“You’re right,” I responded to Daniel. “I can’t save everyone. That includes myself. But I can save her.” I pointed to Glinda. “And I can save them.” I gestured with Excalibur over the edge of the platform. “Which means I have a responsibility to.”
“Everyone, back up!” Julian yelled.
He and Ozma had confined Glinda within a floating orb of water. Ozma yanked off her necklace with one hand while her other held steady on the magic. She ripped the cork roughly from the vial with her teeth.
This was it: the point of no return.
Ozma chucked the vial into the orb. The moment the vial submerged, the entire orb turned vivid gold. This beautiful water sunk into Glinda’s body, turning her skin that color. Suddenly her eyes burst open and glowed brightly; her mouth opened too and she screamed. The veins in her skin multiplied. She looked like a cracked porcelain doll. Then the doll shattered completely, disintegrating into mere particles. The water lost its light and Julian and Ozma released their hold on the orb. The contents splashed to the ground. In the middle of the enormous puddle floated Glinda’s dress, heels, and accessories.
Daniel gulped. “How long does it take to—”
“Shhh.” Ozma held up a hand. “It’s happening.”
She was right. Glinda may have melted, like Eva did when Dorothy chucked a bucket of water containing the cure at her a long time ago, but now that the Four Waters had done their work and cleansed Glinda entirely, she was reforming. The water on the ground changed into a human figure that filled Glinda’s outfit. Five seconds later, the woman had fully renewed. She was on her hands and knees gasping for air.
Ozma and Julian rushed in and helped her to her feet. Glinda appeared the same for the most part, except for her face and eyes. Her expression was soft now and her eye sockets had returned to normal color while her irises had changed to hazel. She looked at each of her friends’ faces.
“I’m free,” she said. “Ozma, Julian—I’m so sorry. I . . . I didn’t mean to—”
“We know, Glinda,” Julian said. “You weren’t you.”
“What happened to Eva?”
Julian’s expression fell. “We’ll explain later. The mountain is collapsing. Do you have the strength to take down that force field?” He pointed toward the ledge.
Glinda swallowed and closed her eyes. “Hmm.” She grunted, opening them again. “The dampening of the Aurora on normal magic is like an anchor. I respect the lot of you for fighting me with such strength despite it.”
“So can you do it or not?” Kai asked.
Glinda walked toward the ledge and flexed her fingers. “There is nothing that can stop me from undoing this. I won’t have anyone else die because of me.”
She extended her arms. Silver energy consumed them this time, unlike the black energy she’d used before. The force field began to flash. Glinda gritted her teeth and concentrated. The force field flickered faster. Glinda’s legs started to wobble, but she held through and at last the force field rescinded. It sparked angrily as she called it back, but soon the entire thing was gone. She took a slight stumble when she was done.
“Now what?” Kai asked.
“Now step back,” I said bluntly. “I still have Pure Magic. And I’m going to put it to good use. Take this.” I passed Excalibur to Kai. Then before the others could stop me, I dropped to my knees and focused. My power burst out with ten times the force of the tidal wave in the previous cavern. It pulsed through the entire mountain anew with a gargantuan golden flash that traveled to every crease in the rock.
Bring everyone up, I instructed the mountain. Hold true and don’t crumble. Keep it together. Protect us until we’re all free. Please.
A massive quake began shaking the cavern, but this time I was not worried by it. In the reflection of the water streaming over the ledge, I saw my eyes shining gold. Golden marks resembling cracks spread over my hands too.
When I finished injecting my power into the mountain, the magic in me shuddered painfully like it had before—the energy inside almost too great to be contained—but I refused to let it take me down again. With a show of force, I sucked in that pain and stood. My eyes returned to normal as the innocents I’d saved came into view. The mountain had literally changed shape to adjust for my commands. The chasm had widened and the rock base at the bottom of the mountain lifted, forcing its way to our level with all the people on board. They looked confused and scared but relieved.
My power had calmed the mountain slightly, but bits of rock still fell. The terrain was obeying me to the best of its structural ability. However, I knew it only had so much control over its integrity at this point. The forceful power that had been unleashed when Mauvrey absorbed Paige’s mind had deeply affected this place. Soon this mountain would come down one way or the other. It was time to make our exit.
“Follow us,” I yelled to the crowds. “We’re getting out of here now!”
e made it out of the mountain, and pretty quickly too. The prospect of being buried alive was a great motivator.
As our party poured into the night, I kept my eyes peeled for flying monkeys, though it seemed they’d all gone. At the base of the mountain Blue, Jason, and SJ emerged from the blackened tree valley.
“We lost Eva,” Jason called.
“We almost had her for a moment,” SJ continued as they approached, “but she summoned the remaining flying monkeys with the Simia Crown and made her escape.”
I recognized the area ahead where we’d crossed the In and Out Spell. As my friends were on the other side and perfectly fine, it seemed—as hoped—crossing out again was not a problem. The Aurora really was weakening the spells.
I stepped forward without hesitation and the dome shone like before. Everyone else followed. I glimpsed Glinda’s expression of disbelief when she walked through. She had been trapped in the North Mountains for a long time, and it had been even longer since she’d seen the world through non-evil eyes.
My heart panged with a tinge of sadness. I was good with my decision back in the mountain, and I was glad Glinda had a second chance, even if it meant I wouldn’t get one. But it was still hard to know that a safety net would never be an option again. The Four Waters of Paradise were gone. For real this time.
I sighed. We were still on the clock and couldn’t afford to slow down, even if our emotional baggage had grown.
“There’s fifteen minutes left in the Aurora,” I announced, glancing at my Hole Tracker and regrouping with my core team as Julian, Ozma, and Glinda tended to the escaped prisoners and made sure everybody was okay.
“Is that enough time to get to Alderon?” Kai asked. “We’re realms apart.”
“It has to be,” Jason said, determined.
Before I could say another word, a silver wormhole tore itself open not fifty feet away.
“Looks like the universe agrees,” I said, referencing my Hole Tracker. “We’ve got a few minutes before that thing closes. We’ll take it ASAP and from the Portalscape we can head back to Book.”
“What about the Shadows on the Portalscape doors? Jason asked.
“Arian escaped through a silver wormhole,” I said. “The way must be clear now.”
“If we make it in time what are we gonna do once we get to Alderon?” Blue asked. “Our plan was to counteract one Simia Crown with another, but now we don’t have either.”
“Then we’ll have to lend our services the old-fashioned way,” I said. “Ormé and the Gwenivere Brigade are at the Alderon border to help; maybe they’ve lessened the threat. And maybe Lenore listened to my warning and called for reinforcements before the Mark Twos went dead like I saw in my vision.”
“After what you did, I should hope so,” SJ commented.
I shot her a look.
“What did you do?” Jason asked.
“I told her about my Pure Magic,” I admitted.
“WHAT?” Daniel and Jason exclaimed in unison.
“I played my best card, okay?” I told them ste
rnly. Then I took notice of my hands. “It’s hardly my biggest problem at the moment.”
I held up one of my palms. Fractures of thin golden light had split my skin during my last magical outburst, and the effect was not going away. This wasn’t like when my veins glowed after extreme magic exertion. This was more akin to what Glinda had looked like right before she broke apart during her Pure Magic cleanse. It was like I was beginning to magically shatter.
“Magic Burn Out,” Merlin said, appearing by my side. “You’re imploding. It’s contained to your hands for now, but if you don’t rest, every magic muscle you flinch will cause it to spread until you’re destroyed.”
Most of my friends looked very worried by the news. I noticed that Kai didn’t react as much as the others, but Blue reacted enough to compensate. And she was mad. “Crisa, you should have listened to me! You should have—”
“I shouldn’t have done anything other than what I did,” I said tersely. “We’ve all been making tough and dangerous choices these last few days; mine are just magical. All of you need to stop letting your concern affect your judgment. I know everyone wants to give their two cents about what’s best for me, and maybe you’re right, but I need to do what I think is right.”
I paused and softened my tone as I looked from one concerned face to another. “Guys, my power is life. And I respect that gift enough to know that while the bold and brave may not live forever, the selfish and afraid don’t live at all. I need to have the courage to keep going and play to win without the weight of playing it safe holding me down. There are battles we can’t afford to lose. You need to have faith I can decide which ones are worth the risk.”
No one responded, but I took that as their acceptance. We didn’t have time for anything else.
“Uh, so what happened with Mauvrey in there?” Jason asked, changing the subject. “Where is she now?”
“She’s over there,” Ozma responded, joining our group. “She’s still asleep.”
“You still owe me an explanation about her,” I said to Merlin.
“That will have to wait, Crisanta. Aren’t you all in a hurry?”
“He’s right,” Daniel said. “Explanations later. For now we just need to decide what to do with her.”
“Julian will take her back to the Emerald City with the escapees,” Ozma replied. She gestured to Glinda, who was hesitantly approaching us. Ozma nodded at her. “Glinda and I are coming with you. We can help with your antagonist problem.”
“Thanks,” Blue said. “We could use all the help we can get.”
I turned to Glinda. “Crisanta Knight,” I said, outstretching a hand and finally introducing myself. “Are you well enough to do this?”
“Glinda,” she replied, shaking my hand. “I’ll contribute what I can. If the In and Out Spell around Alderon is threatening to come down, I can help sustain it with my force field magic. It’s not as strong now that it is normal magic, but it will assist the cause.”
“What about Eva?” Jason interceded. “Aren’t you guys worried she’ll attack the Emerald City now that she has the Simia Crown?”
“She knows better,” Julian responded. He’d excused himself from the escaped miners and came over to converse with us. “When we suspected that the Aurora would weaken In and Out Spells, we had additional cannons fortified across the city’s outer wall. Any flying monkeys that get near will be blasted apart. Besides, Eva probably only has a few dozen monkeys under her control. We killed and trapped many within the mountains, and half weren’t even there to start with. Ozma told me an antagonist named Arian took ownership of the first crown. They must’ve been called to him earlier.”
“Then we know where those flying monkeys are,” Jason said. “Time to move out, people. Let’s go defend our realm. The Fairy Godmothers need us.”
My team started toward the silver portal. Kai lingered for a moment.
“You still want me to hang on to this?” she asked, gesturing to Excalibur.
“Yeah,” I said. “I trust you. Just don’t lose it.”
“Or give it away,” Kai returned.
I couldn’t tell if she was joking. The comment felt a little too soon to be funny, but I let it slide. She raced on with the others and I was about to do the same when I noticed Ozma hanging back with Julian. She threw her arms lovingly around her brother and he returned the embrace.
“Come back this time,” he said to her.
The warmth in the gesture sent a surge through my heart.
“Julian,” I said.
He looked up as he released his sister.
“I’m sorry. When Rampart told me that an Emerald City ruler let him keep Ozma prisoner in Camelot, I assumed it was you. But it wasn’t. It was Eva.”
“I suppose it was,” he said sadly. “But to quote your words to me, we will talk about this later. Go help your realm. I must take care of mine.”
Ozma took off in pursuit of the others. I hesitated, then turned to Julian again. “There are three magic hunters trapped near some trees that way.” I pointed up the valley. “They’re murderers. Make sure they’re arrested.”
Julian nodded and I turned and ran at full speed to the silver wormhole. One tumble through the familiar earthy chasm later and I bounced off the bed and landed on my feet. Most of the doors surrounding the Portalscape were still blocked with red-eyed Shadows, but three previously covered doors—the one to Oz included—were free. And of course, the door to Book remained unblocked.
I still didn’t understand why the antagonists had left that door free. Even though Mauvrey said I could return to save Kai after I woke the dragon, she could have easily gone back on her word. It fit with her character. If I were in her shoes, that’s definitely what I would have done.
Daniel opened the door to our home world. It no longer let out in Century; instead, it faced a dark forest. Jason leapt through first, followed by the rest of my friends. When I landed last, my boots squished in mud. Thick trees hemmed us on the right while to the left shone the lights of a grand kingdom sparkling in the glow of the Vicennalia Aurora. I checked my Hole Tracker.
Twelve minutes left.
“Where are we?” Kai asked.
“Home,” SJ said in awe.
“Yes, I know,” Kai replied. “But where specifically in Book?”
“That is what I am telling you,” SJ continued, gesturing to a stone castle atop a distant hill. “We are in Dobb—my home kingdom.”
I looked up from my Hole Tracker.
So we are.
I’d been to SJ’s home before but had never seen it quite like this. Every balcony of the castle burned with light from the party going on inside. The gemstone murals that decorated the turrets glinted in the Aurora’s luminescence. Stained-glass windows shimmered fiercely.
I was relieved to see Dobb unharmed. I guess this had not been one of the cities the commons rebellion had planned on attacking tonight. I could only imagine how thankful SJ must’ve felt realizing the same thing.
Blue groaned. “Dobb’s on the other side of the realm from Alderon. Any thoughts on how we get there in a matter of minutes?”
“Just one,” I responded. “Someone hand me a Mark Two.”
SJ gave me hers and I flipped it open. “Liza,” I commanded.
The mirror flickered with static from all the magic in the air, but after a moment, Liza’s face glistened in the looking glass.
“Crisa! I haven’t spoken to you in—”
“Liza,” I said bluntly. “I need your help. My friends and I are in Dobb and we need to help the Fairy Godmothers. Can you teleport us to the Alderon border?”
“Crisa, you know my powers are a lot harder to project from long distance.”
“Yes, but it can be done. You’ve always been able to teleport protagonist books to the Forbidden Forest and the Dolohaunty Mountains because of their unique magic energy. If you only need a distinct magic beacon to lock onto, then you can use our connection the same way. Pure Magic is unique, an
d the way I see it, there are only three places in the realm that have this power in Book right now—your house, Alderon, and right here with me and Merlin.”
“Merlin?”
I turned the compact to give Liza a view of the whole gang, Merlin included.
“Lock onto us and send this party of nine to Alderon, stat,” I said.
“Crisa. That’s impossible.”
“No, it’s not. Not tonight,” I insisted. “The Aurora has made our Pure Magic so much stronger. Can’t you feel it?”
“Yes, but even so, I’ve never tried—”
“Liza,” I interrupted. “You’ve pushed me to reach my potential. Now it’s time for me to return the favor. The Aurora has made me unbelievably powerful and I’ve only been honing my magic for a few months. You have over 150 years of practice. You’re probably the most powerful woman alive at the moment, so please try.”
My magic mentor bit her lip and nodded. “All right. Hang tight. But if one of you ends up getting teleported with half a diaphragm or a leg missing, it’s on you.”
“What’d she say?” Kai said, shooting up an eyebrow.
There was no time to reassure her. A heartbeat later, our entire group was enveloped in golden energy. It tingled like a bunch of fuzzy, warm cats crawling all over my body.
Please let this work.
A slight ringing echoed in my ears. I got the feeling like I was going to sneeze and then—
POOF!
Everything went black for a second. Then sand and dirt crushed beneath my feet.
The post-teleportation wooziness caused me to clutch my stomach, and I felt like I was going to throw up, but that spasm disappeared the instant my eyes adjusted to the new surroundings. We’d made it to the Alderon border.
At last.
“Liza,” I said into the compact. “You did it!”
Crisanta Knight: The Lost King Page 29
