The Black Opal

by Linda Jordan

  Dylan walked up to him and kissed him on the nose and said, “Night, nite.”

  Barinthus chuckled. Dylan grabbed his blanket, dragged it in front of Barinthus’ front legs, then spread it out and crawled underneath, cuddling Freddy.

  “Me too,” Amanda said, moving sluggishly towards her own blankets.

  Mira stood staring at Edward. He seemed so sad and lonely looking. He casually walked over to Barinthus and began a quiet conversation.

  She went to check on the horses. They both dozed, so she patted them and said, “Sweet dreams,” wondering if horses dreamt.

  As she walked around, Mira felt exhausted, yet too tired to sleep. The dragon’s energy, as well as the power stored in those massive stones flowed through her. So she moved around the outside of the stone circle. Some of the dragons nodded at her as she passed by, then continued their conversations. Others lay stretched out on the ground, snoring. The cool grass tickled her bare feet as she breathed in the fresh, almost salty air. They must still be fairly close to the ocean. Tomorrow they would turn directly inland. To the City of the Black Opal.

  She walked around the circle of trees. The small round leaves grew green on top and silvery on the bottom. They fluttered gently in the breeze. The white bark felt smooth and silky. The trees stood the same height and basic shape. Around the whole massive circle, not one was maimed, broken or dead. Amazing. Such a thing did not happen in her world. Perfection did not exist there. She wondered if Earth still was her world. For the first time, she consciously considered the question. Would she ever go back?

  She was startled out of her thoughts by the appearance of a dark shape. Her mind reached out to read its intent, and found ’no harm meant’. As the creature came closer Mira recognized a horse. No, a unicorn.

  A black unicorn!

  It continued to move closer. His mane hung to his knees, and tail dragged on the ground behind.

  “What do you want?” she asked, beginning to feel uneasy.

  No answer came. Fear rose up in her. Fear of this beautiful creature. Fear of failing her sister. A terror of failing herself, not finding her way in life. She backed up, wondered which way to run. The unicorn reared and charged.

  The horn entered her belly with a sharp pain. The unicorn’s hot breath hit her knees, steaming through the heavy cloth of the pants she wore. He twisted his head and a crack sounded as the horn snapped. Mira felt a wrench in her gut. He backed away. She watched his eyes open wider until the whites showed.

  She stood frozen. Mira’s head ached as if she’d run into a boulder and there was a throbbing in her stomach. Her feet rooted to the ground. The land’s energy shot through her body.

  Mira reached out to the unicorn, wanting to make sure he was okay. As she touched the silky neck, his entire body shook. His hair lightened and turned white. The unicorn’s horn began to grow again, glowing from within, pearlescent. He shook his head, tossing the long mane. The unicorn whinnied, snorted, then seemed to bow his head. He turned and bolted between the trees onto the plains beyond. She quivered

  She pulled her shirt up and put her hand to her stomach; there was no blood. The sealed wound felt hard, like rock or crystal. It might cause more harm to pull the horn out, even if it was possible. Then it began to glow. The horn felt warm in her belly, comfortable as if it melted into her. Mira wondered if maybe she was going into shock. Her ability to think seemed fuzzy.

  She felt filled with peace and contentment, rather than fear, like hypothermia and the moments before freezing to death. Was this what it felt like to die?

  “Mira,” said a soft voice.

  She looked up to see Edward watching her with concern.

  “The unicorn...,” she said.

  “You changed it to a white one,” he said and caught her as she collapsed. She heard him say, “Chosen by the unicorns....”

  Mira dreamt about being curled up next to his gray fur. His warm paws touched her and held her naked body against his soft pelt. She sensed a shared passion between them. Then somehow she felt skin against warm skin. Mira felt him moving inside her and woke in the middle of the night to find herself alone in her soft, fuzzy blankets, fully clothed. She slipped back into dreams of the unicorn and the feeling of being in Edward’s arms.

  Chapter 19 - Mira

  Waking with a start the morning, Mira struggled to remember what happened. She lifted her shirt to check her belly for a sore, even though she felt no pain. A round, almost crystalline scar covered her navel as if someone had imbedded quartz there. She felt happy, peaceful and full of energy.

  Last night couldn’t have been a dream. She remembered the part about Edward and blushed. No, that didn’t happen; she knew that much.

  Dylan stood talking to Barinthus. The faeries fluttered around them both. She felt strangely reassured. When had this become the new normal, she wondered.

  Amazingly, Dylan conjured a bird out of midair, then a frog, then a huge, glowing emerald. These things held their shape even after leaving his hands.

  Edward watched intently. Amanda still lay asleep. Mira got up and walked over to Dylan.

  “Are you doing all this Dylan?” she asked.

  He looked at her guiltily.

  “It’s fine if you are. I just want to know,” said Mira.

  “Grandma say no. Bad,”

  She took a deep breath. “Sometimes even grandmas are wrong. This is one of those times. You just need to make better choices about who you do magic for. Like not in front of Grandma.” She remembered Mom’s explosive reactions to Mira’s childhood magical attempts.

  Mira had burned with anger at her mother. Her father had simply looked surprised. He would have accepted her if he lived. She felt a deep sorrow about his loss, even eight years later.

  Dylan seemed confused, looked at Barinthus, then back to her and nodded.

  Barinthus said, “I helped him understand your words.”

  “How?” she asked.

  “I now understand how to speak to his mind.”

  “Can you do this with anyone?”

  “No, only with a person who is my partner.”

  “Partner?” she asked

  “I do not know how to explain this in your words. Even though I am not a dragon who believes we should separate from people and I have taken great effort to learn your language, I do not always find the right words,” said Barinthus.

  “Let me try,” said Edward, turning to Mira. “Dragons and humans once lived in close partnerships. About half of the dragon population joined with a human partner; you might call them soul mates. They could see into each other’s minds and hearts. It is a very deep, profound connection with another being. Usually a young dragon and a young child would find each other.”

  Edward continued, “After ten turns on the throne, the Queen’s anger with the unicorns came to a peak. She claimed they overran the City, her gardens, the plains. In truth, I think it was because their magic eluded her, she could neither master it nor equal their power. Queen Nakia decided the herds needed to be thinned. She coerced the human and dragon pairs and her army to help her. The Queen held enough power to inspire them to attack the herds. She gave the humans an evil potion to awaken their blood lust.” Edward paused for breath.

  Mira noticed he seemed distressed.

  Edward added, “All the unicorns within the City came under attack. They fought back, but eventually all were murdered. Then the battle moved onto the plains. Unicorns contain great magic, but little of it is used for defense. The blood lust raced through the humans and the dragons caught it like a disease. Once that sort of rage is awakened within a dragon it takes long to die down. The madness spread to all the weirs and every flying dragon participated in the slaughter of the unicorns. Only a few unicorns escaped. Some of them made it into the Black Silk Canyon and the blackest ones disappeared against the stones, dragons cannot see black well. In the darkness others escaped. Eventually, the survivors crossed the mountains and fled to the forests where Aste l
ived, far from the City.”

  The look on Edward’s face made Mira want to cry. He felt so much for what happened in his land. She tried to imagine such an atrocity in this serene place, but couldn’t.

  He continued, “With the massacre of the unicorns, the dragons felt deep shame. The pairs still alive and many single dragons dashed themselves into the cliffs, killing themselves. Others struggled to live with their shame and distress. They decided there would be no more dragon and human pairings until a white unicorn could be found again, white unicorns being the most common. It would signal the recovery of the herds. So here we are with humans, dragons and unicorns all cut off from each other. It creates a terrible fissure in our world. That crack has spread to the other lands as well. The dragons link the worlds together, keeping the connections stable.”

  “What about the white unicorn thing?” she asked, holding her breath. Mira wasn’t sure if she really wanted to talk about it. The feeling brought up by what happened between her and the unicorn was so intimate and personal, but she needed to know if it really happened.

  “I think you know a white unicorn was seen by many last night,” Edward said, quietly.

  “But that wasn’t normal. It was really black and turned white before my eyes. That doesn’t mean the population is recovering from the massacre.”

  “I think it does. I think it is a sign for us and to the dragons,” Edward said.

  It felt good to know she hadn’t imagined the encounter with the unicorn. Mira touched her belly.

  “Ride,” screeched Dylan in excitement.

  “What did you say?” she asked, turning quickly to Dylan.

  Barinthus grabbed the back of Dylan’s jacket with his mouth. He stretched his long neck around and neatly placed Dylan on his back, between two spines.

  “No!” she cried.

  “I will take good care of him. We will return shortly,” said Barinthus as he lifted slowly into the air, his wings creating a wind that blew Mira backwards and created a cloud of dust.

  Dylan yelped with joy. She just cringed.

  “He will be fine,” said Edward touching her shoulder.

  “Well, there’s nothing I can do about it, is there?” she said, annoyed.

  “No. It is a great honor for him to be joined to such a dragon.”

  She understood, but felt jealous. “Why can’t I be joined with someone in that sort of ‘deep, profound’ relationship?” she mumbled to herself, rustling through a saddlebag.

  Edward must have overheard her. “Your time will come, have faith in that,” he said, quietly.

  Mira grabbed some food. She had grown really tired of stale bread and dried meat and vowed never to eat granola again. She put some of the infusion into water for Amanda.

  Amanda finally woke up. She ate, drank, and grumbled. Her typical morning routine. The two of them packed up the horses. They saw Barinthus fly over several times, accompanied by three other dragons. Finally, they landed, the earth shaking with their impact.

  Barinthus helped Dylan down. Dylan gave him a hug and shouted, “Mom, Mira, Eddy, I fly.” He jumped up and down, flapping his arms. She couldn’t help but laugh.

  Barinthus bowed his head at them. “I wish you luck on your journey. We will meet again soon. If you need to get a message to me, you may tell Dylan.” The dragons flew off, spiraling into the air.

  “Are all dragons that abrupt?” asked Amanda.

  The pooka said, “Barinthus is long winded for a dragon. Come, we will need all day for the long ride to the City and then to find a way into the castle.”

  “Just how are we going to do that?” asked Amanda, haughtily brushing her long hair out of her eyes.

  “We’re going to look for Jacob, the farrier and hope he can help us or knows someone who can,” said Mira

  “That’s your plan?” asked Amanda. “That’s just ridiculous,” she said, glaring at her. “The Queen must be expecting us. She attacks us every night. Let’s just march through the front door.”

  “No,” said Mira. “There’s not enough of us. We need to be more stealthy. Sneak in.”

  “Like she won’t find out we’re there? She has spies out in the boonies who find us. How many spies do you think she has in the City? Your plan is pathetic; it’s not even a plan!” she said, crossing her arms.

  “Please let me know if you come up with a better one,” sniped Mira. They must be getting closer to her soul if Amanda was this angry and argumentative. “C’mon, we’ve got to get going.” She lifted Dylan up onto Shadow and got on. Amanda got on the gray, still shaking her head in disbelief. As they galloped down the road, the pooka paced tirelessly beside them.

  Dylan amused himself by making small rocks appear in his hands and throwing them off onto the side of the road. His magic seemed effortless. He was having so much fun playing. Did that make him more powerful?

  Dylan told her he’d healed spiders before and once a bird. Theoretically, size shouldn’t matter. So a dragon shouldn’t be harder than a spider. Maybe to him size meant nothing. Most of what he did was circus tricks. That’s how she’d started as well. If she’d been allowed to follow her own magic, without interference from Mom, would she be plagued by her current lack of control?

  Things had changed when she entered this land though. Her power came in straightforward and strong and she noticed a small bloom of confidence creeping into herself. She continued to ponder the nature of her own magic, and Dylan’s, as they passed out of the rolling foothills.

  Finally she could see plains stretching out beneath them. In the distance lay the Tower of the Black Opal, gleaming purple light. The road looked straight all the way to the City. But the distance must be misleading if it would take them till late afternoon to get there. A mirage, she thought.

  Their path joined the main road from the north that followed the River Angouleme. The river was too wide and deep for horses to cross, Edward told her. The trees on the other side looked like match sticks. The clear water ran mostly straight, through the city and out into the Great Inland Sea. At least that’s what Aste’s map told her. She’d hardly needed the map.

  They ate lunch as they rode. When they got to the main road, they paused to feed, water and rest the horses. Dylan waded into the river a few inches and squealed as the coldness of the water filled his shoes.

  “Dylan,” snapped Mira, grabbing him before he went in any further, getting her own shoes wet. It felt good. “Don’t go in any deeper, the current’s too fast.” Mira sensed the horses’ joy for the fresh water to drink and wade in.

  An incredible scent drifted past her, sweeter than honeysuckle, more luscious than ripe peaches. Mira turned and saw a stand of tall plants across the road. Amanda stood in front of them. Edward patted Mira’s horse, his head buried in the horse’s mane. He rested, still breathing hard from running alongside the horses.

  She walked across the road, drawn by the exotic smell. The plants grew tall with massive stems. Fuzzy leaves about nine feet across were green streaked with red. The flower stalks stood three feet higher than the leaves and looked like huge, fancy orchids of fuchsia, orange, red and yellow. The flowers made her dizzy just looking at them. She walked up to the plants and touched the leaves, inhaling deeply. Her magic wanted to know this plant, but her senses wanted to become one with it. She felt herself enveloped by the fuzzy leaves, wrapped cozily like a velvet blanket.

  She looked across the road and saw Dylan wading back in the water. A huge green creature that looked almost like the Loch Ness Monster floated in the river talking to Dylan. She couldn’t hear the words, but she saw it lift one of its front paddle-like legs to give Dylan a way to scramble on its back. She tried to cry out, but her voice wouldn’t come.

  Edward yelled, “Dylan, no! Jump off!” as the creature swam downstream in the fast current. Soon Dylan disappeared from sight behind tall bushes and around a bend. She couldn’t move and part of her didn’t really want to.

  Dylan’s abduction must be a hallucina
tion.

  As she drifted off, someone called her name. Edward, it was Edward. Calling Amanda and her. She dozed off again, curled into the soft cushy foliage.

  When Mira came to, she lay on the ground with Edward kneeling over her waving something stinky past her nose. She stared at it and recognized a fresh horse turd. Amanda also lay passed out. A strange man knelt over Amanda giving her the same aromatherapy treatment.

  She sat up and heard crackling. Four other men were setting fire to the group of plants that had seduced Amanda and herself. A fifth man held the reins of everyone’s horses further down the road.

  The smoke swirled thick and black with an almost caramel fragrance as the plants burned like dry firewood. She could almost hear the plants screaming.

  “What is happening?” she asked Edward.

  He brushed her cheek with his clean hand and said in a worried tone, “It was my fault, I thought you knew about ‘sweet death’. You were almost eaten by a clump of it. They lure you in with their scent and beauty then trap you. They slowly digest you, leaving nothing behind. Then they catch the next traveler.”

  “They didn’t catch you.”

  “I’m a pooka.”

  “What about them?” she asked, gesturing to the men.

  “They arrived shortly after the plant captured you. I bewitched them so their sense of smell wouldn’t work. They recognized the plants. We burn these plants wherever we find them, but they seed rampantly and grow quickly. This clump was probably only two days old. I am so very sorry.” His ears drooped, dejectedly.

  Edward got up, padded to the river shore and stared off into the distance. He seemed anxious. She couldn’t understand why, but could read the tension in his body. She clenched and unclenched her fists. How could he not have told them? She and Amanda had stood in front of the plant for a long time. He should have noticed. They could have died! She gritted her teeth until her jaws hurt.