Emma and the Minotaur (22 page)

From the edge of the clearing came the voice of Titanius. “Finally,” the unicorn said.

“You see,” Emma said to the minotaur. “What I said, that’s just in the children’s stories. I’m just wasting time. Tricking you, see. What I’ve really been doing is listening.”

Emma had been thinking it over as they had been speaking. In her new language, the language of the music, she had spoken and she had hummed and she had shouted. There was one thing that she hadn’t done yet, and the tree had been showing her what it was. It was the most powerful thing, the thing from which everything had come, and the thing that gave the trees themselves their power.

Emma sang, but it was not with her voice, but with the light that was inside of her. It was the song that she had learned when she had been inside the light of creation. It was a song of power and a song of life, and she knew that there was no one in this world who could stand against it.

The light that surrounded Emma grew and exploded from the flute that she held. She raised her hand over her head and a beam of light shot to the heavens. The red sky shattered and the pieces fell to the ground like glass and revealed the moon and the stars.

The minotaur cowered and he winced at the light. He covered his ears as though the song caused him great pain.

“Leave this world,” Emma said. “Now!”

Minotaur ran. He reached the edge of the clearing and found that he could not pass into the forest. The trees that surrounded the clearing stood so close together that nothing could go through but the smallest critter. There was no way out but one. It was an opening in the trees that led to a tunnel that they had made. The trees stood as walls there, and their leaves were like a ceiling.

The minotaur ran into the tunnel.

Emma and Titanius went after him. When they entered the tunnel, she saw that the trees that had made it all wore one of her ribbons. They sang to her as she passed, and she knew that they were thanking her for the gift that she had given them, and that this is what they were giving her in return.

The tunnel led straight to the larger clearing where all the prisoners were gathered and where the monsters guarded them. Emma burst into it and all eyes turned toward her. They all saw the battle princess, bathed in power and light, and they saw the great Minotaur as he cowered and ran before her.

Though they did not fully understand what was happening, the prisoners rejoiced. A cheer went up among them. Arnold Thornton saw the girl and the unicorn and he remembered the sight from before.

“Emma!” he shouted and the crowd took this up. Shouts of her name spread through them as they cheered. The monsters who were their guards panicked and they fled. They ran over each other in their scramble to go through the portal of the tree. When Minotaur reached it, he pushed aside any who were in his way and threw himself into it.

Titanius pulled short and they watched the rest of the monsters flee into the opening.

Some moments later, the rest of Emma’s group emerged from the tunnel. Emma jumped off the unicorn and ran to them. Mr Wilkins was being helped on his way by Domino.

“It’s broken,” he said, pointing to his leg.

“I’m not surprised,” Emma said.

Domino’s horns were crushed and there was blood coming out of them. She could see something like veins inside of what remained.

Lucy was walking with Will’s aid. The gash on her head was still bleeding.

Jingles ran up to Emma and she crouched down and picked him up.

“Well,” she said to him. “Looks like you got the best of the bargain.”

“I did, Miss Emma,” Jingles said and he sounded proud.

“Will?” she asked.

The boy shrugged. “I’m just bruised,” he said. “Nothing broken so I came out okay. How did you do all that?”

“I went and had a chat with a wizard,” she said.

She put the jackalope down and then put her arms around her father’s waist, careful not to hurt his leg.

“My little girl,” he said.

She sighed and squeezed him tighter and then looked up into his eyes.

“I have to go after him,” she said.

“I know,” he said. “He has Jake and everyone else. I don’t think I could stop you if I wanted to, anyway. Not after what you’ve done.”

“I know, Dad.”

“I’d come with you if it wasn’t for the leg,” he said. “I’d slow you down and get us killed. Someone has to sort out this nightmare, anyhow. We need to get all the injured home and everything. But maybe if I can find something like crutches—”

“Dad,” Emma said. “You know I’m going alone.”

“Like hell,” Will said. “There is no way that I’m not going with you. I don’t care if you’re some sort of hero or something.”

“You better hurry,” Domino said. “The portal won’t stay open for long.”

“You won’t come?” Emma said.

“No. I am forbidden from ever returning to the World of Light.”

“Really? You must have done something really bad.”

“Of course,” he said. “It had to do with you.” He winked as though he was joking, but Emma thought that he was mostly serious.

She turned to Lucy. “Listen, you take care of my dad, okay? He’s a physicist so he doesn’t know how to take care of himself.”

“I will,” Lucy said. “Good luck, Emma.”

“I’ll look after them too,” Domino said. “But you must hurry.”

Emma nodded. She felt a scratch at her jeans and she looked down to see Mr Jingles.

“You want to come too?”

“I do, Miss Emma!” he said.

Emma pursed her lips. “Listen to me,” she said. “Lucy is taking care of my dad, but someone needs to take care of Lucy. Do you think you can do this important job for me?”

The jackalope’s eyes went very wide. “Yes, I can, Miss Emma!” he said. “I’m honoured!”

“Thank you, Mr Jingles,” she said.

Emma hugged them all again one by one and then she stepped back and took a deep breath.

“Come on, big brother,” she said.

Emma and Will Wilkins walked toward the tree in the middle of the clearing and the crowd parted before them. As they walked, there was clapping and cheering from all sides. There were shouts of Emma’s name.

Later, after all the prisoners were returned home, they would tell the tale of the Battle Princess and how she had come to their rescue on a great unicorn, straight out of a storybook, and saved them from the minotaur who had taken them.

But the tale wasn’t over, and an even greater threat was on its way, a crisis that would envelop not only the City of Saint Martin, but the entire world.

When Emma and Will reached the Tree of Knowledge, they turned and waved goodbye to the crowd and to their friends and family.

“Are you scared?” Emma asked him.

“Terrified,” Will said.

“Me too.”

She took his hand in hers, turned toward the tree, and together they walked into another world.

The story continues in…

Emma and the Prince of Shadows