Summer's Cauldron (11 page)

As Alex came closer, the figure turned and looked at him. The motion so startled Alex that he came to an abrupt stop, only ten feet away from the cloaked figure. The cloaked figure stared at Alex a moment longer, and then stepped backward into the shadows of the forest, disappearing from view. Alex willed himself forward into the forest, but the moonless blackness clinging to the trees was too thick to see through.

Alex focused his mind in the way Batami had taught him and his vision of the world shifted into the astral plane. The forest was suddenly aglow in shades of pearlescent light. The trees looked like they were on fire with a deep green light, the ground between them appearing like a bluish field of cold flame. Alex scanned around, but could see nothing resembling the blue-white light that would indicate a living being. Had the cloaked figure managed to vanish before Alex could look into the astral realm? How was that possible? Or was it not alive in the normal way of things and thus invisible to his astral sight?

That thought, combined with the knowledge that whoever the cloaked figure was, he or she, was powerful in ways Alex did not understand, helped him decide the best place for him might be back in his bedroom. A moment later, his eyes opened to see Nina staring at him intently.

“What’s the status, Gladys?” Nina asked, leaning forward.

“Something weird,” Alex said, unfolding his legs to stretch them. He quickly told Nina about the twin failures of his reconnaissance mission.

“Is it one of the carnies?” Nina asked, referring to the cloaked figure Alex had encountered.

“I don’t know,” Alex said. “It was outside the carnival, so I don’t think it was one of the carnies. But that doesn’t mean it’s on our side, whoever it is.”

“You should tell Batami about the astral barrier,” Nina said, her face serious.

“That’s exactly what I plan to do,” Alex said.

It was the first thing he mentioned, twenty minutes later, after his parents had come to say their goodnights, when he appeared in astral form in the yard outside Batami’s little wooden hut. His parents knew of his nightly astral assignations with Batami, and they encouraged them wholeheartedly. Especially in light of the evening’s events at the carnival.

“A barrier to astral travel?”
Alex heard Batami say in his mind when he had finished telling her everything that had happened. She was in her astral form, as well, and rested the fingers of one hand against the jawline of her ethereal, but wrinkled face.
“I have seen such things, but I have never heard of a barrier large enough to cover an entire carnival. To cover anything less would reveal the Spirit Mage’s location within the carnival grounds, but to maintain such a barrier throughout the night is a considerable magical feat.”

“Could it be more than one Spirit Mage working together?”
Alex asked mentally.

“Possibly,”
Batami said, her face pulling into a frown. She wore her usual white robe, but the folds of it shifted ever so slightly, as though caught in a breeze. Alex recognized it as a sign she was thinking deeply.

“Do you think the figure in black might have something to do with it?”
Alex asked.

“It is hard to say,”
Batami said.
“This mysterious person seems to be with the carnival, but that does not mean he or she is working with the Shadow Wraith. We simply do not know enough. I will examine the barrier.”
She turned her gaze to Alex, her voice firm.
“You remain here.”

Batami faded from his sight, leaving Alex alone in the yard. Not entirely alone. Sufina, the bone-white Titan wolf who was Batami’s constant companion, lay in the grass near the hut. Sufina could not see into the astral realm, but she did seem to be able to sense an astral presence and she turned her head back and forth for a moment after Batami’s disappearance. The massive wolf, bigger than any bear, snorted loudly and laid her head down between her paws. She knew enough not to worry about Batami.

Although endlessly impressed with Batami’s skill and power as a Spirit Mage, Alex was not so easily reassured, especially when the Shadow Wraith was involved in events. He floated in the middle of the yard, his mind filled with anxious thoughts. It was odd, not having a body to reflect and amplify those thoughts, but this did not make them any less potent. Alex sought to calm his mind as Batami had taught him, imaging he was breathing deeply and calmly.

Batami appeared once more in the clearing, her astral form glowing a deep cobalt blue. Alex willed himself to move to her and waited in mental silence. He had learned that asking Batami questions when she was considering something did not result in swift answers. The look in Batami’s eyes told him she was contemplating something very deeply.

“I could not cross the barrier,”
Batami said finally.
“I cannot imagine it is the magic of a single Spirit Mage. Such a mage would be far more powerful than myself. While that is not impossible, in and of itself, for such a person to have escaped my attention would be beyond improbable. And I cannot imagine there are sufficient Spirit Mages hiding in the Carnival and working in league with the Shadow Wraith to produce such a barrier.”

“Then what does that leave?”
Alex asked.

“Judging by how very little magic is being drawn from the land,”
Batami said,
“it can only be an artifact from the time of the War of the Shadow.”

“It’d have to be thousands of years old,”
Alex said, trying to imagine how such a magical artifact could survive for so long.

“Before the War of the Shadow burned the magic from most of the land on the earth, such artifacts were common,”
Batami said.
“And they were well-made. But you are correct. Most of those artifacts have been lost or broken in the long years since the war. I suspect it has been kept by secret followers of the Shadow Wraith for all this time. Hidden to await the time when they might need it most.”

“How do we break through the barrier?”
Alex asked, hoping there was actually an answer to that question.

“I don’t know,”
Batami said.
“From the size of the barrier and how little magic is being drained from the land to sustain it, I suspect it either has a reservoir of magical energy or it somehow is able to amplify the magical energy it draws.”

Alex had seen objects enchanted to store magical energy to use at a later time. His father had several at the jailhouse. They were useful when mages needed to leave the magic of the Rune Valley behind. Especially if a warlock needed to pursue a suspect into the normal world. Most of these enchanted objects had some particular magical purpose, like creating light, or stunning blasts of energy, but others simply stored the magical energy so the mage who held them could conjure magic for a short time. However, Alex had never heard his father or anyone else mention an enchanted artifact that might be able to amplify magical energy.

“We have to find the artifact,”
Alex said, already formulating a plan in his head to do just that the next day when the carnival opened for business and he and his friends had the opportunity to use their golden tickets.

“That will help,”
Batami said,
“but do not expect it to be any place easy to find. And it can be in nearly any form. I will continue to examine the barrier from the outside.”

“If it’s in the carnival, the Guild will find it,”
Alex said.
“We’re good at finding things.”

“Like the Rune Tree?”
Batami asked, a smile briefly crossing her face.

“Well, that’s taking a little longer than expected,”
Alex said, his mental tone a little defensive. Batami was of the opinion the Rune Tree was nothing more than a myth handed down through the ages. A story to tell young mages at bedtime.

“Nothing turned up in the Dead Forest?”
Batami asked.

“We found something,”
Alex said, being vague to avoid mentioning how dangerous the adventure had turned,
“but it wasn’t the Rune Tree.”
If Batami knew how potentially deadly Alex’s quest for the Rune Tree had become, she would probably forbid him from continuing his search. To Batami, it was far more important Alex be alive to face the Shadow Wraith and its demented supporters than hunting for some legendary tree.

“A fruitless endeavor, then?”
Batami said.

“We found an old cauldron, so it wasn’t a total waste of time,”
Alex said.

“A cauldron?”
Batami said, raising an eyebrow in curiosity.

“It was outside an abandoned hut,”
Alex said.

“What did you do with the cauldron?”
Batami asked.

“We took it back to the Guild House,”
Alex said.
“Clark said it smells like deep magic.”

“And you thought it wise to take a magic cauldron from the Dead Forest back to your home?”
Batami said. The tone of her voice was familiar enough that Alex took a moment and paused to rethink his decision to take cauldron.

“The hut hadn’t been used in years,”
Alex said, bringing to mind the thick layer of dust coating the inside of the thatched roof shelter. “And the cauldron might be useful someday.”

“You’re certain the hut was abandoned?”
Batami asked.

“Positive,”
Alex said.

“Curious,”
Batami said, glancing off in the direction of the Dead Forest.

“Do you know who it used to belong to?”
Alex asked.

“If it belongs to whom I suspect,”
Batami’s said, her eyes narrowing with thought,
“then you should be cautious of that cauldron. On the other hand, if it is the cauldron I know, it would not be abandoned. At least, I hope not. So…caution.”

“Why does everyone think I don’t know how to be cautious?”
Alex asked. He had intended the thought to be for himself alone, but Batami must have heard it clearly enough in her mind because she laughed.

“It is only those who know you, who question your caution,”
Batami said with a chuckle.
“Now, since we cannot pursue the matter of the barrier around the carnival, or the agents of the Shadow Wraith hiding within it, any further this night, let us continue with your lessons. See if you can do this.”

Batami turned and stretched her hands out before her, twin molten-blue lightning bolts leaping forth, striking a boulder ten feet away. Sufina, the Titan wolf, raised her head momentarily, but then settled back down to sleep. Few things unnerved her.

“Wow,”
Alex said, looking at the burn marks on the newly cracked boulder. Batami had been teaching him how to use magic while in astral form, but this had so far been confined to conjuring the wind, starting fires, moving small objects, and other more mundane actions. Creating lightning bolts while in astral form that could pulverize large boulders, and potentially large evil carnies, was exactly the kind of lesson Alex had been patiently, and sometimes not so patiently, waiting for. He smiled.

“I think it’s time you begin learning a few more practical magics,”
Batami said.
“It seems you might have cause to need them.”

Alex had no doubt he would need them. Once he and the Guild found the artifact creating the Spirit Barrier around the carnival and disabled it, someone would have to confront the Shadow Wraith’s followers. Alex knew that confrontation was as likely to take place in the astral realm as the real world.

“Try,”
Batami said, gesturing toward the boulder across the clearing.

Alex smiled his astral-body-smile again.

Chapter 9: Carnival Confections

Alex woke up hot, exhausted, and starving. The open windows, and the small, magically powered fan blowing on him from the ceiling, did nothing to dissipate the heat and humidity clinging to the valley. At breakfast, his mother and sister both had their hair pulled back in ponytails. His father muttered a rune-spell and the temperature of the room chilled for a time, but it didn’t last.

“Unseasonably hot,” his father said, buttering a slice of toast.

“Maybelle should do something about it,” his mother said, sipping at her coffee. Maybelle Meriwether was the local weather witch.

“Maybe she’s saving her weather charms for when it really gets hot,” his father said.

“Maybe she’s afraid she’ll cause another summer blizzard like she did last year,” Nina said with a giggle.

Alex was about to say something, but it came out as a yawn. He covered his mouth with one hand and then stuffed a bite of egg into it with the other. Astral travel always left him extra hungry and extra tired. He wasn’t really asleep while in his astral form and something about the process left his physical body much depleted.

“Long night with Batami?” his father asked. His parents knew about his training with Batami, but since they never asked for many details, he rarely gave them any. This morning, he decided to tell them about the suspected artifact creating an astral barrier around the carnival.

“After that, she insisted on a longer lesson,” Alex concluded a few minutes later.

His mother and father shared a look between themselves before his father spoke. “I’ve never heard of an artifact like that.”

“Neither have I,” his mother said. “We can check the books tonight, but I don’t remember ever reading of such a thing.” Alex’s mother loved to collect books and there were thousands of them around the house, overfilling shelves, stacked in corners, and piled on stairs. “Be careful today,” she added.

“Careful is my middle name,” Alex said.

“You’re middle name is Reckless,” his mother said.

“I thought it was Stupid,” Nina said.

“Your mother and I will be at the carnival, as well,” his father said, ignoring the banter. “If something goes wrong, blow these.” He took two small whistles from his pocket and handed them to Alex and Nina. He handed one more to their mother and held up a fourth in his hand. “Each one of these is linked to the others. Blow one and all will sound.”