I dedicate this next chapter to Miss-Vampire-Girl. Thanks for your review! I was really afraid that people might not like it because of it not being entirely about Howl and Sophie- but I promise you, they'll be in the next few chapters, I promise!
Colin was halfway out the door before Lupine frowned, took hold of his arm, and pulled him back into the room.
"What was that for? We need to go take care of Mum!" Colin said indignantly.
"Rose'll survive, she's tough." Lupine said impatiently, "I'm worried about you."
"I feel fine, I haven't got it! Mum wouldn't let me near her for fear I would get it!"
"Yes, but you'll be down in the valley, and if this is as contagious as the chicken pox, it'll get out of hand sooner or later, most probably sooner. I don't want you getting sick." She said, placing her other hand on his arm.
"What are you going to do?" Colin asked. He hoped it wasn't a shot. He hated shots, no matter how much his mother insisted it was polite not to kick and scream whenever needles came into view.
"Just inject you with some of my magic. Your magic is strong, but it needs to be stronger if it needs to fight off disease. I rather wondered how Rose got sick; the disease must have been either extra strong or sneaky to be able to infect somebody with such a talent."
"She ate a bunch of infected meat dad brought in, I think that's why." Colin eyed her nervously.
"Don't worry, I'm not going to eat you. Or give you a shot." Lupine sounded annoyed. Colin tried not to stare at her; she closed her eyes and muttered something under her breath that Colin didn't quite catch- then, all of a sudden, the place where she had placed her hand went cold. Not painful, just icy cold as if he had dunked his arm right into a bucket of ice water. Fortunately, as quickly as it had came, it had gone, and Colin felt rather refreshed.
"Thanks."
"Told you it wouldn't hurt. My magic's just not like that." She said this with a bit of a smirk. If Colin hadn't been brought up so polite, he probably would have said something like, "But I bet you are." Which he said in his mind. It was rather less satisfying than saying it out loud, but Colin wasn't sure if she would get mad and turn him into pie, no matter if she was his aunt or not.
When they finally managed to get to Mockingjay Valley, it was deathly quiet. Unnaturally, unnervingly quiet. The village itself looked fine; no burned-down buildings, no sign of attacks, nothing. It was as if everybody decided to take a nap, all at once, in the middle of the day. Colin shivered, lingered behind at the mouth of the valley. Lupine rolled her eyes and strode purposely into town, ignoring the silence scornfully as one might ignore a dusty, old, moth-bitten old shoe.
When she finally got to the part where Colin and his parents had lived, she wrenched open the door with what Colin suspected was more magic, Colin following timidly behind. Lupine did scare him a bit with her directness, actually. She headed straight for his mother's room, whirled around as Colin started to slip in, and commanded him to wait outside.
Then, she quietly slipped in, and to Colin's great relief (his mother wasn't dead!), prodded his mother, startling her out of her afternoon sick nap.
"Hallo, Rose."
"L-lupine?"
"Don'tcha recognize your sister?"
"Bah. I mean, what in the name of our king are you doing here? I sent Colin to you to take care of!"
"Oh, he just couldn't leave you out here to die." She said, a tad too cheerfully. "Besides, he's right outside of the door, anyway."
"What? I specifically told him to abandon me! I don't want him getting sick taking care of m- wait, what? ARE YOU CRAZY? Right in the middle of the infection?"
"I injected some of my magic into him, it acts as a decent vaccine."
"Well, if you hadn't noticed, I'm rather sick as well." His mother commented dryly.
"Yeah, we'll figure that out later. Come on, get up. We're going back to the castle and get you patched up."
"What? You going to inject me too?" His mother said sarcastically. "Fix me up and swing me over?"
"Yep. Now be quiet, please." There was a moment of silence, in which Colin assumed was Lupine doing some more magic, before she heaved a sigh and his mother spoke again.
"What do you know, that actually did the trick. I feel much better now!" She got out of bed and marched through the door where Colin was standing.
"Come on, now that Lupine fixed me up, I'll be fine while I recover. Besides, she needs all the help she gets to find our the cause of this disease." She beckoned him to come over to her, while Lupine, looking rather weary, joined them.
"Come on, its a long way home."
Despite his mother's protests that she was fine, she still wasn't quite up to hiking up a mountain standards. By the time they finally manage to get a peek at the grand, white marble exterior of 'the Castle of Illusions' as Lupine had called it, she was leaning heavily on Colin's arm. Fortunately, she had never been that bulky, built rather like Colin himself, so Lupine and him supported her quite well.
Drawing closer to the house, Colin's mother dropped onto the small porch bench that was in front of the house, while, to Colin's amazement, Lupine drew out a large silver keyring with dozens of keys on it.
There were many different kinds of keys- small keys, large keys, bronze keys, steel keys- keys of all size, shape and color, were all squeezed into one compactable keyring. It must have weighed a ton. Colin's eyes bugged out just looking at it.
"Oh, it doesn't weigh that much. I placed a spell on it, light as a feather now." Lupine said, distracted, as she fished around for the house key. "No, that's the cellar one, no, that's the winery.. And don't look at me like that, you know how the Castle is. Imagine a room, any kind, it pops up, with an individual key and lock to it."
Colin blushed. It was unnatural how Lupine always knew what people were thinking when she got serious and all. "Oh, I was just wondering, do the bedrooms and bathrooms all need keys? You must get awful used to having to hold it in if you have to fumble around for a key to each bathroom.."
"Oh, no, just the important ones. You know, to the swimming pool, game room, library. Things like that. I had to disable the locks on the bathroom after the first few times my guests.. erm.. had accidents. Another reason I had people coming over.. Ah, here we go!" She exclaimed cheerfully, inserting a shiny white key into the doorknob, turned it, and after a soft Click! they were in.
"But how did I..?"
"How did you get in without the key? I was out and forgotten to lock the door. And I was going to come sooner or later, anyway, you needn't have barged in like that." Lupine said reproachfully; she still wasn't over it, Colin thought with a sigh.
"What's this about barging in?"
Colin had almost forgotten his mother; he winced, and replied. "Oh, nothing. Mum, you look awful.." He looked at Lupine. She sighed and said, "Come on in, Rose. If you don't mind magically-brewed chicken noodle soup, you really do need some."
"Thanks." She said gratefully, rising and following her sister into the house.
After Lupine had found his mother a decent bedroom upstairs ("You only need to imagine what it looks like, but the trick is you have to add in all the layers, the heater and wood panels of it and stuff. As an added bonus, as long as you don't alter the outdoor appearance, it'll stay the same; mansionlike.") and Colin one himself, ("Don't touch the first one on the right, that's mine. The one on the left is my magician's workshop, don't touch that either. Not unless you want to be some species of toad.") Lupine had plopped herself down on his mother's bed while she sent Colin to go make his mother some chicken soup; you only had to open the cupboard, imagine the type of food you wanted (the cupboard, the wardrobe, and the bedrooms all worked like that; to change anything else, you had to get express permission from Lupine, otherwise you would end up as a toad), and it would appear. Aside from being rather soggy and affecting the taste slightly, it was a relatively good system.
"So, Rose, how have you been feeling?"
"Oh, other than being struck with a plague that killed my husband and is threatening the town where I grew up in?"
Lupine chuckled. She had missed her sister. "Yes, other than that." A brief pause. "And I really am sorry about James."
Rose shrugged, but it was clear that she had never been that close to her husband. "I miss him, but.."
Luckily, Colin returned just then. "Here, mum. Chicken noodle, like you make it."
His mother smiled gratefully, taking the bowl from him and gulping it down.
Lupine cleared her throat. "Um, anyway. We need to discuss what to do with you two; Mockingjay's a mess, and you can't return there. This kind of disease spreads fast, and we just can't. Besides, after this, I'm going to contact the king, and discuss with him what he means. For now, I think its best that you two stay here."
Rose looked at Colin; he shrugged. "We'd be happy to stay."
Lupine shifted, looking slightly uncomfortable. "There's another matter; I want Colin as my apprentice."
"WHAT?" Colin practically shrieked. He wasn't sure if he liked Lupine or not; it was clear she was a very powerful sorceress, but she wasn't the nicest, or pleasantest of witches.
"Yes, its clear you have remarkable talent. Besides, I do need an apprentice, and I would rather trust one of my relatives than any others running around my house. You're going to stay here otherwise, anyway."
"But-I don't want-" Colin spluttered.
"I think its a great idea." Colin stared at his mother. "Hush, dear. Lupine'll be a great teacher, and we'll be staying anyway, it might be good to pick up some wizardry on the way, too."
"Fine." He couldn't argue with his mother, but he could make life with Lupine as miserable as possible. Who cared that it was rude and she was his aunt? If she was his aunt, then she at least owed him thirteen years worth of birthday presents. And christmas presents.
"Great!" Lupine beamed, it was clear that she thought Colin would have been more trouble than this. "I need to go inform the king of our plans now-"
Ding-DONG!
Lupine looked slightly disgruntled. "Great. More visitors." Motioning for Colin to come with her and leaving Rose to rest, she led the way down the grand marble staircase, throwing open the door to let in a nervous looking King's Courier, no doubt because of Lupine's ferocious glare.
"Here's a message from the king." He handed Lupine a letter, emblazoned with the national seal. "Something about a plague."
"Huh. I suppose word reached him faster than we did." Lupine muttered, breaking it open and scanning the paper inside. Colin had to stand on his toes to peer over Lupine's shoulder, but before he had the chance to read so much more than "Dear Sorceress Lupine-" it was snatched away.
"This isn't good, Colin. Apparently the disease is traveling like wildfire all over the country, and its beginning to show itself in some countries like Ingary and Strangia as well; the king might have to call a council with all the other wizards for this." Lupine said worriedly. "Tell him that I can get blood samples, and I'll start working on it immediately. Hopefully we can contain it within just Montalbino; an international disaster like this would be terrible."
Dun dun dun! So what'll happen next? Will the king really have to call in wizards from other countries? Just keep waiting and you'll find out! (sorry about the wait for this one, though! ;3)