Part Two:
The Monster of Crystal Lake
The Unfinished Prophecy Mini-Serial
Maggie Akhurst
Copyright © 2016 by Maggie Akhurst.
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The Unfinished Prophecy, Part Two: The Monster of Crystal Lake/ Maggie Akhurst. -- 1st ed.
For Twyla –
Thanks for always offering to read my drafts
and asking me if it’s finished yet...
1 Cierra
An awful feeling of dread sank to the bottom of Cierra’s stomach. She was alone in the Darkened Singing Forest. Dru had disappeared. She had no idea which way to turn. How will I find Dru in all this mist?
Had he simply wandered off and left her? She didn’t think so. Dru was the type to protect anyone from any sort of danger. He wouldn’t have abandoned her in this place.
She didn’t like where her thoughts were leading her. If he hadn’t abandoned her, then that meant something had happened to him in the few seconds she had turned her back.
She tried taking deep calming breaths. The mist swirling around her made it difficult to see anything, turning the dead trees around her into creepy, twisted shadows.
A keening screech to her left had her heart pounding. It sounded very close and very nasty.
“Dru!” she called frantically. “Where are you?” She ran forwards to where she’d seen him last. His sword lay on the ground. Cold sweat broke out on her brow. The Protector would never leave his sword behind when they were stuck in a place as dangerous as this.
“Dru!” Her voice was swallowed by the heavy mist. The mist felt a lot more oppressive now that she was all alone.
A strangled grunt above her made her look up. Panic flooded her.
A vine was wrapped around the Protector’s neck, lifting him almost two metres off the ground, strangling him. His feet thrashed as he struggled violently.
Cierra grabbed the heavy sword that had been discarded on the ground and ran to the base of the wall of vines. She began hacking at them, desperately hoping that one of the thick stems was connected to the attacking limb.
The vines made a strange hissing noise and several tendrils snaked towards her. She swiped at them with the sword, managing to cut the end off one. It curled away, hissing angrily.
“Stay away from me!” she yelled. “Let him go and I’ll leave you alone!”
Another tendril whipped out, almost faster than her eyes could follow. Her cheek smarted and she put her hand up it. It came away red with blood. One of the thorns had scratched her.
“That’s it. You’ve had your warning.” She began to chop more energetically at the vines. More tendrils surrounded her. She felt a scratch on her ankle as a vine tightened around it. Another went for her throat. She tried her best to battle them off, but the sword that looked so graceful in Dru’s hands was cumbersome and slow in hers. She wouldn’t be able to hold them off much longer and Dru’s thrashing was becoming weak.
Vines grabbed her hands, yanking. She shrieked as an unexpected burst of light exploded from the bracelet. The vines holding her all disintegrated.
Cierra stopped hacking. The vines stopped writhing and hissing. It was as if both of them had realised who now held the upper hand.
“Let him go,” Cierra said, holding the bracelet up. The vines hissed in defiance. She waved the bracelet closer to the stems and they went quiet, shrinking away. “Do it. Now.”
There was a pause.
With a thud, Dru was dropped roughly on the ground. The vines sulkily withdrew.
Cierra ran to where he lay. “Dru!” she said, kneeling beside him. “Dru, get up! I didn’t go to all that trouble saving you just so you could go and die on me!” There was no response. Large cuts laced his throat, coating it in blood. It was difficult to see how much damage he’d actually sustained. Had he lost too much blood? Had they punctured a major vein or cut too deeply into his neck?
“Dru!”
His eyes slowly opened. “I didn’t need saving. I had it all under control.” His voice was raspy and he winced as he spoke.
She heaved a sigh of relief as he sat up. “Of course you did.”
He massaged his throat, using a corner of his cloak to wipe the worst of the blood away. “You are terrible with a sword, by the way.”
She glanced at his sword lying beside her. “That thing is deceptively heavy. I don’t know how you use it.”
“Effectively, unlike you.” He stood and straightened his cloak. He held a hand out to help her up.
She ignored it, getting to her feet herself and brushing her knees off. Annoyance simmered in her chest. No matter what he said, she had saved his life. Some gratitude wouldn’t hurt him. “A thank you would be nice,” she huffed at him as she stalked away.
“Where are you going?” he called after her.
She didn’t look back. She jingled her charm bracelet in the air, heading for the wall of vines.
“Cierra, wait,” he called. His voice was already muffled, thanks to the thick fog. “Haven’t you learned anything from my ordeal? Those vines are dangerous, come back!”
She ignored him. She went right up to the vines and held out the wrist that had the bracelet clasped on it. They shrunk back reluctantly, slowly opening up and letting her pass through. As soon as she was past, they closed behind her. She left Dru standing outside the barrier. Let him worry for a while, she fumed. Ungrateful wretch.
The wall of greenery parted, leaving her standing in awe in a small clearing. “Wow.”
She gazed at the ancient tree before her. It stood on a small hill, completely free from the cloying mist. Tangled roots broke through the earth of the hill, stretching away to the edge of the clearing. Its branches were bare of foliage and the massive truck was gnarled and twisted with age, but it was still a magnificent sight, reaching high above the other tree tops. The wall of vines circled it, keeping everything out.
She became aware that Dru was calling her, his voice getting more and more frantic. “Serves you right,” she muttered under her breath as she turned back the way she had come. She waved her hand at the vines and they unwillingly parted.
Dru was standing exactly where she’d left him. He was regarding the vines distrustfully, not willing to approach them again.
“Cierra,” he said. “Finally. Didn’t you hear me?”
“I heard,” she said, “but as I recall, you can handle everything by yourself. You don’t need saving. You don’t need any help. I figured you’d b
e able to make your way through that easily.”
He didn’t reply immediately, looking uncomfortable. “I’m sorry,” he said at last, his voice subdued. “I’ve been rude. I’m not used to having other people save me. It’s not often that I need saving.” He looked her in the eye. “Thank you.”
She scrutinised him, judging whether or not he was being sincere. She understood that he was still smarting from his trust issues with the Councillor, but he wasn’t going to be much help to her if he continued to doubt himself. He needed to open his eyes and see that he was qualified to be a Protector. He could do what was demanded of him, he was simply blind to it at the moment.
The way back to the Protector he had been started with humbling him.
“You’re welcome,” she said finally. “Come on.”
She waited as he passed through the passage the vines had created, then turned and walked back to the old tree, not bothering to check if Dru was following or not.
She approached the trunk of the ancient tree. A smooth patch of bark was at eye level with her and she could see a small, faintly glowing indent in it shaped like an oak leaf.
She unclipped the leaf charm. It sparkled, almost as if it was excited. The circle of vines hissed in disapproval, writhing violently.
“Cierra,” Dru said. “You need to know something about that bracelet before you...”
She wasn’t paying much attention. She carefully placed the charm in the tiny hole. It fit perfectly.
A vibrant green glow started to spread from that point, travelling up the ancient tree and along its branches, making leaves sprout along the way. The magic rushed faster and faster, racing up the tree until it burst from the tips of the branches, blanketing the surrounding forest.
The vines screamed in fury.
“Cierra!” Dru cried from the edge of the clearing. “Watch out!”
She dragged her eyes away from the beauty of the flourishing tree and looked down at the vines. They were starting to rot away as the purifying magic took hold, but they had enough energy and loathing left to make a final strike. They twisted together in a massive, rotting cord and aimed for her. She didn’t have time to get away. She reflexively held her arms up to protect herself as much as she could.
Suddenly, Dru was next to her, lifting her away from the danger and leaping high into the branches of the tree.
The vines smashed into the trunk, right at the point where the charm radiated its healing magic. The direct contact was lethal for the Darkened vines. In an explosion of black dust, they disintegrated.
Cierra and Dru stayed in the branches of the tree for a minute or so, breathing hard.
She turned to look at him. “How did you do that?”
He frowned. “Do what?”
“You were a good few metres away from me. Next thing I know, you’re beside me and jumping much higher than a normal human can.”
“Oh, that.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “There’s a reason my family’s last name is Silverwing. One of my ancestors had fairy blood in his veins. It’s never quite been bred out of the family line.”
“Really?” She screwed up her nose. “It’s a shame you didn’t get the actual wings. They could have been useful!”
“Look,” said Dru, his voice hushed in wonderment. “The forest.”
She gazed out at the trees below. Like a green carpet being unravelled, leaves were sprouting from all the trees, radiating out from the centre of the forest, travelling out to the edges of the tree line. Sparkling emerald tendrils floated through the air beyond the reaches of the forest, fading into the distance. She pointed them out. “What are they?”
“That will be the magic spreading and searching for other plants in the kingdom, breaking the hold of the Darkness over all plant life in Elturia.”
Cierra couldn’t help smiling. “That’s amazing.”
“Shall we?” Dru asked, offering to take her back down to ground level.
They descended and left the tree, leaving the charm to continue its work. Cierra paused at the edge of the clearing, putting a hand to her forehead. “Whoa. I feel a bit light-headed. Must be all the excitement.”
Dru didn’t respond. He seemed to be having a hard time looking at her. Something was on his mind, she was sure of it, but he didn’t want her to know.
She glanced back at the tree. “Is it safe to leave the charm unprotected? What if the Councillor comes and removes it? Or the Darkness?”
“I don’t think we have anything to worry about,” Dru said. “No Darkness can get anywhere near it. You saw what happened to the tainted vines when they touched it. I’m sure the powerful magic of the charms will keep them safe. Nothing and no one will be able to remove them.”
She nodded, reassured, and looked at her wrist. The Water Drop charm was shining and pointing away through the forest at right angles to the direction they’d come from.
The walk out of the forest was a completely different experience to the trip they’d had on the way in. Magic could be seen everywhere as the charm did its job. Flowers blossomed in glades as they walked; trees straightened up and became healthy and vibrant; the mist that had smothered the forest was now all but gone. Cierra could almost imagine what it would look like in the sunshine. The perpetual twilight seemed less depressing with the greenery surrounding them.
They were almost out of the forest when Dru stopped abruptly and grabbed her arm.
“What is it?” she asked, startled. She glanced around anxiously, expecting danger to leap out at them.
“Listen!”
She stood still.
The sound of tiny, tinkling bells and the trickling of water floated in the air. It was accompanied by the soft sighing of wind and a barely noticeable melodic hum. As the sounds wove together, they created an enchanting tune. She looked around, trying to determine where the beautiful noise was coming from.
“What is it?”
He pointed to the trees. “They’re singing!”
She gazed at the trees in wonder. “It’s incredible,” she breathed.
“I haven’t heard this sound in so long,” Dru said. “I’d forgotten how magical it is.”
“I wish the trees in my world could sing,” Cierra said wistfully.
“Maybe they do,” he said, meeting her eyes. “Maybe you just have to listen properly.”
She looked back at the trees, pondering it. “Maybe.”
They kept walking, the joyful music cascading around them as they left the forest. Before them, an empty plain stretched out with only a few rocky outcrops to break the monotony. The twilight created deep shadows around the rocks, making it hard to tell if an enemy was lying in wait.
“We Elturians like to call this plain the Desolate Desert,” Dru said. “It’s hardly a desert, but for as long as anyone can remember, this ground has been unusable and unfertile. We don’t know why, especially as there’s a thriving forest growing right next to it.”
“We have to walk across it, don’t we?” Cierra said, holding her bracelet up. The charm pointed dead ahead.
He nodded. “Yes, we do.”
Cierra frowned as the music from the Singing Forest changed swiftly. It was more urgent and frightened. “Dru...”
“I hear it,” he said.
They both turned to the forest. The branches moved frantically and warning chimes sounded in the music. Something else floated through the music.
A chilling howl.
Cierra and Dru looked at each other. Without a word, they began to walk swiftly across the Desolate Desert, avoiding the deepest shadows wherever possible.
“How far away do you think they are?” Cierra asked.
Dru considered. “They’ll avoid the Singing Forest now; too much magic, it’d disintegrate them in a heartbeat. They’ll have to circle it, which will delay them a little, but my guess is they’re only about an hour behind us.”
She shuddered. “What do we do if – when they catch up?”
He rested his hand
on the hilt of his sword. “I’ll take care of them. I’ve had more than enough practice at ridding the kingdom of these disgusting creatures.”
They fell silent for a while. Cierra thought about everything that had happened in the last few hours. Everything she had known had suddenly been turned upside down and disproven. She wasn’t quite sure how she should feel about that, but confused was definitely on the list. Somehow, she had come to a different world that had magic, met someone who used a sword as if it was as natural as breathing, and been face-to-face with creatures made of Darkness. She had discovered that her charm bracelet, which she’d had all her life, was the key to liberating the tortured Kingdom of Elturia and saving the inhabitants from the tyranny of High Councillor Skjor.
It was like a story from a book of fairy tales, but those stories weren’t real, no matter how much she might wish they were. It was impossible.
It seemed the impossible had become reality.
Even though she knew that those nightmarish creatures were following them and more than likely would continue to do so, she only felt a hint of fear. The rest was excitement and anticipation. What would happen next? What magical things would she see now? It was like her very own fairy tale.
She shook her head, trying to dislodge that thought. It was dangerous for her heart to wish for a happy ending. She knew what waited for her back in her own world.
Another piercing howl drifted past them. It sounded closer and in unspoken agreement, both of them picked up their pace.
“Where did the Darkness come from, Dru?”
The Protector shrugged, fiddling with the silver locket that had fallen out of the front of his shirt. “No one is really certain. The legend hints at something that contains an incredible evil. Something from which all other evil emanates. I would imagine that if someone had managed to locate that terror and figure out a way to harness and use its dark power, then that could explain how the Darkness has enveloped the Kingdom.” He frowned. “I don’t think that a person would have complete control of a power that wicked, though. It’s malicious. I have a hard time believing that something so evil would allow itself to be controlled by a mere human being. It sounds far more likely that it would try to take over that person and use them as a way to get free and wreak havoc.”
Part Two - The Monster of Crystal Lake (The Unfinished Prophecy Book 2) Page 1