Lori accepted the stone from him and put it in a small, drawstring pouch Regina had helped her make to keep the other navigation stone in.
“Thank you, Lono,” I said gratefully. “Anything else you can tell us about what we’re up against?”
He nodded. “The Zajahani themselves aren’t used to foreigners, so try to stay on their good sides. As for the Labyrinth of the Lost, there are many creatures that inhabit it. Some will help you, others harm you, and a few guard some of the most precious treasures of the Dimensions. Use your best judgment to deal with each.”
I thanked him, then asked, “Where is the Labyrinth of the Lost anyway?”
“It’s in Siakra,” Lono answered. “The entrance is just outside of the east gate of the capital.”
“We have to go to Siakra?” Regina blurted. She shook her head. “I’m out. You guys go ahead. I’ll stay at headquarters and sit this one out.”
Tom tilted his head to the side. “What’s so bad about Siakra? Have you been there?”
Regina’s expression darkened. “I lived there. My parents still do, but I ran away when I was ten. I’m not going back. It’s too dangerous.”
“You’ll face a manticore head-on, but won’t go to your home Dimension because going back is ‘dangerous’?” Tom said incredulously, making air quotes around the word. “You’re gonna have to come up with a better excuse than that, Parker. Besides, I thought you didn’t mind danger.”
“You don’t understand!” Regina grabbed a small bit of her hair, including most of the red streak that differed from the rest of her black hair. “This is why I can’t go back! If my parents find me again, things aren’t going to end well for anyone in these blasted Dimensions, believe me!”
“You aren’t going with us because of your hair?” Felix asked, genuinely confused.
“Legendary Keepers,” Lono addressed us, “you’re running out of time. You need to get to the Labyrinth of the Lost as soon as possible if you’re going to save your friends.”
“Lono is right,” Mallum said. “I don’t know how long Gabrielle has against Umarek.”
“Regina,” I addressed her, “we need you. Gabrielle needs you.”
She hesitated, as if weighing her options, then grudgingly said, “Fine, I’m coming. For Gabrielle. Just keep our time in Siakra as brief as possible.”
“That settles it,” I said. “Opatay clekavra the east gate of the capital of Siakra!”
“Talk about a mouthful,” Felix commented.
“Just go through the portal, Wilson,” Tom ordered grumpily.
Felix grinned and saluted Tom. “Yes, grumpy warthog, sir!”
Tom facepalmed as Felix went through the portal, then followed with the rest of us close behind.
Chapter 10
“Let’s find that entrance and go,” Regina said, her eyes darting around nervously. “This place brings back memories that I’d like to keep away.”
“Does anyone know what the entrance to the Labyrinth of the Lost looks like?” I asked.
“I do!” a musical voice chirped up. The speaker, a slim, sparkling fairy, was barely tall enough to touch my fingertips when I had my arms by my sides. “You all look like awfully suspicious people though,” she commented, her eyes examining each of us in turn. When she got to Regina, she squealed in excitement.
“What?” Regina asked.
“Dyseo Fa’ema!” the fairy squealed. “One of my own, I believe. Agolen’s daughter, right?”
Regina’s expression darkened in an instant. “Yeah. And you’re Kina, aren’t you?” she accused.
The fairy—Kina—nodded. She didn’t bat an eye at Regina’s tone. “Where are your parents, young one? They should be here for this beautiful reunion!”
“No! Don’t—” Regina protested.
Too late. With a poof of glitter, a man and a woman appeared next to Kina. They both wore fancy clothes and looked just about as shocked as Regina did. The woman had silky hair, much like Regina’s, but she had no streak of red among the black strands. She was beautiful by anyone’s standards, but the way she carried herself came across as haughty. The man had brown hair on both his head and face. His facial hair looked carefully trimmed. Once he recovered from his shock, his face was one of stiff displeasure. These two obviously put a lot of effort into their appearances, but I doubted any aesthetic went deeper than their outer appearances.
“Mother, Father,” Regina growled in greeting.
The woman’s gaze hardened on her daughter. “After all these years,” she spat, “you dare return to Siakra? Explain yourself, young lady!”
Kina looked between the two, clearly confused. “Why would you run from these two wonderful parents?” she asked Regina.
I exchanged uneasy looks with the other Legendary Keepers.
“These two power-hungry tyrants are no parents of mine,” Regina spat in response. When her father opened his mouth to speak, she growled, “Don’t even think about it. I’m not the same person I once was.”
“Regina, I wish you would be silent and return home with us,” her father said.
Regina’s mouth continued moving, her motions growing more exaggerated by the second, but no sound came out. She was walking toward her parents haltingly, like she was trying to fight a force that was dragging her toward them. She turned to me, now walking backwards, and mouthed, Say “Regina, I wish you would—”
“Enough, Regina,” her mother interrupted. “No more tricks and no more running away.”
I finally connected the dots. Wishes. Of course. Regina had to obey any orders given in the form of a wish. That explained how Nayila got her to hear her out and why her parents seemed to have so much control over her, even though she clearly couldn’t stand them. I would ask the details later. “Regina, I wish you would speak again.”
Her voice instantly returned. “I’m the Cursed Wish-Granter! I ran away because—”
“Silence!” Regina’s father thundered. “You’re coming home with us right now!”
“Release me, Kina!” Regina pleaded as her father grabbed her arm and started dragging her away. His grip was like iron against her struggling. “Take the gift back!”
Kina shook her head. “I can’t. I’ve given a family gift. I can’t take it back.”
“I wish you would come with us peacefully,” Regina’s mother wished. “You’re making a scene. My sincerest apologies, Fairy Kina. We’ll be taking her home now.”
“Not if I have anything to say about it,” I declared. I concentrated, willing dark clouds to swirl overhead. Lightning connected the storm and my fingertips. I’d been practicing with my weather powers over the three months between the Battle of Saviena and the victory party. I’d mastered this little trick recently.
Maybe, with this little demonstration, I could buy Regina some time.
“Regina, I wish you’d make that terrible storm vanish,” her mother wished.
“Sorry, Valida,” Regina apologized. She snapped her fingers, and the storm vanished, taking my energy with it. I could barely stand.
“Everyone, I have a solution!” Felix announced. “Regina, I wish you didn’t have to grant your parents’ wishes anymore!” He grinned. “There. Problem fixed.”
“No!” Regina’s mother wailed.
Regina yanked her arm from her shocked father’s grasp, ran back to Felix, and threw her arms around him in a tight embrace. “Thank you,” she said, tears of gratitude streaming down her cheeks. Felix returned the embrace, although shocked at her sudden affection, then pulled away from her to meet the glares of Regina’s parents.
“It recently occurred to me,” Felix said innocently, “that Regina may have run away for a reason.” That earned him a couple of especially icy glares.
Regina turned to face her parents as well, tears still streaming down her face, yet standing with the confidence of a person that was finally free. “This is my family now. They don’t lock me up in a mansion for ten years with no authorized outside con
tact. They don’t hide my existence from the world, and when I need them, they have my back. I’m sorry I can’t say the same about you.”
Kina finally came to her senses and made Regina’s parents disappear in a column of glitter. She wore an I-need-to-go-reevaluate-my-life expression on her face. I didn’t blame her.
“No wonder you ran away, Parker,” Tom commented. “That sounds horrible.”
Regina nodded, shooting an icy glare at the spot where her parents just vanished. “It was.”
“I’m so sorry,” Kina apologized sincerely. “They were so nice to me all those years ago, so I thought—”
“You aren’t the first they’ve fooled,” Regina interrupted, her voice cold. “I don’t blame you. You didn’t know they’d abuse my gift.”
“What is your gift, exactly?” Tom asked. “I know you’re the Wish-Granter and all, but what all can you do?”
“I’ll tell you everything, but only on two conditions,” Regina responded. She locked eyes with each of us in turn, a serious expression on her face and fire in her eyes. “Number one: nobody uses it unless it’s an emergency or I specifically say that it’s okay. Number two: no using it against me in any way. If anyone doesn’t honor my conditions…” She looked pointedly at Tom. “...I’ll make sure that it’s your biggest regret.”
“Deal,” Tom said. We all nodded our agreement.
Regina turned to Felix. “Wish for something.”
“Like what?” Felix questioned.
“I don’t know! Just wish for something!”
“Okay, um...I wish for a light-up, noisy, communication device like Valida’s!” Felix decided.
“For the record, Felix, it’s called a phone,” I corrected him, pulling mine out of my pocket. Although there was rarely a use for it in the Dimensions, I kept it charged in case we ever had to go to Earth and needed it. With practice, I’d learned how to charge my portable charger with my weather abilities and always kept it in my bag. I didn’t dare try to charge my phone itself, since I was afraid I’d push too much electricity into it and make it blow up or something.
Regina snapped her fingers, then held her hand out to Felix, palm up. In a flash of light, a phone sat on her palm. It was the same model as mine. With a single finger, Felix poked it cautiously. His face lit up.
“It’s real!” he exclaimed, grabbing it. He pushed the power button. “It even lights up! How?”
“I’m the Dyseo Fa’ema,” Regina explained. “The Cursed Wish-Granter of legend. I can grant many of the wishes of those around me, but never my own. My power has limits, of course, but it also has many possibilities, some of which wouldn’t be good.”
“So, if the Attackers learned of your power,” Lena speculated, “we would have been in big trouble.”
“Aren’t we usually?” Selene pointed out.
“Although I can’t grant wishes related to the direct giving or taking of life,” Regina explained, “I can grant those that would make your lives—or my own—absolute torture. My parents used my power to make them rich and influential. They were afraid someone would use me against them, so they locked me up in their mansion and denied my existence.”
“That’s t-terrible,” Steven said, his stuttering voice as quiet as usual.
“Yes, simply despicable,” Lori cut in without a speck of outrage or sympathy. “Need I remind you all that we have a mission to return to? I don’t know about you, but I’d be anxious to get this mission over with if my friend was almost dead in an amulet.”
Lena’s hand instinctively closed around the emerald amulet protectively. Felix pocketed his new phone with a guilty expression.
“As much as I hate to say it,” I said, “Lori has a point.” I turned to Kina. “Fairy Kina, you said you know where the entrance to the Labyrinth of the Lost is. Would you mind pointing us in the right direction?”
Kina pointed to a large oak tree at the edge of a grove of trees. “The entrance is accessed through that oak tree. Above a small hole, there are Zajahani symbols which I assume are the directions for summoning the entrance. Good luck on your journey.” She vanished in a column of glitter.
Upon our arrival a few moments later at the tree, I realized that Kina was right. Above a penny-sized hole, there were crudely carved symbols.
“What do those symbols say?” I asked. “Does anyone know how to read them?”
After a few seconds of silence, Steven shyly half-raised his hand. “I’m not fluent, b-but I can give you a rough translation in the l-least.”
“Go for it,” I encouraged, stepping aside so Steven could see the symbols properly.
He examined them closely for a couple of minutes before saying, “It s-says something about only being able to enter after giving a c-cursed gift, or something along those lines.”
“A cursed gift?” Mallum repeated.
Steven nodded in confirmation.
“A good chunk of our group seems to be cursed,” Mallum pointed out. “Maybe it needs something from one of us?”
Regina plucked off a hair strand from the red streak in her black hair. Responding to my questioning look, she said, “The red in my hair is a physical sign of the whole Wish-Granter thing.”
“Oh.”
She unceremoniously stuffed the hair strand in the hole. The symbols on the tree lit up in a magenta-colored glow. I screamed as the floor shook and split beneath us, dropping us into darkness.
Chapter 11
As we fell, Tom summoned the Leather Boots, his Legendary Object, and yelled, “Parker, I wish for something to break their fall!” while he was flying next to her.
Regina pointed directly below us. A few seconds later, I hit something furry. Tom landed next to me and gasped. A pair of giant eyes were staring at us. We’d landed on some furry creature’s stomach. The creature didn’t look pleased with us disturbing it.
“Parker,” Tom squeaked as he hovered just inches above us, “this isn’t exactly what I had in mind.”
“Did I mention that vague wishes tend to go wrong?” Regina responded.
“Giant manticore,” Selene breathed. “We landed on a giant manticore!”
“Please don’t eat us,” Felix requested aloud, his voice barely a squeak.
“Hey,” Mallum gently said to the two eyes. He cautiously moved closer to the manticore’s face, but he didn’t get close enough to be perceived as a threat and eaten. “My name is Mallum Frond. What’s yours?”
The manticore eyed him suspiciously, then grunted.
“Anapto?” Mallum said, as if asking for clarification.
The manticore grunted again. By now, all of the Legendary Keepers, myself and Lori included, were staring at Mallum.
“I sincerely apologize for disturbing you, Anapto,” he said, still talking to the manticore. “It was purely accidental. May we leave you in peace?”
Anapto tilted his head to the side, then grunted some more.
“Of course,” Mallum responded immediately.
Another grunt.
“Thank you for your kindness. We will depart immediately.” Mallum turned back to our awed faces. “What?” he asked. “Let’s get going before Anapto has a chance to change his mind.”
We climbed off of Anapto’s back with no further conversation, but as soon as we had entered a long, stone corridor, I asked, “Mallum, how were you able to speak to Anapto? All I heard was grunting.”
“Same way I was able to send Fiery after Regina,” Mallum said with a shrug. “It’s part of my family gift. Father, Grandfather, and Great-Grandmother all had the ability too.”
Selene snorted. “Who names a manticore ‘Fiery’?”
Mallum turned red. “I was only seven when I named him. I didn’t exactly have an amazing vocabulary at the time.”
Selene raised an eyebrow. “Why in the Dimensions did you have a manticore when you were seven?”
Mallum shrugged. “I found him in the woods near my family’s manor. His family had abandoned him, and he was still y
oung. I guess I felt like we were kindred spirits.”
“Oh,” Selene said, turning pink. “That’s kind of cool, actually. Having a pet manticore, I mean. Not...you know...feeling abandoned by your family.”
An awkward silence fell over us. Mallum avoided eye contact with most of us, choosing to stare at the stone floor of the Labyrinth instead.
Thankfully, Lori broke the awkward silence. She turned around, pouch in hand, and said, “Okay, so I have two navigation stones: the purple one that will lead us to the Lost Dimension and the seafoam green one that will lead us to the Zemayta Stone. The problem is that we only have one navigator. We can’t split up and cover more ground, so what’s the plan?”
“We’ll have to follow each stone’s path individually,” I said, thinking aloud. “Since the Zemayta Stone is in this Labyrinth and we’d have to go through the portal near the center of the Labyrinth to get to the Lost Dimension, I think we should get the Zemayta Stone first. Then, we can find the portal, get to the Heart of Maserai, save Gabrielle and Mallum, and get back to Fate’s Clearing in Destiny Forest before the next full moon. That way, if things go wrong in Zajahan, someone can go back to Fate’s Clearing with the Zemayta Stone without jeopardizing the Maserai part of our mission.”
Selene gave me a thumbs-up. “Sounds good to me. Let’s get going.”
Tom shrugged. “Fine by me. I don’t have any better ideas.”
Lori pulled the seafoam green navigation stone from her pouch and grasped it firmly in her hand. Her eyes flashed a seafoam green for a second before returning to their normal color. “Well, that’s easy,” she remarked, pointing to the musty corridor to our left. “We just follow the glowing green path.”
The Stone of Power (The Legendary Keepers Book 2) Page 5
