The Emerald Staff (30 page)

“No way. Faedra, my orders were clear. I’m to
keep you here…safe.”

Faedra gave him a twisted but amused smirk,
spitting out a humorless chuckle and looked down at his hand. “Oh,
and you think you’re gonna try and stop me?” There was a two-beat
pause and Etyran let go. “No, I didn’t think so.” She carried on
towards the exit leaving Etyran in her wake. “I need to get to the
church,” she muttered to herself.

“Wait. Faedra!”

She carried on without hesitation until she
was several yards ahead of him. Etyran broke into a fast walk to
catch up to her. “In the name of Kernunnos, Faen will have my hide
for this, not to mention the king, and he’s already gunning for
me,” he grouched to himself as he caught up to her.

Faedra picked up her pace once outside the
cathedral and made her way to Castle Meadow where the buses picked
up and dropped off their passengers. Etyran didn’t leave her side,
but she decided not to acknowledge him. If it weren’t for him, she
would have defeated Savu by now and everyone she loved would be
safe. But now, she was having to swallow the distinct possibility
that everyone she loved was dead. It was all she could do to stay
in the here and now and not collapse into a gibbering wreck.

She scanned the bus stands as she walked down
Castle Meadow, eventually finding the one where the bus would pick
her up and take her back home so she could get to the church and
back into Azran.

“Oh, crap.” She looked around, deflated.
“This can’t be happening to me, not now.”

“What’s wrong?” Etyran asked.

“I haven’t got any money on me. There’s no
way the bus driver will let me on without any money. How the heck
am I going to get back to the church?” By this time, her eyes were
starting to glisten with the unshed tears she was fighting to hold
back.

“No problem, my lady, unless you’re opposed
to being a stowaway,” Etyran said with a smug air as he opened up
his coat.

Faedra gave a curious glance at his strange
gesture until she remembered what they had done in the mountains.
Her eyes widened with understanding and a crafty smile curled her
lips. She looked behind him at the row of shops, saw what she was
looking for and grabbed the Lightbender by the arm, dragging him
with her to an empty recessed doorway. Once inside, she nestled
herself against Etyran’s body like before so he could turn them
invisible. He walked them back to stand at the end of the queue
waiting to board the bus that just arrived.

While the bus driver was taking a lady’s
fare, Etyran scooted the two of them past her. The two scurried to
an empty seat at the back of the bus behind a young girl listening
to her MP3, nodding her head to the beat of the music playing in
her ears.

“So, tell me, how do you plan to defeat the
most powerful being in all of the seven realms?” Etyran asked once
the bus was underway.

Faedra looked around to make sure they
weren’t being listened to. The only person close to them had tinny
music pumping out of her ear buds and continued nodding her head to
the music.

“I’m an energy manipulator.”

“Yes, and?”

“Well, fire is just another type of energy,
right? When Savu hit me with his dragon-fire, I was in agony for a
few seconds, it felt like I was burning alive.” She shuddered at
the memory. “Then something happened and my body just…took over. I
don’t know how, but I started to absorb his energy. If I can get
him to fire at me again, I think I can suck all his energy from him
until he ends up a shriveled lifeless heap on the floor. There’s
one problem, though.”

“And that is?”

“He knows I can do it. I saw it in his eyes
just before you played hero and threw me out of Azran.”

Etyran gave her his best puppy dog ‘I’m
sorry’ eyes.

Faedra sighed, leaned her head against the
cool glass, and stared out of the window at the neighborhoods they
drove past. The rest of the journey was spent in silence.

They have to still be alive, they just
have to be.
Faedra wouldn’t allow herself to think of any other
outcome but saving the people she loved. She couldn’t bear to think
about the consequences if she didn’t. She would be completely alone
in the world and didn’t think she could handle that.

Half an hour later, the two of them were
hightailing it down the path from the bus stop to the church.
Faedra almost had to skid to a stop as she came to the gate. She
grabbed hold of the old wooden gate to stop her from overshooting
the entrance and catapulted herself up the path. Gravel crunched
under foot as they made their way behind the church.

When they arrived at their destination,
Faedra muttered the incantation to open the portal. She took a step
forward only to find herself still on the same path behind the
church.

She gave Etyran a confused expression, to
which he answered with a shrug. Not to be defeated, Faedra repeated
the incantation louder. Still nothing but the gravel path beneath
her feet.

Third time lucky.
Her stomach knotted
with fear as she shouted the words again.

“It’s locked.” A familiar voice said behind
them.

Faedra and Etyran spun round to see the vicar
standing there.

“Vicar?” Faedra asked, askance.

“You can’t get through, my dear.”

“You know about…?” She pointed to where the
portal should be.

The vicar nodded in reply.

“But how? When? You’ve known all along?”

Another nod in response. Great, now he lost
his tongue?

“What do you mean it’s locked?” Faedra asked,
still a little dumbstruck that the kindly vicar was in on her
secret all along. Was he even a real vicar?

“All the portals locked down the minute you
escaped. No one gets in, no one gets out. It’s the only way to keep
the book and the amulet apart.”

“But everyone I love is in there and I’m the
only one who can save them.” Faedra cried as tears welled in her
eyes.

“If Savu has resurrected himself, there is no
saving anyone, Faedra,” the vicar spoke in a somber tone.

“You have to let me in there, I know how to
defeat him.”

“Faedra, it took all the power of the seven
realms to defeat him last time. What do you think a young thing
like you can do?” His tone wasn’t mocking or accusing, just
resigned.

“I know I can because I just survived his
attack. He tried to burn me alive but look.” She pointed at the big
burn hole in her clothes and the flawless skin that peaked out from
underneath. “If you know anything about Savu, you know that there
should be a gaping hole where my stomach is, but there’s not. I
know how to defeat him. I have to get back in there.”

Emotions were getting the better of her at
this point; she was tired and her heart was aching over what may
have become of her loved ones. Tears welled up in her eyes and
spilled down her cheeks.

“You have to believe me, I have to find a way
in there,” she pleaded.

The vicar gave her a thoughtful look and cast
his gaze over her bare midriff once more.

“For what it’s worth, I believe she can do
it,” Etyran said.

The vicar gave them both a long considering
look and puffed out a heavy sigh, his decision made. “There is a
way, but if you are wrong, Custodian, you could put the seven
realms in great danger. We’re talking billions of innocent lives
lost if Savu gets his hands on both the book and the amulet. Do you
understand?”

“Yes.”

“Follow me, I have to find it. I’ve never had
to use it before, so goodness knows where I put it for safe
keeping.”

Faedra and Etyran exchanged glances as they
followed the vicar back to the rectory.

“So who are you anyway?” Faedra asked as they
followed him along the gravel path to his home.

“I was stationed here to keep an extra eye on
you, and your mother before you, and her mother before her, well,
all the Custodians, actually.”

“But that’s donkey’s years. Don’t people
notice that you never get any older?”

“Oh, I change my appearance to age over the
years, and then every few decades I start over with a new
face.”

They reached the door and followed the vicar
through the house into what looked like his study.

Faedra’s eyes widened at what greeted them.
Bookshelves were overflowing with books and papers. Every
conceivable surface was piled high with more books, and paperwork
spilled onto the floor.

The vicar waded through the sea of papers and
rounded what must have been his desk, although, it was completely
submerged with clutter. He scrubbed his face with both hands and
muttered.

“Where did I put it? Where would I have put
it? When was the last time I even saw it? Hmmm, three hundred years
ago, yes, that sounds about right.” He looked around the room
drumming his fingers on the top of a book as he did so.

“What are you looking for?” Faedra was almost
scared to ask.

“Hmm? Oh, sorry, dear,” the vicar broke from
his thoughts and wandered over to a stack of dusty books balanced
precariously on a table in the corner of the room. “A code.”

“A code?”

He carefully plucked a book from the bottom
of the pile and blew on it, sending a plume of dust in Faedra and
Etyran’s direction. “Yes, dear.” Then he held the book upside down
by its cover and wiggled it so the pages fanned out underneath.
When nothing fell out, he placed the book on the top of the
pile.

“Not in that one,” he said as he started
scanning the books on the shelves beside him.

Faedra sneezed.

“God bless you,” the vicar said.

“Thanks.”

Faedra sighed and looked around at the
disarray that was the vicar’s study. If he had to go through every
book, Azran would be in tatters by the time she got back there.

“Can we help?” she asked.

“No, no, I’ll find it in a minute.”

She very much doubted that.

He scanned another couple of shelves. “Ah ha!
There you are,” he said as he pulled a book out from between two
others and did the same thing with it. Faedra spotted the title,
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
. She rolled her eyes at the
irony.

An envelope fell out from between the pages
and the vicar bent over to pick it up. He held it out to Faedra.
“There you are, my dear, the king gave me that when I started here.
Just in case there was ever a time when the portals were on lock
down but I needed to get word to him if anything untoward happened
to the Custodian. That code should open the portal.”

Faedra looked at the envelope that still had
the royal wax seal on it.

“You never opened it?”

“Never had need to until this day. Faedra,
until you came into the world, things between Azran and the World
of Men were as smooth as a baby’s bottom.”

Faedra raised her eyebrows, then looked down
at the envelope and tore it open. When she pulled out the card and
read it, her eyes raised to the heavens. “You’re kidding,
right?”

The vicar looked perplexed. “Sorry, my dear,
I don’t know what you mean.”

She turned the card to face him. “Open
Sesame?”

The vicar stifled a smile. “Well, the king
always did have a sense of humor about the way humans regard
magic.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

Within minutes, they’d run back to the path
behind the church. With a disbelieving tone, Faedra said aloud
“Open Sesame.” She wasn’t sure if it worked or not and was just
about to take a step forward when Etyran put a hand on her shoulder
to stop her.

“At least let me go through first and make
sure the coast is clear.”

“Good idea.” She stood still and watched the
Lightbender disappear in front of her eyes before he stepped
through the portal. A moment later, he poked a now visible head
back through and gave her the all clear.

“Good luck,” the vicar said.

“Thank you.”

Faedra stepped through and met Etyran on the
other side.

“Let me guess,” a familiar voice said, coming
through the bushes. “Todmus, can I please borrow Aesti?” he put on
a mock female voice.

Todmus appeared a moment later from the
parting in the bushes that led to the opening on the other side. “I
had a feeling I’d see you sometime soon. Didn’t think a lock down
would be able to keep you out.” He gave Faedra a tender smile.

“Have you heard anything from the castle?”
Faedra asked.

“Only that there must be something pretty
heavy going on if all the portals got locked down. I had a feeling
it might have something to do with you.” He gave her a wry
grin.

“Hey! None of this is my fault.” Faedra said
in her defense. “Savu took the king, my dad, Faen and Jocelyn
hostage. Not to mention all the guards.”

Todmus let out a heavy sigh, full of dark
memories. “If you are correct and Savu is back, then he has the
whole realm held hostage. If I were in my right mind, I’d escort
you right back to the World of Men. If he gets hold of that amulet,
we’re all done for. But something tells me you have a plan, and, to
be honest, I think you are probably our best hope right now. I just
pray you know who you’re going up against.”

“I have a rough idea.”

“Go on with you, he’s in the clearing,”
Todmus said, nodding his head in that direction.

Faedra leaned down and took the little man’s
face in her hands. “Thank you, Todmus.”

Todmus smiled but didn’t say anything.

“This way,” Faedra said to Etyran as she
started through the bushes.

“What is Aesti?” Etyran asked, following
close behind her.

“You’ll see.”

They entered the clearing and Etyran blew out
a low whistle.

“Yeah, I know, cool isn’t he?” Faedra
responded.

Aesti stood tall. Ready for action, he pawed
at the ground, impatient. Flame red eyes glowing with a fierceness
Faedra now respected.