The Amulet (23 page)

Faedra swallowed hard. The King of Azran
didn’t hold a torch to the presence that Kernunnos exuded. He
finished scrutinizing Faedra and walked back to stand before Faen.
Then he closed his eyes and held his arms outstretched. He stood
there in silence for a few moments, and when he opened his eyes
again they were completely white, no eyeball, nothing, just white.
Faedra took a step back as she sucked in a breath and covered her
mouth with her hand.

“I see giant white horses several hundred
feet tall, a hill that is perfectly round, near a spire so high it
touches the sky. A circle of stone surrounded by A’s is where the
book can be found.” He closed his eyes, and when he opened them
again they had returned to their normal color.

“But what does that mean?” Faen asked,
confused by the cryptic clue.

“I can only tell you what I see, Guardian. My
powers do not give me a road map.”

“Do you know in which realm we may start to
look?”

“I do not. I am sorry I cannot give you
clearer directions.”

“Thank you, My Lord. You have, at least,
given us something to work with,” Faen bowed his head.

“Good luck, Guardian,” Kernunnos said as he
turned toward the tree. Then he paused, turned back to look at
Faedra, and inclined his head.

“Custodian,” he acknowledged, before
continuing to walk back into the tree.

As soon as the archway in the tree sealed up
behind Kernunnos and his stag, the mist cleared and the sunlight
once again rained down upon them.

Faen scratched his head. “I was hoping for
more precise direction than that,” he said. “There are no horses
that large in any realm.”

“Horses, horses,” Faedra mumbled to herself,
pacing back and forth as she meandered closer and closer to the
edge of the clearing. She was holding her chin in her hand, her
brow furrowed. “Surrounded by A’s? Why does that sound so
familiar?” she continued her pacing for a few more moments,
mumbling under her breath, trying to connect the pieces of
information to something buried deep in her memory.

“Oh, my God!” Faedra blurted. The others
turned to look at her stunned expression. “I think I know where it
is.”

“Where, Ms. Faedra?” Faen asked urgently as
he and Jocelyn walked over to where she was pacing.

“I’ll take you there. It’s in my world,” she
said with excitement.

“No, it is too dangerous. Tell me where it
is, and I will go,” Faen insisted.

“Like heck you will. I’m going with you.”

“No, you are not,” Faen raised his voice. He
didn’t do that very often.

“Yes, I am.” Faedra shot him a warning
glare.

“No, Ms. Faedra, you are not.”

“Yes… I… Am!”

Jocelyn sighed and sat herself down on a
nearby boulder. She could see this was going to take a while. She
watched the argument unfold before her, moving her head from Faen
to Faedra as if watching a game of tennis.

“You are making me angry,” Faedra growled
several minutes into their back and forth battle. With a glare that
could kill, she opened up her palms to reveal two glowing orbs of
blue.

Faen looked down at her hands and scoffed.
“You would never use those on me,” he said, with a look that oozed
arrogance.

Who was she kidding? Of course, she wouldn’t,
and she threw them at a nearby tree where they exploded on impact,
shattering the bark, and sending fragments of wood showering over
Jocelyn.

“Sorry, Jocelyn,” she called as she noticed
her friend sweeping bits of bark off her dress and picking it out
of her hair. Then she turned on Jocelyn’s brother again. “I do not
need to be wasting my energy on you, either,” she scowled at
him.

“You’ll upset Kernunnos,” he goaded as he
looked over at the splintered tree.

She glared at him again and balled her hands
into fists, resting them on her hips, squaring her shoulders as she
did. She lifted her chin in defiance, and they stood in silence for
a while, a frosty stand-off that neither was willing to concede
to.

Eventually, Jocelyn broke the angry
silence.

“Um, you two, the fate of all realms rests
with you, and all that,” she said with concern. They turned
together and glared at her. She put her hands up “Okay, okay, just
thought I would mention it.”

They went back to glaring uncompromisingly at
each other, and a few more moments passed.

“Sometimes, Ms. Faedra, you can be impossibly
stubborn,” Faen spoke first.

Faedra raised an eyebrow at him. “And
sometimes, MR. Faen, you can be impossibly arrogant,” she snapped
back at him.

They continued staring at each other. Then
Faedra noticed a subtle shift in the way Faen was looking at her.
The frustrated expression he was wearing melted away and was
replaced by one of consideration. He leaned in and cupped her face.
Before her brain even had time to react, he had planted his lips
very self-assuredly on hers, which sent a tingle of electricity
throughout her face, down her neck and along her spine. Her eyes
widened with surprise, and she found she couldn’t move. She was
frozen to the spot, but her senses were heightened to the point
that they were almost crackling with their intensity.

Then she surprised herself. She accepted his
kiss and kissed him back. Her hands that had been balled into fists
just seconds ago were now tangling themselves through his silken
hair. After a moment he pulled away, but still held her face in his
hands, and a wry smile curved the corner of his mouth.

“Very well, Faedra,” he made sure to
exaggerate her name as he inclined his head, “you may come with
us,” he whispered. His face was still so close to hers she could
feel his warm breath on her face as he spoke.

In that instant their paradigm shifted. She
was no longer his charge, he no longer her Guardian, although, she
could sense he would always be her protector. They were now
partners with one goal; to retrieve the Book of Anohs and return
Vivianna, the king’s daughter, safely back to Azran and her
father.

“Yay,” Jocelyn cried, clapping her hands
excitedly, pulling Faen and Faedra from their reverie. They both
turned to look at her.

Faen looked at his sister with a puzzled
expression, pulling his eyebrows together.

“Well, it is about time, Brother,” she
stated.

He looked back at Faedra who was still
reeling from their kiss. They looked at each other and chuckled.
Jocelyn stepped down off the boulder, walked over to them and put
an arm around each of them.

“Well, now that we finally have that out of
the way, I assume we need to make our way back to the portal,” she
said with a smirk.

Faen looked up at the sky; the sun was
sinking and it wouldn’t be long before darkness enveloped the land
again.

“We will make camp here for tonight. It will
be dark soon, and not all of Azran is safe to travel at night,” he
explained. “We will leave at first light.”

“Come on, Faedra,” Jocelyn said as she took
hold of Faedra’s arm, “let us go and find some firewood.” They
headed into the trees.

“Do not go out of sight of the clearing,”
Faen called out to them in a protective, big brotherly way.

“We won’t,” Jocelyn called back.

They didn’t need to go but a few feet in, as
there were plenty of small branches and kindling lying all around
them. They bent down and scooped up sticks, holding them in their
arms as they did so.

“I guess you were right about the ‘wings’
thing,” Faedra mentioned after they had been searching for a few
minutes.

Jocelyn smiled warmly. “I know my brother
better than he would like to think I do,” she said.

“He still hides them, though,” Faedra
sighed.

“Give him time, Faedra. He has never felt
about anyone the way he feels about you, and he didn’t even realize
that until a few minutes ago.”

Faedra looked through the trees into the
clearing where Faen was collecting rocks to make a small fire pit.
“Neither did I,” she whispered under her breath.

“It will be worth the wait, Faedra. His wings
are the most spectacular that I have ever seen. If you think mine
are beautiful, they do not even come close to my brother’s.”

Faedra smiled weakly at her friend. “I think
we have enough, don’t we?” she said, holding out her arms that were
now full of sticks and small branches.

Jocelyn looked at Faedra’s bundle and then at
her own. “I think so.”

They headed back to the clearing and dropped
the wood next to where Faen was placing rocks in a neat circle. He
was being extra careful to make sure that the fire could not
spread. Everything surrounding them was so tinder dry, the whole
lot could catch fire very easily.

The sun sank beyond the horizon, and darkness
replaced it. They grabbed the rolled-up bedding that had been
attached to the back of each saddle - the king had thought of
everything – and unrolled their ‘beds’ around the campfire that
Faen had started with a click of his fingers. They sat down beside
the warming flames that licked up into the night. Occasionally
sparks would ascend up into the sky when a knot in a piece of wood
crackled and popped.

Faedra sat peacefully while Faen and Jocelyn
spoke in hushed voices to each other. She was trying to see if she
could control her energy without the emotion of anger. So far, that
had been the only time she had been able to use it, when she was
angry.

The first time she had used it, she was
feeling anger and frustration at not being able to materialize
anything, then wham, there it was. The next time, her fear had
changed to anger behind the hotel when she imagined her dad finding
her dead on the cold floor. Her power had surged through her
uncontrollably that time. Then a little while ago she had been
getting angry with Faen but was not angry enough that she hadn’t
been able to control it.

She tuned Jocelyn and Faen out. She didn’t
know what they were talking about, sibling stuff she assumed. She
was going to get a grip on her power if it was the last thing she
did. She closed her eyes and imagined the sensations that flowed
through her body when the energy manifested itself, and she tried
to recreate that feeling. She wanted to be able to rely on using
her power if she needed to; when they met whomever was in
possession of the book. She wanted the ability to use it in a
skillful way, and not just as a knee jerk reaction.

It took a few times, but after some serious
concentration, there it was. She could feel a warm sensation in her
hands. Faedra opened her eyes to see two balls of blue light
bobbing gracefully just above her skin. The reflection in her eyes
from the sparkling energy made them look like they were twinkling
in the darkness. She smiled and closed her palms, pushing the
sensation back. She opened her palms again and the light was
gone.

She tried this several more times, each time
feeling more and more in control of the energy coursing through her
body. She was elated and stared in awe for a few moments at the
balls of energy bobbing above her hands. It was mesmerizing, almost
hypnotic. A warm feeling surrounded her hands and they closed, but
she hadn’t closed them herself. She looked up to see Faen kneeling
in front of her, his hands wrapped around hers, and she gave him a
quizzical look.

“I have been watching you control your power
for a while now. You are learning quickly, but you do not have much
food and will burn yourself out.”

She could hear the concern in his voice and
gave him a warm smile. His face glowed in the soft light from the
fire.

“You’re right,” she said. Until he had
stopped her, she hadn’t noticed how hungry she was getting. She
leaned over to get her knapsack; retrieving half of its contents,
she began eating. She knew how weak she would feel if she didn’t
eat quickly.

Faedra looked over to Jocelyn, who was now
sleeping soundly beside the fire. How long had she been doing this,
and how long had Faen been sitting watching her?

“It’s a beautiful night,” Faedra said as she
looked up to admire the enormous full moon that was pouring its
silvery light all over them.

“It is,” Faen agreed. He looked over at
Jocelyn sleeping. “We must rest if we are to make an early start in
the morning.” He pulled his bedding over, laid it down next to
Faedra’s, and sat down on it. “I will be right here if you need
me.”

Faedra returned his smile with one of her own
and settled down to sleep.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Faen knelt down beside Faedra and gently
shook her arm. He and Jocelyn had prepared the horses and were
ready to leave, but he wanted her to sleep as long as she could.
Her eyes cracked open and a smile crept across her lips at the
sight of him. She sat up, and after stretching her arms upwards,
rubbed the sleep from her eyes. She looked for Jocelyn and saw her
over by the horses; their things already packed and attached to the
saddle, and her smile fell from her face.

“Why didn’t you wake me earlier?” she asked
in dismay. “Faen, I am always a step behind you guys, and that
makes me feel inadequate.” Her voice was laced with a tinge of
annoyance and embarrassment.

“You needed to sleep as long as possible,
Faedra. You used up a lot of your energy last night,” he stroked
her cheek with the back of his hand, his expression one of concern.
“I shouldn’t have let you, but you were really starting to
understand your power and control it, and you may well need to use
it today. It will take but a few moments for us to get you packed
and ready.”

“Okay,” she sighed. He made perfect sense,
using her power drained her beyond belief. “I’ll let you off this
time,” she said with a smirk.

The sun was not yet up, but the sky was
glowing with that beautiful light that welcomes the day just before
the sun decides to peek over the horizon and has every hue of
pastel you can imagine. She rubbed her hands over her face, willing
herself awake, and accepted Faen’s offered hand to help her up off
the ground. He hastily rolled her bedding up and carried it over to
her horse. She followed.