All's Fairy in Love and War (Avalon: Web of Magic #8) (9 page)

K
ARA STOOD IN
the bright morning sunlight, Goldie on her shoulder, taking in the expansive Fairy Gardens. Elaborate pathways wound through fountains, gazebos, and floating fairy bridges. But here and there delicate flowers were fading, their once vibrant colors washed and pale, leaving a feeling of emptiness throughout the gardens.

The golden sun felt too hot, and Kara removed her dark blue jacket trimmed with white fleece, tucking it under her arm. She’d chosen a very fashionable riding outfit from the closet this morning, complete with tan suede riding pants tucked into knee-high leather boots and a white silk blouse. Her long blond hair was pulled back into a ponytail, her unicorn jewel blazing on its necklace against her tan skin.

Goldie squeaked and pointed.

In the distance Kara saw what looked like a rainbow cloud sweeping over the gardens. It was dragonflies, dozens of them in every conceivable color, leaving sparkling trails like miniature crop dusters.

“That’s an amazing fairy dragon you have.”

Kara turned to see Queen Selinda approach, regal in a flowing golden gown. She gave Kara a smile. “I’ve never seen one bond with anyone. They are usually so independent.”

“Goldie’s special,” Kara said, scritching between the mini’s wings.

“As is her bonded.” Selinda smiled.

“What’s happening here?” Kara asked as they walked under a purple and white willow whose branches drooped with withering leaves.

Selinda sighed. “Not even the fairy dragons can keep the gardens alive. The heart of the magic is fading.”

“But if magic is flowing wild everywhere else, why is it fading here?” Kara asked.

“That is precisely why. Magic is our most precious resource, part of a delicate ecosystem connecting us to the web. In ancient times, Avalon’s magic would flow here first, then to all other worlds. When Avalon vanished, the Fairy Realms became the center of magic. But now even we are running out of magic.”

“What happened to Avalon?” Kara asked.

“You know that long ago humans and animals worked together, sharing magic between Aldenmor and Earth.”

“Yes, our friends at Ravenswood have told us the stories.”

“Some humans turned on their bondeds,” Selinda continued grimly. “They became dark mages, stealing magic from the animals and twisting themselves into unrecognizable forms.”

Kara shivered. “Like the Dark Sorceress.”

“Yes, and worse.” Selida continued, “Human wizards waged a long war with the dark mages. And in the end, the only way to save Aldenmor and its creatures was to close the portals forever. It was during the separation of worlds that Avalon was lost. The Fairy Realms have maintained what magic we could, but when the Dark Sorceress rose to power, it was not enough. Now the web is unraveling and with it—our worlds.”

Kara looked at the gardens. “So why close off the Fairy Realms rather than open the Gates of Avalon?”

“There are some who believe that the gates should remain closed—not to keep the mages out but to keep whatever is inside locked away.”

“But Avalon is the home of all magic,” Kara protested.

“The legends say in Avalon, magic flows from a place called The Well of Tears.”

“That sounds sad.”

“Indeed it does, Princess. Great magic can bring great loss.”

“Yes.” Kara thought of brave Stormbringer and how much the mages loved and missed her. And now Lyra. If anything happened to her— “What do you think?” she asked quickly.

“I think we need to open the gates. And trust in the magic to guide us, no matter what we find.”

“Well, I used the magic—and messed up, as usual.”

“Aldenmor would have perished if you had not released those crystals,” the queen explained. “You did what was needed. And you proved yourselves as powerful mages.”

“Look what I did to Lyra.” Kara’s eyes brimmed with tears.

Selinda wiped slender fingers across Kara’s face, drying her tears. “We don’t really know what happened, do we?”

“I…” Kara replayed the moment in her mind. She’d been using her jewel and something had gone wrong. Her magic had reflected off a mirror and hit Lyra. “So maybe that wasn’t my fault?” Kara asked, mulling over the possibility. Could the mirror have altered her magic?

“I don’t know, Kara. But I do know that humans who bond with magical animals are special. If the bond is true, they are the most formidable of magic users.”

“I didn’t do so well with that horse,” Kara reminded the queen.

“It’s a Firemental,” Selinda said as if that explained everything. “A very bold plan from Tangoo. Some might even say desperate.” Looking out over the grand gardens, she continued. “Everyone here knows what’s at stake. They want to believe in you.”

“Even the goblins?” Kara asked, trying to imagine the hot-tempered Goblin Queen spreading magic for the good of the worlds.

Selinda’s fine features tensed. “The goblins have been terribly manipulated by the Dark Sorceress. We have had our differences but I know Raelda wants the best for her kingdom, and I would like to think we could become friends. But if we have to go war, we will.”

Kara thought of Lorren. Was she his friend or his enemy? Whose side was
she
on, anyway?

Seeing Kara’s troubled expression, the queen fell silent for a moment as they walked toward the Fairy Ring.

“I heard there was quite a party last night on the Fairy Isle.” The queen raised an eyebrow, a twinkle in her eye.

Kara gave the queen a quick glance. “I, um…”

“Angelo filled me in.” The queen smiled.

Kara frowned. Ooh, that big mouth comb!

“Fairy raves are very much a part of us,” Selinda explained. “Music, dancing, and creative expression are what we live for. Although in these times, raves can be dangerous.”

Kara glanced at the queen. “I’m sorry I snuck out.”

“Evidently you had good company.”

“He’s not what he seems,” Kara said quickly.

“Now that’s your fairy blood speaking,” Selinda chuckled softly. “Many things are not what they seem in the Fairy Realms.”

“Wait, how can I be part fairy? Does that mean my family is, too?”

Selinda shook her head. “Fairy blood skips human generations but is particularly strong in you. You are directly descended from Queen Lucinda, the greatest of all Fairy Queens.”

“Tell me about her,” Kara asked.

“She was a great leader, a blazing star. She truly believed in the goodness and magic of all living things.”

“What happened to her?”

“She had a sister.”

Kara stiffened. “The Dark Sorceress.”

They walked into the empty Fairy Ring, heading through archways of yellow and pink flowers swaying gently in the breeze.

Selinda smiled, her violet eyes searching Kara’s troubled expression.

“I wish I had all the answers for you, Kara. In a few hours, this ring will be filled again with the kings and queens from the other kingdoms and we must decide the future of the Fairy Realms. And perhaps the future of the web itself.”

Kara looked in Selinda’s eyes. They were full of compassion.

“You do not have to stay here against your will.” The queen paused. “You have a legacy of great goodness, and also of darkness. But your path is your own.”

Kara steeled herself. There was only one path for her right now. “Queen Selinda, I’m going to save Lyra.”

“Then you must go to the goblins.” Queen Selinda waved her hand to the grand mirror by her throne. “You
are
the one we’ve been waiting for. Be strong and proud of who you are.”

“Thank you. I will.” Kara stepped to the mirror and held up her jewel. It blazed with the mighty power of the unicorns. The mirror’s surface swirled, spreading like circles in a stream. Kara raised her hand and slipped it through the glass. Before she could change her mind, she stepped through and vanished.

O
N THE OTHER
side of the mirror, Kara found herself on a parapet walkway looking over a bustling courtyard in the center of a huge castle. Towering spires stood at the four corners with the main castle keep in the center. She looked over the ramparts and gasped. The enormous castle was built of gleaming gray stone, perched on a cliff overlooking amazing waterfalls that plunged straight down into clouds of white foam. In the distance the landscape was covered with thick forests, deep blue lakes, and gray boulders that lay upon the green hills like sleeping giants.

“Good morning, Princess.” Lorren ran to greet her, his voice slightly high and nasal. “Welcome to Castle Garthwyn!” he said proudly, smoothing his deep blue tunic. Sweeping his velvet cap from his head, he bowed deeply. Spiky black hair with green highlights stuck out over pointy ears. He offered his arm to escort her down the steps to the castle grounds.

“Thank you, kind Prince.” Kara glanced at the boy.

Lorren the Goblin Prince was nothing like Lorren the Forest Prince. A gleam in his green eyes was Kara’s only hint of the dashing outlaw in black she had come to know. But which was the real Lorren?

“Lorren!” a loud voice echoed throughout the courtyard.

He tensed, turning toward his mother, Queen Raelda, who charged down the main building’s front steps, looking angry as a thundercloud.

“Is this any way to welcome the princess?” the stout green woman demanded. “Princess Kara, we are honored to have you here.” Raelda curtsied formally, making Kara uneasy.

“The honor is mine, Your Highness,” Kara returned with a bow, not knowing what else to do.

“So, you have decided to continue on your quest.” Raelda guided Kara up the grand stone steps leading to the castle’s enormous wooden doors. Torches lit the cavernous castle entryway.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Good, good, you have guts. I like guts.”

Goblins paused in their duties to nod respectfully to their queen, some even smiling shyly at the blazing star. Kara smiled back, amazed. She didn’t feel anything but curiosity from the goblin folk here.

Lorren lumbered behind, trying to keep up. “I am taking Princess Kara to see Tangoo.”

“Terrible business with that horse,” Raelda fretted. “Frankly we had our doubts Tangoo could pull this off. Firementals are so unpredictable.”

“Queen Raelda, thank you for helping Lyra,” Kara said to the queen. “She means more to me than anything. I’m very grateful to you.”

Raelda’s eyes softened. “I am familiar with familiars.” She eyed Goldie, raising an eyebrow as the fairy dragon grinned. “The fact that you are here, ready to keep trying, shows me what you are truly made of, Princess.”

She stopped and looked Kara directly in the eye. “But make no mistake. I will do what I must to save my kingdom.” Then she turned and walked away. “Good luck. May the magic be with you.”

“This way, Princess.” Lorren led Kara to an elevator door on the right end of the entry hall. “Impressive, you did good,” he said, smiling.

“You think?”

“You’re still here.” Lorren whisked Kara into the elevator and pulled the winch. Gears turned noisily as the car rose.

“How is Lyra?” Kara asked.

“I won’t lie to you,” Lorren said slowly, watching the elevator rise up the tower. “You had better prepare yourself.”

Kara swallowed the lump in her throat.

The elevator opened before a large bronze door.

“Welcome to the goblin laboratory, Princess,” he said, flinging the door wide.

Kara stared in amazement at the incredible round room. A domed ceiling flooded light through several skylights. Shelves built into the stone walls held countless vials and bottles of colored liquids. Metal instruments, scales, and mysterious twisted objects were scattered about next to smoking cauldrons. Along one section of rounded wall, sunlight reflected off dozens of immense magic mirrors at least fifteen feet high, dazzling Kara’s eyes.

Something clattered among a pile of crystals and lenses. “Lorren!” a girl’s voice called out. “You’ve got to see this!”

Blinking away the mirror’s light, Kara saw a young goblin girl rising from the far side of a wooden table. Her skin was light green, and she wore a long smock covered in splotches of colors. She lifted a pair of protective goggles back onto hair black as midnight, pulled into a tight bun. She had been working on a strange hand mirror whose silver frame was adorned with two metal antennae. “Oh.” She stopped when she saw Kara. Her green skin blushed purple.

“Princess Kara, this is Tasha, Tangoo’s assistant,” Lorren said.

Goldie squeaked, insulted.

“And Goldie, the wonder dragon,” he added.

Tasha bent into a low, clumsy bow and stammered, “An honor, Your Magnificent Wonder Highness.”

“Please, just call me Kara,” she said and smiled. The goblin girl seemed about her age, Kara noticed. “It’s nice to meet you.”

Tasha stood, self-consciously wiping the smudges from her smock.

“Look at all these spells Tasha made all by herself,” Lorren proclaimed, proudly pointing to a rack of shelves neatly stacked with labeled vials. “What are you working on now, a love spell?” he teased.

Tasha flushed purple again. “I finished those in my first year of training.”

“Ah, those things never work, anyway,” Lorren laughed.

“How would you know?” Tasha asked slyly.

“Funny. Where’s Tangoo?” Lorren surveyed the cluttered laboratory.

“He’s checking the mirrors for the princess’s ride,” the goblin girl said, and looked at Kara. “I’m so sorry about your friend. I’ve been keeping her as cool as possible.” Tasha gestured to an enormous tank sunk into the floor. It was filled with a pool of shimmering quicksilver, with a strange lump in the middle. Kara gasped. The lump was Lyra’s head and broad shoulders! The cat’s blurred features were a melted mockery of her once beautiful face.

“Lyra,” she sobbed, kneeling by the tank. She didn’t need a sorcerer to tell her that Lyra’s time was running out fast.

“Yes, it certainly is a shame,” a cool voice echoed across the room.

The trio whirled around, startled to find Tangoo standing right behind them.

“Master Tangoo!” Tasha cried.

“Tangoo, Princess Kara is here,” Lorren announced.

“I can see that, Prince Lorren.” The sorcerer smiled thinly, looking down his hawk nose at Kara. “Princess, you did not fare so well with the Firemental horse.”

That’s an understatement, thought Kara.

“But, I am happy to say, you look ready to ride now,” he continued.

“If I get the crystal, it can save Lyra?” Kara asked anxiously.

“The crystal of the Fairy Realms certainly has the power to bring the cat back,” Tangoo assured her.

“If her unicorn jewel enchanted the cat in the first place, why can’t the princess undo the spell herself?” Lorren asked suspiciously.

Yeah, why hadn’t she thought of that? Kara asked herself.

Tangoo’s sharp eyes darkened. “Well, my obstinate yet positive young prince, if the princess were a magic master, that
might
be possible, otherwise—” he waved his slender fingers. “Good-bye kitty.”

Lorren’s brow furrowed.

Kara’s heart sank as she fought to stay strong. “How can I find the stallion?”

“It will not be easy,” the sorcerer warned. “Firementals are most difficult to harness. That spell took months to conjure. But it cannot hold. The creature will dissolve back to fire.”

“Oh no! How long have we got?” Kara asked, frightened.

“The horse may have already reverted to fire.” He tapped his goatee with a slender, green finger. “However, if you were to find the Blue Rose, that would give the Firemental enough magic to stay in its stallion form, long enough for you to ride the mirrors.”

“The Blue Rose! An ancient talisman that holds powerful elemental magic!” Tasha cried, reciting her schooling perfectly.

“Quite right, my eager-eared apprentice,” Tangoo praised.

Tasha beamed.

“The Blue Rose is a myth,” Lorren said dismissively. “Everyone knows that.”

“I beg to differ, my inexperienced but pigheaded prince,” Tangoo countered. “I know where it is hidden.”

“Where?” all three asked.

“In the lair of the Spider Witch.”

Kara frowned. That didn’t sound good at all.

“Oh, don’t worry, Princess,” Tasha reassured her. “The Spider Witch is locked away in the fairy prison known as the Otherworlds.”

“The Blue Rose fuels elemental magic,” Tangoo continued. “If you were to get the rose, the horse would come to you. It is the only way for it to survive.”

“How do you know all this stuff?” Lorren asked.

The sorcerer arched an eyebrow. Kara caught a spark of anger in his eyes, but it dimmed quickly. “My plucky but pimply prince, I was an expert in elemental magic long before you were a little goblet.”

“But you’ll have to be careful,” Tasha told Kara, her pointy ears twitching. “The Blue Rose is entwined on the same vine with an identical rose, which is extremely deadly to elemental magic.”

“How do I tell them apart?” Kara asked.

“The Fairy Rhyme—every young sorcerer learns it in Spellology 101.” Tasha cleared her throat and chanted, “The roses are blue, but only one can be true. The flower with the power is the bloom with the fume. The bud that’s a dud seems a rose to the nose. Get it?”

“Got it,” Kara affirmed.

“Good.”

Tangoo smiled. “I have located a mirror in the Spider Witch’s castle.”

“Are you sure about this?” Lorren asked. “The Spider Witch might have left traps.”

“These are dangerous times,” the sorcerer replied.

“I’m going with her,” Lorren declared.

“Prince Lorren.” Tangoo’s thin lips stretched into a frown as he studied the prince and the sword strapped to his side. “I thought you hated mirror jumping.”

“I… uh… I’ll live.”

“Yes, astral plane jumping can turn one’s stomach.” Tangoo tapped his goatee thoughtfully. “I think I have something that will make the jump a bit less disorienting.”

“Okay, let’s do it.” Kara nodded.

“Tasha,” Tangoo said, handing her a slip of parchment. “Prepare a mirror with these coordinates.”

“Yes, Master Tangoo.” Tasha walked up to a sleek gray mirror. She adjusted nearly invisible knobs and buttons along its edges.

Like a little hawk, Goldie watched the tall sorcerer reach up to a row of vials.

“Thanks, Tasha,” Lorren said.

Tasha blushed. “All ready.”

“See you on the other side,” Lorren said to Kara.

“One sec, I want to let my friends know what’s going on. Get me Emily, Goldie.”

Goldie flew to Kara’s ear and dialed in Fiona.

“
Kara?” Emily said.

“No time to chat,” Kara explained quickly. “I’m going after a piece of magic that can help me find the fire horse.”

“We’ve rounded up a stand-in for you,” Emily giggled. “She’s very pretty.”

Tangoo walked toward Lorren. “I think you’ll really
love
this spell, Prince Lorren,” the sorcerer chuckled.

Twinkly magic flew from the sorcerer’s outstretched hands.

“Save room at the cast party,” Kara said. “I’m coming home soo—”

Goldie squawked and leaped, intercepting the spell meant for Lorren. A bright flash surrounded Goldie, knocking the d-fly off balance and sending the mini plummeting through the mirror.

“Goldie!” Kara screamed, flashing on Lyra’s horrible enchantment.

She reached out to grab the mini and fell head over heels into the mirror’s murky blackness.