Summer's Cauldron (The Young Sorcerers Guild - Book 2)

by G. L. Breedon

  Alex was thankful everyone seemed to know where he was talking about. There was only one place Esmeralda and Mr. Apollo would be headed now they had the Sword of Silas — the Shadow Wraith’s prison cave on the side of the Black Bone Mountains.

  Chapter 23: Mountain Melee

  Alex was thankful for many things — being out of the Silent Swamp and free from its tomb-like silence and stench — the wind at the back of the speeding truck drying him off for the first time in hours — no longer needing to speak with a marble in his mouth mashing his words into unrecognizable mush — standing next to Victoria and feeling the warmth of her hand next to his on the wooden railing of the truck bed, and most importantly, that his friends would be beside him when he reached the cave to deal with Esmeralda and Mr. Apollo.

  They had raced to beat Esmeralda and Mr. Apollo from the swamp, but had been too slow. As Alex and the others ran from the edge of the swamp and the sounds of the world returned to their ears, the first thing they heard was the roar of a motorcycle engine.

  By the time they reached the dirt farm path near the swamp, they could see a trail of dust from the fleeing motorcycle nearly two miles ahead of them. This would not have been such a problem if they had not needed to run nearly a mile in the opposite direction to reach the place where they had left the old Dodge truck.

  Eleada once again at the wheel, the Siren Sisters firmly gagged and tied to the side of the truck bed, they raced after the motorcycle dwindling into the distance. Nina and Daphne sat in the front seat to advise Eleada on the shortest route to the base of the Black Bone Mountains where the Shadow Wraith’s prison-cave resided. Beowulf rode with his head out the window, long ears fluttering in the wind.

  Rafael and Kendra opted to remain in the form of dragons and clung to the top forward rail of the truck bed, wings clutched to their sides, necks stretched out, enjoying the speed and the wind. Nathan, Ben, and Clark stood behind Alex, holding on to the truck rails as it bounced over the old farm trail.

  It wasn’t long before they came upon the dirt road they had ridden along only days before, when they had left the Dead Forest, and not long after that before they crossed the main East Road leading into town and out of the Rune Valley. Eleada took a sharp right turn at the main road and then a quick left turn not half a mile later. This was a more direct road leading to a different path up the mountain than the one Esmeralda and Mr. Apollo were following.

  Alex tried to relax even in the mounting tension of anticipation. He didn’t know what was coming next, but he knew he had to beat Esmeralda to the cave. If she could enter the cave with that sword…

  He felt a warmth on his hand and looked down to see Victoria’s hand clasped gently around his own. This eased the tension in his mind about the cave, but replaced it with a different sort of tension. Now, Alex found himself worrying about what would happen to Victoria at the cave. What would happen to all his friends in the Guild and his sister and the new friends from the carnival who had already risked their lives at his side? Alex looked up into Victoria’s eyes and she smiled. Alex smiled back and forgot his worries for a moment. How could he worry when Victoria was smiling?

  “Was it a map to the sword?” Victoria asked, nodding to the map he had tucked into the belt of his pants.

  “Kind of,” Alex said. “It’s called the Questing Map. It’s a magical map that can show you where anything is. The mage who created it used it to hunt for gold in the Copper Blood Mountains. It was stolen from the town museum about thirty years ago. It’s a very famous story in town history. It seems somebody has been hiding it in the vaults at the bank the whole time.”

  “When did you say was the last time the carnival was in town?” Victoria asked.

  “Thirty years ago,” Alex said, seeing the connection now that Victoria had mentioned it. “Esmeralda would have been in the carnival at that time, as a teenage girl.”

  “Do you think she could have been under the influence of the Shadow Wraith all that time?” Victoria said, her nose wrinkling in disgust at the thought.

  “I don’t know,” Alex said, thinking about it. “Maybe someone was influencing her when she was young the way she’s been influencing the other carnies now.”

  “Like an apprentice to evil,” Victoria said.

  “Whoever it was, thanks to them we might have a chance of finding the Rune Tree using this map,” Alex said, patting the map with his free hand.

  “The map looked badly burnt,” Victoria said. “Do you think it will still work?”

  “It’s got to work at least as well as showing drawings to Beowulf,” Alex said.

  They were quiet for a moment, Alex reveling in the feeling the wind on his face and Victoria’s hand on his. Now would be a good time to lean over and kiss her. If they weren’t surrounded by their friends on the back of the truck. If Nathan wasn’t lurking five feet away. Why was it so hard to find a good time for kissing?

  “Do you have a plan for when we get to the cave?” Victoria asked.

  “Keep Esmeralda from getting that sword into the Shadow Wraith’s prison chamber,” Alex said.

  “Ah,” Victoria said. “We’re improvising. I like improvising. Sometimes it’s easier that way. Fewer things to remember. I tried learning to play the violin for nearly a year, but I simply couldn’t follow all the notes. I kept wanting add some in. Drove my teacher batty. Daddy says it’s because I don’t have a linear mind. I think it’s because the songs in my head sounded better than the ones I was trying to learn.”

  Alex stared up into Victoria’s blazing blue eyes. Now he really wanted to kiss her. “Maybe you can play for me sometime,” he said instead.

  “Oh, well, I suppose so,” Victoria said, suddenly blushing. “I haven’t practiced in ages.”

  “I’d love to hear the songs in your head,” Alex said, finding his face felt as hot as Victoria’s looked.

  They smiled and gazed silently into each other’s eyes. Then the truck hit a large rut in the road and they bounced into the air, jostling against each other. They smiled and looked ahead, down the road the truck raced along. Victoria’s hand squeezed Alex’s a little tighter where he held the wooden railing.

  Up ahead, Alex could see the Black Bone Mountains, and off to the east, the White Forest. There was still smoke rising out of the depths of the woods, but the rain clouds that had been pouring down over the town seemed to have drifted over the forest and quenched the fire. Alex wondered if that had been Batami’s doing or the work of Maybelle Merriweather, the town weather witch. Either way, it had probably saved the forest from being entirely consumed by the flames. Alex wondered how Batami was doing.

  He could see scorched and blackened trees at the edge of the forest, but it was hard to gauge how much damage had been done. The forest would take years to recover. Alex knew Batami would likely take just as many years to heal from the fire. He thought about slipping into his astral form to check on her, but the truck was very closer to the base of the mountains and getting closer every second. Eleada did not believe in driving at any speed but recklessly fast, regardless of the quality of the road. As long as the forest had survived, Alex knew Batami had, as well.

  A minute later, the truck came to a brake-screeching, tire-sliding, halt at the base of the Black Bone Mountains. Alex and the others quickly disembarked from the truck, jumping to the ground as Rafael and Kendra, in dragon form, took to the air.

  “Fly ahead and see if you can spot them,” Alex said, craning his neck back to shout up at Rafael and Kendra. “But don’t let them see you. This path is quicker than the one they took. We might be able to catch up with them.”

  “Right,” Rafael said as he and Kendra flapped their leathery wings wide and flew over the tops of the trees.

  “This way, everybody,” Alex said, heading for a deer path at the edge of the woods near where the dirt trail had ended. The others formed a line behind him and followed.

  Alex ran up the deer path at a fast jog. They needed to move quickly,
but it wouldn’t do any good to arrive before Esmeralda and Mr. Apollo if they were too exhausted to confront them.

  The path they ran along up the side of the mountain was different from the one they had used back in the spring when Alex had first fallen into the cave that held the entrance to the Shadow Wraith’s subterranean prison door. From the trail of dust left behind by their motorcycle, Alex knew Esmeralda and Mr. Apollo had taken the path closer to town. The path Alex and his friends followed was closer to the White Forest and would cut considerable time from their assent up the side of the mountain. He hoped it would be enough time.

  As he ran, Alex dug into his shirt and withdrew the magic whistle his parents had given him. He had been waiting for the right time to blow the whistle and call his parents to his side. Calling them now would give them his general location and that would be enough to warn them of where he was ultimately going. He blew the whistle. Not loud. He knew the magic that would tug at the sister whistles around his parents’ necks did not rely on the volume of sound the whistle made.

  “A whistle to warn them we’re coming?” Eleada said from right behind him. She ran quietly and easily through the woods, bow in hand, quiver strapped tight to her back.

  “To call for backup,” Alex said.

  “Magic whistles to call our parents,” Nina said, pulling her whistle out of her shirt to show Eleada.

  “Hyperion’s hiccups,” Daphne said, running behind Eleada. “Alex is calling for help before there’s a fight.”

  “Yikes,” Ben said, his short legs pumping to keep pace. “That’s a bad omen.”

  “Hmm, maybe Alex is finally listening to his parents’ advice,” Clark said, ducking beneath a low-hanging tree branch.

  “Calling for help is very prudent,” Victoria said, dashing around a tree. “Let’s not discourage it by teasing him.”

  “I’m actually listening to Batami’s advice,” Alex said, thinking back to his mentor’s words the day before.

  “Help is all very good, but where is this cave?” Nathan said, sounding as though he might dash ahead alone. Alex could see from the look on Nathan’s face he was concerned for Leanna’s safety. They must be good friends, Alex thought to himself.

  “We’ll be there soon enough,” Alex said, glancing up the mountain path and trying to calculate how long it would take them to reach their destination. A few minutes later, when they were about two thirds of the way to the cave, a small, blue dragon swooped out of the air. Rafael.

  “We found them,” Rafael said, wing flapping to hold him steady, “but Esmeralda and Mr. Apollo took the motorcycle half way up the mountain path. They’re almost there. Kendra stayed behind to keep an eye on them.”

  “Gorping gorp guzzlers,” Daphne cursed.

  “You can say that twice,” Eleada said, leaning forward as she increased her speed.

  “Faster, everyone,” Alex said, breaking into a full run as the sound of multiple explosions shook the air. More explosions followed and the mountain beneath their feet trembled.

  “That can’t be good,” Victoria said, turning her head toward the sound of the explosions.

  “Explosions are never good when we’re around,” Rafael said, flapping his dragon wings harder to rise above the trees.

  “Find out what’s happening,” Alex shouted to Rafael. The cobalt-colored dragon nodded his head and disappeared behind the tops of the conifers.

  “What do you think it is?” Nina asked, nervousness raising the pitch of her voice. “Maybe their blasting into the cave, or maybe they are trying to start an avalanche to crush us, or maybe they’re using the sword on the rune seal in the Shadow Wrath’s prison already.”

  “We’ll find out in a few seconds,” Alex said, trying not to let Nina’s imagination infect his already expanding fears. It wasn’t that Nina’s imagination was wild and impossible. The opposite was true. Any of the things she suggested could be happening and all of them were bad. Alex wouldn’t know what was happening until he reached the clearing around the cave. He ran faster as Clark picked up Ben and Victoria swung Daphne and Nina onto her back.

  Rafael never returned to them and the explosive vibrations on the mountainside only got louder the closer they came to the clearing. Alex dashed off the thin deer trail and between the trees as he ran up the side of the mountain. When he came to a stop at the edge of the grassy clearing around the old cave, he gasped as much for breath as for what he saw before him — a battle of magical might consumed the little forest glade. It took Alex a moment to gather it all in and understand what he saw.

  A tornado of wind whipped around the clearing and the ground rumbled and quaked. Large trees had been felled and stacked around the entrance of the cave, creating a tall, fort-like barrier. Behind this wall stood both of his parents, Victoria’s father, and Deputy Dervis. His parents were casting blinding bolts of blue and red magical energy from their long wooden staves while Deputy Dervis sent rocks hurtling through the air like missiles, and Victoria’s father lobbed grenade-like balls over the walls.

  On the other side of the wall, facing the cave, Esmeralda and Mr. Apollo fought beside half a dozen carnies, fending off the magical onslaught arrayed against them and returning one of their own. George the giant hurled large boulders over the barricade of logs while, beside him, Oanadin the dwarf created a wall of fire, igniting the leaves and bark of the fallen trees in a smoky blaze. A thick layer of black soot covered their torn clothes. Sweat and charcoal smeared their faces. Alex had a very good idea who had started the fire in the White Forest.

  There were at least four others Alex recognized from his time spent carousing in the carnival. He watched as they each cast magic of fire and energy at his parents, Victoria’s father, and Deputy Dervis.

  To one side, Alex caught sight of Leanna, calling down shafts of lightning from above. In the sky over the clearing, Rafael and Kendra dodged lightning bolts even as they spewed jets of flame at the evil carnies.

  Esmeralda and Mr. Apollo ducked behind a large outcropping of rock as a blast of blue energy from Alex’s father’s stave struck the ground nearby. A baseball-sized grenade thrown by Victoria’s father hit the ground beside Mr. Apollo and exploded, engulfing the Dark Mage in a tangle of net-like webbing.

  “What’s the plan?” Eleada said, slipping up beside Alex. He blinked and breathed deep. So much was happening so fast, he had almost let himself get overwhelmed by the moment.

  “Attack from behind,” Alex said. “Focus on Esmeralda. Ignore the others. We have to stop her from using that sword.”

  Even as Alex spoke the words, he saw Esmeralda wrap something slender around her waist and race for the barrier of trees, the sheathed Sword of Silas in her hands. As he watched, Esmeralda wavered in the sun like a desert mirage and then vanished through the trunks of the fallen trees. She had used Victoria’s father’s Wall Walking Belt to run right through the rubble of rocks encasing the cave entrance. In seconds, she would be racing down the spiral tunnel to the chamber holding the rune-seal of the Shadow Wraith’s prison.

  “Themis’s toe jam,” Daphne yelped. “That crazy belt really works.”

  “I keep telling you, Daddy’s inventions always work,” Victoria said with exasperation. “Even when it was best if they didn’t.”

  “Ideas?” Ben said, peering around a tree at the battle in the clearing. “What we should do?”

  “We need to fight them,” Nathan said, hooves stamping the ground. “We can’t sit here.”

  “Fighting them doesn’t stop Esmeralda,” Eleada said, sliding an arrow from her quiver and knocking it in the string of her bow.

  “Hmm, and we risk hurting them while they’re under her control,” Clark added, shielding his eyes from the glare of a lightning bolt striking a rock not far away.

  “There’s only one way,” Alex said, looking at his friends.

  “That’s totally and completely stupid,” Nina said with a frown. “But stupid is all we’ve got.” She stepped up on her toes and g
ave Alex a kiss on the cheek. “Don’t be too stupid.”

  “What’s stupid?” Nathan asked, looking around at the others for an explanation. “What are they talking about?”

  “Alex is going inside the cave,” Victoria said, stepping beside Alex as he laid down on the pine needles beneath the trees.

  “How?” Eleada said, glaring over her shoulder at Alex. “By taking a nap?”

  “Something like that,” Alex said with a weak smile. “Attack from behind, anyway. Keep the carnies distracted until I get back. Make sure they don’t hurt our parents. Victoria?”

  “I’ll watch over you,” Victoria said, taking up a position beside Alex. There was no time to explain to Nathan and Eleada what he planned to do. No time even to think about it. Every second was a second that brought Esmeralda closer to freeing the Shadow Wraith. A second closer to destroying the world.

  As Alex closed his eyes, the last thing he saw was Eleada raising her bow and drawing back the string, the knocked arrow bursting into a blaze of blue fire as she let it fly. No wonder Ben likes her, Alex thought.

  Alex exhaled, pushing out the worries and fears fighting for control of his mind and assumed his astral form. A moment later, he willed himself to the place where he had hoped he would never have to go again — the chamber beneath the mountain containing one of the Shadow Wraith’s twelve prison doors.

  Chapter 24: Astral Assault

  Alex appeared in astral form in the center of the circular chamber carved from the granite at the heart of the mountain. The space was empty, but not entirely dark. Thousands of runes etched into the smooth walls of the cavern glowed with a faint golden hue, amplified slightly as they met in the center of the wall to form the final rune of spirit-sealing holding the Shadow Wraith trapped in a prison between the realms of existence.

  Alex had no time to contemplate the runes or relive the memories flooding his mind of the last time he had been in the chamber and what he and his friends had faced. He was without his friends, but he was no longer alone. Shimmering, as though made of gauzy light, Esmeralda walked through the solid iron door at the back of the room. She glanced around, a look of worry momentarily flickering across her face. Then she laughed. It was the same laugh Alex had heard when she had tried to trap his soul-essence in Pandora’s Box.