She suddenly remembered; Miss Weber and Martin were still back at their makeshift camp back in the forest somewhere. While they were marble statues Abe could turn them back. Miss Weber was a powerful enchanter herself. Then there were the Drake triplets; they must still be asleep on the sky platform, drifting Goddess knows where, and the irie, of course; a whole army of vicious winged fighters. She only had to convince them to join her. It might be difficult with the incentive of a spell to instantly kill the Shadow Assemblage taken away but she could get Corona to help her if she was still alive.
A smile quirked the corner of her mouth.
“Can I see hope flooding back in your eyes?” Abe inquired.
“Maybe we could have a shot,” she said. “First, though, we need to find out where we are. I’ve absolutely no idea where our camp is and I don’t want to have to spend the next day looking for it.”
“How about we fly there?” Abe asked.
Cressida was about to ask how when Abe began his levitation spell. The two of them began ascending into the air. When they got just above the tree line they stopped. Cressida wiggled her toes, looking down to the ground. It wasn’t so far away, not like the time Abe had raised her house into the clouds. This time it was exciting, and as they began to float over the trees, searching the ground below, Cressida started to feel her old adventurous self again. I can’t believe I sank so quickly into self-pity, she thought. I have to trust that nothing is impossible as long as I’m clever enough to come up with a plan.
They passed over a wolf, asleep in a tiny clearing next to a slab of rock that jutted out of the ground. A dead rabbit was nearby, being torn and eaten by several pups. They were so happy, so free. I can’t see such beautiful creatures die, she thought.
“If we do this it means doing something I’m not sure I’m capable of,” she said.
“What’s that?” Abe wondered.
The savagery in which the wolf cubs had eaten the rabbit had made her realize the truth of what they had to do.
“To defeat the Shadow Assemblage I have to get the book back from Emily,” said Cressida. “To get the book back I have to kill her.”
Shadow Page 17
