Key of Living Fire (The Sword of the Dragon) (41 page)

The procession halted. The fairies stepped away from the litter, letting it thud to the tunnel floor. They redirected their wands toward Mazella.

Pansy shot into the tunnel. She buzzed over the angry creatures, and waved her own wand toward the midget. A sheet of light rose between Mazella and the fairies, and they glanced up at their queen, bewilderment in many a tiny face. “This one is not evil,” declared the fairy queen. “I command you leave him alone, for he will no longer bring suffering to any of us. His deed toward me was wrong, but I have forgiven him of it. I desire you all to forget the incident.”

Oganna expected the fairies to protest. Likely they felt ready to tear Mazella apart and throw him into some dark pit, but they bowed to Pansy with broad smiles on their faces. Redirecting their attention to the litter, they again lifted it with their wands and led it down the tunnels. Oganna followed them, and Mazella shuffled along behind her, glancing up with doleful eyes as the fairy prince flew over his head and took up the lead with Pansy buzzing along at his side.

At last the procession arrived at the place where the fairies had first kidnapped Ombre and Caritha. They lowered their wands, and the litter clunked onto the tunnel floor. With a wave of his wand, Prince Percemon turned the litter into gold dust so that Oganna’s companions lay on the stone.

“I wish you could stay with us,” Pansy told Oganna with a friendly smile. “You and I are quite alike, I think. I will miss you.” She fluttered close and lifted her skirts, exposing her little feet. “The friend of fairies you will always be, Princess Oganna. Please accept a token of my gratitude.”

With her wand spreading light particles over her feet, Pansy pressed them into Oganna’s shoulder, just below the collarbone. Oganna felt a quick burning sensation. The fairy’s bare feet sank into her skin as though they were branding irons, and when Pansy pulled them back, she had left two perfect impressions.

“There! That’s better.” She held her hand against Oganna’s cheek. “By these marks you will be known to all fairies as our friend.” But the little creature froze, staring at Oganna’s hands, for a sliver of red light glowed in each of them.

Oganna stepped back and held her hands palms up. Her hands felt warm and they tingled. Beneath her skin there appeared slivers, hair-thin, that radiated ruby light. She sheathed her sword, extinguishing its glow and that of her dress. But her hands glowed brighter, and a thread of energy grew from one hand to the other, and from the thread’s midst a small tree radiated into existence.

The fairies gasped. The tree was no more than three feet tall, and it remained suspended in the air between Oganna’s hands. As Pansy touched the tree, it pulsed blue light. The fairy’s little eyes widened. “The tree of our ancestors.”

“It cannot be.” Percemon fluttered beside his bride, gazing at Oganna’s hands.

Oganna did not know what to make of it. She had never seen these slivers in her hands before. Were they part of her dragon heritage?

“It is a sign! The legends are true.” The fairy prince looked at Oganna with wonderment in his eyes. “You have showed us the way home.” He waved his wand, whooping, and all the fairies flew toward the small tree.

Oganna stepped back as they swarmed toward her. But her back hit against the wall.

The viper cried out, “These creatures hasss gone mad!”

Percemon and Pansy dove into the tree of light—and vanished. Oganna stared, unable to believe.

Crying and smiling, the fairies flooded into the tree of light, vanishing one by one until not a single fairy remained in the tunnel. The fairy city of Avejewel had been abandoned. But a haze grew around her, rising like a mist. Oganna saw a life-size version of the tree in her hands. It stood in a high-arching hallway. Silver and gold tiles covered the floor around it, and its bark glowed soft blue, then shifted into white the higher she gazed up the sprawling branches.

Neneila’s mouth clamped shut, and her eyes opened until they threatened to pop from her serpentine head.

The leafless tips of the branches glowed like pokers pulled from a fire. Fairies swarmed to the tree’s branches, and other fairies rose to meet them. A harmony of tinkling fairy laughter filled the air. Then, behind the tree, a white creature rose, scaled and glowing. “Grandfather?” Startled, she clapped her hands to her mouth. The vision disappeared, and though she attempted to bring it back, her hands refused to return their red glow, and the vision remained lost.

Ombre moaned at her feet and Caritha sat up. Both her companions’ eyes opened wide when they saw Mazella, and it took a little while to assure them that he was harmless.

Ombre rattled his head. “I feel like I slept a week. What happened?”

Oganna smiled, relieved to have him back. “That will take a little time to explain.”

21

THE STRENGTH OF THE LITTLE MAN

F
airies?” Ombre was skeptical. “They
kidnapped
us?”

“That’s right! You were both dragged off after Sevré used a sleeping potion on us. You do remember that you couldn’t stop yawning. Don’t you?”

“Yes, but—” He shook his head. “Are you pulling my leg?”

Oganna laughed and pulled on her neckline so that he could see Pansy’s footmarks.

“This is very rare.” Caritha fingered the still-glowing impressions and shook her head in wonder. “Fairies are generally timid creatures, and they don’t trust people easily. You are very fortunate.”

Ombre gestured at Mazella. “He is coming with us?”

“Yes.”

“Hmm, I see.” He grinned broadly at the midget and reached down to shake his hand. “Mazella, is it?”

Mazella nodded his affirmation and timidly shook the larger man’s hand. Beside Ombre he looked very insignificant. Caritha bowed slightly and Ombre stretched his arms. “In all of Subterran! What was in that potion?”

“Two ounces of olive oil, a little sesame, and three rose petals plucked at dawn.” Oganna leaned on his arm and started walking down the tunnel.

He looked down at her and raised one eyebrow skeptically. “Really?”

“Really. At least, that’s what the fairy said.” She redirected her attention to the little man walking ahead of them. “Is it much farther?”

“No. Tunnels lead outs of the mountain. It will takes a little while.”

True to his word, Mazella brought them through the maze of dark tunnels and out onto the mountain’s western slopes. Oganna could see the morning light flooding the area, and she felt exhausted. All night she’d done the fairy prince’s bidding, and she’d quite forgotten to sleep. Thus, she made the others aware of her exhaustion and let them set up her bedroll so that she could take a nap.

The viper, resting around her neck, fell into the blankets and shook its head groggily. “Pssst! Sssleep.”

Ombre picked his way through the tangled vines and hacked at them with his sword. “Have you been through here often?”

Bringing up the rear, Mazella clambered over a fallen tree. “Nevers. Not in heres.”

They had left Caritha in the tunnel in the mountain with Oganna. It had been Ombre’s idea. “I’ll scout ahead with Mazella and clear a path through that swamp,” he’d said to her. “Wait here. I’ll be back before she wakes up.”

Caritha had tried to object, but he had laughed her concern aside and invited the midget to accompany him. Now, as his boot sank in a pool of green water, he found himself hoping that there were no deadly creatures roaming this place, and no forty-foot giants!

A log lay in his path, so he reached for a vine hanging overhead and used it to vault over. “Come on, Mazella.” But the midget’s eyes grew big, and he cried out as the vine twisted around Ombre’s chest and hauled him up while another vine clamped down on his sword arm.

Ombre could not breathe. The strength of the vines was incredible. Only his armor stopped them from crushing his body. He spotted Mazella on a boulder, every muscle tense as he pummeled several encroaching vines with his fists. He was very fast and, considering he was weaponless, was doing rather well.

“What’s this?” Caritha burst into view and drew her rusted sword from the fold in her garment. She grabbed a vine as it reached for her, pulled it down, and severed it with her blade. Then she dashed to Mazella’s aid and untangled him, for the vines had by now managed to wrap themselves around him too. “Hold on,” she called to Ombre.

Though he struggled, the vines dragged him higher. His sword fell from his hand. He was lifted into the trees and lost sight of his would-be rescuer.
Great! Now what? I have no weapons and . . . no—wait, I do have a weapon!
He opened his mouth and clamped down as hard as he could on the nearest vine. With a funny screeching sound, it recoiled and slid out of sight in the branches. One by one he bit the rest of the vines until only one remained. It was more stubborn than the others, so he chewed on it, grinding his teeth into it as hard as possible and spitting out the bark that broke off in his mouth.

Before he realized that he’d succeeded, the vine released him, and he was hard pressed to cover his face with his arms as he plunged through the tree branches and splashed into a slimy pool of water. He wiped the green slush from his face and smiled wryly up at Caritha as she and Mazella stared at him from atop a log.

“I thought you were going to watch Oganna.”

“And I thought you were going to be careful.” She sprang down and helped him to his feet, giving him a disgusted look as she did so. “Are you all right?”

He shook the water out of his ears. “Where is Oganna?”

“The viper woke up and said that it would watch over her. I decided to come looking for you.”

“There was no need. We’re doing quite well on our own.” He located his sword nearby and picked it up.

Caritha glanced at Mazella and then back at him. “How did you do it?”

“Do what?”

“Free yourself from the vines.”

“Oh, that.” He picked a chunk of bark from his teeth and held it up with a laugh. “Bit down as hard as I could as often as I could.”

She shook her head and sighed with relief. “Sometimes I don’t know about you.”

“Psst! Psst!” The viper’s tongue tickled Oganna’s hand.

She forced one of her eyes open and tried to motivate her legs to move.
How long have I been sleeping?
The angle of Yimshi’s light on the mountain slopes told her that there were still a couple of hours until noon.

She packed her bedding and heaved it onto her shoulders. The viper slid up her arm and around her neck. “Psst,” it said in her ear, “they went into the ssswamp.”