The Salamander Spell (18 page)

Although she didn’t know the silver wolf, Grassina knew that she didn’t want the werewolf to win. Opening her sack, she took out a fistful of stones, braced her body with her feet and legs, then hurled the stones one at a time at the werewolf with all the strength she could muster. The first stone hit a glancing blow, making the werewolf snap at its side as if at a biting fly. The second stone hit the werewolf behind the ear. The beast turned its head and was struck on the snout, which made it yelp with pain. Another stone hit it directly between the eyes with such force that its head snapped back and blood oozed in a line across its brow. The werewolf staggered and fell to the ground. When their leader didn’t get up, the rest of the pack stepped out of the shadows, the fur along their spines bristling. As they drew closer, Grassina could hear their deep-throated growling all the way up in her tree.

Forming a circle around the silver wolf, the werewolves had begun to move in when the lead werewolf groaned and lurched to its feet. It looked groggy and uncoordinated as it shambled unsteadily back the way it had come. The other werewolves stayed in their circle until a sharp bark from their leader made them turn and slink away into the darkness.

Once the werewolves were gone, the silver wolf heaved a loud sigh, then collapsed in slow motion until it lay sprawled across the ground with its tongue lolling in the dirt.

“Pippa?” Grassina called softly, but the little snake didn’t answer. With the silver wolf at the base of the tree and no idea how far the werewolves had gone, Grassina was reluctant to climb down. It was dark as well, and a bad time to be on foot in the enchanted forest. Wincing at every little sound, Grassina wedged her body in the tree so that even if she fell asleep, she wouldn’t fall to the ground, then shut her eyes, hoping that it would be morning when she opened them again.

Fourteen

W
ake up,” a voice whispered into her ear, and Grassina’s eyes flew open. For the second time she woke to find Pippa staring at her from only inches away.

Grassina squirmed out of the crook in the tree where she’d spent the night. Her muscles were so stiff when she tried to stand that she had to hang on to an overhead branch to haul herself up. “Is the wolf gone?” she asked, remembering why she was in a tree at all.

“Ssee for yoursself,” said Pippa.

The little snake twined around her wrist as Grassina peered down through the branches. Instead of the wolf, the beautiful young woman who had been talking to Pippa the day before lay at the foot of the tree. Even in the light of day the woman didn’t look quite real. Grassina rubbed her eyes, afraid that she might be hallucinating.

She almost fell out of the tree when the woman yawned and sat up. “You shouldn’t be down there!” called Grassina. Dropping from branch to branch without actually falling, she reached the young woman’s side moments later. “Do you know what lives in these woods? You’d better come with me. I’ll take you somewhere you can be safe.” Grassina offered her hand to the woman, who laughed and pushed it away.

The woman didn’t look very old, although certainly older than Grassina. She laughed again when she saw Grassina’s earnest expression and patted her shoulder as she might a friendly dog. “You really do care what happens to me!” she said, sounding delighted.

A twig cracked in the forest. For a second, Grassina wondered if the werewolves were coming back.

“I told you she wass a good persson,” said Pippa.

“You were right,” said the young woman.

Crows took off cawing as if an intruder had startled them. Whatever was coming, Grassina thought it seemed to be getting closer.

“Do you two know each other?” she asked Pippa, feeling oddly betrayed.

“We’ve met,” said the young woman.

Grassina looked at her with growing suspicion. “You aren’t Mudine, are you?”

“By the buds of my home tree, no, I’m not a witch!”

“She’ss a Vila,” offered Pippa. “She’ss here to protect the foresst and all the creaturess in it.”

The Vila nodded. “That’s true, and because you chased away that werewolf for me, I’m going to honor you by making you my blood sister.”

Grassina blinked. She could have sworn she’d seen Haywood’s face peeking through the leaves behind the Vila, but when she looked again, his face was gone.

“Your what?” she asked. After seeing the wolves trying to tear each other apart the night before, she didn’t think she wanted to be a blood anything.

“My blood sister. That means you’ll be under my protection and I’ll teach you all sorts of wonderful things. I don’t offer this opportunity to just anyone, but since you helped me last night—”

“I didn’t help you. I’ve never seen you before!”

The Vila made a trilling sound that reminded Grassina of a songbird. It occurred to her that the Vila was laughing. “Why, of course you helped me! I’ll admit I didn’t look the way I do now. I looked more like this. . . .” The air around the Vila shimmered and suddenly the young woman was gone, replaced by the silver wolf. The wolf yipped and licked Grassina’s hand, then the air shimmered again and the young woman was back, wearing a smug smile.

“Get away from her, Grassina,” said Haywood, stepping from behind the tree. “Vili are nothing but trouble, even the ones who claim to be good.”

The Vila whirled around to face him. “How dare you!” she shouted. “All I’ve done is offer to take care of that girl and teach her what she wants to know. Your snake friend told me that you want to learn all about plants,” she said, turning to Grassina. “I can teach you everything, far more than some sawed-off stump of a wizard can.”

Grassina blanched when she saw the thunderous look on the Vila’s face. “But I don’t want—”

“You know who I am?” said Haywood.

“I know everything that goes on in my forest.” The Vila took a step toward him.

Grassina darted around the Vila, hoping to get between the two of them.

“I even know that you won’t make it back alive to that miserable swamp,” said the Vila. “Out of my way, child,” she told Grassina. “I’m going to see that this young man never taints my forest with his presence again!”

“No!” said Grassina, flinging up her hands as if to push the Vila away. “You can’t!”

“Oh, I see how it is. He’s a man, and he’s used his manly influence on you. Don’t worry, I know a cure for
that
! Come over here,” the Vila said, taking Grassina’s arm in an iron grip and pulling her toward a tree. “I’ll turn you into a tree nymph. Then you can live inside the tree and forget all about men and—”

“Let go of me!” cried Grassina. “I don’t want to be a tree nymph! I want to be who I am and stay with Haywood!”

“You aren’t in love with him, are you?” the Vila asked, looking appalled. “Because if you are, there’s no hope for you. If you know what’s good for you, you’ll reconsider. I would take care of you and teach you everything you ever wanted to know!”

“We can take care of ourselves!” Grassina said, struggling against the Vila. “And I’ll learn what I want to know without you. Now let go of me! I mean it. I don’t want to go into any tree!”

“Just a minute,” said Haywood. “You claim to be the protector of the forest creatures, don’t you, Vila?”

“Why, yes, I am,” the Vila said, pausing with one hand on the bark of the tree and the other still clutching Grassina’s arm.

“Then you won’t mind if I invite some of your forest friends to a meal.” Raising his voice so that it rang out through the forest, Haywood said,

Termites fast and termites slow,
This is where you’ll want to go.
Come and have a tasty treat.
Eat until your meal’s complete.
Bring your friends and dig right in.
Hurry so you can begin.

The Vila’s head whipped around as the smell of sawdust pervaded the forest. Fallen leaves and other debris on the forest floor rose and fell in waves as a horde of termites left whatever they were eating and scurried toward the tree. “No!” the Vila screamed at the insects. “That’s my tree! You can’t eat that!”

“But they’re forest creatures, too,” said Haywood. “And you’re supposed to be the champion of all forest creatures, aren’t you?”

“Not all of them,” cried the Vila. “Just the ones I like. And I don’t like termites!” Grassina stumbled when the woman suddenly let go of her arm. While the Vila strode into the midst of the termites, Haywood motioned for Grassina to join him. She was reaching for his hand when the Vila began waving her arms in a shooing motion. A cloud of termites were flung backward through the air, but it made little difference, for the more the Vila tried to get rid of them, the more they poured out of the surrounding forest.

The moment the woman turned her back on them, Haywood began pulling Grassina behind him. “Let’s get as far from here as we can before she notices!” he said. Tightening their grip on each other’s hands, they ran, their feet slipping on the carpet of skittering insects.

“How did you find me?” Grassina asked as she fought to stay upright.

“When you didn’t return to the island last night, I asked if anyone had seen what happened to you. A little bird told me where to look.”

Suddenly, a shadow detached itself from the gloom under an ancient tree and stepped into the half-light of the forest directly in their path. “Well, well, now isn’t this cozy?” said a tall, thin man with long dark hair. Grassina thought he looked vaguely familiar. With thick eyebrows that met in the middle and long incisors that glinted when he smiled, he looked threatening enough to make her shiver. “If it isn’t the little princess who stopped by the village looking for her father.”

As more men emerged from the shadows, Haywood turned to Grassina. “Princess?”

She shrugged. “I meant to tell you sometime. Then after a while it no longer seemed important.”

“How could your being a princess not be important?”

“I just thought—”

“Excuse me!” interrupted the man. “I was talking, remember?”

Grassina wanted to tell the stranger that he was being rude, but she thought better of it when she saw the oversized knife he was wielding.

Shoving Grassina behind him, Haywood said in a commanding voice, “What’s the meaning of this?”

Grassina thought Haywood was incredibly brave for standing up to the man, but when the stranger started toward them, she noticed the scabbed-over gash on his forehead and the blood encrusting his hair. “Uh, Haywood,” she said, tugging on his sleeve. “That’s not an ordinary man.”

“I know that,” Haywood said out of the side of his mouth. “He’s a lunatic with bad teeth who is threatening us with a knife.”

“That’s not what I mean,” said Grassina. “I saw him in the village and again last night. He’s a werewolf, and I bet those other men are, too.”

“A werewolf ?” said Haywood. “Are you sure?”

“She’s a smart little thing,” said the leader, “to figure out who we are.”

“That wizard sent termites after the Vila’s tree!” said a red-headed man with drooping eyelids. “What do you think he’ll do to us, infest our coats with fleas?”

A lean man with a sly face glanced at his companion. “Then he’s too late as far as you’re concerned. You already have them!” The rest of the men laughed, sounding more like barking dogs than humans.

“Haywood!” whispered Grassina. “We have to do something.”

“Give me a minute,” he said. “I’m trying to remember what I read about them.”

“He wants a minute to think!” said the scruffy man, nudging another in the ribs.

“Then today’s his lucky day. He’ll have plenty of time to think—while he’s taking his eternal rest! Get ’em, boys!” shouted the leader.

“Have you thought of anything yet?” Grassina asked as the men crowded closer.

“Yes, run!” Half pushing, half dragging her, Haywood hustled Grassina to an ancient oak as big around as a small hut. After boosting her into the lower branches, he turned back, ready to defend her with nothing more than a branch he’d picked up off the ground.

Grassina was digging into her sack for her stones when the men threw themselves at Haywood. He fought valiantly, jabbing and whaling at them with the branch. Grassina was about to throw a stone when the scruffy man grabbed her ankle from behind.

“Let go of me, you . . .” Kicking and shaking her foot, she held on to a sturdy branch with both hands, but the man was stronger, and she knew she couldn’t hold on for long. He yanked hard, and she half fell out of the tree, her legs dangling in empty air. Grassina shrieked and tried to kick him, but he ducked and wove, avoiding her blows. She was still struggling to hold on when Pippa’s head popped out of Grassina’s sleeve. Hissing softly, the little snake dropped onto the man’s back.

One more yank and Grassina tumbled to the ground, landing on her side with an
oof
. The man was bending over her when Pippa slithered down the neck of his tunic. “Hey!” he shouted. Letting go of Grassina, he began patting his clothes. “There’s a snake! Get this—” The next instant he collapsed in a heap and lay on the ground with saliva dribbling from his mouth. He made gasping sounds while his eyes rolled back in his head.

Grassina scrambled to her feet. “What did you do?” she asked, picking up Pippa.

The little snake curled around her wrist, tickling her skin with a flicking tongue. “The ssame thing he wass going to do to you,” said Pippa. “I bit him.”

“Are you venomous?” Grassina asked.

“Yess,” Pippa said, sounding resigned. “But don’t tell anyone. People tend to look at me differently once they know. You sstill like me, don’t you?”

“Of course I do,” said Grassina. “Just don’t . . .”

“You know I’d never bite a friend, but if I’m going to bite more like him, we’ll have to wait until I make new venom. I ussed all that I had jusst then. Ssay, maybe your luck hass changed. It wass good luck that I wass there to help you!”

The men on the other side of the tree began barking jubilantly, having overwhelmed Haywood and forced him to the ground. Grassina started toward him, but a trio of men blocked her way. With only two stones left, she threw one at the first of her attackers, hitting him squarely on the forehead. He staggered and went down, but was back on his feet a moment later. The second stone struck another man on the shoulder, which just seemed to make him angry. He snarled, his lips curling like a wolf ’s.