Chapter 22
CHAPTER 22
My first impression of Australia was the heat.
It was still in the wet, rainy season back home, in the middle of March, so it hadn’t occurred to me that Australia was in the middle of summer.
The ley lines’ presence was strong, and I could feel their energy filling me. I used a drop of magic to change my clothes into something more fitting for the weather, and the others followed suit.
“Now that we’re properly attired, let’s find this mine that Paige told us about.”
She shaded her eyes, squinting into the sun. “It’s west and north of us. Not too far. We could probably walk it.”
“We could, but it would be more comfortable if we traveled in style,” Grandfather said, pulling a toy car from his pocket. He winked at her. “It’s much cheaper to buy the toy version, don’t you think?”
“Umm,” she replied, flustered.
He put it on the ground, and after a flourish, it grew into a full-size limousine. “Everyone in,” he said cheerfully.
“I think a helicopter would have worked better, Declan,” Professor Dunlop teased.
“Nonsense. There are far too many people here to fit in a helicopter.”
We all piled into the back. Grandfather tapped the steering wheel and gave it directions, before settling back in his seat.
“Why do you have a chauffeur if you can do this?” I asked him.
“I like the company,” he said. “Besides, he has a job. If I used magic for everything, everyone who worked for me wouldn’t have income. Just because it can be done with magic, doesn’t mean it should.”
“Okay, game plan. We need to come up with one.”
The rest of the trip devolved into arguments, nobody able to agree on how best to defeat the giant.
I sat back and stared at the surreal landscape out my window. I knew there was a desert in central Australia, but the orange sandy view felt like it belonged on Mars, not Earth. There were scrubby bushes scattered around. I caught glimpses of lizards and a few other creatures. Once, I was certain I saw a phoenix, but the car was moving too fast to point it out to anyone.
“We’re here,” Grandfather announced loudly, and the car fell silent. “After that unproductive meeting, shall we get the lay of the land? Find out what we’re dealing with, and then reconvene for a better planning session.”
“My friend, you are as sensible as ever,” Professor Dunlop said.
“It almost sounds like you missed me, Edwin,” Grandfather teased.
The professor’s eyebrows furrowed as he glared at his old roommate. “I didn’t say that was a good thing.”
Grandfather chuckled as he left the car. “You keep telling yourself that.”
Once everyone was out, Grandfather shrank the car back to the size of a toy and put it back in his pocket.
“Do you always carry cars in your pocket?” I asked him.
“Only when I think I’ll need one,” he replied. “I drove myself to the ferry, and rather than park, I thought it would make more sense to bring it with me.”
“You drove yourself?”
“The car drove itself,” Grandfather acknowledged easily.
“Fancy,” I murmured.
“Paige, lead on,” Professor Akhtar said, gesturing for her to move forward to the cave. “Show us this hidden doorway.”
“It was around this way,” she said, taking us past the main entrance. She waved her hand over the rocky face and a perfect entrance appeared. “Are we really going in without a plan?” She sounded terrified.
“We are going in there while invisible, and after scouting the place out, we’re coming back here to make our plan,” Professor Akhtar stressed. “Ready?”
“Hang on,” Aiden said. He held Moonbeam up in front of him and said seriously, “I need you not to eat this spell. It’s going to hide us from the giant. You will get to eat all the magic you could want in a little while, so please, let this one go, okay?”
Moonbeam chirped at him and licked the tip of her nose, making everyone chuckle.
“Okay.” Aiden created a sling, not unlike one for a baby, and placed the kitten in it across his chest.
We created a chain, holding each other’s hands, and cast the invisibility spell. It was comforting to have Aiden and Grandfather on either side of me, their strong hands firmly holding mine. Grandfather’s seemed more frail than I remembered, and I bit back my worries about him.
We entered the cave system in single file, Paige and Professor Akhtar at the front. My eyes adjusted slowly to the dim lighting. We couldn’t use lights of our own. I wanted to smack myself when I remembered there was a spell for seeing in the dark. I had gotten so used to limiting my spells at the academy this semester.
The spell took effect immediately, and I could see the carved rock on either side of us. The ground was flat, but dusty. Anxiety crept up as we continued along the path.
Where were the not-spiderwebs that Paige had described?
How far had she walked before she’d come across the giant?
If he wasn’t here, where was the destruction on the surface?
Surely, we would have noticed it.
Up ahead, Paige was still moving nervously, looking around herself. I wished I could talk mind-to-mind with her. Ask her how much further.
Suddenly, she stopped, creating a chain reaction. She whispered to the professor, who passed her message back to the rest of us.
“This is where the hair started. I scratched a mark on the wall, because it was the first difference I saw in here,” was the message.
There was no hair.
Where was the giant?
After deliberating silently, Professor Akhtar indicated that we should keep moving forward, to see if we could uncover the mystery.
Walking even slower now, if that was possible, we crept down the passage. I shivered a little, and realized that the clothing I’d put on to bear the heat wasn’t sufficient underground. Then I noticed that there was a breeze coming from up ahead. Not much, but enough to blow my hair around my face.
A big cavern?
The walls of the passage widened gradually and then suddenly, we were looking down at a humongous cavern.
Even with my spell to see through darkness, I couldn’t see the other side.
I shivered.
We spread out along the ledge. Paige pointed out the diamond ring she’d left behind. It was glowing brightly in my vision. I didn’t need the spell to see magic to know that I’d be blinded if I looked at it.
But where was the giant?
“You think you’re the only ones who know how to cast an invisibility spell?” The horrible booming voice echoed loudly around the chamber.
Lilia and Hazel screamed, letting go of the hands they were holding to clap theirs over their ears, and I lost sight of them.
I was shaking, holding Aiden and Grandfather’s hands so tightly that my knuckles were white.
“Not going to answer me?” The giant let out a bellow of laughter. “Typical witches. Haven’t changed in two millennia.” The loud angry voice echoed again, surrounding us with vibration.
Professor Akhtar signaled a retreat, but I shook my head, refusing to leave Lilia and Hazel behind.
“No matter. You are brave, to have come to me after trapping me in this cage. Tell me, what is it you wish? Wealth beyond your wildest dreams? Power to rule over the entire world?” the giant ground out, his powerful growly voice making my ears ring.
Professor Akhtar shook his head vehemently and pressed his finger to his lips. I wondered what he was up to, and then he let go.
The next second, he appeared, his cloak of invisibility dropped.
“Gràineileachd!” he called. “Show yourself!”
A bellow of laughter rang through the cavern again. “If you saw me as I truly am, your puny brain couldn’t handle it and you would go mad. But…”
The abruptness of the silence pressed on my ears. I strained to see something, anything.
“Since you have revealed yourself to me, I shall return the favor.” The voice wasn’t quite as ear-splitting, and I wondered what he had done, when I suddenly saw him.
He was sitting in the far corner of the cavern, his head brushing the ceiling, but not nearly as big as his original voice implied. He climbed to his feet, ducking until he reached the center of the cavern and could stand properly. He was wearing ratty gray clothing, no shoes, and his hair hung limply around his shoulders.
“Well? What do you think?” He spread his arms wide.
“What I think doesn’t matter,” Professor Akhtar replied.
“True, true.” The giant nodded his head sagely. “You must be after knowledge. You look like a scholar, now that I see you properly.” He leaned forward suddenly, his face impossibly large next to the ledge, and Paige whimpered.
“I was actually just hoping to keep you asleep,” Professor Akhtar said.
The giant sat back again with a scowl. “This is my world, too. You can’t keep me asleep forever.” His gaze flicked over the ledge, his nostrils flared. “You brought your students with you? What am I, some kind of field trip?”
“I came alone,” Professor Akhtar bluffed.
“Suppose you’re telling the truth. You screamed like two separate women when I first spoke. Who were you telling to turn invisible at the entrance to the cave, then?” The giant sniffed again. “I’m counting at least four beasts, one much older. The other three are bonded… Oh, that’s interesting.” He inhaled again. “One is a fully bonded he-beast, and he’s with a witch? Fascinating. One dryad; five, no, seven witches. One is older, like the beast. Have I covered everyone?”
I swallowed hard.
How could he possibly know all that just from smelling the air?
“Now that you know that I know that you lied, what’s next, little witch?” The giant grinned, his teeth yellow with age.
“My goal remains the same, to request that you go back to sleep,” the professor said calmly.
The giant shook his head. “I have explored this mess of a world. Humans have really done a number on it. Wars, pollution, disease, needless death… It should be cleansed.”
“No!” Paige shouted. Her invisibility dropped, and she faced off against the giant. “I trapped you here! You can’t possibly have left!”
The giant leaned forward again, his eye the size of the petite witch. She trembled and took a step backward until she pressed against the wall of the cavern.
“ You wove this cage?” he asked mildly.
Paige nodded shakily.
“You made the holes too big,” he said, and sat back again.
“I… What?” she squeaked.
He nodded as if she’d said something brilliant. “You built your cage to contain my biggest self. I filled this cavern entirely. When the energy you drew from the ley lines woke me up, the first thing I did was shrink down to your size. Then I walked right through the bars and up to the surface. I traveled throughout the world, learned your languages, saw your cultures, your famines, your capitalism ,” he spat the word as if it disgusted him. “This world is a mess, as I said. Why haven’t you fixed the problems? Why have you let it go this far? What’s the point of all your power if you only use it to better yourselves?”
“My cage woke you?” Paige wailed. “I’m sorry.”
“I’m not,” the giant replied.
“I wasn’t talking to you,” Paige retorted.
The giant laughed. “Now I believe you. I wondered how someone so weak could have pulled this off. There’s the spirit in you.”
Professor Akhtar cleared his throat. “We do not use magic in the presence of mundanes. They would demand it be used to increase their power.”
“Then you tell them no.” The giant frowned. “I shall cleanse this world of the mundanes that are greedy. They are destroying this planet. Witches and beasts should be in control.” He nodded in the direction of the ledge. “And dryads. I haven’t forgotten you, my dear.”
“What gives us the right to reign over others, just because we have power that they don’t?” Professor Akhtar asked. “That’s not how the world should work.”
“Which is exactly why you would be the right person for the job,” the giant said slyly.
“No. You are going back to sleep.”
Grandfather showed me the tablet in his hands. The splotch of manducare was now practically on top of the center of the circular lines.
“I think it’s time,” I whispered.
Professor Dunlop nodded his agreement, and we threw off our invisibility spells, Lilia and Hazel a few seconds after the rest of us.
“That would have been more impressive if I hadn’t already known you were there,” the giant grumbled.
“You like the theatrics?” I asked. “Unfortunately, you’re going to miss the standing ovation.”
The giant chuckled. “Big words from a tiny witch.”
“Paige, you need to modify your spell. Remove the size factor, emphasize the sleep component,” I said to her.
Paige looked worried. “I’m not sure how to calculate that, especially with the amplification by the ley lines.”
Aiden turned his back on the giant and bent his head to whisper in Paige’s ear. His hands sketched out designs in the air as he explained.
Even if I could overhear, I’m sure the math would’ve gone over my head. The exponential growth of the magical power had been calculated in Professor Akhtar’s office, but adding it into spells was beyond me.
“You’re sure that will work?” Paige asked.
“Do it,” Aiden said.
When Aiden turned back around, the giant frowned. “I thought I smelled something not quite right. What is that in your sling, boy?”
Aiden adjusted the edge of the sling, making sure Moonbeam was hidden from view. “We rescued an orphan creature. She’s not ready to leave her mama.”
Gràineileachd chortled. “Pretty words. There’s an absence of magical energy around her. She’s one of those manducare ,” he spat angrily. “The magical community bred those to put me to sleep last time. They had three mature creatures. If this one fits in a sling, she’s barely old enough to tickle me. This was your plan? Bring a baby manducare into range and have her eat my magic until I fell asleep? I’m not going to sit still for her to do her work.”
Moonbeam hissed and flailed in her sling until her head popped out and she mewed.
“No, Moonbeam,” I whispered, but I wasn’t close enough to reach her.
Aiden struggled to tuck her back into the sling, but she hooked her talons into his sleeve and used that to hop out, jumping onto the ground. She hissed and spat at the giant, her hackles raised and tail puffed out.
“No, sweetheart, you wouldn’t be able to drain me,” the giant said with a chuckle. “You’d hurt yourself if you tried.”
Moonbeam settled into a pouncing position, her haunches wiggling.
“Stop her!” I shouted.
Rhiannon lunged for the kitten, but Moonbeam was faster, flinging herself off the ledge toward the giant.
For a moment, the kitten arced through the air, her fur crackling with energy. She hit a magical barrier and froze for a second, and then ricocheted off in a different direction, hitting the wall of the cavern and dropping to the ground in a heap.
“ No! ” I screamed.