Sapphire (12 page)

Shawna just shrugged her shoulders, and looked
around at everyone else. No one seemed to have anything to say
about the stone’s behavior, not even Mira. They all turned their
eyes back to the newcomer.

“Why are they trying to destroy the realms?” Mira
asked.

“Adhara knows what you’re trying to do,
unicorn.”

Mira flared her nostrils. Orin stood his ground a
few more moments, then got down on his knee in front of her. He
unsheathed and laid his sword on the damp grass, fists on the
blade, then hung his head.

“This I promise you,” he said. “I was sent by
Capella to warn you, and I am sworn to protect the girl.”

“Why did Capella never mention you ever before?”
said Mira.

He looked straight at her. “You sought me yourself,
if you recall, but my parents hid me deep in the Agonian Range
after the prophecy was told. I am ready now to face what I must.”
Shawna hung in his gaze when he looked at her with intense eyes. “I
see I can no longer run.”

No longer run.
She felt a warmth grow in her
chest towards his words.
I’m not the only one running.

“Your parents?” said Mira, narrowing her eyes. “I
was told they were—”

“Protecting me!” He flung the words like a shield.
“Whatever you were told, it was to protect me. I ask you not to
question me. Not here. Not in front of
her.
”

Shawna was staring fixedly at Orin like it would
help her read his mind. Who
was
this man? Was he the other
‘brat’ that Capella had spoken of? She sure hoped so. Without
realizing it, she was smiling while biting her lip at this thought
until Orin glanced over. Embarrassed, she quickly rearranged her
face to what she hoped was
serious
and
indifferent
.
Mira still said nothing while she stared at him. Without warning,
she touched her horn to his forehead, and his eyes rolled back.
Shawna almost ran to catch him, but he did not fall to the ground
as she had. He swayed a few moments, then gasped and threw out his
hands when he came back around.

He touched his brow, and looked up at Mira, his jaw
clenching as he stood tall. “Believe me now?”

Mira inclined her head. “The memories were
fragmented, but I see what you say is true.” She cocked one ear
back and one forward. “If you betray us my horn will be quick to
find your heart on the end of it.” She pawed the wet turf, laid
both her ears back, and arched her head high.

While Shawna was watching the exchange, her hand
unconsciously tightened around the crystal sword.
What is it he
doesn’t want me to know?
He suddenly looked straight at her,
like he had heard her thoughts, and she couldn’t break away from
his eyes. The longer she fell into his gaze, the less important the
goal of their quest suddenly seemed. This handsome stranger
entranced her.

Orin did not say much more to them as they traveled
onward that day. When they finally halted under a cloudless night,
he found some large tree roots to huddle in and fell asleep. Shawna
was sitting across the clearing and staring at his sleeping form.
With her chin in her hand, her mind drifted towards thoughts of
Orin: his eyes, his fit body, his dark hair, and how Jarred didn’t
even compare. She didn’t know how long she’d been sitting there
ruminating about his features until something came up behind
her.

“Geez!” She jumped when the velvet nose touched her
arm. “How can you be so quiet? Your feet are so huge.”

“Now my feet are huge as well?” said Mira. “You are
too kind.”

“So, where’s this second realm?” she asked
quickly.

She didn’t want to hear what Mira had to say, afraid
it might be something bad about Orin. She so enjoyed looking at
him, intact.

“The realm lies within a mountain valley between two
columns that appear as twin trees to unseeing wanderers. I am
confident we will find the second realm soon.” She turned her head
towards the shrouded mountain range where no stars were visible.
“Hopefully in time.”

“Why do we have to go to these places anyway? Why
not just go to the last one?”

“The other four are meant to guide one to Lesath’s
realm, my realm. It cannot be found without first passing through
the four. That’s why I’m afraid if that sorcerer discovers it…” She
let her thought drift away.

Sparkle, hanging upside down from a branch, stirred
behind his wings, then continued sleeping.

“If it’s your realm,” said Shawna, “why don’t you
know where it is?”

Mira inhaled and exhaled deeply before answering.
“The realms were shielded, or closed, against your kind forever.
However, by staying here, I did not realize
I
would never be
able to return to my own realm.”

“Why did you stay?”

“For you. I believed you could help us.”

Shawna glanced away and picked at some moss on the
rock. She wanted to ask more about her role in everything, but
found she was too scared to ask, so she changed the subject. “If
the realms were closed, how’d you find Kryos?”

“The unicorns created all the realms, long ago. But
my own realm is completely hidden from my sight.” Her head lowered
a little as if weighed by this reality. “If I don’t know where it
is, then
no
one will be able to find it and destroy it.”

Shawna’s heart skipped a beat at the word
destroy
. So, she wasn’t the only one being hunted by the
molochs, then. “But how did that man, the sorcerer, find
Kryos?”

One of Mira’s ears swiveled backwards. “That,
Shawna, is a thought that truly frightens me, and something I’d
rather not discuss right now.”

She heard the finality and anger in Mira’s tone, so
she didn’t pursue the mystery. “Okay, so, if we go to the other
four realms then we’ll be able to find yours, right? And
Lesath?”

Mira nodded her head. It was such a human gesture
that Shawna still found it very amusing when done by a unicorn. She
bit back a grin and said, “And
I’m
the only one that can
help you find the last realm? Why?”

“It seems you are, whether you want to accept it or
not. As to why,” Mira shrugged her head to her neck. “We all have
our paths, and this is yours.”

At that statement, Shawna suddenly felt backed
against a wall, and it must have shown on her face.

“No, no,” laughed Mira. “Do not look at me like
that. Now, there’s actually a more pressing matter I wish to talk
about with you.”

“
More
pressing?” Shawna nearly shouted before
lowering her voice. “What could be more pressing than me supposedly
saving us all? I mean,
me?
Are you
kidding?
What can
I
do?!”

Mira whickered in amusement. “As far as I can see,
you have faced fear with courage for those you cared about.” She
shook her mane. “You may be stupid sometimes,” Shawna crossed her
arms. “But sometimes bravery requires a little stupidity. I am not
worried, nor should you be.”

She gave Mira a look of
I don’t care if you’re a
unicorn,

I’m going to smack you
.

“However,” said Mira, still smiling with her eyes.
“I would like an apology” Shawna raised an eyebrow and corner of
her lip at this. “My feet are
not
huge, nor is my head.”
Mira arched her neck and snorted pompously. Shawna’s mouth twitched
then broke into a smile.

“Sorry, you’re, um, very pretty.”

Mira stood regally in the moonlight. “Yes, I know.”
Shawna smirked at her act. “For a horse with a stick in its
head.”

Mira whickered, then shook her mane. “Now.” She
lowered her nose. “Let me see that necklace of yours.”

Shawna glanced down at it, touching it with her
fingers. “One of the stones changed after we left the Monoliths.
Why did it do that?”

“It changes?” Mira said, staring at the necklace,
transfixed.

“What? What’s wrong?”

Mira swished her tail then said, more to herself
than to Shawna, “She did it. Even though Adhara had possession of
this necklace.”

Shawna scrambled to her feet, grabbing the necklace,
her breath catching in her chest. “Wait, Capella got this from
her?
” Immediately repulsed by the tainted thing around her
neck, she let it go as if it had burned her. “Is this how she’s
following us?!”

She was about to rip the leather strap from her
throat, fling it into the woods, and make a run for it, but where
to she had no idea.

“No,” said Mira. “Unless she had the same stone, she
could not follow their energy.”

Shawna tried to lift the necklace from her throat,
but the sapphire stone flared bright as day and scorched her hand
like flame.

“Ow!” she screeched, releasing it and trying
uselessly to shy away from the stone.

“What was that?” Lula yelled, flying over from her
tree branch.

Everyone else had awoken to the bright flash and
Antares growled, ready to attack something. Sparkle kept
snoring.

“What happened?” Shawna gasped, gingerly allowing
the now cool gem to touch her skin again.

“The sapphires have already fastened to you,” said
Mira in awe. “They cannot be removed until either the fifth realm
is found, or they are passed willingly with good intention to
another. Do not be afraid,” she said, for Shawna was gaping like
she’d just signed her soul away to eternal torment. Mira stamped
her hoof, very pleased by this affirmation. Shawna felt like yet
another noose had been forced around her neck.

“Well, that’s nice,” said Lula, yawning and
fluttering back to her perch. “Next time don’t wake me unless it’s
about Shawna saving the world, or something.” She paused on her
branch and cocked her head. “Oh, wait.”

She then gave a wide grin in return to Shawna’s
smirk before she flitted back to her bed of leaves to sleep.
Antares grumbled under his breath, lashed his tail, and loped off
to find a more secluded spot away from annoyances.

“What were you saying earlier?” Shawna said, turning
to Mira. “You said ‘she did it.’ You mean Capella got it from
my…from Adhara? How?”

“I don’t know. It’s not important right now. We have
the sapphires, and that’s all that matters.” Before Shawna could
say anything else, Mira turned and abruptly walked away, clearly
unwilling to discuss anything more.

No one noticed Orin under his fur blanket, watching
them in the moonlight.

“How
dare
you!” The voice was sharp and
cracked like rotting ice. “You lied to me…after you swore...perhaps
I will see to it that you
do
join the dust that carpets your
floors.”

“I still hold that promise. I
am
helping you.
I tell you, it makes perfect sense,” said Capella.

“
Sense?”
the young woman screeched.

Chester the frog was peering at the woman from under
his nest of dreads. “Sirrush was correct,” said Capella. “Orin is
not the only one.”

“But
she
is not the
right
one,”
snapped the other woman as she paced the room. The floorboards
creaked and dust swirled around her bronze leggings. She stopped
and curled her fingers around a hanging spider thread. “No matter.
I will get them back.”

Capella sat up. “How did you know?”

The laugh in response sent tingles up Capella’s
spine.
What else had she seen?
Capella prayed that the woman
hadn’t discovered her secret.

“You think I can’t watch you in the very hut I
imprisoned you in? You have grown stupid as well as old,” said the
woman.

A spider scurried towards the vibrations in its
large web, then turned to ash when the threads glowed electric
blue. She dropped her hand and the light vanished. The web hung
untouched but empty.