"Cool," said Kae, miming stabbing something. "Nice blade." He cut the lampshade off a porcelain lamp by the kitchen table.
"Kae!" I scolded as I picked up the floral lampshade. Kae just grinned.
"It was ugly!," he started to protest, but was interrupted by the girls coming over.
"We got provisions, water, and Mallory's got the items we need if we have to set up camp somewhere. We just need weapons now," said Holly.
"Kae and Eli got theirs already," I said. "Now let's do you."
I looked doubtfully at Mallory, but Kae found one for her, a plain steel calvary sword with bone-handle grip. She seemed to enjoy using it, because she started fencing with the petunias in the flower-box by the window. Holly was a little trickier. We tried first a short, razor thin fencing sword, but as soon as Holly thrust with it, the sword bent. We then tried a short, diamond blade, a silver dagger, and a replica of Kae's dagger, except it had opal bits instead of gold. None of them worked. Then, I found a tarnished bronze knife. I polished it, and Holly maneuvered it so skillfully, it was like an extension of her arm. Then was Stephanie, and she wanted a majestic blade that would strike fear into her enemies. We found many blades that would have worked for her, but she find any of them majestic enough. It was not until I found a delicate sword with an intricate twisted blade that Stephanie showed a slight bit of interest. I wasn't sure if Stephanie's bold hands would be able to handle the blade properly, but Stephanie proved more than adequate, maneuvering it in complicated manners, splitting desks in half like they were made of Jell-O. Last was me, and we tried so many blades, my arm felt like it was going to fall off. Finally, though, we found a copper knife with the letter E carved into the hilt. It was engraved with emerald, my birthstone. Although she could not manage it as skillfully as Holly, who seemed meant to handle knives, she felt reasonably comfortable with it, and chose it.
We then started to discuss where we were going to go.
"I found a-" started Phillip, but was interrupted by Holly.
"Phillip! You don't have a weapon! You didn't forget him, did you?" asked Holly, looking accusingly at Kae and I. At our sheepish looks, Holly said, "Well? Aren't you going to get him a blade?"
We exchanged looks, and waved Phillip over to the weaponry cabinet. Phillip seemed very sway-able, agreeing with every blade brought to him. Finally, Kae got tired of receiving,"This is perfectly agreeable," every time he handed Phillip a blade. He asked Phillip his weight, measured his hand, and gave him a short stabber-blade made of diamond. Phillip seemed perfectly inclined to go along with that, so the matter was settled. We returned to the group.
"Well," said Phillip. "As I was saying earlier, I found this." He spread out a blank piece of parchment. At least, I thought it was parchment. I'd never seen it before, so she wouldn't know.
"It's blank," said Stephanie, demonstrating her knack for stating the obvious. "How does it help us?"
"It helps us," said Phillip," because I also found this." He lay down a dirty, damp, funny smelling, and dog-eared scrap of paper. I leaned closer and could make out the words: Instructions for Magical Map
"Well, how do you know that that paper's the magical map?" asked Eli reasonably.
"Because I found both the papers in an envelope," said Phillip. Eli began to say more, but Phillip cut him off and said," Here, I'll show you."
He pulled a strand of his hair off and dropped it on the paper. Taking his blade he spilt the hair, and while he did that he sang out," Olay, uHm UHm uhM."
"What was that?" asked Stephanie, fascinated.
"It's an old prayer that Kedgwickians used to honor a goddess called Alana," explained Phillip, but before Stephanie could respond, words began to form on the paper.
Say your destination and your location
Mark your preferred trail in red
Follow me, or follow doom
And beware the paths that cause bloodshed.
Okay, I thought. It's a magical map talking about bloodshed. It's possible, it is. Well, I'm the leader. I need to take control.
"Okay," I said brightly. "I suggest now that Holly reads out our destination and our location. You know, since shes got that power of voice and all that, she might be able to work the map better than the rest of us. Objections?" There were none.
"Alright, Holly, go ahead," I said.
"Okay," said Holly nervously. "But what's our location? And honestly, what's our destination?"
I thought about it.
"Well, from what Amaryllis said, we need to stop Arachne at her palace. So that's our destination. And for our location, just say Amaryllis's house," I said.
Holly nodded, and took a deep breath. Her voice came out, fluid and rich and bright. I heard the crackle of fires in her voice, and knew it was meant to spark and ignite some life in the sodden map.
"Destination: Arachne's palace, Land of Au. Location: Amaryllis's house, Land of Au," Holly was saying. Suddenly ink bloomed out onto the page. Lines spiraled this way and that, forming trees and roads and.... at the end, and spiny black castle. I shuddered as she looked at it. It seemed perfect for a spider queen, with looming archways and long, tendril-like,slanting roofs. Several roads branched out toward the castle. Writing appeared on top of the map.
Please choose a route to Arachne's castle.
"Which one should I choose?" Holly wondered out loud.
"Say the one with the least monsters," advised Mallory.
Holly was about to do so, but Stephanie stopped her.
"No, say the one with the least danger. What if there are no monsters, but we come across a mountain lion?" she said. Her ice-blue eyes demanded attention.
The others nodded, and Mallory looked slightly embarrassed.
"Well, go ahead, Holly," said Eli. Holly nodded. Her voice flowed out again, asking for the route with the least danger and hardships. As soon as she was done a route on the map lit up bright red.
"Should we follow it?" asked Phillip in a doubtful voice. I noticed that Phillip had started talking more as he got to know us better.
"I'm thinking yes," said Mallory in a firm tone. I suspected she was trying to be more like Stephanie, but no one could replicate Stephanie's death glares.
"There's no point in discussing it," said Stephanie in a reasonable tone. "What other choice do we have?" The others considered this. Stephanie was right. There was no point in discussing it, because we no choice but to follow it.
"Well, shall we be heading out, then?" I asked. There were some reluctant glances, but everyone agreed we should go. We would just be wasting time by staying here, and one thing that we could not waste was time. We all filed out. I was just about to step over the threshold, when she saw a manual on the shoe rack Amaryllis kept by the door. The cover said, Guidebook to Mythical Monsters: There Weaknesses, Strengths, and How Not to Die When Facing Them.
Seems helpful, thought I. I grabbed it and made my way out the door.
Chapter 11
We had been walking for three days now, and the first landmark the map had told us to watch for still had not appeared.
"Do you think we got off track?" asked Phillip, consulting the map. We had all been chatting as walked to keep the boredom out of the air, and as we got to know each other more, Phillip proved to be a much more talkative boy, and hardly ever shut up now.
"I don't think so," I said, looking over his shoulder. "Look, the map's legend says that the fat red line marks our route, and the thin dotted blue line marks the way we're going. The blue line's been following the red line the whole time."
Phillip nodded, and began to gauge how much time it would take to reach the first landmark, a place marks by a flower and the words Fairy Circle.
"How long is it going to take us?" said Mallory irritatingly. "I mean, when I said I was coming on the quest I didn't think we were going to have to walk all the way!"
I sighed. Mallory was becoming more and more unbearable as the walk went on. As the days went on, her voic
e became screechier and more demanding. The whole group was infuriated with her, and Stephanie had started giving her the silent treatment.
"Evanna?" asked Mallory, crossing her arms. "I am thirsty and tired, and I've bugs crawling up my shirt! I haven't showered in three days! We need to rest!" Her voice rose up to a yell toward the end. I sighed again.
"I'm sorry, Mallory," she said, regretting her decision to become leader for the tenth time that day. As leader it was my job to deal with these things. "We'll probably be reaching the rest stop in a few hours. You'll just have to hold out a little longer."
"Fine," said Mallory, and she stormed off in a huff.
"Having problems?" asked Kae with a kind smile.
"Yeah," I sighed. "I don't know what to do about Mallory. I hope we reached that Fairy Circle, or whatever soon, or Mallory's gonna blow."
Kae nodded in sympathy. He was about to say something; I saw his mouth open, but Phillip came running up to us, waving the map crazily.
"We're almost there! Fairy Circle should be right around the corner!" he said. For what it felt like months, a smile split my face.
"Let's go, troops!" I called out. "Fairy Circle is right around the corner!"
I turned to Kae and grinned.
"Race you," I said. Without out waiting for an answer, I took off. Kae laughed and ran off after her. Needless to say, I won.
______________________________________________
I arrived at Fairy Circle. It existed of a clearing, a lovely grassy area surrounded by willowy trees. Bright yellow dandelions dotted the grass, and a crystal clear brook ran alongside a circle of stones. It emptied into a hot water spring. Tiny little sprites flitted back and forth over the stones. The picturesque scene reminded her of Amaryllis's cottage. Which made her wonder. Where did Amaryllis disappear to? If I had to guess, I'd bet that Amaryllis saw the Kreuk dragon and took off. My contemplating was interrupted by a tapping on her shoulder. I turned around.
"Hey," said Holly. "Lovely, isn't it?"
I nodded, her eyes sparkling.
"It is gorgeous-" I started, but I was interrupted by Mallory.
"Finally!" she heaved. "A rest stop! I've been asking for this for weeks!"
I rolled her eyes and turned back to Holly. But by then the rest of my 'troops' had arrived.
"Great rest stop, but what we supposed to do here?" asked Stephanie. Unlike the others, her face was only slightly sweaty, (she had belonged to a track team and had been a great distance runner), but her face was caked with mud and her strawberry-blonde hair had turned a sun-bleached white-blonde. Seeing her gave me an idea. I walked over to the spring and dipped her foot in. Steaming hot. Satisfied, I went back to the others.
"Okay, troops," I said. (I had taken to calling them troops. I rather liked the word.) "There's a hot spring nearby, (I pointed to the hot spring) and we're going to bathe there. Holly, did you pack a spare set of clothes?"
Holly nodded.
"I've got three extra pairs in there for everybody," she said, pointing to the sack she was carrying. I nodded.
"Okay, here's the plan. Girls going first, we're going to take fresh pair of clothes to the hot spring. We'll bathe with our clothes on in there, cleaning ourselves and our clothes at the same time. Then when we're done, - Holly you've got towels in there right?" she asked. Holly nodded, so I continued," You'll grab a towel and your fresh pair of clothes and head to that group of shady willows at the edge of the clearing. There, you can dry off and change. Put your clothes out in the sun in the stone circle to dry. Boys will only take their turn after all the girls are completely finished. Agreed?"
They nodded, and laughing and chattering Holly and Stephanie grabbed our things and took off for the hot springs. The trip here had been long, with nothing to do but talk, so it had been a great bonding experience for the girls (excepting Mallory, of course. Her incessant complaining during the trip had only drawn her farther away from her teammates. Holly and I had been surprised to find that Stephanie was not such a generally opposed and pessimistic person. As we got to know her better, we found her a brave and willing person who had big dreams (she wanted to be an actress when she grew up ) and was completely driven. She was still inclined to make sarcastic comments, but as that was just a part of her nature to be scathing, and because they weren't hurting anyone, we decided to just let it go. Also the boys had become closer over a love of video games and were now sitting in the stone circle discussing Ninja Warriors Stealth strategies. I found myself smiling as I looked at how we had become more of a team, friends rather than seven random people pushed together because they had to save the world. I felt the smile slip off my face as I looked at Mallory, though. She was trailing behind Holly and Stephanie, complaining about how she hated having to go in the bath with other people, even though we would be wearing our clothes. She had caused a lot of ill feeling in the group, and worry about her had stressed me. But I decided not to worry about it now, and I headed over to the hot springs.
Chapter 12
I took in Stephanie's scared expression.
"What's wrong?" I whispered to Holly.
"I don't know," she whispered back. "But she's obviously terrified."
We were dressed and ready, and the boys were taking their turn in the hot springs. We had been chatting when Stephanie froze.
"Quick!" hissed Stephanie, pulling us by our arms. In a flash, we were up a tree. The branches spread outward in almost perfect alignment, creating a platform we could sit on.
"What the heck are you-" demanded Mallory, but I cut her off.
"How did you get us up here so fast?" I said. "And more importantly, why?"
Stephanie took a deep breath.
"I had to get to out of there, because of that," she said, and she pointed to a large brown lizard sunning itself on a rock. It was about the size of an eight by eleven piece of paper.
"That is a lizard, Stephanie," said Holly. "What's the big deal?" But Stephanie shook her head.
"No," said Stephanie, shaking her head. "That's a lizard, but it's also a monster. Evanna, look in your monster guidebook. It's sure to be in there."
I put a hand on her satchel.
"How did you know about that?" she asked. Stephanie shrugged.
"It fell out of your satchel while you were changing," she said.
"Okaaay," I said, bringing out her guidebook. I flipped to the reptilian section and found a look-alike of the brown lizard.
"Okay," she said, glancing up. "You were right, Stephanie. That lizard is a monster."
Mallory, now in a much better mood because of the bath and the food, said fearfully, "What does it do?"
I shot an annoyed glance at Mallory. I still could not forgive Mallory for being such a pain in the neck on the trip. Granted, it had been hard. But the others had dealt with it, and so could Mallory. But there was no use worrying about Mallory now. I had to focus.
" It says here that the lizard loves grass for some reason, and fears water. It cannot climb or swim. So for now, we're safe. The boys are in the spring, and we're up in this tree. It uses its tail, which shoots poisoned spikes, to kill. It's called the Deci lizard because it takes only ten minutes after the spikes make contact for you to die. It is not killable," I said. Her statement was met with a silence.
"So, how do we get out of here alive?" asked Holly nervously.
"Look, there's a footnote," said Stephanie, pointing.
"Though not killable," read out I. "The Deci lizard may be defeated by being convinced not to kill."
"Okay," said Holly. "I just have to use my power to make the lizard decide to leave us alone."
"However," I continued. "It has only been done before by other lizards, because no other being can speak the same tongue as them."
"All right, then," said Stephanie. "We're doomed."
Suddenly her expression turned to fear.
"Oh no!" she cried. "Phillip's left the springs!"
In a flash, she was off the platfor
m and down to the ground. Grabbing Phillip, she zoomed back up to the platform. In a breathless voice she explained to him really fast what had happened.
"Oh," he said, looking slightly confused. "So you're saying we can't defeat this thing and we're either going to starve to death of get killed by Dino Jr. over there."
"Yep," said Stephanie, satisfied.
"Wait," I said. "Is Kae or Eli getting out soon?"
"Nope," said Phillip. "They plan on staying inside till you guys make them get out."
"Typical Kae," grumbled Stephanie. "Anyway, what should we do?"
"What do you mean?" i said. "We're stuck. Anyway, I have a question for you? How did you know the Deci lizard was a monster? And how in the world did you get us out of there so quickly?"
"Yeah," chimed in Holly. "You got Phillip up into the tree so fast, too. I can't imagine anyone going so fast!"
Stephanie looked slightly sick. She scooted to the edge of the platform and threw up over it.
"Stephanie, what happened?" asked Holly, concerned. "You were fine just a minute ago."
Stephanie spoke.
"I think I'm going to be sick again-" She threw up again.
"Hey, Stephanie?" asked Mallory. She put her hand on Stephanie's shoulder. "Don't worry, okay? Take deep breaths. It'll settle. Don't worry...." Stephanie's green face slowly returned to a normal color.
"Hey, I feel fine now!" exclaimed Stephanie.
"Good," said Mallory. She removed her hand from Stephanie's shoulder. As if on cue, Stephanie's face turned green again.
"Mallory, quickly, put your hand back on Stephanie again!" said Holly with unusual urgency. Mallory looked surprised, but she put her hand on Stephanie's shoulder again. Stephanie sighed in relief and her color returned to normal.
"What just happened?" she asked, bewildered. "One minute I have bile rising up my throat, and the next minute I'm fine."
"Mallory," said Holly in an all important tone. "I believe you have the power of healing."
Mallory looked confused, her hand still on Stephanie's shoulder. Suddenly she was bathed in a golden light. She rose up to the tree tops, and her eyes closed. Then he eyes opened, and her eyes glowed white-hot. She was veiled in the golden light. Then is dissipated and Mallory came fluttering down like a leaf.