A Lament of Moonlight (14 page)
She had dropped the necrotic staff, and before she could regain her composure Melvin dove for it. But at the same time she roared and launched herself at him, beating at his back and raking at his face with her putrid frozen claws. He stumbled away, but held the staff tight and where his warm human hands touched
the staff began to melt
. This seemed to harm Cailleach Bheur who fell back from him once more, clutching at her chest.
“Enough,” Melvin roared, raising the hammer high in the air. “Give us what we came for,” he told her forcefully.
“And what might that be? To destroy an old woman’s home? To try to kill me?”
“Give us our cousin!” Ruby
yelled at her, taking a menacing step closer to the Winter Queen
and brandishing her knife
.
“Ah her,” she said and made as if to try to barter with them, but Melvin raised the hammer higher over the staff, and she gasped. She motioned once and the real Gretchen, who looked pale and colder than anyone could imagine
appeared before them in a puff of frost. Though she was
most definitely underfed she was by no means as haggard looking as her changeling had been, and instead was lovely in comparison with her glimmering blue eyes and black, if dirty, hair.
Melvin looked across
the expanse of the room
to where Cailleach Bheur glared back at him, her icy eyes studying his face, her haggard looking sapphire face creased with lines. She had given back their cousin, and how could she not when he held her source of power, she had been forced to give Gretchen to him and relinquish her power in O for now there wasn’t a changeling to work through.
For Chaos lived within the hearts of the changelings, and if those b
eings were removed from the world
the shadkin would begin to
lose
their footing, and if that happened the darkness could very well be destroyed. She still had power though, even if the changeling had
been
defeated, even if the changeling was taken from the Fey Forest, but it would take time to build it back up.
Melvin raised the hammer hi
gh as it thrummed in his hands.
“Get ready to run,” Melvin whispered to Abigail. She
gathered Ruby a
nd Gretchen to the door.
Melvin looked over at the hag who was gnashing her teeth at him, a look in her eyes that should have killed him where he stood, and very well could have if she were holding the staff he now had secured in his hands.
He resolutely brought the hammer crashing down on the staff, and Cailleach Bheur’s terrifying scream filled the air as the staff of ice shattered, scattering jewel-like fragments of ice across the floor. A blue flash filled the air, and time seemed to stop.
Outside the flash rushed across the ground like a tsunami. Everything in the path of the light melted, and summer once more returned to the land as flowers rapidly grew through the fading snow in an attempt to catch up with the mid-summer greenery the very land they came from enjoyed.
Outside was not the only thing melting, for it seemed that the hag of winter could not be without the presence of cold. The thing that made her skin blue, Melvin suddenly realized, was ice, the very thing embodied by her staff that was now a growing pool of water on the floor at his feet.
Parts of
Cailleach Bheur
began to fall off her and where they struck the ground they burst into water that rapidly ran across the floor like quicksilver. She looked like a sculpture melting, but Melvin didn’t have time to observe because the castle was shifting tremendously and he knew it was about to crumble into the well.
The youths fled the Ice Castle
as the parapets began to shatter on the ground around them in thunderous noise
. The rest of the castle plummeted back into the well sending silvery water racing after them as one giant wave was expelled from the well containing the Evyndelle. As the water was expunged from the well an odd hissing grew in the air behind them, and they turned to see
an incredibly long rainbow snake
lance up from the thawing tree. The Tree of Life was thawing even as they watched, though its leaves and apples were still silver and gold, the tree was vibrant once more and shimmered with holy power.
There wasn’t much time to lose, however, for the quick-silver wave was rushing toward them as forceful as a ts
unami, sweeping away with it everything
that had previously polluted the garden.
The wave swept back toward the well, taking with it all the structures and the lives that had not originally been placed in the garden at the creation of the world. Once more the wave ebbed out, forcefully giving one more cleansing of the garden. This time it was coming for them just as the snake in the sky was hunting for them.
As it
rushed across the surface of the land they could
see silver glowing as trees previously
cut down were restored to full luster and as flora and fauna once extinct from the touch of the shadkin were restored to life again. The wave didn’t touch or harm anything that was intended to be in the garden. However, anything that remained which wasn’t intended to be there was in fear for its existence.
That included the Bordeaux’s.
There was no time to waste. Th
e snake above was slithering through the air toward them like a wingless dragon
and the wave just wanted them
out
of the Garden at Eget Row, and away from harming the Tree of Life.
“Come,” a voice called from above them and a woman who looked startlingly like Samarra floated down out of the sky and alighted on the earth holding the moon scepter Samarra had carried before. As her white gown settled languidly abou
t her she smiled at them
.
“Samarra?” Ruby asked.
“No, I am her sister Saramba, Luna came and fetched me,” she said, and the little purple butterfly fluttered out from her billowing sleeve. There were slight differences between Saramba and Samarra, for one her voice was slightly deeper, her face slightly more stern, though her hair was the same silvery-blond ringlets that her sisters had been, her eyes the same purple-blue as her sisters.
“Now come, there is not much time.”
Chapter Fourteen
“Come,” Saramba said. “We don’t have much time.” Already the Winter Court had collapsed
back to a green splendor behind them; the ivory gate shown in the light of the suns majestically and teams of fairies and dragons slunk lazily through the flowery air.
Trees all around the garden had sprung up, coming back to life with rapidly budding leaves and unfurling blossoms as the wave rushed toward them. Even as they fled Eget Row they couldn’t’ help noticing little changes happening all around them. The smell invading their senses was pure, and one they would never easily forget. It was the scent of new growth and the underlying sharp smell of cold pine as the suns drifted impossibly closer warming Eget Row.
It was the smell of beginnings.
They followed Saramba, who didn’t seem fazed in the least by the death of Samarra, maybe
Lunarians
had differing views on death than humans did.
“I am sorry Saramba,” Abigail said. “But did we stop Cailleach Bheur?”
“Yes,” she said. “You killed her, and now w
e must get you out of here
before the wave catches us and the portal to your world closes.” They were already half-way there, and only a few more moments they would reach the rift, but would it be enough time? Melvin could see through the portal into his home world, and it was lightening up, as if night was nearly over and the sun was rising. This frightened him for some reason, and he followed Saramba faster.
Through the sky
behind them the rainbow
snake
slithered after them. The imagery sped them on faster and faster, though it appeared that the snake would catch them soon.
Finally they were pushing out of the portal and into the world they knew, now no longer winter, but instead the freshest of summer mornings. Melvin thought he could hear the Dickens’s exclaiming not far off about how they had their land back, but there was an overriding music in the air, like wind chimes that blotted out the sound of them.
He turned and at once a gasp came to his lips for behind him was a sight that should never be.
The snake slithered up out of the portal and toward the sky above them.
Yet as Melvin stepped toward it there was a flash of light before him and Saramba appeared holding out her arms to either side in an attempt to stop him. “That is an ancient enemy of your family,” she turned and lashed out at it with the scepter, and the rainbow coiled up into the sky hissing like a snake.
“Jormungand,” Saramba said, as the serpent slithered up into the sky creating a light akin to the aurora borealis which seethed and writhed in the night sky. It didn’t stay there, however, and a moment later the rainbow serpent Saramba had named Jormungand came plummeting back to the earth.
“We have to leave. The Dark Gods are searching for the God Slayer,” Saramba said, motioning toward Melvin’s hammer. “Come.”
There was a flash of silver white l
ight as they all vanished from O.
When they came to they were in a field full of wheat with a dark sky overhead. The surface of the planet they were on was bright, like it was day, but the sky was as black as night and they could see stars whirling above them.
In the distance were blooms and eddy’s of color beyond their wildest dreams.
The wheat was strange though, it was white. In fact, everywhere Melvin looked was white.
“Where are we?” Melvin asked.
“The moon,” Sa
ramba said. “This is where the harbingers of l
ight are trained to fight off the darkness in their own worlds. While training here you will meet all kinds of strange beings, try not to be surprised.”
Abigail saw O beside them as she had in the vision of the space craft. It was huge and blue dotted with green land masses and tall mountains. Enshrouding it all were white, puffy clouds.
“Welcome to the Collegiate of Light,” Saramba said, and they turned to look where she was looking. Behind them stood an incredibly large building, spread out across the field. The building, like everything else on the moon was white with tall spires and huge terraces. A thrill went through Abigail and she couldn’t wait to get started.
But a word came to them, a word that Saramba didn’t seem to hear, and it chilled all of them, and they knew there was work yet to do on the moon.
The word was
Helvegr
.
About The Harbingers of Light
NOTE:
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Set in the prehistory of Saracin in a place called O, The Harbingers of Light follow a group of teens through the ends days of the planet. Will they be able to save their home and fight back the shadows, or will they fail and doom mankind?
What is happening on the moon? Why has
Helvegr
followed them there? What are they going to learn at the school and how will they fight off the Dark Goddess that seems bent on controlling O? Stay tuned to learn the answers to these questions and hear the story of the hammer called God Slayer.
Coming Soon
Desolation (Infernal Designs: Book 1)
Whispers of a Distant Star (Whispers of Earth: Book 1)
The Sword that Sang (A novella)
The Mirror of the Moon (The Revenant Wyrd Saga: Book 2)
