Healer (21 page)

“He’s a child! He’s no
use to you!”

A
smirk.
“Of
course not.
Why would he be?”

“Jenario!
I know you can hear me!” Wisdom shouted. He noticed a
faint quiver to Twilight’s hand. Time was running out. “Listen to me, Jenario.
You have to fight this! Don’t let the horn control you!”

“Don’t hold your
breath,”
the horn calmly said.
“Jenario’s
reasoning disappeared when he created me.”

Desperately, the
prince ransacked his mind for a distraction, anything to bide Twilight more
time. But there was nothing. What the horn wanted, it could not have. While
Osha
inhibited Wisdom’s body, the dark unicorn was forced to
find alternate ways of power. Thus far, the storm had been that way.

“You planned this,”
Wisdom breathed. “You sent those creatures from the sea to distract me so
Nathaniel could slip into the realm. You
knew
I would kill him. You
knew
Ashpin would take the mirror.”

“And my sister
didn’t warn you?”
the horn said with
a sly smile, then chuckled when the prince had no comeback.
“I see. Ignoring
a unicorn’s advice? Not very wise of you, was it?”

“What do you want?”
Wisdom knew his voice was on the verge of pleading. Here, there was no healing.
Like the farmlands when he had first entered Trully, the storm sucked the
energy from it. They would have to rush him back into the realm
–
if
they could just get to him. “Tell me!”

“The
mirror.”

The words came out in
a purring hiss, one that Wisdom loathed to the fullest. He glanced back over his
shoulder to meet his brother’s sorrowful gaze. Both understood the conditions
of giving up such a prize. It was Twilight’s life, or their future.

Twilight’s hand had
stopped twitching. Wisdom could not even tell if his friend was breathing
anymore. Darkness spread its fingers around them, choking what little feeling
they had left and feeding it back to the horn.

To
the storm.

“I’m sorry, my
friend,” Wisdom heard himself whisper, and he bowed his head. “I can’t save
you.”

“You disappoint
me,”
the horn said, and Wisdom raised
his head to the mage kneeling beside the dying youth.
“You think my dear
sister’s magic will save you instead?”
He scooped the young Healer into his
arms and rose.
“In the end, it’ll just destroy you. So I offer you this one
chance.
A life...for a life.”

He held Twilight
out.
 

From behind, Wisdom
could hear his brother’s consoling murmurs, along with Katherine’s whimpering.

“This isn’t about one
life,” Wisdom said. “And you know it.”

Donning a crooked
smile, the mage stepped back into the swirling mist until no more could be seen
of him or Twilight.

CHAPTER
7

There was some pang of
regret as Wisdom headed back to the clan. Deciding it best to avoid the main road,
he detoured through the trees. Extra time was essential.

Twilight’s death had
unnerved them all, and the prince felt responsible. To his brother, anger had
triggered, “You’re no
brethusus
of mine!” before leaving him and
Katherine on their own. He almost wished the horn had taken his brother
instead.

Let the storm feed
off that!
A gurgling growl escaped
from his throat. Agitated, he let some of his anger burn off by releasing
bursts of magic from his flexing fingers. Roots snaked around trees, seeming to
suffocate as they hugged their trunks tighter. Where the vines dug into wood,
white scars appeared until the roots themselves extinguished in a mash of
broken chunks. All around, leafy stems exploded in spasmodic plots of fury,
throwing bits of earth from him.

When the dust settled,
the prince stood in a perfect circle of destruction. Not a sprig of green
remained. Even the patch of grass he had been standing on looked like it had
been chiseled down to thin ribbons of rain-deprived gullies.

With a sigh, he
clenched his fists to keep the rest of his energy contained.
Lo-ans’rel
were
natural Healers, but their manipulations could expand
much deeper. His current surroundings were testimony to what was sure to come –
if he let it.

Shy’s
afraid to go back.
He stepped from his path of destruction to stay his course to the clan.
He’s afraid to challenge Chronicles’ decision. That’s why he’s been silent
the whole time. What good it did! Now Twilight’s gone.

Wisdom’s concentrated
thoughts on his friend’s last moments nearly missed the two boys waiting for
his return. While he had taken a route that led to the Eastern Clan’s backyard,
it was also where he had left them.

“Did you get it?”
Ashpin’s voice was a distant echo to the prince. With so much on his mind, he
could barely focus.

“Did I?” He had to
clear a path through his current thoughts to decipher the meaning to the words.
Images of Twilight drowned out everything else.
The mirror…
He felt the
sapphire stone that contained the disguised portal before muttering a reply.
“It’s here.”

“I’m sorry,” Ashpin
continued. “I didn’t know what I was thinking.”

“What
you
were
thinking?” Peter stepped forward. “
I’m
the one who hit you, fought with
you at the shop, done everything I could to be rid of someone I didn’t like.”
He turned to Wisdom. “I was so convinced you were going to change everything.
That’s why I tried to take it. So it’s my fault.”

The prince let out a
heavy sigh. Weary from already expanding troubles, he glanced over each. Here
was a couple who had been at each other’s throats days before. Now here they
stood expecting a prince’s forgiveness.

“Both of you were
used,” Wisdom spoke more quickly, as he needed to get the mirror up to his
room. “Every hateful thought feeds that storm. And now it’s growing more
rapidly, which will triple my new problem.” He pushed past the two boys, who
glanced at each other in concern.

“What ‘new’ problem?”
Ashpin said.

“Tell you once I
figure out what to do about it.” He did not wait for their response and instead
shifted. As a hawk, he flew to his opened balcony doors, then quickly shut then
once inside his bedroom.

A single gesture put
the mirror back in its place. After making sure all other doors were shut, he
turned his attention to the mirror reflecting someone of calm resolve. Wisdom,
however, was beyond that. He could feel his cheeks burning with inner anger.

“What the hell am I
supposed to do now?” he yelled. His reflection remained motionless. “As if it’s
not worry enough to have a storm feeding off people’s emotions, a black unicorn
running amok...and now this!”

He began to pace back
and forth, wringing his hands and swearing in the
Lo-ans’rel
tongue.
When he finally quit his nervous pace, he took in a deep breath. His
reflection, however, remained still.

“What a fool I’ve
been.” As if a sudden weakness came over him, Wisdom crumpled to his knees at
the base of the mirror. “I thought Shy was better than this. He could have said
something!” Lifting his hands in pleading, he addressed his reflection.
“Twilight might still be alive!”

He kept fighting back
that choking need to cry – at least for Twilight’s sake. Unable to say more, he
bowed his head in despair.

“It is not your
brother’s doing that led to Twilight’s demise,” a soft voice answered, “nor is
it your brother’s doing that drives your kind to the brink of war.”

“I’m sorry I ever got
involved with humans.” Wisdom closed his eyes to the tears dripping over
stone-slab flooring. He thought of all the friends he had made over the years,
having been through slavery, meeting with the clans, and taking Glory as his
mate. The thought of losing her to his father’s hate made his stomach churn. “I
should have never gotten her involved. I…almost wish we’d never met.
Never fallen in love.”

“Love?” he heard from
the mirror. “But love is your greatest strength. It is what fills you with the
desire to protect those you care about.”

The prince just shook
his head. “No, love is my greatest downfall! I can’t protect anyone. I can’t
even keep my friends safe from the horn’s influence. It’s because of my actions
that Ashpin took the mirror.”

As he spoke, flowers
that once grew alongside his balcony wall began to whither. Soon, dry buds
dropped until a collection had gathered inside the wall’s perimeter.

“Nothing is without reason,”
the mirror continued. “How else would you have discovered your brother’s
secret? I said you had time to prepare, and you still do.”

“For the
Purification,”
Wisdom murmured, head still bowed.

“For this moment,” his
reflection said sharply, causing the prince to slowly lift his gaze to a
version of himself decked in the heat of battle. The silken
Lo-ans’rel
garment now adorned small, round plating down the front and sides. The plating
retained the same color as the outfit, but gave off a metallic shimmer as light
coming in from the outside shone upon it. At his side hung the jeweled
scimitar, and in his hand he held the staff from Chronicles.

There was no sign of
his traveling necklace.

“But I can’t fight
against an entire clan!” Wisdom choked as he got to his feet and wiped under
each eye.

“You won’t have to,”
his reflection soothed.
“At least...not for long.
It’ll give just enough time to draw out your true adversary. Only then will
your kind understand.”

*****

Glory waited anxiously
for the prince’s return. After Ashpin’s episode, she worried conflict between
the two might cause a collapse in the well-being of the clan. In some respect,
she was appalled by Wisdom’s lack of responsibility to tell Ashpin the truth.

How could he think
this would just go away?
She glanced
out a nearby window.
Even if the man
did
take a life…Ashpin should
still know.

Her thoughts slid off
topic when she saw movement coming from the backyard trees. When Wisdom stepped
into view, she felt relief. He had gone off so suddenly at the call of his
name. Now, as he came by way of the garden paths, two boys trotted over to meet
him, one being Ashpin.

Glory squinted, trying
to make out the second boy.

Isn’t he the one
who called me a farm girl?
Though she
had to admit the clothing worn that day had reflected it, the memory of his
actions did not easily wane.
What is he doing here?

Impatient to know the
situation, Glory made her way upstairs after seeing Wisdom shift. Sure he was
headed for his
room,
she crossed the hall quickly to
the master suite.

He must have spoken
with Ashpin since he didn’t look upset
.
She played the scene over in her mind as she approached the first conjoining
door.
Wonder if that Schevolsky boy had something to do with it earlier?

The turn of handle offered
an empty click – locked. She turned to the second door that led into the
bedroom. Her hand had just touched the reflective, silver handle when she
paused upon hearing several shouts coming from inside. Intrigued, Glory leaned
closer to listen.

The voice was
Wisdom’s, but who was he conversing with? She made the motion to knock,
then
paused. His tone had lowered, and she had to press an
ear against the door.

“…Sorry I ever got
involved with humans,” she heard.

Who is he talking
to?
His brother?
Glory strained to hear more, perturbed at this unusual statement.
Why
would he say that when he’s been with humans all this time? With me even!

“…Should have never
gotten her involved.”

Her?
Glory froze, feeling her skin crawl in sudden fear.
He spoke again, barely audible, and all color left her cheeks.

“…Wish we’d never met.
Never fallen in love.”

She felt cold. Unable
to hold her hands steady, she let them drop to her side. Had he really said
that? Had the one she held so close to her heart just rebuked her?

He doesn’t…love me?
Glory feared her knees might give way. She wanted to
call out to him, get him to come out and explain himself. Yet her throat seemed
to close as fresh tears threatened to well up. Keeping a hand on the wall
beside her, she forced herself instead to turn away. If she could just get to
her room and think, maybe she could make sense of it all.

Breath came in deep
swallows as she took one look at her bedroom door and kept going. She needed
air. There was no other balcony on that part of the mansion, so she descended
to the lower floors.

Perhaps
a walk.
She assured herself
that it could not have been about her. A brisk breeze ruffled her long, wavy
hair off her shoulders when the door to the outside opened. Paying little heed
to the servants in the yard, she started down the drive and out the front gate.

Nod
and smile.
She knew her
greeting must have been awkward, as she avoided eye contact the whole way until
she was beyond earshot.

No one had stopped her,
yet she knew there had been stares. Realization tightened her chest as she
neared town ten minutes down the road, and still no one had come for her.

They probably all
thought I had errands to…run.

The town itself seemed
to come and go, for the next moment she stood overlooking the harbor where the
ships came into Trully.

“When did you stop running?”
she
recalled asking her mother long ago.

“
When you find what you are
looking for, you stop,”
had been
her answer.

Seagulls called overhead
with the smell of salt permeating the air. Glory eyed the rolling waters while
a large ship readied to take sail.

And the urge to go
with it grew strong.

Run.

*****

He had brought the
spell with him just in case, though by now Abraham had cast it so many times it
simply rolled from his tongue like a second language. The paper, torn from his
father’s spell book, was a hidden token in his pocket. Jenario may not have
known it was gone since he rarely flipped through his spell books anymore. But
the horn knew.

It always knew.

I’ll wager it knows
what I’m doing even now.
He pulled
back the curtains surrounding the sleeping form of Corrigan.

Long hours of practice
using the assassin had the young magic-user fairly confident that he was ready.
He chuckled to himself, recalling how Nathaniel had collapsed the moment he
pronounced the Living Sleep spell. By reversing certain syllables, Abraham
found he could induce a full cycle of sleep or simply have Nathaniel unable to
function except for his vocals.

Not that he could
function anyhow.
Abraham rolled his
eyes at the thought.
Nathaniel could use a good dose of this for all the
liquor he’s consumed.
Funny how I haven’t seen him of late to
try it.

Like before, Abraham
gently unfurled the harpy’s wings that had snugged around his breast. He would
need full access to the chest area in order to complete the spell.

“You may fly yet,” he
leaned over to whisper.