Magic Prophecy: A YA Portal Fantasy (Legends of Llenwald Book 3)

by DM Fike

  The crowd eventually pushed forward into a larger town square, already filled with people despite its decent size. Avalon focused on a stately courthouse-style building across the way, two statues of men on horseback guarding either side of the wrought iron gate that surrounded it. Avalon flowed in the direction of the muttering swarm, eager to spot Kay. Although she couldn’t find him, the excited statements of the throng encouraged her.

  “A knight from Emerged Falls!”

  “The fairy from last summer.”

  “You think this has anything to do with the dragons?”

  Avalon had no doubt that dragons had something to do with Kay’s appearance, but she didn’t really care. She just needed to get to him.

  She had made her way to the statues on horseback when rough hands pulled her to the side. Startled, she found herself face to face with a burly man, sword at his side.

  “It’s a town hall meeting,” he snarled at her.

  “So?” Avalon fought to get out of his grasp but couldn’t. “I want to attend.”

  “You?” The man laughed, spittle hitting her face. “A woman?”

  As if to accentuate his point, a voice over a megaphone pierced the din. “All able-bodied men are to report to town hall. I repeat, all able-bodied men are to report to town hall.”

  Avalon’s heart sank as the impact of his words hit her. She then noticed that all the people entering the stately building were men, even teenage boys. The skirts, bonnets, and smaller frames lined the wrought iron gate outside.

  “Get back to the fence,” the man sneered.

  “I have business with the Covert K knight,” Avalon insisted. “He will see me.”

  The man shoved his face into hers, neck muscles tight and throbbing. “Are you defying me, little girl?”

  Before Avalon could speak, someone else cut into the conversation. “She’s not defying anyone, Lontry.”

  “Gonait?” The man backed off at the sight of the affable woman. “You know this filly?”

  “Filly?” Avalon’s face flushed red.

  “I’ll take her with me. Come along, Avalon.”

  “But—”

  Gonait put a finger firmly on Avalon’s lips, silencing her. “They’ll order the women back to their homes soon enough. We must go.”

  Her prediction came true with the herald’s next decree. “All able-bodied men are to report to town hall immediately. Women should remain at home with children indoors.”

  Avalon stared helplessly back at the courthouse as the last of the men waded through the now thinning crowds. Kay was right there, behind a closed door, and she couldn’t get to him.

  The burly man scowled at her hesitation. “Get her out of here, Gonait.”

  “We’ll hear a recap after the men have discussed business,” Gonait attempted to reassure her. Avalon would not have budged if she didn’t add the second sentence. “The knight will likely address the entire city later on.”

  So Kay would not leave without her. Avalon’s feet loosened. She couldn’t get to him now with Jentry’s archaic views of gender roles barring the way. She’d have better odds reaching him if she waited.

  “Fine,” Avalon snapped as she stalked off behind Gonait, following all the other demure woman back to their residences to await the council of men.

  * * *

  Back at Gonait’s house, Avalon stirred another batch of medicine over the fire. Her arms still ached from the day before, but at least it passed the time. She couldn’t shake the jitters with Kay so close but unreachable.

  Gonait checked Desert Rose first, saying her condition had not changed, but she was still hopeful she might wake soon. Then Gonait spent a large chunk of the morning washing clothes with a huge tub and washboard in the back yard, hanging them up to dry on a thick rope between two nearly bare violet-barked trees. Avalon didn’t get a chance to talk to her again until she came in for lunch. Avalon gratefully rested her arms on the table as Gonait placed more leftover bread and meat in front of her.

  Gonait wolfed down her food quickly so she could start boiling a fresh pot of ingredients over the fire to make a stew.

  Avalon watched her with a heavy heart. “Why do you do it?”

  “I beg your pardon?” Gonait asked as she chopped a round root vegetable with holes into the pot.

  “Why do you work yourself to death when your husband doesn’t respect you?”

  “Respect?” The word sounded foreign in Gonait’s mouth. “I’m not sure I understand.”

  “You cook, clean, earn money, take care of the house, market, everything. Your husband does little more than drink, if last night is any indication. The least he could do is treat you nice.”

  Gonait shrugged. “He doesn’t beat me, like some men do their wives.”

  Avalon placed her hand on her forehead and sighed very deeply to control her temper. In a calmer tone than she felt, she said, “That’s a very low bar, Gonait.”

  “Well, I do like to keep busy, and it makes me happy to help others. I have a great life.”

  Avalon thought of the people that came to Gonait’s door. A few had even dropped by as she did laundry. Each and every one of them treated her with kindness. Their attitudes fed back directly into Gonait’s smile. “You could be a great healer. No,” Avalon corrected herself quickly, “You are a great healer. Male, female, or otherwise.”

  Gonait blushed even as she shook her head. “You haven’t even seen if your friend will wake yet. You have no idea if I’m any good or not.” All around her feet, the green tops of the root vegetable gathered, a mess needing attention.

  Avalon crossed the room to grab a broom. As she swept up the garbage, she said, “Have faith in yourself.”

  Avalon took to heart her own words as she dumped the material into a compost heap outside. She had been hard on herself for so long: for being the sole survivor of Miasmis, for not always keeping her emotions in check, for flailing about in a world she knew very little about. Now, stripped effectively of magic, she could only wait here for either Desert Rose or Kay.

  Maybe she should also be less hard on herself. She was more than the sum of her experimentation and her newfound magic.

  The sound of the front door slamming into the bookcase snapped her out of her reverie. A man yelled for his wife.

  Cathal had returned.

  Avalon ran back inside to find Gonait escorting her husband back to the cushioned chair. Cathal narrowed his surprisingly clear eyes at her. He must not have had enough time to get drunk before being summoned. “You still here?”

  Avalon’s spine straightened. “What happened at the town hall?”

  “What’s it to you?”

  “I’m from Emerged Falls,” she said through clenched teeth. “I need to know what’s going on.”

  “Ah, Emerged Falls, is it?” he cackled. “Now it all makes sense. How you think you can march around and do whatever you please. Well let me tell you something, girl, you don’t have any manly rights here, not in Jentry. You will be silent unless spoken to. You will answer all my demands. And you will never know what happened at that meeting.”

  A sizzle, a flurry. Hot and cold streaked down her extremities. Avalon pushed them all back down, but she couldn’t stop her physical response. Before Gonait could read her intent, Avalon marched in front of Cathal and grabbed him by the suspenders, leaning over him. “I don’t take orders from you! Tell me what happened at the meeting!”

  “None of your accursed business!” Cathal yelled. He pushed her backward, surprisingly strong, but she held her grip. The two struggled.

  “Tell me!” Avalon yelled as loud as she could in his ear. He winced and tried to bite one of her hands. She twisted, forced to let go of his suspenders. He lunged at her, but she dodged him, and he landed in a heap on the floor. Gonait put her hands over her horrified face, gasping.

  Cathal roared. “Get this wench out of my house!”

  Gonait immediately grabbed Avalon and hauled her through the front door i
nto the street, her grip painful near Avalon’s Miasmis bruise. “Hey!” Avalon yanked her arm free.

  “You!” Gonait wagged a finger at her, tears forming. Her voice trembled. “Y-you better go!”

  Avalon threw her arms up in the air. “C’mon, Gonait.”

  “Y-you heard Cathal.”

  “I’ll admit, I’m a terrible guest,” Avalon said, “but you can’t tell me he didn’t deserve that, treating you like a slave day in and day out.”

  A tear bubbled over and down one of Gonait’s cheeks. She wiped it angrily away. “You have no business t-to tell me what’s right or wrong.”

  A lump formed in Avalon’s throat. “You’re right. Maybe I’ve misjudged you, the whole situation.”

  Gonait nodded, then shook her head. She threw her head back to stare at the sky.

  “Tell me I’m out of line, and I’ll leave. I’ll find a way to take my friend with me. You’ll never see us again.”

  Gonait eyes grew large and round, whites widened, pupils dilated. Her face drained of all color.

  Somewhere in the distance, thunder rolled.

  But not a single cloud floated in the chill sky.

  Slowly, Avalon followed Gonait’s line of sight, up into the air. She focused on a point on the horizon, at first small but growing rapidly larger. Slender writhing body with wings. A flash of light streaked from it toward the ground, and another clap of thunder shook the trees next to them.

  A lightning dragon. And it was heading right for Jentry.

  CHAPTER 8

  THE DRAGON’S FLIGHT path appeared serene, a thing of beauty, curving and arching like a kite tossed about on the wind. As it approached, more details came into view. A shimmer of dark gold scales under the sun. Sharp talons on each digit. Fangs glistened as it swooped over the outskirts of town.

  Then lightning flared, striking something not far away. A loud crack whipped across the atmosphere, shards of tinder leaping high, matchsticks of the former building. The ground rattled with the force of the destruction.

  Gonait’s scream nearly split Avalon’s ear drums.

  The noise brought Gonait’s neighbors tumbling out into the street. Cathal merely poked his head out the window. “What in Sadus?” he cried, unable to see their attacker from his vantage point.

  Avalon rounded on Gonait. “I thought the dragons just flew by last time!”

  Gonait could only cower, trembling, hands over her ears.

  The dragon arched upward, an eagle soaring higher, slightly angled away from town. Avalon hoped it would turn away, but it reversed course, heading straight for them, allowing gravity to aid in its momentum. It soared close by overhead, its aim on a row of houses two streets over, when it cast a machine-gun rapid line of lightning. Thunder rang in Avalon’s bones as it shattered every house, each successive explosion more horrifying than the last.

  After the last strike, the lightning dragon flew back up in the sky, its quiet more disturbing than any roar. It idled there before taking another plunge, crashing down on the houses across the field from Gonait’s street. They popped open from the inside out as the lightning tore through their simple frames. Then, as graceful as any koi, the dragon swirled back into the clouds.

  “It’s destroying all the houses,” Avalon whispered.

  And they were next.

  Avalon cupped her hands around her mouth. “Get out of the houses! It’s coming for us next!” Waving her arms, she motioned for people to run as far away from the buildings as possible, giving them as much distance from the destruction as the dragon reached its apex in the sky.

  Gonait hadn’t moved, frozen in terror. Avalon yanked her arm, calling to Cathal, who crouched inside at his windowsill. “GET OUT!” Avalon yelled at him, motioning for him to leave.

  He snarled at her. “I don’t take orders from you!”

  Avalon had no further time to convince him as she pulled Gonait behind the trunk of a large blue-leafed tree across the street. She prayed their shield would hold up as the dragon dove for a killing strike.

  The lightning erupted in a chaotic display, the lights blinking on and off in dizzying succession. The wind kicked up under the dragon’s wings. She thought she heard Cathal’s faint scream before an explosion rocked the tree like a weed. It crackled and fell, its trunk missing Avalon and Gonait by inches and sending splinters into their hair.

  Avalon couldn’t hear anything for a few seconds as she shakily got to her feet. Where the street’s houses once stood were now piles of smoldering sticks. Gonait’s house had been completely leveled, the street littered with debris from inside. Avalon recognized the dull pattern of Cathal’s cushioned chair as a scrap of its fabric floated by. Remarkably, beyond the houses, most of the backyards still stood intact, including Gonait’s stable.

  Desert Rose. Avalon felt weak in the knees. She’d forgotten about her in the scuffle. Looked like she was okay.

  That is, if they survived the next attack. The dragon snaked back upward, aiming for the next row of houses.

  “RUN!” Avalon shouted to all those that had followed her command. “OTHER SIDE!”

  But most of them were in shock, clinging to themselves as they tried to comprehend the destruction around them. No one paid her any mind.

  Avalon tugged on Gonait’s arm as she sat on the ground, skirt spread out over her thick legs like a life-sized rag doll, limp and unable to move on her own. “C’mon!” she yelled at Gonait but to no avail. Gonait gazed straight through her, lost in stupor.

  Then the dragon bore down on them again.

  Avalon gave one final pull on an inert Gonait before releasing her, but even then, she knew she had waited too long. Even if she dashed back across the street now, there was nothing left to take cover behind. If the lightning didn’t blast her outright, the splintering debris would likely stab her straight through her body.

  Avalon huddled in place, prepared for the worst.

  The gust of wind hit her first. Avalon held her breath, waiting for the light show to begin, but it never came. Instead, the wind intensified, pebbles smacking Avalon in the back. A final surge knocked her down, and she tasted dirt as she lifted her head to see what was going on.

  A fast-moving whirlwind spun down the street and collided into the lightning dragon just before it bore down on the next row of houses. The wind knocked the dragon off course, and the creature screeched, a horrible sound like metal on metal. It skidded downward into an empty field.

  A shadow flickered overhead. Fairy wings spread out behind his sky-blue tunic, Kay drew his sword, chestnut hair wild in his magical wind.

  “COME AT ME!” Kay screamed, his voice echoing where the houses once stood.

  A terrifying mass of scales scrambled around itself, a living Gorgon knot. It hissed right before it sent a streak of lightning straight at Kay.

  Avalon’s heart stopped.

  But Kay had prepared himself, metal gauntlet pointed downward. The lightning changed direction in front of him, passing harmlessly to the bare earth beneath him. The air still crackling with the latest attack, Kay unleashed a second whirlwind at the lightning dragon with his other hand. It struck the dragon in the head, causing it to smack against a large haystack in the field. Reeds flew everywhere like a pillow exploding.

  “COME AT ME!” Kay yelled again, then zipped away from the houses toward the Wazan forest.

  The dragon let out another metallic shriek, sparks flying from its eyes. It took several seconds for it to place all four feet firmly on solid ground, but when it did, it took off in a swift lurch after Kay.

  Avalon realized belatedly that the knight meant to draw the dragon away from town, where it could kill less people.

  He would fight it alone.

  “KAY!” Avalon screamed, but it was too late. The fairy had flown out of hearing distance, the dragon closing the gap not far behind.

  Avalon took a few leaps after him, then did an awkward dance as she dodged a prone child in the street. The kid had been severe
ly injured in the blasts, a pool of blood forming behind his head. Avalon gasped when she recognized him as the caramel-haired orphan that had rescued her and Desert Rose.

  “Gonait!” Avalon yelled. She turned this way and that, searching for the healer, thinking for a horrible second that she may have been injured. Fortunately, Gonait appeared physically fine, although slouched forward and mumbling to herself.

  Avalon ran up to her. “Gonait!” she repeated in her face. When that did not work, she grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her. “GONAIT!”

  Gonait continued to mutter.

  Avalon heard a distant rumble of thunder. She didn’t have time for this. She threw her hand back and slapped Gonait across the face. Hard. Twice.

  Gonait peered at Avalon in a daze. A strange squeak escaped from her lips.

  Avalon grabbed her by the cheeks, pressing her nose into Gonait’s so that all they could see were each other’s faces. “You need to heal people, Gonait.”

  “Wh-What?” Gonait rasped.

  Avalon shakily led her toward the bleeding child. Gonait at first wanted to keep staring at the remains of her house, but Avalon pulled her attention away, scooting her close to the orphan and forcing Gonait to kneel down next to him.

  “You’ve got to help him,” Avalon said.

  When Gonait did not at first register the child, Avalon worried it would be useless. But slowly, her eyes focused upon the injured orphan. “Great Omni!” she drew a circle over her with her hand. “Fetch my medicines. Quick!”

  Avalon grabbed another stunned villager, a farmer by the looks of him, pulling him toward Gonait and the child. “You do whatever she tells you to do,” she ordered, “or this kid’s not gonna make it.”

  Stunned, the farmer complied, taking orders from Gonait to find bandages and ointment. One crisis averted, Avalon squinted into the distance where Kay and the dragon had disappeared. She kept her cool as panicked cries rose up and down the street, blending with the sound of thunder cracking not far away. She pinpointed lightning strikes in the forest, and her feet pounded the dirt toward them.