Tara Duncan and the Spellbinders by Princess Sophie Audouin-Mamikonian Page A

darkness. “I will shed light both on the room and your situation.”
    At his command, a glow lit up the scene, softly at first, then stronger, revealing Isabella seated in the center of the pentagram.
    â€œChem?” she asked in surprise. “What are you doing here?”
    â€œWell, let’s just say—”
    â€œHe saved your life!” burst in Tara. “May I get down now, Master?” Tara couldn’t pronounce the wizard’s name, and “master” was a term of respect that seemed to suit him. If he didn’t like it, that was just too bad.
    â€œWhat? Yes, of course.”
    Tara jumped down and ran to hug her grandmother.
    Isabella was surprised by the display of affection and awkwardly patted Tara’s back. Seeing this, the old wizard frowned. The girl clearly gave all her love to her grandmother, but the latter didn’t return it—or at least didn’t show it. And Chem knew how dangerous it was to deprive a child of affection. He would have to talk to Isabella, and soon.
    He was thinking about this and putting on his unusual shoes while the girl told her grandmother everything that had happened. At that, Isabella hugged her granddaughter tight. This time the wizard’s eyebrows went up instead of down. All right, he thought, all is not lost.
    But the woman quickly got a grip on herself. She was a little unsteady when she stood up, and Tara helped her, but she shook off the girl to walk alone. The wizard caught Tara’s look of sadness and sighed.
    When Isabella was sure that Deria, Tachil, and Mangus were all okay, she went upstairs to her office, followed by Tara and Chem.
    â€œTara’tylanhnem, would you mind going to your room, please? Chemnashaovirodaintrachivu and I have important things to discuss.” Before Tara could answer, the wizard spoke up: “No Isa, she’s staying.”
    Isabella was about to protest, but she yielded wearily, while looking at the wizard with annoyance.
    â€œGood,” he said calmly. “Come over here, Tara, and let’s see what your grandmother has taught you.”
    â€œShe hasn’t taught me anything, Master! I don’t know the first thing about spellbinders, attacks, or those elementary thingies.”
    â€œBut you do know that we’re spellbinders?”
    â€œYeah, I kind of figured that one out,” said Tara sarcastically.
    â€œYou might say I saw it at work when my grandmother hit me with a forgetting spell and it wound up nearly killing both of us.”
    The wizard looked uncomfortable.
    â€œHmm, we’ll see about that later. For now let’s start at the beginning, with the basics. There are a great number of peoples in the universe, living more or less at peace with each other. Like humans, these people have children, parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, great-great-grandparents . . . anyway, the races live a long time. Their basic needs and limitations are the same everywhere: to eat, sleep, study—”
    Tara was on familiar ground there, and she interrupted the wizard.
    â€œDo you have schools for spellbinders, like on television?”
    â€œAhhh, your television! No, we don’t have schools for spellbinders. You need only read a book of spells once, and it becomes part of your mind forever. We don’t need to study.”
    Tara’s eyes widened in surprise. What? No need to study? Betty would love that!
    Isabella shot the old wizard a look of irritation and spoke up.
    â€œBut we need to constantly study to make sure that our presence doesn’t harm or endanger the worlds where we live,” she said. “That takes a lot of work. And specialties are not learned in books but in practice, and that takes a lot of work too.”
    Unruffled, Chem continued.
    â€œTell me, dear, based on what you’ve seen on television and in your movies, what do you know about spellbinders?”
    At this, Tara started to flounder. The old