Tara Duncan and the Spellbinders (38 page)

“All right, Mom. I'll act as if I didn't expect to be called in, and I'll try to see you. What do we do if I can't?”

“In that case I'll come back to your room in thought tomorrow night, and we'll figure something out together.”

“Oh, I nearly forgot!” Tara quickly added. “I think that Fafnir is planning to escape. In fact, I think she's going to try tomorrow night. She's a dwarf.”

“Really? That's wonderful! I didn't know they had kidnapped a dwarf. What fools! Dwarves can't stand being locked up, so she'll do everything in her power to escape. You can trust her, darling. Dwarves are wise and thoughtful.”

“Oh, really? You sure we're talking about the same people?”

“I have to leave you now. Be brave, my darling. See you tomorrow.”

“So soon? But . . . ”

“I can feel him waking up,” her mother said quickly. “I can't risk being caught; not now. Until tomorrow, darling. Be careful.”

“Til tomorrow, Mom. I love you.”

“I love you too.”

The shadow disappeared.

Wild with excitement, Tara wasn't able to get back to sleep until dawn.

When she woke up her heart was singing, and she felt as if she could fly. She danced around the room with her somewhat mystified pegasus, hopped into the bath, carefully washed her hair, and put on her nicest clothes. Her mother! She was finally going to see her mother again!

She carefully folded the map and put it in her pocket, where she also found her remaining immuta-creds and change.

She was heading for the dining hall for breakfast when a Mud Eater stopped her. Tara knew that the Bloodgraves used Eaters for all sorts of little chores that they didn't have time or inclination to do themselves. Mud Eaters were very stupid, so you had to give them clear explanations to be sure they obeyed. This one had apparently been ordered to bring Tara to his master's office the moment she left her room.

Tara decided to act as if she wasn't expecting this, and tried to argue. The Mud Eater wasn't having any of it.

“Come now, Master want to see you.”

“But I'm hungry!” she whined. “I'll come after breakfast.”

Fortunately, the Mud Eater had specific orders.

“Come now, Master want to see you.” He took her by the arm and pulled her along.

The area were Magister lived was brilliantly lit up. That's where Tara met her first giants.

Lost in thought, she found herself in front of what she initially took to be columns. Then she saw feet—very large feet. She looked up . . . and up . . . until finally reaching two rigid faces that looked like granite. She had a moment of panic when one of them seemed to crack, but realized that the giant was just trying to smile.

She timidly smiled back and followed the Mud Eater into the office.

Magister was sitting behind his desk. Once, when Tara and her grandmother were watching a movie together, Isabella commented that the distance you had to cross to reach the movie CEO's desk was directly proportional to the size of his ego. The Bloodgrave leader's ego must be huge, because the room, modeled after Omois's double Throne Room, went on forever. When Tara found herself in front of him, though, any temptation to laugh quickly left her.

Magister seemed to be in a good mood, however. Though she couldn't see his face, Tara got the unsettling feeling he was smiling. And his mirror mask was a serene blue.

“Welcome to my humble abode,” he said. “Did you sleep well?”

Tara decided to be direct.

“I'm hungry. Your
thing
there didn't want me to eat before I came.”

“Well, of course not. I wanted to have breakfast with you. Please, come this way.”

The Bloodgrave opened the door to an attractive private dining room where a sumptuous breakfast was laid out. Tara sat down and started eating a bread roll without paying Magister the slightest attention. She knew he expected her to ask questions, so she stayed completely silent. After a few minutes of her studious chewing, the Bloodgrave broke the silence, and she knew she had won the first round.

“So tell me, Tara, do you like it here?”

A question that dumb didn't deserve anything less than a clear, frank answer. “Nah. Not at all.”

Magister took a deep breath. “Ah, I see. But you have everything here that you had at Travia, only better.”

Tara knew he was trying to draw her into a discussion. But there's no point trying to change a nasty person's mind, so she didn't answer. Instead, she merely shrugged, knowing this would annoy him.

“Do you like your room?” he tried again, awkwardly.

“Nah. I can't be with my friends. I don't like rooms by myself.”

That surprised him. Magister was profoundly individualistic, and couldn't imagine that someone might prefer a dormitory to a private room. He began drumming his fingers on the table.

“Otherwise, did you find it interesting to take the tests?”

“Didn't have time. You attacked my friend first!”

The drumming increased.

“But I couldn't let anybody locate our fortress! You understand that, don't you.”

She countered his drumming with a shrug.

“Come on, I know you're very powerful,” he snapped, starting to get agitated. “A lot more powerful than all the other Bloodgraves here. I'm going to increase your power, make you a force in the world, transform you, and—”

“Nah. I don't want to be powerful. I don't like magic.”

At that, Magister was speechless. That is, Tara assumed he was speechless, because he certainly wasn't saying anything.

“You . . . You don't like magic?”

The drumming stopped.

“Nah. I wanna go home, to Tagon. I like TV better.”

Tara had prepared her strategy while the Mud Eater was dragging her along the hallways. Tara knew a complete idiot at her school back on Earth, named Brutus. All she had to do was say what she imagined Brutus would say, and it would completely discombobulate the Bloodgrave.

“That's . . . curious,” said Magister, who was no fool. “With Deria yesterday you were speaking completely normally. I can't believe that the powerful spellbinder who stood up to me in the Testing Hall could be that stupid.”

After a few initial passes, the real duel was beginning. Thrust and parry. All right, thought Tara, let's see what we can do.

“Why did she call me Imperial Highness?” she asked.

“What?”

“Lady Manticore, the Bloodgrave who wanted to test us. She called me Imperial Highness. Why?”

Disengagement, thrust. Totally unprepared for the question, Magister didn't know what to answer. To Tara, he looked bothered, exactly the way her grandmother did when she was stuck.

“It must have been a mistake. She probably meant to speak to the Lancovit princess.”

“Nah,” Tara immediately countered. “Sparrow's only a royal. To me she said
Imperial
Highness. Why?” Slide along the blade and touch!

Magister suddenly remembered that he had a lot of urgent things to deal with, the first of which was to call in a certain blabbermouth named Lady Manticore.

“Well, I see that you've finished your breakfast,” he said. “I'll let you get back to your friends. Whatever you may think, I'm sure your stay with us will be very productive. And I promise you'll get all the answers to your questions after your Initiation tomorrow.”

This rattled Tara, but she didn't let it show.

“M'murm!” he called, after carefully looking Tara over, who remained motionless.

“Master?” The Mud Eater came in.

“Take Tara to the dining hall. Then bring me Lady Manticore. Immediately!”

“Yes, Master, nice Master, good Master.”

“All right, all right, get a move on!”

Tara didn't know how much the Mud Eater could report back to his master, so she was careful not to smile. Just as they stepped out of Magister's office and were about to leave his private apartments, Lady Manticore suddenly appeared.

“Ah, M'murm, you're just the . . . person I was looking for,” she said. “Do you know if the master is available? I want to see him.”

“Nice Master, good Master await you. You come. Now.”

Tara had no way to tell if Manticore had gone pale, but she seemed unsteady for a moment, and her mask turned green.

“Oh really? He asked to see me? Well, here I am. Let's go in.”

The Mud Eater hesitated, torn between order number one, which was to bring Tara back, and order number two, which was to fetch Lady Manticore. He wound up not having a choice, because Manticore literally dragged him into Magister's office.

Tara was delighted. She was in her enemy's private residence. All she had to do was to find her mother.

Tiptoeing along, she entered the first room she came to. It was a library, and she saw that it held the kind of books that you don't leave lying around where children could find them—or most adults, for that matter. Lots of stuff on demons, and obscure, not to say frankly infernal magic. Exactly what I would have expected of Magister, she thought with a shudder of disgust.

The next room was the bedroom. Man, does this guy like black! thought Tara, looking it over. Everything was black, from the furniture to the adjoining bathroom, which was dominated by a huge granite tub with gold faucets—the height of good taste. A hair brush lay nearby. Hmm, he's blond, she noticed. Without thinking, she took a few of the hairs. Cops in TV crime shows are able to identify criminals by their DNA, so why not on OtherWorld?

She silently pursued her search. And found her mother in the third room.

She very slowly opened the door. It was a pleasantly sunny room that probably served as a private Discussarium, because there were chairs and tables everywhere.

When Tara stepped in, the pale, lovely young woman stood up, clapped her hand to her mouth, and ran to her.

“Tara? My little girl! My darling, darling Tara!”

“Mommy! Oh, Mommy!”

She hugged her mother so tight, she felt as if she would never be able to let her go again. After a few moments her mother found the strength to step back to look her daughter over.

“You're beautiful, darling! I didn't notice how you've grown. I've missed you, Tara. You can't imagine how much I missed you!”

“I missed you too, Mommy! You look just like in Grandma's pictures. You haven't changed. You look so beautiful!”

Her mother took Tara in her arms again and rocked her. It was a moment of pure happiness that they'd been cheated out of for so long.

Meanwhile, Gallant made the acquaintance of Sambor, the big golden puma that was Selena's familiar. The two stationed themselves by the door, ready to intercept anybody who tried to come in.

Reluctantly, Selena tore herself away from Tara again and they gazed into each other's eyes, golden hazel into deep blue.

“How are you, darling? Magister hasn't hurt you, has he?”

“No. For the moment he must be wondering if I was actually equipped with a brain when I was born because I told him I didn't like magic.”

Her mother burst out laughing.

“Oh, I would have liked to have been a fly on the wall when you told him that! Good move, darling. He can't imagine that someone wouldn't want to have power, because that's what magic represents in his eyes.”

“Yeah, I sort of got that.”

“That cursed man has held me prisoner for ten years,” said Selena, biting her lip. “He takes a sadistic pleasure in telling me about his plots to seize power. To protect you, I had to resolve not to try to contact you. At least not until a few days ago, when I learned that he was going to go after you.”

Now Tara was confused.

“You mean you let all of us think you were dead so you could protect me?” she said, frowning. “That's ridiculous!”

“My Lord, it's like hearing your grandmother,” said Selena with a small laugh. “It seemed like the best thing to do at the time, darling. And the threat Magister represents to OtherWorld and Earth is very serious. Not to mention that it's only very recently that I was able to project my vital essence to Earth.”

“But you abandoned me!” said Tara indignantly. “I don't care about those threats. You abandoned me!”

Her mother recoiled in shock. “I'm so terribly, terribly sorry! But that's not the whole story. I can't escape from here! You see, when he killed your father, he also kidnapped me.”

Tara slumped back against the gray stone wall. She was completely lost.

“Well of course,” she said bitterly, as the truth began to sink in. “You didn't die in the Amazon jungle, and neither did Dad. So what really happened?”

“We were living in Lancovit with your grandmother and greatgrandfather. I knew that your father was hiding something from me, but in spite of all the love he had for us, he would never tell me about it. One day when you were about two, a man in a shiny mask appeared at our house. I was upstairs and entered the room just as he was about to take you from your crib. Maama, your grandmother's tiger familiar, attacked him, but he killed it. Just then your father arrived and rushed the man in the mask. They fought, and your father was mortally wounded. The man's spellbinders came running, and when he fled, they took me with them. My mother didn't realize I was still alive. And her only thought was for you.”

“But why? Why did Magister kill Dad and kidnap you? And why kidnap me now, and not before? And—”

A tremendous thunderclap interrupted her. A high-pitched scream came from Magister's office and a dense red cloud of smoke spread through the whole floor.

“Quick!” said Selena in a frightened voice. “It's getting too dangerous. Get out before he realizes that you're here. I'll contact you again in your room tonight.” She kissed her daughter. “I love you.”

Before Tara could stop her, Selena went out into the hall. The giant on guard was distracted—he was looking anxiously toward Magister's office—and she was able to slip behind him and into her own room.