Sapphire (20 page)

Shawna snorted, and glanced at Orin who seemed to
have the same thoughts as her, but she thought it best to drop them
for now.

“What did you mean, ‘because of who I am?’ You said
something about my lineage?”

Mira’s tail twitched, and Shawna knew that meant
that she was uncomfortable. “That is something to be revealed to
you once we find the fourth realm, though I’m happy to see your
listening skills have improved.”

Shawna had been about to argue but caught Sirrush’s
stare, and only nodded her head. “Right. Well, I’m really sorry…”
She opened her hands towards the black liquid beneath them. “But
you shouldn’t have chosen me. And you shouldn’t believe everything
you hear.” She glared at Sirrush who grinned and winked back, only
infuriating her more.

“Yet,” said Mira. “Here you are.”

They stared at one another for several moments, and
Shawna knew what unspoken words hung between them.

You can leave if you want.

She knew she could leave all this if she truly
wanted to, but they both knew why she wouldn’t; for once in her
life, there were those that cared about her, were willing to give
their lives for her.

She relaxed her shoulders and watched the black
ripples radiating out from everyone’s feet. “How did you survive
the massacre?”

“Capella protected me. Like you, I have a task: to
bring you safely to the last realm.”

Shawna’s skin crawled, and a shiver traced its cold
fingers up her body. Why didn’t she completely believe Mira’s
words?

She turned back to Sirrush. “So, that’s why the
molochs are after me. Because of what my family, my kind, did?”

Sirrush folded his arms across his broad silver
chest. “That, and because you’re perhaps the last hope for this
world.” His sharp teeth glinted in his smile. “How ironic since
your people were also the reason hope is now necessary. But
hope
is the last thing the molochs want.”

In her mind’s eye, she saw thousands of slaughtered
unicorns flooding the land with their blood. The vision morphed to
a pair of fathomless fire-red eyes looking down at her from her
bedroom windowsill. The moloch bared its fangs in a snarling-grin,
and fear swallowed her.

Shawna coughed and put down the fire-mead. They were
all seated, or standing, in a luxurious reception room while
Sirrush’s harpies waited upon them. She took another sip of the
fiery drink. It burned her throat and made her eyes water, but it
helped dull her mind. She couldn’t look at Orin, not after what
Sirrush had told her, but he was looking at her. They were all
looking at her.

After the visions in the Mirror of Acumen, Sirrush
had commanded everyone but her to leave. Orin nearly got himself
killed when he drew his sword and demanded that he be allowed to
stay as well. Luckily, Shawna and Mira were able to persuade him to
leave before a furious looking Sirrush decided to tear him limb
from limb. She wished now that she had begged to let him stay.

She had been petrified to be left alone with the
dragon-man, but her terror only mounted as he told her what was
truly hidden within those liquid walls: the secret he had been
keeping. He was right. She hadn’t wanted to know. She wished she’d
never asked. He spoke to her, then walked away, leaving her stunned
and collapsed on the rippling dark water. The worst of it was that
she couldn’t tell anyone, especially not Orin. His life depended on
her secrecy, and her choice.

Antares had missed the entire thing and seemed like
he could care less. In fact, he seemed positively excited to be
leaving soon, which was apparent in his ‘peppy’ mood. His whiskers
constantly twitched and he ‘hrumphed’ less, a sure sign of his
elation. However, he still laid his ears back anytime a harpy drew
too near, which they did frequently just to annoy him. A harpy
flipped her long black hair, and gave Shawna a haughty look. Five
of the gorgeous harpies were hovering around the room. Sirrush
suddenly laughed, making everyone jump.

“Poor, fragile, little flower,” he said to
Shawna.

A harpy tittered at his comment, and flashed Shawna
dark purple eyes from under dark brows. He raised his goblet which
was immediately refilled by another harpy. Shawna saw it was Broga,
and quickly looked away before her stare was caught.

“Why can’t
you
tell us, dragon?” Orin said,
his arms crossed. “What’s so important that if she tells us then
the last realm will be ‘forever closed,’ ‘the world will continue
down its destructive path,’ or whatever prophetic doom you
claim?”

Every harpy turned to hiss at him, which made
Shawna’s hair curl, but Orin didn’t even look at them. Mira swished
her tail and stamped a hoof in warning. He had been becoming ever
more rude since Sirrush had spoken with Shawna. The ice-blue eyes
bore into Orin’s until Orin finally conceded and looked away, but
tendons flexed in his hands.

“Because,” said Sirrush in a silky voice. “You, boy,
would be part of the ‘doom’ if the knowledge was yours. Shawna
knows this.”

Orin’s arms uncrossed, muscles taut, and Shawna
thought he was about to go for his sword again, but he just curled
his hands into fists. This seemed to amuse Sirrush and the harpies.
All six of them grinned with sharp teeth.

“I grow weary of repetitive talk.” His face
immediately wasn’t the mask of pleasant host anymore. The harpies
were beginning to stand and waft from the room.

“Wait, I want to know
why?
Why did you…make
the prophecy?” She immediately regretted pushing him when he stood
and stared down at her.

His grin reached his eyes this time, only making her
feel more uncomfortable at his shifting moods. “After a few
thousand years, the world grows monotonous.” He turned and walked
away from them without another word.

The harpies were silently and impatiently implying
for them to leave. They all followed them through winding hallways
that eventually led into an expansive outside courtyard. Sirrush
seemed to have disappeared. Before she could ask where their host
had gone, a hurricane of wind whipped Shawna’s hair into her face.
When she pulled her hair away, Sirrush was landing nearby. Even
though she had seen him transform before, his magnificence and
brilliant silver scales still left her breathless. The courtyard
was barely large enough for his wingspan.

“I will carry you to the mountain range. You can
continue your journey from there.”

Antares looked horrified at the thought of being in
Sirrush’s clutches again. Shawna and Orin looked at each other and,
with some trepidation, let Sirrush guide them up to sit between his
spines. They sat uncomfortably on his wide metallic back between
curved black spikes.

I’m going to be impaled
. She ran her hand
down a chest-high spike curving towards her. Orin was behind her
with a spike pointed at his own chest. He seemed to be just as
worried of an early death by impalement as she was. Lula clung to
Shawna as Sirrush shifted to his hind legs and tail. Mira allowed
him to curl his large claws around her and lift her up. Antares
growled and flattened his ears.

“Shock me with your light, soleon, and my grip just
might loosen the higher I fly.”

Antares growled back grumpily, but let himself be
lifted up as well. Sirrush unfurled his wings and, using them like
hands, crawled to the open edge of the courtyard where the earth
fell away. Shawna had a quick glance of a ravine behind the castle
before he leapt without warning. Everyone, except Mira, screamed,
yelled, or roared as the earth hurtled towards them before he
caught their descent and shot upwards towards the mountains. He
filled the valley with roaring laughter.

Shawna and Orin had nearly been impaled twenty times
before Sirrush finally landed on the edge of a cliff. As she
dismounted, her legs shook from trying to cling to his back. She
would never complain about riding Mira ever again. Antares looked
dazed. He had not enjoyed rushing through the air hundreds of feet
above solid ground in the grip of a dragon, least of all because of
the bugs. Shawna had wondered what the intermittent zapping noises
had been during their flight.

“Farewell, little human girl,” said Sirrush as he
readied to take flight again. He spread his wings, then turned his
great head towards Shawna. “I look forward to seeing what world you
help create, or destroy.” His toothy grin as a dragon was not
nearly as charming as his human one.

“Wait,” Shawna said, a little shocked at herself as
everyone turned to look at her.

“Wait?” He sounded annoyed.

“I—” She glanced around. “I was just wondering,
wanted to know something, if you don’t mind?” He looked like he
minded. “If you could tell me something, anything, about how I can
do this? It’s impossible.” She felt stinging tears rising and
quickly blinked them away.

Sirrush stuck his nose down to hers, and she had to
take a few steps away from his hot breath. Dragon nostrils were not
pleasing to stand too close to.

“Did you not once believe a world such as this was
impossible?” His blue eyes flashed with amusement. “Life is layered
with mysteries upon mysteries. Alone they may seem like threads of
impossibility, but woven together, entire worlds, stars, and even
the vast darkness in which they lie becomes possible.” He then
launched himself into the sky, nearly knocking everyone flat with a
gust of wind, and flew away.

“Wow,” Lula said. “For a shiny flying lizard he
almost sounded poetic didn’t he?”

Shawna wanted to laugh, to feel light-hearted, as
she knew Lula was trying to do, but couldn’t even bring herself to
smile. Graciously, Lula just landed on her shoulder and gave her a
reassuring hug.

“Hey,” she said as Shawna stood on the precipice of
stone. “Whatever he said to you, whatever you have to do, isn’t
impossible because we’re here with you. I’m not going to let you do
this alone.”

A couple tears escaped from the corners of Shawna’s
eyes, and she wiped them away as Lula flew up to beam at her.

“Thanks,” Shawna said, finally smiling. “Sorry about
that last time we—”

“Don’t worry about it. We’d better get going.”

Lula flew on ahead while Shawna stared in the
direction where the last glint of his silver wings had
disappeared.

Later that night, she was followed. Shawna was
sitting under an Elysian-Tree when Orin silently approached.
Everyone else was fast asleep, even Antares, though he had promised
himself to keep an eye on the boy. He now lay slumbering many yards
away, his red curling light glowing eerily. Shawna was looking up
at the vast branches that were stretching and melting into the
darkness above. The tree looked like the night sky as little specks
of light winked in and out of existence throughout the leaves. When
they had come upon it, everyone stood in silent awe of the
magnificent tree for a long time. Shawna had finally asked about
its strange nature: its dark brown bark pulsating with patterns of
blue light, blue-veined black leaves, and most of all its
shimmering white fruit called pomum. Mira explained that it was an
Elysian-Tree, very special, and very rare.

“It is legend,” she had said. “That they are
connected to the stars, and if one tastes the fruit on a certain
moonless night, you will open the universe itself.”

Shawna just raised her eyebrows, filing that away
under ‘woo-woo,’ but was still spell-bound by the tree.

Later that night, it beckoned her. She sought the
tree’s calming presence and now sat beneath its beauty, the
twinkling lights above mirroring her thoughts, thousands of them
flashing in and out of her mind.

A hand touched her shoulder and she yelped before
realizing who it was. She flushed as Orin glanced over his
shoulder, then sat down beside her.