by Linda Jordan
The Black Opal:
The Jeweled Worlds - Book 1
by
Linda Jordan
Contents:
Begin Reading
About the Author
Copyright Information
Extended Table of Contents
The Black Opal
Chapter 1 - Mira
Mira smelled the neighbor’s lilacs as she walked down the gravel road. Stray clumps of grass and weeds splashed dew into her Crocs, and her feet squished around inside the shoes. She looked at the beautiful view of Puget Sound. It would be a gorgeous spring day, rare and sunny.
But it wasn’t enough to make Mira forget her miserable life. She’d screwed up again and this time Aunt Rita had sent her to Mom’s house. For good.
Mira had been crying for two days; now she just felt empty. Her life held no hope and no future.
She turned back towards the house, pausing to empty a piece of gravel from one shoe.
Then she realized that something felt very wrong. Half a block away, shadows barreled through the mist. A huge hand-shaped cloud appeared out of nowhere, passed over the sun and darkened the row of poplars beside Mom’s house. Shivering in the sudden cold and absence of all sound; she smelled the burnt air. It left a bitter taste in her mouth.
She began to run, slipping and sliding in her wet Crocs.
The shadows closed in and the creatures took shape as two huge, black dogs. They moved like one, legs and breathing synchronized, toward Mira’s identical twin, Amanda. And her son, Dylan.
Amanda had her back to the hounds, absorbed in Dylan’s play. Oblivious to the threat. Her three year old, golden child ran circles around his mom. She sat on the front lawn. The long, red hair tied up in a ponytail made her look younger than eighteen. She laughed, ducking the clumps of wet grass which Dylan threw up into the air.
“Amanda! Look out!” screamed Mira. She ran past the massive cedar stump towards them. “Get Dylan in the house!”
Amanda scrambled to her feet and turned towards the dogs. Dylan ran behind her. The hounds leapt at them. Saliva ran from their mouths. Amanda fell backwards on top of Dylan. He wriggled beneath her, trying to get out.
Mira gasped for breath as she ran, helplessly watching Amanda punch the creatures. Hollow thuds echoed as her sister’s fists landed. Amanda screamed, but the hounds were relentless in their assault. Their jaws snapped and slavered, easily avoiding her fists and feet.
Mira was there. As she bashed them the sounds of her foot hitting reverberated in the eerie silence.
“Get away! Go!” she screamed.
She looked around for something else to hit them with. There was nothing. When she kicked one in the head, it glared at her with icy-white eyes, then returned to the attack.
To Mira’s horror they ripped into Amanda’s belly. No blood flowed, but something came loose. A gold object pulsed, reaching tendrils back towards Amanda, as if trying to stay with her. The dogs strained and pulled. The thing, like a golden, tropical flower, was severed from Amanda.
Mira felt helpless. Grounding herself, she tried to summon up the Earth’s energy. Then attempted to move it through the dogs.
The creatures ignored her, turned and headed back the way they came. She quickly gave up on magic and chased them. She kicked harder and made a grab for the golden object. Off balance, she fell sprawling to the ground. The hound tossed the tendrilled thing to the other, yelped, and kept running.
She got up and sped after them halfway across the yard, trying to get close enough to grasp whatever they had taken from Amanda. The creatures ran faster than greyhounds and quickly outdistanced her. She felt torn between chasing them and going back to help Amanda.
She turned and sprinted back to her twin, “Amanda. Amanda are you okay?” she asked, out of breath. Mira knelt, touching her; barely registering that she saw no wound and her sister’s clothes were intact. Amanda’s face looked slack, listless.
Mira tried to figure out what to do next. The dogs were almost at the poplars now. She watched in astonishment as a black swan streamed towards them through the mist and dove, taking the object from the dogs.
The pulsing golden thing strained to get back to her twin. Mira could almost hear it screaming. She shuddered. Whatever it was, it belonged to Amanda and somehow Mira needed to get it back to her. The swan flew through the trees swooping up and down under what seemed to be a heavy load, then disappeared into the pocket of fog halfway down the block.
Tears streamed down her face as Mira shook her twin gently. She felt a need to keep Amanda conscious. “Amanda, please stay here.” Mira didn’t know what the golden thing was, but it was important. She felt worthless. Why hadn’t she made different choices, ones that could have stopped the dogs?
Dylan lay beneath Amanda, whimpering.
Mira rolled Amanda over slightly and helped Dylan wiggle out from under his mom. Then he lay on top of her sobbing, “Mommy, Mommy,” clasping his stuffed dinosaur, Freddie. Mira stroked his back.
Amanda looked up at Mira. Her green eyes wept, then turned completely black as if empty. She didn’t speak.
Mira felt frozen. She had never seen such powerful magic before. How could she possibly counter it?
The hand-shaped cloud over the sun vanished, like smoke blowing away. Light returned. Sun blazed over the treetops and she felt arid, August heat. The air smelled clean again.
Mira’s mouth went dry. She looked around sensing something, not sinister, but as great a force as the evil had been.
She looked up to see a huge, golden eagle above, starting a dive.
She pulled Dylan off Amanda, feeling instinctively it would protect him. He squirmed away from her. The massive eagle dropped down and effortlessly lifted Amanda by her clothes.
Dylan cried out, “No, Mommy come back.”
Mira had no idea what to do. Her brain could make no sense out of this. The eagle flew gracefully across the acre, hovered over the massive hollow cedar stump and let go. Amanda fell, disappearing from view.
Dylan ran across the yard, tears streaming down his face. “Mommy.”
Chapter 2 - Mira
Mira caught up to Dylan.
He squirmed out of her arms, yelled, “Mom,” and continued running towards the fifteen-foot tall, cedar stump. He climbed faster than she could react.
“Dylan, no!”
He shook his head. “Get Mom.” His face was red.
“Wait,” she said, forcing herself to stop and breathe. She needed to be clear about what to do next. “Let me think a minute.”
Dylan stopped climbing and stared at her; his opinion clear.
She didn’t want to go into the stump. Trying to see what lay inside had gotten her banished from Mom’s house six years ago. Mom had caught Mira practicing flying.
But, he was right. She needed to get Amanda out of there. Dylan shouldn’t be left alone that long. She pointed to him and said firmly, “Okay, wait here.”
Dylan wiped the tears off with his blue T-shirt and nodded.
She ran to the garage slamming the wide door up and open. The tall aluminum ladder lay against the dimly lit, far wall. Dragging the metal ladder across the cement floor made screeching sounds which resonated with the discordant feelings running through her body.
The ladder cut a furrow in the grass behind her. By the time she returned to the stump her breath came hard and sweat moistened her T-shirt. When she got the ladder propped up against a branch, he went right up it. She almost stopped him, then decided if Dylan fell, at least he’d land on her.
She started climbing and yelled, “Dylan stop when you get to the top.” Her tight jeans made climbing difficult; all her jeans were tight these days. How good would it feel to be in shape like Amanda?
>
Mira gasped for breath and her legs were wobbly by the time she made it to the top. Helping Dylan straddle a branch that looked strong enough while trying to balance herself on the wide rim of the hollow stump was challenging.
“Now comes the hard part, Bucko.” She looked down into the cedar. The bottom was dark. No time to go back and get a flashlight. Dylan couldn’t be left alone.
“Amanda, are you okay?” Mira’s voice echoed inside the rotting tree. In her head she could hear Aunt Rita’s voice, “You need to think before you act. Plan before you do,” as guilt at her own incompetence washed over her.
Dylan said, “Mira, magic,” and pointed down.
Her neck and shoulders tightened and she almost gasped with surprise. He wasn’t supposed to know. No one did, except her mom and Amanda. Not even her stepfather Elliot. Well, especially not her stepfather. Mom was afraid he’d go ballistic.
“Who told you I could do magic, you little bugger?”
“Light,” said Dylan insistently.
She took a deep breath, pulled off a nearby dried out cedar twig and envisioned it burning. The stick caught fire, illuminating most of the inside of the cedar stump. She saw just enough to doubt Amanda was there. Dylan pointed to a dark spot on one side of the stump.
“Mom,” he said.
“She’s not there, Dylan,” Mira felt torn between disappointment and fear.
“Mom. Go.”
The cedar twig exploded into a small, singeing fireball and she dropped it, then sucked on her fingers. The burned twig drifted down inside the stump and went out. Mira needed to go down there, but didn’t want to. She trembled.
The ladder suddenly seemed to be made of granite. It felt so heavy. On the third attempt she lifted it off the ground and slid it up the outside of the cedar, then balanced the ladder in front of her. Somehow she slid it down the inside of the stump. By the time she accomplished it, her whole body shook from the exertion and precious minutes had passed.
She got on the ladder and helped Dylan on after her.
“Go slower,” she snapped, as he stepped on her fingers.
How she would get Amanda back up was anybody’s guess.
They hit the bottom inside the stump and she sat down, exhausted. There was no sign of her twin. The dark spot looked like a tunnel. Dylan simply waddled into it.
“Dylan, come back here.”
“Get Mom.”
“I go first,” she said and crawled towards the tunnel opening. Cool air wafted from it. Once her eyes adjusted to the darkness she could see a dim light inside.
“Amanda?”
No answer came back. Her voice was absorbed by the earth.
What had happened to Amanda? Mira grew increasingly afraid of what she might find. The dogs attacked her sister, yet there had been no blood.
She tried to understand, while crawling into the tunnel. Somehow, she realized, the dogs had stolen Amanda’s soul. That’s what the golden, curly object was. Intuition told her that; even though her mind couldn’t believe it. The pain she sensed as Amanda’s soul was severed from her body had been devastating. What must Amanda feel? Why would those dogs steal a soul?
Mira was born with the magic which ran in her family and she’d been studying with Aunt Rita, learning to use her own innate skills as a healer. Failing more often than succeeding. She celebrated the subtle changes of the seasons, taking in the uses of herbs, practicing spells which normal people would explain away as positive thinking. She could even do a few more complex things like making fire out of nowhere, sometimes without damaging someone’s house.
Things like possessed dogs and stolen souls were the equivalent of a jumbo jet landing on the driveway at Aunt Rita’s house, she thought. A sharp rock punctured her knee bringing her back to the present, but the puzzle remained. Things like this just didn’t happen in her world. She’d seen a few inexplicable things, but never in her life felt magic like that of the dogs.
Mira pushed through the paralyzing fear and kept crawling. No one else could help right now and time was crucial. She wished Aunt Rita could be there. Dylan shouldn’t be, but there was no one to leave him with. Taking care of a toddler was the last thing she needed.
She crawled further and further downward. Dylan was short enough to simply walk upright behind her, although he kept tripping on her feet and falling down.
The tunnel grew lighter. Rock walls and dirt floor felt cool to the touch. Her hands and knees inside her jeans grew cold from the damp earth. How long would the tunnel continue? Her legs were cramping up.
Bumping her head on a low, hanging rock she tried, unsuccessfully, not to swear in front of Dylan. The tunnel widened and they came closer to the light. Crawling to an opening in the side of the tunnel wall, she felt warmth. A whitish-silver light seemed to be radiate from everything.
She looked down onto a green hillside and a beautiful forest. In the distance lay wildflower meadows of pink and orange. The sweet scent of wild roses tickled her nose. Fields of farmland sprawled before an incredible ivory city which seemed formed from pearls. It looked perfect, like someone’s painting of a fairy tale or a magical place. Beyond the towers stretched an ocean with iridescent waves. Everything glowed as if lit. A world made of radiance. She stuck her foot through the opening to climb down the hillside. Entering into that world made her feel more vibrant as if every little disfunction in her body was healed. Stress melted away. Even the air coming through the opening felt cleaner and more alive than normal air. The city pulled her towards it.
Dylan cried, “No!”
She turned to him. He pointed down the passageway which traveled still deeper into the earth. On the floor, farther down the tunnel, lay Amanda’s yellow sweater in a heap.
She reluctantly crawled back into the tunnel, past Dylan to the sweater. It was crumpled and smudged with dirt. Clearly Amanda was farther down. Mira clutched the sweater to her chest, breathing deeply and trying not to cry. She looked back longingly at the pearlescent city then tied the sweater around Dylan’s shoulders, to help him stay warm and keep Amanda’s presence close to him. Dylan smiled, hugging himself.
She went back to the opening and broke a small branch off one of the trees near the entrance to that radiant world. As they continued down the tunnel the branch shined in the darkness, putting out a small amount of light, as if the silver leaves glowed from the inside out. Mira gently slipped it inside her T-shirt, which she tucked into her jeans so the branch wouldn’t fall out. As the leaves touched each other they tinkled like little silver bells, but weren’t scratchy under her T-shirt, rather they felt like pussy willows caressing her skin.
Dylan followed behind her muttering, “Mom, we come,” over and over again.
The tunnel floor was soft dirt rather than hard rock. She pulled the silver branch out to look. Something had dragged Amanda down the tunnel. As they crawled she could see small insects and other creepy things crawling into crevices to get away from the light. She didn’t want to think about all the wildlife. The air carried a strange smell to it, like moldy houses. She shuddered and kept moving.
What would happen when she found Amanda? Mira couldn’t even mend a sparrow. Two days ago she had been trying to move energy to the bird’s broken leg. Instead she accidentally shattered Aunt Rita’s precious crystal scrying bowl which sat on a table across the room. The one that had been passed down for generations.
Rita’s face had drooped as she picked up the lifeless sparrow and she said, “Go back to your mom’s, go to college, get a job, anything. Your magic is too wild and uncontrolled. I’ve worked with you for six years and nothing has changed.”
It wasn’t the first thing she’d broken and failed at. So she had gone back to Mom’s. Mom didn’t want her. She’d never forgiven Mira for having the family ‘gift’. Mom viewed it as a curse and refused to use or even acknowledge it. Mira felt worthless and didn’t have a clue how to help Amanda if they found her.
After what seemed like an hour or two o
f going down, the tunnel suddenly curved and ended, opening up into a forest clearing.
Mira stood, slowly stretching, massaging her aching knees and looking around. Dylan followed her towards the gloomy, violet light into a new world.
It looked like no woodland she had ever seen. Trunks of towering trees stood like massive highway supports, ten feet across. Moss grew everywhere. Intriguing sounds formed a concert of new agey music. Shrieks, chirps, roars and hooting noises wove together in a such a way she couldn’t tell what creatures they might belong to. The forest vibrated with unseen life. It smelled of the clean scent which comes after a brisk rain. She felt nervous, hoping the wildlife was friendly.
A trail led from the clearing, off into the misty woods. Imprinted in the mud lay tracks. Big webbed feet, twice the size of hers, with only three toes. Tangled up with the tracks was a wide, deep mark that could have been a person being dragged.
Mira’s stomach rumbled and she knew Dylan must be hungry as well, but she had no food. “You up for this Bucko?”
“Find Mom,” he said, puffing up his chest. She noticed his lower lip quiver slightly.
She sighed, tightened Amanda’s sweater around Dylan and asked, “Can you walk or do you need to be carried?”
He looked at her and said, “Walk.”
She looked back at the tunnel opening to memorize it so they could return home. The entrance stood framed between two of the most massive evergreens. As if their roots had grown around a log which had vanished over time, leaving a hole. Would she be able to spot the trees from a distance?
“Okay, let’s go.”
She pulled the silver branch out and held it in front of her. It glowed like a lantern making them more visible to whatever might be out there. However, it felt like the pearly light and tinkling leaves would ward off anything which wanted to harm them. The image of that beautiful, silvery land burned in her mind.
She followed the trail, worrying about just what would happen when they came upon Amanda and the web-footed thing. They walked for hours, following the tracks.
