The Wounded World
A Story of Mantra
By Aladdin
Originally written 2006
Posted 12-20-21

Edited by Christopher Leeson
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Chapter 18

THE MAGIC SHOP

[I] soon shall be in a shadow in Oblivion,
Unless some way can be found
That I may look upon thee and live....

William Blake
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To Heather I said, “When you’re talking to your folks, don't say a word about sorcery. They just wouldn't understand.”

"Okay, Mantra," Heather nodded. "I'll say that Jess forgot to bring over her newest CD and we want to go to her place and listen to it."

"Fine,” I said. “I'll wait in the yard until I see you come out. While you’re going to Jessie’s, I'll ride shotgun overhead. But remember, once you're at Jessica's, go your separate ways. To have four witches in the same house could be enough to draw in bad magic."

Without further elaboration, I phantomed away through the wall.

Out of sight among the boughs of a backyard maple tree, I waited, hoping that my precautions would prevent Coven from being created. Without that bothersome monster getting in the way, I could concentrate solely on helping Gus and Evie.

After a few minutes, the four girls came outside. "Mantra?" Heather whispered, looking around.

"I'm up here," I said. "Let’s get on to Jessica's house. How soon do your folks want you to come back, Heather?"

"I can stay all night with Jess -- to study late for a test, I told them. But Sam and Trish are going to call home for rides."

"Just be sure that they waste no time,” I cautioned. “It could be dangerous if they hang around. Okay, move on out!”

The four of them took off at a fast trot, Jessica leading the way. The kids couldn’t help but steal uneasy glances, left, right, and skyward. The trip, fortunately, was only a couple of blocks.

Just before crossing into Jessica's home, Heather waved up at me. I returned the wave. Now, having done all I knew to protect the members of my fan club, I made an aerial U-turn and put myself on course to the Blake house.

#

Again I came down to roost on the rooftop of the schoolhouse. The neighborhood looked deceptively normal, except for the strange color of the sky. My wizard sense could read Gus’s aura from inside the house. He didn’t seem to be doing anything special, so I directed a cautious telepathic whisper toward my endangered daughter.

"Shhh. Evie. Can we talk?"

To my relief, she replied, "I think so. Oh, Mommy, Gus is scaring me. It's almost like he's a whole different person."

"I know, baby. But why did you end our talk so suddenly before? Did your brother hear us?"

"He started to. He said, 'Mom's around here somewhere!'"

"Listen, Button, I’ve sent out for some powerful ultras to help us. But if Gus starts acting like he's about to hurt you, just think the magic word Hogwarts really hard and I'll come save you, no matter what."

"Is Gus tougher than you, Mommy?"

"I think he may be. He's probably the toughest sorcerer in the world right now."

“Like Voldemort?”

“Yeah, a lot like him.”

"How did he get that way?"

"I think he was hit by some bad magic from outer space."

"Oh, no! Be careful, Mommy. I don' t want you and Gus to get into a fight and hurt each other."

"I’m going to try to avoid that, Pumpkin.”

Suddenly, a green jet of light came shooting up through the Blake rooftop like a miniature comet with a green tail.

"Mom! I know you're hiding somewhere out here," Gus yowled mentally. "You hit me and I'm going to get even! Then I'll fix Evie for talking to you on the sneak."

To draw his thoughts away from Evie, I leaped into the air with a great flare of light.

"Your mother's not here," I informed him. "I've been tricking Evie, making her think her mom was talking to her. I knew you'd overhear us and come outside. This way we can speak privately." This explanation didn't make a whole lot of sense, not even to me, but maybe a twelve year old would swallow it.

"Mantra! I hate you even more than I hate Mom and Dad!" the boy hollered, verbally this time.

What a battery of magic his body was! I could feel the prickle of his power despite the distance between us. Not having done any fighting so far, the lad’s strength would still be near its peak. When the first Mantra had taken him head-on, he had shut her down in seconds with a blast of power.

If a combat started, I’d be done for, unless I hit him with as much power as I would have hit a major wizard like Boneyard. The trouble was that Gus was a tyro in magic, and if he fumbled his defenses it could kill him. Rather than risk that, I created another dazzling, luminescent burst and sped away.

I didn’t care if he thought I was afraid of him. In fact, I wanted him to be bold and to chase me. While jetting away on the late summer wind, I called out, "Evie! I'm keeping Gus busy. Run and hide with that nice Mrs. Fisher at the magic shop!"

Amateur or not, the boy gaining was on me, leaving a tail of verdant fire in his wake. Unwilling to be overtaken, I assumed my phantom form and made like a killdeer, skating through the air erratically, trying to look wounded while at the same time creating an erratic target for a novice marksman.

But the barrage of magical bolts coming my way were stabbing close. I had a lot more experience using magic, but Lauren had mentioned how quick Gus was at learning to use his new powers.

Just then, another of my son's mega-bolts brushed by, this one stinging me, despite my being ghost-like. If he had already realized that he could adjust his bolt-density and hit me in phantom form, I’d be in a bad way.

So I used a little more power to throw up a protective force field. Then, still striving to look erratic and injured, I dropped into an ungainly corkscrew descent. By a stroke of luck, Gus ceased firing at me, maybe in hopes of watching me be pasted against the solid ground like a real-life Daffy Duck.

To cover my escape, I evaded of his line of sight by plunging into a dark mass of trees and hedges. Still in ghost-mode, I fell harmlessly through the branches and sank into the subsoil. Once in total darkness, I checked my plummet. Then, getting a bearing on a neighborhood electrical transformer to give myself something to aim for, I hurried away using magical propulsion – this tactic being a necessary one in the airless underground.

After what seemed like a journey of goodly length, I came to the surface near the transformer. At once I stopped channeling sorcery,considering that continuing to use magic would allow Gus to trace me. I hoped that the boy would not guess that I was his mother, since he could easily find me by simply homing on Eden Blake’s familiar bio-signature.

Through not using active magic, I could passively keep track of the boy’s movements by means of my wizard sense. Interestingly, instead of pressing his search for Mantra, Gus instead seemed to be drawing off. What new mischief was he concocting now? I wondered. Was he bent on rejoining Evie? I needed to get the girl to safety as soon as possible.

As I stepped out into the light of the street lamps, someone remarked, "A nice Mantra outfit." I looked back to see a couple of teenage boys sauntering up, oblivious to the chaos of the night. Apparently, most people were unaware that anything unnatural was occurring, except for the strange colors in the sky.

“Is there a costume party?” asked the other one.

“How do you know I’m not the real Mantra?!” I asked in return.

“Don't give us that! We know there's a Mantra fan club near here. But we didn’t know there were any adults in it.”

Ignoring the hormonal juveniles, I again projected my preternatural senses to get a new bearing on Gus. To my consternation, I felt not one but two sources of bad magic, their "flavors" distinctly different, even though both were very foul. One manifestation I knew was Gus’s, and the other, I feared, was Necromantra.

Lauren had found the latter hunkered down inside a warehouse east of Canoga Park. Out of caution, the death-witch was probably staying indoors so long as wild magic crackled in the atmosphere. If left undisturbed, Necromantra might actually remain sheltered all through the night. That would be good for me, since I had more important fish to fry than her.

Another worry I had was that Gus might be zeroing in on his dad, bent on revenge for missing the football game. The result could be heartbreaking, since the death of the senior Gus would devastate Evie and Gus might never forgive himself, once he regained his reason. But I was only guessing about Big Gus's danger. It made more sense that I made sure that Evie was safe before I did anything else. She was too young to face this sort of danger alone. My mind made up, I evoked a whirlwind gust to take me on a beeline to the magic shop.

The strip mall lay only seconds away. Mrs. Fisher's "closed" sign was already lit, but I knew she would still be there at this hour. Observing lights through the building’s rear windows, I alighted at the back door. Such was my state of mind that I almost knocked without pausing to think that I was dressed as Mantra. I reflexively flashed back into the clothing that I'd only lately shed -- a black dress suit.

Then, hopefully presentable, I beat on the shop’s back door with my fist.

#

An instant later, a worried face peered through the lace door-window curtain. Mrs. Fisher’s expression brightened upon recognizing me. The middle-aged business woman hurriedly fumbled open the lock.

"Mommy!" yelped Evie from the interior shadows. The tyke ran around the lady and sprang into my arms. Her excited grip about my neck nearly cut off my breathing.

"Oh, Button, I was afraid for you," I gasped. "W-Were you awfully scared?"

"Yeah, I was! Is Gus...is Gus...?"

"Shhh, darling. We don't want to alarm Mrs. Fisher."

"I didn't 'larm her, Mommy,” the youngster whispered, “I just said that a bad person came into our house and I ran away!"

Now the proprietress spoke up. "Mrs. Blake, what's been happening? The child tried to tell me, but I she was hard to understand."

"E-Evie got frightened by a burglar," I said. "He was carrying something that he stole away when I caught sight of him. I ran into the house looking for Evie, but she wasn’t there. So I came down this way trying to find her."

"Where is...the bad person now?" the little girl asked.

I eased Evie to the floor. “He’s still loose," I said. “We’ll have to be careful.”

"This crime wave is all over the metro area,” Mrs. Fisher put in. “But there’s something worse going on tonight. Did you ever see a sky that looked so strange?”

"Never. Thank you for taking Evie in, Mrs. Fisher,” I said. “She was lucky to find your shop open."

The proprietress nodded. "I usually do the accounts after closing time. I heard your little girl rapping on the door."

The child was at that moment pressing her teddy bear against my waist. "See, Mommy, I saved Mr. Paws, too! I was afraid that -- that the bad person -- might hurt him if he caught him."

I touched her little nose. "That was quick thinking, darling!" Then I said to Mrs. Fisher, "I'm taking Evie to a motel. I'll call the police and report the break-in from there."

"You're welcome to stay here until the sky clears up. I could use the company. I can't get rid of the feeling that something unnatural is going on."

Mrs. Fisher must have been slightly psychic. I felt for her, but I needed to get away from all prying eyes before the arrival of my ultra team. "Thank you, but I'm so shook up that I won’t feel safe until Evie and I are surrounded by crowds of people,” I said.

"I understand," Mrs. Fisher sighed. "May the good Lord watch over you both." Then she added, "Evie has a brother, doesn't she? Will he be all right?"

I didn't want to admit the awful truth. "Gus went to a ball game with his father. He was going to spend the night at his dad's place."

"That's lucky," the shopkeeper murmured. She was looking out one of the windows, at a haloed moon set weirdly against the violet sky.

With quick goodbyes, Evie and I scurried out of the shop. Sinister shadows hung all around us and the youngster still seemed frightened. I led her around the corner at the far end of the strip and there, in the blackness of a dense moon shadow, I took a moment to calm down and think. I couldn’t take Evie into battle with me, so where could I find a safe place for her? To take her to a neighbor would place that person in danger, too. With his magical sensibilities, Gus could find Evie at will and if Evie called me, I'd have to challenge him straight out. For the sake of my own survival, I’d have to fight like a savage, but doing that could leave one of us dead. In the other timeline, Lauren had helped Mantra and Evie. This time the teen would be sleeping soundly in her own home.

I had made no definite plan before a van drove up -- a van that I recognized.

Running toward the vehicle, I shouted and waved my arms. The van skidded to a halt and a young, bearded black man leaned his shaven head out the window.

"What is it, lady?" Greg Tunney asked impatiently.

This was an unanticipated wrinkle. For better or worse, Aladdin had made its destined appearance in Canoga Park. I didn’t trust Company men, obviously, and the new Wrath wasn’t one of the ultras whom I would have most wanted to be with just then. Even so, I recognized how narrow my options were. As they say, any port in a storm!

TO BE CONTINUED IN CHAPTER 19