by Jon Herrera
for a little push out the door.”
He stood up and left the kitchen. Emma followed after him and soon they were right back outside where they had started. The man sighed a long sigh.
“It’s all coming to an end soon,” he said. “Seems like forever and now the time is finally here.”
“You sure seem to know a lot,” Emma said.
“Well, yes, I do know a lot so it’s proper that it seems that way,” he said.
Emma pursed her lips. She looked closely at the man and turned her head and squinted. “Who are you?” she said finally.
The old man grinned a toothy grin, full of mirth. “A good wizard,” he said, winking again. “You need one in every good story.”
“Did you know I was coming?”
He nodded. “Of course, Emma. All I’ve been doing all these years is waiting for you.” He leaned down on one knee so that his face was in line with hers and looked her straight in the eyes.
“Emma,” he said, and he placed a hand on her shoulder. “You are more special than you can imagine. You are going to go on to do great things, if I’m right, but you must start listening.”
“Listening to what?”
“Everything,” he said. “You haven’t been listening, Emma. Not at all. You must do so now. And to begin, you must go and save your friends and your family.”
When he mentioned her friends and family, the reality of the situation crashed back down on her. She held back tears.
“Nah,” she said. “It’s too late. Minotaur had them already when I was transported out.”
Mr Clarence stood up and laughed.
“Emma,” he said and grinned. “Is this your first time being transported by a tree?”
“No,” she said. “It happened once before. Mr Oak saved me and sent me to Toronto.”
“Mr Oak, eh? Good name,” he said. “Well, Toronto was the place where he sent you. But the question is: when did he send you?”
Emma blinked. “It was the next morning.”
He nodded. “What time is it, Emma? Let’s have a look at your funny little watch.”
She frowned and looked at the gray mouse.
“It’s eight thirty,” she said. “That’s funny…”
Mr Clarence laughed a deep hearty laugh that made Emma giggle along despite it all.
“Not a second to lose!” he said.
“But if I’m so far aw— ah!”
Emma jumped down from the porch. “Thank you, Mr Clarence!” she yelled as she ran off into the field. She saw him wave goodbye.
When she was a good way away from the house, she raised her flute over her head and shouted, using the spark that was inside of her. It came to her easily now that she’d passed through the light of creation.
“Titanius!” she said and her voice went out into the world like lightning.
It was lightning that answered her call.
The unicorn came in a flash of light and bowed. “Princess,” he said. He leaned down and she climbed onto his back. “Where shall I take you?”
Emma pictured the clearing in her mind. “Be the lightning, Titanius,” she said and the world became a blur as the unicorn took her into the night.
The unicorn and the girl were like lightning.
They were like lightning that had come down from the sky to run through the streets of Saint Martin.
The residents of the city were, for the most part, locked inside their homes because of the state of emergency, but when Emma and Titanius approached, they felt a charge of electricity that compelled them to look out their windows.
Those who saw them saw lightning but in their minds there burned the afterimage of an armoured princess on her steed, riding into battle.
The world was a blur.
Emma held on to Titanius, though her arms could not reach around his neck. His galloping was impossibly fast and she didn’t know how it was that she was holding on.
In a blink, the black blur of the night became an autumnal rainbow and Emma knew that they had entered the forest. They snaked through the trees and soon they were back in the clearing.
When they arrived, Emma saw the closing of the portal through which had she left. She was the lightning that she had seen.
The rest of the scene was as she remembered. Domino was next to the tree with his arms outstretched as though he had just thrown her into it. Jingles was beside him. Will and Lucy were lying to either side of the monster.
Minotaur had his arm up and he was about to strike her father.
“Minotaur!” Emma shouted and the monster looked up at her. All eyes turned to the girl who sat astride the unicorn.
“You have returned,” Minotaur said. His voice was a mad growl. The fire in his eyes was more intense than Emma remembered.
Emma jumped off the unicorn and approached the minotaur.
She spoke, and her flute was alight. “You must leave this world, Minotaur,” she said. “Go back to where you came from and return all the prisoners.”
There was a vicious growl from the minotaur and Emma knew that he was laughing at her. He took a step toward her and, despite herself, Emma stepped back.
“Is that so?” Minotaur said. “And how do you suppose you’re going to enforce this decree, Your Serene Highness?”
There was mockery and evil dripping from his voice.
Emma didn’t have an answer to his question.
“You don’t know, do you?” he said. “You don’t know anything, little girl, and the things you know are all lies.”
The monster threw his head back and filled the night with a great roar.
“They all have lied to you and you don’t know it. The faun most of all. He never even told you his real name, did he? Domino, he calls himself, because he’s the one to set the pieces in motion.”
He took another step toward Emma. He was all power. She stood her ground but trembled.
“Even this one,” he said, pointing at her father. “Even this one has been lying to you all along.”
Emma saw her father look away from her. He was in pain but, despite that, she could see that he was ashamed.
“What does he mean, Dad?” Emma said.
The monster roared again.
“You think he’s your father?” Minotaur said.
“You’re just talking,” Emma said. “I don’t believe anything you say.”
“Why would I lie to you, little girl? I could crush you in a moment and be done with it.”
The minotaur turned suddenly and snatched something out of the air. It was Domino. He had tried to sneak up on the monster. Minotaur held him by the head in one giant hand and the faun hung like a doll.
“I had enough of you,” Minotaur said and he squeezed. The horns of the creature crunched under the monster’s grasp and he howled in pain. Minotaur threw him aside.
“What now?” he said. “Who else will come to your aid? Who else is left? The horse? I will crush him as well, but no, he will not interfere in this. Will you, Titanius?”
“I do not have to,” Titanius said and turned to Emma. “Princess, how long will you suffer this fool’s speeches?”
There was a certainty in his voice that reassured her somehow.
“In my favourite book,” she said. “Almost no one believes in the hero but he proves them wrong.”
Emma looked from Titanius to Mr Oak. The tree was glowing softly and there was a hum, a little song, coming from him, and it was as though he was singing to himself, content. Mr Jingles was nestled in the tree’s roots and he was humming along. She looked from the tree to Will and Lucy. They smiled at her. She looked to her father. There were tears in his eyes but also hope. He smiled as well.
“Almost no one,” Emma said.
There was a roar from the beast as he laughed once again. Minotaur looked down at her. “Enough,” he roared. “Enough of this game.”
He took another step toward her and he was upon her, towering above her head. The girl and the monster faced each other beneath the
red sky. Emma was trembling but she held her ground.
“You’re right,” she said to him, and a light surrounded her. “That’s enough.”
From the edge of the clearing came the voice of Titanius. “Finally,” the unicorn said.
“You see,” Emma said to the minotaur. “What I said, that’s just in the children’s stories. I’m just wasting time. Tricking you, see. What I’ve really been doing is listening.”
Emma had been thinking it over as they had been speaking. In her new language, the language of the music, she had spoken and she had hummed and she had shouted. There was one thing that she hadn’t done yet and the tree had been showing her what it was. It was the most powerful thing, the thing from which everything had come, and the thing that gave the trees themselves their power.
Emma sang, and it was not with her voice but with the light that was inside of her. It was the song that she had learned when she had been inside the light of creation. It was a song of power and a song of life, and she knew that there was no one in this world who could stand against it.
The light that surrounded Emma grew and exploded from the flute that she held. She raised her hand over her head and a beam of light shot to the heavens. The red sky shattered and the pieces fell to the ground like glass and revealed the moon and the stars.
The minotaur cowered and he winced at the light. He covered his ears as though the song caused him great pain.
“Leave this world,” Emma said. “Now!”
Minotaur ran. He reached the edge of the clearing and found that he could not pass into the forest. The trees that surrounded the clearing stood so close together that nothing could go through but the smallest critter. There was no way out but one. It was an opening in the trees that led to a tunnel that they