Colin’s breathing accelerated and his nerves made him feel sick. He needed to get out and fast. Was it day or night? Was Eidolon on his way? Did he come out only at night, too?
His feet hit something on the floor. His shoulder bag! He looked inside and everything was there, except for the Magicante. It was better than nothing. Although he was disappointed he might have lost the book, especially after the warnings from Uncle Eddy on protecting it, and everything Meghan had gone through to get it back for him.
Colin went to the door, but he was too short to look out of the window.
Something moved outside, flapping wings, and then feet shuffling closer.
“Colin?” a male voice whispered.
“Yes, it’s me,” Colin croaked. “Who’s there?”
“It’s... Bird, in my human form.” Bird’s voice sounded muffled.
“What’s going on out there?” asked Colin. “Are you okay? They took the Magicante.”
“Actually, they did not,” Bird replied. “I have it safely hidden. I grabbed it before they could see it.”
Colin breathed a huge sigh of relief. “Thanks, Bird. Seems like I, or my sister, cannot succeed in any quest without you!”
Bird chuckled. “Maybe someday we’ll be able to discuss that. Right now, we need to hurry.” An inflection in Bird’s voice insinuated something bad was on its way. “There’s a spell, Colin, one that can open the door, but you must do it.”
“You name it, I’ll do it!”
“Fenestra,” explained Bird. “Just say it one time and the door will open.”
For some reason that sounded familiar to Colin, and his brain searched for the answer. Meghan. She had used that spell before, to free Timothy. He should have remembered it, but panic had stolen his ability to focus.
When would he ever stop being the scared little boy that always needed someone else to come to his rescue? And what would he have done if Bird hadn’t joined him on this quest? Failed. That’s what.
It didn’t matter right now. He needed to escape and find Catrina.
Colin faced the door and said the spell. One second and a loud pop later, he jumped out of the way as the door detached from its hinges and thudded to the ground.
Bird flew in. Colin could not help but be disappointed; he had hoped to meet the bird-human at last.
That is when Colin froze. Noises from somewhere up ahead.
They were not alone. Someone was coming.
“YOU!” BARKED IVAN, shaking off his confusion and readying himself for battle, once again.
“How is this possible?” interrogated Meghan.
Shocking blue eyes pierced her own, staring back with a bewildered glower.
It was the same young man she and Ivan had fought in Grimble while trying to get Colin’s book back.
How had he gotten here?
And why was he here?
Colin and his book, the Magicante, were many miles away in the safety of the cave dwellings with the rest of the Svoda. Therefore, it could not be the book he was after.
The young man surprised them by pulling the hood back over his head, revealing his face. He was young, about Meghan’s age, she guessed. But his eyes, these alone held the essence of someone much older. He had a head of disheveled reddish-blond hair.
He stared at Meghan and Ivan but made no move to strike. He appeared confident, even considering his hasty retreat in Grimble.
“I came here to make a deal,” he told them flatly. “I was betrayed by Eidolon and locked in a cell a few doors down.” He added smugly, “Eidolon doesn’t seem to know about Catawitches.”
Meghan glanced around but the boys evil Catawitch, Elisha, was nowhere in sight.
However, out of nowhere, another was.
“Nona! Where did you come from?” bleated Meghan as her loyal pet came bounding inside the room. Meghan was both relieved and baffled to see her.
“You’ll find out soon enough,” her cattish voice replied. Nona’s story would have to wait. The blue-eyed boy stepped closer to what he had been looking at. Meghan and Ivan now noticed there was something else in the room.
A coffin made out of glass.
And there was a body inside.
A small body.
A child’s body.
Meghan stepped back, stunned by this discovery.
“Why would someone leave a child here?” she questioned. “Who could she be?” And how had she come to be in this cave in the middle of the goblin’s valley.
The hooded boy answered Meghan as if he had heard her thoughts.
“No idea who she is or how she got here. I was trying to find the way out when I found her. And even stranger, I don’t believe she’s actually dead.”
Not dead? Meghan’s mind repeated.
“No, not dead,” the boy told her again.
“Wait... how did you hear that?” she eyed the boy, hard.
Ivan looked between the two, perplexed.
“You didn’t say that out loud?” asked the boy.
“No. It was only in my thoughts.”
Then, in Meghan’s mind, she heard the boy’s response.
Why is this happening to me? This sucks! Why can I hear this stupid girls’ thoughts?
“Stupid girl,” retorted Meghan.
The boy’s face contorted in anger. “Get out of my head!” he clamored haughtily.
“Man, does that sound familiar,” muttered Meghan, blocking the boy from her mind.
He obviously could not do the same, and struggled with the extra thoughts racing through his own.
Why can I block him, now? She wondered.
The boy heard her thought and demanded to know how blocking worked. Meghan just stared in disbelief.
“How did you get here?” demanded Ivan, trying to ignore whatever strange situation was occurring. “Why are you here?”
“How am I supposed to function with her stupid thoughts raging in my head?”
“You have to block me,” advised Meghan, unsure why she cared to help the boy that had a few months’ prior, attempted to kill her. And had killed Ivan. A fact he did not know and might well change his attitude about this boy in an instant. Not that he looked like he trusted the kid at all.
“How do I block you?” he yelled impatiently.
“There’s a point in your brain, you have to reach for it, and then set up the block.” Meghan was not sure how to explain it. With Colin and her, they had each just discovered it on their own.
After a minute, the boy regained some of his composure. “I don’t know why I can hear your thoughts, but I’m done. You’re lucky I’m not here for you today.” He booked it to the room’s exit, but Ivan blocked him, using magic. The boy stumbled to the ground.
“You haven’t answered any of my questions, yet!” explained Ivan.
The boy smirked. “I suppose that was payback for when I threw you up against that wall. You should’ve died from that blow I gave you.” The young man glanced at Meghan. He was quickly getting the hang of speaking to her while blocking what he did not want her to hear. Yes. I know about your little secret, he sent to her.
Meghan was aghast. “Don’t you dare,” she ordered.
Ivan, again, looked between the two, ready to explode in anger himself. Meghan decided to take another approach.
She put up her hands, asking both of them to cool down. Ivan did not release his stance but gave her a curt nod. Her new mind reading buddy got to his feet.
“What is your name?” she asked calmly.
“Don’t know why you care, or what it matters, but it’s Colby.”
“Colby. Huh. Well, Colby, if what you say is true and you were put here by Eidolon, you’re in as much danger as we are.”
“Hardly. I came here to make a deal with Eidolon, and if he doesn’t make that deal, he will pay for that choice!”
“You actually think you’re powerful enough to take on the Goblin King?” Ivan jested.
“My magical energy has no boundaries,�
� he boasted, “and I won’t leave before I get what I came for.”
The three paced slowly about the room circling the glass coffin, each staring and deliberating their next move.
What kind of deal was Colby making with Eidolon? Moreover, why would Eidolon renege on that deal? And again, how had Colby gotten here? There wasn’t supposed to be another way in or out of the E Valley, other than the doorway the Svoda had come through and would leave by.
For the first time, Meghan and Ivan found they were on the same train of thought and knew they needed to discover the answers to all this before Colby could escape.
Colby caught on fast and extended his palm, throwing a spell at Ivan, who blocked it, shooting off one of his own.
Nona encouraged Meghan to hide behind the glass coffin, where she got a closer look at the girl sleeping inside. There was something familiar about her face.
In the chaos of the moment, no one heard the footsteps rapidly approaching.
BIRD URGED COLIN OUT of his room, where the sounds of rock grinding against rock were creeping closer. Bird flew deeper into the cave, the opposite direction Colin wanted to go. He followed, nonetheless. Bird had never let him down.
He ran and ran, passing empty cell after empty cell. He was running so fast that he could not stop. Not even when he heard spells cast, and rock blowing apart. He skidded past a room where from the corner of his eye, Colin saw his prize.
“Catrina,” he yelled, sliding to the ground. The battle taking place inside the room ceased and all went quiet. Colin got up, leaving the fresh dirt on his clothes and darted inside the room, where he again came to a sudden stop.
“Colin?” yelled Meghan.
“Wh-what are you doing here?” asked Colin, in shock over seeing his sister and Ivan.
“Now you see what I meant,” advised Nona hotly.
“This is becoming a freakin’ circus,” mustered an ill-tempered Ivan. “Do I even want to know what you’re doing here?”
Colin shrugged nonchalantly and nodded at Catrina’s glass coffin.
Before Ivan could question him further, Colin’s own memory had been trying to place where he had seen the blue-eyed young man before. He realized it came from his sister’s memory of her battle in Grimble.
“Why are you here?” Colin asked him.
“His name is Colby,” Meghan interjected.
“And we were just getting around to finding out the why,” explained Ivan caustically.
Bird, fluttering over their heads, chirped a warning.
“Hey, you did follow us,” said Meghan, seeing the bird for the first time.
Ivan looked as though he might blow a gasket, seeing Meghan speaking to a bird.
“We have to get out of here,” Colin announced, understanding Bird’s warning.
Colin let Meghan back into his mind and hastily showed her all he had been up to, and that something was following him through the cave.
“Okay,” she confirmed. “We have to get out now,” she told Ivan. “Something’s coming I don’t think any of us can fight.”
“Not without Catrina!” declared Colin.
“Catrina?” Ivan asked tensely.
“Catrina Flummer, the girl in the coffin,” Colin replied as if everyone should already know this fact.
“Flummer? The sick girl? From the other group? That’s not possible,” Ivan said, inspecting the coffin closer.
“Yeah, I know it’s not,” agreed Colin. “But it is her. And I’m not leaving her here.”
“My job was to come here and fetch a man, not a girl!”
“Ivan!” insisted Meghan. “We can’t just leave her!”
Ivan let out a flummoxed groan. It went against the task Juliska had sent him in to do. But he even with all his plans and the possibility of disappointing the Banon, there was only one option.
“No, we can’t,” he agreed through gritted teeth. “But we’d better hurry.”
“Maybe this is part of the test, Ivan? Or maybe Juliska didn’t know!” suggested Meghan.
“It doesn’t matter now. We have to take her.”
Colin wanted to ask his sister a ton of questions, mainly about Juliska and how they’d come to be in the valley, but he needed to free Catrina. He was at her side in an instant. The coffin lid was too heavy for him to slide off on his own.
Ivan jumped over to help him.
While they did this, Colby seized the moment and ran.
“Hey!” called out Meghan.
“You didn’t really think he was going to stick around?” hissed Ivan.
A moment later glass shattered across the ground as he and Colin slid the lid off the coffin completely. The moment the lid broke apart the silver haired girl named Catrina Flummer bolted upright with a deep inhale. Her eyes flung open and she jumped out of the coffin deftly as if she had been awake the entire time and merely waiting for the moment to escape.
Soft slippers were the only protection on her petite feet. However, it didn’t seem to bother her as she landed softly on the ground.
“Colin! You found me!” she flung herself around his shoulders as if they were old friends who had not seen each other in ages.
Meghan and Ivan stared in disbelief.
Colin’s throat closed up, unable to respond.
He’d found her. And she remembered him.
Bird chirped wildly at the door.
“We have to hurry,” Catrina advised. “We can’t allow Eidolon to keep what he has taken.”
“How do you know about that?” demanded Ivan, wishing he’d kept his mouth shut. They might not be talking about the same thing. These people were going to drive him mad. He was losing all control of the situation.
Catrina ignored his demand and grabbed Colin’s hand, dashing out of the room. Meghan, Nona, and Ivan had no choice but to follow.
Up ahead they heard a shouted spell. It was Colby. He was fighting Bird, who was transforming in mid-air, throwing spells, transforming back to Bird and flying to safety. He was a talented fighter, transforming between his two forms in a split second. Unfortunately, it involved a lot of shimmering light, which kept them from getting a good look at him while in human form.
The fleeing group caught up to Colby. He was agitated by the battle with Bird and quit, sauntering alongside the others looking for the exit.
A pin of light far ahead of them.
They picked up speed, racing toward escape.
It was still daylight, so they had time to get out of here and find a safe place to hide and gather themselves before the goblins awoke for the night.
Colby took over the lead and exited the cave with Bird flying out over his head, followed by Catrina and Colin, with Ivan, Meghan, and Nona right behind. Each skidded in turn to an abrupt stop, almost falling into whoever was in front of them.
Bulbous shapes banged around blotting out the blinding light of day. It took a moment for their eyes to adjust. Although only late afternoon, and very much still light outside, the Valley of Eidolon had come to life, with goblins of all shapes and sizes scissoring closer to the cave’s entrance.
Two rock-hard goblin bodies slammed into each other, causing a hostile fight to break out. Rust colored slivers fell off their bodies, crashing to the ground, or shooting outwards toward unaware victims.
The fleeing group of youngsters stepped back, hoping to take cover inside the cave. However, that path was blocked as goblins poured out from behind them, forcing them back out into the daylight.
“We’re surrounded,” whispered Meghan breathlessly.
A boisterous, yet whimsically delicate voice stopped the goblins in their tracks.
“Stop this infantile fighting and get out of my way,” it called out.
They did, parting down the middle to create a path.
Eidolon.
The Goblin King had arrived.
A THUNDEROUS MOVEMENT shook the ground as Eidolon arrived. He slithered irascibly toward them. He was taller and bulkier than his minions were. A
nd carried himself with an authoritative and confident flare.
“How dare you sneak into my valley?” he demanded. Eidolon noticed Colby. “Ah. My newest partner in crime.”
“Bull! You went back on our agreement. I will reveal the secrets of what you found, but not until I have the book! That’s the deal!” Colby shouted in response.
“I do like to change my mind from time to time,” mumbled Eidolon, raising one of his red rock arms into the air as if to say “my prerogative.”
His eyes turned deadly, his arm dropped and slid closer. “Besides, I don’t think you’re in any place to contradict me,” he spat into Colby’s unshaken face. “I will take the book and you will tell me what this is.” Eidolon revealed a small velvet bag, miniscule in his gargantuan hand, and dangled it in the air just out of reach of the youngsters.
Meghan and Ivan tossed each other quick glances.
Was this the item they’d been sent in to retrieve?
“The man who wandered into my valley refused to tell me what this is. It must have some great importance, seeing as he was willing to die for it.”
Confirmation.
The man Meghan and Ivan had come for was dead, and worse, Eidolon already possessed what Juliska needed them to retrieve. Ivan was in deep thought, ignoring the scene around him, calculating ways to get the velvet bag.
“Colby,” whispered Catrina. “You cannot tell him what that is. Do you have any idea what would happen?”
Colby snarled his reply. “I will do whatever I need to survive and return to my master,” he told Catrina. “With the book as agreed!” he yelled at Eidolon.
Fury erupted from Eidolon, causing even his minions to back away. The youngsters covered their ears from the deafening blare that left their ears ringing and their breaths caught.
“Or not,” mumbled Colby, taking a few steps back, suddenly humbled.
Meghan was starting to think he was more bark, than bite.
Eidolon’s message was clear; he was in charge.
He grabbed hold of one of his minions, letting out a thunderous cry while crushing it to bits. Shards of rock spewed out of Eidolon’s powerful hands.
The other nearby goblins squirmed nervously.
“I am finished being nice,” Eidolon rumbled.
Fated Fantasy Adventure Page 56
