Beauty and the Magician (Tales of the Red Witch Book 1)

Chapter 36 - Not the pig too!

It was late afternoon by the time they left the council meeting and the citadel. Annika longed to continue their search for information in the library, but she knew they needed to go home and regroup first. They needed to assess what they knew about Demelza and they needed to come up with a plan.

The council was still bickering in the hall, though they had moved on to discussing whether they should make an edict prohibiting members and petitioners from leaving the council during a deliberation.

They had decided that they wouldn't be able to pass the edict without Ebenebius present. The whole thing made Annika's head spin. She would encourage Eben to go back and try to make sense of their total disorder, but right now they needed to figure out how to defeat the witch. And since the council was determined to be of no help, they were on their own. But she knew they could come up with something and she knew Toby would finally be of some use. He was surprisingly well read for rambunctious orphan boy.

Once outside and alone with Eben once again, Annika turned towards him. "How will we defeat the witch?"

He glanced down at the box in his hand.

"Well we have something she wants, we just need to figure out how to use that to our advantage and somehow manage to keep her from getting her mad hands on it. If she does, there is no stopping her."

"Then she must not get it." Annika said with determination.

They approached the door in the garden and Eben performed the charm to make it a portal to Other.

Eben opened the door and gestured for Annika to walk ahead of him.

She approached the doorway and stopped dead in her tracks. Something wasn't right. Her nose picked up a different scent. She had smelled it before. Her whiskers twitched. Her ears twisted trying to pick up the sounds of Toby and Mr. Pig.

She entered warily and then stopped in her tracks. Panic flooded her.

"Hey, What's the-" Eben started behind her before he saw the room over her head.

The workroom had been destroyed, the furniture overturned, bottles smashed, the kitchen cabinets were thrown open and everything was pulled out and scattered.

"Toby!" Annika shouted. But she knew she would hear nothing.

Eben shot past her and took off running up the stairs. Annika ran to the back door and threw it open.

"Toby! Mr. Pig!" She was shattering, falling to pieces in her worry. Her body grew numb and her heart thudded loudly in her ears. Her paws shook and her stomach knotted. Where were they? But she knew the answer. Only one person would have taken them.

She ran back inside and straight into Eben. She thudded against his chest. He caught her upper arms to steady her and studied her though he appeared just as frazzled as her. A scrap of paper crinkled in his hand. Once he had secured on her feet he let her go.

"She left this on my door." He handed the paper to her. He didn't need to say who, Annika knew. It was in the magician's language, but Eben changed it for her benefit.

She brought a hand to her mouth as tears gathered in her eyes.

"I have the boy and the prince. Bring my chest to where we first met by sunset tomorrow or else."

She stared at the note. "Prince?" She asked and looked up at Eben.

"I assume she means Mr. Pig... crazy... utterly out of her gourd-" he was frantically running a hand over his hair and pacing a few feet in front of her. She could she his hands shaking.