Heart of Avalon (Avalon: Web of Magic #10): (5 page)

“L
ADIES AND BEASTIES
, feast your peepers on this extra ordinary item!” A small blue imp wearing a silver jumpsuit leaped across the stage dangling a glowing purple sphere from a chain. “The one and only Eye of Graleth, taken right from the demon’s keep. Guaranteed to supercharge any magic!”

Emily stumbled forward as large trolls and warty hobgoblins pressed close, gleaming eyes locked onto the magical prize.

“This isn’t Aquatania!” Marlin cried.

The imp beamed. “This little beauty is priceless—but for you, I’ll make an exception. Now, who’ll start the bidding?”

Hands, claws, and spiked tails shot up in the air.

Indi had portal popped Emily and Marlin all right—right into the middle of some bizarre all-creature auction! Torches flamed from nearby towers, lighting the packed market square beyond.

“Sold to the handsome wartbeast!” the imp yelled from the stage.

“Woot!” A hairy, clawed fist pumped the air triumphantly.

“Where are we?” Emily asked as Marlin guided her out of the throng.

“Thieves Bazaar,” Marlin said, stopping at the side of the stage. “Indigo popped us right into the center of Port Tuga!”

“Where is he?” Emily looked around for the shapeshifter.

Circling the market, rows of buildings with thatched awnings formed a dark silhouette against the purple sky. Creatures whose faces were hidden by long, colorful robes, inspected mysterious wares in booths that lined the teeming square. Glowing spheres bobbed and floated next to stalls filled with strange bottles and gleaming lamps. Exotic foods and dry herbs perfumed the market with a spicy scent.

“We have to get out of here,” Emily whispered, nervously eyeing the motley crowd.

“Right.” Marlin dusted off his robes. “I’m a prince. I know how to talk to commoners.”

“Marlin, wait—”

The merprince brushed past her and marched onto the stage.

“Ahem!” Marlin struck a regal pose with his shoulders thrown back and his nose in the air. “Good people of Port Tuga.” His robes blazed in the lights. “And the rest of you.”

Curious creatures swarmed from the shadows. Armor, sharp teeth, and narrowed eyes glinted in the gloom.

“I am Merprince Marlin III,” he announced in a ringing voice. “I’m looking for someone worthy of transporting myself and this great mage.” He gestured to Emily.

The crowd buzzed with interest.

“Mage?”

“Merprince?”

“III?”

“Marlin!” Emily hissed.

“Four thousand stars!” someone yelled out.

“I beg your pardon.” Marlin blinked.

“Shu bada du mama!”

A spinning whirlwind of green and purple twirled across the stage. In a flash, it transformed into a yellow wartbeast with big red bows in its tusks. Dancing back and forth, it snatched the glowing talisman from the imp.

A troll jumped up and down excitedly. “Five thousand stars!”

“
Eight
thousand for the magic beastie!” An eager dwarf leaped into the air.

“I love you!” a wartbeast called out.

“Do I hear ten thousand?” Marlin called back.

“Marlin!” Emily scrambled onstage and pulled the merboy out of the spotlight. “What are you doing?”

She gasped as the talisman arced high in the air, falling into Indi’s gaping mouth. Lighting up like a sparkler, he transformed again, this time into a big, toothy, aqua-striped ogre.

“Spit that out!” the blue imp yelled, chasing the ogre in circles.

Ogre Indi cartwheeled across the stage, waggling a giant purple tongue.

The crowd loved the spectacle, yelling and screaming for more.

“Let’s take the money and hire a boat,” Marlin suggested. “It’s that thing’s fault we’re here.”

“I’m not leaving without my jewel!” Emily argued.

“Well, there it goes.”

“Indi!” Emily cried as the ogre took a swan dive off the stage. Streaking into the nearest booth, Indi started gobbling spell vials, potions, gems, and every magical thing in sight.

The crowd surged after him, blanketing the creature in a dark wave.

Emily dashed to the edge of the stage—and was suddenly standing beside Marlin on the opposite side of the bazaar!

“He portal popped us across the market square!” Marlin complained.

“Indi?” Emily whirled around frantically.

The crowded stage area was empty now, except for one enraged blue imp shaking his fist in the air. The shapeshifter was nowhere to be seen.

“I had them in the palm of my fins,” Marlin huffed.

“Magic spells!” hawkers shouted from brightly colored booths crammed with unusual merchandise. “Fake jewels! Fool your friends!”

Emily gulped. “What are all these creatures doing here?”

“Port Tuga is a hideout for adventurers, magic hunters, and fugitives,” Marlin explained. “I bet you can find any magical thing you want here. Probably even find another jewel.”

“No way.” Emily’s jewel was totally unique. “Come on, we have to find Indi.”

The healer dodged a convoy of covered carts rattling across the cobblestones and scanned the square.

“Knicknoots! Get your knicknoots,” came the cry from a nearby booth. “One is never enough!”

“Fascinating.” Marlin walked over to inspect a pile of smiling, colorful furballs. Each emitted a pleasant sounding hum. “What do you call this?” he asked the frizzy green-haired dealer.

“It’s a knicknoot. Buy four, get eight free.”

“Hey, you can’t beat that.”

But Emily barely heard him. Goosebumps prickled up her spine. Someone was watching her. A black-cloaked figure melted into the shadows behind a booth laden with gleaming potions.

Suddenly her view was blocked by a tarnished brass lamp dangling in front of her face.

“Magic lamps!” A wartbeast grinned, sharp white tusks curling from his whiskered snout. “Only been rubbed once.”

“Uh, no thanks.” Emily stepped back warily.

The cloak of a passing troll caught on the edge of her backpack, revealing a curved dagger cinched to his waist.

“Watch it!” the troll growled.

Marlin grabbed Emily’s arm and pulled her away. Snatching two cloaks from a cart, he draped one over himself and handed the other to Emily. “Stop attracting attention.”

“I wasn’t trying to.” Emily slipped the cloak over her head, tucking her red curls under the hood.

“We have to find transport out of here.” Marlin looked over several booths.

“Check it out.” A bearded gnome with a wide hat displayed racks of brooms, their polished handles gleaming in the lights. “The Nimbot 7000. Fastest flyer I got.”

“A broom!” Marlin scoffed. “That’s ridiculous. It’ll never fly. You got any carpets?”

A movement caught Emily’s eye. The mysterious cloaked figure lurked in the shadows, watching her.

Emily hunched under her cloak, fear creeping through her body. When she looked back, the figure was gone.

She had to find Indi and get her jewel back. Maybe away from the island, she could contact her friends.

“Healer.”

Emily spun around. Someone had spoken to her telepathically! She looked up and down winding narrow streets. Shafts of fading sunlight streamed between the buildings, flickering hints of what the darkness hid.

“You are in great danger.”

Chills shot up her spine. How could she hear a voice in her mind without her jewel?

She scanned the bazaar, her eyes settling on a squat elf leaning against a booth of stringed instruments. His weathered face was etched with a permanent scowl. Long, pointed ears stuck out at odd angles. A banded knot of hair stood straight atop his flat head.

“Did you say something?” Emily asked the elf.

“Not yet,” the elf replied, waggling bushy eyebrows.

“Let me handle this,” Marlin said, and strode up protectively.

“So, yer looking fer a boot, then.” The elf eyed Marlin.

Marlin examined his shoes. “No. Mine are fine.”

“I thought I heard yoos be looking for transport.”

“Yes, we are,” Emily quickly said.

“He said ‘boot,’” Marlin said to Emily.

“Ay, you’re a smart lad. I be Captain Cribby. I been sailing the briny for many an ear.”

“Huh?”

“We need a fast craft,” Emily told the sea elf captain.

“None faster or craftier than the Fearless Flyer.”

Marlin ushered the elf into the shadows. “We need to avoid any confrontations.”

“You wouldn’t be meaning any magical trouble, now would you?”

“What gave you that idea?”

“Take a squinty over there.”

Several trolls in leather armor and heavy boots pushed their way through the crowd. One immense troll juggled a handful of singing knicknoots. His buddy slapped them away, pointing in the mage’s direction.

Marlin self-consciously pulled his cloak tighter about his royal robes.

“Now, wee wee be goin’?” Cribby whispered.

“What?” Marlin threw his webbed hands in the air.

“We need to get to Aquatania,” Emily said.

Cribby whistled. “Ya know, Aquatania is across the freakin’ world. Anywhere a mite closer? I hear Boggle Bog is quite nice this time of year.”

“No, Aquatania,” Marlin snorted contemptuously.

“Can you take us there?” Emily asked.

The elf’s beady eyes glittered. “For a fee.”

“Once we get there, we’ll pay you handsomely,” Marlin promised.

“Thank you for the compliment, but I prefer cash.”

Emily’s hopes sank. “We don’t have any money.”

Cribby scratched his nose and inspected the prince’s sparkly outfit peeking out from under the cloak. “That’s a nice robe ya gots there, Princely.”

“It’s encrusted with pearl and opal.”

“That’s just crusty enough.”

Marlin sighed. “Fine.”

“Marlin, are you sure?” Emily asked.

“Yeah, it’s okay.” Marlin smiled weakly. “I still have my royal rings.”

“I’ll be needin’ those, too, laddie.”

“Fine, fine. But not until we’re aboard.”

“Okay. We’re gonna need a scuttlebucket of supplies.”

Emily pulled at Marlin’s cloak. “We need to find Indi.”

Marlin’s deep brown eyes studied hers, then flickered to Cribby. “Ten minutes then, at the docks.”

“No more, no less, or I be sailin’ without ya.” Cribby’s large red sandals clacked across the cobblestones as he scurried into the crowd.

“Excellent!” Marlin exclaimed. “See, I told you to leave it to me.”

“You must leave at once.”

Emily’s face went ashen. “Who are you?”

“Duh… Marlin!” The prince pulled his hood aside quickly.

Instinctively she reached for her wrist—then remembered her jewel was gone. How could she have heard anyone?

This time, Emily closed her eyes and asked with her mind,
“Who are you?”

“A friend.”

Suddenly a roar erupted across the crowded square. A purple blur flew through the air, bouncing over the crowd.

“Indi!”

Back to his odd sea dragon form, the shapeshifter tore through a striped canvas awning and ricocheted through booths, demolishing rows of shelves. Spell vials, wands, and crystals went flying as the creature stuffed everything he could into his mouth.

“Indi!” Emily bolted across the busy square.

Marlin followed her, then skidded to a stop.

The group of trolls had surrounded Indi. One of the brutes picked him up, shaking him furiously. The troll scratched his head as Indi whirled in rainbow colors.

Marlin casually stepped up. “Excuse me, my good troll.”

The troll stared down at the merboy. He was easily three times Marlin’s size, with biceps so huge, they looked like hams, and thighs as thick as tree trunks.

“Would you be so kind as to return the purple… um… dragon.”

“Get lost!” The troll shoved Marlin with a huge hand.

Marlin was either incredibly brave, or just stupid.

“Now look here, I am Prince Mar—”

The troll pushed his muzzle in Marlin’s face. “We don’t like your kind.”

“You mean the kind with clean breath?”

A crowd gathered around them, grumbling loudly.

“Hey, it’s that merprince!”

“And the mage.”

“Indi, pop us out of here!” Emily pleaded with the sea dragon.

Emily and Marlin disappeared in a flash. With a
Pop—
they materialized two feet to the left.

Indi belched a rainbow of sparkles. Eyes crossed and tongue lolling, he hung limp in the troll’s hands.

“Har har!” the trolls laughed. “Make more magic, mage.”

“Leave us alone!” Marlin gallantly stepped in front of Emily. “Don’t worry,” he whispered to her. “I’m schooled in protecting six different types of princesses.”

Emily gulped. “I’m not a princess.”

“Oh. Then run!”

But there was nowhere to go. The trolls pressed in, backing them against a building.

“A mage and a merprince.” A silver dagger glinted in the troll leader’s massive hand. “Nice.”

Emily had to do something—and fast! But what?

“Use your magic.”

Magic? But what could she do without her jewel?

“You don’t need your jewel.”
The strange voice echoed in Emily’s mind again. “
Control their thoughts—make them think something else.”