‘Cause when I look her way,
I don’t know what to say.
I’m lost in speech, I’m dumb,
To my love I’ve succumb,
But when I look her way,
I don’t know what to say.
While with her in the pond,
I decided I’d like to bond,
But when I look your way,
I don’t know what to say.”
Onya kept shyly glancing down to her lap to grin, before meeting his eye again. His singing wasn’t in tune, and he didn’t form a true beat until the end of his song, but his words were catchy. The men in the group chortled, and quickly built additional lyrics.
“How does that go again?” Octavos asked, with a wicked grin. “You’re doing your best, not to stare at her chest?”
The men all guffawed. “A little repetitive Noxis, but I enjoyed the song.” Cobaaron grinned, and his shoulders shook as he laughed loudly.
“It was charming,” Ky agreed sticking up for Noxis since no one else was.
Onya gazed at Noxis with a smitten look in her eyes. Noxis, who had nothing to say like his song confessed, returned to his seat next to Cobaaron while grumbling his brother tricked him. Onya swelled with visual delight and fluttered her lashes, when Noxis glanced at her. Cobaaron clapped him on his back. “That actually went better than I thought.”
“I think he sang, ‘I divert my eyes, to those luscious thighs. Oh Onya, oh Onya.’” Ram joked in melodious chant. The warriors snickered, and sang oh Onya, oh Onya for quite some time as they made up more lines carrying on until they started singing to Noxis. Finally, they joined together repeating: “Oh Noxis, oh Noxis, your singing was quite sappy but your song made us happy.”
Finally, Noxis had enough, and chose to leave the campfire and enter Ambrosia’s room. Onya followed. Cobaaron nudged Ky, and nodded in the direction of the open door to Ambrosia’s room. Noxis and Onya were talking, which was mainly one-sided, as Onya prodded him for a conversation that seemed to be going nowhere.
The entrance of the great hall burst opened with a bang. At first no one stood in the frame, but then one by one several men with white hair that changed to strawberry blond, appeared with loud pops. Cobaaron swiftly stood, and called the men over as he strode toward the newcomers. He rushed to one man in particular. “Limro,” Cobaaron greeted the man with a crown of pearls and gold leaves, and wore a white cloak. When the man’s hair washed out to white again, and Ky recognized him as an elf like Noelya.
Limro, along with the seven elves who came with him, greeted Cobaaron, bowing very low, and then gave him strong slaps on the back. “Your partner told us about your son. I’m very pleased to hear the good news.”
“As am I. My partner asked me to remind you of gifts when you visit.” Limro stared at Ky. “We don’t have a lot of time.” Limro waved forward one of the elves next to him, asking him to heal the forest. The elf left Limro’s side, slipping into the room. Ky watched him put his hand to the ground, and moss grew where he touched. At first, there was a moss handprint, but the healed moss spread from the five tips and rejuvenated all the plant life.
Huntra dashed to the turf; Prism waited impatiently as he sprawled and rubbed the moss like it was catnip before getting comfortable. When the elf left the room, Noxis and Onya followed.
“The angels of the springs could dip into the pools before you have a chance to take Zevera’s power completely. She must remain weak. For her to get her power back would be grave, and a hero will die. We must leave now,” Limro insisted.
“I have made my choice. I wish my partner and son to travel straight to Opalace with two of your companions,” Wyt interjected.
“I understand completely,” Limro said with a bow.
Wyt hurriedly fetched his family. Soon, everyone gathered inside the revived forest, except Wyt and his family, Cobaaron, Ky, Tyrus, and Ambrosia. She closed her room, and each elf took one of their arms. With a loud pop the scenery changed.
In the twinkle of an eye, they teleported to a valley overgrown with purple dandelion-like flowers, surrounded by rugged mountains. In the distance, a wide waterfall thundered loudly into a river. There was a light drizzle from gray clouds that covered the moon. Limro stepped in front of them, waved a hand to coat Cobaaron, Wyt, Tyrus, Ambrosia, and Ky with the pungent smell of russux-ox. He changed the five until they resembled elves, still keeping their unique features.
“Your looks will fade when you find her.” Limro then took three hairs from Wyt, who had them ready, holding them out to Limro before he asked. “Three hairs please, Ky.” Like Wyt, when Ky plucked her hairs from her head, they returned to their usual length and color. Limro then took three of his own, before separating the hair into sets of three.
“Thank you for healing my room,” Ambrosia said as they all watched the elf king magically braid the combined strands. Ambrosia cleared her throat nervously, before adding, “I was wondering, if you would bless my womb...please.” She beseeched as Limro twirled three flower stems around the braids, before taking bark from a pouch for a second layer.
“You already received a blessing,” Limro replied, without looking at Ambrosia as he concentrated on his craft and strengthening the wands.
“Yes, and I’m exceedingly thankful my enchanted forest is healed. I am! But if I had a choice…”
“Your wands.” Limro offered the wands, one for Tyrus, Ambrosia, and Wyt.
The men took their wands, but Ambrosia refused hers, obviously still hoping she could have a blessing over her womb instead. But Limro insisted, extending his hand and the wand. She thanked him miserably, glared at Tyrus, and then shifted away from him.
Limro fashioned a glass shard that glowed white. He gave it to Cobaaron. “What is this?”
“The only way to defeat a woman who is impenetrable; I dreamed that you fought with this. We can’t interfere anymore, or goblins see and will declare war. Our treaty states we cannot interfere with humans or healers, since our magic can influence the future drastically. It’s protection for humans. War between goblins and elves is inevitable, and that battle will wipe out both our kind, but the immediate future needs elves. I must be delicate and goblins can never know elves aided change. This is where we must leave you before goblins detect our presence.” Limro said, and he and the other elves vanished with a pop.
“This way. When we cross the valley and enter that mountain,” Wyt pointed to the tallest peak, “I’m certain she will be there waiting for an angel to ripple the water. She must not be the first person to dip into the pool.”
“Yes,” Ambrosia interrupted, “I’ll dunk into the curing springs. My womb will be healed. Come on, hurry!”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
The springs were scattered among smooth white stone. Thousands of cavities were carved into the rock, from millions of years of corroding water dripping to the soft stone. Blazing white fire burned from magical floating torches. Wyt led them through the tunnels and caverns. They finally entered a large chamber with numerous pools. A completely naked, beautiful woman waited to dip in the waters. Ky was sure it was Zevera in disguise, because Wyt stopped them when he sensed her.
“Have you come to enjoy the waters?” the beautiful woman asked cautiously.
“I’ve come to kill you,” Cobaaron declared, and his elfish features and russux-ox smell changed until he was again himself.
“So, you do know it’s me,” Zevera sneered, as she transformed into her darker self, with wild white hair and evil hollow eyes, though she was still naked. She stretched her neck. “How do you propose to do that? Every spell has a counter curse, and I’ve lived long enough to learn them all.”
Wyt waved his wand, and a thick layer of ice covered the entire floor. Zevera took a few steps toward them as crystals melted under her feet before quickly thawing the pools around her with effortless magic.
“We three will counter curse, Cobaaron,” Wyt instructed. “We will keep her busy. That is all I can pro
mise. You kill her.” Ambrosia and Tyrus agreed with a nod.
“Protect Ky, Tyrus,” Cobaaron instructed, and Tyrus seized Ky by the arm with a firm grip.
“I’ll make you an offer, Cobaaron. You leave here, and I’ll treat you better than I have my own sons. I’ll help you rule, and make sure you live nine times as long as the life you’re destined. You will have no worries, and all that you wish for will come true. Let me dip in the pools and seek me no more,” Zevera offered. She changed to resemble Ky. Ky felt exposed at the sight of her own nakedness. “You couldn’t kill me, could you? Your love? I could make her live a long life with you so you always have her.”
“You’re not Ky,” Cobaaron hollered. “I could kill you, even in your disguise. Ky would never disgrace herself by bearing her body.”
Black smoke circled Zevera’s body, covering her curves with very little. “Is this better? Would you kill the woman you love? You love me. Tell me you love me.”
Ambrosia cast a silencing spell, and a steel gag clamped on Zevera’s mouth. Zevera shed the illusion as she scratched and ripped the clamp off. She tore her skin, and even stripped off her lower lip to pry the mouthpiece off. Then she threw the gag aside. With impaired speech, Zevera shrieked, “You fight dirty, witch!”
“I’m not a witch! I’m a healer’s daughter,” Ambrosia yelled. “I will never become something evil like you—never!”
“How are you not dead?” Zevera asked with loathing, but coughed before she could scold Ambrosia.
Tyrus jinxed Zevera, and she dropped to the floor. Thorny vines grew over her. Zevera couldn’t move. Tyrus petrified her. Then Zevera made her body glow red, and the plant grew until withering away after living a full cycle of life and dying in seconds. When the vines decayed, the spell was broken. Zevera stood. With a stiff, straight body, she rose upright to her feet. The sight was eerie, and frightening enough that Ky screamed. Zevera glared at Cobaaron, and her body duplicated itself. Soon there were several copies of Zevera. The true Zevera spoke as if possessed: “I warned you to leave me.”
The replicas dashed at them and attacked. “We must all kill our own witch, or it will only make her stronger,” Tyrus cautioned, and slit open the witch’s stomach that advanced him, using the very spell that Zevera used on Ambrosia hours before. The witch hunched over, as blood dripped.
Wyt swished his wand and his witch boiled as steam billowed from her ears and she screamed. Soon her hair was burning. Her clothes burst to flames, and the witch shrieked as purple fire consumed her. She fell into a pool, poisoning the water.
Cobaaron ran for his witch, as she cast spells at him. He blocked the curse with the glowing shard he held. Then as he ran past her, he pierced her neck with the shard. She collapsed and blazed with light. Cobaaron continued running toward the real Zevera. She created a force field around herself, and Cobaaron bounced away from her. Cobaaron stabbed the protective shield, causing ripples.
Ky saw nothing else. A witch knocked Ky to the ground, as Ambrosia’s copy of Zevera fell beside Ky, crumbling to brittle ash. “Don’t help her,” Tyrus warned.
The witch straddled Ky, and spit on her chest. The saliva burned a hole into her, only an inch from her heart. Her blood didn’t escape, but her flesh scorched and melted her skin with thick blisters.
“She has no weapon,” Ambrosia panicked. “Tyrus, help her!”
“I’m thinking!” Tyrus yelled and slashed the air with his wand when a cobweb of small beads appeared in Ky’s hand. “Command them to eat her, Ky!”
Ky gargled as the witch’s spit ate through her lungs. “Eat her.” The beads popped open and black spiders scurried into the witch’s mouth. The duplicate Zevera simply cackled and crunched, eating them with pleasure, and her missing lip dripped blood.
The hole burned deeper and grew. Then the witch took control of Ky’s body. Her mouth clamped shut. Ky could feel the pain tearing through her, but she couldn’t move. She couldn’t scream. “You’re so easily controlled. You don’t fight it.” The witch smirked maliciously. “It hurts, doesn’t it? The venom is burning deep inside you like a thousand knives. You’ll be dead before you see the effects of your spell.”
“Stop,” Cobaaron bellowed, abandoning the real Zevera, and came running over to Ky. Cobaaron punched the witch hard in the jaw. Tiny spiders shot out of her ear, but crawled back in by thin cobweb.
“Kill her,” the real Zevera yelled, growing impatient. “I need your help! Kill her!”
The witch bit her jugular, and Ky felt the poison seep into her neck. Cobaaron pulled the witch by her hair, removed her teeth, and then put the glass shard in Ky’s hand.
Cobaaron forced Ky’s hand, making her strike. She silently screamed as Cobaaron controlled her, making her muscles tear. The moment he made her press the shard against the witch’s chest, Cobaaron yelled, “Kill her!”
The witch cackled. “She’s as good as dead; the poison will kill her. Why try, Cobaaron? This is over. You can’t kill me. I’m a shadow. And soon you’ll be dead, too. Can’t you see this is over or is your pride blinding you?” The witch seized Ky’s hand, and leaned into the shard as she disappeared in a puff of black smoke.
“No!” Cobaaron yelled. He ran, picking up momentum as he advanced, and slammed the shard into Zevera’s shield with all his might. It cracked where the shard was wedged in deep and slowly the force field shattered around the glowing glass. Cobaaron hollered and continually rammed the field, trying to break the barrier. He was destroying the magic field.
The real Zevera and the duplicate watched and waited for a pool to ripple from angelic influence. With doubled effort, they strengthened the force field as Wyt, Tyrus, and Ambrosia tried ridding it with magic. Slowly it was breaking down.
“The water.” Ambrosia pointed to a nearby pool.
Her observation got Tyrus and Wyt’s attention, but also Zevera’s. Ambrosia flicked her wand, and Ky floated midair. Zevera vanished in a whirlwind of bats and crows. Tyrus cast a spell with a blast from his wand and whisked Ky in the pool. As black birds and bats swirled around the pool, Ky splashed into the water.
Ky was weak, but felt the poison leach from her neck and chest. She found herself in the pool with Zevera, still unable to control her body. Zevera stared at Ky, looking for any sign of who dipped into the pool first. Her face purpled with fury. “You stole my cure! Only one can be first to dip in the pool and you stole my cure!”
Ky felt her repaired chest; amazed she’d been healed. The copy of Zevera suddenly joined them, in a fiery rage. Ky was shoved underneath, while the witch clinched her cold hands around Ky’s neck. At first she panicked, but then calmed. Ky couldn’t die, and wouldn’t drown if Cobaaron stayed alive.
Ky fought the strong grip the witch had over her body, and began to boil the water as she struggled. The witch dragged Ky out of the water, before snarling, “Why did you suddenly calm?”
The real Zevera exited the pool in a translucent state and teleported as Cobaaron lunged. Ambrosia ran for another pool that rippled from angel’s wings. Ambrosia’s haste got the attention of the Zevera copy, and shouted to her other half as she pointed. Cobaaron gripped Ky’s hand around the shard, and forced Ky to drive it into the witch’s heart, as she was distracted. The witch collapsed, spiders crawled out of her by the thousands, and her body brightened with light.
Then a high-pitched laugh came from the pool. “It’s too late!” The real Zevera cackled and cupped the water in her hands and poured it over her body while she waded in the curing spring. Ambrosia hadn’t made it. Ambrosia hovered, gripping her neck as she flailed her legs. Ambrosia’s wand lay on the floor. Zevera got out of the pool, and took it. “I’ve been healed and you could have stopped me, Cobaaron. Now you will die.”
Cobaaron lifted Ky and then stepped in front of her.
“Let her go, Zevera,” Tyrus demanded as he came to Cobaaron’s side.
“Gladly,” Zevera replied. Zevera slammed Ambrosia against a far wall. Ambrosia dropped t
o the floor, limp, pale and unconscious.
“Now, what should I do with you two? Poor excuses for healers, cowering away from powerful magic! Where is your pride? Healers disgust me the way they think they’re better than fearsome witches. Make your move, and I’ll prove how easily you’re defeated!” Zevera shouted at Tyrus and Wyt.
Tyrus seethed with anger seeing Ambrosia on the floor, and knelt down and pounded the ground with the base of his wand. A violent gust of wind encircled him, and like waves, continually expanded outward, as the ground rumbled with each rolling swell. As gusts reached the strength of a tornado, he whipped his wand, freezing Zevera stock-still. When the waves of air or the rolling ground struck her, she cracked. Zevera screamed with pain but couldn’t move. Cobaaron ran for Zevera with shard in hand. He held it high over his head, and lunged.
Zevera’s eyes followed Cobaaron as she shrieked. The body shattered as her demons tried to escape. Ky saw grotesque figures scratch away her skin and clothes. It was possible the evil saved her, protecting the demons inside, because her fractured flesh knitted together again. Cobaaron bravely charged; Zevera jinxed him with bleeding blisters and sores, and then dropped him over a thorny bush. The huge thorns stabbed him. As Cobaaron tore away from the bush, Ky was picked up and floated toward Zevera.
Simultaneously, Wyt and Tyrus counter-cursed. Wyt thrust Ky backward, and she crumpled. He then used his wand, keeping it still and steady, casting spell after spell while he ran for Zevera. He overwhelmed her with curses and counter curses. Tyrus healed Cobaaron’s skin, and transforming the thorny bush to mud before he joined Wyt by hurling spheres of fire at Zevera in obvious hope Cobaaron could get close enough to stab her. Cobaaron’s body glowed, heating the mud until it flaked away as he sprinted for Zevera. He was so fast; he was on her in a second.
With all three men fighting Zevera, she faltered. Wyt and Tyrus cast a storm of curses, anything from blinding her to attacking her with magical creatures, and all the while Cobaaron fought his way closer. Zevera pinned Tyrus using the same ball of electricity that he used on her. Then she vanished. Everyone froze in place.
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