Tara Duncan and the Spellbinders (20 page)

Tara knew she could change the arrogant vampyr into a squeaking little mouse with a twitch of an eyebrow if she wanted to. Giving Dragosh a contemptuous glance, she said: “By Transformus, I want my clothes, with my usual robe on top of those!”

No sooner said than done: jeans and T-shirt promptly appeared along with Tara's robe. With an imperious snap of her fingers, she decorated her robe with hundreds of glittering horses. Finally she turned to the pegasus and said: “By Miniaturus shrink my winged horse, so it can accompany me as a matter of course.”

The pegasus shrank once again.

“Heh, heh!” chuckled the old wizard, pleased but also a bit surprised by Tara's casual mastery. “I don't think the girl's doing too badly! Let her keep her familiar, since she just proved she's able to take care of it!”

Tara's rage reluctantly gave way to joy. With her mind suddenly clear again, she very nearly embraced Chem, but remembered just in time that kissing the High Wizard of Lancovit simply wasn't done. She bowed gratefully instead. But she did hug her pegasus, who was feeling a little dizzy after his repeated changes of size.

Tara shot an icy look at the vampyr, whom she no longer feared, turned, and proudly climbed the Castle steps. The king and queen were peppering her with questions, followed by the courtiers who had witnessed the scene.

The story spread like wildfire, and many people came to see the miniaturized pegasus.

After taking a shower, Tara explained to Manitou that he would now be going with Fabrice. At first, she thought he didn't understand, but her great-grandfather made a tremendous effort and managed to speak.

“Idiot dog!” he muttered with difficulty. “He's stronger than I am, and I can't fight him. You're my granddaughter, Tara. I don't want to leave you. I want to stay and protect you!”

Once again, Tara felt the strange rage that erupted when some-body crossed her.

“You don't have any choice, great-grandfather,” she said coldly. “I have Gallant, and everybody knows my familiar is a pegasus. You're of no use to me.”

“I understand,” sighed the big Labrador sadly. “I'll go with your friend. Anyway, the stupid dog will be happy to play with a boy for a change.”

Gallant, who was in permanent contact with Tara's mind, expressed his strong disapproval. He didn't like the way the girl was treating her great-grandfather, and he let her know it.

His compassion melted her abnormal rage. Tara suddenly realized how it pained her great-grandfather to abandon her, and she hugged and petted him as she expressed her thanks.

From then on, Manitou followed Fabrice like his shadow. Nobody noticed that the dog didn't have golden eyes, and he seemed to get along very well with his new friend. In any case he quit sleeping all day and started joining in his human companion's activities like the other familiars.

The king and queen were fascinated by Gallant and often asked Tara to bring him to their private apartments. She found herself increasingly struggling against the irritation that the sovereigns' affection caused her.

When rage or contempt overwhelmed Tara, Gallant struggled to help her. They both knew it wasn't normal, but something in the girl prevented her from mentioning it to her friends or to the dragon wizard; something that absolutely didn't want to make itself known.

Tara was no fool. She understood that the Demon King had put a spell on her that was changing her behavior. Did it mean that she too would turn into a demon? Despite her best efforts, Tara's demonic rages grew stronger.

One afternoon, her friends decided to tell her more about OtherWorld, magic, and spellbinders.

The four of them got together out on the Castle grounds. Since Cal was born on OtherWorld and had already been an apprentice spellbinder for two years, he was the best person to describe the magic planet.

“All right, let's see what I can tell you,” he said thoughtfully. “Spellbinders have always lived among nonspells. We have found their traces even among cave dwellers. The spellbinders didn't realize that they were different, of course. Most of them helped nonspells, usually by treating their illnesses. But some others took advantage of them by pretending to be gods.”

Catching Tara's look of surprise, Sparrow chimed in. “That's right. Among the Aztecs, the gods Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca were both usurped by spellbinders.”

“Among the Egyptians, it was Isis, Osiris, Anubis, and Seth,” said Fabrice, happy to show off his book learning. “For the Romans, Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva. For the Greeks, Zeus and Aphrodite; Thor and Odin among the Vikings. Because of those impostors, the High Council wizards created a special police force to prevent spellbinders from passing themselves off as gods. As soon as a false god tried to seize power on Earth, he was tracked down and imprisoned or destroyed.”

“As mankind evolved, the spellbinders evolved as well,” continued Cal, now comfortably stretched out on the grass. “Finally the day came when they were numerous and powerful enough to want to dominate the nonspells. But it didn't work—”

“—because of rivalries between different spellbinder factions, and they nearly destroyed Earth with their lousy wars,” said Sparrow, who disliked conflict. “Then the dragons appeared. They came from another dimension. From another time. From other worlds they ruled. Strange worlds where elves, trolls, giants, imps, gnomes, tatris (Lady Kalibris's people), vampyrs, changelins (were-beasts), and chimeras lived. The dragons were fighting a terrible war with the demons and decided to conquer Earth with an army of elves, giants, and others. The aim was to keep the demons from using it as a base, since the main rift between our world and Limbo is located on Earth. But Demiderus, a wizard of genius, assembled an army of spellbinders who used their magic powers to oppose the invaders. The dragons were very surprised to discover that humans knew magic.”

“More than surprised,” said Cal, laughing. “They took a pounding, and it stopped their conquest in its tracks. The dragons realized that rather than fighting the spellbinders, they were better off joining them to defeat the demons. So they offered our ancestors a pact. The dragons agreed not to invade Earth, if the spellbinders would promise not to try to dominate it and help them defeat the demons. To train the spellbinders and increase their power, the dragons suggested that they come to OtherWorld, where magic was much more powerful than on Earth. At first, the spellbinders thought this was a trap, but over the years they realized the dragons were sincere. So they agreed, and the dragons cast a forgetfulness spell on Earth. It erased the memory of the centuries of invasion from the nonspells' memories. What remained were legends about vampyrs, elves, and other magical peoples.

“Thanks to the alliance, and especially thanks to Demiderus and four other unusually powerful wizards, the demons were defeated and imprisoned on their worlds, in the demonic world called Forbidden Limbo. Magic seals were placed along the rifts, and Atlantis, the main island where the main rift was located, was drowned in the ocean.” (Atlantis! thought Tara. She'd read about the Earth legend of a mysterious island with a very advanced civilization that had vanished beneath the waves of the Atlantic Ocean. Now she understood what had really happened.) “Only the five original high wizards or their descendents can penetrate them; no one else. At the same time, the dragons created openings—portals— that allowed communication and travel between OtherWorld and Earth. The spellbinders moved permanently to OtherWorld, as did many nonspells.”

Fabrice continued: “The very few spellbinders who chose to stay on Earth had to swear that they would never use their powers in the presence of nonspells, and never to profit from them.”

“The special police created to track false gods was merciless and efficient, so it was now given a new mission,” said Sparrow with a shudder. “Under the high wizards' orders, the elf police was charged with tracking down and punishing offenders. They were the ones who eliminated Druidor Bloodgrave, which is why Bloodgraves hate elves. Along with a few high wizards who remained on Earth, they keep an eye on the nonspells and see to it that no demons try to escape from Limbo. As Cal said, the major rift between Limbo and our world is located on Earth.”

“Lots of different peoples live on OtherWorld,” said Fabrice, “and not just spellbinders and the nonspells who moved here and now live in the planet's kingdoms, republics, and empires like Lancovit, Brontagne, and Omois.” He ticked off the peoples on his fingers. “Elves live in Selena; dwarves in the mountains of Hymlia; giants in Gandis; unicorns in Mentalir; imps, gnomes, and goblins in Smallcountry; vampyrs in Krasalvia; trolls in Krankar, and so on. So that we can understand each other, an Interpretus translates everything we say.”

“And talk about politics!” said Sparrow, rolling her eyes. “Omois is the most powerful of the human kingdoms, empires, or republics. It is jointly ruled by Empress Lisbeth'tylanhnem T'al Barmi Ab Santa Ab Maru and her half-brother Sandor T'al Barmi Ab March Ab Brevis. The empress hasn't been able to have any children, even though she's had several prince consorts. Her brother Danviou T'al Barmi Ab Santa Ab Maru disappeared a dozen years ago, and the question of succession will come up soon, because under Omois law, her half-brother can't rule alone. He must always rule with a full member of the imperial family, because the empress is the direct descendent of Demiderus, one of the five high wizards who imprisoned the demons.”

Tara shook her head, overwhelmed by the flood of information.

“Yikes, it's so complicated! Kingdoms, empires, republics, dwarves, elves, vampyrs, dragons, tatris!”

“It's so complicated that the rest will have to wait for another day,” said Cal, standing and brushing himself off. “Because now it's time for kitchen duty. After that, we'll go take a spin with the pegasi.”

Gallant looked up with delight. Sparrow, who got dizzy riding a pegasus, was much less enthusiastic.

The apprentice spellbinders had kitchen duty three times a week, which allowed them to refine their spell casting on a small scale.

That day's operation was being supervised by Master Dragosh, Tara noticed. Under his firm leadership, dinner rolls, meats, vegetables, and pastries were replicated, and then quickly carried to the dining halls to fill the many hungry stomachs in the huge Castle.

“All right, time for the new crew to take over,” Dragosh ordered. “And remember, no eating before dinner!”

Skyler, Robin, and Carole gratefully yielded their places to Cal, Sparrow, and Fabrice, who began to replicate what the cooks brought them.

Tara knew she could use magic to help her friends if she needed to. When Gallant chose her, she'd asked Master Chem to contact her grandmother to make sure that meeting her familiar hadn't laid Isabella out stone cold. Fortunately, she was fine. But Tara still preferred to avoid magic; she'd seen how the demonic fury inside her boiled up when she turned on her power. So she grabbed an apron, and with a sigh, started peeling carrots for the pot of soup simmering in front of her.

Despite his itchy fingers and ravenous appetite, Cal managed to restrain himself until the moment when the cook took a beautiful mulberry pie out of the oven.

“I'll take care of that one,” he said innocently, and the unsuspecting cook handed it to him.

Cal set the hot pie on the table and muttered, “By Duplicatus, I want three pies, just like this one, but a larger size.” Three mulberry pies appeared, and one promptly vanished . . . into Cal's mouth.

“C-C-Cal, be c-c-careful,” hissed Sparrow.”D-D-Dragosh is watching you!”

“Ow, that's hot!” said the young spellbinder, who'd burned his tongue. “Don't worry, I'm a thief. The vampyr who's gonna catch me in the act hasn't been born yet. You want some?”

Tara was mournfully staring at a mountain of carrots and thinking that if she were a rabbit, she'd be in heaven. A sudden cry of rage made her jump. She just had time to see three things— Dragosh grabbing Cal by the scruff of the neck; the pie falling from his hand; and Sparrow leaping back in fear—before a thousand gallons of hot leek soup flooded the kitchen.

The vampyr slipped and fell in the sticky brownish liquid, releasing Cal, who raced off. The soup swamped the kitchen's pots, pans, and skillets, put out the burners, half drowned the cooks and their helpers, and only stopped just before it reached the door.

Tara, wide-eyed at the scale of the disaster, couldn't suppress a nervous laugh.

“You, you . . . ” roared the incensed vampyr, who was dripping wet and trying to stand on the slippery floor. “You did that on purpose, I know it! You're going to clean up this whole mess, and with a mop and a bucket! No magic, or I'll . . . ”

Dragosh was so enraged that words failed him, and he flew out of the kitchen in pursuit of Cal. Drenched in soup, the other kitchen workers were glaring at Tara. She shrugged. The vampyr had frightened her, so he got what he deserved. Cal was gone, and Sparrow and Fabrice had vanished, so Tara started mopping and sluicing the soup down the drains alone.

A few minutes later, Master Den'maril's apprentice, Robin, came by. He was very surprised to see Tara on her hands and knees, wiping the floor.

“What the heck are you doing?” he asked.

“I'm mopping the floor,” she said through gritted teeth. She was so furious that she had to struggle to keep her magic from blowing up the kitchen and half the Castle. “And the more I mop, the more I feel like Cinderella.”

“I see,” said Robin, approaching her cautiously. “And who is the evil stepmother who made you mop the floor?”

“The evil stepmother is a horrible vampyr who's always tormenting me. I admit I sort of drowned him in soup, but it's not my fault. He scared me!”

“Ah, I get it,” Robin said sympathetically. “And is there any special reason why you aren't using magic to clean the kitchen?”