The Familiars: Secrets of the Crown. Adam Epstein

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СКАЧАТЬ Snow leopard’s crown.” She continued to scan the page, deciphering bits and pieces. “The story tells of a young elvin warrior who went searching for this mythical treasure. Lots of details about the rituals he performed before leaving, and the possessions he brought with him.”

      Everybody was huddled around Edna now, hanging on the sorceress’s every word.

      “Any clue as to what the Crown is or where it is hidden?” asked Marianne.

      “Patience, young lady,” answered Edna, who moved the reading lens slowly across every word. “Tanah nok tahni. He carried with him a crocodile-tooth dagger, and wore mufahji round his neck. Rain charms.” She flipped to the next page.

      That’s when Aldwyn’s attention was drawn to the librarian again. She was on her knees, muttering aloud before the three thumb-long bookworms.

      “Uh, Jack.” He nudged his loyal.

      “Not now, Aldwyn,” the boy replied without even giving him a look.

      Aldwyn found the librarian’s actions quite peculiar. Had she lost her mind? Was she trying to reason with the worms? Whatever it was, it wasn’t normal. Maybe she—

      Were the worms getting bigger?

      Oh yes, they most certainly were. They were now as thick as watermelons, and as long as pythons.

      “Jack!” Aldwyn shouted, clawing at the boy’s sleeve.

      “Ow,” cried Jack. “What did you do that—”

      Then Jack saw it too. In the short seconds it took to get the young wizard’s attention, the slither of bookworms had expanded to the size of wine barrels. The librarian remained on the floor, reciting what sounded a lot like a magic spell.

      “Guys,” Jack called to the others, “you better look at this!”

      Everyone turned round.

      The once tiny and harmless-looking bookworms were now eight feet tall, their mouths surrounding a circle of teeth. The librarian stood beside the salivating creatures, her meek, shoulder-slouching demeanour gone, replaced with a scary confidence.

      “What have you done?” asked Queen Loranella.

      “The better question is how?” said Feynam. “How is a human still capable of casting magic?”

      “They’re not,” answered the librarian.

      Her body began to twist and contort; her ears started to grow and her nose shrank. Grey hairs sprouted from her flesh. Her brown eyes turned bright pink. She was shape-shifting. And when the transformation was complete, Paksahara was standing before them.

      “Normally, bookworms only have a taste for parchment,” she said. “But I think in this case they’ll make an exception.”

      The three towering slitherers advanced on the wizards young and old and their familiars. The quickest of the worms charged at them with its mouth wide open, smashing aside chairs and scroll cabinets along the way. The group fled from the long wooden table where they had been sitting, hurrying to take cover behind the stacks.

      “The book!” cried Marianne.

      But before any of them could go back for it, the charging demon worm halved the table, sending the Wizard’s Almanac of Fables flying, the jug of water rolling to the ground, and Edna’s magnifying glass shattering on the floor.

      “Last chance to surrender,” Paksahara called out. “Join me, familiars!”

      Despite these most dire of circumstances, Aldwyn would never accept her treasonous offer to betray Jack, and he knew that Skylar and Gilbert would never leave the side of their loyals, either. He focused on the fallen book and telekinetically lifted it into Dalton’s hands.

      “Quickly, this way,” said Feynam to the others. “There’s an exit in the back.”

      The elder led them, running down the narrow aisle. He was the first to emerge out the other side, and he never saw it coming. One of the bookworms opened its giant mouth and swallowed him whole. It happened so suddenly that it almost didn’t seem real. Everyone was left in stunned silence, except for Stolix, who had somehow remained asleep through everything thus far.

      “Any of you want to reconsider?” Paksahara asked the familiars with a sneer.

      Ramoth looked to Loranella. “My loyalty had been teetering before,” he said, showing his true colours. “Besides, I never like ending up on the losing side of a battle.” The firescale snake darted out from the stacks and took his place alongside Paksahara.

      “Children, run for the front door,” instructed Queen Loranella. “Edna and I will distract the worms.”

      The wizards in training and their familiars sprinted for the entrance as the gigantic and clearly very hungry bookworms were bearing down on them. Queen Loranella and Sorceress Edna hurried in the opposite direction, throwing books at the purple beasts to bait them away from the children.

      Skylar spread her wings and made a bookshelf stuffed with dusty tomes appear between them and the worms. Aldwyn hoped the illusion would fool the tiny minds of the oversize grubs, or at least buy them a little time.

      Dalton flipped open the Wizard’s Almanac of Fables as he fled, picking up where Edna had left off, searching the text as fast as he could.

      “Dalton, what are you doing?” asked Skylar. “You can read the book later!”

      “Not if I don’t make it out of here alive,” he replied.

      Just then, a blast of electricity shot over his head, straight through Skylar’s illusion. Apparently, Paksahara had grown impatient with waiting for the worms to finish off her opponents. They took cover behind a bookshelf. “Niti wengi,” Dalton read aloud from the Elvish fable. “A great big tree.”

      Aldwyn concentrated on a pear-shaped globe on one of the pedestals and flung it across the room, using only his mind. For a second he was quite pleased with his effort, but then Paksahara effortlessly shot it down. She didn’t see the second globe coming from behind her, though, and it momentarily knocked her off her feet.

      Aldwyn was starting to feel victorious when a sweat-inducing heat boiled up behind him. He turned to find Ramoth, scales aflame, ready to strike with his searing fangs.“Traitor,” shouted Aldwyn.

      “I am a snake after all,” replied Ramoth. He was about to strike, but his attack was thwarted when a splash of water doused the fire burning on his skin.

      Jack stood with an empty jug in hand, the one that had fallen from the reading table but fortunately had not spilled all of its contents. Though stripped of his newly blossoming spellcasting abilities, Jack remained cocky in the face of the danger. He gave Ramoth a swift kick that sent him sailing across the room into a pile of scrolls. Aldwyn and his loyal shared a nod. No words were necessary to communicate their bond.

      Dalton was still struggling with the foreign text – “The warrior travelled to some kind of tree, one whose branches…” he translated as the battle continued. “I’m not sure what these next words mean.”

      And he wasn’t going СКАЧАТЬ