Alex and the others moved quickly to take up positions around the stand of trees as Esmeralda withdrew the sword from its sheath. Alex was unsure what the Dark Spirit Mage was intending until he saw her swing the sword at one of the nearby trees. The blade was far too big and weighty for Esmeralda to wield with anything like grace or composure, but she could manage to swing it in a wide and wavering arc that bit into the bark of the tree with considerable force.
As the bark of the tree and then the tree itself dissolved into ash around the edge of the blade, Alex knew what Esmeralda was doing. She was testing the sword. Making sure it was the Sword of Destruction she sought. As the large tree rapidly turned to ash and collapsed into the shallow waters of the swamp, Alex saw a wide smile break out across Esmeralda’s face. It chilled his heart.
Alex glanced around at his companions and they greeted him with similar looks of distress. He turned back to Esmeralda and waited until she had resheathed the sword before he motioned with his hands to begin the attack. Fire erupted from either side of the clump of trees as two arrows flashed through the air, one striking Mr. Apollo in the leg and the other ripping through Esmeralda’s arm.
Alex splashed through the water toward Esmeralda and Mr. Apollo as Beowulf bounded ahead of him. Victoria and Nathan surrounded the trees in flames as Ben and Eleada loosed two more arrows.
Esmeralda and Mr. Apollo hid behind one of the trees as the Siren Sisters, Elektra and Medea, hid behind another. Alex wasn’t sure how the next part of this plan was going to work. It was vague in his mind. Somehow, he had to convince Esmeralda and Mr. Apollo to relinquish the sword. How he was going to get them to release a sword that could destroy anything it touched was the vague part.
Esmeralda made a gesture toward Elektra and Medea as Alex reached into his shirt and withdrew the whistle his father and mother had given him. Maybe he and the others didn’t need to convince Esmeralda and Mr. Apollo to give up the sword by themselves. Maybe they needed to hold them captive long enough for his parents and reinforcements from the town to arrive.
How long would that take?
Alex thought as he placed the whistle to his lips.
As he started to blow the whistle, a sound miraculously pierced his mind, a sound so hideous and overpowering, he immediately released the whistle to fall back around his neck as he clamped his hands on his ears.
The sound in his head ripped through his mind and tore at his brain, like something wild and vicious digging into his skull — dying animals screaming in pain as metal scraped against stone and a thousand misshapen bells all rang at once. The soundless sound erased all ability to think or react.
Alex could see the sound had an identical effect on the others. They had stopped their assault and were clutching at their heads in a vain attempt to stifle the agonizing noise assaulting them. Even Beowulf shook his head in pain, unable to cover his ears.
Alex could barely stay on his feet with the excruciating wail stabbing into his head. As he watched, the Siren Sisters, Elektra and Medea stepped out from behind the trees to face Alex and the others. Their mouths were open, seemingly in song. Behind them, Esmeralda was helping Mr. Apollo limp away from the trees and back into the swamp. For some reason, they seemed unaffected by the mental shrieks of the Siren Sisters.
They were getting away and Alex could do nothing to stop them. He could barely breathe under the strain of the noiseless screeching in his mind. Somehow, the Siren Sisters’ magically melodious voices became warped and transformed by the Silent Swamp into banshee-like howls that, while not carried through the air as sound, could nonetheless shatter the minds of those nearby.
Alex watched through tear-blurred eyes as Esmeralda and Mr. Apollo ran through the swamp behind the Siren Sisters, past a huddled Eleada and an immobilized Nathan. The Siren Sisters could choose whom their voices would normally affect and this skill remained intact in the magical environs of the swamp.
Just as Alex began to think he would pass out from the splitting pain in his head, he looked up to see two dark shapes hurtling from the sky. He blinked tears from his eyes and stared as the two speeding shapes struck the Siren Sisters, one apiece.
Blissful silence.
Alex took a deep breath and shook his head to clear it from the remnants of the Siren Sisters’ searing song. As he looked toward the clump of trees that had sheltered the Siren Sisters, he saw them each floating unconscious in the swamp water. Two dragons, one sapphire, one cobalt, flapped above them, reaching down with long talons to drag the women from the water before they could drown.
“Manks,”
Alex said via the magical marble in his mouth as he stepped over to take Elektra, or was it Medea, from Rafael’s claws.
“Monly ming me muould mink muv,”
Rafael said with a flick of his dragon tail.
“My med murts,”
Nina said, hands still covering her ears.
“Mow mhat mo me moo?”
Victoira asked as she grabbed the other twin siren and held her while Clark removed a length of twine from his knapsack and began binding her arms.
“Mag mem,”
Daphne said, shoving a handkerchief from her pocket into the mouth of one of the twins and securing it with a length of twine. Eleada swiftly did the same with the other twin. Alex noticed neither handkerchief looked particularly clean, but he didn’t mention it. The very least the Siren Sisters deserved were snotty handkerchiefs in their mouths, even if they were under the influence of Esmeralda’s Dark Spirit Magic.
“Mhat’s miss?”
Nina said, pulling a large sheet of scorched paper from the surface of the water.
“Mooks mike ma map,”
Alex said as he helped Nina hold the creased parchment up to examine it. The size of a newspaper, burn marks blackened the edges of the map. Flames appeared to have punched right through several places in the middle of the paper, likely by the fires Victoria and Nathan had created.
The map looked like it represented part of the Rune Valley. Looking more closely, Alex saw the lines depicting the Dead Forest and the Silent Swamp waver and shift, flickering to a view of the entire Rune Valley, and then back to a closer representation of the swamp. Alex knew what the map was and how Esmeralda had found the Sword of Silas.
He carefully folded up what was left of the map and turned to the others.
“Mhow moo me mrack mem?”
Nathan said, frowning. He clearly didn’t like sounding like an idiot as the magic marble mangled his speech.
“Me moant mave mo,”
Alex said.
“Me mow mer may mar mowing. Me must mave mo met mar mirst.”
Alex was thankful everyone seemed to know where he was talking about. There was only one place Esmeralda and Mr. Apollo would be headed now they had the Sword of Silas — the Shadow Wraith’s prison cave on the side of the Black Bone Mountains.
Alex was thankful for many things — being out of the Silent Swamp and free from its tomb-like silence and stench — the wind at the back of the speeding truck drying him off for the first time in hours — no longer needing to speak with a marble in his mouth mashing his words into unrecognizable mush — standing next to Victoria and feeling the warmth of her hand next to his on the wooden railing of the truck bed, and most importantly, that his friends would be beside him when he reached the cave to deal with Esmeralda and Mr. Apollo.
They had raced to beat Esmeralda and Mr. Apollo from the swamp, but had been too slow. As Alex and the others ran from the edge of the swamp and the sounds of the world returned to their ears, the first thing they heard was the roar of a motorcycle engine.
By the time they reached the dirt farm path near the swamp, they could see a trail of dust from the fleeing motorcycle nearly two miles ahead of them. This would not have been such a problem if they had not needed to run nearly a mile in the opposite direction to reach the place where they had left the old Dodge truck.
Eleada once again at the wheel, the Siren Sisters firmly gagged and tied to the side of the truck bed, they raced after the motorcycle dwindling into the distance. Nina and Daphne sat in the front seat to advise Eleada on the shortest route to the base of the Black Bone Mountains where the Shadow Wraith’s prison-cave resided. Beowulf rode with his head out the window, long ears fluttering in the wind.
Rafael and Kendra opted to remain in the form of dragons and clung to the top forward rail of the truck bed, wings clutched to their sides, necks stretched out, enjoying the speed and the wind. Nathan, Ben, and Clark stood behind Alex, holding on to the truck rails as it bounced over the old farm trail.
It wasn’t long before they came upon the dirt road they had ridden along only days before, when they had left the Dead Forest, and not long after that before they crossed the main East Road leading into town and out of the Rune Valley. Eleada took a sharp right turn at the main road and then a quick left turn not half a mile later. This was a more direct road leading to a different path up the mountain than the one Esmeralda and Mr. Apollo were following.
Alex tried to relax even in the mounting tension of anticipation. He didn’t know what was coming next, but he knew he had to beat Esmeralda to the cave. If she could enter the cave with that sword…
He felt a warmth on his hand and looked down to see Victoria’s hand clasped gently around his own. This eased the tension in his mind about the cave, but replaced it with a different sort of tension. Now, Alex found himself worrying about what would happen to Victoria at the cave. What would happen to all his friends in the Guild and his sister and the new friends from the carnival who had already risked their lives at his side? Alex looked up into Victoria’s eyes and she smiled. Alex smiled back and forgot his worries for a moment. How could he worry when Victoria was smiling?
“Was it a map to the sword?” Victoria asked, nodding to the map he had tucked into the belt of his pants.
“Kind of,” Alex said. “It’s called the Questing Map. It’s a magical map that can show you where anything is. The mage who created it used it to hunt for gold in the Copper Blood Mountains. It was stolen from the town museum about thirty years ago. It’s a very famous story in town history. It seems somebody has been hiding it in the vaults at the bank the whole time.”
“When did you say was the last time the carnival was in town?” Victoria asked.
“Thirty years ago,” Alex said, seeing the connection now that Victoria had mentioned it. “Esmeralda would have been in the carnival at that time, as a teenage girl.”
“Do you think she could have been under the influence of the Shadow Wraith all that time?” Victoria said, her nose wrinkling in disgust at the thought.
“I don’t know,” Alex said, thinking about it. “Maybe someone was influencing her when she was young the way she’s been influencing the other carnies now.”
“Like an apprentice to evil,” Victoria said.
“Whoever it was, thanks to them we might have a chance of finding the Rune Tree using this map,” Alex said, patting the map with his free hand.
“The map looked badly burnt,” Victoria said. “Do you think it will still work?”
“It’s got to work at least as well as showing drawings to Beowulf,” Alex said.
They were quiet for a moment, Alex reveling in the feeling the wind on his face and Victoria’s hand on his. Now would be a good time to lean over and kiss her. If they weren’t surrounded by their friends on the back of the truck. If Nathan wasn’t lurking five feet away. Why was it so hard to find a good time for kissing?
“Do you have a plan for when we get to the cave?” Victoria asked.
“Keep Esmeralda from getting that sword into the Shadow Wraith’s prison chamber,” Alex said.
“Ah,” Victoria said. “We’re improvising. I like improvising. Sometimes it’s easier that way. Fewer things to remember. I tried learning to play the violin for nearly a year, but I simply couldn’t follow all the notes. I kept wanting add some in. Drove my teacher batty. Daddy says it’s because I don’t have a linear mind. I think it’s because the songs in my head sounded better than the ones I was trying to learn.”
Alex stared up into Victoria’s blazing blue eyes. Now he really wanted to kiss her. “Maybe you can play for me sometime,” he said instead.
“Oh, well, I suppose so,” Victoria said, suddenly blushing. “I haven’t practiced in ages.”
“I’d love to hear the songs in your head,” Alex said, finding his face felt as hot as Victoria’s looked.
They smiled and gazed silently into each other’s eyes. Then the truck hit a large rut in the road and they bounced into the air, jostling against each other. They smiled and looked ahead, down the road the truck raced along. Victoria’s hand squeezed Alex’s a little tighter where he held the wooden railing.
Up ahead, Alex could see the Black Bone Mountains, and off to the east, the White Forest. There was still smoke rising out of the depths of the woods, but the rain clouds that had been pouring down over the town seemed to have drifted over the forest and quenched the fire. Alex wondered if that had been Batami’s doing or the work of Maybelle Merriweather, the town weather witch. Either way, it had probably saved the forest from being entirely consumed by the flames. Alex wondered how Batami was doing.
He could see scorched and blackened trees at the edge of the forest, but it was hard to gauge how much damage had been done. The forest would take years to recover. Alex knew Batami would likely take just as many years to heal from the fire. He thought about slipping into his astral form to check on her, but the truck was very closer to the base of the mountains and getting closer every second. Eleada did not believe in driving at any speed but recklessly fast, regardless of the quality of the road. As long as the forest had survived, Alex knew Batami had, as well.
A minute later, the truck came to a brake-screeching, tire-sliding, halt at the base of the Black Bone Mountains. Alex and the others quickly disembarked from the truck, jumping to the ground as Rafael and Kendra, in dragon form, took to the air.