Summer's Cauldron (32 page)
“Fly ahead and see if you can spot them,” Alex said, craning his neck back to shout up at Rafael and Kendra. “But don’t let them see you. This path is quicker than the one they took. We might be able to catch up with them.”
“Right,” Rafael said as he and Kendra flapped their leathery wings wide and flew over the tops of the trees.
“This way, everybody,” Alex said, heading for a deer path at the edge of the woods near where the dirt trail had ended. The others formed a line behind him and followed.
Alex ran up the deer path at a fast jog. They needed to move quickly, but it wouldn’t do any good to arrive before Esmeralda and Mr. Apollo if they were too exhausted to confront them.
The path they ran along up the side of the mountain was different from the one they had used back in the spring when Alex had first fallen into the cave that held the entrance to the Shadow Wraith’s subterranean prison door. From the trail of dust left behind by their motorcycle, Alex knew Esmeralda and Mr. Apollo had taken the path closer to town. The path Alex and his friends followed was closer to the White Forest and would cut considerable time from their assent up the side of the mountain. He hoped it would be enough time.
As he ran, Alex dug into his shirt and withdrew the magic whistle his parents had given him. He had been waiting for the right time to blow the whistle and call his parents to his side. Calling them now would give them his general location and that would be enough to warn them of where he was ultimately going. He blew the whistle. Not loud. He knew the magic that would tug at the sister whistles around his parents’ necks did not rely on the volume of sound the whistle made.
“A whistle to warn them we’re coming?” Eleada said from right behind him. She ran quietly and easily through the woods, bow in hand, quiver strapped tight to her back.
“To call for backup,” Alex said.
“Magic whistles to call our parents,” Nina said, pulling her whistle out of her shirt to show Eleada.
“Hyperion’s hiccups,” Daphne said, running behind Eleada. “Alex is calling for help before there’s a fight.”
“Yikes,” Ben said, his short legs pumping to keep pace. “That’s a bad omen.”
“Hmm, maybe Alex is finally listening to his parents’ advice,” Clark said, ducking beneath a low-hanging tree branch.
“Calling for help is very prudent,” Victoria said, dashing around a tree. “Let’s not discourage it by teasing him.”
“I’m actually listening to Batami’s advice,” Alex said, thinking back to his mentor’s words the day before.
“Help is all very good, but where is this cave?” Nathan said, sounding as though he might dash ahead alone. Alex could see from the look on Nathan’s face he was concerned for Leanna’s safety. They must be good friends, Alex thought to himself.
“We’ll be there soon enough,” Alex said, glancing up the mountain path and trying to calculate how long it would take them to reach their destination. A few minutes later, when they were about two thirds of the way to the cave, a small, blue dragon swooped out of the air. Rafael.
“We found them,” Rafael said, wing flapping to hold him steady, “but Esmeralda and Mr. Apollo took the motorcycle half way up the mountain path. They’re almost there. Kendra stayed behind to keep an eye on them.”
“Gorping gorp guzzlers,” Daphne cursed.
“You can say that twice,” Eleada said, leaning forward as she increased her speed.
“Faster, everyone,” Alex said, breaking into a full run as the sound of multiple explosions shook the air. More explosions followed and the mountain beneath their feet trembled.
“That can’t be good,” Victoria said, turning her head toward the sound of the explosions.
“Explosions are never good when we’re around,” Rafael said, flapping his dragon wings harder to rise above the trees.
“Find out what’s happening,” Alex shouted to Rafael. The cobalt-colored dragon nodded his head and disappeared behind the tops of the conifers.
“What do you think it is?” Nina asked, nervousness raising the pitch of her voice. “Maybe their blasting into the cave, or maybe they are trying to start an avalanche to crush us, or maybe they’re using the sword on the rune seal in the Shadow Wrath’s prison already.”
“We’ll find out in a few seconds,” Alex said, trying not to let Nina’s imagination infect his already expanding fears. It wasn’t that Nina’s imagination was wild and impossible. The opposite was true. Any of the things she suggested could be happening and all of them were bad. Alex wouldn’t know what was happening until he reached the clearing around the cave. He ran faster as Clark picked up Ben and Victoria swung Daphne and Nina onto her back.
Rafael never returned to them and the explosive vibrations on the mountainside only got louder the closer they came to the clearing. Alex dashed off the thin deer trail and between the trees as he ran up the side of the mountain. When he came to a stop at the edge of the grassy clearing around the old cave, he gasped as much for breath as for what he saw before him — a battle of magical might consumed the little forest glade. It took Alex a moment to gather it all in and understand what he saw.
A tornado of wind whipped around the clearing and the ground rumbled and quaked. Large trees had been felled and stacked around the entrance of the cave, creating a tall, fort-like barrier. Behind this wall stood both of his parents, Victoria’s father, and Deputy Dervis. His parents were casting blinding bolts of blue and red magical energy from their long wooden staves while Deputy Dervis sent rocks hurtling through the air like missiles, and Victoria’s father lobbed grenade-like balls over the walls.
On the other side of the wall, facing the cave, Esmeralda and Mr. Apollo fought beside half a dozen carnies, fending off the magical onslaught arrayed against them and returning one of their own. George the giant hurled large boulders over the barricade of logs while, beside him, Oanadin the dwarf created a wall of fire, igniting the leaves and bark of the fallen trees in a smoky blaze. A thick layer of black soot covered their torn clothes. Sweat and charcoal smeared their faces. Alex had a very good idea who had started the fire in the White Forest.
There were at least four others Alex recognized from his time spent carousing in the carnival. He watched as they each cast magic of fire and energy at his parents, Victoria’s father, and Deputy Dervis.
To one side, Alex caught sight of Leanna, calling down shafts of lightning from above. In the sky over the clearing, Rafael and Kendra dodged lightning bolts even as they spewed jets of flame at the evil carnies.
Esmeralda and Mr. Apollo ducked behind a large outcropping of rock as a blast of blue energy from Alex’s father’s stave struck the ground nearby. A baseball-sized grenade thrown by Victoria’s father hit the ground beside Mr. Apollo and exploded, engulfing the Dark Mage in a tangle of net-like webbing.
“What’s the plan?” Eleada said, slipping up beside Alex. He blinked and breathed deep. So much was happening so fast, he had almost let himself get overwhelmed by the moment.
“Attack from behind,” Alex said. “Focus on Esmeralda. Ignore the others. We have to stop her from using that sword.”
Even as Alex spoke the words, he saw Esmeralda wrap something slender around her waist and race for the barrier of trees, the sheathed Sword of Silas in her hands. As he watched, Esmeralda wavered in the sun like a desert mirage and then vanished through the trunks of the fallen trees. She had used Victoria’s father’s Wall Walking Belt to run right through the rubble of rocks encasing the cave entrance. In seconds, she would be racing down the spiral tunnel to the chamber holding the rune-seal of the Shadow Wraith’s prison.
“Themis’s toe jam,” Daphne yelped. “That crazy belt really works.”
“I keep telling you, Daddy’s inventions always work,” Victoria said with exasperation. “Even when it was best if they didn’t.”
“Ideas?” Ben said, peering around a tree at the battle in the clearing. “What we should do?”
“We need to fight them,” Nathan said, hooves stamping the ground. “We can’t sit here.”
“Fighting them doesn’t stop Esmeralda,” Eleada said, sliding an arrow from her quiver and knocking it in the string of her bow.
“Hmm, and we risk hurting them while they’re under her control,” Clark added, shielding his eyes from the glare of a lightning bolt striking a rock not far away.
“There’s only one way,” Alex said, looking at his friends.
“That’s totally and completely stupid,” Nina said with a frown. “But stupid is all we’ve got.” She stepped up on her toes and gave Alex a kiss on the cheek. “Don’t be too stupid.”
“What’s stupid?” Nathan asked, looking around at the others for an explanation. “What are they talking about?”
“Alex is going inside the cave,” Victoria said, stepping beside Alex as he laid down on the pine needles beneath the trees.
“How?” Eleada said, glaring over her shoulder at Alex. “By taking a nap?”
“Something like that,” Alex said with a weak smile. “Attack from behind, anyway. Keep the carnies distracted until I get back. Make sure they don’t hurt our parents. Victoria?”
“I’ll watch over you,” Victoria said, taking up a position beside Alex. There was no time to explain to Nathan and Eleada what he planned to do. No time even to think about it. Every second was a second that brought Esmeralda closer to freeing the Shadow Wraith. A second closer to destroying the world.
As Alex closed his eyes, the last thing he saw was Eleada raising her bow and drawing back the string, the knocked arrow bursting into a blaze of blue fire as she let it fly.
No wonder Ben likes her,
Alex thought.
Alex exhaled, pushing out the worries and fears fighting for control of his mind and assumed his astral form. A moment later, he willed himself to the place where he had hoped he would never have to go again — the chamber beneath the mountain containing one of the Shadow Wraith’s twelve prison doors.
Alex appeared in astral form in the center of the circular chamber carved from the granite at the heart of the mountain. The space was empty, but not entirely dark. Thousands of runes etched into the smooth walls of the cavern glowed with a faint golden hue, amplified slightly as they met in the center of the wall to form the final rune of spirit-sealing holding the Shadow Wraith trapped in a prison between the realms of existence.
Alex had no time to contemplate the runes or relive the memories flooding his mind of the last time he had been in the chamber and what he and his friends had faced. He was without his friends, but he was no longer alone. Shimmering, as though made of gauzy light, Esmeralda walked through the solid iron door at the back of the room. She glanced around, a look of worry momentarily flickering across her face. Then she laughed. It was the same laugh Alex had heard when she had tried to trap his soul-essence in Pandora’s Box.
“I can sense you, Revenant, but you are too late,” Esmeralda said, a vicious smile on her face. “The true Lord comes again, and there is nothing you can do. Except join him.”
Alex floated to position himself between Esmeralda and the large rune of spirit-sealing inscribed in the wall as she flipped the clasp at the center of the wide metal and leather belt around her waist. The belt fell to the floor and Esmeralda’s body became fully solid once again. She took a step toward Alex and the rune seal, clumsily unsheathing the sword. The blade was nearly three feet long and unwieldy even with both of her hands.
“Prepare to bow down before the All Supreme Shadow, or be destroyed when it is loosed,” Esmeralda said as she raised the sword up above her head and lunged forward.
Alex had no plan, could see no rational means of success. So, he followed his instincts. He improvised. Speaking a series of rune words with his mind, he called forth all the astral energy he could command and channeled it through his own soul-essence at his heart center.
Like the light of a noonday sun amplified and focused through a magnifying glass, a beam of blazing luminescent white energy burst forth from Alex’s chest and blasted into Esmeralda’s own soul-essence at her heart.
Esmeralda staggered back as the iridescent astral energy from Alex’s soul-essence bore into the center of her being. She screamed and her face flushed with rage.
“You do not possess the power to stop me, child,” Esmeralda shouted. “But I have it in my power to annihilate you.”
A thick shaft of onyx-colored energy roared forth from Esmeralda’s heart center and slammed into Alex, enshrouding his soul-essence in a swirl of dark, noxious power. Alex reeled and screamed within his mind. The astral energy cast through Esmeralda’s dark soul-essence struck at Alex’s own being in wave after wave of malignant power. It was like being drowned in an ocean turned putrid and vile from the flesh of a billion of rotting corpses.
Some part of Alex’s mind knew this power could not come from Esmeralda alone — there was only one source of such degenerate spirit energy. But how was she able to touch it, much less use it against him? And how long could he hold out against it? Alex still cast a clear white blaze of energy from his heart-center into Esmeralda, but she seemed far less affected by it than before. She righted herself and once again raised the sword above her head.
“Now you perish for all time,” Esmeralda shouted. “There will be no more Revenants.”
Esmeralda took a step forward, as though leaning into the gale of some tumultuous storm. Alex could feel her dark energy pressing him backward. Back into the large rune engraved in the wall. What would happen to him, to his soul-essence, under the pressure of Esmeralda’s dark energy when she breached the seal of the rune with the Sword of Silas? Would he be thrust into the prison realm between worlds? Is that what Esmeralda had meant by her words?
Alex began to panic. There was nothing he could do to stop her. He wasn’t strong enough. The end was inevitable if he could not think of some way to thwart Esmeralda soon. But he had run out of plans, and the space of mind he might need to improvise was consumed with warding off the dark astral energy threatening to devour him.
