“You know this person?”
Alex asked, more curious than ever about the identity of the figure in black.
“Yes,”
Batami said.
“However, we have a great many other things to concern ourselves with. First, before you fade back into your physical body from fatigue, I need to show you a little of how to use the magic of astral energy to protect yourself. Unfortunately, there is never enough time to teach you all you need to know.”
Alex spent the next hour learning how to manipulate the energy of the astral plane the way energy could be magically controlled in the physical world. Batami made him practice creating a shield of astral energy alternating with learning how to focus that same energy into blue-white bolts of power that could affect other beings in the astral world. Alex practiced until he looked down at himself and saw his astral form fading into ether. He tried to remain alert, but he could feel himself slipping back into his physical body.
“Too tired,”
was all Alex managed to say before fading away from Batami’s side.
“Don’t forget…”
he heard her say as sleep took hold of his ragged mind and he collapsed into unconsciousness.
Flames grasped like clutching hands as he ran. A wall of fire roared up before him, the air feeling like a furnace. Trees around him collapsed and exploded, spewing glowing embers skyward like miniature volcanoes. The flames were all around now, no relief and no escape as his clothes combusted into a fire that seared and surrounded him.
Alex woke up blinking and breathing heavily as he wiped the sweat from his eyes. He was hot. As hot as he had been in his dream.
He sat up in bed. His bedcovers lie on the floor and his pajama shirt was unbuttoned to his belly. The windows were wide open, but only to allow a stiff, hot breeze to circulate through the room like a stove box. Alex saw clouds outside the window and slipped out of bed to investigate.
Dark storm clouds filled the sky, threatening to shatter with rain at any moment, but offering no relief from the sweltering heat blanketing the town. Alex shook his head in puzzlement and caught sight of himself in the mirror. He tried to straighten his sweat-plastered hair with his fingers, but it was hopeless. Then he saw the clock on his nightstand.
“Oh no,” Alex sighed.
It was nearly eleven o’clock in the morning. He had forgotten to set the alarm and overslept by hours. His plan had been to wake his parents and tell them what he had discovered as soon as he returned from his astral travel with Batami. However, the lure of sleep had been too strong. At the very least, he could have told them over breakfast.
Why hadn’t his parents tried to wake him? Had something happened? Was something wrong?
Alex ran from his room, racing down the hallway and jumping down the stairs two at a time. His bare feet skidded against the hardwood floor of the kitchen as he came to a stop.
“Alex,” his mother said, turning from the stove where she was making pancakes on a hot griddle. “You’re up in time for breakfast.”
“The second breakfast,” Nina said from where she sat at the table, fork filled with a syrup-drenched pancake. “Sleepy head.”
“Mmm, third breakfast, in my case,” Clark said, sitting next to Nina, who sat next to where Victoria knelt at the end of the table. Beside her, Daphne, Ben, and Raphael sat eating pancakes. Alex had forgotten the Guild was collectively grounded and confined to his house.
“Very nice pajamas,” Victoria said with a smile as she took a sip of orange juice. Alex looked down and felt his face flush with even more heat than the weather was providing. He began to button up his pajama shirt.
“Morning,” Ben said, pointing to the unruly mop on Alex’s head. “Great hair.”
“Use a little less spit next time you comb it,” Rafael said, plopping a bite of pancake into his mouth.
“Morpheus’ mud pies,” Daphne said, with her mouth full. “Did you forget to sleep while you were in bed?”
“Language,” his mother admonished Daphne. “We don’t curse in this house. Or speak with our mouths full.”
“Sorry, Mrs. Ravenstar,” Daphne said, her eyes flicking down to her plate.
Alex’s mother frowned at Alex as she placed a plate of pancakes before the open seat beside Victoria. “Batami should know better than to wear you out like this. Have a seat and eat something.”
Alex shook his head to clear it and recover from the disparity between what he imagined he might find downstairs and the sight before his eyes. Then he looked at his mother and spoke.
“I know who’s trying to free the Shadow Wraith.”
The smell of the pancakes wafted up invitingly to Alex’s nostrils as the cacophonous questions from his mother and the Guild assaulted his ears. His stomach rumbled as a sharp pain of hunger shot through it. He honestly couldn’t decide if it was more important to eat first or tell his mother and the Guild what he had seen and done the night before. He decided he could do both at the same time.
Alex sat at the table and began shoveling pancakes into his mouth at a preposterous pace as he recounted to his mother, sister, and friends all that had happened the night before. His mother’s frowns at speaking with his mouth full were quickly replaced by gasps as he got to the more dangerous details of his midnight adventure.
It took four pancakes, two sausages, three scrambled eggs, and a piece of toast smothered in strawberry jam for Alex to finish his story and begin to feel full. He knew from his experiences of astral travel he would be hungry again in less than an hour, but at least for the moment, his hunger felt satiated and his willpower fortified. His last bite, and last words, were met with indecipherable stares from his table companions and a look from his mother that he steadfastly refused to interpret. The way she was wringing the apron at her waist while she stood beside him was enough indication of what she thought. She let the apron fall and smoothed it out before placing her hands on either side of Alex’s head and tilting it back so she could stare down into his eyes.
“Why must you always put yourself at the center of every awful thing that happens in this town?” she asked as she sniffed back tears brimming at the edges of her eyes.
“I know it’s a bad habit, Mom,” Alex said, trying to smile against the tears threatening to well up within his own eyes, “but at least I’m not smoking.”
His mother laughed and bent down to kiss him on the head. “I might prefer you tried something that would only kill you slowly.” She frowned. “Forget I said that.”
“We have to tell Dad,” Nina said, her eyes still wide from the recitation of Alex’s adventures.
“Yes,” his mother said, turning to include Nina and the rest of the table in her words as she removed the apron and stepped over to where the family shoes lined the wall beside the back door. She slid off her slippers and pulled on a pair of leather boots. “I will go immediately and tell your father what has happened. Alex is right, based on the fact the mayor thinks you all tried to rob the town museum, Logan may not be able to make any arrests. But, we can keep them all under observation.
“In the meantime, Alex, I want you to go to the top of the attic stairs. Three steps up on the right you will find a book on ancient magical armaments. I could swear I’ve heard the phrase Sword of Silas before. That book may have some clue as to what it is and what it can do. I’ll be back, but while I’m gone, you are all to remain here. And I will know if you have tried to leave.” She locked eyes with Alex and Nina for a moment, then kissed them each quickly on the forehead and strode to the door. She paused and looked back over her shoulder, directly at Alex.
“Don’t do anything stupid or reckless or heroic,” his mother said, holding his eyes with hers.
Victoria burst out laughing, throwing her hands to her mouth to stifle her giggles as she blushed. “I’m sorry, Mrs. Ravenstar. That simply sounded so ridiculous when you said it.”
“You can’t ask him not to be stupid,” Nina said as the others joined in at laughing at Alex. “It’s what he does best.”
“It’d be like asking him not to fart,” Daphne said.
“Impossible,” Ben said. “He can’t not fart. He’d explode.”
“He’d probably explode if he didn’t do something stupid,” Rafael said.
“Hmm, we’ll keep an eye on him, Mrs. Ravenstar,” Clark said.
“Right,” Daphne said. “If it looks like he’s going to be reckless or heroic or stupid, we’ll stop him.”
“Yes, I’m sure you will,” his mother said with a sarcastic sigh. “You’re all so good at discouraging his wild ideas. I can’t decide who’s the fox and who’s the hen.” She sighed again. “Take care of each other. I’ll be back soon.”
As Alex’s mother closed the door, Alex turned to look thoughtfully at Nina and his friends. “What eats a fox?”
“A wolf?” Victoria suggested, raising her eyebrows.
“Then I’m a wolf,” Alex said, with a sly grin. “I think we’re all wolves. And we know who the foxes are.”
“Then who are the hens?” Nina asked, looking puzzled.
“The whole gorping town,” Daphne said, sounding exasperated.
“So what are we really going to do?” Victoria asked, looking at Alex expectantly.
“Plan?” Ben said, sitting up taller in his chair. “Do we have one this time?”
“For now, exactly what Mom said,” Alex replied, looking around the table at the others. “I’ll find the book on magical weapons and we’ll see if we can figure out what Esmeralda and the others are up to.”
“For once, being a wolf might not be so bad,” Rafael said, taking the last sip of his orange juice.
“Hmm, Daphne and I have something else to do,” Clark said, looking down where Daphne sat beside him. “Out in the Guild House.”
“What’s more important than figuring out what Esmeralda is up to?” Alex asked.
“Clark has a hunch about what the cauldron might do,” Daphne said with a mysterious smile. “I and I have a hunch we might need it to stop the evil carnies.”
“What hunch?” Alex said, his voice cracking slightly. He suddenly realized how annoying it must be when he made cryptic statements about plans that might affect the Guild in their adventures. It was very annoying.
“It’s only a hunch for now,” Daphne said. “We’ll work on the cauldron while you research the sword.”
“Me too,” Ben said. “I’ll help Clark and Daphne.”
“That will leave the four of us to read the book,” Rafael said.
“We can do the dishes,” Victoria replied. “I’m sure Alex and Nina’s mother would appreciate coming home to find a clean kitchen.”
“You know, in your own way, you’re as crazy as my brother,” Nina said, frowning at Victoria.
Alex changed into his clothes and retrieved the book his mother had mentioned while Victoria enlisted Nina and Rafael to help with the dishes and Daphne, Clark, and Ben headed out to the Guild House in the backyard to continue the examination of the magic cauldron.
Alex was surprised to discover the book was only two steps up on the attic stairs from where his mother has said it would be. His mother had a very peculiar system of organization for the thousands books stacked around the house and it was a methodology that eluded the rest of the family. Alex was impressed she had known where it would be.
The dishes proved a much easier task to accomplish than finding any hint of who Silas might have been and why Esmeralda might want his sword. Nearly an hour after his mother’s departure, Alex sat at the kitchen table, Rafa on one side, Nina on the other, and Victoria looking over their shoulders as they slowly flipped through page after page of the book, hunting for any hint of the information they sought. Finally, near the end of the book, they came across something that raised Alex’s hopes. Victoria spotted it first.
“There, in the last paragraph,” Victoria said, leaning down over Alex’s shoulder. He only found her breath on his neck mildly distracting. “
Lord Elvodar claimed Silas’s sword and wielded it against the mighty Stone Mountain Monster, shattering the creature into vapor and ash. The Sword of Destruction so frightened Lord Elvodar with its power that he ordered his most trusted vassal to bear it to a far land and hide it forever from human hands. Hammered with blows of magic in a forge of dragon fire by Silas of Abeldeen, the Sword of Destruction was said to annihilate anything it touched, except its own sheath. Lord Elvodar’s vassal hid the sword well, for it has never been found in over three thousand years.”
“A sword that can destroy anything it touches,” Rafael said, leaning back from the table. “That sounds bad.”
“What do they want it for?” Nina asked, running her finger over the passage on the book Victoria has just read aloud.
“To destroy the rune keeping the Shadow Wraith in its prison,” Alex said with a sigh.
“But how could they get into the cave without the whole town knowing?” Victoria asked. “It’s buried under half a mountain of rubble. She isn’t planning on using the sword to excavate, is she?”
“I don’t know,” Alex said. “At least we know what they want it for.”
“But how do they plan to find it?” Nina asked.
Just then, Ben burst through the door, his eyes alight with excitement and his face drenched with sweat.
“Cauldron,” Ben practically shouted. “You have to come see what Daphne and Clark discovered about the cauldron.”
“I’ll catch up,” Alex said as the others all made for the door. “I’ll leave a note to let Mom know where we are.” It would not be good for her to come home and find them all missing.
“What’s taking her so long?” Nina asked as she reached the door.
“Probably helping Dad keep track of evil carnies,” Alex said, snatching a note pad from the kitchen counter and scribbling out a quick message to his mother explaining where they were.
When Alex stepped into the Guild House a minute later, he instinctively leaned back from the wall of heat that hit him in the face. The air in the small Guild House felt twice as stifling as the heat that had been oppressing the town for days. Alex immediately saw the source of the heat. A large fire blazed in the belly of the cast-iron woodstove. In top of the stove sat the cauldron. Clark and Daphne stood beside the stove, dripping wet with sweat. Daphne stood on a chair so she could see into the bowl of the black cauldron.