Ping shook his head. “Unlikely. A pretender can develop significant powers—as we saw when Sam’s version of your mother attempted to cross realms—but ultimately she failed in that endeavor when faced with your abilities. Tran may be another powerful pretender, but she can’t stymie a progenitor such as yourself.”
“She stymied me pretty well, and she wasn’t even in the room.”
“Remember, Sam’s version of your mother projected her powers across realms before she crossed over. Even so, she was no match for you.”
Sam approached them. With his eyes glowing green, in two voices he said, “Do not underestimate NaRealm Tran.”
CHAPTER 14
“What are you doing?” Mara asked, sounding both tired and irritated but not particularly scared by the voices coming out of her brother.
In stereo, he replied, “Andrea didn’t have a chance to finish teaching me how to channel spirits, so I wanted to find out if I could do it. We are together again.” He had a goofy smile on his face that Mara took as an amplification of his personality—two souls and twice the dork he usually was. “I also wanted to find out if the dead Sam was a prompter like me.”
Diana burst through the front door without warning. “Sam! Are you all right? I stopped by Andrea’s, and the front door of her house had been torn away, and her living room looked like a war zone.”
Sam’s glowing gaze shifted to his mother. “Sorry, Mom. We should have called you.”
She gasped when she realized she spoke to both Sams. “Andrea’s lessons must have worked. It’s both of you in there, isn’t it?”
“I am here, Mom.” He nodded.
“What happened at Andrea’s?” she asked.
“Tran and her bowraiths attacked after you dropped Sam off,” Mara said.
Diana closed the front door and walked into the living room, not taking her eyes off her son. Over the next fifteen minutes, they recounted the events at Andrea’s house and described what Tran had done to the medium.
“My goodness, that is absolutely terrible,” Diana said. “I need to call Ned and tell him what happened. First, they attack Sam, then Ned and now Andrea and Sam again. What in the world does the Coven hope to accomplish by all this violence?”
“If I had to hazard a guess, I would say Tran and her acolytes are attempting a preemptive strike on anyone they feel may be a threat to them. They have attacked both your son and your daughter. They tried to stop Ned from saving the Elements of Magic. And they killed Andrea while making an attempt on our Sam,” Ping said.
“It’s like they know what we’re going to do before we do it,” Mara said.
“Or they know where the threats lie and are taking them out, one by one.”
“What’s to stop them from attacking us here at the house?” Diana asked.
“Nothing,” Mara said. “That’s why we are leaving for the swamp as soon as we can.”
“You mean, after we review the information in the book. Correct?” Ping asked.
“No. I mean now.”
“Confronting Tran without being prepared would be a mistake,” Sam said, his eyes still glowing and his voices still striking an odd chord.
“You can’t go today. It will be dark before you got out there. Let me call Ned. I need to tell him about Andrea and see if he has any insights about how to approach the Coven,” Diana said.
Something banged into the front door, and a loud squeal cut through the air, fading into a low growl and a snort. Mara, sitting on the couch next to her mother, jumped to her feet and swung around to face the door. “The Coven is attacking!”
Diana stood next to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. “That’s not the Coven. It’s Ginger. I left her outside when I ran into the house.”
“Ginger?” Sam asked.
“Mara’s pet chobodon,” he answered himself.
Sam’s gaze shifted upward as he considered the information. He frowned and said, “Mara has a pet pig-looking thing?” He shook his head, clearing away the thought.
“It might be less confusing if you end your session with your counterpart for now,” Ping said.
Diana walked to the front door and opened it. With a loud squeal of glee, the armor-plated porcine creature bounded into the house and did a little jig in a circle around her legs like a dog excited to get a treat. After three revolutions, Ginger stopped and stuck her snout into the air. Another squeal of delight reverberated off the walls as she skittered across the wood floor and vaulted over the back of the couch, landing next to where Mara now sat. Not pausing a second, the chobodon bounced onto Mara’s lap, licking her cheeks with wet kisses.
“Oh, gross,” Sam said. He now stood next to the fireplace, his eyes no longer radiating green light and his voice no longer a duotone. “It’s like a bit fat armadillo.”
Ginger froze and turned to him. She squealed and vaulted across the room, landing on the hearth next to Sam’s knee. The creature hopped onto its hind legs, pressing its forelimbs against Sam’s rib cage and slathered the side of his head with a big wet lick.
Leaning away from Ginger, he wiped saliva from his cheek and tried to dry his hand on his jeans. “That’s disgusting.”
Diana said, “She won’t calm down until she gets some petting and a few scratches behind the ear.” She walked through the entryway to the back of the house. “I’ll be in the kitchen. I need to call Ned and tell him about Andrea. Don’t do anything until I get back.”
“What do you mean, don’t do anything?” Mara asked.
“Don’t leave, and don’t make any decisions until I talk to Ned,” she called back from the kitchen.
Mara and Ping sat and watched Sam pet and scratch Ginger until she rolled onto the round rug in front of the fireplace, exposing her belly and making a purring noise that sounded like a contented snoring drunk sleeping off a bender. Sam sat on the ground next to her and rubbed her plated tummy.
They heard the phone in the kitchen ring.
“I thought she was on the phone with Ned,” Mara said.
“Maybe he needed to call her back for some reason,” Ping suggested.
A few minutes later, Diana returned to the living room with a grim expression and sat on the couch next to Mara. “He was quite upset about Andrea, and he’s concerned about the advisability of you going into the swamp after Tran.”
“What alternative do we have? She has Mara, and she has already shown no compunction about attacking us here in the city. So how much more dangerous could it be?” Mara asked.
“Tracking her down may be more difficult than you think,” Diana said.
“What do you mean?” Ping asked.
“Ned isn’t familiar with the geography around the swamp, but he remembered Andrea mentioning a man who owns a restaurant in Welches who knows the area. Ned called him and asked if he knew anything about this Arboretum of the Elements which Andrea mentioned. The man wasn’t sure, but he had heard rumors that it was built deep into the swamp, more than a three-day hike. He said you might cut that down to a day or so if you take a canoe down the river, but the Coven keeps their eyes on the riverbanks.”
“No canoe. No river,” Mara said.
“Why not?” Diana asked.
Sam interjected, “Mara’s afraid of water.”
“What’s this restaurant man’s name?” Mara asked, wanting to change the subject.
“Terrance Martin. He said we could stop by in the morning after the breakfast rush,” Diana said.
“We? What do you mean, we?” Mara asked. “What’s the point of you going into the swamp?”
“They are holding my daughter. They killed my son. You think I’m sitting around worrying while the three of you disappear into the swamp? No way. I’m going.” Mara opened her mouth to continue the debate, but Diana raised a hand. “I’m not arguing with you, young lady. I’m going, and that’s final. Now, why don’t you and Mr. Ping work on your magic book while Sam and I pack up the camping gear. If Ned is right, you need to know as much a
s possible before we confront the Coven.”
Mara knew it was pointless to argue once Diana had made up her mind.
* * *
Several minutes later, Mara sat on the floor by the coffee table, facing Ping and watching him arrange the various items that had been there earlier. Mara plucked the green crystal from the bowl that had held a small mound of dirt earlier. Rolling the crystal between her fingers, she stared past its reflective surface and realized it was a demontoid, like the gem her mother had given her.
Where was that crystal? It was the one she had used in the battle with her mother’s counterpart on the bridge in Oregon City. They had also taken it to Cam’s Reality, the realm where she got her artificial body. They had carried it in the book bag along with a cup of dust of Prado’s remains and the last remaining page of the Chronicle of Context, the book Mara’s niece had brought from the future. An image of the book bag lying in the corner on the floor of her bedroom flashed in her mind.
“You ready to begin?” Ping asked.
Mara dropped the crystal into the bowl. “Sure. We did Earth, Wind and Fire before. I guess that leaves Water.”
Ping sat the glass of water in front of her. “Correct. As you know, Water can take many forms. For instance, it can exist as a gas, a liquid or a solid, depending on temperature. Let’s see what you can do with this.”
Mara focused on the glass of water while Ping continued to talk. The Water gurgled and bubbled as she envisioned herself steeped in its clear buoyance.
“Then we can move from the elements of Perception to the elements of Reality. Once the elemental review is complete, we can move on to the next level in your training.”
A small cloud of vapor formed at the top of the glass as the boiling inside intensified.
“I thought reviewing the elements was the training,” Mara said.
With a loud sucking sound, the Water disappeared in a puff of steam that shot up into the air, spreading into a thin layer above the table. Mara’s gaze followed the wispy blanket as it hovered above them.
“Heavens, no. The Elements of Magic has much more to offer. We haven’t even gotten to using multiple elements simultaneously, incantations or casting spells, not to mention conjuring autonomous wraiths and other elemental creatures.”
Mara frowned at him. “Conjuring what?”
The vapor above them condensed into a brief shower of droplets that rained down on them. Ping cringed at the falling water, but it was over before he had a chance to look up. The material of his shirt had darkened along the shoulders, but he was far from soaked. Grabbing a cloth from the end of the table, he sopped up beads of water on its lacquered surface.
“Remember not to get distracted while deploying your abilities,” he said.
“You didn’t answer my question. You actually said the phrases incantations, casting spells and conjuring creatures all in the same sentence. What happened to not falling for superstitious nonsense, that magic was the crutch of the feeble-minded?”
“I never said anything about crutches or the feeble-minded.”
“You might as well have.”
“You needn’t concern yourself that I have gone over to the dark side, for lack of a better term. I still firmly believe your abilities are the product of natural laws. They are metaphysical in nature, based in the disciplines of science, not sorcery. However, many of the mechanisms which underlie your abilities are, unfortunately, beyond my personal knowledge and experience. Therefore, I’m relying on this book to guide us in their development. Since the book uses the vocabulary of magic, and I am unaware of the metaphysical terminological equivalents, we are stuck learning these very scientific precepts using appallingly unscientific verbiage.”
“That must grate on your nerves a bit.”
“On a certain level, yes. I wouldn’t want my colleagues back at the Department of Applied Metaphysics to overhear our lessons, but practicality demands that we move forward. We need you to further develop your abilities if you are to confront Curate Tran and her followers.”
“You’ll teach me to cast spells and to conjure creatures?”
“Once you understand the basic principles, it’s not as exotic as it sounds. There’s an underlying logic to the whole thing—a formula, if you will—that is quite elegant,” Ping said. “Why don’t we begin reviewing the elements of Reality now?”
“Wait a minute. Exactly what kind of creatures are we talking about conjuring?”
“Creatures like the bowraiths and the electricity man who attacked Sam back in the shop. Animating elements into coherent autonomous beings is one of the higher-level skills referenced here.” He tapped the cover of Elements of Magic.
“I can’t imagine ever wanting to do that. What’s the point if you don’t need a goon squad?”
“I don’t know, but you should at least learn about it, even if it’s only to gain an understanding of your adversaries.”
“That makes sense. But how can we cover all that material when we’re leaving for Hood Swamp in the morning?”
“The restaurant owner told Ned it was a three-day hike into the swamp to get to the Arboretum. We’ll have to stop and rest each evening, so we’ll spend a couple hours learning what we can then.”
“Magic lessons by campfire. Sounds like a hoot,” Mara said.
CHAPTER 15
Though Mara grew up in Oregon, the terrain they entered as they drove east looked foreign. Instead of steadily inclining roads leading to Mount Hood and the highlands associated with the Cascade Range, the narrow highway dipped into what looked like a massive bowl filled with dense leafy greenery that had a noticeable tinge of purple to it. It struck her more like an exotic jungle than a swamp. She cracked open a window, and the cool air that flowed inside carried a hint of lavender. Ginger the chobodon, who sat wedged between Mara and Ping in the back seat, raised her snout, snorted, then returned to her nap.
“That smells wonderful,” Mara said as she looked to the horizon.
“Better than the stink everywhere else,” Sam said. Sitting in the passenger seat next to his mother, he turned to her. “I’ve been meaning to ask about that. Why does this realm smell like farts?”
Diana smiled and said, “I didn’t realize that it did.”
“It’s the exhaust from the biomechanical automobiles,” Mara said. “I’m sure if Mom were to visit us in our realm, she would think it smelled like burned petroleum. We’re just not acclimated to the background smells here.”
“You burn oil to power your vehicles?” Diana asked. “That sounds like it would be terrible for the environment.”
Ping interjected, “Most of our energy comes from petroleum products of one sort or another. We also use it for electricity and lighting. While it causes pollution, we’ve made some technological advances that reduce the impact on the environment.”
“So you don’t use the souls of your dead for light?” Diana asked.
Sam shook his head. “We inter the bodies of our dead, not their souls.”
“What happens to their souls?”
“Different people believe different things,” he said. “Some people believe they go to heaven. Other people believe souls are recycled and go on to live more lives. Some believe the dead just stop existing.”
“How sad that you don’t have your loved ones around you to light your way through life,” Diana said. “I love that my grandmother wakes me up every morning. Her luminaire resides in the lamp on my nightstand.”
“Where will you put Sam?” Sam asked about his counterpart.
“I’m not sure. He always liked hanging out in the kitchen. Maybe I’ll put him there.”
“I think he would like that.”
They passed a sign on the side of the road that read Welches, 2 Miles. Diana glanced into the rearview mirror at Mara. “Ned said the restaurant was a half-mile outside of town, so we’re just about there.”
Two minutes later, Diana slowed the vehicle and flipped on her turn signal. Mara du
cked down in the back seat to see where they were and watched as her mother navigated around a ten-foot pole holding up a lit marquee sign that featured permanent lettering on top, reading Restaurant. On the marquee portion of the sign, clear plastic tiles with black letters spelled out Welcome, NaRealm Tran.
“Are you sure this is the right place?” Mara said. “I’d hate to go in there and find out it’s being run by a bunch of acolytes of the Coven.”
“It looks like the place Ned described, and it’s right where he said it would be,” Diana said. She slid in next to a car parked in front of the barracks-shaped building and cut the vehicle’s ignition. “Let’s go inside and ask for Terrance. I’m sure there’s a reasonable explanation for the sign. Maybe he has a back room he rents out for meetings or something, and they posted the sign for that.”
“Like a Rotary Club meeting?” Mara asked, her voice tinged with sarcasm. “I’d feel better if they posted the blue-plate special.”
Gravel crunched under their feet as they walked toward the front of the establishment. Mara leaned into Ping and whispered, “Keep your eyes peeled. I’m not sure I like the way this is working out. Welcome, NaRealm Tran. Sheesh.”
“It’s unlikely Ned would have directed us here if he thought it would put us in danger,” Ping said.
Sam held the door open for them as they passed into the restaurant. Inside, the faux wood-paneled walls, red leather upholstery on the booths that lined the wall to their left and silver chrome-trimmed Formica counter that ran parallel to them made Mara think they had stepped back into the 1950s. A waitress smiled at them as she poured coffee for a customer sitting at the counter in front of a half-empty plate.
“You folks want a booth or a table? Tables are in the back room,” she said. “Just have a seat, and I’ll be with you in a moment.”
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