Secret of the Unicorn (Avalon: Web of Magic #4)

by Rachel Roberts

  Magic crackled and popped, forming a ring of shimmering blackish-green energy around the unicorn, trapping her.

  “Run, Lorelei!”

  The unicorn snorted and tried to bolt, her eyes rolling back with fear.

  Emily watched as the harpy swept toward Lorelei, skimming just above the grass. Its shadowy dark cloak billowed around its gaunt shoulders, and its yellow teeth formed a hideous grin as its eyes bored into Emily. The unicorn backed away and reared up, her silvery hooves flashing. But the harpy didn’t slow. It reached out its arms and wrapped Lorelei in its evil embrace, sweeping her into the portal.

  “WAKE UP!” EMILY screamed, running toward her friends. “You’ve got to fight it!”

  She shook Kara by the shoulders. The blond girl stared listlessly, as if looking right through Emily.

  Behind them the animals of Ravenswood came running into the field.

  “Everyone!” Emily called out. “I need your help!” She pointed at Adriane, Kara, Ozzie, Storm, Lyra, and Ghyll. “Form a circle around them.”

  Emily raised her jewel and concentrated on drawing in the magic of the animals around her. The rainbow jewel flared blue, and Emily held it before Kara, bathing her in bright light.

  Kara’s eyes cleared, and she looked at Emily. “What happened?” She blinked.

  “The harpy put us under its spell,” Emily explained.

  With Kara’s help, Emily quickly used the power of her jewel and their animal friends to break the spell. One by one, each shook off lingering wisps of hypnotic music.

  “Where’s Lorelei?” Adriane asked, looking at the spinning portal still hanging open in the air before them.

  “The harpy took her,” Emily told her, frantically. “We have to go after her!”

  Adriane shook her head. “Are you crazy?”

  “It’s starting to close!” Ozzie called out.

  The portal was spinning in on itself, shrinking.

  “Emily,” Adriane said, “we can’t just jump through! What if we end up in the Shadowlands—or worse?”

  Emily tried to explain how important this was. “The whole magic web is at stake,” she told them, her voice thick with tension and fear. “Lorelei is supposed to protect the web. If she can’t repair it quickly, it’s going to keep falling apart!”

  “But going into the portal—it’s too dangerous,” Ozzie said.

  “I’m going through!” Emily said defiantly.

  “How will we find Lorelei even if we do go through?” Kara asked.

  “I can find her,” Emily stated. “I have to.”

  Ghyll stepped forward. “I am a fairy creature, a magic tracker. If we go right now, I can help find the unicorn on the web.”

  “I don’t know,” Ozzie said. “It sounds risky.”

  “I went through once before,” Adriane reminded the others. “My wolf stone protected me.”

  “What will happen to the web, to Aldenmor and the Fairimentals, if we don’t help Lorelei?” Emily asked. “We have to decide now!”

  She glanced at the portal. In a few moments it would be gone.

  “One jumps, we all jump!” Adriane announced.

  “Why I listen to you two is beyond me,” Kara said.

  “Storm, you and Lyra stay here and take care of the others,” Adriane ordered.

  “I will contact you if I do not hear from you,” Storm told her.

  “Hold onto me,” Gyhll said.

  The three girls grabbed hold of Ghyll as he took a mighty hop.

  “Wait for me!” Ozzie yelled.

  Emily reached out. Ozzie leaped and grabbed hold as they jumped through the misty veil and fell into the portal.

  The flobbin drifted in space. Kara, Emily, Adriane, and Ozzie floated alongside. They seemed to be encased in a gold-and-blue bubble. The amber glow of the wolf stone and the blue-green glow of the rainbow jewel filled the bubble. Outside, streaks of light swept by as the bubble flew across an endless ribbon of stars.

  Ghyll was concentrating on the rows of blazing lights that flew towards them. “To the left,” he called.

  Adriane and Emily shifted their stones to the left, and the bubble turned, careening into a connecting path of starlight.

  Emily’s eyes were wide with astonishment. Long, wide swaths of glowing light, like highways, spiraled and stretched, searing past them at enormous speed.

  “Right!” Ghyll ordered.

  The girls shifted their stones, banking the bubble right, where it soared onto another streaming path, flying out over the vast web.

  “This is amazing!” Emily exclaimed.

  “I remember actually riding on the strands of the web,” Kara said, referring to her wild unicorn ride. “But this is intense!”

  “Are we there yet?” Ozzie covered his eyes as the bubble dipped, then dropped down a vertical well of looping strands, spinning upside down and jumping forward once again. “GarG!” The ferret was jolted into the air. “Doesn’t this thing come with seatbelts?”

  “Hurry, Ghyll,” Emily cried.

  “I can only track the unicorn,” said the flobbin. “You can increase the speed with your magic.”

  “Hold on!” Kara touched her fingers to each of the jewels, and the bubble shot forward like a rocket.

  “Ahhhh!” Ozzie cried out.

  The bubble sped across the web like a shooting star, arcing towards an intersection of pathways. A wide platform of light floated where the highways met.

  “There!” Ghyll called out.

  “Where? Which one?” Adriane asked.

  “All of them.” He pointed.

  Emily and Adriane moved their jewels, and the bubble slid into an approaching pathway. Bouncing slightly, they came to a halt on the edge of the platform. The bubble flared and disappeared.

  Splashes of light danced behind Emily’s eyes, inside her head. Music filled the air—bright, brilliant, enormous, as if the universe itself were singing.

  Emily opened her eyes, awestruck. They stood on an immense, circular platform, looking out upon the web itself. The magic web! An endless array of gleaming strands stretched out in every direction, woven into impossibly complex patterns. At every intersection, tiny glittering stars twinkled with pure white energy. When she looked down, Emily realized the platform was made of thousands of tightly woven strands. The platform formed the base of a giant circle, surrounded by connecting strands of the web. Smoke plumed from various places along the pathways. Upon closer inspection, she could see that sections of the web had been burned away. Loose strands unraveled as sparking embers of green glow spread from the edges—Black Fire. Through the gaping holes she could see where sections of starways crumbled and burned, falling away into the black of nothingness. Even the flobbin seemed stunned by the devastation of the ruined web.

  “Where are we?” Adriane asked.

  “A nexus,” Ghyll said quietly.

  “A what?”

  “There are sections of the web where many paths converge in one place,” Ghyll explained. “This is a nexus.”

  “Like a train station,” Emily said.

  “If you follow the right path, you can jump to different places, worlds.”

  “Is it safe here?” Kara asked.

  “I’ve never seen the web destroyed before. It’s terrible. And dangerously unstable.” Ghyll shifted his flippers nervously.

  “Where is Lorelei?” Emily asked, looking through the smoke that swirled from the base of the wide circle.

  Ghyll pointed to the opposite edge. Clouds of smoke parted to reveal the unicorn standing beside the harpy. Ribbons of glowing light streamed from Lorelei’s crystal horn. Like a magnet, the pale green horn in the harpy’s hand pulled the flowing magic toward it, warping the ribbons and sending them streaming outwards. A dreadful, whining music blared from the green horn. As the magic hit the pathways, the connecting silvery strands withered, sending up plumes of ugly, greenish smoke. Sections of web shifted, raveled, and unraveled, reconfiguring into a different pattern. Th
e harpy laughed, buzzing with its evil song.

  “What are they doing?” Kara asked.

  “It looks like the harpy is using Lorelei’s magic to reweave the web, to make a new pathway,” Ghyll said.

  Lorelei stood entranced, magic and music flowing from her horn in rich, deep, sad notes.

  “Lorelei!” Emily called sharply.

  The harpy swung to face them. The horn in its hand blazed a sickly green. “You are too late. The unicorn is under my spell. I will soon have the right pathway open.”

  The harpy began crooning soft music, beautiful and beguiling.

  “You know what the sorceress wants, don’t you, Ghyll?” it said to the flobbin.

  “What are you talking about?” Adriane asked, feeling the enchantment of the harpy closing in.

  “That fairy creature is not what it seems,” the harpy hissed. “Who do you think turned him into a flobbin?”

  “No!” Ghyll hopped forward. “You don’t have to tell them!”

  “Why not?” the harpy crooned. “It is time for secrets to be revealed. Ghyll is after the unicorn for himself, aren’t you?”

  Ghyll remained silent, looking at the others.

  “I knew it!” yelled Ozzie, stomping over and kicking the flobbin. “Cousin Brommy doesn’t have the Sirens of Waterknell. It’s in the Hall of Elders! Everyone knows that!”

  “So you tricked us,” Emily said to the flobbin.

  “I can explain—” Ghyll started.

  “You wanted to send the unicorn to the Dark Sorceress!” Adriane yelled.

  “It’s not like—” Ghyll tried again.

  “Of course it is,” the harpy sang.

  Emily felt the hypnotic magic reaching for them, trying to trap them under its spell. “Start yelling, singing—anything to break the spell!” she cried out.

  Taking a deep breath, Emily opened her mouth and began to sing. At first, her voice was shaky and uncertain. As her confidence grew, the rainbow jewel flared with brilliant blue light. Colorful starbursts appeared all around her as Emily felt her own magic strengthening Lorelei’s.

  The horn in the harpy’s hand sparked wildly as the connection with the unicorn faltered. The harpy narrowed its eyes and raised its voice.

  Hopelessness gripped Emily in an icy grasp. Was she strong enough to save Lorelei?

  Then Ozzie’s reedy voice piped up, thin but clear. A moment later, Ghyll started croaking along in a deep bass.

  Adriane stepped forward and raised her wolf stone. She tilted her head back and howled, the wolf song ringing out strong and sure. The harpy’s magic wavered, the green horn dimmed. Kara looked at her friends, then stepped forward and opened her mouth, letting out a screech that made everyone cover their ears.

  The harpy faltered, almost dropping the horn in fright. It cringed as Kara’s voice hit it with a sudden, strong, magic force.

  “Keep singing, Kara!” Emily yelled over her shoulder as she ran to Lorelei.

  “La, laaaa!” Kara sang out.

  “Go, girl!” Adriane called.

  “La, La, LAAAoooWAAA!”

  The harpy turned away, trying to shield itself from the awful music bombarding it.

  “Emily.” Doleful, forlorn music filled Emily’s head. She could feel that

  Lorelei was deeply traumatized by having her own horn turned on her. How could Emily hope to help the unicorn through this?

  If the spirit does not desire healing, Gran’s voice said in her head, no true healing can take place. If you want to help, you have to be willing to give the kind of help that’s needed.

  Emily hugged the unicorn close. “I know how you feel,” she said. “I lost my family—the life I was so sure of. My parents split up, and I thought that was the end of everything good and safe.”

  “Laa, LAAAAAooOOiEE!!” Kara was advancing on the harpy, forcing the monster to cower in pain.

  Emily focused on the unicorn. She had to make her understand, make her realize she wasn’t alone.

  “But just when I was ready to give up, I found Ravenswood, met Adriane and Kara and Ozzie,” she went on. “And I realized I had magic inside of me. Strong magic that couldn’t be taken away no matter what happened.”

  “My horn is everything.”

  “No, that’s just it!” Emily remembered the confusion she had felt in Lorelei before her horn had come back—and also the power, the beautiful, strong, harmonious power laying just beneath the chaos.

  “Your horn may focus your magic, like our jewels.” She held up her rainbow stone, which was glowing softly with pastel colors. “But the real magic is inside of you. Right here.” Emily touched her hand to Lorelei’s chest, covering the unicorn’s beating heart.

  The music in Emily’s head was uncertain.

  Emily held the rainbow jewel out toward the unicorn’s chest. Lorelei hesitated, then stepped forward to meet her touch. As soon as the jewel on Emily’s wrist made contact, there was an explosion of chords, strong, magical bursts of sound that filled her and surrounded her, echoing across the nexus.

  “Aaaaaarrrrrhhhhhh!”

  The harpy’s cry rolled toward them in a powerful, deadly wave of sound and energy as it flung its song like a weapon. Emily braced herself just in time as the wave barreled over her, but out of the corner of her eye she saw a section of platform flare with green fire and dissolve. Kara wobbled and slipped, her left leg disappearing into the nothingness!

  “Kara!” Emily screamed, watching in horror as Kara lost her grip and slipped farther.

  Emily and Adriane lunged toward their friend. With a snort, the unicorn’s eyes flew open, and she spun around and raced to help. But Ghyll got there first. Locking his blue flippers around a strand of web, he flicked out his long purple tongue, wrapped it around Kara’s arm, and hauled her up.

  “I’m okay,” she said shakily once she was back atop the web. She glanced down quickly and gulped. “No problem.”

  Lorelei’s hooves flashed with golden fire as she danced across the hole in the web. Everywhere she touched, the broken strands healed, weaving back together and vibrating with life.

  The harpy howled in fury and fired another sickly bolt of magic from the green horn.

  “Look out!” Adriane shouted to Ozzie. Warrior and ferret leaped away, barely clearing the smoking hole ripped open beneath their feet.

  “Stop!” Lorelei’s voice rang in all their heads.

  The harpy turned to her, eyes burning with greed and hate.

  “Do not hurt them.”

  “Then give me what I want, unicorn.”

  “I will do as you ask.”

  “No, Lorelei, you can’t,” Emily cried.

  “Do not interfere,” the harpy commanded. “The unicorn will finish what we have started. Her horn was removed once. Do you want it to happen again?”

  Emily felt waves of fear radiating from the unicorn.

  She watched as Lorelei walked across the tightly woven strands. The unicorn shook her head, waving her crystal horn. A lovely melody drifted through the nexus. Pathways shifted, coming apart, unraveling. Strands rewound themselves into a new design.

  A bluish-white whirlpool appeared—and opened.

  “Yes, that’s it!” the harpy cried gleefully.

  “It looks like another portal,” Ozzie said.

  This portal was about half the size of the one at Ravenswood. Blue haze covered the opening as streams of smoke fell eerily upon the nexus floor.

  The harpy turned in triumph, raising its green horn high. “It is done. The path has been revealed.”

  “Go. You have what you want,” Lorelei said.

  An evil grin spread across the harpy’s face. “You first.”

  Lorelei stepped backwards. “I cannot.”

  “You didn’t think I would trust you, did you? Just in case you didn’t follow the fairy map exactly, you will come with me. Besides, I’m sure you want to see the home of all magic, don’t you?”

  The girls looked at each other.

>   “Where does this portal lead?” Emily called out.

  The harpy’s look of malice made the girls cringe. “Where? To where all dreams come true. Avalon.”

  Whirling around, it flew towards the unicorn, knocking them both into the portal in a flash of foul, greenish energy. In an instant they were gone.

  Avalon?

  “If the sorceress finds a way to get the magic of Avalon, all is lost,” Ozzie cried, jumping up and down. “Everything the Fairimentals have worked for will have been for nothing!”

  Kara, Emily, and Adriane stood side by side, looking at the misty opening that would lead them to the most mysterious and magical of all places.

  “We must save the unicorn,” Ghyll said firmly.

  “We’ve come this far,” Adriane said.

  “Just one more,” Emily added.

  “One jumps, we all jump!” Kara said.

  “Piece of pie,” Ozzie concluded.

  Emily reached out and clasped hands with Adriane and Kara. “Let’s do it!” she exclaimed.

  The five of them surged toward the portal. As they reached it, Emily took a deep breath, squeezed her eyes shut, and jumped.

  THUMP.

  Thump.

  Thump.

  Thump.

  Splooof!

  Emily opened her eyes. Her friends scattered around her—in a glistening, gleaming dreamworld. Enormous snowflakes, soft and pillowy white, drifted lazily up, down, and all around them. When one landed on her arm, instead of cold, she felt a soft, soothing warmth that spread through her with a glorious sense of well-being.

  “I… know this place,” she whispered.

  Adriane shook her head, staring out at the silvery-blue landscape. They were in a valley surrounded by rolling blue hills. Thick, billowy purple clouds floated above them, releasing the giant snowflakes. The valley floor was covered in soft, fine sand that sparkled like quartz. “It must be another world,” she replied, her voice hushed with awe. “Like Earth, or Aldenmor.”

  “This can’t be Avalon!” Kara said.

  “I don’t know,” Emily whispered, looking for Lorelei. “I saw this place in a dream. I think I’m supposed to be here.”

  “Are you all right?” Ghyll asked Ozzie, who was scraping himself up from the sand.