Sapphire (38 page)

A flash of bright light blinded her. She threw her
hands up and turned away. The catatonic fog lifted from her mind.
When she blinked and looked around, searching for her weapon, she
suddenly stopped with dread. Lesath’s horn was whole once more, a
blazing spear of sapphire, but he was writhing and contorting,
slashing madly at the ground with his hooves. She grabbed the sword
and leapt away just as his flailing legs smashed the earth where
she had crouched.

She searched for the door again and still saw no
escape. She was trapped. Lesath unleashed a gut-wrenching scream,
and her panic rose with his cry. The last time she heard a scream
like that was in Karuna’s realm. The realm she destroyed.

“No,” she said to herself.

She lowered the sword to her side and slowly backed
away, shaking her head, refusing to believe everything would end
like this, after
everything
they’d been through.

“
No
,” she said again, but her eyes would not
deceive her.

Lesath’s skin was tearing, bones cracking, his whole
body growing and morphing. The horse-like scream turned into a
bear-like roar. His nose broadened, his teeth elongated, tusks
curved outward, neck thickened, shoulders hunched, and finally
claws extended where hooves once were. The sapphire horn had split
and grown down his neck like spikes. Slabs of fur and flesh were
still peeling off to reveal bone beneath as he opened fanged jaws
and roared. Lesath was now fully moloch despite regaining the
shards of his horn. He turned his eyes on Ava and she stared into
their hell-fire depths.

“Why did this happen?” she whispered out loud.

She couldn’t understand what she had done wrong.
Hadn’t she atoned for the wrongs her family did to the unicorns?
Intention,
said Capella’s voice in her mind. But her
intentions had been good, hadn’t they? Lesath gurgled then roared a
laugh. The rolling sound, like smashing boulders, made her skin
crawl.

“You have done well,” he rumbled. “But there is one
last thing you must do for me, human. For us all.” He threw his
monstrous head back and howled.

He hadn’t seen the doorway yet. She glanced towards
the arch beginning to materialize from thin air a few hundred feet
away. She could make it. Every fiber of her body stretched towards
the flashes of light beyond the portal as she sprinted away.
Lesath’s echoing laugh followed her as she raced across the barren
dirt. She would make it. It was right there, a hundred feet, fifty
feet, twenty feet. She twisted her head around as her leg shot
forward through the barrier. He was right behind her.

She jumped through the waterfall of light, landing
and rolling head over heels, as Lesath sailed inches above her.
They both skidded only feet away from one another, but when she
stood he was not looking at her. Instead he was lumbering towards
Mira. He stopped when he was close enough to attack, but still Mira
didn’t move. Her horn barely reached his hunched shoulders. She
stood calmly, quietly, and stared at the monster in front of her.
Her sides were heaving and drenched in blood and sweat.

The three of them were completely surrounded, but
every single monster was now silent, watching the moloch-lord in
their midst. It had begun to rain again. Rivulets of water raced
down the mountain side along with the still pulsing veins of light.
Ava desperately looked around. She was the only human among legions
and legions of creatures that had hunted her since the day she was
born. Orin was no where to be seen. She caught a sob, choking it
back down, as she raised her sword at the murderous creatures that
had taken everything from her.

Their prey was cornered. She had no one. No one but
Mira. She tried to catch Mira’s gaze, frantic to know what to do.
There must be something they could do. Mira had protected her all
this time, kept these monsters at bay, she
must
have a way
for them to escape. Lesath turned his bear-like head towards her
and grinned. Mira also turned towards Ava, her horn flashing under
whips of lightning lashing down from above. Ava began to smile, her
lips trembling, then it quickly fell away. Mira rotated to face her
and lowered her horn. Just before she charged, the molochs erupted
with roars of triumph.

Mira reared then lunged forward, aiming straight for
her. Ava couldn’t comprehend what was happening, and her hands
refused to raise her sword. Time seemed to slow between raindrops
as the sound of Mira’s hooves thundered louder and closer across
the sodden earth. The drone of growls and snarls faded and mingled
into a distant rumble. Muscles rippled under Mira’s raven hide as
Ava watched each reach of those powerful legs propel the deadly
horn nearer to her heart. She inhaled and realized each breath was
now counting down to her last. Another few hundred feet and the
force of the horn would crush through her sternum, break her ribs,
and impale her heart.

“Raise your sword,” Mira said in her mind as the
distance between them closed. “Trust me.”

Ava at last found her voice. “Trust?! Like
hell!
”

She could feel small tremors along the ground from
Mira’s pounding hooves. She raised the crystal sword, took her
stance, and yelled her rage.

A flash erupted in her mind as Mira threw a memory
at her in those last fateful seconds.

Lesath, in his half-decimated form, stood with Mira.
The night sky shrouded them, and all Ava could see were their
silhouettes. Mira’s horn glimmered silver while Lesath’s jagged
points threw golden glints.

“
The last human, kill it. Sacrifice it,” he said.
“Only then will we be purged of their curse.”

Mira inclined her head as he continued.

“
It must be one of the guardian lineage, and its
soul must be strong.”

“
Yes, my lord.”

“
Adhara and her mate have just given birth. Seek
them out for they will want to help. Protect them and befriend the
child. Mold its soul and when it is of age, make it believe it’s
truly trying to save us all. Test it by taking it to the other
guardians. That is the only way our curse and the race of man will
both be wiped from this land.”

Mira nodded once as he continued.

“
Do not let Lorna kill the human child. She will
take its power for her own. She has seen what we intend to do. I
think she means to make her own sacrifice to counter ours, a boy
with great powers. Find him first if you can.”

“
Of course. But, my lord, how will I reclaim the
shards of your horn?”

“
Go to the other sister, Capella. Lorna holds her
captive as well but is still close to her. Lie of your intentions
and perhaps she can be swayed to your side.”

“
I will bring Adhara’s child to you when it is
ready and sacrifice it,” Mira said coldly. “The last of the humans
will not suspect, nor will the other guardians.”

“
And you are the last of us,” he said with a
trace of fear. “By killing a virtuous and trusting soul, one that
will willingly die for you, such a sacrifice will break the
darkness inside our own kind but not in the humans.”

“
Not the humans? If they remain molochs they
will—”

“
I have a use for them.” A disturbing grin spread
across his deformed head, making it look as if his whole jaw might
unhinge. “The humans came from another realm, and I plan on seeing
that they return to it.” A gargling hiss of excited anticipation
slid between his jagged teeth.

Mira swished her tail and a meteor flashed overhead.
“I am ready to serve, my lord. What the humans have done is
unforgivable.”

“
The dragon, Sirrush, is also willing to aid
us.”

Mira’s head jerked back. “The dragon?” She shook her
mane, ears swiveling back and forth. “We cannot put our trust in
the dragons. They—”

“
They also want to see the realm restored. Do not
question me.” A growl gurgled from his deformed body, and Mira
trembled from the effort to stand still.

He turned his head and Ava saw the red eye in his
skull glow brighter than any star. “They killed your foal.”

Mira laid her ears back.

“
They murdered it to open a gateway to man’s
realm once more.”

He tilted his head, revealing bone beneath ragged
strips of his neck. “You can feel it as well, can’t you. The
darkness. The hate. The desire to kill. It has affected us
all.”

At his words she stamped a hoof and tossed her head.
“I will help you destroy them. All of them.”

The shared memory disappeared as a crack of
lightning, a flash of horn, a gleam of crystal, and Mira was upon
her. Suddenly, in that last moment before impact, Mira raised her
head. Ava’s face was a white mask, but before her understanding
could take hold, Mira’s massive chest rammed into her. There was a
piercing cry, then absolute silence as Ava flew through the air and
landed on her back, the wind knocked from her lungs.

It was Lesath’s enraged roar that finally cut
through her addled consciousness. She closed her hand then the
other. They were empty. She wiped the rain from her eyes, then
gingerly raised herself to her elbows. Mira lay not far from her, a
long furrow in the mud marking where she had fallen and slid to her
side. Ava tried to move and feared she never would again until she
saw Mira’s chest rise with breath. She flung herself towards her
and crawled. Mira did not stir when Ava reached out a tremulous
hand to touch her warm body. A sob wracked through her throat,
tearing her from the inside, as she clutched Mira’s soaked and
tangled mane. The iron hilt of curling vines protruded from the
strong chest while blood ran downhill in long tendrils.

“
No!
” Ava screamed through choking sobs.
“What did you do? What did you
do?
”

Mira’s nostrils flared and a violet eye looked at
her from beneath a half-closed lid. She tried to raise her
head.

“We were wrong,” Mira said
quietly. “Do not let him…you can still change…” Her eye flashed
with intensity for a moment. “The
gateway…
” But then those clear eyes
that had promised to protect Ava grew glassy with death, and her
head sank to the ground.

Ava stared into the sightless eye, and her mind and
body felt like an empty shell. She was someone else, a spectator,
detached. Raindrops were beading and dripping from Mira’s
eyelashes, making it appear as if she were crying. Ava, still
clutching the mane, stared at the elegant head that would never
rise again. Her understanding in that last moment when Mira raised
her horn provided no comfort. The last unicorn sworn to kill the
last human guardian had sacrificed herself instead. Ava felt an
electric charge rush through her body, a power not her own, a power
far stronger than the light she had unleashed on Karuna’s
realm.