The Box Omnibus #1 (The Box, The Journal, The Sword)

by Gaudet, Christina G.

  “He’s waiting in your world,” Al reminds us. “I’m talking about the version of the house here.”

  I can practically feel Cindy’s excitement as she realizes he’s right, but I’m not convinced.

  “How do we know he hasn’t found the portal already?” I ask. “He could be in this world right now. And do we know for sure there’s anything helpful there that’s worth risking it?”

  “Maybe not,” Al says. “But I used to visit the house a lot as a child. There were items there, as if stored to keep them safe.”

  “Not so safe if kids were getting into them,” Cindy says.

  “That’s the thing, we never touched them.” He grows thoughtful. “It was as if there was something preventing us from getting too close. I didn’t understand it then, but I’m sure it was some sort of magic barrier.”

  “And now we’ve got our very own sorceress to break the barrier.” Cindy claps me on the shoulder.

  I think the tension might be getting to me because as soon as her hand touches me, I grab it and twist her arm enough she whimpers a little. I’m sure I scared her more than hurt her. Well, pretty sure. But she should have known better.

  “Sorry,” I mumble and drop her hand.

  “It’s good,” Al says when Cindy grumbles something about blind ninjas under her breath. “You need to be ready for anything. This isn’t going to be easy.”

  “We don’t have much time,” Cindy says. “Let’s go see what’s being protected at Gran’s house.”

  The walk is excruciating, with Cindy attempting to lead me at a pace I would have a hard time keeping up with even if I wasn’t blind. I catch my toes on what seems like every single rock and branch and the uneven ground does a number on my ankles. I end up falling and scraping the skin on the palms of my hands. Three times. I’m glad I’m wearing jeans or else the damage to my legs would be worse. As it is, every time the rough material scrapes my knees the skin rubs a little rawer.

  When Cindy starts to slow down, I can only assume it’s because we’re almost at the house. Since no one’s spoken since we left Al’s, I can’t know for certain.

  “It’s been a long time since I’ve been here,” Al breaks the silence. “There’s a chance things aren’t exactly as I remember. Or someone’s come and already taken everything.”

  “Got it,” Cindy says. “Expectations have been lowered. Now how about a way in?”

  “Use the front door.”

  Something jangles from Al’s direction.

  “You have the keys from our world,” Cindy says.

  “I do.” He shakes them again, and this time I recognize the sound.

  “Are you going to give them to me?”

  “No.” As Cindy starts to protest, he stops her and continues. “There’s another set around back. Same place as these were. If we’re going to do this right, we’re going to need both sets.”

  “Why?” I ask, as Cindy starts to complain some more.

  “Because like I said before, even if we find something in here we can use, the best advantage we have is the fact he thinks Sin will go alone. This means we can’t all go through the portal to your world as one clumsy group.”

  There’s a hint of suspicion in Cindy’s voice when she asks, “You’re going to go in with Lou?”

  “Is that a problem?” He reveals nothing of how he feels.

  “I don’t know,” Cindy says, equally as emotionless. “Is it?”

  “It’s fine,” I say. “It makes sense for us to go together. Will Cindy go in first and then we’ll wait and follow?”

  “Not exactly,” Al says.

  Instead of explaining what he means, he steps away while Cindy pulls me to a stop. A few minutes later, we’re inside the house. The magic I’ve been sensing since waking intensifies until it feels like actual hands running over my arms and head, putting pressure on my chest and lungs. I double over, gasping for air as I push back the magic to a point where the pressure is tolerable.

  “What is it?” Cindy asks. “Are you okay?”

  I manage to straighten. “There’s definitely magic here. It’s not too friendly either.”

  “Do you think Gran left it here?” she asks.

  “If she did, I’m glad I was never on her bad side.”

  Once I’ve managed to shove the pressure back a bit, the only thing still affected is my head. Every minute we stay in the room, the pounding grows a little worse. I’m not sure if it’s from the magic or from my struggling attempt to control it with my own power.

  “Any chance we can go a little faster?” I press my hand to my forehead. “I’m starting to understand what a migraine feels like.”

  “Over here.” Al guides us through a door where my arm scrapes against the frame, and leads us into what I think must be Gran’s study. The pressure increases and I know whatever the magic is supposed to keep us from is close.

  “Is that it?” Cindy asks.

  I wish more than anything my head wasn’t pounding so much so I could do the magic to see through her eyes. Instead I’m forced to clamp my hand harder to my head and hope someone tells me what’s happening soon.

  “Yes,” Al says.

  “I can’t look directly at it,” Cindy says. “Think it’s the same sort of magic as what hid the door?”

  Al doesn’t answer which drives me insane. Don’t they know I’m relying on them to tell me what’s happening?

  “Lou?” he says. “Are you sure you’re all right?”

  I ignore the stupid question and point toward where the magic feels strongest. “Are the items in that area?”

  He hesitates. “Yes, but...”

  “Perfect.”

  I carefully step toward the source of the power and am instantly hit by a more localized soreness between my eyes. I push back at the magic even harder and continue to move forward. If there’s something to help defeat Stewart and save Mom, there’s no way a little bit of pain is going to stop me from finding it.

  I take another step and nearly collapse as the pressure smashes against my stomach, nearly knocking the wind out of me.

  “Is her nose bleeding?” Cindy’s voice only half registers in my screaming mind.

  But it doesn’t matter. I can feel the source of the magic now, its image burned into my mind without ever needing to actually see it with my eyes. A wax seal pressed on a folded piece of paper. So simple, and yet pulsing with power. Layers of magic fold into the wax as though the sorceress who created the spell spent days building it up to make it so powerful.

  I’m also sure I wasn’t feeling nearly the full effect of the magic. It’s meant to hide the objects from average people and warn sorceresses away. But for a full wizard, the magic would rip him apart.

  My hand feels like it’s moving through ever hardening concrete as I reach for the paper and seal. When it’s in my hand, I do the only thing I can think of that might work. I turn it to ash.

  The flames engulf my hand, but compared to the pain of the foreign magic, I don’t notice the heat.

  With the pressure of the spell gone along with the seal, I collapse onto my knees, exhausted and empty.

  “You’re not going to puke are you?” Cindy asks.

  I ignore her since the alternative is to think about the word she used and...

  Cool fingers run through my hair and rest on the back of my neck, doing wonders for both my stomach and headache.

  “Thanks,” I say to Al, standing with his help.

  “Nice work with the fire,” he says.

  “Honestly, I have my doubts I could do it again.” I bite my lip, wishing I was just being modest.

  “I’m not surprised. Going up against a full sorceress’s spell when you barely have control over your magic, well, let’s say things could have gone a lot worse.”

  “We’ve got a winner!” Cindy says.

  I hadn’t realized Cindy moved on to look at the items the magic protected. After the feeling of the guarding spell, the items barely have any magical qu
alities at all. It seems unlikely she could find something useful so fast.

  “What is it?” I ask.

  “This stuff,” she says. “All of it is described in the book I got from the box. Just a second while I try to figure out some of Gran’s short hand.”

  I try to move a little closer to her, though I’m not sure why. It’s not like I can read the book over her shoulder. “You got one of Gran’s books.”

  “Shh,” she says. “Reading. There’s a bunch of stuff in here on protection and hiding.” She flips through a few of the noisy pages. “I’m sure this object held the spell Lou took care of for us.”

  “What about the rest?” Al is clearly not as impressed by the book as Cindy. “Anything useful?”

  Cindy doesn’t answer, I’m assuming because she’s too busy reading. Instead of waiting for her to explain what she’s found, I focus on the objects Al is checking out. I don’t have the strength yet to look through his eyes, but I can sense the magic held within each item. They each give a different feel depending on how big or small it is, or whether it’s natural or manmade. So much information can be sensed through the magic, I can picture each item perfectly in my mind.

  One in particular catches my attention.

  “Is that a telephone?” I point in the general direction of a particularly odd bit of magic.

  The strange part is, much like when I attempted to put magic into the cell phone, there’s a strong feeling of technology acting as a barrier. Instead of keeping the magic out as it had with mine, it’s wrapped around a big slab of magic as though holding it inside. What it looks like is also the most clear in my mind. A fairly big base with a circular disk on the front and a hand held piece attached by a curling wire. I’d seen one at Gran’s house when I was younger, and I used to have fun putting my fingers into the holes of the disk and turning, then having it go back into place all on its own.

  “Wait,” Cindy calls out. “Don’t touch anything.”

  “What’s wrong?” Al asks, and I realize it’s him reaching for the phone.

  “There’s a lot more to these items then protection and hiding. Dangerous stuff.”

  “Such as what?” A few footsteps follow and I’m pretty sure Al’s gone to stand with Cindy.

  “I don’t know yet.” She flaps the book, causing a slight breeze in the room. “Still reading. Just don’t touch for now, alright?”

  I let them talk as I continue to concentrate on the rotary phone. There’s something else both familiar and completely foreign about how it feels. The magic inside is wrong but I can’t quite figure how.

  Suddenly Cindy gasps and starts to get excited.

  “Do you know the story of the genie in the lamp?” she asks. “Find a lamp, rub it three times and a genie will pop out to give you three wishes.”

  It’s almost as though the magic in the phone is fragmented. As if it’s made up of a bunch of magic from a number of people. But even that isn’t exactly right. There’s something else.

  There’s amusement in Cindy’s voice. “Well, either I know how the story was started, or Gran was inspired to try it out herself. Except instead of using a lamp, she’d use anything around her. And instead of a genie, she’d trap wizards.”

  I feel sick as I realize exactly what I sense inside the phone. It’s not a spell by a bunch of people, but magic stolen and contaminated by a wizard.

  “You’re saying there are wizards inside each of these objects?” Al asks while taking a step away from the table and bumping into me.

  “I don’t know if they all have one,” Cindy says. “But I’d rather not check either. How about you?”

  “And the result is permanent?” Al asks. “The protection spell Lou broke isn’t going to release them, is it?”

  “I’m pretty sure it was only meant to keep people away. They should stay stuck so long as no one actively releases them, such as by opening a jar or wearing a necklace.”

  “Or cutting the bag of toenails,” I say, though my attention is still focused on the phone.

  “Exactly!” Cindy says, suddenly very excited. “That’s exactly what this spell is like, except it traps the entire person, not just a part of them.”

  “But you need a part of the person to use for the spell,” Al reminds us. “Such as the toenails in Lou’s case.”

  “Or the wizard’s voice for the phone,” I say aloud before I completely understand what I’m saying. I can feel the others staring at me, though I’m not sure if they think I’m being ridiculous or if they’ve come to the same conclusion I have. I’m hoping for the second as I continue. “It doesn’t need to be a physical part of someone. It can be something like a reflection or a photo or—“

  “Photo,” Cindy gasps. “Our cells. We could take a picture and no one would know what’s happening.”

  “And the technology will help make the trap even stronger,” I say. “Though, it will also make the magic necessary to set the trap more difficult.”

  “Capturing someone’s image can be very powerful,” Al says. “But are you sure you can do this?”

  “We have to,” Cindy says. “There’s no way any of us are capable of killing. Right?”

  There’s something about the way Al agrees that makes me feel anxious, but I push it aside and focus on what needs to be done.

  “How does the spell work?”

  Chapter Twenty Three

  The spell turns out to be straight forward enough to create, which makes me a little nervous about how effective it’s going to be. Cindy, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to have any problem with its simplicity.

  “Some of the most effective spells are a mixture of a couple of basic substances.” Cindy makes a bit of a racket as she picks up and set down items. “It’s a matter of knowing what items to put together. Like baking or chemistry.”

  Her assurances don’t make me feel any better since I’m bad at both of those things, and as far as I know, she is too. Then again, I’d never seen her try either so who knows, maybe she’s a natural. Hopefully.

  The particular mixture needed for the trapping spell is simply a balance of the four elements.

  “What do you mean?” I ask when Cindy reads the description. “I don’t think tossing the cell phones into a bunch of fire and water and earth is going to help anything. We need a working phone when we’re done after all. And how do you put air on something anyway? Isn’t it already covered in the stuff?”

  “The elements are in everything,” Al says when Cindy growls her frustration at my lack of understanding. “And usually for things like this, it’s less about working directly with the elements but instead using something representing them and holds a large amount of magic.”

  “Such as?” I can’t imagine what he could mean.

  “Fire could be ash for instance,” Al explains.

  “Such as the ash from a certain protection spell burnt very recently,” Cindy adds. “Earth can be the dust of the some of the most magical plants I’ve ever seen. Water, the saliva of a sorceress.”

  It takes me a minute to register what she’s saying, and when it does click, my face contorts in repulsion. “Are you serious?”

  “Very.”

  “You expect me to spit on my phone?” There’s no way I’m doing anything of the sort.

  “Actually, I’ve already started with mine,” she says. “So that one first. Then yours.”

  She shoves it in front of my face so close I can smell the burnt bits of paper and wax combined with the crushed flowers and the original plastic of the phone.

  “Think of trapping and binding as you spit,” she tells me as I resign myself to the task.

  I build up the saliva in my mouth and hope I don’t completely miss the phone and hit her hand, or worse, my own hand.

  “And finally,” she says as though I hadn’t spat at her, “air. Or, the breath of a witch.”

  She whispers a single word in the same language she’d spoken for the spell to fix my sight. Since her other spe
ll didn’t work, she’s not adding to my confidence for this one.

  “I thought you didn’t know the language of magic,” Al says when she’s done.

  “Gran taught me a couple of things,” she brushes off his suspicion. “Ending a spell is the first thing I learned.”

  “That’s it?” I’m still alarmed at how easy the whole thing is. “I don’t need to do anything more with my magic?”

  “Just need to repeat with your phone.”

  I hand it to her and together we complete the spell more quickly than the first time. The mounting pressure for us to hurry urges us on. Mom is still in trouble and we’ve spent so much time in this world already. As Al said, there is no knowing for sure whether or not she’s still alive.

  I have to believe she is, and I know Cindy feels the same way.

  “Are you sure this will work?” I ask as we make our way back outside.

  “Yes,” Cindy says more confidently than I’m betting she actually feels. “Remember to turn your phone off the second he’s trapped.” She shakes my shoulder for emphasis. “I want to know what you’re thinking, Al.”

  “It will work,” Al says.

  “You don’t sound so sure, but that’s not what I meant. You said before you don’t think we should go in together and you don’t plan on waiting to go in a few minutes after me, but what other options are there?”

  “Enter from either side,” he says.

  “From either side of what?” I ask.

  “The doorway,” he explains. “Sin will go through the door inside the house which will lead outside. Once she goes through the door and into your world, she’ll climb up to the roof on the back of the house and bring herself around to the front. They shouldn’t suspect anything unusual.”

  “And you’ll come from the outside and end up upstairs inside the house.” Cindy grunts her approval. “Couple of problems, though. Are you sure the door works both ways?”

  “No,” Al admits, “but if it doesn’t, we can always make our way back to the house and go through the other direction. Not ideal, but we should be able to make it work.”

  “What’s the other problem?” I ask.

  “Why the hell do I have to come all the way out here and get the other set of keys?” Cindy demands. “There’s no need for all of us to walk out to the back of the house like this.”