The Dark Shadow of Spring (17 page)

“Never mind,” his father said, grabbing a bowl from the cupboard. “It’s not important. Run along and get changed.”

“Okay,” Alex said and spun on his heals to head upstairs. He caught the look on Nina’s face that screamed
“Dad knows!”
but he shook his head to keep her silent until they were upstairs and standing at the door to her room.

“Do you think he suspects?” Nina whispered.

“Maybe,” Alex said. “I think he’s looking for the book for the same reason we are.”

“That can’t be good,” Nina said. “It means he thinks the Shadow Wraith is loose, too.”

“And it means we better hope we find the book before he does,” Alex said. “He’ll never let me read it if he knows I’m a Spirit Mage and the Shadow Wraith is looking for me.”

“No,” Nina agreed. “He’d ship us off to stay with Aunt Maria in Albuquerque.”

They both frowned at the thought. Trapped with Aunt Maria in a strange city in the outside world with no magic whatsoever. A horrible fate. Then the smell of cooking sausage hit them and kicked them into motion. They were changed and downstairs in record time. They ate breakfast in record time as well.

At school, all the talk was about the insects and where they came from. The Mad Mages had once again started a rumor that the infestation was the result of some wild magical experiment of the Young Sorcerers Guild that had gone horribly wrong. Unlike the incident with the dead birds, Principal Gillette did not bother to haul them into his office for questioning. That was not the only rumor swirling through the halls of the school that day. Three more citizens of Runewood were missing earlier that morning: the dressmaker and her husband, Mrs. and Mr. Thakar, and the tobacconist, Mr. Aramander.

There was another rumor and it disturbed Alex far more than the disappearances. By lunchtime, the talk between the tables in the cafeteria was all about the ghosts that had been seen in the cemetery. No one was certain who had seen them — the stories ranged from Pastor Spiritos to Billy Bob Bramble, the owner of the local pub. The only thing that stayed consistent between the stories was the ghosts and where they had been seen.

 “We need to check it out,” Alex said around a mouthful of sandwich as he looked around the cafeteria table at the other members of the Guild. They sat at a table in the back of the room, where Victoria had enough room to join them.

“Ghosts.” Ben said. “I hate ghosts.”

“Humf,” Clark said as he swallowed half a slice of apple pie in one bite. “Ghosts are harmless.”

“Don’t tell that to my aunt,” Rafael said. “She’s convinced that the ghost in the barn is the reason the cows don’t give as much milk as they used to.”

“Your aunt’s cows are all old and nearly ghosts themselves,” Nina said.

“Again, don’t tell that to my aunt,” Rafael said with a pained look that said he had tried to do just that himself.

“Do you have many ghosts in Runewood?” Victoria asked. “There were only two in Southampton where we came from and we ever only heard about them secondhand. No one had actually seen one, although Daddy was convinced they must be real. He’s ever so interested in ghosts. I suspect it’s because of my mother, but we’ve never heard a peep from her if she is a ghost.”

There was an awkward silence at the mention of Victoria’s dead mother. Victoria had said her mother had passed away only a year ago, and while Victoria didn’t seem distraught about it now, it wasn’t the sort of thing people in Runewood tended to comment on for fear of offending or upsetting the bereaved. Alex was about to say something to fill the silence when Daphne spoke.

“It’s been years since there were any real ghost sightings in the town,” Daphne said. “Lots of horse-pucky stories, if you ask me.” Daphne glanced at Victoria and blushed as she realized what she had said. “Sorry.”

“No offense taken,” Victoria said.

“I don’t think it’s a coincidence that there are ghosts being sighted in the cemetery,” Alex said. “It’s part of the pattern of everything that’s been happening, from the dead birds and insects to the people who have disappeared.”

“You think the Shadow Wraith has something to do with the ghosts?” Nina asked.

“I do,” Alex said.

“Great,” Ben said. “Now I really hate ghosts.”

“Hmmm,” Clarke said. “We could sneak out to the cemetery after dinner.”

“Just what I was thinking,” Alex said.

“Wonderful,” Rafael said. “Now Clark is thinking like Alex. It spreads like a plague.”

“What in the name of Hades’ halitosis do you hope to find?” Daphne asked, taking a sip from a milk carton.

“I’m not sure,” Alex said. “Answers, maybe.”

“Well, we’d better figure out what the questions are first,” Nina said. “Like why ghosts would care what happens in the town or why people keep disappearing or where they’re going and what’s happening to them and who’s going to be next?”

“We have to find them first to ask them,” Alex said.

“I have exactly the thing we need,” Victoria said, her wide smile taking over her face. “Or rather, Daddy does. If we’re going to go hunting for ghosts, we’ll need the right tools. Daddy invented just the thing for the job. We can stop by my house and pick it up after school.”

“Then it’s a plan,” Alex said, wondering what the invention might be and how it could help them.

“If that’s what’s passing for a plan these days, we’re in more trouble than usual,” Rafael said with a sigh.

“Well, you think we’re in trouble now,” Clark said, “wait until we find the ghosts.”

“Great,” Ben said. “Just great.”

Chapter 15: Parental Consent

“What’s a spectrotromatron?” Nina asked, repeating the word as clearly as she could.

“That’s Daddy’s name for it,” Victoria said. “He’s always coming up with the most unpronounceable names for his inventions. I prefer to call it a ‘spectral detector.’ It tells you when there is spectral activity nearby.”

“So it’s a ghost finder,” Alex said.

“Exactly,” Victoria said. “Watch your step. Pardon the mess. We’re still unpacking.” Victoria led Alex, Nina, and the rest of the Guild through her house toward her father’s workshop in the back. The house had been owned by a family of half giants, so the ceilings were nearly ten feet high and the hallways extra wide. The perfect place for a young centaur and her father. Alex noticed that the stairs to the second floor had been modified in length and step height to accommodate a centaur’s gait. The house was old and had been built near the founding of the town several centuries past. It was crowded with still unpacked boxes of every size and shape. From the number of boxes, it looked as though Victoria and her father would be unpacking for years. The boxes were filled with her father’s inventions or parts for inventions or magical items of indeterminate function.

“What are these?” Alex asked as he walked past an open box with a large glass jar filled with small colorful glass balls.

“Oh, those,” Victoria said, taking the lid off the glass jar and plucking forth a dark blue glass ball about an inch in diameter. “My father calls them ‘Communocrystals,’ but my name for them is ‘Mumbling Marbles.’ You put them in your mouth.” Victoria took a handful of marbles from the jar and handed them to each of the Guild members.

“Hmm,” Clark said sucking on his marble. “Mastes mike mocolate.”

“Yes,” Victoria said. “Daddy thought they’d be easier to sell if they were flavored. Brown is chocolate, blue is blueberry, red is raspberry, and I think the orange ones are apple.”

“Sour apple,” Daphne said, her face scrunching up at the taste of the marble as she spit it into her hand. “What kind of kook makes orange takes like apple?”

“Daddy has a rather interesting sense of humor,” Victoria apologized.

“What do they do besides taste like you should eat them?” Rafael asked.

“Listen,” Victoria said plopping the small crystal ball into her mouth as she quickly stepped into a nearby room, closing the door behind her.

As soon as the door closed, Alex heard something in his head. It was not like the voice he had been hearing, but it was enough to make a sweat break out on the back of his neck.

“Mhe met mu malk mu mech muther moover mong mistiances,”
the voice said. It sounded like Victoria’s voice, even though it was barely intelligible. Alex could tell by the look on the others’ faces that they too had heard Victoria’s voice in their heads.

“Mrilliant,”
Ben said.
“Mou man malk mo manyone manywhere.”

“Not that you can understand them,” Rafael said after spitting out his marble.

“That’s why I call them mumbling marbles,” Victoria said, stepping back into the hallway. “They only work if you have them in your mouth and if you have them in your mouth, you can’t really speak. I told Daddy to try and make them work by holding them next to your mouth, but, as usual, he got carried away with another invention and forgot all about them. It also doesn’t help that anything said on one marble can be heard on all of them.”

“These could come in handy on an adventure,” Alex said, taking the marble from his mouth and holding it up to the light. He could sense that it was enchanted, but could not discern what magics had been used to make it work.

“Everyone feel free to keep one,” Victoria said. “They’ve just been sitting in that jar for years. Daddy will never miss them.”

“But how will we know someone is trying to talk to us if we don’t have it in our mouths?” Nina asked. “I don’t want to go around all day with a marble in my mouth.”

“Mmmm, mit’s mot mo mad,” Clark said, still sucking on his.

“The other marbles will vibrate slightly if someone is using one,” Victoria said.

“Can I get another flavor?” Daphne asked.

“Help yourself,” Victoria said as a loud crashing noise emanated from behind the door at the end of the hallway. “Oh dear. Daddy’s at it again.” Victoria headed swiftly down the hall and through the door, the others following right behind her, only Daphne pausing for a second to switch her orange marble for a red one.

Alex followed Victoria through the wide wooden door and into her father’s workshop to find a large centaur wearing a dark blue shirt and a long gray apron holding the rear tire of a tractor in one hand and the axel of the tractor with the other. Alex wondered just how strong Victoria would be when she was a full-grown centaur. He decided to put that thought away for another time and returned his attention to Victoria’s father.

Her father’s face was long and gentle, his eyes deep blue behind a pair of spectacles. He looked to be in his late forties with a well-trimmed beard speckled with gray like the thick and wavy shoulder-length hair on his head. He stood in the middle of a workshop cluttered with odds and ends of various mechanical and magical devices, much like the rest of the house. The workshop had once been a stable and smithy, and one of the two large doors stood open to the backyard beyond.

“Daddy, are you okay?” Victoria asked with some urgency.

“Oh, fine, darling,” her father said with a smile as he turned toward the sound of her voice. “Just a little magical mishap. Oh, hello! And who might these be?”

“These are my friends, Daddy,” Victoria said.

“Oh, from the club,” Victoria’s father said. “I was hoping to meet them.”

“It’s not a club, Daddy,” Victoria said with a frown.

“It’s a Guild, sir,” Alex said, stepping forward from the others crowded at the door. “Hi, I’m Alex.”

“Ah yes, Alex,” her father said. “The boy screaming in the cave.” Victoria’s frown became a dark glare of warning that her father seemed oblivious to.

“I wasn’t exactly screaming,” Alex said.

“And let me guess,” her father continued, not seeming to hear Alex at all. “Victoria’s told me all about you. You must be Alex’s sister, Nina. Yes, I see the family resemblance. And this lovely young woman must be Daphne. You are just as beautiful as Victoria described you. And a strapping young man of your size could only be Clark. I knew a family of giants in Wales. Wonderful people. The mother made the best beef stew. And, of course, you must be Ben. I’ve done some work for your father. Very demanding man. Good with details. Interesting sense of humor. And that leaves Rafael, who must be you.”

“Why am I always last in every list?” Rafael muttered.

“Are you really?” Victoria’s father asked. “Can’t image why. You rather stand out. Even in this crowd.”

“How kind of you to say so,” Rafael said, smiling despite himself.

“Daddy!” Victoria nearly shouted. “Stop it. You’re embarrassing me.”

“Really?” her father said, blushing slightly and seeming genuinely surprised that his daughter might have taken offense at his odd manner of introduction. “Ever so sorry. I suppose I got carried away. Victoria didn’t have many friends back in South Hampton, so I’m…”

“Daddy!” Victoria said, her face now a bright red.

“Ah yes,” her father said. “Anyway, I’m Victoria’s father. You can call me Edward if you like. The name is actually Edasaanis, which means something completely unremarkable in ancient centaur. Translates as something like ‘morning dew,’ I think. My mother was terribly romantic.”  Alex could see where Victoria got her propensity to ramble on in conversation.

“Mmm, would you like a hand with that?” Clark asked, gesturing toward the tractor tire that Victoria’s father was still holding effortlessly aloft in one hand.

“Oh, yes, if you’d be so kind,” Victoria’s father said. “If you and Victoria could just hold either side of the rear of the tractor, I’ll just slide the wheel back into place.”

“What are you working on?” Alex asked as Victoria and Clark stepped over and held the tractor for her father. Between the two of them, the weight of the tractor was easily manageable.

“Ah, well, bit of a secret, really,” Victoria’s father said as he bolted the big rear wheel of the tractor to the axel plate. “Something for the Fujimori family farm. Don’t want to give it away until it’s had its debut. I suspect that all the farmers will want one soon enough if it works. Have to iron out a few kinks first. Such as the wheels falling off. An unforeseen side effect of the enchantments. Ah, there we go. Good as new.” The middle-aged centaur stood back from the tractor and appraised his work.