Tara Duncan and the Forbidden Book (3 page)

The stone had only a vague idea of how much damage it could do. It hadn't yet absorbed the fact that humans were fragile.

“Power?”
sang the stone in Tara's mind.
“You want power to destroy the evil people who are causing harm? Power I give you? Here, take it.”

Tara had no time to react. Her bicycle suddenly took off, soaring overhead like a hawk. Then it dove toward the men in black while she desperately clung to the handlebars.

Hearing a loud “Aaahhhh!” they looked up. For some reason, the scream sounded more like girlish panic than warlike fury.

They didn't have time to think. Tara and the stone's combined magic sent the attackers flying in all directions, and they had a painful landing twenty yards away. Isabella liked both roses and blackberries, and a thicket of blackberry bushes surrounded the property. The men in black yelped as they landed in the thorns.

Tara's bike slammed to a stop an inch above the ground, and only then did she stop screaming in terror. She jumped off, glowered at the stone in her pocket, and lifted her hands, which immediately started glowing with blue light. She was ready to rescue her friends.

“Cal! Fabrice! Sparrow!” she yelled. “Run for it! I'll cover you.”

But Cal didn't budge, just gaped at her in astonishment.

“Tara!” roared Master Chem. “Stop that right now! These are imperial guards!”

Before Tara could obey, a new arrival added to the confusion by joining the fray: It was her familiar, Gallant, flying to the rescue. The lacerated leader of the black-clad men was limping toward them when he found himself facing the enraged pegasus's claws.

At that, the guard captain lost his legendary cool. Pointing at Gallant, who had just ripped off a chunk of his trousers, he screamed: “By Pocus, I'm stopping this fight by force, and paralyze the winged horse.”

Unable to avoid the paralyzing ray shooting from the man's hands, Gallant crashed to the grass with a loud thud.

Turning to Tara, he continued: “By the authority of the Empress of Omois, I order you to surrender immediately!”

Tara's reaction was purely instinctive, unfortunately. This man had just paralyzed her beloved pegasus, and she hadn't been fast enough to stop him. Now the imperial Omois guard captain flew through the air and landed with a loud splash, which told everyone that he had just met the manor house's beautiful swimming pool.

He emerged spluttering and enraged. He'd lost his black cape during his short flight, and Tara could see that his uniform was indeed the purple and gold Omois livery. Also, his dissimulation spell had dissipated, revealing the guards' characteristic four arms, which were very useful for carrying their array of both sharp and blunt weapons.

Surprised, Tara dialed back her magic power, despite protests from the living stone, who always enjoyed a little fight.

“But . . . but . . . didn't they come here to kidnap me?”

“Not at all,” said the old wizard, frowning. “They came to get Caliban.”

“Cal?” asked Tara, completely at a loss. “Whatever for?”

“They came to arrest him,” Master Chem confirmed somberly. “He's wanted for murder.”

“T
his is serious, Tara!” said Sparrow, pale with fear. “They arrested Angelica, too. And Master Chem has been summoned to the palace to explain the circumstances surrounding the boy Brandis's death in the vortex. You and I have been ‘invited' to come as well.”

This news hit Tara like a punch in the stomach. Even though it had been a tragic accident, Cal and Angelica had been partly responsible for the young spellbinder's death.

“I'm going with you,” said Master Chem. “Tara, we have to get ready—”

“That's out of the question!” interrupted Isabella sharply. “Tara can't go to Omois.”

The guard captain frowned.

“And why can't Miss Duncan visit our beautiful capital?” he asked very politely, his four hands inching closer to his gleaming swords.

“Because she can't!” answered Isabella. “That's all there is to it.”

The guard scowled and his hands moved a little lower.

Master Chem intervened. “There have been several attempts on Tara's life,” he said diplomatically. “She can't risk going to OtherWorld. It's too dangerous.”

From the expression on the captain's face, he seemed to feel that it was Tara who was dangerous to other people, not the other way around. Anyway, it didn't really matter. His mission was to bring Cal back and not the two girls, whose presence had simply been requested.

“I would never do anything to endanger the young lady's safety,” the captain said, bowing. “I will inform the empress.” Then, looking coldly at Isabella, he added, “However, I will come back if Her Imperial Majesty decides that Miss Duncan's presence is required after all.”

“I'll go,” said Sparrow to the guard. “I'll represent you, Tara.”

“Is that okay with you, Cal?” asked Tara, trying bravely not to cry.

Still dumbfounded by what was happening to him, the little thief frowned, then forced a thin smile. “Let's just say I've been in more pleasant situations. But don't worry; this will all be cleared up real fast. The Truth Tellers will read my mind and see what really happened. I didn't kill that boy. It was whoever tried to kill you by expanding the vortex.”

Tara gave Sparrow a look of anguish, then nodded and kissed Cal on both cheeks, to his acute embarrassment.

Robin and Fabrice merely gave him manly thumps on the back.

Without a word, the guard signaled to his men to take charge of Cal and Blondin, then released Gallant from the paralysis spell. The bleary-eyed pegasus stumbled over to Tara to be petted. Looking very preoccupied, Master Chem headed toward Count Besois-Giron's castle, which held the Transfer Portal to OtherWorld. The imperial guards followed with Sparrow and Cal.

“Wait a minute!” shouted Isabella. She was rubbing her painful wrists and suddenly looked as pale as her silvery hair. “You can't go walking around this planet looking like that. Dry your uniforms and put your cape back on, Captain. And don't frog-march that boy along as if he were a dangerous criminal. The nonspells might get suspicious.”

The captain scowled at her. His velvet purple-and-gold uniform was soaking wet and looked ready for the garbage. Sighing, he summoned a hot blast of wind to quickly dry it.

Bad idea! Everyone knows that if you heat velvet too fast, it shrinks. In moments, the captain was gaping at his bare calves and two pairs of forearms sticking out of a mini-uniform.

Repressing a nervous giggle, Selena solemnly held his black cape out to him. The captain wrapped himself in it along with whatever dignity he had left, then strode in annoyance toward the castle, followed by his men.

Selena took Tara in her arms, but the girl tensed. She still wasn't used to physical contact. But then she relaxed. Her mother didn't want to strangle her, she realized, just to give her a hug.

“Are you all right, darling?”

Tara was also not used to having anyone worry about her, and she relaxed a little more, touched by her mother's kindness.

“No, I'm not all right!” she blurted. “I'm scared to death for Cal. And I'm furious at him at the same time. I don't know how he does it, but he's always getting himself into impossible situations.”

“I'm worried for your friend too,” said Selena. “Murder is a very serious charge. And I thank Demiderus that you weren't charged as well.”

Isabella rolled her eyes—she didn't want Selena worrying Tara—and went into the manor, still rubbing her wrists. Before she was out of sight, both Selena and Tara glimpsed the two shiny red glyphs pulsing on her forearms. Tara frowned. She knew that if she became a wizard, the blood oath Isabella had sworn to her father would kill her grandmother. Tara forgot that when she flew to Cal's rescue, but using her power so close to her grandmother visibly caused the woman pain. Tara absolutely had to be more careful.

Selena sighed and reluctantly released her daughter. As she turned to go inside, she said, “I think I'm about to get yet another lecture on how to raise children, and what they should and shouldn't be told. I'll see you later.”

Tara smiled slightly. Her mother and grandmother had spent the last week making up for their ten years apart. Isabella was surprised to discover that her sweet, gentle daughter had developed a strong character during her decade of imprisonment.

“So, what do we do now?” asked Fabrice.

Tara watched Cal and Sparrow disappear around the bend of the road and made up her mind. She took a deep breath, and said, “Let's follow my grandmother.”

Without waiting for the others, Tara ran inside. They followed, surprised to see her sneaking from place to place to reach the living room without being spotted.

“Er, why are we hiding?” asked Fabrice, who felt silly crawling across the carpet.

“I want to find out what my grandma's plotting,” whispered Tara. “And with her, the only way to do that is to listen at keyholes.”

“That didn't work out too well for Cal last night,” he answered, nervously glancing around for Sembor, Selena's familiar.

“Shhh!” Tara hissed. “Listen!”

When they put their ears against the door, the two women's voices were clearly audible. It was easy to imagine slender Selena sitting in a comfortable armchair, carefully watching her mother.

“I can't say that I ever much liked your late husband Danviou,” Isabella was saying, “but look at the wonderful surprise he left us!”

So, they had gotten past the child-rearing chapter and were now reliving the “good old days.”

“What wonderful surprise?” asked Selena, clearly perplexed.

“That he was the emperor! The Emperor of Omois! Actually, I always suspected something odd was up with your husband. I saw how nervous he got whenever we met new people. I thought he must be some minor Omois nobleman who had run away from his family. I didn't realize he was actually running away from an
empire
! And to think that I didn't want him for you because I wanted you to marry someone more important. That little sneak!”

What Selena said next knocked Tara for a loop: “No kidding! But did you really hate him so much that you had to lock me up in that tower to keep him from seeing me?”

Isabella cleared her throat before answering. “Well, maybe I did go a little overboard.”

“Overboard
? You had trolls guarding the tower! And then you sent those half-dozen ‘highly presentable' princes and spellbinders to woo me—and then fried or flattened them when they failed. You should really quit reading those old Earth romance novels, Mom. They just aren't for you!”

“All right, all right. I admit the trolls were a bit much. But I only wanted what was best for you, darling. And how could I trust some stranger who suddenly dropped into our lives and wanted to marry you?”

Tara was flabbergasted. Her grandmother had opposed her parents' marriage? So that was why Isabella had always avoided talking about them! Lots of things were suddenly becoming clear to her.

But Selena wasn't interested in bringing up the past. Changing the subject, she came back to the present: “Does Tara realize that by refusing the empress's invitation she could be making her friend Cal's situation worse?”

“I couldn't care less about that boy's fate,” said Isabella. “There's no way my granddaughter's going to Omois. It's too dangerous. Just think, Magister could capture her again!”

“I'm not minimizing the danger,” Selena said calmly. “But Tara is very loyal to Cal, and she'll never abandon a friend. Anyway, what would you do to stop her? Lock her up in a dungeon, like me?”

“I hadn't thought of that,” Isabella answered slowly. “But it's not a bad idea!”

On hearing this, Tara jumped away from the door and signaled her friends to do the same. Her heart was pounding.

“Man, your grandmother is pretty radical, isn't she?” said Robin, expressing what they were all thinking. “So, what do we do now?”

“Seems pretty obvious, doesn't it?” whispered Tara. “We're going to Omois. Cal needs us!”

“I could've bet you were going to say that,” Fabrice said with a groan. “And I suppose it's up to me to get us there.”

“I'm really sorry,” said Tara, who didn't like putting her friend in such a predicament, “but your father is the guardian of the Transfer Portal to OtherWorld. And I think we better get out of here right away, before Grandma turns me into another Sleeping Beauty.”

“What about you, Robin?” Fabrice asked, without much hope. “You wanna go too?”

“Will there be fighting?” asked the half-elf, his eyes bright.

“All right, I get it.” Fabrice signed with resignation. “What a fourth letter of the alphabet + an old cloth!”

“D-rag?” guessed Tara.

“You said it!”

The preparations were soon complete. Carefully avoiding Tachil and Mangus, the two spellbinders who worked for Isabella, the kids grabbed their robes and a change of clothes for OtherWorld.

Those spellbinder robes were much more than simply things to wear. Thanks to the magic spells woven into the fabric, they were warm in winter, cool in summer, stain-resistant, and fireproof. They also had the most-extraordinary pockets. You could stick absolutely whatever you wanted into them, provided it wasn't alive, because it wouldn't be able to breathe. But aside from that, the pockets could handle anything from a needle to a bathtub, because the objects were made weightless and stored in another dimension. (Sparrow once tried to explain how this worked, but Tara's eyes glazed over when she got to quantum mechanics, atomic disincorporation, and parallel universes, so she gave up.) Also, you could magically change the robes' colors and decorate them, which OtherWorld fashionistas found very handy.