Ravenspell Book 3: Freaky Fly Day Read Free Page A

at his dad in shock. Amber could tell that Ben felt terrible about losing millions of dollars.
    Lady Blackpool stood up on the arm of the sofa on her back legs, her front paws folded over her white tummy. Benjamin Ravenspell’s parents leaned near her. Earlier in the evening, Amber had cast a spell that let humans understand both her and Ben when they spoke, and so the humans knew that something was up.
    Now Lady Backpool addressed the group, and she must have cast her own spell, because Benjamin Ravenspell’s parents grew very attentive.
    “Once every so often,” Lady Blackpool began, “great evil arises—the kind of evil that is so monstrous, so powerful, and so malignant that all of the good folks in the world must stand together in order to resist it.”
    “How often does this happen?” Amber asked. “Once a week?” Lady Blackpool’s tone had confused her. After all, Amber had been forced to save the world twice in the short time since she had broken free from her cage.
    “Not once a week, or even once every hundred years,” Lady Blackpool said. “I am speaking of a great evil, an earth-shattering evil—the kind of evil that might come only once every thousand years if we are lucky.”
    “Ooooh,” Meadowsweet whispered in awe.
    “In ages past,” Lady Blackpool continued, “the good folk were taken by surprise. A consortium of evil sorcerers seized control and ruled the world for ten thousand years!”
    “Humph!” Benjamin Ravenspell’s dad said. “I never heard of anything like that. It’s not in any history books that I know of.” Ben’s dad was a small man, very muscular. His head was bald, but he had a huge handlebar mustache. He had tattoos on his neck.
    “It happened long ago,” Lady Blackpool explained, “before there were such things as history books. These sorcerers were animals mostly, led by an evil human, the Ever Shade, he was called.
    “He was human in form, but his soul was void of the wisdom and kindness that humans should possess. He ruled in a land across the sea, and he kept the whole world in ignorance. Those who could not read or write could not pass on the lore of the Ever Shade, so none of your human books tell of him.
    “But surely he haunts the dreams of mankind still. Look into your mind, into your nightmares, and you will see his face—a man dressed in black robes, with a hood pulled deep. No flesh covers the bone-white horror of his visage, so that when you see him, you will see only a grinning skull. That is the Ever Shade.”
    Amber felt a chill rise up her spine. She had seen dead zombie mice in the lair of the evil worm Sebaceous Ooze. The mice had slaved for him even though they lived no more. This Ever Shade sounded like a zombie, too.
    “Are you saying that the Ever Shade will be coming back?” Ben’s mother asked.
    “Yes,” Lady Blackpool replied, “we must watch for him. Though his body died long ago, his magic was as deep as his malice, and many times he has sought to return. What form he will take—animal or human—I cannot know. Nor do we know exactly when he will come.
    “But long ago, the good wizards of the world planted a flower deep in the swamps, a flower that is guarded to this very day by fearsome alligators. It is the black lotus, and it blooms only when our nemesis is about to take bodily form.”
    “So this black lotus,” Butch asked, “is like some kind of meter, one that tells us how much evil is in the world?”
    “You could put it that way,” Lady Blackpool said.
    “So the Ever Shade is here?” Ben said. “He’s alive already?”
    “Not yet, but soon,” Lady Blackpool said. “Somewhere soon he will be born.”
    “Where?” Amber asked, casting her eyes about fearfully.
    “He could arise anywhere—” Lady Blackpool said, “on a far continent or across the street or upstairs beneath your bed . . .”
    The threat sent a chill through Amber as she imagined what might be hiding beneath Ben’s bed.
    Lady Blackpool