“You don’t have to prove anything to your dad or anyone else,” Alex said. “Especially not to me.”
“Sure,” Ben said. “But it’ll still be nice to rub it in his face when he finds out I helped save the town. Me. The failure of a son.”
“You’re not a failure,” Alex said. “You’re a hero.”
“Heroes,” Ben said with a tight smile. “We’re all heroes today.”
“Hopefully you won’t have to,” Alex said.
“Right,” Ben said with a laugh. “We’re always lucky like that.”
Alex patted Ben on the shoulder as Victoria let out a little gasp and they all came to stand in the entrance to the dragon’s sleeping chamber. Alex wasn’t sure if the gasp had been for the ornately decorated walls of the large cavity or the massive, red-scaled dragon curled up asleep on mounds of furs.
“He’s really rather larger than I expected,” Victoria said, her front hooves dancing briefly on the stone floor. “And who is his decorator?” she added staring up at the sky mural along the ceiling.
“Maybe we can ask him,” Rafael said. “Before he eats us, that is.”
“We have something more important to ask him,” Alex said and took a deep breath.
“Then let’s get it over with,” Daphne said, stepping forward and striding toward the immense form of the sleeping dragon. “We don’t have all gorping day,” she added as she reached up and swept her hair back out of her face.
Alex nodded in silent agreement and forced himself to follow Daphne. He was glad to see that her bravery hadn’t been affected by being held soul-captive by the Shadow Wraith. If anything, she might even have become more recklessly incautious. If that was even possible. She had been the first to back his crazy plan when he had explained it. While Alex knew that she was probably motivated as much by fear as by anger, he was thankful for her courage because his own needed bolstering. It was a wild and hazardous plan. And if the plan didn’t work, the backup plan was even more insanely dangerous.
The Dark Shadow of Spring Page 21
