Tara Duncan and the Forbidden Book Read Online Free Page B

think, Magister could capture her again!”
    â€œI’m not minimizing the danger,” Selena said calmly. “But Tara is very loyal to Cal, and she’ll never abandon a friend. Anyway, what would you do to stop her? Lock her up in a dungeon, like me?”
    â€œI hadn’t thought of that,” Isabella answered slowly. “But it’s not a bad idea!”
    On hearing this, Tara jumped away from the door and signaled her friends to do the same. Her heart was pounding.
    â€œMan, your grandmother is pretty radical, isn’t she?” said Robin, expressing what they were all thinking. “So, what do we do now?”
    â€œSeems pretty obvious, doesn’t it?” whispered Tara. “We’re going to Omois. Cal needs us!”
    â€œI could’ve bet you were going to say that,” Fabrice said with a groan. “And I suppose it’s up to me to get us there.”
    â€œI’m really sorry,” said Tara, who didn’t like putting her friend in such a predicament, “but your father is the guardian of the Transfer Portal to OtherWorld. And I think we better get out of here right away, before Grandma turns me into another Sleeping Beauty.”
    â€œWhat about you, Robin?” Fabrice asked, without much hope. “You wanna go too?”
    â€œWill there be fighting?” asked the half-elf, his eyes bright.
    â€œAll right, I get it.” Fabrice signed with resignation. “What a fourth letter of the alphabet + an old cloth!”
    â€œD-rag?” guessed Tara.
    â€œYou said it!”
    The preparations were soon complete. Carefully avoiding Tachil and Mangus, the two spellbinders who worked for Isabella, the kids grabbed their robes and a change of clothes for OtherWorld.
    Those spellbinder robes were much more than simply things to wear. Thanks to the magic spells woven into the fabric, they were warm in winter, cool in summer, stain-resistant, and fireproof. They also had the most-extraordinary pockets. You could stick absolutely whatever you wanted into them, provided it wasn’t alive, because it wouldn’t be able to breathe. But aside from that, the pockets could handle anything from a needle to a bathtub, because the objects were made weightless and stored in another dimension. (Sparrow once tried to explain how this worked, but Tara’s eyes glazed over when she got to quantum mechanics, atomic disincorporation, and parallel universes, so she gave up.) Also, you could magically change the robes’ colors and decorate them, which OtherWorld fashionistas found very handy.
    Tara carefully packed her gold immuta-credits as well as her magic map. This was the extraordinary map she had originally bought for Isabella, but kept for herself when it turned out to be incredibly useful. Too bad, thought Tara. I’ll get Grandma something else on OtherWorld.
    For his part, Robin put the green twig of the living tree in one of his pockets. A gift from the grateful tree, it had the power to make any plant sprout and grow in seconds. Fabrice took a half-dozen cartoons and comic books. He explained to his surprised friends that he had trouble falling asleep without reading, but found OtherWorld books too exciting for his taste.
    The young spellbinders then slipped away to the stables to get Gallant, who was waiting for them. Robin changed the pegasus into a large dog, which made the handsome white stallion speechless with indignation.
    It only took them a few minutes to walk over to Besois-Giron Castle. Busy with his rosebushes, Igor the gardener only gave them a distracted wave. When they pushed the large entry door open, it creaked, startling them.
    â€œWait for me here,” whispered Fabrice when they were inside. “I’ll go get the Transfer Room keys from the office.”
    â€œI thought your father always carried them in his pocket,” murmured Tara.
    â€œHe does, but there’s an extra copy, just in case. It’ll