by Sanders, Dan
“Will you be well, alone?” she asked.
He nodded. “You know, I am glad I’m home. My parents won’t believe me, but at least I have this proof.” He lifted his blue CBlade from its sheath. The blade was a dull blue and a deep tinkle rang across the homes as he re-sheathed it.
Emily reached up and ran her paws across Daimon’s smooth, stoney arm. “I think you have more than a blade, my friend,” she said. “I think your mother will notice your slight change in hair colour.”
Daimon smiled and said, “You’re going to see your family. I can tell.”
Emily smiled, “At first I didn’t think I could do it. But after the good we’ve done this night, I think I can.”
“Well, Queen of Eostra’s Day. Together we have completed the hero’s journey, with courage and honour, and now your name will be remembered throughout time. A wise man once said the hero returns to bring light to his people, to free them from their darkness. And I will bring that light to the people, for you and for Eostra.”
Daimon stood and dropped Emily’s paw. She turned away, wiped away a tear and pushed her feet hard into the road. She flew high into the air and just above the rooftops and watched Daimon turn and face the door. He held the handle for a long moment, as though considering his options. He took a deep breath and knocked. Aspasia, his mother, with her long black hair, opened the door and screamed. She fell to her knees, holding Daimon’s waist, burying her tears in his new white tunic. And then a frail man with wispy grey hair also appeared at the door. Daimon wrapped his arms around his father and pulled him tight and began to cry.
Emily remembered the last time they were here together; the place where she saved him. She smiled, and with another thought, flicked across the winds, her paws outstretched.
For a while she sat on the clouds near her brood. She saw her brood home among the circle of five trees. At first, she wondered if her family was still in the same place. Then she reached out her mind and her heart jumped. She felt her papa Bijou’s aura. She swooped down and landed on the ground just outside her home tree. She hid behind a large rock. It was the same rock where she and Noogie used to play and hide from Zazi and the others who picked on her. In her old life they would play tricks on them. She smiled at the memories.
Just then she saw the reddy-brown colours of her brood as they dived in and out of the trees hunting for the early morning worms. She heard the tweets and wheet-cheers of her old life. For a moment her heart was heavy. And then she heard it; the unmistakable squawk of her best friend, Noogie. Emily pulled back behind the rock. Noogie swooped down and landed just on the other side of the rock where Emily hid. Emily’s heart thumped in her chest and her throat swelled. She placed her forepaws on the ground and readied to hop around the stone in surprise. Then two other birds swooped down to join Noogie. They tumbled in the sandy ground, wings and claws flapping in happiness. She didn’t recognise the first bird. But the second bird had bright red feathers, like her papa Bijou. She knew those feathers and that black beak. It was her little sister Pippin.
Emily froze. She slowly hopped around the rock to get a good look. Noogs, her best friend, was with her little sister. She was alive and well. She had a new life, like Emily. The Queen of Spring sat on her haunches and watched a while. They were happy and seeing Emily again would only bring them pain. She could not do that to them.
Then Emily sighed. She blinked and turned into a gust of wind and blew around Noogie, filling her old friend’s feathers with a gentle brush of air. Noogie stopped and poked her beak into the air. Her small round eyes blinked. She turned her head to the side and listened. Pippin asked Noogie what was wrong. Noogie paused and shook her beak and chased Pippin around the rock.
Emily’s heart was full and her eyes would not stop running. They were tears of relief and tears of joy. Perhaps Magas was right: great lives can come from small beginnings. She swept past her old nest, did two circles around the branch where she taught her sister to fly, and disappeared into the spring sky.
The twin worlds of Earth and Annwyn are in crisis: the seasons are out of balance and the worlds are dying. Their only hope is Daimon, an Athenian boy, and a small bird named Emily.
Dragged through a portal between the two worlds, Emily almost dies in the snow. Eostra, Mother Spring, saves Emily's life and transforms her into a snow rabbit. Now Emily's quest begins, and with Daimon as her protector, she must decipher the prophecy and gather The Circle of Six, beings of great power called on in times of darkness upon the land.
An Air-Elf, a young scholar, a prince and a fire-tiger are the reluctant and final members of the Six, called upon to aid Daimon and Emily. They are now in a race against time to find the lost artefacts of Harmony and fight the forces of darkness under the sway of Gorgos, the Dark Elemental.
Do they connect with their earth magic and find their own personal power?
Do they come together as one, in time to heal the land and save their peoples?
Circle of Six: Emily's Quest is a tale of self-belief and high adventure, grief, fear and friendship. At the center of the quest is Emily herself; doubtful, dogged and full of indomitable spirit as she attempts to triumph against the odds to complete the quest and become the symbol of Eostra.