The Emerald Staff (29 page)

The young fairy crept out from behind the
pillar chewing on her lower lip as she tiptoed towards her brother
and Faedra, eyeing the goings on in the center of the hall with
caution.

“What are you doing here?” Faen and Faedra
whispered together, trying not to bring attention to their newest
member to the standoff.

“When I woke up in the graveyard, I came
straight here to see if I could find you,” she explained to Faedra.
“I had a feeling you would be coming here, but when I arrived, they
told me you had already been and gone. I went back to your house
but it was obvious no one had been there for a while, so I made my
way back here thinking you would show up at some time. When I got
here, this is what I walked in on. I overheard them talking about
some plan they have to rule the seven realms together by getting
their hands on the book and the amulet.”

“Sorry about knocking you out,” Faedra said,
heat rising in her cheeks as she flicked her gaze between her
friend and her father.

“Do not worry. I understand why you did it.”
Jocelyn gave her a warm smile.

“Jocelyn, it’s too dangerous for you to be in
here. This is not your battle,” Faedra said.

“I am not leaving you, and if those two are
trying to rule over Azran, it is my battle. This is my home,
too.”

Faedra couldn’t help but smile at her friend
who was ever the courageous little fairy.

“Well, you need to stay behind us then. I
have a feeling this is going to get nasty,” Faen told his
sister.

Jocelyn did as she was told but bumped into
Etyran when she moved over. She gave Faedra an odd expression
before moving back from the Lightbender who was still
invisible.

“I’ll explain later,” Faedra told her.

“Jocelyn, is the portal still working in
here?” Faen asked. “I know there used to be one in here a long time
ago but heard rumors that the king closed it for security
purposes.”

Jocelyn closed her eyes and mentally scanned
the room. A few seconds later she opened them again. “Yes, there
is, it is over there.” She gave a pointed look to where she could
sense the portal.

“Can you open it?” Faen said.

Faedra gave him a questioning look, unsure
where his request was headed?

“In case we need a quick exit,” Faen answered
her unspoken question.

Faedra gave a subtle nod of agreement.

Jocelyn reached out with her mind again.
“Yes, I can but it would not be wise to do it now. Vivianna and
Savu are powerful enough to sense it opening and that would take
away the element of surprise.”

“Little sister, you are a clever young thing.
Sometimes I do not give you enough credit.”

Jocelyn glowed with pride at her brother’s
words.

“Enough!” A sharp voice penetrated the
silence. Faedra flinched at the sudden outburst and turned her
attention back to the man holding her dad.

“I have waited long enough! Hand over the
amulet this instant or I kill the human you view as your father.”
Savu spat out with contempt.

Faedra’s heart leapt to her throat, blood
pounding so hard in her veins it was a wonder the whole hall
couldn’t hear it. It was only a matter of time before the standoff
had to end, and that time was now. She took a step forward. A hand
circled her arm and held her still. She looked down at Faen’s hand,
knuckles white, and then looked up to meet his burning intense
gaze.

“What do you think you are doing?” he
asked.

“I can’t let them kill my dad.”

“You cannot let them have the amulet
either.”

Faedra closed her eyes and hung her head for
a second, decisions warring within her.

When she opened her eyes, Faen could tell she
had made up her mind.

“Please let go of my arm, I don’t want to
hurt you.”

Faen hesitated even though he knew she could
zap him away from her at any second. Her power had developed to the
point that she no longer needed just her hands to manipulate
it.

“Faen, please.”

Unspoken words flooded between them in the
split second before he let her go.

“Thank you.”

Faedra walked towards the middle of the hall
and smiled at her dad.

“Faedra, what are you doing?” Henry’s husky
voice penetrated her brain.

“Silence human!” Savu snapped, pressing his
knife into Henry’s neck.

Faedra averted her attention to Savu, eyes
cold with hatred. “Let my dad go and you can have your precious
amulet.”

“Faedra, no!” her dad squeaked through
constricted vocal chords.

“It’s the only way, Dad.”

“Give me the amulet and I will release your
father,” Savu said with a sneer.

“It doesn’t work like that. You will have to
take it from me, but I will not let you have it until I know my dad
is safe.”

Vivianna leaned in and whispered something in
Savu’s ear. He listened intently giving a knowledgeable nod towards
Faedra when Vivianna had finished.

“Ahh, I see,” he said. “Well, this should be
fun.”

Faedra’s stomach lurched, as the realization
she’d just signed her own death sentence finally sunk in. It was
the only way to free her dad.

Savu had an evil gleam in his eyes as he
looked at her, and without giving her dad a second look, shoved him
away like a diseased leper. He stumbled and fell on the floor.
Faedra made to take a step toward her father but something hit her
in the stomach. In the next few seconds it seemed to Faedra like
everyone was traveling in slow motion.

“I’ll take that amulet now,” Savu said.

His hand was raised and burning hot flames
were shooting out of his fingertips hitting Faedra in the
stomach.

Faedra screamed in agony as the flames burned
through her clothing and into her flesh. She couldn’t move, she was
being held by an invisible force and could tell it was Savu holding
her with his other outstretched hand, a trick the redcaps used that
she’d been subjected to a few months earlier. This was it, she
thought, the end of her life. She prayed that the others could
defeat Savu and keep hold of the amulet. It broke her heart to give
it up so easily but couldn’t bear to see her dad die because of
her. She had to see him get to safety and this was the only way she
could think off. She looked over to see him picking himself up off
the floor, horror and sadness in his eyes as he looked at his
daughter being burned alive for something he had no idea existed,
and was helpless to do anything about.

Vivianna looked on with glee. Faedra prayed
for the end to come, she couldn’t bear the pain any longer.
Just
get it over with.
She knew her eyes were pleading with Savu to
end her swiftly, but the mirth she saw when she looked at him made
her realize he was enjoying himself and was not likely to show her
any mercy.

In the next second, a door opened in her
mind. As it did, the pain from the flames dissipated and she could
no longer feel the burning anymore, instead her body was absorbing
the heat, storing it, molding it. She looked down at her stomach,
the blisters were dissolving and the skin was healing. Her head
shot up to look at Savu, surprised by this new development of her
power, only to see his eyes widen in surprise, too. But just as she
realized what she could do with the revelation, she heard a
commotion behind her.

“Jocelyn, now!”

It was Faen.

The next instant she was being picked up by
invisible arms, wrenched from the force Savu was holding her with,
and was being thrown towards the area of the hall Jocelyn
acknowledged had a portal.

By the time her brain registered what was
going on, she only had time to scream a few words.

“No, Faen, don’t!”

“Lock down the portal now!” were the last
words she heard before landing in a rough heap on the hard ground…
somewhere.

“Goddammit, Faen! I know how to defeat him!”
Faedra screamed up at the blue sky that was now above her.

“Young lady, please be mindful of where you
are.”

Faedra looked up, squinting at the person
towering over her. It took a few seconds to focus with the sunshine
in her eyes. It was a priest.

Then she heard voices mumbling all around
her. Averting her gaze from the priest, she looked around to see
she was surrounded by people milling about on the grass. They were
looking at her with perplexed expressions and mumbling to their
friends and partners. Some were pointing at her, others were
looking around them in confusion.

Another look around and she recognized the
place she’d been unceremoniously dumped into. She was sitting smack
dab in the middle of the Labyrinth in the courtyard of the
cathedral. Enclosed on all four sides by cloisters that were also
filled with tourists visiting the historic landmark. They also
seemed intrigued by the fact that she appeared out of nowhere, and
proceeded to yell at the top of her voice to no one in
particular.

“Oh, that’s just great, Faen. The cathedral,
really? You couldn’t find somewhere a little less conspicuous?” she
muttered, trying very hard to keep her anger at bay so she didn’t
shock anyone.

She dragged her hands through her hair then
flung her arms to the ground with an exasperated sigh.

“Are you alright?” the priest asked as he
offered her a hand to help her up off the grass.

She looked up and gave the priest a sheepish
grin as she pulled back her emotions and accepted his offered hand.
She hauled herself up off the ground, dusting down her jeans and
straightening her jumper, what was left of it.

The priest’s eyes widened with shock as he
looked down at the charred clothing that no longer covered her
midriff. She followed his gaze and saw the gaping hole that used to
be her jumper and t-shirt.

“Had a problem with the iron,” she muttered,
her voice prompting him to regain his senses. He looked up at her
again.

“Where did you come from? Who were you
talking to?” he asked.

That did it, she had to get out of there and
get back to Azran castle. The knowledge she could defeat Savu was
eating away at her. What if that monster had already killed
everyone in the hall; would she be too late to save her dad and her
friends?

Turning on her heel, she left the priest and
all the tourists looking dumbstruck as she jumped through one of
the cloister archways. The sound of her boots landing on the stone
floor of the ancient corridor reverberated off the walls with an
odd echo. She pinched her brows together and looked behind her.
Nothing there but more stunned tourists, so she stomped towards the
entrance to the cathedral building, startling a couple of elderly
sightseers who she nearly knocked over in her haste.

When she came to a stop at the door, there
was one footstep too many, causing her to look behind her again.
The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end, but there was no
one following her. All the people in the cloisters were rooted to
the spot, eyeing her as if she were a raving lunatic and not
someone they cared to get too close to.

She reached for the old iron doorknob and
swung the heavy oak door open, gaining entrance via a couple of
foot-worn steps to the immense grandeur that was the inside of the
centuries old cathedral.

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

As Faedra stomped along the nave towards the
exit, she barely noticed the sun spilling in through one of the
largest stained glass windows in the country. Any other time, the
stunning beauty of the colors and design would make her stop and
stare in awe.

People were milling around in here, too.
Talking in hushed voices and pointing with wonder at the various
aspects of the ancient architecture. All sound inside the cathedral
was muted, except for her footsteps, which seemed to be making more
noise than usual, even given the nature of the flagstone floor she
was walking on.

A familiar tingle along the back of her neck
made her stop dead, and something, or rather someone, smacked right
into the back of her with an audible ‘oomph’ causing her to jerk
forward and almost lose her balance.

Faedra spun on her heel, grabbed two handfuls
of leather trench coat and pushed the invisible stalker into an
alcove…hard.

“Oh, buggar, foiled again,” a voice
whispered.

“I knew it. Etyran!” Faedra said in a harsh
whisper.

“Now, I can sense you’re a bit upset, Faedra,
but hear me out.”

“A bit upset? A bit upset? Faen put you up to
this didn’t he? Oh, for crying out loud, Etyran! Show yourself so
it doesn’t look like I’m losing my temper with a 900 year old piece
of masonry!”

Etyran’s image solidified in front of her
eyes, and Faedra fought back the urge to slap the sheepish grin off
his now visible face. Instead she pushed him back against the wall
with a frustrated shove.

“Argh,” she grunted.

“Why are you so mad?” Etyran asked. “I saved
your life.”

“I didn’t need you to save my life. I wasn’t
dying!”

Faedra paced back and forth in front of him,
fighting to keep her anger to a dull roar. After a few beats, she
turned to face him, causing him to edge back into the wall even
more, eyes wide.

“Faedra, your eyes are doing something weird.
You’re not going to blow me up, are you?”

Faedra closed her eyes and bit down on her
anger until the energy coursing through her veins coiled into a
very tight spring in the pit of her stomach; so tight, she wasn’t
sure how long she could hold it. She jabbed him in the chest with a
finger.

“Ow.”

“I know how to defeat him.”

“What? Who?”

“Savu. Who else would I be talking about?
Because of you, there are people left defenseless in that hall, and
I know how to defeat him.”

“How?”

She looked at him, exasperated. “Come on, we
need to get back there.” She started to turn away but Etyran caught
her by the arm.