Ravenspell Book 1: Of Mice and Magic Read Online Free Page B

lush, shag carpet.
    For the first time in her life, Amber was free, and for a moment, all of her fears were forgotten. She gazed around. The room was a wonderland for a mouse. Ben’s shoes, shirt, and pants lay by the lizard’s cage. They were spread along the floor, like a fallen giant. There was all kinds of interesting junk in the room—dragon posters on the walls, a GameBoy, karate trophies on his dresser.
    Ben seemed to have caught her mood. He stared up at the ceiling. “It’s as big as a basketball arena,” he whispered in awe.
    Then he whined and clutched his chest. “I . . . my heart must be beating four hundred times a minute. I’m having a heart attack!”
    “That’s just normal,” Amber said.
    There was a scraping noise on the glass wall of the cage. Amber peered toward it. Imhotep was up on his back feet, his front claws gouging the glass as he tried to climb out. “Come back,” he called. “I will not eat anyone. It was just a little joke, my American friends! A tasteless joke.”
    Ben crouched on his back feet, gasping for breath and swaying. “Okay,” he told Amber. “Turn me back into a human.”
    Amber peered at him, unblinking. He was trying to stand. But he hadn’t taken into account the changes that had occurred. He couldn’t do much more than crouch. He wiggled the toes on his huge feet. Amber’s whiskers twitched, and she sniffed a little. “I don’t know how.”
    “But you’re a wizard, right?” Ben demanded.
    “No,” Amber said. “I guess, maybe. I mean, uh, I don’t know.”
    “Okay,” Ben said, trying to sound calm and reasonable, and failing miserably. “Just wish me human again.”
    Amber squeaked angrily. “Why? Why should I do anything for you? One minute you’re petting me like I’m your best friend and the next, I’m lizard bait.”
    “It wasn’t my fault! Dad told me to!”
    “Do you always feed your friends to lizards when your dad tells you?”
    “It’s not my fault, you little bean-sized rat,” Ben growled. “Now, you made me into a mouse, and you’re going to make me human again!” Ben balled his paws into fists and stalked toward Amber.
    Amber had taken all she could from him. “You . . . stinkbug,” she screamed. She leaped on him, knocking him backward to the floor. “You tried to kill me! You maggoty cousin of a mealworm!” She yanked out one of Ben’s perfect whiskers.
    “Ow,” Ben cried.
    Amber climbed on Ben and began pulling his ears, trying to rip them off. She was beside herself with rage. She bit Ben’s nose.
    “Knock it off,” Ben yelled. He gave Amber a karate kick to the belly. It sent her hurtling backward five inches into the air, then tumbling over the rug. Amber landed with a thud. He’d kicked her so hard that tears sprang up in her eyes. She trembled badly.
    “You fight like a sissy,” Ben scolded.
    “I fight like a mouse. There’s a difference.”
    “Wish me back into a human,” Ben shouted.
    But she wanted to punish him. Besides, she wasn’t sure she could even do it. Old Barley Beard had always insisted that she had magical powers. But as she looked at Ben, she didn’t feel powerful. In fact, she was terrified. She was still shaking in fear of the lizard.
    And if I turn him back into a human, she realized, I’ll be all alone.
    “I’m glad you’re a mouse,” she said angrily. “And if I have my way, you’ll stay one forever.”
    Ben looked into her eyes and must have sensed her anger, for suddenly he backed away in terror.
    * * *
    Now, it is a strange fact that casting a spell gives off energy, just as lightning gives off electricity or a bonfire gives off heat. But when a spell goes off, it sends out a wave of magical energy—a cloud of plasma that only very powerful magicians can sense.
    So when Amber turned Ben into a mouse, she released a magical force that exploded like a nuclear bomb.
    In a swamp in Louisiana, an old bullfrog named Rufus Flycatcher was sitting atop a cypress knee at the edge