“Emily’s not dark anymore!” Adriane protested.
The crowds grumbled, unconvinced.
Kara snapped her fingers, releasing a flurry of diamond sparkles. “All d-flies, front and center!”
Bursts of magic erupted in the air as five brightly colored mini dragons appeared.
Goldie, the bright golden mini, nuzzled into Kara’s neck.
“Not me,” Kara told them. “Emily.”
The five minis danced and spun around Emily. Three landed on her arms and one on each shoulder, jeweled eyes whirling.
Dreamer and Lyra padded to Emily’s side followed by the mistwolf pack, led by Moonshadow. Dozens of unicorns soon surrounded the healer.
Lorelei stepped forward, horn swirling with pure magic. “The unicorns stand with the healer.”
“These are some of the most powerful animals on the web.” Kara marched up and down the line of creatures. “They are our friends, and more importantly, Emily’s friends. Do you see her taking their magic?”
Her skeptical audience listened in silence.
“No!” Kara asserted. “Emily is the same mage who saved Aldenmor. She healed your world when the Dark Sorceress released the Black Fire. If not for her, your Garden would not be the beautiful place it is today. She may have been caught in the Spider Witch’s spell, but at heart she is still the healer you know and love.”
A smattering of applause greeted Kara’s presentation, but it was clear the majority of the crowd awaited the Fairimentals’ opinion.
“Your loyalty is commendable, blazing star,” Ambia said, “but the healer is a dark mage.”
“And what proof do you have?” Kara demanded.
“She has done what every dark mage before her has done,” Gwigg explained.
“And what’s that?” Adriane challenged.
“She killed her bonded.” Marina’s voice was filled with sadness.
A stricken look crossed Emily’s face.
Adriane refused to back down. “That was an accident, she was under the witch’s control.”
Gwigg rumbled, twigs shaking. “Ozymandias was not killed by the Spider Witch.”
In a quavering voice, Emily confessed. “I wanted to fix the web, I needed magic...”
Ambia nodded. “The healer has sealed her fate, and once again, fulfilled the Dark Prophecy.”
“But you can’t close off The Garden,” Marlin protested.
“And you certainly can’t just hide here,” Zach added.
“We have no choice,” Gwigg told him.
“Hold up,” Kara said, pondering this. “You Fairimentals knew all along that one of us would turn dark.”
“The Dark Sorceress was right!” Adriane said angrily. “You used us.”
“You were the chosen ones. Nothing could have stopped you if you had really worked together,” Ambia said.
“We were so working together!” Kara argued.
“You were trying to strangle me,” Adriane reminded her.
“Oh, that.” Kara waved dismissively.
“The mages have failed,” Ambia declared. “Avalon is lost forever.”
“Let me through, you clambob!” a voice cut through the crowd.
Everyone whirled around as a group of about thirty curly haired elves marched into the meadow.
“The elf contingent from the Moorgroves,” Tasha observed.
The elves averaged about four feet tall. Guys wore tan leather pants, white linen shirts, and assorted bright vests with shining buttons; girls had long dresses dyed in vibrant hues and pretty ribbons adorning their long curls.
“Move it, bub!” A highly agitated elf shoved his way through the throng. His sandy colored curls whipped this way and that as he kicked a huge troll foot. “I must see the ’mentals!”
“Patience, good elf. The Fairimentals are busy,” the troll rumbled.
“Gah! I must get to Ravenswood,” the elf insisted.
“No one but the mages have access to Ravenswood,” answered the troll.
“I am a mage, you twit!”
Emily bolted upright. That voice! It sounded so familiar.
She stepped in front of her friends, scanning the crowd of elves. She froze. Shivers ran down her spine as the gathering of elves seemed to blur and fade away, leaving the one elf with the mop of sandy curls. He stared at her with penetrating brown eyes.
“It’s you!” the elf exclaimed. He made for Emily. Dreamer and Lyra immediately leaped into position, trying to block his way, but the little guy would not be deterred. He pried them apart and scrambled through to Emily. With a great sigh of relief, he beamed at her. “Thank goodness I found you.”
Emily found herself confused but strangely elated. “Who are you?”
“I’m Ozzie.”
CHAOS ERUPTED IN The Garden as everyone started talking and arguing at once. In the middle of it all, Emily stood stone still, staring at the curly haired elf.
“Ozzie’s dead,” she said coldly. She couldn’t allow herself to believe this was really him—it couldn’t be true—it would be too devastating to believe only to discover it was some cruel joke.
“Lyra.” Kara snapped her fingers.
The large spotted cat pounced, pinned the elf to the ground and sniffed him over.
“Gak!”
“Smells like him,” Lyra confirmed.
“Sounds like him,” Adriane added.
All the time the girls had known him, Ozzie had been a ferret, a brown-masked, foot-high, tough-talking guy with an appetite as big as a moose’s—they had never seen him in his true elf form.
“I don’t know who you really are,” Kara stated as her unicorn jewel flared dangerously. “But if this is your idea of a joke, it’s not working!”
“Joke?!” the elf yelled, scrambling to his feet. “I’ve been traveling for days to get here, eating nuts and berries.”
Adriane arched an eyebrow.
“What say you, elves?” Lorren spoke up, deferring to the delegation.
All the elves started chattering at once.
“One at a time!” the prince demanded. “Tell us what happened.”
A portly elf in a green vest stepped forward. “This guy just showed up a week ago, wandering around without a stitch of clothing—”
“Gah! That part’s not important!” The curly haired elf blushed.
“He ran through Dumbledowns screaming about Avalon and the Dark Sorceress and demanded to see the Fairimentals immediately,” the elf in the green vest continued.
A slightly taller and thinner elf scratched his brown hair. “If anyone would know Ozzie, it’s me, his Cousin Schmoot.”
“So, is it him or not?” Kara asked.
“Well, it’s been a couple of years.” Cousin Schmoot tilted his head and appraised the indignant elf. “He looks older. Needs a haircut. And he’s gained a few pounds.”
“I did not. I’m as trim as I ever was.” The defiant elf sucked in his belly, then exhaled, bursting a button from his trousers.
“You’re nothing like Ozzie,” a spriggan scoffed. “He was a great hero.”
“Exactly,” the elf agreed.
“If you’re Ozzie, where’s your ferret stone?” Emily asked suspiciously.
“It was destroyed,” he told her.
“Fine, then do a little magic for us,” Kara demanded.
The elf glanced at Emily with big brown eyes. “I don’t have any. I gave it all to Emily. But she didn’t kill me.”
“Are you sure?” Cousin Schmoot queried.
“I’m standing right here!” the exasperated elf exclaimed.
“But how?” Adriane studied the unfamiliar pointy-eared creature. “Why would Ozzie become an elf again?”
“It is possible that when the healer took his magic, she broke the transformation spell,” Gwigg mused. “Without that, Ozymandias would revert to his natural form.”
“Emily.” The elf gazed at the healer. “Remember when I made you peanut butter and salami sandwiches?”
“On my birthday,” Emily answered cautiously, hardly daring to believe that her best friend was really standing in front of her.
“Who else would know that? And who ordered all those extra Pet Palace supplies?” He crossed his arms.
“Four thousand liver and bacon snaps,” Emily recalled, as her eyes started to water.
“By the way, did the hamburger niblets come in?”
Emily nodded slowly, tears slipping down her cheek.
The elf took Emily’s hand, drawing her down to face him eye to eye. “You take care of me, I take care of you.”
Emily stared into his warm brown eyes. Deep inside, the tenderness and caring could not be hidden. Physically, the tubby elf bore little resemblance to the furry ferret. But there was no doubt. It was… magic.
“Ozzie.” She threw her arms around the elf’s neck. Waves of relief flooded through her, gratitude that he was safe… that she hadn’t harmed him after all.
“Don’t cry, it’s all right,” Ozzie said softly, hugging her back.
“If that’s really you, ferret, here’s a question: what did I tell you never to tell anyone, ever?” Kara asked.
The elf smiled and winked at Kara. “The first time Phel rescued us, you kissed me and swore me to secrecy.”
“You kissed the ferret?” Adriane asked.
“It was an emotional moment,” Kara replied. “Okay. It’s him.”
Adriane hugged the mop-topped elf. “I can’t believe it!”
Dreamer licked his cheek while Lyra nuzzled her way into the hug. “Welcome back.”
“Thanks.” Ozzie hugged the orange cat. “I missed you. All of you.”
The elf clan grabbed Ozzie and tossed the startled elf high in the air.
“Woo hoot!” came a cheer.
“Ahh!” came Ozzie’s startled response.
“Ozz-ie, Ozz-ie, Ozz-ie!” the crowd chanted.
“So what about your prophecy of doom now, huh?” Kara whirled on the Fairimentals. “If Ozzie’s alive, your theory’s as over as yesterday’s Manolos.”
“There could be a glitch in the prophecy,” Gwigg conceded.
“Glitch?” Ozzie landed on Gwigg with a flattening crunch. “You sent me to die!”
“We did not know it would be you.” The Earth Fairimental rolled away, rearranging his twigs.
“Oh, so it could have been Lyra,” Kara, affronted, accused them.
“Or Dreamer!” Adriane snarled.
Gwigg regarded the hopping elf. “We hoped you would be the ones to break the dark cycle.”
“Truth is, the quest failed because we weren’t working together,” Kara admitted.
“She’s right. Only Ozzie was doing what he was supposed to,” Adriane confirmed. “He was helping Emily.”
“It’s our fault,” Kara stammered. “If we weren’t fighting, we could have saved him.”
“I’m not dead yet,” Ozzie reminded them.
“We let Emily succumb to the Spider Witch.” Adriane could barely look at Ozzie, ashamed.
“And then Emily killed Ozzie,” Kara finished tearfully.
“But Ozzie is right here!” the elves insisted.
“That’s me!” Ozzie waved his arms.
“Woo hoot!” confirmed the elves.
“So!” Kara held up a finger, silencing the crowd. “In light of this new evidence, let me see if my facts are right. Ozzie’s alive and Emily’s not evil. Therefore, we did break the cycle of the dark mage.”
Ambia fluttered about the mages. “No. The Dark Sorceress is inside Avalon. The prophecy says you are supposed to enter the home of all magic. That was your quest.”
“Riddle me this.” Kara posed her questions carefully to the Fairimentals, building her case like a smart prosecutor. “Was I supposed to wash away the nine power crystals when we used magic to save Aldenmor?”
“That was accidental,” Ambia ruefully acknowledged. “Magical backlash of major proportions washed—”
“And…” Kara held her finger up to silence the Fairimental. “Was I supposed to destroy one of the power crystals?”
Ambia frowned. “No. Your blazing star powers were greater than we had anticipated.”
“You mages have done many unexpected things,” Gwigg confessed.
“Ah ha!” Kara smiled triumphantly. “So! This prophecy only really means we’ve got magic. It can’t predict what we’re going to do with it.” She paused for dramatic effect, letting the crowd follow her deductive reasoning.
“It doesn’t mean we’re destined to be good or bad.” She glanced meaningfully at Emily. “We chose what to do. We made mistakes, but they were our mistakes.”
“Yes, yes, but this is all speculation,” Gwigg grumbled, clearly not convinced. “There is always latitude for minor variations in the plan. No real proof.”
“I beg to differ, Gomer Woodpile,” Kara countered. “Exhibit A!” She pushed Ozzie forward. “Here’s your proof. Emily did not kill Ozzie. Ergo... she is not a dark mage.”
Ozzie preened and waved to the cheering crowd.
“Nice job, counselor,” Adriane whispered.
“Do you really believe all that, Kara?” Emily asked.
Kara took the healer’s hands in hers. “With all my heart. There is no way you could turn dark. We love you too much.”
The animals closed around Emily protectively.
“Besides, I was the obvious choice,” Kara said with a hint of satisfaction. “You heard the sorceress.”
“I say we choose to continue this quest and save Avalon!” Ozzie pumped his elf fist in the air.
“But you cannot simply decide to continue,” Gwigg contradicted him. “Without a prophecy to guide you, there is no telling what will happen.”
Adriane scoffed, “And how is that any different than usual?”
“We were pretty much on our own from the beginning,” Kara reminded the Fairimentals. “Henry Gardener disappeared before he could mentor us. All we had was a mini mentor, and we still turned out okay.”
“You turned out great!” Ozzie proclaimed proudly. “Just because we didn’t succeed the first time doesn’t mean we failed. If there’s one thing I taught you, it’s to never give up!”
“I am sorry. But the quest is over,” Gwigg protested.
“Over?” Kara rounded on the perplexed Fairimental. “It’s not over until we say it’s over!”
“I agree with my judicious associate.” Adriane stepped to Kara’s side. “We’ve had it up to here with your prophecy!”
“But what of your destiny?” Ambia fluttered.
“Destiny, schmestiny,” Kara argued. “It’s time we made our own destiny!”
“We need to deal with the Dark Sorceress’s shadow creature army first,” Adriane said. “With them on the web, it doesn’t matter what kind of magic we have, they’ll keep eating it until there’s nothing left.”
“I second that motion,” Kara said. “And I know exactly where to start.”
“Who, what, where?” the crowd chorused, their faith in the mages returning.
“We’ve only been able to kill one shadow creature,” the blazing star said.
Zach nodded. “The shadow dragon.”
Lorren frowned, not liking where this was going. “And you used a dagger made by Logan, the dark fairy.”
“Blingo,” Kara agreed. “The sorceress was trying to turn me into the dark mage and she had an accomplice. I think we have a little score to settle.”
“Let’s go!” Ozzie eagerly charged forward, then skidded to a stop. “Wait. I need another ferret stone, or an elf stone, or some kind of stone.”
A pixie plunked a rock in his hand.
“There is nothing we can do, Sir Ozzie,” Gwigg told him. “You have been returned to Aldenmor as you once were. You cannot go back.”
Ozzie kicked the earthy ’mental. “I have as much magic as a bungpod. How am I supposed to help?”
Emily knelt before the elf. “You’re really home now, Ozzie, j
ust as you always wanted. You can have your life back.”
Ozzie looked from the other elves to the mages, undecided.
A pretty elf with blond hair, beaming at Ozzie, said to Emily, “Ozzie told me all about you. He’s so brave.”
“Oh, this is Esmerelda.” Ozzie grinned, then straightened his vest.
Esmerelda waved at the mages and watched Ozzie shyly.
“Ozzie, you can’t come with us. It’s too dangerous without magic,” Adriane said.
“Besides, I’m sure you have a lot of catching up to do.” Kara raised her eyebrows at the pretty elf girl. “We’ll go, but only if Emily decides to not give up her magic and continue the quest with us.”
Adriane nodded, in full agreement.
“You were going to quit because of me?” Ozzie, astonished, asked Emily.
“I… just couldn’t go on without you.”
Ozzie sighed. “You listen to me,” he said seriously, eyes moist. “The worst thing you could do is give up magic because of me. Look, I’m fine. Better than fine. You helped me get home. We took care of each other. That’s what best friends do. If you want me to stay here, you have to go on and save Avalon.”
Emily stared at the valiant elf. He was the bravest friend she had ever known. Knowing he was safe made the whole world seem right again. And keeping him safe filled her with sudden determination to resume the quest.
“Ozzie, it’s decided.” Schmoot stepped up proudly, puffing out his chest. “The elf council has voted you the Grand Wazoo.”
“The Grand Wazoo!” Ozzie’s eyes lit up. “Do I get to wear the hat?”
“Of course.”
“Wow!”
Emily stepped away and joined Kara and Adriane. It was hard to say goodbye to Ozzie after just getting him back, but watching him with his friends, his real family, relief washed over her. Everything was going to be okay.
Never the same, but okay.
“GET YOUR GLOW on!” Upon a raised platform, under the spotlight, shocking green and pink hair glowed as the spriggan DJ ripped up the latest sounds to hit the Fashion Realm. Loud music thumped across the dance floor at the Black Rose, sending dancers into a hip hopping frenzy. Fairy creatures in different shades of fluorescent body paint partied with trolls sporting brand new leather suits. Everyone was thrilled to be at the hippest place on the web.
Full Circle (Avalon: Web of Magic #12) Page 5
