Sapphire (9 page)

Shawna was mystified by her surroundings. At first,
only tiny crystals glistened and winked in the sand as they climbed
down into the valley, then the sloping hills gave way to majestic
trees that soon looked like shrubs against the colossal towers of
crystal. Mira’s shining hooves deftly stepped through the maze of
crystal walls, their reflections sliding with them like watery
nymphs. Lula clung between Mira’s ears, trying to take in
everything at once. Shawna wondered if Lula’s revolving head would
eventually screw itself loose. There was the occasional bird song,
but no sound other than rhythmic hoof-beats disturbed their
wonder.

“What's a Kryos?” Shawna asked Mira after
awhile.

“
He
is lord of the soleons.”

“And what are ‘soleons?’”

This time Lula answered. “They’re like, like…um.”
She looked back at Shawna. “I don’t really know actually. No one’s
seen them in two hundred years. My Grandiad and Grandiam said they
were like death surrounded by fire and light.”

“Really? How adorable.”

“Keep your voices down,” said Mira.

“Why?” Lula said rather loudly before clapping a
hand over her mouth.

“Because they’re waiting for us.” She pointed her
nose forward. “In there.”

Shawna inhaled sharply as an enormous crystal castle
shimmered before them. In its grandeur she wanted to see it as a
castle with turrets, but really it was one giant crystal monolith
leaning upon another. Its jagged tops shot skyward while its walls
created a deep cavernous hall. The clip-clop of hooves upon crystal
echoed like falling stones as they advanced further into the cave
of towers.

Lula had left her post on Mira’s head and was
fluttering alongside silently for once. She looked deep in thought,
giving off little puffs of pinkish glitter every now and then.
Shawna was starting to feel another kind of shiver in her body,
like an electric charge.

“So.” Shawna tried to make her voice sound casual.
“Who is this Lesath? He must be pretty powerful.”

“He is a lord as well. He holds much power over this
world.”

“Go on,” she said, unable to keep the annoyance out
of her tone.

“What he is now and what he was are two very
different things, so it is hard to explain it all quickly.” Shawna
was about ready to smack Mira before she finally said, “He
was
the unicorn lord. My lord. He was magnificent before the
betrayal and downfall of your race.”

“What betrayal?”

She suddenly felt like defending all of humanity,
even though she had no idea what Mira was talking about.

“It is a complicated matter, and a long history that
has led to your being here. The Betrayal is a long sad story best
left for our meeting with Sirrush.”

“Why can’t you tell me right now?”

“Dragons have far longer memories and are much
better story tellers than unicorns.”

“You just don’t want to tell me,” Shawna mumbled
under her breath.

“How surprisingly astute of you.” Mira tossed her
head in amusement. “There is also a time and place for that
knowledge, and it is not now, not here. You will know everything
soon enough. Besides, we are very close to this realm’s Guardian.
It will be best to remain silent.”

Her heart started beating faster. Lula sneezed, then
giggled hysterically when Mira balked from the loud cannon of
echoes.

Shawna whipped her head around at Lula. “If your
nose gets us killed, I’ll
kill
you.”

Mira suddenly tensed and stopped with her ears
alert. She stared off into the gloom, nostrils flaring.

“What?!” said Lula with a little squeak.

“You have awoken him. They are coming for us.”

Lula shot off back the way they had come, leaving
only a trail of gold dust behind.

Mira relaxed, snorted, and started walking
again.

“I thought you said he’s coming for us?” Shawna
almost squeaked like Lula.

She saw a glinting violet eye look back at her.

“Hey!” They heard from the darkness behind them.
“That wasn’t funny!”

It was becoming ever gloomier as they walked further
and further in. The cavern’s top was completely lost in darkness.
The crystal floor varied from thin pathways, where Shawna’s boots
scuffed the sides, to spacious arenas. Scant sunlight cast a dim
glow like tears cascading through the walls in streaks of light and
dark. She imagined Kryos as a large immortal God resembling a
Viking, malice in his eyes, meat flecked in his bushy beard, and
holding a giant mace with a necklace of skulls.

Her legs were starting to cramp from riding for so
long, not to mention other places that were growing numb. Even
though Shawna knew they were surrounded by crystal, it still
surprised her how solid the nearly transparent surface was when she
dismounted. She kept thinking it would crack like glass when her
feet touched it.

Although, a unicorn the size of a draft horse has
been walking on it the entire time.

“Stay close,” was all Mira said before she began
striding forward again.

The walls began to glow just ahead. They all saw it
at the same time, a blossom of warmth after all the cold, echoing,
nothingness. There was illumination, flickering like white flame,
beckoning them from another cavern. Mira halted. Shawna walked up
to her, looking towards the hopeful light.

“Are we going in there?”

“He'll be awaiting us there.”

She suddenly wanted to say, “never mind,” and turn
right back around. Mira, showing no sign of fear or hesitation,
stepped forward. Shawna trembled at the Viking image in her head,
wondering what would happen. Would he kill them all? Would he
capture them in this labyrinthine fortress ? Or worse?

Their footsteps brought them closer and closer to
these unanswered questions, which Shawna thought were best left
unanswered. Lula was so agitated that she was speckling Shawna's
hair pink with fairy-dust as she floated above them, trying to see
ahead, or look for a quick escape route.

“Lula,” Shawna said, waving a hand, unaware of her
Easter egg hair that now matched her dirty Easter bunny boots.

“Oh sorry,” Lula said as she tried to change
Shawna's hair back.

It didn’t work. Little flecks of pink remained in
Shawna’s hair, and Lula fluttered away humming innocently. They
reached the narrow pathway leading into the immense cavern beyond.
It was a space larger than any they had yet traveled through. They
could barely see the solid stone walls surrounding the glittering
smooth ocean stretching ahead of them. The crystal sea was skewered
with huge stalagmites, and the light seemed to be radiating from
them, reflecting off every surface.

Before any of them could speak, or run, there was a
roll of thunder that deafened them all, followed by the sound of
splintering glass so loud Shawna thought her eardrums would
splinter as well. She waited for the ceiling to collapse, for
crystal spears to shower down, but it was not the sound of
shattering crystal. It was the crackle and spark of white lightning
leaping between three large spires. Light was climbing up them like
pythons, curving into the air, then sliding back down like a
serpent devouring itself.

Lula dove into the backpack. Mira backed away,
throwing her head high, horn burning like a ray of sunlight. Kryos
slowly emerged from the web of lightning. His enormous form was
unlike anything Shawna would have ever imagined. She screamed in
horror.

Appearing from thin air, a giant white paw with
black claws the size of scimitars, materialized from the lightning.
When the muzzle of the creature began to emerge, Shawna turned and
ran behind Mira. Snarling lips pulled away from yellowed fangs that
were nearly as long as her body. A massive feline head, with eerily
pure white eyes rimmed in black, peered down at them. The rest of
the body slowly flowed from the invisible doorway as the monstrous
creature stepped through. Mira pranced backwards to avoid being
crushed from the huge paws while Shawna scrambled with her.

A low rumbling was vibrating their bodies to their
very bones. Shawna backed against a stalagmite of crystal. Tiny
slivers were actually breaking and tinkling to the ground around
her from the slight quaking. As the ground shook, the air itself
sounded like it would shatter apart from the monster’s deep
growls.

Having fully emerged, it now towered over them by
more than thirty feet from paw to lethal fang. Its pallid eyes
glared at them. It was tiger in form, but that was where the
comparison ended. Its neck was thick like a bulls, and lightning
sizzled and writhed around its entirely albino coat, giving the
illusion of glowing blue stripes. Along with black claws,
black-boned armored plates covered its back from nose to tail tip
while razor-like spikes protruded from its spine. What she at first
thought was the tuft of a lion’s tail was actually a knot of
concentrated energy, occasionally sending tentacles of lightning in
every direction.

“How did you find this gateway?” the beast
thundered.

Shawna’s mouth and eyes grew even wider, and Lula
shivered violently in her backpack. It was Mira that challenged
him.

“Guardian,” she shouted in everyone’s minds. “Kryos,
I bring Ava!” She reared looking just as intimidating as Kryos,
though barely higher than his foreleg. “I am Mira, Arch-Mare of the
Lord Lesath.”

“I remember you, unicorn,” he said, the words
rumbling in his throat like boulders. “I see you have thus far
managed to escape your fate.”

Shawna glanced over at Mira wondering what ‘fate’
the soleon-lord was referring to.

“So,
this
is one of the guardians? This
scrawny little human?” He sniffed and curled a lip.

The tip of a canine longer than Shawna’s arm glinted
in the flickering light. She held her breath. Kryos turned to lower
his head towards her, and she choked back another scream.

“You are weak,” he sneered, light sparking along his
whiskers. “Good sport for my clan, perhaps, but a guardian?” More
crystal splintered and shattered to the ground with his laugh.
“She’s barely challenge enough for our cubs.”

Weak?
Shawna’s eyes narrowed.

Kryos peeled dark lips away from teeth that
protruded like jagged stones. He lowered his gigantic form till he
crouched in front of Shawna, and she could feel the foul warmth of
his breath.

“I could devour you like a tiny fly.”

His blood tinged breath was so overwhelming that she
nearly fainted.

“Don’t you try it!” yelled a little voice. Lula shot
out of her hiding place. She looked very fierce, even though Kryos
could have accidently inhaled her through his nostril.

Lula’s courage awoke something within Shawna. She
straightened her hunched shoulders, stood tall, and glared at
Kryos, even though he made a bull elephant look like a kitten. He
looked shocked for a moment, then amused as his pure white eyes
reflected them all. Whips of lightning suddenly shot out from his
tail, entangling them in ropes of energy. Mira cried out and
reared.

“She
is
the one, Lord. I demand that you
see
her!”

Shawna and Lula also cried out, but neither of them
could even twitch a finger. Kryos filled the cavern with laughter
again.

“Demand? What powerful words indeed.” His laughter
faded. “You are not the one to challenge Lesath, girl, much less
me.
”

The lightning coils did not burn, only tingled, but
Shawna felt them sting her like eels, twisting her life into a
pathetic end.

“You are
weak
,” he whispered through a snarl.
“How
dare
you enter this realm unbidden. You will live,
unicorn,” he said as Mira thrashed in her bonds. “I thank you for
your offering. As for you human and fairy.” Their chains began to
tighten. “You shall feel your bones incinerate from within.”

Lula struggled, Mira tried to cut the light with her
horn to no avail, and Shawna felt enraged. How
dare
this
creature think such things about her. How
dare
this
over-sized kitty-cat play with their lives. The stones on her
necklace rose from her chest, defying gravity, and defying their
captor. The energy field holding her vanished along with the snarl
on his face. She was as stunned as the three pairs of eyes now
turned on her. He stared at the necklace like it would suddenly
swoop up and strangle him. She saw her opportunity. Furious at the
predicament she and her friends had now found themselves in, she
did the first thing that came to mind. She grabbed a blade of
shattered crystal and yelled.