Chapter 9
Sophie looked at the clock. "Alright, it's almost the end of another hour. Give me the headphone."
Daniella handed it over.
Sophie called Kelly and Ryan.
In Kelly and Ryan's room, the headphone started ringing. But no one was there to pick it up.
Sophie kept waiting for someone to answer. Finally, she hung up. "That's weird. Why aren't they answering?"
"Maybe they're already asleep," said Tech, "Let's give them 10 minutes." Sophie nodded.
Ryan, meanwhile, was pounding on the doors. "LET ME OUT! I CAN'T BREATHE!"
"RYAN!" Kelly stopped him, "We have plenty of air! The place is enchanted! Shut up!"
"Right. Sorry." Ryan stopped and looked at her. "How long have we been in here?"
"3 hours," Karen answered. She walked over to Arielle. "Please tell me you found something."
Arielle sighed and put down the goblets. "Nothing. I can't find anything that could tell us what happened."
Haven approached her sister. "Arielle, don't you think you're overreacting about this one?"
"Haven, someone tried to kill one of my friends' children. I won't sleep until I know who did it."
"So you had to lock everyone in here?"
"Whatever it takes. And I know at least Kelly and Ryan understand me. Right?" Nothing. "Right?" Still nothing. She turned around and saw the 2 asleep on the floor.
Carmen looked at Arielle. "Yeah, that happens a lot."
Arielle sighed. "Perhaps it's best they get their rest now. If someone on my court is out to get us from the inside…I fear all of Anasala may be in trouble…"
7 minutes/7 hours later…
Ryan snapped up in a bed. "It was all a dream! Anasala isn't in danger!"
"Ryan…" Karen yanked him out of the bed. "…for the last time, that isn't working!" She zapped the bed away.
"That's it!" Saffron cried, "10 hours is long enough! I'm getting out of here!" She raced towards the sealed doors to ram them down. It didn't work, so she started throwing her body against the enchanted wood. The rest of the Coven ran over there and pulled her off.
"She's OK," said Amanda, "As much time as she spent with us on top of all this, I think she got Witch's Snap."
"That's not all that's gonna get snapped!" Saffron cried, attempting to kick herself out of their grip.
"Witch's Snap?" Kelly asked the twins.
"It's like a Witch's—or Warlock's—common cold," Carmen explained, "Too much stress and they almost literally lose their minds until they almost literally blow off some steam."
"She's gonna explode?" asked Ryan.
"Oh, no! That's a village myth."
Karen glared at her sister. "One is easy to handle. If any more of us here go out of it, we're dead."
Kelly sighed. "Then maybe we should start figuring out whodunit. I'll go call Mom and Dad." She started to walk off… "The headphone's in our room."
Carmen smiled. "Got it covered." She pulled out a hand mirror. "Witch's Glass. It's like a videophone. And it's perfect for interspecies and interdimensional communication." It started vibrating. "For instance, your mom's calling right now. Wait a minute, your mom's calling?" She zapped the Witch's Glass and an image of Sophie appeared on the screen, surrounded by fog. "Sophie, is something wrong?"
"That depends: are my kids OK?"
"We were until 10 hours ago," said Kelly, turning the mirror to face her.
"What happened? Did Skeeter summon a zoo again?"
"Yes, but that's not the problem."
Wendy started to drink some more water, but thought better of it.
Sophie, still holding their Witch's Glass (she'd explained it to the others after the kids didn't answer the headphone), glared at her sister.
Tech snatched the Witch's Glass. "Then what is the problem?"
"Simple: last night, someone tried to poison us."
"WHAT?" Sophie and Tech both cried, making Lexi jump.
"One second." Wendy picked up her water, drank some, and did another spit take.
"WOULD YOU STOP THAT?" Lucy shouted.
"It's what I do when I'm shocked!"
"Well, try being scared for a change!"
"If I did, I'd upset the kids!"
"They're asleep 4 floors down in a soundproof room!"
"Exactly!"
"Guys!" Ryan stopped them.
"Sorry," both girls said.
Mars flew over to them. "Hey. Who's on the Witch's Glass?"
"Nobody!" Carmen answered instantly, hiding the mirror behind her back, "What Witch's Glass?"
"Tell me you didn't just snap, too," Kelly told her.
"I'm fine. It's him and Wendy I'm worried about."
"Let me guess," Wendy said, snatching the Witch's Glass from Tech, "Mars just flew back in from Planet Insanity!"
"Hey!" Mars landed on Carmen's shoulder and looked into the Witch's Glass, "Need I remind you, I broke up with you!" He then noticed that she was giggling. "What? WHAT?"
Wendy started walking back around the counter to the couch, laughing her head off. "I told you they'd catch you!" She broke down completely, throwing the Witch's Glass back to Daniella and falling onto the couch, her laughter muffled by the pillows.
"It's not that funny!" Mars snapped as Carmen pulled the Witch's Glass around and made him fly back up and land on her shoulder facing the other way.
Daniella looked in the Witch's Glass, noticed his condition, and started giggling, too. "It kind of is."
Sophie looked, too, and started laughing. "Be thankful they didn't go so far as interpret your real personality, you'd be a donkey right now!" She bent over so far down with her laughter that she almost fell on the floor.
The twins were now having a hard time holding back their own laughter.
"OK, I get it! I was caught by the Council and turned into a stupid crow! You don't have to rub it in!"
"Oh, don't worry, we won't," said Daniella, "We'll just laugh!" All 3 sisters burst out into a fit of laughter.
"That's it!" said Mars, "I'm out!"
"What?" Wendy asked, sitting up on the couch, "Need to go fly to the little pigeon's statue?" She doubled over again, grabbing her stomach.
Mars growled and flew back up to the banister.
"Alright, that was funny," said Carmen.
"OK, turning back to our problem…" Kelly said.
"OK, OK, we're done," said Wendy, "No more!"
"Good."
"Alright," said Daniella, trying her best to regain her composure, "OK. Now…what do we have so far?"
"Absolutely nothing," Ryan answered.
"Not true!" Kelly corrected, "We have…" She started thinking. "Yeah, you're about right. We've got nothing."
"Alright, that cannot be possible," said Tech, snatching back the Witch's Glass, "Any clues?"
"Arielle searched," said Kelly, "Nothing."
"Well, how about suspects?" asked Daniella, "The castle's loaded."
"Everyone we came into contact with before Kelly got her vision had a motive," Ryan explained, "There's no telling who could've done it."
"Yeah, right!" snapped Shaya, "Give some good reasons anyone here would've done something like that."
"Let's go down the list, shall we?" asked Kelly, "First of all, you're one of the main suspects."
"Can't I?" Brad asked.
"Fine."
Brad zapped the instruments and they gave off one last DUN-DUN-DUN!
"Why would I be a suspect?" asked Shaya.
"Come on," said Kelly, "For one thing, you're married to Arielle's brother and you 2, and I quote, 'have been married a long time.'"
"Now, hold on a second," said Brad, "I'm not gonna let you blame my wife like that."
"You're in it, too!" Kelly snapped, "I mean, you and Haven! The 2 of you, from what I hear, were supposed to be in line for the throne and then Arielle, smitten for a guy, ended up taking the throne instead. Now that she's passing you over for a second shot at the throne, why not take a snap at her successors?"
DUN-DUN-DUN!
"You're right, that is kind of annoying," said Brad, zapping the instruments back down, "But I didn't come into contact with you 2, remember?"
"Anyone here could've zapped the poison into our drinks," said Ryan, "And Haven and Shaya did come pretty close to us. And Haven is the one who mixed the drinks in the first place. Either of one of them could've been set up. And after Kelly got that vision, you seemed pretty intent on starting up those instruments to stop anyone from noticing if something had happened to us."
"Snap!" Duck's voice rang from the Witch's Glass.
"Castle steward, doing my job!" Brad snapped, "Besides, Haven and I are perfectly happy with our lives. We don't need the throne. It's not like I could have it now anyway since I'm married."
"I think we all agree that that's a stupid rule," said Kelly, "But if it helps, you're not the only other one who may be responsible. I mean, Mars cut pretty close when he swooped down on us. And he claimed it was to 'scare us out of our wits.'"
"Which, I might point out, was totally uncalled for considering what we'd been talking about at that moment," said Karen.
"Look, I hate to break it to you, but Penelope made a good point last night," said Ryan, "You 2 were with us the whole time, either one of you could've done it. I mean, Karen, you've hated us ever since we stepped foot in this castle."
"And speaking of Penelope," said Wendy, taking the Witch's Glass, "she never did like us. She's been in the Coven since we left Anasala, but she would do nothing but torture us and mock us…even as we were leaving, she said we were walking to our doom."
"Because you were!" Penelope snapped, "Acmetropolis and everyone in it is a giant death trap! Everyone knows it's the most dangerous non-hell! Why do you think the Loonatics have had to watch it for so long? And even they risked their lives doing it!"
"Penelope, relax," said Kelly, "You might be in the clear. I mean, Saffron doesn't really care for the people here and she was pretty fast to snap."
"Maybe it was because of us," said Joy, "I mean, we are pretty crazy for a Coven."
"Which is exactly why you would've done it."
"What?"
"I mean, Eric does nothing but insult you. Why not try something to prove yourself by zapping some poison into the prince and princess' drinks?"
"I would never do that!"
"Well, no one seems to be wanting us to know what you saw in the plaza," said Ryan.
"It was nothing that involves you like that!" Amanda corrected.
"But it did involve us?" Kelly asked. No one objected. "So how do we know she didn't leave out something? Or that you told her to leave out something?"
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"You're supposed to be the leader of the Coven and no one listens to you. With something like the crime of the century penetrating the castle, who wouldn't follow your orders?"
"Yeah, right! I'm not some insane control freak who would say or do anything to get what she wants!"
"You seem the type to me," said Eric. Amanda glared at him, openmouthed. "What?"
"How do we know you didn't do it?" Amanda asked.
"Alright, now you're snapping!"
"I'm just stating the facts here. With Joy, you're worse than Saffron. She drives you bonkers till you can't stand it and you know she's pretty fond of these 2 having so much in common with this little coyote princess. How else would you get her to shut up than by destroying the only other Seer that could possibly take her place if she left?"
"Allow me repeat to repeat what dad said: SNAP!" Jack cried. Everyone heard a thud. "OW!"
"I'll tell you for the last time: shut up!" Sarah shouted.
Kelly rolled her eyes. "Our family's messed up enough without Skeeter and the others."
"You said it," said Ryan.
"I can see why you came over here," said Amanda.
"Trust me, it's not that different."
"Certainly not anymore," said Wendy.
"Maybe you can cast some sort of truth spell to get your suspects to tell you what really happened," suggested Nadine.
"Are you kidding?" Carmen cried, "They're not ready for a spell like that! We're still on wall-walking! Remedial wall-walking!"
"Yeah, there was an incident—" Kelly started.
"In fact, stuck-in-the-wall is more like it."
"I can understand that," said Sophie, "But maybe you should've started with something a little more…fundamental."
"What's more basic than walking through walls?" asked Wendy.
Sophie thought about that. "Well, nothing, really, but—"
"OK, can we focus on the issue at hand here? Thank you!" Kelly yelled.
"Wait a minute!" Ryan realized, "That's it! Walking through walls! I can zap myself through the wall and go get someone back here to cast a truth spell on the room!" He prepared for it and raced towards the wall…
Their family could just barely hear a large THUD!
Ryan fainted.
"Yeah, spell lock," Arielle explained, "No one can get out of here by magic or manually until we know, as Kelly said it, 'whodunit.' And even if you had gotten the spell right, your magic block would've made you hit the wall and bounce right back with a pineapple."
Ryan slowly got up, his ears falling over his eyes, and glared at her. "You couldn't have warned me before I started running?" He fell back down.
"That's it, we're hanging up," said Wendy, zapping the Witch's Glass off before anyone could object.
"Wait," said Daniella, "That's it! Ryan said he could go get someone back there to cast a spell on the room. We can zap ourselves over there and find Obsidian!"
"Obsidian?" Tech asked.
"Yeah, she's like the town fortuneteller. She's a very old and powerful Witch, the only one besides Arielle to claim the throne and survive Eronor's attack. All we have to do is get her to cast the spell and then BOOM! The attacker admits what they did and they can all leave! The kids are safe!"
"Brilliant, Danni!" Sophie cried, "Come on! We have to go now!" She led the group down the stairs.
"Wait!" Rev stopped them. "We-need-a-signal-in-case-the-baby-starts-coming!"
Daniella thought about this. "Well, how about 'AH! THE BABY'S COMING!'"
"Nah-too-obvious. OH! How-about-'Peaches'?"
Daniella stared at him. "'Peaches'? Seriously?"
"Yeah-I-always-liked-peaches-I-mean-they-taste-so-good-and-my-cousin—"
"Yeah, I think we get it," Daniella said, pulling him off.
"Why do we have to go immediately?" asked Robert, "If Arielle has them all sustained, shouldn't they be safe for pretty much the rest of the week?"
"Actually, we've been trying to tell you—" Sophie started as Daniella opened the door. She stopped when she saw storm clouds emerging. From them emerged bolts of clouded magic that zoomed to the ground and turned into Golems.
"Yeah, we probably should've seen that one coming," Daniella said.