Spellweaver

by Tamara Grantham

  She sank onto the ground. Leaning against the broken stone, she closed her eyes. To me, she looked older. Her delicate, pointed ears and silvery-white hair spoke of her magical heritage, but her skin was so pale it made her looked sickly.

  To me, she represented all of Faythander—the fairies, the pixies, the dragons, and my stepfather. They all were suffering, and the only way to end their misery had been made impossible with the destruction of the gate. Even the Everblossom’s magic wouldn’t be able to replace the gate.

  But we’d come too far to fail now. This couldn’t be the end. I refused to let this be the end.

  I walked to the stone. We had to be missing something. Surely we’d overlooked some vital clue.

  Holding out my hand, I inspected every inch of the stone. The amber magic looked patchy in places and stronger in others. At the stone’s center, I found the source of the dark magic.

  When I moved closer, the dark magic intensified, and my queasy stomach turned to all-out heaving nausea. Sweating and gasping for air, I stumbled back. Kull caught me under the arms.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Ugh,” was all I managed before staggering outside. Taking deep breaths was the only thing that seemed to help lessen the nausea. What was making me feel sick? Magic didn’t usually have that effect on me, so was something else making me feel ill?

  Kull stood behind me. After regaining my composure, I turned to him.

  “Something’s wrong with that magic. It’s like there’s something, I don’t know… ”

  “Something other than magic?”

  “Yes, perhaps so.”

  “I found this near the gate.” He held out his hand. In his palm sat a small blue jug decorated with a gold rope that looped around the top. The dwindling sunrays sparkled off the colored glass.

  “What is it?”

  “The princess thinks it may be a goblin object.”

  I stepped closer. It resembled a lantern or canteen with its lid removed. Glancing inside, I saw a droplet of green liquid.

  “It’s a goblin potion.”

  “Indeed.”

  “But I’ve only seen goblin potions in small vials.”

  “That is true,” Kull said. “Goblins only need small amounts of potion to physically transform.”

  “This container must have held triple the amount found in the smaller vials. Why would anyone need so much potion?”

  “I suspect they meant to hide something much larger than a person.”

  “Like what?” I asked.

  “That is what we are trying to discover. Do you have any ideas?”

  “We’ve been plagued by apparitions since we arrived on these islands. My father saw my mother. I saw Uli in the caves. You’ve seen your grandfather. We know that not all is what it appears in this place.” Carefully, I took the bauble from him. The glass seemed familiar, and then I remembered why.

  “This was in the ship,” I said. “It was in the hidden cupboard where I kept the bloom. But how did it get here?” I looked up at Kull.

  “I don’t know, but I intend to find out. Do you think you can examine the gate one more time?”

  I held my hands to my stomach. My insides were torn up, and the nausea was still making me sick, but I’d handled worse. “I’ll do my best.”

  Following Kull inside the tower, I found the princess kneeling by the ruined silvergate. Sunrays streamed across her pallid face. With her eyes closed and hands clutched to her chest, I felt as if I shouldn’t disturb her while I examined the gate.

  When I got closer, I felt the nausea increase, so I kept my distance and stood on the far side of the tower. Staring at the gate, I tried to find some solution to our problem. Fixing the gate was out of the question, but I refused to give up.

  I felt as if the solution was so close that all I had to do was reach out and I would find it.

  The light flickered over the princess’s face. I stood up straight. What had caused the light to flicker? Through the cracks in the walls, the evening cast the last hues of dull orange through the tower.

  Reach out and find it.

  I was so close. I’d come all this way. I stepped forward and reached out my hand, letting the sunlight touch my skin.

  This was it—this was the answer.

  “It’s not real,” I said quietly. “None of this is real.”

  “What?” Kull asked.

  “The sunlight, the visions, the broken gate—that’s why they needed so much potion. They weren’t transforming a person, they were transforming a place!” I turned to the princess. “How do you reverse a goblin’s spell?”

  She opened her eyes, seeming confused at first. “It is the same as with any spell, you must take away the source of the enchantment.”

  “The source?”

  She nodded.

  What would be the source of the spell? I grabbed the glass ball from Kull. “This was the source. What happens if I destroy it?”

  The princess blinked, coming out of her trance. “The potion has already been used. Destroying the container it was kept in will accomplish nothing.”

  “No, but it could lead me to the source.” I held the bauble in my hands, focusing on the drop of liquid inside. Now it was my turn to play with magic.

  The goblin’s potion shone with a gray luster. I searched the room for similar signs of gray magic and found it shimmering from inside the ruined gate. As I stood over the cracked stone, I peered inside the silvergate’s fissure. Gray magic glowed inside the stone. “It’s inside!” I told Kull.

  Once again, he put Bloodbane to good use. He held his sword high, muscles bulging in his back and shoulders, and then slammed it down with enough force to split the remaining rock apart.

  Greenish liquid oozed from the broken stone. The nausea made my knees buckle, but I wouldn’t let it have me. I called my Earth magic, letting it support me as I moved forward.

  “Someone has poured goblin potion into the silvergate,” the princess said.

  “Yes,” Kull answered, “they have done this in order to disguise not only it, but this entire place.”

  “It’s all an illusion,” I said, holding out my hand as swirls of amber light danced over my skin. “If the gate had really been destroyed, this magic would have been the result, as the Earth magic would have released once the gate was destroyed. But it’s not real. It was not destroyed by Earth magic because it was never destroyed at all.”

  “Then how are we to break the illusion?” Kull asked.

  I squared my shoulders as I readied my magic within me. “I will destroy the potion.” With confidence, I reached my hand toward the potion. I knew what I had to do.

  “Banish!”

  Sparks of amber light filled the tower. Swirling in a glittering wave, the magic embraced the poisonous liquid and destroyed it.

  The room faded.

  The bricks, the sand, the sunlight, all disappeared. Once again, we stood in the goblin’s fortress. And before us sat the silvergate, completely intact.

  Xanthocus stood by the gate. I shuddered at the figure of the specter—its ashen skin, the wispy white robes, the fervor in its livid, gray-tinted eyes. When he spoke, his lips did not move, but his voice seemed to pierce to the innermost part of my soul.

  “It is my solemn duty to protect this gate. I cannot let you harm it.”

  Kull held his sword tightly as Princess Euralysia grasped the glowing crystal shard.

  Xanthocus glided forward. “You shall not destroy the gate!”

  Lightning crackled around the spirit. Thunder boomed, making my hair stand on end. Around him, the light intensified until it formed a swirling vortex. Wind wailed through the room, a sound that threatened to deafen us. The wind tore the room apart, starting with the bricks in the walls, and then the floor gave way.

  “Hurry!” the princess screamed over the wind. She reached for Kull. He took the crystal from her and moved toward the silvergate. “Place it in the gate!”

  Through the cyclone
, Kull moved forward, his sword in one hand and the crystal clutched tightly in the other. Grasping the bloom, I followed close behind him.

  The wind grew in pitch until it became an earsplitting wail. Buffeted by the high-pitched, unnatural gale, my body felt as though it might split apart. Small stones blasted my skin, stinging at first, though as the larger bricks broke loose and struck me, I stumbled back. I cradled the bloom to keep it safe as the wind spiraled around us.

  We moved forward one inch, then another, as the wind battered us. Finally, we reached the stone. The wind’s power increased, bringing us to our knees.

  The room shook.

  The floor split apart beneath me, and I jumped back as rocks crumbled from the ceiling above. Large stones fell around us as Kull crawled to the silvergate.

  He reached for the portal on top.

  Xanthocus raised his arms, and the entire room split apart. I could hardly see the silvergate through the spiraling debris. The wind’s pitch rose higher and higher until I felt my body would be ripped to shreds.

  The crystal’s faint blue glow pierced through the darkness, glowing brighter until I saw that it peeked from the opening on top of the rounded stone. Although I couldn’t see Kull anywhere, I knew he’d made it to the gate. Time seemed to slow as I placed my hand on the silvergate and used my spell to destroy it.

  Xanthocus hovered above me. I felt pleading desperation in his presence. As soon as I destroyed this last gate, his temple would cease to exist, and he, like so many others before him, would be no more.

  “I’m sorry,” I whispered, “but I must restore the magic, and in order to do that, this fortress cannot exist. I will not forget you, Xanthocus.”

  “And I will not forget the promise you made here today. I will restore all that I can, although Death has already claimed many victims. I can no longer protect this place, so I leave its knowledge with you.”

  Overhead, his face seemed to transform, and I no longer saw the visage of a goblin. He had elven features and wild green eyes that sparked with life. The image soon vanished, although I felt his words imprinted in my heart.

  Remember.

  His word was more than a farewell. I felt a deep power in the word and knew that he had given me a gift—a new magical word.

  The wind died away, and as it did, I found Kull lying on the ground at the foot of the silvergate.

  Blood streamed from cuts on his face and hands. He grabbed me as I neared him, hugging me to his chest as he pressed his lips to my forehead. Above us, the silvergate’s magic grew. Amber light pulsed around the room.

  The princess lay on the ground near us. Her weak smile gave me hope.

  I turned to the gate where the magic pulsed faster and faster. “We did it,” I said, whispering as I lay on Kull’s chest.

  The princess spoke up. “It is done. Now we will restore the magic.”

  Magic sparkled in eddies of white and coral. I felt as though I stood at the center of the universe. The light spiraled around us in a myriad of colors—pink, turquoise, green—and then the colors combined. Warm air brushed my cheeks, filling me with energy as the magic exploded.

  ***

  I lay on a bed of soft sand. Tiny white crystals sparkled, making a delicate chiming sound as they fluttered around me. Overhead, the sky was filled with millions upon billions of stars, so many that they lit the world brighter than a full moon.

  Sitting up, I found myself on the top of a hill, surrounded by sand that reflected the starlight like a mirror.

  The mirror-white sand.

  Below me, the countryside sloped all the way to the sea.

  Something moved up the hill. I focused and found a large group of people moving toward us.

  Kull and the princess lay not far from me.

  “Where are we?” Kull asked.

  The princess looked around. “We destroyed the fortress. Its magic no longer hides what was here. Quick, Olive, you must restore the magic.”

  “I know.” I found the blossom lying not far from me. The delicate silver leaves sparkled in the starlight.

  Shouts came from below, so we all stood to inspect the group of people as they moved up the hillside. They walked single file, with downcast eyes and drawn, haunted faces. I recognized them as crew members and passengers of the Sea Ghost. There were more than thirty souls aboard the ship, but I counted only half that as they trudged toward us. My father was among the group, as were Heidel and Ket, although the captain wasn’t present. Had he gone down with his ship?

  “It is the shipwreck’s survivors,” Kull said. “How did they find us here?”

  “The goblin’s spirit,” I answered. “Before he disappeared, he promised to restore all that he could.”

  Kull stiffened. I recognized his warrior’s stance as he found his sword on the ground and quickly snatched it up.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked, clutching the blossom as I stood beside Kull. Following his line of sight, I spied Firro and King Herrick at the lead. My elven senses came in handy as I inspected Firro closer, focusing on the knife he held under the king’s throat.

  “I believe we’ve finally found the infiltrator,” Kull said.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  My hands shook as I held the blossom, its warm glass not helping to dispel my fear. Firro crested the hill. His knife, a black goblin blade, was pressed to King Herrick’s throat. Bruises formed on the king’s face, one just under his eye, and the other on his cheek. His bottom lip was cut and swollen.

  The crewmen filed in behind Firro, and behind them marched the Wults and elves.

  Kull moved in front of me and the princess as they surrounded us.

  “Traitor,” Kull spat at Firro’s feet. “You are no crewman. Who are you really? A goblin?”

  “Clever, aren’t you? What gave it away? Was it the blade I’ve got at your father’s throat?”

  “Release him!”

  “No, I do not think I will. Not now, at least. First, I’ll need Olive to hand over the blossom.”

  “No,” the king gasped. “Don’t give it to him.”

  Kull took a step forward, his face set in a scowl, his sword drawn, towering over the small crewman. “Who are you really? What do you want with us?”

  Firro’s mouth twitched. “You mean you don’t know?”

  “Stop playing games,” Kull demanded. “Tell me!”

  “All right, but only because you are too stupid to figure it out for yourself. We all attempted to follow Olive through the portal, but it branched into three directions, and it was I that chose the correct path. I arrived shortly after she reached the village. I knew I would need passage on the ship, so I found this man, Firro, in the streets, stinking drunk. Killing him was easy enough, and copying his body was easier still. I tossed his body into the sea after that and then made myself useful on the ship. Even the captain couldn’t see through my disguise. And when he told me of his plan to burn the longboats, I was only too happy to help. After we landed on the islands, I waited until the time was right to take control. First I killed the captain, and then I forced the others to follow me. We found your trail and followed you to this place.

  “Let me tell you a secret, Wult, nothing was ever as it seemed. I destroyed the magic, yes. And now I will destroy you.”

  “Geth,” I said, my voice barely a whisper.

  His smile was a leering grin. “Yes! It took you long enough, don’t you think?” He stood tall, and his body transformed. The burned skin became smooth. His clothing morphed from tattered rags to a leather vest studded with spikes. His arm grew into a scaled claw that he used to clasp the knife at the king’s throat.

  Kull moved forward when Geth tightened his grip on the blade. “I wouldn’t move if I were you,” Geth said, his voice commanding.

  Kull held still, though he kept a firm grip on his sword. “Why are you doing this?” he demanded.

  His eyes narrowed. “Because I hate you all—every creature who aided the elves must suffer. You are all re
sponsible for the goblins’ oppression in one way or another. You all stood by while we were experimented on, tortured, and then cast away to live a punitive existence in the Northlands.

  “As punishment, I will take the blood of one of each of your kind. I have killed Ulizet—the speaker for the tree and a pixie. I have taken the limb of the sky king—a dragon. Now, I will take the life of the Wult king, and last, I will take my revenge on the elves, starting with the high lord himself.”

  The princess stepped forward. “What have you done with the high lord?”

  Geth’s gaze turned to a hate-filled stare as he looked at the princess. “Give me the bloom, and perhaps I will tell you. I may even spare this man’s life.”

  I cradled the bloom to my chest. He was mad to think I would give it to him.

  Geth’s grip tightened. “Give it to me!”

  My heart raced. Sweat beaded on the back of my neck. I held the bloom close, knowing that to give it to Geth would mean the doom of us all.

  I turned to the king. As our eyes met, I saw something there I had never seen before.

  Acceptance.

  For the first time, the king finally understood who I was. Perhaps I was only a half-breed elf with a lackluster human heritage, but when it came to making the right choices, he knew I would do the right thing.

  No matter what the cost, Geth could not have the bloom. I would have to let the king die to keep it safe, and I didn’t know if I could ever forgive myself for that.

  The glass warmed in my hands as the magic called to me. Its words whispered in my head.

  The magic word spoken by the goblin’s spirit will unleash my power. Utter my name, and my power will live once again.

  “Olive,” the king said, his voice stern, yet gentle. “Do not give it to him.”

  I looked at him with pleading eyes. I couldn’t let him die. There had to be another way.

  Geth’s face twisted with anger. “Give me the bloom now!”

  I swallowed, feeling my heart skip a beat as I held the glass. The bauble’s light glowed a soft white. Releasing my magic, I let it infuse with the bloom’s enchantment.