No Place For Magic Book 4 (Completed)

Chapter 9

We left the shattered land just as abruptly as we'd entered it. With one step we went from gravel and sand to lush grass that felt soft beneath our feet. Ahead of us lay a mixed forest of spruce and leaf-bearing trees, with Roc Mountain rising in the distance. It was an oddly shaped mountain, which, according to Eadric, people thought looked like a roc, although no one had ever seen any of the giant birds on it. The forest lapping at its base looked welcoming in the late afternoon heat. Like a thirsty man who sees an oasis in the desert, we hurried toward the trees and the shade they offered. Cool air washed over us as we stepped beneath the green canopy. Eadric and I sighed with relief and sat down in the shade to rest while Li'l settled on the branch of a tree.

We hadn't gotten much sleep the night before, and I couldn't make myself go any farther. Although our stomachs rumbled with hunger, we fell asleep, dozing against a tree's rough bark. We would have slept longer than we did, but Shelton grew tired of waiting for us. "Get up!" he said, pinching me hard enough to raise a welt on the back of my hand. "We have places to go and a prince to rescue."

"You didn't have to do that," I said, rubbing my hand.

Eadric was rubbing a similar welt on the arm he'd had around my shoulder. "I'm hungry," he said. "Why don't I start a fire and cook a crab for supper?"

"Ha, ha! Very funny," Shelton said, not sounding at all amused. He skittered down my leg, then turned to face Eadric with his claws clacking. 'You can't eat me!" he said. "I'd pinch you really hard if you tried. And if you did . . . why, I'd be all stringy and taste really bad and . . ."

I scooped up the little crab and set him on my shoulder. "Don't worry. I won't let him eat you."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that," Eadric told Shelton while helping me to my feet. "She has to sleep sometime."

"Stop it, you two," I said, losing my patience. "We have enough to worry about without you fighting."

"You heard her," said Shelton, but he quieted down when I poked him.

Li'l flew overhead to keep us on course while Eadric and I made our way through the forest. We were both hungry, so we stopped to look for berries in the few likely spots we came across, but didn't find anything edible. When I heard the first rumble of thunder, I thought it was Eadric's stomach. It wasn't until the wind picked up, waving the branches overhead and making the leaves rustle like rushing water, that I knew a storm was approaching.

"Li'l!" I called into the darkening sky. "Can you look for some kind of shelter? A cave or hut would be fine."

"I'll see what I can find!" she called back, as she disappeared into the gloom.

When she finally met up with us again, she led us through the woods in a new direction. We covered our heads and ran as the wind grew stronger and loose leaves and twigs fell on us like hail. The rain had just started to pelt us when we came to the clearing she had found and saw the remains of a long-deserted castle. Lightning ripped the sky, lighting up the clearing, then thunder boomed, and a tree cracked, splitting in the forest behind us. The smell of sulfur soured the air, and I could feel my hair stand on end as Eadric grabbed my hand and ran.

Lightning blazed again. I stumbled and would have fallen if Eadric hadn't been holding my hand. He pulled me through the gateway, over the ruined portcullis, and across the cracked and broken paving stones of the courtyard. The wind was whipping my hair into stinging strands that bit my cheeks when Eadric dragged me up the steps and past a sagging door. It was dark inside, lit only by the lightning flashes showing through the doorway and the narrow windows set high on the walls. We had stepped directly into the Great Hall, empty except for some old, rickety tables and a massive fireplace too crumbled to use.