Secret of the Unicorn (Avalon: Web of Magic #4) (14 page)

She got to her feet, transfixed by the tunnel of swirling stars—the magic web.

“I must go back.”
Lorelei’s voice was frantic, terrified.

“No!” Emily shouted above the wild, zinging sound of the spinning vortex. “It’s too dangerous!”

The unicorn shuddered, sending out music that filled Emily’s head with fragmented chords and words that were little more than broken cries. “
We share magic now. You can always find me.”

“Yes,” Emily said. Her heart constricted with fear.

Something tickled at her mind. A snaking sound penetrating into her very being. Music, so calm, so soothing…

Lorelei snorted and took a step back.

Emily turned and faced the monster.

The harpy stood across the field, its ghoulish face white as death. Blazing eyes glowed like dying embers.

Run, Lorelei,
Emily wanted to cry out, but she couldn’t. She couldn’t move.

“Thank you for bringing me the unicorn,” the thing said, smiling through broken yellow teeth.

Lorelei looked at Emily, her liquid eyes stricken and confused.

“No,” Emily cried to Lorelei. “I didn’t know! I didn’t know it was following me.”

“I will take the beast now,” the harpy interrupted in its silky, slithering voice. “We have work to finish.” The creature’s arm emerged from under its cloak, revealing a glittering horn. It shone with a dull green glow.

Lorelei stepped back in horror at the sight of her own horn poisoned with Black Fire.

“Emily!”

Emily turned toward the shout and saw Kara and Adriane running toward her. Ozzie, Storm, Ghyll, and Lyra were right behind them.

“You were right, Storm. The portal’s opened!” Ozzie cried.

“Stay away from her!” Adriane yelled. “Kara, we have to—”

Wreeeeeeaaaaaaaaarrrrrnnnnn!

A burst of chilling, bone-rattling music exploded over the meadow, drowning out the rest of Adriane’s words. Emily turned and saw the harpy waving the green unicorn horn.

Lorelei reared, terrified.

“You’ve got to stop it!” Emily shouted to her friends. “The monster is taking Lorelei!”

Stormbringer was the first to react. With a savage growl, the mistwolf leaped after the monstrous harpy, teeth bared.

The harpy turned, its mesmerizing eyes focusing on Storm. Its vicious song changed suddenly, becoming softer, eerily mesmerizing. Storm skidded to a stop right in front of the creature. She stared at it for a long moment. Then her tongue lolled out of her mouth, and she sank down onto her haunches. Her golden eyes glazed over, and she stared at the harpy adoringly.

Emily realized what was happening. “Wake up!” she screamed at Storm as the harpy glided closer, still singing. “Don’t listen to the music!” When the mistwolf didn’t respond, she turned toward her friends. “You’ve got to help her!”

To her horror, she saw that her friends were standing in place, staring trance-like toward the harpy. Kara’s mouth was hanging open slightly, and Adriane was swaying unsteadily to the rhythm of the creature’s song. Ozzie and Ghyll were leaning on each other, their eyes half closed, while Lyra purred loudly and rolled onto her back.

Oh, no! Emily felt her own heartbeat slowing, matching itself to the beat of the harpy’s captivating song. Her friends were already bewitched, and now she was falling under its evil spell, too.

Maybe I should… just… give up, Emily thought fuzzily. Easier… just to… go along with it...

“Lorelei,” she cried, summoning one last ounce of resolve. Her voice, too, seemed overtaken by the harpy’s powerful magic, and she sang out, “Lor-e-lei!”

The monster’s music changed rhythm, becoming quicker, almost violent, yet still beautiful.

Music exploded in a painful jumble of noise as the unicorn struggled to express herself.
“Emily, focus on my voice. Stay awake.”

Lorelei’s voice broke through the fuzziness, and Emily managed to shake off most of the effects of the spell. However, the others were still entranced. The harpy hovered in the air between Emily and the portal, grinning as it continued to sing.

Magic crackled and popped, forming a ring of shimmering blackish-green energy around the unicorn, trapping her.

“Run, Lorelei!”

The unicorn snorted and tried to bolt, her eyes rolling back with fear.

Emily watched as the harpy swept toward Lorelei, skimming just above the grass. Its shadowy dark cloak billowed around its gaunt shoulders, and its yellow teeth formed a hideous grin as its eyes bored into Emily. The unicorn backed away and reared up, her silvery hooves flashing. But the harpy didn’t slow. It reached out its arms and wrapped Lorelei in its evil embrace, sweeping her into the portal.

“W
AKE UP!” EMILY
screamed, running toward her friends. “You’ve got to fight it!”

She shook Kara by the shoulders. The blond girl stared listlessly, as if looking right through Emily.

Behind them the animals of Ravenswood came running into the field.

“Everyone!” Emily called out. “I need your help!” She pointed at Adriane, Kara, Ozzie, Storm, Lyra, and Ghyll. “Form a circle around them.”

Emily raised her jewel and concentrated on drawing in the magic of the animals around her. The rainbow jewel flared blue, and Emily held it before Kara, bathing her in bright light.

Kara’s eyes cleared, and she looked at Emily. “What happened?” She blinked.

“The harpy put us under its spell,” Emily explained.

With Kara’s help, Emily quickly used the power of her jewel and their animal friends to break the spell. One by one, each shook off lingering wisps of hypnotic music.

“Where’s Lorelei?” Adriane asked, looking at the spinning portal still hanging open in the air before them.

“The harpy took her,” Emily told her, frantically. “We have to go after her!”

Adriane shook her head. “Are you crazy?”

“It’s starting to close!” Ozzie called out.

The portal was spinning in on itself, shrinking.

“Emily,” Adriane said, “we can’t just jump through! What if we end up in the Shadowlands—or worse?”

Emily tried to explain how important this was. “The whole magic web is at stake,” she told them, her voice thick with tension and fear. “Lorelei is supposed to protect the web. If she can’t repair it quickly, it’s going to keep falling apart!”

“But going into the portal—it’s too dangerous,” Ozzie said.

“I’m going through!” Emily said defiantly.

“How will we find Lorelei even if we do go through?” Kara asked.

“I can find her,” Emily stated. “I have to.”

Ghyll stepped forward. “I am a fairy creature, a magic tracker. If we go right now, I can help find the unicorn on the web.”

“I don’t know,” Ozzie said. “It sounds risky.”

“I went through once before,” Adriane reminded the others. “My wolf stone protected me.”

“What will happen to the web, to Aldenmor and the Fairimentals, if we don’t help Lorelei?” Emily asked. “We have to decide now!”

She glanced at the portal. In a few moments it would be gone.

“One jumps, we all jump!” Adriane announced.

“Why I listen to you two is beyond me,” Kara said.

“Storm, you and Lyra stay here and take care of the others,” Adriane ordered.

“I will contact you if I do not hear from you,”
Storm told her.

“Hold onto me,” Gyhll said.

The three girls grabbed hold of Ghyll as he took a mighty hop.

“Wait for me!” Ozzie yelled.

Emily reached out. Ozzie leaped and grabbed hold as they jumped through the misty veil and fell into the portal.

The flobbin drifted in space. Kara, Emily, Adriane, and Ozzie floated alongside. They seemed to be encased in a gold-and-blue bubble. The amber glow of the wolf stone and the blue-green glow of the rainbow jewel filled the bubble. Outside, streaks of light swept by as the bubble flew across an endless ribbon of stars.

Ghyll was concentrating on the rows of blazing lights that flew towards them. “To the left,” he called.

Adriane and Emily shifted their stones to the left, and the bubble turned, careening into a connecting path of starlight.

Emily’s eyes were wide with astonishment. Long, wide swaths of glowing light, like highways, spiraled and stretched, searing past them at enormous speed.

“Right!” Ghyll ordered.

The girls shifted their stones, banking the bubble right, where it soared onto another streaming path, flying out over the vast web.

“This is amazing!” Emily exclaimed.

“I remember actually riding on the strands of the web,” Kara said, referring to her wild unicorn ride. “But this is intense!”

“Are we there yet?” Ozzie covered his eyes as the bubble dipped, then dropped down a vertical well of looping strands, spinning upside down and jumping forward once again.
“GarG!”
The ferret was jolted into the air. “Doesn’t this thing come with seatbelts?”

“Hurry, Ghyll,” Emily cried.

“I can only track the unicorn,” said the flobbin. “You can increase the speed with your magic.”

“Hold on!” Kara touched her fingers to each of the jewels, and the bubble shot forward like a rocket.

“Ahhhh!” Ozzie cried out.

The bubble sped across the web like a shooting star, arcing towards an intersection of pathways. A wide platform of light floated where the highways met.

“There!” Ghyll called out.

“Where? Which one?” Adriane asked.

“All of them.” He pointed.

Emily and Adriane moved their jewels, and the bubble slid into an approaching pathway. Bouncing slightly, they came to a halt on the edge of the platform. The bubble flared and disappeared.

Splashes of light danced behind Emily’s eyes, inside her head. Music filled the air—bright, brilliant, enormous, as if the universe itself were singing.

Emily opened her eyes, awestruck. They stood on an immense, circular platform, looking out upon the web itself. The magic web! An endless array of gleaming strands stretched out in every direction, woven into impossibly complex patterns. At every intersection, tiny glittering stars twinkled with pure white energy. When she looked down, Emily realized the platform was made of thousands of tightly woven strands. The platform formed the base of a giant circle, surrounded by connecting strands of the web. Smoke plumed from various places along the pathways. Upon closer inspection, she could see that sections of the web had been burned away. Loose strands unraveled as sparking embers of green glow spread from the edges—Black Fire. Through the gaping holes she could see where sections of starways crumbled and burned, falling away into the black of nothingness. Even the flobbin seemed stunned by the devastation of the ruined web.

“Where are we?” Adriane asked.

“A nexus,” Ghyll said quietly.

“A what?”

“There are sections of the web where many paths converge in one place,” Ghyll explained. “This is a nexus.”

“Like a train station,” Emily said.

“If you follow the right path, you can jump to different places, worlds.”

“Is it safe here?” Kara asked.

“I’ve never seen the web destroyed before. It’s terrible. And dangerously unstable.” Ghyll shifted his flippers nervously.

“Where is Lorelei?” Emily asked, looking through the smoke that swirled from the base of the wide circle.

Ghyll pointed to the opposite edge. Clouds of smoke parted to reveal the unicorn standing beside the harpy. Ribbons of glowing light streamed from Lorelei’s crystal horn. Like a magnet, the pale green horn in the harpy’s hand pulled the flowing magic toward it, warping the ribbons and sending them streaming outwards. A dreadful, whining music blared from the green horn. As the magic hit the pathways, the connecting silvery strands withered, sending up plumes of ugly, greenish smoke. Sections of web shifted, raveled, and unraveled, reconfiguring into a different pattern. The harpy laughed, buzzing with its evil song.

“What are they doing?” Kara asked.

“It looks like the harpy is using Lorelei’s magic to reweave the web, to make a new pathway,” Ghyll said.

Lorelei stood entranced, magic and music flowing from her horn in rich, deep, sad notes.

“Lorelei!” Emily called sharply.