Comet Rising

by MarcyKate Connolly

  “We caught her once, we can do it again,” Lucas says.

  Lady Aisling yells as she lets loose another burst of flame, this one aimed at Dar’s feet, the only somewhat vulnerable part of her body.

  “But first, Lady Aisling,” I say. Lucas’s eyes glint.

  “Now,” I say to Lucas. Together we let loose our talents, light and shadow twining and bolstering each other in thick, braided cords toward the Lady and Dar. But the Lady sends flames at them, slowing them down and making the edges smolder, though not enough to stop them. She dodges and pops another petal in her mouth as guards arrive and march into the fray. We immediately focus our powers toward holding them back, Lucas with bands of light and me with my net of shadows. But they’ve gotten smarter since the last time we fought them and are better prepared. The first few I try to catch dodge out of the way faster than I can reorient my magic.

  Frustrated, we keep at it, chasing the guards around the garden and keeping them away from Dar and the Lady so they can’t give her aid, and they can’t subdue Dar either. I wish it were night—if it were, I could use shadows to distract and disorient, but in the bright light of day, it would be too obvious what is shadow and what is flesh.

  Lady Aisling summons her latest power—earth rattling—and stomps on the dirt. Dar is knocked flat on her back as the earth moves under our feet, and so are we. The guards stumble but must have experienced this talent before because they keep their balance.

  Lucas and I scramble to our feet, light singing and shadow weaving at the ready. This time, my net catches them up a few at a time, and Lucas pins them to the hedges using his golden bands of light. No matter how much they struggle they won’t be able to break free until night falls, or we let them go.

  When we turn our attention back to Lady Aisling, she has Dar pinned to the ground and is sending jolts through her sister, laughing as Dar convulses, writhing in pain. We focus our combined magics on her, a burst of light and shadow sending her careening backward. I envelop her in shadows, making them thick and tacky and hard to move through, while Lucas uses hot bands of light to surround the shadows, encasing her. For one precious moment, Lady Aisling looks afraid before the light and shadow cover her face completely.

  Dar groans, but regains her feet.

  “What did you do?” she cries. “No! Emmeline, release her. I must destroy her myself! Please!”

  “She’s too dangerous. We can’t risk it.”

  Dar howls, lunging for the shadow-and-light case surrounding Lady Aisling. She pummels it with her fists until they smoke from the heat of the light bands.

  “Dar, stop! We’ve got her now, she won’t hurt anyone again.” Lucas says.

  The ground quivers under our feet, but this time we remain standing. An awful wrenching noise follows. The sound is deafening, as if the earth itself objects to its power being trapped in shadow and light. Moments later, a crack appears in the garden floor, shooting across the ground.

  The force of Lady Aisling’s magic is rending the garden in two.

  The crack widens. We leap back to avoid being swallowed. I hope Noah and Pearl are safely away.

  The cage we created begins to crack, and then it implodes toward the center in shards of light and shadow.

  Lady Aisling appears in the middle of the wreckage, sucking our magic toward her, until all the light and shadows we used to contain her disappear into her gaping mouth. She swallows and wipes her chin. Then she stalks toward us, arms raised and a ferocious expression on her face.

  My hands go numb and my legs weaken. We’ve never seen anything treat our combined powers in such a way. She has been holding back, toying with us.

  “You think you can contain me? I have unlimited powers at my fingertips.” She inhales another shadow rope, and ducks to avoid Lucas’s bolt of light.

  “Not wholly unlimited,” I say, stiffening my trembling chin. “You brought the Cerelia Comet back, didn’t you? You did it because your Garden is beginning to die. I’ve seen it.”

  Lady Aisling’s steps falter and surprise flits across her face for a moment before she regains her composure. “So smart, aren’t you? I will enjoy devouring your powers.”

  Dar, still in her huge, rock-skinned form, screams and tackles Lady Aisling. The Lady’s green silk skirts flare as they tumble to the ground.

  Faster than a blink, Pearl and Noah appear next to where Dar and Lady Aisling tussle, close enough to the edge of the newly formed precipice to make my heart stick in my throat. Pearl hovers while Noah furrows his brow in concentration and grabs a lock of Lady Aisling’s long hair just as she pops another petal in her mouth. The Lady’s face shifts into strangled horror as she realizes she can’t absorb the magic she just ate. Dar doesn’t notice. Instead, she sprouts wings as she throws herself on her sister, yanking her off the ground.

  Then Dar’s face shifts too, and her body follows, changing back to the brown-haired girl I glimpsed the first time Noah accidentally touched her. The two of them careen over the sheer drop into the earth.

  “No!” I cry. My shadow ropes, as thick as I can make them, shoot out. They wind around Dar’s form, tethering her to the edge. Tentatively, I kneel to peek over the side.

  Lady Aisling has also caught onto the shadow ropes, the two sisters too tangled up in limbs and skirts to separate. And both their talents canceled for the time being. Saving Dar means saving the Lady too.

  “Let us go, Emmeline!” Dar pleads.

  “If you let her fall,” Lady Aisling says, “you’re responsible for her death as well as mine. You don’t want that, do you? Pull us up. I’ve seen your magic. Your ropes are strong enough.”

  I step back, hands shaking. I tuck them into my pockets.

  “Don’t do it,” Dar says. “Let us both go. It’s the only way to stop her for good.”

  How can I let Dar die? But how can I let Lady Aisling live?

  “Noah,” I say. “How long will it last?”

  “A couple hours, I think.” He glances nervously over the edge. “I’m sorry, Emmeline. I didn’t realize it would affect Dar too.”

  I groan. “It isn’t your fault. It must be because she touched her at the same time you did.”

  Lucas puts a warm hand on my shoulder. “Do you want to save Dar?” he asks with a serious expression on his face.

  I know how he feels about her—pure loathing. She betrayed me, him, his family—everyone she has ever come into contact with. But she was my friend once. I can’t help but want to save her. And she’s already saved my life twice today.

  I nod.

  “I have an idea.” He huddles with me and Noah, whispering his plan in our ears.

  “You think it will work?” I ask.

  “It just might,” Noah says.

  Lucas smiles. “We can do anything together.”

  “Save us!” Lady Aisling cries once again. “Save us, and I will give you anything you desire. You’ll want for nothing. I won’t plant you in my garden, I promise.”

  “Don’t trust her,” Dar warns. “She lies. She’d do anything to save her own skin. She’ll just put you all back under her thrall the first chance she gets.”

  Dar is not wrong. When Noah’s magic wears off, Lady Aisling will again be extremely dangerous. With a heavy heart, I begin to pull my shadows back. They snake toward me while Lucas readies his light magic and Noah concentrates, just in case. One nod, and our plan is thrown into motion.

  Lucas sends two rings of light spinning out over the crevice, my shadows chasing after them and looping around each. One encircles Dar and the other lands over Lady Aisling’s head. It slides down her body and pins her limbs to her side, forcing her to release Dar, yet catching her at the same time so she doesn’t plummet. Now they’re both secure and separate. But still hanging over the abyss.

  With the help of Noah and Pearl, we begin to pull them up, Dar o
bjecting the entire way.

  Relief floods my limbs when we finally haul them over the edge. While Lucas secures Lady Aisling with light bands, I rush to Dar’s side, my hands on her face, one that is somehow completely foreign and strangely familiar at the same time. But she does not welcome my embrace.

  “How could you save her, Emmeline?” She scowls and shrugs away. Lucas dissipates his light and I my shadows, letting her move freely again.

  She stalks to the other side of the garden, and I let her go. She won’t be able to shift again for a while.

  “I knew you wouldn’t be able to kill me,” Lady Aisling says with a smirk that makes the hair on the back of my neck stand on end.

  Lucas glances over the edge of the rift. “I don’t think you would ever have found your way up out of there,” he says. “But I know we’d always wonder if maybe you survived. We don’t need that hanging over our heads.”

  Lady Aisling’s smug expression falters.

  “Let me go. Or you will regret it,” she says.

  We all exchange a look. “We will take that into consideration. But first you must do one thing for us.” I say. “Tell us what you did with the sky shaker.”

  She laughs. “Why? So you can put the comet back into alignment? I don’t think so. I put it on a track to return yearly. I’ll have plenty of new talents to harvest every year.”

  “That is where you’re wrong,” Lucas says, his hands balling into fists at his sides.

  Noah steps forward, his brow furrowed and arm outstretched. Lady Aisling shrinks back, but can’t go far with Lucas’s light holding her fast.

  “You wouldn’t dare. You’ve already canceled my magic—are you going to keep this boy as my jailer, dampening my powers every few hours?”

  I take a deep breath. This is the only way to ensure she can’t hurt anyone ever again, but the thought of going through with it makes me nauseous. Noah hasn’t had his powers long enough to fully understand how intrinsic they are to those of us who’ve had them for years. But Lady Aisling has made her magic a weapon, and she must be disarmed.

  Noah places his hand on Lady Aisling’s shoulder. “I don’t know whether this will hurt,” he warns.

  “I hope it does,” Lucas mutters under his breath.

  We watch solemnly as Lady Aisling squirms under Noah’s grip. But he holds on and concentrates harder than he ever has before. Within a few minutes, the familiar fizz of magic hums in the air, getting stronger every second.

  Lady Aisling begins to thrash.

  “What—what are you doing to me?” she cries. I wince but Noah doesn’t let go. He begins to lose the color in his cheeks from the effort. Finally, Lady Aisling goes limp, held up only by Lucas’s light bands. A moment later a silvery mist emanates from her slack mouth.

  Noah lets go and stumbles back. Pearl catches him. “I think it’s done,” Noah says.

  I shudder. Lady Aisling is a magic eater no more.

  Chapter Thirty

  Now that Lady Aisling has been defeated, something unexpected happens. Throughout the garden, magic fizzes, released when the Lady’s power extinguished. The garden begins to unravel. Blossoms become faces, stalks become bodies, and roots unfurl into legs. Soon every flower has been released and returned to his or her human form. It’s a strange sight, the tall hedges now hemming in stone pathways and mounds of barren dirt instead of row after row of flowers. A few patches of grass, ground cover, and weeds are left behind, but not a single flower remains. The full breadth of Lady Aisling’s evil, of the number of people she trapped here, the families she ripped apart, is stunning. Dar was not lying when she said Lady Aisling was very old and had been at this for a long time. She had years to hone her craft and put it to a most terrible use.

  And now she’ll never do that to anyone ever again.

  We tend to the crowd of bewildered and disoriented people, but soon a clamor at the main gates catches our attention, and Pearl pops away to see what is going on. A few minutes later, she returns leading the parents we recruited, along with Cary.

  “Cary!” I cry and run toward her. “You’re safe! But how?”

  She smirks. “Those shells don’t tie knots tightly enough to hold me. It was creepy though. The two that were watching me just up and left at the same time without saying a word. But it gave me the opportunity I needed to get out of the cell. There’s another level of them on the first floor farther down the corridor we were on.”

  “I’m so happy you’re all right. Lady Aisling won’t be bothering any talented people again.” I quickly relay what happened.

  “That is the perfect revenge.” Cary glances around the garden. “Have you found my brother yet?”

  “I haven’t seen him, but he may be on the other side of the garden. Noah went that way to help them. I’d check there.”

  Cary immediately takes off after Noah, hoping to find her brother among the restored talented folks. We haven’t found the sky shaker yet, but we know they must be here somewhere.

  Pearl approaches me and Lucas with a grin, the Rodans close behind her.

  “You’re not going to believe this,” she says.

  Mr. Rodan laughs. “We kept the villagers occupied as best we could, but it wasn’t easy. Toward the end, they cornered us in the square. I thought we were done for certain, but then something wonderful happened.”

  “What?” I ask.

  Pearl can’t help grinning as Mr. Rodan continues. “They just stopped. Dropped their knives and staves and stared like they’d never seen us before. They had no idea what they had been doing only moments earlier. We knew something must have happened to Lady Aisling. She had them all under some kind of spell, but we didn’t realize it would stop so suddenly.” He looks around the garden in wonder as more and more people appear in place of the flowers, his eyes coming to rest on Lady Aisling’s limp form. “So you did stop her, didn’t you?”

  Lucas’s face is as grave as my own. “Noah destroyed her powers.”

  “The spell must have broken when her power disappeared,” I say.

  Pearl smiles. “Just like it did with the flowers.”

  “It’s a very good thing we have Noah on our side,” I say.

  “She could still prove dangerous,” Mr. Rodan says. “There is a prison in Abbacho where we can bring her. She won’t be able to harm anyone from there.” I glance over at where Lady Aisling remains bound by Lucas’s light bands. She is still unconscious, but her hair is graying at the temples and her skin has begun to wrinkle. The removal of her stolen magic is catching up to her.

  The parents mingle with the released talented folks, looking for lost loved ones and welcoming strangers back to the land of the walking and talking. Even though I know better, I can’t help hoping that perhaps, somehow, my own parents were under a spell too. That was why they tried to force me to go with Lord Tate to be cured.

  A scream goes up from the other side of the garden, but when Pearl pops me and Lucas there, we find Cary with her arms around a dazed Doyle. Tears prick my eyes.

  Lucas pats him on the back, and Cary won’t let go of her brother despite his squirming.

  “Can you bring us to my parents?” she asks Pearl. “I know they’ll want to see him too.”

  “Of course.” Pearl reaches out to touch them both, then they vanish.

  “You’ve made a lot of people happy, Noah.” I say, and he blushes.

  “I’m still trying to find the sky shaker in this crowd. But I’ve narrowed it down to the ones our age at least,” he says.

  Something sticks in my throat. We’ve worked hard to accomplish this, but we’re not finished yet.

  Pearl reappears beside us. “A lot of joyful people are out there. And among them are some you know. At least that’s what the Rodans tell me. Come on,” she says. Her hand brushes my shoulder. I blink and we’re back to where Lady Aisling lays boun
d on the ground. Lucas lets out a cry of joy beside me and hurtles forward.

  Miranda and Alfred stand next to the Rodans, free as birds and acting as though they’re back in their right minds. Another familiar face—Alsa, the apothecary owner we ran to when Lady Aisling first appeared on our doorstep—peels off the crowd and embraces a woman who must be her long-lost daughter. Everywhere it seems families are being reunited.

  I step forward, thrilled to see Lucas’s parents, but I don’t want to intrude on their reunion with their son. Miranda squeezes Lucas to her chest, then sees me standing awkwardly nearby.

  “Emmeline!” she says, smiling broadly. “Come here.” I join them, letting their arms envelop me. Hot tears of happiness spring from my eyes. I finally managed to put this right.

  It isn’t long before Pearl returns with Noah and the sky shaker, located at last. She is our age with wide gray eyes as big as saucers and hair the color of poppies. She introduces herself as Nova.

  “Nova? Do you have a sister named Cheyenne?” I’m startled to realize that this is the very first talented person we arrived too late to find.

  “I do,” she says, distracted. She can’t stop staring at the moon, so conspicuously out during the daytime. “The Lady did that, didn’t she?”

  “She did,” I say.

  Worry lines crease Nova’s face. “My parents told me never to use my talent. Not ever. Once when I was little I brought a shooting star down near our house. Set the entire woods ablaze. It was so bad we had to move. They didn’t need to warn me. I never dared use it after that. But why did she bring the moon out during the day?”

  “She didn’t. She brought the Cerelia Comet back twelve years early. That knocked the moon and a few other things out of alignment,” Lucas says. “Do you think you can put them back?”

  Nova nods hesitantly. “I suppose I’ll have to try. If I put the comet back on track, that should fix everything else. At least, I hope it does.” She shivers and wraps her arms around her middle, her shoulders curling inward. Then she closes her eyes and raises her face to the sky. For a moment, the heavens seem to shiver too, then stop just as suddenly. She gasps and opens her eyes. “It’s done.”