As the thin strand of light flowed into the nugget, the cylinder began to spin, like a giant ball of yarn unraveling with ever-increasing speed. Henry shielded his eyes as it spun faster and faster. Brianna was nothing but a blur that got smaller and smaller as the cylinder shrank away.

And then … it was gone.

And so was Brianna.

But what remained was a small blue hedgehog, wearing a tiara.

Part Two

Chapter Ten

Dai She ran his stubby fingers over the map on the table as if it were a sacred relic. Unable to deny his pleasure, he laughed, and his high-pitched giggle wrenched through the small confines of his workroom, almost shrill enough to blister the paint off the walls. On an impulse, he touched the map lightly with his wand. It rippled in response. That simple touch, he knew, had sent a shock wave through the tectonic plates under the Indian Ocean. A tsunami would hit the coast of Sri Lanka within a few hours.

Oh, the fun he was having!

The Corsini Mappaemundi had changed hands several times over the course of its long existence. Created by the great Wand Master Epifanio Corsini almost four thousand years ago, the map had first been stolen from the High Council of Aratta’s safe repository by Dai She’s father, the infamous Wand Master Malachai. It had eventually been recaptured by a group of sanctimonious monks in the Himalayas—only to be re-stolen by Dai She. His father would have been proud if he were still alive. Especially if he could have witnessed the devious method Dai She had devised to steal it …

Everyone was afraid of something, and Dai She was a master at twisting that fear into its most horrifying forms. He had decided to go biblical on the monks, tormenting them with the ten plagues of Egypt from the Old Testament.

Turning their water supply into blood was child’s play. Their screams had made him giggle with glee and fueled his wickedness. He was just getting started.

Unleashing a horde of frogs wasn’t deadly enough for his taste. So he made sure the frogs were not only poisonous, but also an invasive species that would wreak havoc on the local environment for years to come.

It was fun to watch the monks gag on a plague of gnats, which he had waited to release until they had all gathered at an outing far from any protection.

Next, he added his own sick twist by using large, biting horseflies as plague number four. They were relentless and merciless. Seeing the itching welts they left behind gave Dai She so much joy that he did a little dance.