Song of the Unicorns (Avalon: Web of Magic #7) (6 page)

“Twigtastic!” Tweek exclaimed.

Adriane and Emily touched her hands, sending gold and blue light spiraling up and around the blazing star. Scowling with frustration, Kara tried one last time.

Crystalline light beamed forth, melting into the invisible barrier. The shield glowed, then shrunk into a small, flat silver object that plopped into Kara’s hand.

“Hey, cool, a protection amulet—I was reading about these,” she said.

But no one was paying attention to Kara. The blond girl turned around to see what everyone was staring at.

Thirty pairs of wide eyes looked back in silent terror.

“O
OOOOO, PONIES!” KARA
squealed.

A herd of beige and white creatures with lanky legs and flowing manes trembled against the cave wall.

Tweek hopped up and down, loose twigs flying. “Those aren’t ponies, those are unicorns!”

“
Help, it’s a fuzzy muckle!”

“EeoooPP!”

“No, it’s a werebird!”

“FhoooB!”

“WWAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!”

The terrified unicorns burst into tears, pushing and stumbling over one another to get as far away from Kara as possible.

Wild unicorn magic erupted uncontrolled, exploding across the ceiling in a hail of fireworks. Rocks shattered, sending jagged shards flying.

“KaaRaaaahhh!!!”

The frightened dragonflies dodged falling rocks and disappeared in bursts of brilliant bubbles. The unicorns wailed louder.

“Help!!!”

“HOOOaaaaHHHHH!”

Diamond light streamed from Kara’s unicorn jewel, forcing her backward. The magic swung over the unicorns’ heads, slamming into the walls. “I can’t control my jewel!” she screamed.

Lyra roared, leaping to Kara’s side to keep her from falling. Ozzie frantically waved his paws.

Rainbow arcs of unfocused power sparked and flashed. A huge stalactite plummeted and crashed to the floor.

“Howwlooo!” Dreamer raced about in circles as the wild magic pummeled his senses.

Emily had never felt such strong magic. The panic and pain of these creatures crashed into her senses, wild and raw. Falling to her knees, she fought to keep from fainting as the cave spun around her.

“Help me, Ozzie,” she gasped.

“Emily!” Ozzie cried, his ferret stone exploding in bright amber light. “
Stop it!”
he yelled at the unicorns. Amplified by his jewel, his voice thundered over the chaos. “You’re hurting her!”

The unicorns looked up, startled into silence. Their magic faded.

“Thank you,” Emily said, catching her breath.

Adriane ran to Emily’s side, helping her up.

“Easy,” the warrior said.

Fighting past the unicorns’ fear, Emily reached into the calm, bright center of her healing powers.

“It’s okay,” she said, sending a shimmering wave of blue-green magic over the terrified creatures. “We’re not going to hurt you.”

The unicorns looked wonderingly at the red-haired girl.

“What about the fuzzy muckle?”
a unicorn sniffled.

“I am not a fuzzy muckle!” Kara scraped at her plumed mud mask and took the towel turban off her head. Her blond hair sprang up in long spikes.

The unicorns looked at each other, squeaking like out-of-tune bagpipes.

“I’m Emily,” the healer said softly. “I heard you calling to me.”

Tweek walked among the lanky legs, counting. “…twenty-eight... nine… thirty… It’s the entire freshman class of unicorns!”

“But where are their horns?” Kara asked.

“Their horns haven’t grown yet, thank goodness,” Tweek explained. “They’re babies.”

“Am not! I’m almost one!”

“How’d you get here?” Emily asked the little unicorns.

“SQEeeOOnK!! TOot! …couldn’t find the portal and… boOP! SQUooooK!… we fell over the bridge… pHloop… I bumped my head!”

All the unicorns brayed at once in a combination of screeching sounds and jumbled thoughts. The chaos unleashed bursts of wild magic again.

Emily gasped.

“Gah!”
Ozzie yelled, stone pulsing. “One at a time!”

The unicorns turned their heads into a protective huddle. A hoof rose up as one unlucky unicorn was booted from the group. He landed on his rump in front of the mages. He had very large ears, a bulbous nose, and a forelock that stuck straight up. Realizing it was up to him, he took a deep breath and blurted his story.

“My name’s Pollo, and we were on our way to Dalriada, but the monsters found us and we must have fallen through a portal and landed here. Then we ran into this cave and used the amulet shield to hide us.
”

“Honk!”

Another unicorn, taller than the others, with a beautiful flowing mane and tail, peeked out. Realizing Pollo wasn’t going to get eaten, she pushed him out of the way and took over.
“How’d you get past the shield?”

“This is Kara,” Emily explained, pointing to the blazing star. “Her unicorn jewel opened it.”

“Oooo!”
All the unicorns looked at the sparkling jewel dangling between Kara’s fingers.

“I demand you take us out of here!”
the tall unicorn ordered.

“Riannan, it really is a unicorn jewel!”
Pollo said.

“Who are you?”
Riannan demanded.

“I’m your brother, Pollo.”

“Not you!”
Riannan stamped a sparkly hoof.
“You!”

“This is Adriane, Lyra, Dreamer, and Ozzie,” Emily said. “We’re from Ravenswood.”

“Just because they
say
they are doesn’t mean anything,”
Riannan sniffed, swatting her golden tail against Pollo’s skinny flank. “
Everyone stay back.”

The unicorns all pushed past Riannan to examine the girls and magical animals.

“Hey, you know I rode a big unicorn,” Kara said with a brilliant smile.

“She’s a blazing star!”

“Wowhoot!”

The babies piled around her.

“May I see that?” Tweek asked Kara, reaching for the protection amulet in her hand.

She handed the amulet to the twiggy guy.

Tweek ran a beam of light from his own jewel over the silvery object. “Someone sent the unicorns to you.”

“Here?” Adriane asked incredulously.

“This is a very powerful amulet. And it’s been tuned to the unicorn jewel.”

“Gah!” Ozzie hopped with surprise as a unicorn butted him. The colt’s sleek hide was covered with polka-dot spots.

“
I’m Ralfondiz. What are you?”

“Watch it, Ralfie,” the ferret answered.

“Ozzie’s another mage,” Emily explained. “He’s an elf.”

“Are all elves as fuzzy as you?”
Ralfie asked, cocking his head.

“No, I’m extra fuzzy!”

“I’m Snowflake. Are you a mistwolf?”
a snow-white unicorn asked Dreamer shyly.

Dreamer huffed, turning his left ear to mist.

“Oooo.”

“I’m Calliope.”
A beige unicorn with big blue eyes sidled up to Kara. The creature’s hide twinkled as if coated with fairy dust.
“My hair is all dirty.”
She hung her head.

Kara ran her fingers through Calliope’s tangled silky mane. “Not to worry, a little herbal conditioner and you’ll look amazing!”

The unicorn beamed.

“Thank goodness we’re rescued!”
another unicorn exclaimed, tripping over her big feet and falling on Lyra. “
Hi. I’m Electra.”

“Easy there, Electra.”
Lyra nudged the lanky unicorn to her feet.

An ominous noise rumbled through the cave, dropping bits of rock and dust.

A little unicorn whimpered against Emily. “
Are the monsters still after us?”

“Violet, you’re such a worry wommel,
” Riannan said, rolling her beautiful dark eyes.

Adriane moved to the cave opening, her wolf stone glowing, warning of imminent danger.

“What attacked you, Violet?” Emily asked.

Violet squeaked and hid her head between her long front legs.

“
Big monsters made out of mist,”
a unicorn with a sock marking on each foot told her.

“
I saw better than you, Clio!”
another one scoffed. He had a pale blaze on his forehead. “
They were mist monsters.”

“That’s what I just said, Dante!”
Clio stamped her hooves.

“Whoever made those creatures has powerful conjuring skills!” Tweek exclaimed.

“Only a magic master could use fairy magic like that.”

“We have to leave this place now,” Adriane said decisively.

“Just get us to our wagon and take us to Dalriada,”
Riannan ordered.

“I’m afraid the wagon is gone,” Emily said, understanding now how they came here.

“Well, now what do we do?”
Riannan groaned.

A howl of rushing wind echoed eerily in the cavern.

“BLEEEEEEAAAAAHHHH!”

Everyone jumped as a little unicorn blasted a noise like an air horn.

“Spruce, can that honker!”
Dante scolded.

“Something bad is coming,”
Spruce said, shivering.

A wet, slithering sound echoed down the dark tunnel.

“Of course, a very powerful fairy creature could be using elemental magic. There are some from the Otherworlds capable of it,” Tweek mused.

“How do we fight it?” Adriane asked, looking over her shoulder, down the dark tunnel.

“Fight it? That’s quite impossible. You’re only Level One mages.”

Kara, Adriane, and Emily stared at him.

“I thought we were full mages,” Adriane said slowly.

“How many levels are there?” Emily asked.

“Didn’t you guys read your HORARFM?” Tweek sighed with exasperation. “Handbook of Rules and Regulations For Mages! Your mentor should have given you that.”

“We don’t have a mentor,” Adriane said.

“What?!” Tweek shuddered, shedding a pile of shrub. “You mean to tell me that you’ve been wandering around with magic jewels all by yourselves?”

“Hey, what am I?” Ozzie interjected. “Chopped liver snaps?”

An eerie metallic swishing whispered up the tunnel, getting closer.

Dreamer growled, his hackles standing straight up.

“You won’t leave us, will you, Emily?”
Violet asked, trembling against the healer’s side

“Of course not,” Emily said as the unicorns huddled against her and Kara.

“Can’t the unicorns open a portal, Tweek?” Kara asked.

“Absolutely not! Their magic is completely unreliable.”

“Kara, call the dragonflies back,” Adriane said, glancing into the inky tunnel. “Get them to open a portal and we’ll go through it, take the unicorns with us.”

“Where?” Ozzie asked. “I think Texas Slimbob might notice thirty extra equines hanging around the ranch.”

“The empty stalls by the feed room in the barn,” Emily suggested. “No one will see us there this time of night.”

“Twighead.” Ozzie handed the E.F. a loose branch. “Get the protection shield back up.”

Tweek examined the object in his twiggy hand. “I’m afraid I can’t. It has to be recharged.”

“We have our own protection shield,” Adriane said, turning to the mistwolf. “Dreamer, turn to mist and cover the cave opening.”

The young mistwolf shuffled back and forth, unsure how to use his special magical abilities.

“You can do it.” Adriane ran her hand over the wolf’s thick black fur. “Just like we practiced.”

“Okay, Kara, let’s do it. Hurry!” Emily ordered.

“Oh, all right.” The blazing star closed her eyes and called for her mini friends. “Hey! D-flies! Front and center!”

Colored bubbles popped over surprised unicorn faces as a quintet of mini dragonheads carefully peered out.

“Oooooo.” Goldie surveyed the situation.

“Goldie, open a portal back to the ranch,” Kara ordered. “Get us in the barn.”

“Okeee-dokeee.”

Squeaking industriously, the pint-sized dragons locked wingtips in circular formation and started spinning.

Dreamer stood, eyes squeezed tight. His body began to shimmer, and his head suddenly disappeared into a swirl of hazy smoke.

“Concentrate,” Adriane urged. “Let the magic run through your body.”

Dreamer’s head reappeared—but his legs had vanished. The pup whined.

A high-pitched scream filled the tunnel as the slithering sound came closer.

“Kaaraa!” The minis had spun open their portal and were stretching it wide.

“Okay, that’s enough. Lemme see.” Kara stuck her head through, then stepped back. “We’re good to go. Move it, everybody!”

“You go.”

“
I’m not going first!”

“No way!”

“I hate portals!”

“I threw up!”

“Listen up!” Ozzie marched back and forth in front of the little unicorns. “The sooner everyone goes through, the sooner we’ll be in a safe barn filled with hay, oats, grain, carrots—”

“
Blech, we’re not horses, Fuzzy!”
Ralfie stuck out his tongue.

“Ozzie. All right, all right, whatever you want to eat, I’ll get it
personally
.” Ozzie started pushing Ralfie toward the portal. “Now, who’s first?”

Dreamer had managed to spread his misty body over the cave opening. His head floated in the center, wide eyes looking none too pleased.

“Not bad,” Adriane said. Tight circles of golden fire spun around her wrist and up her arm.

Something huge skittered by the opening. Through the mist, a long body snaked past them.

“Ahh—!”!

“Shhhh!”
Riannan swished her tail in Clio’s mouth.