Dark Mage (Avalon: Web of Magic, Book 11)

by Rachel Roberts

  “We have to move fast, before it detects us,” Adriane ordered, then remembered to defer to Gwyx. “Would you lead us, great warrior?”

  “Rrrrrr,” Gwyx rumbled, shuffling from foot to foot. “I suppose you have a plan?”

  “Stealth is our only chance,” Adriane said. “We have to avoid a fight at all costs. We sneak in, grab the jewel and hightail it out.”

  “I agree.” Gwyx nodded emphatically.

  The warrior retied her pony tail, revealing a nervous blue dragonfly hiding on her shoulder. “Fred, you gonna be all right?”

  The blue dragonfly looked uncertain.

  “If it gets too rough, you go tell the others.” She gave the brave little fairy dragon a kiss. “Okay, Team Wolf, let’s do it.”

  Gwyx wavered. “But do you not think the beast will see—”

  In a swirl of sparkling magic, Dreamer shimmered into a cloud of mist. Suddenly Adriane and Drake disappeared.

  Gwyx’s eyes went wide.

  “We’re right here.” Drake’s big red head suddenly materialized in front of Gwyx’s nose.

  “By the great wyvern! Of course! Mistwolf magic will shield us.”

  “The shadow dragon won’t see us, but we’ll see it,” Adriane explained.

  Dreamer’s mist quivered. “It’s there, I can feel it!”

  “How?” the warrior asked. She still wasn’t picking up anything.

  “When I take mist form, I can track the shadow creature.”

  Adriane’s jewel flashed as she connected to her packmate. Instantly, cold fire spiked at her senses, filling her with an icy dread. The shadow dragon was powerful, even at this distance. She didn’t want to think what it would feel like once they came face to face.

  “Move it, Gwyx,” Adriane ordered.

  The warrior dragon obeyed warily, allowing himself to be hidden under Dreamer’s mist.

  Positioning herself between the two dragons, Adriane admitted that she wasn’t sure how she was going to protect her friends—or herself—if the creature unleashed a full attack. If it came down to a fight, she only hoped Gwyx fought half as well as he talked. Fleeing was not an option.

  “We’ll need complete silence once we’re inside,” Adriane instructed the dragons. “Dreamer’s mist will absorb most of the noise, but step lightly and stick together.”

  She could feel Gwyx’s body trembling with anxiety.

  “Easy.” She patted the black dragon gently. “We’ll get through this just fine. We’ll have the crystal before the shadow dragon even knows we’re there.”

  “Right,” Drake agreed.

  Gwyx edged closer to the red dragon.

  “Hammer time!”

  The dragons marched in sync toward the dark cave. Aside from the dirt being dislodged, no one would have known they were there, thanks to the magic of the mistwolf.

  “Perhaps I should stay by the entrance and prevent its escape,” Gwyx whispered nervously.

  “We stick together,” Adriane ordered.

  The cave gaped before them like a black maw waiting to swallow its prey. “Rrrrrr, there’s something I should tell you—”

  “Stow it.” Adriane gave Gwyx a shove as the group entered the cave. Obsidian-flecked walls gleamed, as if the mountain were watching them with dozens of flashing black eyes.

  A ferocious growl rumbled from the depths below.

  Cold, black power pierced Dreamer’s mist like a hundred electric shocks.

  Gwyx shook, a small whimper mewling from his throat.

  Adriane’s stomach turned. An awful dread enveloped her, making her skin crawl, every instinct screaming at her to run away.

  Fight it! She commanded herself. Protect the pack at all costs!

  The cave floor slanted sharply, taking them deeper and deeper. The dragons walked slowly. They too were fighting the disorienting pull of the darkness below.

  Adriane pushed on, magic vibrating through her like thunder. They were getting close.

  Gwyx stopped suddenly and pointed a trembling wingtip.

  Pale light played over gleaming walls of a giant underground cavern. There, dead center, the shadow dragon lay coiled on a flat rock, rippling scales of smoke and shadow undulating. The creature was larger than Gwyx or Drake. And unlike those real dragons, this one was not solid. A nightmarish apparition of dragon magic, the creature’s long spiked neck snaked from a shifting, ghostlike body. Giant wings fluttered like specters, teeth and claws appearing and disappearing like avenging spirits.

  Adriane stood stone still.

  The beast suddenly lifted its massive head. Eyes like livid coals glowed in the darkness, sweeping the cave with a hunter’s glare. Its black forked tongue shot from its mouth, tasting the air for intruders. The beast knew something was in its lair, even if it couldn’t see them.

  But all Adriane could see was the glowing object throbbing like a wicked heart inside the monster’s chest. Shadowy red and purple radiated from the crystal in hypnotic waves. At once the warrior knew she’d have to change her plan. She couldn’t just sneak up and snatch the power crystal; it had merged with the creature. To get her prize, she was going to have to slay the dragon.

  Tapping her dragons on their wings, she gave them the silent signal to advance. Surprise was the only advantage they had.

  The creature shifted, blood-red eyes darting around the cave. Adriane steeled herself. They would have only precious seconds before the beast discovered them.

  They were almost there. Adriane raised her wrist, preparing to—

  With a blood-curdling shriek, the shadow dragon struck like a viper. To Adriane’s shock, it lunged past the group. A second noise ricocheted off the walls behind her, rocketing into a deafening chorus of fear.

  “Gwyx!” Drake cried.

  Adriane whipped around and saw Gwyx standing—completely visible—at the cavern’s entrance. He had been too frightened to move.

  “mama.” Gwyx cowered as the shadow dragon attacked in a storm of dagger claws and razor teeth.

  Snorting fire, Drake charged into battle, knocking Gwyx away from danger. With a terrible shriek the shadow dragon turned its rage on the red dragon.

  Adriane leaped through the air, Dreamer snarling at her side. Silver fire burst from her wolf stone, lassoing the shadow dragon’s neck. With all of her strength, Adriane yanked the beast away from Drake. The monster spun around, its blazing eyes boring into Adriane like an iron spike of pure terror.

  She collapsed to the ground, her mouth open in a silent scream. Paralyzed, she could only watch in horror as the monster pounded into Dreamer, crushing the mistwolf with nightmarish power.

  Fighting to stay conscious, the howls and screams of her friends filled her head with unbearable agony. Her worst fears were unfolding horrifically in front of her. Her pack was dying, and she was powerless to do anything!

  “No!” she cried.

  Adriane was the packleader. She would fight to the death to defend her pack. Survival was as instinctual as breathing. Desperately, she reached out to the strongest member of her pack.

  A silver spark flashed from her jewel. For a second it was as if she stood on the highest hill of the Ravenswood Preserve, the green meadows and thick forests surrounding her. The preserve’s pure magic engulfed her as the great forest protector, Stormbringer, her paladin, filled her with strength.

  Snarling, she staggered to her feet. Nothing was going to harm her packmates while she had even an ounce of strength to fight.

  The spark raged into a flame, filling the cave with slivers of light. Power rushed though Adriane like a raging river. Throwing back her head, she howled and let the wolf inside run free.

  In a flash of silver, Adriane dissolved into mist.

  Whipping past the shadow dragon’s claws, she dove into the beast, wrapping herself around its pulsing, crystalline heart. Dark magic twisted through her every molecule, crackling like lightning as she wrenched the power crystal away.

  The cave went suddenly, eerily quiet.<
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  “Where did it go?” Gwyx cried, his frightened eyes darting around the cavern.

  The shadow dragon had vanished!

  Through heightened wolf eyes, Adriane surveyed the cave. Dreamer stood by her side. Drake sat next to Gwyx, looking dazed. There was no sign of the fearsome shadow beast.

  “It needed the power crystal to stay alive,” she said, gasping with the effort of morphing back into solid human form. She felt weird, as if her physical body no longer anchored her, as if she was in deep space, floating away into blackness.

  “Packmate.” Dreamer stared up at her, his gaze moving left and right, not quite finding her eyes.

  Gwyx stepped forward, stretching his wings. “You can come out now, human Adriane. I have slain the shadow dragon!”

  “You didn’t slay anything, and I’m right here.”

  “No you’re not.” Dreamer’s emerald eyes flashed with fear.

  Startled, Adriane looked down at her hands and feet. She could only see a faint ghost-like outline of her body.

  “The magic is inside you,” Dreamer said.

  Adriane stared in horror at the power crystal. It throbbed in the center of her chest, beating like a black heart, pulsing shadow magic through her veins. Squeezing her eyes shut, she tried again to turn back to solid form.

  After a few seconds, she took a deep breath, opened her eyes and held her hand in front of her face. She could see the dragons and Dreamer right through her invisible hand.

  “I—I ’m stuck.”

  Dreamer circled her, trying to help her with his magic. “You can’t stay in mist form, it’s too dangerous!”

  A memory struck Adriane, and she gulped. The Dark Sorceress had nearly exterminated the mistwolves by trapping them in mist form. If she couldn’t turn solid again soon, both she and the power crystal would drift away into nothingness. Time was critical.

  She cried out as the black magic tightened its grip. It would take all her strength to fight the crystal. And it wasn’t a fight she could win.

  “Dreamer, what do I do?” Panic twisted her stomach.

  “We must run the Spirit Trail to Packhome,” Dreamer declared. “We need the full power of the pack to help you.”

  “Well, I’ll just leave you to your little problems.” Gwyx strutted toward the mouth of the cave. “I’ve completed my quest, and I must return home to tell the elders that I have saved everyone.”

  Suddenly Drake rushed after Gwyx. “I will accompany you.”

  “Excellent!” Gwyx stopped in mid step. “You can bear witness to my daring exploits.”

  Adriane tried to steady herself. “Are you sure, Drake?”

  “Of course. I cannot travel on the Spirit Trail.” Drake swished his long tail.

  Adriane had been forced to let her first bonded wolf, Stormbringer, go to find her pack. It looked like Drake had the same opportunity now that he, too, knew there were others of his kind.

  “Just let me do the talking,” Gwyx advised. “I wouldn’t want you to stick your tail in your mouth the first time you met the elders.”

  “Agreed.” Drake nodded.

  “And I wouldn’t mention anything about being bonded to all these humans.”

  “I will say nothing about the girl.” Drake’s yellow eyes swept over the space where Adriane stood. “Mama.”

  Adriane snarled as the dark power writhed inside her. She couldn’t take Drake with her, even if he’d wanted to go. “I’ll check in from Packhome.”

  “Good,” Drake approved.

  “Hurry, Dreamer.” Adriane reached out to her packmate, preparing to use another of her Level Two talents. She and Dreamer were world walkers and could run the Spirit Trail, the mystical pathway of the mistwolves that would lead them to Packhome.

  Dreamer stood, eyes closed, summoning the magic that would open the passage between worlds. Blue light shimmered around mistwolf and warrior as they moved from the physical world and onto the astral planes of magic.

  Adriane glanced over her shoulder as the cave fell away, but Drake had already left with Gwyx. Swallowing hard, she and Dreamer stepped as one onto the ancient Spirit Trail and vanished.

  “OZZIE!” EMILY SCREAMED for her friend as swirling lights swam before her eyes.

  “Emily, it’s okay.”

  The healer blinked at the familiar voice. She suddenly realized she was leaning against something purple and soft. She took a step back and gazed into a pair of deep blue eyes.

  “Indi!” She threw her arms around her paladin’s strong neck, burying her face in his soft mane.Indigo was a magnificent unicorn, created from the magic of the only living power crystal, the Heart of Avalon.

  Sensing her danger, Indi must have opened a magical doorway at the bottom of the gully and pulled her to safety. Unicorns were one of the only animals that could open portals at will.

  The ground beneath her swayed, throwing her off balance.

  She gasped. Green pathways stretched all around her, woven together so tightly she could barely see through them. The Spider Witch’s web.

  The magic of the Otherworlds clung to the web in gleaming deposits like dew. The awful truth was right before her eyes. She had connected the Otherworlds to the Spider Witch’s web.

  Suddenly tears were streaming down her cheeks. The healer buried her face in Indi’s neck.

  “Indi, I’ve done something terrible,” Emily cried, her words coming out in a jumble. “I connected the Otherworlds to this web, and Ozzie and Lorren, I left them, and we were attacked by a pack of shadow creatures…”

  Indi leaned his head over her shoulder in a unicorn hug. “I saw Ozzie and Lorren go through another portal.”

  Emily let out a huge sigh of relief. Her friends had made it through Tweek’s portal. They were safe. She tried to steady herself as the web swayed again. Her jewel burned with the power of the Otherworld’s dark magic. She looked away, her eyes flinching against the pain.

  “I have to fix it!” she blurted.

  “I will help you.” Indi’s magic rushed through her, warm and soothing. “But you must heal yourself before you can heal others.”

  Gulping back tears, Emily raised her wrist. Rainbow magic flowed from Indi’s crystal horn, entwining with her blue healing light. The magic wrapped around her body like sunlight. Slowly, her scratches and scrapes melted away, her bruises faded, and the throbbing pain in her ankle subsided, then vanished.

  The Spider Witch’s magic grated against Emily as she examined the tangled web. The grid-like pattern was much more rigid than the other section of the magic web Emily had seen. Suddenly she realized what the witch had done. With the skill of a spider, she had unraveled the existing magic web and woven it into her own dark design.

  Emily’s eyes widened. There was something else, a familiar silver aura underneath. The original web was still there! A bright flash of hope flared through her jewel. She’d just returned the web to its original form in the kobold’s home. As long as that magic existed, there was a chance she could undo the witch’s weaving.

  But healing the entire web was an enormous task. She needed more magic.

  “Over there.” Indi pointed his horn.

  Emily squinted. A splash of glittering red bobbed on the horizon. The power crystal!

  Grasping the unicorn’s mane, Emily jumped onto his back. “Let’s go!”

  With a toss of his head, Indi galloped down the magical pathway, sparks flying off his hooves. Emily leaned into her paladin’s neck as he charged toward the glowing jewel.

  Raising her wrist, she flung a strand of bright blue magic at the crystal, trying to ensnare it. But just as before, the power crystal floated away.

  Sensing her urgency, Indi picked up speed. The unicorn leaped over strands of glowing green as he chased the power crystal along its twisting course, always just out of reach.

  In a flash, it disappeared.

  “Follow it!” Emily cried.

  Horn blazing with power, Indi opened a portal. White light rush
ed past Emily as they careened through the magical doorway.

  Emily pitched forward as Indi skidded to a stop, hooves scrambling at the edge of a rocky precipice. She shifted her weight back, helping her paladin regain his balance.

  “What is this?” the healer breathed, wind whipping at her curls.

  An enormous gorge with sheer walls gaped before them. The bottom was shrouded in thick gray mist. And in the center of the abyss, an immense castle rose on a rocky pedestal. Stone turrets curled to the gray skies like giant insect legs. There were no doors or windows. Not even a bridge to reach the castle. At least no bridge a girl and her unicorn could use. Instead, strands of glowing, green web served as bridges for hundreds of hideous spiders. They skittered back and forth like ants in a colony, each driven by its own secret purpose.

  The Spider Witch’s lair.

  Power pulsed from every stone of the imposing castle, as if some ancient evil were waiting to be set free from its dark interior.

  There was another concentration of magic nearby, something so familiar, like a faint melody. Emily’s pulse quickened. Beneath the rays of swirling black power, she sensed it: unicorns!

  “Lorelei!” Emily used her telepathic power to call to her friend.

  But there was no answer.

  “The power crystal must have been drawn to the unicorns.” Emily’s heart skipped a beat.

  “I can feel them!” Indi stamped his hooves.

  The Spider Witch had the missing unicorns as well as the power crystal in her clutches!

  “Fiona,” Emily called, willing the tiny dragonfly to appear and send a message to Adriane, Dreamer, Kara, Lyra, and Ozzie.

  But the red d-fly either couldn’t hear her or was too frightened to come near the Spider Witch’s lair.

  Emily took a deep breath. It was up to them.

  “Can you get us inside?” She stroked Indi’s neck.

  He lowered his head, pointing his horn toward the towering castle.