Story of the Week #5: The Tale of Sarah SpiritHeart; Etc.

First note: KI is tearing the world apart. There used to be a group. It was me, Amber, Cody, David, Blaze and Sam. Now let's evaluate.

Me: Still here, but bored now :(
Amber: Still here
Cody: Still here
David: Quit
Blaze: Banned
Sam: Banned, will only talk to friends, but basically quitting

Next thing you know, there will no longer be a group. Or, me and Amber alone.

Anyway, the story of the week is The Tale of Sarah SpiritHeart by Sarah SpiritHeart. I'm gonna post the whole word document, so, yeah.


The Tale of Sarah Spiritheart
Today, my mom finally let me take my three younger sisters to the park without her.

The park, about three blocks from our house, was small as parks go. And boring. All it was was a jungle gym and a field not even large enough for a decent sized soccer game. But the younger kids, Sadie and Samuel, loved going there. So I had to take them, and Savannah had little choice but to tag along.

Today, all four of us were at the park: Samuel, Sadie, Savannah, and me, Sarah. I looked around, trying to find them all. Samuel was climbing around on the jungle gym. I spotted Savannah in the field. So where was... yes. There she was in the field. She had just thrown Savannah a ball.

So what was I doing? There was really nothing for me to do here, so I decided to plant myself onto one of those tiny little park benches and try to manage the nearly impossible task of keeping an eye on all three siblings at the same time. At twelve, I was the oldest and the most responsible, so my mom counted on me to keep the others out of trouble.

“Sarah! Help me!”

I whirled around then sighed with combined relief and exasperation. Samuel needed my helped to get across the monkey bars again. It must’ve been the fifth time today.

“I’m coming,” I said. I got off the bench and headed for the monkey bars. Then when I got there I held my arms open for him to jump into.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I love Samuel. But he’s four years old and probably the biggest troublemaker in the world. So I need to keep an extra careful eye on him most of the time. I had helped Samuel get to the last rod when I heard shouting coming from across the field.

Oh no! “Not again!” I moaned, pushing Samuel onto the platform. But I didn’t even need to look to know that Sadie and Savannah were fighting. Again.

“Sarah, look! I did it! I made it across!”

I smiled weakly. “Good for you. Stay here, okay?” I said, even though I knew he’d be up and running as soon as I left anyway.

“Okay,” he said.

So off I went, Savannah and Sadie’s shouting driving me insane - almost.

I found them in no time; they were standing near the edge of the woods. I didn’t even get to say, “What’s going on?” before Sadie shouted, “Savannah called me a scaredy-cat!”

I put my hands on my hips and glared at Savannah.

“Well, it’s true!” protested Savannah. That girl always had an excuse ready. “She accidently threw her ball in the woods and made me go get it!”

“I don’t want to!” Sadie wailed. “I might get poison ivy!”

Savannah gave me a look as if to say, You see? As if that would make me take her side.

“So you’re not getting it?” I asked.

“No.”

I turned around and stuck my head through the trees. I saw the ball nestled in between two bushes no more than five feet away.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Sadie look at me expectantly. Savannah smirked.

Frowning, I walked through the trees, sidestepped a patch of poison ivy, – Sadie was right about that at least- and picked up the ball. It was then that I heard a scream of pain.

I dashed back out onto the field. Sadie was rubbing her arm.

“Come on, guys, let’s not get physical,” I said, looking Savannah straight in the eye. I handed the ball back to Sadie.

“Sarah!”

I whirled around. Not surprisingly, Samuel had moved from his spot on the monkey bars. He was now on the other side of the field.

“Look!” he shouted. “I see an owl!”

“Go see what he wants,” I said to Sadie.

No sooner than she had left, to make sure Savannah learned the lesson here, I stomped down hard on her foot.

“OW!” She screamed. Her eyes shot daggers at me. “You were the one who said not to get physical!”

“Okay,” I said, fighting to stay calm. “I admit that I could’ve done that a little differently. But can’t you cut her some slack? Just once?”

She tuck out her chin defiantly. “She’s old enough to start doing things on her own now.”

“She’s seven!”

“Exactly! And look at her! She can’t even play a computer game ‘cause she’s too afraid!”

I didn’t say anything; I just returned her hostile stare. I’ve learned that sometimes, silence can be more effective than any insult.

To my relief, Savannah finally scoffed, “I’ll go apologize.” I nodded.

I hope that she at least does it right, I thought as she walked away.

Suddenly, I heard voices. I looked over my shoulder and saw two girls rollerblading on the sidewalk.

It seemed innocent enough at first. But then my eyes narrowed. I had just realized they were from my school. And they were pointing at me.

Here it comes, I thought.

Amazingly, as far apart from each other as we were, I managed to hear a few words of what they were saying.

“…geek…”

“…crazy…”

“…weirdo…”

I scowled as they rolled away, laughing, but I didn’t say anything. People talked about me behind my back all the time, so I was used to it.

I guess they laughed at me constantly partially because I was the class brainiac, the geek, the bookworm, the girl who always turned her test paper in first and still got A’s. That was part of the reason. But it was mostly because of the weirdness.

I was certain that more strange things happened to me than everyone else combined. Everywhere I went, I somehow managed to cause something to happen that I couldn’t explain. I attracted weirdness like a magnet attracts paper clips; it was as simple as that.

There was one time during recess when I was sitting under the shade of an oak tree, finding nothing else to do but watch as everyone else hung out in their little “groups,” knowing I’d be rejected if I asked to join. I had watched them enviously, wishing that I had someone to hang out with too. All of a sudden there was a rustling noise, and then hundreds of birds dove down from the trees and perched on my head, arms, shoulders… well you get the point. I was starting to get uncomfortable and was attracting several stares. But when I tried to shake them off, they wouldn’t budge. Many of the teachers got involved, but nothing what they did helped. In the end, I shouted, “Oh, just go away!” And to my amazement, they flew back into the trees as if they had been there all along.

There was another time just after school when I saw the same two girls that just skated by, about fifty feet from where I was standing. Not only did I actually hear her say, “Sarah is such a freak,” but just when she said it, thick, long vines erupted from the ground and wrapped themselves tightly around the two of them. I almost laughed when I had heard them screaming for help. Sure enough, help had come, but nobody could pull the vines apart. They had to be cut out with a bread knife instead.

Many more strange things happened to me throughout the course of my life, some hilarious, some humiliating. But after each one of them, there had always been a tiny voice in the back of my mind.

Did I do that?

Everyone else seemed to think so. And everything that had happened seemed to be linked to something I said, did, or thought.

Besides the things I mentioned, I had superdeveloped senses, being able to see or hear things from far away as if they were right nearby. On top of that, I almost never got sick. When I did get ill or injured, it seemed to heal faster for me than anyone else. My parents were amazed when I, say, didn’t catch a cold that everyone else in the family had.

“I guess you’re just immune to that sort of stuff,” my mom had told me.

Suddenly, a voice cut through my thoughts. “I’ll go get Sarah,”

I had heard Savannah say it from the opposite end of the field. And she wasn’t shouting or anything.

There goes my super hearing again, I thought.

In a second, Savannah was by my side.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Samuel’s not kidding,” she said. “There really is an owl.” Was it just me, or was there something funny in her voice?”

“Cool,” I said. I rarely saw owls around here, so I thought I might as well come over.

I followed Savannah to where Sadie and Samuel were standing. They both were staring at the same point in the trees, so I followed their gazes.

And I was immediately confused.

“Are you sure that’s an owl?” I asked. Savannah nodded.

It was an owl, but it wasn’t only snowy white. It was also wearing a graduation cap complete with a tassel and blue, round glasses.

“Do you think it’s someone’s pet?” Savannah asked. “People dress up their dogs, so why not owls?”

“I don’t know…” I said uncertainly.

I studied the owl intently. It seemed to be smiling. Wait, could owls do that?

Then… it winked.

I gasped. “Did you see that?” I asked the others. Both Sadie and Savannah nodded.

That ruled out the possibility of hallucinations.

Samuel, meanwhile, had this big, happy grin on his face. “That’s so silly!” he said. At least one of us was enjoying himself.

I turned to look back at the owl, but it had gone.

“Huh? Where did it go?” I heard Sadie say.

Suddenly, the park, the forest, everything around us – I can’t describe this any other way – melted away. Like wax on a candle.

“What’s happening?” asked Samuel.

I didn’t reply. “Grab hands,” I ordered; I didn’t want us to be separated in any way.

But wait, what was I thinking? This couldn’t be real. Could it?

It’s got to be a dream, I thought. I fell asleep on the park bench, or maybe I never even went to the park at all. Simple.

“Aha! The spell is working!” said someone, but it wasn’t one of us. In fact, it wasn’t a voice I knew, or even recognized.

At last, the last of the park melted away, and we found ourselves in a circular room lit only by a few candles. It was a little cluttered, but it somehow had a nice, homey feeling about it. What mesmerized me most, however, were the objects flying, yes, flying, around the room. Books, quill pens, scrolls, they were all zooming around the room in no particular order or formation.

But it is a dream, I reminded myself.

Even stranger than the room itself, if that was possible, were the room’s two inhabitants. The first was an owl, the same one we saw in the forest, on a wooden perch. The other was a person, an old man. He had long white hair and a beard. He had on the weirdest clothes I had ever laid my eyes on: a dark blue robe and hat decorated with tiny stars. He wore a monocle and wielded a staff that was nearly as tall as he was.

“Do you think he’s a wizard?” Sadie asked me. I slapped my hand over her mouth. We might as well have been making fun of his clothes. I hoped that he wouldn’t get angry or think we were rude.

But he merely chuckled.

“Look Gamma, here are Ravenwood’s newest students. Welcome, Samuel Nighttamer…”

Nighttamer?

“…Sadie Sparkleblade…”

“My last name isn’t Sparkleblade!” Sadie exclaimed.

“…Savannah Swiftsong…”

Savannah said nothing but raised her eyebrows.

“…and Sarah Spiritheart. Welcome to the Ravenwood School of Magical Arts, the finest school of wizardry around!”

We all stared blankly at him.

“Please, sit down,” he continued, waving his arm over a nearby couch. “We have many matters to discuss.”

Savannah, Sadie, and Samuel all sat down before I could stop them, so I went to join them too. We all just barely fit.

The man sat in an armchair directly across from us. “I apologize for not introducing myself,” he said. “I am Merle Ambrose, headmaster of Ravenwood School. And this is my assistant, Gamma.”

“How do you do-o-o-o?” said the owl.

I was so surprised, I nearly fell off the couch.

“I must say,” he said, “You are very lucky to be enrolled here. Only wizards of enormous skill can even hope to get in.”

“Are you saying,” I said slowly, “that we’re wizards?”

“Oh, I’m very sorry,” said Ambrose. “I keep forgetting that you come from a world that doesn’t believe in magic. Earth, I think it’s called. Yes, Miss Spiritheart, you are all wizards.” It took me a second to realize that he was addressing me.

Samuel gasped. “Just like Harry Potter!” he exclaimed. I couldn’t help laughing.

“So yo-o-ou already know a wizard?” asked the owl, now sitting on the headmaster’s chair. “Who-o-o is this Harold Spotter?”

“Harry Potter,” I laughed. “But he’s no one, just a character in a book.”

Then it hit me: I was talking to an owl.

This was probably the strangest dream I’ve ever had. And the best.

“Now,” continued Ambrose, “We must figure out what type of wizards you are. In order to do that, we must consult the Book of Secrets.”

As soon as he said it, an ancient looking book drifted from its place on top of a pedestal and into his open arms. Then he took a quill from his desk and handed them both to me.

I skimmed through its pages. It was only a few seconds before I realized what it was.

“It’s a questionnaire,” I said.

“Of a sort,” said Ambrose. “Answer these questions to find out what type of wizard you are and which classes you will attend at Ravenwood.”

Samuel tugged on my arm. “I wanna try!” he said. So I held the book between us.

At first, I wasn’t sure how it would go. Samuel couldn’t read very well yet, so he would probably pick the answers that went along with the best pictures. But Ambrose seemed to think Samuel knew what he was doing, so I went along with it.

Maybe fate will help him decide, I thought. Or magic.

I giggled to myself as I scribbled down Samuel’s answer to the last question.

All at once, everything on the page disappeared and was replaced by one word: BALANCE.

“Me next!” said Sadie. I handed the book to her.

The word that appeared for her was ICE.

Next was Savannah’s turn. ICE.

As Savannah handed me the book, I half expected to wake up in bed. I was almost entirely convinced it was a dream now. And when stuff like this happened in dreams, I often woke up before I could do what I wanted to do. But to my surprise, I managed to fill out the whole “quiz” without being sent back into my bed. I stared at the page, waiting.

LIFE.

“Very good,” said Ambrose. The book flew back into place.

It was then that I began to doubt my theory about this all being a dream. I selected my longest fingernail and jabbed it into my arm. It hurt.

Maybe this isn’t a dream, I thought. The idea was impossible. Yet as soon as I thought it, happiness began to well up inside me until I thought I would burst.

“There are a few other things we must discuss,” said Ambrose. “First off, your registrations have already been processed, so it is essential that you must start your classes as soon as possible. Tomorrow would be best.” “Classes? It’s the middle of June!” exclaimed Savannah.

“Your point is?” said Ambrose.

“Never mind,” she said quickly.

“I will now send you home to pack your things,” continued Ambrose, as if there had been no interruption. “Not much is needed; clothes will be provided.”

We’re going to live there? I started to feel slightly anxious.

“Don’t worry,” said Ambrose, as if reading my thoughts. “There will be plenty of teachers to look after you there. And you can visit home whenever you like.”

I certainly hoped so.

“I’ll be there at seven o’ clock to take you to your dormitory,” he said.

“Seven o’ clock,” I repeated.

“I shall see you then!” he said. He raised his staff.

Suddenly, we were back in the park.

For a while, we just stood there, blinking in the bright light. Then Sadie broke the silence.

“Sarah,” she said, “do you really think we’re wizards?”

I smiled at her and shrugged. “Why wouldn’t we be? After all that happened today I’m surprised you think we’re not.”

“Hey, I didn’t say that!” she said.

“So, what do we do now?” asked Savannah.

I thought a minute. “Let’s go home,” I finally said. “We need to go pack.”



My mom looked from the old man standing at the doorway to me. I tensed when I realized that the look she gave me was, in fact, a glare.

“Sarah,” she growled, “what on earth is going on?”

I grinned sheepishly. “Surprise,” I said.

At exactly seven o’ clock, Merle Ambrose had arrived, as promised. I suddenly realized I had refrained telling my mom that he would be here today. So telling her that we would be leaving would be harder than we thought.

I should’ve thought of that, I groaned to myself.

“Forgive me,” said Ambrose, stepping through the doorway, “but I don’t think we have been introduced. My name is Merle Ambrose, and I am the headmaster of a school called Ravenwood.”

My mom stared at him blankly. The corner of her mouth twitched.

“Excuse me, Miss Spiritheart,” he said, “but do you know of a place where we may talk privately?”

Mom looked at me. Spiritheart? She mouthed.

“In here,” I led them both into my parents’ bedroom.

Ambrose tipped his hat and closed the door behind him.

“All right, guys, let’s go get our bags,” I whispered, hurrying them upstairs.

Following Ambrose’s advice, we had decided to pack light. Among what we did pack were pajamas, cosmetics, books, (only I had decided to pack those) and games to play in case we had any free time.

These must be the lightest suitcases we’ve ever had to pack, I mused as I dragged both Samuel’s and my suitcases down the stairs.

Once down, I received a tap on my shoulder from Savannah. When I turned around, she jerked her head in the direction of the door, from which I could hear hushed voices. I couldn’t help it; I crept over and pressed my ear to the door. They were apparently whispering, but I could hear every word

“The choice is yours,” Ambrose was saying.

I heard my mom sigh. “I don’t know,” she said. “Their father is better at this sort of stuff than I am. But he’s been gone on a business trip for over a week now.”

“They’ll be perfectly safe,” Ambrose reminded.

“I know.”

The next few minutes were in silence, long, tantalizing. I willed one of them to say something more.

Then I heard footsteps. I scrambled back to stand with the others.

Mom came through the door with a grave look on her face. My heart sank. I had so desperately wanted to go.

“It seems,” said my mom, “that you’re going to wizard school.”

My eyes widened. “Really?”

She nodded. And to my surprise she wiped away a tear.

I ran up to hug her. “We’ll visit whenever we can,” I promised.

She gave me a sad smile. “I know you all will be safe,” she whispered in my ear, “but can you look after them? Just in case?”

“Yeah,” I said, “whatever you want, Mom.”

I went back to stand with the others.

“Be sure to do what Sarah tells you, all right?” she asked the others.”

“Yes,” they all said, somewhat reluctantly.

Ambrose walked over to us. “Ready to go?” he asked. Before we had even answered, he said, “Let’s go then!” He seemed as eager to get to the school as we were.

“Bye!” our mom called out.

We all waved back. Ambrose raised his staff again.

Suddenly, we found ourselves in a totally different place. I looked around and gasped. “Welcome to Ravenwood,” said Headmaster Ambrose.

There was so much to see I didn’t know where to turn. Magical, floating wisps colored red and blue covered the sidewalks. A great tree with a face of an old man stood in the center, surrounded by several other smaller trees. A golden haired boy covered in green from head to toe smiled at me as he walked into a building labeled the Life School.

“This is where your classes will be held,” he said. He turned to Samuel. “You will be taking classes with Arthur Wethersfield.” To Savannah and Sadie, he said, “You will attend class at the Ice School with Lydia Greyrose.” He turned around to face me. “And you will take classes at the Life School with Moolinda Wu.”

Strange name, I thought. I had never heard it before. It sounded distinctively Asian. Then, Ambrose sent us off on a “quest” (That’s what he called it.) To meet the seven magical instructors of Storm, Ice, Fire, Balance, Life, Myth, and Death. They were all different from each other and we enjoyed meeting them all… except for the Myth professor, Cyrus Drake.

“I wish they would send us some adept pupils for once,” he had sneered. I was stung. “I’ll show him,” I muttered on the way out. “Incompetent… we’ll see about that.” Our last stop was the Death School, a gaping, bottomless chasm.

At first we were confused. But then a student named Malorn Ashthorn told us what happened. A man named Malistaire used to teach Death. But then he disappeared, the school right along with him.

Then we went back to Ambrose, debating on whether Malistaire actually caused the Death School to disappear.

Ambrose was right where we had left him. “Ah, excellent,” he said when he saw us. Then he handed us some training points.

“Although you take classes from only one school,” he explained, “these training points will allow you to learn spells from any secondary school of your choice.”

I looked toward the Myth School and grinned. I knew exactly where I wanted to use mine. “Come this way,” said Ambrose, opening a door.

We followed him through the door, up some stairs, and down a hallway. He halted when he approached a door at the end of the hall.

“This is your dormitory,” he said, handing me a ring with a single, golden key attached. “You will live here until you are able to afford real estate.”

I stuck the key into the lock, twisted it and opened the door.

Inside was a simple room with a wooden floor and stone walls. It was small, maybe just barely large enough for the four of us. On one side of the room was a desk and on the other were two beds.

“I’m afraid it’s not much,” said Ambrose. “However, I did take the liberty of adding an extra bed; I’m not sure you would all fit in just one.” His blue eyes twinkled. “Thank you,” I said, touched by his thoughtfulness.

Then he pulled out from behind him four sets of robes, hats, and boots. “These are for you to wear when you attend classes,” he said.

He gave one to each of us. Samuel’s were light brown and orange. Sadie’s were white and light blue. Savannah’s were purple and blue. And mine were green and a creamish color that was somewhere between yellow and white.

“You also need these.” He pulled four objects out of thin air. “Wands.” He handed these out as before.

I ran my fingers up and down my new wand. It looked like a tree branch, but it felt as cool, hard, and unbreakable as metal.

“I will leave you now,” said Ambrose. “Come to my office tomorrow so you can learn the basics of Wizard City. No later than seven-thirty.”

“Got it,” I said. I wanted to say something else as he exited through the door, but all that managed to come out was, “Thanks, thanks for everything.”

From outside, I heard him say, “You’re welcome.”

As he left, I checked my watch. It was almost eight.

“All right, let’s get settled in,” I said.

The next couple of minutes we spent unpacking our suitcases and putting our stuff in random places. We even found a door that led to a bathroom where we could place our cosmetics.

I also found time to try on the robes that Ambrose had given me, which were very comfortable. They felt as if they were made especially for me.

At last, it was the time we normally went to bed. We were all dressed and ready. “Let’s see if I can make this work,” I said, clapping my hands together. “Sadie, you sleep with Samuel in that bed. Savannah and I will sleep in this bed.”

“Samuel kicks in his sleep,” Sadie complained.

“Get used to it,” I said. “Are we all ready?”

We got into our beds.

“Goodnight, everyone,” I said. I received several sleepy replies.

I yawned. It had been a long day.

My mind was swimming as I went to sleep. Wizards. Ravenwood. Ambrose Magic. It was a lot to take in during one day. But I’d get used to it.

The image of the four sleeping children slowly faded from the headmaster’s crystal ball. “They’ll come around,” he said fondly. “All new pupils do sooner or later.”

Gamma nodded in agreement. “What will yo-o-o-ou teach them when they come to-o-omorrow?”

“A little of this and that,” said Ambrose. “All the essentials. Teleporting, chat, quests and experience, Malistaire.”

The two exchanged dark looks.

“So yo-o-o-ou really think they are the ones, then?” asked Gamma. “In the prophecy?”

“As to that, I cannot be sure,” said Ambrose. “Although they do show a lot of promise, I have not yet seen their full potential.”

“There have been other families,” Gamma reminded.

“Yes,” sighed Ambrose, “but none of them had quite the skill I was looking for.”

The family appeared once more in the crystal ball. “They just might be different,” said Ambrose.

“That’s what yo-o-o-ou said the last time,” said the owl.

“And the time before that,” said Ambrose. “I know.”

The slight sternness in his voice let Gamma know that this conversation was over.









I was woken up by my sister Sadie, who was bouncing hard on my stomach with her knees.

“Get… off… of… me!” I managed to gasp.

She did, excitement shining in her eyes.

That’s just great, I thought. Why couldn’t I have been woken up by… I don’t know… “a shaft of brilliant sunlight” like any normal person?

It could’ve been worse. Savannah, who was ten, three years older than Sadie, could’ve chosen today to wake me up instead.

“Get up!” shouted Sadie. “It’s time to go to school!” Only in the last four weeks have I ever heard her say that with such enthusiasm. Ever since we started classes at the Ravenwood School of Magical Arts.

“I’m up,” I mumbled. I groggily got out of bed and walked over to my backpack, which had been magically enchanted to fit everything I needed. It held a map, my wand and spell cards, and pretty much all the clothes I owned. Today, I pulled out my favorite outfit: my fairy cloak, fairy shoes, and the healer’s cowl I had recovered from Triton Avenue just two days ago.

Once I had changed into these clothes, I retrieved my wand and spell cards from my backpack, pulled my hair back into a ponytail, and slightly tilted my hat. I was ready.

“Finally,” Sadie said as I slung my backpack over my shoulder.

“If we’re late, I know who I get to thank,” said Savannah. I ignored her and stuck the key into the lock.

Oh, and your eyes aren’t deceiving you or anything. Everything I’ve said so far- magic, wand, spell cards, Ravenwood- is all true. All four of us are wizards and we just started magic classes at Ravenwood School. Samuel’s a balance wizard. Savannah and Sadie are ice wizards. And I’m a Theurgist, or life wizard.

Just four weeks ago, a man named Merle Ambrose had taken us from Earth to Wizard City to enhance our magical abilities. Not everything was exactly predictable here, but it was a lot more interesting. And fun. And not to mention classes here beat boring old math and science by a landslide.

I led the others outside to drop them off at their classes. “You two better get going,” I said to Savannah, who grabbed Sadie’s hand and raced off through a crowd of students.

Then I took Samuel to his balance class. Arthur Wethersfield smiled when he saw me. “Jolly good to se you, Miss Spiritheart,” he said, winking. “You too, Mister Nighttamer.”

Spiritheart. I grinned. That was my new last name here. Everyone’s’ was different, even siblings’.

I turned to go to find a friendly-faced, golden-haired boy standing right nearby.

“Hi, Sarah,” he said.

“Hi, Chris,” I replied.

Chris Willowcrafter had been my best friend ever since my first day of classes. He was smart, caring, and had a great sense of humor. And I could tell he thought the same about me.

I guess I was just really grateful. After all, once upon a time, before I came here, I was considered a freak, a weirdo. I was just glad of a new friend.

“What’s up?” he asked lightly.

“Nothing,” I said. We started walking to the Life School together, like we did every day. Actually, we did everything together: quests, minigames, and classes. It was simple: we enjoyed each other’s company.

“So you’re a level eight now?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I said. “I’m planning on learning the Legend Shield today.” I pulled the door open and held it open for us.

“Welcome, students,” said a soft, mystical voice. It was Moolinda Wu, our teacher.

At first I was a little freaked out about having a talking cow for my life teacher. But then again, most animals talked around here. And as time went by, I began to like her peaceful manner, her soft, almost musical voice, and the lessons she taught us.

“We have been created,” she had advised one day, “so we must learn to create.”

Chris and I took our usual seats in the front row. Unable to wait to learn the new spell any longer. I put my hand up.

“Miss Spiritheart?”

“I’m ready to learn the Legend Shield today, Professor Wu,” I said.

“Patience, young wizard,” she said. “We must wait for the rest of the class to arrive. I reluctantly nodded.

Finally, when everyone else who took Apprentice Life Magic was in their seats, Professor Wu walked up to the front of the room.

“Welcome, class,” she said. “Before we begin, I understand that some of us are ready to learn a new spell.” She beckoned me and a girl named Catherine Fairyblossom forward. Then she gave us each a spell card.

“The Legend Shield will protect you from Myth and Death attacks,” she explained. “It will take seventy percent off your opponent’s spell.” Then she carefully showed us how it worked and how to cast it.

“Let’s see you try it,” she said to me when she was done.

I knew exactly what to do. First I traced the life symbol, focusing my energy on the leaf I was creating. When that was done I concentrated on my new spell card, using the limitless magical energy it provided. Then I heard the sounds of a forest- birds chirping, trees rustling in the breeze- which meant the spell was done.

“You have done most excellent, Miss Spiritheart,” I heard Professor Wu say.

I looked down. Swirling around my midriff were two shields, exactly as they had appeared on the card. I heard murmurs of approval throughout the room.

I practically glowed. Even here, in Wizard city, I did well in class. Only instead of being made fun of for it, I was admired.

It felt good.



“So, what quest are you working on?” Chris asked.

I grinned. It was a joke we had made up one day. To ask would be completely redundant because we always did the same quests anyway.

“Guess,” I said.

“Hmm… would it be… defeating the Harvest Lord in Triton Avenue?”

“Yup,” I said. “But I can’t go there just yet.”

“Why?”

“I’ve got an extra training point I need to use. I’m going to schedule private myth lessons.”

“With Drake?” he asked incredulously. I nodded.

“Why him?” he said.

“I know he’s a little strict…”

“Strict doesn’t even begin to describe him.”

I giggled. “I just think myth could prove useful someday.”

“Suit yourself,” he said. “Why don’t I go ahead and you could teleport to me when you’re ready?”

“That would be great,” I said. “Thanks.”

I grimaced as we parted. I hated lying to him.

Of course, it wasn’t a total lie. I really did think myth would come in handy. But the reason I took it had more to do with the fact to prove to Professor Drake, who humiliated me on my very first day, that I wasn’t “incompetent,” like he said I was.

I had a difficult time planning a date and time to learn the next myth spell. Cyrus Drake was just too hard to please. One time I suggested was to early, one time was too late, one time was during his lunch period; it went on like this for so long, I was certain that Chris had already gone to defeat the Harvest Lord himself.

Finally, we came to an agreement. I left the myth school listening to Professor Drake mutter how pesky and unbearable some students were. Feeling my face go red, I teleported to Chris.

To my relief, he was still outside the Harvest Lord’s tower. “What took you so long?” he asked.

“Professor Drake was a little picky,” I replied.

Chris nodded knowingly. “That’s understandable. Now do you see why I picked storm as my secondary school?”

“Oh, stop it!” I laughed.

“Okay,” Chris said. “You ready?”

About twenty minutes later, we both triumphantly emerged from the tower.

“Piece of cake,” Chris said.

“Easy for you to say,” I said, rubbing the back of my neck. “That crow of the Harvest Lord’s hurt.”

“So should we go talk to Suzie now?” Chris asked.

“Sure,” I said, “but after that I have to go to the Fairgrounds to play some minigames.”

“Saving up for something?”

I gave him a look. “Maybe…a house?”

Right now, my three younger siblings and I lived in our student dormitory. It was a little cramped, so at the moment, we were saving up for real estate. But even though we were all saving up together, we only had about 3,000 coins, not even halfway up to the wooded cottage.

Suddenly, I heard a cry from down the street. “Help!”

“Let’s go,” I said. With that, I tore off down the sidewalk, yanking him along behind me.

It wasn’t long before we found the source of the trouble. A boy was in a battle with three Scarlet Screamers at once. And he was almost out of health.

“We’ve got to help him, Chris, come on!” I was pleased to see that we weren’t too late.

After we both used the fairy spell on the boy to give him back health, it was easy enough to defeat all of the Scarlet Screamers. At last, we were all done.

“Thanks a million,” said the boy once we were safe on the sidewalk.

“No problem,” I said, “but couldn’t you have just fled?”

“I was about to,” he admitted. He flashed another grateful smile, which I returned. The boy, maybe a little older than we were, had olive-toned skin and brown hair so dark it looked almost black. He also had brown eyes that constantly sparkled and was dressed in black and white from head to toe.

“What happened?” asked Chris.

“I was running low on health,” the boy began. “But I went to help some younger wizards who were battling Scarlet Screamers. They fled before I realized I was here. So that left three all to myself.”

“I’m Nolan, by the way,” he continued. “Nolan Darkwind.”

“Sarah Spiritheart,” I said. I looked expectantly at Chris.

“Chris Willowleaf, he said. To my surprise, his tone was steely and cold, and his eyes were narrowed.

Then, without another word, he took my arm and dragged me down the sidewalk.

“Chris, what are you doing?”

He came to an abrupt halt and turned to face me. “Sarah,” he said, “Nolan is a necromancer. A death wizard.”

“So?” I asked.

“So?” Chris looked amazed. “I would’ve thought you’d have known this by now, Sarah. Life and death wizards hate each other. We’re enemies.”

“Oh.” I hadn’t known that. “But he seemed really nice.”

He shook his head. “The Death School can’t be trusted. It’s evil. And it’s where Malistaire used to teach.”

“I knew that,” I said, slightly offended.

“Just so you know,” he said, although he looked worried.

He was with me up until we finished talking to Suzie. Then he said, “Well, see you around,” and teleported home, leaving me alone in Triton Avenue.

He had never done that to me before.



The next day was Saturday, so I was supposed to sleep in. But for some reason, I couldn’t. I woke up around seven, my head filled with images from the dream I just had. They were all of Chris.

What should I do? Well, Chris was an early riser, so I decided to find him and set things right.

I got up and dressed. Then I took out paper and a quill and left a note on the desk for the others to see.
Sorry, but I need to go. Can’t explain. If you all want to do some more quests, you can. Just whisper chat to me if you’re in trouble, all right? See you soon. -Sarah
Then I headed outside and sat down under the shade of a tree.

First, I tried contacting him with whisper chat. I talked as long as I was able, but he didn’t reply. Then, when all else failed, I tried teleporting to him. But when I tried, I just ended right back at Ravenwood.

Maybe he’s ignoring me, I thought. No, it couldn’t happen. We had been too good of friends. But was it possible that he was angry at me all because of Nolan?

“Hey!”

I turned around, hoping to see Chris.

Instead, it was Nolan who came up to me. “Sarah, right?”

I nodded, remembering what Chris had said about the death school.

“Well,” he said, “I wanted to thank you for saving me the other day.”

“It was nothing,” I said, scrutinizing him. I decided that no matter what Chris said about the death school, this guy seemed friendly enough.

We added each other to our friends lists.

“So,” I said conversationally, “Nolan, right?” I couldn’t think of anything else to say. I’m not normally a huge talker.

“Yup,” he said. “Nolan Darkwind. The strongest, bravest, most powerful, most awesome…”

“Okay, I get it,” I laughed.

“I was serious,” he said, but I could tell he was joking. “Is something the matter?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean when I saw you, you were pouting with your head between your knees.”

I grinned wryly and shrugged. I didn’t want to worry him yet with details about Chris.

“Okay,” he said. “What level are you, anyway? I didn’t catch it.”

“That’s because I never told you,” I said. “But I’m a level eight. And you?”

“Twelve,” he said thoughtfully. He seemed to ponder something for a moment, then he said, “Would you like for me to show you something?”

“Okay,” I said

He smiled again. “This way,” he said, leading me through the tunnel to the commons.

“This thing you’re going to show me,” I asked, “is it in the commons?”

He nodded. I decided that if it was in the commons, it couldn’t be that dangerous.

Nolan took me to the waterfall, and then he stopped.

“Um…” I stalled. It was a breathtaking waterfall, but everyone knew it was there. “Where are you going with this?” I had to shout to be heard above the roar of the falling water.

To my amazement, Nolan stepped through the waterfall.

I took a deep breath, braced myself, and followed him in.

I gasped. This water was freezing! In fact, I was so cold, I almost didn’t notice where I was. Or the door just a few feet away.

“Here, let me help,” said Nolan. He took a spell card out of his bag and conjured up a fire cat. It pranced around us, warming us both up.

“Ahhh,” I sighed. “Thank you.”

“Now we’re even,” Nolan laughed. He opened the door with a key he took out of his pocket and slipped inside. “Teleport to me when I’m in.”

I shrugged and did as he asked.

I immediately found myself in a place I had never seen before. The ground was hard and rocky, and the only trees were scraggly, bare. I could hear ravens cawing in the distance. There was only one word for this place- spooky.

“Where are we?” I wondered aloud.

“Welcome to Nightside,” said Nolan dryly.

It was then that I saw a building that looked vaguely familiar. And suddenly I knew why. It looked exactly like all of the other schools in Ravenwood.

“Is that the…”

“…death school?” Nolan finished for me. “Yeah. For some reason, when Malistaire caused it to disappear, it ended up here, in Nightside.”

I spun on the spot, not knowing where to look first. Nolan chuckled.

“Want to sit down?” he asked, indicating a wooden bench.

“Sure,” I said. He sat down beside me.

“So, how’s your friend?” he asked.

“Chris?” he nodded. “He’s okay, I guess. Actually, I don’t know. I haven’t seen or heard from him since yesterday in Triton Avenue. I tried to contact him, I did, but for some reason I wasn’t able to.”

When Nolan didn’t reply, I added sheepishly, “I don’t think he likes you much,”

Nolan snorted.

“Hates me, more like.” he said.

“It’s not his fault that he’s life,” I said defensively.

Nolan looked at me, and I was shocked to see a touch of bitterness in his eyes.

“It’s not just the death and life schools,” he said. “It’s the death school against every other school.

“The death school has a bad reputation,” he continued, “if you haven’t noticed. People hate us. They never approach us because we’re supposedly “evil.”

I thought of Chris and the things he said about the death school. Maybe it was really just a stereotype.

“And it’s all because of Malistaire,” he spat. “And his Black Hand.”

This, I noticed was a rather odd thing to say. “Black Hand?” I asked.

“You’ve never heard of the Black Hand?” he asked. When I shook my head no, he went on.

“When Malistaire disappeared, about five years ago, he also took with him five students who were all loyal to his cause. He took them here, to Nightside, and trained them until they were almost as powerful as he was. Now they live with him in his hideout, wherever that is.

“What are their names?” I asked.

“Ian Ghostbringer,” he recited, “Patrick Nightwalker, Cornelia Greyheart, Nora Skullhorn, and Marcus Deathspear. They’re all very powerful dark wizards. And they all enjoy pain and cruelty just as much as their master.

“They don’t come out very often,” he continued, “but when they do, it’s a nightmare. They set fire to buildings, summon monsters to attack people, and do anything else to cause devastation. I think the last time anyone saw them was in Marleybone, about a year ago. It was a disaster. A lot of people were injured. Or killed.”

He continued, “They are completely devoted to their master, Malistaire. If he gave an order, they would obey it without question. They are completely attached to him, kind of like a hand is attached to an arm. That’s how they got their name.”

“That sounds terrible,” I said.

“And the worst of it,” he said, “is that they’re still really young. In their late teens or something like that. Marcus…I think he’s only twelve or thirteen. But he’s the most powerful. And Malistaire’s favorite. At least, that’s what everyone’s said.

I can see why everyone would hate the death school, I thought, with students like that. I felt really sorry for Nolan.

So I gave him a smile, just like the ones he gave me, put a hand on his shoulder, and let him know he had a friend in me.



Days passed. Saturday faded into Sunday, and Sunday into Monday. But until Monday morning, I hadn’t heard from Chris at all. Instead, I hung out with Nolan during the weekend. I learned that he was funny, kind, and had a somewhat mischievous nature. He constantly was cracking jokes and making me laugh.

He reminded me a lot of Chris.

When I walked into the Life School on Monday, I had almost given up on Chris entirely. So you can imagine my surprise when I saw him where he normally sat, waving at me as I walked in.

“Over here,” he said to me. Bewildered, I sat down next to him.

He opened his mouth to say something, but just before he spoke, we heard the soft voice of Professor Wu telling us class was ready to begin.

Barely five minutes later, Chris pressed a scrap of paper in my hand. First looking around to see if Professor Wu wasn’t watching, I read the note that was on it.

Meet me in the Life Tower. Right after class.

I scribbled on the back, OK, see you then, and handed it back to him from under my desk. I wondered what that was all about.

The rest of the period seemed to pass by twice as slowly as usual. First, Professor Wu handed back Friday’s homework. (Chris and I both got an A+) Then we did a short exercise in which we practiced healing magic. Well, I’m pretty sure it was supposed to be short, but it felt like it went on for hours. In fact when class was over and we had to make way for the Initiates, I was nearly half dead, which had never happened to me before- not while I was taking classes here.

I went across the path and through the door to Life tower. Chris and I sometimes went here after class if we didn’t want to be surrounded by people. Every memory I had of this place was happy, but what if today wasn’t?

Chris was there, in the center of the room, holding a bulging bag. I walked up until I was just inches from his face. Then I put my hand on my hip.

“What’s going on?” I demanded. “Where were you all last weekend?”

“Easy,” he said teasingly, holding his hands up. “You don’t know all the details.”

“What details?”

“Maybe,” he said, “I didn’t want you to be near me all last weekend because I was arranging a little surprise for you; did you ever think of that?”

Instantly, all the anger that had flared up inside me was gone. “Surprise?”

“Yeah.” He held out the bag. I took it, unraveled the string that tied it together, and carefully opened it.

“Oh!” I gasped.

Inside the bag were coins. A lot of coins. More than I had ever seen in my life. Maybe enough to buy a forested mansion.

Which was probably why Chris was grinning.

“You didn’t…” I started.

“I did,” said Chris. “It’s for your house. It probably took about a thousand minigames to earn it all, but seeing the look on your face was worth it.”

I flung my arms around his neck. This was another thing I liked about Chris: he was okay with stuff like that.

“You’re the best, Chris! Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!”

“You’re welcome,” he laughed.

“I guess the whole death school thing his behind us now,” he added.

I squirmed uncomfortably. How would he react if he found out I was Nolan’s friend?

“I guess…” I managed to say.

“I’ll tell you what,” he said. “Why don’t you go finish up your Triton Avenue quest and then we could start on Firecat Alley?”

“Okay,” I said.

I left him with that awful feeling still in my stomach. Like I said, I hated lying to him.

The only thing left to do for Triton Avenue was to talk to Headmaster Ambrose. I didn’t feel like walking the whole distance, even though it wasn’t that far away. So I just teleported to the commons and walked from there.

When I entered the tower, I saw both Ambrose and his owl, Gamma, huddling over something I couldn’t see. They were also whispering to each other. But as a life wizard, I could hear every word.

“…the girl.”

“Who-o-o?”

“Miss Spiritheart. I have reasons to think that she may be the one mentioned in the prophecy.”

“The tru-u-ue healer?”

“I have told you, Gamma, I can’t be sure.”

“But she is so young! The others to-o-o-o! There’s no way they can possibly defeat Malistaire!”

“I agree that it is a lot to put on one’s shoulders. But if she is, in fact, the one mentioned in the Prophecy of Light…”

They continued their conversation in urgent whispers. Meanwhile I was frantically trying to comprehend all this. Prophecy of Light? True healer? Defeat Malistaire? Did I somehow have something to do with all of this?

“Ho-o-o-o,” Gamma warned suddenly.

Ambrose spun around, but not before shoving what he and Gamma were examining in one of the drawers in his desk.

“Ah, Miss Spiritheart! Good to see you again!” I couldn’t help but notice he was using a falsely cheerful voice that one normally uses when they’re trying to hide something. I stared at him.

“What did you just hide behind your back?” I asked. Now wasn’t the time to worry about asking personal questions.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said calmly.

“But I saw you!” I said incredulously. You just put something in your desk! And you were talking about me and this prophecy thingy! You…”

“Now is not the time for you to know,” he said. “Trust me on this. Soon your time will come to find out. But not now. So why did you come to see me?”

This change of subject was so sudden, I started talking about Suzie and Artur in Triton Avenue before I realized what I was doing. Of course, by the time he handed me my prizes and experience, it was too late to go back to the subject of the prophecy. So I said good-bye and walked out the door.

I left the office hurt and confused. What was this “Prophecy of Light?” Why did Ambrose try to hide it from me? And what did I have to do with it?

Whatever the answers to those questions were, I had a feeling that it couldn’t be good.


“See ya at Ambrose’s tower!” Chris Willowcrafter called to me.

“Not if I get there first!” I laughed.

Together, Chris and I dashed through the shopping district. We were neck to neck as we dodged buildings, shopkeepers, and wizards carrying shopping bags filled with who knows what.

I willed my legs to somehow go faster. I would not give him the satisfaction of beating me.

We ran through the tunnel to the commons.

Of course, we both ran at about the same speed anyway. So no matter how hard we tried, we always somehow ended up in a…

“Tie!” Chris called out as both of our hands touched the door at the exact same moment. “Again!”

“I’ll beat you next time,” I said, laughing evilly. I opened the door for both of us to go in.

Having just finished our quests at Cyclopes Lane, we had rushed to Ambrose’s tower right away. Ever since we had been told by a Journeyman life student that we could gain access to Colossus Boulevard once we did all three quests given to us by Sergeant Muldoon, we had been working nonstop for the past week. At last, all our hard work had paid off. Not only had we each earned “Three Streets Savior” badges, but we also just might be going to Colossus Boulevard right now. I could hardly wait!

“Good afternoon Mister Willowcrafter, Miss Spiritheart.” greeted Ambrose. “You wanted to see me?”

Together, we told him about the events in Cyclopes Lane and how we had saved the three students. (How many times they had been captured, I don’t know.) Then he handed us a ton of experience points, enough for us both to become level 11.

I looked at Chris, who sadly shook his head. We both started to leave.

“Where are you two going? I still have two more quests for you.” Ambrose handed us each two scrolls, each one with the name and instructions for a different quest.

Chris was now grinning broadly. He caught my eye and pointed at one of the scrolls in his hand. It said, “Colossus Trouble.”

Yes!

Chris and I accepted the quest. Ambrose, in turn, sent us to the tunnel to Colossus Boulevard, which was located in the shopping district.

We stepped out into the bright sunlight. Chris grinned craftily at me. “Race…”

“How about we just walk this time?” I said sarcastically.

“Okay,” he said. “But it’s not as fun.”

Chris and I kept up a constant chatter all the way there. “Can’t you wait to see what it looks like?” he asked.

“Um… yeah,” I said, somewhat guiltily. The truth was that I already knew what it looked like. Normally, I would have told him about it. But my other friend, Nolan Darkwind, had taken me to see it. Chris despised Nolan because he was a death wizard and we were life. So I thought it best not to let Chris know that I had anything to do with him. So far, it was working. But I had no idea how long he would remain ignorant.

We arrived at the gate. The guard, who, up to now, had prevented us from even coming within ten feet of the tunnel, reluctantly grunted a signal to raise the gate when he read our letters from the headmaster. We were in.

“Wow,” breathed Chris. Meanwhile I was trying my best to act as if this was my first time here too, as if all this snow, the cold, biting wind, and the gobblers roaming the streets were new to me.

A strong wind suddenly blew across the street. I shivered and pulled my cloak more tightly around my shoulders. While an ice wizard, like my sisters, Savannah Swiftsong and Sadie Sparkleblade, would enjoy the cold as if it were a warm summer day, I was probably more uncomfortable then anyone here.

“C’mon,” Chris said, “we need to find Mindy Pixiecrown.”

“Thank goodness for compasses,” I said. Chris sniggered. But really, without our magic compasses, we’d be stumbling around the streets, not knowing where to go next.

It didn’t take us long to find Mindy Pixiecrown. And soon, she had us engaged in fights with both gobblers and evil snowmen.

“Disgusting, isn’t it?” Chris asked me as we watched a gobbler scavenger cram a whole jar of jellybeans- including the jar itself- into his mouth during the middle of the battle. I didn’t answer; it was all I could do to stop myself from throwing up. Did these guys ever stop eating?

In the next hour, (or was it two?) Mindy had us running all over Wizard City. We went to the Ice School, back to Colossus Boulevard, collecting the stinkweed all over Colossus Boulevard, and, yes, defeating even more gobblers.

“Ugh,” I said, finishing off the last one with a well-aimed leprechaun spell. “These guys make me nauseous.”

“Let’s stop for the day,” he suggested.

“Good idea,” I agreed heartily. Between the cold air and the constantly eating gobblers, I was more than glad to leave. “See you at school!” Then, waving goodbye, I teleported to my house.

Not my dormitory. My house.

Barely a week ago, my three younger siblings and I had been living, cramped, in our student dormitory. But then, Chris, after hours of minigames, had earned enough coins to buy a forested mansion and had given the whole of his winnings to me. Now we each had our own room, which was more than we could’ve hoped for while staying here. And Chris and I were as close as ever.

I arrived in our living room, right in front of the couch. I sat down, enjoying the comfort, and pulled out my homework. Setting aside the three-page essay Professor Drake had assigned me, (That would come much later.) I pulled out my wand and spell cards and started on my life homework instead: practicing the sprite spell.

By the time Savannah and Sadie arrived, I was sitting back with my feet on the coffee table, watching the little fairy flutter around the room.

“Hey guys. What’s…?” I faltered when I realized that neither of them looked that happy.

Okay, that was the underestimate of the century. Savannah looked furious and Sadie looked almost reduced to tears. But I was used to stuff like this happening. Ages ten and seven, and levels nine and eight, Savannah and Sadie had more trouble getting along than anyone else in the family.

“What’s going on, guys?” I asked.

“Tell her,” Savannah said to Sadie, her face angrier than I had ever seen it in life. But Sadie remained silent, her bright eyes turned toward me in fear. I wondered what name she had called her this time.

Savannah apparently couldn’t hold it in any longer. “I was about to defeat the fire elf prince,” she exploded, “with some guy who said he would help me. And then she,” she motioned to Sadie, “whisper chats to me and says it’s an emergency. So I went over to find that she only had me come over to help her cross the street!”

“To help her what?” I said. Then I remembered I wasn’t supposed to be taking sides yet.

“To cross the street,” Savannah said in an “isn’t it obvious” sort of voice. “And then…” she looked at Sadie angrily, who seemed unable to speak.

“…she got me into a duel with these two Scarlet Screamers! And then more wizards joined the duel, so more monsters joined. And it took forever! By the time I had gotten back to the Fire Globe Theater, the guy who wanted to help me was gone!”

Sadie finally regained her speech. “Savannah hit me and called me an idiot!”

All was silent, except for the sprite, which zoomed around the three of us, giggling and fluttering her tiny wings.

“Sit,” I said at last, pointing at the couch. They did.

Time for a pep talk, I thought grimly.

“Okay,” I said. “Savannah, you need to calm down a bit and be a bit less… hmm, how do I put this..? Mean. And Sadie, you need to stop asking Savannah for help for every single little thing that needs done.”

“And to be less of a coward,” Savannah muttered.

I glared at her. “I heard that. Remember what we… I mean I just talked about?”

“This is probably the worst pep talk ever,” Savannah said, glaring right back.

I sighed. There was some truth to what she said. “I know. But can we please try to get along just once?”

They said nothing, probably thinking about the impossibility of my suggestion.

So I decided to change the subject. “You’ll never guess which street in the Shopping District I gained access to today,”

“Really?” Savannah’s eyes lit up. For the moment, it looked as though she had already forgotten her fight with Sadie. “You’re in Colossus Boulevard already? Can you take us?”

“Sure,” I said. Anything to get them to stop fighting. “I can take you tomorrow, if you like.”

After being asked questions about it for the next half hour by Savannah, Sadie, and Samuel, who had just arrived, I was getting sick of Colossus Boulevard already. Krokotopia sounded pretty good right about now.

The next day was as dreary as days go. A thick layer of clouds covered the sky of Wizard City, complimented with a light drizzle. Although, during class, Professor Wu said that rain was a blessing sent to help all kinds of life, that didn’t stop the day from affecting my mood. By the time I went to pick up my siblings from their classes, I was fuming, angered by the B- professor Drake had given me for my essay, saying simply that it was “two pages too long.” And I was sad because Chris said he couldn’t come with us to Colossus Boulevard because Halston Balestrom, his storm teacher, had given him too much homework.

But my spirits were lifted when I saw the happy looks on my siblings’ faces. Plus, Sadie and Savannah hadn’t fought the whole day today. That had to be an accomplishment.

And as we approached the tunnel, I saw something, or rather, someone else to make me even happier: my friend Nolan.

“Hey,” he said, waving his staff, which, I noticed, was a new addition.

“Hi,” I said to him. “What’s up?”

“Nothing,” he said innocently, but as he said it, a girl suddenly screamed. Her shopping bag had burst into flames.

I looked at Nolan, who was also watching this scene. He chuckled.

“Was that you?” I said accusingly.

“Slipped a fire elf in her bag,” he said casually. “She didn’t even notice.”

“You shouldn’t have done that!” I said, but I was laughing.

“You would have too,” he said. “She is the prissiest girl in the world; she told me off just because my banshee yesterday was too loud. So, what are you doing here?”

“I thought I’d show my siblings around Colossus Boulevard,” I said. “Oh, and by the way, this is Savannah, Sadie and Samuel.”

Nolan gave each one a brief nod. “Maybe I can come with you all. If your overprotective friend isn’t coming with you.”

“Chris isn’t overprotective,” I said defensively.

Nolan shrugged. “If you don’t mind him following you every waking moment of the day, that’s fine with me.”

“Yes, you can come,” I said, half exasperated. “Teleport to me when we’re in,” I said to the rest in an undertone so Private O’ Doyle wouldn’t hear.

When they got in, they were wearing the same expressions of delight and excitement that I had during my first time.

“This is awesome!” exclaimed Savannah, who didn’t seem to be affected by the cold at all.

So I took my siblings down the street, pointing out all the well-known buildings. So Samuel and I wouldn’t get cold, Nolan had conjured up a fire cat, which pranced around our feet, melting snow on the ground.

“And that,” I said as we arrived at a large palace at the end of the street, “is the Gobbler King’s castle. Ladies and gentlemen, this completes our tour. Are their any questions?” Nolan gave me a wry smile at my imitation of a tour guide.

Even though Sadie and Savannah were in their element here, even they got tired of seeing nothing but snow-covered cottages after a while. And they were starting to look tired too.

“Let’s go back,” said Nolan. But he was looking at Sadie with slight amusement. Her face was green, probably from being right in the way of a gobbler glutton, who at that particular moment, had released a loud, disgusting belch.

It was when we were starting to head back when we heard several terrified screams.

I looked at Nolan in case he knew what it meant. But his face was as confused as I felt at the moment. The others were also apparently lost too.

“Hmm…” I said, searching for an explanation. Maybe one of the gobblers just broke wind. That would certainly scare newcomers. But then I realized that it was no gobbler. It had to be something else… something more sinister…

Lightning flashed from the sky. More screams.

I didn’t think. I tore down the sidewalk. Everyone but Sadie joined me. As soon as I realized she wasn’t coming, I came to an abrupt halt.

“Can’t we just go home?” she said shakily.

I walked back and put my hand on her shoulder. At this, she seemed to relax.

“I’d like to know what’s going on,” I said gently. She nodded, however reluctantly.

As it turned out, all the commotion was coming from a spot near the entrance to the tunnel. A scary sight met our eyes.

This part of Colossus Boulevard was a complete wreck. Every house in the area was damaged in some way, whether it had shattered windows, had the roof caved in, or was up in flames. Apparently, the village had been evacuated- even Mindy wasn’t in her usual spot. But there was a ring of students right in the middle of the street. And it took me a while to realize there was someone in the middle. Or two someones.

Yes, there were definitely two of them. Both of them were wearing long, black leather jackets. In fact, everything about them was black: their hair, if they had any, their clothes, everything except their skin, which was as pale as the snow on the ground. I wasn’t sure who they were, but when I caught a glimpse of their arrogant stances, their forbidding demeanor, and the apparent contempt they showed the students, I was sure that they had caused the wreckage.

One of the two men, the one who had a short beard, had his staff raised, and I realized he was pointing it at a group of students who were looking maybe a little bit more terrified than the rest.

“Where are they?” demanded the one holding the staff. The bearded one.

“Who? I don’t know who you’re talking about!” The girl who was being interrogated then screamed, and that’s when I noticed the tiny black wisp floating around the students, slowly draining them of all their health.

“Don’t play games with me,” the other man snarled. This one was bald. “We’re looking for the children, the four children in the Prophecy of Light.”

Prophecy of Light. My blood ran cold. Because that phrase awoke a jarringly familiar memory.

More or less than a week ago, I was visiting Merle Ambrose’s office, finishing off one of my quests. He and Gamma had been holding a whispered conversation about me. They also mentioned something about a prophecy, a true healer, and a destiny someone had to defeat Malistaire. Since then, every day the encounter had been in the back of my mind, forcing me to wonder why Ambrose had tried to keep all this information from me.

And now, I was trying frantically to piece all this information together. Was it possible; was there a chance that these two guys were after us? It seemed impossible, yet…

Now the two men were whispering to each other. “The boss said they’d be here,” muttered the one who had tortured the students.

Malistaire was the first thought that came to my mind.

“I don’t know,” said the other, who I had decided to call Baldy. “Maybe we should just take ‘em all. Gives him a lot to choose from, don’t it?”

This wasn’t starting to look too good. “We should go,” I whispered to Nolan, who nodded.

I turned around to round up all the others. Savannah, Sadie…uh-oh…

Samuel?

“Did any of you see where Samuel went?” I asked the others. No, they didn’t.

Things were going from bad to worse. “I’m going to go find him,” I said, fighting to stay calm. “Savannah, Sadie, you guys can go home.”

“No,” said Savannah fiercely, grabbing Sadie’s hand. “We’re going to help you.” I noticed that Sadie didn’t exactly agree to that.

“Come on, at least take Sadie home,” I pleaded. That’s when I heard him.

“You guys are so mean!” Only one person in Wizard City was able to say that.

If it scared me to see Samuel gone, it practically horrified me when one of the men said, in a sly, silky voice, “Well, well, well, what have we here?”

I took my sisters’ hands. “Let’s move,” We pushed through the crowd of students, leaving Nolan behind.

Baldy bent right down so that his crooked nose was inches from Samuel’s face. “Malistaire will be interested to know about this one,” he said.

“Don’t touch me!” Samuel screamed.

“Yes,” agreed the other one, Goatee, I called him, “we should definitely take him.”

“Don’t!” I yelled, causing every head to turn in my direction.

“And why ever not?” asked Goatee in that horrible silky voice.

My hands clenched into fists. “He’s just a level five, and he’s four years old. You can’t just take him.”

The two men burst into fits of laughter. Meanwhile, Samuel went to stand up next to me and said, “I hate these guys.”

They were still laughing, probably trying to humiliate us still further. I took advantage of this situation and made motions to try to get the others to leave.

We had barely moved five steps back when a hand grabbed my shoulder. “Just where do you think you’re going?” one of the men said.

I tried to speak, but the words died in my throat. I was more afraid than I had ever been in my life. I could feel Goatee’s claw-like fingers digging into my shoulders and I could smell his putrid breath, which smelled worse than rotten eggs. Even worse was the knowledge that these guys could do some serious damage to us if they wanted. They might even kill us.

“Wait, Ian,” said Baldy. He was scrutinizing us. “You don’t think…”

Ian… somewhere, that name rang a bell, but now wasn’t the time to think about it.

All four of us stood side by side while the men stared at us with a mixture of thoughtfulness and suspicion.

“Maybe these are the ones Malistaire is looking for,” suggested Baldy, to my horror.

“Perhaps,” said the one called Ian thoughtfully. “We ought to take ‘em, just in case. And if they’re not the kids the boss is looking for, he can always dispose of them anyway. What are a couple more kids to him?”

I tried frantically to think of a way out of this. I looked toward the other students, all of whom looked too afraid to even take another step forward, much less come rushing to our aid.

At last, I found my voice. “You’ll have to beat us first,” I said, “in a duel.”

I don’t know what made me say it; maybe I felt it was our only chance. But as soon as I did, I regretted it. Both Ian and Baldy practically rolled on the ground, clutching their stomachs. They were shaking with uncontrollable laughter.

“Us fight you?” instantly their laughter was redoubled.

But I had my retort ready. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you two were scared.”

But wait, what was I doing? There was no way we could beat these guys! I was an Initiate, and Sadie, Savannah, and Samuel were only Apprentices! Malistaire’s minions were probably Grand Masters, if not higher.

But my previous battle had been won. To my surprise, Ian and Baldy were forming the dueling circle around us.

In the month I had spent in Ravenwood, I had learned much about dueling. There was what teachers liked to call “proper duels,” in which there was a dueling circle, players had to go when it was their turn, you felt pain from the spells but they didn’t really hurt you, and instead of dying if you lost, you went back to the commons. There were also duels that I was thankful that Malistaire’s monsters were too dim-witted to know how to do. Duels in which you didn’t fight fair, not in rounds. You had to throw in every dirty trick that you knew. And of course, the loser ended up killed.

But this was a proper duel, wasn’t it?

“And don’t think that you’ll end up safe in your commons either,” jeered Baldy. “Dueling wasn’t the only magic Malistaire taught us.”

I shuddered. It was just if he had read my mind. Could he read minds? Well, I wouldn’t put it past him.

We began to duel.

I examined my spell cards. As a level eleven, my highest spell was Troll. But what use would it be against Malistaire’s henchmen?

I looked over at my siblings, they, like me, hadn’t yet selected their cards. Savannah gave me one of those “I can’t believe you did this” looks as she cast Thermic shield upon herself. I sighed deeply and settled for Myth Trap.

After a half an hour of battling our hardest, it didn’t seem like we’d even made a dent in these guys. To make matters even worse, we were slowly being deprived of health. Ian and Baldy were enjoying this greatly, and seemed to want to make us suffer more than if we were in the average duel.

Bottom line: we were there on our four dueling circles with barely a hundred health left each, watching fearfully as the two men examined a meteor strike card.

This is it, I thought, looking around at my siblings again. Sadie was trembling so hard, I thought she’d drop her wand. Savannah was trying, with poor results, to look braver than she really felt. Even Samuel had realized what was going to happen. He was bawling, tears streaming out of his blue eyes.

If only I had taunt or distract, one of those ice spells. Then I’d be able to make them go for just me so the others would be safe. At least for a little while…

I was so concerned with the battle that I didn’t even notice that my hands had begun to thrum with magical energy. I didn’t notice the golden wisps of magic swirling around my waist. I didn’t notice the gasps and shrieks coming from the crowd.

They went first. Baldy traced the fire symbol in the air. Although I prayed with all my might that it would fizzle, it didn’t.

As a hole opened up in the sky, we all grasped hands. Later, I would know that we all had the same thought: better to be defeated together than separately.

I was vaguely aware of a golden glow. The sun must’ve come out at last. But it was to close to be the sun, wasn’t it? It was only seconds before I realized the glow was coming from us.

The air was full of flames. The fiery meteors had come at last. They were about to strike.

No, I thought.

And that’s when the first weird thing happened. I wasn’t exactly sure what happened, but right before the meteors hit us, they swerved and hit Baron Greebly’s castle instead, which burst up in flames.

I shivered. We had been that close to being reduced to ashes. Well, not really. But we had come that close to being knocked out.

The golden glare around us had reached such an intensity that I had to squint so I wouldn’t harm my eyes. Suddenly, all four of us were hoisted up into the air. Not only that, but I realized our health was coming back. It wasn’t long before we had one hundred…two hundred…three hundred…

And then we landed on the ground, our health completely filled.

Baldy’s eyes widened. “No,” he growled, “it can’t be…”

“Patrick,” Ian murmured, “they… their health…”

“I don’t need you to tell me what I already know,” snapped Baldy, who was apparently called Patrick. Then he gave us a look I didn’t like at all, one that said plainly, “You’re gonna get it.” He traced the death symbol into the air.

I noticed that he didn’t use a spell card.

Up from the ground rose a banshee. But this one looked different from all the other banshees I had seen. This one seemed more threatening, evil. I wondered if this was a form of banshee that only Malistaire knew how to cast. But it was only when she opened her mouth that I was certain.

From the banshee came the most unearthly, horrible sound I had ever heard. The ring of students around us clapped their hands over their ears. I was about to follow their lead when I realized that I couldn’t pull away my hands from Savannah’s and Sadie’s. So I just pressed my shoulders against my ears instead. It wasn’t long before I saw blood begin to ooze on my sleeves.

I could feel my health dwindling. Was this banshee really that powerful?

Another scream joined the banshee’s. It was Samuel. I both listened and tried hard not to listen as Samuel’s scream grew louder and louder. Soon it had reached a volume that I would have never thought possible, and climbing. It was almost as loud as the banshee’s!

But something weird was going on. Even though Samuel’s voice was now louder than the banshee’s, and I could hear it reverberating around my eardrums, it wasn’t affecting me at all. But it did seem to affect the banshee, who had gone back under the ground. And Malistaire’s henchmen, who were on their knees with their palms to their ears. This time, it was their health that had begun to drop…

But it was Samuel’s turn now, so he had stopped screaming and was now weaving the balance symbol into the air.

The next few moments went by in a daze. I didn’t even pay attention to the fact that my whole body was both glowing and vibrating super hard. All that really mattered were the spells we cast. Samuel’s scorpion, instead of releasing its normal poisonous fluids, somehow let out a thick cloud of toxic gas at Ian, who started wheezing and coughing. Sadie, who had trained second in storm, brought down not the usual three, but dozens of lightning bats, who zoomed around Patrick, making waves of electricity course through his body. Both of the two men lost a large amount of health.

Then it was my turn. By now, I was prepared for anything, so I traced the myth triangle into the air before me without hesitancy.

In front of me was a troll, like I had cast. I watched, astonished, as it began to grow. Soon it was taller than a Cyclopes, one of the magic schools, the Gobbler King’s castle…

Both Ian and Patrick cowered in fear as the troll- my troll- raised its club, which could have easily crushed them both. And that’s precisely what it did.

When the troll disappeared, I caught a glimpse of Ian and Patrick, both of whom were knocked out. Then they vanished in a puff of black smoke. The golden glow surrounding the four of us went out.

Silence…then...

A cheer went out from the crowd. Students from Novice (How did they get here?) to Master crowded around us, congratulating us, requesting friendship, even asking for autographs. They didn’t even stop when Merle Ambrose appeared right in the middle of where the dueling circle had just been.

He looked around for a bit, aghast. Then his eyes found me. He looked astonished. Did he somehow know what had just occurred?

Then a strong hand found mine and pulled me into a building, out of sight of my new fans.

“Thanks, Nolan,” I said, grateful that he had helped me find some privacy. He didn’t smile.

“I,” he said, “am prepared to bet anything that those were Ian Ghostbringer and Patrick Nightwalker. They are part of the Black Hand. They’re two of Malistaire’s strongest henchmen!”

I froze. That was why the names seemed familiar; Nolan had told me about the Black Hand not too long ago.

Still one question remained unanswered. But before I could even think about it, Nolan spoke it for me.

“How did you do it?” Nolan asked. “Those two have been trained higher than you could ever get at Ravenwood!”

I didn’t exactly have a straight answer ready. “I don’t know,” I admitted. “My spells just seemed…stronger.”

I grimaced. That was about as a lame reply as you could get.

“Has it ever happened to you before now?” asked Nolan sharply.

“No,” I said. “Never.”

However good Nolan’s intentions were, he was making me feel more upset and confused than ever. I hadn’t really thought about the enormity of the deed I had done until now. Ian Ghostbringer and Patrick Nightwalker…how could we have done it?

I knew one thing. There was no way we could have done it alone. Someone had to have helped us.

Unless…

Ambrose’s voice came back to me: If she is, in fact, the one mentioned in the Prophecy of Light…

This was all too confusing.

Later in the day, I was sitting on our home’s front porch. I had to get away from all the wizards, and here seemed like a good place to go.

Sadie and Savannah had decided to join their fellow ice students for a party in the Ice Tower, in which they were supposed to be the guests of honor, after the fight in Colossus Boulevard. So I was completely alone except for Samuel, who wasn’t really a desirable companion. He kept casting Elemental Shield upon himself as I thought about what had happened earlier. All these frequent flashes of light were starting to annoy me, but I was trying my best not to complain.

The first place I had gone after Colossus Boulevard was the library; I was hoping to find some information there. But after turning the whole library upside down, I was forced to conclude that Harold Argleston didn’t have a single book on the Prophecy of Light or even the Black Hand. So I looked at a book on spells instead. Not only did I not find even a bit of information about supersized spells, but I was also found by a group of fans, one of them holding up a sign saying, “Be mine.” Luckily, I was able to escape home before they were upon me.

Flash.

I was on the verge of telling Samuel to cut it out. But this one wasn’t a spell; it was someone teleporting.

Thinking it was probably a new friend whose request I’d been too polite to refuse, I started to turn away. But then I realized it was Gamma.

“Hi,” I said.

“The Headmaster would like to-o-o see yo-o-ou,” he greeted.

Okay. “You all right here alone?” I asked Samuel. He nodded as he conjured up his eighth set of shields.

I took Gamma’s outstretched wing. In an instant, we were just in front of the door to Ambrose’s office. Hanging on a rusty old nail was a sign that said, “The headmaster is not available at this time.” It must not have meant to be intended for me, however, because Gamma took me right in.

Ambrose was there, seated at his desk. “Good afternoon, Miss Spiritheart,” he said. He held something under his hands. It looked like a piece of parchment or a scroll.

My eyes widened.

Well, what do we have here?

There it was again, across the top of the parchment in big letters: The Prophecy of Light.

The servant of Malistaire ran down the stone hallway, his black cloak billowing out behind him. He was one of the few who knew the way to the secret parlor, the room where Malistaire hatched his most devious schemes. He was in a hurry to get there too, running with a kind of furious excitement. He was eager to know what sort of punishment had befallen on Ian and Patrick; they had failed their master’s orders yet again.

Of course, if he was there fighting at Colossus Boulevard, it might have been different. Instead, he had been assigned the pointless task of supervisor.

He turned left, right, and went through an ancient-looking tapestry. And there was Malistaire, looking furious as he poured a potion into the mouths of the two unconscious men. They awakened. And they seemed surprised looking around at their surroundings. Then they saw Malistaire, and they began to quake in fear.

Malistaire held in his wrath, however, because he saw his servant standing in the doorway. “Marcus, how are you?” he cooed.

That’s when Marcus noticed two young women sitting on a couch near the back of the room. Like everyone else in the room, they were dressed all in black and had dark hair and eyes. Although they wore nice dresses and their hair was elaborately styled, they were far from pretty. Their skin was deathly pale, there were dark circles under their eyes, and they were scowling as Malistaire gave him an affectionate gesture.

Marcus gave a chuckle. He didn’t care. They were only jealous of his bond with Malistaire. And he reveled in their jealousy.

“Report,” Malistaire ordered.

“It seems,” said Marcus, before Ian or Patrick could make up a lame excuse, “that these two have failed to carry out your orders. They have failed to bring you the children of the Prophecy of Light.”

“However,” he continued, watching Malistaire’s face grow redder and redder, “we now know who they are.”

“Cornelia, Nora,” he barked, “take these buffoons to the dungeons. I will deal with them later.”

As the four exited the room, Malistaire turned to face Marcus, his eyes agleam with excitement. “Who?”

“It is the girl, Sarah Spiritheart, and her family. She enrolled in Ravenwood school barely a month ago,” said Marcus smugly. He had known it was her all along, ever since he had met her, which was not too long ago. He had just seen something in her.

“Ah, yes, her. Only an initiate.” He couldn’t hide his relief. “I trust you know of the plan? In case this was to happen?”

“Of course.” Marcus broke into an evil smile.

“Then keep an eye on the girl…until it is carried out.”

“I’ll leave right away,” said Marcus calmly. He gave Malistaire a short bow. Then he teleported to his house in Wizard City, where he lived as Malistaire’s spy. There he had a whole new name, a whole new identity.

He kicked back in his chair. What had happened today was chance, purely chance. Sarah had no idea of her true destiny. Her capture would be easy.


As soon as I saw the heading on that scroll, I took an eager step forward. I would finally get to figure out what this all was about!

“What’s that, Sir?” I asked politely

“Sit down,” he requested. I did. “This is the reason for what happened today in Colossus Boulevard, as I’m sure you’re wondering.”

“Yes,” I agreed. “Is that a prophecy?”

“Oh, yes,” he said.

“I didn’t know there were prophecies in Wizard City,” I mused.

“But there are,” he chuckled. “In fact, there are a great number of them. All prophecies that have happened already as well as those that are yet to commence were written before the dawn of the Spiral, when the giants, titans, and dragons ruled the land.”

I nodded to show that I understood. Professor Wu had told us that story countless times.

I hesitated before I asked the next question. “Does it…have something to do with me?” he nodded. “Then why did you try to hide it from me?”

“I didn’t want to frighten you, Miss Spiritheart,” Ambrose said simply. “Goodness knows how you would take the news in your first weeks in Ravenwood. Besides, I wasn’t sure back then.”

Okay, I’d take that. “How did you find this, though?”

“Funny you should ask,” said Ambrose. “About a year ago, I went to Bartleby with a potion that would help soothe his mind. It was at that time that he chose to mention that I might find a certain room just to the side of Dragon’s Mouth Cave. This was news to me, so I decided to make the journey to investigate.”

“Was it there?” I asked.

“Yes, in fact,” said Ambrose. “I followed his instructions and found myself in the Hall of the Prophecy, a legendary room in which few people are permitted entrance.”

“So were there prophecies in there?” I asked.

“Just about every prophecy ever made,” said Ambrose. “I explored a little bit. Then I came across a most peculiar statement called the Prophecy of Light. I was most intrigued by it, so I copied it down.” He handed me the scroll.

“So I can read it, then?” I asked excitedly. He nodded, and I unrolled the parchment.

The scroll was covered, not by words, but by a picture. My first thought was that it could’ve been a bit more elaborate. The people in the picture had dots for eyes and sticks for arms and legs.

“Oh, I am terribly sorry for my lack of quillmanship,” said Ambrose cheerfully. “I have never been particularly known for having artistic skill.”

“Uh, okay,” I guffawed. Then I studied the picture some more.

Four wizards stood side by side against a person I recognized as a badly drawn Malistaire. At least Ambrose had enough skill to portray three girls and a boy. And their approximate ages. Hey, that kind of looked like…

“Is that us?” I asked.

He nodded. “If I was just a little more skilled in the artistic field, the resemblance might have been clearer.”

I looked back at Malistaire. Even in this picture, he looked very menacing. He also appeared to be glowing, shown by the little stars that Ambrose had drawn around him.

My heart sank when I realized what this meant. “Malistaire’s getting powerful again.”

“Yes.” Ambrose gave a sad smile.

“And…” I looked back at the four wizards across from him. “…we’re going to have to defeat him.”

“It could’ve been anyone,” corrected Ambrose. “But so far, you were the most excelled family of four I’ve ever met. I really think you have the potential.”

I studied the picture a bit more. On the hand of the tallest girl (possibly me) was a strange rune that I had never seen before. I squinted. It looked like a leaf intertwined with a heart.

“What’s that?” I asked.

“That,” said Ambrose, “is the mark of a true healer.”

“What’s a true healer?” I asked. “Normally you don’t learn this until Magus Life Magic, but it can’t hurt to tell you now,” said Ambrose. “Although, it might be a little bit tricky to understand without the knowledge of the properties of life.”

“We learned that already,” I said.

“Oh, did you, now? Good,” said Ambrose. “A true healer can heal herself and others spontaneously, without a wand or a spell.”

“Isn’t that impossible?” I asked.

“Theoretically, yes,” he said. “That’s why true healers are so rare. No one knows how they are singled out, besides from the fact that they have always been life wizards and, for some reason, young ladies like yourself.

“I believe,” he continued, “that Sylvia Drake was a true healer.”

“Really?” I asked. “Then why did she die if she could just heal herself?”

“They can only heal others, but when doing so, their magic can rub off on them too,” said Ambrose. “I’m afraid to say that poor Sylvia could not heal herself at that point.”

“So are you saying that I’m a true healer?” I asked.

“It could very well be,” he replied.

“So how do they do it?”

“No one knows,” said Ambrose. “Well, maybe except for Bartleby, but he’s in no state to tell us.”

There was the longest of silences. This true healer thing certainly did seem to explain what happened at Colossus Boulevard, but did that mean…

“So…we’re definitely going to have to defeat Malistaire, then,” I said slowly.

“You can choose not to, if you want,” said Ambrose. “Of course, if it is truly your destiny, I’m sorry to say you can’t evade it for very long.”

I massaged my temples with my fingers. “Okay…I’m going to need to think this through,”

“Please, take all the time you need,” said Ambrose warmly. “Thank you,” I said. I started for the door and stopped. “Say I did decide to do this. What then?”

“Just stay together,” Ambrose advised. “I don’t think you’d do much good against Malistaire separately. And remember this, Miss Spiritheart; I have full confidence in you and your ability to save the Spiral.”




The next day, just as we had decided, Chris and I continued with our Gobbler quest.

To get to the Gobbler King, we had to defeat Prince Gobblestone, whose suspenders were putting on a large amount of strain. In fact, right in the middle of the battle, just before I was about to cast Leprechaun, one of the buttons popped off and hit me in the eye. I had to resist a strong urge to cast at Chris instead as he rolled around on the ground laughing.

“You had to admit it, though, that was pretty funny,” Chris said as we were coming out.

I rubbed my eye. “I guess…”

After we talked to Mindy Pixiecrown about the king’s decree, we were supposed to talk to Ambrose about it. I was slightly nervous about this; Ambrose might bring up the Prophecy of Light again…

But Ambrose treated me the same as ever. Maybe it was because he felt sorry for me, or maybe it was just because I was with Chris at the time. But he seemed to understand.

When we told him about the Gobbler King’s attempts to take over Wizard City, he (sounding sincerely sorry about it) sent us both to defeat even more gobblers. Two of each kind.

I groaned. I was getting sick of them. Literally.

Defeating the Gobblers was as dull as it was disgusting. And it took an excruciatingly long time. A couple of times, Chris and I had to take turns at the minigame fairgrounds to earn more mana or health. It took nearly an hour, but at last we were done. Then we had to go back to Ambrose’s office and…well it’s pretty straightforward from there. Chris and I both agreed that it wasn’t our most fun quest.

We were about halfway to Colossus Boulevard again (to defeat Baron Greebly) when, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a flash of light behind me. Someone, a friend, had teleported to me.

I gritted my teeth. It was probably one of the people who had begged to be my friend yesterday. Or, and my eyes widened in horror, what if it was Nolan? Then Chris would know he was my friend and would probably be furious…

But to my immense relief, it was Catherine Fairyblossom, one of my fellow initiate life students who I had known long before what had happened yesterday. Behind her was a small girl who looked exactly like her, only in miniature.

“Hey, Sarah.” Then she noticed me looking at the girl clinging to her leg. “Oh, this is my sister, Madison Goldengate. She’s fire.”

The girl, Madison, giggled.

“Do you need anything?” I asked.

“Well, actually, yes,” said Catherine. “There’s a bit of a problem on Unicorn Way; none of us can…”

“Unicorn Way?” I gaped at her. I hadn’t been to Unicorn Way for ages. And she, a level fourteen, hadn’t either. “Then why do you need me?”

“Well, there’s this over population problem, but it’s not the monsters that are usually there. I mean, they’re the same, really, but they’re a lot more powerful and know more spells.”

“On Unicorn—” Chris began.

“Yes! On Unicorn Way! These monsters appeared right out of the blue and I think we need your help.”

“But you don’t need Sarah, do you?” asked Chris. “It’s monsters, not Malistaire’s henchmen again.”

Thank you, I thought.

“I told you!” said Catherine, now slightly exasperated. “These monsters are different. But when we tried to get a couple of Magi to defeat them…”

Chris and I exchanged looks. Magi? On Unicorn Way?

“…it didn’t even seem to hurt them even a little bit. They’re multiplying or something. I don’t know.”

“So,” I said, “you think I can do better than a group of Magi?”

“But,” said Catherine, “yesterday…you…ugh!” She threw her hands up into the air. “Just come with me.

Without warning, she grabbed me by the arm and dragged me through the tunnel to Unicorn Way.

To my surprise, in the courtyard, I saw the three slightly bemused faces of my siblings staring at me when I walked in, each of them standing beside one of their friends.

“What’s going on?” Savannah demanded.

But I wasn’t focused on them. My eyes were on the street, which indeed seemed to be flooded with more Lost Souls then normal. Yet something about these seemed to be different. They weren’t floating around with the usual less-than-confident manner those lowly 65-health-Lost Souls had. There was a definite confidence, even smugness about them as they floated up and down the street.

I turned to look at Catherine, who was already facing me. “You need to do something,” she said. “It’s not just the Lost Souls. There’s also Skeletal Pirates and Dark Fairies. It’s horrible. They attack us while we’re on sidewalks and gang up on us four to one. Stuff like that. The novices are getting scared—look.” She indicated a group of children sitting on the steps of the gazebo, about Sadie’s age, quaking in fear.

“Please,” she said. She spoke to all four of us. “Can you help?”

“Well,” I said, looking over the sea of faces, “we’re not miracle workers.” The looks on the people’s faces told us that they thought otherwise.

“Alright…” I said. It couldn’t hurt. The worst thing that could happen was that we’d all get sent back to the commons. Right?

“Want me to come with you?” said a quiet voice right next to my ear.

I smiled to myself. “No thanks,” I said to Chris.

The minute I grabbed hands with Savannah, Savannah with Sadie, and Sadie with Samuel, a shimmery, golden wisp appeared and started swirling around us. People from the crowd oohed and ahhed. And something else happened. I began to feel more confident, like I could do anything, maybe even put a stop to this…

As we walked down the sidewalks, I noticed that something seemed to be keeping the Lost Souls away from us. Whatever Catherine had said about the Lost Souls attacking people on the sidewalks didn’t seem to be holding true for us.

Where to begin? They had to be coming from somewhere. That’s when I saw Lost Souls, Skeletal Pirates, and Dark Fairies streaming from one particular building at the back one of the street’s cul-de-sacs: Lady Blackhope’s tower.

My siblings’ faces mirrored my surprise. Lady Blackhope was the easiest Boss in Wizard City. This wouldn’t be hard at all!

A little too easy, I thought. Suddenly, I thought of something. If Lady Blackhope was this simple-minded, this weak, then how was she doing this?

I realized our mistake a second late, when we didn’t see Lady Blackhope in her tower.

Instead, there was a woman of about eighteen, laid back on a golden throne I hadn’t seen in this room before. I know I shouldn’t have thought it in the first place because it felt too prejudiced, but the first thought that came to my mind was, Death. I couldn’t help myself. Just like Nolan, she obviously preferred to wear just black.

With a jolt, I saw that the clothes she was wearing also reminded me of the clothes worn by Ian Ghostbringer and Patrick Nightwalker. Was she part of Malistaire’s Black Hand too?

Even if she wasn’t, she appeared to be the cause of the trouble. She was smiling, laughing even, as she gave her wand a couple of lazy flicks, summoning creatures who headed straight for the exit door...

…which slammed shut as we entered. Suddenly, the woman’s eyes swiveled around to the four of us. They were bright amber with slits for pupils, giving her the ludicrous appearance of an overgrown hawk—minus the beak. Although I could easily picture one, big and yellow, on her face.

The woman smiled evilly and raised her wand so that it appeared to divide her face in half. Her hair stood on end, forming a kind of halo, even though there was nothing heavenly about this picture.

Then a bright flash of blue light filled the air. Unprepared, I closed my eyes a second late. When I opened my eyes, it was only after I stopped seeing spots when I saw exactly how much danger we were in.

The hawk-like woman had gone. But she had been replaced by as many creatures as were able to fill the room. I could even see some on the stairs to the next floor.

“Argh, no!” I shouted. But it was too late. Sadie rushed to the exit door the moment she saw the creatures, bumping into a Lost Soul and forming a dueling circle in the process.

“Great…” Three Lost Souls and a Skeletal Pirate had joined, but as I had suspected, they were much more powerful than their normal kin. And many more surrounded us, waiting to fight.

A powerful emotion rose up inside of me, but it wasn’t fear or concern or anything like that. Instead, oddly, it felt like courage. Or something like it. Kind of like a “bring it on” feeling.

The golden glow flared.

I looked around, my lips twisting into a smile. I was surprised yet pleased to see even Sadie wasn’t looking even the least bit scared.

So the fight began.

It was like yesterday all over again. Except that we knew what to expect this time. Our spells were more powerful than ever. Leprechauns threw coins by the bucketful. Literally: they came surfing down the rainbow with dozens of pots. Snow Serpents bit with rows and rows of pointy teeth. A fire plate caused by a Fire Elf remained long after three rounds, causing damage endlessly.

Yet it was long, tiring work, even worse than Gobblers. The amount of creatures seemed infinite, and at times, I could’ve sworn they’d multiplied, like Catherine said. These creatures knew more spells than I’d expected they’d know. A Lost Soul actually cast Wraith, almost completely depriving Samuel of health.

And then there was the issue of health. The length of this battle made me think that we ought to have lost our health completely a fair few times. But I simply had to think it and our health was immediately replenished.

Time passed. But what really drove me crazy was that it was impossible to tell how much. There were no windows, no clock, and I had left my watch at Earth. And we were becoming tired. But there didn’t seem to be any difference in the monsters than when we first arrived.

I wish this would just end, I thought as a giant death shield supposed to take off 99.9 percent of a spell obscured my view yet again.

Something started tickling my left hand, in which I held my spell cards. I looked and saw a tiny, gold wisp floating among the cards. It traced a shimmery, rectangular outline in my hand. And then there was a card which had not been there before.

I grabbed it and held it up to my face. It said, Tornado. Nothing more. No amount of pips needed, no amount of damage, not even a picture. Nothing.

I decided to try it anyway. It had evidently appeared for a reason.

It was our turn, and I went first. I held up the new spell card. It was green, so I decided that it was a life spell. I concentrated and traced the life symbol in the air. Then I closed my eyes, waved my wand, and gathered up the energy of the new card

Almost straightaway, I felt a strong wind that whipped my ponytail around in circles. The minute I opened my eyes, I became conscious that my bangs had been blown in my face. The others were also having similar problems. Savannah was clutching her Frost-touched cap with both hands, afraid it would fly off. Sadie’s hat had blown off. And Samuel’s cape was blowing into his back. It looked as though he would be scooped up into the air. But aside from these minor drawbacks, we were all unharmed.

The monsters weren’t so lucky. They appeared to be losing strength. The Lost Souls were fighting against the wind with poor results. The Skeletal Pirates were being blasted apart. The Dark Fairies were being blown all about, their tiny wings helpless against the wind.

At last, the windstorm was over. And we found ourselves in a completely empty tower room. The floor was littered with bones and the occasional eye patch or bandana.

“Wow!” Savannah exclaimed. “Where did you learn a spell like that?”

“There was a card,” I said. “It appeared…hang on, I’ll show you…”

But to my surprise, the card had vanished.

“Huh? Where did it go?”

“Hey!” Samuel shouted suddenly.

I only had a few seconds to look at what Samuel was pointing at. Near the door was a black-cloaked figure holding a detailed staff. He was about my height, but did that mean he was my age? I couldn’t tell. All I could see of his face was his mouth; the rest was under his hood. But before I could get a good look at him, he vanished with a puff of black smoke.

“Huh,” said Savannah. I didn’t answer. I had just thought of someone I knew, someone who liked to dress all in black and wear hoods, and someone who liked to carry staffs rather than wands…

No, I thought. He would never do that.

But could it be? What I had seen of the young stranger looked pretty much like him. Even his skin color, although that may have just been darkened by the shadow.

I pushed the thought out of my mind, resolving to deal with it later. Right now, we had to tell everyone what had happened. And get our first ray of sunlight in three, maybe four hours.

Exiting the tower was like coming out of a bat cave. It was as though we were looking directly into the sun every minute. It made me envy fire wizards, who could look directly into the sun without suffering any eye damage at all. We had to do a kind of staggering walk along the sidewalk to get down the street. But the effects of the sun wore off at last. A whole bunch of students were waiting in the courtyard, probably for our arrival.

“Did you do it?” asked a small girl wearing Novice robes.

“I don’t know,” I said, and that was true. Although we had defeated all the monsters in Lady Blackhope’s tower, I had no clue if we actually stopped the trouble.

From the crowd came cries of disappointment and confusion, but then a voice echoed across the field: “Allow me.”

The voice had come from the gazebo. It was Merle Ambrose. He had only just teleported here.

“The person causing all the trouble on this street has fled, probably when she saw the extent of power in these four.” He waved a ringed hand over us. “This beautiful and historic street is now safe. To our younger wizards, you may now continue your quests without any further danger.” The crowd of wizards cheered.

I noticed that Ambrose had deliberately not mentioned that the woman was working for Malistaire, probably not to arouse any fear in the students.

Thankfully, before I received even more friendship requests, Ambrose walked up to me and said, “Miss Spiritheart, a word in my office?”

“Okay,” I said. I already knew very well what he wanted to discuss. Rather than dwell on that particular unpleasant subject, I instead marveled at the déjà vu of this scene. Both today and yesterday, after a horrific battle caused by Malistaire’s henchmen, Merle Ambrose had arrived just a second late and invited me to a pleasant chat in his office about the dreaded Prophecy of Light.

“So, Miss Spiritheart…” said Ambrose conversationally, closing his office door behind him.

“I know what you’re going to say,” I said.

Before Ambrose could do so much as look disappointed, I said, “But I’ve thought it over. I’ll do it, but you’ll have to ask the others about it before…” I couldn’t say it.

“A courageous decision,” Ambrose said. “I believed you had a chance, and I thought you would think so too.”

“Well, I’ll do it.” I said. “But what do I do now?”

“I think you deserve a break from all this responsibility,” said Ambrose, to my surprise. “Have fun, do quests, take classes.”

I was doing a mental back flip at his words. Yes yes yes yes yes! I was screaming inside my head. I so needed a real long break from this Prophecy of Light business. Even though I had only really known about it for a bit more than a day.

“And I almost forgot,” said Ambrose. “He handed me the scroll. “Keep this. You might be able to make some more sense out of it.”

I pocketed the bit of parchment. I’d have to show this to Chris. He’d help me figure it out. Nolan too.

Or maybe not Nolan, I thought, remembering the mysterious figure in the tower. After today, I didn’t know whether to trust him or not.


Merle Ambrose watched Sarah fondly as she exited his office.

“She’s a brave one, she is,” hooted Gamma.

“Yes,” said Ambrose. “And I feel certain that her siblings will be the same.”

He peered out his office window just as Sarah teleported away. True, he had no doubt of her abilities. Or any of their abilities, really. But he couldn’t help feeling a bit worried. He had half a mind not to let them do it at all. But he knew destiny always caught up with you sooner or later. And it was better to be prepared than to not have a clue.

Besides, now wasn’t the time to worry about Malistaire. Merle knew him. He was likely to bide his time until the next chapter of his scheme.

No, he wouldn’t worry that much about them until the time came. He had a much more pressing matter on his hands.

He knew that Malistaire was capable of a lot. After all, he had taught him once. But now he had achieved something that Merle had thought impossible.

“But how did he do it?” he wondered aloud.

“Do-o-o what?” asked Gamma.

“The creatures,” said Merle. “They appear to be what they were before. In fact, they’re the exact same.”

“Then why are they mo-o-ore powerful?” asked Gamma, finishing Merle’s statement.

“Malistaire has found a way to train his minions to make them more powerful then they actually are. I would not have believed it possible until now.”

Gamma hooted nervously. “What would they be capable of do-o-oing?”

“Stronger spells, I think,” he replied. “Better intelligence, more health, and maybe even more sometime. But what we really should be worrying about is what Malistaire will do with minions like these. Any ideas, Gamma?”

“Hmm,” Gamma thought. “He’d fill the streets, replace some of the bosses…”

“He may do more than that soon, Gamma,” said Merle gravely. “With these new minions at his side, he might even be capable of attacking the school. I fear that Malistaire is building up an army so as to make him unstoppable.”



“Oh dear,” said Gamma. “Should we expect an attack so-o-o-on?”

“I think we are safe for now,” said Merle. “He’ll wait until he has enough minions to attack, just to be on the safe side. But even so, we ought to be on our guard, just in case.”


So slowly, the day drew to a close. Chris and I worked on our Gobbler quest some more. And we were about to finish, but we were distracted by Kirby Longspear, who wouldn’t leave us alone until we collected his shipment barrels.

We did quests until the moon rose up in the sky. Finally, Chris yawned and said, “The Gobbler King can capture Wizard City right now, for all I care. And I’ll still be going home to get some sleep. So, tomorrow then? Same time same place?”

“Same time same place,” I replied. I waved goodbye to him. Then I teleported home.

I landed in the front yard only to find Sadie asleep on the porch steps in her pajamas. I gently shook her shoulder.

“Sadie, what are you doing here?” I softly asked. It must be later than I realized.

Without opening her eyes and barely moving her lips, she said, “Waiting for you.”

Then she laid her head back down, asleep again.

I still don’t know how I managed to get Sadie from the porch to her room without waking her up. I know that if someone had even touched me in my sleep, I’d be wide awake the next instant. It wasn’t like that for Sadie, though. After attempting several ways to pick her up, she still remained fast asleep. Finally, shrugging, I just slung her over my shoulder. Gently, of course. And I carried her like that up a flight of stairs and across the hall to her bedroom.

“Goodnight,” I said to her.

Then I tiptoed across to my room.

I lay awake for a long time, thinking about the prophecy. At last, when I could bear it no longer, I conjured a bit of light with my wand and retrieve the scroll from my bedside table.

I looked at the poorly drawn picture until I thought my eyes would burn out. But no matter how hard I studied it, I wasn’t able to make anything out other than what Ambrose told me.

At least I was able to push that from my mind. For now.

I should’ve known that this period of blissful relaxation was too good to last. And I’m not talking about the time when my other siblings actually found out about the prophecy. Or the magic, which we discovered appeared even when we weren’t fighting for our life, or when I was with only, say, one of my siblings. I was actually starting to like that I had some control over it now. I’m talking about a period weeks later in our life, when things took a turn for the worst.

How? Well, I’ll just say that over this month, things were going really well for my family. Savannah and Sadie hadn’t had a real argument in weeks. Samuel hadn’t screamed once ever since we got here. Unless you counted at Colossus Boulevard. But that had done us more good than harm. This wizard thing was really tying us together. I was starting to think that nothing could break us apart.

Boy, was I wrong.



Never had I been sad or miserable at Ravenwood. Not even once. All I’d ever known were happy times. Like when I finally bought a forested mansion, with a little help from Chris. Like when Chris and I finally made it into Krokotopia. Like when I learned the spell Sprite Guardian, enabling me to bring help to a battle without whisper chatting to one of my friends.

Never…at least, not until today.

The day started out normal enough. Chris and I were in our usual seats at the front of the classroom. We were watching with little interest as Professor Wu explained to a group of new level-eighteens how to cast Sprite Guardian. We had already learned that spell three days ago. The little fairy that had risen from the ground was like a normal sprite in many ways. Except that she was a little bigger and perhaps, more serious.

Five sprites soon filled the room. I watched them fondly, remembering the one I had cast the other day, which had helped me beat Chris at dueling at last.

One was doing a kind of graceful ballet move across my desk when I first heard it: a loud BOOM. An explosion. Well that stirred up some people, but Professor Wu managed to calm us down.

“The Adept Diviners have their class about now,” she said wisely. “They’re probably just learning how to cast Kraken.”

We all believed her then. But then there was another booming noise. Then another. Even Professor Wu seemed to think that there was something more going on when they continued for most of the day. And even after we left class.

As Chris and I exited with the rest of the class, I heard it again. It seemed to be coming from the other side of Ravenwood. From the “elemental” classes.

“Maybe Professor Wu’s right,” said Chris. “It probably is just a storm student.”

That didn’t convince me, but…all right. “Want to meet at the Oasis after we’re finished with homework?”

“Okay.” Chris said. “See you then!”

BOOM.

Homework from Professor Wu didn’t take long at all. It was actually fun. I was supposed to cast Sprite Guardian and take note of all the different spells she knew. It was my Myth homework that was the problem.

Professor Drake seemed to want to give me as much difficult homework as possible. The kindest explanation I could think of for this behavior was that he wanted to challenge me so I wouldn’t be bored. Then again, Cyrus Drake wasn’t exactly known for his kindness. So I was forced to assume the worst: he wanted to flunk me out of Myth class. He had tried to expel me once.

I took out the four sheets that he had given me that had questions on both the front and the back sides. Number One, I read to myself. Name the three metals that are found in a Cyclops’s hammer.

“How am I supposed to know that?” I complained loudly. Fuming, I skipped on to the next question. Describe the appearance of a River Troll.

A half an hour later, I put my half-finished homework in my backpack. I was thinking of stopping by Cyclopes Lane to ask Nolan Stormgate the answers to the questions when I heard a knock on the door.

Thinking it was Savannah or Sadie, or maybe both, I was surprised to see Lydia Greyrose.

“Hi, Professor…” I gasped. “Are you all right?”

Professor Greyrose looked as though she had been in a fight. Her blue robes were singed. Her hair, usually up in a tight bun, was falling in her face. Her hat was tilted in such a way that it covered her left eye. And her flying was a little lopsided, due to the fact that one of her wings was stiff.

“Yes, I’m all right,” she said, with a great deal of dignity.

“But,” she added, “I wish I could say the same for these two.” She pulled from both sides of the door Savannah and Sadie, who, up to now, had been hidden from my view. They looked similar to Professor Greyrose, except they were covered in bruises. And they both had angry, yet guilty looks on their faces.

Thinking that this could mean nothing good, I asked to them in particular, “What happened?”

Both of them opened their mouths, probably to blame each other, but it was Professor Greyrose who answered.

“Miss Swiftsong and Miss Sparkleblade started a fight during class today,” she said. “I assume you heard them, did you not?”

I clenched my fists. “You started a fight?” I screeched.

“In addition,” she said, they completely destroyed the Ice School.”

“How much damage could they do?” I asked, now on the defensive. “They’re only Journeymen.”

As an answer, she waved her wand and created a kind of window out of thin air. Upon a closer look, I saw that it was an image of the Ice School. Desks were overturned. Windows were shattered. Ink was splattered all over the room.

“Are you sure it was just them?” I said. “It looks like a Kraken got involved.” She appeared not to have heard.

“Luckily, Professor Ambrose was able to repair most of the damage. Otherwise, they would be in a lot more trouble than they are now. But since, now, the damage was minimal, they will have detention for the rest of the day. Good day, Miss Spiritheart.”

And with that, she closed the door in my bewildered face.

I didn’t move from my spot for a long time. It took a while for it to sink in. My two younger sisters just started a fight.

Oh, they were in for it when they got home.



A while later, I was sitting on the edge of the well in Krokotopia, waiting for Chris to come. The fight was still on my mind, but was not as important as before. Maybe when I saw my sisters tonight, it would be different.

But where was Chris? He should’ve been here ages ago!

Sweat started to form on my brow. If I hated anything about Krokotopia, it was the heat. And the fact that there weren’t any sleeveless wizard robes just made it worse.

At first, Chris and I were super excited, being in Krokotopia. But maybe after three or four days we became bored. The tunnels all looked the same, the only monsters in this place were Kroks, and the heat was just the worst thing ever.

I bent down to fill my canteen from the well for the…third time? As I did, I caught sight of my reflection in the water. I loved my Krokotopian outfit. It was all lime green complimented with a bit of gold jewelry. However dumb it was to wear long sleeves in the desert, this fabric was light and cool, which made it a little better. However, there was also one other minor drawback. Even though the shopkeeper swore it was the latest style, and Chris told me countless times how much I looked like a Krokotopian princess, I thought that with my helm of refuge on, I looked more like a hairless freak

I took another swig of water. Then I splashed the rest all over my face. I knew the comfort would only last a little bit, though.

Great meeting spot, Chris, I thought. Maybe next time we should meet, I don’t know, inside the Pyramid of the Sun.

Then without thinking, and first checking to make sure no one was watching, I dunked my entire face in the well.

“Having fun?” someone said. I nearly choked.

I came up out of the water, coughing. Nolan smirked.

“I have to admit,” he said, “I’ve never seen that technique used before. But I suppose it’s okay if you want to get a lot of water at once.”

I laughed. Then I straightened my cap and wiped the water from my face.

“So how come I haven’t heard from you?” Nolan demanded. “It’s been, like, three weeks.”

“Um…” I hesitated.

The truth was that I had thought that I had seen Nolan in one of my more recent battles, one that I was certain that Malistaire was directly behind. But if I told him he would laugh at me, be hurt that I accused him, or be angry that I accused him. In my opinion, none of these were worth it.

But the more I thought about it, the less likely it seemed that Nolan had been there. Now I felt really guilty that I hadn’t seen him in a while.

“Never mind,” said Nolan, to my relief. “So why don’t you come to the Temple of Storms with me today? I could use a bit of help; it’s supposed to be pretty hard.”

“I don’t think I can,” I said. “I said I’d meet Chris.”

“Okay,” said Nolan. He didn’t look put down at all. “I’ll ask David instead.” He started to walk away. “See you!”

“Um, Nolan?” I asked, suddenly remembering something. “I need to ask you something.” I knew he didn’t take myth, but maybe he’d know.

“What is it?” he asked.

“Well it’s something about my myth homework…Do you know what a river troll looks like?”

“A what?”

“A river troll,” I said.

Nolan shook his head. “Trolls don’t live in rivers; they only live up in the mountains. Everybody knows that.”



Ten minutes after Nolan had left, Chris still hadn’t arrived. I had started to sing under my breath, which had always been a habit of mine. I sang a few lyrics from one of my favorite songs by Taylor Swift. On Earth, not the one I knew in Wizard City. I only stopped when I heard someone clapping.

“Chris!” I felt my face go red.

“No, seriously,” said Chris. “That was really good.”

“Sure,” I said, rolling my eyes. “So where were you for the past…hm…thirty minutes?”

“Doing homework,” said Chris.

“Okay, there is no way that you could’ve had more homework than Professor Drake assigned…”

“Uh-huh. And how much of that did you do?”

Caught in the act, I looked away and mumbled, “Uh…well…”

Chris laughed. “It’s okay. I’ve heard how hard it is.”

“Tell me about it!” I burst out. “I mean, we haven’t gone over Minotaurs yet!” Then I noticed Chris fingering something on his belt with a shiny, silver hilt.

“New dagger?”

I normally didn’t care too much about daggers too much. I carried a small one around with me for defense, but I didn’t let any of my siblings have knives of their own. And I had a good reason. Samuel might fool around with his. Sadie might accidentally cut herself. And who knows what Savannah would do with hers if she got angry?

But Chris’s dagger was the nicest one I had ever seen. The hilt was wrapped in leather straps and was decorated with three sparkling emeralds on each side.

“It’s beautiful!”

“Uh, thanks.” Chris didn’t seem to be as interested in it as I was. “It’s a hand-me-down from my dad, so I don’t know how old it is. So, shall we go?”

Another thing I don’t like much about Krokotopia: no sidewalks. So keep in mind that you could be attacked by monsters anytime unless you’re backed up against the wall.

It was nice and cool inside the Pyramid of the Sun, and even colder inside the Palace of Fire. I usually can’t stand the cold, but if you’re outside on a hot Krokotopian afternoon for a whole half hour, it begins to grow on you.

“Which way to the Throne Room of Fire? Chris asked

I held my compass flat on my hand and blew on it gently. The large, yellow arrow marked “Destination” spun around in a circle until it stopped somewhere to my left.

“This way,” I said. “Come on.”

And we set off, our backs against the wall so we wouldn’t run into any Desert Golems or Narini Warriors.

When we arrived at the Throne Room of Fire, we saw another familiar face: our friend, Catherine Fairyblossom.

“Hi, guys!” she said brightly, waving.

“What are you doing here?” Chris asked. “Weren’t you a higher level than us?”

“Well, not anymore, obviously,” she said. “My sister Meghan just got into Olde Town and I’ve been helping her with bosses and stuff like that. She’s only defeating Haunted Minions right now, so I bet she’ll be okay. Oh, and speaking of Meghan, she told me to ask you where your sister Sadie was. They’re friends now, you know.”

She’s in…um…” I decided it was safe to tell her. “She’s in detention.”

Catherine’s eyebrows rose in concern, but she didn’t ask why. Thankfully.

Suddenly, Chris threw his arms around both our shoulders and pulled us together so that we were making some sort of friend sandwich. “So what are we waiting for, guys? Those monsters aren’t going to defeat themselves!” And with that, he marched us to the entrance where, in ten seconds, we were transported to the Throne Room of Fire.



That night, I lay on the couch, exhausted but pleased from the day’s efforts. I was waiting for Savannah and Sadie, not exactly sure when they would get home. I sat with my back against the pillow with a book held up inches from my nose. Back on Earth you could rarely find me in a position other than this.

Chris was the one who had originally gotten me hooked onto Wizard City literature. He had recommended a book and, just like that, I couldn’t put it down. It was a long novel by a famous author in Wizard City, Sierra Winterbreeze. Even though I knew nothing of the different books here, I could tell this one was wonderful. Almost Harry Potter standard.

I took a long enough break in my reading to check my watch. It was just past ten o’ clock. Exactly how much trouble had Savannah and Sadie gotten into?

The second I returned to my book, my question was answered for me. There was a creak, the sound of a door slamming shut, and a second later, Savannah and Sadie had joined me on the couch.

The irony, I thought, sticking a leather bookmark in the middle of chapter three.

“What happened?” I asked, deliberately not looking at either of them.

“Sadie started it,” Savannah muttered.

“What happened?” I asked again, this time fixing Savannah with my famous evil eye.

Without meaning to, I caused a shouting match to erupt in our home.

“She was just jealous because I could cast Tower Shield and she couldn’t!” shouted Savannah.

Of course, Sadie had to have her say. “She was bragging about it!” she said indignantly.

“And then she cast Snow Serpent at me—”

“I didn’t mean to! It was an accident!”

“No, it wasn’t!”

“Yes, it was!”

I just wanted to scream right then and there if it weren’t for the fact that I had gotten Samuel to sleep after an hour’s hard work and wasn’t about to let him wake up. So instead, I took two pillows and shoved them both into their faces.

“So what? You didn’t have to destroy the Ice School over it!”

That, of course, got them fired up again.

“I told you, she started it! She cast—”

“It was an accident! And she thought it wasn’t and cast sunbird and—”

This time, I did scream. But I pressed the remaining pillow to my face so Samuel wouldn’t hear. This caused them to pause for a moment and look at me. But I barely opened my mouth when Savannah and Sadie went right on back to fighting.

I grabbed the two pillows again and pushed them as far into their faces as they would go.

“I get it!” I shouted. “I get that Sadie needs to be more careful with her spell casting! I get that Savannah can’t tell an accidental spell from an intentional one! But look at what you’ve done! You’ve landed yourselves in detention! You almost blew up the Ice School, for Pete’s sake!”

I angrily threw the pillows down on the floor.

“Plus,” I said, “you’re being really ungrateful. Especially since Ambrose is cutting us some slack,” I lowered my voice, even though no one was there, “from this Prophecy of Light stuff.”

Savannah’s face turned a bright shade of red.

“Sadie won’t last a minute with Malistaire,” she said, probably to vent her anger.

“That’s it!” I said, throwing my hands up in the air. “Just apologize! Make up! Whatever! It will make my job a whole lot easier!”

“Never,” said Savannah. She crossed her arms and turned her back on Sadie.

Sadie crossed her arms and turned her back on Savannah.

I sighed. “I’m going to bed,” I said.

Fuming, I picked up my book and climbed the wooden staircase. Maybe it would be all better in the morning.

Guess what? It wasn’t.

When I got up the next morning, the day seemed normal enough. I couldn’t hear anything downstairs, which meant that the others were probably still asleep. So I did what I normally did every day. I put on my green Krokotopian ensemble. Then I brushed my teeth and tried to comb my untamable hair, which just wouldn’t stay flat…

When I got downstairs, to my surprise, Savannah and Sadie were already there. They were silently eating breakfast, which was a first for them. The silent part, I mean. It looked as though they hadn’t forgotten their fight from yesterday. To make matters worse, from one look at Savannah’s face, I could tell that she was in one of her “moods.” This meant that I would have to spend the day with none other than Miss Gloom and Doom herself.

I then heard a happy, “Good morning, girls!” coming from the stairs.

Oh-no, I thought, catching Samuel’s big, goofy grin. Today, he was unnecessarily cheerful, which could somehow get on your nerves even more than a sulking, growling, teasing, ready-to-lash-out-at-you-at-any-minute Savannah.

As we all ate, I watched them nervously, not sure how it would go. Samuel was the only one who was actually talking. Well actually, it was more to himself; he had bought his Transformers action figures to Wizard City and was now playing with them at the table.

It was when he had asked Savannah to play with him for the fifth time in a row that she finally snapped, shouting at him so harshly that he screamed for the first time in days.

Thanks a lot, Savannah, I thought.

At school, it was a little bit better. When I told Catherine and Chris what had happened, they both expressed sympathy in their own way. Chris told me that it would be all right and that, of course, it wasn’t my fault. Catherine, after her comment about little siblings being so annoying, said that she and her little sister Meghan fought all the time and that their fights never lasted long, so I shouldn’t worry about it.

So, walking back from the myth school, where I had turned in my homework, (which I had probably Flunked with a capital F) I was feeling a little more optimistic. That is, until I saw Arthur Wethersfield, holding a sour-faced Samuel by the hand.

“Just a moment, Miss Spiritheart,” he beckoned.

As it turned out, Samuel had pretended his wand was a light saber while the teacher was talking, screamed twice when things hadn’t gone his way, and even hit his best friend during class today. I nodded solemnly at this, but on the inside I was tearing my hair out by the fistful. This sounded much like the old Samuel, how he would’ve acted before we went to Wizard City.

When Professor Wethersfield permitted me to leave, I grabbed Samuel by the wrist, walked away some, and tried to explain to him nicely that he was a bad boy and we shouldn’t do these things. Maybe it was because I wasn’t an expert at these kinds of talks, but Samuel seemed more interested in a passing butterfly than in what I had to say. Sighing, I let him go off then, resolving to have another little chat with him this evening.

Did Savannah and Sadie’s fight cause some sort of chain reaction? Because now it seemed as though everyone else in the family had a pretty bad attitude. How long would it be before I lost it?

I heard laughter. I looked up and saw a group of necromancers, Nolan included, walk by. He waved at me, and I waved back. That’s when I saw Professor Drake watching us through the window to his school. He wasn’t doing anything else…just watching us.

I gave him a look as if to say, “I didn’t do anything wrong and you know it.” But whether he either didn’t get the message or ignored it, I don’t know. He kept staring at us from between his curtains until Nolan and the rest disappeared from his sight. Then he withdrew from the window.

Just staring at where Professor Drake had been moments before and contemplating this strange behavior, I didn’t notice Chris coming until he was right behind me.

“You should probably know,” he said in an undertone, “I saw your sister, Sadie, in the Storm School just now. And she looked pretty mad…”

How long would it be until we just forgot this whole stupid fight?

Chris and I did quests for the rest of the day. Then we both went home for the night. But to my immense disappointment, I arrived on the front porch only to find myself listening to another shouting match. I took a deep breath and threw open the door.

“WHAT is going ON?” I shouted

I almost laughed when they all froze, Samuel with his fist halfway to Savannah’s stomach and Savannah with a fistful of Sadie’s hair.

Remember, “almost” was the key word here.

“I’m sick of this,” I said. “I’m sick of the fighting and the attitude. You all are just acting like…I can’t say this any other way…like jerks!”

Savannah’s and Sadie’s faces flushed. Samuel, however, went up to his bedroom, screaming all the way.

“I told you I couldn’t say it any other way,” I said, smirking slightly. I was letting my anger take over completely now.

Savannah recovered the most quickly. “And you’re…what? A saint?” she snickered.

That did it. I drew my wand lightning quick, but she reacted just as fast. The Blood Bat and the Frost Beetle collided, sending a sonic boom through the hallway.

Sadie screamed and followed Samuel upstairs, probably not wanting to get caught in another fight.

Leprechaun…Fire Elf… Troll…Evil Snowman. Back and forth it went until I finally managed to knock her down with a well-aimed Cyclopes whose head nearly crashed a hole in our ceiling. Her wand clattered to a spot some ten feet from her.

No words were said. We just knew that the battle was over.

Savannah got up, smoothed out her hair, and picked up her wand. After all this, she gave me a look that I didn’t like at all. One that plainly said, “I hate you.”

Many times had she given me that look, but this was the first time it actually hurt.



Well if I hadn’t lost it then, I didn’t know when I would.



The next day, I got dressed, ate breakfast, and walked out the door as fast as I could in order to not meet any of my siblings. Unfortunately, I was an early riser, so I had to wait outside the Life School for almost an hour before Professor Wu opened the door. Once inside, Chris, Catherine, and I bunched together and sat up front.

After one glance at my face, they both immediately knew something was wrong. “Are you okay?” they both asked at the same time.

I was about to tell them when Professor Wu approached us with a bundle of papers.

“We are having a pop quiz today,” she announced. “I’m sure you will all do quite well.” Although she seemed to be looking at us, the top students, as she said this. “Just go with the flow; listen to your heart and you will find the answers.”

For the first time in my life, I was thankful for a quiz. This would be just the thing to distract myself from last night’s events.

I took the paper from Professor Wu’s outstretched…uh…hoof and read the first question. What is the maximum possible damage that could be caused by an imp? I was about to answer the question when—

BOOM

I clenched both my teeth and my fists. If Savannah and Sadie had stared another fight I was going to—

But a second later, it became clear that this was not another one of their fights…

…because the entire roof of the Life School had just gotten ripped off.

Nearly everybody screamed. And then, despite Professor Wu’s protests to remain calm, there was a mad scramble for the door, Chris, Catherine, and I, having been up front, bringing up the rear.

“Oh my…” Catherine said once we had gotten outside, her hand leaping up to cover her mouth.

Dozens of monsters of all shapes, sizes, and elements were rampaging around Ravenwood, destroying everything in their path. What seemed like all the wizards in Ravenwood School were outside, watching their school crash and burn before their very eyes. The Ice School was aflame, the Fire School was literally frozen solid, and the Myth School had just been struck by an enormous bolt of lightning.

Turning around, I saw that a huge, living tree like the ones I summoned in the spell Nature’s Wrath holding the missing roof over its head. Then it threw the roof into the air.

“RUN!” I screamed.

The Journeymen Life students scattered. Not caring which way I ran, I only wanted to put as much distance as possible between me and the shadow slowly increasing in size which could possibly be my death falling from the sky…

I hurled myself out of the way just as the roof smashed to the ground where I had been seconds before.

Coughing, I could barely hear Catherine say, “Chris? Where’s Chris?”

Oh-no! I thought with a horror. What if he was crushed by the falling debris?

I looked up to find what felt like everyone’s faces staring up at me. “Do something!” shrieked a girl whose name I vaguely remembered as Rebecca.

It took me a few seconds to work out what she meant. Oh, right. Yeah, this was a job for the Prophecy of Light siblings, or something along those lines.

But even if all four of us were on the job, could we defeat all of these monsters?

Someone dragged Savannah, Sadie, and Samuel by my side, all of whom were determinedly not looking at each other. Oh well, eye contact with your teammates wasn’t crucial in a fight. Was it?

I rolled back my sleeves and pointed my wand at the giant tree. It was about to find out what would happen to anyone who messed with our school.

Savannah spoke to me for the first time since last night, “No, aim for that phoenix instead.”

“La la la, I can’t hear you. Quiet, I’m trying to concentrate,” I snapped. I then pulled out a card and cast troll, remembering the one that I had cast time had been almost as big as a house.

I couldn’t help noticing, right before I cast, that the golden wisps that normally wisped around us in times like these were absent.

From my wand erupted…a normal sized troll.

My jaw dropped as the troll ran over to the tree and started beating it with its puny club. It didn’t seem to be doing any damage at all. What was wrong with it? With me? Wasn’t it barely a week ago that I had been able to cast a troll that would’ve beaten the tree monster to a pulp in seconds?

I snuck a glance at my siblings. Savannah had cast an evil snowman that went kablooey as soon as it had touched the tree, although normally the ones she cast were as hard as steel. Sadie’s Storm Sharks thrashed and bit, but with as little force as they would’ve used before the Prophecy of Light. Samuel’s scorpion had absolutely no effect at all.

What was going on? Where were the golden sparkles? And more importantly, what would happen to our school?

I looked around. There were the kinds of monsters you’d see in Wizard City, but also monsters I’ve never even seen before. Were they from Mooshu? Dragonspyre? Some other world that only Malistaire knew about?

It didn’t matter, though, how many worlds they were from. What only mattered right now was the insane amount of damage they were causing to our school.

Through my puerperal vision, I saw the giant tree lift something else over his head. Maybe a rock.

Someone shouted, “Look out!” only I didn’t know who. I barely had time to think before something huge, something hard connected with the back of my skull. Then I knew no more.



With a great effort, I opened my eyes. The battle was still raging all around me. Even though all I could see was a blur, I could tell.

I wasn’t sure what time it was, how much time had passed after…come to think of it, I wasn’t sure what had happened then. All I remembered was the pain.

What happened? Where were Chris and Catherine? Nolan? Please oh please let them not be dead.

I saw something that vaguely looked like flames. Was that the ice school? It was on fire, wasn’t it? Or was that the storm school? I couldn’t remember.

Then I saw something else. By my outstretched hand was a small, green glimmer.

I reached out to the thing, grabbed it, and held it up close to my eye. It appeared to be a jewel of some kind. An emerald, like the ones Chris kept in his dagger.

I don’t know why, but I somehow felt a strange connection with the jewel. Maybe it was because I was a life wizard, or because it was my birthstone. Then I heard it: softly at first, but then it grew in volume. It was a strange whispering that seemed to come from inside the gem.

I held it up to my ear this time. There were voices inside, but I couldn’t tell who they were or what they were saying.

It’s a magic gem! I thought wearily. I pocketed it.

Then I blacked out again.



Cyrus Drake stormed through the streets of Ravenwood, looking for Ambrose. This was an urgent matter…

At last he found him standing over a young girl, apparently unconscious. He didn’t waste time remembering names, but he remembered this girl by her last name: Spiritheart. She had completely failed the paper he had assigned her yesterday.

Ambrose was waving his wand over the girl, creating a turban of bandages. He was also muttering to himself, “Luckily the rock wasn’t as large as it could’ve been. Otherwise it could’ve killed her. Oh, hello, Cyrus, you wanted to see me?” Ambrose’s tone was light, but his eyes were serious.

“Yes,” said Cyrus. “We have already discussed this…er…matter before.”

“Ah,” said Ambrose, his eyes boring holes into Cyrus’s.

“You know what I am talking about, then?”

“Of course.”

A flare of hope rose up in Cyrus’s chest. “And your answer..?”

“It is the same as it ever was, Cyrus,” said Ambrose.

Cyrus’s temper flared. “After today, how can you still say that?” he hissed. “As I have said before, it is impossible for monsters to get inside the school without inside help.”

“You have expressed your views to me before,” said Ambrose, not unkindly, but with a touch of impatience. And I see your point. However, we must not blame the death school for something we are unsure about.”

“There is also,” said Cyrus, raising his voice, “a boy who I believe is not to be trusted. Darkwind, I believe. He is up to something, I know it. Just look in his eyes—”

“Cyrus,” said Ambrose severely, “You may have told me that the boy’s parents may have been rather…close to Malistaire, but that is no reason to believe he is as well. The same holds true for the whole death school as well.”

“Don’t you think it strange that he was absent from school today, right before the attack?” Ambrose didn’t reply.

At this, Cyrus tried a different motive.

“The girl,” he motioned to the unconscious girl on the ground, “she is with him a lot. And I fear he may be plotting against her.”

“Cyrus,” said Ambrose, shaking his head, “you haven’t cared for a student since your brother disappeared five years ago. But you may watch Mr. Darkwind to see if he is up to anything suspicious. But for heaven’s sake, Cyrus, don’t do anything too drastic. And don’t forget, I trust Mr. Darkwind and every other death student at this school.”

During this exchange, neither of them noticed a young, black-robed wizard crouching down on one of Bartleby’s branches, eavesdropping on their conversation.

Stupid old man, he thought.

Chuckling to himself, he disappeared into the darkness.


I was lying down on my back in a field of flowers, the sun shining gently on my face. I was in my element here; this was where I truly belonged. Never before had I felt so safe and happy. This was my haven.

“Beware.”

I looked around, trying to figure out who had said that.

The voice, seeming to come from the very heavens themselves, spoke again. “Everything in this world is connected: life, death, hate, love. While it creates a balance in our world, it also creates an air of mystery, perfect for concealing deceit and lies. Evil is near. And betrayal as well.”

I ignored the voice. I was trying to rest, and it was only an annoyance to me.

The sun seemed to go out as suddenly as someone switching off a light bulb. At that moment my oasis, my haven, turned into a living death chamber.

Rotting Fodders, Skeletal Warriors, Field Guards, and every other type of undead I could imagine rose up from the ground and walked slow, zombielike, to where I lay. I tried to get up and run. But as the thought rose up to my mind, thick, long, ropy vines erupted from the ground, which was now completely devoid of flowers or grass. They wrapped around my body, pinning my arms to my side and my body to the ground. I struggled to break free, but it was useless.

An unnatural hush seemed to come over the undead. Someone was coming.

In an instant, I knew who it was. Who else would have the kind of power to make all the creatures part like the Red Sea, bowing as they shifted off to the side?

He stood before me, his face hidden under a hood, his staff by his side. I struggled even more, but it seemed that the more I wriggled, the more determined the vines seemed to hold me.

Lightning flashed across the sky, and the wizard threw back his head and laughed. His hood was tossed aside, revealing shoulder-length, greasy black hair, a stringy goatee, those horrible, sunken eyes…

He raised his staff. He was going to kill me; I had known it all along. I closed my eyes, preparing for the worst…

“AAAAHHH!”

I sat up in bed, gasping for breath. My hand was clutching my heart, which seemed to be beating at twice its normal speed.

I checked. No vines, no signs of recent pain, especially no Malistaire. And I was safe in bed, in my house.

So it was only a dream. I couldn’t help breathing a sigh of relief.

But it had seemed so real! I had other dreams like this before, but this was the worst. This time, Malistaire himself had come to kill me directly.

I could help but wonder if this was one of those “prophetic” dreams. I had two of those a long time ago, but those were for silly, pointless cases. What if this, officially my worst nightmare ever, would come true?

I relaxed after a few moments. I had never been to that place before in my life, and I hadn’t heard any tales about strange voices booming down from the sky, even though I’d only been here about two months

I got out of bed, my legs shaking like crazy. Even though it was just a dream, I half expected Malistaire to fling himself from behind the wardrobe. I managed to laugh that crazy thought off, but I couldn’t help checking, just in case. Nothing.

First checking to see if my bedroom door was locked so an unwanted sibling wouldn’t come barging in, (Not that they would; at the moment, we were giving each other the silent treatment.) I changed in to the lightest ensemble I had, clothes that could only be found in Krokotopia. Then, after a grabbed my wand and spell cards, I teleported to my friend Chris.

It was a Sunday, so today, we were going to finish up with the Temple of Storms. I was excited, for I knew that after you completed this, you were let into Marleybone, which would be quite an improvement from all this heat.

At least one good thing had come out of our month in Krokotopia. After weeks spent in the hot sun, I had acquired a magnificent sun tan, which I knew would last for days.

I arrived in Bartleby’s Spiral Chamber. It was crowded with wizards; I must have gotten up later than I thought.

I immediately spotted Chris, who, to my surprise, looked concerned. “Are you all right?” he asked. “You’re sweating all over and we’re not even in Krokotopia yet.”

Oh, that. “Bad dream,” I muttered.

“Oh,” he said. “Well at least it’s over.”

“That’s true.” I said thoughtfully.

We stepped through the door and transported to Krokotopia. But when we arrived in the pyramid, our destination in mind, we were distracted by none other than Tinu Bhak’Mal.

“Good friends, kind wizards, I would appreciate it if you helped me,” he called out to us.

“Come on, Sarah, we can help him later,” said Chris. He apparently, was as eager to get out of Krokotopia as I was.

But the minute Tinu looked at me with those wide, pleading eyes, my mind was made up. Man, I was just sosoft sometimes.

“Krokopatra can wait,” I said firmly. “Please, Chris, it’ll only take a minute!”

“Okay, fine,” he said, with obvious reluctance.

So we both went to talk with Tinu, who needed some fire crystals from Professor Falmea. But after going back to Ravenwood to talk to her, we found out that she had none, but there were plenty in Dragon’s Mouth Cave.

“Excellent, I’ve always wanted to go there,” said Chris.

I had never been there either, so I was also pretty excited. I had always wondered what was inside the cave in Golem Court that stubbornly remained closed to all but those who had a quest inside.

“Yes!” exclaimed Chris when we saw that the gate had mysteriously, but not unexpectedly, crashed, leaving a hole for us to get through. We didn’t even have to crawl to enter the cave.

Taking my first glimpse of Dragon’s Mouth Cave, I couldn’t help but feel the slightest sense of anticlimax. There was nothing really special in here, just rocks. Although red, sparkling crystals adorned the walls and the stone seemed to have a sort of glow, I had been expecting something a little bit…more.

I climbed up on a bit of protruding rock and plucked two large fire crystals from their places. Then I hopped back down on the ground and gave one to Chris, who also looked disappointed.

“Let’s get out of here,” I said distastefully.

But Chris was looking at something behind me. I turned to see what he was looking at just in time to see two fire crystals finish growing in place of the ones I took.

“Huh,” I said. Maybe this place did have a little magic in it. But we needed to get going. Maybe if we hurried back to Krokotopia, we could complete the Temple of Storms before lunchtime.

That’s when I saw it: a hole in the side of the wall that I could maybe slip through if I were crouching.

“Look, Chris,” I said, swiveling him around and pointing to the hole.

“Do you think that’s supposed to be here?” he asked me. “What do you think is inside?”

“I don’t know, but it has to be more interesting than this,” I said. And with that, I crouched down on all fours and wriggled through.

When I got up, I had to blink my eyes several times to make sure I hadn’t suddenly fallen asleep. I saw nothing but blackness. I had thought that there would at least be a little light coming in from the hole I had just come through, but I couldn’t even see that, strangely enough.

There was a slight movement behind me. Chris had followed me in.

“Ouch, Chris, that was my foot!”

“Sorry. This is creepy, isn’t it? Not being able to see each other? I’m going to look around a bit; maybe there’s a torch or something.”

A couple seconds later there was a small thud and an “Ow!” Chris had apparently just walked into a wall.

“Strange,” I mused. “This being a fire wizard place and not having any light.”

“What is this place?” Chris wondered aloud.

No sooner than he had spoken, every torch in the room came to life with a loud crackling sound. A giant, disembodied voice echoed throughout the room, “You are in the Hall of the Prophecy.”

My eyes widened. We were in an enormous cavern, which surprised me a bit, because I had been expecting something smaller. The ceiling seemed to stretch for miles above our heads. But the walls were what amazed me most; they seemed to be colorful. On closer inspection, I realized someone had drawn pictures all over the walls. Beautiful pictures that looped and curled around the walls from top to bottom.

“How come we’ve never heard of this place before?” Chris asked. “A place this big…someone would’ve mentioned—”

“The door will only show itself for those for which a prophecy is made.”

“Hmm…it can’t hurt to have a look around,” I said, studying a picture of a beautiful woman with blue, flowing robes.

So we walked along the wall, admiring the beautiful pictures. We didn’t spot anything familiar until Chris stopped me at a picture of a staff.

“Hang on,” he said.

“What is it? Come on, Chris, it’s just a staff.”

“But that’s Malistaire’s staff; I’d recognize it anywhere.”

Sure enough, it was Malistaire’s staff. The tiny dragon curling around the tip was a dead giveaway. Beside the staff were these words:

Forged by masters;

So nears the hour

For the chosen necromancer

To wield the staff’s true power.

“Hmm,” I said, contemplating the words. “Maybe…” I gasped, suddenly realizing the truth. “No way…Malistaire was this chosen necromancer!”

“Really?” asked Chris.

“Think about it; it makes sense! We see a picture of his staff on the wall…how many other staffs in the world are like his? That’s how he’s becoming powerful; he’s been using this really powerful staff! Of course, he may have been a skilled wizard anyway, but the staff just made him stronger!” I quivered in excitement. “We should tell Ambrose right away!”

“He probably already knows; he knew about the Prophecy of Light” said Chris wisely. He appeared to be looking at something else. “Uh…Sarah?”

“What?” I asked.

“You’re here too. In a picture. Your sisters and brother too.”

This was the last thing I’d expected to hear. “ What?”

My curiosity aroused, I walked over to where Chris was pointing. Sure enough, there was me in perfect likeness from my head to my toes. Surrounding me were my siblings, and we all seemed to be glowing. We were facing Malistaire with looks of sheer determination.

Right next to our picture was painting of the death skull. Below the skull were more words: Everything in this world is connected: life, death, hate, love. While it creates a balance in our world, it also creates an air of mystery, perfect for concealing deceit and lies. Evil is near. And betrayal as well.

I frowned. Where had I heard those words before?

“What are you looking at?” asked Chris curiously.

I inhaled deeply. “I’ve heard these words before,” I said. “In a dream.”

“Really? Wow.” Chris seemed impressed. “You’re like, a seer or something.”

“A seer?”

“Yeah, a seer. You know, someone who can see the future. I think my great, great, great…well, I forget how many “greats” there were…but one of my great aunts was a seer, anyway.”

“I don’t think so,” I said. “Wouldn’t I have known?”

“You’re probably right.” He looked around again. “This is so cool. We’ve got a lot to tell Ambrose when we get back.”

I nodded, trying to hide the new worries that had erupted in my mind.

The words I had heard in my dream were written here, in the Hall of the Prophecy. How much more of the dream would come true? Would Malistaire really try to kill me? Probably yes, because of the Prophecy of Light. But would he kill me like he had almost killed me then?

I was still thinking about this as we crawled back into Dragon’s Mouth Cave. But as we were about to leave, someone teleported behind me.

“Hey,” said a familiar voice that made me freeze in my tracks.

Oh no, I thought. Anywhere but here. I gave Nolan a discreet little wave and tried to push Chris out the door. But it was too late; he had already noticed.

“Sarah,” he asked, “who is this?” His eyes narrowed when he caught sight of Nolan’s black ensemble. “Are you a necromancer?” he asked him.

“Yeah,” said Nolan. “So?”

“So what are you doing here?”

Nolan returned Chris’s icy stare. “Can’t a guy visit his friend?”

This is not going to end well, I thought. I looked from Nolan to Chris, the latter of whom looked surprised, than skeptical.

“What? No,” said Chris. “I know Sarah. Not only are you guys certainly total opposites, but Sarah is the most dedicated, hardworking, loyal…”

“Um, Chris?” I said quietly.

“…intelligent Life Wizard that I know. She would never, ever, ever, ever…”

“Um, Chris?” I was feeling guiltier and guiltier by the minute.

“…ever, ever, ever, ever make friends with a necromancer. That would go against everything we believe—”

“ Chris!” I yelled in exasperation. “I am his friend!”

All was silent except for my words echoing around the cave: “ friend…friend…friend…”

“He does seem familiar,” said Chris suddenly. “Wait a minute, I do remember you. You were at Triton Avenue; you were being attacked by Scarlet Screamers! Your name…it was something like…Nick or…”

“Nolan,” Nolan finished. “Nolan Darkwind. And who are you; coming up to say that I can’t be friends with Sarah? I can if I want. So what if I’m a death wizard?”

“I’m her best friend,” said Chris. “And if you know what’s good for you, you’ll leave right away and never see her again.”

My mouth was hanging open in shock. The angry lecture from Chris I had expected hadn’t come. Instead, he was blaming our friendship on Nolan. This didn’t seem very fair, in my opinion.

Nolan had his hands held up, like he would if he were facing a cop with a gun. “Alright, I will,” he said snidely. “But first, tell me where you got those robes. Your mom’s closet?”

Chris’s face glowed a bright red. Then he raised his staff and pointed it directly at Nolan.

“No, Chris!” I rushed over to stop him only to stop and turn around because Nolan had gotten out his staff too. “No, don’t do it!”

But it was too late. Only seconds later, I found myself in the middle of a dueling circle with both wizards pointing their staffs at each other.

And I, I realized, would be in the crossfire! I threw myself out of the way just in time. A giant tree cast by Chris and a vampire cast by Nolan erupted from the stretch of ground where I had been moments before and started battling each other. Both dissolved into the air.

“A necromancer.” Chris cast Storm Shark at Nolan, which surprisingly didn’t fizzle. “I don’t know what Sarah was thinking…”

Nolan regained some of the health he had lost with another Vampire. “Funny,” he said coolly. “I was about to say the exact same thing. I have no idea how she can even get around this place without you following her around like a little heckhound…”

After another fresh wave of anger from each, two spells canceled each other out again.

“No! Stop it! Stop it!” I screamed, reminding myself of a crabby Samuel when he wasn’t getting his way. They both ignored me, and I felt like I was going to have to resort to more drastic measures.

“Out of the way, Sarah,” Chris snapped when I tried to jump right into the middle of the dueling circle.

“Yeah,” Nolan snarled. “I’m trying to see whether your friend would be any better looking as a pile of ashes. Probably wouldn’t make much difference anyway.”

“Yeah, like I should take the word of someone who can’t tell a regular human being from a pile of ashes.”

Part of me, a totally and completely insane part, was fighting a sudden urge to laugh. This was turning out to be the diss-off of the century! I had to memorize some of these; they would be useful against Savannah…

But then I snapped back into reality. Right, I had to focus. I had to get Chris and Nolan to stop before they killed themselves.

“Come on, guys, let’s stop this…”

Nolan, his face contorted with anger, cast death trap on Chris.

“Chris.” I tried again, this time trying to tempt him. “Um, the Temple of Storms, remember?” He appeared not to have heard, casting Spirit Armor on himself so as to counteract Nolan’s upcoming attack.

That was the last straw. I gathered up every shred of dignity I had and said, “Fine, I’m leaving. Let me know when you’re done.” Then I promptly marched out the door.

For a second, I wondered if I was doing the right thing. Then I decided I couldn’t do anything else. I mean, one of them had to notice that I was gone…

Then I spotted Catherine waving me over to her. Relived, I walked up to chat.

“Hi, Sarah! I heard something in Dragon’s Mouth Cave, like shouting or something. Maybe you can tell me what’s going on in there.”

I shrugged, trying to act like it wasn’t that big of a deal. “Some boys are in there fighting.”

Catherine’s eyes grew wide. “Are they fighting over you?”

I hesitated. “Kind of,” I finally said

“Wow.” To my surprise, Catherine appeared a little envious. “You are so lucky. I could never even hope to be that popular. So which boys? Is it that cute guy in Magus Balance Magic?”

Before I could answer that, no, it wasn’t that boy and just because he was cute didn’t stop him from getting five detentions a week, there was a painfully loud explosion and a flash of light coming from inside the cave. Several apprentices helping Regina Flametalon with her science project screamed. Catherine and I gave each other startled looks and hurried inside.

The dueling circle had vanished, and both Chris and Nolan were lying on the ground, both of them covered in scorch marks. They were both glaring at each other, giving off identical contemptuous expressions.

Nolan got up, straightened his hood, and stormed over to me, his eyes full of hate.

“Is he a necromancer?” Catherine whispered into my ear.

“I can’t do this anymore,” said Nolan, acting like he didn’t hear Catherine’s comment. “Not with him hanging around: Mr. I-know-best. You have to choose: me or him.”

I looked at Chris helplessly. He hadn’t spoken, but I could tell he meant to say the exact same thing. That I would have to choose. And right now.

“Well…I…” I looked from Nolan to Chris again, my mind being clouded with panic. Then I looked at Catherine again, who just shrugged, unable to do anything.

Then I did something incredibly stupid, although it would have been what any normal person would have done. I ran. I ran the heck out of there.





I was hoping that Chris would forget about the fight the next day, that it wouldn’t affect our friendship at all. So in life class the next morning, I was immediately disheartened when he ignored the seat I had saved for him and went to sit next to one of his other friends instead. And although Catherine did sit next to me, she didn’t do much to improve my mood.

“I mean,” she said as she cast a Seraph over her desk, “a death wizard? It’s no wonder he was mad. I know you probably liked him. But aren’t death wizards supposed to be evil? Everyone says…”

“I everyone is just being prejudiced,” I said a little too loudly. Everyone within a three-desk radius swiveled around to look at me. “Just because Malistaire was in the death school doesn’t mean that the whole school is evil. It’s probably just a stereotype!”

I became consciously aware that the whole entire class had fallen silent. Everyone, except Chris, who was determinedly looking anywhere but me, was staring at me looking scandalized. Even Professor Wu said, “Please quiet down, Miss Spiritheart,” her gaze disapproving.

Catherine looked as if she would like nothing more than to put a paper bag over her head.

Possibly to avoid any further encounter with me after class, Chris leapt up from his chair as soon as class was over and was out the door before I had even gathered up all my supplies. I scowled at the doorway where the hem of his cloak had been seconds before. Then I exited with the rest of the Adept life students, all of whom were acting like I was carrying some sort of contagious disease.

To my surprise, Nolan was waiting outside the Life School. I had expected him to be behaving like Chris, avoiding me whenever possible.

“Where’s your friend?” he asked as soon as I had approached him.

I understood where he was going with this right away. So I merely shrugged. “I don’t know.”

I couldn’t help but notice that Nolan looked slightly more cheerful. I hastily added, “But it doesn’t mean—”

“I know, I know,” said Nolan, still grinning. “So what were you planning on doing today?”

“Just finishing up the Temple of Storms,” I said. “Do you think you could come with me?” Chris and I had wanted to go to Marleybone together, but why not?

“Sure, I’ll go!” said Nolan. “I’m ready to go right now, if you like.”

I was about to say yes when a voice behind me said, “Miss Spiritheart, a word in my office?” It was Professor Drake.

“What did I do?” I demanded. I didn’t do anything wrong, did I?

“Come with me and I shall tell you,” Professor Drake snapped. He turned around and walked brusquely to the Myth School, and I had no choice but to follow.

“Now, Miss Spiritheart,” said Professor Drake, sitting down at his desk. “I have a comment to make.”

“What?” I asked. What had I done that had made Cyrus Drake so intent upon seeing me in his office?

“You are seeing a lot of Mr. Darkwind, am I right?”

My jaw dropped. First Chris and now you, I thought.

“Yeah,” I replied. It took all the self control I had to refrain from also saying, “So what?”

“Well, don’t,” he said. “The boy is not to be trusted. And believe me, I have your best interests at hand.”

Best interests? Since when had Professor Drake had the best interests of anybody?

“His father and Malistaire were old school friends, and now both of his parents are Malistaire’s most dedicated servants. There is no reason to think that he is not also,” Professor Drake continued.

This was news to me. “ What?”

“You are dismissed,” said Professor Drake as if I had not spoken. “I had merely wanted to talk to you about this. I hope you will take my advice into account. Good day, Miss Spiritheart.”

So Nolan’s parents work for Malistaire, I thought as I walked out the door. I found that hard to believe, even if he was death. Was Professor Drake, for reasons best known to himself, lying?

Then again, I thought, seeing Nolan waving by the Spiral Chamber, Professor Drake was Malistaire’s twin brother. Who knew if he was trustworthy?





Well, I finally got my first glimpse of Marleybone. And it was okay. Dark and dreary, sure, but okay. The air was deliciously cool against my skin, and the Marleybone dogs were considerably more high-tech than us wizards, with their dirigibles and automobiles.

I was now at the door to my house, but my mind still on Marleybone, or the Land of Perpetual Night, as Nolan called it. And thinking about Nolan, I suddenly remembered that he had invited me to hang out in the Death Tower that night with some of his friends.

“You should come,” he had said. “It’s lots of fun. I hear David’s going to set off some fireworks too.”

“Don’t teachers normally discourage fireworks?” I had asked. At this, he had shrugged.

At last he had persuaded me to come. And here I was on the front porch, now wondering what Chris would say if he knew that I was going out at night with a bunch of necromancers setting off fireworks.

As it turned out, I didn’t have to wait long to find out. There was a flash of light before me, and I turned around to see Chris, looking angry but determined.

“I hear you’re going out with Nolan and a bunch of his friends tonight.” It wasn’t a question.

“Uh-huh…” I said slowly, wondering what he was getting at.

“Well, don’t. I’ve heard…” He paused. “…stuff…about Nolan that…well, just don’t go. You shouldn’t trust him.

I wondered if Cyrus Drake had put him up to this.

“Please,” he said. “Don’t go. I’m saying this as your friend.” He paused again. “We are still friends, right?”

“Of course!” I said. “But…”

“I know. You’re still going. But please, just promise me you’ll bring a wand, spell cards, something to protect yourself. You can never tell what’ll happen with a bunch of necromancers.”

Before I could answer, he disappeared into the night.

I crept inside and upstairs, careful not to wake any of my siblings. Then I walked up to my room. There I grabbed a cloak—for some reason it was cold out tonight. And it was still summer.

As I was about to leave, I caught sight of my wand and spell cards I had just deposited on top of my dresser. I hesitated, then I picked up my wand and spell cards again and pocketed them.

Just in case.





A giant, silver firework whirled through the air with a loud WHEEE. Then it exploded, raining silvery sparkles on us all. I held out my hands, trying to catch them.

Nolan grinned at me. “You have sparkles in your hair.” I hastily ran my fingers through my hair, trying to brush them out.

We were on the roof of the death tower. It was kind of creepy at first, but once the fireworks started, you began to appreciate the beauty of it. Especially with the full moon and the stars twinkling in the sky.

“Wow,” I breathed as an orangey-golden firework arced around the tower. It was so beautiful; it looked like a fiery dragon.

“You liking it?” asked a girl maybe a little older than I was. When I nodded, she continued, “Yeah, David’s really outdone himself this time. Must be ‘cause you’re here.”

“Me?” I was surprised. Wouldn’t I, a life wizard, be considered inferior, or even the enemy?

The girl laughed, a loud joyful sound that echoed across the cliffs of Nightside. I vaguely remembered her name being Sabrina, but I wasn’t sure from where.

“Word gets around fast in Ravenwood,” she explained. “Of course, we’ve all heard of you. You’re, like, the only person here who isn’t convinced we’re working for Malistaire. Well, besides Ambrose.”

I smiled, touched. Then again, she would probably be feeling the same about now.

“Hey!” Nolan shouted suddenly. But it wasn’t to us; he was leaning over the edge of the tower which could only make me assume that he was talking to this David person. “We’ve got company!”

Immediately, the fireworks ceased.

“What’s going on?” I asked curiously.

“Dworgyn’s coming,” said Sabrina matter-of-factly. And sure enough, the door opened and the humpbacked death teacher waddled out. He scrutinized the sky; had he seen the fireworks there before?

Nolan turned back around to face me, and to my surprise, he was grinning. “This is my favorite part,” he said. “Watch.” Then he traced the death symbol in the air. A dark sprite emerged from his wand and descended, hovering around Dworgyn’s head.

For a while he just stood there stupidly, watching the fairy fly around in circles. Then the fairy zoomed away, heading straight for Sunken City. After a moment’s hesitation, Dworgyn followed.

Despite myself, I found myself grinning. I looked back to the necromancers, all of whom were shaking with silent laughter.

“He falls for it every time!” laughed Sabrina, clutching her side. “It’s just so hilarious!”

“We should be safe for the time being,” Nolan informed, fighting to keep a straight face. “When he heads off to Sunken City, he always gets caught in a battle, which lasts probably an hour or so.”

I felt a stab of pity for Dworgyn. Did this happen to him every time the necromancers decided to “hang out?”

“Don’t worry about him,” said a guy who I didn’t know the name of. “He always comes out all right; it just takes him a while to finish, that’s all. Licorice?” He held out some black, rope-like candy.

“Yes please,” I said, taking some to be polite. It was extremely bitter, but I pretended to be enjoying it as another firework, this one green and gold, exploded directly above our heads.

“That reminds me,” said Nolan. “David said something about planning a big finale and I’ve got to go down to make sure he doesn’t go overboard.” He winked at me. Then he opened a trapdoor and slid through.

“Of course,” Sabrina informed me, “whenever he says ‘big finale,’ he always means ‘setting off several fireworks at once.’ It’s a spectacular, really, but it wastes all our firework supply in one night.”

“How often do you do this?” I asked curiously.

She shrugged. “Every so often, when we feel like things get too boring. Oh, here it comes.”

No sooner than she had spoken, fireworks in every color of the rainbow exploded with the sound and force of a nuclear bomb. Besides the fact that I had gone temporarily deaf, the effect was wonderful, and I clapped and cheered along with the others.

Someone on the ground let out a whoop; I assumed it was David.

Without warning, I let out a yawn. What time was it anyway?

“Are you all right?” Sabrina asked.

“Yeah,” I assured her. “I’m just tired. I should probably be heading back to the house. Tell Nolan bye for me, okay?”

“Okay,” said Sabrina. She didn’t seem to be tired at all. “See ya!”

“Bye,” I said, and I teleported home.

As soon as I arrived home, I heard a loud BOOM coming from upstairs. At first, I thought that I was hearing things from that enormous firework. But then I reconsidered. Hoping dearly that Savannah and Sadie weren’t fighting again (I mean, come on, it was after midnight.) I walked upstairs to check it out.

First I went up to Sadie’s room. She was there, apparently sleeping. Check.

Then I tiptoed across the hall to Savannah’s room she was lying with her head on her pillow and her butt sticking straight up into the air like an inchworm. But, yes, she was still sleeping. Check.

Then I walked over to Samuel’s room. He was completely under the covers; I couldn’t even see his face. But he was apparently still asleep.

Wait. Something was wrong here. What was it?

I pulled back the covers. Where Samuel’s head should’ve been was the corner of a large, white pillow. That’s what was missing. The pillows.

I pulled back the covers as far as they would go. Two pillows side by side, mirroring Samuel’s height exactly. Samuel was gone.

I stared in horror at those two pillows as my insides turned to ice.


It was quarter to midnight.

Ignoring the lateness of the hour, Cyrus Drake sat at his desk, grading a paper of yet another Conjurer-want-to-be. Not even the pleasure of scratching a big, red F on top of the paper with his luxury sunbird feather quill could distract him from the memories.

…a woman’s scream ringing in his ears…

No, Cyrus thought. He took a deep breath to soothe his mind. Then he turned the paper over and wrote with blood-red ink, Very poor work. The next paper you hand in that is as bad as this one, and I will personally make sure that you are expelled. Cyrus breathed in a sigh of pleasure. Giving threats was a favorite pastime of his.

Of course, nothing could distract him for long. It was but a minute before the ghost of his memories came back to haunt him again.

…a staff with a tiny dragon curled around the glass ball at the top…

…words, angry words, unforgivable words…

…a flash of light, a horrible scream, a woman dead on the floor…

Cyrus pulled away from this flashback, his chest heaving in and out. He would never fully recover from this memory. But he had found a way make it a little better. He had eased his conscious, hid the guilt, by blaming Death. For five years now, he had been blaming Death, so now he actually believed it was to blame.

Cyrus stood up so abruptly, he knocked over the inkwell, spilling red ink all over the paper he was grading. Oh well, there were so many marks on it that it would make a difference anyway.

A sinister smile crept across Cyrus’s lips. One word filled his mind: revenge.

Death was the cause of it. Death was to blame. Then why was he sitting around here when he could be giving those horrible students what they deserved for what they did to him?

Never before had Cyrus felt this way. He had always been able to keep himself in check, to keep himself from ripping out each and every one of their throats. But all that changed when he arrived. The boy. The direct descendent of the creators. He had acted like a trigger, bringing back memories like they had never been brought back before.

A plan began to form in his mind, and a brilliant one at that. He’d show Ambrose that he had been wrong to trust them. They would be at Cyrus’s mercy, and soon enough, they would admit to everything.

He strode across the classroom, throwing a black cloak over his shoulders and picking up his wand. And, he realized, he knew exactly where he would go first.

My face turned pale, and for a while, I forgot to breathe.

“Samuel?” I whispered, as if that would somehow bring him back. But, of course, it didn’t.

Then I kind of went crazy. I tore around the room, throwing open doors and upending any possible hiding places for a four-year-old kid. “Samuel! Samuel!” I kept screaming. “Samuel, where are you?”

In a minute in a half, the room resembled a tornado wreck. But I didn’t care. All I cared about was listening for one of Samuel’s trademark mischievous giggles or waiting for him to come out for behind something and shout, “Stop messing up my room!” But there was nothing.

“Samuel!” I shrieked again. This time, as I screamed for my little brother, I heard two doors slam in the hallway. A minute later, Savannah and Sadie had entered.

“What’s going on?” Savannah glared at me, her hand on her hip. It was the first time she had spoken to me in days. “Can’t a girl get some beauty sleep around he—” she saw Samuel’s empty bed and faltered. Then she saw the two pillows, side by side. I could almost hear her brain whirring.

“He’s not smart enough to do that…” she said, her voice hushed.

These words confirmed what I had been denying all this time. That he couldn’t have just gone on a leisurely stroll around the yard. Someone had kidnapped him, and we all knew who.

“Samuel…gone…” Savannah whispered.

“G-gone?” Sadie stammered. “But what should we do?”

I looked at the scared, frantic faces of my sisters and immediately knew one thing. Samuel’s sudden disappearance, however devastating, had brought us back together. A new sort of determinedness rose up inside me and I put on the most un-scared expression I had.

“Here’s what we do,” I said. “We look around the island; make sure that he isn’t there. If he isn’t, we go straight to Ambrose and we tell him what happened.” If anyone could help us, I was certain that Ambrose could. “Don’t worry, you guys, we’re going to find Samuel, no matter what.”

I don’t know exactly how it happened, but in those two minutes alone, we went from sourly avoiding each other to giving each other group hugs. And as we threw our arms around one another, a great feeling of warmth began to spread inside of me. Or was it just my right thigh..?

Sadie suddenly shrieked. “Your pocket’s glowing!”

“What the..?” Savannah said in wonderment.

I reached into my pocket and immediately found the source of the heat. It was an emerald, mossy green, the one that I had found when monsters were attacking Ravenwood School.

“Oooh!” Savannah’s eyes were as wide as dinner plates. “Where did you get that?”

“In Ravenwood,” I replied. “I found it when…well…I found it on the ground.” I refrained from mentioning the exact time because I knew that horrid day still gave Sadie nightmares.

“Maybe…”said Savannah, taking the gemstone from me. “…nah, that’s stupid. I mean, just because you found it doesn’t mean…”

“Uh, Savannah?” I said. “Remember, we’re supposed to be looking for Samuel.”

“Oh, right.” She said hastily, putting the tiny gem back in my pocket.

We searched all over the island, but we didn’t see Samuel anywhere. Not inside the house, not behind a tree, not in a box, or not with a fox. We reported in front of the front door thirty minutes later.

“Sorry, Sarah, we couldn’t find him anywhere.” Savannah panted.

“Don’t be sorry,” I said. “It just means that he’s not here.”

Sadie’s face suddenly lit up. “Why don’t we try Whisper Chat?”

This was the most painfully obvious suggestion ever made. Calling myself stupid under my breath, I thought as hard as I could, Samuel, where are you? I waited for almost a minute, but no answer. Either he didn’t get my message, he wasn’t responding, or—I shuddered—someone was keeping him from responding.

“No can do.” I said. “He isn’t responding.”

“How about teleport, then?” Sadie asked.

I sighed. “I thought of that,” I said. “And I don’t think we should do it. There’s no guarantee where we’ll end up. Maybe in the middle of Dragonspyre or a cage in Malistaire’s hideout or in a big pit of lava or something.”

“Oh,” Sadie said, “yeah.”

“I say we go to Ambrose,” I said firmly. “He’ll help us out.”

The three of us shared a nod, and then we walked up the cobblestone pathway to our spiral door. I jammed a golden key with a beautiful carving of a tree in the lock. The door opened to the Wizard City Spiral Chamber and I ushered everyone inside.

We scrambled outside of Bartleby, who was snoring gently. We were about to go through the tunnel to the Commons when I saw a cloaked figure emerge from the Myth School.

“Quick, over here,” I whispered, shoving everyone behind a large tree root.

“What are you—” Savannah began, but I made the “shh” sign with my finger. I peered over the root and immediately recognized Cyrus Drake.

Life wizards are known for having highly developed senses. So even though it was night and his face was almost entirely hidden by a hood, I could see him as clear as day.

As he approached the spiral chamber, I also heard him muttering under his breath, “They will pay…pay for what they did to me.” Then he entered the chamber and I couldn’t hear him any more.

However intriguing this may be, there was know time to wonder what Professor Drake was doing at this hour of the night, muttering to himself as though mad. We had a more urgent matter to attend to.

As soon as Professor Drake had disappeared, I shooed everyone back out. Then we dashed through the tunnel to the Commons and all the way to Ambrose’s office.

Not worrying about the fact that it was after twelve at night, I grabbed the bronze star-shaped knocker and banged it against the door as hard as I could. When that didn’t work, I started yelling, “Come on, open up! It’s really important!”

“All right, I heard you the first time,” said a voice from directly behind me. And there was Professor Ambrose, dressed in a periwinkle shift, a nightcap with a tassel, and fuzzy, pink bunny slippers. Of course; Ambrose had been at his house, not in his office.

“For future reference, Miss Spiritheart, I still know that if a student happens to come calling late at night, even if I am sound asleep at my house at the time.” His blue eyes twinkled, or at least the one that I could see that wasn’t behind the monocle. “So do what to I owe this late pleasure?”

“This isn’t a pleasure visit,” I said grimly. “Samuel’s missing.”

“Mister Nighttamer?” Ambrose inquired.

“Yes, him,” I said. “I heard a loud crash upstairs and when I went up to look he was gone!”

“Oh my,” said Ambrose. “Please come inside, all of you.” He pulled a key out of the folds of his nightshift and stuck it in the lock.

Once we were all settled on the couch and drinking tea that Ambrose had conjured out of thin air, Savannah piped up, “Professor Ambrose? You don’t think that Samuel could’ve been kidnapped, do you?”

Ambrose took a sip of tea and swallowed, his mustache twitching. “A wise hypothesis, Miss Swiftsong,” he said. “Yes, I think we must assume so. And, of course, I think we all know by whom.”

“Malistaire,” I muttered under my breath. Did it always have to be him?

“I believe so,” said Ambrose.

“Are we going to be able to save him?” I asked.

“I will give it my best efforts,” said Ambrose. “But you three are to remain here in Ravenwood for the time being.”

While Sadie looked somewhat relieved, Savannah and I both gave cries of outrage.

“Why?” Savannah shouted.

“He’s our brother!” I added.

“Goodness gracious, I thought it would’ve been obvious,” said Ambrose, raising his eyebrows. “Did you not think that Malistaire captured Mister Nighttamer to lure you to his base? It may very well be a trap.”

I opened my mouth and closed it again. Ambrose was right.

Ambrose stood up. “Excuse me while I go alert the staff,” he said. “We will begin a full search of the Spiral, starting with Dragonspyre, I think. After all, that was where Malistaire was sighted last. I am very sorry for what has occurred. Trust me when I say we will do everything you can to find your brother.” After this speech, he vanished in a puff of smoke.

The next few minutes were long and agonizing. Not a sound was made, except for the clinking of spoon against china as we stirred more sugar in our tea.

Almost involuntarily, maybe out of boredom, I took the gemstone out of my pocket. When I held it up to the light just so, it shone around the room like a beacon.

“I still think it has something to do with what happened,” said Savannah.

“Really? Wouldn’t it have been too much of a coincidence?” I asked.

She shrugged. Just then, Ambrose teleported back into the room, now dressed in his normal wizard robes.

“I have told the other teachers about what has happened,” he said. “The search will commence shortly. I advise you to wait in your house while we…what is that?”

“I don’t know,” I said, holding out the emerald so he could get a better look.

“May I?” he asked. I nodded.

He picked the stone up from my outstretched palm. Then he started examining it. He looked at it from all angles, held it up an inch from his nose, and even prodded it with is staff at one point.

“By Bartleby…” he said.

When he handed in back to us, it was with a look of amazement.

“Where did you find this?” he asked.

“On the ground,” I said. “On school grounds. Why do you want to know?”

“This,” he said, “is no ordinary gemstone. I can’t imagine how you came across it. It’s Bartleby’s eye; the missing eye of history.”



Okay, so none of us were expecting that.

I was still protesting when Ambrose led us to Bartleby, where he would meet the other members of the staff. “But it’s a gem! Wouldn’t his eye look…I don’t know…more like an eye?”

“Both of Bartleby’s eyes have magical properties,” Ambrose explained. “If they were to be taken away from him, they would take the shape of an ordinary gem, so no one would know what it really was

Maybe except for the person who had taken it, I thought, wondering if this plan could’ve been thought out a bit more properly.

“It’s not even blue!” exclaimed Savannah. Ambrose appeared not to have heard; he led us through the tunnel to Ravenwood to come face to face with all the teachers of magic.

“Oh my,” said Professor Greyrose, fluttering about anxiously. “I heard what happened. We’ll find him, dearies. Don’t you worry.”

“I am glad you could all be here tonight. Despite the lateness of the hour,” he added to a weary looking Dworgyn. He looked around. “But one among us is missing. Where is Cyrus?’

“I looked for him,” said Professor Falmea. He isn’t in his house or the Myth School, as far as I can tell.”

“We will have to proceed without him, then,” said Ambrose gravely. “As you all know, we cannot risk waiting for Cyrus at the present time.”

Professor Greyrose nodded, looking as though she might burst into tears.

“Go on then,” said Ambrose. “I will meet you on the other side.” When the other teachers had left, he turned to us. “Return to Bartleby what belongs to him. Make note of anything he says about Malistaire. And if you happen to see Cyrus, let him know of what is going on.

“Hmm,” I said as Ambrose also vanished through the Spiral door. How did you wake up a tree, anyway? “Um, Bartleby?” I said hesitantly, tapping on the trunk.

The great tree’s one eye blinked slowly. Then it looked down and saw the three of us.

“Hello, young wizards,” he said. His deep voice reminded me of a fire crackling in the hearth: warm, tamed, but with a slight hint of great power. “You wish to speak to me?”

I nodded. “We believe this is yours.” I held out the emerald.

“Closer,” said Bartleby gently. I brought it up closer.

Just then, there was a great wind. The gemstone was swept out of my hand, being carried closer to Bartleby’s empty socket by a tornado of leaves. Then it connected, and a transformation took place. The gem widened, softened at the edges, and turned sky blue. Bartleby’s other eye was in place.

“Wow,” said Sadie.

“You’ve found the lost eye of history,” said Bartleby. “Memories…I can feel them coming back. You have undone Malistaire’s evil work; for this I thank you.”

“Yes,” I said, “but now we really need your help.” His giant eyebrows rose. “Our brother is missing, and we think he’s been captured by Malistaire. The teachers went to search for him in Dragonspyre, but we want to know if you have any other information that can help us.”

“They search in vain. Your brother is not in Dragonspyre,” said Bartleby.

“What?”

“I remember now…the day Malistaire stole my eye, he used my Spiral Chamber to go to a world that was beyond my recognition. I believe this is where he is hiding now.”

“But how do we get there?” I asked.

Something poked me in the back. It was one of Bartleby’s branches. Hanging there was a large, black key with a tiny rune of a skull.

“I felt someone up in my branches not too long ago. They dropped this key. However, it was one of many.”

“Thank you,” I said to Bartleby. Then I said to my sisters, “Let’s go.”

“Wait!” said Sadie. “Aren’t we going to go get Professor Ambrose?”

“There’s no time,” I said. “Besides, we can’t get in Dragonspyre.”

“Oh,” Sadie’s face fell.

“Come on.” I dashed through the hollow in Bartleby’s trunk, but I ran headlong into someone. I fell toward the ground, clutching my nose, which had suffered the most severe blow.

“Oww!”

“Ouch!”

“Chris?”

“Sarah, is that you?”

“What are you doing here?”

“What are you doing here?”

“Long story,” I said, backing up to give him room. “How about you?”

“I was coming to find you,” he said somewhat apologetically. “I just couldn’t stand the idea of you and those necromancers…oh and I see you brought your sisters.” His tone was disapproving.

“Of course I didn’t!” I blustered. “We just came back from Ambrose’s office. Samuel’s missing!”

“What? No way!” He looked from me to Savannah to Sadie as if hoping to find Samuel among us. “So what are you going to do?”

“We’re going to go get him,” I said, holding out the spiral key.

Chris’s eyes widened. “Where did you get that?”

“Bartleby found it,” I said. “Oh yeah, and we found his other eye too.”

“You found his what?”

“Again, a long story,” I said. “Excuse us please.” I was just about to herd Savannah and Sadie through the hollow when Chris suddenly smacked a hand to his forehead.

“I should’ve seen this coming,” he said, more to himself than to me.

“What?” I asked curiously.

“I mean, why didn’t I see it before? Isn’t it obvious?” He looked at me seriously. “When you were out with those death wizards, did Nolan leave any time at all?”

“Uh, yeah,” I said. “He left to help with the big finale. Only I never actually did see him after he left…” My heart sank faster than a bowling ball dropped off a ten-story building.

“I’m sorry,” Chris said sadly.

I swallowed. Now wasn’t the time. I hated to think about what would happen to Samuel if we hesitated for even a second.

“We need to go now,” I said. Again, Chris stopped me.

“Not so fast,” he said. “I’m coming with you.”

“You are? No, you can’t; you really can’t. It’s too dangerous,” I protested.

He smiled wryly. “And yet…you’re going.”

I hesitated.

“Look, let me come with you guys. Do you think I can just stand here watching while my best friend goes to take on the most powerful dark wizard in the world?”

Without any warning on my part, I hugged him. And despite Savannah’s whistle too.

“Thank you,” I said. As much as I hated dragging another person into this, I was grateful for his company.

This time it was Chris leading us into the Spiral Chamber. Even though I’ve never been fully stressed by it, I was glad that someone else was leading for once.

“Can I see the key?” asked Chris. I gave it to him, and he put it through the keyhole. The door opened, there was a flash of blinding light, and…

“Whoa,” said Savannah.

We found ourselves in a different world entirely. The surface of the ground was rough and jagged, and I thought I even saw a bit of lava beneath the cracks. There were no plants anywhere. (I shivered; as a life wizard I was very uncomfortable in this plant-less world.) At least, there were no living plants. Surrounding the stretch of ground we were on was a forest composed entirely of dead, leafless trees.

But what caught my attention most out of this scene was the big castle right smack dab in the center of the land not covered by dead trees. It looked just like Hogwarts from Harry Potter, but almost completely black and without the cheerfulness. There were even large, black birds circling the towers. In fact, it was so creepy, I half expected there to be ominous music right along with it, like in cartoons.

Chris muttered something incomprehensible, but maybe that was because I was wrapped up in my thoughts and wasn’t listening.

“What?” I said.

“Do you think we’re in Dragonspyre?” Chris said again.

“Not sure,” I said. “Probably not. Bartleby told me that Malistaire wasn’t in Dragonspyre.”

“Oh,” said Chris. Almost simultaneously, there was a puff of smoke and the spiral door vanished.

I groaned. “There goes our ticket out.”

Suddenly, Chris shoved us all behind a large rock. “Get down!”

A second later, I saw why. Two skeletal warriors were marching in front of the fortress. We would’ve been in full view.

That’s when I noticed all the other monsters surrounding the castle. There were all kinds, but it was primarily types of undead. Great. I should’ve known that this place was gong to be guarded.

Savannah and Sadie had seen them too, and now they were both looking at me expectantly. “Sarah…” Savannah said through gritted teeth.

“Hang on. I’m trying. Let me think.” I massaged my temples with my fingers. What could we do? How could we avoid getting seen by all these guards?

Suddenly, it came to me. Remembering something from earlier this night, I traced the life symbol into the air. An imp emerged, happily playing its harp.

Several creatures were now staring at our hiding space because of the racket that the imp was making. No, quiet, I thought. To my surprise, the imp quieted down. Then, laughing, it flew out from behind the rock.

“What are you doing?” Savannah hissed.

“Just watch,” I retorted. Of course, a lot of my plan depended on the guess that these creatures were no smarter than the average bear.

The imp floated over the heads of the creatures, occasionally giggling cheekily or pinching the unwary on the nose. I watched it, waiting. Come on… I thought.

I didn’t have long to wait. Soon, my imp was leading a crowd of unsuspecting monsters behind the castle as if he were the pied piper. It wasn’t long before the area in front of the castle was completely empty.

“Yes!” I whispered. Chris, Savannah, and Sadie all looked impressed. I smiled.

“Come on,” said Chris. “Let’s go before any more arrive.”

We dashed out from behind the rock and toward the wooden doors at the front—which were locked.

“Ugh!” I felt like kicking the doors, but besides the fact that it would cause a big pain in my toe, it would alert someone that we were here.

“Now what?” Savannah said, frustrated.

“Look! Up there!” Sadie was pointing at a window that was big enough for us all to fit in to. The only problem? It was fifteen feet above our heads.

“That is the only other entrance as far as I can see,” I observed. “But how do we get up?”

“Ooh! I know!” said Sadie. “I can cast Lightning Bats and we can fly up!”

“Good idea,” I encouraged. Sadie started rummaging in her deck. At last, she came across the right card.

“Will three bats be enough?” Chris asked.

I smiled playfully. “You’re forgetting who you’re talking to,” I said. As I said this, Sadie tried to cast the spell—but it fizzled. Storm was never known for having high accuracy.

“Hey guys…they’re coming back!” said Savannah in an urgent whisper. Sure enough, I could see one or two ghosts coming back from around a column.

“Hurry,” I moaned as Sadie dug around in her backpack for another card. I was on the verge of sticking my hand in myself when she finally found another card. This time when she cast it, it worked. Dozens of Lightning Bats flew down from the sky and surrounded us.

“Okay, that’s a lot more than just three,” said Chris.

“Um, take us up there, please,” Sadie said aloud, pointing to the open window. The bats surged down from their hole in the sky and started carrying us upward.

As soon as they hefted us onto their backs, my body began to thrum as if with an electric current. And I received several shocks up and down my body. I looked around and saw that the others were also experiencing similar effects. After all, none of us were storm wizards, even though both Chris and Sadie had it as their second school.

“Oi!” I looked down and saw a skeletal pirate shaking his bony fist at us. We had been spotted.

Just then, I was unceremoniously hurled through the window. I landed flat on my face on the cold stone floor.

“Thanks a lot,” I muttered to the bats, which had just disappeared. I felt a trickle of blood run down the side of my mouth.

“Are you all right?” I asked everyone.

“Are you kidding?” said Chris. “That was awesome!” I sighed. Boys confused me sometimes.

“Okay, everyone, we have a problem,” I said. “One of those skeletal pirates saw us come in, so I’m betting that soon the entire place will know we’re here. So let’s just find Samuel as soon as possible and get out of here.”

“How?” asked Sadie. “There are probably a million rooms in here.”

“That’s…a good question,” I said. I looked to Chris for guidance, who merely shrugged.

“Okay, first of all, we need to come up with a plan. But we don’t want to be out it the open.” I held open the first door I saw and led everyone through. Just then I heard something.

“Wait,” I said to everybody, who all stopped at once. “I hear something.”

“I hear it too,” said Chris.

I strained my ears to where I thought the sound was coming from. It sounded like…a scream? A scream! Samuel!

“You guys, I think I hear Samuel!” I said excitedly.

“Really? I don’t hear anything,” said Savannah.

“Follow me,” and I tore off down the hallway, Chris right at my heels, and Sadie and Savannah in our wake.

The four of us dashed down hallways and corridors, rooms and staircases. Samuel’s voice grew steadily louder the farther away we got from the entrance. And we didn’t tire either. Something seemed to be keeping my energy up.

Yet something was wrong. I would’ve thought that even the inside of Malistaire’s castle was guarded. But I didn’t see any creatures as we ran.

“Strange, isn’t it,” I said to Chris, “us not running into any monsters yet?” He shrugged as best as he could while running.

Suddenly, I stopped. Samuel’s wails had reached the loudest yet. They were coming from the exact door that I had stopped in front of.

“He’s in here,” I said. I pulled on the door, expecting in to be locked. It wasn’t.

I walked into a small, dark room with what looked like dog crates piled all over the place. In the largest one was Samuel.

I walked up to him, the others close behind. “Samuel,” I whispered.

He looked up, and immediately, his face brightened. “Sarah!” he exclaimed

“Shh!” I said. “Yes, it’s me. We’re going to get you out of there.” I turned toward the rest. “How are we going to get him out of there?”

“Here.” Chris reached into his belt. “Use my knife.”

“Thanks,” I said, turning the dagger over in my hand. It was just as beautiful as I remembered it. Except now there was a gem missing. I ran my finger over the hole. It was about the size and shape of…of…

A sudden suspicion seized me, but before I could do anything, a bone-chilling voice behind me said, “Well done, girls.”

I slowly turned around and found myself staring into eyes I only ever hoped to see in dreams.

“Malistaire,” I whispered. I hoped I looked fiercer than I sounded.

He chuckled. “Who else?”

My eyes darted around the room, and I automatically began to weigh our chances. Malistaire was blocking the only exit. The room was small, and we had little space to fight. Even if we did fight, he would probably kill the five of us in less time it took you to say, “Toast.”

Malistaire kicked the door shut with his foot. “I applaud you for getting this far. But now, I’m afraid, it’s your time to die.” He smiled wickedly, pointing his staff directly at my chest.

“We’ll see about that,” I growled. And I lunged forward, my wand in hand.

“Sarah, no!” Chris shouted. But it was too late. Malistaire moved his staff so fast I could barely see it. And just like that, I was frozen in place, unable to move. Quick glances told me that Savannah and Sadie were stuck in the same situation that I was.

Then I looked at Chris, who wasn’t frozen like us. Yes! There was still hope.

“Chris!” I shouted. “What are you waiting for? Come and help us!”

For a while, he didn’t move. Then he slowly strode across the room towards Malistaire. But he didn’t face him. Instead, he now stood next to him.

I looked from the dagger lying on the ground to Chris’s expressionless face. Sweat began to form on my brow. My breath came out in slow, ragged gasps.

“Chris?” I said. But it came out more like a squeak.

“No,” he said.

A zap of lightning came down from the ceiling. Only it was black.

Blinking spots from my eyes, I looked at Chris and started to wonder if the black lightning was making me see things. Chris was now dressed all in black—a black robe, black boots, and a black hood that covered his eyes. He smiled.

“Marcus Deathspear,” he said just loud enough for me to hear.

Before I could even make sense about what he just said, he raised his staff, and it all went black.


I stirred in my sleep. What was wrong with my bed? It was cold and hard and rough, and my back was black and blue just from sleeping on it.

Subconsciously, I tried to punch my pillow into a better shape.

“Owww!”

It felt as if I had broken my hand. I abruptly sat up, pulled away from my dream, and immediately realized that I was not in my bedroom. Instead, I was in a tiny room with no doors or windows. There was no furniture, just a cold, stone floor and walls.

I was in a dungeon.

Malistaire’s dungeon.

And one thing about Malistaire’s dungeon: those who were caught inside never got out. Ever.

I started to panic. How did I get here? Everything had been a blur. And where were my siblings? Would I ever see them again?

No, I thought. Don’t think like that. Don’t panic. I’m going to escape. There’s a way out; there has to be.

But after feeling around the entire perimeter of the wall with my hands, I came up with nothing. I began to weigh my chances. No wand, no deck, no doors, no windows: no chance. Not good.

Okay, keep calm. What would Sierra Winterbreeze do?

I smiled as I thought of the name of my favorite character from Wizard City literature.

After a couple of minutes, a plan began to form in my mind. Someone was sure to come in to bring me food or something. If—no—when that happened, I’d be able to push past them and then escape. Then I’d find my siblings.

Endless minutes ticked by. I sang under my breath, did handstands against the wall, recited the properties of life to myself—I mean, come on. Anything to break the boredom, right?

Finally, I heard footsteps from outside the cell. Then a shimmery, rectangular outline appeared on the wall.

I flattened myself against the stretch of wall next to the new door, prepared to attack whatever was coming. A lock clicked. I had never battled a skeletal soldier physically before. What would it feel like? And how did you defeat one?

The door opened. I lunged sideways and made to shove past whoever was there. But two hands grabbed my wrists. Not skeleton hands, human hands.

And I found myself looking into the face of my best friend.

For a second, I felt like cheering. Chris! He was here! But then I remembered what he did. And more importantly, who he was.

“Surprised?” he chuckled. He shoved me back against the opposite end of the room. Then he turned and stuck a key through an invisible keyhole.

“You,” I managed to get out. The pain of his betrayal still hurt even now. “You tricked me.” Way to state the obvious, Sarah.

He said nothing. He just laughed again. Not the friendly, easy laugh I had known when we were friends. A harsh one.

“I trusted you.” Again, stating the obvious. Tell him something he doesn’t know.

“Are you finished?” he asked mockingly.

“No,” I said defiantly, but not able to hide the hurt in my voice. “How could you? You were my friend. And now you’re with him.” I spat out the last word as if it were dirt I had to get out of my mouth. “And,” I said, just realizing, “you’re not even death! You’re a life wizard! You hate death!”

“Maybe that’s what you though,” he snorted. “But I would’ve thought you’d have realized it now. Of course I’m death. Marcus Deathspear, last in the line of the only pure-death wizard family, greatest servant to Malistaire, life? Ha!

“I tell, you Sarah, it was the easiest job in the world, being a spy. All I had to do was change my clothes, convince that old fool Ambrose that I was a late arrival, and answer the questions that I knew a life wizard would answer. Simple.”

“But why life?” I demanded. “Ambrose trusts death wizards too.”

“Isn’t it obvious?” said Chris. I mean Marcus. “I think, on the whole, that it is easier to trust a life wizard. I didn’t want to do it, but Malistaire insisted. ‘Opposite of death’ he says. ‘Less suspicious.’ Well, let me tell you, it was terrible being stuck in that horrible tower learning all this junk about life and creation.” My cheeks glowed red as he said this. “It was a relief when I could finally throw all those useless spell cards away. I hated it, but I stuck with it. After all, after all I was spreading around about death wizards, there wasn’t a soul who would trust me if I was pretending to be a death student instead.

“You see, Sarah, I was in Ravenwood on a mission; besides getting close to you, I mean. Malistaire was getting tired of his old death students opposing him. He said that he felt betrayed by his own school.”

“I know exactly how he feels.” I spat.

Marcus ignored me. “He knew those unfaithful traitors had to be eliminated. So while at Ravenwood, I spread all the rumors I could about the death students, hoping it would cause the other schools to turn against them.”

“You mean,” I said, my temper rising, “that everything you said about the death school was a lie?”

“Yes,” said Marcus. “I mean, even I was surprised at how well the plan worked. If anyone had at least paid any attention to what was going on, they would’ve known that death wizards have been some of Malistaire’s greatest opponents. But people will believe anything these days. Especially Cyrus Drake. What an idiot. All I had to do was tell him that Darkwind’s parents and Malistaire were old school friends and he sang like a canary. Of course, you don’t know about Cyrus’s history with the death school, do you?”

Only one part of that sentence registered into my brain “But…Nolan…you told me he was a traitor!”

Marcus laughed again. “Like I said, people will believe anything. No, he wasn’t a traitor. But think. Do you really think that I would let someone like that befriend you? Someone whose parents have been fending off Malistaire from the very beginning? I don’t think so.”

“So all those times when you said I shouldn’t be friends with necromancers…” I began.

“Yes,” said Marcus. “Not only was I getting very much in character, I was also preventing you from finding an ally. Clever, wasn’t it? Yes, necromancers are the most powerful wizards out there, so it would really hurt our chances if you happened to befriend one.”

If he was waiting for a response, he would have to wait a while. I stood there silently, unable to make a sound.

“Well, I suppose I’ve had my say.” Marcus pulled something from out of nowhere and thrust it into my arms. It was a water jug. “I wouldn’t bother at all, only Malistaire wants to keep you alive while he plans something creative for your execution. Twenty coins says it’s going to involve a wraith again. It’s his absolute favorite. I mean, between you and me, it’s getting old. It was pretty cool the first time, but he killed it. Oh well.”

Laughing, he stuck his key into an unseen lock and swung the door open.

I looked from the water jug back to Marcus, and that’s when I made a snap decision. Without thinking, I thrust my arms outward, splashing water all over his face. Not to mention the rest of him.

“Hey…what the…” he sputtered, but with a well-placed kick to his stomach, I was off, running down the corridor.

“You won’t get away with this!” I heard him shout. But I didn’t care. As long as I could put as much distance as possible between me and him, I would be fine.

I dashed down corridors and passageways, making a lot of turns along the way so it would be even harder for him to find me. And the more I ran through the castle, the less I liked it. Battle axes adorned the walls, suits of armor turned their helmets to look at me as I ran by, and, call me paranoid, but every shadow on the wall seemed to take the shape of Malistaire himself.

I finally stopped in the middle of a long hallway, gasping for breath. Surely I could rest for a moment. There was no way he’d be able to find me now.

Or maybe there was. My well-practiced ear twitched as I heard footsteps.

I frantically looked around. There were no doors, no rooms I could hide in, but…yes! I squeezed in behind a large desk. The footsteps were getting closer. Then…they stopped directly in front of where I was hiding.

What were the odds?

“And do you know where she went to?” said a horribly silky voice from above me. I froze. It wasn’t Marcus; it was Malistaire. How did he find out that I was gone? Had Marcus told him already?

“No,” said another voice, but this one was gruff. It didn’t sound human. Was it a skeleton?

“Then find her and bring her to me.” There was no mistaking the venom Malistaire had implanted in every syllable. “She will be the first to die.” As he spoke, I heard him lay something on the table. I stifled a gasp. Those sounded like wands!

Two sets of footsteps walked away from where I was hiding. I wanted to jump out right away and grab my wand, but I didn’t dare wait until I was sure they were gone.

I remained behind the desk until I couldn’t hear them anymore. Then I cautiously crawled out.

Three wands were lying on top of the desk. I picked them up. One of them was mine. The two others were Samuel’s and Sadie’s. Savannah’s was missing.

I held mine in my hand and pocketed the other two. I don’t know what happened to Savannah’s, but maybe we’d buy her another one if we ever got out of this place.

Now grabbing the three spell decks also lying on the table, I turned around…

…to find Marcus’s sneering face inches from mine.

I shrieked and took a startled leap back.

“You didn’t think it would be that easy, did you?” said Marcus. “I know this castle like the back of my hand.”

I knew if I ran, I’d be toast. Time for Plan B.

“Well, it’s too bad for you,” I shot back. “I have my wand back now.” I twirled it in the air, causing green sparks to shoot out from the tip.

“Are you suggesting that you could actually beat me?” Marcus scoffed.

“Maybe,” I said. I shot sparks up into the air with my wand. A dueling circle formed on the stone floor. “Do you want to test that theory?”

“Not so fast,” Marcus took out his wand and waved it once, causing the dueling circle to disappear. “Dueling circles are for amateurs, don’t you think? Why don’t you and I test our skills in a real duel?”

Whoa, whoa, whoa, this wasn’t part of the plan.

“Doesn’t your boss want to finish me off himself?” I asked, trying to hide the fear from my voice.

Marcus shrugged. “Why? He’ll have the other three. And what he doesn’t know won’t hurt him. I can always say that one of your own spells backfired or something. Besides, I like it better this way: just you and me.”

Without warning, he whipped a card from his deck and traced the storm symbol into the air.

Just like that, I was standing on a tiny island suspended in the middle of a magical ocean. But these waters thrummed with electricity. Then I saw a fin in the water. A shark!

I stuffed a hand into my deck and cast the first spell, which turned out to be leprechaun. A tiny figure zoomed down a rainbow just as a shark leaped out of the water, its mouth showing rows and rows of pointy teeth.

A wall of coins suddenly appeared in front of me, blocking the shark, which sank back into the water.

The leprechaun laughed joyfully as the water around me disappeared. He threw fistfuls of coins at Marcus, who, in less time than I could’ve thought possible, was buried.

But not for long. A head popped out of the mound of coins.

“Really? That’s all you got?” Marcus brushed some coins off of himself. “Attack by coins; oh I’m scared now. Well, I should’ve known. Life magic is particularly known for weakness.”

Okay, that did it. I was so red hot mad I could practically feel steam coming out of my ears.

Then I swirling, golden wisp appeared out of nowhere and drifted lazily toward the pile of coins, which started to glow red as if ablaze.

Marcus suddenly leaped up from the pile, howling in pain. He had large, shiny burns all over his arms, and his clothing was also singed in many places.

Despite myself, I grinned.

“Don’t you just love magic?” I said sarcastically, kicking aside a stray coin.

“Of course,” he muttered angrily, “I should’ve known. The magic of the prophecy…”

He grinned evilly at me. “That was just a starter!” he hollered. “I do know other spells; more powerful ones. Do you want to see?”

My first real shock came when Marcus cast vampire. I gasped, but refusing to scream, as inch-long fangs dug into my shoulder. Then a funny draining sensation came over me, as if the vampire were depriving me of energy. What’s more, most of Marcus’s burns had vanished.

Gritting my teeth angrily, I drew a Troll from my deck.

Several minutes into the battle, Marcus and I were both suffering from major injuries. He had a big, bloody lump on the side of his head from where the troll had gotten him, and he looked a little winded from the rock that my tree had hit him with in the stomach. I was still tingling with the electric shock I had gotten from Marcus’s Kraken, and I had bruises all over due to his ghoul’s shovel. I was also a little deaf from his banshee.

Now, happy music filled the air as my imp darted around Marcus’s head, pulling his ears and poking him in the eye. I took advantage of the opportunity to cast satyr, which easily brought me back to full health.

Marcus finally managed to swing his wand at the imp, kind of like a baseball bat. The hit flung it against the wall, where it exploded in a puff of green smoke.

Then Marcus shot me a look of pure contempt. “I admit, Sarah, that I have been going easy on you. But no longer.” He whipped a black card out of his pocket. Then he traced a skull into the air.

In that instant, the temperature seemed to go down ten degrees. I shivered, pulling my shroud tighter around my shoulders. Then I sensed something behind me. I jumped and turned around, but I saw nothing behind me but black mist.

Suddenly, I drew in a breath. A pair of glowing, red eyes had appeared in the mist.

I took a step back. I had heard about this once. This was no ordinary mist; this was a shadow daemon.

“Nice, huh,” Nolan said smugly. “Yes, very special spell. VIPs only, so don’t think you can go casting it or anything.”

The mist advanced. I tried to step back, but my legs felt like jelly; I couldn’t move, much less run.

Then—I was surrounded in thick, black clouds.

I was lost, hopelessly lost. I tried to part through the mist, but it just sifted back into place. Somewhere, I heard Marcus’s laughter, but I couldn’t tell from which direction.

I stifled a shriek. Coming toward me from the depths of the mist was a giant, black hand. I tried to swat at it, but it was apparently solid.

There was nothing I could do. The fingers were reaching for my throat, and nothing seemed to stop them. I squeezed my eyes shut, anticipating their touch.

It didn’t come. I opened my eyes only to find myself in the midst of a thousand flames.

I was confused. Spirit daemons used death magic, not fire. In fact, they were afraid of fire. What was going on?

I heard a terrible roar, and then the last of the black mist vanished. But now I had a new problem: the fire was getting closer.

Then I saw the source of the flames: a sunbird flying overhead. But then who—

As the flames around me died down, I saw a figure behind Marcus. My jaw hit the floor when I realized it was Savannah.

Savannah waved her wand again, and the sunbird changed course and dive-bombed Marcus.

“Savannah!” I had to shout to be heard over the roar of the dying flames, Marcus’s yells, and the sunbird’s screeches. “You escaped!”

“Yeah!” she shouted back. “Maybe next time Malistaire will think twice about sending a skeletal pirate to bring me water! Those things are just so fragile.” She shook her head and made a tsk sound. I laughed. “Now finish off this idiot and let’s get out of here!”

I raised my wand and then hesitated. Part of me didn’t want to kill him. This was Chris, my best friend in Wizard City. I began to have a sort of flashback: Chris and I sharing grades on a test, dueling in the arena, fighting off monsters in dungeons…

The sunbird had now finished its work. Marcus stood up again, looking angrier than ever. He pointed his wand at Savannah.

That brought me back down to earth. “Don’t you dare!” I screamed. Rage flooding from me like fire from a hot furnace, I traced the myth symbol into the air.

A Cyclopes popped out of the ground, its hammer almost as big as it was. It took a ferocious swing at Marcus, who was flung up against the opposite wall just like the imp. And just like that, everything: the Cyclopes, the fire, disappeared.

“Well?” I panted.

Savannah nudged Marcus’s head with the toe of her boot. “He’s dead,” she said harshly.

A terrible feeling rose in my gut. It wasn’t the fact that I had killed my former best friend; I was surprised to find that I felt no pity at all. It was the fact that I had just killed.

But it was the Cyclopes that actually did it, I told myself. That still didn’t convince me.

“So what do we do?” asked Savannah.

I tried to push Marcus’s mangled body from my mind. “We find Sadie and Samuel. Then we’ll blow this joint.”



“Sarah!” Sadie said hoarsely, pressing her face against the bars.

I smiled. “Yeah, it’s me. We’re going to get you out of here. Do you know where Samuel is?” She shook her head.

“I can’t find a key,” came Savannah’s voice. “Malistaire must’ve taken it.”

Darn. “All right,” I said. “Let me think.”

But Savannah beat me to it. “I’ve got an idea,” she said. “Sadie, did anyone come to bring you water or anything?” Sadie nodded, pushing the small water jug through the bars.

Then Savannah held up the lock face up and poured water into the keyhole.

“Um…what are you—” I began, but she silenced me. She waved her wand over the lock and the water froze.

“Here,” she handed me the wand. She twisted the stick sticking out of the hole.

Click.

“Brilliant!” I whispered excitedly. Sadie rushed over and gave Savannah a big hug around the waist. “Now let’s go get Samuel.”

“I think not,” said a voice.

I whirled around. There, again, was Malistaire.

“Again, I am impressed that you got this far.” His dark eyes bored holes into mine with little interest. Then he thumped his staff once on the ground. All of our wands and decks flew into his possession, we were flung backward, and the prison door clanged shut.

He scrutinized us. “I see that Marcus wasn’t able to catch you. There will be punishment for him, I think.”

“That will be awfully hard for you then,” I said triumphantly. “He’s dead.”

For a minute, Malistaire looked surprised, even fearful. Then he relaxed. “With your puny life spells? Ha!”

“It wasn’t life,” said Savannah defiantly. “She finished him off with a Cyclopes.

“Ah, myth,” Malistaire sneered. “My dear brother’s field. I am sorry to say that that would not have done much good either. Myth is weak. Just like Cyrus, but I don’t suppose you could’ve heard what he had done, could you?”

“Then why don’t you go and check?” I asked.

“Oh, I will,” he said leaning forward until he was inches from my face. “And don’t even think about trying to escape, either.”

“Maybe we will,” Sadie sassed.

I stared in surprise. That was exactly the kind of thing that I would never imagine Sadie saying. Even she looked momentarily shocked at this sudden moment of boldness.

But she had said the wrong thing. Malistaire’s tunnel-like eyes swiveled around to stare at Sadie. “No you won’t,” he said softly. “At least…you won’t.” Then he pointed his staff directly at Sadie.

“Don’t!” I screamed. But it was too late. The glass ball on his staff was already glowing.

Just then, Savannah sprinted across the room and hurled herself in front of Sadie, just as the magical energy was released from Malistaire’s staff.

I’d like to say that a bright flash of light filled the room, but the energy radiating from Malistaire’s staff was actually black. So even now, I still don’t get how it was able to temporarily blind me.

I opened my eyes to find Malistaire disappear with a whirl of his cloak, laughing. I was afraid to look beside me, but Sadie’s sobs confirmed the worst.

I turned and knelt down. No…it couldn’t be…

“Is s-she d-dead?” Sadie choked. I didn’t answer. Instead, I pressed my palms flat on her chest, listening for a pulse. Then I heard it, however faint, a small, feeble heartbeat. Relief coursed through my body

“She’s not,” I assured her. But even as I said it, her heartbeat continued to grow slower and fainter. “Not yet.”

I felt a deep sense of panic. What was I supposed to do? I was stuck in Malistaire’s dungeon with my two sisters, one of whom was near death. Malistaire would probably come back in minutes. And who knew where Samuel was? Maybe he was dead already.

It’s not as hopeless as you might think.

I froze. I didn’t think those words. “Who’s there?” I called out, causing Sadie to look my way, alarmed.

A tinkling laugh reverberated around my brain. It wasn’t my voice; it was that of a young woman.

You know you can do it, said the woman’s voice. You just can’t remember. Think back to who you are and what you can do.

I thought, but I didn’t come up with anything. Um, lady? How about some clues? Hints?

The laugh sounded again. All right. Look at your hand. I looked and then gasped.

Appearing on my palm, as if drawn by an invisible hand, was a thin, silver line. It curled and looped around until it connected with the other end, forming an undefined shape. Upon closer glance, it appeared to be a leaf intertwined with a heart.

Do you recognize this symbol then?

“Hmm…” I thought back. Suddenly, I knew, having seen it before on a certain drawing. It was the mark of a true healer.

As soon as I thought the words “true healer” I perked up. I had heard about those too. They were wizards who could heal without a wand, charm, or spell!

You know what to do, said the voice.

And somehow, I did. Feeling as though I was being pushed by someone else, I leaned over Savannah’s body and placed a hand on her chest, where it rose and fell along with her breathing.

A golden haze filled the room. My heart leaped for joy in my chest. It was working!

Concentrate.

I obeyed without question. Then, out of nowhere, came the music. It was lovely, melodious. And as it grew louder and stronger, Savannah’s heartbeat grew more defined.

I have found myself in the midst of bright light many times during my time at Wizard City, but none had been like this. It was though the sun, in all its glory, had decided to come down from its spot in the atmosphere and shine in Malistaire’s cell room instead, spreading a golden glare throughout the room. I squinted my eyes, and then closed them, but never taking my hand away…

Silence.

Savannah stirred from underneath my hand.

“Wow!” Sadie exclaimed. “You did it!”

“Savannah,” I said, shaking her gently. “How do you feel?”

“Ugh,” she groaned. She sat up. “Terrible.”

“Well done,” said a voice.

That’s when I discovered that someone had joined us in the room. A beautiful, shining woman with long, blonde hair stood before us. But her figure was distorted and somewhat transparent, as though someone had painted her using watercolors.

She also seemed vaguely familiar, as though I had once met her a long time ago but I had forgotten.

“Who are you?” I asked.

She laughed, and then I realized that she was the same voice that I had been hearing inside my head. “That is not important. What is important is who you are, Sarah Spiritheart.”

I again looked at the mark on my palm. It had turned from silver to gold. “A true healer,” I answered.

“Yes,” said the woman, “but you are even more special than that. All of you, actually. Malistaire is getting powerful, and we fear that with this much power, he would try to rule the Spiral. It is up to you to stop him.”

“But when? How?” Savannah asked desperately.

“Not now,” said the woman. “There is a time for everything, and this is not it. You need to go back to Ravenwood and train.”

“But we need to get out of here first,” I pointed out.

The woman smiled. Then she glided through the bars, which turned into ashes as she passed through. “Come; I will take you to your brother.”

Once again, we set off through the hallways of Malistaire’s castle. But this time, we were feeling less afraid. We felt safer in the maiden’s presence.

“Almost there,” she whispered.

Then I happened to look through one of the doors that adorned the hallways, and I saw, sitting helplessly in the center of the room, a miniature unicorn.

Feeling a wave of pity for the creature, (After all, this was a Life animal.) I opened the door, which was conveniently unlocked, and it looked up in surprise.

“Go!” I whispered. “Get out of here!”

As happy as I was to have been able to help another innocent life escape from Malistaire’s dungeon, I didn’t wait to see if it left. I hurried along to catch up with my sisters, who were now standing with their backs against the wall.

“What’s wrong?” I asked. Savannah pointed around the corner. I followed her finger and saw none other than Ian Ghostbringer and Patrick Nightwalker, two members of Malistaire’s Black Hand. They were holding our wands and decks and Samuel by his wrists. They were talking to each other, and I caught the word “execution”

I pressed myself against the wall too.

“We’re going to have to try and take them.” I paused. “Where is…she?”

No sooner than I said that, I heard Ian and Patrick yell at the same time, “GHOST!!”

First looking at each other in alarm, we all peered around the corner to see what was going on.

The woman, her long hair flapping out behind her, was hovering in the air just below the ceiling. Ian and Patrick literally threw down everything they were holding, including Samuel, and scrambled as fast as they could down the hall.

“Go!” I hissed. We dashed to the corridor and grabbed our wands and decks. Before Samuel even had time to smile, I grabbed his arm and we were off. The woman had vanished.

“Which way?” asked Savannah.

I was just about to answer when a scream of rage came from somewhere behind us. It sounded as though Malistaire had just found out is greatest servant was dead.

“That way!” I pointed in the opposite direction.

“You come back here!”

I dared a look behind me. Malistaire was storming toward us, looking mutinous, absolutely beside himself.

“Look!” Sadie pointed down another hallway coming up. There was the same unicorn that I had set free earlier. It made a sort of motion with its head. “It wants us to follow it!”

“Yes, run!” screeched Malistaire as we chased the unicorn down the hall. “I’ll get you all, like you killed Marcus!”

We were coming up to something: a large door. A spiral door.

I reached into my pouch, pulled out the key to Wizard City, and jammed it in the keyhole. Then I held the door open for my siblings. “Get in!”

I snuck a glance back at Malistaire, who wasn’t far behind.

“You filthy myth wizard!” he bellowed. “You’re a murderer, just like my brother!”

“And what were you going to do, have your wraith invite us to tea?” I shouted back. After shoving our new unicorn friend in, I dashed in myself and closed the door, but not before Malistaire had his last say.

“Cyrus Drake killed my wife!”

And suddenly, I was back in Bartleby’s spiral chamber, facing a bunch of wizards who looked just as confused as I felt.


When Nolan woke up, it took him a few minutes for him to realize that he was not in his room.

Abruptly, he sat up. Then where was he? And more importantly, how did he get here?

He breathed a sigh of relief. He recognized this place. He was in Nightside. But that still left the other question.

“Nolan?”

He turned to see his friend Sabrina Ravenstaff anxiously running toward him.

“Nolan, something really weird happened. I could’ve sworn I was in bed last night, but when I woke up I was here in Nightside!”

“No kidding? Me too! I wonder what happened.”

“Yeah.” Sabrina looked toward the entrance. “Hey, look! There’s Professor Falmea. Maybe she knows what’s going on.”

She rushed over to her. “Professor Falmea? Just a second, please. Hey, wait up!”

But Professor Falmea kept on going. This struck Nolan as odd. Professor Falmea, although, at times, strict, was always happy to help any interrogative student.

“Excuse me, ma’am!” Nolan shouted. “Sabrina was talking to you.” She still didn’t answer.

Nolan turned to Sabrina. “Not that people aren’t prejudiced here,” he said, “but this is ridiculous.”

“I don’t think it’s that,” said Sabrina worriedly. She stuck her hand out in Professor Falmea’s path as if to stop her.

She walked right through it.

Sabrina gasped. “Did you see that?”

Nolan could feel his eyes bugging out. “What was that?”

“This is a spell!” Sabrina exclaimed. “I think I’ve heard of this! It’s a really old Myth charm called a Confinement Spell. We’re still here, technically, but we must be, like, in another dimension or something because no one can see or hear or feel us except for the caster.”

“What?” gasped Nolan. “But then…who cast it?”

A maniacal laugh echoed throughout Nightside.

Sabrina looked at Nolan and gulped. “Malistaire?” she asked him, as if he knew the answer.

Suddenly, it dawned on him, as some of Sabrina’s past words came back to him.

“No,” he said slowly. “His brother.”



Four weeks later…

It was nearly a month since we escaped from Malistaire’s castle, blowing everyone’s minds in the process.

A lot had changed since then. As soon as we had arrived through the spiral door, Ambrose had gone and tightened security around the school. Now we couldn’t go anywhere without one of the guards or a heavily armed security troll breathing down our necks.

I also hadn’t seen a single necromancer anywhere since the fiasco at Malistaire’s fortress. Although all my fellow Theurgists seemed to be thoroughly convinced that they had all gone to join Malistaire, I wasn’t that sure. And I was getting pretty worried too.

And, as you probably all now know, Chris was no longer among us. I know; he was a traitor and he deserved it. But the pain of his death still hurt. Every moment, I half expected him to be right there beside me: laughing, smiling, cracking jokes, like he always did before.

I guess we changed some too. I found myself caring more for the safety of my siblings, making sure we stayed together every non-school hour. I noticed that we were behaving oddly well. Well, for us, that is. We were fighting less, anyway. And we seemed more in a hurry to get through our studies, doing quests on a daily basis. Perhaps it was because of the battle with Malistaire we knew had to come sooner or later.

And any free time we had we spent practicing in the arena. Take now, for instance.

It was not long after dark. Of course, the arena was closed, but Diego had permitted us to stay without even charging us extra tickets. Savannah and I were in the middle of what we agreed on would be the last duel of the night while Sadie, Samuel, and our new pet unicorn that we had rescued from Malistaire’s dungeon (whom we had decided to name Elvis) watched in the stands. I was a level thirty-three and she was a level twenty-eight, so we were pretty evenly matched.

I whipped a card from my pouch and cast Humongofrog, while Savannah did the same with a sunbird card. At first, I thought that I had won this round—no competition. But Savannah’s sunbird turned out to be a speedy little sucker. Every time my frog raised its gigantic foot intending to squish it, the sunbird was at least thirty yards away.

The next minute or so was chaos. The enormous frog awkwardly blundered around, the sunbird was going to drastic measures so as to not be squashed, and Savannah and I both yelled out encouragement to our creatures. In fact, it was so hectic that we didn’t even see Professor Ambrose stride in through the gates.

“Good evening,” he said, giving a nod to each of us. “My, you’re out late.”

I didn’t hear him at first; my mind was still on the battle. “Come on, squash him! He’s only a stinking bird you id…oh, hi, Professor.”

He beamed at me just as Savannah’s bird zoomed up at light speed and, with its sharp beak, poked my frog in the eye.

“Ugh,” I said, disgusted, as flecks of gore littered the ground and the Humongofrog howled pitifully. “Uh…Savannah? I think we’d better call it off…”

We both waved our wands and the two creatures disappeared.

“Now,” I said, “you wanted to see us?”

“Well, actually, more specifically, you,” corrected Ambrose.

“Oh,” I said, getting the hint. “Okay. Savannah, can you take everyone home?”

“Alright,” she said.

“Why did you want to see me?” I asked as they vanished in a whirl of sparkles.

“Do you remember,” asked Ambrose, “when you rid Unicorn Way of a hoard of monsters of which Miss Nora Skullhorn was responsible? It was some time ago, I believe.”

“Uh-huh,” I said.

“What do you remember, then, about the monsters?”

Taken aback, I started, “Hmm…let me think. They were more powerful; I remember that. They knew more spells, their moves were kind of smart, and they had more health. They also broke some of the rules for proper dueling, like attacking on sidewalks and ganging up on people four to one.”

“Miss Spiritheart,” Ambrose began, “I believe that Malistaire has found a way to make many of these creatures at once. My guess is that he’s using these creatures to build up an army.”

I gaped at him. “An army?” I asked, horrified.

“Yes,” said Ambrose. “A multitude of these creatures capable of doing the things that you mentioned and, possibly, more. Can you think of anything else?”

I thought hard, still horrified at the prospect of a whole army of past Dragonspyre-level minions. Not much came to my mind, except…

“Malistaire will teach them how to duel to kill,” I said, with a horrible sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.

“Yes,” said Ambrose gravely.

“So…it’ll be like that attack on Ravenwood?” I asked, shuddering slightly at the memory.

“I assure you, Miss Spiritheart, that it will be much more damaging than even that,” Ambrose said. “I believe that there will come a time when Malistaire will use is forces to launch a full-scale attack on Wizard City.

“Which is why,” he continued, “we’ll need our whole school on the job. And that’s why I came to you.”

“What for?” I asked, half bemused half terrified.

“Well, frankly, I am getting worried,” he said. “I have not seen a single death pupil since you arrived from Malistaire’s fortress. Nor have I seen any sign of Cyrus Drake. Although I fear for their safety, I admit that I also would like them here at the time of Malistaire’s attack, as Death is one of our most prestigious schools. So I would like you to go and find both. Quickly, too. We don’t have much time.”

“Um…Sir?” I said hesitantly. “Do you think that...you know…Professor Drake’s and the Death School’s disappearances might be connected?”

Ambrose hung his head.

“Oh, I didn’t mean it like that, Sir!” I said hastily. “I know Professor Drake would never—”

“That’s just what I think,” said Ambrose. It took me a few seconds to comprehend what he said.

“You mean,” I said slowly, “Professor Drake’s working for M—”

“Nothing of the sort,” said Ambrose. “But I still believe he did it.”

“How come?” I asked.

“Cyrus…well…he has always had a…troubled history with the death school.” Ambrose hesitated. “You do not know of this, I presume?”

I shook my head “No, Sir.”

Then I suddenly remembered something: Malistaire’s face, furious and white, only feet away from mine. He opened his mouth to speak, and…

“Well, there is something,” I said, a little apologetically. “When Malistaire was chasing us through the Spiral Door, right before we escaped from his castle, he said something about Professor Drake. He said that he, well, killed his wife,” I said in a very small voice.

Ambrose looked at me gravely.

I covered my mouth with my hands. “Oh my gosh,” I said. “So it is true!”

“As much as I would hate to say so, yes,” said Ambrose.

Dozens of questions were flooding through my mind at once, but the one that came out first was, “Why?”

“Why what?” asked Ambrose.

What I really longed to ask was, “Why are you still letting him teach here?” But I didn’t think that would be polite. So instead I asked, “Why did he do it?”

So Ambrose told the story.

“A while back,” he began, “both Cyrus and Malistaire Drake were almost ready to graduate from Ravenwood. Cyrus, the valedictorian student, was naturally at the top of the class. Malistaire, however, needed all the help he could get from his fellow necromancers. Even then, as I remember correctly, he barely managed to scrape a pass. But they were as close as any two brothers could be, besides a little feeling of superiority on Cyrus’s part.

“But the night of graduation, Cyrus had…a vision, if you will. Of a certain staff.”

My heart seemed to speed up several paces. “Malistaire’s staff?”

“Why yes,” said Ambrose, looking at me almost quizzically. “How did you know?”

“I saw it in the Hall—”

“Ah, of course, said Ambrose, smiling now. “You too have found the secrets of the Hall of the Prophecy. But never mind about that. We have a story to finish.

“It came to him in a dream. In his mind he saw a staff sitting in a notch on top of Pereputual Peak, one of the tallest mountains in the entire Spiral. And when he woke up, he knew that he must journey there. He left that morning, taking his brother with him.

“It took many days, but at last, Cyrus and Malistaire reached the peak. And there was the staff, sitting right there waiting to be taken. But alas, Cyrus did not know about the…special requirements. There was a curse on it, and when he reached out to take it…well, I will spare you the details…

“But when Cyrus woke up in the hospital about a month later, to his surprise, his brother was wielding the very staff that had denied him. It had accepted Malistaire’s touch. This upset Cyrus very greatly, for he was a part of the death school also. Oh yes,” he said as an answer to my startled expression, “Cyrus used to be a death student. One of the best too.”

I was utterly confused. Cyrus Drake…a death student? But he hated death!

“In the five years that followed,” continued Ambrose, “Cyrus became increasingly jealous of Malistaire, whose staff was showing its newfound wonders. I believe that in his mind, he thought he should be the one to carry the staff rather than Malistaire. He convinced himself of his superiority by claiming himself to be both the more talented and the more responsible until he actually believed it.

“About that time, Malistaire was becoming even more power-hungry, with a powerful staff to do his bidding. Cyrus saw this, of course, and used it against his own brother. Soon he had everyone in the school convinced that Malistaire was not the true owner of the staff. Malistaire grew furious at this. Not long after, there was a huge fight between the two brothers, and ever since then, they have seldom spoken to each other again.

“But this wasn’t enough for Cyrus. Having been convinced that he was the staff’s true owner, he snuck into Malistaire and his new wife Sylvia’s house to claim it. But they were there at the time, and he was already sneaking out when they spotted him. There was another fight between them, this one more furious than the one before. Cyrus tried to curse Malistaire with the staff, but, not being the true owner, he couldn’t control its power. Before he knew what was happening, Sylvia lay dead on the floor.”

My mouth hung open. I was speechless, utterly speechless.

“But,” I stammered, “I thought she got sick…”

“That is the cover story I invented,” said Ambrose. “Anyhow, Cyrus has suffered a great deal since then. But he found himself less miserable if he blamed something else. So he blamed the staff. He blamed death for the incident, and once again, he convinced himself of its guilt. So he went with his second school, myth, instead. He has hated the death school ever since.”

I found myself slightly revolted. I didn’t want to discuss this anymore.

“What do you want me to do?” I whispered.

“Find the necromancers,” said Ambrose, who seemed also glad to be out of this conversation as well. “We need them here as soon as possible. Oh, and it would help if you found Cyrus too. Not to worry,” he said as I flinched. “He wants to see Malistaire’s end as much as you and I. He wouldn’t dare harm you. Oh, and Miss Spiritheart? Would you kindly refrain from telling about Cyrus’s troubles to anyone else? Chances are that he would be given the sack, so, if you would…”

Without another word, he strode from the arena.





I stayed up all last night thinking about Ambrose’s request. He did seem to be asking rather a lot, but I was sure I could handle it…unless something horrible had happened to them. If Professor Drake really hated the Death School as much as Ambrose said…

But where did I look first? I had six whole worlds of the spiral to cover, not to mention Earth. But as most wizards didn’t even know about it, I was pretty sure that Professor Drake hadn’t hidden them there.

I yawned and turned over. My head was spinning, and I didn’t know what to do first when I got up in the morning.

My last thought was, This is impossible. Then I instantly went to sleep.

I was running down a long, dark tunnel, my breathing heavy. The voices of the missing death wizards called to me from the end. Nolan’s voice stood out in particular. Pumping my arms, I ran harder. But the tunnel seemed to go on for miles; the light at the end wasn’t getting any closer.

Suddenly, a hand pushed me from behind, and I was instantly only feet away from the light and the voices. I didn’t even stop to thank whoever had helped me. I dashed toward the exit, expecting to find all the awaiting necromancers.

Instead, there stood a minotaur, axe at the ready. And, I realized, the screaming voices were coming from his mouth.

Horrified, I tried to run. But he swung his axe at my head. I crumpled from the blow. I could feel something warm trickle down my neck. I tried to get up, but I couldn’t stand.

And then, the same hand that had pushed me down the tunnel grabbed me the collar of my robes and yanked me into an upright position. I whirled around and saw, not an arm, but a branch.

A tree branch.

“Bartleby!”

I sat bolt upright in bed. Why didn’t I think of this before? Bartleby knew where Samuel was; why wouldn’t he know where the necromancers were?

I got up and got dressed, even though it couldn’t be more than five-o’-clock in the morning. I had to get to him right now. Or Cyrus Drake might do something horrible to them. I shuddered, imagining horrors.

I ran over to my dresser, put aside my copy of The Tale of Sierra Winterbreeze, and grabbed my wand. Then I heard a small whinny.

I looked, and there was a sleepy-looking Elvis behind me.

“It’s fine,” I assured him. “I’m just going out a bit early; that’s all. Go back to sleep.” But he stubbornly stayed by my side.

I laughed. “Okay, you can come.”

What seemed like seconds later, I was tapping the trunk of the great tree, Bartleby, awake.

“Bartleby? Bartleby?”

He blinked sleepily for a moment. Then he looked down and saw me and Elvis standing there.

“Ah, Miss Spiritheart,” he said slowly. “What would you like this morning?”

“Well,” I said, “it’s about the death wizards.” His eyebrows rose. “I haven’t seen a single one since we got back from Malistaire’s castle. Professor Ambrose says I need to hurry up and find them. You wouldn’t, by any chance, know where they are?” I ended hopefully.

Bartleby nodded as best as a giant tree could nod. “Yes,” he said, “as a matter of fact, I have detected a hint of dark magic within my roots.” He paused dramatically. “More than one.”

“What do you mean?” I asked. But my question was drowned out by the voice of someone behind me.

“Miss Spiritheart!” said Ambrose, surprised. He emerged from the tunnel to the commons at a brisk pace, carrying a bundle of packages. “Goodness gracious, I wasn’t expecting you out this early!”

“Professor…” said Bartleby, and for the first time, I detected a sliver of urgency in his tone.

There was a split second in which Ambrose looked thunderstruck and Bartleby’s face was contorted into what was evidently a grimace.

“No…” said Ambrose, “…surely not…”

“Yes, it is so,” said Bartleby.

The packages tumbled out of Ambrose’s arms. I thought that I heard something shatter from in one of them.

“Professor,” I said anxiously, “what’s wrong?”

But I thought that I already knew. Surely no one else could make Ambrose look that scared.

“Malistaire?” I said. He nodded.

“But…but he’s not coming here?”

“Oh yes he is,” said Ambrose.

I gave a small little gasp. “What do we do?” I nearly whispered.

Ambrose looked at Bartleby as if he needed a point made clear. At last, he looked at me. “I think,” he said, “that our best hope is to try and fight him out. Lydia!” he shouted so suddenly that both Professor Greyrose, who was now emerging from the Ice School, and me jump. “Round up all members of the staff now! Then report to Bartleby; he will tell you of the current situation.”

Professor Greyrose, looking a little alarmed, nodded and flew away.

“Now Bartleby,” said Ambrose, “I suspect that Miss Spiritheart needed your assistance finding the death students; am I right?”

“Yes,” the great tree said. “It is probably the most peculiar case I have ever seen, though. I can still sense them, but…I can’t.”

“Right,” I said brusquely, for now wasn’t the time for riddles. “But do you know where they are?”

“Hmmm,” said Bartleby, “I felt them in Nightside, but…”

Ambrose and I left, Elvis trotting along behind us, before Bartleby could even finish his statement.

“Hurry; we must hurry!” Ambrose said urgently. “Malistaire will be here within the hour!”

Even as he spoke, black clouds tinged with red began to block the morning sky.





“Anything?” I asked hopefully, somewhat desperately.

Ambrose shook his head. “No,” he said.

Ambrose then raised his staff, and as he did, a slight breeze ruffled my ponytail. And was it just me, or did I hear the softest of screams carried across the wind?

“I sense a deep magic in this place,” said Ambrose suddenly. “But what?” He seemed to be talking to himself.

Another breeze came around, this one stronger than before. But something was odd. Although it was blowing ferociously against my neck, that was the only place that seemed to be getting wind. In fact, now that I noticed it, what was left of the leaves on the trees didn’t seem to be affected at all.

An old feeling of unease flickered over me. What may have once seemed like a slight wind now seemed more like someone breathing down my neck.

I whirled around; no one there.

“Who’s there?” I cried out in alarm anyway.

No one answered.

Ambrose was now making complicated motions with his staff, as if painting an invisible picture in the air.

“Dear me,” he said to himself. “I don’t recognize any of this at all.”

“Ambrose?” I said.

“Hmm?”

“I think there’s someone here.”

He sighed. “Bartleby is usually right about things like these,” he explained. “But now I don’t see how he could be. I’m sorry, my dear, but we’ll have to search elsewhere.”

“But I felt…”

“I’m sorry, Miss Spiritheart, but I don’t see any sign of them.” His words were nearly drowned out by a rumble of thunder. Elvis gave a nervous whinny.

I slowly nodded. “Okay.”

But something in me told me that we shouldn’t leave. Some part of me was on the alert, and to my surprise it seemed to be the small part of my mind devoted to Conjuration—Myth magic.

I changed tactics in mid-sentence. “Professor, I really think we should—”

I stopped as a huge bolt of lightning lit up the sky, making everything in sight cast a shadow on the ground in front of them.

I tried again. “Ambrose, I—” Suddenly, I stopped, my eyes locking on to one impossible detail.

There were two extra shadows on the ground. No one was there to cast them.

I looked at Ambrose in alarm, but he had seen them too.

His brow furrowed. Then he looked up at the sky, even though the lightning was long since gone.

“Impossible…” he murmured.

His eyes widening, he traced his staff into an intricate pattern in the air.

Instantly, a purple dome appeared over the perimeter of Nightside. It was semi-transparent, yet it was somewhat darkened with what I thought looked like miniature storm clouds. Lightning coursed through it, filling the interior with an electric hum.

In the sudden light, the shadows were revealed again, and this time, a trace of a shimmer appeared above them.

“What’s happening?” I asked.

“A curse has been placed upon the Death school, said Ambrose darkly. “Lightning reveals this curse for what it really is.”

“So, it’s a myth curse?” I asked, knowing that storm was myth’s weakness. He nodded.

I watched as the shimmers above the two shadows became more defined, becoming two separate shapes: a boy and a girl. Soon I began to recognize the tanned skin and jet-black hair of Nolan Darkwind and the red-brown hair and dark green eyes of Sabrina Ravenstaff.

“Nolan! Sabrina!” I called out to them.

Both their mouths opened, but no sound came out.

And they weren’t the only ones. Hundreds of death students were materializing out of thin air: some by the tower and the graveyard, but most huddled in tight-knit groups around the edge.

“You guys!” I ran at Nolan and Sabrina and made to throw my arms around them.

Instead, they passed right through them.

Suddenly, a voice coming from almost directly above me shouted, “Get away, wretch!”

And out of nowhere, a hand came out of nowhere and slapped me full in the face. I fell to the ground with a scream of pain.

Elvis growled at my attacker.

Not thinking, I scrambled back up and whipped my wand out of my pocket. But it was the face above me that made me stop.

“Well, well, well,” said Cyrus Drake. “So it’s Spiritheart, is it?”

I noticed, however, that he didn’t make any move to attack me again. Perhaps what Ambrose had said about him was true.

“Cyrus.” For the first time today, Ambrose looked angry. “I cannot allow you to treat my students this way.”

As he spoke, the purple dome flickered and died, and the apparitions of the missing death wizards did also.

Ambrose approached Professor Drake and drew himself to his full height (which, actually, was still shorter than him). Then he said, “Cyrus, Malistaire is on his way, and unfortunately, you have placed a seventh of the students in this school, also a seventh of our army, under a Confinement Charm.”

Cyrus cackled. At the same time, lightning flashed across the sky, giving this scene an eerie effect.

“Our army?” he laughed. “I’ve done you a service, old man. How do you know that they won’t run off to join their master the moment they’re set free?”

Ambrose’s eyes flashed with a fire that I had never seen before in him. “It is you who are mistaken, Cyrus. I trust every single student in this school, death included.”

This time, Professor Drake’s eyes flared in anger. “Perhaps you have forgotten, Ambrose, that little incident in which…”

“My memory continues to serve me well, even after all these years,” said Ambrose harshly. “And although you may have managed to convince yourself otherwise, the fault is yours and yours alone.”

Lightning flashed again, and a shocking scene met my eyes. Ambrose was glowering up at Professor Drake with an expression of nothing short of pure contempt. And then Professor Drake’s expression flickered. In that one split second, his expression was that of a small schoolboy caught in the act, of someone who has ignored the truth for years only to come back and look at it full in the face.

But in the second after, his expression turned back to one of hatred.

BOOM!

A tremendous earthquake shook the ground, taking me down with it. Ambrose and Cyrus, however, stood firm.

“Do you hear that?” Ambrose thundered. “Malistaire and his forces will penetrate the grounds. Every second you delay, those earthquakes grow worse, a part of Wizard City that need not have been is destroyed. Time grows short, Cyrus. Right now the only question is whether you will do it willingly or need be by force.”

BOOM!

“Professor!” I shrieked. Both men turned around.

“Quiet, girl; this is not your fight!” Cyrus screeched.

“He’s right,” said Ambrose gravely. “You must return to Ravenwood, Miss Spiritheart. Go join your siblings. I will attend to Cyrus.”

“Attend to me?”

“Go now!” shouted Ambrose, just as Cyrus let out a stream of rather foul cusswords that I was thankful that my younger siblings weren’t there to hear.

Without a second thought, I dashed out the tunnel, Elvis right behind me.

Yet I couldn’t help but feel that, with Malistaire on the way, Ambrose fighting Cyrus Drake in the middle of Nightside wasn’t the best omen.





When I arrived, Ravenwood was in a state of complete disarray.

Every single student (except, of course, for the necromancers) was outside at that very moment. Some looked fearful, some confused, and some just looked sleepy. Despite all the teachers’ efforts to keep them calm, they couldn’t fully quiet the amount of ruckus going on, especially when pets were added to the mix.

Professor Falmea stood up on a large, elevated platform, speaking to the crowd.

“…students Journeyman and under will be evacuated to Krokotopia,” she was saying, her voice magically magnified to talk over the students. “If you are a level twenty or over, you may stay and fight if you wish, but by all means you can join the evacuating students.

“Arthur Wethersfield will oversee the escape party,” she went on. I saw Professor Wethersfield trembling by the entrance to the Spiral Chamber, his umbrella in hand. “All evacuating students please join him now.”

There was a flurry of movement as students, both young and terrified out of their wits, ran to join Professor Wethersfield in Bartleby’s Spiral Chamber.

“No, I won’t do it! I won’t go!”

I looked around and saw Catherine’s sister, Madison Goldengate, with her lower lip stuck out and evident protest in her scowl. Catherine Fairyblossom looked at her pleadingly.

“No, Maddie, you’re only an Initiate. You have to go with the other students. Go on with your sister Meghan.”

“But you’re staying!”

“Yes, I’m staying. I’m a Magus; I’m going to try to fight him. They need my help here.” Although Catherine’s voice trembled, I could sense a hint of determination in her voice, and my heart swelled.

“I don’t wanna go! I wanna stay with you!” Madison sobbed, just as Professor Falmea put a gentle hand on her shoulder and led her away with the other students. “No!”

“Sarah Spiritheart,” boomed a great voice suddenly. Maybe it was the power of that voice, or maybe it was the fact that it was my name being mentioned; but either way, everyone fell silent. “Come over here please.”

As if by a trance, I walked slowly over towards the great tree. Savannah, Sadie, and Samuel were there, all sitting on a tree root.

“It is time,” Bartleby boomed. “I feel destiny arriving fast as if carried by the wind. Malistaire has come here for one purpose and for one purpose only: to destroy the four of you. Now is the time to fight him. It is time to seal your fate.”

I suddenly felt small and insignificant. Trembling slightly, I began to wonder how I could even walk straight, let alone defeat Malistaire.

“Do not worry,” Bartleby said. “I have great faith in you. As of the outcome, I am not sure. All I know is this: your battle will be both horrible and legendary. It will be mentioned in years to come.

“I don’t know if we can do this,” I said. “I’m only a Magus, and I’m not even in Mooshu yet! How—”

Bartleby chuckled. “Give me your hand,” he said, extending a branch. On it, I laid my palm face-up, the one with the golden symbol: a leaf connected to a heart.

“This,” he said, “is the mark of a true healer.”

Many older life wizards gasped, and I distinctly heard Catherine say, “Oh!”

Bartleby continued, “I have never seen one shine as brightly as this before. It signifies a path of greatness ahead, for you and for your sisters and brother. If you want proof, there is none greater than this.”

Then he spoke in an undertone, signifying that his next words were for me alone: “I imagine you met Sylvia?”

“Sylvia…Sylvia Drake? Malistaire’s wife?” I remembered the maiden who had saved us from Malistaire’s dungeon. “You mean the woman with the long blonde hair?”

“Let me explain,” said Bartleby, still whispering. There can only be one true healer in the world at a time. For the one in the present to come to terms with her true identity, she must be visited with the image of the true healer before her. It was Sylvia Drake in the dungeon who opened your eyes, and it will be up to you, when you die, to bring news to the next one.”

I just stood there, marveling. So it was Sylvia who I had met in the dungeon. I had actually met Sylvia Drake, Malistaire’s deceased wife. Or rather, her ghost.

“Decide now,” said Bartleby in the same loud tone as before, interrupting my thoughts. “For alas, time is not on our side. Sarah Spiritheart, do you accept your destiny?”

I nodded, my hopefully determined look kind of thrown off by my terrified shudder. “Yes.”

“What say you, Savannah Swiftsong?”

“Let’s do it,” she said bravely.

“Sadie Sparkleblade?”

She nodded. I beamed at her, giving her the thumbs-up.

“And now, Samuel Nighttamer.”

“Okay,” he said.

Then Bartleby lowered his voice again. “Where is the little unicorn that follows you around?”

“Who, Elvis?” I looked around, but he had disappeared. “I don’t know; he must’ve run off. Why?”

“I’ll say this,” said Bartleby mysteriously. “You may need him.”

“Need him? But wha—”

BOOM! This was the loudest yet.

Everyone looked at Bartleby in alarm, who nodded solemnly. “Malistaire’s forces are upon us.”





“Everyone in attack positions!” bellowed Halston Balestrom.

It wasn’t long before we saw them, but not in the direction we were expecting.

“Look!” shouted a Master life wizard, pointing toward where the infamous death school had once stood. All the life wizards could see them first, but in a few seconds, soon everyone would too.

It looked like a sea of black at first, but then it began to take shape. Both wizards and creatures alike were all flying this way—fast—on the backs of huge, roaring dragons.

“Steady!” cried Professor Balestrom.

I’m sure if I had looked at all the surrounding dragons, I would’ve seen a number of grotesque creatures of all elements that I couldn’t have even imagined up. But my eyes were only toward the two beasts in the front.

On the largest, most dangerous-looking one was Malistaire, because Lord knows he just had to have one for himself.

And on the one beside him was his Black Hand. All five of them riding sidesaddle with wicked smiles curving on all their faces.

All five of them.

For there, at the front of the beast, sat my former best friend, now my worst enemy: apparently-not-dead Chris Willowcrafter.

Now known as Marcus Deathspear.