The Familiars #4: Palace of Dreams (14 page)

“Fire at the head now!” Marati ordered Navid.

The king cobra sent a venom blast between the creature’s eyes. The sandtaur’s head crumbled and its body followed, crashing into a wave of sand that lapped up to Aldwyn’s feet.

The familiars and Nightfall Battalion shared a collective look of relief, only to see particles of sand beginning to pool together and reassemble: the sandtaur wasn’t defeated; it was re-forming! The head emerged first, snapping out and swallowing a Battalion soldier.

“Have any of you faced one of these beasts before?” Skylar asked Navid and Marati’s warriors.

“Yes, once,” an animal soldier replied. “I was worried that we were doomed, but then it started to rain and the sandtaur retreated.”

Skylar’s eyes lit up. She immediately reached her talons into her satchel and began rummaging around. The sandtaur, now fully formed, was thrashing its sandy claws out at anything within reach. Skylar flew over the creature and pulled out a talonful of bright yellow storm berries.

She threw them down at the beast, and quickly four gray storm clouds formed in the air. A tiny lightning bolt jumped from cloud to cloud, and then it started to rain. Heavy sheets poured down on the sandtaur’s head, soaking the sand grains. The beast tried to escape, but it was already collapsing onto itself, its head melting into its torso, its torso into its legs. The swallowed Battalion soldier crawled out of the mess, gasping and panting.

Rain continued to fall, forming puddles in the sand.

“It’s over,” Marati said to Aldwyn, Skylar, and Gilbert. “Please don’t make this any harder than it needs to be.”

Skylar slipped a talon back into her satchel and this time pulled out some of her moist moss. She squeezed the component and incanted,
“Sutitauqa, sutitauqa!”

Suddenly the pools of water beneath Navid, Marati, and their squadron turned to stone, cementing all their feet in place.

“Skylar, what have you done?” Navid asked.

“A reverse liquefying spell,” she replied. “I’m sorry.” Aldwyn and Gilbert turned to her, surprised. “Seems I’ve recovered quickly.”

“You’re just going to leave us?” Marati called. “What if another sandtaur attacks?”

“You’ve left us no choice,” Skylar said. “Besides, you still have your swords, claws, and venom to defend yourselves.”

Gilbert hopped over to one of the soldiers and pulled a rolled-up piece of parchment from his belt.

“My map,” Gilbert said. “Thanks.”

“I guess now we know how they found us,” Aldwyn said.

Gilbert slung the map over his shoulder. Then he, Aldwyn, and Skylar hurried to one of the wagon mules and climbed atop its back.

“Liberty, let’s go!” Gilbert shouted to the mule.

Aldwyn took one last look at the soldiers stuck in stone. Marati was already using her astral claws to try and cut herself free, and Navid was shooting venom blasts. But their attempts were yielding little success.

“We’ll call for the spyballs,” Navid said. “And we’ll find you again.”

“We know,” Aldwyn said.

The mule charged ahead, up over a slope, and out of view from the Nightfall Battalion.

B
y mid-afternoon, Aldwyn, Skylar, and Gilbert arrived at the foot of the Yennep Mountains. From atop their mule, they looked out at a gathering of brick buildings that made up Turnbuckle Academy.

“I can’t believe our loyals are here and we won’t even be able to see them,” Gilbert said.

“If they knew we were in trouble, they’d do anything to help us,” Skylar replied. “Which is exactly why we can’t tell them.”

Aldwyn peered at a ring of a half-dozen walled-off training grounds surrounding the buildings, where students were participating in a variety of combat scenarios. In one, kids were navigating an ice forest while frost wolves hunted them. In another, young wizards crossed hills of black mondo grass, dodging flaming whirlwinds that spun in dizzying circles. In a third, spellcasters in training were storming a garden guarded by living topiaries wielding leafy swords and thorny bows.

Between the ring of training grounds and the brick buildings were practice fields where students were lined up in four-by-four groups. Each young wizard was performing synchronized wand exercises, led by a uniformed elder. Aldwyn’s eyes scanned for any sign of Jack, Marianne, or Dalton, but they must have been elsewhere.

“Heading up the front path is probably out of the question,” Skylar said, nodding to a walkway guarded by stone gargoyles lining each side. “Also, be sure to keep a lookout for any of the queens’ guardsmen.”

The familiars surveyed the grounds, and it appeared the only other way in was by cutting through one of the training grounds.

“What if we snuck across there?” Gilbert suggested. The tree frog pointed to another walled-off area. It was an empty expanse of cobblestone. “If we hurry, perhaps no one will notice us.”

Just then a lone sparrow flew past them toward the deserted square. The brown bird soared low to the ground. As it headed for the Turnbuckle Academy entrance, it was attacked by six vicious lizards, who’d been camouflaged by the cobblestones. Their razor-sharp teeth nearly chomped down on the bird, but the sparrow flapped into the air and got away. Unsatisfied, the lizards returned to their hidden positions, to await the next unsuspecting visitor.

“I’m open to other ideas, too,” Gilbert said.

“I vote for the living topiaries,” Aldwyn said, gesturing to the walled-off training ground with the garden. “Back at Black Ivy Manor, when Jack and I used to sneak out at night to explore, we’d tiptoe right past the ones guarding the estate. Sure, they never slept, but they had lousy vision. If we stick close to the outer hedge wall, we should be able to stay out of their sights.”

Skylar and Gilbert nodded, and the Three dismounted the mule, who immediately charged off. The familiars hurried down to the garden where the training exercise was under way. Aldwyn, Skylar, and Gilbert squeezed through the lowest branches. Once on the other side, they were thrust directly into the fray.

Two topiaries with branches shaped like crab claws went charging past them, nearly stepping on Gilbert in their pursuit of a young female wizard.

From the opposite direction, a rosebush trimmed in the likeness of a small troll ran by. The rose troll’s arm thickened into a club spiked with thorns. It cornered a student, but the spellcaster in training had set a trap. Three more Turnbuckle pupils jumped out from a nearby hedge with wands at the ready.

“From green to brown, drop that spiked club to the ground!” one of the wizards incanted.

The rose troll’s arm shriveled up, and the prickly club at the end snapped off, dropping to the grass.

“Go,” Aldwyn shouted.

Aldwyn, Skylar, and Gilbert sprinted along the edge of the chaos. Despite their attempts to stay out of danger, the rose troll kept coming toward them.

Students were calling out to one another, trying to organize a plan of attack. The topiaries were far less strategic, but relentless. A Turnbuckle instructor calmly oversaw the exercise, offering tips to those engaged in the battle.

“Defenses up,” she ordered a young wizard who looked overwhelmed. “Best to work together,” she suggested to a pair of spellcasters fighting separately. “Stay away from spells with flames,” she said to a pupil whose wand was sparking. “It may defeat the topiary, but you don’t want to get yourself caught in a forest fire.”

Aldwyn, Skylar, and Gilbert continued ahead.

“We need to find the library,” Skylar said.

Aldwyn looked to the brick buildings. Each one had a gargoyle sitting atop its roof grasping something in its stone hand: a sword, a fork and knife, a scroll, and an hourglass. It seemed safe to assume that these objects represented what each building was used for.

“The library must be in the building with the scroll,” Aldwyn said.

“Even I could have figured that out,” Gilbert said.

The Three moved quickly the rest of the way. Students were busy coming and going through the front doors. Again, Aldwyn made sure their loyals weren’t among them. With all the familiars walking and flying about, it was surprisingly easy for Aldwyn, Skylar, and Gilbert to slip inside undetected. Unlike the building’s drab exterior, the entrance hall was vibrant with rich cherrywood floors underfoot and floating chandeliers overhead.

“We’re looking for a special room,” Skylar said to Aldwyn and Gilbert. “One big enough to store all of Kalstaff’s things.”

The familiars traveled down the main hallway, peeking through every open door. Through the first, they saw young wizards and familiars inside a laboratory, dropping mud lizards into glass beakers.

“Now who here is willing to amputate a finger?” the instructor asked. “It’s the only way to see if your regeneration potions actually worked.”

Aldwyn and his companions couldn’t stop, but they glanced inside the next classroom, where there were just a half-dozen spellcasters and a teacher. The students sat beside their own personal rectangular rugs, each with a swirling pattern spiraling on the surface.

“A dreaming rug is a mere portal to the Dreamworld,” the teacher said. “It doesn’t provide you with any protection or guarantees of coming back. Once you arrive on the other side, the rules of Vastia disappear. Even something as simple as a short stroll can prove a challenge for the most daring wizard.”

As Aldwyn turned away from the door, three recognizable faces were coming their way. It was Jack, Marianne, and Dalton! They were busy chatting among themselves and hadn’t yet spied the familiars.

“I had no idea there were so many kinds of gundabeasts,” Jack said.

“Who knew some lived in trees?” Marianne asked.

“Skylar, Gilbert . . .” Aldwyn whispered urgently.

But it was clear they had spotted their loyals, too. All three darted for the nearest doorway and entered before they were exposed. Once Jack, Marianne, and Dalton had passed, the familiars were about to return to the hall, when the classroom’s instructor called out, “Ah, so our subject has arrived. I would have expected a lizard or mouse, but a tree frog will do.”

Aldwyn, Skylar, and Gilbert slowly turned around. They were inside what looked like a science lab, filled with animal and human skeletons and anatomy charts. There were cages on the floor with barking lizards and mice that had grown dog fur.

“Up, up, here you go,” the instructor said, ushering Gilbert to one of the experimentation tables.

Gilbert backed away, reluctant.

“Come on, Gilbert, play along,” Skylar said under her breath. “Let’s not call any undue attention to ourselves. That was a close enough call as it was.”

The tree frog sighed and took his place before the class.

“All right, who’s ready to try a full canine transformation spell?” the instructor asked. “We’ve succeeded in vocal metamorphosis and hair transfer. Anyone want to bring it all together?”

A shy girl who looked even younger than Jack stepped forward timidly.

“I think I can do it,” she said.

“You?” another student asked incredulously. “You tried to turn a watermelon into a squash and blew it up!”

“I’ve been practicing,” she replied.

“Since last night?” the student asked.

“Now, now,” the instructor interrupted. “You can’t learn if you don’t try.”

The girl walked up to Gilbert’s side. Gilbert looked so nervous Aldwyn thought his friend might pass out.

“Think about the words you’re going to speak before you utter them,” the instructor said. “And remember to enunciate.”

The young spellcaster cleared her throat.

“Maybe someone else can volunteer,” Gilbert began to croak, but it was too late.

“Setting moon, snout of hog, turn this frog into a dog!” the girl incanted. She gave a little wave of her arm and shut her eyes.

Everyone waited. None more anxiously than Gilbert. But nothing happened.

“Well, good try,” Gilbert said. “Guess you won’t be needing me anymore.”

Gilbert hopped down from the table, but all eyes in the room were staring at him.

“Uh, Gilbert,” Aldwyn said. “You’ve got paws.”

The tree frog looked down and saw that furry pads had formed where his webbed feet once were. And that wasn’t all. His entire body grew bigger, and it was soon covered in a thick brown pelt. Whiskers popped out from his face, and a bushy tail sprouted from his behind. The next time he opened his mouth, all that came out was a bark.

“Wonderful,” the instructor said. “You’ve done it.”

He patted the young girl on the back. She sent a boastful smile in the direction of her disbelieving classmate then took her seat.

“If you wouldn’t mind taking him down to the reversary, they’ll change him back to his old self,” the instructor said to Aldwyn and Skylar. “It’s natural for him to be in a bit of shock.”

Gilbert barked pitifully. He seemed to have an itch behind his ear, and as hard as he tried, his tongue wouldn’t reach it. He attempted to lift a paw but was hopeless.

Aldwyn and Skylar quickly guided their unrecognizable companion out the door and the Three were again on the move.

“Obviously we can’t take you to that reversary,” Skylar said to Gilbert. “We can’t risk running into our loyals again. But it should wear off eventually. I think.”