All's Fairy in Love and War (Avalon: Web of Magic #8) (10 page)

“T
HIS IS NEVER
going to work.” Adriane stood backstage in the school auditorium, looking uncertainly at Emily.

A blond wig adorned with a sparkling tiara covered Adriane’s black hair. Her usual jeans and pullover had been replaced by a pink dress that poofed out in a mass of shining taffeta. Glittering rhinestone bracelets and a star-tipped fairy wand completed the transformation.

Emily tried to keep a straight face as she straightened the tiara. “You look like Tinkerbelle.”

“Pinkerbelle,” Ozzie corrected, breathing on his ferret stone and polishing it with the hem of Adriane’s dress.

“She owes me big time for this!” Adriane groused, stomping her hiking boots to straighten the dress.

“All you have to do is read this part.” Emily pointed to the Fairy Queen Titania’s lines. “Ozzie’s magic will do the rest.”

“Blah.” Fred leaned over Adriane’s puffy pink shoulder, head drooped.

“I agree,” Adriane said, then noticed that Fred’s usually bright blue eyes were dulled and listless. “Hey, what’s wrong, Fred?”

“Tummeee, Adriee,” the blue mini complained.

Fiona’s, Barney’s, and Blaze’s little heads lolled out of Emily’s backpack.

“Aw, you guys eat something that upset your tummies?” Emily gently ran her rainbow gem over the dragonflies.

Four little heads nodded.

“Bad spell,” Musso pronounced, looking into Fiona’s half-closed eyes.

“What?” Emily asked.

“They absorbed a bad spell. I ate an ice-cream spell once. It was so sweet, I passed out.”

“What did you do now, Musso?” Adriane demanded.

“It wasn’t me,” Musso protested.

Fiona flapped her ruby wings. “Goldeee, Emee.”

“Goldie sent the spell?” Emily quickly placed her ear to Fiona’s belly. It rumbled like a backfiring car.

“Call forwarding,” Barney explained.

Fred’s blue jeweled eyes suddenly started spinning wildly. Blaze started jiggling and glowing. Fiona’s red hide flashed as Blaze’s orange body blinked brightly.

“Ten minutes, peoples!” Rae hollered, clapping her hands. Student actors scurried about, straightening togas, wings, and crowns.

“Testing, one, two, pink shoe—” Adriane’s voice came out squeaky and high pitched.

“Gah!” Ozzie sputtered. “Needs some minor magical modulation.” He shook the stone and scrunched his whiskers in concentration.

“Check, test one, Prada,” Adriane spoke—in Kara’s voice! “Is it working?”

“Kara! You’re back!”

Adriane was startled by the sound of Heather’s voice. The red-haired girl eyed Kara closely. “Say, you sure you’re all right? You look taller.”

Adriane waved her magic wand and bonked Heather on the head. “Fly free, Fairy Codfish!”

“Cobweb! Geez, what’s with you?” the red-haired girl scurried back to the other fairies.

Adriane shrugged.

Ozzie smiled. “Not bad. A ventriloquist mage.”

Kyle ambled by, wearing a green-feathered Robin Hood hat and clutching his Shakespearean insult book. His eyes fell on Adriane and widened. “Thou reeky, plume-plucked pignut of a sister! I didn’t see you leave for school this morning!”

“Be gone, flap-mouthed varlot!” Adriane bellowed, her voice a deep bass tone.

“Gah!”

“All hail the drama queen.” Kyle strolled onstage, narrowly avoiding Rae. The director charged into the Fairy Ring set, tugging on a chartreuse velvet gown, her Shakespeare Day costume.

The warrior grimaced and nearly bumped into Molly and Tiffany as they scurried by, making some last-minute adjustments to their sparkling makeup and glittering costumes.

“K, why didn’t you pick up your phone last night?” Tiffany demanded. “We were totally worried about you.”

The warrior’s voice peeped like a chipmunk. “I, like, needed my beauty rest.”

“I
love
your color contacts!” Molly grinned, looking into Adriane’s dark eyes.

“If you ask me, everyone is acting weird,” Heather exclaimed.

“Hee-Hawlo, ladies!” Adam shuffled by, combing his donkey ears.

“Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!” Barney was sparkling like a Christmas tree.

“It’s getting stronger!” Musso fretted, dancing from foot to foot.

Rae marched backstage, critically eyeing her actors’ costumes. Her steely eyes bugged out when she saw Adriane. “Our Fairy Queen hath returned, and in a new dress!”

“Yeah, K, why’d you ditch the old costume?” Tiffany asked.

“It, like, totally wasn’t pink enough,” Adriane hissed in a voice like Darth Vader. “Excuse me.” She glared daggers at Ozzie and stomped toward the ferret.

“Gak!” In the shadows, Ozzie smacked his ferret stone furiously. “Er, Emily, I could use some help here.”

But Emily’s attention was on Barney, who suddenly shuddered in her arms.

“Fred, are you all right?” Adriane forgot about the flabbergasted ferret as she held Fred.

The blue dragonfly belched like a trombone, barfing magic all over Adriane and covering her with sprinkly twinkles.

“Scooz meme.” Fred dove into Emily’s backpack, feeling better.

The warrior’s eyes went hazy as she tottered and knocked into Adam.

“Heehaw, you’re all blue!”

Blue light surrounded the warrior in a shimmering halo as she gazed at the dreamy donkey.

“Peoples, peoples, what is going on now?” Rae cried, marching over to look at Adriane’s glowing head.

“BLaaaPHHHf!”
Fiona tumbled in the air and hurled, sending azure twinkles smacking into Rae’s frizzy head. Rae careened backwards and fell onto Kyle.

“Some professionalism, please!” Rae’s eyes glazed over as she tried to disentangle herself from the sandy-haired boy. “Ooo, baby!” She stared at Kyle, a giddy smile suddenly plastered on her face.

“Whoa!” Kyle jumped to his feet and stumbled away from Rae.

“Come back, thou dreamiest of hunks!” the director cried. “Let me pledge my eternal love!”

“Kara, what is with you?” the fairies shuttled over.

“BAArrrFFF!”
Barney and Blaze both tossed up the sour spell.

Molly, Tiffany, and Heather shrieked as clouds of twinkly bits covered them in a dazzling shower of popping lights.

“The dragons picked up a love bug.” Musso observed Heather, Tiffany, and Molly, their eyes glazed over in ecstasy. “Those fairies will fall in love with the first—oop.”

The three girls were advancing straight toward Musso, their shining eyes locked on him.

“Those are the cutest ears I ever saw!”

“He’s so
totally
cute.”

“I saw him first.”

“No way!”

“Ak!”

“Oh, no.” Emily frantically stuffed the d-flies in her backpack before anyone saw them. She tried to catch Adriane’s eye, but the warrior was completely ignoring her. Adriane’s total attention was riveted on a very confused donkey. Adam shuffled across stage, Adriane draped over him like a cloak.

“Don’t ever leave me, my hairy Romeo.”

The four minis peeked out from Emily’s backpack as students started filing into the auditorium for the performance.

“Help!” Kyle yelled, Rae chasing him.

“Help!” Musso ran the other way, three fairies bounding and leaping after him.

“Heeelp-Haw!” Adam ran into the auditorium, plowing through crowds of students. Adriane hurdled over the seats, hot on his tail. She landed on the donkey’s back, wrestling Adam to the ground.

Students started whistling and hollering. “Shakespeare rocks!”

Ozzie walked toward Emily, proudly looking at his ferret stone. “Things are going well, don’t you think?”

L
ORREN AND KARA
stepped out of the mirror and into a sticky mass of… something.

“Goldie?” Kara called as she wiped at the silky strands covering her face.

“Icky!” The d-fly popped in front of Kara, pulling long, tacky strings off the blazing star’s jacket and pants.

“Are you okay?” Kara’s heart pounded.

“Uh honk.” Goldie flew up and fluttered happily onto Kara’s shoulder.

Kara hugged her friend so tightly the d-fly squeaked.

Then she looked around. She stood on a platform in a dark chamber. Dull lights emanated from yellowish crystals embedded in the walls. The high ceiling faded from view overhead, rising into darkness. Behind her was the mirror, a dull gray piece of glass ornately framed in carved metal. It stood on silver clawed feet. Everything was draped in shiny webbing.

“What is this stuff?” Kara asked, unsure if she really wanted to hear the answer.

“Phhhllaf!” Lorren spit out a mouthful. “Spider webs.” The boy appeared from the adjoining corridor.

“Eww!” Kara brushed at herself frantically, assisted by Goldie.

“Come on, let’s get in and out of here as fast as possible.”

She followed him through rusted metal doors that creaked with age.

Something skittered overhead in the darkness.

“Are you sure this place is empty?” Kara asked nervously.

“No,” Lorren muttered, clearing a path with his sword to reveal a long corridor.

“Even if we find this rose, how do we find the stallion?”

“Don’t know.”

“How do you know where you’re going?” Kara held Goldie close, eyes darting up, down, left, and right. She could hear tiny feet moving against stone. It seemed to be coming from everywhere at once.

“In here!” Lorren called.

She ran to catch up. In the gloomy dimness, Kara made out a large octagonal room of dark stone. Weak sunlight filtered in through tiny window slits in the sloping ceiling, illuminating thousands of twisting spider webs throughout the room. Cauldrons, dusty vials, cracking leather books, and mysterious metal structures with empty glass beakers were all draped by milky webs.

“It’s the Spider Witch’s lab,” Lorren exclaimed, cautiously stepping deeper into the abandoned laboratory. “She’s a powerful elemental magic master. I heard she got really messed up using dark magic.”

“What do you mean?” Kara asked, her breath quickening.

“Now she’s like half-fairy, half-spider,” Lorren continued. “Really creepy. Story goes that a great wizard trapped the witch in the Otherworlds. But that was way before I was even born.”

Kara shuddered, thinking of twisted magic and dark dreams. “Let’s just hurry.”

“The flower won’t be in plain sight.” He pointed to the unicorn gem clutched in her hand. “Track it with your jewel.”

Steeling herself, Kara edged forward, swiping webs aside with her hands. She held up her jewel, releasing a bright light.

A flash of pixilated insect eyes gleamed as a large bug buzzed into the light, dodging between the sticky webs.

“Gross!” Kara exclaimed, waving her jewel and bouncing light everywhere. “I hate bugs!”

“Probably just a few leftovers from the old tenants,” Lorren noted.

Kara peered at a stone shelf strewn with broken glass and dried liquid. Signs hung below, written in strange slashes and markings. She squinted at the wavering writing. “What’s this say?”

“Extremely dangerous spells. Don’t look.”

Kara jumped back involuntarily, then caught herself. “Oh, that was so funny!” She edged around a wicked-looking machine with rusted metal spikes. Slimy slugs slithered away from her feet.

“I don’t like this,” Lorren said uneasily.

“This place could so use an interior decorator,” Kara agreed, ducking under another web as she approached an iron table in the center of the room. “And a few tons of bleach.”

“No, I mean, how did Tangoo know the elemental rose is here?” he asked, walking up to the opposite side of the cluttered table.

“Your secret club has inside information,” Kara pointed out. “A powerful sorcerer like Tangoo must have ways of finding things out, too.”

Lorren lifted the lid of a tarnished bronze box. Its hinges squealed as foul black powder puffed out.

“Watch it!” Kara waved the stuff away, covering her nose and mouth.

“He’s a wily old goblin. I don’t trust him,” the prince stated.

“You keep saying that, but he’s been trying to help me ever since I got here. He wants to help all of us!” Kara gingerly picked up an old book of spells.

“Then why can’t he cure Lyra without the power crystal?”

“My magic is really strong.” Kara’s eyes suddenly burned with tears. “I… I don’t know how to use it.”

“He works with quicksilver all the time to make the travel mirrors. He should know how to cure her,” the prince insisted. “I think Tangoo wants the crystal to do something else.”

Exasperated, Kara slammed the rotting spell book shut. “It seems to me if there’s one person who really wants the power crystal, it’s you!” she accused. “You found me first in the Queen’s Forest, you were in the Fairy Ring, and when I let the fire stallion go, you took me to the rave to convince me to find it. It seems like you’re willing to do anything to find that crystal.”

He looked at her steadily. “I believe Tangoo’s plan could work. And I believe that if anyone could attract the crystal, it’s you. You’re the key to saving the Fairy Realms!” Lorren insisted. “You know me. I would never betray you.”

“Know you?” Kara echoed, walking away from the table and casting a beam of unicorn light on another section of the room. “You and your Batman act? I have more reason to trust Tangoo than to trust you. He’s not hiding behind—”

Kara broke off in mid-sentence. Her unicorn jewel had suddenly sparked bright white as she walked by an iron door. She winced, terrified that her jewel would explode with uncontrolled magic, but it held steady.

The boy rushed to her side. “Help me push this open.”

They shoved the door inward and cautiously peered inside.

“Nothing here but plain stone,” Lorren observed, walking into the small, empty room.

“No, look!” Kara pointed at a dark red mark on a block of stone set in the wall. Looking closer, she shuddered as a spider web brushed the back of her neck. Deeply carved into the stone was a small red spider. But what did it mean? On a hunch, she reached out and pushed the carving. The stone depressed about an inch. Nothing happened.

“What now, Scooby Doo?” she muttered.

“Shh, wait!” Lorren leaned closer to the wall.

A faint noise, like a latch clicking, sounded deep inside the stone. Without warning, an entire section of wall sank soundlessly into the floor and vanished. Behind it was a huge chamber. Unlike the laboratory, there were no spider webs in the pristine space. The high walls were lined with ornately decorative tapestries.

“Wow.” Lorren gazed at the immense artifacts hanging upon the walls. The weavings were incredibly detailed. Some depicted ferocious creatures in scenes of battle, others showed exotic places with alien landscapes. “These are amazing!”

“Yeah, a real chamber of horrors.” Kara held up her jewel, scanning the room. Bright diamond light fell over an altar of gleaming black marble against the far wall. And floating above it were two delicate roses entwined at the stems. They were both dark as midnight and gleamed with pale blue light.

“The roses!” Kara breathed, her face haloed in white by her shining unicorn jewel.

The fragile flowers seemed made of crystal, but their deep blue petals were alive with swirling elemental magic. Like the fire stallion, the flowers were creations of pure natural energy, bound together in an exquisite form.

Gulping a shuddering breath, she anxiously walked toward the altar.

“Careful,” Lorren warned in a hushed voice. “There might be traps.”

But nothing happened as she approached the black marble and stood inches away from the impossibly beautiful flowers. The unicorn jewel illuminated the magical roses like a spotlight.

“Which one?” Lorren worried. “They both look the same.”

“The bud with the dud is a rose to the nose, no…” Kara muttered, trying to remember the rhyme Tasha had told her. “The rose with the nose—why didn’t I write it down! Let’s just take both and figure it out later.”

“No, it’s too dangerous.”

Kara closed her eyes in concentration and willed herself to remember Tasha’s rhyme. “The flower with power is a nose rose…”

“The flower power is blue, but only one dud can be true,” the prince said.

“No, no!” Kara exclaimed.

“Great, now you made me forget it!” Lorren fretted.

“Oh, like you even remembered it to begin with.” She stood on tiptoes and leaned in close to the flowers, sniffing. The first smelled awful, like rotting eggs. Coughing, she took a deep breath and smelled the second. A beautiful aroma of roses and lilacs wafted from the sparkling petals.

Smiling confidently, she reached out for the stinky flower. Her jewel flashed as her hand closed around the smooth stem.

“The bloom with the fume is the flower with the power!” she cried triumphantly, pulling the flower free. Then she looked around at the room. Something wasn’t right.

Goldie’s jeweled eyes looked everywhere.

The sudden noise of claws skittering against stone surrounded them.

“What is that?” Kara asked, holding her gem tighter.

“Let’s get out of here before—” Lorren stopped, looking behind her, eyes dark with terror.

The massive stones around the room were sliding apart.

Clutching the crystal flower, Kara spun around—and screamed. A hideous mass of spiders surged from behind the wall, a voracious black wave that came straight toward her. She backed up, but more grotesque insects advanced behind her in a seething dark carpet. The ceiling shuddered and cracked, raining a swarm of writhing bugs.

“Eewwee!” Goldie swiped at the falling insects with her wings, batting them away from Kara.

“Ahhh!”

Thousands of black legs, putrid green abdomens, and oily wings glinted in the ghostly light as waves upon waves of gruesome bugs and spiders gushed from the walls.

Kara’s gem exploded in light, spinning her back against the altar. She swung her arms wildly, magic fire scorching an entire wall of bugs.

“Kara!” Lorren screamed.

The floor jolted beneath her, nearly sending her sprawling. The entire floor was sinking, drawing her down into a pit of squirming insects.

“Help!”

Lorren gripped her hand, pulling her onto the altar beside him. She scrambled up and stood watching as a sea of bugs rose below them. Centipedes, beetles, and spiders crawled out of the dank pit, clamoring for a foothold.

“I hate bugs!” Kara wildly swung the unicorn jewel, scattering piles of bugs.

Lorren slashed the top edge of the nearest tapestry, ripping an end free from the wall. “Hang on!”

He put his arm around Kara’s waist and grabbed the loose end of the tapestry.

“Jump!”

Clinging to Lorren, Kara leaped as high as she could and swung over the teeming chamber. Shielding the rose with her curled body, she landed roughly on the stone floor and tumbled through the door.

“Run!” Lorren cried.

With Goldie hanging on, Kara scrambled to her feet and fled, yanking beetles off her legs. High-pitched shrieking scratched from thousands of tiny fanged mouths as the vicious swarm followed.

Running back out of the lab, Kara and Lorren raced down the murky hallway and stopped short. The entrance to the mirror room was blocked with thousands of insects.

“How are we going to get to the mirror?” Kara cried, panicked.

“We can’t go back in there!” Lorren swerved to the right, leading Kara up a short flight of uneven stairs. She stumbled, but kept pace with Lorren, putting distance between them and the slithering black mass of bugs.

Kara and Lorren dashed through a dilapidated set of doorways and skidded to a stop.

Cold night air rushed through her as stars twinkled overhead. Before them lay an octagonal courtyard. And at the far end an immense gleaming spider web stretched from the ground all the way to the highest turret.

Kara quickly made her way across the stone yard. Light reflected crazily off the silken strands, forming shadows as deep as a cave. Three shimmering black mirrors were imbedded in the sickly pearl-like threads. There were other things imbedded as well, large, tightly wrapped cocoons. She didn’t want to even think about whose snacks those were.

“Which mirror?” Kara cried, glancing nervously over her shoulder.

“I don’t know!” Lorren exclaimed.

The bugs surged through the doors, hungry for their escaped prey.

“The rose!” Lorren exclaimed, reaching out for the shining crystal. “Give it to me!”

“What are you doing?” Kara whipped the precious elemental magic away from his grasping hand.

“The spiders are protecting it. You’ll be safe if I take it!”

Kara’s stomach lurched. This was her only chance to save Lyra, and he was trying to take it from her. Then it hit her. He’d been using her all along, just like everyone else. All they wanted was her magic, her blazing star powers to save their world. Well, what about her world? Her world was Lyra!