Balmythra

  Chapter Nineteen

  Recriminations and Revelations

  With startled screams and shouts, all of us fell back. The twins hit the ground in a sprawl. Dark shadows, weirdly human in shape, instantly rose from each girl and began writhing above them. Matilda, totally consumed by shadows of her own, stayed on her feet, as did the strangers swarming into Balmythra.

  They appeared perfectly normal, but their aggressive shouts, assault weapons, and those creepy shadows told another story. No endorphin rush hampered this well-armed enemy. Robot-like, they trampled right over the twins to get closer. I heard a commotion behind me. I saw my brave friends clustering to stand their ground.

  Did I know how to lead them? Not even close. In fact, I'd never felt so unprepared. Somehow I stifled my own screams of terror—both physically and mentally. A silent alarm would summon Ionians who'd know nothing about hand-to-hand combat.

  An unearthly roar drowned the chaos and shook the ground beneath our feet, stunning everyone. Then Mad Matilda screeched, braked, and pivoted, abruptly retreating through the swarm of Dagonel behind her. As she disappeared into the Stream, the enemy quickly turned and followed her lead, leaving Skye and Raine unconscious in the grass.

  Rocc’s howl of laughter punctuated the whole surreal turnaround. I had no idea what had just happened. Astonished, confused, and weak with relief, I turned to my brother, who must know something none of us did.

  He stood next to a towering dragon the likes of which I'd never seen…even in a movie. Blue scales encompassed its massive body except for the belly, which was yellow. I saw its long forked tail and webbed wings, its head and horns. Behind me, the poPs saw what I'd seen; I heard their screams as they scattered. And the craziest thing of all? Petria stood on the other side of the dragon with her horse, which didn't appear a bit skittish.

  "Holy crap!" Matt belatedly noticed the little ones looking at him in wide-eyed surprise. "I mean…um…." For once he was speechless. "Sorry about that."

  I remembered the Fason twins. With a guilty start, I located them, still on the ground with those creepy shadows hovering above. Had those things possessed the twins and all the others who'd just attacked us? I could easily believe it, and I wondered if the stream had affected them in any way.

  Putting the mystery dragon on hold—Rocc clearly had that covered—I tuned in to the twins and immediately sensed the same innocence and evil inconsistency I'd noticed before. Possession for sure, I decided, going with my gut.

  "Get the girls away from those shadows!" I sprang forward to grab Raine's limp wrists and drag her through the grass and away from the lurking evil. Matt did the same, moving Skye a few yards, too. But the shadows followed. I tried to push them away with my mind and succeeded to a degree. But it really sapped my strength. Would the shadows attack and possess the others if I lost my grip?

  Glancing back in panic, I saw the dragon wrap its long tail protectively around the younger poPs brave enough to approach it—actually all of them. Clearly over their fright, they stroked the scaled creature as if it were a giant pet. Katie, of course, had gone straight to Petria's horse.

  "We'll help!" Rocc had apparently picked up on my panic in the midst of all the celebration. He ran towards me with Kenny and John one step behind him.

  "I can't push them back." I tried to visualize myself capturing the repulsive entities and tossing them aside. But how could I confine something so nebulous? They weren't like the voices in my head, which I'd easily grabbed and pushed. Instead I dealt with something as slippery as an octopus, one tentacle at a time while the other seven immediately sneaked around back to choke me.

  On Rocc's barked instructions, Matt turned Skye over and slipped his hands under her arm pits. With Rocc lifting her by the knees and me fighting the shadow, we actually managed some separation. But a scream from Ashley distracted me and ended it. A glance to where she frantically pointed revealed that Kenny and John were trying to reposition Raine in the same manner. Without my mental help, however, they were being overtaken by the shadow.

  I started to help, but a movement to my right distracted me yet again. Turning, I saw something worse than Mad Matilda, the Dagonel, or the slithering shadows.

  The gorgol of my nightmares, stepping from nowhere directly into my path exactly as it had eleven years before. I fell back, everything forgotten but this terrifying new threat. As before, the creature morphed before my eyes, its facial features ranging from monstrous to eerily human. Its ebony gaze burned a hole to my very soul as it slowly approached.

  And I couldn't take a step to save myself. Looking back at the others to make sure they'd run for safety, I saw that they weren't even looking. "Run! Get out of here now!"

  Ashley screamed. I looked where she looked and saw that Raine's shadow had now totally engulfed both John and Kenny. John’s face contorted. He gurgled. Kenny, his back to me, jerked spastically and appeared to be choking, as well. Then both boys fell on the ground, their convulsing bodies sheathed in black shadow. Matt abandoned Skye to run to them.

  The shadow engulfing Kenny immediately latched onto Matt's hand and spread up his arm. He stared at it in horror. "Leah! Get over here!"

  As if I could. Nose to nose with a gorgol no one else had noticed, I had problems of my own. We're all going to die. That thought exploded from my brain and into the heads of my people. Their responding terror took me to my knees.

  Cackling its victory, the gorgol reached out and…vanished.

  Huh? I blinked to be sure.

  Gone all right. But how? I got to my feet as disoriented as I was ready to help. But the guys were safe, too, and helping each other up. I walked over to see the twins, who were filthy from being knocked about and still hadn't moved a muscle. While the guys got their bearings, I knelt in the grass. I realized I no longer sensed evil, which meant the shadows, not the twins, had reeked of it.

  Flicking a glance at Matt, I asked, "Are all of you okay?"

  He answered for the three of them, his voice shaky. "Yeah. What the heck was that all about?"

  "I don't know." I had so many questions. Why had the shadows abandoned the girls the moment they stepped into Balmythra? Were they looking for new host bodies? And what about Matilda, who'd apparently led the charge? Was she now the leader of the Dagonel or just another victim?

  Most important, where had the gorgol come from and where had it gone?

  Data overload!

  I tried to shut down my brain for a second, but felt another presence before I managed it. Glancing up, I saw Jor and Cadrow in the distance, walking toward us. Moments later they joined the group of kids standing by the dragon, a few feet away.

  "Ah, Tirafalen." Cadrow chuckled. "I see you dressed for the occasion. I must say that dragon blue suits you."

  Tirafalen? Oh my God. I now understood the creature's protectiveness of the children and Rocc's amusement. Kenny and John exchanged incredulous glances and a spontaneous high five before abruptly abandoning me to check things out. The younger kids giggled. Ashley just stared in sullen silence.

  I tried to get a handle on the abrupt shift from terror to whimsy, but felt too off balance and rattled. The flowers and rocks, the sky and trees were the same as they'd been when we arrived. If Skye and Raine hadn't been lying in the grass, I'd have doubted everything that just happened.

  I shook my head, baffled. "I don't get it."

  "Get what?" Matt's question drew the attention of Jor, Cadrow, and Rocc, all of whom now watched us curiously.

  "Did you or did you not see a gorgol standing right here not five minutes ago?" I pointed to the exact spot where the monster had stood.

  Matt's eyebrows shot up. He opened his mouth to respond, but then shut it again and exchanged a worried glance with Rocc, who immediately walked over.

  "Did you say 'gorgol'?" Rocc asked even as Jor and Cadrow also edged closer.

  "Yes." I hopefully considered my sibling and then Matt. Both shook their heads. "It was standing r
ight here." I pointed again.

  "I saw a lot of weirdness, but nothing like that." Frowning, Matt turned to Jor and Cadrow. "Did you guys see a gargoyle?"

  Gargoyle? Wasn't that the name of the ugly stone statues on the castle in which I was raised? Could gorgol be a childish corruption of that? Why I hadn't put two and two together long before?

  "We saw nothing." Jor turned to Cadrow in silent questioning. Cadrow shook his head. Both men focused on me.

  I felt their doubts about my mental stability. That plus the weighty fear of all my people was just too much. I rounded on Jor. "What are you doing here?" My sharp tone surprised everyone.

  Especially Jor. "Er, Tirafalen sent out a call for help."

  "Hmph. So you two—" I nodded to Cadrow and Jor "—saved the guys from those shadows?"

  Cadrow hesitated before answering. "Shadows?"

  I nodded.

  "Actually, we were too far away to see what was going on." Jor sounded cautious, as if he thought I might chew him out for helping us. "We simply sent out a burst of positive energy."

  I took a deep breath to keep from saying too much about what had just happened. I needed time to think. "Thanks for doing it even though I'm not sure how that worked."

  Jor nodded instead of explaining as I'd hoped he would. To my way of thinking, that amounted to an unspoken confession that he not only knew the shadows well but, in fact, controlled them. And if we'd been alone, I'd have demanded answers. With Cadrow listening in, I didn't dare. He had a position of power among the Sairons. I needed proof and the backing of my people before I openly challenged anyone.

  Kenny whistled shrilly and motioned to Matt, who hesitated a split second, walked over to them.

  I caught Rocc's eye. "Does she turn into a dragon a lot?"

  He grinned. "Tir didn't turn into one. She just mimicked their appearance. It’s the nature of Sunsaneans to change at will since they have complete control of their molecules."

  At that moment Matt's laughter rang out. I wished Tirafalen would take her showy molecules somewhere else. Did I feel bad for thinking that? Yes. I also felt guilty because I'd allowed the younger poPs to walk with us to the Stream. I knew Balmythra wasn't safe anymore, yet I'd acted as if it were. Exhausted, discouraged, I desperately wished for time alone to regroup. At the moment, everything annoyed me, from the guys' obvious adoration of Tirafalen's dragon form to Jor's sidelong glances.

  "Though I still need to go back to Nodyra, we’d better head for Saironalis, instead." I spoke to no one in particular. "The twins need medical attention, and the little ones need a nap and some lunch. They've been up since before dawn."

  With visible reluctance, the older poPs left the blue dragon and joined me near the twins. It felt strange to be giving orders, and stranger still to have them obeyed.

  "How will we carry them?" asked Matt.

  I barely heard him since I'd just noticed Rocc, standing in intense conversation with Jor and Cadrow. With just a minor pang of guilt, I probed my brother's mind so I could eavesdrop on their discussion. I heard Cadrow ask him if he'd ever seen the shadows before. Not in Balmythra, Rocc told them, but in Nodyra.

  "So they're from Nodyra," said Cadrow.

  The nerve of him! He knew exactly where the shadows came from, and it infuriated me that they were pretending they didn't.

  "Matt to Leah. Come in, please."

  Naturally they'd hop on the blame-Nodyra train if it kept Ionians in the dark. On that thought, Jor's gaze bore into me. I caught my breath. Had I dropped my guard and let him inside my head? Did he now know that I knew? The idea scared me half to death. I had to be more careful.

  "Leah!" I started and turned to Matt, who glared daggers at me, too. "How are we going to get the twins back to Saironalis?"

  "Oh, um, I don't know, but we'd better do it before the effects of the Stream wear off. They look okay now, but nothing is what it seems anymore."

  "You got that right." Matt slowly shook his head. "Tirafalen cured Rocc. Maybe she can revive the twins enough to walk."

  Of course. The healer. Why hadn't I thought of that? Because I was trying to think of Tirafalen as little as possible? That would be it. Glancing at the dragon, I saw that it was once more a young woman, holding hands with Katie and Julie. I admitted I couldn’t fault the girl for her quick thinking. Nor could I complain about how protective she was of Rocc and the poPs.

  So why the hard feelings? I asked myself. The answer came at once—envy. I'd never be that talented, clever, and beautiful. It didn't help that Rocc and Matt, two guys I loved, obviously admired her. With a sigh, I made myself walk over. "Thanks for doing the dragon thing. You saved our necks for sure."

  She gave me a brilliant smile. "You're welcome."

  "Would you mind taking a look at the twins? I'm hoping you might be able to revive them enough to walk back to Saironalis."

  "Of course." Tirafalen released Katie and Julie and walked over to the twins. Fascinated, I watched as she silently moved her hands over the girls, closing her eyes to concentrate. I wandered why she didn't just turn into the mist that had enveloped Rocc on our arrival to Balmythra.

  "Rocc required more extensive healing," Jor said.

  I jumped and flicked a nervous glance his way. Hadn't I just blocked him out of my head?

  In two seconds, the girls sat up and stared, their eyes wide with shock. I could imagine how they felt when they realized a striking young woman with aqua-colored hair had just worked her magic on them.

  With the help of Kenny and John, the twins soon stood on their own two feet. Matt pointed them in the right direction and walked beside them, animatedly explaining all that had happened. All the other poPs followed, as did the Sairons, Rocc, Petria, and Tirafalen. I brought up the rear, as usual, most of my attention elsewhere

  The shadows were created by the Sairons. That I knew for sure. So how did they get to Nodyra? And why was someone as insignificant as Matilda involved? More important, did I dare go back now that I knew she was not just a mean old lady, but a possessed mean old lady?

  There was just too much to think about. How I wished I could escape all these heavy questions and simply hand them over to my parents or even Rocc.

  Tirafalen's voice popped into my head, unbidden as a knock on the door. "You...know...much...looks...to...he..you...gone…it...a…painful...for...should...how...Rocc...up...you...missed...so...while...were...was...very... time...him."

  Wow. My swimming head stopped me in my tracks. Having never communicated mentally with a Sunsanean, before, I'd had no idea that it would make me so seasick. Not only were the thoughts disjointed and confusing, her ideas cascaded like a waterfall, pretty much knocking me sideways.

  Must be that molecular thing, I decided, concentrating extra hard to understand. Too many images tumbled through my mind, too many emotions, one on top of the other. I could barely register them all.

  Rocc's life from Tirafalen's point of view? Probably. How vivid her memories were. But it was Rocc's intense emotions that got to me most: loneliness, sorrow, guilt. I actually choked up. Abruptly the mind storm ceased. I realized that Tirafalen and my brother now lagged behind the others, as well. Rocc motioned for me to catch up to them, which I did.

  The three of us walked abreast in silence for several yards before another thought came through. "Rocc...thinks...you…highly."

  What? Though grateful for the Sunsanean’s strenuous efforts to communicate, I couldn't help but feel frustrated. I wondered how Rocc could possibly understand his friend. Then I realized that he always spoke aloud to Tirafalen, as he did with most people.

  Maybe we should just talk. But a glance in Tirafalen's direction vetoed my mental suggestion. Without looking my way, the mist-being shook her head slightly, sure sign she didn't want to have this conversation with Rocc anywhere around. "Rocc...you...special... much...love...respect...there."

  With a soft gasp of understanding, I leveled my gaze at Tirafalen, who was simply trying
to communicate how much Rocc cared for me, his little sister. Had she somehow picked up on my jealousy? Was this reassurance that I was loved? I flushed with shame and guilt. Guardians should be above petty emotions, I realized. I had so much to learn. I gave Tirafalen a reassuring smile and was startled by the stark relief on her strange pale face.

  What a failure I am. Jealous. Emotional. Unworthy.

  What had I accomplished since being in Balmythra? Nothing. And what good had I been to my people? None. They deserved better. Just then, I felt a small hand take my own and squeeze it. Ginzy...trying to comfort me with her sweet smile. Had my misery been so obvious? And what did everyone else think of their pitiful Guardian?

  I found out minutes later, when we reached Saironalis. At Goodpringle's, a group of men and women awaited me. Though I recognized no one, I knew they were Ionians—my people. And their mission was soon made clear.

  "Hello, Alleana," said an Ionian I didn't know. "We're so relieved you made it back in one piece." He chuckled. "Tonight's ring ceremony wouldn't make much sense if you weren't there."

  My jaw dropped. "A ring ceremony? Tonight?" I couldn't believe my ears and glared at him for suggesting it. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Rocc and Tirafalen herd the poPs away, probably to give us privacy. The Sairons left quickly, too, as did Petria. "But how can we celebrate while Vannarius burns? And what about my parents? Don't you care that they're missing?"

  Even as I uttered those words, I recognized I'd pushed my fragile people too far. Every negative emotion of every Ionian of every age clashed together, engulfing me with the force of a tsunami.