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

by DM Fike

  “I’ll show you.” Kay picked a path that wound around the pool. As Avalon’s eyes adjusted to the relative darkness under the trees, she could see a large cavern behind the waterfall. Once behind the water, Kay grabbed a torch and flint from a natural rock shelf. The fire lit up the entire space, about the size of an elementary school classroom.

  A vessel made out of wood and cloth dominated the back wall. Its pontoons and sail classified it as a boat, but it also had large wings jutting out at both sides. It had seating for two and a rudder device not unlike the one Isolde used when they had sailed the ocean.

  “Behold the wind chaser,” Kay said. “A device of Lord Emerson’s own design to allow anyone the experience of flight.”

  Avalon rubbed her hand against the smooth wooden surface, surprised that her touch rocked the vessel. “It feels like it could blow away in a breeze.”

  “That is exactly its purpose,” Kay confirmed. “A person with wind magic steers the vessel with sail and rudder, navigating the vessel, but it also allows one or two other people to ride along with them.”

  “It seems kind of dangerous.”

  “No more dangerous than any boat we’ve ridden in. Plus, it’s much easier on my arms than carrying you up here with physical strength.”

  “You’ve driven one of these?”

  “Once or twice.” The smile on his face faltered. “I will soon be using it again.”

  Avalon picked up on the hesitation in his voice. “Are you going somewhere?”

  Sighing, Kay leaned against an adjacent rock wall. “Regrettably, I am. After I state my report on the refugee camp, I have been assigned a mission to locate Hamad.”

  “Hamad?” Avalon jerked her head up in surprise. “Why must you go there?”

  “Covert K is running into many of Bedwyr’s former soldiers. Some are claiming he lived through Scawale’s attack.”

  Avalon remembered the last time she had seen Bedwyr, the Aossi who had injected her with bits of the statue. He had faced off against Scawale alone, allowing Avalon to escape. For those few brief moments, he appeared more as Dr. James Skog, an old family friend, than a madman bent on using any means necessary to resurrect his people.

  “He couldn’t have survived Braellia’s wrath,” Avalon breathed. “She wanted to kill me, and he let me escape.”

  “He shouldn’t have survived getting stabbed through the chest either,” Kay said, referring to Avalon’s attack on Bedwyr months earlier. “Yet, he made it through that.”

  It was true. As a dryad and a very talented healer, Bedwyr did seem to come out alive through a lot of nasty situations. He had even claimed to be unkillable. “So what if he’s alive? What good does that do us?”

  “Bedwyr is one of the few people who has studied the statue in excruciating detail. If anyone knows the Child’s weak points, it has to be him.”

  Avalon swallowed. She also knew its weak points but didn’t voice that aloud. “Maybe I should go with you. I’m not doing any good here.”

  Kay’s eyes turned downcast. “The Guardians won’t let you come. They are only allowing me to go because I’m their best option. You, me, Desert Rose, and Isolde are the only people that have even entered Hamad in the last few decades.”

  Avalon ran her palm along the wood of the wind chaser, thoughts jumbled in her head. She really couldn’t fault Kay’s or the Guardians’ logic. They were running out of options with dragons running amok. Then a glimmer of hope warmed her heart. Maybe, just maybe, Bedwyr knew a way to beat Scawale that didn’t involve sacrificing herself.

  “How long will you be gone?”

  “Hamad is a day or two’s flight from here with the wind chaser, but all will depend on if I find the cursed place. It’s hidden in the Arteme Jungle. It could take me days to track it down.”

  Avalon did the quick math in her head. At best, Kay would likely be back here in a few days. More likely, it would take a week or more. It was a tight turnaround, but maybe it could work.

  Maybe she would not have to sacrifice herself after all.

  Then a stark realization hit her in the gut. “If you find it, you have to promise me one thing.”

  Kay tilted his head toward her.

  She took a deep breath. “If you find Nobody’s body, bring it back here.”

  He balked. “The wind chaser can bring more people, but adding weight means it will slow me down on the return trip. I’m not sure it’s worth the effort.”

  “Nobody saved me from Bedwyr,” Avalon said. “I would have died there if not for him.”

  “His own betrayal killed him.” Kay grit his teeth. “Nobody wasn’t some hero.”

  “I’m not saying he didn’t have some screwed-up priorities, but in the end, all he really wanted was to fix his mistakes and bring his sister back. He deserves to be buried with his people.”

  “I don’t know,” Kay hedged.

  “Don’t do it for the gremlins, then,” Avalon said. “Do it for me.”

  “I’ll think about it.” Kay’s tone suggested that was the most he would say on the matter. He stood, brandishing his torch toward the exit. “I need to give my report to the Guardians. Will you come with me?”

  Avalon nodded. She wouldn’t miss the chance to see him off. Given the threat Scawale presented, she couldn’t guarantee she would ever see him again.

  CHAPTER 27

  HER HEADACHE STARTED sometime as Kay flew Avalon back toward the castle. Mild at first, Avalon attributed it to vertigo. It lingered as Kay landed on the Earth Tower platform, covered by a roof with a miniature gargoyle hissing down at them. Kay stepped over the vines growing over the tower to open the door. A flesh-and-blood guard stood next to the doorway inside, arching an eyebrow at Avalon, but nodding them through. They wound down the steps to Shivant’s study, where Kay told her the Guardians had been gathered for days to discuss the next steps.

  The five Guardians huddled around the large meeting table. Instead of all of them on one side, they sat across from each other, leaving the ends of the rectangular table open. They all turned their heads as the newcomers entered into the room. When Avalon counted six heads, she did a double take. It took her a moment to realize she saw two blondes dressed in white. One of them was General Halicia Shinkai, co-leader of the Emerged Falls army.

  The other was Desert Rose.

  The headache intensified as Avalon observed how comfortable Desert Rose looked among the Guardians. She wore her knight uniform, the ‘K’ polished to perfection on her belt. A great sword stuck out on her back, its blade crystalline and gleaming even under the teardrop-shaped electric bulb. She leaned casually against the table’s edge, a participant, one of the leaders.

  This is how they chose to deal with Desert Rose, Avalon thought. Give her a seat at the table. Yay, nepotism.

  Desert Rose seemed about as pleased to see Avalon. “Are we allowing outsiders into our discussions?”

  Kay glared at her. “I invited Miss Benton along to give my report of the refugee camp.”

  “Please state your findings,” Shivant requested from the center of the table.

  “And do it quickly,” his brother J.T. added, leaning back in his chair. “You have other duties to attend that do not include babysitting our ‘guest.’”

  Kay ignored the jibe, drawing both legs together to stand as straight as possible and give his account of the refugee camp. As Avalon’s head began to pound, she wished Kay would ditch the mundane details. He recalled the state of each Jentry patient in the medical tent so thoroughly, Avalon could have painted a portrait of it.

  Prepare yourself.

  An image of a cloaked Aossi standing at the base of Mt. Hornley flashed before her. She blinked, confused, as Kay’s rambling form came back into view. Glancing over at the table, only Colin noticed her brief distress. He raised a questioning eyebrow much like his son’s.

  Ladybug? Avalon had no idea why the gremlin’s voice spoke now. Her head thumped out an odd, aching rhythm. She clenched her jaw,
hoping Kay would finish soon so she could leave and sit down somewhere.

  She’s coming.

  This time, a ghostly face with endless black eyes stared into Avalon’s soul. She opened her gigantic mouth, a rush of air pulling everything around her into it. Avalon’s knees buckled, as if she would be sucked into that void.

  Braellia! Avalon didn’t know if she had the voice to scream her name or not, but suddenly, she found herself on the floor, Colin’s blue bandanna hovering over her. Kay appeared next to him, while everyone else had risen from the table to view the commotion.

  Avalon blinked, disoriented, scared that the world would shift before her again. She felt like she’d been kicked in the stomach, the wind knocked out of her.

  “What is the meaning of this?” someone demanded behind Colin. It could have been either Halicia or Desert Rose.

  “Is she all right?”

  “Fetch some water.”

  “Just more theatrics.”

  “Avalon.” Kay’s voice broke through the cacophony.

  A static-filled voice crackled into the room. “Lord Emerson! Dragons!”

  Someone helped a dizzy Avalon into a sturdy chair. So many voices talked over each other at once that she could not regain her bearings. Strong hands grabbed hers, a calming force in the chaos. Kay’s face lingered, mere inches from hers.

  “What happened?”

  She focused all her concentration on him. She struggled to get the one word out. “Br-Braellia.”

  The stone floor rumbled beneath their feet, silencing the commotion. Avalon peered over Kay’s shoulder to find Shivant, foot planted firmly in the center of the room, arms spread slightly to steady himself. The other four Guardians, Kay, and Desert Rose all jerked to look at him.

  The shaking stopped, and Shivant stood back up to his full regal height. “Now that I have your attention, please stand back.”

  Shivant flipped to face the wall, assuming a sumo stance with his palms out toward the stone wall. The room shook violently. Kay threw his arms around Avalon to keep her from sliding off the chair. The staggered stone of the castle wall parted before Shivant’s hands, exposing a chill wind and bright sunlight, crisscrossed by the vines that grew up and down the Earth Tower. Those vines snapped as the gap in the wall widened, from the bottom of the floor to the ceiling and several feet across. Shivant did not stop until he had removed an entire section of wall.

  All of Emerged Falls proper came into view from a dizzying eagle’s nest perspective. Every gate between the castle courtyard and the forest loomed below, with the houses of each neighborhood exposed in between. It would have been a fantastic view if not for the fact that they were hundreds of feet from plunging to certain death to the courtyard below.

  Shivant strode right to the edge of the drop, the wind at this height sending his cape flapping behind him. He stared coolly at the western edge, where the Jentry and gremlin refugee camp lay. All the other Guardians joined him. Symphony raised her palms to calm the wind, and Shivant’s cape fell placidly to his back.

  Colin shielded his eyes as he stared in the distance. “I don’t see anything.”

  Halicia’s finger darted out above the empty air. “Look there.”

  A collective gasp went through the Guardians.

  Kay helped a wobbly Avalon stand so she could view what the others saw. She peered over the Guardians’ shoulders. Like before on Mt. Hornley, they began as small colorful dots, enlarging slowly into larger creatures. Five in all, each one representing a different magical element.

  “Dear Omni.” Symphony hastily made a circle over her now pale face.

  Halicia formed two ice balls in her hands. “J.T.!” she yelled before hurling them out toward the castle courtyard.

  J.T. teetered at the edge as he blasted both ice balls in a flurry of sparks. Halicia threw five more ice balls, and J.T. shattered each one, creating a fireworks display that boomed across the city.

  Down below, the combined military and citizenry of Emerged Falls noted their generals’ distress signal. Trumpets and horns blared, followed by the muffled cries of hundreds of distressed people. Civilians scurried like ants as they fled into houses while guards and knights spilled out into the castle courtyard, charging down the streets or taking to the air to defend their city.

  J.T. grabbed a communicator attached to his belt. “Defensive position five!” he yelled into it. “Maximum security at each wall with all citizens evacuating to safehouses.”

  “They won’t make it!” Colin screamed, pointing to the first wave of dragons coming in fast over the forest. “They’re reaching the outer wall!”

  Avalon had no warning that Kay would try to join his comrades. One minute he stood by her side, the next he ran past her, wings spread, ready to join his fellow knights. Avalon’s heart raced as she thought of him drowning under the onslaught of dragons, surrounded by the destruction of Emerged Falls dying around him.

  Halicia caught him by the shoulder at the last minute, halting him before he could take flight. “Wait,” she commanded. “What is that?”

  A smoky mist rose just past the refugee camp. Faint at first, it grew, a transparent wall that still allowed some sunlight to pass through it. It drifted sharply up and over the first outer wall, then the next one and the next, covering all of Emerged Falls in a dome of inky film.

  Avalon recognized the bubble. “Dark magic.”

  “How is that possible?” J.T. asked.

  Avalon squinted at the dome’s line all around the border. Color flashed to the right, a column of inky smoke reinforcing the bubble. It happened again, to her far left.

  Symphony put her hand over her mouth. “It must be the gremlins!”

  “Incredible,” Shivant breathed.

  “But will it hold against dragons?” Colin asked.

  “We’re about to find out,” J.T. said.

  The five dragons came down upon the barrier like speeding planes. They smacked into it at full force, screeching as they bounced off. Sparks flew in the air. Bolts of lightning struck near the edge. A tornado rose and died, ripping up a few trees. But the barrier held. Nothing inside the dome seemed affected by the dragon’s elemental magic.

  She is coming.

  Avalon froze as Ladybug’s warning caused goosebumps up and down her body. Guided by something inside her, she focused back on the horizon, past the first wave of dragons, deep in the sea of evergreens. As if on cue, an emerald figure literally ripped her way through the treetops, growing until she towered above even the tallest tree. A beautiful, ethereal form with hollow eyes, Avalon could see right through her like a ghost. She trudged forward, wading waist deep through the forest, following her beasts of war.

  Colin caught sight of the giant. “Sadus.”

  As if the emerald figure could hear him, she whipped toward the tower. Her face scrunched up in a scowl of rage.

  Everyone stared at it with slack jaws. Even Halicia flinched. “Braellia.”

  Desert Rose shook off fear first. “A dark magic barrier will do no good against Scawale.”

  With a sinking dread, Avalon realized Desert Rose was right. Scawale’s own dark magic would blast through the gremlins’ barrier without any problem. Hope shattered, Avalon knew there would be no last-minute save. No other solutions.

  She had to take care of this.

  “We’ve got to stop her.” Kay drew his sword, ready for battle.

  Avalon grabbed him by the arm. She could not bear it if he died because she was too cowardly to face her fate. “No, wait! I’ll go!”

  Kay shook her hand off. “Absolutely not. You stay here. Or better yet, barricade yourself with the others in the castle.”

  “I can’t!” Tears formed at the corners of her eyes. “I have to stop her.”

  “You?” J.T. sneered. “I thought you couldn’t use magic. Was that a lie?”

  Avalon squared her shoulders, purposefully avoiding Kay’s incredulous expression and facing the Guardians. “I didn’t lie to yo
u. I can’t use magic without harming myself. But I also didn’t tell you the whole truth, the truth I alone discovered at Mt. Hornley.”

  Kay’s sword fell to his side. “Avalon, what are you talking about?”

  She refused to look at him, focusing instead on Shivant’s surprised, yet encouraging face. “You five Guardians defeated Braellia before by binding her to Ladybug.”

  J.T.’s sneer faltered. “We never told anyone about that.”

  “Gaea told me at the Temple of the Heavens. She said I could make the right choice with the five Guardians. I could save everyone.”

  Kay latched onto her. “What are you talking about?”

  Avalon ignored him. “You can do the same thing again, only with me this time.”

  All the Guardians stiffened. Shivant’s face softened into a mixture of sorrow and resolve. “You know what this means for you, do you not?”

  Avalon nodded, tears blurring her vision. “You’ll have to kill me afterward.”

  “WHAT!?!” Kay screamed.

  Avalon bit her lip so hard, she drew blood. “It’s the only way to be sure Braellia won’t corrupt me too.”

  “Dear child,” Symphony drew in a deep breath. “This is such a deep burden to bear.”

  “But a practical one,” Halicia cut in. “We have a corrupted Child of the Statue knocking on our doorstep. Either we do this, or everyone in Emerged Falls will die.”

  Avalon steeled herself. “I can’t let that happen.”

  “You can’t do this!” Kay rushed in front of her, placing himself between her and the Guardians.

  Avalon backed away from him, shaking. “Kay, please listen…”

  He never turned around, facing the Guardians with his sword out as if he meant to attack each one. “Nay! I will not let you do this. I—”

  A flurry of motion raced by Avalon. Desert Rose pushed Avalon out of the way, then placed her hands on the back of Kay’s neck. He stiffened unnaturally, breath coming out as visible puffs as Desert Rose’s fire and ice magic ran through his veins.

  “S…” he hissed slowly. His sword clanged to the floor as his hands curled inward like dying spiders. Even so, he tried to bat Desert Rose away. “…sssstop.”