Ravenspell Book 3: Freaky Fly Day (10 page)

Ben’s heart nearly broke. He reached down and picked up the wounded butterfly, holding her under his arms as if she were a wiener dog. He stroked the fine blue-gray hairs on her antennas. “Don’t worry,” he said. “I’m sure that we can find a vet who can sew those wings back on.”

“Just—just carry me to a flower patch and leave me,” the butterfly said mournfully. “I can crawl from flower to flower. It will be a joyless existence, but I suppose that it will be my lot from now on.”

“Nonsense,” Lady Blackpool said. “You’re our friend, and we’ll care for you.”

Lady Blackpool and Amber hopped off through the grass and cactuses; they returned moments later, each gingerly carrying one of Serena’s wings.

Chapter 15

OUT OF THE DESERT

Good things come to those who wait. 

Better things come to those who go out and get them.

—LADY BLACKPOOL

Amber scurried through the wilderness, weaving her way past cactuses, plunging through the grass, leaping over stones. The brush grew so thick here that she couldn’t see a hundred yards in any direction. Butch led the way, with Mona right behind.

Amber just hoped that they had a better view than she did of where the group was heading.

Ben and Amber had decided to walk for a while, in the hopes that they would be able to gather more mage dust closer to the ground.

As the group made their way through the desert, a great flock of birds swarmed around them, flitting from tree to tree. It felt spooky having them so near. Time and again, Amber would feel a bird’s shadow flit overhead, and each time she cringed a little and found herself freezing in place.

Mice have an inherent fear of hawks, especially when a bird’s shadow passes over them.

Amber grew very nervous and miserable indeed.

Yet she was grateful to have the bee-eaters and flycatchers darting about, snapping up every housefly and horsefly in sight.

The wicked insects had given the group no more trouble. Considering the size of the vast flock of birds, Amber wasn’t surprised.

But the birds made poor Serena even more nervous than they did Amber.

The wingless butterfly just hid in Mona’s pocket, muttering over and over again, “I don’t want to be eaten! I don’t want to be eaten!” At last Serena settled down at the very bottom of the pocket and said, “I think I’ll just hide in here until this whole darned war is over!”

Twice that afternoon, the group heard helicopters buzzing nearby, but the mesquite grew so tall that even though Ben’s mom and dad waved, the helicopters didn’t stop.

“They’re searching for us, I think,” Butch said. “They must know by now that our plane went down. Our flight plan called for us to be in Los Angeles hours ago.”

“Maybe,” Ben’s mom said hopefully. “But how will they know where to look if they can’t find any wreckage? Our plane got carried off by those flies.”

And who knows where they took it,
Amber thought.

For long hours they walked, until Amber felt parched from lack of water. The sun began to slant toward the horizon, and the sky took on a reddish glow.

Ben seemed fretful, worried.

At last they stopped for a rest, and Ben sat beneath the shade of a yucca bush and preened, using his paws to comb through his whiskers, and then he brushed the hair around his face. Amber used her teeth to dig a burr from the fur on her belly.

Ben told Amber what was on his mind. “I’m glad we have these birds to protect us,” he said. “But can you imagine what must be happening in the cities right now? You saw how my mom and dad started fighting, and they’re in love. What must be going on around the rest of the world? People have no protection from this plague of evil that the flies have brought.”

Amber couldn’t really imagine what might be happening. Back in the pet shop, she’d known an evil mouse that used to bite her tail. She tried to envision humans biting each other but couldn’t quite picture it.

“It makes me wonder,” Ben said thoughtfully, “what will happen when the Ever Shade comes . . .”

Amber peered at him, and she wondered too. If Belle Z. Bug was just one of the Ever Shade’s minions, what would the others do? And what would their master be like?

Lady Blackpool had been sitting nearby, and now she crept closer. “This war that has begun,” she told Ben, “isn’t like the little skirmishes you fought with that bat and worm. The Ever Shade will not be satisfied until the entire world is under his control—including mankind.”

Ben grew sober at the thought. “You said that the Ever Shade came a long time ago,” Ben told her. “But the world has changed. We have guns and bombs—”

“And they will avail you nothing,” Lady Blackpool said. “You saw how effective bombs were against Amber’s magic just yesterday. The Ever Shade will wrest mankind’s weapons away from them, and use them against the humans.”

Ben had no answer to that, and the thought of a magical creature taking control of human technology truly frightened Amber.

I have to keep Ben,
Amber told herself.
I’ll have to make him my pet human. It’s not just for me—it’s for both of us. It’s for the good of the whole world.

Yet Amber had to wonder.
Is that the kind of mouse that I am—the kind who would steal the freedom of a friend?

She didn’t want to be that kind of mouse. She didn’t want to hold Ben captive. She wanted Ben to stay with her willingly.

But she thought of the flies and got an idea.

Maybe I could pretend that they buzzed in my ear,
she considered.
I could take Ben captive just as long as I needed and pretend that the flies made me do it.

It wouldn’t really be wrong,
she told herself.
I wouldn’t be keeping him for selfish reasons. The world needs him. In fact, I wouldn’t really be keeping him at all—just borrowing him.

“Ben,” Amber said, hoping to bring the subject up gracefully. “I don’t think any of us can imagine how much evil these flies are doing. If what happened with your mom and dad gives us any clue, then things must be bad indeed.” She waited a moment for Ben to nod his agreement and then pressed on. “If one little fly is giving us so much trouble, I wonder what will happen with the Ever Shade. I wonder . . . how I’ll fight him without you.”

Ben gave her a sharp look, and Amber’s heart began to pound from fear. He knew what she was leading up to.

“You’re turning me back into a human,” Ben told her. “You promised!”

But Amber suddenly recalled a promise that Ben had once made to her. “And you promised to help free the mice of the world first, didn’t you?”

Ben’s eyes flashed in outrage. “I did what you asked. I helped you free the pet shop mice. That’s all that you were asking for—when you
forced
me to make that promise!”

“Yet you promised,” Amber said, “and that is all that counts!”

Lady Blackpool asked, “What? Are you trying to back out on a bargain?” Outrage and alarm sounded in the shrew’s voice.

“If I did,” Amber said, “it wouldn’t be for me—but for all of us. The world needs Ben, just as it needs me! The world needs him to be my familiar!”

“You cannot
force
Ben to remain with you,” Lady Blackpool said. “That would be a great evil that would canker your soul. In time you would rot from the inside—from the heart.

“To force another into service is a violation of the good wizard’s code,” Lady Blackpool warned. “The masters of S.W.A.R.M. would never give you entrance to their school if you brought Ben as your slave—if you made him your puppet! The very fact that you are entertaining the notion makes me wonder if I have been wrong about you. This casts matters into a whole different light!”

“But Ben promised to help me,” Amber said.

“A promise made under the force of a threat is no promise at all. Ben must choose his own path in life. You must give him his freedom.”

“After he tried to feed me to a lizard?” Amber demanded. Ben wasn’t entirely faultless, either.

Lady Blackpool backed away from Amber a bit, as if she thought that the mouse was dangerous. “Amber, if your magical powers are to be used for good, then they must come from a heart that is pure. We cannot use our powers to blackmail others, or to take away their freedom to make their own choices. ‘Magic cannot be properly controlled or handled by use of force’—that is the great creed of S.W.A.R.M. ‘Instead, if our powers are to be used for good, we must always cast our spells out of compassion—with a heart that is full of gentleness and meekness and love unfeigned.’”

“Uh,” Amber began to say, but words failed her. She couldn’t think of a good argument against the shrew, at least none that Lady Blackpool was likely to entertain. She sounded certain of her course. There was a warning in Lady Blackpool’s voice—a tone of regret and dismissal.

“There can be no other way,” Lady Blackpool said. “If you cling to your evil ways, your heart will darken. You will grow to be like the Ever Shade, and in the end you will either join forces with him and walk in his shadow, or you will become as corrupt as he is—and ultimately challenge him for power.”

Amber thought that Lady Blackpool was crazy. That could never happen to Amber. She shook her head. “I’m not like that!”

“Not yet, perhaps,” Lady Blackpool said. “Let us hope that you never become like that.” She turned away, and Amber stood for a moment, feeling ashamed.

Yet I have to keep Ben,
she told herself.
I can’t afford to set him free . . .

* * *

It was two hours from sundown when Ben’s parents finally found a road. It was a little blacktop lane, winding among some low hills.

The group had hardly set foot on it when they heard police sirens in the distance—lots of them, coming through the desert toward them, just beyond a hill. The group sat waiting expectantly for the police cars to come. They waited and waited. But the police were coming awfully slowly.

After what seemed like forever, a big-rig truck thundered over the hill. Its tires were all flat. It was riding on its rims, shooting a cloud of sparks in the air. Thirteen police cars were chasing it at maybe ten miles per hour, their sirens wailing and their lights flashing.

The parade of vehicles crawled toward the little group.

“Hey,” Butch said, “I’ve seen chases like this on television! They happen all of the time in California. I wonder who’s driving? Maybe it’s O.J.!”

The police cars kept creeping along. One tried to swerve and accelerate past the truck, but the big rig veered right into it, sending it flying into the ditch. An angry police officer leapt out of the ruined car and fired a shotgun into the back of the truck, opening a gaping hole in the cargo container. Potatoes came bouncing out of the hole.

It was all very thrilling to Amber.

The truck eventually crawled close. Its air horn blew, trumpeting like a charging elephant, and Amber looked into the cab. An enormous red toad drove the truck, grinning like a madman!

The truck drew close and then swerved to hit the group. Everyone leapt across the ditch just as the truck approached, spitting up gravel and hurling hot sparks into the grass.

The evil toad cackled and shouted, “Beware the Toad Warrior!” Then the truck rolled past, and all of the police cars kept chasing it hardly faster than a mouse could run.

The sparks from the truck had set off a tiny fire in the grass, and Butch was still stomping it out when a helicopter came careening over the ridge, heading straight toward them. It hovered overhead while the flocks of flycatchers and bee-eaters scattered from the propellers like leaves fluttering before the front of a storm.

The helicopter touched down, and a couple of cheerful-looking CIA agents jumped out. “Mr. and Mrs. Ravenspell,” one of them said with a phony smile, “I’m glad to see that you’re well. I strongly advise that you come with us for your own safety!”

“Come with you where?” Ben’s mom asked.

“We’ll brief you in the chopper,” he replied, opening his lapel just enough to show his gun in its shoulder holster. Then he stepped aside so that Ben’s mom and dad could pass.

Lady Blackpool halted, refusing to go with the men. “It is not my destiny to hide in safety. I have seen it in a vision. I must go to a place called the Los Angeles Landfill,” the shrew insisted. “Can you take me there?”

The CIA agents looked at her as if they were unsure whether they should be negotiating with a shrew. “We can’t take you folks there,” one said. “They’ve got big trouble brewing there.”

“I know,” Lady Blackpool said. “That’s why I’ve gathered an army.” She nodded toward the huge flock of birds.

An agent studied her and smiled dismissively. “We don’t need the help of a flock of sparrows. The United States of America is not going to let itself be manhandled by a bunch of flies!”

“Magic flies . . .” Lady Blackpool corrected. “And only a fool would underestimate the power of their evil.”

“We’re not underestimating them,” an agent replied. “We know what they’re capable of. The whole state of California has fallen under their sway. We have hooligans drag racing down the streets through hospital zones and pedestrians jaywalking everywhere. We’ve got fat people wearing skimpy bathing suits on the beach. It’s horrible!”

“But we also have our own secret weapon,” the other agent confirmed. “We’ve got Governor Shortzenbeggar!”

“You go and have your governor fight them,” Lady Blackpool said dismissively. “I have a better plan!”

Ben’s father and mother looked torn. They wanted to go on the helicopter, but they didn’t want to leave Lady Blackpool behind.

“I don’t understand,” Butch said to the CIA agents. “Why is it that
you
two can resist the flies?”

One of the CIA agents reached up and pulled a black plug out of his ear. “IPods,” the agent said. “Just turn up any Souza march, and you can’t hear anything else.”

That comforted Amber. At least the CIA seemed to know what they were doing.

“Come on folks,” one of the men said. “Time’s a wasting. We’re only fifty miles from the landfill. I can drop you off in a safe zone a few miles out. But that’s as close as we’ll go.”

Amber looked to Lady Blackpool; the shrew stood firm. She seemed intent on making her own way. “Come with us,” Amber begged. “They have secret weapons.”

“So does our enemy,” Lady Blackpool said. “I’ll make my own way, thank you. But you can go with them if you wish. The choice is yours . . .”

Ben followed his parents and hopped into the helicopter. Amber didn’t like the idea of hiking through the desert any farther, but she suspected that Lady Blackpool wouldn’t be walking for long. It wouldn’t take much to cast a spell and call some large bird to give her a ride. Now that the humans were leaving, the shrew would be able to travel faster alone.