A small squeak escaped Lizzie’s mouth, and Nicole looked over. Her best friend was trembling, staring up at the Sindon. Nicole wasn’t feeling much better about being near something the size of a three-story building, but she couldn’t give in to her panic. Instead, she slowly reached over and touched Lizzie’s arm.
“It’s okay,” she whispered.
Lizzie nodded frantically, her eyes not leaving the beast in front of them.
Sweet Pea shocked both girls by grabbing the wads of skin that dangled between huge scales that covered the whole creature.
He yanked on the wads, and the creature lowered its head.
“Take us to Macaria,” he whispered, caressing the Sindon around its huge eyes.
The Sindon nodded and carefully lowered itself. Nicole and Lizzie looked at each other—was this an intelligent beast? Could it communicate?
Sweet Pea scaled the Sindon, hefting himself over the side of the basket and disappearing inside. Soon after, a rope ladder was flung over the edge, and Lizzie and Nicole climbed up as quickly as they could.
Inside the basket, Nicole was surprised to see wooden chairs strapped along the sides, and a huge bench up near the front. Sweet Pea was climbing up on it and he looked silly—the bench had been made for someone much, much larger than he. Someone bigger than Nicole and Lizzie too, Nicole saw when she and Lizzie joined the Makalo.
“We couldn’t figure out how to remove the basket after the Lorkon—the Sindons’ previous owners—were destroyed.” Sweet Pea leaned forward, motioning for the girls to come see. He showed them where the basket had been tied to the Sindon. “It probably happened when the Sindon reached adulthood. That’s what we think, anyway. It’s part of him now.”
Nicole’s stomach turned when she saw folds of skin that grew up and around the edge of the basket. The poor thing. “Ropes aren’t even needed to hold the basket on, are they?” she asked.
Sweet Pea shook his head. “Nope.” He glanced at the girls. “Time to go.”
The moment the Sindon heard those words, it lurched to its feet. Nicole gasped, her hands snapping automatically to the edge of the basket in front of her. Her stomach flip-flopped and her heart raced. Nothing obstructed her view, and she felt her jaw drop at just how high they were lifted when the creature was fully standing. It was like being on a Ferris wheel.
“Not too fast yet,” Sweet Pea called to the Sindon’s head, which, due to a short neck, was only a few feet in front of them now. “Have to get away from Taga Village first.”
The Sindon lumbered forward and both girls shrieked, nearly falling off the bench. Each step the creature took shifted all three of them a foot to each side. How was this slow, lumbering creature going to get them to Macaria quickly, let alone Edana?
Rather than take them back through the village, the Sindon walked alongside the hill. Then it crossed a crevice blasted in the side of a stone cliff. Boulders littered the ground surrounding the cliff.
Sweet Pea glanced at the girls. “We tore this all down so the Sindons could come and go as they pleased. This was after the Lorkon were defeated, of course. They were the main reason Taga Village was sealed off from the rest of Eklaron.” He stood, pointing over the fields, a hill, and into the jagged and rocky canyon visible to the right of them. “That leads to the main part of the village. If you look closely, you can see the entrance we usually use. It’s too small for Sindons.”
Nicole saw a trail leading up to the top of the canyon, and at the end of it, a gaping hole. It looked to be about ten feet both wide and tall. Obviously, too small for the Sindon.
Once they got to the other side of the cliff, Sweet Pea pointed out other landmarks.
“Over there is August Fortress, the place where the Shiengols were trapped for many years before Jacob got them out.”
Nicole stared, struggling to make out the stone edifice in the moonlight. “Is it deserted now?”
Sweet Pea hesitated. “Yes and no. Shiengols still use it, but I don’t think anyone lives there permanently.” He nodded toward the forest they were about to reach. “These trees used to be infected by the Lorkon. They, and the woman who lived in them, caused a lot of problems for Jacob and Akeno.”
Nicole expected the Sindon to crush the trees as they entered, but instead, the trees seemed to shift out of the way. When she commented on that, Sweet Pea nodded.
“Sindons are magical. Nothing gets touched when they travel. And as soon as we’re going at full speed, you’ll see why. Total destruction would happen otherwise.”
Nicole wondered at that—she still had a hard time imagining this beast going much more quickly than it was now.
Sweet Pea pointed again. “There’s the cabin where Aldo lived when Jacob first met him. Apparently, the old guy threw nuts at Jacob. Kind of funny.” He looked around. “Okay, I think we’re far enough away from Taga Village for them not to hear us.” He turned to Nicole and Lizzie. “Are you ready?”
Both girls nodded, and Sweet Pea grinned.
“Good. Because things are about to get really exciting.” He climbed up until he was standing on the bench, holding on to the pole that secured a canopy to the basket. Then he whistled to the Sindon. “Full speed to Macaria.”
Nicole felt the Sindon shiver. Slithering sounds came from the front of the creature, and the girls met eyes. What was that?
Nicole leaned forward and gasped, watching as the knobs that covered the beast’s chest started unfurling and unrolling. The knobs were arms! And they were thirty or forty feet long, with hands that consisted of one finger and one thumb. They snaked forward through the trees and the Sindon started following, slowly at first, then gaining in speed. Faster than Nicole could breathe, they were moving so rapidly, she could barely focus on their surroundings.
Once the Sindon’s body met up with where the hands clutched earth or trees, the arms rapidly snaked forward again, continually moving them onward.
It was exhilarating. Thrilling.
Lizzie whooped, a huge grin on her face. She stood, holding on to the pole on the other side of the bench. Nicole was fine sitting, clenching the basket in front of her.
In ten minutes’ time, they reached the outskirts of Macaria, then came to a complete stop.
Nicole slumped on the bench, willing her racing heart to calm.
“That was insane,” Lizzie said, sitting down again.
Sweet Pea nodded, his face visibly flushed in the moonlight. “I’ve been wanting to do that for so long,” he said.
Nicole looked behind them, expecting to see trees uprooted and huge tears in the earth. She gasped when everything looked exactly as it had before they’d crossed it. “I don’t get it,” she said.
Sweet Pea chuckled. “I told you—Sindons don’t destroy what they travel through. Everything goes back to what it was before.”
“But how?”
Sweet Pea looked at Nicole incredulously. “Magic. You’re magical—surely it’s not a foreign concept.”
Nicole grinned. “You’re right—it’s not. Let’s do that again.”
A huge smile crossed Sweet Pea’s face. “You know the way to Edana. You’ll have to tell the Sindon how to get there.”
“Um, okay. How?”
“Just picture in your mind where to go, and the Sindon will follow. They travel too fast to wait for you to give every little piece of direction.”
Nicole held in her mind the path she’d taken many times—past the meadows and mountain, the vampire birds and the natives, then the place where Lirone, the sky monster, had first attacked, and finally showing the ruins that made up the ancient city of Edana. “Take us there,” she said.
The Sindon roared in response. The long arms reached through the grasses. As before, the creature latched onto earth some forty feet ahead and propelled itself forward. What a rush!
After a few minutes, the Sindon settled into a comfortable speed. Judging by how fast things were flying by, Nicole suspected they were going at least two hundred m
iles per hour, if not more. The only time she’d ever gone this fast was in a plane. It was exhilarating. The wind pushed her back against the bench, making her eyes water.
She watched as familiar landscape passed—the fields outside Macaria, the mountains that overlooked the bleached-white city, the forests where the natives and birds lived, and through the mists and fogs that showed Lirone’s presence.
It took nearly an hour to reach Edana. The vast skies overhead were full of stars, and pink barely touched the eastern sky. The sun would be rising in an hour or so.
As the Sindon lowered itself to the ground, a vision of the fifth floor of the library appeared in Nicole’s mind. The guardian stood before her, surrounded by shadows that hadn’t been there previously. “Thank you for coming, Nicole,” he said. “Look.”
The library’s interior disappeared and she was shown the outside, where several beasts she had never seen before were attempting to scale the walls. Why weren’t they going through the front door?
“You must destroy them,” the guardian said.
Right away, Nicole saw that the ground below the creatures was hollow, and she immediately knew that the guardian wanted her to cave it in and cover the monsters with dirt, suffocating them. The vision disappeared. Nicole realized this was the first time she’d ever been told how to stop a looming threat, and she was grateful for the assistance. Without the vision from the guardian, she wouldn’t have known about the hole beneath the beasts.
Nicole’s vision returned to her current surroundings, and she realized that Lizzie and Sweet Pea had been waiting for her.
“Another vision from the guardian?” Lizzie asked.
Nicole nodded. “We have to get rid of some ugly creatures just outside the library.”
“Is there anything I can do to help?” Sweet Pea asked.
Nicole shook her head. “I’m not sure. The guardian showed me how to take care of them, but beyond that, I don’t even know what we’re facing.”
“Just let me know.”
Sweet Pea motioned for the girls to climb down the rope ladder, which they did. He pulled it up, leaving it inside the basket, then scaled down the side of the beast.
He tied the Sindon to a huge tree. “I doubt this will keep it in place if it decides to take off. I really hope that doesn’t happen because I don’t think several days of foot travel would be good for me.” His gaze strayed to his wooden leg, and Nicole and Lizzie nodded. He had a point.
Sweet Pea looked at Nicole. “Lead the way,” he said.
Nicole took them through the ruins toward the library until they were just out of sight of the beasts. They hid behind a short wall and gazed around it at the creatures. The beasts were bickering over what looked like strips of leather, which they were strapping to themselves, probably preparing to scale the library wall. Their huge teeth curved out and down from their jaws, ending in sharp points. No lips. Their jawbones were nearly completely visible. It was disgusting.
“Those are Molgs,” Sweet Pea whispered. “They’re horrible. The Lorkon used them a lot.”
Rather than wait to see what the Molgs did, Nicole began gathering her magic. She sensed no source of power coming from these creatures, and wondered if that meant they weren’t magical or that they simply weren’t using their powers right then.
Once she had a sufficient amount of power built up, Nicole directed her pulses at the stone, rock, and dirt just under the creatures.
The ground below the Molgs began glowing, and with a thunderous explosion, everything caved in. Nicole extended her powers to the surrounding dirt, commanding it to fill in the hole, cover the Molgs, and remove all the air pockets surrounding them.
She was surprised at how easy it was to kill now without hesitation. Only a brief feeling of guilt permeated her soul before she pushed it away. These beasts would have killed her as soon as they saw her, she was sure of it. And as a guardian of Shonlin, it was her duty to protect the room and forest there.
Sensing that the job was complete, Nicole released the magic she hadn’t used. She hadn’t even come close to overdoing it. A sense of satisfaction filled her heart with gratitude. Her hours and hours of practice were paying off.
Once the rumbling had subsided and the dust had cleared, she noticed Sweet Pea staring at her.
“Impressive,” he murmured. “I’d hate to go up against you, or any Arete, for that matter.”
Lizzie chuckled. “Don’t worry—not all Aretes are as powerful. A lot of us don’t pursue our powers.”
“I can’t understand why not—that was pretty fantastic.”
“And even when they do practice a ton,” Lizzie said, “sometimes they hit a wall they can’t ever get beyond.”
Nicole glanced at Lizzie, surprised. “I didn’t know that was possible.” Had that happened to Lizzie and she’d never told Nicole?
Lizzie stared off into the distance. “Yeah, it is.” She paused for a moment. “It’s one of the reasons why I’ve never pushed really hard. I’m paranoid I’ll hit that wall and won’t be able to go further.”
“Why haven’t you ever told me this?”
Lizzie shrugged. “You’ve always been so dedicated. I didn’t want you to feel bad for me.”
“So, why are you telling me now?”
Lizzie stuffed her hands in her pockets as they headed toward the doors of the library. “The talisman doesn’t work for me.”
“It doesn’t? How can you tell?”
“Well, I can feel it start to warm up, but when I try to do anything with it, it sort of freezes. It’s like it’s trying to borrow powers from me, but can’t, because something is stopping it.” Lizzie turned a worried expression to her friend. “I didn’t want to disappoint you, especially after you promised to help.”
Nicole put an arm around her friend as they paused in front of the doors. She knew they were in a hurry and this conversation would have to continue later. “Don’t worry about that. When we’re done here, I’ll help you with the talisman. We’ll get it figured out.”
Lizzie relaxed. “Thanks. I appreciate it.” She turned to the door. “Open sesame.”
Sweet Pea cocked his head, an expression of confusion on his face. “Come again?”
Lizzie giggled. “Nothing. I’ll explain later.”
Nicole pushed her magic, pulling the door outward. It was more difficult without Coolidge and Austin’s help, but not impossible to do on her own.
The moment the door was open, Nicole sensed the danger. She’d felt a bit of it before, but now that she was crossing the threshold of the library, it struck her deep in her core just how bad things were. She immediately raced forward.
She’d just started up the massive staircase at the other side of the great entry when the room was filled with light. She glanced back—Sweet Pea had lit his finger. She was grateful for that.
But then the light dimmed, and when Nicole glanced back again, Sweet Pea was frozen in place.
“He cannot follow,” the guardian whispered into her mind. “Shonlin is too weak to protect him from temptation.”
Temptation? To do what?
Rather than pause to explain to Sweet Pea, Nicole rushed upward even faster, glad that Lizzie hadn’t also been stopped.
She heard wailing and screeching coming from the fifth floor. Her heart thudded in her chest from fear and the sudden physical exertion.
She reached the top floor and skidded to a stop. It was completely black—nothing was visible.
“Lizzie?” Nicole whispered, trying to speak over the lump in the back of her throat.
“Yeah?” Lizzie responded, also in a whisper.
“Can you light up the room?”
“I can try.”
Nicole sensed Lizzie gather her magic, and moments later, a rosy glow shone from a fire in her best friend’s hands.
“Thanks.” Nicole swallowed, hesitating.
“Are you as freaked out as I am?” Lizzie asked.
“Yup.”
&nb
sp; Something was there, just outside Shonlin. Something powerful and dangerous. Something Nicole couldn’t see, but which filled every inch of her body with dread and fear. Panic washed over her in waves, and she couldn’t tell if the emotion came naturally, or if the being that inhabited the room was pushing it at her.
The girls finally started forward, cautiously. Nicole expected to see something coming at them at any moment, but nothing jumped out at them or moved.
They stepped around a shelf. The guardian came into view, barely visible from Lizzie’s firelight. He stood in front of the door to Shonlin, muttering something over and over. The air shimmered around him in a sort of shield. He was holding his ground, but barely.
In the right side of her peripheral vision, Nicole saw something moving. She glanced that way. Nothing was there.
A shadow shifted to her left. But again, when Nicole looked, nothing materialized. What was going on?
Shadows began dancing across the walls, floors, and ceilings, reaching for the Shonlin guardian. Nicole was reminded of the shadow tendrils from Anna Morse’s apartment in Ohio. Were these the same?
Lizzie whimpered. “I can’t hold on much longer.”
Nicole looked at her friend. Her fire was dwindling, whether because Lizzie was running out of energy or because Shonlin was preventing her from using her powers, she couldn’t tell.
The shadows reached closer and the guardian’s muttering became audible. The shadows stopped. The guardian slumped and he grabbed the door frame, barely staying on his feet.
The shadows seemed to realize that Nicole and Lizzie were there because they receded from the doors and pressed toward the girls. The inky blackness rolled along the floors and ceiling like a fog, thickening, growing.
Lizzie’s fire dimmed. She whimpered again.
Nicole had to do something.
She began pulling her magic toward herself, but something grabbed her by the ankle, and she shrieked as her foot was yanked out from under her. She landed on the stone floor, crying out at the sharp pain in her hip.
Her powers were weak this close to Shonlin. She looked at the guardian, wanting to ask him to release more of her magic, but stopped when she saw that the shadows were rolling toward him again. She couldn’t afford to distract him.
Obscure, Mosaic Chronicles Book Seven Page 6