Tara Duncan and the Spellbinders (25 page)

Robin's eyes widened. “How do you know that?”

They decided to tell him at least part of the story. When they were done, Robin looked very thoughtful.

“That seems very odd,” he said. “A traitor tries never to be noticed. He has to keep to the shadows and remain undercover so he can carry out his plans. Revealing himself would blow his cover. He'd be of no further use to whoever was running him. I think we should be looking elsewhere. The guilty party is often someone you don't suspect.”

Tara agreed. She'd read enough books where the criminal turned out to be the last person she suspected. And speaking of suspicions, she thought Robin's language had a strangely military flavor.

But Cal didn't like having his hunches challenged.

“So you have experience in this kind of situation?”

Robin looked up and Tara felt he was about to say something, but he kept quiet.

“You don't, do you?” continued Cal. “Any more than the rest of us. Master Dragosh's attitude is suspicious. When Deria caught him near our room, he sounded very embarrassed. And what about the conversation we overheard before that, huh? Isn't that a clue? Besides, he was around when the other apprentices were kidnapped last year.”

Robin looked thoughtful. “To catch the culprit we have to discover his motive.”

“You're right,” agreed Sparrow. “What's the common denominator? What do all those apprentices have in common? Cal, you were there last year. Any ideas?”

“Not a one. They were all very different. There was a girl, Brida, who was quite gifted. A boy, Erik. A somewhat arrogant elf, T'ane. And a dwarf girl, Fafnir. After the disappearances, Hymlia, which sends its dwarves afflicted with magic to the Castle, and Selenda, the elf country, both announced that they were temporarily keeping their citizens home to avoid problems.”

Tara found this very interesting.

“Are you saying that only humans were affected?”

“Not exactly. More that the ones who served high wizards were special targets. Master Chem didn't say so, but I heard my parents talking about it. Lots of young spellbinders have disappeared all over OtherWorld, and nobody knows what happened to them.”

“In that case, we have to figure out what connects the disappearances,” said Tara. “Cal, you know the apprentices better than we do; can you try to learn as much as you can about each one who disap-peared? Robin, you're familiar with Tingapore; talk to people here and find out if there were also disappearances from the Imperial Palace. Sparrow, you move around easily and you're discreet; see if you can listen to what the high wizards are talking about.”

“And what do you plan to do?” asked Cal.

“I'm going to wait here until you give me all your information,” she said, and took a deep breath. “Then I'll go confront Master Chem.”

“Well, I'm happy to leave you that part of the plan,” said Sparrow, who was terrified of the dragon wizard. “Anyway, I just heard the dinner gong.” At Omois, gongs rang the hours. “So let's go eat, gang!”

Cal grinned at the thought.

An ifrit, whose purple body ended in a spiral instead of legs, was patiently hovering outside their door and led them to the banquet hall.

They discreetly made their way to their table. A sumptuous dinner was already laid out, with enormous golden trays and fine porcelain dishes. Cal and Robin looked hungrily at the feast awaiting them. Many dishes were set on . . . nothing. The food floated in the air right above the table.

Tara soon discovered that appearances didn't necessarily match reality. She helped herself to some very ordinary-looking white rice, and it set her mouth on fire for half an hour. After gulping a gallon of water, she began to watch what the others ate and cautiously followed suit.

The dishes tasted strange; not bad, just unusual. The sauces were spicy and though the vegetables looked familiar—beans, grains, and root vegetables—they had very different tastes and smells. A kind of string bean tasted like an unlikely combination of broccoli and banana; a yellow tomato like cauliflower with sardines; and the red oyster plants like peaches in honey.

They also got Boom Bars, the candies Cal liked so much. When Tara put one in her mouth, it first melted and then exploded, releasing all its flavors. She also saw Soothsuckers, odd blue and white, frog-shaped lollipops that contained a secret message. When you licked away the frog's stomach or back, a message appeared that told your fortune.

To Tara, the magic sucker announced: “Your anxiety is high because danger is nigh.” She frowned; that wasn't exactly breaking news. Cal's Soothsucker told him he would be wrong. Robin's said that he would reveal himself, which he seemed to find alarming. Sparrow cautiously declined to try one.

All the Soothsuckers were the same color, so you didn't know what flavor you were getting until you tried it. Tara experimented successively with orange steak, almond cherry, chocolate camembert, lemon breaded fish, red chili plum, and pepper apple. The problem, of course, was that you had to eat the whole thing if you wanted to get the magic sentence.

Cal told her that the lollipops were the creation of the P'abo, imps who loved to play tricks. They had been inspired by the Eastern Valley centaurs, who had gotten into the habit of licking the backs of blue-and-white frogs called Pllops. They were extremely poisonous for the other races, but their venom gave centaurs pleasant dreams and sometimes visions of the future.

Tara loved Tzinpaf, a sparkling apple cola with a hint of lemon. But she hated Barbrapo, an acrid yellow fermented drink that gave her the shakes.

While they were eating, Tara accidentally knocked a basket of dinner rolls off the table, and Robin surprised her by catching the falling rolls before they could hit the floor. She seemed to remember seeing someone else display such unnatural speed, but after a moment's thought, forgot the incident.

The banquet ended with an array of stuffed chocolates—a universal treat, apparently. Then a beautiful dark-haired woman stood up to speak. It was Lady Auxia, high wizard of the Omois High Council and the empress' cousin.

“My dear friends, allow me to welcome you to Tingapore!”

A burst of applause from the high wizards interrupted her. She nodded graciously, then continued: “As we do whenever you visit us, we put our entire infrastructure at your disposal. But there is a new development this year, or rather an exception. Our dear empress and emperor have agreed to lend the high wizards of Lancovit our skills to cure a young spellbinder who is suffering from demonic magic. Once her case is treated, our beloved rulers have asked that the Lancovit apprentices be presented to them. This is unique in the annals of the Palace and worthy of note. Their Imperial Majesties are paying you a great honor.”

A murmur of surprise greeted this statement, but Cal—who was deciding whether to eat a ninth chocolate stuffed with bitter orange—noticed that the Omoisian apprentices near them didn't seem surprised.

“Their Imperial Majesties would also like to see a demonstration of skills by the leading apprentices from each palace. Selections will take place tomorrow as soon as our young guest is cured. Thank you for your attention.” She sat down.

Tara turned to Damien, who was deep in conversation with Angelica.

“Excuse me, do you have a common room, like in Travia?”

Interrupted in mid-sentence, he answered with ill grace. “No, none of our rooms are common. However, we have a Discussarium!”

“Ooooh, you're so lucky!” purred Angelica. “A real Discussarium! I'd
love
to see it.”

Damien bowed to her—they must all have backaches, thought Tara, from bowing right and left all the time—and said, “It would be my pleasure to take you there, beautiful Angelica!”

Cal rolled his eyes, and chirped, “Oooooh, lovely Tara, would you accord me the favor of your presence and accompany my unworthy self to the Discussarium?”

“I'll be happy to,” answered Tara, stifling a giggle. “What's a Discussarium?”

Damien glared at Cal. “It's a place where we hold discussions and inform ourselves,” he said loftily. “But it would be best if I showed you. Follow me!”

Cal leaped theatrically to his feet, yanked Tara's chair out so fast she almost fell on her face, then bowed and said: “Kindly rest your dainty hand on my manly arm and we'll follow our gay companion along the mysterious meanders of this ancient Palace!”

Contemptuously ignoring the Travia apprentices' jibes, Damien led the way, with Angelica close on his heels.

“Please forgive them,” she said through gritted teeth. “They're immature, second-rate spellbinders. Our poor masters are forced to admit practically anyone these last few years.”

“I understand,” Damien answered quite seriously. “But if that boy continues to provoke me I might forget the rule and teach him some manners.”

“The rule?”

“Lady Auxia, our high wizard, has forbidden us from fighting duels with you.”

“Duels?” Angelica didn't understand. “What do you mean, duels?”

“If our honor is defied or insulted, we issue a challenge. We aren't allowed to issue deadly challenges, of course”—Damien's tone suggested this was something he quite regretted—“but we can inflict enough pain that the loser will remember it for a long time.”

Angelica seemed to find the notion fascinating.

“Really? You're allowed to fight with magic? That's unbelievable!”

“Why unbelievable?” asked Damien, surprised. “Aren't you allowed to?”

Angelica shook her head.

“No, of course not! It's absolutely forbidden.”

“Then what do you do when somebody threatens you? You train under real-life circumstances, don't you?”

Angelica glanced behind her, but the others were too close for her to be able to say what she had in mind. So she simply slipped her arm under Damien's, to his delight, and murmured: “Our customs are very different from yours. We can talk about all this in the Discussarium. I have lots of questions to ask you about these . . . duels.”

The Discussarium was a large hall full of many small tables, with chairs around them. The hall was very crowded—and totally silent.

Tara could see people arguing and waving their arms, but to her astonishment, she couldn't hear them.

“This is a Discussarium,” said Damien, who found Tara's surprise gratifying. “Come along; I'll demonstrate.”

To Angelica's great annoyance, Damien showed Tara to a seat, grumbled when Cal plopped down next to her, and then sat down himself. He was followed by Sparrow, Robin, Carole, and Sil, a fat Omois apprentice who brought a supply of chocolates, as if he was afraid he might run out.

Damien then announced loudly, “We are in place.”

A sphere of silence immediately isolated them from all the other groups.

“There you go,” he said, smiling brightly. “Now I'll show you what we do when we disagree about some subject. Let me think . . .

He thought for a moment and then said, “I've got it! How well do you know Lancovit history—specifically the story of King Tarien the Beast and Queen Beauty? It happened about three hundred OtherWorld years ago.”

Tara pricked up her ears. Beauty and the Beast? Like on the Throne Room tapestry?

“They had a son and a daughter. Do you know the daughter's name?” asked Damien, in a tone that suggested he didn't think they could answer such an easy question.

“Isabella!”

Sparrow's prompt answer took him aback.

“Very good. But let's say I disagree, and I claim that the name of their daughter was Katiane, say.”

He raised his voice and spoke: “Voice?” A resonant voice answered, seemingly from nowhere: “Apprentice Damien?”

“What was the name of the daughter of Their Majesties Tarien and Beauty, in Travia, capital of Lancovit, in the thirtieth century, please?”

“Isabella, Apprentice Damien.”

“Thank you.”

He turned to the others.

“There you are! We can talk without disturbing other people. And when we aren't sure of something, we can call on the Voice to resolve the issue. We can also watch movies, listen to music, read, sing—or work, of course.”

Tara's eyes lit up. This was exactly what she needed! Maybe the Voice would know where the Gray Fortress was.

“Bravo!” said Angelica enthusiastically. “Your Discussarium is very advanced! We don't have a Voice, and our silencing screens are much less sophisticated. What a luxury! I should ask my parents to send me to work for one of your wizards. I really don't understand why they stuck me in Travia Castle.”

“Maybe because nobody else wanted her,” Cal evilly whispered in Tara's ear.

Robin followed up on Angelica's comment,

“Speaking of Travia, there have been a lot of strange incidents there. One apprentice disappeared recently, and four others last year. Has anything like that happened here?”

Damien and Sil looked at each other, then Sil spoke up.

“We don't know anything about it, but apparently there were several disappearances last year. My parents didn't want me to come to the Palace, but the emperor passed a law requiring young spellbinders to work under a high wizard or a more experienced spellbinder, and not in their home towns. Supposedly to avoid magic accidents. So we didn't have any choice.”

“Do you know who disappeared?” asked Robin casually.

Sil shot a crafty look at Damien and then said, “Nobody this year, at least so far. And we don't know the ones who disappeared last year. But my sources tell me that their parents got a message.”

They were all now hanging on his every word.

“How do you know?” asked a surprised Damien. “You never mentioned this.”

“I never mentioned it because nobody ever asked me. But my mother was part of the team that investigated the abductions, and I just happened to be passing by her office at home, and I overheard her talking with a crystalist.” Tara knew that crystalists were Other-World journalists who broadcast the news though crystal screens or balls. “The guy had learned from one of his sources that the victims' parents got a message saying they didn't need to worry about the kids, that they were fine, and that they would be returned later. The message also said that they would get regular updates. My mother was so furious that she threatened to have the crystalist arrested for obstructing the investigation and putting hostages' lives in danger. In fact she threatened him so severely that he wound up agreeing not to broadcast the information.”