7 The Spell

CHAPTER 7

The Spell "Is Ruskin strong enough to pull a ship?" asked Lucas. "Probably not," Grom answered. "But he could pull a smaller boat." Grom walked toward a large dory—a lifeboat— hanging from the side of the ship. Lucas sized up the dory. "It's perfect!" he declared. Then he gave orders. "I'll lower the boat. You two get started on the tracking spell."

Grom and Clara hurried below and told Falsk and Ruskin the plan. Then Grom set a mortar and pestle on the galley counter. He opened his spell book and laid out the ingredients for a creature-tracking spell: 1 body part from creature to be tracked (hair, fingernail, scale dander, or shell) 1 cup orange blossom honey 1/2 turnip 1 handful of gooseberries 1 swoosh of snail slime Clara handed the ingredients to Grom one at a time.

"It's a good thing you had to pick up all these spell ingredients in Primlox today," Clara commented. Grom cut the root from a turnip. "I'd say it was a good thing we all went to Primlox today."

The wizard ground and mixed the spell ingredients with the mortar and pestle. Then he unclasped a silver medallion, which was also a locket, from around his neck and filled it with the potion. With all in place, Grom chanted the tracking spell.

Pursue-mora! Pursue-a-meest! Hot on the trail of an unknown beast. Track it down in a high-speed chase. Then make known its hidden face. POOF! Sparkling light and glitter swirled from the locket. It rippled out of the cabin and up into the sea air.