Dracula: Hearts of Fire (Dracula Heart's) (28 page)

   
Mind to mind: “Jenny, what do you see
?”

    
“I can’t see much of anything; it’s raining too damn hard
.”

    “Stop looking
with your eyes, look with magic.
Concentrate and observe.
Do you feel that tingling in your hands?
”

    “Yes
.”

    “Bring both hands together, as if in prayer.”

    When the girl wizard did so the lenses on her eyes commenced to change color: blue, red, purple, pink. When her eyes shifted the lenses to yellow she could see brown sparkles of light in the rain and in the clouds as well. It was the properties of the incantation.
Although they were tiny she could see light reflecting off them as they spun. The clouds now looked to be a sickly yellow
with black highlights. “
Ok, I see the
stuff that’s i
n the rain and the clouds but now
what?”

    “You have something that I have never ever observed in another wizard. You have what I would call unconscious magic.
You’ve detected the elements of the spell, now destroy them.”

    “How?”

    “Make a snowball.”

   
“There’s no snow out here
.
Not funny.
”

     “Simply go through the motions.”

   
“Go through the motions of what? Making a snowball?” Jenny went through the gesticulations
of making a snowball out of air. Not only did she feel stupid but she was sure he was going to laugh at he
r. “Okay.
”

    “Compact it and press hard as you would with real snow.”

    Jenny continued to feel dumb until a spherical ball of white light containing blue crystals appeared in her hands.
She could feel the solidness of it, and seconds earlier it hadn’t even existed.
She was amazed as it spun and tickled her, when
she opened her hand further she received a warning.

    “Careful. Don’t let it get away.”

    The ball of energy flew out of her hands and hit
at the base of
a nearby
tree, and with a bang as
loud as
a flash grenade
the energy knocked down the tree. The noise hurt Jenny’s ears
and made her jump; her ears rung from the explosion.
“Holy cow!”

    “Now mak
e another one if you can it takes
a lot of energy. And don’t let it get away.
”

    The rain continued to pummel her but at this point it was impossible to get any wetter.
The sound of the heavy precipitation was loud and steady. She formed another ball of energy and was as impressed as she had been after forming the first one.
It now made sense that she needed fu
rther instruction, and
that book of spells.
“Now
what?”

    “Now, toss it up into the clouds where the spell originated.
Throw it hard.
”

    Jenny did so and the bal
l took off like a shooting star
.
It was a spherical mass of yellow energy that imploded on contact with the spell that originated from the clouds.
It reversed and pulled the rain up behind it
, sucking all the rain into in that had escaped
.
It was an incredible thing to see,
and even more impressive was the fact that she had accomplished it.
It even took all the moisture out of Jenny clothes
; she was now as dry as if it hadn’t rained at all.

    Jenny closed her mouth. “That’s amazing. I really did that?”

    “Indeed.” Jeptha then spoke to someone else inside the cottage. “Did you see that?”

    “Yes, yes, quite impressive.”

    Jenny cocked her head as she listened. “Who else is in there?”

    “Oh my, she can hear us.”

    “Let me in there! Is that Caius in there with you?”

    “
It’s not for me to tell you how to get in here; it’s for you to figure out a way in.”

    Jenny went and sat back down on the mossy log and considered. She could form another ball of energy and toss it
at the cabin. I
t mig
ht actually blow it up
.
She looked down at her feet and saw a mole that was going around and around in circles. It appeared that even the animals were mocking her. Jenny watched as the mammal went back into its burrow
.

    “Can you hear me?” No response.

    It was now sunny and humid.
A slight refreshing breeze made its way through the forest ca
rrying the scent of
pine
.
She let go with a big sigh as she got up and again made her way around the cottage. She felt all along the bricks searching for a way in until she was back to where she
had
started. It was puzzling and more than a little aggravatin
g;
she knew there was a way in
but where?
Jeptha had gotten in there easy enough, but of course he already knew the
way in
. Jenny stared at the cottage with consternation and suddenly it vanished, as if it had never been there.

    “What the heck?”
Jenny raised her eyebrows as she accessed the situation. Had she run out of time to figure a way into the cottage? Angry at herself a tree was kicked and knocked over and she immediately regretted that action. The planet n
eeded more trees, not less. Now
the brick path that had led to it had disappeared.  She turned and spotted the cottage about a hundred yards to her rear. She ran to it and it was indeed the very same
perplexing dwelling. She had an idea and so she made her
way around the cottage, feeling
lower this time, near the bottom of it.
She touched and prodded near the base. The opening was discovered, it was a hole
that was invisible to the
eye because of a spell. It was a
basic encha
ntment but quite effective.
Almost falling into it, Jenny lay on her stomach sticking her head into the hole and bracing herself against its steep angle.
It was
some sort of
slide that slid down into darkness. No way to see what was down there.
Absolutely no way to tell what she would slide into; it could be a crocodile pit for all she knew. Jenny didn’t like the thought of launching herself down there.

    “Hello ….
Hello, hello, hello, hello!
” Her voice echoed off the walls but no response was forthcoming.
T
he 12-year-old carefully eased
her way into the tunnel and slid down. She slid and slid and slid, picking up speed as sh
e went.
That was the problem with jumping into the unknown.
It turned out to be almost
a mile long in complete darkness, with several disturbing twists and turns.
She was moving so fast that her eyes couldn’t adjust.
Finally she shot out into a small section of cavern, landing hard on her derriere. She stood and dusted herself off and examined what she had gotten herself into. Torches on the wall lit up the small
cavern;
she could see another door off
to her left and there was
a
peculiar
feeling about
it
, and not a good one.

    “
All this inside that freaking cottage?
”

    On Jenny’s immediate left were a
dozen cannon balls, an old
chest
with a key protruding from its lock
, and a coiled length of rope
on the floor beside it
. On the floor to her right was the skeleton of some dead vampire with a Cuban
Montecristo
cigar stuck in its eye socket
, and a double guillotine-style
cigar
cutter on its bony left hand
.
T
h
ere was a damp smell
but not too bad. Jenny could hear what she thought might be footsteps far off in the distance somewhere.

  
The king cobra appeared fr
om behind the chest startling
her. She put
up her right foot and the serpent
struck her sole, and as it did so it replicated.
The blow striking her
sneaker had been substantial.
Jenny now faced two snakes with neurotoxins
and they were
also
cardio toxic
.
She pulled her sword and cut the head off the one on the right and it turned into three more snakes; they were tapping into her energy and reproducing. Another cobra struck her
heel and this one turned into two more
snakes.
At this ra
te she would soon be overrun,
it would be impossible to defend against all of them.

    Jenny quickly backed herself up against the wall. She wanted to scream but didn’t want Jeptha to hear.
How was this teaching anyone anything if she was killed in the process?
The snakes advanced but Jenny had nowhere to run. She tried to blur away from them but they were ju
st as fast and blocked her way. Jenny considered that now would be a good time to panic, not that it would help
.
             

    She
was trapped.