The Dark Shadow of Spring (21 page)

“Alex was afraid the Shadow Wraith had come for you, so we came to make sure you were safe,” Nina said.

“What?” Victoria said so loudly that she immediately clasped her hands to her mouth.

“It’s okay now,” Alex said and explained what he had seen and what had happened. He judiciously left out the part about him staring at her while she slept, instead making it sound like he had simply checked on her briefly through the window. As he ended his story, he noticed a look of deep gratitude spread across Victoria’s face and, before he knew it, she had leaned down and kissed him on the cheek. Alex felt a warmth spread from his cheeks right down to his toes. He was grateful for the dim light under the porch awning and he hoped neither Victoria nor Nina noticed how flustered the kiss had made him.

“That is so sweet of you to come running here in the middle of the night to make sure I was safe,” Victoria said, her face beaming.

“I’m sure you would have done the same,” Alex said, kneading the back of his neck to hide his embarrassment. “Well, now that we know you’re okay, we should get back to our beds before one of our parents get up and check on us. Just make sure all the doors and windows are locked.”

“Oh, Daddy has all sorts of booby traps and alarms,” Victoria said. “We didn’t have them set because Runewood is so safe, but I’ll be sure to set them now.”

“Runewood’s not as safe as it used to be,” Nina said. “But I’m glad you are. See you tomorrow.”

Alex and Nina said good night, waving as they ran around the corner of the house. They raced as fast as they could toward home, but something caught Alex’s eye and brought him to a dead halt beneath the moon shadow of a maple tree. Nina skidded to a stop and then twisted back to join her brother. “What now?” she hissed.

“That,” Alex said as he raised his arm to point at a claw-like rune symbol scorched into the wooden front door of the house they stood before. He had never seen the symbol before, but it was all too easy to guess what it was and what it meant.

“There’s another one,” Nina said, pointing to the house next door. “And another.” Alex followed her finger as it picked out house after house along the street, each with its front door adorned by a single singed rune. “What does it mean?”

“It’s the mark of the Shadow Wraith,” Alex said, his heart suddenly pounding in his chest. Nina grabbed his hand and they ran faster than they ever had back to their home. In minutes, they were up the knotted rope outside Alex’s window and into their beds. They decided to leave their doors open so that they could hear each other down the hallway from where they were both huddled beneath the covers. Nina had wanted to sleep in Alex’s room, but he had convinced her that it would only make their parents suspicious.

Closing his eyes against the night and trying to calm his heart so he could fall asleep, Alex wondered if that decision had been a mistake. It would be much more reassuring to know that someone else was close at hand if the Shadow Wraith came. But then again, he thought as his mind began to fade into restless slumber, if the Shadow Wraith did come, it would likely come for him and he’d rather his family was nowhere nearby. He could sense the voice whispering its threats at the edges of his mind, but he forced it into silence. It wasn’t easy, but maybe the Spirit Magic that was awakening in him was giving him the power to guard his dreams.

He awoke, not from the sound of his alarm or his mother’s voice shouting for him to get up, but from the rumblings of his stomach. He was exhausted, from the astral travel as much as the midnight running, and his hunger was so great as to be painful.

He dressed quickly and headed downstairs to immediately begin stuffing his face with the berries and oatmeal his mother placed before him.

“You’re certainly hungry this morning,” his mother said.

“Growing boy,” Alex said around a bite of cinnamon-infused oatmeal.

“Where’s Dad?” Nina asked as she came downstairs and joined them. Alex blinked, realizing that he had been so engrossed in his food that he had failed to notice his father’s absence.

“Your father left early,” his mother replied, a worried tone in her voice. “It seems some vandals have attacked the town and burned a rune into all the houses on Raven and Owl streets.”

“A rune,” Alex said, trying to keep his voice neutral. “What kind of rune?”

“I don’t know,” his mother said. “You father said he’d never seen it before, which is very odd. And then Old Riley came into town at the crack of dawn saying he’d seen things in the woods of the White Forest down by the Alabaster Creek. Couldn’t even say what it was, but he seemed frightened out of his wits. Your father has a busy day ahead of him. And the silly fool refused to wait for me to make him an egg sandwich. How can he expect to have the strength to deal with everything on an empty stomach?”

That was a sentiment that Alex could wholeheartedly agree with. So, he helped himself to a second serving of oatmeal as he contemplated what might be out in the White Forest and how he could find out. By the time he and Nina reached the schoolyard, he had a plan, but it wasn’t one that the Guild was likely to appreciate, because it was as likely to get them into trouble with Principal Gillette and their parents if it was successful as it was likely to put them into danger if it failed.

Before Alex ran into the Guild, he ran into Dillon and the Mad Mages. Or what remained of the Mad Mages, to be more precise. Anna and Earl were noticeably absent. Alex and Nina were late leaving the house and late to arrive, so the schoolyard was nearly empty. Not expecting open violence, Alex was surprised when Dillon and Koji slammed him up against the schoolyard fence near the bicycle rack while Mei held Nina.

“Where are they?” Dillon said, practically spitting onto Alex’s face. “What did you do with them?”

“Get your hands off me,” Alex said, shoving Dillon back. The movement loosened Dillon’s hold, but the older boys were sufficiently larger than Alex. Breaking free wouldn’t be easy.

“Not so brave without your freaks, are you?” Koji said with a vile laugh.

“That’s ironic,” Alex said, “considering that there’s two of you and one of me.” When Koji frowned, Alex taunted, “What’s the matter? Not sure what the word ‘ironic’ means?” Koji’s frown became a smirk as he punched Alex in the stomach.

“Leave him alone,” Nina screeched as she struggled with Mei. Alex looked at his sister and was sorely tempted to use magic on Dillon and Koji, but with three against two, it wouldn’t be a well-matched fight.

“Anna and Earl are missing,” Dillon said, shoving Alex against the fence again. “What did you do with them?”

“A lot of people have gone missing,” Alex said, staring the older boy in the eyes. “Use your head, Dillon. Do you think I’m behind all of them disappearing? Is that something you really think the Guild would do? Just because it’s something you might consider, doesn’t mean the rest of us don’t have morals. Now let go of my sister and me before I call down something on you far worse than any ghost.”

As Alex glared at Dillon, a sound arose from somewhere nearby. A dog howling. It was quickly joined by another and then another until it seemed that, within seconds, all the dogs of Runewood were howling together. Dillon looked around and then back at Alex before he suddenly let go and backed away.

“Let’s get out of here,” Dillon said, not even waiting to see if Mei and Koji followed. Mei quickly let go of Nina and raced to catch up with Dillon while Koji gave Alex another shove against the fence and a snarl before walking away. As soon as Dillon and his friends were gone, the dogs of the town ceased their howls.

“Was that you?” Alex asked, putting his arm around his sister.

“Just because the rules say I can’t use magic on them doesn’t mean I can’t use magic at all,” Nina said, straightening her skirt. As Alex had suspected, Nina had used her affinity with animals and the natural world to start the town’s dogs howling. He hadn’t heard her speak a rune-word, but he had long noticed that, when she was really scared, Nina could perform certain magics without speaking. Especially if it was magic to control animals.

“Nice job, Sis,” Alex said.

“Thanks,” Nina said. “They must be really scared if they’d try that.”

“They should be scared,” Alex said. “The whole town should be.”

“Were you really going to call down something wicked on them?” Nina asked, a hint of excitement and envy in her voice.

“I don’t know,” Alex said as they walked toward the entrance of the school. “With you around, I guess I don’t need to.”

Nina did nothing to hide her smile as they headed into the schoolhouse.

Throughout the morning, Alex met the various members of the Guild in the hallways or at the beginning of shared classes and informed them quietly as to what he had seen in his astral journey the night before and what his plan was about the sighting of creatures in the White Forest. Everyone was equally afraid of what Alex had seen and what it portended for the town. They were also in agreement that his plan was outrageous and unnecessarily risky. None of them, however, had a better plan, so at lunchtime, they all rendezvoused at the back of the school while the other students were eating in the cafeteria. Everyone except Victoria held the bicycle they had ridden to school.

“Let’s go,” Alex said. “If we’re quick, we can be back before we miss more than half the first class after lunch.”

“I don’t know how you remain such an optimist in the face of experience,” Rafael said.

“Easy,” Alex said. “I simply ignore all evidence that would suggest failure.”

“You have no idea how reassuring that is,” Rafael said with a sigh.

“Nope,” Ben said. “I’ll bet he knows exactly how reassuring that is.”

“Hmmf,” was all Clark added.

“Let’s get this sideshow moving,” Daphne said as she began to pedal down the path away from the school.

“I’m still not clear what the plan is once we find whatever is loose in the White Forest,” Victoria said as she leapt into a quick trot.

“What makes you think there is a plan?” Nina said, pedaling to keep pace with Victoria.

“Don’t worry,” Alex said racing past Victoria and Nina to take the lead. “I’ll know what to do when the time comes.”

“Now that’s reassuring,” Victoria said with a grin directed toward Rafael. Rafael laughed aloud, surprising himself so much he almost lost control of his bicycle, to which the others joined him in laughing.

There wasn’t much laughter twenty minutes later as they reached the edge of the White Forest. As they rode over the Billy Goat Bridge that crossed the Alabaster Creek and led into the heart of the White Forest, the members of the Guild fell into silence. The Alabaster Creek was so named because of the pearly white stones that lined the creek bed, making the melt water that flowed down from the icy tops of the Black Bone Mountain appear to be even more silver-white than rushing water normally might.

The naming of the White Forest was for even more obvious reasons. All of the trees of the forest were a special breed of birch, their leaves being just as pale white as the bark that covered their trunks. For reasons as much magical as botanical, the trees of the White Forest did not shed their leaves even in winter, somehow managing the extra weight of the snow without being snapped in half. Even the tall grass and the wild bushes that filled out the forest floor were of a pale white-gold hue.

The sounds of the forest were the same as found in any wooded area. Alex found himself comforted by the noise of birds singing, insects buzzing, branches clacking, and the occasional woodpecker knocking away at a tree trunk.

“Which way?” Nina asked as Alex and the others rolled slowly down the main path from the creek into the forest proper.

Alex could see up ahead that the path split in three directions. The paths were not marked, but Alex knew that the middle one would take them to the Ivory Glade and, beyond that, to Batami’s hut. He had avoided going to see Batami, even though he knew it was important. He had tried to convince himself that it was because so much was happening so quickly that there hadn’t been time. Being honest with himself, he knew it was because he was afraid. Afraid of what he would learn and what it would mean for him. He knew instinctively that being a Spirit Mage was as much a burden and a responsibility as a blessing and an honor. Probably more so.

He also knew, from his previous trip into the forest with his father, that the middle path was the one they needed to follow.

“This way,” Alex said, pedaling his bicycle toward the chosen path.

Everyone followed him silently. The path through the forest was as unremarkable as the forest itself was extraordinary. Alex noticed as he rode that even the insects flittering through the air and the ants crawling across the dirt path were white. As he pedaled, he caught glimpses of a rabbit, a fox, and a squirrel, all with bone-white furs. The ever-present whiteness gave the forest an appearance of stark beauty, but also a feeling of dread, as though it was populated by thousands of skeletal beings raising their arms skyward in unison.

Before long, the trees gave way to a wide-open clearing. Like the forest that surrounded it, the Ivory Glade obtained its name from the color of its vegetation. The tall, willowy grass of the clearing was of an even paler hue than the grass that grew between the trees of the woods. Rolling down the path that cut through the middle of the glade, Alex thought the tall white grass looked like the pelt of some massive magical beast.

“It’s heavenly,” Victoria said, trotting up beside him.

“Yes,” Alex agreed. “Like a dream.”

“Look,” Rafael said, riding up beside Alex and Victoria as he pointed to the other side of the glade near the shadows of the trees. Alex looked to where Rafael pointed and saw three people standing within the shade of a tree. A tall man in a long white overcoat and a wide-brimmed white hat stood beside two dark-haired women in long white dresses. They looked oddly out of place, their clothes a hundred years out of fashion.

“Who in the name of Zeus’s zits is that?” Daphne asked.

“Don’t know,” Ben said. “I’ve never seen them before.”