Sapphire (26 page)

“No,” he said. “No.” He sat up and caught Shawna’s
eyes. “I’ll tell her. I’ll tell all of you…the truth.”

They were all seated or standing around a huge round
Griffon wood table in Faolan’s home. He had graciously offered for
them to share his large home, instead of using the barn since they
had proven to be trustworthy guests. Mia, who turned out to be
Faolan’s daughter, had also screamed her head off until Antares was
allowed to sleep in her room. She had made a little pile of quilts,
pillows, and her favorite wolf doll on the floor next to her
pint-sized bed, but was always found curled up between his paws in
the morning.

It had been two days since Gavan’s attack, and there
was still no further sign of the molochs, perhaps due to the
increased wolves patrolling, but no one knew how long the peaceful
lull would last. Mira, however, was growing more anxious every day
that they stayed. Her attitude towards Orin had changed completely
from distrust to something like pity. Shawna was impatient to hear
what he had to say, but knew he wanted to be left alone for now.
She was also still pretty miffed about the whole knife thing and
hadn’t quite forgiven him yet.

She was sipping honey-lavender tea with Sunset
Kisses floating in it that Faolan’s wife, Parla, had brewed and
trying to count the table rings. She gave up around one thousand
and thirty-two guessing there must be about five thousand rings.
Antares was looking regal and brooding as usual. Mira was looking
noble and beautiful, but…somewhat sad. Shawna kept throwing her
gaze up at her.
What was all that about the stone?
Mira had
made it very clear she wasn’t going to answer for her display of
murderous wrath, but it didn’t keep Shawna from wondering. Lula was
humming a tune to herself and sipping nectar from a Sunset
Kiss.

The doors opened and everyone looked up as Orin
stepped into the room. Faolan was nodding behind him, ushering him
in. He had wanted to talk to Faolan first about what had happened
all those years ago in the village. Faolan had been a young man at
the time and could tell him more about his past while Orin told him
of his future. Faolan closed the doors behind Orin as he walked
over to them and sat down on one of the stools. He stared at his
hands. Shawna wondered if he was going to say anything at all after
a long silence, then finally he spoke.

“I…I didn’t know any of this until,” he glanced at
Mira. “Until we came here.” He sighed. “I was only three when I was
taken from my family and my home was destroyed.”

Shawna tried not to gasp in surprise or look pitying
on his behalf. She suddenly felt closer to him than ever before
which only made Sirrush’s secret words to her in the tower wound
her deeper. If only she had known. He looked at them all in turn,
then began his story.

“Orin! I
told
you not to follow me.”

Three year old Orin stopped in the path behind his
older brother, of ten years, looking mutinous. His brother rolled
his eyes, stomped back, and grabbed his chubby little hand. Orin
started wailing. He wanted to be with his brother and go into the
village with him.

“Mom’s going to be mad at you for following me,” he
scolded as he dragged him down the path back to their home.

They crested the hill and his big brother slowed to
a stop, gripping him so hard that Orin cried out in pain. Smoke was
rising from below, from their home, and he could hear his father
shouting and his mother screaming.

“Stay here!” his brother yelled at him as he dashed
away down the hill.

Orin didn’t understand what was going on. He was
frightened. He wanted the safety of his brother’s hand again. There
were terrible noises: tremendous roaring, crashing, and rumbling.
His mother had stopped screaming. He tottered up and over the rise
so that he could see, whimpering for his family. The vision that
met his young eyes made him stop and burst into terrified sobs. A
giant bear, at least fifteen feet standing, was thrashing and
roaring, saliva flying from its jaws, as his father tried to fend
it off for his family to escape. His mother wasn’t moving. His
brother was trying to revive her and move her with all his
might.

The bear had crashed through the entire cottage,
knocking walls down like they were paper. Half the roof was sagging
and on fire from their stone-stove where mother had been baking
honey-buns. His father had no weapons but a scythe and pitchfork,
which were barely keeping the infuriated bear at bay. His brother
ran over to help his father who was shouting at him to run to the
village for help. Orin was sobbing so hard he could barely take a
breath to cry out.

He saw his brother start to run up the hill towards
him. He reached out his little arms for him, glad for the safety of
his big brother’s arms. Down below, the bear took a powerful swipe
with paws the size of wagon wheels and caught his father, hurling
him high into the air. He landed hard, crumpled, and didn’t move.
The entire house was on fire now.

His brother didn’t see what happened, didn’t see the
bear turn and begin charging after him. Orin screamed at the top of
his tiny lungs. His brother turned his head to see a gaping maw of
massive fangs stained with blood.

By the time the villagers had seen the smoke and ran
towards Orin’s home, they met nothing but death and destruction.
The bear and Orin were gone.

Shawna had accidently knocked over her tea cup she
was so absorbed in his harrowing tale.

“Gavan,” Shawna breathed, barely able to speak.

“Yes,” said Orin. “The sorcerer you met that day was
the one who helped raise me since I was three. The one who killed
my family.” His face contorted with suppressed pain as he hissed,
“For
fun
. He killed them all because he
wanted
to.”
He closed his eyes, took a deep shuddering breath, and opened them
again.

He looked at Shawna’s expression and answered her
before she could even ask. “He wants
that
more than
anything.” He pointed at her necklace, and she laid her hand over
it. “He has great powers. He can become any creature he wants, and
even turn a rose thorn into a dagger. Even the molochs are under
his control.”

“The molochs?!” Shawna was confounded that anyone
had enough power to control so many vile creatures. “How?”

He looked uncomfortable, then shrugged. “There is
more that I don’t understand. That is—” Mira stamped her hoof, and
he glanced up at her. “That is all I know right now.”

“So, what happened to you?” asked Shawna, oblivious
to his pause.

He ran his hand through his hair, then finally
sighed and said, “I was taken by Gavan who gave me to the powerful
sorceress he served. They kidnapped me, and she raised me as her
own, but more as a slave than
son
.” His hands clenched into
fists on the table-top. “She always told me that my village, my
family, had been destroyed because of some
prophecy
.” He
ground his teeth over the word. “So she taught me two things.” He
paused for a long time then said, “She taught me how to lie
undetectably, and to hate you. I was supposed to make you take me
to the last realm. I would then take the necklace.” He tried to
look at Shawna, but his eyes kept sliding away.

She slowly sat up. It felt like her heart had
stopped beating.

“I hated you so much that—” He looked towards Mira
again. “That I wanted to kill you. Then do what I was destined to
do.” He was no longer looking at anyone. It seemed like he was
choking on his own words. “To save our world…from you.”

“
What?!
” Shawna screamed, leaping to her
feet. She was hysterical from holding in all her anger at him, and
ignored everyone’s efforts to calm her. “You wanted to
kill
me?! And when you kissed me, was that a lie
too?
”

She was yelling so loudly that Faolan and Parla had
come in, but Mira persuaded them to leave just as Shawna hurled her
clay cup at Orin’s head. It morphed into a mass of blue flame, and
he ducked without a second to spare. It smashed on the far wall and
dispersed into harmless shards of clay again. He looked more
frightened of her than an Agonian bear, and Shawna didn’t blame
him. She was so surprised and frightened herself at the sudden
magic that she forgot her anger.

“Enough!” Mira’s voice silenced them all.

Shawna immediately sat down as the calming magic
washed over her like warm rain. Lula was speechless, looking at her
friend like she had never seen her before. That look hurt Shawna
more than Orin’s accusations or his knife.

She seethed at Orin, her anger and disbelief more
scorching than the fire she’d thrown. How
dare
he hold a
knife to her throat, and
blame
her for something she never
did, would never do. But most of all, how
dare
he lie about
being her friend, about protecting her. She thought she had been
angry at Mira, but Orin she wanted to run over with a semi-truck…a
few times.

“I thought you didn’t
believe
in the
prophecy?” she said, crossing her arms in an attempt to keep
herself from throwing more flaming objects.

“I…I…” he stammered, getting back onto his stool. “I
didn’t understand what it truly meant.” He raised his hands
protectively. “I’m sorry. Truly I am so…sorry.” He waited for her
to scream again. When she didn’t, he went on. “I didn’t know. I was
just told by…by this sorceress. Some prophecy about a girl and how,
because of her, my village was destroyed. She told me one day I
would be able to avenge them.” He played his fingers along the
rings of time engrained in the wood. “She told me this girl would
destroy
every
thing. One day she would come to our world with
powers unimaginable. I would gain her trust, then gain her powers,
and my revenge by betraying her. I would save us all. I would be a
hero.”

Every word fell like a shroud till the truth was
suffocating her.

“You.” Her voice cracked, she cleared her throat.
“Your family was killed by my…by Adhara?”

He nodded his head. The secret words Sirrush had
spoken in her ear that dreadful day clamored in her mind. She
wanted so desperately to tell someone, anyone, but he had warned
against her divulging what she had learned. After hearing Orin’s
true reason for finding her, however, she wondered how true
Sirrush’s words really were. Both she and Orin had been used for
another’s means. Was Sirrush using her as well, or was he on their
side? She caught Mira watching her, and tried to decipher the look
in her eyes, but the unicorn was enigmatic as always.