Spirits and Spells (2 page)

Tansy knew what she meant. Trying to keep Derek under control was like trying to get cats to march in a straight line.

“Are Matt and Denise here yet?” asked Travis.

Derek shook his head. “Matt called me earlier today and said they would be a little late. I think Denise was having a little trouble convincing her parents to let her come.”

Travis frowned. “Well, let's go upstairs and set up. Maybe by the time we're ready, they'll be here.”

“Where are we going to play?” asked Jenny.

“In the library,” said Travis. “I found it when I came to scope the place out yesterday. It should be perfect for the game.”

The broad, curving stairwell was thick with dust, disturbed only where Travis had walked on his earlier scouting expedition. When Tansy reached for the banister, she found her fingers tangled in a cobweb. Resisting an impulse to squeal, she wiped her hand against her jeans.

As they climbed, the little bit of light that had filtered in from outside faded rapidly.

Derek switched on a flashlight.

The hallway at the top of the stairs was hung with forbidding portraits of generations of Gulbrandsens. If the paintings were accurate, the whole family had had high cheekbones, fierce eyes, and thin, harsh lips.

The carpet that lined the hall was faded but still thick. It muffled their footsteps so that they walked in near silence.

Tansy felt as if the eyes of the portraits were looking down on them with disapproval. The thought made her shiver.

When they entered the library, she relaxed a little. The room was beautiful. Three leaded-glass windows looked out over a rolling lawn that appeared as if it hadn't been mowed all summer. Dark wood shelves covered the other walls, all of them still lined with books. Close to the windows stood a large oak desk. In the center of the room was a long table, oak also, its legs carved to look as if they ended in clawed feet.

Travis stationed himself at one end of the table. He whispered something to Derek, who left the room and came back a minute later with two candelabra. He took some candles from his backpack, set them in the holders, and lit them.

The flickering flames cast an eerie glow over the room.

Travis opened the game box and took out the manuals that came with the set. Totally absorbed, he began writing on a pad, making some calculations.

Jenny and Tansy wandered around the library, examining the old books.

“Boy, the guy who owned this place must have been a real weirdo,” said Jenny, running the tip of her index finger over a set of leather-bound volumes. “Here's six whole books on the history of witchcraft in America.”

“And here's one called
Lycanthropia
,” said Tansy.

Jenny looked puzzled. “What's that supposed to mean?”

Tansy smiled. “Werewolfism,” she whispered ominously.

Jenny shuddered and shook her head. Candlelight caught and shimmered in her pale gold hair. “What kind of people were the Gulbrandsens? Why did they have books like these?”

“Those books are just right for a haunted house,” said Derek, walking up behind them. “A place stalked by the spirit of a poor murdered girl.”

Jenny slapped his shoulder. “Don't be stupid. If you get me too scared, I'll go home.”

“Alone? In the dark?”

Jenny looked uncomfortable. “Stop it. I don't think you're funny.”

“I'm not being funny,” said Derek.

“That's for sure,” said Tansy. “But Travis told me the same thing, Jenny. There was a girl murdered here.”

Derek rubbed his hands together and chuckled evilly. “And ever since, on wild and windy nights people have looked up here and seen lights moving through the windows—even when no one was home. Even after the place was abandoned. They say it's Charity Jones, searching for her bones.”

Jenny snorted. “You are hopelessly corny.”

Derek looked offended. “That's not corny. It's classic.”

“It's also true,” said Travis, who had joined them while Derek was speaking. “At least the part about the bones is. My grandmother has a clipping in the scrapbook that
her
grandmother kept. I read all about it. The body was never found.”

“Well, then, how do they know she was murdered?” asked Tansy sensibly. “She probably just ran away.”

“I said they never found the
body
,” answered Travis. “All the killer left behind was her head.”

“Euuuw!” cried Tansy.

“Don't be so gross!” said Jenny.

“I'm not being gross. I'm just telling you what happened.”

Jenny frowned. “Well, it's still gross.”

A crash downstairs made them all jump. Jenny, her face pale, clutched Tansy's arm.

Derek laughed. “Ever graceful, ever silent, McMasters and Wu are here at last. At least, I
presume
that's who it is.” He gave his evil chuckle again.

Matt McMasters's voice boomed up from below. “Anybody here?”

“Upstairs!” called Travis, stepping into the hall.

The newcomers bounding up the stairway made an unlikely couple. Matt was short and intense, standing only slightly over five feet. He had dark hair, dark eyes, and a dark streak in his personality that would have made him unbearable had it not been balanced by a healthy sense of humor.

Denise Wu had dark coloring, too, but she was tall—even taller than Travis. Of the three girls she was far and away the most enthusiastic gamester. Shy and reserved in school (although a straight-A student), she lit up when she was with a group of players. Involvement in gaming was the tie that held her and Matt together.

Right now, her dark brown eyes were glowing with excitement. “It's a perfect night for this,” she said in a whisper. “There is one monster of a storm brewing out there.”

Just like Denise to be rooting for a real gullywasher
, thought Tansy.

“Let's get started,” said Travis.

They pulled some chairs over to the library table. Outside, the October evening had plunged into total darkness. The wind was whipping around the house, and branches scratched at the windows. It really was a perfect setting for Spirits and Spells.

Maybe too perfect
, thought Tansy nervously.

“You're going to have to go over the rules carefully,” said Matt. “You guys have all had a chance to play this, but it's brand-new to me and Denise.”

Tansy could tell from Matt's voice that he was annoyed he and Denise had not been invited to the group's first attempt at the game. Of course, he had never noticed that Travis was jealous of him. But that was Matt. His emotional obliviousness was one of the reasons Tansy had broken up with him to begin with.

“We only played for about an hour,” said Derek scornfully. “Then Lydia went berserk and we had to stop.”

“For heaven's sake, give her a break,” snapped Tansy. “She has a lot of imagination. That's what makes her such a great player. She's just got more of it than she can handle.”

A moment of awkward silence settled over the table, broken when Travis cleared his throat. The five adventurers looked at him expectantly.

“All right, here's the background,” he said, reading from the first manual. “We are powerful magic users, witches and wizards who have been exiled to the world of Quarmix by Mormekull, a mighty wizard who resented our abilities.

“For the hundreds of years we have been trapped here, we have been planning our escape. During this time we have practiced our magic, honed our skills, increased our power.

“Recently we discovered a new source of magic on this world. Now our strength is greater than ever—nearly great enough to enable us to break the spells that hold us here, so we can return at last to Earth.

“But our enemy, Mormekull, has learned that our powers are growing. He fears we will break free, so he has prepared this house as a trap for us.”

“What kind of a trap?” asked Matt.

Travis shot him an impatient glance. Tansy squirmed in her seat, fearing a clash between the two boys. But Travis went right on.

“The house is a gateway between the two worlds. It was through this very place that Mormekull first expelled us from Earth.

“Now he is playing a desperate game. Four objects of power are all we need to break the spell and return home. Mormekull has hidden them in the house to lure us back here. If we find them before dawn, he loses, and we are free.”

“That doesn't make any sense,” said Matt. “If he already has us in exile, why is he giving us a chance to escape?”

Travis smiled. “He is taking this chance because if we fail in our quest he can be rid of us forever. As I said, the house is a trap. It was sealed against our leaving when we entered it.”

At that moment the wind slammed against the shutters, closing them over the windows with a bang. Jenny shrieked. Even Travis looked startled. But he went on.

“If we can break the magical barriers, we can leave the house and be free. But if we fail, we are doomed.
Because this house dies at dawn
—
along with everyone still in it
.”

The words had barely left his lips when a crack of thunder rattled the room.

Jenny jumped again.

Tansy shivered.

Travis laughed.

The game had begun.

3

CLUES

As Travis's laugh died away, a moment of tense silence settled over the library. Jenny twisted a strand of her long blond hair around her finger, looking as though she was about to cry.

Suddenly Denise laughed. “Well, I'd say we're off to a good start! Come on, Trav—what's next?

Tansy relaxed. For a moment she had felt something eerie in the room. Nothing she could put her finger on. Just a sense that all was not right. Denise's cheerful laughter had banished the feeling.

Travis was speaking again. “I have to assign your roles. Matt, you will be the wizard Wathek—”

“Hey! Don't we get to create our own characters?”

“No. The directions are specific. They give the name of each player.”

“But that's not the way gaming works,” said Matt with a frown. “Making up my own character is one of the things I like best.”

Denise looked troubled, too. But she put a hand on Matt's arm. “Let's play it by the rules the first time. We can always change it the next time through. That's the other good thing about gaming. You can change the rules to suit yourself.”

“Well, all right,” said Matt, none too graciously. “Go on, Travis.”

“I'm not Travis. I am Karno, the Master Mage.”

“What?”

Travis sighed. “That's
my
role in the game. That's one of the neat things about Spirits and Spells. The game leader gets a character, too. My character is pretty interesting, I think. I know where everything is, but Mormekull has put a spell on me so I can't tell anyone. I can only speak in riddles, to give you clues. We'll get to that in a minute. Now Matt … Wathek … you have the power to become invisible. You can see spirits, and cast spells of fire and illusion.”

Matt nodded, apparently satisfied.

“Tansy, your character is named Theoni.”

Tansy took out the small notepad she had brought with her. She always had trouble keeping these things straight at first.

“You are an enchantress who can communicate with spirits. You can compell the truth from anyone except me. You have third-level spells for fire and freezing.”

Tansy scribbled furiously in the notepad.

Travis continued assigning roles and powers. Derek was a wizard named Diaz, who had unusual physical strength. He could sense falsehood and had the power of temporary binding.

“You can stop anyone, or anything,” Travis told him. “But only for a brief time. The duration depends on the strength of your foe.”

Turning to Denise, he said, “Your name will be Niana.”

“Hey, I like that! I think I'll use it from now on. It's a lot classier than Denise.”

Tansy smiled. It was a typical Denise reaction.

“You are a healer,” continued Travis, “with a song for sleep and soothing. You have spells for frost and flight.”

“All right!”

“Come on, Travis,” said Jenny. “Tell me who
I
am.”

Tansy's smile grew broader. Clearly Jenny was getting into the spirit of the game. That would make the evening go more smoothly.

“Your name is Gwynhafra,” said Travis, “and … what's the matter?”

Jenny shook her head. “Nothing. It just spooked me for a second. I mean, my name
is
Gwynhafra.”

Travis looked totally mystified.

“Jennifer and Gwynhafra are different versions of the same name,” Jenny explained, embarrassed. “That's all.”

“Oh. Well, you have spells for destroying illusions and opening locks.”

“Good. I like those.”

“Now, for the first part of the game, you have to locate the objects of power.”

Picking up the slender game book, he began to read in low, solemn tones:

“
A sword, a stave, a rod, a ring;

These emblems of the wizard king

If found before the morning hour

Will free you from the house's power.

Find them and your freedom cherish.

Failure means that all shall perish!
”

Another crack of thunder. Rain began to patter at the windows.

“What's a stave?” asked Jenny.

“A stick,” said Travis. “Think of it as a staff, if you want to.”

Jenny nodded, satisfied.

“Okay,” said Matt. “How do we find these things?”

Travis smiled. “That's what's going to make this game so interesting. The things are really here.”

“What do you mean?” asked Derek.

“Yesterday I hid a rod, a ring, a sword, and a stave somewhere in the house. All you have to do is find them.”