Spirits and Spells

  “Charity?” asked Travis. The color drained from his face. “Not the murdered maid?”

  “That’s me,” said Charity, with a hint of pride.

  “They can’t hear you, Charity,” said Tansy. “I’m the only one you can speak to.” She turned to Matt and asked, “What does she look like?”

  “She’s very pretty,” said Matt shakily. “At least, as far as I can make out. She’s there, but she’s not there, if you know what I mean. I can see right through her. She’s wearing a nightgown—an old-fashioned one. And she has a ribbon around her neck.”

  “That’s how I was dressed when it happened,” said Charity significantly.

  “She has curly hair. I think it’s blond, but I’m not certain. Now she’s smiling at me.” Matt found himself smiling back, in spite of himself. “She’s got a very pretty smile.”

  “Thank you,” said Charity.

  “Don’t you think you should let the rest of us in on this?” snapped Travis.

  “Haven’t you figured it out yet?” asked Tansy. “The game is coming true!”

  “The game is coming true,” repeated Travis, as if the words had no meaning.

  “Either that,” said Denise, “or we’re all losing our minds … or sharing the same nightmare.” Tansy could hear a touch of hysteria in her voice. “I suppose that makes as much sense as anything else.”

  Now it was out in the open. There was a moment of awkward silence.

  “Well, the first thing,” said Matt at last, “is to find out what’s happened to Derek and Jenny.”

  “We’re all right,” said Derek, stepping through the door. Jenny was clinging to his arm. They looked nervous: “But we’ve got a little … surprise for you.” He looked around the table where his four friends were sitting. “What’s going on here, anyway? You four look as though you’d just seen a ghost.”

  “Just one of us has,” said Matt.

  “Maybe they won’t be as shocked as we thought,” said Jenny.

  “Shocked at what?” asked Denise. Suddenly she realized what Derek was holding. “You’ve got the sword!”

  Derek smiled. “We sure do. It’s a beaut, isn’t it?”

  Travis’s face had gone dead white. “Where did you get that?” he asked softly.

  “From the cellar,” said Derek. “Where you put it.”

  “But it’s not the one I put there. I never saw it before.”

  “Figures,” snorted Derek. “Look, you guys, there is something very weird going on here.”

  “We know,” said Matt.

  “Well, even so, you’d better brace yourselves for this one.” Derek drew Jenny to his side.

  The others stared in their direction. Suddenly Travis leaped to his feet, bumping the table so hard the candles almost fell over. Denise let out a gasp. Charity began to scream.

  Looming in the doorway was the Guardian of the Sword. Tentacles dripping, it slithered into the room. It turned its baleful glare from face to face, then said, “We have to talk.”

  11

  TRAPPED!

  The room exploded in a hurricane of movement and shouting. Then, just as suddenly, there was silence. Matt, Denise, Travis, and Tansy stood pressed against the walls, as far from the monster as they could get. Gasping for breath, they looked desperately at the door, which was blocked by the creature’s bulk.

  “Are you through panicking?” asked Derek, a hint of smugness in his voice.

  Travis swallowed hard. “Derek, what is that thing?”

  The creature lifted itself on its tentacles, which brought its head close to the ceiling. Looking down at the players, it said in a strangely dignified voice, “I am not a thing. I am the Guardian of the Sword. And while I do not know who you are, either, I do know this much: You are in big trouble. If you are lucky, I may be able to help you.”

  “Help us?” asked Matt. “How do we know you won’t just kill us?”

  The creature extended a tentacle and laid it across Matt’s shoulder. Matt shuddered, but held his ground.

  Its voice soft and oily, the creature said, “I could have killed Derek and Jenny in the cellar, had I wanted. I could have killed them, then come after the rest of you, silently strangling you one by one.…”

  As it spoke it extended the tentacle, wrapping it around Matt’s neck like some huge, glistening earthworm. All at once it pulled tight. Matt’s eyes bulged. He clawed at his throat.

  “You see?” said the creature, ignoring Matt’s fingers. “It would have been simple. But I chose not to, because I think we can help one another.”

  It retracted its tentacle, leaving Matt rubbing his neck in disgust.

  The confusion broke out anew. It was Travis, suddenly resuming his position as leader of the group, who quieted things by the simple expedient of bellowing, “STOP IT!”

  The room fell silent. He looked at his friends one by one, then said, “I think we should listen to him.”

  “Wait a minute,” said Tansy. “Matt, where’s Charity? I haven’t heard her since … since …” She gestured at the creature, uncertain how to finish her sentence.

  Matt looked around. “She’s lying on the floor! Good grief, I think she fainted. Wait a minute. She’s sitting up. But she’s white as a …” His voice trailed off.

  “It’s all right, miss,” said Charity, in a voice that only Tansy could hear. “I just took a bit of a fright. But what is that thing?”

  “I’m not sure,” said Tansy quietly. She felt strange talking to Charity in front of the others.

  “Why don’t you all take a seat,” said the creature.

  Slowly, cautiously, the players took their places around the library table. Then they watched uneasily as the Guardian of the Sword used its tentacles to move itself to a chair at the end of the table.

  A trail of slime marked where it had passed.

  Using four tentacles to pull itself up, and two more to brace itself, it settled into the chair with a sigh, its shiny body lapping over in all directions.

  Charity, now hovering at Tansy’s elbow, whispered in her ear, “I don’t like this, miss. I don’t like it at all.”

  “Shhh! We need to listen.”

  “All right, O Mighty Master Mage,” said Derek. “Suppose you tell us what’s going on?”

  “What did you call him?” asked the creature sharply.

  “Master Mage,” said Derek. “It’s his role in the game.”

  An angry look came into the creature’s eyes. Tansy shivered. She expected it to speak, but it remained silent.

  “I don’t know what’s going on,” said Travis, glancing at the creature nervously. “Maybe we should start by telling each other what’s been happening. That might help us make some sense out of this.”

  “I have a better idea,” said Jenny. “Why don’t we just get out of here?”

  The players looked at one another hesitantly, reluctant to put their fear into words.

  “Come on,” said Jenny. “What are you waiting for?”

  It was Tansy who finally spoke. “If the game is really coming true—”

  “Then the house is sealed, and we won’t be able to leave,” finished Denise, her voice husky with fear.

  “Oh,” said Jenny softly.

  “The first thing we should do is check that out,” said Travis. He looked around the table. “Derek, Matt …”

  “No,” said Tansy. “All of us.”

  Travis nodded. “All right—let’s go.”

  Grimly the group stood and left the room. As they walked down the hallway, Tansy kept telling herself that they would simply go down to the main floor, open the door, and leave. They’d get a little wet in the storm, but other than that nothing would happen.

  They descended the stairs in wary silence, traveling two by two, with the creature bringing up the rear.

  When they reached the foyer, Travis went to the door.

  It wouldn’t open.

  After rattling the knob several times, Travis turned to Jenny. “Mayb
e you’d better try.”

  “Me?” she asked, looking puzzled.

  “Well, you do have spells for opening locks.”

  She blinked in surprise, then nodded. But nothing she could do would cause the door to open, either.

  “Probably the spell that sealed the house is stronger than the spells she was given to deal with locks,” said Denise.

  “Well, one of my powers is extraordinary strength,” said Derek. With that, he hurled himself at the door. It actually bulged outward—then snapped back, flinging him across the room.

  Tansy could feel a palpable fear rising in her chest. This was getting weirder by the second. “Are there any other doors?” she asked, her voice little more than a husky whisper.

  “One in the kitchen, and one that leads out from the cellar,” Travis replied.

  “Let’s go,” said Matt.

  Derek and Jenny led the way, retracing their earlier path.

  To no one’s surprise, the kitchen door was sealed as firmly as the one in the foyer.

  They all eyed the cellar door nervously. It was their last chance.

  “Well, here goes,” whispered Travis. A shout of joy went up when he turned the knob and the door swung open.

  Their exultation quickly turned to terror.

  On the other side of the door was not the cellar, but a vast cavern. Shining their flashlights into it, they saw stalagmites and stalactites, strange rock formations, and something gray and shiny that looked like a giant fungus. In the distance they could hear a river.

  Jenny began to cry.

  “Home!” cried the creature.

  Tansy jumped. She had almost forgotten it was with them.

  “That’s fine for you,” said Derek. “But it doesn’t help the rest of us much.”

  The creature made a scornful sound. “And if that had been a way out for you, were you planning to stay and help me find a way home?” it asked.

  Tansy felt a twinge of guilt.

  “I thought not,” said the creature, when no one spoke. “However, unlike you, I have every intention of seeing this thing through. Home can wait. It’s not much of a home anyway—though as much of one as I am ever likely to have now. But as I told you, I have some old scores to settle.”

  It was a much subdued group that gathered back in the library. Fear seemed to have drained their energy. Derek and Jenny stood by the door. Jenny, clinging to Derek, was weeping quietly. Noting that several of the candles had again gone out, Denise began to relight them. Travis and Tansy were whispering together, while Charity stood beside them, listening intently. The creature squatted in the center of the room, plucking books from the shelves with its tentacles and leafing through the pages as if it might find some answer in there.

  Outside, the storm continued to rage.

  “This is crazy!” cried Matt. He was pacing back and forth by the windows. “We’re just sitting here like a bunch of idiots. There has to be a way out!” He looked at the others. Tansy shivered.

  The desperation in Matt’s eyes was growing. Suddenly he picked up a chair. With a cry of rage he swung it against a window.

  The chair flew into a hundred little pieces.

  The glass was unbroken.

  Matt slumped to the floor, staring at his hands as if they had been burned. Denise rushed to his side. “Did you hurt yourself?” she cried.

  He shook his head, mute and hopeless. Suddenly tears began to stream down his face.

  Denise put her arm around him, held his face against her shoulder. “Travis,” she said. “Do something.”

  “Me?” Travis looked around the room, bewildered. The others were all staring at him, even the creature.

  “I can’t … I’m not …”

  He trailed off into a long moment of silence. Watching his face, Tansy could sense the struggle going on inside him. She knew he was terrified. But she also knew that if any of them could find an answer, it was Travis. She laid her hand on his, squeezed it reassuringly.

  And once again, though the game had gone beyond his control, he was the leader. He gave her a gentle smile. “The answer is obvious. We have to win the game! Find the objects, complete the spell, and we’re out of the house. Come on! We don’t have much time.”

  It was as if they had been given an extension on a death warrant. Lifted by his energy, the others collected around the table.

  “We’ve already got the sword and the stave,” said Travis.

  “Right,” said Derek. He placed the objects on the table where everyone could see them. There was a murmur of appreciation for the sword, which sparkled in the candlelight. Next to it lay the stave that Matt had managed to save from the two warriors. The wood was dark and polished, with an intricate grain.

  Tansy reached out and placed a tentative finger against it, then drew her hand back in shock. “It feels … alive,” she said. “Like there’s electricity going through it or something.”

  One by one the others touched the stave and muttered their agreement.

  “All right,” said Travis. “The first thing we have to do is find the rod and the ring. Tansy, it was your job to seek the ring.”

  She nodded. “I was looking for it in the attic.”

  Travis smiled. “You were on the right track. At least, you were before all this started. Assuming it’s still where I left it—or that whatever has replaced it is there—you can just go back up and get it. You’ll find it—”

  Suddenly Travis looked oddly uncomfortable. He put his hands to his throat, as if he was choking. His eyes bulged, and though he moved his mouth, no sound came out.

  12

  DOUBLE DISCOVERY

  “What’s wrong?” asked Tansy. “Travis, are you all right?”

  “It’s the spell!” said Denise. “Remember? One of the rules of the game was that he couldn’t tell us where anything is.”

  “Are you all right?” cried Tansy again.

  Travis nodded. His eyes had begun to water, and he wiped at them. “I think so,” he gasped. He cleared his throat two or three times.

  “You’re sure not going to be much help,” said Derek in disgust.

  “I may not be much,” snapped Travis, “but I’m all you’ve got. You’re just going to have to use your new powers a little more efficiently. Your brains, too.”

  “Do you suppose you can still answer questions?” asked Jenny timidly.

  “It would make sense,” said Travis, “since that’s my function in the game. Ask me something.”

  “Where’s the ring?” asked Tansy.

  He shook his head. “That won’t do any good. Even if you ask me directly, I can’t tell you flat-out. You’ve got to go for clues.”

  “It seemed worth a try,” said Tansy defensively. She sat back and waited for someone else to ask a question.

  “You’d better keep trying, Tansy,” said Denise. “You’re the only one who’s been in the attic.”

  Tansy frowned. She tried to think of how she would phrase the question if they were playing Spirits and Spells for fun.

  “I’m in the attic,” she said. “I have defeated—sort of—the spirit that guards the place. Is there a treasure in this room?”

  “Yes,” said Travis.

  “Are there any clues to its location?”

  After a moment Travis said, “Yes.

  “The treasure is a golden ring

  Suited for a banished king.

  Search for it where smoke is rising;

  What you find may be surprising.”

  He blinked, then shook his head as if coming out of a trance.

  Tansy smiled. “I’ve got it!” Her smile faded. “Only who’s actually going to go get it?”

  “Let’s all go together,” said Jenny.

  “I don’t think we have time,” said Matt. “It might make more sense to split into two groups. That way we don’t have to go alone, but we can get the stuff we need to get out of here faster.”

  “Well, I might as well go back to the attic,” sai
d Tansy, “since I already know my way around there. And Charity can help me. Matt, why don’t you come with us? Since you can see her and I can hear her, the three of us ought to be able to work together.”

  Travis’s face darkened at this suggestion, but he said nothing.

  “Assuming we need to stick as close to the game as possible, then I have to be the one to go look for the rod,” said Denise. “If Matt is going with Tansy, then maybe Derek and Jenny can come with me.”

  “I think I should accompany you as well,” said the Guardian of the Sword.

  “Maybe you should stay in the library and guard the things we already have,” suggested Derek.

  “I think I have to do that,” said Travis. “It’s my role in the game. Besides, you’re more apt to need his help than I am. Just get going and get back here with those things as fast as you can. I’ll study the game book to see if I can figure out what to do next.”

  Despite his brave words, Travis felt scared and lonely as he watched his friends head down the hallway. Though his excuses for not going with them, for being the one to stay in the library, had made sense, they weren’t the real reason he had suggested they go without him.

  In fact, he wasn’t sure of the real reason. When he thought about it, he was pretty sure that, if anything, having the two objects of power here would make the library a focal point for attacks. And if the guardians of the rod and the stave were any indication, he’d need all the help he could get if that happened.

  Yet something had prompted him to send the others away.

  Now, standing at the door, he wanted to cry out to them, beg them to stay—or to take him along. But he couldn’t seem to make the words come out. Mute and terrified, he watched as the last tentacle disappeared up the hallway.

  He was alone.

  No. He wasn’t. His scalp began to tingle and once again he had the distinct impression that someone was nearby. Turning to look in the other direction, he tightened his grip on the doorknob and tried to hold back a scream.

  Four creatures stood at the head of the main stairwell. Short and squat, they had faces with piglike snouts and gleaming yellow tusks. They were dressed in leather armor and carrying short swords and round shields.

  “Goblins!” whispered Travis in horror.