The Wizard Returns: Book Three of the Wizard Born Series (47 page)

“It won’t be easy getting potions from
this
house,” Rollie said. “Not with Mrs. Tully around. She’ll scare people off just by scowling at them.”

Bryce chuckled. “She sure can come across as a hard woman, but she really isn’t, is she?”

“I like her a lot,” Melanie said. “She’s nice, once you get to know her.”

Fred nudged Jamie, who was staring out of the back window at the river. “How about you? What do you think of Mrs. Tully?”

“Huh? Oh. I like her.”

“Are you okay? You seem distracted.”

“I’m fine.” He gave his head a tight shake and turned his attention to the heavy tome in his hands. “Just thinking.”

They continued their scouring of the books and had a minor bit of excitement when Bryce found a reference to demons in one old volume. It didn’t amount to anything useful, so the tedious grind resumed.

Several times Fred caught Jamie staring out of the window, as if he were looking for answers from the trees or the flowing water, but when she asked him what he was thinking about, he only shrugged or said he wasn’t thinking about anything in particular. She knew better, though.

After lunch, they shut themselves back in the bedroom and resumed their research. Fred paid close attention to Jamie, whose thoughts seemed far away. She caught him staring out of the window again, and she nudged his foot with her bare toes and gave him an inquiring look.
You okay?
He only shrugged for an answer.

Fred was leaning back in her chair, stretching, when she heard a tiny knock on the door. Aiven opened it a crack and said, “You busy?”

“What’s up, Dude?” Rollie said. “Whatcha got there?”

Aiven came into the room, carrying a dusty book. “Mrs. Tully sent me down to the cellar for some pickles, and I found this.” He held it up for them to see. “There’s a whole crate of them. Did you know?”

“Yeah,” Jamie said, “but Mrs. Tully said Renn didn’t think they were very important. That’s why he stashed them down there.”

“Well, I brought this one up just in case. Maybe there’s something good in it.”

Rollie held out his hands. “I’ll check it out. You never know, right? We haven’t found the answer in these other books.”

Aiven gave it to him and left, closing the door behind him. Rollie blew the dust from the cover and opened it in his lap. “Probably a waste of time. Renn obviously thought so.” He flipped through a couple of pages and suddenly sat upright.

“Whoa! Check this out. This is another journal, and it says that a family was found ‘mutilated in their cabin, as if torn asunder by some dreadful beast.’ Sound familiar?” Rollie looked up and raised his eyebrows.

“Read more,” Melanie said.

“Okay. Hold on.” Rollie’s finger moved rapidly across a couple of pages before stopping. He looked up again. “They think it’s a bear.”

“You could be on to something,” Bryce said and fixed his attention on Rollie.

Rollie turned back to the book, and a minute or so later he paused again. “Another man got killed. Nothing left but one foot.” Rollie stuck out his tongue. “Gruesome.” His eyes flitted back and forth as he studied the pages, and his face grew tense. “Listen to this. ‘A rider spotted a beast upon a ridge, of great proportions, broad at the shoulders, with red, glowing eyes. A demon, the rider claimed.’ Did you hear that?”

“
Bingo
,” Jamie said, sitting up in his chair, too. “What did they do about it?”

“Mmm.” Rollie’s lips tucked into his mouth as he searched the page. “The townspeople sent word to a sorcerer named Lorcan. Apparently they’re pretty worried.”

“Can’t blame them,” Melanie said.

“Lorcan showed up a couple of days later, and ‘after conducting his own inquiry, concluded that it is indeed a demon.’ Sounds like our monster, doesn’t it?”

“This is perfect,” Bryce said with a nod. “What did the sorcerer do?”

Rollie looked back at the book. “It says that he attempted to subdue it with mighty spells, to no avail.” He read on and stopped again. “The sorcerer has devised a plan ‘to lure the demon through a magic gate, away to another land.’” Rollie turned to Jamie and arched one eyebrow.

“Huh,” Jamie said. “A
doorway
. Why didn’t I think of that?”

“Did it work?” Fred asked.

“Let’s see.” Rollie ran his fingertip back across the page for several minutes while everyone watched him intently. “I think so. There are no more mentions of the demon that I can see.” He looked up and took a deep breath. “But right here it says they’re having a memorial service for the sorcerer.”

“Uh oh,” Bryce said.

“Uh oh is right,” Jamie said. “I bet...I bet the wizard tricked the demon into following him through the doorway, and closed it behind them.” Jamie rubbed the side of his face hard with one hand. “It was a suicide mission.”

“Maybe it wasn’t suicide,” Fred said. “Maybe it was an accident.”

“Either way, that sorcerer died a cruel death. That doesn’t sound like a very good solution to our problem.”

Rollie closed the book, leaned back in his chair, and crossed his arms. “I disagree. I think we can pull it off.”

Fred lowered her eyebrows. “Jamie’s
not
going to let that demon chase him through a doorway!”

“Not him,” Rollie said. “Me. The demon will chase me.” He nodded firmly. “
That’s
why I have my super speed. It all makes sense now.”

“You are freakin’
crazy!
” Jamie said. “There’s no
way
we’re doing that.”

Rollie narrowed one eye at Jamie. “Got a better idea?”

“Well...no, not yet. But we’ve got the rest of the day to find another way.”

“All right. But if we don’t have a better solution by the time we go to bed, we do it my way.”

Fred opened her mouth to argue, but one look at the firm set of Rollie’s face told her it was pointless.
Oh no
, she thought, opening the book she held in her lap.
That only gives us a few hours to find something in one of these
.

Chapter 37

Dinner that night was boisterous, with two or three conversations going on at once. Evelyn sat beside Brinna, and after watching the young woman poke her uneaten food around her plate and sigh repeatedly, Evelyn said, “Why so sad? Because this is our last night together?”

Brinna nodded and glanced at Evelyn, then her eyes fell. “And Jamie has to take the laptop. I won’t be able to talk to John Paul anymore.” She sniffed sadly. “It’s over.”

“No it’s not. We’ll work something out for you, I promise. Maybe we can put in a phone or something.”

“A phone? Like Bryce’s?”

“Well, not exactly.” Evelyn didn’t get to explain further because the other conversation at the table had escalated to an argument.

“Gramma?” Jamie said. “Tell him he can’t do it!”

“Who can’t do what?”

Rollie’s face was angry as he pointed his fork at Jamie. “I can do it if I want to. It’s
my
decision, not yours.”

“What decision?” Evelyn said.

“Jamie doesn’t think I should be the one to lure the demon through the doorway, but I
know
I should. It’s why I have my power.” Rollie nodded emphatically.

“I think Rollie’s right,” Bryce said. “But I still think Melanie and I should be a part of it.”

“I can’t protect you,” Jamie said. “I can fly Fred out of harm’s way, if I need to, and Rollie can probably outrun the demon, but —”

“What do you mean, probably?” Rollie thrust his chin out. “He can’t catch me. Nobody can.”

“You never used to be this stubborn.” Jamie closed his eyes and scrubbed his face with one hand. “And I still haven’t figured out where to make the doorway
to
. If I make it to an inhabited world, then somebody else will have to deal with the demon.”

“Don’t do that,” Evelyn said, and Mrs. Tully nodded her agreement. Aiven watched the proceedings silently.

“What’s wrong with one of the uninhabited worlds?” Bryce said. “Like the one with three moons?”

“Unh unh.” Fred shook her head. “We like going there.”

“Besides,” Melanie said, “you can’t know for sure that a world doesn’t have advanced life forms. Not until you do a thorough planetary study.”

Jamie pressed his mouth to one side. “No time for that. That could take years. It’s got to be someplace that we can be pretty sure doesn’t have much life on it, except for extremophiles or something.”

Rollie’s eyebrows drew down. “Extremo-
what?
”

“Really tough microorganisms,” Melanie said. “So we need a planet with a poisonous atmosphere.”

“But the poisonous gases could blow into our world while the doorway is open,” Jamie said. “It might kill me or knock me out while I’m waiting to close the door after the demon goes through it.”

“You have to be near it?”

Jamie nodded.

Melanie tapped her chin with one fingertip. “It won’t be a problem if the other planet’s atmospheric pressure is lower than ours. Then the air flow would be from our side of the doorway into the other one.”

Jamie blinked at her for a moment saying, “That would work. I know of a couple of planets like that.”

“Will it kill the demon?” Fred said.

“Probably not. He won’t be too happy about it, though.”

“We won’t lose any sleep over that,” Evelyn said.

* * *

Jamie got up from the laptop after talking to his parents, grabbed a magic book, and joined his friends by the fire. Mrs. Tully, Brinna, and Aiven had already gone home for the night. Jamie’s friends had books, too, but nobody seemed to be reading.

Fred looked up at Jamie when he sat beside her. “I can’t believe it’s our last night here. I’m not ready to go home yet.”

Melanie nodded. “This almost seems like home now. Home away from home.”

Evelyn, sitting in the rocker, closed her Bible in her lap. “Jamie, I couldn’t help overhearing part of your conversation with your parents. It sounds like you didn’t tell them the whole story.”

“If I told my dad he wasn’t going with us to deal with the demon tomorrow, he’d have a fit.” He sighed. “I’m sure we’re going to have a big argument about this. Guess I’ll get grounded.”

“Is that’s what’s been bothering you all day?” Fred said. “It seems like you’ve been distracted.”

Jamie laid his book on the floor beside his chair and took a deep breath. “Well, actually, it’s something else. It’s about the money.” He glanced over his shoulder at the closet near the kitchen doorway where the two chests full of coins were hidden. “I’ve been thinking about what I want to do with it, or at least some of it.” He looked into the faces of his friends, one at a time. “I want to give some of it to you. Each of you. I think you deserve it after all we’ve been through together. You’ve earned it.”

“Baloney,” Melanie said. “We haven’t done much of anything.”

“You gave up your spring break to come here and search through these boring books! And when Fred got kidnapped over Christmas, you and Bryce gave up so much of your time to help find her.”

“First of all, I wanted to come here, and I’m glad I did. It’s been great.” Melanie turned to Bryce. “Don’t you think so?”

He nodded and said, “This has been one of the most awesome weeks of my life. Wouldn’t trade it for anything.”

Melanie raised two fingers. “And second, Fred is my best friend. I didn’t work so hard to find her as a favor to you.”

“Me neither,” Bryce added.

“Jamie,” Fred said, “I’m glad you want to be generous with the money, but it’s not like we really need it. We get by okay without it.”

“I’m not talking about making you rich, I just think you ought to have enough for college, and...maybe a car.”

“A car?” Rollie’s eyes widened. “Man, that’d be cool.” Then he sucked in his breath sharply through his teeth. “But I can’t see my parents accepting it.”

Bryce shook his head. “I won’t take my dad’s money, so why should I take yours?”

Melanie sighed. “I’ve got a full scholarship, but...gosh, I’d love to have a new car. But what would I tell my parents about how I got it?”

Rollie worked his mouth slowly from side to side as he looked at Jamie. “When you’re talking about helping pay for school, how much are you talking about?”

“All of it. There’s plenty of money here.”

“Shouldn’t you use it for something...I don’t know...more important?”

“Rollie, this
is
important! Besides, there’s tons of money in there. This’ll only put a little tiny dent in it. I’ll still have enough to do something else.”

“Jamie?” Fred said. “When you say you want to help us get a car, do you mean a new one?”

“I think that would be best, so you wouldn’t have the problems Melanie has with her old clunker.”

“Can I get whatever I want? I want a red convertible!”

“Fred,” Evelyn said with a frown, “don’t be greedy.”

“I’m not being greedy, I just want....” She closed her mouth when she saw the stern look on Evelyn’s face, then Fred turned to Jamie and narrowed her eyes. “Is this gonna be one of those deals where we all get the same car, like our first cell phones?”

“Yes, and it’ll be something cheap.”

“Hmph.” She wrinkled her nose for a moment. “Oh well, as long as it’s red.” Her face brightened. “A car!” She leaned over and gave Jamie a loud smack on the cheek. Then she turned to Melanie and said, “You should try to figure out a way to let Jamie get you a car, too. Something your parents might believe, like you won the lottery or something.”

“I wish.” Melanie sighed wistfully. “I’ll just have to get by with what I have.’

“Sell her the Buick,” Evelyn said to Jamie, “and buy a new car for yourself.”

“The Buick? But that was your car.” His eyebrows drew down.

“So? It’s just a car.”

“But Gramma, it’s in perfect condition. And...I don’t know.” When Jamie turned to Melanie and saw the hopeful look in her eyes, his reluctance began to wane. He knew how much she hated her old rattletrap, with the mismatched doors and the rusted tailpipe. “Oh, what the heck. I wouldn’t mind having a new car, too.” He took another deep breath and his face became thoughtful. “What can you afford to pay for it? Does five hundred dollars sound reasonable?”