Sapphire (25 page)

“How did you make all this so quickly?” Shawna asked
Lula, impressed.

“Well, besides my talent and skill, fairy-dust
helps.” She winked at Shawna.

An elderly woman had been watching Lula and Shawna.
After the new clothes had been fashioned, she teetered over and
offered for Shawna to use the bath if she liked. The old woman
remembered being young and how important vanity was then. Now it
gave her joy just to help someone and to see the gratitude on their
face. Shawna had
never
been so dirty in her life and felt
like the thing from the black lagoon. After her refreshing bath in
an ancient but sturdy wooden tub filled with lavender blooms, and
arrayed in her new fairy-woven clothes, she felt more than
confident to find Orin and give him a good telling-off. He’d been
avoiding her again ever since his long talk with Faolon.

“What’s wrong?” Lula asked as Shawna absent-mindedly
played with her still freshly blossoming imp bracelet.

“Nothing. I’m fine. More than fine.” She smiled.

She had taken two steps out of the door, graciously
accepting a little honey-bun from the grandmotherly lady, when the
teenaged boy strutted up to her. He was carrying a pair of nicely
made leather boots ringed with fur around the top and down the
sides, and something else. He stopped in front of her and held out
the boots.

“Er, um, thanks,” said Shawna.

“And I wanted to give you this.” He blushed while
handing the other object to her.

It was a sword scabbard made of dark leather and
decorated with braided leather strips like the wolf skulls.

“You need one. You can’t go around holding onto a
sword like that. If people saw it—” but he didn’t finish his
thought, instead he just looked nervously at the ground.

She decided he was actually all right.

“No, really,” she said warmly. “Thanks. You didn’t
have to. That’s really sweet.”

He beamed. “Here, let me help you.” With an awkward
smile, he wrapped his arms around her waist to fasten the scabbard,
then quickly stepped away.

She slid her sword into it, and it fit perfectly. It
was nice to not have to constantly make sure it was secure, even
though Orin’s quick-fix strap had worked just fine. She then pulled
her sad Easter Bunny boots off and tried on the new ones. They also
fit perfectly and were very comfortable.

“Wow.” She was truly impressed at his craftsmanship.
“You can’t believe how relieved I am to get those pink boots off.
They were a real insult to fashion.” She laughed.

He laughed with her, though he clearly didn’t get
the joke at all.

He looked like he was about to say something until
she said, “Do you know where Orin is?”

His face fell, but he answered with a shrug. “Um, I
think he was over at the…uh…his family’s farm.” He pointed towards
a low hill. “That way.”

“His family? Were they here last night?”

The boy shrugged and looked uneasy. “It’s over
there.” He pointed again.

“Okay. Thanks.”

She walked in the direction he had pointed, waved
goodbye, then realized she had never asked his name. She never saw
his shoulders droop as she turned to walk away. She and Lula
followed a winding path through tall green grasses and yellow
flowers for longer than she expected. Lula was flying around and
turning them pink.

“No.
Blue
,” she was muttering to herself,
looking increasingly frustrated.

The cottage didn’t look far away from the village,
but the path continued to wind and gradually climb upwards, and she
thanked the boy again for such comfortable boots. Finally the path
rose then dipped, and she could just make out the top of a thatched
roof. A wooden fence without a gate greeted them. A little ways on,
bits of charred wood and metal were strewn along the side of the
trail. She didn’t think much of it, and wondered what his family
would be like, and why she hadn’t met them earlier.
I’m sure
they were more interested in him than the rest of us.

“Oh! Oh, no,” gasped Lula.

As they crested the hill, Shawna couldn’t believe
her eyes. There was no cottage. Before them was a burnt skeleton of
a destroyed home. Half the structure was gone. All that stood were
a few beams holding up a small section of roof. The rest was total
wreckage. No one was there. They both ran down to the scene
expecting to find Orin, or worse, bodies. However, as they drew
nearer she noticed grass and vines creeping into the fallen home.
This had happened a long time ago.

“What happened?” whispered Lula. “This is the right
place?”

“I think so,” said Shawna, picking up a blackened
brittle piece of metal. “This is where he pointed. I’m sure.”

She looked around. Orin either hadn’t come here, or
he had already left.

“Look.” Lula pointed at some fallen beams. “That
wood is Griffon wood.”

“So?”

“
So
, it’s been clawed and torn apart! You
can’t do that to Griffon wood. It’s stronger than stone. Only
shadow-ore can cut it. The stuff their axes are made from.”

She looked more closely and saw what resembled claw
marks and splintered ends.

“No animal could make marks in this wood like that,
but It looks like an animal
did
.”

An angry voice cut through the air. “What are you
doing here?!”

They jumped and whirled around. Shawna grabbed the
iron hilt at her waist, but it was only Orin standing behind them,
arms crossed. He didn’t look happy to see them.

She released the sword. “I was looking for you. We
were told you were here at your…” She glanced at the ruins.

“Go away,” he said, glaring at the both of them.

“What? No. What’s wrong with you? And what happened
here? Is this?” She didn’t know how else to ask, so she just
quietly said, “Your home?”

Orin’s eyes flashed, and he had his knife in his
hand faster than a heartbeat.

“What are you
doing?
” Her voice wavered a
moment, then held strong with growing vexation. “Orin!”

She was so hurt by this sudden action and the
blazing rage in his eyes that it was as if the blade had actually
cut her.

“No you don’t!” he yelled, as Lula flew at him.

He did a quick maneuver, and before Shawna realized
what had happened, he had his arm around her from behind, and the
knife pressed to her throat. Lula froze, shocked, and afraid of
what he might do next. Shawna’s own shock snapped to fury, and in
one rapid motion she elbowed him in the stomach, turned as he bent
over, and knocked him backwards with a viscous kick to the gut.
Lula’s jaw almost fell off. Orin landed with a crack on some
disintegrated wood and lay there, sprawled, groaning. Shawna
unsheathed her sword and stood glaring razors. Lula zoomed towards
the ground before he came-to, snatched all of his weapons, the bow
and arrow, knives, and sword in a cloud of gold, and shot them far
into the field. They burst into pink blooms in mid air and twirled
to the ground.

“Your necklace,” Lula said.

Shawna looked down and saw that it was floating up
to her chin. The two sapphires were glowing with a fierce light.
They looked like they were on fire, but they didn’t burn her. Orin
shifted and slowly raised himself to a sitting position, still
clutching his abdomen. His face was a flurry of emotion, then he
looked over her shoulder in astonishment. His eyes widened, his
lips started to part.

She turned her head to look just as an arrow shot
past, merely an eyelash from hooking a small loop in her necklace.
It struck and quivered in one of the last standing beams close to
Orin. She spun around, sword now raised at the stranger. Lula was
hovering next to her, and they both stared at the man pointing an
arrow at Shawna’s heart.

He smiled at her petrified expression. Her heart was
pounding like a waterfall, her thoughts racing like river rapids.
She couldn’t think straight. Lula was looking between the two of
them, hesitant to make a move. No one was watching Orin.

“Who…what—” she stammered, but the man cut her
off.

“Give me the necklace!”

It was no longer showing any signs of power as she
touched it with her fingers.

“Orin!” he shouted. “Now! Get the necklace!
Don’t
move, fairy, or this arrow will spear her between a
heartbeat!”

Lula stayed where she was, her eyes flaming, ready
to turn him into a helpless pink mole-rat and feed him to
Antares.

“Orin!” he shouted again.

Shawna dared not move, keeping her gaze locked on
his. She tried to swallow, but her mouth was dry. Orin walked up to
her. The man grinned, but it slid off his face as Orin stepped in
front of her. She had the urge to stab him in the kidney.

“Orin.” He snarled like a wolf. “What are you
doing?!”

“What I always should have done. Betrayed
her
as you both betrayed me, Gavan!”

“Betrayed you?” he fumed. His arrow trembled
slightly with rage. “How did we ever betray you? We saved you! And
now that the shards are before you, our only salvation, you let
them slip
away?
You know what will happen if we don’t stop
this!” Spit was flying from his lips like a slavering dog. “You
can’t believe in this madness? You know the
truth
. You’re a
fool to believe otherwise!”

“The truth?” Orin said more calmly. “I don’t care
what
you
or
she
thinks is the truth. If there’s one
thing I’ve learned, the truth shifts, as do lies. I’ve made my own
decisions.”

Gavan’s eye twitched and his nostrils flared. The
arrow was now aimed perfectly at Orin’s chest.

“I don’t believe in whatever prophecy that dragon
told,” Orin said. “I believe in Shawna.”

A hidden knife spun through the air from Orin’s
fingertips at Gavan, but in that same instant where Gavan had stood
was now a large black wolf, and the knife missed him by inches. It
all happened so fast, Shawna only had time to blindly stumble
backwards as the wolf lunged at Orin. Lula wasn’t sure what to do
now that boy and beast were a swiftly fighting blur of fangs and
fists. She was afraid of turning Orin into a mole-rat, though she
wasn’t convinced he didn’t entirely deserve it either. Shawna heard
hooves galloping up the hill.

Mira!

She galloped over the hill, enraged, her horn
wreathed with white fire. Without slowing, she leapt over Orin just
as he and the wolf separated, and plowed her shoulder into the
wolf’s body. He went flying, twisting in the air for several yards,
then slid in a plume of dust. She thundered towards Gavan, and
Shawna was sure she meant to trample him, but a moment before her
deadly hooves reached him, a hawk launched itself into the sky. She
reared. Her horn grazed the hawk’s feathers, singeing them, but
Gavan had transformed just in time and flew to the clouds.

She spun on her back hooves, and pointed her blazing
horn at Orin crouching on the ground and wiping blood from his lip.
Shawna’s eyes also blazed at him as she stomped away to stand near
Mira, sword still in her white-knuckled fist. Lula remained where
she was with a glare to rival both Shawna’s and Mira’s.

“What were you doing here?!” Mira’s shout at Shawna
made them all flinch. “I thought I made it clear you were to stay
away from this boy!”

Shawna couldn’t reply, and Mira didn’t wait for her
answer as she turned on Orin.

“I am going to either run you through, or get the
truth from you,
boy
,” said Mira, stepping towards him. “Or
perhaps both. If you
breathe
in a way that displeases me
I’ll puncture your lungs before you’ve finished that breath!”

He slowly stood up. She walked up to him, horn still
lowered, and Shawna fought the desire to protect him as he had her.
But he also tried to…a knife to my throat!
Her eyes narrowed
to slits. At first she thought Mira really was going to impale him,
but just as the point of her horn nearly touched his chest, she
suddenly shuddered, snorted, and took several frantic steps
back.

“No,” she gasped, her eyes rolling and rimmed in
white.

As quickly as she had lost it, Mira regained her
composure, and pointed her horn at his chest again from a few feet
away. He seemed just as confused by her reaction as everyone else
was.

“Where did you get that?” Her tone was so saturated
with fury and disgust that Shawna’s stomach turned over. What was
wrong?

“Get what?”

“The
stone?!
”

Everyone tensed at her animosity, and Orin slowly
raised his hand to the golden stone hidden beneath his tunic. When
he brought it out into the sunlight, Mira reared and screamed,
flashing her hooves like silver scythes. Orin stumbled back and
fell, but before he could gather his feet under him again she
lunged, reared, and smashed her hooves on either side of his curled
body. Her ears were pinned flat against her head, and the point of
her horn was a hair’s breadth from his skull. Lula and Shawna
watched all this in bewilderment. Orin was breathing heavily, his
arms still half-raised to protect himself.

He stared, terrified, as Mira touched her horn to
his brow. His eyes rolled back, he went pale, and then fainted. He
lay there for a minute, then gasped and opened his eyes. Mira had
raised her head but remained standing over him. They were very
still. Shawna knew Mira was talking to him privately. He closed his
eyes again and covered his face with his hands. Mira snorted,
reared again, and smashed to the earth just as Orin scurried out of
harm’s way. The whites of her eyes rolled in madness as she twisted
her head around, as if deciding whether to kill him or not. Shawna
had never seen Mira so dangerously enraged, not even when the
molochs had attacked them. After a few restless breaths, she seemed
to be calm enough to speak again.

“Those were her plans?” was all she said to Orin, so
that everyone else could hear. “You must tell us everything. If you
won’t, I will.”