A Gypsy Song (The Eye of the Crystal Ball - The Wolfboy Chronicles) (20 page)

Sara was confused and Marland the Mole saw it on her face.

“Listen. There is no time to waste. They are all waiting for you,” he said and started running. “Come on!”

Sara looked at Manolo.

“Should we just follow it?”

“How do we know that it is not a trap?” he asked.

Sara smiled and started running.

“Someone once told me that sometimes you just have to have a little trust,” she yelled.

They followed the mole into a small mountain pass. As they got there, more animals seemed to emerge from all over the place. There were long-legged deer, rabbits, a family of beavers, some smaller birds, mice and then there was a flock of stranger animals that Sara had never seen before. A big hedgehog walking on two legs with the face and the beak of a crow, a weasel no bigger than a mouse but with hooves like a hind that made it fall all the time. There was a bat with the face and tail of a cat hanging head down from a branch in a tree, then there was a big frog that had a pair of white wings, a groundhog with lion feet, a lizard with horns, and then there was the giant wolf they had met earlier and the eagle who now bowed its head and bid them welcome.

All stared at Sara and Manolo as the mole brought them in and asked them to sit in the circle that the animals and creatures had shaped.

“I have found them,” Marland finally spoke. He pointed at Sara. “She is the great sorceress that will free us from the spell.”

There was a lot of talking and murmuring among the animals

“But she is only a child,” said the big wolf with the red eyes. “Surely there must be some mistake.”

Again the creatures murmured.

“Hold it!” the mole yelled. “This is her. This is the sorceress from the prophesy, I just know it in my heart. She is the only one that can break the spell.”

A silence grew strong among the creatures. Then the wolf stepped forward.

“Then tell me, Marland the Mole, just how will the little girl lead us to victory?”

“By the pureness of her heart,” Marland said. “Remember the scripture. ‘Only one with the purest heart can break the spell. Only a white sorceress with powers greater than the black witch can do it. For in the presence of pure good, evil must stand defeat’.”

The wolf looked at the other creatures.

“If it is so, then we must begin our preparations immediately.”

“Every night at the exact same time, when the moon is highest in the sky for nearly three hundred years, the creatures of this valley gathered like this, hoping that this night would be the one where you would show up,” the mole said when they were alone. “And now, finally, the time has come. We shall strike our attack tomorrow night.”

“Why at night?” Sara asked.

The mole sighed and looked to the ground.

“Because it is only at night that we have a will of our own. As soon as the daylight breaks we only answer to the will of the ring.”

“Why is it so?” she asked.

“Because at night the witch is asleep. The ring can only work when she is awake.”

“What if she wakes up?”

“Then it has the power over us all again. It sees through her, it uses her body to fight and do its evil magic on us.”

“Is that why so many of you are a little … different?”

“Yes. The ring loves to turn us into strange creatures. Once you have looked into the red ruby it has the power over you and it can make us do anything it wants to, and turn us into anything it pleases. I used to be a hawk. The only thing I kept is my great vision. ”

“So how do we break the spell?” Sara asked.

“You need to take the ring off her finger.”

“But I thought that was impossible. I thought the witch tried that when she realized what it was doing to her?”

“She couldn’t. But you can.”

Sara sighed. She wasn’t so sure. All these creatures of the valley were now depending on her, too. And here she thought all she had to do was to get her hands on the crystal ball.

“So what happens if the ring comes off?”

The mole smiled.

“Then the spell is broken and we will all go back to who we were and so will this once so magnificent valley.”

“What happens if we fail?”

The mole sighed and looked at her.

“Let’s not think about that,” he said and got up. “Do you want something to drink?” he asked and gave them water. The last couple of days they had been saving their water to not run out so Manolo and Sara drank with great thirst until all the water was gone.

“Oh my, long journey?” he said.

The rest of the night, while they all worked to put together strategies and planning the forthcoming attack on the black castle—as the creatures called it—Sara couldn’t help but wonder what might happen the next morning. They would try and sleep all day, but what if the witch found them? They would be defenseless. She definitely knew that they were on that mountain, so she must be aware of their presence in the valley as well. It was probably the witch that sent the red birds too, she thought.

Therefore Sara decided to ask Marland about the witch’s army.

 “We are the ones that are supposed to protect her castle from the outside. And we will, during the day. But not at night. Furthermore she has an army of evil spirits. We call them Sombra, which means shadow. Because no one has ever seen more of them than their dark shadow. They live in the castle with her and she sends them out when someone tries to get near.”

“What are those … Sombra?”

”They are the lost souls of the brave men that through time have tried to defeat her and take off the ring, but who were captured by its beauty and stared into it.”

“So if the spell is broken, they too would be themselves again?”

“I would think so, yes. They would be free to go to the land of the dead. The ring is what is keeping them here. Everything that is of evil in this valley comes from that red ruby ring.”

Soon dawn came and it was time for Sara and Manolo to rest. They decided to stay in the mountain pass and hide until the sun set again. Sara and Manolo said goodbye to the creatures that a few seconds later would spread out and disappear in what used to be a luscious marshland but now was no more than a bare and empty land that bore no fruit.

“So are you ready for this?” Manolo asked her while handing her half of their last piece of bread that the Will-o’-the-wisps had given them. It was dry and hard but Sara barely noticed.

“I don’t know,” she said.

“Just think about your little brother and about saving him, then you will be fine. I am sure of it.”

Sara knew he was right. Right now the task seemed staggering and she had a hard time seeing how they could ever get through it alive. But when she thought of her brother and parents there was nothing that could stop her. Maybe she should just start doing what Manolo always told her to. Take one step at the time.

She fell into a deep dark dream and was awakened by Manolo a few hours later. The day was old but the sun had not quite set yet even though it was hard to tell one darkness from another.

She felt Manolo’s hand on her chest, shaking her and saw him staring in front of her with a frightened look in his eyes.

At the entrance of the pass stood the big wolf. Its red eyes shimmered in the dark gray light. It was growling.

“What is wrong?” Sara asked.

“I think it is about to eat us,” he said.

“But …” and then Sara remembered. It was still day and the wolf was no longer their friend since it had no will of its own. The witch must have sent it to track them.

Sara got up while Manolo blew a great pillar of fire to keep the wolf away. The sight of the flames made it withdraw, but it didn’t go away.

“I don’t wish to harm it. It is our friend and we need it to be strong to help us fight the witch later tonight,” Manolo said.

The wolf growled again then it snarled and leaped towards them through the pillar of fire without getting burned. Manolo shaped a ball of fire between his hands.

“If this is the only way, then so be it,” he said and lifted his hand high with the flaming ball.

In that instant the darkness grew bigger surrounding them. As the wolf jumped once again and Manolo threw the ball of fire, the sun set and the day was over. The ball of fire hit the wolf and threw it backwards and made it fall on its back.

In that second the wolf landed in the dust, Sara feared for its life. She ran to it while Manolo shouted that she should wait.

“We don’t know when it will be itself again. The sun has only just set.”

But Sara would hear nothing of it. She ran to the wolf lying still on the ground, moaning from the pain the fireball had caused to it.

“What happened?” It was the voice of Marland the Mole. He’d seen the wolf lying on its back and ran towards it.

“William, oh no!” the mole said. “Don’t be hurt now. We need you. You are one of our strongest fighters. Please be well.”

The wolf seemed not to hear anything. It kept groaning. The wound in its stomach was bleeding.

”Quick, get some clean water, some Eucalyptus leaves, chamomile, catmint, agrimony and dandelion,” Sara yelled while trying to stop the bleeding with the winter jacket she got from the king of the Will-o’-the-wisps.

The mole sent the smaller creatures to the other side of the mountain to find the herbs and plants that Sara had asked for. Meanwhile, she held the jacket tightly to stop the bleeding.

It didn’t take the creatures long to return, even though it felt like it was forever for Sara and Manolo who were waiting at the wolf’s side. Manolo kept beating himself with guilt over hurting wolf.

“If you hadn’t done this it would have killed us,” Sara said. “There was no way out. You had to do something. Even if it was this.”

Sara mixed the herbs and plants and made it into a healing potion as she had seen her mother do when she would heal people. Sara only hoped that this would work on a giant wolf like this. Gently she put some of the potion on the wound and started reciting,  “Stem the blood that is flowing through, seal the wound with skin anew. As I command it, so mote it be.”

Sara said three times the healing spell she had learned from watching her mother and then she stopped. All eyes in the night were upon her.

The wolf had stopped groaning and was completely still.

“She killed him,” she heard someone whisper, but thought nothing of it. She kept imagining the wolf being healed, believing in her own powers and praying for the spirits to help her.

As she did, the wolf opened his eyes. He looked at Sara and got up on his paws. The bleeding had stopped and the wound was healed.

A cheer of great joy burst out among the spectators. What a great day for the creatures of the valley of La Tierra Muerta. They had indeed a great sorceress among them, indeed she was the one that was about to lead them to victory and freedom.

“Well done,” Manolo whispered as the creatures cheered on. “Have you ever done that on a wolf before?”

“I had never done it on anyone before,” she said.

Manolo went to the wolf and apologized. He explained what had happened.

“There is no time for regrets now,” the wolf said. “You did what you had to do, for I would surely have killed you if that was the will of the ring.”

Sara examined the wolf and it seemed to be strong and in very good health.

“You will both ride on my back to the black castle,” he said and bowed down so Manolo and Sara could get up.

The eagle soared high into the sky. Waiting for his signal, the smaller animals all climbed onto the backs of bigger ones to not slow them down.

The eagle made its signal and the creatures set off into the darkness of the night to claim their long awaited great victory.

17

THE LABYRINTH OF DARKNESS

Among the hundreds
of creatures that were on their way through the dead marshland heading towards the black castle, quite a few were well-trained for this battle. For hundreds of years had they waited for this moment, and every night the marshland would be turned into a battlefield of creatures training each other for what they knew and believed one day was bound to come.

Some would fight with their teeth and claws, but several were trained to handle weapons such as swords and knives. Even the big flock of long-legged deer had bows and arrows that they had taught themselves to use by standing on only two legs and using their teeth to help.

Manolo had taken his small fish knife and given it to Sara so she could protect herself if she was attacked. She held it tightly as they rode across the marshland on the big wolf’s back. Manolo was sitting behind her.

Their small army of creatures was quiet as the night as it moved across the dead landscape. Sara and Manolo on the wolf were led the way for the rest. Behind them, the herd of long-legged deer ran with heads held high, proud and gracious, prepared to fight for their freedom.

In the sky, the big eagle worked as the scout. It kept an eye on the castle, prepared to signal them if anything came against them, if the Sombras appeared, even though it would be difficult to detect them since it was almost impossible to see a shadow in the night.

The plan was to let Sara and Manolo sneak into the castle, then Sara was supposed to take off the ring while the old witch slept, while Manolo would find the crystal ball. The creatures would only fight if necessary.

But that was in an ideal world, of course—a world where there were no Sombras and no Satali guarding the door. Sara remembered very well what the king had told her in the City of Lights. There would be a cat, not an ordinary one that they would have to pass, as well.

As the black castle revealed itself with its mighty black tower in the distance, Sara felt her heart in her chest. She had to take a few deep breaths to keep calm.

This was it. In there was her answer. This was what they had been waiting for, struggling through all kinds of trouble for. Whatever happened in the next couple of hours would determine if her brother lived or died.