Opal Summerfield and The Battle of Fallmoon Gap

by Mark Caldwell Jones

  This Abigail was the thing Sugar had kept out with the blue bottle tree. Abigail was a haint: a terrible mishmash of human agony and netherworld magic.

  “My daughter is alive!” Abner shouted.

  Abigail took the preacher’s hand and gave it a loving kiss. Abner bellowed in pain like he was being tortured. The haint didn’t understand and pulled her father closer. Opal watched in horror as the man’s hand withered to a frozen black claw.

  The Hoods recoiled in terror. Percy and his men began scrambling over each other, running for every exit, but the barn doors banged shut with such force that some were thrown backward.

  Opal undid the last knot of her rope. She dug around desperately in her possibles bag. Finally, she found the thing she needed—a small bag of Angelica powder.

  “Shhh, now,” Abigail said reassuringly. “Please don’t raise your voice, daddy. You are scaring me.”

  Abner was doubled over in pain, clutching his frozen hand.

  “I know it’s been too long, but finally, we’re back together. I couldn’t come before. That terrible bottle tree trapped me. I could see you, but you couldn’t see me. I wanted so badly to come to you and mother.”

  Abigail moved in closer and placed her hand on her father’s head. His scalp began to turn black. Abigail’s ghostly hand reached into the man’s memories. It looked like it was embedded in his skull. Her expression said she was searching for something, like she had misplaced a ring at the back of her dresser drawer. Slowly the haint’s curious smile turned to an expression of rage.

  “Nooo!” The haint screamed.

  There was an explosion like a thunderclap, and it hurled her father’s body across the barn. Hoods were thrown this way and that.

  A beam stabilizing some of the horse stalls cracked, buckled, and fell across Percy Elkins, pinning him to the spot.

  Beatrice Worthington’s body spun in a loop and landed half in and half out of the shallow grave, giving the appearance she was trying to crawl out of her makeshift tomb.

  Opal opened the little bag of Angelica powder and poured it in a perfect circle, making sure she was within the white ring.

  Abigail was in a furious alteration. Her face cracked and distorted. Her beautiful moon-white hair feathered out into a monstrous headdress. Her teeth elongated into icy fangs, and her arms were wild tentacles banging and thrusting against the walls of the barn.

  “What have you done, daddy? You are a monster, a monster! No more lies. No more murder! I will make him stop, mommy. I will make him understand. And you will surely not murder my friend. My dear friend, my—Opal.”

  All the chaotic energy drained away from the barn, and once again the calm version of Abigail Worthington’s haint appeared, right in front of Opal.

  “Opal?” Abigail said, confused. “Is it really you?”

  “Hi Abbie,” Opal said with as much feigned delight as she could muster.

  “Opal, I’ve missed you so much!”

  “I know Abbie. I was so sad when you went away. But here you are!”

  “Oh Opal, let’s go play. What do you say? Let’s make some cornhusk dolls down by the creek and we can build little boats and we can watch them float down to the river.”

  Abigail’s voice seemed to be echoing from their past, down a strange tunnel, a million days away from them both.

  “Those were fun times, Abbie.”

  “Oh, you look hurt. Here let me help you.”

  Opal jerked away. Abigail flashed her angry, soulless eyes.

  “What’s wrong, Opal? I won’t hurt you.”

  The haint tried to reach through Opal’s circle of protection and was burned backward. It screeched in frustration.

  “She’s coming for you Opal? You know that, right? She’ll never stop! Soon you’ll be with me. She sent Daddy after you, and I’m sorry for that. I know he hurt you. He hurt all of us! But never, ever, again!”

  The haint reverted to its monstrous form, levitated over the center of the barn, and grabbed Abner.

  “You must be punished, father! All of you must be punished!”

  “No Abbie! Don’t do it! He has suffered enough. Please put him down.”

  Abner dangled in mid-air at the end of one of her monstrous tentacles.

  “He has suffered, but we have suffered more,” Abbie replied.

  She began to laugh as he pleaded for his life. The haint opened its distorted mouth and dropped the horrified preacher into its icy fangs. Abner Worthington was consumed by dark magic and disappeared.

  Other tentacles went out for the Hoods.

  One grabbed Percy Elkins from under the beam and dragged him skyward, into the haint’s terrifying mouth. The haint took its time eating Percy. It seemed to savor his evil. It carefully stuffed him away, like a snake bending its jaw around a large rodent.

  One by one, the rest of the Hoods were consumed.

  Finally, a last tentacle grabbed the body of Beatrice Worthington, and with a ferocious swirl of wind and black magic, Percy, the Hoods, the Worthington family, and the haint disappeared from the earth.

  “Goodbye Abigail,” Opal said sadly.

  She stepped out of her circle and rushed into the apple grove. It seemed like every thing that could burn was gone. There were a hundred things to do, but only one face flashed in Opal’s mind.

  She raced off to find Sugar Trotter.

  101

  Amina levitated over the North Fork River, right to the outskirts of Liberty Creek. As she floated forward, her voice boomed like thunder. The whole town could hear her calling the Feratu in their own disturbing tongue.

  In no time, the creatures appeared in a swarm and hovered above her, thick as seed ticks on a hunting dog. When Amina gave the signal, the bats descended on the village.

  Tonight she was being efficient. First, this was a message: pure revenge! Her family abandoned her to the Hill Goblins. No one in Liberty Creek bothered to save her. They deserved to suffer. Second, it was just part of the plan. The monsters were about to fight a war for her, and she needed them to be at full power.

  They had to feed.

  102

  “Sugar? Can you hear me? I’m here now. Can you open your eyes?”

  Sugar Trotter was not herself. Opal could feel the force of her life, like a very faint heartbeat, slowly fading.

  “Opal? That you girl? Where you be?”

  Opal leaned in closer. “Here I am,” she said.

  “Oh child, it is you. It’s so good to see those pretty blue eyes.”

  “Sugar, can you walk? I need to get you out of here.”

  “Oh baby girl, I think you know I ain’t got no walking in me tonight.”

  “I’ve got to get you to Fallmoon Gap. They can help you there. We just need to get you into the rift tunnels,” insisted Opal.

  “Now look here. Stop that fussing. We need to talk—I can feel it.”

  “No time. We have to get you somewhere safe.”

  “We’re going to make time,” snapped Sugar. “Girl, did you find them? Did you find your parents?”

  “No, I found out that my mother died when I was a baby. My father, well, that is very complicated.”

  “Did you talk to him, child? Did you make things right?”

  “They told me he’s dead, but something happened, and it made me think maybe he’s alive. But now I don’t know if I even want to find him,” Opal said. “What I do know is that I want to save you! So I’m going to get you up, and we—”

  “Now look, I need to tell you some things. And none of it is going to be what you want to hear. So stop your fussing and listen to me.”

  “Yes ma’am.”

  “Sugar ain’t going nowhere but heaven tonight. You understand?”

  “No! I can get help!”

  “Hush, I got more to say,” interrupted Sugar. “Opal, you have to go find your daddy. He is your future. He’s your family now, and you’re big enough to face him.”

  “If he is alive, let him find me! I’m
not going to chase him down. Besides, like I said—maybe he’s dead. At least, that’s what I’ve been told.”

  “Who done told you that? I can see you don’t believe a word of it. You know he’s out there, don’t you? These people talking about him—they may be right about every bit of it, but don’t you let someone else set that opinion for you. He’s your father, girl. You need to find out for yourself! Good Lord, you’re as thickheaded as my baby, Bree.”

  “Bree?”

  “Oh yes, Bree was my baby, my sweet little baby.”

  “You—you were Bree’s mother?”

  “Yes girl.”

  “I had no idea!”

  “Course you didn’t, cause we were both too damn foolish to let you know. But it’s my fault. I should have mended that fence.

  “We had a bad falling out when Mae died, and she took you in. I was so worried I’d lose another daughter. But she was right and I was wrong.

  “We never got over it, and we never did talk about it again. We even worked beside each other all these years pretending we weren’t family—like we didn’t even love each other.

  “It was pride, child. And pride is a terrible thing. It keeps you from loving like you ought. But you can’t make that mistake, not now. You need to do things different than I did. I want you to promise me something, okay?”

  “What? Anything. What do you want me to do?”

  “Opal, sometimes love saves you, and sometimes it means you do the saving. It don’t really matter how it happens, just that it does.”

  Sugar looked into Opal’s eyes deeply.

  “Go find your daddy. He needs you, child. And you need him.”

  Sugar lay back down. She started coughing. Opal could tell she was in pain.

  “Please, let me get you to the healers.”

  “Opal, you’ve been a blessing to me. You’re a good girl. I know your real momma loved you. And Bree, my baby girl, she loved you so, so much. Like she born you herself!”

  “I know she did,” repeated Opal.

  “And girl, I love you too!”

  “Yes ma’am. I know.”

  Sugar Trotter smiled a half-smile at Opal, then she slowly closed her eyes.

  Opal cradled the old woman’s head in her lap for what seemed like an eternity. She rocked back and forth, holding her like a treasure. She watched the stars run in their course, and Opal’s tears did not stop for a very long time.

  When she finally looked back down, Sugar had passed on.

  103

  Many hours later, Opal made her way through the rift tunnels to Liberty Creek. When she arrived, she found that the attack was over and Luka was on a hill overlooking the destruction.

  Luka was the kind of young man who looked strong, especially in his most vulnerable moments. Even his tears were muscular. They hung tenuously at the edges of his eyes, relentlessly refusing to fall.

  Bron, the jolly oversized elder, recognizable by his unmistakable shape, lay covered by a funeral shroud. Malik was dead as well; his attendants washed blood away from his wounds.

  No one knew where the other elders were, including Bale, Luka’s father. Wolf’s Trap, the elder’s meeting room, was an inferno. No man could get near it, much less escape.

  “We were too late,” he said. His voice was cold and distant.

  Opal reached out and took his hand.

  She knew exactly what it was like to be in this position. She hurt for Luka deeply. But her show of empathy wasn’t enough; after only a few moments of accepting her comfort, he slowly withdrew his hand.

  That hurt Opal. But, in her own way, she understood. Still, it was hard to not take his withdrawal as rejection.

  Amina had ordered the Feratu to attack—not to feed, but to inflict carnage as only they could. Many of the dead townspeople lay organized in rows. Among them was Opal’s double, the shy blue-eyed girl.

  “We will have to burn her body, there will be no funeral for that little one. The Feratu infected her with their blood,” Luka said. “She’ll turn if we don’t. And because she is a child of this town, she will seek it out again to feed. It can’t be allowed.”

  “Don’t talk about it, Luka—just shut up,” blurted Opal.

  “This is what has happened. We both need to accept it. Had I come sooner—had you come with your necklace—it could have been stopped,” he said bitterly.

  “What are you saying?” Opal snapped.

  “You should have used the powerstone to kill Amina when you had the chance. Either that or turn it over to her. There really is no other choice.”

  “She is evil, Luka! Do you think she would have spared these people if I had given up the necklace? Are you blaming me for this slaughter?”

  “If I had the power you have, I would have stopped it. That is what I’m saying.” He turned away from her.

  “Well she has what she wants now. One of her lackeys stole it from me. But I know that won’t change any of this. She isn’t done.”

  “Who has it?”

  “The Ranger,” she said. “He stole it from me when they attacked Jakob.”

  “That coward has nothing to do with Amina. He is a rogue Warden, a deserter. Scum, in my book,” seethed Luka. “And something else—he is your father.”

  “My what?” shouted Opal. She was taken aback by Luka’s revelation. He had already hit her with a flurry of accusing insults. Now he had sucker punched her with this lie. It was impossible.

  “Look, I get how horrible all of this is. I’ve been through it. But why are you angry at me? And more importantly, why are you lying about my father?”

  “You don’t get it! The Ranger is William Windfar. He is your father, Opal! I’m not making that up. The Protectorate has been hunting him for years. He killed some of his own men during The Battle of Fallmoon Gap. He betrayed them and left your mother alone during the battle. It’s time you knew the truth.” Luka was mouthing words of concern, but his angry tone betrayed him. He didn’t really care whether she knew the truth; he was trying to hurt her with it.

  “Jakob said my father was dead. You don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said. She was getting in his face now. “I don’t know what’s gotten into you, but if you say another word, I’m going to—”

  “Jakob wasn’t telling you the truth. I can’t account for that man. Like most old fools, he has lost the fire to do what’s necessary. He believes criminals can be reasoned with and changed. But look around—this is what that kind of thinking gets you. Nothing but death.”

  “I don’t believe you. Why would Ellie and Tirian keep that from me? How could you lie to me like that?” Opal’s mind was spinning out of control. She didn’t want to believe what Luka was saying.

  Nevertheless, there was a part of her that knew something was odd about the Ranger. He had looked at her with concern, and that look had stirred a strange feeling of connection. There was no explanation for it until now.

  Her anger erupted all over Luka. “What is wrong with you people? Don’t you think that is something I should’ve known?”

  “All I really know is the truth—and the truth is your father is one of the most wanted criminals in all of Arcania.

  Now you’ve let him steal one of the most powerful weapons we have. You should never have been allowed to keep that powerstone. It belongs in the hands of someone willing to use it properly.”

  “Luka, I know what it’s like to lose people. Amina is the enemy, not me!”

  “And you have a great talent for always finding a way to blame everyone else.”

  That was Luka’s deathblow. Opal was shocked to her core to hear Luka say those words. It had just enough truth in it to wound her deeply. She had gone to bed many nights thinking the exact same thing. She did believe she was the source of all of this death and pain.

  She couldn’t believe this was coming from someone she had felt so much for. He had saved her life, he had made sacrifices, he had become one of her closest allies—and now this. She felt that his affe
ction had turned to hate, and he hated her in the same way that she hated herself. Can anyone really hurt you more than that?

  “You’re right Luka. I am to blame for many terrible things. I never asked for the Agama Stone. It was a mistake to give it to me. I’m no match for Amina, and I’m certainly no leader. And the idea that I could make a home in Fallmoon Gap and become a Warden was just a fantasy,” she said resolutely.

  She looked Luka in the eyes. “The idea that we could be friends is another fantasy. I get that now. I’ve been childish about a lot of things.”

  “There is only one thing we agree on Opal: you’re no leader. I’m not sure who can be at this point. Amina is hell-bent on destroying everything. She’s not going to stop until it’s all gone. We have to get the powerstones back. It’s our only hope.”

  He began to walk away.

  “You should go back to Fallmoon Gap immediately if you want to stay alive. Without your necklace, you have nothing to offer. You can hide there. Remember, Amina wants you dead.”

  Luka continued down the hill into ruins of his village. He was like a ghost lingering among corpses. Opal watched him fade into the smoke.

  She remembered Sugar’s words. Sometimes hope disappears. It hides when you need it the most.

  This was one of those times.

  104

  Many hours later, Tirian found Opal in her room. He sat down next to her on the bed. She had taken off her gear and her Warden clothing and laid it out in tidy piles for Ms. Kitfell to retrieve when the time came. It seemed her life as a Warden was over. She was staring, as if in a hypnotic trance, into the courtyard.

  She told Tirian about visiting Jakob and Eltheon.

  Jakob Prismore was in a strange unconscious state. It seemed the loss of his powerstone had slowed his ability to heal. His body seemed shut down. He looked more ancient than ever. It seemed doubtful he would be able to recover without Knarray.

  Eltheon was still in danger, and it was disturbing to see the infection was winning the battle.

  Tirian told her he was no closer to figuring out how Amina breached the defenses.