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.It jolted Banalix out of his stupor.His face contorted in anger."Desecrate! It is you who desecrate our ceremony! Who are you who dares interfere!"Matt's brain shifted into high gear, searching for a name and finding one."I am he who stands for Oak,Ash, and Thorn! I am he who knows the heart of the woodlands! I am he who knows how the true druidsworshiped and knows what a mockery you have made of their services!""Liar!" Banalix screamed.He didn't use dramatic gestures this time, only pulled the naphtha ball fromhis sleeve, yanked the lid off the coal-box, and lit it as he shouted, "No one living can remember theceremonies of the Old Ones! Deceiver you may be, but you cannot lie your way out of this! The ballburst into flame.Banalix hurled it, and he had a good arm but Matt was already reciting,"If I quench thee, thou flaming minister,I can again thy former light restore.Yet why should I your fire rekindle?Be dark and cold forever more!"The fireball shrank in on itself as it cooled, men flickered and went out.No one else could see the darklittle ball that bounced off Mart's chest.A murmur of awe passed through the crowd.file:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry%20krui.zard%20in%20Rhyme%2006%20-%20Haunted%20Wizard.html (181 of 329)20-2-2006 21:41:53 Stasheff, Christopher Wizard in Rhyme 6 Haunted Wizard"Charlatan!" Banalix bellowed."Taste true magic now!" He gestured, reciting something that soundedlike Gaelic, and Matt realized, with a chill, that he was pantomiming the tying of a noose.Mattremembered that one of the druids' forms of human sacrifice had been hanging, then throwing the bodyinto a peat bog.Quickly, he chanted,"Naked to the hangman's knotA neck's set for abuse.But vertebrae should stack intact.Be good! Rope, be no noose!"Something seemed to brush bis neck, tried to tighten, then was gone.Banalix stared, fear shadowing his eyes."Cease your cowardly attacks!" Matt boomed."They avail you naught!"Banalix's eyes narrowed.He blustered to hide his fear."Coward yourself, coward and trickster! By whatmagic you opposed my spells I know not, but taste this assault!"His lips poured out a torrent of words as he pantomimed tossing, stiff-fingered, left hand, right hand, lefthand, on and on.Matt didn't know what he thought he was throwing, but he did think it was a good idea to turn asideanything he couldn't see."Deflect! Avaunt!Come nowhere near!My unseen shield, hold sure!Whatever's thrown shall thus be searedBy wards both tough and dur!"He didn't even feel the impacts.All anyone saw was a sudden burst of lights in front of Matt as unseenmissiles flared against his shield and burned out.file:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry%20krui.zard%20in%20Rhyme%2006%20-%20Haunted%20Wizard.html (182 of 329)20-2-2006 21:41:53 Stasheff, Christopher Wizard in Rhyme 6 Haunted WizardThe crowd murmured in fear and pressed away from Banalix.The false druid stood panting, staring atMatt, suddenly haggard.Matt knew his chance when he saw it."People of the Church! You have seen this impostor for what heis, a feeble and powerless trickster! Avoid his snares, avoid his web of deceit, for you know the sourceof lies and traps! Go now, go quickly, and never hearken to this man or any like him again!"That galvanized Banalix into action as he saw all his gains slipping away from him."Deceiver yourself!"he screamed."You claim to be of the forest? Then let it judge you!" He chanted in the foreign languageagain, pointing up at the ancient oak, and a branch the size of a grown tree groaned downward to swat atMatt.CHAPTER 14With a horrendous cracking, the branch began to split from the trunk.It wasn't just going to swat atMatt, it was going to fall on him! Quickly, he chanted,"Oh, will this limb rejoice, or break?Decide this doubt for me!Close up the wound without an ache,And heal this fractured tree!"The fall of the branch slowed, then stopped, one huge burl only inches from Matt's head.Then,incredibly, it started to rise again, the base cleaving to the trunk, shaking, trembling, then stilling, andthe branch stretched out whole again.Matt told himself he must have been imagining the huge sigh ofrelief that seemed to surround him.The crowd burst into cries of awe! and fear.Those closest to Banalix tried to crowd farther away.The false druid pointed at a dead tree behind Matt and screamed a verse.A groan began, softer, thenlouder and louder, as the tree leaned to fall on Matt."I leaned my back unto an aik,I thought it was a trustie tree,But first it bowed, and now it creaks,file:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry%20krui.zard%20in%20Rhyme%2006%20-%20Haunted%20Wizard.html (183 of 329)20-2-2006 21:41:53 Stasheff, Christopher Wizard in Rhyme 6 Haunted WizardTo crush the one who made it break!"He hoped Cowper's ghost wasn't listening.The trunk seemed to roll, changing the direction of its fall.Banalix stared in horror, then turned to runcrosswise, out of the path of the tumbling skeletal branches but the tree swung about, following him,tracking him, as it fell faster and faster, then slammed down on top of him.Banalix screamed in pureterror, then screamed again and again, for the tree had enough branches left so that it hadn't crushed him,only formed a prison around him.He grabbed the dry old sticks and shook them, trying to break them,but they must not have been quite as dead as they seemed, for they held him penned in."Go now, quickly!" Matt boomed."Go back to your cottages, back to your beds, and never follow such adeceiver again!"The crowd broke and ran, howling with fright.Their voices faded away, and the clearing was still,except for the sobbing coming from the hollow tree.Matt stood still, absorbing the whole of the night, letting the adrenaline ebb.When he trusted himself tobe gentle, he whispered,"The game is won, the quarry's fled,The night regains its peace.Let effects from my voice all be bled,And sound processing cease!""Can you hear me, Banalix?" he said softly, but the spell seemed to have worked he could scarcelyhear himself, and the druid kept whimpering with no sign of having heard him.Matt jumped down fromthe stump and went slowly toward the dead tree, where he knelt down and gazed in at the prisoner
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Christine Wood [Life Plan 01] A Life Plan Without You (epub)
Christie Craig [Divorced, Des Divorced, Desperate
Moore Christopher Ssij, mała, ssij (II)
Christine Cody [Bloodlands 01 Bloodlands (epub)
Christina Ross [Unleash Me, A Unleash Me, Vol 3 (epub)
Christian Fletcher [The Left Left on the Brink (epub)
Christopher G Nuttall [Royal The Royal Sorceress (epub)
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Christina Ross [Unleash Me, A Unleash Me, Vol 1 (epub)