Summer's Cauldron Read Online Free

chest and waist. As the tree’s limber limbs pulled Daphne toward its monstrous maw, three long, straight branches flew through the air, thrown like javelins by Nina, Ben, and Rafael. The three former raft poles plunged into the mouth of the tree monster. The death-black eyes in the tree trunk went wide as the creature roared even louder, its mouth crashing down on the raft poles, snapping them into kindling pieces.
    Branches of the tree creature swept out to clear its jaws even as others sought to capture the new comers. Nina was pulling at Alex’s foot as Rafael and Ben wrestled with the branch holding Daphne. A branch slithered out to wrap around Ben’s torso and he turned and shouted a rune word.
    “No!” Alex yelled, but it was too late. Orange-white fire leapt out of Ben’s hand and quickly turned to an inky black smoke that billowed back and engulfed him, clinging to his body and clogging his lungs as he coughed and cursed. Magic didn’t work the way it should in the Dead Forest. Ben’s impulse had been right , Alex thought as he frantically struggled with the wooden arms holding him tight. We need fire. But we can’t create enough fire without magic. And the magic won’t work. What we really need is…Wait. Will that work?
    “Rafa!” Alex yelled, yanking himself around to see his friend ducking between two swinging branches and skipping outside their reach.
    “Tell me you have a genius idea to get us out of this,” Rafael shouted back. The tree creature had cleared its mouth and was now roaring again, preparing to make a meal of its captives.
    “Dragon,” Alex yelled at Rafael. “We need a dragon.”
    Rafael stopped and stood still as tree branch swung inches from his face. “I should have thought of that,” he said as he pulled his shirt over his head.
    The air around Rafael shimmered with a brilliant crimson glow for a moment and when it was gone, a small, but brilliantly blue-scaled dragon flapped its wings in his place. The dragon thrust itself upward into the air and then dove down toward the tree, avoiding the wildly swinging branches with aerial pirouettes. The dragon opened its mouth, belching a jet of azure flame into the mouth of the tree creature. The tree creature unleashed a piercing howl like a million birds trapped in a forest fire. The dragon flapped it wings, gaining altitude again, only to dive toward the branch holding Daphne, blue flame spurting from its mouth to set the tree limb afire.
    The tree creature roared louder, its branches going wild with motion even as it released Alex and his companions. They fell to the ground and expertly rolled to their feet. They were members of the Young Sorcerers Guild, after all. They knew how to land from a fall. Rafael, in dragon form, unleashed two more bursts of flame at the tree creature to keep it from grabbing his friends again as they ran for the raft at the edge of the pond. He swooped down and grabbed his clothes from the ground with dragon claws before turning to circle the others as they ran.
    Alex looked across the pond to see Victoria and Clark already had the rope attached to the raft in their hands and ready to pull. There was no need to give any orders. This plan was instinctual — get on the raft and get away as fast as possible.
    Alex reached the raft first and helped Nina and Ben aboard as Victoria and Clark yanked the flimsy vessel into motion. Daphne jumped the last few feet to land safely beside him. They leaned into the motion of the raft as Clark and Victoria pulled them swiftly to the opposite shore. The raft riders turned in unison to look back at the tree creature they had so narrowly escaped.
    The tree was fully on fire now, its leaves crinkling and crackling as the flames leapt over them. The tree creature writhed and wailed, shaking violently from the tops of its flame-ridden branches to its roots. Alex watched those roots wriggle up from the ground as the tree creature lurched forward. The roots of the tree