Secret of the Unicorn (Avalon: Web of Magic #4) (7 page)

K
A-THUNK. KA-THUNK
.

The sound came directly toward them, flat steps falling with a dull thud. Storm and Ozzie moved in front of Emily. The wolf tensed, growling low. Ozzie grabbed a stick from the ground and held it up like a club. Nearby, leaves and branches rustled. Then the steps came to a halt.

Emily panicked, remembering that horrible, ghoulish face, those deep-socketed, soulless eyes. If that hideous specter stepped out of the trees, she would surely lose her mind. The branches parted.

A large, rotund creature hopped out.

Hopped?
Emily raised her eyebrows in surprise. It looked a like a giant frog. It had lumpy blue-and-purple skin, flippers for feet, and a wide mouth stretched across its face in a perpetual smile.

“Look out!” the giant frog screamed.

Emily, Ozzie, and Storm looked around, confused.

“A mistwolf!” it whispered, pointing a flipper at Storm. Its bulbous, crystalline eyes were wide with fear.

“What the—” Ozzie lowered his weapon. Storm stopped growling.

“She won’t hurt you,” Emily said.

“She won’t?” The frog creature was not convinced.

“Not unless you mean us harm.”

“Me?” The creature slapped a flipper against its chest.

Ozzie stomped up to it, examining it carefully. “It’s a flobbin!” he exclaimed.

“A what?” Emily stared at the newcomer, who was easily as tall as she was but three times as wide.

A long, ribbon-like purple tongue flicked out over Ozzie’s head.

“
Gah!”
The ferret frantically wiped his head with both front paws.

“I didn’t think any animals from this world talked,” the flobbin said.

“I’m special.” Ozzie kicked the big frog. “And I am not edible!”

“Oh. Well, thank goodness I found you,” the flobbin continued. “I’ve been wandering around for hours in these forests.”

“
Flobbins are fairy creatures
,” Storm explained to Emily. “
They are made mostly of fairy magic
.”

“Is it dangerous?”

“Not that I know of.”

“Dangerous? Heavens, no!” The flobbin took a hop closer to Emily but stepped back as Storm walked between them. “I was on assignment for the Fairimentals, looking for magic blobs.”

“What’s a magic blob?” Emily asked.

“You know, pockets of loose fairy magic. Some blobs are quite large and dangerous. I track the blobs, map them out, and report to the Fairimentals for proper handling.”

“You know the Fairimentals?” Emily asked him.

“Sure.” The flobbin shrugged his sloping, warty blue shoulders. “The F-sters and I go way back. Say, maybe you can help me. I’m supposed to find an elf called Ozymandias.”

“
Gah!
That’s me!” Ozzie jumped up and down.

“Really?” Big, bulbous eyes looked Ozzie over. “You’re awfully fuzzy.”

“It’s a long story. Trust me.”

“My name is Ghyll,” the creature announced.

“I’m Emily, and this is Stormbringer.” Emily waved her hand to include the wolf.

“I was heading to the Fairy Glen when everything went crazy,” Ghyll explained, keeping a wary eye on the mistwolf. “The portals got all mixed up and I ended up here. At first I thought I was in the Moorgroves, near Dingly Dell.”

“Dingly Dell?” Ozzie’s eyes went wide.

“I have many elf friends there. Donafi, Brommy, Fernie—”

“Brommy’s my cousin!” Ozzie cried delightedly.

“Yes, he’s the one who told me about you.”

“How is that rotten little pointy-eared creep?”

“Oh, he’s fine,” Ghyll said.

“Do you know what’s happening on Aldenmor?” Emily interrupted.

“All portals to the Fairy Glen have been closed. It’s as if the Fairy Glen just vanished.”

“That’s awful!” Ozzie exclaimed.

“So I guess I’m stuck here,” Ghyll said.

“You and all the others that got through,” Emily pointed out. “Are you hurt?”

“No.”

“Well, if you need anything round these parts, I’m your elf,” Ozzie said.

“I’ve been hopping around in these woods for hours and I’m famished. What do you have to eat in this world?” Ghyll’s long purple tongue snapped out.

“Now you’re talking my language!” Ozzie grinned and patted himself on the chest. “Stick with me. They have the most incredible food here, you won’t believe it—”

“Er, Ozzie?” Emily broke in, knowing that the ferret could easily discuss food all day long. “Why don’t you take Ghyll back and get him settled in? Storm and I can keep going without you.”

“Where are you going?” Ghyll asked, blinking big eyes.

Emily hesitated only for a moment before answering. After all, if Storm and Ozzie felt the flobbin was a creature of good magic, she had nothing to worry about. “We think some injured creature ran away into the woods,” she explained. “We’re trying to track it down so we can help it.”

“I’m a natural magic tracker. Perhaps I can help,” Ghyll offered, puffing out his large chest.

Emily gave a quick glance at Storm, then asked Ghyll, “You haven’t seen anything… peculiar around the woods, have you?”

Mistwolf, ferret, and flobbin looked at one another.

“That’s a relative question,” Ghyll answered.

“Come on, Ghyll!” Ozzie grabbed a flipper and pointed toward the trail. “I’ll show you around Ravenswood.”

“Excellent.” Ghyll looked down at Ozzie. “Lead the way!”

Emily and Storm continued in the opposite direction. The sun angled on its late afternoon arc, sending bright patches gleaming off leaves and rocks.

“What do you make of Ghyll?” Emily asked Storm.

“I sensed nothing dangerous about the creature,”
the mistwolf answered.

“Something doesn’t feel right. I mean, if he’s a magic tracker for the Fairimentals as he says, he’s not very good.”

“How so?”

“There’s enough wild magic flying around here to attract every creature on Aldenmor, and yet Ghyll didn’t even mention he sensed any magic.”

“He didn’t say he didn’t, either,”
Storm said.

“Yes, I suppose.”

Emily turned her attention back to finding the hurt creature. She was afraid the encounter with Ghyll had wasted valuable time. How far had the magical creature gone?

“
Why don’t you try to reach out again
?” Storm suggested.

Emily faltered. “Let’s just check the clearing beyond those trees.”

She pushed through the underbrush, Storm at her side. Suddenly she changed direction.

“This way,” she said, heading across a small, nearly dry streambed. The signal had shifted; whatever they were following was still on the move.

But what
were
they following? All she knew was that something was out there, and she had to find it. An all-too-familiar grinning skull face popped into her head, but she refused to consider it. What they were after couldn’t be evil.

Still, Emily felt frustrated. “How are we supposed to help creatures that won’t even let us get close?”

Storm shook her shaggy gray head. “
If a creature is too far gone to recognize help when it comes, it may be too late.
”

“No!” The word flew from Emily’s mouth before she could stop it. “We can’t give up. We have to keep going.”

Storm gazed at her with patient golden eyes. “
Lead on, healer
.”

A slight breeze carried a light note. Listening closely, Emily picked up a fast swirl of faint static, like interference on a car radio. Within the jumble, she caught a flurry of notes. They reminded her of the crazy noise that had emerged from her flute that morning.

Storm was looking at her.
“Healer, you are tired. Tomorrow is another day.”

All the energy seeped out of Emily. What was the point of continuing this ridiculous game? Storm was right. The creature didn’t want to be found, and wandering around in the woods wasn’t helping anyone. They might as well go home. She felt the familiar wall of despair closing in until she wasn’t sure she could keep the tears at bay any longer.

She stopped suddenly. A wave of magic was building. Again! She felt it rushing toward her, sweeping through the trees, thundering past rocks and over streams.

“Storm, run!” Emily yelled. But there was nowhere to go.

Storm howled, turning to face an enemy that wasn’t there. With a rushing roar, the magic peaked, crashing down around them like a tidal wave breaking against a rocky shore.

Emily braced herself for pain—instead, she was swept away into a dream.

She twirled and spun through snowy, shimmering mists, listening to music. Wondrous deep sounds echoed, rising and falling in the vast space, each note reaching into the depths of her soul. The mists parted to reveal a path of stars, twinkling like diamonds under her feet. The music echoed over streams of pathways spread out before her, a million lights as far as her eyes could see.

Ahead, the path began to break apart, dissolving in great bursts of fire. Emily panicked. The fire raced toward her. Burning, searing agony attacked every inch of her body. Horrible fear and guilt ripped through her. Terror stole her breath and squeezed her heart like a vise.

Emily realized she was feeling the pain of the wounded creature. She couldn’t give up. As the dark feelings swirled through her, Emily fought to keep herself open to them. She had to stay strong and focused. She could feel her rainbow stone pulsing warmly with the unsteady beat.

Something flew at her. She caught a flash of steel, the hint of a blade. Fast and vicious, it sliced toward her—

She screamed, and her eyes flew open. She was standing in the forest.

“
Are you all right, healer?
” Storm’s voice in her head sounded worried.

Emily’s breath came in ragged gulps. “I don’t know,” she croaked, plunging off the path at an angle, straight through a thick tangle of underbrush. She hardly noticed as vines grabbed at her hair and brambles pricked her skin.

She rushed through a cluster of trees and stopped at the edge of a meadow. Bending over to catch her breath, she curled her hands into fists and pounded the air in frustration. What’s the point? Even if she found the creature, there’s no guarantee she’d be able to help it. Emily was becoming exhausted. On the verge of tears, she swallowed hard and tried to remain calm. I might as well just turn around now and—

Wiping sweat-streaked hair from her face, she stared in amazement. There, standing across the clearing, was the most beautiful creature she’d ever seen.

E
MILY HARDLY DARED
to breathe, staring in awe at the creature. It looked like a delicately built mare. She stood about sixteen hands high and had a finely chiseled head and round, polished hooves. Her lavish mane and forelock were tangled and wild. In the reddish late-afternoon sunlight, the creature’s coat looked magenta. She must have been wondrously beautiful before Black Fire had ravaged her colorful coat, leaving it charred and covered with patches of sickly green glow. She was trembling in fear.

“
Stand back, healer
,” Storm growled, stepping out of the brush, her hackles up.

The horse snorted at the mistwolf’s appearance, her eyes rolling back in terror. Kicking up her rear hooves, she spun and leaped—and vanished. A burst of loud, angry, chaotic sound followed.