She’d given me a protective shield.
I sent her a thumbs up and her smile widened.
I didn’t know how long the shield would last, but I intended to do what I could while it was there.
I turned back to Alice, who was striding my way with more ugly black energy boiling at her fingertips. Without thinking about what I was doing, I threw out my palms as she had and sent another wave of silvery magic in her direction.
The magic washed over her, blowing her frizzy brown hair off her face and pinning her plain black skirt against her legs. The magic left her untouched. But then it was supposed to.
A Keeper’s magic wasn’t defensive in origin. It was meant for calling magical artifacts into its grasp.
Strangely, however, I thought her curly hair looked a little…corkscrewed. Hm.
The suitcase lifted off the floor and hung there a moment, wavering on an invisible stream of energy. For a terror-filled moment, I thought it was going to resist me. Then, with a resounding chime that turned the gnomes’ heads toward the elusive artifact, it shot straight up into the air and headed for me.
17
By The Goddess’s Ratty Toilet Bowl Brush!
I reached a hand into the air and the suitcase smacked into it, wrenching my shoulder painfully from the impact and then dropping to the ground at my feet.
Or, more accurately, on my feet. It hurt like a mother bear. With a yelp of pain, I grabbed my foot and started hopping around, as if that would help it feel better.
The gnomes charged with a roar, the terrifying thunder of their heavy feet sounding like a herd of fleeing buffalo in the echoing space.
Lea surged upright, screaming Sebille’s name in warning, and then shouted, “Diffusis!” and released the spell she’d woven on the air. It clung to her long fingers for a beat and then snapped backward like a web of rubber bands, smacking into the tree with a “whomp!” of energy that made the branches fold into the trunk for a beat and then blow outward, sending a tsunami of energy shooting across the space.
One by one, the gnomes toppled beneath the impact as it hit them, crashing to the floor and agitating there like turtles turned upside down, unable to get up.
I lost track of Sebille, but I had to assume Lea’s warning had been enough for the sprite to gather up Alice and get them both to safety.
I had bigger problems to worry about.
Lea’s spell managed to take all the wooden soldiers out of commission, but the big guy was still on his feet.
And he looked peeved!
He threw back his head on a roar that rattled the glass in the windows and stomped in our direction, each footstep shaking the floor beneath our feet.
I glanced at Lea, expecting to find her looking terrified. But her eyes were closed and her fingers danced on the air, already mapping another spell.
Whatever she was cooking up, I was terrified it wouldn’t happen in time.
I looked around for Sebille and discovered both her and Alice missing.
It was just me.
And a hacked off ten-foot-tall gnome.
Knobby gnome’s knees! Everything I did just seemed to make things worse.
I forced myself to think. There had to be something I could do. I tried in vain to tug on my Keeper energy again. But, when I reached for it, nothing answered. There wasn’t even the tiniest tug of power. Either I’d expelled it all, or I was too stressed out to use it.
Glancing down at the suitcase, I had a thought. Could I use it to get us out of there?
I touched the old-fashioned latches on the top, and electricity arced up and bit my fingers, making me squeak in pain and jump back.
“Glacio!” Lea screamed. Her fingers were bent, cupping the air in front of her. Green energy, smelling of fresh herbs and sweet flowers, curled from her hands and, instead of hitting like a wave as her last spell had, curled through the air and wound around the gnome’s feet and legs. He swiped angrily at the magic, flinging out a hand with a growl.
Energy flew from his fingertips and hit the tree. Like Lea’s magic, the garden gnome's power smelled sweet and herbal, formed from the energy of growing things. But it had a decidedly more violent effect. The tree jerked and shuddered, and then sent its branches toward the sky with a rumble that might have been a growl.
I grabbed the handle of the suitcase and started to retreat. Her eyes closed, Lea continued to send her latest spell across the room. Whatever it did, I hoped it would do it soon. The gnome was still moving toward us, although he seemed to be struggling to move his legs.
More importantly, he seemed to have awakened the tree.
And it hadn’t woken up happy.
I watched in horror as it swung a branch toward Lea, hitting her hard enough to send her flying backward. She slammed into the ground on her butt and slid across the room, smacking up hard against the wall near the hallway where we’d entered.
A series of stout vines reached out and found me, wrapping me in a sinewy embrace that pinned my arms to my sides and yanked me back when I started to run. Unlike last time, the vines weren’t gentle. They wound tightly around my body, squeezing hard enough to make my bones creak.
My eyes bulged in terror as the thick creepers headed toward my throat.
It wasn’t hard to figure out how that was going to end. A branch slammed into my hand, and I dropped the suitcase on a scream of pain. I was pretty sure I’d felt bones cracking under the assault.
Gerrard Gnomish finally seemed to have ground to a halt. He stood with one foot partially lifted off the floor and his hand pointing toward the tree, locked in space. The dark eyes glittered with
