Read Ravenspell Book 2: The Wizard of Ooze for Free Online Page B

he shouldn’t be afraid, Ben’s mom thought. I love him. Even if he’s a vampire, I’ll always love him.
    I could get blood for him to drink, down at the blood bank. Of course, I’d have to go for the cheap stuff—O negative, or something like that. I might even have to mix it with V8 juice to cut down on the costs.
    But I love my son, she told herself, and she imagined holding her son, her little vampire son, as she readied him for bed in a nice new coffin.
    I’m a good mother, she told herself, and I’ll stay that way even if my son has become a vampire!
    * * *
    The mice washed in the pool and preened. None of them felt really safe on the ground, so as the sun rose, they climbed a wild rose bush and slept in an abandoned meadowlark’s nest, there among the thorns.
    Bushmaster took the first shift on guard duty.
    Ben felt secure up there, away from the dangerous dirt and the deadly worms.
    They slept through the day, and as the wind gusts caused the bush to sway and tremble, Ben found himself having odd, disquieting dreams, in which he was climbing a beanstalk into the clouds, but after a while, he realized that there was slime all over the stalk, and he was really climbing a giant worm.
    As he startled awake, heart pounding, he wondered about what they’d seen. Why was a giant worm trying to set off a volcano? What could he hope to gain?
    Ben imagined that when the volcano erupted, magma would rush up the vent and cook the giant worm in a matter of seconds. That didn’t sound like much of a plan.
    Unless, he realized, this worm is suicidal.
    The boiling rock would also kill all of the mice that were working on the project, though Ben had to admit that most of the mice looked like they were dead anyway.
    So what could the monstrous worm hope to gain?
    Lady Blackpool woke after a while, and she seemed just as perplexed as Ben.
    “I don’t think that a volcano could kill this worm,” she said. “You saw his size and color? Unless I miss my guess, that was a legendary Wyoming thunder worm—the wickedest type of worm that ever squirmed. They live deep under the ground, near thermal vents. They’re used to heat. It is said that they can even swim in magma for a short time.”
    “Really?” Ben asked.
    Lady Blackpool continued. “And those were slobber goblins that he was using as guards. That vile worm has taken the spirits of evil creatures and bound them with volcanic ash and worm slime. Such monsters cannot be killed, so long as their master’s heart is still beating. And the thunder worm that we saw has many hearts—they may well continue to beat for centuries to come.”
    “Volcanic ash?” Ben said. “Maybe he’s trying to set off the volcano so that he can get more ash?”
    “That would be a great evil indeed,” Lady Blackpool said. “But I sense that something else is afoot. He could easily find more volcanic ash if that were his intent. No, he has darker plans.”
    Ben could see that Lady Blackpool was worried. “Do you think we can beat him?”
    Lady Blackpool peered up into the sky, as if the warm sunlight could give her an answer. “My heart is full of misgivings. But . . . anything is possible. You saw how tired he was when we arrived? He had been singing during the day, luring mice to his cave. And then he grew tired. Perhaps if you catch him unawares . . .”
    “They’ll be on guard next time,” Bushmaster said. “We won’t catch him napping.”
    “Did you see the ring that he wore on his tail?” Lady Blackpool asked.
    “No,” Ben said, “but I heard something clank when he moved.”
    “It was a focus for his magic, a device to amplify his spells. I have heard of this ring. It is very powerful. In ages past, it was created by a human, one who used it to summon mice to their doom.”
    Ben pondered for a moment. “The Pied Piper of Hamelin?”
    “Yes,” Lady Blackpool hissed. “It was formed by the cruel hand of the Piper himself, an evil man—the bane of mice.”
    “But