Chapter 10

Lady Oriel was quite right in saying that Ambrose was very interested in the boys report.

"So Rattlebones was able to change the very essence of those fairies. Are you sure they reacted negatively to life magic?" said Ambrose.

"Very sure. You know … it was so horrible. The healing aspect of life magic wasn't supposed to kill them it was supposed to help. How can I ever forgive myself for screwing up like this? I just can't get the screams out of my mind!" said Harry.

Harry's eyes shone brightly but he could not shed a tear. Dudley gave him a one-armed hug to stave off the pain.

"Harry, do not trouble yourself; you did those fairies a kindness. It takes two steps to become allergic to healing Life Magic. The first is to have pure necromantic magic running through your veins. The second is to have a soul so evil that it is utterly irredeemable. Those fairies were once creatures of joy and love, if they knew what they were about to become I assure you that they would have chosen death. Besides you have avenged them," said Ambrose.

"No I didn't, Malistaire is still out there. He's the cause of this and if he ever crosses my path, he's going to pay," said Harry in a tone that brokered no argument.

"I admit that your paths shall grow ever closer but do not seek him out if you can. Now I have some things for your hard work and a new assignment," said Ambrose.

Ambrose gave the boys a few coins, a crystal ball with promises of future lessons, and a new assignment at Triton Avenue.

Triton Avenue could be accessed by going through the sprawling shopping district of Wizard City (Harry yanked Dudley away from the food stands, and Dudley yanked Harry away from the bookstores). It was one of the three streets linked to Wizard City's historic and quaint Olde Town. Triton Avenue was a place of beautiful and wild storm magic. Roaring thunder cracked in the sky and lighting ran through the street. Unfortunately, Triton Avenue had recently developed a huge zombie problem. Susie Gryphonbane was Harry and Dudley's first contact. She was a young diviner about their age who looked very out of sorts. She took in Harry's magical strength with a grin but seemed to appreciate Dudley's new, more muscular physique. Since Susie made him a little nervous, Dudley elected Harry to conduct the interview.

"When did all the problems start?" said Harry.

"It began when the undead start to pour out of the haunted cave at the end of the street. They've always been there but they seemed happy enough to leave everyone alone. Then they just broke down the gate to the haunted cave and spilled onto the streets," said Susie.

"Do you know what caused it, maybe we could take it out?" said Harry.

"No but my brother thinks that some dark force in the haunted cave made them leave and attack. He went on ahead to investigate," said Susie.

"Why didn't he take you with him? Surely it's a little too dangerous to go alone?" said Harry.

"I know but I need to stay here and help fight off the zombies. They've almost killed many people. I'm up to my eyeballs in work!" said Susie.

"That's why I need you to check up on my brother Artur. I haven't heard from him in a while and I'm starting to get worried. He should be just inside the haunted cave. I'll man the fort over here," said Susie.

"We're on it," said Harry.

"Good luck boys," said Susie as she jogged away to save a little girl who strayed from the sidewalk from being attacked by a rather peeved zombie. "Eat lightning you over-ripe meat bag!" said Susie, blasting the zombie to bits amid claps of thunder.

Harry and Dudley were almost at the haunted cave when Harry said, "I think Susie likes you, a lot." Harry's eyes gleamed like a cats in the dark and he had a small smile on his face.

"You know I think I should like that girls have a crush on me but aren't we a little too young, plus they freak me out a bit, girls are so weird," said Dudley with a little shiver.

"One day, you'll probably find one that isn't too bad. Hey, I think we're here. Uh oh … that can't be too good," said Harry.

In front of them was a cave whose dark aura made their hairs stand on end. It was clear that a gate once blocked the entrance. Shiny steel framed the cave but towards the center the steel was weak and corroded like it had stood for a thousand years. It was hanging open and whispers could be heard coming out of it.

"You don't think there's a sidewalk in there do you?" said Dudley.

"Let's hope so," said Harry.

As they stepped into the Haunted Cave, they were met with an amazing sight. The inside was massive and seemed to continue as a street. There was a sidewalk and dark, beautiful (if abandoned) homes lined the haunted cave. Where the sidewalks ended, monsters and ghosts prowled. The moment Dudley saw a zombie eying him like meat he pulled himself and Harry onto the sidewalk.

Harry bent down to pick up a few fragments of wood. "Look it's a broken wand!" said Harry.

As Dudley took the pieces into his hand, he could feel the lightning coursing dangerously from the fragments.

"This is almost definitely Artur's wand, but we need to get it to Susie to be sure," said Harry.

"Let's go I'd rather deal with her goo-goo eyes than … wait is that zombie still staring at us?" said Dudley.

Harry and Dudley returned to find Susie anxiously awaiting them.

"Did you find him? Where is he?" said Susie.

The hope in her eyes dimmed as Harry silently removed the wand fragments from his bag.

"Oh no, that's his wand. He would never abandon it; it was a gift from our mom, something terrible must have happened. I bet he was right about the evil coming from the haunted cave!" said Susie.

"Yes he was, something is really wrong with that place.

"Could you talk to Duncan Grimwater? He's a necromancy student who came here on his own to study the events here. He's very snobby but if anyone knows what's going on here it would be him," said Susie.

"We're on it," said Harry.

As they began to walk away, Susie grabbed Dudley's sleeve.

"Promise me you'll do your best to find my brother," said Susie.

Dudley glanced at Harry's retreating figure he said, "Don't worry Harry's involved, and he is the best."

Susie let him go with a smile and as he rushed to meet up with Harry, Susie muttered, "I have a feeling that the Death in Living Death isn't so bad either, besides he's kind of cute."

"A so Ambrose sent you two to help. I guess he figured that Susie and her brother were losing control of the situation. That's what happens when you send a Storm student to do a Death student's job," said Duncan as he gave Dudley an approving glance. Dudley resisted the urge to growl only barely, but Harry was bristling in barely restrained rage. Dudley decided to step in before Harry wiped the smug idiot off the map.

"Artur Gryphonbane has gone missing and Susie thinks you can help," said Dudley.

"She says he's missing, I think the fool is probably hiding under his bed at Ravenwood," said Duncan.

Harry gave Duncan a very angry frown as he charged up a cloud of equally angry life magic. Seeing that he was digging himself a grave Duncan raised his hands in surrender and said, "Actually I'll look into it anyway. In the mean time, you could help me with my field studies by fighting the undead around here and learning their fighting tactics. I would do it myself but … I just ran out of treasure cards."

"We'll do your dirty work, but by the time we come back you better have some information, lives are at stake here," said Harry.

Duncan laughed nervously and swore that he would have information by their return.

A few minutes later …

"Wow, I didn't know you had such a temper," said Dudley.

"I swear it's the pyromancy training, it makes me more fiery," said Harry.

Harry and Dudley came back to Duncan looking slightly singed. They had fought lightning wielding undead for more than an hour. If Harry heard 'brainsssssss' one more time, he would have a conniption. All they had to show for it were some lightning themed jewelry dropped by the zombies, and some exhaustive notes on fighting tactics (courtesy of Harry).

Duncan excitedly flipped through the notes occasionally making appreciative noises. Dudley's magic kept him calm and collected but he noticed that Harry's eyes would occasionally twitch.

"Wait these notes say that the undead used lightning magic, that's highly unusual," said Duncan.

"That's fine and dandy, but did you find any sign of Artur!" said Harry.

"Hey calm down, I haven't gotten any information yet but I'm sure that the undead's sudden appearance is related. These amulets are giving the undead control of storm magic, which should be impossible. You can get me some lumina crystals and that should let us read the storm magic," said Duncan.

Harry simply got up and left. Duncan looked very offended. "What's his problem? You guys are famous enough for me to know that he's supposed to be the nice one," said Duncan.

"There are certain qualities that Harry dislikes and you have most of them. You put others down, talk behind their backs, you do not value other people's concerns for their family, and from what we just saw you don't like to fight your own battles. He just didn't want to deal with you anymore because you can't help us, we don't have a lot of time," said Dudley.

"Come on Dudley, Susie could probably tell us more about storm magic than an annoying crystal could!" said Harry.

"Coming!" said Dudley.

"Actually Duncan had the right idea by getting a lumina crystal to analyze the amulet. It's the only way a non-diviner could do it; thankfully, I could save us both some time," said Susie.

Susie Gryphonbane waved her hands about the storm amulets and began a hypnotizing chant. Suddenly sparks flew everywhere and formed words that only Susie could read.

"Oh god! They're stealing storm magic from the lumina crystals that power Wizard City. This could be really bad," said Susie.

"How bad?" said Harry.

"Like sucking all the power out of the city bad," said Susie.

"That's really bad," said Dudley with a curt nod.

"I only know a little of the undead but I'm sure they're too dumb to do this themselves," said Susie.

Harry looked to Dudley for confirmation. "Yep they're usually as dumb as a doornail unless you put a lot of magic into them. These are "natural" undead so their pretty stupid," said Dudley.

"Get some lumina crystals from the undead. Duncan should be able to trace the necromantic signature to the origin. He's the only necromancer in the spiral with so much experience with lumina crystals," said Susie.

With a groan Harry marched off to finish the task as soon as possible.

Sometime later, an even more singed Dudley and Harry stood before a very widely smirking Duncan Grimwater.

"So you decided that I do have some uses," said Duncan.

"Trust me, no one was more surprised than me," said Harry.

"I'll help you out of the goodness of my heart," said Duncan.

Dudley could hear Harry mutter something unintelligible. Duncan imperiously ignored him and began to whisper to the crystals. An image appeared in a swirl of electricity and mist. Duncan jumped in shock.

"Of course, the Harvest Lord is the one responsible for the undead, the amulets, and he's even kidnapped Susie's brother. He has quite the history of mixing death and elemental magic together. He's very dangerous but if you want to fix Triton Avenue he's your man," said Duncan.

"That's actually pretty cool," said Harry.

Duncan looked like a puppy who got the best toy ever as he said, "I knew I'd win you over somehow."

Harry just shook his head and ran off to deal with the Harvest Lord. He was like something out of Sleepy Hollow with his dark garb and his pumpkin head. His head had a permanent grin carved into it and it was illuminated by the eerie glow of hell fire. His fire and death magic were terrifying but Dudley weakened him before Harry summoned a dryad to finish the monster off. Stuffed into a trunk at the back of the Harvest Lord's lair lay Artur Gryphonbane.

"I thank you for your help. The Harvest lord was working with Malistaire to use the undead to take over Wizard City and eventually Ravenwood. With his death, his magic has weakened. Susie and I should be able to take care of it. Give this report to Ambrose, it's why I was captured," said Artur as he handed them an envelope. "May the winds of fate be kind to you."

"What's in it?" said Harry.

"I'm sorry, it's for Ambrose's eyes only," said Artur.

Harry gave a bit of a pout but accepted it.

"Now let's get out of here, I have no wish to stay any longer than necessary," said Artur.

Remembering the wicked grin of the Harvest Lord, Harry and Dudley gave shiver before rushing out the door. They were greeted by the sight of Duncan and Susie trying to bash their way into the lair.

"Oh my god, you're all ok! Is that you Artur?" said Susie.

"Yep, it's me. Those two wizards of yours took good care of the Harvest Lord," said Artur.

"Why are you guys here?" said Harry.

"Well Duncan here came to warn me that you went off to fight the Harvest Lord on your own. He said that we had to help. You've done quite a number on him, I've never seen him worry about anyone."

Duncan was blushing up a fire storm. "Why can't I worry about someone who's about to face a terrible monster?" said Duncan.

"Whatever I've never seen you actually try to fight something," said Susie.

Artur, Susie, and Harry laughed as they walked towards the start of the street, leaving Duncan and Dudley alone for a moment.

"You don't usually like fighting do you?" said Dudley.

"No but I'm not a coward, it's just that Death spells …," said Duncan

"Are so weak. Death spells don't do a lot of damage normally but we have two advantages," said Dudley.

"What are those?" said Duncan.

"The first is that almost any spell that hits our opponent converts damage done to them into healing for us. The second is that we have spell after spell that can weaken our foes and increase the strength of our attacks. You just have to be smart about them, that's why the Death School is the school of strategy," said Dudley.

"So I've been doing it all wrong?" said Duncan.

"Your biggest mistake is not fighting with Susie and Artur," said Dudley.

"What do those two dorks have to offer," said Duncan. Dudley smacked Duncan on the back of head hard. "Damn it, that sent me to the ground! What was that for?"

"No putdowns, no being a snob. I know for a fact that Susie can easily destroy the zombies you're afraid of. Lightning wizards are naturally very powerful but their attacks frequently miss because their magic is very uncontrolled. That's where you step in. You can damage monsters when others fail, and Susie and Artur can give you protection while you weaken your enemies. Think about it," said Dudley as he made his way towards Harry.

When they were back in the bustling shopping district, Dudley asked, "Do you think we can bring Carlisle next time," said Dudley.

"Mr. Barker did say that his training would be finished today," said Harry.

"So next time we'll get to fly in style!" said Dudley.

Harry only laughed as he pulled Dudley into a colorful bookstore.

AN:

I would like to hear what you guys think of this chapter so please review.

I have a picture of Lady Oriel on my site (my version). Just go to my author profile and find the link to my page.

Both Carlisle and the mysterious girl in red will be featured in my next chapter