Wizard Dawning (The Battle Wizard Saga, No. 1) (11 page)

Sig stared at the opening. A feeling like first time he entered an amusement park overwhelmed him. The joy of adventure beckoned from an opening six feet wide and about five feet tall.

"This is so neat! I feel like an explorer." He flashed Madeline a broad smile, dug a flashlight out of the gym bag, and peered into the opening.

As the light played around he saw that the opening grew taller. A few feet in, he stood erect with inches to spare. He turned and Madeline held out his gym bag and cooler. "Forget something?" She said with a smile.

He took them with a bashful grin and Madeline returned outside to retrieve the picnic hamper and blanket while he looped and fastened his first rope around a medium sized boulder.

He picked up the gym bag. "Let's see what we can find."

"Don't you want your cooler," she asked.

Before he replied, she cocked her head and held up the palm of her hand.

A distant
plink
sounded to break the silence.

Sig's eyes expanded. "Your uncle said something about an underwater lake."

"Yes, at least that part sounds right. I don't see any stalactites though."

"Those are caused by water seepage through the limestone. I bet there are some near the lake." Excitement laced his voice. "I'll come back for the cooler."

He lead the way over and around boulders, sometimes bending almost double to get past low roofed areas, paying out rope as he went.

Sometimes he remembered to come back and help Madeline over particularly tough stretches, but his enthusiasm kept him moving forward past others. Sometimes she called him back so he could shine the flashlight over the rock strewn floor. "You know I can't see in the dark. I don't want to twist an ankle. Then you'd have to carry me out."

"I'm sorry. Here take my hand." He helped her clamber over yet another large boulder.

Just after he connected his third 200 foot length of rope, they ran across the first stalactite, stalagmite pair. One suspended from the ceiling as a slender needle about two feet long. It hung over a squattier tooth rising from a surprisingly clear area of the floor. The flashlight reflected multiple shades of cream, yellow and orange. Sig walked around them shining the flashlight at various angles.

"See how the metallic impurities in the calcite crystal cause the hues to change?

"Fascinating. We're walking through a fairyland and you're ecstatic about the science of calcite."

"Yeah, the class is going to love this. I hope there are more." He replied, seemingly oblivious to her sarcasm.

He stepped over what looked like it might be a fallen stalactite and stepped into a puddle of water. "Darn it!" He hopped past, but could feel the cold water squishing in his sneaker. "Be careful. I think I just stepped into your uncle's lake." He shone the flashlight into a six inch deep body of water that was about two feet wide and six feet long.

He gave Madeline a rueful look. She shrugged and then they both heard a reverberating
plonk
of a water droplet in the direction they had been travelling.

Sig's expression transformed into a crooked grin, "I guess there are more puddles up ahead." He extended a hand to help her step over and around the pool he had soaked his shoe in. She still hung onto the picnic hamper and blanket.

Twenty paces further on, the flashlight reflected off a larger body of water winding in and around a large collection of stalagmites. Warm pastel reflections temporarily made him forget the chill from his damp foot.

"It's beautiful," Madeline said. She walked over to a flat rock shelf standing a little way from the water and set down the hamper and blanket. "I'm ready for a rest."

Sig laughed. "We're getting ready to run out of rope anyway. I'll go back and get the cooler."

"And leave me here in the dark? I don't think so."

He reached into the gym bag and pulled out the large torch. Tilting the lens back he shone it at the ceiling. The reflection lit up the cavern like a cathedral.

"Wow," he said. The plentiful collection of columns stretching up and reaching down, some joined, reminded him of pictures of flying buttresses he had seen in books at home.

"Don't think you can leave just because I have light now. I'm not staying here by myself." Madeline said from where she sat on the blanket spread out on the stone shelf." She patted it. "Come sit down and rest. We can do without the cooler." She held up a small canister. I have a little something here that will tide you over." She screwed off the top and set it down.

He sat down, elbows on knees, and gazed at the jagged spires sticking out of the small pond.

Madeline put her hand on his shoulder and rose gracefully to stand in front of him. "It's like our own little fairyland." She nudged his feet apart, stepped in between his knees, put both hands on his shoulders, and began to rub them and his neck. "Maybe we should keep it to ourselves."

Sig looked at the scooped neck of her T-shirt just inches from his face and groaned with pleasure.

She ran her fingers under his necklace and rubbed the angle between his neck and collarbone.

He shut his eyes and leaned his head forward.

Her hands rose and she stepped to the side.

He suddenly realized she'd slipped off his chain and medallion. He grabbed for it. "Hey, give that back."

One of his fingers snagged it. She tugged. The chain sailed through the air, landing in the lake with a splash.

Sig stared at the spreading ripples. He started to rise but she lunged and straddled his lap, knocking him back down. Surprised, he landed hard. "What are you …?"

She shoved the lip of a small bottle into his open mouth. Sickly sweet fluid flowed across his tongue. He tried to spit, but her hand clamped across his jaws.

He attempted to jerk away but found he couldn't. His body wouldn't respond to his wishes. He drooped and fell sideways onto the shelf. He heard, but didn't feel his head smack the rock.

His eyes stared at rock walls illuminated by the torch. Fingers passed in front of his face and then pressed his eyes closed to slits.

He heard her steps recede and then heard a thump. "Ow! Damn! The torch!"

Splash.

"Hmmm. The torch works underwater," she said.

"My, but that water is deep. I don't see your amulet down there. Well, I don't need it. I have this flashlight and your rope to help me find my way out. You'll have light from the torch down there, at least until the batteries run out.

"I know you can hear me even if your body is frozen. I'm sorry about this, but the Dark Mage has knowledge I need. This is my payment to him. He must fear and hate you a great deal to want me to do this to you."

He heard foot steps moving away.

"My advice is to sleep—sleep as much as you can. It will make it easier." She said over the sound of her receding footsteps.

He was an adorable boy, but the Dark Mage promised to reveal the secrets of demon summoning. Not just any demon, higher order demons.

The boy took such delight in the cave and its geologic features. It will be a suiting place to entomb him for all time.

She picked her way back along the rope trail laid out in the cave.

Funny that the Dark Mage needed her help against a Battle Wizard. The problem was his talisman. Total resistance to magic, potions, charms, incantations, curses, and, perhaps, even riddles, jokes and jests. Although vulnerable to physical attacks including lightning, fireballs, knives, bullets, bombs, and demons in all forms, his Battle form and that sword were potent offensive and defensive weapons. The Dark Wizard hadn't been able to kill him so far.

That's why a witch is called for. What chance did a wee witch have to cope with him? He is a male and thanks to magic, this girlish figure has been maintained for over 500 years. Two hundred with White magic, but Black magic has been needed to make it even better for the last three hundred years.

Luckily, a secret she learned centuries ago is that when magic won't work, pressing pert breasts in a man's face and furnishing an expert shoulder and neck rub, turns the male brain to mush more effectively than any known potion.

That, in combination with a potion providing short periods of supernatural quickness, taken after arrival at the underground lake allowed removal of his amulet.

Unfortunately, the boy in his normal form was almost supernaturally quick too. The Dark Mage wanted the amulet. With its built in resistance, magic won't retrieve Sig's talisman out of the underground lake. If the Mage wants it badly enough, he can dive to the bottom for it. The pool appeared very deep, and very cold. He lips peeled back in a feral grin.

Guided by the rope Sig had provided, she arrived at the tunnel entrance with only one mishap, stepping into the same puddle that soaked Sig's feet on the way in.

Outside in the sun, she retrieved her cellphone to call the Dark Mage. Before dialing she was startled to hear, "I take it you administered the potion. Let's have the amulet." Whirling and looking up she saw him standing atop the large bolder that hid the entrance.

She looked down as she folded the cellphone and put it in her pocket. "It fell into the underground pool," she mumbled.

His lips thinned as he stared at her.

She threw her hands up. "Come on. We struggled over it and he knocked it into the pool. I can't swim. Sorry. You can still jump in and look for it," she said defensively.

"But you did administer the potion? You haven't answered." He glanced nervously at the cave entrance.

"His body is frozen. He is aware. His vision and hearing work, but he is entombed in an unmoving body. Without his amulet the task was simple, and it will stay at the bottom of the pond."

"Very well."

"Alright, I've completed my part of the deal. Now it's your turn."

He looked at her with a sneer. "Only a portion of your assignment is completed. I don't have the amulet."

"I did my part, putting him out of commission. The amulet was an extra you threw in at the end. It wasn't part of the blood oath you swore. I got it away from him so the potion would work. It's working. He's in eternal La-La-Land."

He climbed down from the boulder. "Perhaps you should stand back."

"Why?" she asked suspiciously.

"In case you fumbled any other part of our bargain, I want to guarantee his entombment by sealing the entrance."

She ducked her head and hurried away. "You don't have to tell me twice."

"I have summoned lesser demons to do my bidding. Do not get in their way and you should be safe."

She quickly etched a simple pentacle in the dirt and muttered an incantation. The air shimmered around her. "If you don't mind, I'll just take a precautionary measure."

He smiled evilly. "Quite wise." He raised his arms and called out in a language she learned over three hundred years ago. She filed the phrase away for future reference.

A winged gargoyle plummeted out of the sun, wings flared with a pop, and it alighted next to him. "Seal that entrance," the Mage said, pointing.

"And then I am free to go?" it asked in a voice like rocks grinding.

"Per our agreement."

The gargoyle leapt to the cliff face and pealed rocks off and dropped them between the enormous boulder and the cave entrance. When several tons of rock covered the entrance, the gargoyle back winged and alighted on the boulder, waiting for the dust to settle.

The Mage walked forward and extended a hand upward. "Gently," he said.

The gargoyle grabbed the Mage's hand and lifted him to the top of the boulder. He surveyed the demon's handiwork. Apparently satisfied, he nodded. "Put me back down and then you are free to go."

When the Mage alighted, the gargoyle flapped into the air and then winked out of existence.

With a supercilious air, the Mage turned to her. Madeline managed to look bored.

"Alright, now teach me the summoning."

He looked around archly. "Here? Please. . . Attend me at my abode at midnight. We will commence then."

He walked away into the woods. She watched after him for several minutes before she got into her BMW and drove away.