SWNOVELS Chapter CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
JENNY SAT ON A FELLED TREE that was covered in green moss and stared at the red bricks of the quaint cottage. She knew that Jeptha was in there. She also knew that she had to get in there but, for the time being, could not find a way into the small dwelling. She looked into the sky and noticed black clouds forming above her, which weren’t normal. They moved unnaturally fast, faster than she had ever experienced. It didn’t take her long to figure that the wizard within was up to something. Suddenly it started pouring. It couldn’t rain any harder, and Jenny was almost instantly soaked. The sound of the rain roared all around her as she imagined the smile on his face.
“Are you getting wet out there, girl?” Jeptha’s voice sounded like he was talking through a tube. “All your talent, and you can’t stop a little rain?” He laughed until he coughed.
“No one ever taught me how to stop the rain, you arrogant ass! If it’s even possible. I know it’s a spell, so I suppose it can be stopped.” Jenny considered that Jeptha might, in fact, be Caius, but if so, he wasn’t much of an instructor so far. He was either the wizard she sought or one of his followers. The sound of the rain was now drowning out his voice; she didn’t think it was possible to rain any harder, but she was wrong. It was making her miserable. Jenny linked with his mind but didn’t go in too far. She put up other walls for security, and Jeptha was impressed, although he didn’t let her know.
Mind to mind: “Jenny, what do you see?”
“I can’t see much of anything; it’s raining too damn hard.”
“Stop looking with your eyes. Look with magic. Concentrate and observe. Do you feel that tingling in your hands?”
“Yes.”
“Bring both hands together, as if in prayer.”
When the girl wizard did so, the lenses on her eyes changed color: blue, red, purple, and pink. When her eyes shifted the lenses to yellow, she could see brown sparkles of light in the rain and the clouds. It was the properties of the incantation. Although they were tiny, she could see the light reflecting off them as they spun. The clouds now looked to be a sickly yellow with black highlights. “Ok, I see the stuff in the rain and the clouds but now what?”
“You have something that I have never observed in another wizard. You have what I would call unconscious magic. You’ve detected the elements of the spell. Now destroy them.”
“How?”
“Make a snowball.”
“There’s no snow out here. Not funny.”
“Simply go through the motions.”
“Go through the motions of what? Making a snowball?” Jenny went through the gesticulations of making a snowball out of air. Not only did she feel stupid, but she was sure he would laugh at her. “Okay.”
“Compact it and press hard as you would with real snow.”
Jenny felt dumb until a spherical ball of white light containing blue crystals appeared in her hands. She could feel the solidness of it, and seconds earlier, it hadn’t even existed. She was amazed as it spun and tickled her. When she opened her hand further, she received a warning.
“Careful. Don’t let it get away.”
The ball of energy flew out of her hands and hit the base of a nearby tree. With a bang as loud as a flash grenade, the power knocked down the tree. The noise hurt Jenny’s ears and made her jump; her ears rung from the explosion. “Holy cow!”
“Now, make another one if you can; it takes a lot of energy. And don’t let it get away.”
The rain continued to pummel her, but it was impossible to get wetter. The sound of the heavy precipitation was loud and steady. She formed another ball of energy and was as impressed as she had been after creating the first one. It now made sense that she needed further instruction and that book of spells. “Now what?”
“Now, toss it up into the clouds where the spell originated. Throw it hard.”
Jenny did so, and the ball took off like a shooting star. A spherical mass of yellow energy imploded on contact with the spell that originated from the clouds. It reversed and pulled the rain up behind it, sucking all the rain that had escaped. It was incredible to see, and even more impressive was that she had accomplished it. It even took all the moisture out of Jenny’s clothes; she was now as dry as if it hadn’t rained.
Jenny closed her mouth. “That’s amazing. I really did that?”
“Indeed.” Jeptha then spoke to someone else inside the cottage. “Did you see that?”
“Yes, yes, quite impressive.”
Jenny cocked her head as she listened. “Who else is in there?”
“Oh my, she can hear us.”
“Let me in there! Is that Caius in there with you?”
“It’s not for me to tell you how to get in here; it’s for you to figure out a way in.”
Jenny went and sat back down on the mossy log and considered. She could form another ball of energy and toss it at the cabin. It might blow it up. She looked down at her feet and saw a mole going around and around in circles. It appeared that even the animals were mocking her. Jenny watched as the mammal went back into its burrow.
“Can you hear me?” No response.
It was now sunny and humid. A refreshing breeze passed through the forest, carrying the scent of pine. She sighed as she got up and headed around the cottage again. She felt all along the bricks, searching for a way in until she returned to where she had started. It was puzzling and more than a little aggravating; she knew there was a way in but where? Jeptha had gotten in there quickly, but he already knew the way. Jenny stared at the cottage with consternation, and suddenly it vanished as if it had never been there.
“What the heck?” Jenny raised her eyebrows as she assessed the situation. Had she run out of time to figure a way into the cottage? Angry at herself, a tree was kicked and knocked over, and she immediately regretted that action. The planet needed more trees, not less. Now the brick path that had led to it had disappeared. She turned and spotted the cottage about a hundred yards to her rear. She ran to it, which was indeed the same perplexing dwelling. She had an idea, so she made her way around the cottage, feeling lower this time, near the bottom of it. She touched and prodded near the base. The opening was discovered; it was a hole that was invisible to the eye because of a spell. It was a basic enchantment but quite helpful. Almost falling into it, Jenny lay on her stomach, sticking her head into the hole and bracing herself against its steep angle. It was some slide that vanished into the darkness. No way to see what was down there. No way to tell what she would slide into; it could be a crocodile pit, for all she knew. Jenny didn’t like the thought of launching herself down there.
“Hello ... Hello, hello, hello, hello!” Her voice echoed off the walls, but no response was forthcoming. The 12-year-old carefully eased her way into the tunnel and slid down. She slid and slid and slid, picking up speed as she went. That was the problem with jumping into the unknown. It turned out to be almost a mile long in complete darkness, with several disturbing twists and turns. She was moving so fast that her eyes couldn’t adjust. Finally, she shot out into a small section of cavern, landing hard on her derriere. She stood and dusted herself off, and looked around. Torches on the wall lit up the small cavern; she could see another door off to her left, and there was a peculiar feeling about it, not a good one.
“All this inside that freaking cottage?”
On Jenny’s immediate left were a dozen cannon balls, an old chest with a key protruding from its lock, and a coiled length of rope on the floor beside it. On the floor to her right was the skeleton of some dead vampire with a Cuban Montecristo cigar stuck in its eye socket and a double guillotine-style cigar cutter on its bony left hand. There was a damp smell but not too bad. Jenny could hear what she thought might be footsteps far off in the distance somewhere.
The king cobra appeared from behind the chest, startling her. She put up her right foot, and the serpent struck her sole, and as it did so, it replicated. The blow hitting her sneaker had been substantial. Jenny now faced two snakes with neurotoxins, and they were also cardiotoxic. She pulled her sword and cut the head off the one on the right, and it turned into three more snakes; they were tapping into her energy and reproducing. Another cobra struck her heel, and this one turned into two more snakes. At this rate, she would soon be overrun, and it would be impossible to defend against all of them.
Jenny quickly backed herself up against the wall. She wanted to scream but didn’t want Jeptha to hear. How was this teaching anyone anything if she was killed in the process? The snakes advanced, but Jenny had nowhere to run. She tried to blur away from them, but they were just as fast and blocked her way. Jenny considered that now would be a good time to panic, not that it would help.
She was trapped.