Ky didn’t know what to say. Their situation was dire. No lie could improve their life-threatening predicament, or convince them their dilemma wasn’t grim. So Ky decided against vowing to find the unlikely chance to run. Instead, she changed the subject. “I’m sorry she killed your druse.”
“I’m sad about that. I won’t lie,” Ambrosia said. “How did yours not attack”
“I don’t know. Maybe it’s because I told her not to be jealous,” Ky said, vaguely remembering a clouded memory. She had a flash of reclining in Huntra’s room. It was odd because in the first moment, she was alone, but her memory warped and she was next to an older man with wrinkles around his eyes, though she couldn’t quite see his features clearly. His face was a blur.
The earth shook again, as another earthquake struck. Luanda cursed, sounding muffled. Then her black and yellow eyes swirled to a solid white. Pillars shot up all around them, and even in the carriage. They passed easily through the rock, when Luanda raised her hands. The earth shook unnaturally. The pillars in their path slowly crumbled, and came crashing to the ground.
“Oh, yes. The ash is making even the rocks grow,” Ambrosia whispered looking around as Luanda flattened the land. “Leave it to witches to deny change in the world.”
CHAPTER NINE
“I thought we were going south to King Verellis,” Ambrosia questioned Luanda after traveling two days in the tumbrel.
“What did I say about talking?” Luanda thrust a hand forward and Ambrosia was thrown backward until she hit the bars of the next compartment with a loud rattle. Then she shoved Ky back in the same fashion, clearing out the first box. She attached a rope that lay on the ground, and the moment Luanda latched it to the carriage, the line began to coil pulling what Ky speculated was another snare.
Ambrosia and Ky tucked their feet away from the bars when they saw a full trap. The web of rope sped nearer as the large creature inside the net rolled around, trying to break free. Within seconds, the netting was heaved inside the barred compartment in front of them, and the carriage went up in black smolders.
Before the smoke cleared, Ky screamed as a jaw with jagged, gnarly teeth tried biting at them between the bars. The wide nose was too big to pass between the bars. As the creature snapped and scraped the bars with sharp teeth, its colossal claws scratched at the iron. The entire carriage shook violently as the huge beast tried to get to Ambrosia and Ky as if they were the captors.
The furious monster locked its glowing green eyes on Ky. The oversized mouth opened, and the upper lip curled. The monster had black, upright porcupine-like spines, over a foot tall. As the animal thrashed around, the spiky hair lodged into anything it touched, even the hard iron. The canines lengthen, along with the claws.
“Help,” Ky screamed, as Luanda watched the beast scratch at them as the bars were filed away by its claws.
“It will kill us,” Ambrosia yelled horrified. “It’s getting through!”
“Then why don’t you feed yourself to the steaz and save the Star?” Luanda suggested to Ambrosia, and then her mouth curled up, clearly finding the situation comical. Ky glared at Luanda finding her sick humor despicable.
Just then the wild beast backed away from the bars, calm and still. Luanda looked at the wild animal. “You did magic! I knew it. You’re a witch!”
“I didn’t,” Ambrosia lied. “I’m not!”
“You lie,” Luanda the Weird screeched. Ambrosia and Ky startled with a jerk at her sudden anger. Luanda lunged at Ambrosia, and yanked her out from the bars, simultaneously manifesting a dagger by clutching the air. Luanda pointed it at Ambrosia’s throat. “Say you’re a conjurer or you die. I will cut your head off!”
“Stop,” Ky screamed, shaking the bars and wanting out. She was desperate to help Ambrosia. In her anger and frustration, Ky heated the bars until they glowed brightly. The bars liquefied, but not from her heat. Ky shook the bars until they wobbled wildly, which got Luanda’s attention. By no effort of her own, Ky’s body stepped out of the carriage, and gracefully lowered to the ground. She raised a hand, pointing to Luanda.
“You are the magical one!” Luanda dropped Ambrosia, and faced Ky. Her white eyes, hollow and sinister, expressed murder and hatred. “You made the steaz heal.” Ky’s eyes widened with fear. She had no control, but her hand continued to point at Luanda. The witch screamed, and then tore at her dark robe. “You’re cooking me! My insides boil!”
Ky glanced at Ambrosia. Her eyes focused on Luanda, unblinkingly. Ky realized Ambrosia was controlling her. Luanda recoiled from Ky, ripping at her overcoat, but then Luanda’s eyes snapped onto Ky. Luanda’s milky white eyes swirled, and she began to sweat profusely. Ky felt a frigid cold at her feet. When she looked down, her frozen feet were in a solid block of ice as crystals climbed up her body.
Ky tried to shine her bright light, focusing on her ankles and legs, but it spread too rapidly. Panic pricked as the bitter cold chilled her to the bone. Ky tried to move, but she was literally frozen to her spot. And then, a moment later, the frozen cube shattered and melted.
Luanda pointed to the trees around them, and more than fifty sprang to life. Bark shifted to form eyes and mouths. They blinked and looked around. The limbs shivered as the tall trees moved. “Squash the Star. Hurry,” Luanda commanded.
As Ky watched, the trees shrank. Before the trees could uproot themselves, they dwindled to five feet. Ky twitched a smug smile. Ambrosia was equally skilled with counter curses; realizing this gave Ky the first glimmer of hope that they could escape. Ky did her best to play her part, hoping Luanda wouldn’t notice Ambrosia as she concentrated on keeping them alive. She knew she could play a role convincingly and said, “I’m a Star and a sorcerer. Do you really think you can overpower me?” Ky distracted Luanda.
“Get out of my way,” Luanda yelled. She spread her hands wide, and the shrinking trees slid back into the forest. The moment they weren’t under Luanda’s control anymore, they quickly bolted.
“Where I’m from, witches are more powerful than you can imagine.” Ky was lifted into the air, as she felt heavy blows pummeling her body. Ky doubled over in pain, when she was punched hard in the gut, and flew backward. Then Luanda was thrust in the air. Ky was wrenched toward Luanda and they slammed into one another. They circled in the air a few times as they kicked and punched anything they could touch. When Ky was about to ring her neck, Luanda began to contort.
Her skin paled to a creamy tan and her ragged clothes dissolved into her body. She transformed into a demon-like creature with a long tail, an elongated skull, jagged teeth and large wings with claws at the elbow. Despite her long limbs she captured Ky. Fangs grew; soon they were over a foot long and deadly sharp. The sight petrified Ky.
White bars like a birdcage encircled Luanda. In moments, she was enclosed. The cage quickly slammed down to the ground and the bars burrowed several feet into the dense soil. The demon witch rattled the poles, which wobbled but didn’t break.
Luanda pointed at Ky and by magic she collapsed. She was ensnared and whirled around. She shrieked as she stared into the bluish-gray face of the zombie driver and he widened his mouth to chew her flesh. Before he could harm her, Ambrosia petrified him, reducing him to fine stone, a shell of a man, before he blew away as cinders.
Ky faced the demonic witch again. The bars splintered as she continued to shake the magical restraint with her talons. Ky stepped back, ready for the cage to crumble, and Luanda to advance.
When Luanda couldn’t get out, she gave up shaking the bars and pointed at the steaz inside the tumbrel. The imprisoned beast bounded for freedom the moment the doors opened. Ky screamed. The creature leaped, as the spines stood upright. The steaz somersaulted and continued toward Luanda.
The steaz shattered the poles, unfazed by the cage in its path. The monster rolled over Luanda, crushing her, before rolling to freedom. Luanda lay on the ground among white shards of destroyed magic. There were spines in her pale brown flesh, and tears in her wings. Th
e solid white eyes of the demon stared upward, and slowly Luanda reverted into her human form and tattered clothes. The spines vanished.
Ambrosia slowly approached Luanda with her wand extended, and magically paralyzing Ky, making it impossible for her to come closer. “I know you’re alive,” Ambrosia said to Luanda the Weird. “You remain staked until you promise to let Ky and me depart and not search for us. In exchange, you’ll live. If you refuse, you shall remain stiff until you die of starvation or something eats you.” Ambrosia moved her hand, as if sprinkling something onto Luanda, allowing her to move her eyes and mouth, but otherwise remain immobile.
“You fight like a coward to use the Star to hide your identity. Have you no pride?” Luanda spit, but Ambrosia waved her wand and Luanda’s saliva missed. The spittle burned a deep hole into the earth.
“You must release us, never to harm us again; that is your pledge to us.” Ambrosia tore a straight line in space, and held out her hand when several gold coins flew from the tear. Ambrosia caught the money and dropped it next to Luanda. “We buy our freedom, and you release us to never trap us again. I’ll lift the curse once we have a few minutes between us.”
“You’re a coward! You didn’t fight fair by the healer’s code.” Luanda shape-shifted into several different fearsome beasts, but none released her from the grip.
“Well, you’re not a healer, are you?”
“What have you done?”
“It’s my own spell,” Ambrosia disclosed with sudden confidence. “I invented it to ward off an annoying brother who picked on me. I never thought it would be useful, until a moment ago.”
“Then you’re a witch. You’ve wielded dark magic. Where is your pride? Admit it,” Luanda snarled.
“This is far from dark magic.” Ambrosia paused, waiting for Luanda to release them, but when Luanda was silent Ambrosia yelled, “Release us! Say the purchased price is a deal!”
“Fine! I accept the price. I’ll take the gold for your freedom,” Luanda the Weird snarled. Her eyes became black and yellow once again. Her sinister stare still brought chills to Ky; she shivered.
“And you never can trap us again, or harm us in any way,” Ambrosia added, demanding Luanda to speak it.
“And I won’t seek you again, or snare you in my nets. I’ll never cast a spell on either of you, as long as you do the same in return.” Luanda was smarmy with self-satisfaction, but her eyes showed the anger she was feeling. She loathed Ambrosia for besting her.
Ambrosia grasped hold of Ky’s hand, and together, they ran away from Luanda and her carriage. They didn’t take long before they slowed down, because they could hear wild creatures moving around in the shadows of the forest. “I need to hide your glow,” Ambrosia said as they hurdled over enormous roots.
“There!” Ky pointed to a giant tree with a hollow base in the huge trunk.
Ambrosia made a slashing swipe with her wand. Bats and rodents scurried out. Ambrosia and Ky hid in the tree’s embrace. Ambrosia crossed her wand over the exit, and thick brown bark grew over the hole. Ky’s light filled the space. There were stacks of crates in the hidden hut, unusual traps, and large hooks hung from the wooden ceiling.
Ambrosia took dirt and threw it into the air as she swished her wand and muttered. The dust floated, and then transformed into a deep red velvet cloak with a hood. “Take it, Ky. This will conceal your radiant skin.”
“What is this place?” Ky asked, unnerved by all the items that could impale her. “It looks like traders use this for storage.”
“This is why we have to get out of here. Don’t touch anything,” Ambrosia warned.
“I wasn’t going to.” Ky pressed her lips into a hard line. She tried her best to look pleased. “You were amazing back there with Luanda.”
“Sorry, I had to use you like that, but once you started heating the bars I decided to use you as a decoy. I knew I’d do much better if I stepped back from the situation. I was really scared. I’ve never dueled; I’ve never been outside of the City of Sterlings. I’m still shaking. I don’t know how Tyrus likes this life, but he’s braver than me. I wouldn’t respond as quickly if she were attacking me. I could see things coming while at a distance. The truth is I’m no match for a witch. They know powerful dark magic. We were lucky that she didn’t know a counter curse for the spell I made up. Luanda is known as weird, but also a cunning, creative witch. While dueling, creativity is what makes great witches powerful. We should have died.”
“We lived. That is all that matters. I knew what you were doing, and I’m not upset. You did the right thing. We would have died if you didn’t save us. I completely trust you.” For some reason, this made Ambrosia avert her gaze as if she was keeping something from Ky. “I’m serious, Ambrosia. I’m thankful for everything. In this world we do what we must.”
Ambrosia attempted to show gratitude, but failed. She frowned before saying, “We should find a good place to hide until the warriors track us.”
Ky donned her cloak that concealed her light completely, and even the silver sweat disappeared from her arms. It magically absorbed her light, until her starlight and robe became invisible, as if she were wearing only a dress and her timekeeper.
“Let’s go.”
“Just not back to Sarnia—anywhere that’s far from Ron.”
“I don’t blame you, my Lady.” Ambrosia expressed deeper guilt, but swallowed it away as she continued, “That cloak is tricky. You have to remove it by clutching the hood behind your head and pulling straight back; otherwise it will remain hidden and covering you. You could even change your clothes and never know it’s still on. I made it so it’s undetectable to keep you safe, my Lady.”
“Please, call me Ky.” Ambrosia gave a quick nod, grinned, and then put her wand away. Ambrosia saw her curious expression when she once again tore space with the touch of her finger.
“As you have your own room with Huntra, I have mine. There is a lot of stuff in there. I’m a bit of a hoarder, unfortunately. I should clean my room…. If we weren’t trying to be found by warriors, I’d say hiding in my room would be perfect. But we’ll find another place equally as safe.”
Ambrosia lifted her hand, and the bark of the old tree crumbled away. The two left the hollow, and walked along the soft moss forest floor with vigilance. The broken hard ash littered the ground in pieces, and dead vines were spongy and wet, already decaying in a short amount of time. Ky was amazed how the creatures quickly returned to their familiar surroundings, breaking the ash and restoring the woodland as it was before.
They quietly navigated the forest. Ky could hear the distant sounds of creatures rummaging through the trees as she strained to listen. Obscure shadows moved between distant trunks, as they slowly crept. Several times Ambrosia and Ky froze, not wishing to be seen when animals wandered too close. Ky smelled strange musty odors of things hidden by the night. Some reeked like decaying carcasses, others of leaves and soil. But all were concealed by darkness.
Once they were alone, without beasts wandering nearby, they continued searching for a hiding place. Ambrosia and Ky kept pointing to good refuges, communicating only with gestures, to holes, gapes under fallen trees, or cracks in large rocks. Something was always wrong. Beasts or traders could easily find them because the location was too obvious. Ambrosia wanted a place they could wait for days if they needed to for the warriors to sniff out their scent. Or with luck, Wyt, a Star and a powerful wizard and seer, would find them.
They crossed a swamp with thick green algae. It churned as they waded. Amphibians hid in the water, and from the little Ky could see, the murky water was home to strange fish with webbed feet, toads with long tails, and salamanders that looked more like centipedes. Nothing was coming near them. They labored neck deep in the cold water, looking for a tree thick to climb.
Ambrosia froze. Ky saw what startled her. A huge snake with black and brown stripes glided on the surface of the soupy swamp. It slithered, heading rapidly for them. Ambrosia was shaking with
fear. There wasn’t time to react. The snake was so close Ambrosia only had time to lift her hand.
Ky watched as a one-hundred-foot-long snake swam through her as if she weren’t there. She didn’t feel the reptile, and it wasn’t aware of her.
“No,” Ambrosia inhaled with panic. Ambrosia reached for Ky, and headed back to the land as she muttered, “I’m so stupid. We’re trapped! I should have known Luanda was too willing. She’s probably gloating, hoping she’s confused us, and she would be right.”
“What is wrong?” Ky whispered.
Ambrosia commanded her wand from her room, and cast a swift spell. They rose, until they were standing on the water. They walked to land as if the algae were solid. “The reason no beasts are attacking is because they can’t see us. Objects we touch move, but shouts can scarcely be heard and our scent is nearly impossible to detect, even for a warrior. I never asked Luanda to take us out of the traders’ realm. I forgot about it while bartering for our lives.”
“I don’t understand. What does that mean? You didn’t charm us to protect us?”
“No. That snake should have attacked, but it didn’t see you. We can affect the world, because we’re still here, but we’re in another realm. We’re in the traders’ realm, like my room is in another space. It’s hard to explain.”
“I understand quantum mechanics and the string theory as well as anyone, if you’re saying we’re in another dimension. But I don’t understand how we got into another space time.”
“What? You’re talking riddles. We got in the traders’ realm when the tumbler went up in black smoke.”
“And you can get us back, right?”
“No.” Ambrosia pointed to where she kept pulling things from thin air, and hiding her wand. “We’re trapped here, and I don’t know how to get us out. Not without Luanda, and I have no way of finding her. I released her when we were in the tree.” Ambrosia waved her wand, and a blazing campfire appeared. The flames burned warm and bright. “My father would know what to do. I wish he was here.”
The Coming Dawn Trilogy Page 43