The Familiars #4: Palace of Dreams by Adam Jay Epstein, Andrew Jacobson Page B

months ago, the rain would have washed away all the little pieces already.”
    “When did you become the detective?” Skylar asked.
    “I’ve had my fair share of accidents,” Gilbert replied. “I know my way around broken stuff.”
    Skylar closed her eyes and concentrated.
    “Kalstaff, Yonatan, hear my call and speak once more,” Skylar chanted to the sky. She tossed the silver powder into the air and intoned, “Mortis communicatum!”
    The familiars waited. Aldwyn recalled that the spell didn’t take effect immediately when Agorus was summoned, either.
    Suddenly a bluish mist began to appear. But as it materialized, the mist seemed to be getting sucked back into the hole that it was emerging from. The portal grew more solid, and Aldwyn could see two forms struggling to escape—the spirits of Kalstaff and the Mountain Alchemist. They were trying to break from the confines of the Tomorrowlife, but something was pulling them back.
    “This isn’t right,” Skylar said. “A spell vacuum has been cast. Someone doesn’t want us communicating with the dead.”
    Aldwyn watched as Kalstaff and the Alchemist trudged forward, fighting the invisible force that was trying to hold them back. While the vacuum might have been capable of preventing a lesser wizard from coming forth, it couldn’t stop ones as powerful as these.

    “Familiars, is that you?” Kalstaff asked, his voice trembling in the turbulent gusts.
    “Yes,” Skylar replied. “We’ve come to seek your help.”
    He was clearly having trouble hearing, as he spoke right over her.
    “The children, are they safe? Did Queen Loranella hurt them?”
    “They’re okay,” Aldwyn shouted back, loud enough to be heard over the spell vacuum. “And it wasn’t the queen who captured them. It was Paksahara, posing as the queen.”
    “The trickery of a shapeshifter. I should have known.”
    Another strong pull from behind made Kalstaff stumble, but he stayed steady on his feet. The Alchemist was using his cane to push himself forward, coming up alongside Kalstaff.
    “I’ve been murdered, haven’t I?” he asked warily.
    “That’s right,” Gilbert responded. “Just a few days ago.”
    “We have a question for you both,” Skylar said. “An attempt was made on Loranella’s life. She’s been given a parasitic poison. Ravens and healers have been able to keep her in the Wander, but nothing’s been able to heal her. We understand that the original Prophesized Three were told of a way to reverse such a curse.”
    “I know just the potion by heart,” the Alchemist said. “Forty-three components are needed. First I will recite the essential liquids. Echo drool, water from the Wildecape Sea, dew drops—”
    The force of the spell vacuum was getting louder. Now the familiars were struggling to hear. The Alchemist dug his cane into the ground, or at least tried to. But his desperate attempt to brace himself was futile. He was being tugged back.
    “You’ll never be able to say them all,” Aldwyn said. “Were they ever recorded somewhere?”
    “In one of my spell journals,” Kalstaff replied. “I transcribed them myself. There’s a secret room in the cellar at Stone Runlet.”
    “We know, we’ve been there,” Skylar said. “How can we find the journal? There were hundreds of them.”
    “The inside page is labeled ‘The Spells of Somnibus Everwake,’” Kalstaff said.
    The power of the spell vacuum was becoming even stronger, and Aldwyn could see the two old wizards struggling mightily to stand firm. The Alchemist lost his footing for just a brief moment, but that’s all it took for him to be sucked back into the Tomorrowlife once more.
    Kalstaff continued to stand fast, refusing to give in to the force that had taken his ally.
    “There’s so much I want to know,” Kalstaff said. “Please. Before I, too, am taken.”
    “The circle of heroes was reunited,” Aldwyn said. “Human and animal now rule together.”
    “And the Prophesized Three?”