The Dark Shadow of Spring (28 page)

A fragment of a dream flitted through his mind and Alex saw the truth of Gall’Adon’s words and the root of the dragon’s resentment and desire for revenge. “Humans used a dragon to create the Shadow Wraith,” Alex said, hearing gasps of surprise from his friends behind him.

“Yes,” Gall’Adon said, smoke wafting from his nostrils. “The dark mages who created the Shadow Wraith fashioned it from the most powerful magical creature in the world. A dragon. Not any dragon. The Dragon Lord of the age. My great-grandsire. Gall’Droson. They captured him and worked their dark magics upon him until he was no longer himself. No longer a dragon. No longer a living creature. Nothing but a shadow of vile intent and unimaginable power. But Gall’Droson had his revenge. He destroyed his makers. Consumed their souls like kindling wood in a raging fire. Until their spirits were as ash. And I will have my vengeance, as well.”

“I am sorry for what the dark mages did to your great grandfather,” Alex said, dreading even more than before what he suspected would come next and what he would have to do. “Their actions were despicable, but not all humans are like that. Is there nothing we can say to convince you to help save the humans and other magical creatures of this valley?”

“I will be sorry when you are gone,” Gall’Adon said. “But not sorry enough.”

“Then I, too, am sorry,” Alex said, looking at Ben. Ben caught his eye and nodded as he gulped. “I am sorry for what I must do.” And then Alex spoke the rune-word spell that he had seen the night before while searching through the book on Spirit Magic that Batami had given him. A rune-word of unbinding and binding. A rune-word that would sever the magical essence of the dragon Gall’Adon’s fire and bind it to Ben.

“
Kalis-Sone-Kla-See
,” Alex said, gathering the magical energy of the land and focusing it into the rune-spell and upon Gall’Adon. The dragon’s eyes went wide as he shook his head.

“No!” Gall’Adon rasped as Alex repeated the rune-spell and concentrated even harder on the transference of magical energy from the dragon into Ben. Both Ben and the dragon became suddenly rigid as a blazing river of yellow and red light burst into existence to snake between their chests. Alex could feel the magical energy, the true source of the dragon’s fire, flowing into Ben. He hoped that Ben could contain it all. It was a risk that Alex had been loath to ask of his friend. If the magic proved too much to hold, Ben would likely be killed. And if the transference failed, the dragon would likely roast them all alive. But Ben had taken only a moment to consider the dangers. Better to die from a little fire than to be taken over by the Shadow Wraith again.

The stream of magical light and energy flowing between Gall’Adon and Ben reached a crescendo and was suddenly gone, leaving the room darkened and Alex’s eyes struggling to compensate for the change.

“Run!” Alex shouted toward the others in the light of his glow-wand as the dragon Gall’Adon roared and thrashed behind him.

Clark scooped up a still and moaning Ben as they all rushed across the chamber toward the entrance of the tunnel. Gall’Adon, still stunned by the loss of his magical fire essence, wailed and writhed behind them, his head smacking the ceiling in his torment. As they ran into the tunnel, Alex saw Victoria bend around at the waist to one of her saddle packs and reach within. She withdrew two small balls, one red and one blue, squeezed them together into one, then skidded to a stop and threw the now purple ball at the entrance to the dragon’s lair.

The ball bounced and grew. It kept bouncing and growing, rapidly expanding into an immense rubber ball that filled the entrance to Gall’Adon’s inner chamber like a cork plugging the neck of a bottle.

“Something Daddy came up with,” Victoria said, beginning to run again. “It was supposed to be for patching tires, but as you can see, he never quite got it to work. He ruined three cars before he gave up.”

“Brilliant,” Alex said as the dragon slammed into the huge rubber ball blocking his entrance to the tunnel, curtailing his ability to pursue Alex and the Guild. “How is Ben?” he asked, turning as he ran to see Clark carrying the dwarf boy in his arms.

“Uhh, I don’t know,” Clark said. “He just keeps moaning.”

“Fire,” Ben moaned loud enough for everyone to hear, even over the pounding of their foot falls along the tunnel floor. “Got to get it out.”

“Not yet,” Daphne said, reaching up to hold Ben’s hand as she ran.

“Hold on, Ben,” Alex said, worried for his friend and what might happen if Ben lost control of dragon’s fire. “We’ll get you to the Shadow Wraith’s cave as fast as we can.”

“The Mad Mages are still guarding the cave entrance,” Rafael said.

“Not for long,” Alex said, staring at Ben and hoping they could get past the Mad Mages and into the cave before the Shadow Wraith had time to strike the town.

Chapter 23: Fog of Battle

“Fire,” Ben muttered, his eyes wide and his breath deep, the sweat rolling down his face. “So much fire.”

“You can hold it, Ben,” Alex said reassuringly as he wiped the sweat from Ben’s forehead with a strip of cloth he had torn from his own shirt. He hoped his faith in Ben’s ability to contain the magical dragon fire until they needed it was not misplaced.

Ben leaned against the trunk of a fir tree, the others gathered around him. All except Rafael, who scouted the area around the cave to see how the Mad Mages were defending it.

“Hera’s hairballs, where is he?” Daphne cursed. “If we don’t hurry up, Ben’s going to explode like the biggest firecracker anybody’s ever seen.”

“Mmmm, not so loud,” Clark said, taking the cloth from Alex and tending to Ben.

As if in response to Daphne’s query, a large eagle spiraled out of the sky, its wings held wide, until it dipped behind a nearby thicket of elder berries with clothes draped over the branches. A short flash of dim red light erupted and Rafael stuck his head over the bushes as he pulled on a shirt.

“The clearing is empty,” Rafael said. “They’ve spread out to try and ambush us if we get close. I spotted Koji and Earl in the branches of trees and several others hiding in the woods around the clearing.”

“Now what do we do?” Nina asked, looking toward her brother. Alex noticed that the others were all looking at him as well, their faces expectant and anxious.

“We have to fight our way past the Mad Mages and the other guards,” Alex said. “Without hurting anyone. Any ideas?” he asked, trying to sound confident.

“I could ask the trees to help,” Daphne said. A half-tree nymph, Daphne could commune with trees and she had a strong magical control over plants.

“Mmmm,” Clark said. “I could bring down a fog over the clearing.” Clark was very good at weather spells.

“I have a great stunning spell,” Nina said. “Makes the person think they’re frozen in a block of ice.”

“And I suppose I could turn into some sort of creature to try and scare them off,” Rafael said. “Like a troll or…Or even a demon.”

“I have something that might help,” Victoria said, rummaging in her backpack. She withdrew a pair of what looked to be welding goggles. She also took out a pair of rose-tinted, round glasses. “Daddy made these for archeological work. He likes to dig through old ruins in his spare time. They let you see through things, to what’s behind them.”

She held out the goggles and the glasses toward Alex. Although he knew he was going to look goofy, he took the goggles. Victoria would look better in the tinted glasses, anyway. As Alex slipped the goggles on, he had a sensation similar to when his perspective shifted, allowing him to see the astral world while fully awake. The world through the goggles appeared ghostly gray-green, most things shimmering with an outline of their normal shape. Only solid things could be seen as whole. Alex could see through the bushes and the leaves to the limbs of the trees. He looked at Victoria and yelped aloud. She appeared as a faint outline around a centaur frame of bones.

“I can see your skeleton,” Alex said.

“Precisely,” Victoria said. “We’ll be able to see exactly where the Mad Mages are hiding.”

Alex looked around at the others and flashed his widest grin. It wasn’t the makings of a great plan, but it was good enough.

Five minutes later, they were all creeping into position. Alex slid from tree to tree, crouching low to the ground, his sister, Nina, beside him. They were drawing closer to the clearing around the cave. From the corner of his eye, Alex saw something appear from behind a nearby tree.

“
Lahs-Lass
,” Nina hissed and Alex watched Anna fall to the ground, rigid as an iron rod.

His eyes went wide as he looked to Nina. “Thanks,” Alex said quietly.

“No sweat,” Nina whispered.

They crept silently over to where Anna lay upon the dried pine leaves, her body ramrod straight and shivering. Alex let his vision slip into the astral perspective and saw the dark smoke-like tendril of the Shadow Wraith’s control wrapping around Anna’s soul-essence, slithering through the forest and back to the cave. He focused his mind and spoke the rune-spell of severing, watching as the Shadow Wraith’s leash faded from existence and Anna’s soul-essence began to burn bright again. She opened her eyes and stared at him, still shivering and unable to move.

“Let her go,” Alex said to Nina.

“Are you nuts?” Nina asked.

“I’ve freed her from the Shadow Wraith’s control,” Alex said. “She’s safe.”

“It’s never safe with her around,” Nina said, but muttered the counter-spell anyway. Anna gave one great shiver and then sat up. She started to open her mouth, but Alex placed a hand over it.

“We don’t have time to explain everything,” Alex said quietly. “The Shadow Wraith is breaking loose. It has most of the town under its control. It had you. Dillon has gone for help. We’re going to its lair to seal it back in its prison.”

“I’ll help,” Anna said, her face acquiring a haughty pride. She wasn’t about to let the Guild get credit for saving the town.

“No,” Alex said. “Stay here. If we fail, my father and the townspeople will need to know what happened.”

“But I can help,” Anna said defiantly. She had never seemed to like taking orders from Dillon and certainly didn’t like taking them from Alex.

“If we all die, you can do whatever you like,” Alex said. “But until then, stay out of sight. And you’re welcome for saving you from the Shadow Wraith’s control.” What was it about the Mad Mages that they couldn’t say ‘thank you?’

Anna’s face contorted into a pouting rage, but Alex ignored her and slipped back through the forest with Nina. Stopping to save Anna had taken time. Time that would be needed to defeat the other Mad Mages who were still guarding the cave. Time that they needed to make sure Ben didn’t explode into a fire ball that consumed the whole mountain top.

As they moved from tree to tree, Alex felt the temperature drop and his face become damp. He looked up to see a deep fog descending into the forest like a cloud lowering out of the sky. Before he knew it, the fog was so thick he could no longer see Nina.

“Alex?” Nina said in a plaintive voice.

Alex reached out, fumbling through the fog until he found her hand. With his other hand, he pulled Victoria’s magical goggles from around his neck and over his face. As the lenses settled before his eyes, Alex saw the world in gray-green outline. He could see the outlines of trees, and behind them, more trees and the large rocks that scattered the mountainside. He could also see Nina in skeletal form.

“Come on,” Alex said. “We’ve got to hurry. Daphne’s up next.”

Even before he had finished speaking, Alex saw the trees around the clearing begin to move. They seemed to be twisting slowly in the wind at first, and then abruptly the trees of the forest near the clearing were waving back and forth as though caught in some wild windstorm, even though the fog hung to the ground passively undisturbed. As Alex began to run, a scream cut through the fog. A second and third scream followed.

As Alex pulled Nina through the dense fog, he looked up to see two skeletal forms flung from a twisting tree to land in the middle of the clearing. Before he could even attempt a stunning spell, two finger-thin bolts of lightning shot through the fog and struck the two bodies. From the shape of them, Alex presumed they were Earl and Koji. Alex could see the skeletal form of Victoria on the other side of the clearing. She raised a skeletal hand and waved to him. With her magical glasses, she and Alex were the only ones who could clearly see what was going on.

The trees continued to twist and turn and were joined by bushes that thrashed and whipped back and forth. More screams cut through the clearing as another guard of the cave flew through the air. Alex cast a stunning spell even before the hapless person struck the ground. The roar of some large and fearful beast filled his ears and Alex saw a huge, scaly black form rushing through the fog, sending eddies of cloud whirling in its wake. Two more screams followed the beast’s roar and a bolt of lightning flew from Victoria’s hand. Alex could see the beast holding two of the guards, one in each hand as it smashed their heads together. The beast placed them gently like waterlogged rag dolls on the ground. Rafael, Alex thought. He was the most soft-hearted member of the Guild. He’d be chiding himself for weeks about hurting two of his classmates, even if they were under the control of the Shadow Wraith.

Before Alex realized it, the fight was over. The only forms he could see gathered in the clearing that were still standing belonged to the members of the Guild.

“That’s enough fog,” Alex called out to where he could see Clark’s large form carrying Ben’s much smaller one. Almost immediately, the fog began to lift. As it cleared, Alex and Nina quickly checked on their fallen and stunned classmates.

“I didn’t even get to stun one of them,” Nina said with annoyance.

“You stunned Anna,” Alex said, heading toward the entrance to the cave.

“That’s right,” Nina said with a smile. “That’s a memory that will keep me warm on a cold winter’s night.”

Alex pulled the goggles from his neck and handed them to Victoria as they both stepped up to the entrance of the cave.