

Spinners
Prologue

A dark figure crept along the city of New York. She was lucky the power is out, for her appearance frightened many. She was also fortunate that the only person who could see her was the only one not afraid of her.

The figure stopped suddenly. The power came back on, and suddenly the New York skyline lit up bright. The silhouette of the figure was more visible now, and you could see that it was a small girl, about twelve or thirteen years old.

She scurried into an alleyway, afraid of the bright lights that could expose her appearance. It wasn't ideal, but she would have to do the call from there. She opened her black bag and set it on the floor. A misty green spirit rose from the bag.

"Arachne, queen of the Great and Powerful Spinners", she whispered, looking around her to make sure no one was there.

Suddenly, the spirit glowed red, and the shapeless lump formed into a sleek slender corpse. The corpse spoke in a ragged, rough voice. "Have you brought me good news?"

The girl swallowed, raising her face to the corpse. In the dim red, you could see that she had long hair, and dark eyes. She said nervously," Perhaps, my lady, it depends on what you think."

The corpse's voice grew amused. "Such a diplomatic answer. Your tongue grows ever smoother."

The girl bowed her head, her entire body shaking. The corpse continued. "Well? Whether the news be for the better or the worse, tell me."

The girl bowed again, her voice trembling as she spoke. She said," I have found an ample opportunity for you to rise to power. In some time, the third star on the right of the Opaline constellation will align with moon when it reaches it's zenith."

Here, she paused, as if considering whether to go on, and the corpse's eyes grew large with hunger.

"Well?" said the corpse impatiently. "When will this time come?"

At last, the girl continued, and she said," My lady, it will be in one-and-twenty rotations of the moon. It will take one hundred and twenty two years." The corpse's features grew serious. "Well," she said. "You do know what that means?"

The girl shook her head. The corpse's eyes gleamed. "Did you not just say you found an opportunity for me to take over the world called Earth? Finally, after years of searching for the time, I will rise, and rule the whole world!"

The girl looked confused. "But, my lady," she said. "You are great, but how will you survive the next hundred years?"

The corpse chuckled, a truly terrifying sound. "Naïve girl, how do you think bears survive the winter without eating?"

The call was taxing so much of the girl's strength, she could only whimper.

The corpse smiled, showing barbed fangs.

"I shall sleep off the years," she said. "And you will, too."

The girl cried out in protest, but remained rooted to the spot. The corpse reached out a glowing red arm. It was hairy, and rather like a spider's. It touched the girl's straining face, and she collapsed and fell into a deep sleep. And there she stayed, for a thousand years. Until today.
Part One: The Apocalypse

Chapter 1

I woke up, my heart pounding. It was just a dream, she told herself. No one can change colors or collapse people by touching them in real life. I heaved a sigh and got out of bed to get ready for school.

I shouldered my bag and try to get through the swarm of kids surrounding me.

Sometimes being popular is a bust, I thought as I pushed against the tide of kids.

It wasn't that I minded being invited to every party in the school, being an idolized wardrobe goddess, or being picked first for teams in P.E. Actually, that was great. No, what bothered me was that six months ago, I'd been a nobody. Just another girl in the crowd. Sure, I stood out a little because of my bright auburn hair and my coppery-green eyes, but that only made me look stranger.

But then, my dad got a call from his work. He had to move to Russia for his job, and he couldn't take us with him. My dad was never really around much because of his job, and most of the time we spoke on video chats. So things weren't all that different, but it had forced Mom to get a job.

Mom accepted a job as a makeup salon artist at the mall, and nothing had been that different. My dad had never been around the house, so the only difference was that there were more worry lines on Mom's face.

Then, my whole life got turned upside down. A modeling scout had 'discovered' my mom, and gave her the opportunity to model for Swoon, a widely-read gossip magazine. Mom had never wanted to model, so she accepted only because it paid well. The issue with my mom in it came out, and suddenly there were half a dozen scouts knocking at our door. Then, before my eyes could take it all in, Mom was featured across a dozen different magazines and her name was plastered across every one of New York's billboards.

Suddenly, we moved out of our cozy apartment in Greenwich Village to one of New York City's skyscraper penthouses. Now, I was afraid of putting my feet on the floor, it was so grand. I could barely take it all in.

I moved from my public school with all my friends in it to the Trinity Di Academy. It was a snobby private school, and I felt like the only reason these kids liked me was because of my money. No, not my money. My mother's money.

All of this ran through my mind for the umpteenth time since we moved. I pushed my way through the crowd and hurried out.

Now, if only she could get home before-

"Hey, Evanna!"

I sighed and turned to face Alexandra Di. As usual, she had her signature bright fake smile pasted on, masking her ugly thoughts. Alexandra was the daughter of Trinity Di, principal and founder of the school. She had been the most popular girl in the Academy until I had been enrolled. I knew that as soon as I fell from my throne of popularity, Alexandra would drop all pretenses of being my friend and make my life miserable. But for now there was nothing to do but be nice. Then maybe Alexandra would be easier on me.

"Hey, Alexandra," I replied dully.

Alexandra pouted her perfect mouth.

"You don't have to call me Alexandra. You can call me Alexa."

I huffed slightly. Everyone was 'allowed' to call her Alexa. Alexandra acted like it was a big deal, though.

"Fine, Alexa. Do you need something? I'm in a hurry." I knew it was rude, but I was in no mood to deal with Alexa's obviously fake charms and graces.

I saw an ugly look flash across Alexa's face. I was surprised to see how much hate and anger was in it. Then just as suddenly, it was gone, and Alexa's fake smile back on, beaming so brightly I couldn't be sure if it hard look was ever there.

"No, not really. I'll see you tomorrow." She skipped off, leaving a cloud of perfume behind her. I recognized it as my mom's signature perfume that was being advertised all over New York now. I gagged slightly and walked on.
Chapter 2

Exiting the elevator, I walked into the central room. I looked around for my babysitter, Joanne. Joanne was just fifteen, only two years older than me, and was tons of fun. She was like an older sister to me. But she wasn't in the room at all today.

It was strange, because Joanne made a point of being there to greet me after school every day, unless....

"Mom?" I called. "Are you home?"

My mom appeared in the doorway.

"Hey, honey," she replied, leaning on the doorframe and texting. I tried not to cry. I hadn't seen my mom for weeks because she had gone on a photo shoot to Milan. I had really missed her.

I looked at all the ways my mom had changed since she got her modeling job. Before, my mom had had to hug me every day before I went to school and after I came home. Now, after being gone for three weeks, my mom just stood in the doorway, texting on her phone and giving me short, uninterested replies. My mom always told me that when I made a mistake, it was a lesson learned. Now, everything I did was criticized and condemned. And no matter what, I remembered, my mom had always stood by me. Now, my mom wasn't around half the time.

Tears formed in my eyes as I realized my mom was a different person now.

"I'm going to my room now," I said in a choked voice.

Her mom nodded, not taking her eyes of the phone.

"Oh, and honey?" my mom asked. I paused on the staircase, waiting for a sign of my old mom, anything.

"I'm leaving for Pakistan in two hours, so Joanne will come at three-thirty, k?" she said.

I fought back a surge of anger. My real mom would never say 'k'. Then her words registered.

"You're leaving already?" I burst out. "You're not even going to stay one day?"

My mother looked up, surprised.

"But, honey," she said. "I've been here two days already. You surely can't expect me to stay longer than that?"

This made me, if possible, angrier.

"You mean," I began. "YOU HAVE BEEN HERE FOR TWO DAYS AND YOU HAVEN'T EVEN SEEN ME?"

My mother took a step back, even though I was more than fifty feet away from her.

"Honey.."

But I was mad now, venting off all my worked up feeling she had bottled in since the move.

"You have never paid a smallest BIT of attention to me since you became a stupid model! It only been your job, or your life, or your money. It, ever since the move, has NEVER been about ME!"

"But, Evanna," pleaded her mother. "It's really hard being in my life. My job is really unstable, and if I don't devote enough time to it-"

I yelled," See, there you go again, talking about YOU! Well, fine, let's talk about you. YOU are a terrible mother. I hope I never see YOU again. I hate YOU!"

I had begun to cry now, and weak with the effort of yelling, ran up to my room, collapsed on my bed, and cried my heart out on the pillow. Drained of energy, I fell asleep.

When I woke up, I found Joanne sitting next to her bed. Her bouncy blonde ponytail hung limp, and her sparkly green eyes were sad.

"Where's my mother?" I asked hoarsely.

Joanne's eyes became sadder.

"She had to leave for her flight."

I sat up.

"What?" I yelled.

Joanne nodded.

"I know," she said." And it's really unfair, but you can't go yelling at your mom like that. It's not going to give her any respect for you."

"You saw the whole thing, didn't you?" I said miserably.

"Just the end." admitted Joanne. "But it was enough to figure out what happened."

I slumped down miserably.

"It's just not fair," I said. "You don't know what she was like, Joanne, before she moved here. She was the best mom in the whole world. She never, ever, let anything get in my way, and she was just great. I don't know what's happened to her now.."

I trailed off.

Joanne's face was looking incredibly, incredibly, sad. The rosy tint was gone from her cheeks.

"You know, you look a little sick. I think you should take a nap," said Joanne.

Before I could protest, Joanne reached over and passed her hand down my face. My eyes instantly closed. I saw the weirdest flash of red light before my mind grew heavy and I fell asleep.
Chapter 3

I woke up. My mind felt dull and heavy, and my surroundings didn't register. My first thought was: I'm gonna be late for school! Then: What's school again? After that I promptly fell asleep once more.

My eyes opened again, and I smiled sleepily. I admired the carvings on the headboard. They pictured a dragon roasting a town of people and were surprisingly realistic. I got out of bed, shivering as my feet touched cold stone tile.

Wait a sec, I thought . My bedroom has carpeted floors. As I looked around, I realized my surroundings were completely unfamiliar. Panic overtook me and I bolted out of the door.

I looked around. I was on a street, with seven houses- no cabins really. It looked perfectly normal. It even had a name, Elm Street.

Suddenly, a wave of nostalgia took over me. This street looked exactly like the one we lived on before moving to New York. Of course, my old street wasn't named Elm Street, and the houses looked normal, but otherwise, it looked exactly the same.

Suddenly, the cabin's next to my cabin door burst open, and a girl came flying out.

"Where am I?" she cried out."Did you bring me here?"

I could only shake my head.

The girl, who had been running to me, stopped, looked me straight in the eye, and said,"I believe you. You have a terrified look in your eye, and if you brought me here you wouldn't be scared of me."

The girl stopped to catch her breath, and I found my voice.

"What's your name?"

The girl didn't hesitate.

"Holly Dixon. Yours?"

"Evanna Vaisley."

Holly nodded, her shoulder-length blond hair swinging back and forth.

"How did you get here?" she asked.

"I was crying about my mom leaving for Pakistan, and my babysitter told me to go to sleep. She passed her hand over my face, and suddenly I wanted to go to sleep. So I did. I saw the weirdest flash of green light before I closed my eyes, though. Next thing, I know, I wake up here."

Normally, I would never tell anyone about her mom, but I felt like I could trust Holly. Holly nodded thoughtfully, her intense gray eyes darkening.

"I got here in the same way," she said. "Well, kind of. I was in the nurse's office because I twisted my wrist. My cousin Charlotte works as a nurse there, and as she was putting on the band-aid she looked at me really sad, and told me to go to sleep. I don't remember much after that, because I was kinda woozy. I do remember a flash of blue light though."

I looked at Holly's arm.

"You look fine to me," I said, and Holly looked at her arm.

"What do you know?" she chuckled. "It's fixed!"

I wanted to tell Holly how her gray eyes twinkled when she laughed and made them look almost silver.

"Well, they seem to be telling the truth," said a cold voice behind us.

I and Holly whirled around and saw a girl with strawberry blonde hair and icy blue eyes. She was addressing a boy next to her who likewise had icy blue eyes, but his hair was regular blond.

"Hello," I said ."Who are you?" The girl's eyes narrowed, but the boy answered.

"I'm Kae Montoya, and this is Stephanie Reyes. She's my cousin."

Holly opened her mouth, but just then the fifth cabin door burst open, and a boy came flailing out. As I looked at the row of cabins, the third and fourth door stood ajar, obviously Stephanie's and Kae. The boy stopped near us. He was incredibly skinny, with chocolate curls and brown eyes. The eyes in question were wide with panic.

"Who are you?" he yelled.

Holly stepped forward, putting a hand on his shoulder. He jerked away.

"It's okay," she said. "We all don't know how we got here. It's very strange, but we won't figure it out unless we calm down and communicate."

The boy's breathing became easier as he calmed down.

"What your name?" asked Holly in kind voice.

"Eli," he said, his voice gruff.

I was surprised at how calm and reassuring Holly sounded. I watched as the boy's face slowly returned to a normal color, and his pupils returned to a regular size.. Even Kae and Stephanie visibly relaxed at her words.

"Is there anywhere we can sit down?" asked Holly. As if on cue, a picnic table sprang up next to us, looking perfectly unassuming and natural on the sidewalk. Holly looked surprised, but she walked the boy over, motioning the rest of us over too.

I walked over and sat down next to Kae.

Holly began with her story, relating all that she told me. She motioned me to go next, and after me, Kae.

"I was in the car going to skateboarding park with Stephanie and my brother, Charles, but we call him Charlie. The night before, we had stayed up all night watching horror movies, so we were really tired. My brother told us that we really should go to sleep. He waved his hand over our faces, and I instantly fell asleep. Before my eyes shut, I saw a flash of purple light. When I woke up, I was in the cabin." he said.

"Yeah," said Stephanie. "That's what happened to me, too."

Holly looked at Eli.

"Can you tell us what happened to you?" she asked.

"I was in my science robotics class after school," he began.

Stephanie stifled a snicker, and Holly glared at her.

"Go on," Holly said to Eli.

"Well, I was working on this complicated design, and I was really frustrated. I got worked up, and was about to have a fit-"

"A fit?" Stephanie interrupted. Holly gave Stephanie a look, but Eli answered.

"I have a condition," he said. "When my emotions rise too quickly, I go kind of crazy. My mind won't accept any other influence, and trying to talk to me during it just makes me worse." He looked at Holly.

"You're the only one to ever talk me out of it," he said to her. Holly blushed, then looked at Eli to continue.

"Anyway," he said. "My science teacher, Mr. Lewis, could see that. He came over to me and told me to calm down and go to sleep. He waved his hand over me, and I fell asleep."

"Did you see a light?" asked Kae.

Eli frowned.

"Now that I think about it," he said, "yes, I did see one. It was orange, I think, but it was hard to tell with all the bright lights from the science lab."

"You know, that's kind of weird," I said.

"What is?" asked Holly.

"Well, all the people who told us to go to sleep. They have the same name as authors."

"Huh?" asked Kae.

"Well, my babysitter. Her name is Joanne. That's the real name of J.K. Rowling. And Holly, your cousin's name is Charlotte. As in Charlotte Bronte, author of Jane Eyre? And for Stephanie and Kae, Kae's brother's name is Charles, like Charles Dickens. And your science teacher, Eli. His name is Mr. Lewis, like Lewis Carroll, author of Alice in Wonderland."

"But Lewis Carroll's just a pen name," said Stephanie, who obviously wasn't a person inclined to agree with others. "And why do their names matter, anyway?"

"I don't know," I said. "It's just a similarity."

While we were all contemplating this new bit of information, I happened to glance over at the cabins. I shot to my feet.

"Guys? Cabin six and seven are open!" I cried.

Just then, a hand gripped my shoulder.
Chapter 4

I turned, wrestling my shoulder from the person's grip. Behind us stood a young woman. She had caramel colored hair, warm cocoa eyes, and curvy figure. Her body shimmered like a holograph, but she was definitely real. With her were two kids, a boy and a girl, obviously the ones from cabins six and seven. The girl had dull pumpkin orange hair, frizzy and uneven. One might call it red, but it was completely different from my fiery auburn curls. Her eyes were a milky, diluted blue, like a cow's, unlike like Stephanie's intelligent icy-blue ones. She was slightly chubby, and her general effect was sludgy.

The boy had noble features, though not handsome. His hair was a curly brown, and he had a doe's eyes, bright and ready to learn. His general appearance was quiet, though.

I was so stunned, my voice didn't work. The others seemed to have similar problems. Stephanie found her voice first.

"Who are you?" she asked. The woman smiled pleasantly, reminding me a little of Alexa's smile.

"I'm Amaryllis," she said. Her voice was soothing, and it washed over me, making me relax.

"I know you're worried," said Amaryllis. " And you're probably afraid, too. But now I'm here. I'll help you."

I was comforted. My worries were over. Now Amaryllis had us. We would be safe.

"Come to my house," Amaryllis invited. "We can talk there, and I will explain how you got here."

I immediately started walking toward Amaryllis. I looked back, and saw Kae, Eli, and Holly walking toward Amaryllis, too. Only Stephanie hung back, her suspicious face void of the rest of our glazed eyes and blank faces. Seeing Stephanie made me focus.

"Wait," I hissed, putting a hand out to stop Holly. She blinked, and her eyes lost their glazed look. I put out an arm to stop the boys, watching as they lost their senseless look. Amaryllis looked back evidently confused as to why we weren't following her.

"Is anything wrong?" she asked. This time I could see it. The perfect amount of concern in her voice, the confusion to show she didn't understand what we were doing, all added to the honeyed tones of her voice.

"We need to discuss, Amaryllis," said Holly, her voice even. "To decide whether we're going with you."

Amaryllis was evidently surprised, but she agreed to it as once. The five of us huddled.

"Shouldn't we get those two in?" asked Kae.

"Keep your voice down," whispered Holly. "And no. We don't know them, and I can't trust them." Holly looked around.

"I trust all of you," she said. "And we need to trust each other. This is obviously not Earth, and we need to work together to survive."

I nodded, and was surprised to see Kae, Eli, and Stephanie nodding too. Especially Stephanie.

"Just to be clear," said Stephanie, "I'm only trusting you three because you're my best chance of survival." She pointed at Eli, Holly, and I.

Stephanie's icy blue eyes had hardened, and they were almost a stormy gray.

"That's enough of that," said Kae, giving Stephanie a look. "Let's discuss what we actually wanted to discuss. Are we going with Amaryllis or not?"

"I don't trust her," said Stephanie.

"Big surprise," muttered Eli, earning himself a look from Stephanie.

"I don't either," said Holly. "But I don't think she'll go back on her word. She's the type who gets us to trust her, and carefully words her promises to that there's a loophole. I think her plan won't work if we stay wary of her."

"I agree," broke in Eli. " And she did promise to tell us how we got here. It looks like a pretty good deal to me. We just have to be very aware of her, and not trust her in the least."

"Sounds good to me," said Kae, and I nodded. Stephanie grumbled a little, but in the end she agreed it was the best plan.

"Well, then, let's go tell her," said Kae, getting up.

"Have you decided, then?" asked Amaryllis brightly.

Kae nodded.

"We're coming with you, Amaryllis."

"Excellent. Now follow me."

At these words, she turned and walked off.

I looked at the two kids who stood around awkwardly as Amaryllis walked off.

I whispered to Holly," We should at least take them with us. They're probably just like us."

Holly nodded, so I walked over to the girl. She had auburn hair like me, but instead of being a flaming, bright, color like hers, the girl's was a dull pumpkin orange.

"What's your name?" I asked the girl, trying to imitate the kind voice Holly had used with Eli. It must have worked, because the girl answered," Mallory" in a quavery voice.

"How did you get here?" I asked.

"I- I was at the library," stuttered Mallory. "Reading a new horror-romance novel. Just then, a library worker came by. His name was Mark, and he had never particularly liked me. He always ignored me when I asked him for help. He came over, though, and told me to go to sleep. I was confused for a moment, and then my eyelids slid shut. It felt like I was being forced to go to sleep." Mallory looked at me, as if she was surprised I was still listening.

"Did you see a light before your eyes closed?" I asked, trying to focus on our conversation while still keeping an eye on Amaryllis.

Mallory frowned, and her expression became guarded.

"How did you know that?" she asked, an edge of suspicion in her voice.

I quickly related all our different yet similar stories to Mallory.

"Oh," she said. "In that case, yes, I did see a light. It was yellow."

"Just like I thought," I nodded. "Just wondering, though, Mallory, is Mark the name of an author?"

"Uh-huh," said Mallory. "Mark Twain. Why do you ask?"

I told her about my theory.

"That's interesting," speculated Mallory. "Another thing to ask Amaryllis about."

But before I could answer, Amaryllis stopped.

"We're here!" she sang out, leading us into a cottage.
Part Two: The Quest

Chapter 5

The cottage was the most breathtaking place imaginable. Flowers clambered over the creamy white walls, and birds sang from the windowsills of the house. It had baby blue clapboard shutters, with ivy vines hanging from the gates. Golden poppies dotted the fresh green grass.

Mallory watched all this with a look of wonder. She had a dreamy expression as she followed Amaryllis blindly through the garden. I grabbed Mallory's shoulder and stopped her. Mallory turned around, a bewildered expression on her face.

"Wha-" she said, but I interrupted her.

"We cannot trust Amaryllis," I said. I hurriedly explained to her what was wrong. Nodding, Mallory continued through the garden, followed by me. Amaryllis stopped at a beautiful white gazebo. Twisting white pillars held up a charming red-brick roof. Inside were golden straw chairs with plush white pillows. Amaryllis gestured at us to take a seat, and then did so herself. I took a seat between Holly and Mallory. Looking at the rest, she saw that Kae, Eli, and Stephanie were sitting together, while the boy that had come with Mallory sat on a chair away from the rest of us.

"His name is Phillip," whispered Holly to me. "I heard him say so to Kae when he asked him his name. After that, he acted like Kae didn't exist."

I nodded and looked at Phillip. He was slightly stocky, but not fat. His features were haughty, yet they had nothing regally discriminative about them. His hair was a curly brown, and his strange hazel eyes were stone cold.

"Well," said Amaryllis, interrupting my thoughts. "Shall we begin?"

Everybody immediately snapped to attention.

Stephanie, of course, had to go first.

"How did we get here? What is this place? What's that light we saw before we fell asleep? Why are the people who told us to go to sleep named after authors?" she demanded. Amaryllis sighed.

"All very reasonable questions. All right, I'll tell you, but you have to promise not to interrupt."

The kids nodded, and Amaryllis continued.

"Long ago, about a thousand years ago, humans had invented technology. It was 2002 and a spider queen had risen from the depths of darkness. Her home was the Land of Au, a land full of mystic and terrible beasts. She ruled there, but she was not satisfied. She wanted more, a bigger planet teeming with life she could control and destroy. She wanted Earth. She had spent millennia gathering her brethren, the race of spider-human mutants called Spinners. She had a mad desire to control, to have the power of Earth. She continued growing stronger as the year went by. She, however, still needed a date to rise. She called on her lieutenant to find the date where she would be strongest. The date was 3002, a thousand an one years from that day. The queen decided to hibernate for the time remaining so she could rise at utmost strength. She forced her lieutenant to hibernate with her." Amaryllis's voice turned bitter. "She forced her strength upon her. The lieutenant was powerless."

I wondered if Amaryllis had known the lieutenant, she was so bitter about the pain inflicted on her.

"Anyway, a very smart scientist named Kira found out about this about six years before the queen was scheduled to rise. She chose seven people to be on her team. Kira loved books. She found it amusing that all the people she chose were authors. Joanne, Charlotte, Charles, Lewis, Mark, and Jane."

I figured that Jane was Phillip's person.

"The seven people were supposed to find a charge. You are the seven charges. Five years before the queen was supposed to rise, the seven members used a sleep-ray that Kira had invented to put you to sleep. The ray would transport you to a lab once you fell asleep. The light you saw was from the sleep ray. Of course we couldn't let you fight a powerful magical being with just your ordinary selves. We genetically empowered you to fight Arachne, the spider queen. You have special powers to fight her now. You are now five years in the future from the day you fell asleep, in the land of Au, land of magical beasts. You have been kept alive by sleeping, like Arachne did. Now, Arachne is due to rise in a month, and it is up to you to stop her."

We had obediently kept quiet during Amaryllis's speech, but now we peppered her with questions.

"What are these special powers?" asked Holly.

"What is your part in this fight?" asked Kae.

"Who are you, anyway?" asked an irate Stephanie.

"Why are we the ones that were chosen?" asked Eli.

"How will we wield these powers?" questioned Mallory.

"What's the name of Arachne's lieutenant?" I wondered. Phillip was the only one who stayed silent.

"All right, all right, children," said Amaryllis. "I will answer your queries. First, I do not know your powers. As you quest toward Arachne's castle, the dangerous challenges on the way will help you discover them. I am an immortal being, a spirit. I was chosen to help you on your quest. As for the matter of you being chosen, it was entirely a matter of chance. Your wielding of your powers depends on your element of power and your control of your power."

Mallory was still confused, I could see, but evidently decided to leave it at that.

"Well, if that's all, we should really decide the leader of this quest-"

"Wait," I interrupted. "That isn't all. You haven't answered my question."

Amaryllis paused.

"Riiiight," she said. "And what was your question?"

"What is the name of Arachne's lieutenant?"

Amaryllis studied me for a moment.

"You know, you really seem like a leader. You probably should-"

"Amaryllis," I said more forcefully. "You haven't answered my question."

"Oh, I don't really know."

Right.

"You don't know," I said.

"Nope," answered Amaryllis with a fresh smile. "Now, we should really get on with other matters..."

Amaryllis was lying. I was sure of that. But she sensed that now wasn't the time. I turned her attention back to Amaryllis.

"-need a leader," Amaryllis was saying. "You can vote on it."

I expected all heads to turn to Holly. After all, she was beautiful, confident, persuasive, and a good problem-solver. Therefore I was very surprised when the heads turned to me.

"Me?" I asked in surprise. "What did I do?"

"Well, you were in the first cabin, and you were also the first one out." said Holly. "That should count for something."

"And you figured out that the seven members were named after authors," said Kae, smiling at her. I discovered that Kae had a very nice smile. Irrelevant, of course.

"But that wasn't important," I protested, though I really felt like cheering.

"Doesn't matter," said Stephanie. "You still found something the rest of us overlooked. That's important."

"Plus, you have an aura," said Mallory, and then blushed. I suspected that Mallory was not used to voicing her opinion and having someone listen to it.

I realized the others were nodding.

"What kind of aura?" I asked. Surprisingly, it was Phillip who spoke.

"You project a kind of self-assurance," he said. "It gets people to kind of listen to you."

I stared at him. That one sentence was probably the most he'd said to her.

"Yeah," said Kae, flashing her another smile. "We believe in you." My brain got muddled as he continued to point out her good points, sugarcoating them for all his worth.

"Okay, enough!" said Amaryllis, stepping in and flashing us a bright smile. "You obviously want her to be the leader. But does she want to be the leader?" They looked at me.

Did I? I still felt slightly disoriented, but as I looked around, I realized these people were my friends. Or would become my friends. At any rate, I trusted them, and I felt like she owed something to them simply because they trusted her back.

"Yes," she said with perfect conviction. "I do."

Something flashed in Amaryllis's eye that I couldn't quite make out. Guilt? Anger? Distrust? I'd decide later. I had something to do.

"And as my first act of being a leader," I announced. "I will give you a choice of whether you want to go on this quest!"

The reaction was stunned.

"Wha- What do you mean?" asked Holly.

"We shouldn't be forced into this," I explained. "Just because we were chosen doesn't mean we have to go. I believe we make our own paths, so we don't have to follow Kira the scientist, or Amaryllis, or anyone else. We can follow them, but we'd still be making our own path be we'd be choosing to follow them, not being forced into it."

There was a silence after this. Then Amaryllis jumped in.

"I am going to add something in. Even though Arachne hasn't risen yet, the Earth is still disturbed by the rising of such a evil creature. The results are that the planet has transformed into a temporary version of the true Land of Au and that the population of Earth are being held in captivity to ensure their safety."

"Who's doing this?" cried Holly.

"You'd be surprised what Mother Earth does to protect it's planet," answered Amaryllis. "Anyway, defeating Arachne would bring back the population and return Earth to normal. If you don't try, though, you'll be stuck living here for a month, and then when Arachne rises, be incinerated."

"That clinches it," I announced. "I'm going, no matter how hard it is. I can't leave my mom alone. She did it to me, and no one should have to experience that."

My voice had a hard edge to it. I was surprised when she saw the others agreeing with her.

"Yeah," said Stephanie. "I agree. I'm coming with you, Evanna." The others nodded.

"Well, if that's decided," I said. "What's next?"

"What is left, but to leave?" answered Amaryllis with a slight smile.
Chapter 6

I stood on the porch of Amaryllis's cottage and looked out into the blustery wind. We had been offered hospitality, which after a quick discussion, was accepted. We had been standing on edge the whole night, taking turns sleeping, but the night passed without event. Now after a hearty breakfast of what Amaryllis called boar ginger, we were refreshed.

"What did the boar ginger taste like?" asked Kae, coming up next to her. Kae was a vegetarian, and had refused to eat the boar ginger.

"Like magic," I said wistfully, remembering the taste of the delicious breakfast. "It began with a taste like ginger ale, and then morphed into sweet and soft strawberry cream. At the end, though, it fizzed and fizzed till it fizzled out. It was like eating soda, well, if soda was food, except there wasn't any. It tasted like wishes." I wondered what Kae was going to say next. When he did speak it surprised me.

"Like a story," said Kae.

"What?" I asked.

"You know, like the beginning of a story entices you, lures you in, and is sparkly sweet like ginger ale. Then it sweetens and becomes strawberry cream, cozying the reader up and snuggling them into the story. And the end is a trace of wishes with a sparkle to polish it off. It leaves you wanting more." Kae lapsed into silence after that. I realized that boar ginger was exactly like a story. Kae was right.

"At what part do you think our story is?" asked I. Kae didn't answer. After awhile he said, "You don't think Amaryllis could be working some magic on us by making us boar ginger, do you? Like forcing us to do what she wants?"

"Maybe," I said. "But whatever it is, it hasn't come into effect yet." I smiled. "And we've got you to protect us if we become mindless Amaryllis-slaves."

Kae smiled too. Holly came outside just then, with Eli trailing behind in the doorway. Kae nodded to me, and then left.

"Hey, I just wanted to ask, do you want to walk together when we leave?" asked Holly.

"Sure," I said, feeling warm inside. I barely knew these kids, and they already accepted me. I wondered what her life would've been like if the kids at Trinity Di's had been like Holly, or Kae, or Mallory, or Eli, or even Stephanie. Probably better.

"Oh, and I was wondering, is Amaryllis coming with us?" asked Holly.

"I don't know. Maybe you guys should ask." I said. Holly nodded and went back inside, with Eli tagging along. Just then Stephanie came out.

"Hey," she said, giving me a (hopefully) friendly smile as she sat down next to her.

"Hey," I answered. "Are the others ready yet?"

"Mallory is ready, she's just getting her things together, and I honestly have no idea about Phillip," Stephanie reported. "Where's Holly and Eli?"

"He went to go ask Amaryllis if she's coming with us," I explained.

Stephanie nodded and went to sit next to me.

"Is there anything I can do while I wait?" asked Stephanie.

"Oh, can you find Mallory?" I asked.

Stephanie nodded, and left. As soon as she exited, Mallory came in.

"Hi," she said.

I greeted Mallory with a friendly smile. "You ready?"

"Uh-huh," said Mallory. An awkward silence fell over us.

"Um," said Mallory. "Do you wanna walk with me on the quest?"

"Sorry," I said. "I already said yes to Holly. You're welcome to join us, if you like."

Mallory's hopeful face changed.

"Holly? You're walking with Holly? " she said.

"Yeah," I said, wondering what was up with Mallory. "Is there anything wrong?"

"No, no," said Mallory. "I'll just walk with Kae and Eli." She went back inside. I was contemplating Mallory's strange behavior when Kae walked outside.

"Hey," he said when he spotted her. "I thought the other guys would be out here by now."

"They were," I responded. "But Holly and Eli went to ask Amaryllis whether she was coming with us, and Stephanie should here soon. And Mallory is inside doing I don't know what." I frowned.

"You know, Holly and Eli have been gone awhile. We should make sure they're okay. You want to come with?" I asked.

"Sure," said Kae, and offered her a hand up. I accepted, and then we went to find Holly and Stephanie.

On the way inside, we met Stephanie and Mallory. They looked worried.

"Where Holly?" asked Stephanie. "She promised me she'd help me get my stuff together."

"Yeah, and Eli said he'd put our things into packs," said Mallory. "But he never came."

"Oh, they were going to ask Amaryllis if she was coming with us," I said. "They had been gone awhile so we were just going to see if they were..." my voice faltered. I knew we were all thinking the same thing.

"Let's go!" exclaimed Stephanie, and bolted for the hallway door. We all followed.
Chapter 7

We had been racing through the hallways of the cottage, and had turned the last corner that led to Amaryllis's study when we came upon a dead end.

"Wha- Where?" asked Kae, turning around in a circle.

"I don't know," said Stephanie, clearly troubled. She put her hand on the dry, cold, wall in front of us. "But it's magic. I can sense it."

Mallory put her hands on her hips.

"How can you sense it? And what does it do?" she asked.

"It's just a tingle. I'm not sure exactly how to explain it. I just know," answered Stephanie.

"Okaaay," said Mallory. "But do you know what it does?"

But before Stephanie could answer, the stone bricks on the wall shimmered. Words began to form on them.

Four brave souls on-forth

To rescue, forgot one of

Their fellow teammate

Five brave souls may march

Through my sturdy, strong, tall wall

So to find the ones

"What?" asked Stephanie.

"Phillip!" I cried, realizing what the message meant. "We forgot Phillip!"

"Come on!" I yelled, running back. "We have to get him!"

I heard Stephanie grudgingly come after me, and in a minute I heard the other's feet as well.

"Um, guys?" a voice called out from the darkness of the entrance hall. "W-Where is everyone?"

"We're here, Phillip," answered Stephanie. "Um, you see-"

Kae intervened here, wisely thinking the Stephanie probably wasn't one for the tactical job.

"We think Amaryllis is holding Stephanie and Holly hostage or something so of course we had to go after them we were so worried and-" Kae took a breath.

I admired Kae's eloquence. Even though he was talking in breathless tones, he was nonetheless eloquent. The breathlessness added to fact he was worried, as did the run-on sentences. I knew that in this way, Kae was as gifted as- Suddenly I had a sense of deja-vu. I remembered......

The perfect amount of concern in her voice, the confusion to show she didn't understand what we were doing, all added to her honeyed tones...

Kae was exactly like Amaryllis. Suddenly, Kae tugged at my shoulder.

"Let's go!" he hissed, still panting.

Oh, I thought as we raced down the corridors once more, I guess he was really breathless from concern. I felt guilty as I remembered how I had compared Kae to Amaryllis. We were a team. I needed to trust everyone. Still, something tugged at the back of my mind. But there was no time to think about that now. We had teammates to save.

Soon we were before the wall that had stopped us before. The words still glinted fresh and sharp and red. I only suddenly realized what an uncanny resemblance the words had to blood. But the words melted away, and then the wall did too. We were free to enter. But did we want to go?

We crept toward the study door on padded feet, not daring to make a noise. All was silent in the study. Fear shone on Stephanie's face, but she bravely stepped forward and peered in the study. Shock instantly overtook her face.

She stepped back from the door and I felt it safe to hiss," What's in there?"

"That's just it," whispered back Stephanie. "It's empty. "

"Like, empty of people, or empty of furniture?" asked Kae.

"People!" hissed Stephanie, shooting a you're an idiot look to her cousin. "Honestly, Kae!"

Kae grinned and put his hands up in surrender position, but Stephanie scowled, "And the strangest thing," she continued. "There were claw marks on the floor."

I frowned. "Well, we know something happened in there. But we haven't got anything but some claw marks. We don't have any useful leads," she said.

"Not true yet!" grinned Kae.

"What do you mean?" asked Stephanie, thoroughly annoyed and irritated with her crazy cousin. Kae lowered his voice before he spoke.

"Okay, I'll tell you," he said in exaggerated reluctant tones. I was sure he was just faking it, but she leaned in all the same.

"I was going to my room," he said. "When I saw Amaryllis creeping through the corridors. I, of course, being the brave hero I am, followed her into..." He lowered his voice even more. "...her BEDROOM!"

"WHAT?" cried Mallory. "I know we don't trust her but-" But she was overridden by Stephanie, who was fuming with exasperation at her 'brainless cousin'.

"Kae!" exclaimed Stephanie. "HOW could you do that?"

Stephanie was a very private person who had an extreme respect for others privacy.

Kae looked sheepish.

"Sorry, I- I didn't know she was gonna go to her bedroom-" he began, but I interrupted him.

"Yeah, okay. The point is, though, that we've got a lead. Holly and Eli might be in danger, so we'll discuss this later. All right?" I said. I gave them all the death glare. They nodded, and I gestured to Kae to lead us to Amaryllis's bedroom.

We slowly crept toward the room. The doors were white ebony, and carved with snails. I felt like throwing up at the realistic detail on the doors. Stephanie crept forward and put her hand on the door. She looked back at us, and pushed the door open.
Chapter 8

The monster roared. The room filled with it's stinky, sulfur-like breath. It had a reptilian armor of emerald green scales and fiery ruby eyes. It lifted its wings, beautiful, golden and shimmery. A thin deep blue web of veins spread through the filmy wings. I was horrified and shocked with wonder at the beautiful, terrible, monster. I looked beyond its long scaly body and saw Holly and Eli cowering in a corner. Holly's eyes were clenched tight in pain, and she was rocking in agony.

I was terrified, but I knew I had to do something. I reached into my pack and pulled out my small dagger I had packed in case we had to defend ourselves. I cursed myself for having the courage to bring a better blade. It glinted as I gripped its leather hilt. Bile was rising up in my throat, but I ran forward and threw the dagger at the monster. It took a glancing hit to its scales and hit the floor. So much for being the leader.

Kae picked up a shard of glass from a vase the monster had knocked over and ran up to the monster and tried to injure the monster with it. It was no use. The scaly armor was impenetrable.

Suddenly, Stephanie called, "Its wings! Do the wings!"

Fortunately Kae understood. Unfortunately, Kae had no more weapons.

"Distract it!" I yelled to Stephanie. "I'll give my dagger to Kae!"

Stephanie nodded, and began saying lots of rude words to the monster. Its attention drew away from me, and I was able to scoop up my dagger and hand it to Kae.

Kae took the dagger and raked it through the monster's wing, grounding it forever. The monster retreated to a corner.

We ran toward Holly and Eli.

"What happened?" asked Stephanie.

Eli took a shaky breath and slumped and fainted. Holly adjusted herself so Eli wouldn't get a cricked neck, and then answered.

"I followed Eli to Amaryllis's study. I had almost caught up with him, but just as I was about to catch up, he turned inside the study. I heard him scream and went inside. I- I-" She gulped.

"Take your time," reassured Stephanie.

I sat back and looked around the room. It wasn't much like a bedroom. There was a tiny cot in the corner, but the room was huge and white, with a big domed ceiling. The cottage was much bigger on the inside than it looked like on the outside, I guessed. The rest of the room was empty. Holly had begun to speak again.

"I went inside, and that horrible dragon was inside, and he chased me all the way here, and all we could do was just sit here.." Holly's voice broke and she started crying.

Mallory said, "Um, Holly? If you don't mind me asking, why were you so afraid of it, I mean, yeah we were all scared, but none of us started crying and.."

Mallory stopped as the tears started to flow harder. Mallory was on the receiving end of death glares from Stephanie, Kae, Eli, and I, because Eli had woken up to hear Mallory's last question.

"Hey, Holly, it's okay," I soothed her while shooting Mallory a death glare. Mallory had the grace to look embarrassed. "It's fine, it's fine.."

"No, no," gulped Holly, wiping her tears away. "It's because I looked into his eyes. Remember last night Amaryllis told us about the Kreuk dragon?"

The others looked at each other and nodded uneasily. The night before, Amaryllis had regaled us with stories and tales of wild beasts and monsters.

"She said," said Holly, "that the Kreuk dragon, if you look it in the eyes, it will fill you with a burning sensation and is just horrible enough to endure and it reminds you of your worst fears. Until it's killed, the sensation remains."

I looked over to the dragon.

"So, has it gone?" I asked in a doubtful voice. Holly shook her head.

"It's only subsided because the dragon is injured. It'll be back," she said.

I nodded, my expression somber.

"That means we have to stay and kill the dragon. Otherwise poor Holly won't get peace. We should get some rest before the dragon regains its strength, though," I said wearily. "In case you haven't noticed, the day has gone by."

The others nodded, so I curled up between Holly and Phillip and fell asleep.
Chapter 9

What is that smell? I thought. I yawned and sat up with a Kreuk dragon staring at me. Its eyes were an amber green with swirly gold patterns.... Wait! Its eyes! I screamed and woke up the others. The minute I broke away from its gaze I was filled with a burning agony. Holly didn't do justice to the pain when she explained the agony the dragon brought on. A giant searing pain bore through me, threatening to tear me apart if I didn't give up. I cried out again and again, and I heard Holly wailing next to me. Holly's cries cut through my burning sensation like water slowly diluting poison, and I felt my eyes clear slightly. I looked at Holly clearly for the first time and saw her silky blonde hair blowing around her at the flapping of the wings of the dragon. My friends, who had at first been fighting the dragon, were now doing their best to evade it. I continued looking at Holly, who had mesmerizing gray-blue eyes that turned silver when she laughed, that could hold you in a trance for hours, and I saw Holly with open eyes, and I knew Holly's gift. I remembered how Holly had calmed down Eli when no one else before had been able to, not even his closest friends and family. Yet Holly, a girl he had never met before, had been able to calm him down. The thing that had been nagging her at the back of her brain since Kae had talked to Phillip and she had experienced the curious sense of deja vu. And she knew. Holly had the same gift as Amaryllis.

As soon as that revelation blew through my mind, the burning feeling came back. It was sharper than ever, pushing her to her limit, as if getting revenge for those moments of clarity. I doubled over with the pain and I just wanted to give up, to end it...

But no. I had a quest, and more importantly, my friends. I couldn't leave them behind.

"Holly," I croaked out. The sensation burned stronger, pressing me to the limit. Holly hadn't heard me. I tried again, but bile rose in my throat, preventing me from speaking. I coughed it out.

"HOLLY!" I yelled. Instantly, the pain spread to my throat, making me quite unable to speak. It didn't matter, though, Holly heard me, and turned toward me. Some of the pain that had clouded her eyes left.

"Evanna," she said. "Wh-"

"You have to do it, Holly!" I called. Every word hurt me. "Use your power! It's the power of voice!" A fit of coughing overtook me. But I had to get one more thing out, just to make sure Holly understood.

"Like Amaryllis!" I called. My voice was hoarse, and I couldn't be sure that Holly had heard. The pain had spread to my eyes, blinding me. I imagined Holly rising, becoming powerful. I imagined her speaking words, beautiful words, manipulating the dragon's actions. Then another scenario entered my head, one of Holly crumbling and doubling over, gasping in pain. I watched the dragon slowly catch all my friends, lastly eating me. That couldn't happen. I straightened once more and started to repeat her message to Holly, when a rich and powerful voice took over the room. It wove a beautiful chain of words, strong, united, and indivisible. As soon as I heard it I wanted to bend to its will, do whatever it takes to please it.

"Great Dragon Kreuk, please stand still," said the voice.

My vision cleared a little, and I could make out several misshapen lumps. The largest one, the one I assumed was the dragon, stood stock still.

"Kae Montoya, please hand me the dagger of Leader Evanna," said the voice.

Another lump moved and walked over to a different lump and handed the second lump something too small for my blurry, hazy eyes to see. The lump took the thing, probably the dagger, and plunged it through the middle of the biggest lump. My vision cleared completely, and I saw the dragon lying on the floor, still, with blood pouring out of its heart. I turned to Holly and saw her holding the copper dagger, and soaked in blood. Holly looked shocked at what she'd just done.

"I- I killed it," she whispered hoarsely.

Beaming, I nodded. My throat felt cleared of all nasty sicknesses and I felt the best.

"Yes, Holly!" I said jubilantly. "Don't you see? It's your gift!"

Holly turned toward her.

"My- My gift?" she stuttered. "But that means...."

Suddenly she was bathed in a golden light. The others stepped back, as there was no source for it. Holly closed her eyes and began slowly swirling up, up, up till she reached the top of the ceiling. She opened her eyes, and her eye sockets glowed white, and she became enveloped in golden majestic rays. Suddenly, the golden light was no longer there, and she was fluttering down to the ground, like a leaf in fall. As soon as her feet touched the floor, we rushed toward her. We were unable to speak, only watch, so awed we were at Holly's unearthly glow. But that soon faded, and we were able to speak again.

"Why... What..." tried Eli.

"Look," said Phillip, and he pointed at Holly's shoulder, the only part of her that still glowed. With trembling fingers Holly took the dagger and split the fabric of her yellow and white cotton dress. Shining words were branded onto her shoulder.

Power of Voice

"What does that mean?" asked Holly on a whisper.

"Power of Voice," said Phillip immediately. "It's Latin."

When he got strange looks from the others, he said,"What? I took Latin in sixth."

We shook our heads and leaned in closer.

"Hey," I said. "It's okay, Holly. Remember Amaryllis said that we'd find our powers by undergoing challenges? I think this was our first one."

Her declaration was met with an uneasy silence. Surprisingly, the one who broke it was Holly.

"Well," she said in an unsteady voice. "Then this is perfectly natural. I have no reason to be afraid." Her voice grew steadier and stronger as she spoke. I believed every word Holly spoke was true. I knew that Holly believed it herself.

After a couple minutes of silence Mallory said,"We should get provisions and weapons and then leave. Who knows what other kinds of beasts are in this cottage?"

We agreed, and went off to find the supplies.
Chapter 10

I found an array of weapons in a cabinet.

"Guys!" I called. "Come and get it! Weapon of your choice! With gems, ivory, or leather!"

Eli rolled his eyes as he walked over.

"Really?" he asked. I grinned at him, and sighing, he chose a sword of bone with an ivory hilt.

"Nice." Kae leaned over Eli and plucked the sword out of his hand.

"Hey!" complained Eli, but I laughed. "Give!" he cried.

"Nah,' said Kae. "The balance isn't right for you. Try this one."

He handed Eli a short sword, slightly curved at the edge. The grip was of leather, and there was a sapphire in the pommel. Eli gripped it.

"I like it," he said, though still slightly miffed.

Kae grinned.

"See?" he said. "Now you have to apologize and beg for my mercy."

"In your dreams, Kae," said Eli.

I laughed and gestured to the weapons.

"Which one for you, Kae?" asked I.

"Hmm," said Kae, wearing a scholarly expression. He picked up a broadsword, perfectly straight and gold, with a large handle. He hefted it up, and he strained to hold it up.

"Oomph," he groaned. I laughed and handed him a copper dagger, like the one Holly had used to kill the dragon. It had bits of gold decorating the blade, but otherwise looked as deadly as can be.

"Cool," said Kae, miming stabbing something. "Nice blade." He cut the lampshade off a porcelain lamp by the kitchen table.

"Kae!" I scolded as I picked up the floral lampshade. Kae just grinned.

"It was ugly!," he started to protest, but was interrupted by the girls coming over.

"We got provisions, water, and Mallory's got the items we need if we have to set up camp somewhere. We just need weapons now," said Holly.

"Kae and Eli got theirs already," I said. "Now let's do you."

I looked doubtfully at Mallory, but Kae found one for her, a plain steel calvary sword with bone-handle grip. She seemed to enjoy using it, because she started fencing with the petunias in the flower-box by the window. Holly was a little trickier. We tried first a short, razor thin fencing sword, but as soon as Holly thrust with it, the sword bent. We then tried a short, diamond blade, a silver dagger, and a replica of Kae's dagger, except it had opal bits instead of gold. None of them worked. Then, I found a tarnished bronze knife. I polished it, and Holly maneuvered it so skillfully, it was like an extension of her arm. Then was Stephanie, and she wanted a majestic blade that would strike fear into her enemies. We found many blades that would have worked for her, but she find any of them majestic enough. It was not until I found a delicate sword with an intricate twisted blade that Stephanie showed a slight bit of interest. I wasn't sure if Stephanie's bold hands would be able to handle the blade properly, but Stephanie proved more than adequate, maneuvering it in complicated manners, splitting desks in half like they were made of Jell-O. Last was me, and we tried so many blades, my arm felt like it was going to fall off. Finally, though, we found a copper knife with the letter E carved into the hilt. It was engraved with emerald, my birthstone. Although she could not manage it as skillfully as Holly, who seemed meant to handle knives, she felt reasonably comfortable with it, and chose it.

We then started to discuss where we were going to go.

"I found a-" started Phillip, but was interrupted by Holly.

"Phillip! You don't have a weapon! You didn't forget him, did you?" asked Holly, looking accusingly at Kae and I. At our sheepish looks, Holly said, "Well? Aren't you going to get him a blade?"

We exchanged looks, and waved Phillip over to the weaponry cabinet. Phillip seemed very sway-able, agreeing with every blade brought to him. Finally, Kae got tired of receiving,"This is perfectly agreeable," every time he handed Phillip a blade. He asked Phillip his weight, measured his hand, and gave him a short stabber-blade made of diamond. Phillip seemed perfectly inclined to go along with that, so the matter was settled. We returned to the group.

"Well," said Phillip. "As I was saying earlier, I found this." He spread out a blank piece of parchment. At least, I thought it was parchment. I'd never seen it before, so she wouldn't know.

"It's blank," said Stephanie, demonstrating her knack for stating the obvious. "How does it help us?"

"It helps us," said Phillip," because I also found this." He lay down a dirty, damp, funny smelling, and dog-eared scrap of paper. I leaned closer and could make out the words: Instructions for Magical Map

"Well, how do you know that that paper's the magical map?" asked Eli reasonably.

"Because I found both the papers in an envelope," said Phillip. Eli began to say more, but Phillip cut him off and said," Here, I'll show you."

He pulled a strand of his hair off and dropped it on the paper. Taking his blade he spilt the hair, and while he did that he sang out," Olay, uHm UHm uhM."

"What was that?" asked Stephanie, fascinated.

"It's an old prayer that Kedgwickians used to honor a goddess called Alana," explained Phillip, but before Stephanie could respond, words began to form on the paper.

Say your destination and your location

Mark your preferred trail in red

Follow me, or follow doom

And beware the paths that cause bloodshed.

Okay, I thought. It's a magical map talking about bloodshed. It's possible, it is. Well, I'm the leader. I need to take control.

"Okay," I said brightly. "I suggest now that Holly reads out our destination and our location. You know, since shes got that power of voice and all that, she might be able to work the map better than the rest of us. Objections?" There were none.

"Alright, Holly, go ahead," I said.

"Okay," said Holly nervously. "But what's our location? And honestly, what's our destination?"

I thought about it.

"Well, from what Amaryllis said, we need to stop Arachne at her palace. So that's our destination. And for our location, just say Amaryllis's house," I said.

Holly nodded, and took a deep breath. Her voice came out, fluid and rich and bright. I heard the crackle of fires in her voice, and knew it was meant to spark and ignite some life in the sodden map.

"Destination: Arachne's palace, Land of Au. Location: Amaryllis's house, Land of Au," Holly was saying. Suddenly ink bloomed out onto the page. Lines spiraled this way and that, forming trees and roads and.... at the end, and spiny black castle. I shuddered as she looked at it. It seemed perfect for a spider queen, with looming archways and long, tendril-like,slanting roofs. Several roads branched out toward the castle. Writing appeared on top of the map.

Please choose a route to Arachne's castle.

"Which one should I choose?" Holly wondered out loud.

"Say the one with the least monsters," advised Mallory.

Holly was about to do so, but Stephanie stopped her.

"No, say the one with the least danger. What if there are no monsters, but we come across a mountain lion?" she said. Her ice-blue eyes demanded attention.

The others nodded, and Mallory looked slightly embarrassed.

"Well, go ahead, Holly," said Eli. Holly nodded. Her voice flowed out again, asking for the route with the least danger and hardships. As soon as she was done a route on the map lit up bright red.

"Should we follow it?" asked Phillip in a doubtful voice. I noticed that Phillip had started talking more as he got to know us better.

"I'm thinking yes," said Mallory in a firm tone. I suspected she was trying to be more like Stephanie, but no one could replicate Stephanie's death glares.

"There's no point in discussing it," said Stephanie in a reasonable tone. "What other choice do we have?" The others considered this. Stephanie was right. There was no point in discussing it, because we no choice but to follow it.

"Well, shall we be heading out, then?" I asked. There were some reluctant glances, but everyone agreed we should go. We would just be wasting time by staying here, and one thing that we could not waste was time. We all filed out. I was just about to step over the threshold, when she saw a manual on the shoe rack Amaryllis kept by the door. The cover said, Guidebook to Mythical Monsters: There Weaknesses, Strengths, and How Not to Die When Facing Them.

Seems helpful, thought I. I grabbed it and made my way out the door.
Chapter 11

We had been walking for three days now, and the first landmark the map had told us to watch for still had not appeared.

"Do you think we got off track?" asked Phillip, consulting the map. We had all been chatting as walked to keep the boredom out of the air, and as we got to know each other more, Phillip proved to be a much more talkative boy, and hardly ever shut up now.

"I don't think so," I said, looking over his shoulder. "Look, the map's legend says that the fat red line marks our route, and the thin dotted blue line marks the way we're going. The blue line's been following the red line the whole time."

Phillip nodded, and began to gauge how much time it would take to reach the first landmark, a place marks by a flower and the words Fairy Circle.

"How long is it going to take us?" said Mallory irritatingly. "I mean, when I said I was coming on the quest I didn't think we were going to have to walk all the way!"

I sighed. Mallory was becoming more and more unbearable as the walk went on. As the days went on, her voice became screechier and more demanding. The whole group was infuriated with her, and Stephanie had started giving her the silent treatment.

"Evanna?" asked Mallory, crossing her arms. "I am thirsty and tired, and I've bugs crawling up my shirt! I haven't showered in three days! We need to rest!" Her voice rose up to a yell toward the end. I sighed again.

"I'm sorry, Mallory," she said, regretting her decision to become leader for the tenth time that day. As leader it was my job to deal with these things. "We'll probably be reaching the rest stop in a few hours. You'll just have to hold out a little longer."

"Fine," said Mallory, and she stormed off in a huff.

"Having problems?" asked Kae with a kind smile.

"Yeah," I sighed. "I don't know what to do about Mallory. I hope we reached that Fairy Circle, or whatever soon, or Mallory's gonna blow."

Kae nodded in sympathy. He was about to say something; I saw his mouth open, but Phillip came running up to us, waving the map crazily.

"We're almost there! Fairy Circle should be right around the corner!" he said. For what it felt like months, a smile split my face.

"Let's go, troops!" I called out. "Fairy Circle is right around the corner!"

I turned to Kae and grinned.

"Race you," I said. Without out waiting for an answer, I took off. Kae laughed and ran off after her. Needless to say, I won.

______________________________________________

I arrived at Fairy Circle. It existed of a clearing, a lovely grassy area surrounded by willowy trees. Bright yellow dandelions dotted the grass, and a crystal clear brook ran alongside a circle of stones. It emptied into a hot water spring. Tiny little sprites flitted back and forth over the stones. The picturesque scene reminded her of Amaryllis's cottage. Which made her wonder. Where did Amaryllis disappear to? If I had to guess, I'd bet that Amaryllis saw the Kreuk dragon and took off. My contemplating was interrupted by a tapping on her shoulder. I turned around.

"Hey," said Holly. "Lovely, isn't it?"

I nodded, her eyes sparkling.

"It is gorgeous-" I started, but I was interrupted by Mallory.

"Finally!" she heaved. "A rest stop! I've been asking for this for weeks!"

I rolled her eyes and turned back to Holly. But by then the rest of my 'troops' had arrived.

"Great rest stop, but what we supposed to do here?" asked Stephanie. Unlike the others, her face was only slightly sweaty, (she had belonged to a track team and had been a great distance runner), but her face was caked with mud and her strawberry-blonde hair had turned a sun-bleached white-blonde. Seeing her gave me an idea. I walked over to the spring and dipped her foot in. Steaming hot. Satisfied, I went back to the others.

"Okay, troops," I said. (I had taken to calling them troops. I rather liked the word.) "There's a hot spring nearby, (I pointed to the hot spring) and we're going to bathe there. Holly, did you pack a spare set of clothes?"

Holly nodded.

"I've got three extra pairs in there for everybody," she said, pointing to the sack she was carrying. I nodded.

"Okay, here's the plan. Girls going first, we're going to take fresh pair of clothes to the hot spring. We'll bathe with our clothes on in there, cleaning ourselves and our clothes at the same time. Then when we're done, - Holly you've got towels in there right?" she asked. Holly nodded, so I continued," You'll grab a towel and your fresh pair of clothes and head to that group of shady willows at the edge of the clearing. There, you can dry off and change. Put your clothes out in the sun in the stone circle to dry. Boys will only take their turn after all the girls are completely finished. Agreed?"

They nodded, and laughing and chattering Holly and Stephanie grabbed our things and took off for the hot springs. The trip here had been long, with nothing to do but talk, so it had been a great bonding experience for the girls (excepting Mallory, of course. Her incessant complaining during the trip had only drawn her farther away from her teammates. Holly and I had been surprised to find that Stephanie was not such a generally opposed and pessimistic person. As we got to know her better, we found her a brave and willing person who had big dreams (she wanted to be an actress when she grew up ) and was completely driven. She was still inclined to make sarcastic comments, but as that was just a part of her nature to be scathing, and because they weren't hurting anyone, we decided to just let it go. Also the boys had become closer over a love of video games and were now sitting in the stone circle discussing Ninja Warriors Stealth strategies. I found myself smiling as I looked at how we had become more of a team, friends rather than seven random people pushed together because they had to save the world. I felt the smile slip off my face as I looked at Mallory, though. She was trailing behind Holly and Stephanie, complaining about how she hated having to go in the bath with other people, even though we would be wearing our clothes. She had caused a lot of ill feeling in the group, and worry about her had stressed me. But I decided not to worry about it now, and I headed over to the hot springs.
Chapter 12

I took in Stephanie's scared expression.

"What's wrong?" I whispered to Holly.

"I don't know," she whispered back. "But she's obviously terrified."

We were dressed and ready, and the boys were taking their turn in the hot springs. We had been chatting when Stephanie froze.

"Quick!" hissed Stephanie, pulling us by our arms. In a flash, we were up a tree. The branches spread outward in almost perfect alignment, creating a platform we could sit on.

"What the heck are you-" demanded Mallory, but I cut her off.

"How did you get us up here so fast?" I said. "And more importantly, why?"

Stephanie took a deep breath.

"I had to get to out of there, because of that," she said, and she pointed to a large brown lizard sunning itself on a rock. It was about the size of an eight by eleven piece of paper.

"That is a lizard, Stephanie," said Holly. "What's the big deal?" But Stephanie shook her head.

"No," said Stephanie, shaking her head. "That's a lizard, but it's also a monster. Evanna, look in your monster guidebook. It's sure to be in there."

I put a hand on her satchel.

"How did you know about that?" she asked. Stephanie shrugged.

"It fell out of your satchel while you were changing," she said.

"Okaaay," I said, bringing out her guidebook. I flipped to the reptilian section and found a look-alike of the brown lizard.

"Okay," she said, glancing up. "You were right, Stephanie. That lizard is a monster."

Mallory, now in a much better mood because of the bath and the food, said fearfully, "What does it do?"

I shot an annoyed glance at Mallory. I still could not forgive Mallory for being such a pain in the neck on the trip. Granted, it had been hard. But the others had dealt with it, and so could Mallory. But there was no use worrying about Mallory now. I had to focus.

" It says here that the lizard loves grass for some reason, and fears water. It cannot climb or swim. So for now, we're safe. The boys are in the spring, and we're up in this tree. It uses its tail, which shoots poisoned spikes, to kill. It's called the Deci lizard because it takes only ten minutes after the spikes make contact for you to die. It is not killable," I said. Her statement was met with a silence.

"So, how do we get out of here alive?" asked Holly nervously.

"Look, there's a footnote," said Stephanie, pointing.

"Though not killable," read out I. "The Deci lizard may be defeated by being convinced not to kill."

"Okay," said Holly. "I just have to use my power to make the lizard decide to leave us alone."

"However," I continued. "It has only been done before by other lizards, because no other being can speak the same tongue as them."

"All right, then," said Stephanie. "We're doomed."

Suddenly her expression turned to fear.

"Oh no!" she cried. "Phillip's left the springs!"

In a flash, she was off the platform and down to the ground. Grabbing Phillip, she zoomed back up to the platform. In a breathless voice she explained to him really fast what had happened.

"Oh," he said, looking slightly confused. "So you're saying we can't defeat this thing and we're either going to starve to death of get killed by Dino Jr. over there."

"Yep," said Stephanie, satisfied.

"Wait," I said. "Is Kae or Eli getting out soon?"

"Nope," said Phillip. "They plan on staying inside till you guys make them get out."

"Typical Kae," grumbled Stephanie. "Anyway, what should we do?"

"What do you mean?" i said. "We're stuck. Anyway, I have a question for you? How did you know the Deci lizard was a monster? And how in the world did you get us out of there so quickly?"

"Yeah," chimed in Holly. "You got Phillip up into the tree so fast, too. I can't imagine anyone going so fast!"

Stephanie looked slightly sick. She scooted to the edge of the platform and threw up over it.

"Stephanie, what happened?" asked Holly, concerned. "You were fine just a minute ago."

Stephanie spoke.

"I think I'm going to be sick again-" She threw up again.

"Hey, Stephanie?" asked Mallory. She put her hand on Stephanie's shoulder. "Don't worry, okay? Take deep breaths. It'll settle. Don't worry...." Stephanie's green face slowly returned to a normal color.

"Hey, I feel fine now!" exclaimed Stephanie.

"Good," said Mallory. She removed her hand from Stephanie's shoulder. As if on cue, Stephanie's face turned green again.

"Mallory, quickly, put your hand back on Stephanie again!" said Holly with unusual urgency. Mallory looked surprised, but she put her hand on Stephanie's shoulder again. Stephanie sighed in relief and her color returned to normal.

"What just happened?" she asked, bewildered. "One minute I have bile rising up my throat, and the next minute I'm fine."

"Mallory," said Holly in an all important tone. "I believe you have the power of healing."

Mallory looked confused, her hand still on Stephanie's shoulder. Suddenly she was bathed in a golden light. She rose up to the tree tops, and her eyes closed. Then he eyes opened, and her eyes glowed white-hot. She was veiled in the golden light. Then is dissipated and Mallory came fluttering down like a leaf.

I took out my knife and slit the seam on Mallory's tunic. We all stared at the glowing words.

Power of Healing

I stared. Then Holly spoke once more.

"Stephanie, I believe you posses the power of speed," said Holly. Stephanie looked absolutely shocked for a second, then she too, also rose up to the heavens. I was absolutely slack-jawed. When she also touched down, her shoulder (which was bare because she was wearing a tank top) had been inscribed with words.

Power of Speed

"Oh my..." stuttered Stephanie. I turned in fascination to Holly.

"Um, how did you do that?" I asked. Holly turned to her calmly.

"I simply figured out the secret for the powers. Once you use them, someone else has to find out and say it. Like me, for instance. I used my powers to calm Eli down. Then, the next time my powers were needed, you told me about them. You alerted me to the power's presence and allowed me to use them to the fullest. I did the same for Mallory and Stephanie. Stephanie got sick because she used her powers more than once without someone telling her what they were. She got us up this tree using her speed, but none of us said anything. Then she rescued Phillip, and no one had alerted her to the presence of her power. I think using your power without knowing it's there is limited, and can only be used once," said Holly. The others contemplated this, mulled it over, and decided she was probably right.

"Well, this is great," said Phillip. "When we see someone behaving inhumanely like, let's say Eli lifts something impossible for humans his size to carry. Like a boulder or something. Then we say, Eli, you have the power of strength or something and then he rises up, gains his power and starts looking like a super buff Hercules."

We laughed, but our laughter was soon cut short at the sight of the Deci lizard stretching on its rock. I opened her guidebook again, this time flipping to the extra facts section, hoping to gain something useful.

"Hey, guys, check this out," I said. "The Deci lizard spends its day sunning itself and hunts during the night." I looked up. "We thought we were lucky that the Deci lizard hasn't tried to kill us yet. We were wrong. As soon as the sun sets today, we're dead meat." We looked out at the setting sun.

"And that would be...." asked Stephanie.

"Now," I confirmed.
Chapter 13

"What?" said Phillip.

I glared at him.

"Shut up! We're have to be quiet!" I hissed. It was pitch dark. Stephanie had gotten Eli and Kae up the tree, filled them in, and now we were huddled as far in the middle of the tree as we could get, sitting stock still, hoping that we could get through the night without dying.

"But... I heard one of you say you're gonna.. ..... kill me?" Phillip phrased the last part as a question.

"What?" I snapped. "Are you crazy? Now shut up and be quiet! The Deci lizard's gonna find us!" I didn't mean to be rude, but I was stressed to the limit. Phillip gulped.

"I think it already did," he said hoarsely. "It's Aren'k that's speaking to me."

"Aren'k?" I asked, now seriously worried about Phillip. Phillip nodded.

"That's the name of the Deci lizard," said Phillip. "He says he's going to kill us, unless we can convince him not to."

"Okay, okay," I said. "You're absolutely sure you aren't imagining it?"

Phillip shook his head resolutely.

"Okay, then we need to tell the others," said I, and she crept toward them and related to them what Phillip had told her.

"But if this is true, then we need to do the thing and say he's got animal speech power and all that-" said Holly worriedly.

"Yeah, yeah," I cut in. "We'll do all that later. Right now we need to focus on the lizard. Phillip can obviously communicate with the lizard, so if you feed him the lines, he should be able to convince the lizard. Okay?"

"But Phillip-" said Holly.

"We have no time to argue! Okay?" I said sharply. Holly nodded and went to discuss with Phillip what he was going to say to the lizard.

I sighed and slumped against the tree trunk. This leader thing was killing me. Well, in the morning it would be better. Assuming I survived the night. I heard Holly talking to Phillip, and Phillip relaying what she said in weird raspy noises. I couldn't sleep that night. I waited fearfully, sure that at any moment, a spike was going to impale me. I shivered as I listened to the meaningless rasps continue.

"Here," whispered Kae, handing me Holly's spare turquoise hoodie.

"Thanks," I whispered gratefully, pulling it on. I continued to shiver, though not from the cold. My fear was beginning to dislodge from my throat and spread down to my heart. A tear leaked out of my eye.

"What's wrong?" said Kae.

"Nothing," she said, wiping the telltale tear away. "It's just all this leader stuff, the pressure is so much, I mean how are we supposed to save the world? We're just a bunch of thirteen year olds thrown together because the world needs saving! How are we supposed to-" My voice broke and I started quietly sobbing.

"Hey," he said. "Look at me." I looked up into his icy-blue eyes which were at the moment full of warmth. "Everything happens for a reason, Evanna. We are so not just an ordinary bunch of thirteen year olds! We are special! Look, why would we get thrown together? Because otherwise the world would fall to pieces. It's our life force holding the world together. If we weren't here, Arachne would definitely rise, right?"

I nodded mutely.

Kae continued, "But since we are here, we give the scales some doubt! If Arachne wins, the world falls to pieces. So why not fall to pieces now? Why wait till she rises? Because we are here. We could stop Arachne, so the world can't fall apart yet. Get it?"

"I think so," I said hesitantly.

"Good," said Kae. "And Evanna? It not all on you. We're going to help you. You may be the leader, but don't be afraid to ask for our help from time to time, ok?"

I smiled.

"Yeah, thanks Kae," she said. Kae smiled slightly and walked off. Fortunately Eli stopped him, or he would have walked right off the platform.
Chapter 14

Light crept in through the tree branches. I could sense it even though my eyes were closed. It turned the black of my eyelids red.

"Hey, wake up, sleepyhead." Someone was shaking me. "Come on, we need to get out." Huh? I opened an eye. Stephanie's face stared down at me.

"What happened last night?" I asked, yawning. I wasn't worried. Last night had had to have gone well, otherwise it wouldn't be morning and she wouldn't be alive.

Stephanie's expression was of pity.

"You should get ready. We need to leave by two," said Stephanie. I sat up. There was something in Stephanie's expression I didn't like.

"Stephanie," she said slowly. "What happened last night? I'm not getting up till you tell me." Some of Stephanie's old glint in her steely blue eyes came back.

"Ah, I always knew you were a stubborn one," she said fondly. But when she caught sight of my serious expression, she stopped.

"Okay, I'll tell you," she sighed. "We didn't convince the lizard."

"But then why are-" I said as I struggled to get a grip on things. Her mind was working reaally slow today.

"If you want me to tell you, you can't interrupt," said Stephanie, giving me her best death glare.

"Okay," I said meekly. Stephanie sat back, satisfied.

"Okay. So Phillip didn't convince the lizard. Apparently, Phillip said all the right things, but he lacked the confidence needed. They were trying to convince the lizard that we're poisonous so there was no use killing us. Apparently, the lizard eats the things he kills. It kept on saying 'But you are not bright colored' throughout the night." Stephanie snorted.

"So they kept on debating. Finally the lizard decided just to attack. But as he shot the first spike, the sun came up, and the lizard went back to sunning himself. They like, shut down during the day. Now we have to leave Fairy Circle by one o'clock so we can, you know, stay alive."

"So, we're out of danger?" I asked.

"Well...." Stephanie's guilty expression made me suspicious. Then I realized what it was. The way they let me sleep even though we had to leave.... as if I needed rest. Stephanie's furtive glances at my foot...... I threw back Phillip's unused towel I had curled up on and saw a large silver spike next to her right foot. The wound was a medium sized puncture, and the skin around it was black and blue with a tint of green. The spike looked like a rose thorn, only larger and silver.

"It hit me," she whispered softly. Stephanie nodded, unable to keep the guilt out of her face.

"We saw it coming and were able to leap out of the way," said Stephanie. "But you.... you were asleep. It hit you full on."

I considered.

"Why am I not dead yet?" I asked. I thought I knew, but she wanted to make sure.

"Mallory," said Stephanie. "She sat with you for three hours, kept on making Kae bring her something called fern-rose. She crushed it and made a soup with water from the springs. Then she used it to wash your wound." Stephanie's expression became horribly guilty.

"You know, Evanna, when I think of how I could've prevented it..."

"Don't be stupid," I said. "How could you have stopped it?"

"The spike," said Stephanie. "It was coming right at me, but I jumped aside and it hit you instead." Her lip began to quiver.

"Oh, Stephanie," I tried to console her. "Don't be stupid. Then it would just have been you hurt. It's not causing me any pain, whatever Mallory did worked. Don't worry..."

"But don't you see, Evanna?" said Stephanie. It could've killed you! I would've been a murderer."

"That is the most idiotic thing I've ever heard," I declared. Stephanie gulped and smiled at me.

"Yeah, I know I'm being stupid," she said thickly. "It's just survivors guilt, you know?"

I grinned.

"So, can I walk?" I gestured to my wound.

Stephanie nodded.

"If it isn't hurting, then Mallory says that walking shouldn't do any harm to it. We just have to go slow, because otherwise the blood will start flowing again. She's cleaned out all the poison. It's had an effect on the skin, though. It probably won't return to normal color until you grow new skin."

I nodded, and said, "Well, help me get out of this tree, then!"

Stephanie laughed and quickly shimmied me down the tree.

"Hey, Evanna!" called Phillip. "Check this out!" He showed his shoulder to me.

Power of Other Speech

I laughed.

"That's great!" I was genuinely happy for him.

"Well, we got three powers discovered in one challenge. Making good progress, huh?" said Holly, running up to us. Her blonde hair streamed out in the wind.

"Yep," I said, returning her high five.

"Kae did it," she said, gesturing to Phillip's mark. "He tried about a hundred things, like power of lizard speech and power of reptiles. It was only after he spoke to birds, bobcats, and even flowers when we figured out it was other speech." She smiled.

We chatted for a while, when Eli jogged up to us. Along with him was Kae.

"Just went for a run," Eli smiled. "You know, to keep the muscle muscular." He flexed his non-existent muscles and winked at Holly. Then he caught sight of me.

"Hey, feeling better?" he said, smiling kindly.

"Yeah, thanks," I said, smiling as I fist bumped him.

"Hey! You guys need to get washed up!" said Kae.

"Oh, that's right!" said Holly, smiling at me. "We need to get out, but we have time to get dressed! Aren'k isn't going to touch us during the day!" Holly grabbed my hand and pulled her to the springs. Stephanie followed.

"Mallory showered earlier, before the boys," Stephanie explained sliding in next to me. I just sighed happily. Mallory had put some ground fern-rose in the springs for my ankle, and I decided to just relax and not worry for a while. After all, we had done some amazing things. Now all we had left was to save the world. I settled back against the stone wall. Yep, it would be as easy as pie.
Chapter 15

My shoulders ached. We were on the second to last day of the month, and no new powers had showed up. We had reached the last landmark before Arachne's castle, but it seemed to go on forever. It was a forest. The Twilight forest. Which, according to the map, which we had found out gave us fun facts on where we were, was the longest forest in Au. We had been walking in it for two weeks.

I supposed I should look on the bright side of things. We hadn't encountered any monsters. And the forest even had a trail, so we weren't just barging through uncharted wilderness. But tomorrow Arachne would rise and destroy the world and we were no way close to reaching the castle.

I sighed as Holly came up from behind her, adjusting and readjusting the pack on her back. At first she had been solely carrying the packs but as we ventured deeper and deeper into the wilderness that showed no signs of stopping, the others took pity on her and took one pack each. As the days went wearily by, the packs weighed down heavily on our shoulders, and one of Stephanie's was lower than the other. She was now carrying her pack only on her higher shoulder, hoping to level them out.

"What are we going to do?" asked Holly wearily. The two of us had secretly kept track of the days, and we were the only ones who knew that all hope was lost. I glanced backward. The rest of my troops were out of earshot, so she said," I assume you mean about the whole Arachne rising tomorrow thing?"

Holly winced and said," What else?"

"We need to tell the others. We've went over this a million times ourselves and I don't believe we'll get anything out of it by doing it one more time. It's time to break it to them."

Holly sighed, but she agreed.

"You're right. They're not going to like it, though."

"Well, what other choice do we have?" I asked.

"Fair point," said Holly, and we went to the others.

After explaining the situation to the others, they were all shocked. All but Phillip. He was absolutely excited.

"Look," he said. He sat down and spread the map out on the floor. The others knelt around him. "In the fun facts. It says if you defeat a monster in the Twilight, as a reward it grants you a boon."

"A boon?" asked Mallory. She had been much easier to deal with on this part of the trip. I supposed having her power made it easier, plus I could see Mallory was really trying.

"A wish," said Phillip. "I could see that we probably wouldn't get there in time so I made note of this." He pointed at the flowing scripture below.

"Of course, none of us likes killing monsters, so I refrained from mentioning it," said Phillip. "But now we need it."

"But how are we gonna get a monster to just pop up out of the blue?" asked Eli.

Phillip pointed. "Here are all the instructions. The Twilight believes in being fair, so we get to prepare before fighting. Once we believe we are absolutely, resolutely ready, we ask he forest for stuff and blah blah blah. Then the forest will inform us of what monster we're fighting and we get one hour to prepare."

"Excuse me, but how will a forest inform us of the monster? Not all of us have other speech powers," said Stephanie scathingly. She was ticked off that Holly and I had kept a secret from her. She didn't mind her keeping it from the boys (really, can you imagine telling a boy a secret and expecting him to keep it?) and Mallory was understandable. She was a big blabbermouth. But Stephanie thought that keeping a secret from her was the lowest of low.

"I don't know!" exclaimed Phillip. "A lot of people have tried it, but there have only been three survivors. Apparently they suddenly just knew."

Stephanie rolled her eyes.

"I don't like it," she said and she got up and walked a few feet away.

"Well, what other choice do we have?" asked Kae angrily. Stephanie sighed.

"Fine," she said. "But we have to be careful. Last time was too close a call." Everyone knew she was referring to my injury. I was completely healed now, but had Mallory not discovered her power then, I would be dead.

"Okay," said Phillip. "Let's start preparing."
Chapter 16

I waited nervously. Phillip had performed some rituals and had prepared the fighting ground and told the forest they were ready. Now we were waiting, on edge, to find out what monster we would be fighting. Suddenly I knew what we were fighting. It just suddenly appeared in her mind. It was the Nemean bull.

"You heard it your mind too, right?" asked Holly with a troubled expression on her face.

"Uh huh,"I confirmed. We all sat in a circle.

"Stupid bull," said Stephanie. "Evanna, can you look it up?"

I took out her guidebook.

"Says it's like the Nemean lion," I said.

"Wha..." said Eli.

"The Nemean lion," I explained. "It's an old Greek myth. The lion has iron hard skin. I think Hercules defeated it. But the bull is a little different. You see, it has iron skin around it's whole body except for its underbelly. The only way to defeat it is to get under it's belly and puncture it's heart. Oh, and the bull's mind is completely bent on staying alive, and never thinks nor speaks about any thing else." I glanced up at Phillip. "That means you can't communicate with it."

"All right," said Phillip, nodding. "Any thing else?"

"Yeah," I said. "Apparently it weighs two tons. Twice as much as a normal bull."

She let this sink in.

"We're not going to win unless Kae, Eli, and/or Evanna bust out some new powers," said Stephanie.

"Yeah, you're right," I sighed. "But we can't count on that. We have to make a plan." We bent our heads together to discuss.

Your preparation time is up. The Nemean bull will enter the arena.

I looked around the clearing we were in and supposed it was like a arena. She backed away and retreated to the edge of the clearing, hiding behind a large tree. She saw the others do the same. It was part of our battle plan. Not so much as a battle than a plan.

We were hoping that when the bull entered, it wouldn't be able to see us because we were hidden behind the trees. But it would be able to sense us. Agitated, the bull would run around the clearing, not notice the giant trap we had set up, get caught, and get killed. Yep, great plan.

Suddenly, a huge shadow loomed up above us, blocking the moonlight. I saw two big horns and glimmer of a tail. The rest was a shapeless mass. Wading into the clearing, knocking down trees as it went, the bull sat down in the middle of the clearing with a big heave. In the moonlight, I could see the bull clearly for the first time. It had towering, curved, needle sharp horns, and red glowing eyes. Its body was enormous, and was covered in a silky brown coat that I knew was impenetrable.

It was beautiful, yet terrifying.

Yet the bull just sat there, occasionally bending it's head uprooting some grass with its teeth.

I cautiously stepped out into the open. The bull didn't bat an eye. I stepped completely out under the moonlight, drenching myself in the luminescent glow of the moonlight. I heard Holly hiss," Are you crazy, Evanna? Get back in the trees!" but I ignored her.

I walked over to the bull and hesitantly patted its head. The bull continued to munch the grass in his mouth.

"You guys," I whispered, waving them over. "Come here." She saw the others hesitantly step into view. They shuffled over to where I was standing.

"I don't think the bull wants to kill us," I whispered. Eli stared at her in amazement. Then he said, "You're right, but how did you know?"

Then it was my turn to stare.

"What do you mean?" she asked. Eli blushed and looked at the floor.

"Um.." he said, pawing at the floor with his feet.

"Eli, what do you know?" asked Holly with a danger note in her voice. "Spill!" she said in her most magic-infused voice so that Eli would be powerless to resist and have to tell.

"I discovered my power," he began in the monotone, dead-beat voice of someone being controlled by magic. "It is the power of reading minds. I kept it a secret because I didn't want to guys to know I had read your innermost thoughts. It was an accident, of course, but the damage was done. I did the ritual of the rising thing myself when you were up in the tree and Kae was still in the spring. I wore long-sleeved shirts to prevent you guys from seeing the inscription. Now I've gotten better at controlling it and only read minds when I wish to, on purpose." He took out his sword and carefully split the seams of his shirt. There, glowing, were the words:

Power of Mind Speech

"And there you have it," sighed Eli, pinching his sleeve back together. "The whole truth."

I was shocked. I'd sensed something funny about Eli since we had left Fairy Circle, but she'd never have guessed that it would be something as big as this.

Holly gasped.

"Is that why the day we showered at the waterfall, when I gave you one of Kae's spare sleeveless shirts you insisted on the baseball tee? And whenever the boys took their turn you managed to have some excuse to shower later?" asked Holly. Eli looked ashamed as he nodded. I realized there would be some hostile feelings toward Eli that could jeopardize the quest.

"Okay, guys, that's enough," I said. "Eli had the right reasons to do the wrong thing. We are going to forgive him because, for one, we have a quest to finish and hostile feelings could jeopardize it. Also because if you were in his position, you would have done the same." She saw Holly, Stephanie, and Mallory exchanged a glance. Phillip and Kae did the same. But we all nodded at the end.

"We'll trust you, Eli," said Kae. "If only for the quest." The others nodded, this time I did with them.

"Okay, so what are we gonna do about that?" asked Holly, gesturing to the massive bull.

I sighed.

"I don't know," she said. "I think it isn't supposed to kill us. He's supposed to defend himself, and stop us from killing him. These traps aren't gonna work." I gestured to traps listlessly.

"Yeah," sighed Holly. "We need someone to lift it so someone else can get in."

"Sounds like a plan," said Stephanie thoughtfully. "Kae's the strongest. He can lift the bull, and Eli, since he's the skinniest, can get under and stab the bull."

"But can we trust him?" asked Mallory quietly, so that Eli could not hear.

"We have to," said Holly firmly. "At least until the quest ends."

The rest of us nodded in agreement.

"It's doubtful at the most that I'm going to be able lift the bull," remarked Kae.

Stephanie sighed. "It's all we have, Kae. Just deal with it."

"All right, then," I said. "We have a plan."

Kae crept out into the moonlight. I watched fearfully at he stepped over to the bull and put his hands around it. The bull did not resist. I watched as the bull was lifted into the air. The bull snorted and pawed at the empty air, trying to get back to the ground. Then as fast as a flash, I saw Stephanie carrying Eli across the clearing under the bull. Eli plunged his sword in the bull's underside, attacking his heart, which was placed in the middle of his belly. As soon as the bull was deemed dead, Stephanie got Eli out from underneath the bull, grabbed Kae and dove off to the edge of the clearing.

It all happened so fast, I barely registered that the bull had been killed before the bull shimmered and disappeared before our eyes. Like a magnet, we were all drawn to the center of the clearing. We formed a perfect circle, and in the middle appeared a shimmering form.

She was completely colored ivory, except for the forest green wreaths she wore in her hair. Her face was not beautiful, yet her features were majestic and regal. When she spoke, her voice was rich and kind, filling my mind with images of golden forests and silver lakes.

"I am the goddess of the Twilight forest, Anaina. I sent the Nemean bull to you, and as you defeated him, he will now join me in the heavens above, serving me as a loyal lieutenant. It is a peaceful life, one that he will enjoy more than being sent to killed when someone asks for a boon. Now you have finally defeated him, he can rest in peace. What would be your boon?" asked the figure.

I was so entranced, it took a nudge from Stephanie to bring me back to earth.

"Um, may we have immediate transportation to Arachne's castle?" asked I. The goddess's face darkened.

"Gladly, I would," she said. "But the place is dark and I have no wish to set foot there. I also would not have any of my faithful lieutenants go there. You may have anything else," said Anaina. I shook my head.

"There's nothing else we want. We need immediate transportation there now. We're on a mission to kill her and defeat the Spinners. Please," I said. Her voice wobbled, and she was close to tears. I did not do all that in so little time, did not fight so many monsters, to see all my work go down the drain. Anaina regarded me thoughtfully.

"You have spirit, little one. I can see that you are bent on your task." She snapped her fingers, and seven little glowing wisps flew out from the darkness. "Grab onto these and speak your destination. They will take you there, but do not let go until the wisps lower you to the ground. You will touch the ground unharmed, but you may be miles away from your destination."

I thanked Anaina profusely, but she waved it away.

"Do not thank me," said Anaina. "You earned it."

I looked at the others, and we simultaneously grabbed our wisps and flew.
Chapter 17

As we flew over the Twilight forest, I couldn't believe the beautiful sight we were seeing. Hanging on to our wisps like kites, we soared over gorgeous waterfalls and magnificent mountain ranges. The trip took then an hour or two, and when our feet touched the ground and the wisps dissipated, I was sorry to see them go, especially when we turned to face the black stone ruins of Arachne's castle.

We could not see anything but the tall tower tips.

I turned around.

"Before we going forward, we should do Kae's ritual thingy," I said. She gestured to Kae's shoulder.

"Do we know his power?" asked Mallory, slightly confused. I smiled slightly.

"When he picked up the bull," I explained. "He lifted two tons! There's no way a boy Kae's age could do that." They all watched as I spoke Kae's power aloud. When he touched the ground again, his shoulder was inscribed with the words:

Power of Strength

Stephanie smiled.

"Nice," she said. "Now let's get going." She turned off for the castle. The others had no choice but to follow.

Thin black spires rose out of the ground, and white swirling mist blew about the land. We could see nothing except for the few feet in front of us.

We entered through the metal gates, wincing as they creaked and whined as we pushed through. No one spoke. We continued along what looked like a garden, except every plant and tree was withered and gray.

Soon we up at the palace doors themselves.

I looked questioningly at the others, and then pushed through. A cold blast of air hit us as we walked in. We found ourselves in a wide chamber, made with iron gray stone walls and cold floors. A staircase spiraled up at the far right. A cheap metal chandelier hung from the ceiling, but it did nothing to welcome the appearance of the room. Instead, it hung bare, with no lights or jewels.

Nervously, I climbed up the stone staircase, not daring to touch anything but the floor. My palms sweated like crazy, and my armpits were damp. Slowly her friends followed up after her. Still no one spoke.

We climbed for what felt like hours, and my feet ached by the time the staircase finally stopped. Then, stepping onto the landing, my feet ached again as she saw another flight of stairs.

"Another one?" I moaned. "I wish there was an elevator."

"There is one," said Holly, coming up behind her. She pointed to an elevator that I hadn't noticed.

"Do you want to take it?" asked Stephanie, overhearing our conversation. Her expression was unreadable. I sighed.

"Well, I certainly don't want to climb up another flight of stairs. Let's take the elevator."

Without waiting for an answer, I pushed the up button. Holly and Stephanie exchanged looks and grabbed the rest of our group. We all waited, until the metal doors slid open. Unlike the gates, the slid open soundlessly. Without hesitating, I strode in the door. After exchanging uneasy looks again, Holly and Stephanie led the rest of inside as well.

As we rode up, I stared resolutely up at the ceiling. I did not look at any one of my team. The elevator went up, up, up, and still I did not speak. Out of the corner of my eye, she saw the others looking uneasily at her.

We continued up, up, up, until I grew tired of doing nothing.

"Stop," I commanded. The elevator stopped.

"Open," I said. The elevator doors slid open. I strode out of the doors, with the others trailing after her. I walked for hours, yet my legs didn't get tired. I could hear the rest of her team ambling after her as I purposefully strode through different corridors, halls, chambers, and rooms. She saw Mexican decorating, Celtic, modern, and Victorian. Yet I never broke my stride.

Finally, I stopped in front of a plain white door. Somehow, I knew Arachne was inside. I had a choice now. I could lead my team forward, or could force them to backtrack. But there was no way I could backtrack now. I was going forward. I opened the door.
Chapter 18

A young woman sat at a loom. She had silver-blond hair, and eyes the color of a rainy sky. Her face was regal and beautiful, but her visage of bitterness, greed, and malice struck fear in my heart. With a jolt in my heart, I realized that the woman's arms were shaped like a spider's.

"So," said the woman, not looking up from her loom. "You have come to visit me?"

Her voice was coy, infused with mock welcome. I was stunned. This lady, who I assumed was Arachne, did not sound the slightest bit afraid of us. She seemed to think it was a joke we showed up.

"So, you think you can defeat me?" asked the woman, still not looking up. Before we could answer, before the words even registered in our minds, she turned.

Faster, faster than Stephanie could ever go, faster than the fastest winds, so fast that I almost missed it, the woman spun around and struck her hand out, and icy blue streaks of energy shot out from her hand, paralyzing us. I was terrified.

The woman got up and took a stroll around the room, smiling pleasantly as if our visit was no more than a tea party. She began to speak. Her voice was cold and icy, yet a fire of evil burned through.

"As you might have guessed, I am Arachne..." She paused."Junior."

This sounded so stupid I felt like it was a jok. This terrible villain was named Arachne Jr.? Yeah right. But Arachne's face was perfectly serious and full of malice.

"You think you are to thwart me?" asked Arachne. "Please. I just made your leader, Evanna, as she was so aimlessly running through my palace, feel.. ah, superior to the rest of you."

I realized it was true. I had led us straight to Arachne's palace without even talking to my team. No, not my team. My friends.

My anger grew as Arachne continued to talk, chatting about all the things she had made go wrong.

"Little Eli here," Arachne said, patting Eli on the head. "Has a talent for reading minds? Well, I planted fake backstories of you in his head so he would keep his little secret."

Arachne threw back her head and laughed. Her voice grew cold and icy.

"I loved hearing you talk after he spilled his beans," she said. Her voice grew high-pitched and whiny, in a imitation of our voices. "Shall we trust him? Oh, yes, if only for the quest." She laughed again.

"So noble. Yet all for nothing, because when I rule, the penalty for treason is death. Goodbye, my little heroes!" Arachne raised her hand. Only pure desperation allowed me to talk. I had to say anything, anything at all to distract Arachne.

"So, how come your name is Arachne Jr.?" I blurted. It worked. Arachne lowered her hand, and an easy smile spread over her face.

"Such ignorant little children," said Arachne. "All right, I'll tell you." She sat back at her loom to continue weaving as she talked.

"Arachne, my late mother, was a lady who knew how to weave very well. Her exquisite weavings brought her much fame and riches. But word of her talent spread until the great goddess Minerva heard of the talent. Minerva was the goddess of weaving, and was very arrogant. She presumptuously believed that she was far better than Arachne, and that if she could prove that, everyone would bow to her and praise her. So she set off to challenge Arachne to a weaving contest. Arachne, of course, knew how dangerous it would be to accept Minerva's challenge. But Minerva kept on goading her, taunting her weaving talents, until Arachne had no choice but to agree or lose the respect she had earned for her weaving. Both women sat down to their looms at sunrise. They worked as the sun traveled through the air, and stopped as the sun set. A crowd of people had gathered to see the fine works. But it was obvious that Arachne was the better weaver. In a fit of rage, Minerva said spitefully,"So you are the better weaver. Now you will spend the rest of your days weaving in a corner!" She then turned Arachne into a spider. And I am her first child."

"Why aren't you a spider, then?" I asked, hoping to keep Arachne distracted.

"Because my sire was human," said Arachne impatiently.

I shuddered. I felt like I would never question Arachne's family tree again. Arachne began speaking again.

"Now we have dawdled enough. Let-" Arachne was cut off by someone flying through the door and knocking her over. It was Amaryllis.
Chapter 19

Amaryllis stumbled into the room.

"Amaryllis!" exclaimed Arachne in a rage. "How dare you interrupt me like that?"

I looked from Amaryllis to Arachne.

"You mean you two know each other?" I asked. Arachne turned to her, wearing an mixture of incredulity and delight.

"You mean you don't know?" asked Arachne. She threw her head back and laughed.

Out of the corner of my eye I could see Stephanie making faces at Arachne's back. I smiled a little, but it faded when I looked at Arachne.

I had no idea how I was going to defeat her. Kae was straining against his electric blue bonds, trying to get at Amaryllis. But Arachne was speaking again, so I focused on her.

"Amaryllis, you did tell them the story of my rising?" asked Arachne. Amaryllis shook her head.

"Well, then, they shall see it now...."

See it now? I felt confused. But Arachne waved her hand, and the world dissolved and transformed into something new.......

Amaryllis crept along the city of New York. She was lucky the power was out, for her appearance frightened many. She was also fortunate that the only person who could see her was the only one not afraid of her.

The woman stopped suddenly. The power came back on, and suddenly the New York skyline lit up bright.

She scurried into an alleyway, afraid of the bright lights that could expose her appearance. It wasn't ideal, but she would have to do the call from there. She opened her black bag and set it on the floor. A misty green spirit rose from the bag.

"Arachne, queen of the Great and Powerful Spinners", she said.

Suddenly, the spirit glowed red, and the shapeless lump formed into a sleek slender corpse. The corpse spoke in a ragged, rough voice. "Amaryllis, have you brought me good news?"

Amaryllis swallowed. She said," Perhaps, my lady, it depends on what you think."

The corpse's voice grew amused. "Such a diplomatic answer, Amaryllis. Your tongue grows ever smoother."

Amaryllis bowed her head. The corpse continued. "Well? Whether it be good or

bad, tell me.

"Amaryllis bowed again. She said," I have found an ample opportunity for you to rise to power."

Here, she paused, and the corpse's eyes grew large with hunger. At last, Amaryllis continued, and she said," The only problem, my lady, is that it is in the next thousand years." The corpse's features grew serious. "Well, Amaryllis," she said. You do know what that means?"

Amaryllis shook her head. The corpse's eyes gleamed. "My dear Amaryllis, did you not just say you found an opportunity for me to take over the world? Finally, after years of searching for the time, I will rise, and rule the whole world!"

Amaryllis looked confused. "But, my lady," she said. "You are great, but how will you survive the next thousand years?"

The corpse chuckled, a truly terrifying sound. "My dear Amaryllis, how do you think bears survive the winter without eating?"

The call was taxing so much of Amaryllis's strength, she could only whimper.

The corpse smiled, showing barbed fangs.

"I shall sleep off the years," she said. "And you will, too."

Amaryllis cried out in protest, but remained rooted to the spot. The corpse reached out a glowing red arm. It was hairy, and rather like a spider's. It touched Amaryllis's straining face, and she collapsed and fell into a deep sleep. And there she stayed, for a thousand years. And it started the whole thing.

"You are Arachne's lieutenant!" I spat out, pointing at Amaryllis."You!"

Amaryllis looked down and did not meet my eyes, but Arachne merely smiled, and I could see the same barbed fangs I saw in the vision. Judging by the horrified looks of my friends, they had seen the vision as well.

"Really," said Arachne, with a rusty, rattling laugh in her throat. She pointed at me. "Your expression was priceless! You shouldn't be so quick to trust, you know..." Arachne started laughing again.

Arachne pointed at Amaryllis and said,"This is her true appearance."

Amaryllis's features changed until she looked like Arachne, except Amaryllis had eight hairy, spidery arms instead of two, and her skin turned pure black, so black that at night, Amaryllis would not be visible.

"Yes!" crowed Arachne. "This is who she is! A Spinner, just like me! Her visage is much less human, though, because she was born from one who was a spider, and one who was mixed breed, human and spider, like me!"

My fury grew till I was positively quivering. I did not go through so much danger, lead my friends through battles, go against all odds, to lose. I was not going to let it all go to waste. Arachne was evil and did not deserve to win. I used it. I used my anger, my energy, and converted it into something indestructible, whole, and untamed. I created magic. I took the glowing force and hurled it at Arachne, using all my worked up feelings, the stress from leading the dangerous quest, my anger at Arachne, my frustration at going so far yet to slip away from my goal, and most of all, my love and loyalty to my friends, and forced it on Arachne.

The release of all my conflicted emotions made me feel surprisingly calm.

The power of my magic was so strong, it knocked Arachne off her feet. At first, Arachne lay there, looking most surprised and annoyed. Then, she calmly got to her feet, and, quivering with anger, she pointed at us, and said to Amaryllis, "Put them in custody and do not let them go until I say so. Take them away."

Her voice was regal and commanding, yet razor thin with warning. Amaryllis obeyed, scurrying over to us and binding us with magic ribbons. And not the kind of ribbons you wear in your hair. These were as strong as iron handcuffs, except they were made of cloth. They wrapped around my wrists, tightening them until they almost cut off her blood circulation. Looking at her friend's strained faces, I guessed that they were undergoing the same pressure.

"Follow me," said Amaryllis. Her words were said clipped and short. "If you resist, the stretching of the ribbons will only tighten further, perhaps triggering loss of your hands." Amaryllis walked out of the door and into the corridor, holding our ribbons like leashes, and the rest of us had no choice but to follow.
Chapter 20

If the walk to Arachne's room has taken hours, the walk to wherever Amaryllis was taking us took minutes.

Amaryllis thrust us into a holding cell, removed our bindings, and left. She did not speak one word to any of us. We were sitting in a trampled heap when Stephanie said," What was that in there, Evanna? I've never seen anything like it!"

"Do you think it is your power?" asked Holly.

I shrugged.

"Probably," I said. "I mean, do we know any other humans who can use magic?"

"I bet that's your special power," breathed Kae, awed. "Can I do it?"

His friends had no objection, so Kae said,"Evanna, you have been gifted with the power of magic."

I felt my eyes burn, and I had to close my eyes. I felt myself rising up, higher and higher, and my senses sharpened. I could sense the ceiling of the holding cell above her, though no part of me was touching it and my eyes were closed. I knew my friends were murmuring excitedly, but I did not know why. After all, shouldn't they be used to golden glowing people rising up into the air to get tattooed by now? Suddenly, my eyes flashed open, and though my eyes were painfully burning, I could not close them. But I couldn't see my friends below me. Instead, I was in a long hall, decorated kind of like a wedding, but there were no people. I wandered along the aisle, looking at the altar, and all the pretty golden chairs. She saw golden net ribbons strung across the room, with bouquets of silver tulips tied up where the ribbons crossed.

I meandered all way up to the altar. Except it wasn't an altar. Instead of the place where the bride, groom, and the minister stand, there was an ivory chair- no, not a chair, a throne. It was decorated with realistic looking vines made of gold, and on the vines bloomed gorgeous, but delicate silver tulips. If I looked closely at them, I could've sworn they were growing. Suddenly, the throne glowed white-hot, and the tip of my nose, which was touching a flower as I bent over it, got a small burn on the end.

She stepped back as a lady materialized on the throne.

I gaped. I knew this must be a goddess, like Anaina from the Twilight. But this goddess was much more regal, grander, and majestic. Her skin was bronze, and her eyes glowed molten gold. Her long hair flowed in shimmering locks of coppery gold. Her dress was made of pure gold, I was sure, but it flowed at easily as water.

"Evanna," said the goddess when she saw me staring in amazement. "Finally, I get to meet you. At last."

I couldn't speak. The goddess laughed slightly.

"I understand your confusion," she said. "I am Islana, goddess of fortune, celebration, and gifts. I am visiting you because you have discovered your true power.... the ability to control and use magic."

I didn't know what to say, so I kept quiet, fidgeting slightly.

The goddess continued," I also am a seer."

I suddenly found my voice.

"That means you can predict the future, right?" I said, my head jerking up eagerly.

Islana sighed, her hair falling over her shoulders.

"Bits and pieces, child, bits and pieces. It is an old gift, and cannot be depended upon."

"Oh," I said, disappointed.

"But," said Islana. "I have foreseen something that could be of importance to you. Something that could help you.........."

The goddess waved her hand, and images appeared out of thin air.

They were of me returning to my mom, who was happy and safe, me defeating Arachne with my magic, me hugging my friends, who had just buried Arachne's body.....

"These can all come to pass," said Islana,"if you do what I say."

I said, my mouth slightly dry, "What's that?"

The goddess smiled, and for the first time her smile looked evil.

"It's all in here," said Islana, and she handed me a scroll. Then, she vanished, and I felt myself fall.
Chapter 21

I fell through the air. My tunic flew up, exposing her tank top underneath. As she neared the ground, I began to flutter this way and that, like a leaf. I gently landed on the ground. My friends rushed to me.

"What happened?" asked Holly, checking me over for damage. I smiled. Holly had always been a mother duck.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," I laughed. "But something strange happened up there."

She related all that had happened with Islana.

"Here's the scroll," I said, opening my hand. Then I noticed that everyone's faces looked extremely guilty.

"What happened?" I asked, letting the scroll fall. "Why do you all look like that?"

Holly took a deep breath and said," The same thing happened to me." She reached in her hoodie pocket and pulled out a scroll identical to mine.

"Me too," said Stephanie. She reached into her trench coat pocket and put her scroll in.

"I got one, too," said Kae, putting his scroll in. In the end, it turned out that everyone had gotten a scroll and had kept it a secret.

I looked disbelievingly at her friends.

"You mean you all kept it a secret?" I asked. Holly looked at her hands.

"I'm sorry, but Islana asked me to keep it a secret. She said that if I told someone before we got to Arachne's castle, whatever that's on this scroll would disappear," said Holly.

"Me too," said Eli, and everyone nodded solemnly.

"Well, we should open them, right?" asked Stephanie, breaking the silence that followed. Everyone nodded uncomfortably, so Stephanie opened the scrolls. I knew that her friends had just been doing what was best for the quest, but she couldn't help feeling that a connection between her friends, one we had spent weeks to build up, had been severed.

I looked at the scrolls. Each one of them had a number, followed by a set of directions.

  1. Find a sword, an apple, and a bobby pin.

  2. Make sure other supplies are secured. Then take the above items and place in front. Then prepare weapons.

  3. Using the sword, cut a slice of apple. Place it by the three inch wide mouse hole.

  4. Using the bobby pin, open the lock. It is a spring lock, so it will work.

  5. Lean something against the door to make it appear shut. After finishing, go back to the apple.

  6. On the apple, you will see tiny green spots starting to appear. Wait until they grow into blisters. Take the apple away from the mouse hole. Pop every blister.

  7. Await further instructions.

I looked up.

"What does it mean?" she asked.

"I don't know, but we should do it," said Phillip. "What's the harm?"

Stephanie scowled.

"The harm, Phillip," said Stephanie," is that either Amaryllis or Arachne will find our door open, and then they will mutilate us!"

"Well, they're gonna do that anyway if we don't try," said Holly. "So really, there isn't any harm. I say we go for it."

I knew Holly had been using her power, because Stephanie started to look convinced.

"Okay, all right," mumbled Stephanie. "I guess we can do it."

"Any more objections?" I asked. There were none.

"All right," I said. "Let's get started."
Chapter 22

Phillip found an apple in one of Holly's packs. Mallory pulled a bobby pin out of her hair, and I volunteered my knife.

"No," said Stephanie, looking at the knife. "No, no, no. We cannot use that."

"What's wrong with it?" I asked.

Stephanie shook her head, sending her mane of strawberry blonde hair flying.

"Not okay to use a knife," said Stephanie. "It has to be a sword. What if it's the sword that makes the apple get the spots? Use a sword."

"But swords have all sorts of different materials and sizes and shapes," protested Kae. "It's not possible that the sword makes the apple get the blisters."

"Just do it," insisted Stephanie, so we ended up using Phillip's short stabber blade.

"Thank goodness Arachne was stupid enough not to search us," I said as she cut the apple slice.

Holly, who was next to her, grinned and said, "Uh-huh. We're going to have no problem defeating her if she's got so little brains."

I smiled, and felt some of the recent tension between us lift a little.

Stephanie put the apple slice by the mouse hole. There were two mouse holes. One was a foot long mouse hole and the other was a small one that I figured measured up to three inches. I wondered about the foot long one, though. What kind of mouse would need that big of a hole?

I sat next to the apple, waiting to see when the blisters would grow.

"What are you doing?" asked Stephanie, her hands on her hips.

"Watching the apple," I said. "You know, for the blisters."

"Uh-uh-uh," said Stephanie. "The instructions don't say to do that. Take a look."

Before I could protest, Stephanie had spread out the scrolls.

"Look," she said. "It is very clear."

5. Lean something against the door to make it appear shut. After finishing, go back to the apple.

"Oh, all right," I sighed. "I'm a-coming." She got up and followed Stephanie to the door. I leaned against the wall to watch Kae try to open the door.

He tussled with the door for quite a while, until Holly lost patience, grabbed the pin, stuck it in the keyhole and opened the door.

"There," she said triumphantly, and dropped the pin in Kae's hand. "Done. Now let's go get the apple." She marched over to the mouse hole. The others followed her. Kae's mouth still hung open as he stared at the pin in his hand. I reached over and shut it for him.

At the mouse hole, we were intently examining the apple. Green spots had appeared, and they were growing to blisters.

"Oh, there goes one," said Kae, pointing to a fully grown blister. "And another."

After that, the blisters rapidly appeared, forming huge green pustules.

"Ugh," said Mallory, taking the apple from the mouse hole. "Why did I volunteer for this job?"

She took it to a corner, and grimacing, began popping the blisters with her hands. Electric orange pus oozed out of the popped blisters.

"Finally, I'm done!" she cried after she popped all the blisters. Her hands were stained with the orange goo, and she had bits of the green part in her hair.

Stephanie walked over to her and handed her the bobby pin.

"You know, this is sharp enough to puncture the blisters?" she asked, snorting.

"You know, this would have been helpful before I started popping the blisters?" asked Mallory, imitating Stephanie.

Stephanie's only response was, "Don't put your hands on hoodie. You might get pus on it, and you're borrowing it from me."

Mallory's eyebrows began to clench up in anger, but they relaxed and she started laughing. Stephanie joined her, and soon they had the whole room giggling.

"You... are .... so .. evil!" snorted Mallory through her laughs.

"You better believe it," said Stephanie. "And watch out, because I'm not happy with the way you stained my hoodie...."

Stephanie's face was deadly serious, but everyone caught the twinkle in her eye.

Suddenly, Phillip's face turned white.

"The goo! It's moving!" he yelled.

The laughter stopped.

The orange goo on the apple began to slither off. It formed a small puddle on the floor, and began to move.

"Do you think these are our further instructions?" asked Stephanie, looking at her scroll.

"I don't see why not," said Phillip.

"All right, then, let's go! After all, the door is open, isn't it?" came a voice from the doorway. The seven turned. It was Amaryllis, and she looked very, very, mad.
Chapter 23

"You children!" muttered Amaryllis angrily as she walked down the corridor. The seven floated above her, tied to her presence like balloons with a bit of magic.

"Do you know how much trouble I could have been in if Arachne had chosen to visit you instead of sending me?" asked Amaryllis. "It's very lucky I found you, or we would all be dead by now."

"Well," said Stephanie innocently. "You know, we do have obligations other than following you. You can't really blame us for trying to get out."

Amaryllis turned, and I hissed,"Stephanie!"

I was sure Stephanie had blown it for us.

But Amaryllis took a few deep breaths, gave us a nasty smile, and said,"I would kill you now, but then Arachne wouldn't be happy. And if I want to stay alive, Arachne should stay happy."

She turned back and continued striding down the corridor. As we bobbed above her, I marveled at how much Amaryllis had changed.

Before, Amaryllis was extremely giving and kind. We had noticed something missing from her, and had distrusted her because of it, but she had never really shown anything to make us openly oppose her.

Now, she was openly ruthless and cunning, as if she wanted the us to know what she could do.

There was still something that bothered me. When she made her first act as a leader, she gave a choice to her friends on whether they wanted to go or not. Amaryllis had said that going on the quest would give us a fighting chance. She said it could save our families. She had persuaded us to go. Why, if she was on Arachne's side? Wouldn't she want to remove every obstacle, every minimal thing, so that there would be no doubt to Arachne's rise?

Amaryllis took us along the corridor. At the end of it, there was a large empty space. Amaryllis said a few words, and suddenly the seven were trapped on a big bubble of shimmering magic.

"There," said Amaryllis smugly. "Now you can't get out." She left.

I turned to her friends. but before she could say anything, the bubble started turning.

"Ow!" I exclaimed. As she sat up, she saw Eli clawing wildly at the bubble, making it tip and turn.

"Stop it! Calm down!" cried Holly, using her power. Eli stopped clawing at the magical wall, and the wild look in his eyes disappeared.

"Sorry," he mumbled, looking down at his hands. "I told you before, it's one of my fits. I haven't had one since that one when we first got here, but.... you know." A tear was in his eye.

Holly put a hand on his shoulder.

"It's okay," she said softly. "Don't worry, it's not your fault..."

Then she started crying.

"I'm so sorry for not trusting you," she said. "Back when we thought you had kept a secret from us. I was so mad at you, but then it turned out that Arachne had planted all that balderdash in your head... I'm so, so, sorry!"

"Yeah," said Kae, and his ice blue eyes were warm and comforting. "We all are, Eli, I'm sorry." The others chorused our sorry's too, and I said," I am really sorry for being suspicious of you when you guys kept the scrolls a secret. You were only doing what was best for the quest, and I know I would have done it as well. I'm really sorry."

"Aw, don't be," said Stephanie, putting an arm around me. "It's okay. Really, it is."

With that, the tears were wiped away, and someone cracked a corny joke, and with the peals of ridiculous laughter that followed, everyone felt the best we had in a long, long, time.
Chapter 24

As the day grew long, the laughter stopped, and our faces grew somber. Arachne was going to rise at midnight, and we knew that once she rose and gained full power, no one would be able to stop her. We had to get her tonight.

"Well, does anyone have any ideas?" asked Stephanie.

"Nope," said Holly.

"Zilch," said Mallory.

"Nada," said Phillip.

Haven't got anything," said Kae.

"I've got zero," said Eli.

"I have one," I said. We were sitting, as best as we could in the small bubble, with our feet touching in the center and our backs against the wall.

"It's not much of one," I warned.

"Still something," said Stephanie. "Let's hear it."

"Well," I began, " When you first appointed me leader of the quest-"

"Which you did a very good job of," said Kae, pretending to raise a toast.

"Thank you," I said, caught slightly off guard. "When you appointed me as leader, I gave you a choice on whether you wanted to go on the quest or not, right?"

"Um, yeah," said Mallory. "We all said yes, so what?"

"No," I said impatiently. "When you were all deciding, what did Amaryllis say?"

"She said," said Stephanie,"even though Arachne hasn't risen yet, the Earth is still disturbed by the rising of such a evil creature. The results are that the planet has transformed into a temporary version of the true Land of Au and that the population of Earth are being held in captivity to ensure their safety. Defeating Arachne would bring back the population and return Earth to normal. If you don't try, though, you'll be stuck living here for a month, and then when Arachne rises, be incinerated."

I nodded. "Exactly. She persuaded us to go on the quest."

I waited for my words to sink in.

Stephanie gasped.

"She persuaded us!" she cried out.

"And if she did-" started Holly, but in her excitement didn't finish. No more had to be said, though. Everyone knew what we was thinking.

"Do you think she might be on Kira's and our side after all?" asked Mallory.

I shook her head.

"No, I think she truly is loyal to Arachne," she said.

"Then why-" began Eli.

"No," I said, my excitement beginning to take over. "I think she was forced to be loyal to Arachne because she is a Spinner. I also think that she would like to be as evil and ruthless as Arachne, but just can't. She knows it's wrong, so she just can't bring herself to do it."

"How do you know all this?" asked Phillip in fascination.

I shrugged.

"She persuaded us to go on the quest. She's trying to be as evil as Arachne, did you see how openly ruthless she was? Yet she didn't seem comfortable with it. I think that Amaryllis wishes she could do the right thing, but can't find the courage to do it. So she helps us in little ways that Arachne won't notice. Like giving us that bit of info to make us go on the quest. After we got out, she put us in a different holding cell instead of turning us over to Arachne. In little ways, she trying to help us defeat Arachne so she can finally be free," I said. "And if we can persuade her to openly oppose Arachne with us, we may just win. How does that sound?"

"Nice," admitted Stephanie. "So what's our plan?"

I grinned as she leaned in.

"Magic," I whispered.
Chapter 25

I tried for the tenth time. I hurled the golden streak of light at the bubble, trying to make it shatter. The light struck the bubble and dissipated.

"It's no use," I said, slumping down. "It definitely will not work."

"Not true," said Kae. "Look, you made a crack there." He pointed. I leaned closer and did, in fact, see a small, thin, line running down the side of the bubble. I gave Kae a grateful smile, and reached for the magic inside once again. I had proved surprisingly adequate with magic, needing no practice to make it work. This, I supposed, was just how you felt with a power. It came naturally, without any practice. Useful if you need to defeat a spider queen in three hours.

I continued to hit the crack again and again, until finally the bubble burst open, and we all cheered silently. We clambered out and jumped the few feet to the bottom.

Once there, we silently congratulated one another with pats on the back to me and silent squeals (Yes, even the boys got into it. Don't listen to them. They got into it.)

After congratulations, we crept along the corridors. We were heading the way we saw Amaryllis go, and all was going well until we encountered a fork in the road.

"Which way should we go?" whispered Stephanie.

"I don't know," I said. "Maybe we should just pick one and take it."

Her friends looked at her like she was crazy.

"Hey, look," said Phillip, pointing. The orange goo from the apple was sliding down the left hallway.

"Should we take it?" asked Kae.

"Why not?" I said, and we all hurried down after the goop puddle. The goop led us down all sorts of hallways and corridors until we finally stopped at a door where the goop slid inside through the crack underneath the door.

''Let's go in?" asked Stephanie, phrasing it like a question.

"Sure," I said, and Eli opened the door. Inside was the goddess Islana.

"Islana," I said.

"Evanna," said the goddess, inclining her head. "And Holly, Mallory, Stephanie, Eli, Phillip, and Kae. What a nice surprise." She didn't sound surprised.

"Why did the goop lead us here?" I asked as politely as she could.

"Goop?" questioned the goddess. I gestured to the goop, which had retreated to the corner.

"Oh, that," said the goddess. "Here." She snapped her fingers, and the goop transformed into a little elf. He had gray-green eyes, and blond hair and wore an outfit like one Santa's elves.

"Oh, you're so cute!" exclaimed Holly, reaching down to pet the little thing.

"Excuse me!" cried the elf, hopping away. "What a grave offense! I am not cute! I am useful!" He puffed his chest out proudly.

"Yes," said Islana. "You are useful." She snapped her fingers and a purse appeared, emblazoned with the word MINIONS. Islana picked up the elf and stuck him in the purse, snapped her fingers once more and the purse disappeared.

"Thank you," said the goddess. "I needed a new minion, mine were running low."

"What did you do?" asked Holly, horrified.

"Oh, just collected a new minion. I couldn't do it myself, Arachne would immediately know of my presence and banish me somewhere, so I had to get you to do it. See, all my minions are born from apples. Mouse holes have magical powers. If you place an apple slice by one, an elf grows and rushes off to find me. And that's what I need you to do," said Islana. "Now that you have done it, I can grant you a gift."

"What kind of gift?" asked Stephanie, raising her eyebrows in suspicion.

"A spell," said the goddess. "The only one in existence that can defeat Arachne."

The room grew still.

"Are you sure?" asked Stephanie. "Absolutely sure?"

"I am sure," said the goddess. "I am the only only one who knows about it besides Arachne, and now you seven kids. Will you accept my gift?"

Stephanie still looked suspicious, but I said, "Yes, thank you, Islana, goddess of fortune, gifts, and celebration."

The goddess smiled, showing all her teeth, and produced a scroll from thin air. She dropped it in my palm and said,"Use it well."

She turned to go.

"Wait!" I called out. The goddess looked back.

"Um," said I awkwardly. "Um, we don't know the way back to the room Arachne is in. Er, can you..."

Islana smiled.

"Done," she said. She snapped her fingers and the little elf my friends and I helped create appeared, looking a little dazed.

"He'll lead the way," said Islana. Then she disappeared.
Chapter 26

"Well!" said Holly, staring at the spot where the goddess disappeared.

"The elf looked up at her.

He is pretty adorable, I thought. Though he isn't more than two feet tall.

As if the elf guessed what I was thinking, he gave her a scowl and set off for the door.

"Are we going to follow him?" asked Eli.

"Do we have a choice?" asked Kae for loke the tenth time during this quest. Holly had already run after the elf, yelling,"But we don't even know your name!"

"Nope," I said, and we ran after the elf.

The elf's name, as it turned out, was Pipsqueak. Pipsqueak crossly led us through the halls muttering angrily about the demeaning job he had while Holly ran after him telling him how cute his name was.

We trailed after them, making small talk, but I knew what was all on our minds: What the scroll said. I hadn't opened it yet, and I knew her friends were becoming uncomfortable as they waited. I felt guilty about that, but for some reason, I didn't want to open the scroll until she had to.

"Um, Evanna?" asked Kae as we raced after Pipsqueak, who had decided to amp up his speed.

"Yeah?" she puffed out.

"Can you.. once Pipsqueak slows down.... open the scroll?" he heaved. My spirits sank slightly as I nodded.

"Yeah," I said. "Sure."

Finally Pipsqueak slowed down until he almost started strolling along the corridors, and Kae fell in step with me.

"Well?" he asked. I sighed.

"Call the others," I said. Kae gave her a grin and did so.

My friends gathered around me eagerly.

I took out the scroll and began to read.

"Ingredients," I read out loud. "One silver bell, one strand of silk made by a Firozsha spider, two eyes of newt, and the leaves of a blue fern-rose."

I looked up.

"Do we have any of those things?" asked Holly.

"Oh!" cried out Mallory. "I have the fern-rose leaves. They were left over from when I treated Evanna's leg from the spike Aren'k threw."

"And I know where to get a sliver bell," said Stephanie with a sly smile.

"Where?" I inquired curiously. Stephanie smiled that creepy smile again and pointed at Pipsqueak's hat. There, on top, were three jingly silver bells.

"Perfect," said Phillip, giving her an approving smile. "But how are we going to get it from him?"

We all turned to Holly.

"Oh, no," she said. "If you think I'm going to use my power of voice against him to get him to give up one of his bells, I'll just let you know right now that I am not going to do it."

Stephanie smiled her best Cheshire cat grin.

"Oh, yes, yes you are," she said. "And before you try to argue I'll have you know I have never lost an argument. I always win them over in the end. So instead of wasting all that time I'd get going."

"It's true," said Kae helpfully. "She keeps on arguing until her opponent gets worn out and gives up."

Holly sighed. "Fine," she said.

After pouring all the sweetness, charm, and innocence in her voice that she held, she held the whole room mesmerized as she coyly asked for a bell. As soon as the elf placed it in her palm she strode back to her friends, dropped the bell into my palm, and said," Close your mouth, Stephanie, you look like a fish." Then she stalked back up toward Pipsqueak and began jabbering away with him.

"Well," said Mallory. "That was.. unusual."

Stephanie snorted.

"Please," she said. "I don't think I've ever seen a better performance anywhere. I'm going to go congratulate her." She walked up to Holly.

"So am I," said Eli, running up to her.

"Can't hurt," I said as she walked up to Holly, and everyone followed her. Holly relaxed as everyone praised her, and Pipsqueak looked mutinous as he heard how utterly entranced he had been by Holly's voice.
Chapter 27

"Well, I think that's all we can get from the ingredients for now," I said, staring at her list.

"Uh-huh," said Stephanie. "We better hope we can find the other stuff in Arachne's room."

"You have it?" came a voice from the hallway. We turned. Amaryllis stood behind us. She had changed back into the appearance she wore when she met us.

"You really have it?" she asked incredulously. "The spell of Akandi, the only spell that can defeat Arachne?"

"Um, yes," I said uncertainly. Amaryllis didn't look like she was going to attack, so I decided to hold my fire as long as she did.

"Ever since Arachne enslaved me I've been looking for it..." breathed Amaryllis.

"Wait, what?" asked Mallory. "Arachne enslaved you?"

Amaryllis nodded, not taking her eyes off the scroll.

"She enslaved me and my entire family, the race of the Spinners. It might surprise you, but we are a peaceful race. Only Arachne became corrupted, and wanted to gain control. She mastered the darkest magic, and threatened to use it on us unless we swore fealty to her. We were all cowards. We all, one by one, went up to Arachne's throne and swore fealty. I'm afraid some of us are still cowards. Like me. I, in little ways, did try to oppose Arachne, but I could never be as brave as you seven," said Amaryllis. Just then, Amaryllis did not look like someone who we couldn't trust, she didn't look like a ruthless, cunning, evil machine. She looked like a confused seventeen-year old girl. My face softened as she reached out to touch Amaryllis's hand.

"But you can," I said softly. "If you join us now, you can be the person you wanted to be. It's not too late."

"Person?" asked Amaryllis, tears pooling in her eyes, "No, I will never be a person. I am a coward, and I cannot change that. I am sorry, Evanna, but I cannot." She withdrew her hand. "I will not oppose you, Evanna. You must fulfill your destiny. Go. Arachne's room is that way."

Amaryllis pointed to a hallway.

"Second door on the right," she said.

"Thank you," I said, and she kissed Amaryllis's cheek. We turned to go, but Amaryllis stopped her.

"Wait," she said, alarm in her eyes. "Isn't one of the ingredients for the spell a strand of silk from a Firozsha spider?"

"Yes," I said. "How did you know?"

"The Spinners are a type of Firozsha spider," said Amaryllis, ignoring my question. "If you want...."

I looked at her for a minute, confused, and then her face cleared.

"Oh!" she said. "Um, yes, thank you, if you can..."

I trailed off as Amaryllis reached inside her cardigan pocket and pulled out a handful of pearly white strands, which she pressed into my hand.

"In case you need extra," she said, smiling at me. I smiled back and said,"Thank you." Amaryllis smiled slightly as we turned off to follow Pipsqueak. When I looked back, she was gone.

______________________________________________

The second door on the right didn't look any different than the others. Pipsqueak had pointed us to the door and left, muttering angrily about how he'd never live it down.

I pushed it open. This time, we were in a dark large circular room, with damp, dark, stones making up the walls. Weird dark green slimy clambered over the wall, filling the room with a strange smell. There was no sign of Arachne. Suddenly, someone tapped my shoulder. She jumped, and turned to find Holly.

"Look," she whispered, and pointed to a shelf. On it were jars, and one of them was labeled EYES OF NEWT.

"Thanks," I whispered, and I reached inside and grabbed two of the slimy balls.

We all stood in the center of the room. The room was extremely dark, and I could barely make out anything in the murky gloom. Just as her eyes started to get adjusted and she could make a couple of blurry shapes, a bright light was switched on and the room flooded with light. Then, into the center of the light, walked Arachne, and after her Amaryllis.
Chapter 28

"So," said Arachne, pressing the tips of her fingers together. "You escaped yet again." She smiled a slow, creepy, smile.

"Amaryllis!" she exclaimed, her sly expression changing as fast as flash into a expression of thunderous murder. "How dare you let them go again! And after I was so kind to let you go the first time!"

Amaryllis shrank back and whispered,"You know about that?"

Arachne gave her a murderous and triumphant smile.

"I know all," she said in a deadly whisper, showing all her teeth. Amaryllis looked very scared.

"You," continued Arachne in a voice that trembled with suppressed anger. "You! You are the most incompetent servant I have ever had! You are lucky that I will forgive you once more.."

But Arachne stopped, because Amaryllis had gotten up, her warm cocoa eyes narrowed into slits.

"Servant?" hissed Amaryllis. "I am a mere servant to you? No, not just a servant, an incompetent one?"

Arachne began to stammer slightly, but Amaryllis cut through her.

"If I am so little needed to you, I see no reason to continue in your service," she said. "I QUIT!"

Arachne looked so shocked, that later I wished she had a camera.

"You can't quit!" cried Arachne incredulously. "Do I need to remind you of the powers I have gained control of, the things I can do to you if you don't follow me?"

Amaryllis faced her, looking at Arachne straight in the eye.

"You know what?" asked Amaryllis scathingly. "I. Don't. Care. Do your worst."

"No, Amaryllis!" I cried, but Amaryllis ignored me.

"You will see what happens when you defy me!" cried Arachne imperiously. She raised her hand, and I cried,"No!" and tried to push Amaryllis out of the way.

But my friends held me back, and right before the flaming red ball of fire hit Amaryllis, she turned straight to me and said,"Make my death count, Evanna." Then the ball of fire crashed into her, and all that was left of Amaryllis was a big, black, smudge.

"No!" I cried, tears running down her face. "No!"

"Shh, Evanna, calm down," said Holly. She was using her power, I knew, because I instantly felt calm when Holly's words reached my ears.

"Yes!" said Arachne, her mad eyes gleaming with hunger. "Yes, now you see what I can do! Do you fear me? Do you dread me?"

I did, in fact, feel fear inside, a fear so strong all she wanted to do was to curl up in a ball and hide. But something inside her, something so strong it could overpower anything, knew that she could not let Amaryllis's fate come to anyone else.

"Yes," I said. "Yes, I do fear you." Arachne cackled with mad delight, but I continued.

"But sometimes," I said. "You can't give in to fear. If you let fear rule your life, you can never do anything. And I'm not gonna let fear rule my life."

Arachne snorted and said, "You are so stupid the way you think a that a few noble words will save your life. Look at that." Arachne pointed out the window, and I could see a beautiful white moon, as round as the most perfect pearl, rising up in the sky.

"The moon will soon reach its zenith, and I will rise at full power, and no one will be able to defeat me then!" cried Arachne.

"Yeah, well I plan to stop you before that happens," I said, and I reached into her pocket to get the scroll.

"We'll distract her, you say the spell," said Kae, and I flashed him a smile.

"Charge!" I said, then I retreated to a quiet corner, trying to ignore the hullabaloo that followed.

I spread out the ingredients, and began to say the spell, crushing or smelling the appropriate items at the appropriate times during the spell. It was a very long one, with all sorts of complex ideas and footnotes written that I had to watch out for or risk ruining the spell. I read until my throat got parched, and as I paused for a minute, I looked up at my friends. Things were going well. Holly was using her power to make Arachne slap herself, and Phillip had convinced all the rats in the room to nibble at Arachne's feet. Kae was lifting the most heavy objects possible and launching them at Arachne. This would have worked very well except for the fact that Kae had terrible aim. It was still effective, because it limited the space Arachne could hide. Stephanie was using her speed to whirl up a tornado, and she was making a big mess as she whirled about the room. Since Eli's and Mallory's powers were fairly useless at this point, they were helping Stephanie in making a huge mess by knocking jars off the walls and throwing things in Arachne's way. Eli was also checking in with me at times with his mind, (my magic powers allowed me to do mind communication with Eli.) and that helped the others. In fact, I was feeling hopeful that we might actually defeat Arachne when Arachne screamed, "Enough!"

I could feel Arachne gathering the magic inside her, and then she shot ice blue streaks of light at everybody. Suddenly Holly's and Phillip's voice stopped working. All the rats went back to their mouse holes and Arachne stopped slapping herself.

Stephanie became incredibly, incredibly slow, and she began strolling around the room, though I suspected she was trying her hardest to run. Kae instantly dropped the desk he was holding and could now barely lift a sack of flour. I could no longer communicate with Eli, and he and Mallory was frozen in place, unable to either throw things about and make a mess or tend to anybody. Arachne had stopped our powers.

I hurriedly went through the spell as Arachne looked around the room in satisfaction.

"You think you are to defeat me? Ha! Look, you are already imprisoned by just a simple bit of magic!" crowed Arachne. Sweating, I continued to quietly murmur the spell, praying that Arachne wouldn't notice that there were only six of us imprisoned. Arachne continued to boast and brag about her victory, she didn't seem to realize that they were all searching the walls with their eyes, searching for me.

Out of the corner of her eye, I saw Arachne frowning as she counted her prisoners.

Biting her lip, I rushed through the last couple sentences. Sighing in relief, I began saying the words that would channel out the magic, whena hand gripped my shoulder. Looking up, I saw Arachne grinning down at her.

Arachne hauled me up and dragged her to the center of the room. I had just ten more words to get through, words I'd already memorized. I managed to push out four without Arachne noticing. Two more, and Arachne still didn't notice. Finally, almost inaudibly she murmured three more words, but before she could say the last word, Arachne's face was upon her.

"What's that you're saying girl?" she asked, her face leering at her. I grimaced. Arachne had been beautiful before, but as the moon rose higher, her features changed, and she became more ugly and terrible by the minute.

I tried to back away, but Arachne kept a good hold on her.

"Just... just some.." I stammered.

"Some words from the spell of Akandi?" asked Arachne, her eyes angry. She got up, and for the first time, there was some fear in her eyes.

"No... no!" cried Arachne. She went to the window.

"Hurry.... hurry!" she said, staring at the moon with pleading eyes.

I sat up unsteadily and said the last word.

"Release."
Chapter 29

I could feel the magic building up inside me. It filled me up, making me feel suffocated. There was a burning sensation all inside of her, rising up and threatening to bubble out. I took a deep breath and channeled the magic. I let it stream out of me, emptying myself and my mind. I saw the beautiful streak of white light flow out of me and light the whole room bright. The room transformed into a beautiful ballroom with golden chandeliers decorated with crystal clear diamonds. And lastly, it hit Arachne, and in a spurt of golden light, she was encased in spinning golden rays of light. And then, the light faded, and she was no more.

I could feel her heart pounding in her chest. She couldn't believe that she had done it. She had defeated Arachne.

She looked at all her friends and smiled. They all seemed fine. The light had transformed us to our fullest selves and we all looked beautiful.

Stephanie and Holly stared at her in wonder, their skin glowing and their eyes sparkling. Mallory's orange hair actually looked lovely on her, and her milky blue eyes had a new purpose and light in them. Eli's jittery nature had calmed down, and he looked, for the first time, like someone who knew what to do. Phillip had a new confidence, and he smiled at whoever looked at him. And Kae laughing, and he looked the best he had in a long time.

"You guys," I cried. "We did it!"

Even after such a feat of magic, I did not feel tired. I was, in fact, pulsing with energy, and I loved it.

"Yes, we did," said Holly, but she continued to look at me in wonder.

"What?" I asked, raising my hands to my face in self-consciousness.

"Evanna," breathed Stephanie,"You look beautiful."

I snapped her fingers, and a floor length mirror appeared in front of me. I was dressed in a simple, but beautiful gown of green, with golden spirals decorating the hem. Beautiful green diamonds studded her Disney Belle-style neckline. Her auburn curls had been swept up into an elegant updo, and her coppery-green eyes sparkled with dancing lights.

As she looked at her friends, their appearance also began to change.

Holly's messy blond hair became clean, bouncy curls. They shone in the light of the magnificent chandelier. Her gray eyes sharpened and became a sparkly silver. She wore a sleeveless silver dress that was mid-calf length, with a black belt at her waist. It was just like her, pretty with a no-nonsense attitude. She saw herself in the mirror and gasped.

Stephanie wore an ice-blue dress that matched the color of her eyes. It was a sophisticated sheath, and Stephanie looked beautiful. Her frizzy strawberry blonde hair became smooth and silky, and she looked gorgeous.

Mallory's hair no longer was a dull pumpkin orange. All the different hues in her hair were brought out and enhanced, and her hair was the color of rich spices. Her blue eyes danced with amusement, and I felt like the true Mallory was coming out. Mallory wore a lovely crimson velvet that reached just below her knees, and she looked stunning. The boys had been brushed up and were now wearing slacks and white button downs. They all looked amazed.

"What happened? Who made us look like that?" asked Kae.

A soft voice spoke from behind.

"Evanna did."

We turned and saw a lovely girl, about eight years old, in a soft pink dress. She had round cheeks and short bouncy golden curls. Her bright blue eyes sparkled with pleasure.

"Evanna's spell," she said. "It was a cleansing spell. It is meant to remove all bad and enhance all good, on the outside and the inside." She smiled at Mallory, who was still gaping at herself in the mirror.

"But since Arachne had no goodness left inside her," continued the girl, "She was completely destroyed."

"Destroyed?" asked Holly. "You mean, we'll never have to worry about her again?"

The girl smiled.

"Never again," she said. "You can all return to your normal lives." I looked at her friends. She wasn't sure she wanted that.

"Um, what's your name?" asked Kae. The girl gave an embarrassed laugh.

"Oh, sorry," she said. "My name is Rosalie. I'm a fairy."

"I came to congratulate you on defeating Arachne. My mother was afraid you were dangerous, but you're so beautiful after the cleansing spell it can't be true. Mother!" called Rosalie. "These people are our friends. You can come out now." And after that came out a thousand different creatures.

"This is my family," said Rosalie proudly. I gaped. An elderly elf came forward.

"I thank you," he said in a trembling voice. "On behalf of myself and my family, for ridding the Land of Au of the terrible villainess Arachne. Thank you." He backed into the crowd. I felt a tear form in my eye. One by one, they all formed a line and thanked her for defeating Arachne, and I felt the tear fall, and then another, and then I fully began to cry.
Chapter 30

"I'm exhausted," said Holly.

"So am I," said Stephanie, rubbing her back.

"Where are we going to sleep tonight?" asked I, yawning.

"More importantly, how are we gonna get back home?" asked Eli.

"Rosalie seems to know," I said. "Maybe we can ask her tomorrow."

"After the ball," said Kae, and smiled. The creatures of the Land of Au had insisted to their throwing us a ball.

"Yeah," I said, stretching. "But we really should find a place to sleep tonight. And we have lots to deal with after. We need to converse with the Spinners and make sure they're on our side and won't, you know, kill us, and we need to find our family and-" But I was interrupted by Mallory finding a room filled with hay. We all lay down on the hay we had fluffed into mattresses and went right to sleep.

The next morning, I awoke the same time as Holly. Sharing a secret smile, I crept over to her.

"You still look gorgeous," whispered Holly as not to wake anyone.

"So do you," I whispered back.

"Do you want to go find Rosalie?" whispered Stephanie, who seemed to have super hearing in addition to super speed.

"Sure," I whispered. We hadn't changed from the night before, and were still wearing our gowns, so we quietly tiptoed out of the room to the ballroom.

"Hi!" exclaimed Rosalie when she saw us. "I bet you want to know how to get back to your family and back home."

"Um, yeah," I said. Rosalie winked at us and said, "Your families will be joining us for the ball tonight, and the enchantment over your planet will be lifted after the ball."

"Oh, okay," I said. "Is there anything-"

"-you can do to help the ball?" finished Rosalie. "Oh, no, this is a ball for you! We'll do all the work, you go and enjoy yourselves today."

"Thank you," I said. "But we need to do something first. Can you give us the directions to where the Spinners are being held?"

"Oh, yes, they are in the dungeons below the castle. No one wants to go down there, so they've been left alone for awhile," said Rosalie.

"Oh, all right, thank you," said I, and Rosalie gave us a wink and left to help with the decorations.

"Well, I guess we're visiting the castle dungeons tonight," I said.

"And after that, we'll finally be free of this madness," said Holly.

"Let's get it over with as soon as possible," said Stephanie. "I'll wake our friends."

"We'll come with you," I said, eyeing her mischievous smile.

We went to our room to find our friends panicking at our absence.

"Where did you go?" asked Kae.

Stephanie told them what had happened.

"Thank god," said Phillip, falling back against some hay. "We thought you were dead."

"Why would you think that?" said Stephanie, taking a seat next to him. Without waiting for an answer, she went on,"So what are we waiting for? Let's go to the dungeons!"

"What?" groaned Eli, rubbing his eyes. He had always been a late riser. Stephanie rolled her eyes and told him about the Spinners.

"Let's go," said Phillip, heaving himself up. "I want to get this over with as soon as possible." He walked out and the others followed him.

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We stood in the dungeons. It actually looked a lot like a prison. A Spinner was imprisoned in each cell. Phillip spoke in a inaudible tone. He listened and said something else. After about half an hour of listening to nothing, Stephanie became impatient. Luckily Phillip was just about done. Opening his mouth, he said one last thing, and then he made a 'let's go' motion.

Exiting the dungeons, Stephanie demanded answers.

"What happened in there?" she asked. Phillip sighed.

"I spoke with Arachne. The senior one, I mean. She said that Amaryllis was right, that the Spinners were threatened into this by Arachne Jr., but most of them are corrupted with evil and greed. The rest of them are lifeless with fear. She thinks it's best to leave them there, and so do I," said Phillip.

"But-" began Stephanie, but Phillip cut her off.

"No, Stephanie. If you had heard them, which I did, then you'd agree with me. They can't leave there. If they do, they'll tear apart the world. We have to leave them there and hope that time brings some sense into their heads," said Phillip. It was silent for a while after this.

"Are you excited for the ball?" asked Holly, after a while. Her flushed cheeks made it obvious she was.

"Yep," said Mallory. "I can't wait."

"All that dancing?" said Stephanie. "Please. I'd rather eat dirt."

"Well, we'll get to meet our family tonight too," I reminded her.

"Very true," said Stephanie, nimbly hopping over Pipsqueak, who had been forced onto the decorating team.

"And we'll get back home," said Kae. This made me feel a bit sad. I had made such good friends here. I didn't want to go back to Trinity Di's Academy.

"Oddly enough," said Holly, wearing a wobbly smile. "That's not so happy for me. I don't really like home. Especially my school. I go to Trinity Di's Academy, you ever heard of it?" I froze.

Everyone looked blank except for Stephanie, who said,"I've heard of it, but it's pretty far away from where I live, in Manhattan. So you live in New York?"

But before Holly could respond, I said joyfully,"I go to Trinity Di!"

Holly turned to her, an astonished look on her face.

"You do?" she asked.

"Uh-huh," said I. "What building are you in?"

"C," said Holly.

"A," said I.

"That's why we haven't ever seen each other," said Holly. "Do you think Mrs. Di will let one of us switch buildings?"

"Pretty sure she will," I said with a grin. "My mom's Evelyn, the supermodel."

"No way," said Holly. "The Evelyn?"

"The one and only," I said.

"I live in New York, too, a couple blocks away from Stephanie," said Kae.

"That's right, you two are cousins," said Mallory. "Evanna told me."

We exchanged addresses, and we all lived in New York. Mallory lived in Greenwich Village, where I used to live, and Eli lived in Binghamton, where his dad was a professor at the university. Phillip lived in a place called Watkins Glen.

"This is great," I said. "Tonight we should introduce our families to each other so we can meet up when we're back."

"That's a great idea," said Mallory. "I was thinking-" But she never got to finish, because an elf ushered us all away to get ready for the ball.
Chapter 31

I looked at herself in the floor-length mirror. I looked even more beautiful than the night she defeated Arachne. Tarsi, the elf who had got her ready had done her job well.

I was wearing a replica of the dress she was wearing when she had defeated Arachne, except the color was forest green, which, according to Tarsi, looked 'infinitely more beautiful with your eyes'. Truth be told, it did make my eyes look stunning. Tarsi had lined her eyes with a amber-colored stub, bringing out the swirls of copper in her eyes. With powdered jade and a brush Tarsi had dusted her eyelids, and painted her lips with coral paint. Tarsi had then given her golden earrings with coral stones set in them, and a matching necklace that brought out the red hues in her auburn hair. A pair of Holly's ballet flats had been painted gold, and I had put them on. Lastly, her hair had been sprinkled on with a bit of fairy magic, and instantly it flowed like water against her bare shoulders. A simple golden circlet was placed on her head, and I looked gorgeous. After thanking Tarsi many, many, times, I headed out the door. I was supposed to go down last, so she sat back and watched her friends go down.

Holly was dressed in all silver- she was wearing silver eye shadow, liner, and shoes. Her dress from the defeat of Arachne had been ironed out and cleaned, and now she was wearing it. Even her eyes glittered silver tonight. Even in her hair, which had been let down from it's ponytail and curled, had a silver butterfly-shaped clip in it.

Stephanie, like Holly, was decked out in one color, also the color of her eyes. She wore the ice-blue sheath that my spell had given her, and ice blue heels, which I thought Stephanie wouldn't be caught dead wearing. In her hair was a simple blue headband, and it had been left in her natural style. Mallory followed her, wearing a reddish-orange wool knit dress. She wore brown ankle leather boots and coral jewelry. Her hair had been curled and she wore a red-beaded ornament in her hair. Then the boys went, each wearing a suit and a corsage the color of their eyes in their pocket. For Eli, who had brown eyes, a yellow carnation was given. They had even found one for Phillip, who had strange hazel eyes, ones you could never decide what color they were. With a little bit of magic, a flower had been enchanted to match the flowing colors. After them came me, and oohs and aaas came from the creatures of Au. I slowly entered the ballroom, and a cheer came from the crowd.

"Go Evanna!"

In my sleep, I would know who that voice belonged to. It was her mother. I tried to smile as the crowd started whooping and hollering for her, but inside I was sweating about my mother. What would she say? Would she be cold and distant like she was that day five years ago, the last memory I had of her home? I won't be able to bear it if she will be, I thought nervously.

The minute one of the rowdy dwarves shouted,"Let the dancing begin!", and the music started playing, I rushed on into the dancing to find her mother.

"Hey, Evanna!" called Kae. "Wait!" But she didn't hear him. I pushed through swarms of people, trying to locate the voice that had been the first one cheering for her, always.

"Ow!" came a voice who's foot I had stepped on. And I recognized the voice. She turned around.

"Mom?" I asked hesitantly. Her mother turned and saw me.

"Oh, sweetie," she said, her face softening.

"Mom!" I choked out, and I buried my face in her arms. Then I grew afraid, and stepped back a little, but my mom just pulled me in. At last, when we were getting in the way of dancers, my mom led me outside the ballroom where we could talk in peace.

"Oh, honey, I'm so sorry!" cried my mom. "I'm sorry for neglecting you, and pushing you away, and everything I did wrong after getting that job. I'm sorry."

"Mom, it's okay," I said. "In fact, it taught me something. That I shouldn't take you for granted. I can't. You do so much for me, and I never really realized it until it wasn't there. I'm sorry for that."

"No, no, Evanna. You shouldn't be sorry. It was all my fault. And you probably won't know this, because they told me you were sleeping, but there were five long years before you saved us. And during those years I missed you so much, I couldn't stand it. That's when I knew what I did wrong. Do you know the last words I said to you? They were about me. And you could have died on that trip, and those could have been my last ever words to you. I knew I would never make that mistake again," said her mom.

"Oh, mom," I said. "I love you so much."

"Aw, sweetie," said my mom, and enveloped me in a hug. After a few minutes, I said,"You know, there's a ball going on out there. One of a kind."

"Let's go," said my mom, smiling down at me. We headed out into the ballroom.

"Hey, Evanna!" said a voice I knew very well. Kae came running up to me.

"Uh, hi, are you Evanna's mom?" he said to my mother.

She smiled. "Yes, yes I am. And who might you be?"

"He's a friend. He came with me on the quest. His name is Kae," I said.

"Nice to meet you, Kae," said my mom, extending a hand. He shook it and smiled, and then turned to me.

"Um, I was just wondering, I mean if you want to-" he stammered. My mom winked at me.

"If you need me, I'll be right over there," she said pointing to the rest chairs, and left. Kae scratched his head.

"So, if you want to, I mean, will you, um, you know..." Kae trailed off. I smiled.

"Yes, Kae, I will dance with you," I laughed, taking his arm.

Kae smiled sheepishly and led me out on the dance floor. And as we whirled away, we saw Holly and Eli dancing together. And then the music carried us off, and we danced all night, laughing and talking. As as the last notes drifted away, and the enchantment lifted, I stepped into my very own world and knew that everything was going to be fine.

