The Dark Shadow of Spring (24 page)

“You are welcome,” Batami said, her hands grasping one another tightly on her lap. “But what else could I do? I have been waiting for this day for a long, long time.”

“I’m worried,” Alex said, speaking the words even before he had realized his desire to say them aloud.

“You should be,” Batami said. “You must face things that others will face only in their darkest of nightmares.”

“No,” Alex said. “I’m not worried for me. Well, I am, but not as much as for them.” He looked across the house to the dining room where his friends sat and ate. “I’m afraid that I’ll make a mistake and get one of the killed. Or all of them. I don’t know what I’m doing half the time and the other half I’m making it up. Like the demons today. If you hadn’t been there…I don’t want to risk their lives just to save mine.”

“You are lucky,” Batami said, her eyes gentle and bright. “Lucky that you are wise enough at your age to think such things and lucky to have friends such as yours who would follow you past the sharp teeth of death and into the belly of the beast itself. Those are rare friends to find and you do well to be concerned for their welfare. But you must also learn to rely upon them. You can not fight this battle alone and you will need ones such as them who can face your fears with you.”

Alex said nothing else, thinking about Batami’s words. He finished his lunch and Batami ushered him and the Guild out the door, waving goodbye to them as they crossed the clearing and rode their bikes into the woods of the White Forest. Sufina appeared at their side out of nowhere, loping alongside and staring at them with crystal-gray eyes that reminded Alex of Batami’s. The great white wolf ran silently, making hardly a sound as she slid between trees and over the underbrush while they rode along the thin dirt path through the forest. Alex was not sure how Batami had communicated this mission to the animal, but he suspected that if the old mage was really part of the forest, as she had said, she could probably speak to any creature within it whenever she chose.

To Alex’s surprise, the white wolf followed them out of the forest proper and back through the field paths toward the main road leading into town. Even more surprising was the fact that Sufina’s coat changed color as she left the pale hued environment of the White Forest. As she ran alongside Alex and the Guild, her fur became a brownish-green that blended like camouflage with the fields and trees of the valley. Her eyes, though, remained the same steely gray.

Alex and the others were silent as they rode, unnerved by the presence of the giant wolf running along beside them. Victoria, especially, seemed unsettled by the wolf’s presence, as though some aspect of her horse nature was instinctively wary of the animal, even though it had proven to be friendly.
Well, not friendly, exactly
, Alex thought to himself.
But not likely to eat us, either. At least not today.

As they reached the main road, in sight of the town proper, Sufina fell behind and Alex looked over his shoulder at her. Her gaze held his for a moment. “Thank you,” he said over his shoulder.

“You are welcome, young cub,”
he heard a rasping female voice say in his head. Alex was so surprised that he lost control of the bicycle and nearly crashed into Daphne.

“Watch where you’re going, lunkhead,” Daphne said as she swerved to avoid hitting Victoria.

“You didn’t hear that?” Alex asked as he looked back over his shoulder.

“Hear what?” Nina asked.

There was no sight of Sufina the wolf, but Alex thought he heard something like laughter in the edge of his mind. “Nothing,” he said as he turned his attention back to riding.

“Is it gone?” Victoria asked, hazarding a look over her left flank.

“Yes,” Alex said. “She’s gone back to the forest.”

“Good,” Victoria said. “I know she was terribly helpful and all, but that wolf gives me the willies. I can’t get the thought out of my head that she’s thinking about dinner every time she looks at me.”

“It’s just your imagination,” Alex said, trying to sound as though he believed it.

“So what did the old witch say?” Daphne asked.

“A lot of things,” Alex said, amused at Daphne’s choice of adjectives and wondering how much he should share with the others. Batami was probably a lot older than anyone suspected and even Alex was afraid to ask her real age for fear of what the answer might be. “One thing she said is that we need to tell my dad the truth.”

“Oh brother,” Nina said as she wiped the sweat from her forehead. “That’s going to be fun.”

“Not as fun as the next part,” Alex said, “because then we need to convince Dad and the town to seal up the cave.”

“Flaming dragon snot!” Daphne exclaimed. “What makes her think the town will believe us?”

“She’s uncommonly optimistic?” Rafael offered.

“Batty,” Ben said. “She’s just plain batty. No one ever believes us.”

“Yeah,” Clark said, “even when we haven’t done anything wrong.”

“I’m sure Daddy will believe us,” Victoria said. Then she frowned. “But maybe it would be best if we told him to keep it to himself. Daddy has a reputation for believing in some very odd things.”

“My dad will believe us,” Alex said. “That’s what I’m afraid of.”

As it turned out, confessing everything to his parents was easier than he had expected. It was made simpler in part because they were both sitting at the kitchen table waiting with cups of coffee and stern faces when Alex and Nina arrived home. The fact that his mother did not rush from her chair and embrace them both with admonishments and platitudes about how glad she was that they were safe made Alex freeze on the spot as he stood at the end of the table.

“You have no idea how lucky you are,” his mother said in a low tone that he found almost as threatening as the growl he had heard come from Sufina the wolf when she had attacked the demons.

“If Batami had not sent her hawk with word of where you all were, we might have had the whole town out scouring the countryside for you,” his father added, his face like an impassive mask of iron and his eyes even harder. “And you are lucky she said to believe every word you have to tell us.”

“The Shadow Wraith is trying to escape and destroy the world and Alex is supposed to stop it,” Nina blurted out before Alex could summon up the courage to open his mouth. Alex frowned at her. She smiled weakly in silent apology.

“What?” his mother said, her hand flying to her heart as she leapt to her feet and ran to embrace her children. Alex’s father joined them, placing his long arms around the three of them. Alex had to admit, for once, that he was glad that Nina couldn’t stop herself from blabbing every little secret to his parents. He relaxed for the first time in what seemed like ages as his parents hugged him.

“Now what is your sister talking about?” his father asked as he stared down at Alex.

They sat at the table and Alex told them everything, trying to make the story as quick as possible, a feat that was not helped by Nina’s constant interjections. He told them about hearing his destiny from the dragon, Gall’Adon, the hunt for the books, about sneaking into the library, about the astral travel and the shadow-like creature stalking the town, about seeing Anna at the cave, about the cave being opened, about the ghosts in the cemetery and the demons in the forest, and being saved by Batami and the wolf Sufina.

Alex noticed that the longer he spoke, the darker the looks on his parents’ faces became. By the time he finished, it felt like their eyes were burning with a fire so bright that it might set him aflame where he sat. There were only two things that Alex did not share with his parents. The first was his possession of the small book of Spirit Magic tucked into his back pocket and the second was the metal emblem of the mysterious rune that hung around his neck. He did not want to risk those two items being taken away from him as part of a punishment for his lack of forthrightness. The irony of that decision did not escape him, but he made sure it didn’t show on his face.

“You are the most reckless and irresponsible boy I have ever heard of,” his father said when Alex had finished.

“Alex Zachary Ravenstar, you’re grounded,” his mother said.

“You’ve endangered yourself and your sister and possibly the whole town,” his father continued.

“Grounded for the rest of your life,” his mother added.

“Which might not be very long, if what you say is true,” his father said looking at his mother. Both of their faces softened in that glance.

“I know I should have told you,” Alex said, “but I also know that I’m at the heart of it somehow and I figured you’d just lock me up in my room until it was all over.”

“Which is exactly what we’re going to do,” his mother said, slapping the table for emphasis.

“First, I’m going to go and have a talk with the mayor,” his father said. “I’ll try to convince him that we need to assemble the full council of mages and go up to that cave at dawn.”

“Do you think he’ll believe you?” Alex said, a hint of worry in his voice.

“I don’t know,” his father said, his face narrowing into a frown. “It won’t be easy. It seems his son Dillon has him largely convinced that the events of that last few days are the results of a gang of delinquent young sorcerers.”

“Dillon,” Alex said with venom in his voice.

“I’m going to punch him the next time I see him,” Nina said and Alex couldn’t help but laugh.

“You’ll do no such thing, young lady,” their mother said.

“The problem is,” his father continued as though he hadn’t been interrupted, “Mayor McClint is the sort of man who would much rather face a bunch of kids than the Shadow Wraith come back for its revenge.”

“Him and me both,” Alex said.

“I’ll do the best I can to convince him that he needs to act,” his father said, standing up from the table. “And no better time than the present. You two are to stay here,” he continued, looking to Alex’s mother for confirmation and support, which he received with a slight nod of her head. “Not just tonight, but tomorrow, as well. There are enchantments on this house that will keep you protected while you’re here. And you will stay here until I have determined that the situation has been handled and that it is safe.”

Nina sighed, but Alex decided that it was best to remain silent. Which is what he tried to do the rest of the day, all through dinner, and into the evening. His father returned shortly after dinner and reported on his meeting with the mayor. The mayor had been reluctant to believe Alex’s father’s story, made worse, his father said, by the presence of Dillon in the room. But in the end, Mayor McClint had agreed that the risk of doing nothing might result in a loss of confidence among the citizens in his tenure as town mayor if it developed that the danger facing the valley was real. Alex’s father had sweetened the bargain by implying that if it all turned out to be a hoax, the mayor could always blame it on The Young Sorcerers Guild. That had seemed to mollify both the mayor and his son.

They sat for a while as a family around the fireplace in the living room, but the conversation was sparse and forced. Alex excused himself early and went upstairs. He sat in bed and paged through the ancient book on Spirit Magic that Batami had gifted him, trying to read its densely printed text by the light of the moon. He was searching for something, anything, that might give him an advantage in the days to come. He thought he found a passage that might be of help if only he could re-remember the rune-spell that such a plan would hinge upon and if what he had read in that book in the restricted room of the library weeks ago was truth and not merely a myth. A short while later, his sister bid him good night and he heard her bedroom door close. He said good night and hid the book under his mattress.

As Alex stretched out under the covers of his bed, he tried to calm his mind enough for sleep. He was tempted to attempt astral travel again to check on the state of the Shadow Wraith’s cave in the mountains and what had happened to the people whose souls it was controlling. It had taken Alex a while to realize that was what was happening, but he knew it now the way he knew that it would happen again and again until no one in the town was left who was not under the control of Shan’Kal.

His fingers resting on the metal rune that lay against his chest, Alex drifted off to sleep, guarding his mind against the voice that he knew was there in the ether of dreams, waiting to speak the words it had spoken to him so many times. But he was better at guarding his dreams and soon was deep in slumber. However, it was not a peaceful sleep. In dream after dream, something chased him. Sometimes the shadow cloud creature pursued him outside Victoria’s house, sometimes ghosts, then demons, then the Mad Mages, and even the townspeople, chased him through the streets in one harrowing nightmare after another.

His final dream held no motion. In that dream, Alex stood in the middle of the forest clearing, dark demon-like creatures whirling around him while he himself was unable to move. He had become like a stone statue, able to see and hear, but unable to lift so much as a finger or blink an eye as the malevolent creatures slashed their claws across his face and chest, a fire burning where they touched with a pain like acid on open flesh. As they slashed and slashed at him, the pain grew worse and worse until suddenly his mouth was free and he shouted out.

Shouting out as he sat in bed, the first rays of light from the sun cresting over the horizon and seeping into his room. He stilled his panting breath as he realized that his was not the only scream he heard. His father and mother and sister were screaming as well.

Alex threw the blankets aside and leapt from the bed, dashing down the hallway and rushing into his sister’s bedroom. Nina lay rigid in the bed, arms clasped at her sides, eyes wide open, staring in horror at something beyond sight.

“Nina!” Alex said, shaking his sister to no avail. While her eyes were open, she was not to be awakened by any normal means.

“Alex,” he heard his father say from the doorway. His father knelt beside him and took Nina’s hand. “The same thing has happened to your mother,” his father said. “I can’t wake her. I tried magic, but I don’t know enough to know what will work.”