Morning came with the smell of Emily’s cooking. She really had a gift, I must say. An omelet had never tasted so great. I felt better than I had yesterday, and all I had done was hold a wand. After we ate and packed Sage called us to order.
“We’re going to continue left until we meet our next task. I guess I should tell you about it, hunh?” she mused. She pulled out the leather-bound journal and opened it. “This is from the legend. ‘Follow the directions the elder gave you and you will find your path blocked. Keep your wits about you as you riddle your way past.’ That’s all it says. I think the key words are ‘wits’ and ‘riddle’, so it might be some sort of puzzle. Let’s hope it isn’t too difficult.” With those words she started walking.
We walked onward and turned left. We walked onward some more and turned left again. Eventually our pace slowed as the hot sun bore down on us. As it settled in the middle of the sky Sage called us to a halt.
“Man,” Jason, a large buff man with olive skin, huffed. “I’ve never walked so far in my life.”
“Maybe it’s a challenge within a challenge,” Landon suggested, wiping a sheen of sweat off his face. “Talisman has to test us and make sure that all of us are worthy of getting a wish granted.”
“And being worthy means being able to hike for miles on end?” Emily asked. “I’m not used to this; it doesn’t mean I’m not worthy.”
“Just try to remember what you’re here for,” Austin suggested, his sandy hair plastered to his forehead. “It’s working for me.”
“What are you here for?” I asked. He turned to me, smiling.
“A girl, what else?”
“Is she in the Hole?” Emily asked, somber.
“No, her dad’s a politician. She doesn’t have a drop of magic in her, which means that I can’t be with her,” Austin explained.
“What’s she like?” Serenity asked, catching up to us.
“Perfect,” he stated. “I don’t know how else to describe her. She and I could carry on a conversation for hours, going at each other, teasing; there’s nothing better. But when the laws started being more and more enforced, then I had to stop. Or, rather, she told me to stop, afraid that I’d be caught because of her.”
“That’s harsh, man,” Jason groaned.
“It’s been over two years since we’ve talked,” Austin nodded. “I should’ve gone anyway.” He kicked at a twig and it snapped in half with a loud CRACK! “I watch the news every day in hopes that her dad’ll be on screen and I’ll see her in the background or something. It’s awful.”
“No, sweetie, it’s romantic,” Serenity assured him. “When we get out of here with the wish granted, you can tell her that story and she’ll laugh and say that she watched the magic raids to see you in the crowd. Trust me, love has a way of working out.”
“What about you, Jae? Why’d you come?” Jason asked me.
“My guess would be more or less the same reason you and Heather did,” I replied. “We’re all non-magical, so it’s because we believe in equality and fairness and actual justice, not just segregation and persecution.”
“That’s a good answer,” Jason nodded. “Although my step-dad was a mage, and he died trying to get rid of a couple of trappers on his tail.”
“They killed him?” Emily gasped.
“Yup, and they didn’t even take him to a hospital or morgue to be buried and identified. They just dumped him in the trash,” Jason told us.
“That was your step-father? Wallis?” Serenity asked. Emily grew wide-eyed.
“Wallis? Oh, he was so nice,” she sighed. “He had the funniest stories.” We walked in silence a little while until Sage, who had been walking several yards ahead with Heather and Peter, stopped for lunch. Everyone moaned in relief. It was a quick lunch and we were off again until the sun set, when we made camp on the road.
“Alright, who’s got blisters?” Argus asked after everyone ate. Nearly everyone raised their hands and he set to work handing out small tubes of lotion. “I brought this ‘cause I suspected we’d be need’n it.”
“Thanks,” Carson muttered his first word since the werewolf experience. He didn’t say anything else, but went to the tent that all the guys would share.
As we went forward the next morning it seemed that we were heading towards the mountains that looked very close. Eventually we were actually at the base of the mountains, and we started going up. We walked until the sun was high in the sky, then we all stopped for lunch. Instead of Emily cooking we ate what he had brought ourselves. I had a lunch of crackers and dried fruits and meat.
“Um, when are we supposed to bathe?” I whispered to Pete.
“Oh, I’ve got a charm on me to keep me clean. I can draw it on you, if you want me to,” he said.
“Yeah, that’d be nice,” I nodded. He pulled my elbow towards him and pulled out his wand. He drew a symbol in the crook of my elbow. It was a horizontal line with three circles that linked together like a chain. It glowed and faded into a pale image. I could feel myself getting cleaner.
“Oh, can you do that to me?” Heather asked Pete. “I’m feeling grungy.”
“Of course,” Peter nodded. He took her arm and did the same thing. “You didn’t look ‘grungy’, by the way,” he assured her as he finished.
“Thanks,” Heather smiled. “I would ask Sage to do the spell, but she doesn’t like putting spells on people.”
“With good reason,” Sage said. “The last time I put a spell on a living thing it caught on fire.”
“What were you trying to do?” Pete laughed.
“I was trying to make it feel full,” Sage smiled. “It was a cat.”
“Isn’t Blood Magic and Voodoo all about people?” Michal questioned from behind me.
“Well, that’s different. I can actually control those things,” she answered shortly, the smile sliding off of her face. I turned to Michal to see why she was so put-out, but he didn’t seem to understand either. He just shrugged and turned to talk to Carson about some book they’d both read.
“Do you want me to put the charm on you?” Pete offered, somewhat easing the tension.
“No, I’m actually wearing one right now.” She smiled again.
“You’re wearing it?” I asked, ignoring her mood swings.
“Yeah, gypsies wear their charms, instead of imprinting them onto their skin.”
“What’s the charm in your hair for?” I questioned. Her smile faltered a little, but she quickly recomposed herself and rubbed the wooden talisman.
“Knowledge and protection,” she told us. “There’s one carving on each side. I thought it was fitting for our quest.”
“Is that how you wear all your charms?” I asked. Heather started shaking her head.
“She has a charm bracelet, real charms only,” Heather said. “She also has necklaces, earrings and even a couple nose rings. That’s just weird to me, but they work best like that, apparently.”
“My nose rings are for things like peace of mind and wisdom, things having to do with the brain. They work better the closer they are to the head. Some old gypsies actually wear a little circlet with the talisman hanging from it, but I think that would draw too much attention in these times,” Sage reasoned.
“So where’s your cleaning charm?” Heather asked. Sage rolled up her tank and showed a bronze circle attached to her belly button. “I did not know you had your stomach pierced.”
“Cleaning charm to clean the whole body, so it should be centrally located,” Peter nodded. “Nice.”
“We should probably get going again,” Sage said. She pulled her shirt back down, covering up her flat, smooth stomach, and stood up.
We all walked again, the sun searing down at us. Most of the guys took their shirts off, and I was one of them. Sweat stained the backs of the girls’ light tanks and poured down everyone’s faces. It didn’t help that most of the hike was uphill.
Finally the ground leveled out and we made one final left turn. We were on a large cliff with a mountain river flowing down on one side. A large cavern was cut into the side of the mountain, and it seemed the only way forward. The cave was blocked by a great, fearsome creature.