Sapphire (31 page)

Shawna felt like the fire behind her was actually
burning inside her. She thought of Lula, Mira, Antares, Capella,
and all the friends she had made on her journey, and felt herself
engulfed with love towards them. She touched the iron hilt of her
sword, carved and reinforced with the images of those who cared for
her
. This woman was nothing.

“Who are you?” Shawna said without a tremble in her
voice.

The woman smiled and walked over to a chair, petting
its fur-drapery.

“Who am I?” she mimicked in feigned innocence. “I’m
the one who knew what you would really be, what it would mean if
you were allowed to
live.
” Her eyes stabbed at Warwick then
at Shawna. “But my
sister
and her idiot husband didn’t
understand, didn’t even want to hear what I had discovered.”

Adhara was gazing at the woman, her eyes dancing
with clashing emotions. “No, Lorna, please…you—”

“Quiet!” Lorna shouted, slicing her hand through the
air and sealing Adhara’s lips shut.

Warwick tensed and blue light sparked from his
hands.

“Strike and you’ll see who’s faster, old man!”

He continued to glare while his wife struggled to
release the spell her sister had cast on her, but he didn’t move.
Adhara gasped as she unsealed her lips and didn’t say another word.
Shawna slowly looked over at her mother. Before she could say
anything, Lorna spoke again.

“You are the end of this world, girl.” Lorna looked
straight into her eyes, and Shawna unconsciously grabbed the
sapphires around her neck.

She dropped her eyes to Shawna’s hand for a second
then looked up. “If you open that last gateway, the fifth realm,
our whole world will be destroyed, and so will everyone in it: your
friends, your parents, that stupid
boy,
everyone!”

“It’s not true, Ava,” said her father. “We don’t
believe it and neither should you. Your power and fate are not
bound by the words of a dragon.”

“Not true?!” said Lorna. “She’s been under
everyone’s
power but her own since the day she left your
arms, Warwick.” He and Adhara pushed Shawna back towards the fire
place while Lorna pointed a finger at her. “She has no will of her
own. I’ve
seen
it. She follows blindly like a lost wolf-pup
and let’s others decide her fate,
our
fate!”—She swept her
elegant hands at them, then turned them upon herself, her eyes wide
and manic—“
I
sent the molochs to try and stop her before she
could even reach this world.
I
found our hope for
salvation.”

She brandished the golden orb around her neck.

“But even with
this
,” she hissed, “I still
could not touch her, not as long as she had those shards with
her.”

Shawna dropped her hand from the sapphires, and
raised her chin while Lorna let go of the golden orb around her own
neck and stood tall.

“Unless you
gave
them willingly to me,” Lorna
spat in anger, “which was not likely. I had to find someone who
could.”

Shawna took a deep breath.
Orin.

“And,” Lorna went on, “I wanted to make sure my
sister,
”—She shot Adhara a look of disdain—“would be out of
my way. I made sure Shawna believed it was
you
, Adhara, who
was the one that wanted to kill her. I imprisoned you and Warwick
here, and made your own daughter hate you and vow revenge.”

“
You
did this?” Warwick whispered.

Lorna raised an eyebrow at him. His arms were
trembling with barely suppressed rage, his fingers digging into his
palms.

“You cast this spell?” His voice shook. “Making our
own castle a
prison?
Concealing Adhara and I from one
another? From
Ava?
Why?”

“Why do you think?” She sounded bored. “I would have
killed your wife, and Capella if I could, but because of the
unicorn’s powers we were all too powerful, too equal. It would
nearly kill
me
to kill either of my ‘beloved’
sisters
.”

“So you imprisoned us instead,” said Adhara in a low
voice. “Hoping our very own daughter would do the deed for you.
You’re
sick!”

Lorna looked at her like she was a piece of talking
furniture.

“With this fragment.” She tapped the golden orb with
a long fingernail. “I at least had the power to do that.”

Adhara’s face was crawling with utter disgust. “You
found one? You killed it? How could you?”

“One of the last,” said Lorna with a smug smile.
“They’re even more powerful than you could imagine. Unfortunately,
the boy I found from a powerful and ancient line, Orin, proved to
be weak.”

She threw a murderous look at Shawna, who was trying
desperately to understand this exchange as her father slowly inched
towards Lorna’s periphery. She realized Adhara was keeping her
sister distracted, and Shawna thought of a hundred actions to take
when the time was right.

Lorna continued boasting to Adhara, oblivious to
Warwick. “Your precious daughter would have never found you, or
broken the enchantment unless she truly, with all of her heart and
being…wanted you dead.” Her eyes fell on Shawna. “What would be
more fitting than for your own daughter to destroy you; you who
believed she could save us.”

Her grin made Shawna’s insides feel like a mass of
maggoty eels. Shawna looked over at her mother and shook her head.
Adhara just stared, unblinking, and slowly raised a hand to her
chest.

“No,” Shawna said, still shaking her head. “No I—”
Her lips were so dry. “It’s not like she says. I mean, I thought
you were
her
. I didn’t know. I wouldn’t have—” She couldn’t
speak anymore.

It felt like she was suffocating as she watched one
single tear fall down her mother’s face.

“I know,” Adhara said so quietly that Shawna could
barely hear her, then she smiled at her, and Shawna understood
everything in that smile.

She understood that when she had raised her sword,
ready to kill her, Adhara wouldn’t have stopped her. Her head
whirled, and she felt nauseated at the thought, for she knew she
wouldn’t have stopped herself.

“Unfortunatelyyy,” drawled Lorna, flicking her eyes
between mother and daughter.
“It-did-not-seem-to-work-out-as-I-hoped.” She swept her eyes down
and up at Shawna. “Even after sending that handsome lying little
heart-breaker, Orin. That moron who has fed you lies and betrayed
you as he’s done me.”

Shawna was shocked to see, not anger, nor
determination, but deep pain writhe across Lorna’s face.

“He hasn’t,” said Shawna, taking a step forward. “He
didn’t betray me. He’s betrayed
you
because he found out the
truth
.”

Lorna laughed maniacally then abruptly stopped.
“Truth? Truth is only made from the lies you feed yourself and
twist into belief.”

She pushed the chair away from her, and strode over
to Shawna, but stopped a few feet away as if just remembering that
they weren’t alone.

“You want the truth, girl?” she said, her lip
curling in disgust. “Ask that boy. Ask that soleon. Ask that
unicorn.
” She grinned then simpered, “Oh, how sweet, you
think Orin loves you. You thought that kiss was genuine? His
promises, you think he meant them? Oh, yes, I know everything,” she
answered to Shawna’s tightening lips and glistening eyes.

“You never wondered why he followed you into the
woods that night, and why he never kissed you again; why, if he
wanted to kill you so badly, he never did.
Why
he said what
he did in order to gain your complete trust? He has never wanted
your desperate lips against his.”

Shawna covered the necklace with her hand.

“He may have betrayed me,” said Lorna, “but he
betrayed you most of all. He doesn’t want to help you, or me. He
wants the power all to himself, and he will say
any
thing to
get it.” She held up her hand. “He’s quite the clever little
devil.”

She flourished her hand like a magician presenting a
trick, and a giant Agonian bear, holding a struggling form crushed
in its arms, materialized into being near the doorway. The bear
roared, shaking dust and cobwebs from the ceiling above. Shawna
raised her hand to her mouth. She stared at the bear, and the image
of a young Orin watching his family murdered flashed before her
wide eyes. Then, in her mind’s eye, the bear morphed into a hawk, a
wolf, and a man pointing an arrow at her heart.

She quickly inhaled and watched helplessly as the
adult Orin was being crushed by the beast’s strength. Jaw clenched,
lips pulled back in a grimace, he writhed and yelled out in pain.
Blood stained one side of his head, his chest, and trickled down
his arm onto the stones below. His eyes caught hers for a moment.
She tried to stare past the amber-brown of his irises, past the
fear and the pain making them glisten. She wanted to see the truth.
He shut his eyes and yelled again as the bear threw him across the
floor. He crumpled and tried to raise himself, but Lorna flicked
her wrist and white chains of light wrapped his entire body.

“Shawna,” he coughed, spitting blood and struggling
against his bonds. “Remember what I said.” His eyes were so
pleading it almost brought tears to hers. “I meant it. I meant it,
Shawna.”

Lorna scoffed. Shawna felt like the chains had
wrapped around her instead. Her mother and father were stealing
glances at one another, and then they both shot quick glances at
her. Their faces seemed blank, but she saw a flicker of her
father’s eyebrow, a pursing of her mother’s lips, and she gave a
slight nod. Lorna noticed nothing. Just as she was raising a hand
at them to perhaps cast the same spell, or worse, Warwick and
Adhara whirled their arms and a tornado of liquefied light shot
forth and encased her in a swirling web. The bear roared and reared
to its full height of salivating fury.

Shawna barely noticed what was happening around her.
All she saw was Orin. She ran to his side as her parents threw
their attack on the bear.

“Don’t worry about me,” he said in a hoarse voice.
“Get out of here before she breaks free. What are you doing?!”

She wasn’t listening to him, instead she was
standing over him with the crystal sword in hand. A flurry of
emotions flew across her face as she steadied the sword in both
hands.

“Lies,” she whispered. “I’ve heard so many
lies.”

He knitted his brow. A rivulet of blood trickled
between his eyes and dripped down his cheek to the stone floor.

“What
isn’t
a lie?” Her tone was calm, and
she saw that it unnerved him.

Her parents had forced Gavan down the hallway. Only
tremendous roars and flashes of light erupted from beyond the
doorway.

She could see Orin’s pulse pounding in his neck.
He’s afraid of me.
This thought both emboldened and saddened
her.

“What do you want from me?” she said, lowering the
sword’s edge towards the throb in his throat.

His eyes widened, and she could almost hear the
thudding of his heart over the distant sounds of fighting. Her
hands were starting to shake, but she took a deep breath and
steadied them. Orin stared, speechless. Sounds of fighting echoed
like thunderclaps. Lorna was still wrapped in the blinding web,
though dark rips were starting to appear.

“Look at me and tell me!”

He jerked at her shout, and she kneeled over him,
pressing the blade’s edge under his jaw. He made a gurgling sound
and craned his neck back, his eyes widening even more.

“Why did you swear to help us,” she said quietly.
“Why did you promise to protect me? I need to know the
truth.
I’m tired of secrets, of lies. Can I
trust
you…or not?” She choked on the last word.

Orin’s eyes did not stray from hers. “Is that what
she told you? Yes, at first it
was
for my own gain. You’re
right. I wanted the power those sapphires held. It was what I had
been raised to do.”

She bit back a sob.

“But,” he said, still trying to arch his neck away
from her sword. “But after Mira broke into my memories, after those
days in the village, I could finally
see
again. My mind
wasn’t clouded by her anymore, or by the…stone.”

His eyes glanced down at his chest, and she also
glanced at the gold stone that matched Lorna’s.

“I could see how wrong I was,” he said, his voice
growing stronger. “I could see what really mattered. I don’t care
about any of that anymore, because I care about—”

She gave him a warning
don’t-play-games-with-me
look.

His adam’s apple made the blade shift as he
swallowed, then said, “I never thought I could want anything as
much as wanting to help you.”

He had tried to raise himself and accidently nicked
his skin against the sharp blade. He gasped and lay still. When
Shawna remained just as still and silent, her face unfathomable, he
continued.

“
Please
, Shawna, believe me, not her. I
believe in
you.
I believe you are here to help us, not
destroy us.”

She wasn’t sure if she believed him, or even if she
should. Her arms were trembling, not with fear, but with a rush of
anticipation. A small voice within her, the same voice that had
whispered in her ear when she first saw her mother, was whispering
to her now,
kill him. Kill him before he kills you.

Orin must have seen the change in her eyes, for he
quickly said, “I can only tell you what
I
believe. I can’t
make you believe what you don’t
want
to believe.” His eyes
never flinched from hers as he said softly, “I’ve fallen in love
with you.”

Her nostrils flared, her eyes stung, and she raised
her sword. “I don’t believe you.”

His forehead creased in alarm, the dried blood
cracking. A long tear ripped down half the cocoon around Lorna. In
one fluid motion, Shawna sliced her sword across his chest. The
glowing chains dissolved from the blade’s touch.