A Tale of Magic... (35 page)

“Those are your and the witch’s initials, aren’t they?” Brystal said. “You must have carved them into that tree when you were both alive. And you can’t travel beyond it, because it marks the end of her former property.”

Horence slowly nodded. The knight then performed a series of gestures that Brystal found confusing. First he pointed in the direction she and the others were traveling, and then with the same hand, he showed Brystal two of his fingers, and then reduced them to one. He repeated the motion several times: pointing, two fingers, one finger; pointing, two fingers, one finger; pointing, two fingers, one finger; but no matter how many times he performed the gesture, Brystal couldn’t figure out what Horence was trying to say.

“The distance? Two fingers? One finger?” she asked as he reenacted the movement. “The distance? Two fingers? One finger?”

For whatever reason, the connection between them had broken, and they couldn’t communicate as easily as before. Brystal wondered if it was because she was standing on the other side of the stream. Before she could cross the bridge and get a clearer answer, Horence pulled on his horse’s reins and disappeared into the trees.

“What was he telling you?” Lucy asked.

“Actually, I have no idea,” Brystal said. “But I think it was a
warning
.”

“According to my geography book, we’re about a quarter of the way there,” Brystal said.

“Only a
quarter
?” Skylene said in shock. “I thought we were nearly there! The air has been getting so much colder.”

“It’s about to get a lot colder than this,” Brystal said. “Trust me, you’ll know when we arrive. The Northern Kingdom is covered in the Snow Queen’s blizzards.”

“What part of the Northern Kingdom are we headed to?” Lucy asked.

Brystal removed the Map of Magic from her coat and unrolled it for her classmates.

“The map shows Madame Weatherberry is somewhere between Appleton Village and the kingdom’s capital, Tinzel Heights,” Brystal said. “The Snow Queen recently attacked Tinzel Heights, so I imagine Madame Weatherberry is trying to keep her destruction from spreading. If the Snow Queen reaches Appleton Village, the Northern Kingdom is doomed.”

Their mutual fear fueled their efforts, and the classmates continued on without complaining. A few more miles down the path, Brystal and her friends passed through a pleasant clearing with sunlight, a stone bench to sit on, colorful berries to eat, and a fresh spring to drink from. It was unlike anything they had seen in the In-Between since leaving the academy, and the apprentices were tempted to stop.

“I’m sorry, but I’ve
got
to take a break!” Tangerina whined.

“Me too!” Skylene said. “Even I feel dehydrated.”

Brystal had been pushing her classmates so hard, she figured they had earned a quick rest. She didn’t object when Tangerina and Skylene left the path and headed for the stone bench. Lucy eyed the clearing suspiciously, though, and stopped the apprentices before they sat.

“Wait! Don’t sit there!” she said.

“Why not?” Tangerina asked.

“Because we’re not safe here,” Lucy said. “It’s obviously a trap.”

“Lucy, you’re just being paranoid,” Tangerina said. “This is the most decent part of the woods we’ve seen!”

“Exactly!” Lucy said. “It’s charming—
too charming
! We’ll be much safer if we keep walking and find someplace gloomy and uninviting.”

“Great, we’ll meet you there!” Tangerina said. “But if I don’t sit for five minutes, my feet are going to fall off my—”

SWOOSH!
Like a giant mousetrap, as soon as Tangerina and Skylene touched the stone bench, an enormous net fell on top of them. The girls screamed and struggled to free themselves, but the more they squirmed, the more entangled they became. Brystal, Lucy, Xanthous, and Emerelda ran to help their friends, but the net was so thick they couldn’t get it off the girls.

The classmates heard the sound of a horn coming from nearby. Suddenly, a tribe of strange creatures jumped out from behind the trees, and soon the children found themselves surrounded by over a hundred trolls.

The trolls were short creatures with dirty orange skin and hairy bodies. They had big eyes, big noses, big feet, big teeth, and tiny horns. They wore clothing made from the fur of foxes, raccoons, and squirrels, and jewelry made from the bones of their prey. Each troll carried a heavy club and they swung their weapons through the air to incite fear. A particularly large troll wearing a headdress of exotic feathers stepped forward to observe the children, and Brystal assumed he was the chief of the tribe.

“Everyone remain calm,”
Lucy whispered to her frightened classmates.
“Trolls are incredibly stupid creatures—they’ve got sight like eyeless skunks, and hearing like earless rabbits. If we stay still and silent, they won’t even know we’re here.”

The students and apprentices followed Lucy’s advice and stood as still as possible.

“Actually, our vision is
perfect
and our hearing is
flawless
,” the chief growled.

“Dang it,” Lucy muttered. “I was thinking of gophers.”

“You won’t need to
think
where you’re going,” the chief said, and then turned to his tribe. “What shall we do with our prisoners? Have we captured
slaves
or
snacks
?”

The trolls clanked their clubs in celebration of catching the children, and then roared their opinions on whether to
eat
or
enslave
them.

“Gosh, why isn’t there a third option?” Xanthous cried.

“Brystal, what do we do?” Emerelda asked.

“I’m thinking, I’m thinking!” Brystal said.

The tribe was so loud Brystal could barely hear her own thoughts. The trolls eventually voted for
slavery
, and then crept closer to seize the children.

“Okay, I’m going to count to three,” Brystal told her classmates. “On three, I’m going to wave my wand and cause a distraction, we’re going to grab the net, and then run out of the clearing. Got it?”

“I don’t want to be dragged out of here!” Skylene said.

“One…,” Brystal started. “Two…”

Before she could give the final signal, the ground rumbled beneath their feet. The trolls looked down in fear and started backing out of the clearing.

“Great job, Brystal!” Lucy said. “This is one heck of a distraction!”

“It’s not me!” Brystal said. “I haven’t done anything yet!”

Suddenly, hundreds of green hands with sharp fingernails burst out of the dirt. A colony of goblins crawled out from underground and emerged into the clearing. The goblins were tall and lean creatures with glossy green skin. They had big pointed ears, small jagged teeth, and nostrils without noses. Their clothes were made from the skins of bats, moles, and reptiles. All the goblins carried sharp spears, and they jabbed the weapons in the trolls’ direction. An older goblin wearing a sash made from dead centipedes confronted the troll chief face-to-face.

“How dare you poach on our territory!” the goblin elder yelled.

“This is
our
territory!” the troll chief yelled back. “Everything above the ground belongs to us! Go back to the holes you crawled out of!”

The chief swung his club at the elder, but the goblin blocked it with his spear.

“You’ve already stolen our food, our water, and our land!” the elder shouted. “We will
not
let you take slaves from us, too! Leave the forest immediately or face the consequences!”

“Trolls don’t cower from anything—especially
goblin filth
!” the chief declared.

Tension between the leaders escalated and the classmates worried they were about to be caught in the middle of a full-fledged battle between the species.

“Don’t worry, I’ll handle this!”
Lucy whispered to her friends.

“Please don’t!” Tangerina pleaded.

To her classmates’ terror, Lucy strutted across the clearing and placed herself between the troll chief and the goblin elder.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” she said. “Fellas, chill out before we all get hurt!”

The interruption infuriated both leaders.

“Who do you think you are?” the troll chief growled.

“You don’t recognize me?” Lucy asked. “I’m Lucy Goose of the world-renowned Goose Troupe. I’m sure you’ve been to one of our shows. Me and my family have performed for trolls and goblins all over the In-Between. We’re kind of a big deal around here.”

The goblin elder squinted at her and rubbed his chin.

“Oh, yes,” he said. “I remember you. You’re that little fat girl who hit the obnoxious box of chimes until I had a splitting headache.”

“It’s called
the tambourine
,” Lucy corrected him. “Look, I understand things are tough between you guys. And you don’t want to make things worse by embarrassing yourselves in front of a celebrity like me. I normally don’t do this, but if you let me and my friends leave the clearing in peace, I promise to come back and give you all a free performance. Come on, what do you say? There’s isn’t a conflict in the world that can’t be solved with some good old-fashioned entertainment.”

The students and apprentices cringed at Lucy’s attempt to negotiate. The goblin elder turned back to the troll chief and made an offer of his own.

“Tell you what,” the goblin said. “
You
can have the tambourine player, but
we’re
taking the others.”

“No!” the chief yelled. “
You
can have the tambourine player, and
we’ll
take the others!”

The chief blew a horn in the elder’s face and a brutal battle between the trolls and goblins began. Brystal and her classmates watched the brawl in horror—they had never seen such violence in their lives. The creatures ruthlessly bludgeoned and stabbed one another, and when their weapons gave out, they resorted to twisting noses and pulling ears. Brystal was just as heartbroken as she was disturbed—if humankind hadn’t expelled the trolls and goblins from their kingdoms, they wouldn’t have to be fighting over resources like this. However, Brystal was glad the goblins had arrived when they did—they were the best distraction she could have asked for.

“NOW!”
she yelled to her classmates.

Brystal, Emerelda, and Xanthous grabbed the net and charged out of the clearing, dragging Tangerina and Skylene behind them. Lucy led the charge, pushing the trolls and goblins out of their way. Initially, the creatures were too busy fighting one another to notice, but they quickly spotted the children fleeing the area.

“THE SLAVES ARE GETTING AWAY!”
the troll chief bellowed.

“AFTER THEM!”
the goblin elder commanded.

The trolls and goblins chased after the classmates, and the sparring creatures moved through the In-Between as a united force. The students and apprentices ran through the forest as fast as their tired legs could carry them, using their magic to prevent the creatures from getting too close. Brystal waved her wand and sent trolls whirling through the air in giant bubbles. Emerelda threw handfuls of rubies and diamonds on the ground to make the goblins slip. Xanthous removed his Muter Medal and lit entire trees on fire to scare them off. Despite all their magical efforts, the trolls and goblins never paused their pursuit.

Lucy was running in front of her classmates and spotted something alarming in the distance ahead of them.

“Hey, guys!” she called over her shoulder. “We’re heading toward the cliff of a canyon!”

“Then do something so we’re
not
heading toward the cliff of a canyon!” Emerelda said.

Just as they reached the edge of the deep and rocky canyon, Lucy snapped her fingers and a rickety rope bridge with wooden panels appeared in front of them. The classmates ran across the bridge and it started to sway like a giant swing. The movement caused Xanthous to trip and he fell flat on his face. His Muter Medal slipped out from his hand and fell into the canyon below. The boy instantly started to panic and he was engulfed in flames.

“No, no, no, no, no!”
he gasped.

“Xanthous, listen to me!”
Brystal said.
“You have to calm down! If you get too heated, the bridge is going to—”

It was too late—Xanthous’s fire burned through the ropes and wooden panels. The bridge snapped in half and the classmates fell into the canyon. The students and apprentices screamed as they dropped through the air and plummeted toward the rocky earth below. The fall reminded Brystal of the final chapter in
The Tales of Tidbit Twitch
, but unlike the main character’s fall, there wasn’t a river to break hers. Brystal tried to manifest something soft for her and the others to land on, but as she waved her wand, the velocity knocked it out of her hand.

Brystal desperately reached for her wand in midair.… It was falling right beside her, just a few inches out of reach.… She stretched her arm out as far as possible.… Her fingertips grazed the side of it.… She wrapped her hand around its crystal handle.…

POOF!
The children hit the bottom of the canyon and a cloud of dust rose into the air. As the trolls and goblins looked over the cliff, they didn’t wait for the dust to clear before retreating back into the woods.

Nothing could have survived
that
fall.