Sapphire (40 page)

The dome of light arcing over the valley swirled and
crackled. Kryos, Zev, and Karuna looked as if they were made of the
liquid light, while Ava and Lesath hung suspended in it. Ava, arms
spread, eyes closed, suddenly screamed, but no sound issued forth.
Her eyes shot open, burning with red flame, then she convulsed,
twisted, and began to change. Her skin tore like paper, revealing
bone and dark fur beneath, then all her bones cracked and elongated
into a tusked snout and four bear-like limbs with claws. She roared
in her moloch form, then just as quickly her hide began to tear.
Writhing in her monstrous body like a snake, her thick dark fur
peeled away to reveal nothing but muscle and bone. The muscle and
skeleton of the moloch disintegrated, rotted away, then burst into
ash. The cloud of ash swirled to reform a human skeleton, then the
muscle, sinew, skin, hair, and even Ava’s clothing
re-materialized.

Held by the light, her eyes remained closed, and she
looked as if merely sleeping while the illuminated sky began to
rain down like a melting sun. As every golden drop touched a
roaring beast or screeching skeletal face, every moloch began to
morph, to change back. Lesath twisted, roared, then his cursed body
tore apart with fiercely lashing black hooves and sapphire horn.
Ava felt nothing but quiet warmth. Everything was so peaceful, so
calm.

“Ava.” The voice was far away. “Ava.”

Ava. Ava?

“Ava!”

She opened her eyes. The blue of a cloudless sky
filled her vision, and then a pair of eyes were looking down at
her. For a moment her mind couldn’t latch onto her surroundings,
then as she slowly came back to herself and to the earth beneath
her body, she gave a cry of unbelievable joy.

“Orin?” she gasped in disbelief.

He gave her a huge smile. All she could do was stare
at him, at the nearness of him. He was here, he was alive, just as
she was!

“How—” she began to say as he helped her up.

“I don’t know,” he interrupted. “Last thing I knew,
that moloch had me and then…I woke up like you, lying on the
ground. Surrounded—”

“
Surrounded?!
”
She cut him off and spun around, expecting to see the hosts
of dark creatures as before.

Her knees buckled and she fell to the ground again
before Orin could catch her. Not one murderous molten eye glared
back. A sea of gleaming silver, dark, or crystal-clear horns, black
coats, and deep gem colored eyes were all turned towards her
astonished face. They were encircled by thousands upon thousands of
unicorns, pawing the earth and tossing their proud heads.

Her jaw dropped open not only from the beautiful
creatures before her, but also from the people standing amongst
them. People of all ages mingled, talked, and shouted or smiled as
they were reunited with loved ones. Although, most of them looked
pretty shocked to find themselves here and to be near so many
unicorns. Then something else happened that nearly made her faint.
She saw a glint out of the corner of her eye, then it slammed into
the side of her neck and wrapped its little arms around as far as
they could go.

“Avaaaaa!” squealed Lula so shrilly Ava thought her
eardrums would rupture.

She burst into tears and laughter
as Lula flew up beaming and talking excitedly, “…I
knew
everything would be
okay again. I
knew
I couldn’t have a friend that destroyed the entire world.
That would just be ridiculous. I mean, you
can
sometimes
be a little scary, like in Karuna’s realm, but—”

“Ava.” Another voice immediately sent tingles up her
spine.

She jumped to her feet and turned around. Her
parents rushed over, throwing their arms around her, full of
tearful joy. There was a long time of embracing, cries of
happiness, laughter, and lively talk. Ava beamed at her parents,
and her father wiped her joyful tears away with his thumb.

“My little guardian,” he said.

Then Capella and Sparkle emerged from the crowd.

“Move!” Capella demanded, smacking the rump of a
unicorn standing in her way.

The unicorn jumped and snorted, then moved aside as
Capella pushed past with Sparkle tucked under her arm. Sparkle
squeaked cheerfully when he saw Ava, flapping his leathery black
wings until Capella finally shoved him onto her. He crawled onto
her shoulder and promptly fell asleep, his foxy-face squinched up
in delight.

“Useless bat,” Capella muttered before shuffling
over to Ava. “Well,” she said, peering from beneath her layers of
wrinkles. “Took you long enough.”

Lula zipped over with her hand raised and smacked
Capella across the face. The old woman stood stunned, her wrinkles
quivering, and she looked about ready to turn Lula into a pile of
ash.

“That’s from Ava,” said Lula, as Ava burst out
laughing, remembering her request of Lula during their stay in the
village. “And this is from me.”

She hugged Capella’s arm with all her little heart,
and Capella also burst into cackling laughter. “All right, all
right. Get off,” she said, shaking her arm.

Ava then flung her arms around her, and Capella
hugged her back before pushing her away and snatching at Chester
mid-leap between them.

“Chester! You nipple-wart!”

He croaked defiantly, then allowed himself to be
shoved back into her tangled mass of hair.

“Sirrush?” Ava asked. She wasn’t sure if she wanted
to hear that he was all right or not.

“Oh, those harpies carried him off, the slinky
little lizard.” Capella waved a hand like it was a stupid thing to
ask. “I s’pose it got a little boring after you left.”

Ava gave a crooked smile but
didn’t pursue the subject. What did she care where Sirrush was? He
had manipulated them all. The further away from them he was the
better. She heard a familiar
hrumph
and looked around to see Antares clearing a wide
path as he padded towards them. Before she could run forward and
throw her arms around him, Lula beat her to it, plastering herself
across his muzzle. Antares looked surprised, stopped in his tracks,
and stared down his nose at Lula. He wrinkled his muzzle then
sneezed from her cloud of dust.

Lula tumbled through the air with snot dripping off
her. Antares erupted with roaring laughter and everyone else
couldn’t help but join in, even Lula. Ava was so immersed in pure
happiness, embraced by all her friends and family, that it took her
awhile to realize Mira had not yet joined them. Her eyes looked
everywhere for the raven coat, silver horn, and violet eyes but
could not find her savior. The true savior of them all.

She looked further and further across the valley,
then finally her eyes rose to the ridges. The guardians were gone.
She turned to Antares.

“Where did they go?”

He followed her gaze. “Back to their realms. They
did what Mira asked of them.”

“What she asked of them?”

His dark red eyes caught hers.
“Why do you think she took you to all the realms?” His whiskers
twitched. “To gain their support, of course.
All
the guardians were needed to
balance such a powerful curse. She wanted them to believe in you as
she did, and you did a good job of proving yourself.”

She touched her temple, flashes of her memory-melds
with Mira and Lesath surfaced, but she couldn’t remember any
specifics. She blinked and pushed such elusive feelings aside, then
asked, “Aren’t you going to leave too?”

“Perhaps.” His eyes, however, were not on her.

He was searching for something, and she had a pretty
good idea what, or whom. As she turned away to resume her own
search for Mira, she gasped and stepped back into Antares. The
unicorn lord was approaching her.

He was magnificent. Sparks of golden fire ignited
wherever his massive obsidian hooves touched the earth and golden
light swirled within his black horn. He stood before Ava, and she
could feel the power of the sapphire shards she had carried flowing
from him.

“We thank you, Ava,” he said in a voice as deep and
ancient as Lucidia itself.

He inclined and arched his head while the rest of
the unicorns in sight emulated his gesture. Without another word,
he turned away. Some of the unicorns began to walk after their
lord, being careful not to tread on any humans.

“Wait,” Ava called out, taking a step after him.

He paused and turned to look at her.

“Where are you going? You’re just leaving? Where’s
Mira?”

Unicorns were striding past everyone, heading
towards the glowing archway.

“We must leave,” he said. “You’ve
proven your kind can change, but never again will you be tempted by
a power you should have never possessed. As for Mira…” He paused,
and Ava thought she saw a flicker of—
anger?
Then it was gone and replaced
by calm detachment. “We are not mortal as you are, and thus do not
die as you do.” One of his ears turned back. “Yet, that was no
ordinary sword, or curse.”

“You still haven’t told me,
where
is
she?”
Her eyes searched his large abyssal ones, but she could see nothing
in their alien depths.

“We are as the world is, and the world is as we are.
One reflecting the other. She may yet return in another form.”

She let him go and watched the unicorns leave the
world, never to return. Lesath’s hopeful words flamed through her
and she vowed to find Mira as Mira had once found her. Someone
stepped next to her and she looked up to find Orin watching the
amazing procession before them. Unicorn after unicorn, tossing
their heads, rearing, crying and kicking out just for the joy of
it, trotted past for hours towards the giant bright arch. During
that time, people found one another, friends and families reunited,
and as entire villages were reestablished they began to disperse
towards their own homes. Each person seemed intent on looking ahead
and forgetting what had happened. Many, however, watched the
unicorns leave. When the last unicorn had vanished through the
portal of light, Lesath faced them.

He did not cry out, or kick in joy, as the others
had. He turned a dark eye on Ava. It narrowed ever so slightly,
then he too turned and disappeared through the light. She wondered
for a moment about that gaze, the flash of something behind it, but
in an instant the massive arch groaned, cracked, then began to
crumble. Everyone cried out in astonishment as the archway crumbled
and fell to the ground in a cloud of dust, nothing now but ordinary
stones. Another series of echoing cracks and rumbles reverberated
from the other side of the valley. They all turned to see the
distant castle collapse, truly becoming the ruin Lorna had
disguised it as.

“So, it was held together by unicorn magic,” Lula
whispered in awe as she flew over to Ava.

Ava looked at her parents. “It was made from their
power?”

Adhara looked so regretful and sad that Ava was
sorry she’d asked.

“Yes,” Adhara said, looking at the castle ruin.
“When our reign and power was strong, Lorna created an impenetrable
fortress with the—” She pursed her lips.

“With the unicorn horns,” Warwick finished for her.
“Imbedded into the very walls themselves.” He put his arm around
his wife.

Ava shuddered at the thought of how many horns had
been ground into the mortar of that castle, that prison.