I walked carefully to where both blonde girls lay like I was in a trance. I bent down and pulled at the closer Mauvrey’s arm, turning her over. Her blonde hair spilled away and I saw my enemy’s face, witch-slap mark and all.
Arian stood a few feet from me; his expression seemed as confused as mine. He watched as I reached out for the other girl. I pushed Mauvrey #2’s shoulder, tilting the girl to the side. Her hair fell away and I stumbled back in shock.
Tara?!
Before me lay Tara Gold—Arian’s fellow antagonist and the archenemy of Natalie Poole. I’d been dreaming about Tara for months. She looked a bit younger than she did in my dreams here, but there was no question it was her.
“What the frack?” I looked up at Arian.
His face was frozen in astonishment. He held up his hands and opened his mouth to offer an explanation but couldn’t find one. Then the mountain destroyed any chance I had of getting it from him.
While my magic and the battle had severely weakened the cavern’s integrity, the phenomenon caused by Paige’s mind absorbing into Mauvrey was the final straw to ensure its collapse. The power that’d been unleashed by the event was too cataclysmic for the terrain to recover. The rumbling I had been ignoring suddenly got a lot louder. A downpour of rock barreled from the ceiling near the memory stone, followed by a half dozen other avalanches throughout the cavern. Arian leapt out of the way of a cascade of stone. A Portalscape Portal suddenly opened to his right.
Arian rushed forward and slid to his knees beside Tara, scooping her up. He and I exchanged a look, and then he and Tara vanished in a silver haze of energy. I whipped my head to the left to see a silver whir where the last magic hunter had been. He’d recovered and was cloaking their escape. A set of flashes in the portal a moment later confirmed that they were gone.
I wasn’t surprised they were fleeing; this place was about to collapse. But I was surprised they hadn’t taken Excalibur. The blade was still plunged in the memory stone.
The wormhole snapped shut and the cavern quaked. Bright flashes of flame and magic were followed by a scream and a crash. Before I could turn to see what had happened, a stalactite plowed into the ground five feet from Mauvrey #1, followed by a rain of smaller stones. I dove sideways to protect my head. Then Merlin was by my side, spear-drill in his left grip, offering me a hand up.
He pulled me to my feet and gestured to Mauvrey. “We need to bring her with us. I’ll explain later. Quick, grab the sword.”
I dashed over and with a mighty yank drew Excalibur from the stone. “Why didn’t the antagonists take it?”
“The sword has a failsafe,” Merlin said. “In order to prevent thievery from its owner, any Pendragon, or whoever claimed it from Avalon, can put it back in a stone at any time and it will remain stuck there unless pulled out by the same person. You may have retrieved the sword for Arthur, but since you’re physically the one who claimed it, it’s always going to respond to you too.”
I stood dumbstruck for a moment. There was so much happening. There was too much new information. I felt as frozen as a lake of ice.
Sword, Tara, Mauvrey, Arian, I just—
Then I heard a scream, very different from the one moments ago. And it was followed by a very distinct shout from Julian.
“Eva, what are you doing?”
Merlin and I turned. Halfway down the open river area, Glinda lay face-down near a ridge of rock, soaked and motionless. Eva stood in front of her, holding Glinda’s Simia Crown in her left hand. In her right hand was a floating fireball.
Julian was closest to Eva, maybe a couple dozen feet away. Kai, SJ, Jason, and Daniel had reunited with Blue on the left side of the labyrinth, closer to us than to Eva. The last member of our team—Ozma—was on the ground next to a huge, smoking crater. She’d been the one who screamed. It looked like she’d just barely avoided being incinerated by a fireball the size of a Great Dane.
Eva kept her new cluster of flames in hand as it radiated and expanded. Then she placed the Simia Crown on her black hair.
“I’m sorry, Julian,” she said. “But old habits die hard.”
“Eva . . .” Julian started to say.
“I miss the power,” Eva interrupted with a curt wave of her hand. The witch flexed her fingers in silence for a moment, like she was lost in a memory. “There’s a reason that my legacy as the Wicked Witch of the West keeps being retold by storytellers and my character arc has not moved forward in their accounts,” Eva said, almost sadly. “I was a better character as a villain. Before Dorothy hit me with that bucket of water, I was strong. I didn’t need a throne or marriage to make me vital. Pure power—generated for me, by me—was at my disposal. I’ve missed my Pure Magic every day since it was washed away. I miss the days when I didn’t need anyone else to make me strong.”
“Eva, I’m begging you,” Julian argued, his voice cracking. “This isn’t who you are.”
“It is, Julian,” Eva replied, a little emotion in her tone as rocks fell around her. “And more importantly, it’s who I want to be.”
Despite the quaking of the cavern and the continual showers of stone, I stepped forward and spoke as if all were calm in the world.
“Eva,” I called.
Eva pivoted toward me as if expecting an attack. Her fireball continued to increase in size. The orange and gold hues set her leather-trimmed sleeves aglow.
“You were cured of Pure Magic,” I said, confused and hurt. “I don’t understand. You shouldn’t be dark anymore.”
Her expression softened ever so slightly when she looked at me, like she felt pity. “Pure Magic corrupts the heart, Crisa. The Four Waters of Paradise cured me of that disease, but it didn’t change my natural character. I liked being dark. And now I’m choosing it—not because my magic made me, but because it was in me all along. You’ll understand soon enough. Power is difficult to quench once you’ve truly had a taste for it.”
Ozma rubbed her head and started to get up. Eva turned to address her and Julian together. “I used to come here with Glinda before she turned evil, you know. I know where this river comes from.” She opened her hand completely and the fireball quadrupled in size. “Good luck with all of this. Goodbye, Julian.”
And with that, Eva launched her attack. She must’ve been saving a lot of her strength for this moment—the power she unleashed was notably more potent than what I’d seen her use so far.
Her fireball split in four—three assaults the size of coffee tables and one the size of a carriage. The smaller fireballs soared toward our groups: Julian and Ozma, me and Merlin, and SJ, Jason, Daniel, Kai, and Blue. Meanwhile, the fourth and most massive cluster of flames flew toward the back of the cavern and exploded against the rear wall.
Merlin and I dove into the pond surrounding the memory stone. The fireball skimmed overhead and exploded against the wall behind. A brief glance around revealed that my friends had evaded their fireballs, but this was not a victory. Those attacks were merely to distract us.
Eva had vanished. Meanwhile, her massive fireball had caused an enormous crack to appear in the back of the cavern. And it was spreading.
“This mountain has pockets that collect rainwater like reservoirs!” Ozma exclaimed. She gestured toward the tunnel we had entered from. “A flood is coming. Everybody, run!”
Right on cue, water began to sprout from the growing ruptures. Like a broken dam, the fractured back wall wouldn’t be able to hold the pressure of the water outside for long. We all made a break for the tunnel. Julian picked up Glinda and headed into the rock reef, following Ozma. Merlin tossed Mauvrey over his shoulder fireman-style. She did not stir. I couldn’t even tell if she was breathing. Princess secure, the wizard and I dashed up the middle of the cavern along the river while dodging persistent rockfall. I started to lag behind as several stalactites fell in my path, causing me to swerve off course. A glimpse at the rear of the cavern showed so many cracks forming along the back wall that it looked like the stone had developed spide
r veins.
When we were parallel with the tunnel we’d come from, we sharply turned right and delved into the rock reef. Faster and faster we ran. My friends had already darted up the stairs and through the tunnel entrance. Ozma and Julian were climbing the steps now. Merlin and I were on their tail; the wizard was surprisingly strong and fast despite his age and the fact that he was carrying Mauvrey. He made it to the stairs before me and started to clamber up. I wasn’t far beind, but at that exact moment, the back of the cavern exploded.
I heard it gushing like an out-of-control waterfall. A second later, I saw it too. Right as Merlin stepped onto the ledge projecting from the tunnel to join Julian and Ozma, the water rushed into the cavern and the oncoming tidal wave could be seen above the rock reef. I’d never scale the steps in time.
“Get back,” I yelled to Merlin, Julian, and Ozma.
They dashed into the tunnel. With less than a millisecond to make a decision, I stabbed Excalibur into the ground. It pierced the stone floor with ease and I held on tight as water slammed into me, lifting me off my feet. The force would have crushed me against one of the rock ridges had I not been gripping the blade.
When the initial wave settled, I opened my eyes underwater. I concentrated on Excalibur again, pressed my boots against the submerged floor, and with a yank drew it free.
Hm, thanks for the information, Merlin. That actually helped.
Sword in hand, I shot to the surface. The water was already higher than my head and rising as it poured in from the basin on the side of the mountain.
I waded to the rocky steps and climbed the last few before hurrying onto the ledge. The water seemed to keep pace with my ascent, and as I joined Merlin, Julian, Ozma, and the two unconscious women they carried, it reached the level of our exit. It would only keep rising too; from here I could see the full size of the rupture in the back wall and it was massive. This entire cavern might collapse any minute. We turned on our heels and sped away.
“Your friends have gone ahead,” Ozma said to me, panting as we raced down the tunnel. “With the rock pile blocking the way farther down, only so many people could afford to wait. Plus, this way maybe one of them will catch Eva.”
The last of the SRB sparks drying me skidded off my boots. I flicked my eyes to Julian. Ten minutes ago, I’d hated the guy. Now I felt sorry for him. Eva had just thrown a fireball at him and basically said she’d rather be evil than be his wife. That had to hurt. Her actions had hurt me too, but differently. They didn’t sting like the heartbreak Julian was undoubtedly going through, but they knotted in my neck like a pinched nerve. Her words were vultures pecking at dying remains of hope.
Since meeting Eva, I had been inspired by her. She’d had Pure Magic and had been cured. We thought she’d been saved from the darkness, but I was devastated to realize that darkness had been in her heart all along and that she’d actively chosen that path. Merlin and Liza were my role models for how I could possibly end up, but Glinda and Eva were equally viable options. And having both witches acknowledge our similarities made it seem like following in their footsteps wasn’t an option but an inevitability.
I eyed the cord around Ozma’s neck. The pendant tucked into her shirt held the last of the Four Waters of Paradise. Despite Eva’s choice, I had to believe that this cure would still work. I wasn’t like Eva. I may have done dark things, but I was not dark inside; my magic was making me do dark things. If I was cured of that, I would be fine, right?
Hm. Maybe when all this was over I really should convince Ozma to let me have the waters instead of letting her give them to Glinda. She had no idea how much I needed the cure at this point, how much the magic inside of me burned.
We reached the rock pile blocking our exit. The hole at the top was bigger now, like someone had continued to clear it in our absence. The water was up to my ankles, soaking my boots. We didn’t have a moment to lose. Julian, Merlin, and I worked together to carry Glinda’s and Mauvrey’s unconscious bodies to the top of the mound.
“Pass them through!” I heard Daniel’s voice call from the other side.
Rock and dust crumbled from the ceiling. Julian and Merlin eased Glinda then Mauvrey through the opening. Merlin crawled to freedom after that. Then Julian waved for Ozma to go ahead of him. When both Ozians had shimmied out of sight, with water creeping up to my shins, I hurriedly climbed after them.
Kai and Daniel were waiting when I emerged on the other side of the rock pile. She had been clearing rocks from the mound with her magic so we could escape more easily. Jae’s still form lay to the side of the cavern, but his was the only extra body in here.
I bounded down the pile. “Where’s Alex?” I asked Daniel.
“What do you mean?” Daniel asked.
“I left him here,” I explained. “I forced the Shadow out of him and he passed out.”
“You forced the Shadow out of him?” Daniel repeated, incredulous.
“I’ll explain later,” I said with a dismissive wave.
“Only that antagonist soldier was here when we came through, Crisa,” Kai said. “A cloud of silver energy was floating over him when we arrived. That’s how I got these powers back. I guess since no one was present when he died, the magic just hung around him until another body came along to absorb it. The energy rushed into me the second we entered the cavern, probably attracted to me first because I’d already wielded it.”
The mountain shook and groaned, and rocks fell from the ceiling and walls. Water began trickling and then streaming from under the pile blocking the tunnel. We were far enough away from the cavern that I no longer deemed drowning a threat, but dying here was still a very real probability. As quick on our feet as we were, how long would it be until one of us was skewered by a fast-falling stalactite or concussed by a rainfall of rock?
“We need to hurry,” Daniel said, reading my mind. “SJ, Blue, and Jason wanted to see if they could catch Eva. Come on, this way.”
I started after him but halted when a downpour of rock to my right plummeted past the ledge. A second later, a large electric flash surged up and I remembered what was below.
“Wait!” I called. Everyone stopped as I dashed to the ledge and beheld the force field, still intact. This one must’ve been a stronger, permanent barrier. The faint screams of the distant people down the chasm echoed up to me. I could only imagine what the tremors were like that deep in the mountain.
Ozma, Daniel, and Kai came up beside me.
Ozma gasped. “Who are those people?”
“Prisoners,” I replied.
“What do we do?” Daniel asked.
The cavern trembled and we braced ourselves. Jagged stone shards tumbled down and disintegrated on the force field.
“I could try levitating them up a couple at a time,” Kai suggested uncertainly.
“No,” Ozma replied hastily. “The force field would only kill them when they got up here. Nothing can pass through that. I’m betting even Excalibur would disintegrate. Glinda could always produce two types of force field. This one isn’t the kind you can cut through; you saw a few examples of it in the cavern battle. It’s pure destructive energy and will pulverize anything.”
The cavern shook and the cries of panic beneath us escalated. And yet, in that calamitous moment, I found the balance and peace to kneel down slightly and peer over the ledge, deep in thought.
“Only Glinda can take down the force field,” I summarized.
“That’s right,” Ozma replied. “But even if we woke her up, I doubt she’d do it. Julian and I were her friends and she tried to kill us; she’s not going to care about a few dozen innocents. Her heart is blackened from Pure Magic.”
A deep, stinging calm came over me as reality set in. I swallowed hard and knew what I had to do. I stood and looked at the others, at the water edging toward the brink, and finally at Ozma. Despite the countless battles we’d faced in the last few hours, I knew this was where I had to truly sacrifice my well-being.
“So
unblacken it,” I said. “If only Glinda can remove the force field and only her non-wicked self will do that, you have to cure her now. Use the Four Waters. Eva once told us that you only have to mix a sample of the Four Waters with regular water and then dose someone with it to activate the magical cleanse, like Dorothy did when she hit Eva with the bucket of water, that ‘melted’ her.” I pointed at the water on the ground. “You have the tools, so do it now.”
Ozma blinked for a second then looked back at Julian, who was carrying Glinda. “Can you help me?”
He nodded and set Glinda down. Together, he and Ozma summoned their magic. They called to the water on the other side of the rock pile and a stream of the stuff emerged from the opening we’d crawled through.
“Knight, what are you doing?” Daniel said to me hastily. “I figured we all had the same thought when Ozma revealed she had the waters—you need them more than Glinda does. She may not deserve to be corrupted by Pure Magic, but neither do you. And you have much more at stake.”
“He’s right,” Merlin chimed in, adjusting his hold on Mauvrey. “Crisanta, if you let Ozma and Julian do this, there’s no going back.”
“Exactly,” Daniel insisted. “You said the source on Avalon is all dried up. Once that sample is gone, you’ll never be able to remove your Pure Magic.” He paused, both stern and concerned. “You’ve already risked so much—for us, for Kai, for a handful of realms. I know losing Paige hurts, but doing this won’t bring her back. You can’t save everyone.”
This time, these familiar words didn’t irritate or hurt me or cause me conflict; I knew they were true. They were a sad truth, but I was unaffected by the sadness. I understood what had to be done.
Forfeiting any claim on the waters was a difficult decision, but I was set on it. Darkness was partially a choice; Eva had taught me that. And I could not choose to let those people down there die for the sake of my own self-preservation. Pure Magic or not, that would be the choice of someone who was anything but good. Even in the swell of the Aurora—filled with the thriving power that called on me to kill Mauvrey and the flying monkeys and the magic hunters—my heart was still clear enough to know that. Pure Magic could be wicked; I didn’t have to be.
Crisanta Knight: The Lost King Page 28