by Sanders, Dan
It was nearly noon when Sabina stopped. The rain had eased and she withdrew her hood, shook water from her hair and looked around. They had come to a small flat opening in the forest. On one side, trees poked out of a rock face, and the other side fell away into dense bushland. A rough stone table blocked the entrance to the clearing.
“What’s that table?” Rupurt asked.
“It’s an altar.”
“Oh,” said Daimon, running his hand on the rough surface. It was stained with faded blood. “We have these on Earth.”
“That’s where they’re from. Some Earthlings from the Druid tribes, as they call themselves, have fallen through one of the seven AGates over the last four hundred years or so.”
“Druids are witches and sorcerers,” said Daimon.
Sabina shrugged. “I am not sure what you call them but of all Earthlings they connect most easily with the land, especially Wood Lore.” Sabina tapped the stone altar. “Unfortunately they brought some of their barbaric practices with them. They use these altars for ritual sacrifices. Once they learn the Lore of the land, they stop the practice, so most of these altars are abandoned now. They’re usually found near the AGates.”
“Why?”
“Well, as Emily and you can attest, falling into another world can be disconcerting. As soon as a druid arrives, alone and scared, he finds an animal or if he’s lucky, an Annwynian, whom they mistake for a human, and sacrifice it to one of their gods.”
Lupi shivered as she landed on the stone top. “To kill another being for no purpose other than superstition is barbaric.”
“Don’t be too harsh,” Sabina said. “When a being is not connected to the land or other beings as we are, it cannot empathise with that being. It must be a terrible burden to live with. Once druids who come from Earth eventually connect to the Lore they become horrified with their practices. Perhaps when two-way travel becomes common they can take what they learn from Annwyn back to Earth. Now let’s keep going.”
“It’s not just traditions that would change,” Daimon said. “Imagine if the crystal and elemental Lore could be taught to Athenian children. They would be the most powerful nation on Earth.”
Lupi laughed and slapped Daimon’s back. “According to you they already are.”
But Sabina looked at Daimon seriously and said, “You have to be very careful, Earthling. The Lore is great power and as such cannot be given to those who cannot understand the considerations and consequences of their actions. The connection must come with the Lore, else you have a weapon in the hand of a bunch of mad people.”
“Don’t be so touchy,” Lupi said. “He has been here for a lunar cycle and you expect him to know this.”
Aldrick had stopped grumbling, more occupied with the leeches that had latched onto his foot. Sabina walked to the other side of the altar. She unrolled her map onto the stone top and scratched her nose. Holding the map to one of the walls in the clearing, she began yanking vines away from the rock face. “This… should… be…it. Yes, this is it,” she said.
Emily instantly recognised the carving in the rock face was similar to the one from Earth; a round stone door not much bigger than Aldrick. This gate had a red crystal frame which surrounded the polished stone, with the same ancient carvings inscribed into the frame.
“Great,” Lupi said. “Now what?”
Noogie landed on Emily’s shoulder. Emily said, “Where have you been?”
“Scouting about. The skies are clear now, except for a small storm headed in this direction, but too small to worry about.”
“A storm, you say,” growled Kato.
“Yeah, just a couple of clouds.”
Kato looked at the sky and glared into the surroundings.
“Thanks, Noogie,” Emily said. “What would we do without you?”
“Not half as much,” she joked.
Emily reached up her paw and fluffed it under one of Noogie’s outer wing feathers.
“Miss them?” Noogie asked.
“Wings, you mean?” Emily sighed. “Yes, sometimes I really miss the freedom. But I have become used to my new rabbit-self and sometimes have trouble recognising my old bird-self. It’s as though I can see the bird-me as another bird I am fond of. I’m not making sense, am I?”
“Not really.” Noogie laughed. “At least we are still together.”
Emily turned back to see Sabina and Daimon poring over the rock face and in the surrounding bushes, trying to find the key. Daimon took off his tunic and undershirt and used the latter as a rag to brush the dust off the rock face.
“Nice body,” Lupi said to Daimon. She flew over and felt his bare arm. He laughed and brushed her away.
“Lupi,” said Emily. “I’m surprised at you.”
“Well, it is,” she said.
“Nothing, absolutely nothing,” Sabina said referring to the key.
Aldrick had finally removed the last leech and was also poking his thick fingers into the rock carvings. “Is the prophecy any more specific on the location of the key?”
“No,” Sabina said angrily. “The Treebith said the key is at the nexus between the Twin Worlds. I assumed it would be here.”
Emily saw Sabina was still angry at what she did at Alendi. She hopped over to her and slipped her paw into her hand. Sabina looked quizzically down at Emily and said, “What?”
“Nothing,” Emily said. “I just thought you would be excited at seeing an AGate given your study of them.”
Sabina smiled at her and said, “You are right, I have waited my entire life to see one of these working and now I barely notice. It’s just that…”
“No need to explain Sabina,” she said. “We understand.”
Lupi flew down from a tree. “What if the key is inside the portal?”
Sabina twisted her necklace. “You could be on to something. That could be the true nexus, but how could we retrieve the key?”
“Binny is right, Lupi,” Aldrick said. “The AGates are not two-way. Nobody has ever opened one let alone entered one to travel to Earth. That’s how Earthlings have fumbled through the gates from their side for the past two thousand years, stumbling into Annwyn. No, the key can’t be there. It’s nonsense.”
Daimon said, “Wish we had the Adros Dagger now. Besides the benefit of finding the key, I might be able to go back home.”
“Daimon,” Emily said astonished. “After what you saw last night, you still want to leave the land?”
Daimon looked around uncomfortably and said sheepishly, “No, not really, but I just thought…”
He sat on the ground with his back resting on the circular stone wall.
“Daimon could be onto something,” Sabina conceded. “We were meant to have the dagger with us. Maybe we have to find it first.”
“I don’t think so,” Emily said. “We wouldn't know what to do with it. Magas said it required the skill and power of a Melder to wield it.”
Sabina threw her hands in the air and joined Daimon on the ground. The sun streaming through the trees shimmered off Sabina’s wet silver hair.
Kato softly padded between Emily and the two resting on the ground. In her deep honeyed voice she counselled, “We have to consider the possibility that Torek’s Melders are also looking for the key, but they already have the Dagger.”
“That explains why there was such a commotion over it being stolen.” Daimon looked up at the giant tigress.
The mood became tense, as though they had stumbled onto one half of a dangerous mystery. Emily thought it was one of her feelings again, a sharp pain in her heart, one she couldn’t articulate.
“What happens now?” she asked.
“You go back home where you came from, Chosen One,” a dark voice spat at Emily.
They spun on their feet to see two hooded cloaks standing before them, carrying staffs. The shorter one absently played with flames in his right hand.
Daimon stood and whipped out his CBlade in one rapid move. Kato landed in front of Emily and r
oared fire at the two hooded men. The young one laughed and flicked the flame he was playing with into the air before him. At his silent command, it exploded into a shield, wrapping the two hooded men in protective fire. Kato’s flame-roar was absorbed by this power.
“Your fire cannot harm us, ancient tigress,” the taller man said.
Aldrick placed his arm in front of Daimon, preventing him from dashing past Kato.
“Who are you?” Emily demanded. Aldrick inched towards Emily.
The young one smothered his own fire shield. He bounced the flame in his hand again, smiling.
“It matters not who we are,” the taller man answered.
Emily recognised that Sabina was trying to move her to an opening at the side of the scrub. She wanted to distract them. “But you know who we are. Surely that is proper etiquette.”
“Look at this one,” the taller aggressor said. “A rabbit telling us how to behave.” He stepped forward and drew from his robe a thin dagger. The sun glinted off its clear crystal handle and light wavered around the black blade. The hilt shone of intricately carved orange stone.
“The Adros Dagger. How…?” Sabina began.
“You know your Lore.” He pulled back his robe revealing his smooth white face and long cream hair. “It matters not to you know who I am since you will not be leaving here alive.” He took a step forward. “I am Blade Maddock, Melder of the Abandoned Lands and this is apprentice Melder Xavier Morgenstern, heir to the throne of Jalpari.
The young Melder removed his velvet green hood to release a bundle of wild red hair, flaring out past his shoulders. A thin smile punctured his face.
Emily felt sick from the hate and power emanating from the two men in front of her. It was similar to the loathing she felt during their astral projection to Alendi. Her guts dropped and she froze, her long ears reflexively dropping back on her back. Emily was surprised at how young the apprentice was. He didn’t seem much older than Daimon, but was smaller, more petite.
Xavier sneered. “This is the Chosen One. She’s scared. You’re not so powerful after all.”
“You two cannot succeed,” Sabina shouted. “We have been chosen to fulfil the will of Eostra.” Sabina wiped sweat from her brow. A wet breeze blew from the river below.
“Your Eostra will never reach her full power for the Twin Worlds, since you will not be around to lay her precious Egg.”
Poking the Dagger at them, Blade waved them away from his path to the AGate. He strode to the stone door, laid his hands on the runes carved into the crystal frame and spoke confidently to the rock face. The rock remained lifeless. Angry, the Melder changed his words, testing them, until the stone in the door shimmered with swirling colours.
Emily saw the look of surprise and elation on his stony face. He took hold of the clear crystal handle of the Dagger and pointed the tip of the black blade into the top of the pulsing rainbow circle. The blade slid effortlessly into the other world. A flash of white light temporarily blinded the onlookers. He cut around the edge of the living stone. Black tendrils melted through the colours in the circle, overtaking them until they all found themselves staring into a small circle of black space, of stars and planets in a galactic picture frame.
The black space swirled again, morphing until a new world was on the other side, like a mirror with a different reflection facing back. The world on the other side was overcast, trees smaller and colours less brilliant than the world they stood in. Barely visible, suspended in the shimmering space between the worlds, was a yellow-stoned ring.
Everybody, even the Melders from the Abandoned Lands, was temporarily frozen at the sight. Emily realised they were gazing at a new event in the dark history of the Twin Worlds. People could travel back to Earth. And for the briefest of moments Emily thought about jumping back to her home, but quickly remembered the dying woman and the dying land in Alendi and she became angry at the two before her. Had they seen what she had seen? Her need to protect the land overwhelmed her. Her footpads twitched, ready to jump at them. She had to get the ring. That must be the key. Then she saw Daimon from the corner of her eye.
With rage in his eyes, Daimon had silently moved to the side of the Melders, touching his hidden amulet with his left hand. She realised he was trying to connect with his blade by using her amulet and hoped it would work for him. From her vantage she saw they had not seen Daimon move.
With lightning speed Daimon unsheathed his blue CBlade sword. As he jumped he called out, “Burn,” and to Emily’s surprise, the crystal sword burst into a flaming blue light, temporarily blinding his attackers. His first blow hit the mark, slicing deep into the cloaked arm of the larger Melder. He groaned in pain and dropped the Adros Dagger. Daimon reached for the Dagger, but Xavier was too fast and hurled a blast of icy wind at Daimon, knocking him unconscious against the stone wall next to the shimmering portal of the revealed Earth.
A deafening roar filled the leafy enclave, and a blur of orange and yellow lightning ran around the rocky walls above them. Kato leapt at Blade with her rows of razor teeth bared in fury. Emily’s heart beat with hope. The Melder whispered Earth Lore, reached down to the ground and pulled up a thick wall of solid earth as a shield. Kato slammed into the wall and dropped to the ground, shaking her mammoth head. Blade then raised his hands and pulled the wall down on Kato’s stunned form, burying her in a mountain of rock.
Noogie flew into the fray, her claws searching for the eyes of her attackers. They swatted her away, bashing her onto the ground.But they were distracted long enough for Sabina to reach down and grab the black Adros Dagger and hold it high for the others to see.
Emily hopped to Noogie and nudged her mud-red body out of the way. Looking around, Emily saw the older Melder healing his arm with urgent whispers. He then raised his stretched out fingers at Sabina. His power lifted Sabina high into the air and squeezed her throat with his mind. Sabina squealed a soundless squeal. The Dagger fell from her fingers. Blade’s eyes glared with satisfaction.
Aldrick had seized on the Melder’s distraction and carried Emily and Rupurt behind the safety of a tree. She kicked wildly, wanting to help Noogie, but the Professor’s mental hold on her was too strong.
“Stay here. Hear me, stay here,” Aldrick said through wheezes.
Aldrick burst through the bushes hurling words at the two attackers. Boulders from above and small trees ripped from the ground were hurled at the dark Melders. As Sabina hung, her sandals dangling above the ground, Blade and Xavier repelled the shower of rocks and trees with their own TC powers.
But Emily realised it had broken their concentration on Sabina. The silent explosion of their mental release flattened Aldrick. Sabina dropped to the ground choking. Torek’s Melders were furious.
They redoubled their efforts to reach Emily. From high above Emily saw Lupi zoom down through the air with outstretched arms. A small swirling tornado poured behind her slender feet. The Melders were so preoccupied with Emily and her defenders they did not see Lupi’s windstorm until it was too late. Just before she reached them she flicked her feet and body, casting the roaring wind onto the floor of the clearing. The ground rocked. Trees swayed to the grass. The powerful force blew everybody spinning into the air and into the surrounding bushland. Only Emily and Rupurt were left unscathed in their hiding place.
Emily realised that individually they were not strong enough to defeat the powerful Melders but working together they could win. She shook free from Rupurt’s hold and hopped into the clearing. Standing alone and defiant she watched as the Melders hovered back into the clearing. Aldrick and Sabina were close behind. Lupi hovered above, gathering another wind-storm.
Emily tried to Thoughtspeak the others but Blade was too fast. His dark robe and strong hands raced to grab her. Lupi saw Emily’s danger and threw a smaller blast of wind at her, blowing her ears over footpads into the side ravine. A broken branch tore through her fur. She yelled in pain. She saw her blood ooze onto her white fur. Ignoring the pain she hopped
back up into the ravine.
“Stay, Emily,” Aldrick commanded.
She ignored him and with a powerful hop landed only feet away from Xavier.
“We waste time,” Blade roared through the noise. He was pushed back against a tree, defending a dual water and air assault from Sabina and Lupi. “Now is your chance,” Blade said. “The rabbit, the portal… now.”
Xavier nodded and pointed his staff at Emily. She felt his mind at her joints and paws, felt herself lifting into the air and realised his plan to throw her into the portal back to Earth. As her feet dangled, a thought occurred to her that she could let him do it. Something was telling her to let him.
“Emily, you must choose your fate. Not others.” It was Kato mentally shouting at her. As the tigress struggled for her own freedom from the rubble, her Thoughtspeak was soothing and wise.
Amongst the tumult and seething hate, Emily remembered from Alendi what would happen if these people who hated life, who valued nothing of beauty, stopped Eostra from bringing harmony to the world. It was not just harmony, it was a love of all things, of equality, of beauty. This was what she was called to do.
Struggling against the powerful mind invading her, she touched Eostra’s mark, the scar in her arm, and gripped the last of her mental courage and sent her mind into the ground. She broke free from the mental hold. Her footpads thumped back to the ground and she became one with the ground, at first as heavy as a boulder, then as a house. Xavier spoke louder and drew closer but his mind could not move her.
Xavier was so close now, she could almost smell his fire-tar breath. She looked into the young eyes of the Jalpari boy, and he looked into hers. He saw the oceans in her eyes swirling, and felt the power of the elementals at her call. She saw the uncertainty in his eyes and she wanted to help him. She reached out to him, to love him in spite of his own hatred. She touched the door of his hardened and lonely mind. She saw a boy, left alone, cast out, sad, fighting to be a man. The shiny impenetrable red door to his mind wavered.
It was enough to throw Xavier off balance. He lost his mental grip and stumbled. Blade dashed forward, grabbed Emily and ran with her towards the swirling portal. Emily kicked and scratched. He thrust her on his shoulder before the final heave. Emily was facing the portal now, looking at the ring quietly glowing between the worlds. I’m failing, she thought.