Magemother: The Complete Series (A Fantasy Adventure Book Series for Kids of All Ages)

by Austin J. Bailey

  “Are you doing that to him?” Hugo asked, straining against the fingers at his throat. Strange, he thought vaguely, that in his moment of need the main thing he felt was concern for Animus.

  Tennebris sneered. “It is difficult for him to keep me out. It wears on him. It takes all of his energy to resist me, to keep her from me. Let’s see if he will come down for you, shall we?” He lifted Hugo into the air.

  Hugo kicked out wildly. He couldn’t breathe.

  “Will you save him, Animus? Your little wind ghost won’t do the trick, you know. You’ll have to come down here.”

  Hugo scrunched his legs up and took the knife from his boot, twisting to plunge it into Tennebris’s stomach, but the mage caught his wrist and ripped the knife away with surprising strength. Tennebris dropped him, then slapped him so hard across the face that he fell to the floor. When he got back up again, Tennebris was advancing on him, twirling the boot knife in his hand. Hugo stared at it. It was growing, changing, as if under some dark spell. In a matter of seconds the little knife lengthened, twisted once, and turned from bright silver to black. Tennebris bent down and lifted Hugo again, holding the twisted black sword against his cheek.

  “Well, Animus,” he called again. “Will you save him? Or will you watch him die?”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  In which Brinley cuts a deal with a shady character

  When she saw the Kutha dropping out of the sky toward Hugo, Brinley let out a scream and pounced on the witch closest to her. She had no idea what she was doing, but she had to do something. She couldn’t just stand by and let the witches give Hugo to that monster.

  “Silence!” March hissed.

  The witch that she had attacked spun Brinley to the ground. The next second, Brinley received a blow to the stomach that knocked the wind out of her. When the pressure didn’t go away, she looked up.

  The whisper witch stood over her, foot planted firmly in her gut, pinning her to the ground. “Move and die,” she said.

  Brinley was forced to watch as Hugo was carried into the sky. When he was gone, the witches all turned to March, who addressed them in a loud voice. “Gather your beasts! Gather your strength! Tomorrow we ride to the king’s city!”

  The witches cheered. Many of them ran into the woods, while a few walked back through town. March stopped in front of the whisper witch, who was still standing with her foot on Brinley. “How dare you stand up to me in front of the others!” she spat. She slapped the whisper witch hard in the face.

  Brinley heard a snarling sound and March took a step back. The whisper witch’s cat, it seemed, had come to her defense. “Agh, death and dirt!” The cat was hanging from her arm. It was gray with a white patch under one eye, and no matter how she shook it, it would not come off. March’s hand lit up with a pale green light and she slapped the cat. It fell to the ground without a sound, and she turned back to the whisper witch. “Today it’s just your stupid cat that dies. Don’t give me a reason to add you to the pile.” She looked over her shoulder as she walked away. “Father would be ashamed of you, Habis.”

  The witch called Habis didn’t move or say anything. She waited until the clearing was completely deserted, then bent down and picked Brinley up by her hair. “Who are you?” she snarled. “What are you doing here?”

  “Ouch!” Brinley cried. “Put me down!”

  “A little girl,” Habis said.

  “Put me down or I’ll scream!”

  “A stupid little girl. Go ahead, scream. Everyone here would kill you quicker than I will.” The witch released her and she fell to the ground.

  “I could kill you now,” she said, “but it occurs to me that we might be able to help each other.”

  Brinley looked up into Habis’s face. She hardly looked trustworthy. She was old and pale, and something about her robe made Brinley’s skin crawl. “I don’t want to help you,” she said. “You’re a‌—‌a witch.”

  “Fine,” she said, and drew out a long, pale knife.

  Brinley stared at it. She was going to die. The witch was going to kill her after all! She was going to die just like the cat. “Wait,” she said. Even as she did so, she knew it was a bad idea. “How can we help each other?”

  “Hold out your hands.”

  Brinley did.

  The witch reached into her sleeve and pulled out a long black snake, which she draped across Brinley’s arms.

  “What are you doing?” Brinley shrieked.

  “Relax. It’s just to hold you.”

  That didn’t exactly make Brinley relax. She held her breath fearfully as the snake wound itself around her wrists quickly, clamping them together. When it had finished, it stretched out its triangular head and stared her in the face.

  “This is Jax. He won’t hurt you unless you try to escape. Now, follow me.” She walked toward the forest. She paused when she came to her cat. Reaching inside her robe, she pulled out a tiny black bottle and bent over to hold it next to the cat’s head. To Brinley’s amazement, the cat was sucked into the bottle, head first. It disappeared with a pop, and Habis placed the bottle back into her robes. A second later, she had disappeared into the bushes.

  Brinley was surprised to find herself alone. She glanced around. Maybe she could make a run for it right now!

  The snake hissed and tightened painfully around her arms. Her wrists felt like they were going to break. The snake opened its mouth to reveal two fangs like yellow needles. “Let’sssss go, girl,” it said. “We don’t want to keep the misssstress waiting.”

  Brinley gave a shout of alarm and dashed after Habis, trying not to look at the snake’s beady black eyes. She caught up with the witch and followed her through the woods until they came to a bubbling creek that wound through the trees. The creek led to a crevice in the side of a rock wall. Brinley stopped, but Habis kept walking. When the witch reached the wall, the rock groaned and the crack widened to the size of a door, allowing her through. Brinley hurried in after her, reminded oddly of the automatic doors at supermarkets back home.

  The inside of Habis’s cave was not the dank, creepy hole that Brinley had expected. It was actually quite nice. There was a fireplace, a couple of cushy armchairs, and a wide workbench littered with all manner of papers and strange items. There was a pile of alligator-skin paper covered in spidery writing, a set of glass beakers filled with strange fluids, and a box of white mice all tumbling over one another.

  Behind Brinley, the stone doorway shut with a groan.

  “Thank you, Jax,” Habis said, and the snake uncoiled itself and dropped to the floor, after which Habis took a mouse out of the box and tossed it to him.

  “Now,” she went on, “first things first.” She brought the little black bottle out of her robe and uncapped it, dumping the cat onto the counter. It lay there, limp. The witch picked a thorny looking berry from a small plant in the corner and stuffed it into the cat’s mouth.

  “Isn’t it dead?” Brinley asked.

  “Not if I can help it,” she said shortly. “These bottles are a talent of mine‌—‌naptraps, I call them‌—‌they are a prison really, a tiny holding cell…not very nice to be in, but they stop time. This one,” she said, indicating the cat, “was barely alive when he went in, so he is still barely alive. And that’s enough for me to work with. With a little know-how, almost anything can be mended.”

  She walked to a large cabinet and withdrew a little cup. “Now, as for you, I need to see you.” She filled it with what looked like flour.

  “Not again,” Brinley muttered, but it was too late. Luckily, Habis was more careful than Cannon had been, sprinkling the flour over her head instead of flinging it in her face.

  “AHH! It can’t be. Surely you cannot still be so young!”

  “What?”

  “Of course not. What am I saying? You are the daughter. Yes, the daughter that went missing so long ago. She hid you, and now you’re back. Am I right?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,”
Brinley said, backing away.

  “Jax!” Habis shouted. “Hold her fast! This girl is the Magemother’s daughter. I’d bet your life on it! She’s the spitting image of her mother.”

  The snake slithered out from beneath a rug and leapt into the air, wrapping itself around Brinley’s arms again. She screamed.

  “Shut up, girl!” Habis spat. She pushed Brinley into one of the armchairs. “Tell me everything. Do not lie to me! I’ll know it if you do. If you are the Magemother’s daughter, then I’d rather not kill you, but I will if you can’t behave.”

  Brinley stopped shouting. The snake, she realized, wasn’t squeezing her that hard, and Habis wasn’t going to kill her. Why she wasn’t, Brinley didn’t know. It didn’t make sense. This was a witch, after all. Hadn’t she just helped capture Hugo? “Why?” she said, voicing her question. It wasn’t a full question, but Habis seemed to understand.

  “Why don’t I want to kill you? Ah…well, that’s complicated. I’m afraid we will have to hear your story first. Out with it.”

  Brinley started from the beginning. Surprisingly, Habis made for a good audience; she kept quiet for the entire story. Once, when Brinley was describing her meeting with the mages, Habis’s eyes narrowed, but she didn’t say anything. Brinley left out some details, not wanting to give Habis any information that might harm the mages. No doubt, she had already told the witch too much, but then, maybe not. The more time Brinley spent with her, the more she suspected that Habis didn’t really mean her any harm. Sometime in the middle of Brinley’s story, the cat’s tail twitched. Habis picked it up and set it in her lap. Ever since, she had been slowly massaging it all over, and now the cat was standing and stretching as if nothing particularly bad had happened to it. Surely a person who cared for something like that couldn’t be all bad. She hoped she was right.

  “You mentioned a bell,” Habis said when Brinley had finished her story. “Do you have this bell?”

  Brinley squirmed. She did, of course, but she was in no mind to show it to the witch. It had been her mother’s, after all.

  Habis held out her hand. “Give it here. I promise I will return it to you after I examine it.”

  Grudgingly, Brinley obliged.

  Habis turned the tiny silver bell over in her fingers, examining it with utmost care. “This is my work‌—‌a summoning bell. Very few of them were ever made‌—‌four to be exact, and I made all of them.

  “You made this?” Brinley said, surprised.

  “Of course I did,” Habis sniffed. “Who else do you suppose could do such a thing? My sister? Bah! She couldn’t make a broom sweep the floor for her if her life hung in the balance. As for the others…” She rolled her eyes. “Well, they are young.” She looked back at the bell. “Yes, I made this. I made it for your mother, to summon you when the time came.”

  “I don’t understand,” Brinley protested, feeling confused again. “Hugo said it was to summon the Magemother.”

  Habis waved her hand. “That was a different bell entirely. Archibald must have found this one and mistaken it for the other. But that’s beside the point. This bell is the proof I needed. Proof that you are the Magemother’s daughter.”

  Brinley stared at her. “But how do you know‌—‌”

  “Quiet! It is enough that I know. She hid you in another world‌—‌smart. It’s what I would have done.” She watched Brinley quietly for a minute, thinking. “You are the Magemother’s daughter, and nobody has told you what that means. Stupid of you to be walking around so ignorant in these parts, isn’t it?”

  Brinley, who had been about to ask another question, shut her mouth. Did Habis have the answers she was looking for? Was this where she would find out the truth?”

  “Yes,” Habis said, as if reading her thoughts. “Good, isn’t it? I’ll tell you what you need to know. I wouldn’t normally, but this is a once in a lifetime opportunity.”

  Brinley shivered with anticipation. This was it. She was finally going to learn the truth!

  “Listen carefully,” Habis began. “It’s a long story and I’m only going to tell it once, so don’t interrupt me.”

  Brinley stayed quiet.

  “Good.” Habis set the cat on the ground and folded her arms thoughtfully. “This world is governed by seven mages. They rule the seven elements. Do you know this already?”

  Brinley shook her head.

  Habis grunted. “The seventh mage is the most important. He governs light and darkness, good and evil, and he has been corrupted. It’s happened before, and it will probably happen again. It may destroy the world. That’s what my sister wants. The gods that gave power to the mages also gave them a guardian, the Magemother. The Magemother is your mother. Someday you will be the Magemother.”

  “What?” Brinley asked, startled. “How do you know that?”

  “Everything gives birth to its own kind, girl,” Habis said. “Dogs to dogs, cats to cats, gods to gods, and Magemothers to Magemothers. It’s common sense. Don’t they have common sense on whatever world you grew up on?”

  “I suppose so.”

  “Say,” Habis said curiously, “where did she hide you anyway? On what world?”

  “Earth.”

  “Ert!” The witch sat up. “Really? Interesting choice…not where I would have sent you. Too cushy. But I see why she picked it.”

  “What do you mean too cushy?”

  “Well,” Habis said, rolling her eyes, “Earth is one of the god planets, isn’t it?”

  Brinley stared at her blankly. “God planets?”

  “Yes. They say the people there are the offspring of God.”

  Brinley felt a little uneasy. Her father didn’t take her to church very often. Sometimes they went on Christmas, but that was it. She didn’t feel qualified to talk about things like this. “Well, some people say that, I guess.”

  “It must be a wondrous place,” Habis went on excitedly. “With baby gods growing into greatness right and left. Nothing like here, I’m sure‌—‌no war, no violence, no sadness.”

  She looked down at her lap, and for a moment Brinley felt sympathy for her. It was obvious that she must have experienced those types of things herself. “No,” Brinley said firmly. “It’s not like that. We have all those things. I mean, there’s good where I come from, but I don’t know about baby gods.”

  “Hmm,” Habis frowned. “Well, I suppose it’s a long process…at any rate, we’ve strayed from the topic at hand. I told you not to interrupt me.”

  Habis cleared her throat. “Not long ago, the Magemother was betrayed by Lux. He tried to kill her. He may succeed in time. She is obviously injured very badly. It’s the only explanation for her bringing you back to our world in such a haphazard way. I’m amazed you’re still alive.” She tapped her finger thoughtfully on the arm of the chair. “You would be dead very quickly if my sister found out that you were here, but for now you don’t have anything to worry about.”

  Brinley swallowed. “I don’t?”

  Habis smiled faintly. “As you may have gathered by our little interaction tonight, my sister and I are not exactly cozy.” She gave Brinley a sharp look. “You were at the inn tonight? You heard everything?”

  Brinley nodded.

  “Her story was true. Shael is our father. However, unlike her, I am not eager to see him return to this world. The power of the mages, and of the king, keep him locked away, which is one reason she wants to overthrow them. I say let the mages be.”

  “And the king?” Brinley was thinking of Hugo. Habis certainly hadn’t gone out of her way to help him that night.

  “Well…” the witch smiled darkly, revealing several rotten teeth. “He is another matter.”

  Brinley could tell the subject was closed. “So why help me? Why tell me all this?”

  “Ah, yes.” Habis smiled again. “We have come to the heart of the matter. As I told you, my sister and I don’t see eye to eye. While I’m not on your side‌—‌strictly speaking‌—‌I’m not on her side ei
ther.” She wrapped a thin finger around a strand of her spiderweb hair. “I’m sort of…in the middle. Mostly I’m helping you because it will hurt her. Oh, yes,” she smiled greedily. “It will hurt her very much.” Habis’s expression became suddenly hard, eyes narrowing. “Of course, in exchange for not killing you, I expect a favor.”

  “A favor?”

  “Yes.”

  Brinley couldn’t help noticing that there was a hungry look in her eyes now.

  “You see,” Habis went on, “you are invisible. Perfectly invisible‌—‌magnificently invisible. March will not be able to see you coming.”

  Brinley felt a chill. “You don’t want me to kill her?”

  Habis laughed. “No. I doubt you could even if you tried.” Her expression became calm. “I’ll do that someday, perhaps, when she’s not expecting it. I just need you to get something from her.”

  “What?”

  “A ring.”

  Brinley raised an eyebrow.

  “She wears a large iron ring. It once belonged to our father. It was part of a set, which our father gave to us,” she said, her eyes glazing over as if she were seeing something that took place long ago. “The ring for me, the dagger for her. You saw it tonight‌—‌the ring, I mean‌—‌if you were paying attention. It glows green. She used it on Griffin here.” She indicated the cat.

  Brinley remembered. She had a dark thought. “I hope she doesn’t keep it on her finger all the time.”

  “She takes it off when she sleeps. That is when you will enter her lair.”

  “Lair?” Brinley didn’t like the sound of that. Their deal didn’t feel very fair. “So let me get this straight, I have to sneak into an evil witch’s lair‌—‌no offense‌—‌and steal her magic ring, and if she catches me, I’ll die, and all in exchange for you not killing me? You said yourself you don’t want to kill me anyway. It hardly seems fair.”