A Hidden Witch - By Debora Geary Page 0,75

Sophie’s extremely impressive kung fu moves, and then borrowed Ginia’s trick and knocked out all three fighters with a sleep spell.

Aervyn hopped up and down. “Can I get the last two? Pretty, pretty please?” Two big warriors crested over the hill, approaching at a dead run.

Nell was going to have his hide for this. “Just a sleep spell, youngling.”

Marcus was pretty sure the two warriors would sleep for a century. Aervyn’s magic was not subtle when he got excited.

“Thanks,” Sophie said, gasping for breath. “I was about out of tricks there. What are we doing here?”

“Aervyn ported us in,” Ginia said. “Marcus didn’t check his code well enough, I guess.”

Aervyn grinned. “I told you I needed supervising.”

Gah. It really was his fault. That fourth line of code had definitely looked wonky.

“Are Aunt Moira and Elorie in Realm too?” Ginia asked.

“Nope,” Aervyn said, shaking his head. Marcus cast out mentally to double check. Good. Two less people to worry about.

Sophie grabbed a hunk of Aervyn’s bread. “So, Super Boy, can you get us out of here?”

Aervyn shook his head. “Nope. But I bet Mama can. She knows all about reversing spells.”

Sophie looked up at Marcus. “Nell went berry picking with Aaron, Mike, and the twins. They’re not going to be back until after lunch.”

It just got worse and worse. “In that case, let’s go to the castle and see if the princess can scare us up some more food. We’re going to have a long wait, and I don’t want anyone getting cranky.”

Ginia giggled and held out a loaf. “Have some more bread, Gandalf.”

He scowled. No one was taking this seriously. “We could be stuck here for a long time, little fighter. Have you thought of that? Aunt Moira and Elorie are hardly going to be coming to our rescue.” Neither of them could code their way out of a paper bag.

Sophie grinned along with Ginia. “Oh, I think you may be underestimating the two of them.”

“Hardly. I’ve been training Elorie myself. She’s not capable of coding a reversing spell. She’s barely capable of coding any spell.”

“Sometimes, nephew,” said a strange voice, “you think too little of others.” He spun around. The voice belonged to the Xena look-alike he’d heard was training with Ginia.

Ginia ran over and hugged the new arrival. “Aunt Moira, you’re so smart.”

Aunt Moira?

“I’m sorry to spill our little secret, my dear, but it seemed like it might be the best way to get you out quickly. Marcus is correct—neither Elorie nor I can solve this with coding, so we’ve another idea.”

Good God. It was Aunt Moira. In the highest level in Realm, and clearly this wasn’t her first visit.

One of the guards started to stir, and Moira calmly zapped him with a new sleep spell. “Elorie is going to use Net power to pull us out, and she needs us to shape some spells for her. It’s handy that all of your magic seems to be working.”

Marcus was still trying to process Warrior Girl’s sheer deceit and trickery. Training Aunt Moira as her secret weapon was daft. Insane. And brilliant.

Sophie tapped him on the shoulder. “Focus. You can contemplate the likely magnitude of your defeat later.”

Impossible. He wasn’t going down to a nine-year-old girl and a woman in her seventies. The he realized Sophie hadn’t been surprised when Xena had shown up. Good God. Maiden, Mother, and Crone. They were going to take over Realm.

Ginia met his gaze, supreme confidence in her eyes. Oh, yes. He was going down.

Moira picked Aervyn up and twirled him around, clearly enjoying the vibrant youth of her Xena avatar. “Perhaps we’ll just take you home, and leave these three who aren’t paying attention.”

Aervyn giggled and shook his head. “Nuh, uh. I like it here. I wanna stay.”

Moira tossed him in the air. “Aaron left Monster Mac and Cheese for lunch.”

“Okay,” he said. “I’ll go, but I wanna come back and play again sometime.”

“Let’s see about getting out first, my dear boy, and then we’ll see about a return visit.” Moira turned to the others. “Ginia, Elorie needs for you to form a link between real and game that she can grab. My sweet boy here needs to ready a teleporting spell strong enough to carry four people. Sophie and Marcus, whatever power you can feed to either of them would be helpful.”

Marcus nodded. It was a surprisingly reasonable plan. “I think we’re most useful supporting Ginia’s outbound link.”

Aervyn frowned, counting on his fingers. “Why only four, Aunt Moira? Am I staying?”

She