by Dani Swanson
22: Silver Lake
"What do we do if it's there? Like if this thing caused this curse, how do we stop it from putting us to sleep like everyone else." Nathan was getting nervous the deeper into the woods they traveled.
"Just don't drink the water, and you'll be fine." Jade patted him on the shoulder and smiled at him.
"But what if Phantasma is there?"
"Then we either fight or run. Those will be your two options." Xander chimed in from somewhere behind Nathan.
The air seemed cooler the closer to the lake they got. Izzie said she could smell the rain coming on the breeze. The path that they were taking had barely been traveled and was just a thin line of dirt that cut through the trees, forcing them to walk single file the entire way. For a brief moment, Izzie had a feeling of deja vu as she passed a pinkish leaf fern. She knew she had seen it before.
"You can use those leaves to treat cuts, right?" She pointed out the bush to Reyna.
"That's right! Do you have that back where you came from?"
"No, I think I remembered it from when I was a kid, but I don't know why I know that."
"You did live here for like five years, Iz. I'm sure there's a lot of stuff you'll remember when you see it, locked in your head someplace." Nathan had shuffled back toward the middle of the line, not wanting to be the leader of the group.
"We're coming up to the lake!" Robin called back to the group as he pointed up to another painted sign in the strange language. "We should probably spread out when we get to the clearing; we haven't been to the lake in a long while and don't know what we'll find."
The chatter between the shadows ceased, and the carefree atmosphere of their walk had grown solemn. There wasn't time to enjoy the plant life or try to remember her past any longer. Izzie watched as the shadows used hand signals and spread in a half-circle through the trees. She felt a tug on her arm as Pan was leading her to go with him. Zallen had taken Nathan with him, and Jade took Xander, separating him from Izzie.
The lake itself was so large that they could barely see the opposite shore. The cattails amongst the reeds dipped into the water, causing ripples with the wind. Large rocks surrounded the shoreline, leading in a single path to the lake's center, a small island. A shack had been erected in the middle of the foliage on the rock. Smoke was coming from the chimney stack, curling in the sky.
"It looks like she's home." Izzie's voice barely above a whisper as she spoke to Pan.
"We'll have to watch; she floats through the villages at night; maybe she'll leave."
"How are we going to get there?"
"Can't you fly? I thought witches could fly."
"Pan, I don't know how to do anything as a witch. Humans raised me."
"Shhhhhhhhh!" Reyna hissed as she pointed out the movement happening across the lake. Phantasma's silhouette gliding over the water, heading into the trees, leaving her home unattended.
Once Phantasma couldn't be seen, the shadows started to move closer to the water's edge.
"You'll have to jump the rocks. Don't let the water touch you." Reyna pointed to the path headed to the island.
"Bro, I don't swim." Xander stared out at the water.
"Stay on the shore, babe. You can be the lookout."
No, I'm not going to leave your side." Xander's voice shook with his nervous response.
"If we can't touch the water, I can't save you if you fall in the lake. You can be the lookout. Shout if you see anything moving along the shoreline." She reached up and gave him a reassuring kiss on the cheek. "Really, I'll be okay."
He kept his hands on the sides of her arms for a moment longer as he stared into her eyes, then looking back at the lake and letting out a sigh. "I don't want to leave you."
"And I don't want you to drown." She hugged him before turning to the rocks to meet her brother.
"I've got her, Xander. I'll be her protector." Nathan said as he flexed his bicep, trying to cut the situation's seriousness with some humor.
"You're deflecting," Izzie said, imitating their mother's voice perfectly. They both giggled before carefully stepping onto the first rock. "Whoa! Careful! They're slippery."
Four of the Shadows were already halfway to their destination as Robin stayed behind with Xander. He nodded at Izzie and motioned to her to keep going. "I've got him!" Robin called out to her. Xander's face was less than pleased as he looked down at the shadow. Robin shooed him into the bushes to hide as they watched their friends cross the lake.
Step by step, they gingerly jumped the spaces between the rocks. Nathan hit a slick spot, causing him to fall. Luckily, he landed with the majority of his body still on the rock. His hand grazed the water. He let out a scream as he pulled his hand out. Blisters covered his skin with extensive puss-filled burns that made him itch.
"Are you all right?" Zallen called back to Nathan.
"My skin is melting off my hand! It's inching up my arm! What do I do?"
"Turn back! You need to get your hand wrapped. Go see Robin." Reyna ordered as she pointed back to the shore.
Izzie joined Nathan on the same rock and cautiously turned on the stone so that Nathan was closer to the shoreline and Izzie the island.
"Yeah, that looks painful. Get it wrapped with that pink fern we passed. I don't know why, but I know that it will help that burn."
With his arm cradled, Nathan headed back to the trees in search of relief for his burns. Xander had already made his way down the path and had picked the leaves. Their sweet smell filled his nose as he gently wrapped Nathan’s hand with them and then topped it with cloth bandages from Robin.
Izzie would take a deep breath and hold it between each of her jumps. She was grateful that her boots had anti-slip soles on them each time she landed on the wet rocks. As she made her way to the island, some water splashed up onto her leg on the last jump. Small holes had burned through her leggings. "What did she put in this water?!"
"Let's see if we can figure that out." Reyna guided Izzie off the sandy shoreline and into the brush, hiding her from being seen from the coast.
"Hopefully, you have some insight on what is happening here."
Along the side of the shack was a fire burning with a large trough sitting over the top of it. Pan went over to the contraption. He shielded his face from the heat of the fire burning below as he looked over the edge. The sludge bubbling inside was thick as tar with an intoxicating scent that made him feel dizzy as it filled his nose. He started to fall backward as Zallen caught him.
"Easy there." He gently laid his friend on the ground and fanned his face with his free hand. "What's in there?" Zallen got to his feet and picked up a stick from the ground and stirred the gunk. The stick started on fire once the concoction touched it.
"It's the same reaction from the water. We need to find out what's in there."
"Guys, did you see this?" A panic look was on Jade's face as she pointed behind the house. Izzie followed the shadows around the house to see a cage. Inside were the upper halves of two boggle bodies. The boggles' bottom halves had been melted away from the rest of their bodies.
"They were my aunt and uncle. Those are Zyon's parents!" Zallen was the first to examine the bodies. "What did she do to them?"
"It looks like they were dipped into the lake and melted like it was acid." Izzie squatted down next to the cage; the smell of burnt flesh was still in the air. "I thought you guys said she was a witch?"
"Isn't she like you?" Pan raised his bushy eyebrows. His expression changed to embarrassment when he saw that he had offended Izzie, and he put his hands into the pockets of his fur-lined trousers. "Sorry, I meant, don't all witches have powers?"
"How would I know? I didn't even know I was a witch."
"Well, you blew our door up. That was pretty spectacular."
Pan meant what he said that it was spectacular to watch. The shadows had been told to be aware of the witches, to stay as far away from them as they possibly could.
"Yeah, well, I still don
't know how to do that on command. I have no idea what this Phantasma chick can do, but if Phantasma had powers, wouldn't she do something else, other than dunk them into the lake?"
A flashing of light caught Reyna's eye. Nathan was using the flashlight on his phone to get their attention as they saw Phantasma floating by.
"Hide!" She hissed at them. "Cover Izzie!"
Izzie was pushed to the ground behind a few shrubs and fell with a hard thud. The shadows melted together, creating a cloak of darkness that surrounded her body like a warm blanket. All she could see was blackness as she held her breath, trying to hear what was happening.
She heard a rustling of the branches that hung low near where the fire was lit. Izzie pushed up on the shadows, trying to see out, but the more she pushed, the more they pushed back. She heard one of them let out a quiet "shhhhhh" as the weight of their blanketed shadow kept her down.
Phantasma had gracefully glided over the lake and came to where her fire was heating her contraption. She took a string that she had sticking out from under the folds in her cloak, and from it came bundles of different flowers that she tied to the branches around her roof. She paused for a moment and listened. She raised her head, smelling the air, and looked around her property. She glided out of sight around to the front of the shack.
They laid there in the dark for what felt like an eternity until she heard Reyna give the order to disburse. It took a moment for Izzie's eyes to readjust to the light from the moon.
"What happened?" Izzie said as she looked to see changes around the area. "Was it her?" She saw her shadow friends covered in mud from head to toe. Izzie looked down at herself, and she didn't have a speck of dirt on her.
"Yeah, it was her. She hung a bunch of flowers off the roof of her shack and then left again, floating over the water." Pan was doing his best to get the dirt off his face.
"Why are you all so muddy? I didn't get dirty at all."
"We rolled in the mud with you between us so she couldn't smell you, or us for that matter."
Izzie made her way to the front of the shack, waving at those waiting for them on the shore. She saw Xander grab his chest as he let out a sigh of relief. She blew him a kiss before turning around to face the front door.
"You're sure you saw Phantasma leave?"
"Yes, she's gone." Jade was surveying the shore to the West. "She went that way."
"I need to go into her house and see what she has there."
"I don't think you should go in there. What if she has it protected with a spell?" Pan took the sleeve of his shirt and rubbed the window, trying to see inside. "It may not be safe."
"We have to see what she's hiding."
Izzie didn't wait for anyone else to argue with her. She had made her mind up that she was going in, and that is what she was going to do. The door wasn't latched, which didn't surprise Izzie as Phantasma's home was sitting in the middle of a contaminated lake. The door squealed on the rusty hinges as she pushed it open. The inside wasn't what Izzie had expected at all. When she turned up the lantern sitting by the door, she saw a clean little room. A fireplace had glowing embers left in it, a made-up bed with an expensive-looking throw on top of it, and an oversized green chair with little gold buttons and a side table with a large, black leather bounded book on it. On the fireplace's mantel was a masquerade mask made of peacock feathers, placed there as if it were a shrine.
She made her way over to the chair and examined the book. She flipped it open and saw that it was like a recipe book she and her mom would use for baking, but the recipes in this book weren't like anything that she had ever seen.
"4 cups of ground nightshade; 2 whiskers from a Grimalkin; 3 cups of dried water hemlock.....what is this?"
"We should get going. The moon is starting to set, and she's usually back at her house when the sun comes up." Reyna was leaning in the doorway while the other three shadows watched the shores surrounding the island.
"We need to take some of the flowers she put on the side of the house. I need to see what they are."
"Zallen, pick the flowers." Reyna nodded toward the bundles. "What about the stuff in the pot? Do you know what it is?"
"I'm sure it's something that is in this book. We just need to figure out which one." Izzie got up and was about to rip the page out of the book but then decided to take the entire book instead. "She'll know someone was here if a page is missing, so why not just take the whole thing? Let's go."
They jumped from rock to rock, making their way back to the shore. Izzie held the book on top of her head, not wanting any of the water to touch it.
"I'm so glad you saw my light!" Nathan hugged his sister. "I was sure that she was going to see you."
"That was great what you did!" Izzie went and kissed Xander on the cheek and handed him the book. "You two science nerds are going to have to help me figure this out. Speaking of plants and science, how is your burn?" She went to her brother and removed the bandage and the piece of fern. The wrap had almost wholly healed the burn and it was no longer was hurting.
"The gully fern is great for healing skin," Robin said as he showed them he had picked a bunch of it. "We were running low back home, so I think I'll restock the medicine closet."
Izzie smiled at him as she watched him struggle, bundling everything together.
"I think she brewed something together out of that book and put it in the water. If we figure out what it is, maybe we can figure out a counter to it and filter it out of the water. Or get it to dilute so we can take it out?"
"That might work, but how are we going to build a filter big enough for an entire lake? We don't have the manpower, nor do we have the equipment."
"What if we made something that was like our old camping filter that dad taught us how to make? With the big rocks, then the medium size rocks, and then the tiny rocks that the water ran through?" She turned toward Nathan in hopes that he knew what she was talking about.
"We would have to put it on the mouth of the lake where it connects to the underground river for one, and two we would have to be able to go into the water to do that."
The entire group of eight started to walk deep into the trees, leaving the lake area and heading to Chimera, where Izzie would have the time to study the book.
"What if we boil the water?" Xander chimed into the debate.
"Wouldn't that only help if it were a parasite?" Izzie tossed back.
"If there was only a way to remove the water from the lake and then replaced it with clean water." Robin offered, "Like when you take a bath, and your brother is next. You drain your dirty water, re-plug it and then put clean water in for him."
Izzie stopped in her tracks and turned to look Robin in his eye. "That's pretty brilliant." The smile on her face made Robin feel warmth with how genuine it was. The wheels in her head were spinning, and she was figuring out a plan to do just that.
"I might know what we have to do!" She announced as she ran to the front of the group to talk to Reyna.
"That's cool, Iz. Make an announcement and leave the conversation completely. It doesn't make the rest of us wonder what you came up with or anything." Xander's voice grew louder as she walked farther away. She turned around with the same large smile and winked at him.
"Okay, but that still doesn't fill us in," Nathan mumbled to Xander as they continued to walk. "I hate it when she does that."
23: Potions and Poisons
Once they were back in the safety of Chimera, everyone ate and then started to fall asleep with their full bellies. The furniture was a bit small for the humans. Even though the shadows were bigger than the boggles, they were still a few feet shorter than Xander and Nathan.
"Babe, maybe you should put the book down and get some sleep. You've been up for a solid day now." He was stretched out on a couch with his head lying in Izzie's lap as she propped the book upon the arm of the sofa.
She reached down and gently patted him on his head. "You go to sleep. I will in a bit." She was fascinat
ed by all the potions she had found in what she referred to as her cookbook. "There's a recipe in here for giving someone vertigo. And one for making someone burn from the inside out. This is some dark stuff."
"Well, you did find it at the house of a witch who is trying to steal all the magic." The matter-o-fact tone from her brother across the room annoyed her.
"But how do people figure this out in the first place? Like someone had to think something like, ‘Hey, I wish Susie would break out in boils all over her body, what can I mix in this pot to make it happen.’" Izzie stuck her nose back in her book. She had figured out that the nightshade and water hemlock were two of the flowers hanging to dry at Phantasma's shack. "I was hoping there would be something in here that would have been the antidote for what she was making. But all of these are to hurt someone."
"That's because it's a black magic potion book. It would help if you had a regular potion book.... or a Book of the Light. It's pretty much the opposite of the book that you're holding." Jade said as she strung a hammock across the window opening to nap but would still be with the group.
"Where would one find a Book of the Light?" Izzie lifted her head to see the top of Jade's face poking out of the hammock, looking back at her.
"Not really sure. Most witches just have them."
"That doesn't help. I wasn't given a copy when I got here." Izzie said with a shrug.
"What if we find your mom's house? Wouldn't she have one?" Xander was tapping her on her knee, trying to get her to focus.
"I couldn't even tell you."
"Well, I've been thinking about your idea. You said that Reyna told you it hasn't rained since any of this has happened. If we could find some Potassium and some Silver, we could make Potassium Iodine and shoot it into the clouds. That would make it rain." Xander had his eyes shut as he rambled off what he could remember from class.
"You want to do cloud seeding? That could work." Nathan was now wide awake and intrigued by the idea. He got up from his resting place and made his way over, sitting on the floor by Izzie's feet, leaning his back against the couch. "But my question to you is where do we get the potassium from? It's not like you can go raid a closet in the lab."
