Chase Tinker & The House of Magic (24 page)

"Janie!" yelled Chase. "Help Jedadiah!"

Janie hiked up her skirt and ran across the
clearing. Her cloak flapping behind her like Superman's cape, she
leaped onto Rough-Voice, who was having an extremely hard time
getting the thrashing Jedadiah under control. Jedadiah, seeing his
chance to escape, smashed his foot into the bandit's face.

"Ahh!" cried Rough-Voice, clutching his
gushing nose.

Jedadiah scrambled to get away.

"Run, Jedadiah!" screamed Janie as she yanked
Rough-Voice's matted hair. "But don't—forget—the Relic! Remember,
you must get it home and keep it safe."

For one heart-stopping moment, Jedadiah's
eyes met Janie's. In that moment, he knew he was doing the right
thing in leaving. He gave her a quick nod, grabbed up his precious
Relic and with one last look around the clearing, he vanished into
the darkness.

Lorenzo had at last pried Chase from his back
and now held him against the tree with the sword to his throat.
"Tell them to stop," he growled.

Chase stared back defiantly.

"Tell them!"

The blade dug into Chase's skin, causing
blood to trickle down his neck. "You guys! Stop! NOW!"

Andy, who had joined Persephone in clubbing
the third man, looked up. Blood oozed from his split lip. He wiped
his shirt sleeve across his mouth and was about to protest until he
saw the dangerous position his brother was in with the other
bandit. He and Persephone quickly tossed their tree branches to the
ground.

Rough-Voice had one dirty hand pressed to his
bleeding nose and Janie's arm clutched in the other. His face was
twisted with anger as he jerked her across the clearing. He shook
her. "You allowed that man to escape!" he growled. Before she had a
chance to answer, a small dark body soared through the air, landed
on the bandit's shoulder and with a loud hiss, chomped his ear. For
the second time, the rough-voiced man bellowed in pain. "Ahh! Get
off me!" Grasping the animal by the scruff of the neck, he ripped
it from his ear and flung it away.

Maxwell flew through the air and with a loud
splash, landed in the middle of the fast-flowing stream. He
disappeared in the dark rush of water.

"Noooo! Maxwell! You've killed him! You
murderer!" Janie tugged and kicked at her captor. "Let go of me! I
have to go after him!"

"What was that?" yelled Rough-Voice.

"My ferret and you killed him!"

"He deserved it!" he snarled, shaking her
again. "Maybe you should go for a swim too!"

"Enough, Cosimo! We have other things to take
care of," said Lorenzo. Keeping a tight grip on Chase, he pulled a
rag from his pocket and tossed it to his friend. "Go clean
yourself."

Cosimo thrust Janie to the ground and stomped
to the stream. Andy and Persephone jerked away from the other man
and hurried to Janie's side.

"What have we here?" said Lorenzo, finding
the kids' bag of gold. He yanked it free and looked inside. "We
have found our gold after all." He gave Chase a nasty smile. "And
we have four excellent slaves to sell to get even more. It looks as
if it's our lucky day, Alfredo."

"You big creep!" yelled Andy.

"Be quiet!" snarled Alfredo. "You should have
stayed out of our business."

When Cosimo returned, Lorenzo handed him some
coins. "Go to the town and buy us food, wine and rope." He hauled
Andy to his feet. "Take this one with you to help. He should not be
much trouble. Alfredo and I will stay and keep watch over these
others. And hurry!"

Chase tried to protest, but Lorenzo forced
him across the clearing to sit with Persephone and Janie. Getting
separated was not part of the plan.
Not that anything else has
been part of any great plan either,
thought Chase with disgust
as he watched Andy stumble away into the darkness.

Lorenzo didn't take his eyes off them for one
moment while they waited. He sat silently by the fire and polished
his sword. Alfredo, whose face looked as if he had been in a fight
with a large, angry cat, lounged on the ground and glared at the
kids.

Chase pounded his fist in the dirt. From the
moment they'd arrived, nothing had gone right. And with Andy gone,
time-traveling out of this mess was completely out of the
question.

Janie, tears streaming down her face, stared
at the dark, rushing river. Persephone kept a comforting arm around
her friend's shoulders, and hissed at Chase, "I can't believe this!
I told you guys not to talk with Jedadiah. And look what
happened!"

"There's no guarantee it wouldn't have
happened anyway," he whispered back.

"We might've had a better chance if they
hadn't surprised you! But no, you wouldn't listen. You had to go
charging in and damn the consequences. This is your fault!"

"
My
fault! Janie and Andy wanted to
come too. Why don't you yell at her?"

"She lost her pet!" Persephone snarled,
looking like she wanted to smack him in the eye. "If you would've
said, no, it wasn't a good idea; they would've listened to
you."

"But I—"

"Quiet over there!" Lorenzo cut in.

With one last glare at Chase, Persephone
turned her back on him. He slumped against the tree trunk and
glowered at the back of her head.

An hour later, Cosimo returned, panting
heavily. His nose was red and swollen and black and blue circles
had formed around his eyes. "Lorenzo, Alfredo, I found an abandoned
house not far from here. We can take shelter there for the
night."

"Good," said Lorenzo, getting to his feet and
sliding his sword into its sheath. "Let's bind them together and
you can lead the way."

"Hey! Where's Andy?" demanded Chase. "He
better be okay!"

"Don't worry!" snapped Cosimo as he began
winding rope around Chase's wrists. "I left him bound tightly in
the house along with the food and wine. You will join him soon
enough."

The bandits dragged the kids across the
meadow and down the road to an old rundown house. As they traipsed
through the weedy courtyard and circled an ugly fountain draped in
moss and bird droppings, Chase stewed with anger at himself. He
hated being like this; all tied together like fat hams ready to be
sold at the market. If only they had their powers. He kicked a rock
out of his way. Maybe Persephone was right and this whole mess-up
was his fault.

Lorenzo pushed open the sagging door and
shoved them inside. They waited in the dark while Cosimo grabbed
some candles and lit them. In the flickering light, they saw that
the floor and the few bits of cobwebby furniture were covered in
dust and grime. By the look and stinky smell of it, some sort of
animal had been living there.

Lorenzo took the kids to a smaller room and
stuck a candle into the wall sconce.

"Andy!" Chase exclaimed when he saw his
brother, looking lonely and miserable, huddled in a corner. He was
tied and gagged, but his eyes lit up when he saw them.

After helping to untie them, Cosimo dug in
the sack and pulled out a flat loaf of bread and a hunk of cabbage.
He tossed the food to the floor. "We cannot let our little slaves
starve, can we?" he said as he walked away, laughing.

Andy wrinkled his nose at the wilted cabbage.
"I'd rather have pizza, you big dork."

With one last look at his hostages, Lorenzo
slammed the door. Several minutes later, the kids heard the muffled
sounds of the men laughing and talking as they ate and drank.

Chase scuttled to the far side of the room
and motioned for the others to join him. "I know Jedadiah got away
without being hurt, but did anyone see if something happened to the
Relic?" he whispered.

Andy and Persephone shook their heads. He
looked at Janie, hoping she might tell him something, but she just
stared at the wall.

"Janie?" he said tentatively.

"She's too sad about—about—Maxwell,"
whispered Persephone.

"We're all upset about that," he whispered
back, "but we have to get out of here and return to our own
time."

With a low growl, Janie leaped forward and
grasped his shirt. Her eyes were cold and ruthless. Twisting the
fabric in her clenched fists, she snarled, "We are not leaving
without Maxwell!"

Surprised by her sudden attack, Chase tried
to pry her fingers apart. The tight cloth was cutting into his
neck. "He's gone, Janie. Be reasonable," he choked out.

"No! He's not gone! He's part of the family.
Besides, ferrets are durable so he probably swam to shore!" Janie
shoved him backward.

He stumbled and fell hard against the wall.
"Yeah, but even if he did, I bet he's miles from here. The stream
was flowing pretty fast. He'll never find his way back, if he's
alive, that is."

Janie swung her arms wildly, hitting Chase in
the face and chest. "Don't you
dare
say that!" she shrieked.
"You probably hope he
is
dead! You've never liked him from
the beginning!”

Chase, ducking as he tried to block Janie's
blows, whispered fiercely, "But I never wished him dead!"

With one last swift kick at him, she stormed
across the room. Throwing herself into the corner, she sobbed into
her arms.

"I never wanted him dead," he whispered
again. His chest ached as he slid to the floor. He looked up at
Andy and Persephone. "You believe me, don't you?"

"We know you didn't want anything bad to
happen to him," said Persephone, "but maybe he'd be okay if we
would've had a better plan. Or if any of you would've listened to
me."

"Yeah, yeah, I've heard it already," said
Chase, feeling angry all over again. "We had a great plan involving
our powers, remember? But that went down the drain, didn't it?"

Andy cast worried glances first at Janie, and
then Chase and Persephone. "Maybe—"

"Shut up, Andy!" growled Chase. "This is
partly your fault too!"

Andy stomped across the floor and picked up
the bread. He dusted it off on his pant leg, tore off a hunk and
flung the rest at Chase, who caught it before it whacked him in the
head.

"I only wanted to say that maybe we should
sneak away and look for Maxwell after they fall asleep," he mumbled
as he chewed, wincing at the pain in his swollen lip. "After all,
the bandits are out there drinking a whole bunch of wine." He
sighed. "I don't understand why we're fighting."

"I wish we could time-travel out of this
putrid place right now," said Chase, crumbling his bread into small
crumbs.

"Janie won't leave without Maxwell," said
Persephone, yanking her bread apart to make a cabbage sandwich.
"And we can't leave without her!"

Chase pulled off his hat and threw it across
the room. "I know! We can't leave. If we can escape, we can look
for Maxwell along the stream. I don't know what else to do."

They all sat lost in their own thoughts and
after a while they drifted off to sleep. Chase wasn't sure what
woke him a couple hours later, but the loud snoring coming from the
other room told him that the bandits were finished with their
celebrating. He lifted his head from the wall. The candle in the
wall sconce flickered feebly, barely cutting through the
darkness.

Feeling a slight weight on his leg, he
glanced down and saw that Persephone was using it as her pillow,
while Andy was using Persephone's shoulder as his. He glanced
across the room to check on Janie. Squinting into the gloom, all he
saw was a shadowy shape, but he heard her sniffling in her
sleep.

Or, maybe not.
Was
Janie making those
noises? He listened closely. It was actually a scuffling,
scratching sound, but now that he was fully awake, he realized it
came from the closed door.

Being as careful as possible, he slid away
from Andy and Persephone and rose to his feet. Tip-toeing to the
door, he pressed his ear to the rough wood. The noise was louder
here. Pulling on the handle, he inched the door open. Something
streaked in and zipped up his leg.

"What the heck!"

Chase twisted and stretched as he tried to
grab whatever was frantically climbing his back. At last, he
grasped a handful of fur and yanked the sharp claws from his shirt.
As he stared into a pair of beady black eyes, he recognized the
little masked face.

"Maxwell? Man, am I happy to see you," he
whispered, shutting the door and leaning against it. The ferret
blinked and yawned. "And I'm sure everyone else will be too."

Tucking Maxwell beneath his arm, he rushed to
Janie's side. He pressed his hand to her mouth. Janie's eyes flew
open. "It's me, Chase. Look who's here." Even through his hand,
Janie’s cry was enough to make Chase flinch and glance at the door,
hoping the bandits were heavy sleepers.

Janie grabbed Maxwell and clutched him to her
chest as he merrily licked her chin.

Chase grinned at the happy reunion. "Can we
go home now?" he whispered.

She nodded as she pushed herself to her
feet.

"What's all the noise about?" Andy asked
around a wide yawn. He and Persephone were sitting up and rubbing
their eyes.

"Maxwell's here," answered Chase, hurrying
over to them.

"He is?" exclaimed Andy. "How?"

"He must have followed our scent," said
Chase, helping them to their feet. "Janie said he's been acting a
lot smarter since living in the house."

"I'm so happy he's okay," said
Persephone.

"Now that we're all together again," said
Chase. "Let's get the heck out of here."

They gathered in a circle and Janie said the
words that would take them home. Right before the magic whisked
them away, Chase glanced over his shoulder and chuckled to himself.
Too bad they wouldn't see the looks on the faces of those scummy
bandits when they woke up and saw their golden geese had somehow
flown the coop.

"Here we go again," said Andy as the room and
the world started spinning, forward this time. Chase shut his eyes
and clung to Janie's and Andy's hands.