Part Seven
Michael and Maria continued to kiss like nobody's business for several seconds, and then belatedly Michael realized that they had company and started to break things off. "I, umm, I was just doing something else to occupy her lips, since there didn't seem to be any other way to get Maria to STOP TALKING," he said, with more than a little real annoyance in those last few words. She does seem to be good at inspiring that reaction, not that I can really say from personal experience.
"Oh please," Maria replied, rolling her eyes. Liz shot her a pointed look. "What? A little diversion, to somewhat-pleasantly pass the time."
"Just somewhat?" Michael shot back.
"Okay, come on, let's not get into the full play-by-play recap here," I said. "We need to set up night watches now, and I guess you guys join the list of they who shouldn't be on watch together because you'll get distracted."
"And are you and Liz on that list too?" Maria said pointedly. "Because if so, that would seem to include everybody, and if not, you're being a bit hypocritical."
"Umm, yeah, probably better safe than sorry," Liz agreed. "But we don't really need to watch in pairs anyway, and if so, we can set up *different* pairs. Umm... speaking of which just where ARE Alex and Isabel? We can't really do this without them."
"We can make the decisions for them without them," Michael argued back. "But we need to get them back, to watch or to actually sleep, anyway, so yeah."
"Weren't they patrolling the area, with that cat?" Maria put in.
"Oh, yeah," I muttered. "If they're actually on the watch, then that's valuable."
"Hmm... why don't you go open mind to her, Maxwell?" Michael tossed in. "See how alert to danger she is?"
"Open mind??" Maria said, sighing.
"It's kind of a side effect of working in partnership as Wizards," I said. "What you can understand well, you can sense at a distance - and that includes the thoughts inside a good friend's head - or a sister's." I sighed too, because I wasn't wild about the thought of receiving Isabel's impressions if she really was making out with Alex - and Michael of course knew this - it was why he'd brought up the idea in the first place. He's nearly as close to both Isabel and I as we are to each other, but I don't think he's ever seen her in that big-brotherly way. In fact, maybe ten months ago I think Michael was jockeying for the inside track on her affections, but Isabel never seemed to give him an opening.,,
Without even meaning to, I suddenly realized that I was in mental contact with Isabel - or she was in contact with me, and there was DEFINITELY no kissing going on between Alex and she. *Maowah's picked up some traces coming out past the city limits. Hard to be sure at this range, but I think that we've got the magic number of vampires coming to pay a visit on us.*
"Ooh." I looked around, and caught Michael's eye, wondering if he'd been in on that message from my sister at all, but he seemed to be still waiting to see what I'd do. "Okay, change of plans I think - nobody's going to sleep yet. We may have action very soon."
"Really?" Michael frowned. "Who gave you the word - the Dog?"
"No, Isabel - from Maowah, actually." Of course, just because the vampires were leaving town, didn't mean that they'd be attacking terribly soon, but somehow I felt that much in an intuitive flash. We certainly had to prepare for the possibility that they would - and then if they were clearly stalling, we could try standing down the red alert into a regular night watch... or something in between, like a yellow alert, if that seemed to be called for.
"They're heading back," Liz put in, and Maria and Michael looked funny at her. "I can hear their footsteps coming down the path, at a good clip."
"Alright. Maxwell, what're the requirements for this tree spell, anyway?"
"Shouldn't he wait until Isabel's here too?" Liz put in.
"Oh, maybe Michael's a bit slow and he needs to get it repeated," Maria put in, which earned her a truly dirty glare from my friend.
"You and, umm. you and Iz will be the secondaries, and really all you need to do is join in the chant," I hedged. "And help me draw the circle, of course - we'd probably better work on that too."
"Kay, got it," Michael muttered, though he had an expression on his face as if he knew I was being evasive. (I was - I didn't want him or Isabel to know what the oldest tree had told me about swearing to pay the price. That had to be all on me.) "Just the three of our names in the circle?"
"No, I think everybody needs to get listed - so that they can be inside, and protected," I put in. "I've got Liz's down, and I'm sure that Isabel knows Alex's by now, so umm..." I thought about asking Michael to do it, and figured that that might be asking for trouble. "Quick questionnaire time, Maria - this is important."
"Couldn't you have done it earlier, if you knew you'd need to cast this spell sooner or later?" Maria complained, and I couldn't argue with that comment. "Besides, if I'm inside the circle, doesn't that mean that I can't help protect Liz?"
"Maybe, but it means that we don't need to worry about protecting YOU," Michael insisted. "Either from the vampires, or the trees who might not be too cautious about who's in their way once they finally get up, ready to kick ass."
"One way or another, I'm going to need to know your name in the speech," I said to Maria. "Come on - this is the short form system, but still we're going to need to get started.
So I read off the 'human being name wizard' from my new computerized manual, (the same kind of 'wizard' that any other computer would have to lead someone through a complicated task, though I think that the manual software enjoys using the term a bit ironically,) and entered in Maria's answers, while Michael started marking out a large circle in arcs and characters of pure light that couldn't be scuffed away from the ground of our campfire clearing. Isabel and Alex showed up about halfway through Maria's naming, and Isabel opened up her own manual and pitched in with the circle, though she got a nervous look on her face too from something that she was reading.
Soon the spell diagram was complete, names and all, and I had a moment to breathe and look around. "They're not on my wards yet - hanging back?" Something horrible occurred to me. "If there's any way that they were able to tell what we've been up to..."
"Impossible, bud." Michael smiled. "We've been operating on a privacy spell ever since you mentioned the words 'magic number'. Think I'd leave out a detail like that?" I nodded at him gratefully.
*And the living undead may still be far away, but they're continuing to approach, and not showing any signs of slowing more than would indicate 'minimal caution',* Maowah put in. *Specifically, they parked a few miles away from the borders of the park, and are hiking towards the edge of the trees.*
"Right," Isabel put in. "Max, when we do this, how MANY of the trees will wake up? Is the effect directed or undirected??"
"Semi-directed, with a maximum range of somewhere between a quarter-mile and half," I muttered.
"Ooh." Isabel looked around at the dark forest. "Lotta big trees within even a quarter mile of this spot."
"Yeah, but to make sure that none of the vampires escape destruction - I think we're going to have to wait until the first of them enter the clearing at least - and hope that they don't spread out too much," Michael muttered, less optimistically.
"Yeah, I think I agree," I muttered. "No sense starting the spell until they're closer than this, even if they can't tell."
"Yeah." Isabel picked up a log and took it over to the fire.
"No, don't do that," Alex suggested. She blinked at him.
"Why not?"
"Vampires are nervous about fire, right? It can hurt them." I nodded when Alex brought this up. "So they'll be more likely to move in quickly and not hesitate if the fire is starting to burn low."
"Unless it makes them clue in that we've set a trap," Maria said, probably just in order to be contrary.
"Yeah, well... I think as long as the fire doesn't go out entirely we're not being too obvious," I said. "Leave it for now - actually, maybe put a few small pieces and some sticks on - they'll keep things going without really adding too much heat or light." Isabel sighed and went along with this.
"Okay, they're on my radar now," I muttered a few minutes later. "Nothing else showing up, except... huh." Shook my head. Started sending out my thoughts. *There's a vague sense of darkness, and it's pretty close. Nobody mention the cracker-jack surprise - we'll have to co-ordinate to do it together, but leave that nonverbal as much as possible - just do it.*
*A... a sense of darkness?* That was Isabel. *Could it be... be inside one of us?* She was clearly panicked by the thought. Having one of your wizard friends be 'overshadowed' - possessed by a power of the darkness, possibly even THE power of darkness, without their knowledge, was easily the number one secret fear of all teenage wizards, as far as I could tell. Maybe it's not limited to teenagers - and I guess possibly getting overshadowed yourself would rank up there too. All related, though.
*I... I don't think so,* Michael put in. *I've got a bit of a line on it too, and it's more like something that's all around us.*
*Will the trees be able to fight it, then?* Isabel put in.
*No, but I'm not sure that it can do anything directly,* I countered. *Just a spy sending, maybe, on behalf of the vampire's master. As long as we don't let it find out anything important, there's nothing else to worry about.*
*But could it keep us from getting into the spell diagram at the right moment, maybe?* I nearly whirled around to look for the source of this new thought, because it was faintly familiar, but not one that was second nature to hear like Isabel's and Michael's mental voices. Somehow that meant it had to be...
*LIZ?* Okay, this was getting seriously weird. What was up with all of these odd abilities she was showing without even realizing it - and did they have anything to do with the contract that was out on her life?
*Don't shout, Max,* Isabel replied. *You've been including her in this since you started.*
*How is that even possible, if she's not... not one of us?* I insisted. *Maybe I could project to her, just possibly, but that doesn't explain how she can talk back silently...*
*Guys, argue about it later,* Michael sent shortly. *They're getting close, and Liz's notion was pretty good. Let's get ready for ac...*
"Hey, what the freak is going on?" Maria put in. "What else were you sensing, Max? Why did everyone suddenly go all quiet?"
"They're just planning everything silently," Alex replied in a whisper. "Don't bug them... oh?" Isabel had silently started to guide him into the circle. I looked over at Maria, and Liz seemed to be taking care of her good friend. So that was that.
We had the diagram. We had the words, both the secondary chant that everybody would be reciting and the parts that I would say alone - as the soloist, as it were. (Huh - would Liz's comments about the speech and music be always in my mind when preparing a spell now?) There were also somatic-mode speech elements to the spell - precise gestures that had to be timed in with the words, and also physical ingredients, nothing too fancy - stone and earth, stream water and air. The air had to be 'captured' - set apart from what was around us, so I'd closed up a small plastic container, figuring that whatever air happened to be inside it when the seal was made would do well enough.
We could hear the vampires - a baker's dozen of them according to my ward sense, before they slowed at all. I stayed silent, hoping that they wouldn't hope to spread out before moving in closer. They did start to range more widely, but I was pretty sure that eleven of them at least would be within the range of the spell by the time one, and then another, stepped into the clearing. "You know what we're here for, little wizard," he said, using English, which didn't surprise me. He was probably fluent in the speech, in a way, but I don't think any vampire liked using it.
*Yeah - just you and your friend?* Michael taunted, deliberately using the words of the creation out loud, (well, not quite - it's not like he was in the Enactive Recension or anything... but allow me a bit of poetic license here? No - don't ask what Enactive is... it's not really that important.) Umm, where was I? Right, he was doing it deliberately to provoke the vampires. *We could mop you up without even batting an eye and leave your friends out there to sweep up the dust.*
"Then why don't you do it, buddy?" the other vampire sneered, stepping a pace closer. "Because to me it looks like all three of you and your little friends are cowering behind a wizard's wall, and none of your attacks will even work through it. But that won't hold us for long, and even if you manage to get a few lucky shots in once we batter down the shield, that's effort that the rest of the pack won't need to go thr..."
ZZAP!! The vamp staggered back, badly hurt with a smoking hole exposing his collarbone - I turned over my shoulder to see that Liz had taken out the ion blaster and fired it. She grinned fiercely at both of her would-be killers, who were stunned that the blast had been able to hit them - or one of them.
Unfortunately, the first vampire to speak figured out what that meant all too soon. "The damn wall isn't even up yet!" he called, and his words carried through the forest. "Get 'em now, before..."
The second vampire, who had been wounded, struggled to pull out some kind of a weapon of his own, but by this time we were ready. With the first few words of the preliminary invocation, spoken in unison, a protective barrier sprang into being at the edge of the spell diagram - what the one vampire had called a 'wizard's wall.' Something very small pinged off of it - not a bullet or an arrow - probably a little needle or sliver of metal, most likely coated in poison. Snarling, the vampires both hurried forward to the edge of the diagram - they'd try to use their natural resistance to wizardry to bash their way in, but since the barrier wasn't an active offensive wizardry, it'd take them some time.
While speaking this new spell, to summon the trees, I had to let go of the ward-sense of where the other vampires are, but that couldn't stop me from wondering about them - and in which direction they were heading. Towards us, to help their friends get in and attack us, or away to get out of range? Surely some of them would have realized that we wouldn't only set up a protective defense... but if they weren't used to wizardry being an effective weapon against them, then maybe they just weren't taking what I would do seriously. Preliminaries done, and I started my first 'solo part' - a soliloquy in the Speech, imploring the trees to come to our aid, and offering my own self and energy as collateral for the effort and transition it would take them to rise and walk in this situation. Isabel gasped as she started to take in the meaning of what I was promising, but I didn't let that stop me. Inspired by Liz, I actually started to sing the words instead of speaking them - not improvising a tune by human standards, but using the musically-themed speech of some crystal life form that I'd looked up a long time ago.
Opened up the tiny vial of stream water, and sprinkled it upon the soil. Michael and Isabel joined into the chant. I could definitely feel the spell barrier trembling from the impact of vampires - four or five of them had gathered around us now - and they were charging at the circle at full pelt, so as to maximize the effect of their anti-magical presence I guess, using their own bodies like undead battering rams. Just after I'd finished releasing the air and crumbling the stone into fragments, one of them managed to penetrate and was INSIDE with us, standing on the diagram, within a few feet of Liz herself. I nearly stopped reciting one of the injunctions - a supplication to the ground to suffer itself to be waded through by trees - but Isabel reached out and squeezed my fingers with hers, and I understood. The only thing that I could do for Liz was to keep going. I focused on the words of the spell and kept talking.
As it happened, the danger of having an enemy inside with us didn't last for long. I didn't know what was going on at the time, but in the interest of telling the story clearly I'll use a little hindsight, because I'm not quite sure how to explain what I was aware of in any way that you'd understand. Michael and Maria caught each other's eyes, and even though neither of them could explain afterwards that they knew quite what the other was planning, they managed to each to absolutely the right thing at the right moment.
Maria did something that was half a bullfighting tick and half a judo throw against the vampire, standing in his path to lure him on until the last moment and then hip-throwing him into the far side of the diagram. At the same moment. Michael instructed the barrier at that spot to become passable for just a moment, (I guess that the vampires didn't realize that we could use that level of control, or they'd have realized that the bit about us not being able to attack them while our 'shield' was up wasn't really so.)
As for me, well, I heard Maria's *kiai* scream, and felt another hole open up in the barrier - wasn't really too sure whether it was another vampire trying to come in or not. As Isabel and Michael joined in on the last unison part of the spell, I realized that there wasn't a vampiric presence inside the circle with us anymore, and then... and then the trees began to respond.
At first it was sort of subtle, with the branches waving as if there were just a fierce wind blowing through the Frazier valley, and nothing more. And then, their roots began to shift, which was more impressive, because it was clear that either the trees were getting up and walking, or there was something like an earthquake-mudslide going on, either of which would be scary. At least one of the nearby vampires looked up, concerned. A tree lurched towards them, and then more, staggering through the ground like they hadn't expected to be doing this, but fiercely badass nonetheless.
The first tree that actually attacked a vampire was around twenty-five feet high or so - grabbing his arms and his upper body with branches, then trying to tear off his head with another. The vamp managed to free one arm and tear away the branch wrapping around his head, but then the spike of broken-off wood that was left plunged down and buried it into his chest - forming itself into a stake of living wood. Straight through his heart. The vampire collapsed unmoving after that cruel spear was retracted.
I looked around and realized that similar fights were happening all over - and that the vampires were way overmatched. I had read of other tree battles before - there's one mentioned in the manual, involving Central Park in New York and a few kids who'd been on Ordeal in a parallel universe ruled by an Avatar of the lone one, but I've never been clear on just how long ago it happened. Anyway, usually those fights seemed to be fairly evenly matched. This was a slaughter. (At least it was the side of light that had the upper hand!)
In less than a minute, there wasn't a vampire left undead. I struggled to re-establish my ward sense, just to make sure that there weren't any vamps who had escaped, or fighting going on out of sight of the spell diagram, and by then the nearby trees were parting to let one of their own come through - the thick and gnarled old tree from the dream conversation I had had. *Thank you, Master Tree,* I said - still standing in the spell diagram, not because I thought I needed its protection anymore, but because I was still driving the magic that kept them moving. *You have fulfilled your side of the bargain excellently. I hope that I shall be able to repay my debt as well.*
*Part of that debt has been paid off by the powers that be,* the trees, surprisingly, responded in chorus from all around me. *Though this event might not seem so significant, they who have assigned you to protect Parker have also approved our aid in this fashion. But do not forget the words you have spoken here tonight.*
*No, I won't,* I insisted. *Goodnight, and good growing to you all.*
*Take your places again now,* Isabel advised. *For even our wizardries will not keep you standing on your roots long, now that the danger is past.*
*So be it.* And the trees shuffled around somewhat and sank back into the earth - though I couldn't help thinking that some of them had taken advantage of the opportunity to shift positions somewhat from where they had been before the spell started.*
"And that's it?" Alex asked, once the spell had been dismantled and we'd started cleaning up the disarray in our campsite left over from the brief melee. "Liz is safe now?"
"One way to check," Michael muttered, and opened up his manual to a page near the front - obviously he was going for 'ongoing and recently completed missions.' Maria and Liz both looked over his shoulder - Maria turned away in disgust after a few seconds, realizing that it was still in a language she couldn't read, while Liz seemed oddly fascinated by the pages. "Mission accomplished - without those vampires, the dark presence in Roswell won't be able to press home an attack on Liz, and will try to consolidate strength and build up new vampire recruits."
"Sounds like we'll be busy," Isabel muttered. "And speaking of dark presences - is our eavesdropper gone?"
I checked. "Yeah, seems so."
"The big bad'un is probably throwing a huge rage fit right now, that his incompetent minions weren't able to kill one simple little girl," Alex mused. "And I'm very glad of it."
"But, isn't there a possibility that he'll try for Liz later, like months from now?" Maria put in.
"I suppose that's always a possibility," Michael agreed. "We know that there's a risk, and we'll always be willing to help. But this bodyguard mission was about a particular window of opportunity to kill her, I think, and we've slammed the window shut."
"Thanks guys," Liz insisted. "So what happens now?"
"Well, I think we go into our tents and sleep," I pointed out. "May head back into town a little earlier than planned tomorrow, though I think maybe we can actually enjoy the time out here in the woods instead of just worrying about dark danger the whole time."
"Should head on over to River Dog's for a debriefing," Isabel put in. "He's got the synopsis from the manual network already, I'm sure, but he appreciates a personal meet-up now and then."
"Yeah," I agreed. "I have a few questions to ask him too - nothing too important."
"Alright," Liz said, heading back towards the big girls' tent. "Does River Dog use a manual himself? It doesn't seem to fit with that native-american-mystic deal he's got going on."
"No, Indian wizards work more like the Irish ones," Michael said absently. "A lot of rote memorization and direct mental contact with the manual network."
"You're not supposed to call them Indians anymore, Michael," Maria told him. "That's just people who actually come from the Indian subcontinent in Asia..."
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"Okay, my turn," Liz said, tossing the two of clubs out onto the small wooden table we were gathered around. "So, that's it from River dog, 'yep you did well?'"
"Way it usually goes in this business," Isabel said, playing high with the ace. "There's too much going on to hand out effusive kudos - and sometimes it gives you a swelled head, messing you up on another job down the road." She sighed.
"It was really the trees who did well," I added honestly. "I did more-or-less-okay at keeping you safe until they could do their thing, no more." I sighed. "And I think River Dog has his hands full with something else, though I haven't been cleared for many details. Either that or it's really complicated - the precis on the pocket PC certainly doesn't make much sense to me."
"Did you ask for more details?" Alex asked. "And, um, play a card."
"What?" I jumped slightly, and realized that I had been so busy talking I hadn't played. Tossed on the king of clubs, Alex played the Jack, and Isabel gathered the cards, (which wouldn't cost her any points,) and started to ponder her next play. "Yeah, I tried to access more info, but I'm not sure if I'm not authorized to view the info, or I'm just not asking the right way."
"It's a magic computer system," Isabel informed me, playing a low spade. I hesitated, and put on the ten. I didn't have many spades, and the king was dangerous, but I couldn't play it now in case Alex or Liz had the black Mary. "Can't you just ask it for what you need in plain words, instead of trying to find the right spot to tap with the stylus or whatever?"
"Yeah, that normally works," I agreed. Wanted to change the subject, so I turned to Liz, who beat my ten with the ace of spades - lucky her for being last to play to a spade trick. "Do you think it'll be hard to get back to life as normal, now that you know so much about wizardry and vampires and so on?"
"Come on, Max, this is Roswell," she put in with a little smile. "What's so great about normal?"
"It seems pretty safe, in comparison with not-normal," Alex pointed out, considering the diamonds that the two of us had played to Liz. I guessed that he would have dumped a heart on Isabel, except something was holding him back - either Isabel's likely reaction, or the fact that it would have freed her to lead low hearts if she had any. Maybe both. Played off the jack of spades instead. "I know that you don't want me getting involved with this stuff right away, honey - and that's alright with me, actually. I'll help again if I can, but... but I don't want to get too involved with this stuff while I can't protect myself."
"Well, umm..." I think Isabel wasn't quite sure how to answer. "Maybe that's for the best... wait a second, who dumped on me?" She looked at the new batch of cards. "Parker??"
"You could have seen that I'd played a heart before you went high," Liz argued back. "If you'd been paying attention." She sighed. "Speaking of self-protection, what about that blaster? Should I give it back?" She hesitated, took a clean trick of clubs, and led out spades. "Maybe Alex can take it."
"No, that's better staying with you, you used it well," Isabel told her. "Under the heading of 'just in case some other surprise happens.'"
"Alright I guess." Liz dumped the queen of spades onto Alex with a bit of a nasty grin. "Lunch is gonna be pretty good, won't it??"
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Lunch sucked actually, which qualified as a minor surprise I suppose. No fault of the food or Michael and Maria's work in preparing it, but suddenly a cold front washed in, bringing a depressing drizzle of rain along with it, so nobody was comfortable. We ended up heading back into town at around two-thirty in the afternoon, and Isabel suggested that everyone could meet with their parents and then head back to our place in the evening for an impromptu party. I was a little surprised that she'd suggested it, but didn't object at all - anything that would give me a chance to spend some time alone with Liz, I suppose. Maybe Isabel meant it that way.
Met up with Valenti and Topolsky again in the afternoon, and a few other local wizards who I didn't know that well, just to debrief them on the vampire thing, since they were the ones who'd have to be leading further operations here in town unless it was a really serious situation. I also mentioned the stuff about Liz using the speech spontaneously, and sending out mind-talk, and my wonders about whether that had anything to do with the reasons someone wanted her dead. Valenti admitted that I had a point, but neither of them seemed to want to add anything else. And there was some homework to keep me busy during the late hours of the afternoon, and so on. Real life keeps coming up with stuff to take up your time.
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"Hi, Max," Liz said, when I stepped out of the back door and under the porch roof - the rain was still coming down, pretty hard for a desert town like Roswell. "I hoped that you'd come join me."
"Yeah, I sortuv got that impression when you waited inside the door for me to come into the kitchen before heading out," I said, smiling. "That you were giving us a chance to be alone together. Thanks."
"And you're finally off the clock now, mister bodyguard," she said, turning to me slightly and stepping closer. "Have I mentioned how glad I am that all of this happened, so that... so that I could get to know you better, like I have?"
"Hmm... no, not in so many words," I replied. "And it seems a bit weird when you put it like that - there has to have been an easier way in which the two of us could have gotten acquainted."
"I dunno, we could have spent more time together, working on a school project, or getting involved in the same club," she said softly, still looking out at the rain more than at me. "But - but I don't think that either of those things would have gotten me any info on your little secret. And without that - without this thing that is so big a part of your life, that you hardly share with anyone else around you, I wouldn't have been able to figure you out, I think."
"Oh." I considered that a bit, looked over at her, and caught her shooting a stray glance over at me in the same moment. "Well, I *am* glad that you know."
"Good." Now Liz turned away from the wet night, and her eyes caught mine so firmly that there was no possible escape. Without saying another word, she kissed me passionately, and her body seemed to melt in my arms, except that it was also firm and alive with physical energy. "Max, Tuesday night. Are you free for... sheesh, I dunno, for dinner and a movie?"
"Of course, absolutely," I breathed. "You - you just couldn't wait for me to ask, could you?"
"I wasn't sure if you'd be too shy to make your move," Liz teased me, and let her lips brush against mine again, with just an echo of the intensity of the previous kiss. "Can't wait. Meet tomorrow morning at school?"
I swallowed. "Yeah, fine." I started trying to figure out what would be the first reasonable moment to ask her if she wanted to have lunch in the caf with me, so that she couldn't beat me to that one as well.
"Great, see you then." And she headed inside again, and was chatting with Maria within a few seconds.
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"Nothing else up on the schedule?" Michael asked, much later on Sunday evening, as we left the computer behind, having finished a fun session on neverwinter knights. "No friends of the family who have to be saved from cancer, or cultural exchange trips to take you halfway across the galaxy?"
"Not a thing," I insisted to him. "There might be an attempt to take the fight to the surviving vampires or find out something about their mysterious boss, but Valenti said that none of us should be part of that, after what we've done already. If anybody realizes that we were involved, then it'd probably be more intimidating for us to stay behind in reserve."
"...Instead of joining the action, and letting them realize that we don't really have any secret weapon to use against their kind, unless we happen to be in a wooded place," Michael agreed. "Okay, fair enough. Just wondering... I hate it when things get dull around here."
My ears perked slightly as we headed towards the living room, because I could tell the familiar rhythms of someone reciting something. Isabel doing a spell? No, it was in English, not the speech, though the words were familiar. It was Liz's voice, I realized, and as I stepped through the doorway, I could suddenly make out the tail end of the passage.
"...are threatened. To this end, in the practice of the art, will I put aside death for life, and fear for courage - when it is right to do so. Looking always unto the heart of time, where all of our sundered worlds are made whole, and until time's end." Liz had been reading off the screen of my new Wizard's manual PDA, and I hadn't needed to make out the words to realize what she'd been reciting.
The wizard's oath. If Liz could bring herself to pronounce those words, then there had been an offer of the powers of wizardry to her, and she was bound by her acceptance. There was no reading out the oath 'just for fun' even among those who had first taken it long ago. And I could sense the truth of it, that there were now - well, four teenage wizards in the room, since Isabel had also been staring at Liz as she read, and Michael just followed me through the door.
Liz was a wizard too, a probationary one at the moment. Very soon, in a few days' time or a week at most, she would get sent out on her ordeal - a terrible solo challenge against the same forces who had sent the shooter and the vampires against her - and this time, I would be unable to protect her. Very little assistance could be given to a wizard on Ordeal, because the central problem was something that only that person could resolve. Could Liz possibly have understood what she was getting herself into?
She turned to me, big smile on her face. "Hey, Max -- I think it worked!!"
I didn't manage to stifle my groan.
THE END... for now...