Secret of the Unicorn (Avalon: Web of Magic #4) (4 page)

“Warrior, come quickly!”
Storm called to Adriane. The mistwolf was already bounding across the field to help the new arrivals move away from the portal before it could close and vanish.

Wails of pain filled the field. Adriane’s breath caught in her throat as she ran in from the surrounding woods to witness the chaos and confusion. Bodies, furred and feathered, were scorched and covered with a sickly green glow—Black Fire. The dreadful poison of the Dark Sorceress must be spreading. If it wasn’t stopped, the magical world called Aldenmor would be laid to waste.

Lyra, the large spotted, winged cat bonded to Kara, and Ariel, the snow owl, had been among the first wave of wounded creatures to arrive when the portal first appeared that summer. Since then, no new refugees from Aldenmor had arrived. Today changed all that. Now, dozens of hurt and dying creatures were struggling to reach the safety of Ravenswood.

Just as the last arrivals were herded off to the side, the portal began to close. Suddenly another creature appeared in the shrinking, swirling hole. It screeched in fear, a wild, jumbled sound. Bright colors shimmered across its body as it darted from the closing portal, bolted into the woods, and vanished.

“E
MILY, ARE YOU
all right?”

“Is she dead?”

“You doofus. She fainted!”

Voices reached her from down a long hallway. Emily felt rough dirt and grass against her cheeks. Then she felt hands lifting her up as she opened groggy eyelids. She looked into the concerned faces of Marcus, Joey, and Molly. Kyle, Heather, and Tiffany sat behind them, watching.

“Are you all right, Emily?” Marcus asked.

She could see why Kara liked this boy; he had such deep blue eyes, full of compassion.

“I—uh—fine.” She tried to push away, but her hands didn’t seem to understand her brain’s command. Instead she clung tightly to Marcus’s arm.

“Move it. Move it. I said out of the way!”

The sound of Kara’s voice sent Emily’s strange sense of serenity skittering away. The golden-haired girl pushed her way to Emily’s side, taking half her weight from Marcus.

Emily shook her head, trying to gather her thoughts. That weird, snaky music was still dancing around somewhere in the far corners of her brain, distracting her and making her thoughts difficult to gather. She noticed other kids gawking with curiosity. The noise of the crowd suddenly flooded around her like a dam bursting.

“Man, you see that?”

“A girl passed out!”

“Give her some air.”

“Is she all right?”

“Fine, fine,” Kara replied to the gathered throng. “Bad hot dog.”

Kara and Marcus gently settled Emily back on the bleacher seat. Joey handed her a bottle of water.

“Thank you,” Emily said, taking a sip.

“What happened?” Kara asked.

“She just fainted,” Marcus told her.

Emily winced. A rush of immense suffering washed over her. She recognized the feeling. Her mind raced back to one fateful August afternoon, only a few months ago. Lyra had been so badly burned that Carolyn had thought she would not survive. But Emily had helped Lyra heal, even before she had her rainbow jewel.

Suddenly everything became clear, the one possible explanation for what was happening: More injured creatures were coming through from Aldenmor. Their terror and distress pulsed at her like a beacon—a cry for help, for a healer.

“We have to get to Ravenswood right now,” Emily told Kara, trying to stay calm in front of the other kids. “Animals are hurt.”

“Lyra?” Kara asked worriedly.

“No. New ones.”

“Healing animals is your thing, I have a game to win.”

“We need you, too, Kara.”

Kara looked back and forth between the cheerleaders and Emily’s concerned face.

Ring, ring!

Kara whipped out her cell phone. “Hello?”

She listened for a few seconds, her sparkling blue eyes widening in shock. Then she snapped the phone shut. “Adriane,” she said to Emily. “You’re right.”

She turned to her friends. “Listen up, you guys. We have a Ravenswood crisis. I have to go.”

“Is there anything we can do to help?” Molly asked.

“Tell the others I had to leave.”

“We’ll take the dogs back to the Pet Palace for you,” Marcus offered Emily.

“Thanks,” Emily said, handing him the leashes. She gave him a grateful look.

Marcus smiled at her.

Emily felt herself pulled away as Kara grabbed her arm. “Let’s go.”

S
TORMBRINGER’S KEEN EYES
spotted Emily and Kara as they pushed through a patch of woods toward the huge, grassy expanse where the portal had appeared at the Ravenswood Preserve. As they emerged into the meadow, the giant silver mistwolf raced up to them, skidding to a stop in front of Emily. “
Healer, come quickly
.” Emily heard Storm’s voice clearly in her mind.

Behind Storm, Lyra padded over to Kara. “
A new group of animals came through. They’re in bad shape.”

Although Lyra was thinking her words at Kara, Emily could hear them, too. Fear gripped her heart. It was always this way when she got close to a creature that needed her. Its pain, fear, and confusion became her own, taking hold inside her and connecting her to the injured one. It was the hardest part of being a healer—having to share all those terrible feelings. Now she stared out over the meadow, her feet rooted to the ground in shock and horror.

It was worse than she had feared. Creatures of various sizes and shapes lay sprawled in the tall grass, crying and shaking. A pegasus stood forlornly, his hide covered with burns, one of his gauzy, butterfly-like wings hanging at an unnatural angle, limp and torn. Two or three long-eared, deer-like jeeran staggered, their soft, green-striped fur charred and their skin oozing blood. There were many species Emily couldn’t even identify—small red bear-like creatures, jet-black possum creatures—but their feelings of pain were all too familiar.

They were covered with patches of a sickly greenish glow, the unmistakable sign of the Dark Sorceress’s hideous Black Fire. Its dark energy seeped into Emily’s mind, making her feel light-headed.

A winged shape momentarily blocked the early afternoon sun as Ariel swooped from the sky and fluttered onto Emily’s arm, wings sparkling with magical highlights of turquoise and purple. “Ooooh,” the owl sighed sadly as she surveyed the scene.

Ariel was the first creature Emily had ever healed by herself, and seeing the healthy shine of the snow owl’s feathers bolstered Emily’s courage. “I’m glad you’re here,” she said, hugging the owl close.

“Emily!” Adriane ran into the field, followed by Ozzie, Balthazar the pegasus, and Ronif and Rasha, silver-billed ducklike creatures called quiffles. These magical animals had proved valuable advisors to the girls over the past few months.

Baby quiffles poked their heads out of pockets in Adriane’s down vest. “Tell us what to do, Emily,” the dark haired girl said.

Emily snapped out of her daze. She looked at the ring of friends waiting for her. She wasn’t doing anyone any good standing there staring. It was time to help.

Her first instinct was to run to the nearest injured creature and just dive right in. But a voice in her head—her mother’s calm, cool, unhurried voice—warned otherwise.
Take the time to get organized
.
Don’t move faster than you can think, or you’ll end up working twice as hard and helping half as well.

“Start figuring out who is worst off,” she instructed her friends, working to keep her voice calm and assured. “Bring me those first. But keep the others near so I can get to them as fast as possible. Move the healed ones out of the way as soon as I’m done with them.”

The entire group whirled into action. Within seconds Kara was hustling back over to Emily, ushering forward a badly burned red koala-sized bear. “Start with him.” She patted the small, furry bear before hurrying away.

“Easy, there,” Emily said, calming the scared creature. “Any idea what it is, Ozzie?”

“A wommel. They live in the trees of the Moorgroves.”

Emily stared at the creature. It was keening softly, its big, wide eyes glazed over with pain. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Adriane herding a small group of limping, burned jeeran toward her. Did she have the strength to do this?

“It’s going to be okay, little one,” she murmured, placing a gentle hand on its soft, furry chest. Her rainbow jewel flashed erratically, cycling through colors.

She took a deep breath and forced herself to be still, to allow the wommel’s pain to flow into her. Her stone pulsed in time with her heartbeat, and after a moment she became aware of the creature’s heartbeat, fast and panicky beneath her hand. She breathed deeply and steadily, and gradually its heartbeat slowed, locking onto hers. Emily focused on the wommel’s injuries and concentrated on sending out healing magic. The rainbow jewel blazed with light, and soon she could feel the Black Fire’s poison weakening, breaking up—and leaving the creature’s body. The sickly green glow faded, dissolving into rainbow sparkles that floated away on the breeze.

Emily barely had time to point the healed wommel toward Ozzie before the next victim arrived—and the next, and the next. For a while she could hardly even think, which was just as well. She had never seen so much horror and heartbreak all in one place. It seemed that the parade of injured creatures would never end.

Finally, Emily found herself healing the last of the injured. Her knees wobbling, she sank to the ground, the dry seed heads of the autumn grass tickling her hands as she leaned back and felt the slight breeze cooling the sweat from her brow. Still, she couldn’t quite seem to relax. A tiny nagging hint of something—a sound?—tickled the edges of her mind, like a teasing memory. But what was it? She wrinkled her nose and shook her head, but the vague sense of uneasiness remained.

Ozzie scampered up to Emily. “You did an amazing job. Who would have thought when I first met you that you would be the perfect healer mage I was looking for!” The ferret beamed with pride.

“Thanks, Ozzie,” she said distractedly. Something was buzzing in her ear. Climbing to her stiff, tired legs with a groan, Emily glanced around the meadow once more, trying to pinpoint where the sound was coming from. But nothing she saw gave her an answer, so she just shrugged and followed Ozzie over to where her friends were standing among a kaleidoscope of creatures.

“Does anyone hear that?” she asked.

“Hear what?” Kara panted as she jogged over with Lyra.

Another wave of frenzied, broken, tuneless noise swept through Emily, like needles of sound piercing her all over. “That!” she gasped. “Those sounds. Can’t you hear it?”

Adriane shot her a concerned glance. “What does it sound like?”

“Like—like an instrument badly out of tune.”

“You’re probably just exhausted.” Kara smiled briefly at Emily, then turned and clapped her hands for attention. “Is that everyone?” she called. “Does anyone else need help? Speak up, guys.”

“We’re all better,” the red wommel answered. “Thank you, healer!”

“Yes, thank you, healer!” More creatures echoed the wommel’s gratitude as a cheer rose up over the meadow.

“You were incredible,” Adriane said to Emily.

“Yeah, really,” Kara agreed.

Emily gave them a tired smile. A few worried mumbles from a handful of quiffles caught her attention. They were gathered around Ronif.

“You heard it, too?” one quiffle asked another.

“Where did it go . . . must be hurt really bad. . . too dangerous. . .”

Emily stepped toward the quiffles. “What are they saying, Ronif?”

“There might be another wounded creature, healer,” the quiffle answered.

“Where?”

Ronif edged a little quiffle forward. “Tell them what you know, Waldo.”

The quiffle called Waldo shrugged. “I think there was another, healer,” he said, flapping his rubbery silver beak. “It was making horrible sounds.”

“Sounds?” Emily echoed. She felt a chill trickle down her spine. “Ariel, did you see anyone else?”

“Something runs, hidden.”

“What kind of creature?” Emily asked Waldo as Adriane, Kara, Stormbringer, and Lyra walked over to join her.

Before the quiffle could say anything more, a newly arrived pooxim—a sleek little creature that looked like a cross between a songbird and a rabbit—spoke up in a singsong voice. “I
see
-saw it,” the pooxim announced. “A
glim
-gleaming blue thing with
flish
-flashing angry eyes full of magic.”

“Did anyone else see this magic creature?” Adriane asked.

“There was something behind us, following us!” another wommel cried excitedly. “We barely got away from it. It tried to run us over.”

“But it wasn’t blue,” Waldo said. “It was green. It nearly kicked my head off.”

“You’re both wrong,” a pegasus piped up. “It was a big purple beastie.”

“No, it was red,” a quiffle disagreed. “And it was howling so horribly I almost lost my mind—and my eardrums.”

“Wait a second.” Emily held up a hand. “Waldo said the creature was green, and the pooxim said blue. But you guys saw red and purple.”