Eaglethorpe Buxton and the Sorceress Read Online Free PDF Page B

which you fight
the other family, or the kind in which you challenge them to some
type of word game?”
    “It is the kind in which you fight and kill
the other family.”
    “Hmm,” said I. “Those types of feuds can be
bad, especially if you are the one being fought and killed.”
    “But there’s more. I met a lovely young man
and fell in love with him, only to find out later that he was none
other than Henri Montenegro, the son of my family’s great enemy. We
met and exchanged fair words and fair kisses. But then yesterday
there was a fight in the street and Henri, beautiful, sweet Henri
killed my cousin.”
    “So you don’t love him anymore? You hate him
now.”
    “Of course I don’t hate him! I love him! But
we can never be together. He has been banished to Oordport, and I
shall never see him again.”
    “It so happens that I already have all the
actresses that I need to portray the characters in my play,” said
I.
    “You are one short,” Megara said, tossing
her hair back. “Two days ago, the Sorceress Myolaena Maetar arrived
at the theater just after the performance and turned your lead
actress Angelletta Seedling into a tree.”
    “Oh bother,” said I. “I suppose though, that
with a name like Seedling you have to expect that sort of thing. I
guess I will have to find someone who can change her back.”
    “I’m afraid that won’t be possible. You see
the locals are in constant need of firewood, and well…”
    “They didn’t.”
    “I’m afraid so,” she said.
    “I find myself in need of an actress then,”
said I. “But I could not claim the names of Buxton and of
Eaglethorpe, which is to say Eaglethorpe Buxton if I were to take
advantage of your unfortunate predicament, which is to say your
situation, for my own gain. Before you settle for the life of the
stage we must see if we cannot reunite you with your lost
love.”
    “You would do that for me?”
    “Of course,” I replied. “I am Eaglethorpe
Buxton, friend to the friendless, protector to the defenseless,
finder of lost children and reuniter of lost lover. And I have a
plan.”

Chapter Fourteen: Wherein I divulge my plan
to reunite the lovers.

    I led the beautiful Megara Fennec, which is
to say Megara Capillarie from the home of some unknown person, who
was no doubt a chubby little red-head with a checkered apron and a
brown bonnet, and out into the town square of Potter Town, where
the shadows were growing long, which is to say it was getting late.
My valiant steed Hysteria still waited patiently at the well. As we
walked, I explained my plan.
    “The plan in thus,” said I. “I will fetch
from the apothecary a dram of a potion that is known as living
death. You will go home and make peace with your parents and then
take this potion. It will make you fall into a coma, a semblance of
death itself. From you there will be no evidence that you still
live: no breath, no heartbeat, and no body warmth. You family will
think that you are dead and place your body in the family crypt. In
the meantime, I will send a message to your beloved in Oordport,
telling him the entire plan and he will rush to your side, to reach
you just as you return to life, having experienced nothing more
than a pleasant sleep.”
    We reached Hysteria’s side and I turned to
smile at my lovely companion, but she was frowning.
    “What’s the matter?” I asked.
    “Your plan seems fraught with unnecessary
problems,” she replied.
    “How so?”
    “If the apothecaries of the area are wont to
sell drams of ‘living death’, won’t someone suggest that perhaps I
have been given ‘living death’ when I appear to die of unknown
causes.”
    “Living death is pretty secret,” said I.
    “How secret?”
    “Really secret.”
    “But not so secret that just anyone can
purchase if from an apothecary?”
    “No, not so secret as that.”
    “What if, when I die, they decide to burn my
body instead of placing it in the family crypt?”
    “Why would they do