Behind the Sorcerer's Cloak (11 page)

The children woke as the plane circled high above the fog. Mr. Smythe frowned as a voice cackled in his headphones.

He turned his head and hollered to the children over the noise of the engine. “I cannot land yet. The island is socked in with fog. We'll circle for a while. If there are no breaks in the cloud, we might have to go back.” He banked and circled again.

The children stared down through the windows.

“I don't see an island. Only sea and fog. How do we know we are flying over the right place?” Chantel asked.

Owen shook his head and pointed to his ears. He could see her lips moving, but he couldn't hear words.

Chantel peered down at the waves and the strange gray mist. She shivered.

Myrddin held up one finger as if to ask for a minute. He leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes.

Owen watched. He nudged Holly, pointed and mouthed, “He's sending mindspeak to someone.”

She nodded.

The someone heard Myrddin. They were blasted.

WELCOME.

The stranger's mindspeak was so loud everyone jumped. Along with the greeting flashed a fleeting vision of a white-haired man, arms outstretched, standing on the peak of a heather-covered mountain.

The fog below the plane swirled and parted.

The cousins cheered as they looked down through the gap in the clouds.

A wide swath of sunshine swept across an emerald green island with a spine of purple mountains down the center. It was a pretty place, crisscrossed with stone-walled fields and dotted with white washed cottages. A blue sea frothed against rocky cliffs and headlands on one side of the plane, and, on the other, waves rippled into a wide sandy bay sheltered by a long harbor.

The plane darted down through the gap in the fog.

Chantel laughed. “The island was hiding.”

The children pressed their faces against the plane windows.

In the maze of passages below the ruins of Peel Castle, Zorianna woke at last and shifted her aching body. She did not know how long she had slept but could sense it was still daylight, though the darkness around her had not lifted.

She lifted her head, checked her wrists and groaned. She'd hoped the staff's magic would wear off. It hadn't. She was still bound from head to foot with thin beams of light. She stared at them. Were the beams fainter?

She tested their strength, jerking her wrists hard apart. The bonds held with the same firm grip.

At least they gave out light. The only light in this terrible place.

Or was it the only light? Zorianna peered into the darkness.

Two sets of eyes glinted. What was staring at her?

Zorianna stared back and made out the faint white shape of a cat.

She curled her lip and dismissed the cat as harmless. She turned her eyes to the thick mass of darkness beside the cat.

Red eyes blinked.

Zorianna shivered, sensing magic and malice. She felt vulnerable, bound and helpless on the floor.

Pressing her back against the dungeon wall, she struggled to stand.

The Moddy Dhoo's eyes blazed.

Zorianna held her head high and glared back.

The dark mass in front of her rose to its feet and growled.

Zorianna forced herself not to flinch.

The cat spoke. “Which do you choose, Light or Dark?”

Relief flooded over her. Zorianna threw back her head and laughed. “Earth Magic is unbelievable! That's it? So simple?”

“Yes, it is quite simple,” agreed the cat. “Which do you choose?”

Zorianna chuckled craftily. “Aah…if I choose the Dark, the being I sense at your side will take me. But if I choose Light, you, a cat, will protect me?” She laughed again. “I think not.” She thought for a moment. “What if I choose not to make a choice?”

“We will wait,” said the cat. “You will choose in the end. You have three chances to choose light.”

Zorianna chuckled.

Growling softly, the Moddy Dhoo settled on the ground.

Zorianna tried to stare it down.

The sound of singing interrupted the stalemate.

The song drifted through the castle. The sound was magical, wordless and haunting. Despite its beauty, the voice was filled with a great sadness. The notes sobbed and wailed through the mist and were scattered on the wind.

The song cut through the cries of the restless birds that screamed and wheeled above the castle. It silenced and subdued them. One by one, the gulls returned to the walls where they turned around and around and scratted at their hollows before settling and hiding their heads under their wings.

The eerie voice seeped through cracks in the rocks and echoed along the dark passages and dungeons below.

The sound made Zorianna shiver, for the song held a magic that was not simple. This was Old Magic. Magic she had no wish to challenge.

Zorianna thought about her situation. She was rested, and she could think straight. It was time to make a move while the Earth Magic restraining her remained simple.

Zorianna shape-changed into a bat and tried to slip her bonds.

She was quick, but not quick enough. As she shrank in size so did the bonds. One wing remained pinned to her body.

She changed into water that trickled between the bonds, down the wall and across the floor.

The Moddy Dhoo's red tongue shot out.

Before it reached the water, Zorianna changed into a tiny mouse and ran for a hole in the wall.

Poor choice! The cat pounced. She held the mouse in her mouth. The tail hung from her lips.

“Choose Light or Dark, for the second time of asking,” mumbled the cat.

The magical song in the background swelled.

Zorianna turned into a scorpion. One claw grabbed the cat's tongue at the same time as the scorpion tail curled up and stung the cat's nose.

With a yowl of pain the cat opened her mouth and shook her head hard.

The scorpion flew through the air, transforming into a large crab that hit the ground and scuttled toward a crack.

SPLAT.
The Moddy Dhoo's paw flattened the crab's body.

AWHOOOOOOoooooo.
It was the Black Dog's turn to leap and howl as the crab became a prickly hedgehog that rolled from under the wounded paw and out of sight.

“Earth Magic is so simple,” sneered Zorianna and became an owl.

Her owl eyes could see in the dark. She flapped through the labyrinth of tunnels, seeking an exit.

The irritating magical song grew louder.

Light!

A small gap filled with daylight gleamed high up in the dungeon wall. It let in light, a breath of air and the song.

No matter. It offered escape. Zorianna glided toward it.

A thundering, rumbling growl made her shiver.

Something bound past her. The darkness between her and the light thickened.

Zorianna flapped and dodged from side to side searching for a way past.

The Moddy Dhoo's presence grew to fill the space. The light was gone.

Zorianna doubled back.

The white shape of the cat sat in the center of the passage behind her.

“You cannot escape,” said the cat.

Zorianna's lip curled. She shape-changed into a black spider invisible in the darkness.

“Very clever,” said the cat. “But you cannot escape. Light or Dark, which do you choose?”

The magical song wailed and sobbed.

The spider climbed the dungeon wall.

The cat sighed.

Red eyes gleamed like searchlights.

SPLAT.

The Moddy Dhoo's paw shot out and stunned the spider. Its body tumbled to the floor, stretching, lengthening and returning to the form of a young woman.

Zorianna stirred and opened her eyes.

“Light or Dark? There are no more chances,” whispered the cat in her ear. “There is no escape.
‘Lhiat myr hoiloo
—to thee as though deservest.' Remember?”

Zorianna remembered and shuddered with fear as the Moddy Dhoo began to bay.

It was a dreadful sound. Each howl rent the air like hundreds of voices shrieking.

The cries swelled around her and brought back terrible memories.

Zorianna remembered every planet she and the Dark Being had visited and destroyed. She heard the cry of each creature she had tormented.

The cries and screams echoed in her head. She writhed on the floor, blocking her ears. “It wasn't my fault,” she screamed. “I just followed orders.”

Now laughter rang in her ears. Her own laughter. A cruel laughter echoing back to her from memories of watching Holly and others like her, tormented by mind games of Zorianna's devising.

“Stop it!” shrieked Zorianna. “Stop the cries, stop the voices, stop the laughter.”

“I cannot stop it,” said the cat. “To thee as thou deservest. They are the voices you unleashed.”

The Moddy Dhoo threw back its head, and more terrible howls surrounded them.

Zorianna curled into a ball and stuffed her fingers in her ears. But the howls continued to stir up the cries of terror. Memories of the people she'd hurt filled her head.

Zorianna scrambled to her feet, hands over her ears. Shaking her head from side to side in agony, she stumbled blindly down the corridor.

The Moddy Dhoo bayed on and on.

The cat lifted one paw.

Two silver doorways appeared, one filled with the magical song and brilliant light, one gaping with silent darkness.

Weaving on her feet, Zorianna paused then stumbled into the dark silence.

The cat sighed as the doorways vanished. “She chose the dark.”

The Moddy Dhoo blinked and slunk back to his lair.

Remnants of the magical song drifted softly through the air.

Snatches of song floated across the water to Peel town.

In the cottage by the harbor, Mr. Cubbon's deaf ears heard it. He jerked upright at the table, slopping his brew of tea.

“Somethin' startle you?” asked his wife.

“Can yer not hear a maid keening?” said Mr. Cubbon.

“Nay. It's your hearing aid playing its tricks.” His wife leaned over and eased it out of his ear. She shook it, gave it a smack and examined the battery.

Mr. Cubbon could still hear the voice.

He watched his wife. She did not hear the sad song. He must be hearing magic sounds. Mr. Cubbon smiled to himself. It was his special gift come back again. In childhood he'd heard things. Things no one else heard. “Me magic ear,” he'd called it to himself. He'd never spoken of it, and it had died away as he grew up. Now in his old age, his magic ear was back. He might be deaf to many everyday sounds, but his magic ear enriched his life. He was content to be called eccentric when folks heard him holding conversations with shadows on the beach, the raven, or the sprite that lived in Spooyt Vane. No one dreamed that he really did see spirits and understand animals and birds.

Mr. Cubbon supped his tea and made no further mention of the song. But he wondered what this new stirring of sad magic would bring.

The song drifted to and fro, up and down the narrow streets of Peel. No other person had ears that heard it. The notes crept into cracks and crevices, echoed down gratings and into the long forgotten smuggler's passages that ran under the sea, linking Pheric's Isle to Peel.

The song rippled through the still air in the passages, stirring centuries of dust that had collected on an old oak board leaning against the wall. The dust dropped away and revealed ancient scratchings on the wooden surface.

The song sighed into silence.