The Black Opal

by Linda Jordan

  Mira sensed overwhelming power in the room, most of it from the Black Opal. The Queen and her Sorcerer held a great deal of magic; flaunting it like strutting peacocks. Ronan masked his, as did Roderick.

  Aste stood holding Dylan. She seemed healed, at least well enough to stand and hold thirty pounds of squirming toddler. A stranger stood beside her. The man held an aura of potency which seemed to be equal to hers.

  The pooka stood silently in the background, their energy swirling about them like water flowing around boulders. They conducted more power than any of the humans. In contrast, Amanda stood drooping and depleted. The infusion had stripped her bare of energy and almost of life. Ewan stood with his glamour intact, still lost in the faerie curse. Edward was absent.

  Mira realized they were playing a game here. She felt impatient, but didn’t want to start things either.

  The tower room looked truly spectacular. The side walls were made of panels with huge glass windows, alternating with spaces open to the wind. The ceiling was also made of glass. Rainbows gleamed everywhere, even at night. The massive Black Opal hung suspended and slightly above the center of the open floor. The Opal looked even more magnificent up close and she could see flecks of different colors pulsing deep within it. The stone created its own light. As she moved past it, the colors and flecks flickered and shifted. Everyone stood on a metal cat walk ten feet wide which connected to the wall around the entire circumference of the round tower.

  Mira could see through the small grating of the floor, down into the cavern. The cat walk extended to within three feet of the widest parts of the Opal. She could see over the top of the Opal to the other side. Nearby, a wide, clear platform extended out from the catwalk to touch the Opal.

  She became aware of thundering. Storm clouds had arrived. Lightening was not far off and the fresh, salty air blew in off the sea. Dragons circled the Tower. Their wings slapped the wind and occasionally they trumpeted. The Opal didn’t seem to be holding off this storm.

  Barinthus landed in an open panel of the window as did an orange dragon and a silvery-white one. Mira felt the energy in the Tower shift. Fear floated through the air in an almost tangible way.

  “My you are a grumpy group of people for Midsummer. Is this a new faerie curse I am unaware of?” Queen Nakia asked innocently. No one answered.

  Mira saw glowing lights surrounding the Tower and realized faerie gathered, showing themselves. They began to perch in the open windows. As they became still Mira could discern their various shapes and sizes.

  She watched the Queen move closer to Aste, who put Dylan on the ground behind her. “I will take that,” she said to Dylan, reaching towards him.

  Mira noticed Dylan held a glowing, golden orb. It pulsed and the tendrils rippled like a jellyfish. As the Queen came closer, the soul screeched and flailed in torment. Amanda’s soul!

  “No,” he said, with all the defiance of a three year old.

  Mira waited anxiously for someone to do something. No one spoke or moved to help Dylan. It would have to be her. “Stop,” she said, rushing around the cat walk towards Dylan.

  “Are you going to stop me girl? Tell me, shall I take your soul as well as your sister’s? Oh, and the child’s too?” asked the Queen, smiling. She advanced on Mira.

  Queen Nakia stopped. Her eyes focused on Mira’s horn.

  Mira was surprised to see the rage erupt on the Queen’s face. Mira was unprepared for the Queen’s attack. She grabbed Mira’s arm and thrust her free hand towards Mira’s belly.

  Mira struggled to get away, but the Queen was physically much stronger. She realized Nakia was trying to suck her soul out. It felt like a hurricane hovered over her stomach.

  Mira gathered all her frustration at not being supported by her family, all her self doubt and fears, everything she’d gone through to get here. It all got rolled up into a huge ball of energy centered in her belly. She pushed all that power out at the Queen.

  Queen Nakia fell backwards. Her eyes wide with shock. Two pooka grabbed her roughly and pulled her to her feet. Other pooka restrained the Sorcerer.

  The Queen looked confused. She clearly hadn’t expected Mira’s power, or the pooka to rebel against her.

  Mira felt her own power radiating outward. Aste came to Mira and nodded toward the Queen, “You must finish this.”

  Mira walked out onto the glass ledge and put both hands on the Opal. She heard several sharp intakes of breath behind her. She spoke, knowing the Opal gave her the right words to say. “Giver of life, sustainer of life, remover of life, we return this woman’s power to you. It is time she ends her reign and another ruler is chosen.”

  Mira turned and walked to stand next to Nakia. The faeries hummed in an eerie manner and the pooka joined in.

  The Black Opal began to vibrate until Mira thought it might move out of the steel net which supported it. The Opal moaned and formed a tunnel of charged energy which looked like a tornado funnel. The tip crackled and snaked its way to Queen Nakia. Its luminous vortex stabbed her and she screamed out, trying to escape.

  Mira could feel the stone taking back what little magic Nakia had left. It removed what made her Queen, her sense of self. The deposed Queen, Nakia, looked as if she would cry with loss. As the Opal broke off contact and became quiet, Nakia recovered somewhat.

  Mira watched her jaw tighten and eyes narrow with anger. She nearly snarled as Roderick removed the crown from her head, a pendant from around her neck and a ring off her finger. As he stepped back the cone of fabric on her forehead fell off revealing a black scar. Mira realized with horror that Nakia once had a horn, like she did now, but Nakia’s refusal to relinquish power rotted it away.

  “Brother,” Nakia spat, “you have waited a long time for this. You will be assassinated before the next waning moon.”

  Roderick merely smiled. “Nakia, I never had any desire to be King of this land. If I had you would have been gone long ago. But I know one who is more worthy to rule,” he said looking at Ronan.

  “That must be decided later,” said Ronan, nodding towards Aste.

  Aste and the stranger stood in front of the Sorcerer. The Sorcerer stared at them defiantly. “You cannot do it. You do not have the authority or the right.”

  Aste lowered her voice and it sent chills down Mira’s spine. “I have every right. I made you. Not only did I give birth to you, you wretched creature, but I taught you most of what you know. You took what I taught, twisted it and turned it to evil.

  “Angus, do not struggle, it will only be harder for you,” said the man.

  “Donal, you were ever her favorite, Little Brother, but you have no skill here, go back to your safe little shop.”

  Donal smiled gently and said without malice, “I have enough skill to help her unmake you, Big Brother.”

  Mira stood watching the three of them. So these were Aste’s two sons. She could see the physical resemblance. But where Donal’s face seemed open and honest, Angus, the Sorcerer looked closed and cruel. Donal pulled something out of a bag he wore and handed it to Aste.

  A flash of fear passed over the Sorcerer’s face. Aste struck the Sorcerer before he could work a spell. She held a glass jar full of some amber liquid and began chanting in an unknown language.

  Nakia lunged towards Aste, but the pooka held her, “You cannot,” she said. “Have mercy on him, he is your son.”

  “My son has given no mercy and shall get none,” said Aste, her face emotionless.

  “The time for mercy is past,” came the deep voice of Barinthus from one of the open panels. Multiple blasts of wind blew inward from all sides. Bolts of electricity flew outward from the clouds haloing the tower. It felt like being in the center of a ball of lightening. Mira’s hair swam in the static. The purple light of the Opal was punctuated by blasts of brittle white, casting eerie shadows everywhere. Dragons landed in each of the open panels, some of them looking familiar, and some she had never seen before.

  Nakia became silent upon seei
ng the dragons, but Mira could see her mind working. Nakia was trying to figure out how to come out of this alive, and maybe regain her power.

  Aste continued chanting. The air around her flashed as if sparks sprang from her skin. Her son, Donal concentrated on holding the circle she created. Mira watched the amber liquid in the glass bottle Aste held, slowly turn to a purple color. The Sorcerer looked anguished.

  The pooka murmured angrily. “The Sorcerer has gone too far. He took power from the Black Opal, that is only for the King or Queen to do. He drained off her power. He must be put to death.”

  Aste said, “What I will do to him will be worse than death, you will see. He did take from the Opal, but has not drained her power. No one can touch the Opal without her permission. She entrapped him. Her power is unlimited. She comes from the land. I will return this power to the Opal.” She resumed chanting.

  Mira began to worry. She moved back, against the outer wall, wrapping her arms around herself. If the Sorcerer violated the Opal, then what did she do? She had wallowed in the stone’s power. Would she be punished too? Surely Aste would notice it. Mira felt as if she glowed with purplish light.

  “As I have made you, so I unmake you. No magic have you left. Only a memory of what you once held and squandered, do I leave with you. You will also be bound forever to this worthless woman and she to you. This faerie curse will last your entire lives. The land is my witness.” Aste said and drew a sign of protection in the air. She then took the glass bottle over to the center. Aste poured the liquid onto the Black Opal, who reabsorbed it immediately, steaming with purifying heat.

  No longer the Sorcerer, Angus looked empty. The pooka let go of him and he stood, in shock. One of the pooka searched him for weapons and took away a knife hidden beneath his robe.

  Aste turned her attention to Nakia, who snarled at her. Aste looked at Roderick, then Ewan, then Ronan.

  Ronan nodded. Donal pulled a small bowl out of his bag. Ronan held it while Donal poured clear liquid from a bottle into it. Then Donal took the bowl. Aste pulled a small knife from a sheath on her belt, took Ronan’s arm and made a small cut. Donal held the bowl out for her and she dipped the knife in it. Mira could see the blood swirling in the liquid. Aste wiped the knife on her skirt, then sheathed it.

  She took the bowl and walked towards Nakia. “Queen you were made by your father’s death. Queen you were, unworthy, made evil by hoarding power. The people of this land unmake you with the blood of your kin. Queen you are, no more.” Aste flung the bowl’s contents in the Queen’s face drenching her and Nakia screamed in rage.

  Ewan said, quietly, “I think it is time to return Amanda’s soul.”

  Mira realized he held her in his lap as sat on the catwalk near the Opal. Amanda lay barely conscious. Ewan looked pale and frightened.

  Dylan walked to Amanda and set her soul on her belly. He stood near her and faeries fluttered around him.

  “Not yet,” said Aste. “We must remove this evil before we begin healing.”

  “This is my home. No one shall remove me,” said Nakia.

  “Please do not hurt her,” begged Angus. “I enacted this evil plan. She has done nothing wrong.”

  Nakia looked at him in wonder. “You would risk yourself for me?”

  “Yes, my Queen,” he said.

  “Brother, have you nothing to say to me?” Nakia asked Roderick.

  “Goodbye Nakia. May you find peace,” he said.

  Nakia sighed and shrugged off one of the pooka. She walked closer to Angus and took his hand and patted it. “It will be all right, my love. We will be fine,” she said, with a voice so kind, Mira found it hard to believe.

  “I know,” he said, beaming at her.

  Then everything happened at once. Nakia twisted and wrenched free from the other pooka. She slipped a small, silver dagger from her sleeve and lunged screaming, at Amanda still laying on Ewan’s lap. “This is all your fault! You should have had a stronger soul.”

  Though two faeries attempted to pull Dylan back, he squirmed loose.

  Dylan bolted between Nakia’s blade and his mom. Nakia’s knife stabbed him. The momentum of Nakia’s rush tumbled Dylan over the edge of the catwalk.

  Against the outer wall, Mira watched and screamed in horror as he fell into open space.

  Two pooka grabbed Nakia as she tried to get away. Mira ran for the edge. Ronan caught her so she wouldn’t follow Dylan. Amanda’s soul shrieked.

  A vacuum formed where Barinthus sat. Mira could see him on the outside of the tower below, trying to break in through window after window, each one lower, attempting to find one large enough to fit through. The tower shuddered with each collision. He bellowed in pain and fear. Great gashes formed on his shoulders.

  Dylan’s fall seemed to last forever. Faerie raced to try and catch him, but he fell faster than they flew. Mira was powerless to do anything except watch. She couldn’t even breathe as she hoped Barinthus would reach him in time. Dylan landed directly between the columns of old bones she had stood beneath earlier. He was dead before Barinthus broke through enough stone to reach him. The dragon lay beside him making horrible, guttural noises Mira would never forget. A host of faerie flew around them, looking like a cloud of dark birds, keening and screeching in anguish.

  “Dylan,” she whispered and turned into Ronan’s chest. His arms closed around her.

  She heard a slap as Aste hit Nakia. “You are unspeakable,”

  Mira looked up to see wounds opening on Nakia’s arms and face, bleeding freely. It looked as if someone had taken knives and cut open her skin. Aste wasn’t doing it. Amanda was sitting up, cradling her soul and almost breathing fire at Nakia. Nakia screamed, writhed and covered her face. Mira realized with a shock that Amanda was using magic to attack Nakia.

  “Amanda, stop,” said Aste, quietly. “You must save your strength to accept your soul back in your body.

  Ewan picked Amanda up. She struggled, although Mira saw she didn’t have much strength left.

  Aste walked over to one of the dragons. “Would you be willing to carry Nakia and Angus to the Island of Lost Souls, where they can be contained and do no more harm until their fate is decided?”

  “Certainly. We will guard them well,” snarled the chartreuse dragon covered with spines.

  A golden yellow dragon covered with wrinkles, who looked ancient, picked Nakia up roughly with his claws and flew off. The chartreuse one took Angus. Several other dragons followed, but many stayed. Others joined Barinthus below, mourning. It hurt Mira just to hear the bellowing. She stayed in Ronan’s arms, sobbing.

  “Come, it is time,” said Aste, touching Mira’s arm. “We must return your sister’s soul to her before she is lost as well.”

  Mira nodded, feeling numb and said, “Amanda drank the whole potion.”

  “Yes, I can see that. That will make this much more difficult, but I think with your abundant power added to mine, we can do this.”

  Aste motioned for the pooka to bring one of the benches, sitting against the glass wall, closer to the Black Opal. Donal picked up Amanda’s soul as Ewan lay Amanda, now unconscious, on the bench.

  Aste took a bottle of herbal oil out of her bag and removed Amanda’s shoes and unbuttoned her shirt. She began chanting and anointed Amanda’s forehead, each of her drooping arms, her feet and lastly her chest and belly with the oil.

  Aste turned to the Black Opal and began an invocation.

  Chapter 33 - Mira

  The power within the room grew. It became thick. Aste’s body moved as if in slow motion. Mira could practically stir the air, sculpt it with her hands. The Opal resonated with Aste’s power, enhanced and returned it. Aste turned to Mira. They joined hands over Amanda’s unconscious body.

  Mira could feel the Opal’s energy filling the empty void inside her that Dylan had left. She needed to focus her intense emotion on Amanda now.

  Aste raised an eyebrow when she touched Mira’s power. Her secret of communing with the Black Opal w
as out, although Aste didn’t look angry about it. Rather she looked secretly pleased about something.

  Mira turned her attention to the work of healing of her twin, Amanda. Love for her sister surfaced. They knelt on either side of Amanda, one hand on her arm, another on her thigh, trying to call up her life force. Mira felt it as a faint trickle.

  She felt something brush her arm and turned to see Ronan holding the silver branch from the Pearl World. How had he gotten that? Mira looked at Aste, who motioned her to take it. She took the branch and lay it on Amanda’s chest. Amanda’s energy immediately surged. Ronan retreated to the background.

  Aste stood and reached to get the soul from Donal. He handed it to her, then went to kneel touching Amanda’s feet. Everyone else in the room seemed to have made a circle around them.

  Aste lay the golden, gelatinous-looking soul, on Amanda’s belly, just below the silver branch. The soul heaved a great sigh and wrapped its tentacles around Amanda’s body. Aste knelt, held her hands above the soul and began to chant again. Mira felt a growing connectedness fill the room. It overwhelmed her and she could barely think, only sense and respond.

  As she watched, Aste’s hand sank closer and closer to Amanda’s belly. Her twin’s body was slowly sucking its soul back inside. The silver branch vibrated, turning a grayish color.

  Finally Aste pulled her hands from Amanda’s belly and lay one on Amanda’s arm and the other on her thigh, mirroring Mira. “It is done,” she said. “We must wait and let Amanda come back into herself.”

  The three of them held the circle for Amanda. Ewan came to join them, cradling Amanda’s head. They did this for what seemed a long time to Mira’s aching knees.

  Everyone stood silently, except for the pooka, who began a haunting song. She had never heard anything like it. The only music Mira could compare it to were some of the original recordings of Scottish Mouth Music she had once heard. After while, the faerie joined in and every now and then a dragon would make a punctuation with wings or tail slapping. She could still hear the dragons down in the cavern mourning Dylan, and Barinthus’ loss of a partner. Their song wove in and out of the pooka’s tune. It was the eeriest lamentation she ever heard. She wanted to cry again, but held the circle instead. Mira knew she needed to be useful.