L.O.S.T. Trilogy Box Set

by R. S. Collins

  As one we lowered our gazes and our arms, and stared at the doorway. From inside the circle behind us, Garth let out a long, slow breath. The slithers, Acaw, and his crow-brother remained completely silent.

  My heart beat as I studied the blackness of the stone, trying to see some sign that it was open.

  Nothing happened.

  I gritted my teeth and our powers blossomed together, growing brighter and brighter until it encompassed the whole circle of protection we had cast.

  This is right. Open the gateway. Let us do what we came to do.

  The moon blazed in the flat surface, seeming larger, deeper. Slowly, so slowly, the surface of the black monolith seemed to shift under that moon. The glowing silver orb faded, but the black remained.

  And it moved.

  Through it I could see the top of a mountain. It had spindly trees at the edge of a tree line much like the one behind us.

  And then I saw them. I could almost hear their cries—the baby harpies. Behind us Garth gave an excited roar, followed by what sounded like a reassuring call.

  The smaller harpies answered with hysterical chattering.

  I took a deep breath and heard Jazz inhale beside me. Together we placed our palms against the black doorway, leaned, and began to tumble forward.

  Jazz let loose with a shout as we entered the darkness. I grabbed for her hand, tried to reach her, but she was too far away.

  Black, so black. Shadows darted around us, cold and dark. I wanted to whack at them with my sword, but it was still sheathed and my arms were too heavy to move. Behind us I sensed Garth was close, right by the gate. Acaw was shouting at him. The slithers were shooting streaks of fire, making the whole passage wink and flash.

  Vaguely I could make out Jazz’s outline, thought I heard her scream, ordering the Shadows to leave. My heart pounded and I struggled to move my hand to my sword hilt. I would not lose Jazz to the Shadows again!

  In the next moment, a gray half-light and cool air hit my face, and I slammed onto the hard ground. A rock dug into my reopened cheek scar. Pain flamed through my fingerless hand and my face. I started to scramble to my feet when something smacked into me from behind, knocking me back to the ground and causing air to whoosh from my lungs. Acaw’s staff rolled by, charms banging together. Arms wrapped around me and I realized it was Jazz.

  My first thought was, Thank the Goddess I’m not a bird.

  My second thought was, If Jazz landed on me, then Garth will turn us both into a super-sized pancake.

  “Hang on!” With all the strength I had, I pushed to my feet with Jazz’s arms still fastened around my neck, her legs clamped around my waist. I leapt up and dove forward, as if sliding into home base, getting us as far away from the doorway as I could. My mouth and eyes filled with dirt, rocks scraping whatever bare skin I had.

  A huge thump sounded just inches behind us and Garth gave a cry of pain. Jazz and I untangled and scrambled to our feet, just barely avoiding his slide. I spit dirt and wiped it from my eyes as I looked up. Then I saw them.

  Above us in the gathering twilight, huge shadowy figures shrieked and dove straight for us.

  Jazz took on her warrior princess stance. Her fingertips sizzled while I yanked my sword from its sheath. The gold and silver light from our combined powers caused the figures to cry out, and Garth gave a shriek in his garbled language.

  “Oops,” Jazz and I said as one. I lowered my sword and the glow from it and Jazz’s fingertips went out. The dark figures weren’t Shadows. They were the little harpies.

  As the enormous “babies” began landing around Garth, Jazz and I took cover in a little alcove that looked like a natural altar. From our spot we watched the reunion in Talamadden’s eerie early evening.

  The smaller monstrosities retracted their talons and cooed and bumped one another, trying to get as close to Garth as they could. With his incredible wingspan, he almost encompassed all the babies in his embrace. His face looked very human now, very father-like, as he spoke in what must have been a gentle, reassuring tone. It sounded more like bleeps and squeaks to me.

  Wiping dirt from my mouth with the back of my hand, I looked down at Jazz. Tears streaked her dirty face. “It’s so beautiful.” Her voice was hoarse as she blinked more tears from her eyes. “They’re together again.”

  I hooked my arm around her shoulder and she leaned into me. I have to admit I got a little choked up too, to see all those ugly babies being comforted by that big old harpy. They were going home, where they belonged. I’d make sure of that.

  I leaned down and brushed my dusty lips over Jazz’s and she smiled up at me. “I love you,” she said, and my heart did a somersault.

  A grin spread across my face. “I love you, too. Now let’s figure out how to get our asses back to the land of the living.”

  “Time isn’t in sync on both sides, so we might have to wait until midnight—” Jazz began, then went stiff. Her terrified gaze riveted on something behind me. At the same time I realized the harpies had gone deathly silent. Garth gathered the babies under his huge wings, and he stared at the same place Jazz was looking.

  With the tiniest cry, Jazz grabbed that place on her arm—the place where she had taken the fatal wound from the Shadows.

  I whirled, sword in hand—only to see the biggest Shadow I’d ever seen in my reign as King of the Witches. Something stirred inside me, an instinct, a thought I seemed to share with Jazz.

  This is the one. This is the one…

  And I knew.

  This was the Shadow that had taken Jazz from me before. This was the Shadow that killed my girl. Behind the foul, hateful thing, a whole host of other Shadows shrouded the early night sky.

  ***

  Chapter Seventeen

  I had no breath.

  I had no feeling but the pain in my arm. The old pain. That last, final pain.

  I had no thought but the truth.

  This is the one…

  Darkness was falling too fast, even for the land of the dead. But then it wasn’t darkness, was it? The Shadows had come to reclaim what was theirs.

  Bren moved up beside me, sword ready. As if from a great distance, I felt him draw upon our joined magic. Silver whirled into the flat, motionless air, but no gold moved to join it. I had gone dead inside. I had no magic.

  “Jazz?” Bren whispered as the killer Shadow advanced. Slowly. One step. Another step. Closer. Coming for me. I couldn’t focus on anything but my approaching death.

  “Jazz!” Bren seemed to be yelling. Was he still beside me? I couldn’t tell. The night was so dark.

  Miserable, cold, empty…

  I sank to my knees.

  The Shadow kept coming, only it didn’t seem real. Nothing seemed real.

  Something brushed past me. A sword lifted in the darkness.

  “If you touch her, I’ll cut you in half!”

  The words echoed as if across a chasm. My brain barely processed the meaning, but the picture gradually made sense.

  Bren, standing between me and the Shadow that killed me.

  Bren, facing down an army of Shadows with no magic, with his sword held off-hand.

  He was ready to die for me. In seconds, he would die for me.

  “Rise, Jasmina.”

  This time, the words drifted up from my past.

  “Rise,” I whispered, pushing against the cold ground. “Rise.”

  The second time I said it, another voice joined mine. A brilliant blue bird landed beside Bren. Feathers shimmered as his wings settled, drawing Talamadden’s moonlight even through the surging Shadows. Light seemed to radiate around the bird, but I realized it was Bren’s sword, slowly flaring into life.

  Screaming, wanting to run, I lunged forward instead and wrapped my hands around Bren’s. Gold twined with his silver, striking the blade like lightning. Suddenly, it seemed all of Talamadden caught fire. Silver-gold flames shone and danced around us. Overhead, the moon roared in response, pulling the magical fire into a circle
around us, stretching all the way to the Glorieuse. The younger harpies chittered, but Garth calmed them, silenced them with a masterful cluck

  Outside the warding of the lights, the Shadows screeched with frustration, all but the largest. It sidled crabwise, closer, closer, until silver-gold tendrils nearly bit into the darkness that formed it.

  Its maw opened.

  Instead of the usual discord of Shadow sounds, out came very human-sounding words.

  “Surprise, witch,” it rasped. “Do you really think any of this matters?”

  Even inside the warmth of the moon-fire, a chill reached my spine. That voice sounded all too familiar. Bren recognized it too.

  “Alderon,” he growled.

  “Not in actuality,” the peacock Egidus, my spirit guide returned, said quietly. “This is a true Shadow, but Alderon is using it to mirror his thoughts.”

  The Shadow—or the voice speaking through it—laughed. “So, you take the counsel of pompous birds now, little brother? How pathetic. Have you spoken to Mother lately? Oh, that’s right. You can’t. You hurt her, drove her away, sent her into some life-forsaken wilderness of time. What kind of son are you?”

  In the sword’s light, Bren’s stern expression never changed. I felt a surge of pride, of compassion and love. The blade’s light grew even brighter as we held it together, fending off the pain of the creature’s words.

  “Not worried about Mother? Figures. But maybe you care about Todd. You do care about Todd, don’t you, Bren?”

  Bren’s breathing picked up. In, out, in, out—I could tell he was struggling.

  “You abandoned him, didn’t you? Well, I won’t leave Todd hanging like you did. I’ll treat him like the king he is.” The Shadow laughed, but still hovered outside flames that flickered higher every time it neared the circle. “He’ll be much happier with me, and so much more appreciated.”

  A bit of moisture glittered in the corner of Bren’s eye, but he made no movement.

  “Silent treatment.” This time, the Shadow made a noise like a man spitting on the ground. “You’ve been around the witch too long, I can tell.”

  Still, Bren gave no response. I didn’t either. Words couldn’t do us real harm in a circle powered by love, by the Goddess herself. They could only worry us, hurt our feelings, which was certainly bad enough.

  “No matter.” Alderon’s tone grew more sarcastic. “I absorbed as much of Mother’s power as I could, and let me tell you, it’s plenty enough. The Shadows are more than happy to follow my lead, and this lot, well, it’s less than half of my true strength.”

  Bren’s eyes narrowed. So did mine. Through the connection of the sword, probably through the connection of experience itself, we were both thinking the same thing. If these weren’t all of Alderon’s Shadows, then where were the rest?

  “Steady,” came the quiet intercession of Egidus. “Do not let it break your resolve.”

  “Do you want to know where I sent the rest? Where I am right now?” The Shadow dipped in and out of the circle’s flames, careful to avoid the dancing light. In that second of revelation, I could have sworn the horrid thing had some of Alderon’s weasel-look to its features.

  “Come now,” the Shadow hissed. “Surely you’re curious.”

  Bren and I both tightened our grips on the sword hilt. Our gaze shifted to one another, his pained reality meeting my pained reality. We knew the answer before Alderon spoke it through the foul lips of his minion.

  L.O.S.T

  Alderon and the Shadows were attacking L.O.S.T.

  “Todd is proving to be an interesting catch,” the Shadow said conversationally. “As for that puny human you call a father, well, I pity you that bit of heritage.”

  The sound of Bren’s grinding teeth made me cringe inside, as did the Shadow’s next taunt.

  “And your mother—how she cries. She remembers her own captivity by Nire. Returning to such a prison will be a personal hell for her.”

  Other names and faces reeled through my thoughts, no doubt passing through Bren’s mind and back to mine. How could this horror be happening again? I couldn’t bear it. Not a second time.

  We had to get back, right now. Faster than right now. But how? My throat tightened with the force of my frustration.

  “You can’t hold that circle all night.” Alderon’s silky voice felt like cold oil sliding down my neck. “Don’t you feel weak already?”

  “The Goddess never weakens,” Egidus replied, loud enough to make Bren and I stare down at him. “Begone from this place, at her command.”

  The big Shadow’s response was a sneer. Bren’s expression in the sword light communicated my thoughts.

  Laughing at the Goddess is never a wise idea.

  Egidus fanned his tail with an audible pop and rattle.

  “Be ready,” he commanded—to me? To Bren? The harpies?

  It didn’t matter.

  My peacock spirit guide was doubling in size. Tripling. He was rising above the moon-fire, moving into the flames, becoming the flames. Brilliant golds and silvers spread in all directions, laced with iridescent blue. Our little corner of the land of the dead became so bright even I wished for sunglasses.

  Shadows screamed with pain and fury. The air swirled with the hateful things, shrieking and keening. All at once, I felt the circle’s warding give way.

  Dozens of Shadows fell dead and vanished in the outward rush of energy.

  Those that remained fell on us with a vengeance.

  For a split second, Bren and I thought about pulling apart and fighting with sword and dagger. Then I saw in his eyes the resolve to stay joined with me. If we died, we died together.

  As one, we lifted the sword and swung it like a club.

  Shadows exploded on contact.

  More attacked, and more fell.

  I could see stars now as Shadows perished, as the overpowering light of the Goddess waned.

  Bren and I moved like dancers in an ancient ballet, dipping and swaying, looking at each other, letting the sword find its own targets. Only a handful left—then two or three—then only one—the worst one of all.

  At the sight of it staggering forward, Bren did pull away from me. He pushed me backward before I could protest. Then he hoisted the sword in his off-hand even as its magical light began to fail.

  Sensing weakness, the Shadow snarled and charged, but Bren didn’t change his stance.

  “I’ve been waiting a long time for this!”

  As the Shadow slammed forward, Bren pivoted and brought the sword down harder than I imagined possible. Darkness tore in half, top to bottom. With the weakest of pops, the murderous Shadow disintegrated. Bren dropped the sword and staggered until he regained his footing.

  “That felt good.” He laughed. “It felt real good!”

  I jumped to my feet with half a mind to slap him senseless for taking such a chance, but instead, I threw my arms around him. He was still laughing, gasping and laughing, and then he was holding me so tight I could barely get a breath.

  Behind us, near the Glorieuse, I could see Garth rocking the harpy babies, eyes closed. The big beast had been willing to die like that, holding the children of his people as close as he could get them. I understood his sentiments completely.

  Egidus, back to his normal size, came flapping softly down beside us. He landed with a bob of his head, then ruffled and settled his feathers. They still shimmered an unearthly blue in the brighter-than-bright moonlight.

  I settled Bren down with a kiss on his cheek, then let go of everything but his hand. When I looked down at the bird, he was staring steadily at us, his black eyes reflecting what seemed like a thousand stars.

  “Jasmina,” he said gravely. “I may have been hasty in my judgment of your young man.”

  To his credit, Bren kept his mouth shut.

  “Thank you.” I smiled at my spirit guide. “For that, and for helping me once again.”

  “Now as always, that has been my charge, to guard you and help you.
To teach you and to love you.” He quirked his head sideways. “Go now, and see to the harpies. Send them through the Glorieuse quickly, as we haven’t much time.”

  Immediately, Bren and I started toward them, but Egidus said, “Not you, boy. You stay where you are. I need a word.”

  Bren shrugged. “Sure. I definitely owe you that much for the giant-expanding-light-bird routine. What was that, anyway?”

  As I approached Garth, it seemed like a curtain of silence fell between their conversation and my ears. I could barely even see them. Bizarre. But I couldn’t dwell on it.

  The harpies, both huge and less huge, were more than willing to do as I told them. On my command, the young ones linked arms with each other, forming a chain. I anchored one end, while Garth took the other.

  On my count, the giant harpy plunged into the Glorieuse, pulling his children with him. I held on to the last baby, making certain the entire chain followed in his wake. It took a few moments, and a lot of repositioning and finally shoving, but I got them through, just as Egidus had instructed.

  As if in protest, as the last harpy vanished into the passage, the stone grew a little milky. By the moon’s position, I figured it was nearing midnight on this side of the gateway between life and death. Bren and I would need to leave soon. I had a suspicion it would be bad for us, perhaps even fatal, to have to wait another full day to make the crossing.

  When I turned to call to him, he was already standing right behind me, a slightly annoyed expression on his face. “That bird is a pain. Sort of.”

  “Um, yes. I do remember. What did he say?”

  “A lot of stuff about protecting you or facing things in life far worse than harpies and hags.” Bren shrugged. “The rest—well, it was private.”

  “Bren—”

  “He wishes to speak to you now,” Bren mimicked, nailing the bird’s haughty tone with perfection. “Go on. We don’t have all day.”

  I had to laugh. “Okay. Wait here. I’ll be right back.” Mindful of the moon’s relentless journey overhead, I hurried over to the peacock and knelt down beside him.

  For a few seconds, he said nothing. He just looked at me, stars still shining like tears in the black pearls of his eyes. When he did speak, he had no attitude of arrogance, no tone of reprimand or condescension.