Sapphire (14 page)

Antares roared and raced after the Kayi-Elk as they
all turned and shot away up a steep slope.

“Get on!” Mira knelt and Shawna leapt onto her
back.

Mira didn’t move. “Get
on
,” she said to
Orin.

Shawna thought she was about to have a heart attack
as he leapt up behind her and wrapped his arms around her
waist.

Stop.
She mentally shook herself.
It
doesn’t matter. Don’t be ridiculous.
She tried to look at him
out of the corner of her eye just as Mira bolted away up the hill.
The force pushed her back into Orin’s chest, and his arms held her
tighter as he leaned forward for the both of them.

Don’t fall,
was all her mind could think as
she resisted the urge to look at him.

She was so large and powerful that Mira quickly
caught up to their guides and Antares. All the hooves on hard earth
rumbled like an earthquake as they came upon a clearing where two
enormous vine-covered pillars dominated the landscape. The Kayi-Elk
raced straight between the pillars and vanished. Antares vanished,
and then Mira galloped through the magical barrier.

“No!” Mira cried out and reared as soon as they
entered the realm.

Shawna felt Orin drop to the ground, and she threw
an arm back to catch him before she realized he had slid off on
purpose. He glanced at her outstretched hand, and she immediately
grabbed onto Mira’s mane again. She turned away to hide her
flushing cheeks, then held her breath as she saw what lay before
them. They were too late.

Shawna didn’t have time to take in the ethereal
beauty of the realm: ice-like trees surrounded by ever-swirling
eddies of snow, spring grasses and flowers repeatedly blooming and
dying, all seasons were happening all at once in this utopian
perfection. All she saw was a vast lake in the distance. The entire
lake was seething, boiling, moving as if it were alive and trying
to form into solid matter. A hundred or more Kayi-Elk were
galloping everywhere, shouting, and racing towards the water.

“He has vanished,” shouted their guide as he
cantered up to them. “The sorcerer has laid a powerful curse upon
Karuna, and we cannot break it.” The Kayi-Elk looked murderous and
petrified at the same time.

“Help us!” he said to Shawna, desperation clouding
his crystal eyes. Not waiting for her reply, he dashed away towards
the gathering Kayi-Elk near the lake’s edge.

Her heart lodged in her throat.

“I don’t know
how
to help you!” she tried
yelling after him, but he was too far away.

“Maybe we should leave,” said Orin.

Mira whirled on him. “Leave? If we leave—” Her eyes
narrowed and she pinned her ears back.

“If we leave—
what
?” he said, narrowing his
own eyes.

“Are you here to aid us or not, boy?”

His jaw clenched, but he drew his sword and
nodded.

“Look!” Lula said, flying out of the backpack and
pointing towards the mass of Kayi-Elk below.

Out of the lake’s center rose a thing even worse
than the nightmarish molochs. Giant antlers broke the surface, then
an enormous human skull dripping with flesh emerged. It let loose a
screaming high-pitched roar so horrifying that everyone tried to
shut out the painful cry and shook their heads until it ceased. The
hellish creature continued to rise. The skeleton of a human female
torso that was half in flesh, half decayed, appeared. Then,
attached to the torso, the decaying body of a once beautiful elk,
its hair swirling with greens and browns of the earth, broke the
surface and began to advance towards them.

“Is that Karuna?” Shawna yelled over the deafening
tortured scream.

Orin came up beside her. “Yes. We need to
leave!
” His face was as white as her knuckles. “We shouldn’t
have come here. There’s nothing we can do.
She’ll
be
killed,” he said, gesturing towards Shawna as he glared at
Mira.

Shawna jumped down from Mira’s back and looked at
Orin.

“It was
him
wasn’t it. The one you warned us
about.” She grabbed Orin’s arm. “Gavan did this. But how did he
find it? Do you know?”

Orin looked away. “No. Maybe it was her,” he
said.

“You mean—” said Shawna.

“Your mother.” He pulled his arm away from her
tightening grasp. “I know as much as you do.”

Antares looked at Orin and flexed his claws. The
earth trembled. Orin put an arm out and pushed Shawna back from the
huge monstrosity slowly striding through the roiling waters. The
Kayi-Elk were holding their arms up, facing her, and chanting
something. The lake had turned a sickly gray-blue. Bubbles the size
of small hills rose then burst sending toxic steam skyward. Shawna
craned her neck back, inhaled, and grabbed Orin’s arm. The dusky
sky was tearing apart like disintegrating cloth. Directly above the
lake there was nothing but space, endless and dark, littered with
stars. Orin backed into her so quickly that she nearly fell
over.

“What’s happening?!” she shrieked. “What do we
do?”

Mira remained silent for a long time then turned her
head up to the appearing galaxies. “The last time,” she said
quietly. “There was no escape for them the last time—” but the
memory seemed too harrowing for her to continue. The starlit
darkness was eerily reflected in her eyes as she stared up at
it.

The dying Guardian, almost an entire skeleton now,
was just below the rise they stood upon. It seemed to sense them.
It opened its jaws wide and screamed a piercing yowl. Shawna’s hair
stood on end from the sound.

Mira, a horrified gleam in her eyes, turned and
knelt down. “I’m afraid Orin’s right. There’s nothing we can do. It
would be the death of us all.” Shawna didn’t need to be told twice
as she scrambled onto her back.

Lula flew into the backpack. “I
absolutely
agree.”

Orin glanced at the massive Kayi-Elk guardian, more
and more flesh was falling away in strips as it howled and
screamed, then he leapt up behind Shawna.

“We cannot help them. Let’s hope we can escape with
our lives,” Mira said. “This place is lost. Hold on!”

They galloped away from the terrible scene, leaving
the last of Karuna’s clan mad with horror.

“What will happen to them?” Shawna shouted over the
sounds of chaos from behind.

“Their land is destroyed,” said Mira, “and so are
they.”

Shawna looked back again, trying to see around
Orin’s shoulder, but he was trying to shield her. All she glimpsed
was the destroyed guardian howling with rage and pain, the sunset
sky disappearing above, and the green earth slowly shriveling to
arid dirt.

“Wait!” she yelled. “Sparkle? Stop! Mira, stop!”

“What?” said Lula, emerging from the backpack.

The bat was frantically flying towards them, but
Karuna was striking like a snake trying to catch him in her bony
hands. Sparkle swerved, dove, weaved, but not fast enough. She
caught him.

“No!” shouted Lula.

“Lula! Don’t!” Shawna called out as Lula shot
towards the monster.

Sparkle slipped from between Karuna’s fingers only
to be captured again by her other hand. She was toying with him.
Lula was a blur of gold dust as she tried to help the silly pink
bat she pretended to hate, but adored more than anything. Sparkle
squeaked hysterically for her.

“You big…bony…nag!” she screamed, throwing a flurry
of dust at the giant skull.

Karuna roared and turned her eyeless sockets towards
Lula.

“I said,
stop
,” Shawna yelled again at Mira
as Karuna advanced on Lula.

The crazed guardian was starting to crush Sparkle in
her fleshless hand.

Shawna tugged on Mira’s mane. “Stop!”

Without fully realizing what she was doing, she let
go and flung herself from Mira’s back, landing hard, and rolling
head over heels through a snow patch. Mira cried a startled neigh
and slid to a stop so quickly that Orin nearly flew over her
neck.

“Shawna!” he shouted as Mira pivoted on her hind
hoof.
“
What are you
doing?”

She ignored him and was glad she hadn’t broken
anything. Her pack was ripped away, and her sword had flown from
her grasp. She raced over to grab it just as Antares leapt over
her. He was electrified from tail to tooth, red lightning striking
the ground as he sailed overhead. He landed fifty feet in front of
her and lashed his tail, sending lightning crackling and flying
from it like whips. His roar at the advancing creature made
Shawna’s crystal sword vibrate in her hands.

Mira skidded up to them, dirt and snow glancing off
Shawna’s face. “You idiot, girl! There is nothing you can do. If
you try to break your neck again I’ll break it
for
you.”
Mira was so furious all she could do was stamp her hooves, sending
white flame curling up her legs.

Shawna felt the persuasive magic and almost did as
she was told, but something inside her rooted her to the ground.
She paused, hand outstretched towards Orin’s reaching palm. She
slowly shook her head then turned around, sword clasped in her
hands, and pointed it at the enormous living-corpse in front of
her.

“Hey!” she shouted at the top of her lungs.
“
HEY!
”

Karuna turned her giant skull towards her, red flame
erupting from empty eye sockets. She gasped.
Moloch!
She
didn’t allow the thought to go any further.
Just…don’t run,
she commanded her legs. She glanced down to make sure she even
still had legs.

Antares looked surprised when Shawna stepped next to
him, ready to fight. “You should run,” he growled.

“Shut up,” she snapped, keeping her eyes on
Karuna.

The sudden silence beside her finally made her look
away from Karuna’s advancing corpse. Antares was staring at her,
and she wondered for a moment if he was going to cuff her like an
ornery cub. He started growling deep in his throat, then huffing
through his nose, and she realized he was laughing. Now
she
was stunned into silence.

“Well, I didn’t say which
way
to run,” he
said through his laughter.

She smiled, then they both turned their attention
back to the monster below. Lula was still valiantly trying to
rescue Sparkle while Karuna swatted at her like a buzzing gnat.
Karuna’s eyes were on Shawna and Antares. She seemed to have
forgotten that Sparkle was in her hand.

Orin yelled at Shawna again, but she ignored it.
Mira snorted and pawed the ground, demanding her to listen. Anyone
else would have fainted in fright from the unicorn with flashing
horn and white fire in her eyes, a beast of fury not beauty, but
Shawna felt a sudden strength and confidence. It was probably
insanity. It was probably going to cost them their lives, but she
wouldn’t run. Not this time.

No matter what Lula did, it seemed to not affect
Karuna. Sparkle was still struggling between her skeletal fingers
as she strode up the incline. She halted not far from them,
towering as impressively as Kryos.

Shawna could see that Karuna was now nothing but a
mindless giant. She gagged and nearly threw up as the sweet
repulsive smell of decay wafted towards them.

“
Ava,”
Mira began to scold, but fell silent
when something else caught her eye.

Shawna looked down and gasped. The necklace was
beginning to glow and float. This time, however, the one
transformed sapphire stone emitted a ray of white blinding light.
The light shot straight at Karuna and hit her directly in the chest
cavity. Her rib cage glowed like a tiny sun had erupted inside it.
Her screaming roar nearly made Shawna’s ears bleed, and she dropped
her sword to cover her ears. Antares yowled with pain and red
lightning shot erratically in all directions.

As soon as the sapphire-light had appeared, it
suddenly vanished. Shawna had fallen to her knees. Karuna ceased
her howling. She started lumbering towards them. Every hoof beat
was like a little earthquake. When she crested the small hill, she
opened her hand to reach towards them, each finger bone longer than
Shawna’s sword. Sparkle fell to the ground, unconscious, beneath
her massive hooves.

“Sparkle!” squealed Lula, plunging towards the
ground.

Antares roared and swiped a paw through the air
sending forth a concentrated wave of energy like an extension of
his claws. It whipped through Karuna’s arm bones, shattering them
like glass. Shawna forced herself up again. When Karuna reared
back, more than twice in height now, and beat the air with hooves
the size of boulders, she almost agreed with Mira; she
was
an idiot. What in the world did she think she was doing?