“You go ahead,” suggested Sparrow. “I’ll stay with Robin. The doctor thinks that if he rests up today and tonight, he should be okay by tomorrow morning.”
“Well, I think her prognosis is wrong,” he grumbled. “It’s going to be a lot longer before I go back to that infernal Testing Hall.”
“Oh no!” cried Tara. “You’ve got to get better very fast. If Fafnir decides to . . . you know, tonight or tomorrow, she won’t wait for us, believe me.”
Robin smiled weakly. “Don’t worry, I won’t let you down. Give me just a couple of hours, and I’ll be bouncing around the way I did earlier.”
“That’s enough of that!” snapped Sparrow irritably. “When it comes to bouncing around, you’ve already done more than your share.”
Looking sheepish, Robin wisely closed his eyes.
“All right, I’m heading outside,” said Tara, who was now in a hurry. “Cal, are you coming with me, or do you want to stay with them?”
Cal didn’t particularly care to deal with the touchy dwarf, especially not in the cold. “Your pegasus is still asleep,” he said. “I’ll send him to you as soon as he wakes up.”
“Great. Catch you later.”
Tara raced outside and Fabrice showed her the way.
When they got there, Fafnir was already pacing back and forth.
“You’re late,” was her only greeting.
“Our friend got hurt in the Testing Hall. He’s resting in the infirmary. I’m sorry to have made you wait.”
“No prob,” muttered the surprised dwarf. “I didn’t have anything else to do, anyway. Is your friend okay?”
“Yes, he’s all right. He snuck in here in disguise, but Magister caught him. He’s a half-elf.”
“An elf?” she hissed. “Snobs and show-offs, every last one of them. I don’t like elves.”
Tara, who had other things to worry about, said: “‘And then Angelica sent Kimi at me to get revenge.’ That doesn’t matter. We have to talk about your plan.”
“Why my plan? No way all of you are escaping with me. Out of the question. You’ll just slow me down. Besides, I have to get home, and I only have a few days. I don’t know where we are, exactly. I have to find a Portal outside the Fortress. Anyway, what would you do in Hymlia?”
“It would certainly be better than here. And you need us to deal with the chatrixes. Don’t tell me you were thinking of facing them by yourself.”
Fafnir looked at her for a long moment.
“Sorry, but the answer’s no,” she grumbled. “I thought maybe you had a plan. But I can see you’re counting on me to pull you through. It’s gonna be hard enough for me to get out alone. All I can promise is to tell the High Council where the Gray Fortress is as soon as I reach Hymlia. Okay?”
“No, that’s not okay at all!” exclaimed Fabrice. “We’re all very worried about Tara. Magister assigned a Bloodgrave to keep an eye on her ever since she was a little girl. Now that she’s in his hands, who knows what he’s gonna do?”
“He’s been spying on you since you were little?” asked Fafnir in surprise. “Why?”
“I don’t have the faintest idea,” said Tara with a sigh.
“Then that’s one more reason why I shouldn’t take you with me,” said the dwarf flatly. “If the boss Bloodgrave has his eye on you, you better keep your nose clean. Otherwise you’ll wind up like your friend—in the infirmary.”
Tara and Fabrice tried to get her to change her mind, but Fafnir wouldn’t bend. She’d already gathered her provisions and planned to break out the very next day.
By now, Tara was desperate. She had searched every room she was allowed to enter and a few she wasn’t, but hadn’t found any sign of her mother.
They ate dinner in gloomy silence.
Gallant was slowly recovering from his shock. Each time he saw the Master of Bloodgraves, he bared his teeth and flattened his ears.
By the time Tara was ready for bed her mood was so black she could’ve painted the whole fortress with it. She was feeling tired, and took a good hot shower. Picking up her robe, she was about to hang it in the closet with the others when she noticed something hard in the pocket. Intrigued, she reached in—and stifled a shout. It was the magic map!
In her panic, she had completely forgotten it. Spellbinder robes’ pockets were designed so their contents never got in their wearers’ way until they took them out.
Feverishly, she spread the map on her bed and unrolled it.
“Well, it’s about time!” the map snapped. “I was simply bored to tears in there. I’m not made to molder away in a pocket, you know.”
“Show us where we are, instead of complaining,” she ordered.
The map obediently came to life, displaying an image of a fortress in the middle of a vast plain at the foot of a mountain. Gandis! So Sparrow was right; they were in the land of the giants!
“How long would it take us to get to Hymlia?”
“That depends. If you walk fast, at least twenty days. If you run, fifteen days, assuming you can keep up the pace. And it depends where in Hymlia you plan to go. Dwarf country is pretty big.”
“Mmm,” muttered Tara, chewing on her favorite strand of hair. “How about to the Swamps of Desolation?”
“If you go through the forest, it’ll take you three days. Two days if you go across the plains, which I recommend because the going is easier.”
“I don’t want to cross the plains, it’s too exposed. I’d rather go through the forest. Show me that route.”
The map didn’t agree. “If you go through the forest, it could take you much longer because the terrain is rougher. Trust me, I know.”
In annoyance, Tara slapped the edge of the map and said, “By Detailus show me my location and the forest route to the dwarfish nation.”
Grumbling, the map had no choice but to obey.
After studying the various itineraries, Tara went to bed with a faint smile on her lips. Fafnir was as stubborn as a mule, but she didn’t have a map—and they did.
Tara was sleeping peacefully when a strong gust of wind blew her window fully open, rattled the gray curtains, and woke her up. A shadow appeared in the room. Tara didn’t have time to be frightened because the shadow turned into a beautiful young woman floating in the air. Astonished at seeing Tara, she exclaimed in anguish: “I don’t believe it! That cursed man managed to kidnap you too!”
Though shaken, Tara was overjoyed.
“Mom? I’ve been looking for you for days! Where are you?”
“Shhh, don’t say anything aloud. Just think the words and I’ll hear you. I’m upstairs, a few feet over your head. I heard that Magister had captured some new apprentices and I came to see. I didn’t expect to find you here!”
Tara described their kidnapping.
“So he succeeded!” her mother groaned. “That monster succeeded! I thought Isabella and Chem would do a better job of protecting you. We have to find a way for you to warn the dragon wizard, darling. You mustn’t stay here. I’ve seen what he does to children. The ones who stay, change. They become powerful and cruel. You have to get away!”
“Oh, Mom, I’m so happy you’re here! I thought you were being held prisoner somewhere else,” said Tara, who for the moment wasn’t giving a thought to her escape plans. “Can I come see you?”
She felt her mother hesitate, then make a decision.
“Listen very carefully, darling. I’m going to arrange it so Magister calls you in tomorrow morning. He’ll probably send a Mud Eater to fetch you. Whatever you do, don’t try to provoke him. Play the fool, so he doesn’t get suspicious. When the Mud Eater brings you here after the meeting, go back the way you came and look for me in the living room. It’s two doors beyond Magister’s office. You’ll find it easily. Be careful; there are guards.”
“All right, Mom. I’ll act as if I didn’t expect to be called in, and I’ll try to see you. What do we do if I can’t?”
“In that case I’ll come back to your roo
m in thought tomorrow night, and we’ll figure something out together.”
“Oh, I nearly forgot!” Tara quickly added. “I think that Fafnir is planning to escape. In fact, I think she’s going to try tomorrow night. She’s a dwarf.”
“Really? That’s wonderful! I didn’t know they had kidnapped a dwarf. What fools! Dwarves can’t stand being locked up, so she’ll do everything in her power to escape. You can trust her, darling. Dwarves are wise and thoughtful.”
“Oh, really? You sure we’re talking about the same people?”
“I have to leave you now. Be brave, my darling. See you tomorrow.”
“So soon? But . . . ”
“I can feel him waking up,” her mother said quickly. “I can’t risk being caught; not now. Until tomorrow, darling. Be careful.”
“Til tomorrow, Mom. I love you.”
“I love you too.”
The shadow disappeared.
Wild with excitement, Tara wasn’t able to get back to sleep until dawn.
When she woke up her heart was singing, and she felt as if she could fly. She danced around the room with her somewhat mystified pegasus, hopped into the bath, carefully washed her hair, and put on her nicest clothes. Her mother! She was finally going to see her mother again!
She carefully folded the map and put it in her pocket, where she also found her remaining immuta-creds and change.
She was heading for the dining hall for breakfast when a Mud Eater stopped her. Tara knew that the Bloodgraves used Eaters for all sorts of little chores that they didn’t have time or inclination to do themselves. Mud Eaters were very stupid, so you had to give them clear explanations to be sure they obeyed. This one had apparently been ordered to bring Tara to his master’s office the moment she left her room.
Tara decided to act as if she wasn’t expecting this, and tried to argue. The Mud Eater wasn’t having any of it.
“Come now, Master want to see you.”
“But I’m hungry!” she whined. “I’ll come after breakfast.”
Fortunately, the Mud Eater had specific orders.
“Come now, Master want to see you.” He took her by the arm and pulled her along.
The area were Magister lived was brilliantly lit up. That’s where Tara met her first giants.
Lost in thought, she found herself in front of what she initially took to be columns. Then she saw feet—very large feet. She looked up . . . and up . . . until finally reaching two rigid faces that looked like granite. She had a moment of panic when one of them seemed to crack, but realized that the giant was just trying to smile.
She timidly smiled back and followed the Mud Eater into the office.
Magister was sitting behind his desk. Once, when Tara and her grandmother were watching a movie together, Isabella commented that the distance you had to cross to reach the movie CEO’s desk was directly proportional to the size of his ego. The Bloodgrave leader’s ego must be huge, because the room, modeled after Omois’s double Throne Room, went on forever. When Tara found herself in front of him, though, any temptation to laugh quickly left her.
Magister seemed to be in a good mood, however. Though she couldn’t see his face, Tara got the unsettling feeling he was smiling. And his mirror mask was a serene blue.
“Welcome to my humble abode,” he said. “Did you sleep well?”
Tara decided to be direct.
“I’m hungry. Your thing there didn’t want me to eat before I came.”
“Well, of course not. I wanted to have breakfast with you. Please, come this way.”
The Bloodgrave opened the door to an attractive private dining room where a sumptuous breakfast was laid out. Tara sat down and started eating a bread roll without paying Magister the slightest attention. She knew he expected her to ask questions, so she stayed completely silent. After a few minutes of her studious chewing, the Bloodgrave broke the silence, and she knew she had won the first round.
“So tell me, Tara, do you like it here?”
A question that dumb didn’t deserve anything less than a clear, frank answer. “Nah. Not at all.”
Magister took a deep breath. “Ah, I see. But you have everything here that you had at Travia, only better.”
Tara knew he was trying to draw her into a discussion. But there’s no point trying to change a nasty person’s mind, so she didn’t answer. Instead, she merely shrugged, knowing this would annoy him.
“Do you like your room?” he tried again, awkwardly.
“Nah. I can’t be with my friends. I don’t like rooms by myself.”
That surprised him. Magister was profoundly individualistic, and couldn’t imagine that someone might prefer a dormitory to a private room. He began drumming his fingers on the table.
“Otherwise, did you find it interesting to take the tests?”
“Didn’t have time. You attacked my friend first!”
The drumming increased.
“But I couldn’t let anybody locate our fortress! You understand that, don’t you.”
She countered his drumming with a shrug.
“Come on, I know you’re very powerful,” he snapped, starting to get agitated. “A lot more powerful than all the other Bloodgraves here. I’m going to increase your power, make you a force in the world, transform you, and—”
“Nah. I don’t want to be powerful. I don’t like magic.”
At that, Magister was speechless. That is, Tara assumed he was speechless, because he certainly wasn’t saying anything.
“You . . . You don’t like magic?”
The drumming stopped.
“Nah. I wanna go home, to Tagon. I like TV better.”
Tara had prepared her strategy while the Mud Eater was dragging her along the hallways. Tara knew a complete idiot at her school back on Earth, named Brutus. All she had to do was say what she imagined Brutus would say, and it would completely discombobulate the Bloodgrave.
“That’s . . . curious,” said Magister, who was no fool. “With Deria yesterday you were speaking completely normally. I can’t believe that the powerful spellbinder who stood up to me in the Testing Hall could be that stupid.”
After a few initial passes, the real duel was beginning. Thrust and parry. All right, thought Tara, let’s see what we can do.
“Why did she call me Imperial Highness?” she asked.
“What?”
“Lady Manticore, the Bloodgrave who wanted to test us. She called me Imperial Highness. Why?”
Disengagement, thrust. Totally unprepared for the question, Magister didn’t know what to answer. To Tara, he looked bothered, exactly the way her grandmother did when she was stuck.
“It must have been a mistake. She probably meant to speak to the Lancovit princess.”
“Nah,” Tara immediately countered. “Sparrow’s only a royal. To me she said Imperial Highness. Why?” Slide along the blade and touch!
Magister suddenly remembered that he had a lot of urgent things to deal with, the first of which was to call in a certain blabbermouth named Lady Manticore.
“Well, I see that you’ve finished your breakfast,” he said. “I’ll let you get back to your friends. Whatever you may think, I’m sure your stay with us will be very productive. And I promise you’ll get all the answers to your questions after your Initiation tomorrow.”
This rattled Tara, but she didn’t let it show.
“M’murm!” he called, after carefully looking Tara over, who remained motionless.
“Master?” The Mud Eater came in.
“Take Tara to the dining hall. Then bring me Lady Manticore. Immediately!”
“Yes, Master, nice Master, good Master.”
“All right, all right, get a move on!”
Tara didn’t know how much the Mud Eater could report back to his master, so she was careful not to smile. Just as they stepped out of Magister’s office and were about to leave his private apartments, Lady Manticore suddenly appeared.
“Ah, M’murm, you’re just the .
. . person I was looking for,” she said. “Do you know if the master is available? I want to see him.”
“Nice Master, good Master await you. You come. Now.”
Tara had no way to tell if Manticore had gone pale, but she seemed unsteady for a moment, and her mask turned green.
“Oh really? He asked to see me? Well, here I am. Let’s go in.”
The Mud Eater hesitated, torn between order number one, which was to bring Tara back, and order number two, which was to fetch Lady Manticore. He wound up not having a choice, because Manticore literally dragged him into Magister’s office.
Tara was delighted. She was in her enemy’s private residence. All she had to do was to find her mother.
Tiptoeing along, she entered the first room she came to. It was a library, and she saw that it held the kind of books that you don’t leave lying around where children could find them—or most adults, for that matter. Lots of stuff on demons, and obscure, not to say frankly infernal magic. Exactly what I would have expected of Magister, she thought with a shudder of disgust.
The next room was the bedroom. Man, does this guy like black! thought Tara, looking it over. Everything was black, from the furniture to the adjoining bathroom, which was dominated by a huge granite tub with gold faucets—the height of good taste. A hair brush lay nearby. Hmm, he’s blond, she noticed. Without thinking, she took a few of the hairs. Cops in TV crime shows are able to identify criminals by their DNA, so why not on OtherWorld?
She silently pursued her search. And found her mother in the third room.
She very slowly opened the door. It was a pleasantly sunny room that probably served as a private Discussarium, because there were chairs and tables everywhere.
When Tara stepped in, the pale, lovely young woman stood up, clapped her hand to her mouth, and ran to her.
“Tara? My little girl! My darling, darling Tara!”
“Mommy! Oh, Mommy!”
She hugged her mother so tight, she felt as if she would never be able to let her go again. After a few moments her mother found the strength to step back to look her daughter over.
“You’re beautiful, darling! I didn’t notice how you’ve grown. I’ve missed you, Tara. You can’t imagine how much I missed you!”
Tara Duncan and the Spellbinders Page 29
