Ravenspell Book 2: The Wizard of Ooze by David Farland Read Free Book Online Page B

Gutcrawler wriggled on the floor, covering it liberally with slime.
    When they had enough slime, his father would find some evil gnat, its tiny heart filled with malice, and crush it. Then he would force its cruel spirit into a body made of ash and worm goop, turning it into a slobber goblin.
    Fluke laughed cruelly and began to push his ash and slobber into a ball, the first step in making a slobber goblin.

Chapter 8
    SOMETIMES A GREAT NOTION
    Don’t get discouraged if you’re not smart.
Keep thinking. Remember: often even the simplest creatures
come up with extraordinary ideas.
—THORN

Against his will, the weasel whirled and grabbed his own tail and chomped down on it.
    Amber hid inside a hollow oak tree and watched in amazement at the thousands of animals that had gathered at the top of the clearing to answer the summons of the Great Wizardess of the Wood—her. These weren’t just any animals: these were the enemies of mousedom.
    She’d summoned them last night after granting Thorn his brains. Amber just hoped that her powers were back at full.
    They’d better be, she thought, peering around at the terrifying creatures that had met in the woods.
    Her tail no longer felt heavy and lethargic. But she couldn’t be positive that she now had her magic powers back.
    The upper branches of the oak and alder trees above the clearing were filled with dozens of hawks, owls, eagles, herons, and crows—every one of them a mouse eater.
    The owls looked half asleep.
    In the lower branches, bobcats licked their paws innocently, while an old mountain lion squatted on one branch and let his tail dangle and flick, as if hoping that someone might play with it.
    Opossums hung upside down in the nearby bushes, playing at being dead, while a dozen masked raccoons and a few river otters watched the proceedings with apparent excitement.
    There were other mammals that Amber didn’t recognize—minks and martens and fishers.
    The ground was a slithering mass of snakes—garter snakes with their long red or yellow racing stripes, two-headed rubber snakes—common to Oregon—that had tails that looked like an extra head, pine snakes, rattlesnakes, green vine snakes, king snakes, and others.
    There were alligator lizards and bullfrogs, skunks and civet cats, house cats, dogs, and foxes—in both the silver and the red varieties. There were some sneaky-looking coyotes and a regal golden eagle. There were little black scorpions and a few tarantulas. In some places the ground was black with fleas and ticks, while in another spot it was white with lice.
    And in the air above the gathering hung a cloud of mosquitoes as black as a thunderhead.
    Down near the front of the rock slithered an assortment of caterpillars.
    Last of all, just above the caterpillars, a huge black bear squatted right at the front, wondering what all of the fuss was about.
    “Well, time to make our appearance,” Ben said in a terrified voice, and he went hopping out of the hollow tree and scrabbled up the rock, using lichen for footholds.
    Ben reached the top of the tall rock and stood for a moment just peering at the enemies of mousekind. There was a young weasel down near the front that stared at him and drooled, his stomach rumbling from hunger. Some hawks just glared, as if angry to have been disturbed.
    But most of the animals watched Ben with amusement, as if they were happy to listen to his little joke, and then would gobble him down in one bite after he had his say.
    When all the animals had gathered and the sun was just rising in a bowl of molten pink, Ben gave the signal, a long whistle, and the army of mice and voles that were hidden beside Amber went marching out of the bottom of the hollow oak tree. The mice looked quite impressive. While Amber was gone, they’d gotten into the walnuts back in the Ravenspell garage, and the mice had gnawed them down, shaping them, so that all of the mice wore helmets.
    Each mouse and vole in the army, not to mention a few