Sapphire (13 page)

“I know you want your freedom so,” she sighed
dramatically. “I trust you won’t steal from me in the future.”

“Of course.” Capella said with relief. The woman did
not know that she had found a crack in the powers chaining her to
the hut. She decided to goad her jailer some more. “But, it
will
be Ava, not him. On that you’re wrong.”

The blue eyes that shot at her would have quickened
any pulse. Capella stared back until the eyes turned away.

“He has another purpose. The dragon told me as
much,” said the beautiful young woman, pacing towards the
window.

“Does he now…and what, pray tell, did your chummy
lizard friend say? How do you know he doesn’t have
his
own
means to an end. Your little chosen boy may just be a bloody
beginning to a bloody end just like yours will be.”

She was so quick that Capella barely had time to
cast her arms up and deflect the spell. The air shimmered like heat
radiating from Capella’s hands as the woman hit the shield and
stumbled backwards. The knife clattered to the floor.

“How dare you,” snarled the woman. The blade flew
from the floor and slapped into her open palm with a flick of her
wrist.

The blue sparks on Capella’s arms ceased, but the
other woman didn’t attack again.

“How dare
I?
” Capella said. Chester’s eyes
were practically popping out of his head as he peered through her
tangles. “
I
am not a murderer.”

This time she wasn’t fast enough. Droplets of blood
flew from her cheek as the knife sliced through the air and sailed
back into its owner’s hand.

“Murderer? She is our destruction, and if not for
him everything is lost.” The woman’s face was crawling with blue
light like worms under her skin. Her nostrils flared, and the
woman’s jaw was so tightly clenched that Capella almost thought she
heard a tooth crack.

“I wasn’t talking about Orin and Ava,” Capella
whispered, wiping the blood from her wrinkled face.

The light vanished from the woman’s face, and she
looked as pale as her silver-blonde hair. She raised her chin and
peered down at Capella. “I did that for the good of our people. For
our
survival.
You know that. You didn’t oppose me then.”

“That was then.” Capella slowly sat down into her
rickety chair. “I gave her the necklace not because I oppose you,
but because I believe she will be the one to change things.”

“You can’t know that.”

“I don’t know. I believe. I feel it.”

The woman snorted.

Capella continued, “We have run out of time. If she
doesn’t succeed then your folly will truly be our ruin. There will
be no more guardians, as Sirrush said. She
is
the last
connection to our past. The gateways will never be found without
her.”

She didn’t move when the woman stepped closer and
leaned over. Her breath felt cool on Capella’s cut.

“She won’t succeed,” she hissed into the withered
ear. “She’s just another sacrifice to tip the scales.”

The woman walked away and Capella watched the
silvery ends of spider webs seem to meld into her hair as she
wafted past them.

“Tip the scales?” Capella called out to her. “You do
realize the scales are already tipped against us. If
she
dies, then
our
scale will be empty.”

The youthful fingers dragged across a shelf, leaving
trails in the dust. Her head whipped around. “I thought I would
mention, I know about the bat.”

She laughed as Capella stood up so quickly that she
nearly toppled over.

“Enjoy another lifetime in your castle of dust,
sister
.” In a flash she was gone, only motes were caught in
shafting sunlight where she once stood.

Chester croaked.

Capella had one hand on the chair, and one clutched
at her chest. “All we can hope for is that Sparkle has reached them
all in time.” Her voice was heavy as she flopped back into the
chair. It groaned along with her sigh.

“
Croak.”

“No, we can’t turn her into a larva. She already is
one.”

Chester bounced down onto the table, croaked, and
looked up at her.

“I don’t think she knows. If she knew her magic was
growing weaker, I would be a toad myself right now.”

“
Croak.”

“Say that again and I’ll throw you into a hornets
nest. I most certainly won’t kiss you. You’re not my type.”

She put her hand out, and Chester flopped into it
then onto her face before climbing ungracefully back into her
hair.

“No reason to be so grumpy,” she mumbled as she
shuffled over to her door. A breeze was blowing through Lula’s sea
of coral petals. Capella watched the flowers wave across the
hillside for a time before giving a long sigh. “Well, I think it’s
safe for now. Her little visits are always so invigorating. Best be
going before she comes back.”

Capella vanished.

Shawna wanted so badly to talk to this new appealing
protector of hers, but she was too nervous. She watched Orin from
behind striding up ahead with Antares. He had not revealed much
about himself, where he was from, or how he knew Capella, but Mira
had the power to tell a lying heart from a true one. She glanced at
Mira striding behind them and almost decided to walk up and demand
answers from the secretive unicorn when Lula flew over.

“Go talk to him,” Lula whispered, flying alongside
her. “I can tell you want to. You’re going to be bald if you keep
pulling at your hair like that.”

Shawna normally felt shy around boys in her other
life, and found she still was, despite staring down a thirty foot
tall electric tiger-monster.

“No, I don’t care who he is.”

Orin turned around, smiled, and she nearly swallowed
her own tongue. He slowed his pace, and she had no choice but to
catch up to him. She tried to look nonchalant, but her hand went
unconsciously to fiddle with her necklace.

“So, you’re the powerful enchantress we’ve been
waiting for?” His voice was husky and deep. She liked that and
couldn’t help but grin like a silly little girl. “You’ve been sent
to change our world, so I’ve been told.” He opened his hands like
he was waiting to catch her answer.

She didn’t look at him. She tried in vain to focus
on the rocky path. “I guess, if that’s what you’ve heard,” she
mumbled.

He laughed. She almost stumbled and fell flat on her
face.

“What
I’ve
heard? Well, I hope it’s what
you’ve
heard since you’re the one this dragon has been
talking about.”

He smiled and this time she did trip.

“Oh!” she cried, right before her knee and forehead
made contact with a disobliging rock.

Immediately his hands grabbed her shoulders, too
late to thwart gravity, but the sudden touch numbed any pain she
was feeling. Her heart was racing and she hoped Mira couldn’t hear
that at least.

“I don’t see how you will be able to help us if
rocks
can defeat you so easily,” he said, helping her up.
“They don’t even move.”

She tried to laugh and smile with him, feeling
confident and unabashed, but of course she felt just the opposite.
Instead she brushed herself off and gave an awkward giggle. Lula
flew over.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, sure.”

“No, you’re not, look.” She pointed at Shawna’s
forehead. “You’re bleeding. Let me help.”

Before Shawna could raise her hands and yell ‘no’ in
her own defense, her face sprouted a magnificent bushy pink beard.
Orin cleared his throat and looked like he was either straining not
to laugh or choke. She’d rather Kryos had eaten her than suffer
this life-ending embarrassment.

“At least it matches your hair now,” he said.

“My
hair?
”

Shawna turned a brighter pink than either her hair
or her beard.

“I’ll fix it! I’ll fix it!” stuttered Lula, waving
her hands around like she was trying to ward off Shawna’s evil
eye.

She glared at Lula, at a loss for words, and vowed
to squash her friend like a bug as soon as she fluttered close
enough. In a moment the beard was gone, her hair changed back, and
her bleeding
had
stopped, but she stalked away ahead of
everyone too mortified to speak. Orin jogged up to her, and she
wished him away as much as she wished him to touch her again.

“Hey,” he said. “Tell me about the other world where
you came from.” She was grateful he didn’t mention the fall or the
beard.

She looked at him now, his angular face, his
muscular arms, the way his dark brows framed his dark eyes, and a
black leather strap around his neck. She noticed all these details
in a matter of seconds, but the strap, obviously a necklace tucked
under his leather vest, made her pause before answering.

“Did I say something wrong?” he asked.

“Yeah,
no,
no.” She began talking about
herself, her family, her troubles at home and school. She had never
talked to anyone about such things besides Tara. It was so easy to
talk to him, and he seemed genuinely fascinated by her other
life.

They had been talking for hours, and neither
realized that everyone else had stopped until Antares growled,
“quiet!”

She almost strangled Antares. Orin had been in the
middle of a story about a giant Agonian bear that had become drunk
off his father’s fermented grains. It took ten men to drag the
slumbering bear off their farm. She laughed with him and didn’t
really care what he was saying, she just liked his voice and
watching his lips move. He fell silent, and she finally heard why
everyone else had stopped. Mira stood with head held high,
listening intently to the faint noises behind them. Shawna suddenly
noticed she hadn’t seen Sparkle since early that morning. He must
have either flown ahead or fallen asleep again. She bet on the
latter.

“I’ll go see what it is,” said Lula, who shot away
before anyone could protest.

Everyone waited. The noise of many hoof beats grew
louder. Lula zipped back through the mossy canyon, eyes shining
with excitement.

“Well?” growled Antares, flicking his tail.

“It’s a herd of Kayi-Elk
,
” she said
breathlessly. “They’re so…beautiful.” She could hardly contain
herself as glitter surrounded her like a golden cloud. Her eyes
sparkled, then she lapsed into a fit of sneezing.

“Kayi-Elk,” said Mira. “Then we have found it.” She
glanced at Antares.

“Yes,” he said, but he didn’t sound relieved. “Or
they have come to find us.”

Around the bend came at least twenty of the
strangest but truly most beautiful creatures Shawna had ever seen.
At first she thought they were centaurs but they were not half
human and half horse, they were half elk. They were as large as
horses, entirely snow white including their human torsos, with
giant white antlers that curved back from their heads. Some had
gold-tips on their antlers, others had gold spiraling around them,
but all were adorned in some way with gold, silver, or bronze. A
few wore gold bracers or intricate chest pieces. They looked like
living snow-sculptures as the sun shone on their skin and plumes of
white, blue, or black hair that ran from their foreheads down their
backs. Their skin was also tattooed with red, blue, and black
designs.

They cantered gracefully towards them, almost like a
synchronized dance, then fanned out and halted a few feet away. The
males had very strong features and larger jaws while the females
were finely featured and delicate, but it was their eyes that
captivated Shawna. Severe dark eyebrows, framing intense light blue
eyes, made them transform from delicately beautiful to fearfully
intimidating. There was silence as both parties stared at one
another until one of the male Kayi-Elk, with entirely silver
antlers, spoke.

“Guardian,” he said to Antares, hurriedly waving a
hand out from his chest as he bowed from the waist. “We have come
on Karuna’s behalf. She is in urgent need of your help. There is
very little time. We must bring the humans immediately!”

“What has happened?” said Mira.

“A sorcerer,” he said, looking around at their gasps
and exclamations. “He’s breeched the gateway.”

Shawna knew exactly what he was going to say, and
unconsciously touched the hilt of her crystal sword with one hand
and the sapphire with the other.

“We do not know how, but he has discovered the
entrance. We sensed your presence, soleon and unicorn, and we came
to find you as quickly as possible.” The Kayi-Elk reared up a
little on his slender legs. “He is destroying the realm as we
speak. Now
hurry
!”