Tara Duncan and the Spellbinders (47 page)

Knocked off balance, she lost some more altitude and pulled in her wings to pass beneath another giant tree. Then, by pushing off from an enormous trunk, she leaped upward through a providential opening in the dense forest, and with a desperate effort managed to climb back into the air.

“
You lunatic
!” screamed an enraged Fafnir. “What are you doing? Are you trying to kill us?”

“I'm . . . I'm flying!” cried Tara, flabbergasted. “I'm a
dragon
and I'm
flying
!”

“Good Lord, you've been a dragon for the last half hour, and it's only now that you're realizing it?” yelled Cal furiously. “I would have done better to climb aboard Master Chem. He's known he's been a dragon for hundreds of years.”

“But how is it that I'm flying?” stammered Tara.

“By flapping your wings,” cried Sparrow, who was being knocked around by her chaotic flight. “In fact, if you could flap them both together, it would be a lot better!”

“What's going on here?” cried Master Chem, who'd been watching Tara's aerial acrobatics with great surprise.

“What's going on is that I want to get down!” roared the terrified dwarf. “Get me down before she kills us all!”

The old dragon ignored her.

“Stop thrashing your legs around like that,” he ordered Tara, who was doing more swimming in the air than flying, “and tell me what's going on with you.”

“I don't know,” answered Tara, trying to beat her wings smoothly. “We were on the Island of Black Roses waiting for you, the Mud Eaters attacked, and then after that there was this big void, like a black hole. Next thing I knew, I was hundreds of feet above the ground, I got dizzy, and I fell.”

“Yeah, and we fell with her,” Cal confirmed.

“I understand!” said Chem. “Your magic and the living stone's magic entered into a symbiosis, and it must have created a shock. You weren't aware of what you were doing. All right now, to fly smoothly, do what I'm doing: spread your wings wide, then bring them down as if you were bending your elbow inward. Our wings aren't like birds' wings; we have an extra joint. Don't fight the air; let it carry you. And look for updrafts; they'll help you soar.”

Despite the semi-hysterical dwarf 's thrashing around on her back, Tara very gradually managed to master her flight, and then to enjoy it. She lost her balance once or twice, which didn't improve the humor of her passengers, but managed to fly more or less straight without running into anything.

They soon caught up with the elves and landed behind a hill that hid them from the Gray Fortress.

The landing was difficult. When Tara touched down, she forgot she was still moving fast, and tried to climb back up. But she no longer had enough speed, so she galloped furiously to keep from falling, tripped, lurched into the air, and wound up crashing nose first into the dirt, digging a thirty-foot-long trench in the ground.

Before they came in for a landing, Sparrow had a hunch that things wouldn't go well and cast a Fixus spell to help everyone stay on Tara's back. To look at them now, they couldn't believe they were still alive.

The dust had hardly begun to settle when Fafnir jumped down and, half weeping in spite of her dwarfish pride, fell to her knees to thank the dwarf gods for sparing her life, and swore never again to ever climb onto the back of anything that flew.

Cal, Sparrow, and Sheeba came staggering down after her.

The old dragon, by contrast, made an elegant landing.

“All right,” he said, “now that we're all together, we have a Fortress to attack . . . No, Tara! Be careful!
Nooooooo!
”

Exhausted, Tara was yawning. She was surprised by Master Chem's shout and turned her head to him with her mouth still open, but it was too late.

A jet of flame shot from her throat and hit the dragon wizard, who yelled, scattering the elves and the pegasi, and causing indescribable chaos.

The old wizard was hopping this way and that, trying to put out his burning dragon mane, while everyone else cautiously backed away from Tara. The elves rushed over to smother the flames with their capes before the smoke alerted the Gray Fortress Bloodgraves.

“Oh my!” cried Tara. “What happened to me?”

“When dragons yawn, they spit fire,” yelled Master Chem. “When they have the hiccups too, for that matter.”

“I'm terribly sorry,” she stammered. “I didn't know that.”

“Yeah, we noticed,” said Cal. “All right, now that I've almost been flattened like a pancake and roasted like a chicken, I'd appreciate it if you would shape-shift back before we have another catastrophe.”

“Absolutely,” approved the old dragon, who explained to Tara how to restore her human body.

But without the help of the living stone, it wasn't that simple.

Using the power of her mind, Tara ordered her entire body to shrink, but only her wings obeyed, and she wound up with ridiculous little pigeon wings on the body of a dragon. Then she nearly fell over when one of her legs became human again, unable to support her several tons of weight. Her legs began to grow, but her tail shrank. She was able to regain her human head, but with a dragon's crest. Arms appeared and disappeared, her body shrank and became human—but with fifty-foot wings. These began to flap, raising a cloud of dust and lifting her many feet into the air before she was able to come back down, in a panic. The spectacle was so strange that even the elf T'andilus, the hardened head of the Lancovit secret services, forgot about his battle plan and gaped.

The dragons watching weren't openly laughing, but you could feel they were restraining themselves.

And Cal, Sparrow, Fabrice, and Fafnir looked extremely concerned.

Eventually, Tara managed to get rid of her giant wings and recovered her normal human body. After anxiously feeling herself all over for several minutes, she grinned at her friends, who were hugely relieved to have her whole again.

“Our battle plan is fairly simple,” announced Master T'andilus, still shaking his head incredulously. “We can't attack the Gray Fortress until we know how it's defended. So I'm going to try to get in first and neutralize their defenses while you wait outside. At my signal, you'll all storm the Fortress. By making as little noise as possible we should be able to get to the heart of the complex before the Bloodgraves realize they're under attack. We'll approach under cover of the forest, following the path the young people took on their way out. Any questions?”

“Yeah, I have one,” cried Cal, frowning. “We licensed thieves don't much like the unexpected. Why don't we use the bat instead?”

The startled vampyr turned to him as Master T'andilus asked, “What bat?”

“Master Dragosh can change shape,” explained Cal, “but it's not like the dragons, it's more like part of his nature. He's in the habit of going out at night as a bat and flying around Travia Castle. I noticed that our spells didn't detect him, and neither did the anti-mosquito ones.”

“I didn't realize I was being spied on,” snapped Dragosh, glaring at Cal. “But the boy is right. I could try to slip into the Fortress in my bat shape. What would you like me to do?”

“Hm, I hadn't thought of that,” said the old wizard. “Are you sure you want to take the chance?”

“I don't really have much choice,” replied the vampyr stiffly.

“Very well,” said Master T'andilus. “Basically, you have to get rid of the human sentinels and try to find the Spells Hall. Be especially careful because they could have wild demons defending it, who might be a little aggressive.”

“Great!” said the vampyr with a grimace. “Putting what you just said in plain English, I'm supposed to blindly enter enemy territory without using magic, knock out anybody I run into, and find the defensive apparatus, while incidentally neutralizing any demons who might annihilate me.”

Dragosh gave a hiss of annoyance. Then with a he changed into a large black bat.

“Wait,” said Master Chem. “Take my crystal ball and call Master T'andilus once you're inside. You have his number?”

The bat nodded, took the crystal ball in a hand, and waited attentively.

“While you're flying to the Fortress, we'll begin our advance,” said the elf. “See you later!”

The vampyr nodded, then fluttered into the darkness.

Tara and Cal climbed onto Gallant, who was relieved to find his human companion in her more normal shape, and they flew off into the night. It only took them a few minutes to reach the edge of the forest. There, the dragons entrusted the young spellbinders to two elves, who would guard them.

“You'll stay here for the time being,” explained Master Chem. “If we don't come back for you, it means that we have lost. In that case you'll have to flee and try to get to the nearest country, which is Hymlia. Warn of OtherWorld that the demons have declared war on humans and dragons by infecting the Bloodgraves. The whole planet must fight this terrifying menace, otherwise all the free worlds will be lost!”

“We'll do it,” Robin gravely agreed. “Fafnir will alert the dwarves, I'll warn my fellow elves, and the other peoples will all rise against this menace.”

“Perfect,” said the old wizard with a smile. “Tara, lend me your living stone so that I can communicate with everyone. Oh, and warn her that she will be changing owners temporarily. I don't want any bad surprises.”

Tara addressed the living stone mentally. “You have to retransmit all communications to Master Chem. It's important, not to say vital!”

“
Why
?” asked the stone, which had trouble seizing the human concepts of “important” and “vital.”

“Because there are many beings held against their will in the Fortress, and we need your help to free them.”

“
You mean to free them the way you freed me from the black roses?” asked the living stone. “You want to polish them so that they become as beautiful as me? In that case, I agree. Even though I don't like being away from you, I will transmit the calls from the other crystal balls—who aren't particularly intelligent,
” she added smugly.

Tara smiled and handed the living stone to the old wizard.

“She agrees, Master Chem.”

“Thank you,” he said, cautiously taking the fragile crystal ball. “And don't too concerned. I have no intention of losing to those gray-shirted runts. We'll see each other soon.”

“Master, please remember that my mother is imprisoned in the Fortress. You've got to find her and free her from the deadly spell.”

“Don't worry. She'll be my main priority.”

Exhausted and anxious, Tara let herself slump to the ground. Gallant lay down next to her and gave her arm a friendly rub with his muzzle. She stroked his velvety nostrils while worrying about the upcoming battle.

The minutes passed silently. They were all tired, even Sparrow, who was too agitated to sit still and was pacing, while listening intently. After half an hour of this, she quit and flopped down next to Tara.

“Ouch!” she said with a grimace. “I sure am sore!”

“Me too,” said Fabrice. “And I want all this to be over and done with. When you come right down to it, life on Earth is really calm and peaceful. I'm not at all sure I want to stay on OtherWorld.”

“If the Bloodgraves win, no one will be safe anywhere,” Robin remarked soberly.

“So what are we waiting for?” cried Fafnir. “We aren't going to just sit here twiddling our thumbs while others do the fighting for us, are we?”

“But what do you want us to do?” asked Swallow, taken aback.

“This!” Bouncing up like a spring, she grabbed the two elf guards' heads and banged them together, knocking them out cold.

“What are you doing?” Manitou and Fabrice both asked in astonishment.

“I'm putting them to sleep,” answered the dwarf, carefully hitching her axe on her back.

“We can see that,” snapped Fabrice, “but why?”

“Because they probably would have stopped me from leaving. All right, I'm going to the Fortress. If any you would like a nice little fight, follow me. But hurry up, because those two elves aren't going to sleep forever. See you later!”

And the dwarf took off like an arrow through the forest, heading for the Gray Fortress.

Robin leaped to his feet, eyes bright with enthusiasm.

“She's right, they might need us! Let's go!”

“Are you sure?” Fabrice protested. “I feel we're the ones who need them, rather than the other way around. We're more likely to get in their way than anything else.”

Sparrow agreed.

“I don't much like staying here either, but Fabrice is right. Master Chem will be furious if we disobey him.”

“That's too bad,” said Robin firmly. “At worst we'll get chewed out, at best maybe we can save somebody. In any case I can't stand staying here without knowing, so I'm going. If you want to follow me, it's now or never.”

“I'm coming too,” decided Sparrow, who promptly shape-shifted. “Anyway, nobody can do much to me in my Beast shape.”

“And I have to help save my mother from Magister,” said Tara.

Angelica elected to stay behind, saying she wanted to protect the unconscious elves.

Protect them from what? Cal grumbled to himself. Squirrels? But he didn't press the point. They left her behind without regret.

While the kids were crossing the forest to join the elves and the dragons, Master Dragosh was cautiously flying down the halls of the Gray Fortress. He had gotten in without much trouble, through the open window of a Bloodgrave who liked fresh air at night. The bedroom door squeaked slightly when he opened it to go out—not easy with little bat hands—and he froze, rigid with fear. But the Bloodgrave only sleepily muttered, “No, Mom, not the frog. Not the frog!” Then he rolled over and went back to sleep. Heaving a sigh of relief, the vampyr slipped out into the dimly lit hall and took flight. Twice within a few minutes he was only saved by his very dark coloring. Two young spellbinders came out and walked to the toilets without seeing him, cautiously hanging above their heads. Once they were back in their rooms, the vampyr was able to continue his ghostly progression. As he passed a hall, he suddenly spotted something familiar: tapestries. The five tapestries of the Gray Fortress Transfer Portal.