Tara Duncan and the Spellbinders (50 page)

“Whew! That was a close call!” he said. “A few feet to either side, and it would've been goodbye Cal!”

“That's why we're going to wait for Master Chem,” said Tara seriously, who was just starting to recover from her emotions. “I don't want to risk your lives for nothing.”

“You've got to be kidding!” he exclaimed. “We aren't giving up so fast! Listen, all we have to do is go see what the Bloodgrave master is up to. We'll stay off to one side, and not make a move until Master Chem gets here, okay?”

Tara didn't hesitate.

“Sounds good! Okay, follow me, and don't try anything on your own. I've had enough scares to last the next twenty years.”

“Me too,” added Sparrow, who was still shaken.

They tiptoed to the entrance to the Initiation Hall, only to find it totally, absolutely, and definitely empty.

“Hey! He isn't here!” whispered Fabrice.

“But the room only has one entrance,” exclaimed Robin. “If there were others, there would be no point to the arachne.”

“If there are other passages, Cal is elected to find them,” said Tara. “But not to take them, understand?”

“Look, I just fell a hundred feet onto the stomach of a giant spider,” he said, shuddering. “I'm not about to scare myself again, believe me. If I find a secret passage, I'll call you over and we'll discuss it.”

The problem was, there wasn't any secret passage.

Despite their tapping, sniffing, and searching all through the hall, there was nothing there.

Then Tara noticed the slab of black granite still floating above their heads. She climbed the steps of the bleachers and carefully examined it. In the center of the slab there was a kind of glowing circle, a little lighter than the rest of the rock. She was intrigued, so she jumped from the bleachers onto the slab and touched the circle with a tentative finger.

“Tara, what are you—?” cried Cal, as she disappeared. “Hey, quick! Tara's found the secret way out!”

Without thinking, he jumped onto the slab, touched the circle, and disappeared in turn.

“I'm going too!” yelled Robin. “Sparrow and Fabrice, stay here and protect each other, and tell Master Chem about the secret exit.”

Before Sparrow and Fabrice had a chance to object, the half-elf had vanished.

When Robin landed he smoothly leapt to his feet in fighting posture, ready for action. But what he saw so astonished him that he froze.

The three spellbinders were surrounded by ocean.

Robin, Cal, and Tara were at the center of an enormous whirlpool. Underfoot, slippery stones were covered with seaweed and algae. Stranded fish were flopping and dying in the puddles. High in the sky, a huge pale moon illuminated the landscape.

“Where . . . where are we?” stammered Cal.

“I'm not sure, but I think we're on Earth,” said Tara, eyes narrowed in surprise. “That looks like our moon. And what's around us looks like a Greek temple, only underwater!”

Though adorned with seaweed and coral, enormous white marble statues stared down at them from their pedestals. And a temple with many columns stood at the end of a great city square. Looking at the wall of water held back by the whirlpool, they could see fishes, octopi, and sharks swimming among the city ruins.

A voice behind them made them jump.

“Welcome to Atlantis! I've been waiting for this moment for a long time!”

They turned around.

There stood the Master of Bloodgraves.

Tara was already raising her hand to blast him when Magister stopped her.

“Wait! I don't want to fight you. You aren't likely to hurt me, and besides, magic doesn't work here. Those-Who-Guard don't allow it.”

All around the group, Those-Who-Guard emerged from the water, armed with tridents. Their hands were webbed, their teeth sharp and pointed, and their skin a strange color somewhere between green and blue. Standing more than six feet tall, they were oddly handsome, with humanoid bodies covered with shining scales.

To Tara's great surprise, one of them, wearing a circle of gold on his head, suddenly bowed to her.

“
Salguvil, inglativ vlamblu, blugil,
” he gurgled.

Tara was about to say that she didn't understand when a kind of ringing sounded in her head. And suddenly it was clear! The meaning of the sentence exploded in her brain. He had just welcomed the
heir
!

“He recognizes you! I've succeeded!” cried Magister jubilantly.

“Succeeded at what?” asked Tara coldly. “Getting me to talk with a fish-man?”

“Much, much more than that, Your Imperial Majesty,” he snickered. “He just recognized you as the heir of High Wizard Demiderus T'al Barmi. You've gotten through the First Circle!”

“All right, can somebody explain things to me?” interrupted Cal. “Because I'm all at sea here, so to speak.”

With a wicked smile, Magister dropped his bombshell.

“Tara is the Imperial Spellbinder, heir to the throne of Omois and the direct descendant of Demiderus. Her father was Emperor Danviou T'al Barmi Ab Santa Ab Maru, the empress's brother!”

Cal opened his mouth and then closed it again, stunned. He wasn't alone. Robin and Tara were staring at Magister as if he had lost his mind.

“You and the Empress of Omois are the only people who can enter this temple, Tara. Those-Who-Guard are its first line of defense. Those-Who-Judge are its second. These defenses were put in place thousands of years ago. It was through this place—this rift—that the demons tried to invade Earth. When the dragons defeated them, they decided to sink Atlantis to keep anyone from opening the rift.

“Demons aren't very smart,” continued Magister bitterly. “In seeking revenge, they tried to kill the descendents of the five high wizards, without realizing that they were imprisoning themselves forever. Only you and the empress are left, and she isn't available. So you're going to enter the temple and get me through the circle of Those-Who-Judge.

“And by the way, I sent Deria into another dimension to carry out a mission I assigned her. Your mother, on the other hand, is here in the temple. I've extended the deadly spell to cover her. She won't turn into crystal, but Those-Who-Judge must be aware of her presence by now, and are about to rip her to shreds. You only have a few minutes to save her.”

“You monster!” cursed Tara, her jaw clenched, and then she reluctantly ordered Those-Who-Guard to release him. Magister brushed himself off, and with an ironic bow offered her the lead. Robin and Cal fell in behind him, ready to intervene.

Her heart pounding, Tara entered the temple. The stone was still slippery from the ocean water and they had to be careful not to fall. Walking silently between the carved columns, they reached the center of the building, where a gigantic statue awaited them. A forgotten, once all-powerful god brandished a lightning bolt in his left hand and a spear in his right.

Before him stood an altar.

On the altar lay Tara's mother.

Surrounded by Those-Who-Judge.

Those-Who-Guard had a definite physical presence, but Those-Who-Judge were immaterial spirits. Their hovering shapes turned eyeless faces to them. And those shapes had fangs and claws, which they could make perfectly tangible—and deadly.

Tara bowed and confidently declared, “I am Tara'tylanhnem T'al Barmi Ab Santa Ab Maru, the daughter of Danviou T'al Barmi Ab Santa Ab Maru, and a descendant of Demiterus T'al Barmi. My mother, Selena Duncan, has been brought here against her will by this human, Magister. I demand justice.”

“You can demand all you like,” said Magister coldly. “They don't judge actions. They are here only to prevent the demons from reopening the rift without one of the heirs' permission. Now we'll find out if your blood is pure enough to satisfy them!”

The spirits suddenly started whirling around Tara, who began to panic. Then, without warning, they dove and poured into her skull. She screamed and collapsed.

Cal and Robin were about to leap into action when Magister stopped them.

“Don't move, or we'll all die!” he yelled. “Let Those-Who-Judge act. They won't hurt her if they recognize her as the heir.”

“And what if they don't?” screamed Robin, enraged.

“Then we can measure our life expectancy in seconds.”

“You're a total nut job!” cried Cal. “I'm going to—”

No one would know what he would do, because Tara suddenly rose into the air, eyes wide open, glowing. Beneath her, the altar holding her mother's unconscious body opened, and Robin barely had time to catch her before she fell.

A gigantic black throne, hideously carved with demons and deformed animals, rose from the opening, taking its place under Tara exactly in the center of the room. Radiating intense heat, it quickly became red hot.

“The Throne of Silur,” murmured a marveling Magister. “At last!”

The light from Tara's body hit the throne, which began to glow in turn. The head of a grotesque demon was carved on the top of the throne. A burning ray of red light shot from its revolting mouth into the eyes of the forgotten god looming massively over them.

With a terrible creaking, the statue raised its head. The ray now shone from its eyes to illuminate a drawing of a human in a spellbinder robe on the ceiling, and the temple roof split open in two halves.

The brilliant, cold moon appeared above them. Its beams fell on the throne, giving it a reddish halo. Tara's body stopped glowing, and she very slowly stepped down from the throne. She had remained conscious during the process.

Seeing that Magister was no longer paying her any attention, she rushed to her mother, whom Robin had stretched out behind a column.

“Is she all right?” she asked anxiously.

“Yes, she's just unconscious,” he murmured. “What do we do now?”

“Those-Who-Judge explained the process to me,” she said gravely. “Now that the temple is open, Magister will start his incantations to open the rift. By opening it, he will appropriate the throne's demonic powers, but at the same time he is opening a passage for the demons! He doesn't care, so long as he gets the power, but the demons will be unleashed on the Earth. It will be the Apocalypse. Under the demons' rule, humans will become cattle, serving only to feed them. Our species will disappear! I think I have found a way to prevent that, but you're going to have to protect me, because I will be completely defenseless. Do you think you can do that?”

“Do what you have to do,” whispered Robin. “I'd give my life for you.”

Tara blushed.

“I've already almost died twice today,” said Cal, shrugging in resignation, “so once more or less makes no difference! Let's do it!”

Magister was standing under the throne. When the moonbeams struck the carved stone, they turned red. Reciting incantations, he seized the beams, made them material, and wove them like threads of cold light, creating a Portal that appeared on the wall.

Taking a deep breath, Tara went to stand behind her two friends, who had generated a powerful magic shield.

She concentrated, and a dazzling blue ray shot from her hands. Magister thought she was aiming at him and put up a shield as well. But the ray passed over his head and instead hit the Throne of Silur.

Tara had realized that she couldn't defeat Magister, so she was going after the object he most desired. The throne was burning with the demonic energy it contained, so she wasn't shooting not a ray of fire, but a ray of ice. When it hit the glowing throne, an enormous cloud of steam arose.

“Noooo!” yelled the infuriated Bloodgrave. “I'm going to stop you! ‘By Destructus may these children die, and from these sacred precincts fly!'“

His destructive energy slammed into the shield Cal and Robin had conjured, but the two young spellbinders summoned all their strength and managed to resist it.

Meanwhile, Tara drew on the depths of her fear and her anger to amplify her power. Suddenly she could feel it flowing in her veins. Her eyes turned entirely blue and the icy ray reached its full force, enveloping the throne in a bluish glow. The stone groaned, torn by the vast temperature gap between its internal fire and the ray's intense cold.

Realizing that he didn't have time to kill the two young spellbinders, Magister returned to his incantations, racing to beat Tara and appropriate the demonic throne's power.

Bent to Magister's monstrous will, the moonbeams had almost finished weaving the passage. Demonic energy was escaping from Limbo in a flood of black light that washed over the throne and into his body, feeding his power. Unfortunately, the opening had attracted the demons, and their shadows could now be seen: talons, claws, jaws, and fangs, ready to rip and tear.

In despair, Tara realized they were losing. But to her surprise, another blue-white ray suddenly flashed. Her mother had just joined forces with her!

When Selena regained consciousness, she didn't at first recognize the girl fighting to destroy the Throne of Silur. Then the forgetting spell she had cast on herself snapped, and she joined the fray.

In his fury, Magister recited a final incantation, and the first two demons, their bodies half dog, half octopus, managed to squeeze through the passage. Refusing to accept defeat, Tara yelled in turn and put all of her despair into the strength of her cry: “Freeze!”

The cold she was imagining was close to absolute zero. When it enveloped the throne, the black stone gave a final tortured groan and exploded. Chunks of black basalt shot in every direction, destroying the Portal and blasting the two demons. Only Cal and Robin's shield saved Tara and her mother from certain death. Magister took the full brunt of the explosion and was knocked to the ground.

The moonbeams started weakening. The light in the statue's eyes began to go out and the temple roof slowly closed.

“Nooooooo!” screamed Magister. “This will not be! By the silver moon of Etevelier, I order you to awaken!”