Trial By Fire (Avalon: Web of Magic #6) (11 page)

T
HEY SLID OFF
Drake’s back as the dragon landed smoothly behind a large dune overlooking the Shadowlands. Lyra set down alongside, her magic wings folding and disappearing with a soft glow.

“This is it?” Kara asked incredulously.

It was hard to believe that this burnt-out desert had once been lush, vibrant, and full of life. It was even harder to believe that the small band of travelers had any hope of restoring it.

Three girls, cat, mistwolves, ferret, and dragon peered over the gray ridge. Steam hissed across the barren landscape before them. Several ominous structures rose from the sand like smokestacks. Sparks of light flicked and danced from the open funnels.

“We have to go in there?” Kara exclaimed.

“Some of us have already been inside,”
Lyra rumbled.

Kara stroked her friend’s back, smoothing her raised hackles.

“There.” The warrior pointed.

A stone courtyard led to a pair of black doors at the first tower.

“That’s her lair?” Ozzie asked.

“There’s more,”
Lyra growled.
“Below.”

The Dark Sorceress’s lair lay largely hidden underground. Adriane and Lyra were well aware of the vast caverns and catacombs that wormed under the surface.

Adriane felt her stomach tighten, and a trickle of sweat trailed down her neck. She was back to a place out of her worst nightmares, a place she thought she’d never return to. And yet, here she was. The last time she had barely escaped, and that was with the help of the entire pack. Where were the mistwolves now?

Storm sensed her friend’s dread. “
Stay focused, warrior. Turn fear to strength. Use it.”

“What’s that, Storm? Those weren’t here before.” Adriane pointed to three triangular crystals that pierced the ground in the center of the towers.

“Zach told us she was building those,” Emily reminded them.

“That’s where she’s going to store the magic,” Ozzie said.

The squirming wolf pup in Emily’s arms sniffed the air and barked.

“Shhh. We have to be very quiet,” Emily said, putting the pup on the ground.

“Good point, Dreamer.” Kara’s gaze was on the entrance to the lair. “How do we get past those?”

Tall serpentine guards walked in groups out of the doors, each holding long staffs. Around the base of the distant funnel, goblin riders rode patrol. Their night stallions snorted as the goblins on their backs scowled into the distance.

“Won’t be long before they sense us,”
Lyra warned.

Kara sucked in her breath. “Okay, so, what’s the plan?”

“We go in, then find Zach and the mistwolves,” Adriane said.

“Right.” Kara nodded. “So we don’t have a plan.”

“We keep moving forward,” Adriane responded.

“I can’t hear Zach!”
Drake’s voice echoed loudly in everyone’s head.

Adriane looked into the dragon’s deep crystalline eyes. They swirled in distressed shades of red and orange. “We need you to help us, Drake.”

The dragon’s eyes lit up with greens and blues.
“Yes, I help Zach!”

“Yes. But you have to stay out here.”

Drake’s head drooped in disappointment, steam leaking from his nostrils.

“You have a very important job,” Adriane explained carefully. “When I say so, you have to create a diversion.”

The dragon looked confused.

“Make lots of loud noise, swoop up and down, and keep the guards distracted.”

“I can do that.”

“Good dragon,” Adriane praised. “Wait for my call. And if any of the others that attacked us show up, let me know right away.”

“Okay,”
Drake snorted.

Adriane reached up and hugged the dragon’s neck, giving him a kiss on his wide nose. “We’ll find Zach.”

“What about Dreamer?” Kara asked.

The little mistwolf stood shyly next to Storm.

Adriane bent low to face the little guy. “You’re a brave boy, aren’t you, Dreamer?”

The mistwolf snarled and barked, showing Adriane his fiercest face.

Adriane smiled her approval.

The dark-haired warrior stood and faced the others. “All right. We’ll take him with us.”

Adriane extended her arm. Emily put her hand on top of Adriane’s. Kara’s hand covered theirs. Ozzie, Storm, and Lyra stood close by.

The three girls looked into each other’s eyes. There was only one thing to say.

“Let’s do it!” Adriane said firmly.

Stormbringer shimmered under the hazy sun. A second later, her body disappeared, transforming into a thick white fog. Dreamer watched with interest as the silky mist thinned and slowly settled over the group.

From the desert floor, the dark riders and guards fanned out, carefully watching the skies. They didn’t notice the swirling haze as it moved into the courtyard toward the open double doors.

The group slipped quickly inside, and were instantly swallowed by darkness.

“Which way, Storm?” Adriane whispered.

“Down.”

C
LOUDY IMAGES SURFACED
in the swirling crimson water. The Dark Sorceress bent over her scrying pool, stirring it with a single sharp claw. She waited for the pictures to clear.

A snarl curled the corner of her lips as she narrowed her animal eyes. A sparkling bubble burst in the pool. When it cleared, it revealed a room filled with three enormous crystals. The life forces trapped within the crystals seethed with powerful magic. Closing her eyes, she focused again. The picture faded as another bubble rose to the surface and a new image floated before her: a ghostly cloud drifted down a corridor toward the vast chamber of crystals.

“You see. It is like I told you.” She spoke to the tall, dark shape standing near her. Her claw retracted into a slender finger. “They have come.”

The Skultum’s body shimmered and flowed. “These humans are incorrigible,” the thing hissed.

“You have no idea,” the sorceress replied in a velvety voice.

“The sequence of portals is opened, just as I said it would be,” the Skultum boasted.

The Dark Sorceress spun toward the hideous creature, her long robes whispering to the ground like a shroud. “You are a powerful fairy creature, are you not?”

“One of the
most
powerful!”

The creature’s arrogance grated at her sharp senses. As much as she hated this mutant fairy, she had released it from the Otherworlds, and it still had a job to do. Complete and utter subservience was essential.

“So powerful you let the mages elude your trap?”

The Skultum sneered.

“You got the blazing star to unlock the fairy map. But you let it fall back into the hands of these mages.”

“Mages,” the Skultum laughed, a hideous cackle. “They are merely girls.”

“You know nothing!” She snarled viciously, making the Skultum back up in alarm.

“These
girls
have power! These
girls
channel magic through animals!” The sorceress’s voice rose in fury. “The very lifeblood of Aldenmor flows through their jewels! So do not speak to me of what they can or cannot do!” She shuddered, then calmed.

The dark fairy stood silent, waiting. “The pathway to Avalon is open.”

“There is still one more portal yet to be opened: the Gates of Avalon.”

“Excellent.”

“But, my dear fairy king… we do not yet possess both maps.” The half-woman, half-animal smoothed back her silver blond hair to gaze at the fairy map floating above a pedestal near the pool—the map she had taken from the mistwolf packleader. She had used his magic to open it. But to find the Gates of Avalon, she needed
two
maps—and the blazing star to combine them.

Both were already on their way.

The Skultum stepped into the light of the seeing pool and bowed. Reflections rippled over its distorted face, melting between flesh and bone. “You shall have the map, my mistress.”

“Then you shall have the Fairy Realms to do with as you wish.”

The Skultum’s mouth dissolved into a deathlike grin.

The sorceress extended a claw from her fingertip and dipped her hand back into the pool, swirling the tainted liquid. The images faded as the Skultum began to weave its magic.

The creature shimmered and glowed, arms moving in hypnotic patterns, conjuring, casting. Then, arching its back, the Skultum began to chant a series of guttural, unintelligible words. They jumbled together, echoing in the chamber, a raw combination of animal grunts and melody. The power grew, palpable and electrical in the air. Then, with a wave of its serpentine claws, the Skultum unleashed the spellsong of binding, sending it to the one who would have to answer.

T
HE GROUP SILENTLY
made its way through a maze of dank, dark tunnels. Lights flashed in the distance. They neared a wide corridor where the tunnel split into three passageways. At the end of one, red flames pulsed with heat as shadow shapes scurried to and fro.

“The mistwolves are there,”
Storm’s voice spoke through the mist.

“What about Zach?” Emily asked.

Adriane concentrated on her wolf stone, trying to keep her magic contained yet strong enough to get a reading from Zach’s dragon stone. She shook her head. Nothing.

“Let’s find the mistwolves first, then,” Ozzie suggested.

They crept along the right corridor, heading into the heat that poured through the tunnel.

They came to a doorway cut out of the rock itself. Beyond lay an immense cavern as large as a football field. Staying close to the shadowy walls, they snuck inside. Three gigantic crystals towered in the center of the enormous chamber.

“Incredible!” Emily said in shock, craning her neck to see the tops of the crystals cut off by the ceiling. The rest of the crystals were on the surface.

“Oh my!” Ozzie exclaimed, wide eyed.

The girls had learned how powerful their jewels could be. But the magic these crystals could hold was beyond comprehension—

“Turn back!”
the voice of a mistwolf yelped in Adriane’s head.

“Storm?” Adriane strained to see in the chamber, but the blanket that was Storm still covered them.

“Save yourselves, wolf daughter,”
the voice hissed. “
Run!”

The voice was familiar—but it wasn’t Storm.

“Silver Eyes!” Adriane cried.

The veil of mist swept from the group as Storm took shape, leaping into the chamber.

“What is that?” Ozzie asked.

With the veil removed, they could see the crystals rising in the darkness. Inside, they pulsed, roiling and churning with murky greens, blacks, and grays. They could all feel them—

“Mistwolves,”
Storm snarled, making her way behind the first towering crystal.
“They’re trapped inside.”

That would explain how the sorceress could hold them. Only cages of glass or crystal could prevent them escaping in mist form.

“Storm, wait!” Adriane tried to stay calm. Shadows were moving toward them from the far side of the chamber.

“What’s happening to them?” Ozzie asked, horrified.

“Their magic is being drained,”
Storm said. “
They cannot exist in mist form for much longer, or they will die.”

Dreamer barked and raced after Storm.

“How do we get them out?” Ozzie was frantically jumping up and down.

“Kara, hold up the horn!” Adriane raised her wolf stone. The time for stealth was over.

“Kara?” Emily looked around, voice tight, like it was hard to breathe.

“She was right here a second ago!” Ozzie ran to look down the corridor. It was empty.

“Lyra, what happened?” Adriane asked.

The cat paced, growling low in her throat. The fur on the back of her neck stood up. “
I don’t know. Something blocks my senses. I can’t feel Kara!”

“Kara?” Adriane called, panic rising. Things were spiraling out of control.

“Kara!” Emily called for the third time. She was practically shouting, in spite of the danger.

There was no reply. Kara had vanished.

Grinding rocks sent shudders though the stone floor. Emily and Adriane grabbed hands as the ground beneath their feet fell away, plunging them into darkness.

“S
TORM?” ADRIANE CALLED
out. “Can you hear me?”

Jewel light flashed erratically across the dark space.

“Are you… right?”
Storm’s reply was faint and broken.

“Yes, what’s happening?”

“I am linked… the pack. Keeping them… from fading.”

Adriane wanted desperately to be with her friend to help.

“Is everyone all right?” Emily used her jewel light to search the room.

Lyra’s magic wings unfurled as the big cat peered up through the open chute that had deposited them. She leaned back, ready to leap.

“No, Lyra. We have to stick together.” Adriane brushed the cat’s raised hackles.

“Kara’s up there, alone!”
the cat hissed.

“Can you sense anything, Lyra?” Emily asked.

The cat closed her eyes, then shook her head.
“She is under a spell. I can’t reach her.”