The wolf snorted in response.
“I’ve a task to get done. Now move, B’in!”
The fur stood on the back of Delexi’s neck. Instead of obliging to the command, he crouched low and bared his teeth when the Healer moved closer.
“Have you lost your senses?” Katherine said, aghast at Jangus’ behavior. “A mutt, is he? And here you call Shy a traitor. Now you degrade one of Nature’s creatures.”
“Yeah,” Twilight said. “What would Chronicles say to that?”
“He’d wonder why you were here without orders. Now get out of my way!”
He reached for the mirror, but Delexi put up such a spitting fit that the dark-haired Healer feared the loss of a limb if he tried again. Using magic was pointless, as the other two Healers would only come to its aid.
“You don’t even know what I’m doing!” Jangus clenched his fists in anger. “You just assume.”
“We know you well enough,” Katherine said, then flicked an ear to the cry of hawk.
Delexi! A thought raced to each. Don’t let him take it!
I know that! the wolf grunted.
“Shy!” Katherine called to the fast-approaching bird.
“Why do you carry this anyway?” Twilight commenced, but Jangus had already backed away in defeat.
Outnumbered, Jangus took his chances and left the mirror to its fate. A quick shift, and he was away in the mist.
“Why is he going toward the storm?” Twilight scratched his head as Shy landed close by and shifted to his true self.
“Shy!” Katherine was quick to embrace her long-time friend. Shy, however, did not immediately return it, as his mind was still questioning Jangus’ sudden arrival.
He quickly released her. “What is he doing here? How did he get this?” Shy fired off questions so quickly that it left his companions at a loss for words. “And why are the two of you here?” When he turned to Delexi, the wolf just yawned. “You brought them?”
“Once a Healer makes a decision, they normally follow through.” Delexi sat back on his haunches and cocked his head at the albino. “Surely, you know that by now.”
“So my father…” Shy started, but shut his month when they heard the faint pounding of hoofs cutting through the tall grass.
“Vistom!” Twilight waved wildly to a streak of galloping white in the mist. When the animal came close enough to make out details, both he and Katherine were in awe. Never had they seen someone take the form of a unicorn. It was stunning, with each muscle rippling under a soft, velvety coat.
Twilight? Katherine? Wisdom’s thoughts questioned until he changed back.
“Thank goodness you’re all right!” Katherine said.
“What—”
“Just put the mirror in your travel necklace!” Shy snapped.
Thrown off guard, Wisdom did as told. With a single tap to the stone, the mirror vanished inside.
“Now would someone please explain the reunion?” Wisdom’s eyes trailed over each until they fell to Delexi.
“I’m not spying this time,” the wolf grunted, then raised a hind leg to scratch behind an ear.
“We thought Jangus would finish—” Twilight began when Shy suddenly hushed him.
“Shy!” Katherine scolded, but he ignored her.
“Wait, Jangus is here too?” Dumbfounded, the prince just shook his head. “Am I missing something, or did he follow you two?”
“We followed him,” Twilight said quickly before Shy could interrupt.
“They stopped him from taking the mirror, that’s all,” Shy said sternly. “Then they were leaving.”
“Leaving!?” Katherine’s ears flattened with a low growl deepening in her tone. The threatening gesture guaranteed no one to shush her now. “After we came all this way to make sure neither you nor your brother were hurt by Jangus? You’ve got some nerve to tell us what to do when Chronicles is expecting you to return any moment so he can finish his plans!”
“What...plans?” Wisdom gave his brother a narrowed look. “What the hell is going on?”
“You haven’t told him?” Katherine struggled to keep composure. “You’ve been here all this time and haven’t said one word?”
“That’s none of his concern.”
“If it involves humans, I think it does,” Wisdom said.
Shy flattened his ears in annoyance. “I told you. Chronicles is just interested in humans. That’s all you need to know.”
“Uh, yeah. Interested in eliminating them!” Twilight said.
Then everyone was speaking at once. While Wisdom probed his brother angrily for answers, Katherine and Twilight spoke about his father’s plans to use harpies as fighting tools against humans. At every angle, Shy tried to dodge the fact of his involvement.
Amidst the yelling and verbal countering, Delexi stepped back from it all. His fur bristled from a cold chill. With lowered head, he flashed a toothy snarl the way Jangus had gone. A new thickness of mist had begun to rise. As the group continued quarreling, they ceased to pay attention to his reaction. With tail tucked between his legs, the wolf scampered for the borders before the mist became too thick.
It was Wisdom who realized the wolf was missing. While ignoring denials and angered statements from the others, a quick search confirmed their surroundings devoid of life. He soon suspected why the wolf may have left when a small amount of mist rose to resemble the shape of a unicorn. In the distance, a rumble of thunder echoed across the fields.
Wisdom shivered from the air’s sudden change of climate. A chill wind briskly plastered his garment against his body. It was enough to still the conversation to gain their attention.
“We need to get back...” But when they started in on each other again, Wisdom raised his voice in the language of his kind, “Phv’in!” That silenced them. “Don’t you feel it? We need to get back!”
“Well, I’m not going anywhere with that!” Katherine stepped back from the group, her fiery gaze directed toward Shy.
Shy tensed at the turn of chaotic energy filling the air. A glance to his brother confirmed his meaning.
“No, we need to get into Trully. Now!”
“Everything’s a now with you!” Katherine turned her back with folded arms. “Just like Chronicles!”
She had stepped further away from the group, her attention drawn to two glowing orbs in the mist. They were mesmerizing to watch, red against the dull gray that coated everything around them.
“Katherine.” Wisdom noticed the way she poised, her pointed ears pricked forward in interest. “We can discuss the issue later, just not with the storm growing the way it is.”
Thunder again. Closer.
“Do you hear me?”
Still, her gaze stayed transfixed on the orbs bobbing up and down as they came closer. Every now and then they would both wink.
“Do you see that?” she finally acknowledged.
Twilight tried to follow her gaze. “What is it?”
Shy let out a nervous growl. “Katherine.” The chaotic energy was stronger now.
Wisdom pricked his ears at the faintest clop of hoofs. He cried out her name just as a dark shape began to materialize from the mist. Nostrils flared, and its lips pulled back to reveal a set of fangs.
Katherine shrieked, but not from the elongated teeth. Strange though they were, it was the eyes. Those glowing, blood-red orbs she had been following were its pupil-less eyes staring back at her.
At her cry, the creature tossed its mane. A horn like burnt ash perched upon its forehead. It reared, and as it did a cloven hoof lashed out.
Fear held her in place. She saw the hoof coming, knew it would rip into her delicate flesh. From behind, she could hear Shy’s voice and wished she had not left the group.
She closed her eyes and felt herself being shoved aside. Behind her, an agonized scream rose from where she had stood.
Skidding sideways, Katherine blindly groped through the grass until she could pull herself up. While Shy rushed to her side
, her eyes darted back to the unicorn.
“Don’t….” he warned.
But she did. She had to know who had saved her.
Then she, too, screamed.
Wisdom had to force himself not rush the animal, as he had tried before. At its feet lay Twilight, his face turned away from the group. A single blow was all it took, and as much as the prince wanted to rip into the thing, he knew it was useless.
Hoarse laughter met their ears. “You know you want to,” it rasped. It stepped across the body, changing form as it did. Like the mist that covered the area, its body wavered until only Jenario stood.
“How could you?” Wisdom snarled. He motioned with one hand for Shy to keep Katherine back while he slowly approached the puppet mage.
“There’s still life in him yet,” the horn spoke through Jenario’s lips. He gestured to the young Healer laying belly-down in the grass. “But you can’t get around me with Nature blocking you. I’m sure you remember last time.”
“He’s a child! He’s no use to you!”
A smirk. “Of course not. Why would he be?”
“Jenario! I know you can hear me!” Wisdom shouted. He noticed a faint quiver to Twilight’s hand. Time was running out. “Listen to me, Jenario. You have to fight this! Don’t let the horn control you!”
“Don’t hold your breath,” the horn calmly said. “Jenario’s reasoning disappeared when he created me.”
Desperately, the prince ransacked his mind for a distraction, anything to bide Twilight more time. But there was nothing. What the horn wanted, it could not have. While Osha inhibited Wisdom’s body, the dark unicorn was forced to find alternate ways of power. Thus far, the storm had been that way.
“You planned this,” Wisdom breathed. “You sent those creatures from the sea to distract me so Nathaniel could slip into the realm. You knew I would kill him. You knew Ashpin would take the mirror.”
“And my sister didn’t warn you?” the horn said with a sly smile, then chuckled when the prince had no comeback. “I see. Ignoring a unicorn’s advice? Not very wise of you, was it?”
“What do you want?” Wisdom knew his voice was on the verge of pleading. Here, there was no healing. Like the farmlands when he had first entered Trully, the storm sucked the energy from it. They would have to rush him back into the realm – if they could just get to him. “Tell me!”
“The mirror.”
The words came out in a purring hiss, one that Wisdom loathed to the fullest. He glanced back over his shoulder to meet his brother’s sorrowful gaze. Both understood the conditions of giving up such a prize. It was Twilight’s life, or their future.
Twilight’s hand had stopped twitching. Wisdom could not even tell if his friend was breathing anymore. Darkness spread its fingers around them, choking what little feeling they had left and feeding it back to the horn.
To the storm.
“I’m sorry, my friend,” Wisdom heard himself whisper, and he bowed his head. “I can’t save you.”
“You disappoint me,” the horn said, and Wisdom raised his head to the mage kneeling beside the dying youth. “You think my dear sister’s magic will save you instead?” He scooped the young Healer into his arms and rose. “In the end, it’ll just destroy you. So I offer you this one chance. A life...for a life.”
He held Twilight out.
From behind, Wisdom could hear his brother’s consoling murmurs, along with Katherine’s whimpering.
“This isn’t about one life,” Wisdom said. “And you know it.”
Donning a crooked smile, the mage stepped back into the swirling mist until no more could be seen of him or Twilight.
CHAPTER 7
There was some pang of regret as Wisdom headed back to the clan. Deciding it best to avoid the main road, he detoured through the trees. Extra time was essential.
Twilight’s death had unnerved them all, and the prince felt responsible. To his brother, anger had triggered, “You’re no brethusus of mine!” before leaving him and Katherine on their own. He almost wished the horn had taken his brother instead.
Let the storm feed off that! A gurgling growl escaped from his throat. Agitated, he let some of his anger burn off by releasing bursts of magic from his flexing fingers. Roots snaked around trees, seeming to suffocate as they hugged their trunks tighter. Where the vines dug into wood, white scars appeared until the roots themselves extinguished in a mash of broken chunks. All around, leafy stems exploded in spasmodic plots of fury, throwing bits of earth from him.
When the dust settled, the prince stood in a perfect circle of destruction. Not a sprig of green remained. Even the patch of grass he had been standing on looked like it had been chiseled down to thin ribbons of rain-deprived gullies.
With a sigh, he clenched his fists to keep the rest of his energy contained. Lo-ans’rel were natural Healers, but their manipulations could expand much deeper. His current surroundings were testimony to what was sure to come – if he let it.
Shy’s afraid to go back. He stepped from his path of destruction to stay his course to the clan. He’s afraid to challenge Chronicles’ decision. That’s why he’s been silent the whole time. What good it did! Now Twilight’s gone.
Wisdom’s concentrated thoughts on his friend’s last moments nearly missed the two boys waiting for his return. While he had taken a route that led to the Eastern Clan’s backyard, it was also where he had left them.
“Did you get it?” Ashpin’s voice was a distant echo to the prince. With so much on his mind, he could barely focus.
“Did I?” He had to clear a path through his current thoughts to decipher the meaning to the words. Images of Twilight drowned out everything else. The mirror… He felt the sapphire stone that contained the disguised portal before muttering a reply. “It’s here.”
“I’m sorry,” Ashpin continued. “I didn’t know what I was thinking.”
“What you were thinking?” Peter stepped forward. “I’m the one who hit you, fought with you at the shop, done everything I could to be rid of someone I didn’t like.” He turned to Wisdom. “I was so convinced you were going to change everything. That’s why I tried to take it. So it’s my fault.”
The prince let out a heavy sigh. Weary from already expanding troubles, he glanced over each. Here was a couple who had been at each other’s throats days before. Now here they stood expecting a prince’s forgiveness.
“Both of you were used,” Wisdom spoke more quickly, as he needed to get the mirror up to his room. “Every hateful thought feeds that storm. And now it’s growing more rapidly, which will triple my new problem.” He pushed past the two boys, who glanced at each other in concern.
“What ‘new’ problem?” Ashpin said.
“Tell you once I figure out what to do about it.” He did not wait for their response and instead shifted. As a hawk, he flew to his opened balcony doors, then quickly shut then once inside his bedroom.
A single gesture put the mirror back in its place. After making sure all other doors were shut, he turned his attention to the mirror reflecting someone of calm resolve. Wisdom, however, was beyond that. He could feel his cheeks burning with inner anger.
“What the hell am I supposed to do now?” he yelled. His reflection remained motionless. “As if it’s not worry enough to have a storm feeding off people’s emotions, a black unicorn running amok...and now this!”
He began to pace back and forth, wringing his hands and swearing in the Lo-ans’rel tongue. When he finally quit his nervous pace, he took in a deep breath. His reflection, however, remained still.
“What a fool I’ve been.” As if a sudden weakness came over him, Wisdom crumpled to his knees at the base of the mirror. “I thought Shy was better than this. He could have said something!” Lifting his hands in pleading, he addressed his reflection. “Twilight might still be alive!”
He kept fighting back that choking need to cry – at least for Twilight’s sake. Unable to say more, he bowed his head in despair.
> “It is not your brother’s doing that led to Twilight’s demise,” a soft voice answered, “nor is it your brother’s doing that drives your kind to the brink of war.”
“I’m sorry I ever got involved with humans.” Wisdom closed his eyes to the tears dripping over stone-slab flooring. He thought of all the friends he had made over the years, having been through slavery, meeting with the clans, and taking Glory as his mate. The thought of losing her to his father’s hate made his stomach churn. “I should have never gotten her involved. I…almost wish we’d never met. Never fallen in love.”
“Love?” he heard from the mirror. “But love is your greatest strength. It is what fills you with the desire to protect those you care about.”
The prince just shook his head. “No, love is my greatest downfall! I can’t protect anyone. I can’t even keep my friends safe from the horn’s influence. It’s because of my actions that Ashpin took the mirror.”
As he spoke, flowers that once grew alongside his balcony wall began to whither. Soon, dry buds dropped until a collection had gathered inside the wall’s perimeter.
“Nothing is without reason,” the mirror continued. “How else would you have discovered your brother’s secret? I said you had time to prepare, and you still do.”
“For the Purification,” Wisdom murmured, head still bowed.
“For this moment,” his reflection said sharply, causing the prince to slowly lift his gaze to a version of himself decked in the heat of battle. The silken Lo-ans’rel garment now adorned small, round plating down the front and sides. The plating retained the same color as the outfit, but gave off a metallic shimmer as light coming in from the outside shone upon it. At his side hung the jeweled scimitar, and in his hand he held the staff from Chronicles.
There was no sign of his traveling necklace.
“But I can’t fight against an entire clan!” Wisdom choked as he got to his feet and wiped under each eye.
Healer Page 17
