Sarah found that she had closed her eyes when the two creatures had met in battle. When she opened them, she saw that Pan had fallen. Blood flowed from a gash in the goat-man’s forehead. Aries staggered for a moment, himself shaken by the collision. But he recovered quickly and let out a bellow of triumph when he saw the fallen fey before him.
“Untie us!” Sarah shouted. “We’ll help you!”
It was no use, though. The fey were already lost in the heat of battle. They either rushed to meet the oncoming swarm of beast-men or fled deeper into the forest to avoid the fangs of the dragons. The companions were forgotten. To Sarah, it seemed like it would only be a matter of time before they would be trampled by some unheeding beast-man. She fought desperately for some way to get free, but the bonds were too tight to untie, and the ropes were too well spun to break. She thought hard, but she could only think of one other way out. “Kay, the book!”
The book lay where it had fallen from Pan’s grasp, only a little way away from the group. Every spell in the world was contained within it. Surely, there had to be some spell in there that would untie their ropes.
Upon hearing Sarah’s cry, Kay nodded and began to crawl desperately toward the spellbook. Sarah squirmed forward, too, although the pair had to stop frequently to avoid being trampled by the chaotic warriors around them. Finally, they managed to get to the book. Sarah forced herself into a sitting position and turned her back to Kay. Grabbing the cover with hands that were bound behind her, she started turning the pages while Kay read. “Tell me when to stop,” she shouted over the din of the battle. “And hurry!”
“All right,” Kay muttered, “let’s see… we need something that can undo our bindings. I think there’s some sort of rope trick in here somewhere. Skip ahead seven pages.”
Closing her eyes, Sarah focused on the feeling of each page between her fingers and thumb. She counted to herself as she flipped the pages one by one. When she reached the seventh page, she stopped and opened her eyes. She decided immediately that she should have kept them closed, though. One of the beast-men had taken notice of the bound pair, and now he stood over Sarah with his ax raised high for the kill.
“OK, I think I’ve got it,” Kay said, oblivious of the danger Sarah faced. “Let’s try this…” The boy started reading off the seemingly nonsensical syllables. Knowing what was about to come, Sarah winced at the mistake she had made in letting Kay read the book.
A burst of smoke filled the area and then blew away quickly in the open air. The ropes hadn’t budged at all, but something else had changed. The beast-man in front of Sarah was larger and more terrifying than before. It no longer had the head of an ox—it now had the long snout of an alligator. The human part of its body was covered in scales, and its hands ended in long, cruel-looking claws. It looked confused for a moment and then grinned wickedly. It opened its mouth hungrily and leaned in close to swallow Sarah whole. She shrieked with fear.
“Calm down, calm down,” Kay said, still studying the book intently. “That one didn’t do the trick, but I think I found the one that will.” Again, Kay shouted off the words to another spell.
Another puff of smoke burst in front of Sarah, just as the lizard-creature was about to snap its cruel-looking teeth around Sarah’s neck. When the smoke cleared, the creature was gone, replaced by yet another form. This time, it was nothing more than a wide-eyed chipmunk. Startled, the rodent looked at Sarah, who had seemed so small to it just a moment before. Then it ran away, fleeing the battle scene as quickly as its four paws could take it.
“OK, OK,” Kay said. “This time, I think I’ve really got it.” The boy read off a series of new gibberish words.
Sarah winced as she imagined the possible results.
A third puff of smoke burst around Sarah. When it cleared, her first concern was to make sure Kay hadn’t accidentally transformed her into something. She clicked her teeth to make sure they really were teeth and not fangs. She spread her fingers to make sure they weren’t webbed. Then she touched her hands to her ears to make sure Kay hadn’t turned her into a rabbit or some other forest creature. It was only when she checked this last detail that she realized she could move her hands and feet.
“Kay, you did it! We’re free! You really—aah!” She shouted and jumped backward. The ropes hadn’t disappeared—they had been transformed instead. Instead of the silvery cords that had bound her, her arms were now covered in tiny black snakes. They didn’t bite her or wrap themselves around her, but they did startle her just enough to make her forget anything nice she was about to say to Kay. She shot him a glare as she brushed the last of the small serpents off her. The tiny snakes slithered away deeper into the grass, just as startled as Sarah was herself.
Dax, too, was freed, and he rushed to Sarah’s side as soon as he realized it. “I suppose you get marks for trying,” he said. “But we really aren’t any better off now than we were a few moments ago. The odds against us are overwhelming.”
“We don’t need to fight,” Sarah said. “At least, not right now. We need to get out of here with the spellbook, and we’ll be fine. Dax, you go help Keeley out of her cage. Kay, you and I need to find a spell that can get us out of here. Hopefully, it won’t be one that will turn us into mice or something, too.”
The old warrior nodded. A beast-man with a goat’s head came too close to the companions while battling with a woman who seemed to be made out of wood. Dax kicked the beast-man in the back, knocking it over. Then he took the club out of its hands and smacked it over the head, knocking it unconscious. “We’re still doomed, you know,” he said, and then he marched off into the fray.
Sarah looked around the battlefield. Dax’s statement wasn’t far from the truth. The battle wasn’t going well for any of the fey, and the superior numbers of the beast-men were beating back those who stayed to fight. The ones who ran found themselves being chased down by the dragons. They wouldn’t last much longer.
“I’ll find a spell that can get us to safety,” Kay shouted. Much of the boy’s confidence had returned now that he held the book in his hands.
Sarah looked over Kay’s shoulder as he flipped through the spellbook’s pages. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Pan and Aries continuing their fight. They were grappled now, with each one trying to wrestle the other to the ground. Pan was doing well, but Aries still had the advantage of size and strength. It looked like that particular contest would be over soon, and not in Pan’s favor.
“There,” Sarah shouted, returning her attention to Kay’s book. “That one.” She pressed her finger against runes that seemed to spell out the word Travel. “Cast that one!”
“Right!” Kay cleared his throat and shouted the syllables of the spells… incorrectly, as usual.
“Not like that,” Sarah groaned.
The spell, naturally, had already begun to take effect. The grass and moss of the forest floor began growing into long vines that wrapped around the legs of fey and beast-man alike. Within thirty seconds, most of the attacking force found themselves bound to the ground by the overgrown foliage, while any fey that could fly took to the air.
“That’s OK,” Kay said. “I meant to do that. To lay our enemies low and all that. Now I’ll just… um… which spell was the travel one again?”
One of the beast-men wasn’t slowed down at all by Kay’s spell. That one was, of course, Aries. The gigantic ram-man tore himself free of the magically grown vines, ripping chunks of dirt out of the ground in the process. Pressing on through the crowd of fighters around him, he came to stand before Sarah and Kay before the pair could even glance at the book again.
“Well, if it isn’t the little would-be wizard and his girlfriend.” Aries snorted and pawed the ground. “It seems she knows how to use the book better than you do, boy.”
Despite the hulking form of the beast-man in front of him, Kay stood tall. His eyes blazed, and he clutched the book defensively to his chest. “Maybe she does,” he said. “But even if I’m not the bes
t wizard out there, I still know enough not to give my father’s spellbook to someone like you.”
“Bravery is only stupidity in disguise, boy.” Aries held out his hand. “My master will do more with that book than any enchanter ever could. Give it to me now, and I’ll spare you and the fey. I’ll even call off the dragons, even though they’re so very hungry.”
Kay gave Sarah an uncertain glance. She shook her head, and Kay nodded his. Turning back to face Aries, his face was as hard as stone. His hands clutched the book even tighter. “You’ll have to kill me to get it.”
Aries chuckled dryly. “You make that sound so hard.”
The beast-man stomped his foot, causing a small tremor that knocked Sarah and Kay off balance. Then he took a deep breath in and let out a roar. The noise was as loud as an explosion. The air around Sarah seemed to ripple. The ground shook, and the night sky looked like it was about to fall on her head. The roar seemed to last forever. Sarah closed her eyes and clasped her hands to her ears. When she opened her eyes again, her head was ringing. She realized that she had fallen over. Kay was lying next to her, the book knocked from his grasp.
“I have orders to keep the two of you alive, if possible,” Aries said, stepping over their prone bodies. “Lord Baelan thinks your knowledge of the book might be useful. So consider yourself lucky on that count.” Ignoring the pair, he bent over and picked up the book. Kay cried out in despair.
Sarah picked herself up and ran at Aries. She grabbed the branch of a fallen tree on her way and clubbed the monster over the back as he was walking away. But the branch just broke off in her hand.
Aries turned around and looked at her. If anything, the hit had only irritated him. “Of course, if you want to make this difficult, I’m sure my master will understand if one of you accidentally gets crushed.” The beast-man raised one hefty fist to strike.
Sarah tensed her body, hoping to dodge aside. Based on what had already happened to Pan, she had no reason to believe she could survive getting hit by someone that powerful. Luckily, she didn’t have to put that theory to the test.
Kay sprang up and charged. The skinny boy got only a few paces before he tripped over his own robes and flew headlong into Aries. The beast-man didn’t even budge, but his attention shifted from Sarah to Kay. The boy bounced backward and almost fell to the ground.
“Your father never would have tried something that stupid,” Aries said. “You’re even more pathetic than that old man.”
Kay didn’t say anything. He just growled and threw himself at the ram-man again.
Aries swung his arm and caught the boy across the head with the back of his hand. It was only a glancing blow, but it still knocked Kay off his feet.
The boy fell flat on his back. Blood ran deep from a cut Aries had opened up above Kay’s hazel-colored eyes. He didn’t get up.
Sarah rushed over to her fallen friend’s side, but Aries reached out to grab her. She dodged aside, then threw herself flat against the ground as a fireball exploded above her head. She thought the dragons had come back to the main battlefield and so was quite surprised when she looked up to see little Keeley attacking the gigantic beast-man. Her white wings fluttered rapidly as she swooped down at the creature, clawing at his face and breathing fire.
Aries dropped the book and swatted at her furiously. Even one of his massive hands could have crushed the tiny dragon without any effort at all. Somehow, though, Keeley managed to dodge every attack, just barely avoiding getting squashed like a bug.
Keeley was joined in battle by a handful of other fey, who darted to and fro above Aries’s head and shot their tiny arrows at him. Even though those enchanted weapons had already put several beast-men to sleep, they didn’t even slow Aries down. He only grew angrier, and his attacks grew more furious.
Sarah crouched beside Kay. For a moment, she feared he was dead. His eyes were open, but not focusing on anything. His breathing was shallow, if there at all. After a sickening moment, he turned his head toward Sarah, and his eyes slowly focused. “I… I don’t think I’m doing a very good job at being a wizard,” he murmured. Then he closed his eyes and fell into unconsciousness.
Sarah had to put a hand on his chest to make sure his heart was still beating. “You’re a fine wizard,” she whispered. “We’ll do your father proud, you’ll see.”
Dax had joined the fray against Aries now. His sword bit into the beast-man’s hide, producing thick black blood. Sarah did a double-take when she saw the old man fighting with the sharp part of a blade. On a second glance, she noticed that he was battling with his eyes squeezed shut so he wouldn’t see the blood. Aries fought back, hammering the old man with blows that would have crushed bone had Dax not somehow got his blade up to defend himself every time.
Still, that sword could only take so much punishment, and it seemed ready to snap. Aries kicked out with one of his hooves. Dax dodged backward, but the force of the beast-man’s kick still put him off balance. Dax stumbled and fell. Opening one eye, he looked ruefully at Sarah. “I told you we were doomed,” he said even more sadly than usual.
“We’re not doomed,” Sarah said. She whistled to Keeley, and the dragon wheeled past Aries’s outstretched fingers and toward her companions.
“Oh, thank heavens you are all OK! You have a plan, yes? Keeley’s getting tired.”
“The only plan is to get us all out of here,” Sarah said. She ran to where Aries had dropped Kay’s spellbook, picked it up, and opened it. Aries charged, but she found a spell in the nick of time. With a shout of three syllables that she couldn’t even hear over Aries’s roar, she summoned up a whirlwind that caught Aries and threw him backward. The ram-man picked himself up, his eyes blazing red as he realized that something had finally slowed him down. He charged again, but not before Sarah managed to cast another spell. She touched each of her three companions as she spoke the magic words. Aries was upon them, and he swung his fists hard to deliver a killing blow. But his attack would meet nothing but air. The companions had already been carried away by Sarah’s spell.
Where they would end up, though, Sarah had no idea.
Fifteen
Sarah felt the familiar falling sensation that came with the traveling spell. The sounds of battle died away as the companions left the forest behind. She hoped Aries would leave the fey alone once he knew they didn’t have the book anymore. Even if he didn’t, the woodland creatures seemed smart enough to run and hide from the army of beast-men until the danger had passed. Now that the spellbook was back with its rightful owner, Sarah knew that the danger had passed to them again.
She came out of the spell a few feet above the ground. Even though she had been through this before, she still didn’t seem to have the landing quite right, and she fell face-first onto the ground. She yelped and jumped up immediately. The ground was cold. More than that, it was covered in snow. “What time of year is it here, anyway?”
She was answered by a groan nearby. It sounded like a ghost’s wail. She recognized it immediately as Dax. “You could have given us some sort of warning before casting that spell of yours,” he mumbled. “As to your question, it’s late summer. Not that you’d know it from the looks of things here. You must have landed us in the mountains. The thin air will give us all the worst of headaches, and I’ll probably catch my death from the cold. But I guess that’s just the way life goes. If I wasn’t always looking on the bright side, I’d say we’re no better off right now than we were back on the battlefield.”
The old warrior kept up his mumbling, and when Sarah decided that she had had enough, she said, “You’ve got blood on your sword.”
Dax looked at the blade and almost fainted dead away. He immediately plunged the sword into the snow, trying to wipe the redness off.
Sarah smiled and took in the rest of her surroundings.
Dax was right—they were in the mountains. She had seen the gray snow-capped peaks from far away ever since she had appeared in the valley. The tall mountains must have be
en covered in snow even in the hottest summer. Even from where they were, Sarah could look up and see the jagged peaks continuing higher and higher into the sky. Looking the other way, she saw the sunny valley of Greystone. She could see the many forests, roads, and farmlands that stretched through the small land. From this height, it was like looking down into an ant farm. She didn’t have much time to admire the view, though. She had friends to attend to.
Even though Dax was shivering with cold and grumbling to himself about how terrible the trip into the mountains was for his health, he seemed no worse than normal. Keeley’s reaction to the snow was the complete opposite of Dax’s. She didn’t even stop to ask what had brought them here. With a gleeful squeal, she dove into the snowdrifts, digging her way deeper in until her white scales blended completely with the snow around her. Even the danger of the battle and the threats of the fey that had captured her seemed to be completely forgotten as she played her games. That only left Kay. Unfortunately, Sarah’s first friend in Greystone Valley was also the one who was the worst for wear at the moment.
Kay was still asleep. To her relief, Sarah found that the cut on his head wasn’t very deep. The bruise where Aries had hit him was swelling up like a purple golf ball, though. Sarah scooped up a handful of snow and pressed it to the boy’s forehead in an attempt to stop the swelling. At the touch of the cold snow, Kay shivered and opened his eyes. “What… what happened? Are you OK?”
Sarah smiled. Besides a few scrapes and bruises, she was fine. She was definitely much better off than Kay, with his swollen forehead and glazed eyes.
“Where’s the book?” Kay asked when he had gained a bit more of his senses back.
“It’s right here,” Sarah replied. She had dropped the book after the travel spell, but it lay within easy reach. She plucked it out of the snow, noting that its magical properties kept the pages from being even a little damp from the slush around it. As she handed it back to her friend, she felt a twinge of sadness. She had used the spells in the book so easily, as though casting magic was a part of who she was. But the book wasn’t hers. It belonged to Kay, no matter how much she wanted to keep it.
Greystone Valley Page 10
