Tara Duncan and the Forbidden Book (40 page)

The bracelet was gorgeous. Sorry that she couldn't put it on right away, Tara slipped it into her ventral pouch for safekeeping.

For their part, the Mud Eaters were all very excited. They apparently understood the concept of “present” very well. Now convinced that Tara was the kind of superior being they should play up to, they started depositing all sorts of odd gifts at her feet: flowers, rotting swamp fruits, small animals living and dead, piles of stones, pieces of wood, bone fragments—whatever they thought might be a proper gift for the great golden dragon.

Early that afternoon, a very, very old Mud Eater with gray fur and worn claws approached her.

“Handsome dragon, nice dragon,” he said. “Present for gold dragon.”

It made Tara feel bad to see the Mud Eaters giving away their miserable treasures for her.

“Thanks, but I really don't need it,” she said kindly. “You can keep your . . .” But she stopped abruptly when she saw what he was holding out to her.

In his paw, the Mud Eater held a small, luminous statuette of a woman, her arms raised beseechingly to the sky.

“Not want you?” he asked, sounding terribly disappointed.

“Oh yes, I want!” she said very quickly, terrified that he might take it back. “Very beautiful present, very nice Eater, very, very beautiful present!”

The Eater bowed again and went to add his treasure to the pile. Before he shuffled off to his den, a grateful Tara made sure he was given a beautiful glowing circle, bigger and brighter than anyone else's.

Cal was dozing, but opened his bleary eyes when he saw what was before him.

“I can't believe it!” he yelled, leaping to his feet and startling the vampyrs. “The White Soul!”

“It was thanks to you!” shouted Tara, mad with joy. “If you hadn't given me a present for my birthday, that Mud Eater would never have given me the statuette! You've saved OtherWorld!”

Cal examined the statuette, turning it this way and that.

“There's no inscription or anything,” he observed, sounding annoyed. “Where's the manual? Every weapon comes with an instruction manual!”

Tara's enthusiasm began to ebb a little.

“Darn! I don't remember what the Voice said. Just that we had to put the statue on the island, right?”

“That's right,” said Robin. “Do you want to go there now, or wait until morning? It's almost dark.”

Tara hesitated, then—realizing that their enemy's power was growing by the minute—decided to act.

“Let's go now. The island's just a minute's flight away. Master Dragosh, what would you like to do?”

“I'll come with you to the island, but my fellows will stay on shore,” answered the vampyr. “If we carry the day, there's no problem. If we fail, they can go warn the rest of the world.”

The hotheaded vampyr protested that he didn't want to leave his chief, but Dragosh stood firm.

For such a short hop, Cal and Robin climbed onto Gallant. The vampyrs and Blondin, who didn't like to fly, would go on the ground. Tara was no longer worried about carrying passengers and only knocked down two trees when she took off. Master Dragosh shape-shifted into a bat and followed, a bit surprised by Tara's energetic takeoff style.

Flying over the island, they saw that the rosebushes had grown a lot since their last visit, but the island still looked deserted.

Suddenly the living stone came to life in Tara's mind.

Afraid I am.

Don't be!
answered Tara mentally.
We have the weapon that will destroy him. Don't worry, I won't let him take you prisoner again.

The stone heaved a deep, anguished sigh, but said nothing. How could she explain to Tara that the Ravager's power was multiplied here?

When Blondin reached the shore, Cal shrank him so he could climb on the pegasus's back, and they took off.

Tara was making a final pass above the water near the island when a monstrous black smoke tentacle suddenly wrapped around her neck, choking off her cry. The Ravager must have sensed the living stone's presence, because a second tentacle grabbed at the dragon's forehead, ripped off the stone, and heaved it into the water.

Tara screamed with pain.

And shape-shifted back. She lost her wings and tried in vain to stay in the air. She fell into the water at the same time as the White Soul and the bracelet, both of which shot out of her lost ventral pouch.

Coming to the surface, Tara activated her power to free herself. She imagined an enormous pair of scissors cutting the tentacles, and they fell away, their stumps retreating to the center of the island. The Ravager screamed with rage, and dozens of new tentacles came twisting toward her like monstrous black worms.

“Keep away from them!” Tara yelled to her friends. “Don't let them touch you!”

Unfortunately, a tentacle had wrapped itself around one of Gallant's hoofs. Despite his fierce resistance, it dragged him toward the center of the island. Robin cast a spell and cut the tentacle, but ten others rushed to the attack.

Tara was totally unable to help her friends. She surrounded herself with an impenetrable force field that immediately stopped the other attacks and allowed her to float on the lake surface.

Tentacles were lashing at her bubble, and to her horror she realized that it was starting to weaken. The tentacles stuck to its surface were sucking at its power like horrible mouths. She knew that she wouldn't be able to resist for very long. Using all her power, she reinforced the bubble and with a terrible effort burned the attacking tentacles to ash. This time the Ravager screamed, not with rage but with pain. She had hurt him, maybe enough to make him leave her alone.

Tara directed her bubble toward Gallant, but as soon as she got close some of the tentacles pursuing the pegasus turned and attacked her. This time they were too many, and her magic began to wane. Exhausted, she had to admit defeat. She had lost the White Soul and could no longer move. Sensing that she was weakening, the tentacles shoved her toward the island along with Gallant, Cal, Robin, and Blondin. Master Dragosh and the other vampyrs had disappeared. Had they managed to escape? That tiny ray of hope cheered Tara and she saved her strength, determined not to give up.

Carrying their prize, the tentacles soon reached solid ground. There they moved slowly, as if bothered by the black roses. Tara noticed that they avoided them as much as possible. The dark flowers were swaying along the tentacles' way, as if wanting to spear them with their thorns. That's strange! After all, it was by drinking the brew of those roses that Fafnir had been possessed. She was still thinking when they finally reached the center of the island.

That's when she noticed it had changed horribly.

A blackish, bubbling magma now filled a vast pit from which the tentacles emerged. For a moment Tara thought they would be tossed into the abyss at the island's center, but the tentacles seemed to have something else in mind. A huge black Transfer Portal suddenly opened in front of them, and the tentacles threw them into it.

Screaming in fear, they fell through empty, terrifying darkness.

G
asping for breath, Tara landed in front of a pair of feet. Feet that looked familiar.

Looking up, she realized that she was back in the Living Castle, flat on her stomach in front of Fafnir! But this wasn't the stubborn, grumpy, affectionate dwarf she knew. Her skin was purple, her eyes shone black instead of green, and she was wearing a horrible smile.

“Well, well, well, if it isn't our dear little Tara!” Fafnir said in the Ravager's voice. “What a pleasant surprise! Well, more or less. When I finally managed to possess the little dwarf I read in her mind that she was counting on you to save her. Did you find it?”

His voice carried a hint of concern.

Tara glanced toward Cal, Blondin, Robin, and Gallant, who were trying to untangle themselves. To her relief, they all looked more or less intact. She dusted herself off and looked back at Fafnir.

“Did we find what?” Tara asked, though she knew perfectly well what he meant.

“Did you find the White Soul?”

“No, we didn't,” she answered dismissively. “Those stupid Mud Eaters couldn't understand what we were asking. We were flying over the island looking for it when your trap caught us.”

She paused and looked Fafnir—or rather the entity controlling her—right in the eye, and added: “Which was pretty stupid, if you think about it.”

“Stupid? I don't see why!” snarled the Ravager.

“You've been looking for the White Soul for a long time, right?”

“No, not especially. I knew the Mud Eaters had it. But now that you're aware of my existence, I have to destroy it before it destroys me!”

“Well, you should've just waited until we found it, and then grabbed it.”

That shut him up.

Fafnir's eyes narrowed, and the Ravager's voice said: “Who's to say you don't have it now?”

“Search us,” answered Tara, shrugging. “You'll see. We don't have a thing.”

“This dwarf's brain tells me you're clever,” he said. “But don't think for a second that you'll be able to fool me.”

The Ravager had the purple-skinned guards search Tara and her companions roughly and very thoroughly. Naturally, they didn't find anything—aside from a few jewels, lots of strange tools, and an assortment of various weapons. Gallant went to stand next to Tara, glowering at the Ravager.

“So you were telling the truth,” he said, sounding a little surprised. “I'm sorry I'm not able to absorb you right away. Each time I absorb a new soul, my mind must integrate it before I can control it. I've been a bit of a glutton lately, and my mind is tired. So I don't want to risk absorbing any more souls before tomorrow. By my ancestors, I didn't realize that conquering the world would be so much work!”

A
miracle—and none too soon!
thought Tara, grateful for a few hours' respite.

The Ravager ordered the guards to surround the young spellbinders, the lion, and the pegasus, and to take them to jail.

“Ow! I'm, sore all over!” said Robin, who hadn't liked being manhandled during the search. Quick as a flash, he rushed the nearest guard and grabbed his dagger. Then he leaped at Fafnir and set the blade on her jugular.

“You're gonna let us leave nice and easy now, or I'll slit her throat!”

“By my black roses, what bravery!” gushed the Ravager, ignoring the knife.

The half-elf gritted his teeth and pressed. A thin trickle of blood began to run down Fafnir's neck.

“Ouch, that hurts!” said the Ravager. “But if it's so important to you, go ahead! I've contaminated so many people I don't need the dwarf anymore. I'd rather keep her alive; I have a soft spot for her. But if you really want to cut her throat, I won't stop you. Better yet, I'll leave her body. That way you'll be able to experience her death in real time.”

As Robin looked in amazement, the black smoke left the dwarf's body. She regained her deep, coppery tan, and her dark eyes reverted to their familiar green.

“By my ancestors!” Fafnir spat when she was able to use her own voice again, “I'm gonna tear that Ravager limb from limb!”

Then she realized that Robin still had the knife to her throat and froze.

“He's telling the truth,” she said regretfully. “He needed me as a way to get off the island, but now he's possessed enough people to maintain his power here, even if you kill me.”

Robin still refused to remove his knife. The black smoke chuckled and summoned another of its zombies. When Tara heard the footsteps shaking the castle, she was filled with momentary hope until a dragon appeared in the hall. It was completely purple. And her hope died. Robin dropped the knife.

“Master Chem!” Cal murmured in dismay. “Okay, now we have a problem. A very big problem.”

“Did you think I was lying?” roared the Ravager through the dragon. “So, half-elf, you want to cut the dragon's throat too? It won't be a knife you'll need, but an axe. And what about your friends? They're possessed too; do you want to kill them? How about killing everybody in the castle? Or the city? Believe me, that won't change the situation one bit.”

Tara started. He's already conquered the whole city? Cal's right. We have a big problem on our hands.

Just how big Tara realized when her friends, obeying a silent order, filed into the hall. Standing ten feet tall, Sparrow was in her beast shape for some reason. Fabrice was possessed, but not Barune. Manitou was now a purple Labrador retriever. His unusual color would make him very popular on Earth, but when he stared coldly at Tara, it broke her heart.

She was startled to see that Angelica and her parents were also with them. Surprisingly, they were dressed in court robes and were wearing the royal Lancovit crowns! Another thing: their skin was just as purple as the others', but their eyes weren't completely black, and they seemed to be able to move independently.

“Oh, Master, you finally captured them!” exclaimed the tall brunette. “Congratulations, you're the best! This little bitch and her friends could have caused you a ton of problems. And thanks again for letting me have these three as my servants. It's been a lot of fun.”

“Yes, Master,” said her father unctuously. “And asking us to run Lancovit for you was an excellent idea. King Bear and Queen Titania certainly haven't been very cooperative.”

Tara was flabbergasted. Angelica and her parents were speaking with their own voices, not the Ravager's, and they didn't seem completely possessed.
How can that be?

She soon got the awful answer.

“You're more than welcome,” the Ravager said with a touch of contempt. “Your ambition has been very useful to me. Souls as greedy as yours don't really need to be controlled; giving you a little power is enough. As for the king and queen of this two-bit country, it's just a matter of days. They won't be able to resist me much longer.”