Tara Duncan and the Forbidden Book (18 page)

“Perfect!” said Cal, glancing at the accreditation card on his wrist. “I suggest we get a bite to eat and a few hours' sleep. At two thirty, when everybody should be asleep, we'll go into Master Chem's office.”

“You can't!” objected Sparrow weakly.

“Why not?”

“My accredi-card was the only one programmed for access to the office, not yours. I have to come with you!”

“No way,” said Fafnir, easing Sparrow back down. The pillows adjusted themselves to make her comfortable, the bed smoothed its wrinkled sheets, and the Living Castle sent a breeze to dry the sweat on the girl's feverish brow.

“I don't need an accreditation card,” explained the dwarf. “My power lets me move through walls if I want. Once inside, I'll open the office door for the rest of you. And if I can't, I'll go steal the book in your place.”

Despite their protests, Fafnir stuck to her guns. At dinner, Cal got a Soothsucker that read: “Unable to avoid the spell, you'll soon hurt a friend.” He racked his brains, but couldn't understand the prediction. Blasted prophesicles! As for Tara, hers read: “If you're affected, you'll be unable to save someone.” A shiver ran down her spine.

Lady Boudiou stopped by their table to ask about Sparrow's health and to check to see that they were all okay. Master Dragosh, who was presiding over the dinner with Lady Kalibris, ostentatiously ignored Tara and her friends. Manitou went over to chat with the other high wizards and was revelling in having his head patted by Lady Sirella, the beautiful mermaid. When he returned, he was drenched, but delighted.

“Cal's escape is still a secret,” he announced, shaking himself. “And so is the fact that the empress imprisoned us.”

“It wasn't the empress,” protested Tara, who rather liked the young woman. “It was that horrible guard captain. And what about Master Chem? Hasn't he realized that we've disappeared? I find it weird that he hasn't done anything.”

“Actually, I think he's afraid of Isabella,” said the dog, grinning. “He's probably searching for us everywhere, while trying to think of some excuse for your grandmother. After all, this is the second time he's lost you. If he doesn't find you very soon, Isabella might turn him into a line of luxury suitcases.”

Tara chuckled. “I'd be curious to know what outlandish explanation he's going to give her.”

“Meanwhile,” the Lab continued, “he could come back to Lancovit at any moment, so I suggest we act fast. That dragon has a bad habit of sleeping in his office.”

With those words, they went to get some rest. Fafnir, Cal, Manitou, and Tara slept in her room. Like all elves, Robin preferred the open air, so he and Gallant went to perch on a comfortable branch of one of the steel giants on the castle grounds.

At two thirty in the morning, still sleepy, they gathered in front of High Wizard Chemnashaovirodaintrachivu's office. The tiny stone dragon and the unicorn were sleeping peacefully. The castle was projecting sand dunes and a sky glittering with stars. A gentle breeze wafted along the hall. Everything was still.

“Wait for me here,” whispered Fafnir.

Taking care not to wake the little sentinels, she stretched out her hand, and it started to melt into the wall. Cal shuddered and turned his back. The sight of the dwarf slowly melting into stone always gave him the creeps.

A few moments later they were startled to see the wall opening up for them, and they hurried into the office.

“We're all set,” Fafnir announced loudly when the wall had closed again. “No one outside can hear us. The door has an automatic latch, so I was able to open it for you. What do we do now?”

“Let's see if I can remember what Sparrow told me,” said Cal.

He picked up the copy of
Comparative Anatomy of OtherWorld Fauna
and set it on the old wizard's terribly cluttered desk. He opened the book and tapped three times on page 3, then ten times on page 20. At that, the desk moved aside, revealing a beautiful glass staircase.

Tara spoke up then. “Listen, Cal, I didn't like what the Soothsucker said. I'm coming with you.”

“If you insist. But try not to distract me, all right? I have to stay focused. Blondin, you're staying here. Chem said we have to act very fast once we've taken the book. Grab the flat stone hidden behind the pedestal and put it where the book was. Ready, Tara? Let's go.”

Tara rolled her eyes and nodded, repressing the snippy remark on the tip of her tongue. When he was working, Cal was no fun at all. The little thief's personality changed completely. He didn't tell jokes; he scanned the darkness with rapt attention and was cold and concentrated.

Going down the staircase they skipped the fourth step, then the seventh, gradually disappearing from their anxious friends' view.

Down below, as expected, they came out into a huge room that lit up the moment they stepped on the white sand floor. Runes written on the black walls seemed like warnings: D
O NOT ENTER, OTHERWISE
. . .

The Forbidden Book
lay on a pedestal surrounded by six statues of fire snakes; the nearest two faced the staircase. Cal and Tara got down on their stomachs and began to crawl. They carefully watched to see if the stone reptiles reacted, but they remained still as statues. When the kids were able to stand again, the book was right in front of them, Cal gestured to Tara to go around the pedestal and get the flat stone so she could quickly put it in the book's place.

Suddenly Cal stumbled backward. The sand under his feet had begun to shift. Under their astonished eyes, a hole opened up at the base of the stone column supporting the book. Before they had time to react, a blue gnome jumped up, grabbed
The Forbidden Book,
and dove back down into the hole.

Cal screamed: “Nooooo!”

He tried to seize the gnome while Tara raced around the column and grabbed the flat stone behind the pedestal, but she was too late—much too late. The defensive spell protecting the book had already been activated. A terrible tongue of flame shot from the fire snakes' mouths and hit them. Tara and the stone resisted for a second longer than Cal, but then the pain was too intense, and the two spellbinders screamed in agony. That was all.

Up above, Manitou started. Gallant and Blondin had both screamed, then collapsed. Robin and Fafnir rushed down the glass staircase. The dog wizard moaned, hearing screams and terrible noises from underground. At last, the half-elf and the dwarf emerged, burned and pale, carrying their friends' lifeless bodies in their arms. When they reached the top of the staircase a strange light briefly flashed.

“What in God's name happened?” yelled Manitou.

“I . . . I don't know,” stammered Robin, tears flowing from his crystalline eyes. “They were lying on the sand, and the book was gone. The fire snakes had been activated and tried to keep us from approaching. But that weird shield that protects Fafnir deflected their spells, and she was able to chop down the statues. Then we brought Cal and Tara up, and . . . Oh, Manitou! I can't feel their pulse! They're . . . they're dead!”

A
n alarmed Manitou put his cold nose on Tara's neck, but got no reaction. Fafnir searched for Cal's pulse, then shook her head gravely.

“I can't find a pulse, either,” muttered the Lab. “This is unbelievable! They were struck by the deadly spell that Chem placed. We have to contact him immediately!”

“That won't do any good!” yelled Robin, totally losing his cool.
“They're dead!
We aren't necromancers; we don't know how to bring back the dead. And even if we did, they wouldn't be our friends anymore, they'd be zombies!”

“By my pile of gold, what are you doing in my office?” roared a very familiar voice behind them. “Manitou, is that you?”

Master Chem had come in and was staring in astonishment at the glass staircase, the sprawled bodies of Tara, Cal, Gallant, and Blondin, and a despairing half-elf.

“Chem!” exclaimed Manitou. “Thank Demiderus, you're back! Cal and Tara were killed by your deadly spell! How could you put such a dangerous charm on
The Forbidden Book?”

With surprising agility for his apparent age, the dragon wizard rushed to kneel by the two teenagers.

“There isn't a minute to lose!” he yelled. “Luckily for these two young fools, they triggered an alarm when they opened the secret entrance to the underground room. It alerted me, so I immediately came back from Omois. The spell that protects the book is just an Inanimus spell. But if the bodies are moved or taken out of the Book Room, it becomes a Destructus. I got the idea from the Bloodgrave who combined Rigidifus and Carbonus spells. But unless I can reverse the process in the kids right away, we'll be attending their funerals.”

Robin was aghast. “Do you mean that by moving them, we killed them?”

“You killed them, yes, but they're not lost.”

“Not lost?” he blurted, wiping his tear-streaked face. “But they're—”

“Dead? Yes, absolutely. But only for a very short time. All told, I have six minutes to revive them, and I figure that four minutes have already passed. After that, the brain is so starved of oxygen, it's too late. Hand me the kalorna powder on that shelf there. And give me some stridule drool and some powdered gambole.”

Robin handed the powders to the wizard, who quickly drew a pentacle with them.

A very worried-looking Fafnir was fiddling with her axe, feeling totally lost.

“Stand back!” the old wizard ordered. “I have to revert to my natural body for this to work properly.” He intoned: “Chalidonrainchivorachivu, god of dragons, I turn to you. Return me to my dragon form, vital healing to perform.”

Chem's god must have been standing by, because silvery blue scales promptly replaced skin, monstrous claws grew from fingers, and dorsal spines shredded his unprepared robe. Soon a majestic blue dragon was looming over them.

Without wasting a second, Chem bent down to Tara and Cal and began to chant, while his huge scaly body pulsed with a bright white light: “By Resurrectus, I conjure you, may the Destructus cease! May life shine through and bring our friends peace!”

The white light flowed into the two motionless bodies and enveloped them in an iridescent halo.

Suddenly, one of them stirred.

With great difficulty, Tara raised her head, opened a bleary eye, and saw the dragon. The living stone was still linked to her mind. The last thing the two of them had seen before passing out was a stone snake shooting fire at them. So, when they saw a glowing blue dragon at close quarters, Tara and the stone instantly combined their magic and fired a powerful ray. It hit the dragon with incredible force, sending him crashing into a wall. The entire castle trembled under the impact, and the office lights briefly flickered.

Blasted by Tara's blazing riposte, the dragon didn't have a chance. His consciousness winked out like a candle being snuffed. First his head gently hit the ground, then the rest of his body crashed down, causing a small earthquake.

“By my ancestors!” screamed Manitou, appalled. “What do you think you're doing?”

Tara covered her ears, grimacing. “Stop yelling, Grandpa! And what do you mean, what are we doing? The snake fired a spell at us, so we fired back. What are you doing in the Book Room? This place is dangerous.”

“For your information, we aren't in that room anymore,” Robin announced cautiously. “And I'm pretty sure you just killed Chemnashaovirodaintrachivu.”

Tara gaped to see the dragon's mass sprawled on the floor. She struggled to her feet, helped by Robin, who couldn't decide whether to yell at her for what she'd done, or to hug her because he was so glad she was alive. Gallant moved his wings as he gradually regained consciousness, and Blondin barked when he was back on his feet. The spell had caused Cal and Blondin to revert to their normal appearance, and the fox was pleased to see that his fur was red again.

Cal opened his eyes, but he was still dizzy. “Oh, my head! What the heck happened?”

Robin turned to him, while propping up a shaky Tara. “The fire snakes attacked you, the book seems to be gone—unless you've hidden it very well—and Tara just blasted Master Chem, who was trying to save you!”

“Nooooo!”

“Yesssss!”

“I mistook him for a fire snake,” stammered Tara. “There was the light . . . I didn't do it on purpose. The gnomes . . . they stole the book. But I didn't have time to put the stone on the pedestal, so the snakes attacked us! I—”

A warm, humid breath of air abruptly cut her off, followed by a deep, low rumble. It was the dragon—and he was snoring!

“Okay, whew! Everything's fine!” exclaimed a very relieved Manitou. “Chem was just knocked out! I suggest we let him rest now. We can talk things over with him later.”

“Isn't that a little cowardly?” asked Fafnir doubtfully.

“Absolutely,” the Lab admitted. “But we can be brave some other day, can't we? Right now we have too much to do—you know, saving the world, not to mention the universe—and facing a very angry dragon isn't on the list.”

With his muzzle, Manitou pointed to the way out.

In the hallway, they encountered the castle guards, who had come running to find out what had caused all the ruckus. In a lordly way, Manitou pointed at the dragon cave-office and told them that someone had broken the door and stolen something. Oh, and had knocked out the huge reptile in the process.

Before anyone could ask any awkward questions, the group hurried off to pick up Sparrow at the infirmary. The girl barely restrained a shout of surprise when they told her everything that had happened. She was feeling better and was able to quickly dress with Tara's help and go with them.

When a worried Cal asked about her concussion, Sparrow whispered, “It's fine. I just shape-shifted into the beast, and
poof!
 It disappeared instantly. The shaman couldn't believe it. He kept me in the infirmary to be on the safe side, but believe me, I feel great! Let's leave before my parents show up and make me stay in bed for the next six months!”