Sky Lands: The Gift Stones

Audrey watched as her brother disappeared into the garden foliage. The eira’s tail had only slipped from view when Audrey’s expression widened into shocked realization. She leapt to her feet, sprinting up the walkway, her leather boots splashing into the stream. She rounded a corner into the trees, pushing brambles aside with her arms.

  Finally, she arrived at the edge of a cliff. The sound of the waterfall was deafening. It was right above us, falling over the mountain rocks, spilling onto the castle towers below. At Audrey’s feet, a gorge split the land in a black gash. The falls fell through the shadows of the gorge. A thin silver bridge wove like a thread over the chasm.

  Audrey raced over the bridge, the waterfall descending around us, drenching us with its mist. Behind the falls, we entered a cave where lights appeared, forming arches above. They were the same as the white flame that Satinah had held. They floated in curves, illuminating the dark of the passageway. At the end, the passage opened into a tremendous cavern, rising until it disappeared into nothing. Its hollow was filled with hundreds of tiny floating candlelights. Among the flames, knights marched in grey uniforms, their faces flickering in the fires. Just beyond them was a temple engraved into the cave walls.

  Audrey burst into the temple, throwing the doors open with an intensity that echoed against the sacred walls. When the echo faded, not a sound touched the silence. The only item inside was a pedestal in the center, illuminated by a pallid column of light from the high ceiling. Hovering over the pedestal was the old man’s staff, rising into the light, unchanged since the first time I had seen it in his knotted hand.

  Slowly, Audrey crept towards it, her eyes fastened on it, the pale beam lighting her tilted face into a whiteness. It wasn’t until she stood directly before the pedestal that I noticed what she was looking at. Swirling around the staff were two of the colored pearls; the Green and the Blue Stones wove in a pattern continually around the length of the staff.

  Audrey’s eyes were large, her face lengthened with her gaping jaw. I knew what she was looking for. The White Stone for strength in battle – was missing.

  “Guards!” The word shattered the silence and I thought her voice would break the walls with its force.

  She ran out the temple doors, grabbing a knight by his cloak. His hood flew off. His silver rod flailed limply in his grasp as he gaped at Audrey.

  “Who was the last man you let inside this temple?”

  “Only your brother. I swear it.”

  Audrey cursed loudly, the word resounding off the cave rocks. “Tell my sister to get riders to the southern Vallian. Catch Hallain! He’s taken the White Stone. Hurry! Hurry!” The knights dispersed upon her orders, scattering the flames with their movement, their running steps sounding in the hollow.

  Audrey sprinted down the passageway, a loud whistle screaming from her lips. In the far distance, a creature echoed her call. She whistled again as she ran outside over the bridge, the ropes swinging dangerously, shaking through the falling waters. The creature’s scream split the air again, this time louder and nearer, slicing through the thunder of the water.

  Audrey leapt from the bridge. Her white creature burst through the falls, water spraying from its wings as it flew towards us. It dove beneath us in an arc and we landed on its back.

  I rode with Audrey on her beast through the night sky, her hair whipping out behind her. I could feel the weight of my own body against the creature’s flesh, the movement of its muscles beneath me. The wind swept through me in a fluid motion, cold and transparent.

  Beyond the creature’s wings, the city lights were falling away, smaller and smaller across dark stretches of land. The stars grew larger as we neared the skies, the silver light of night strengthening in the heavens. We rose through a cloud and the moon emerged full and round before us. Soon, all that lay below was a plain of long clouds.

  The moonlight fell across the creature’s wing, lighting the skin to a glow. In places where the wing was thin, nearly transparent, I discerned veins curving through the flesh. I raised my arms with my palms against the wind, and leaned back into the sky. The night swept over me, filling my vision with an expanse of stars. The skies coursed through me and I was a rush of air over a landscape of clouds. Mountains of mist rose and fell around us before we began to descend again. The stars of the night, which I felt I could almost touch, shrank into the sky above. A dark earth opened below. A line of trees appeared, breaking through the dirt with their jagged limbs.

  Audrey gave a cry and the beast’s wings collapsed to its sides. The creature dove as the land flew towards us, the boughs reaching up like arms to grab us. Audrey pressed against the creature, her whole body tense. The beast’s long neck seemed stretched to its limit, like an arrow aimed for the earth. Audrey whistled, the beast’s wings opened in a gust and we soared over the ground.

  Not too far away, Hallain was riding on his eira. Briefly, he looked up at us. He bent over his ride, blew a shrill whistle from his reed, and the eira raced faster across the edge of the forest.

  “Brother! Stop!” But if he heard, he gave no indication. His ride sped over the grass. Audrey circled above him. When she dove again, she gave a piercing cry; in a horrific sight, her beast hurled a black ball of flame from its mouth with a bellow – its silver eyes filling with a black shine, its face creased into a fury, its beauty contorted with violence.

  The fire crashed into the soil in front of Hallain, exploding the earth into the air; a line of smoke twisted from the ground with a singeing hiss. The eira stopped, letting out a scream. Ashes rained over Hallain.

  Audrey landed, jumping from her beast onto him, throwing him to the ground. “Hallain, give it to me!”

  His hood was thrown back, his white hair tangled with sweat, his pale face drenched with shock. He looked up at her, “It’s gone.”

  Audrey stepped back, stunned. “What are you talking about?”

  “Sister, I told you.”

  Audrey stared at him, her silver eyes bright with a terror. “Jesath’s? The gate keys?” Her voice cut off.

  “You know I would not lie to you, sister.”

  “By the sympathy of Hal,” she whispered. “What gate did you open? Where did you throw the Stone?”

  “Our world does not need it.”

  “Where did you throw the Stone!” She was terrifying as she advanced on her brother.

  He wriggled away from her on the grass. “I opened the gate nearest here. I gave the Stone to a beggar. A beggar in America.”

  She stopped, frozen in mid-motion. For a moment, I thought she would leap on him and beat him into the dirt. But her features eased. “By the Angels,” she said. In the strained silence, Hallain gazed up at his sister with fear. Her eyes seemed to focus on him from a far distance. “Where are you going?” she asked.

  “To Moreina.”

  Her lips bent into an ugly frown before she laughed a single mocking laugh. “To Moreina!”

  “Rylo, I can’t go back to the Krystalline Castle. Not after what I’ve done. You know Satine’s fury. I cannot brave her punishment.”

  “Father –”

  “I cannot count on Father’s mercy. You know he’ll bend to Satine’s wishes. And I cannot face his anger any more than Satine’s.”

  Audrey pressed her frown deeper into the corners of her face. “You think your life will be spared in Moreina.” She laughed again, hollow and derisive.

  He reached down the front of his cloak and pulled out a piece of parchment. He thrust it towards her. “You know I’ve been writing to Tekran. He’ll take me in. He’ll house me as a son. See his words for yourself.”

  Audrey pressed her eyes shut as though the sight of him pained her. “The Emperor of Moreina will say anything to capture the prince of Alhallra.”

  “I’ve lived with him as a boy. I’ve studied with him. I know his niece, his family. You don’t know the man, Rylo.”

  “How you are still a boy. He could torture you. Demand of us anything. He could kill you. Are you a fool,
brother?”

  “I know Tekran. He is an old man like Father. He just wants his people fed.” Tears rimmed his eyes as though to plead his case.

  “Oh, you are young and innocent.”

  “I’m safer with him, Rylo. He would be grateful for what I’ve done. Father and Satine,” his breath quivered, “would punish me.”

  For a while, Audrey didn’t speak. And then, “I’m sorry,” she said softly. “I cannot let you go.”

  “Please!”

  “You might die there.” She swallowed hard, her face disfigured with emotion. “Though you’ll be punished here, at least you will not die.”

  A sound rose in his throat, choking. “Rylo!” But then he lay quiet in the grass.

  In the distance, whistling calls punctuated the silence.

  “He’s here!” Audrey cried. She whistled a command to her beast. The creature bent back its head and spewed a ball of flame into the night sky. The fire exploded with a thunder in the high air, raining in ashes singed with red flames. Far in the dark, voices shouted in reply. The embers descended over the earth and curls of smoke wove from the beast’s mouth through the falling ashes.

  The voices grew louder. Soon, knights appeared. Hallain gave a last plea from the grass, “Sister.” The word was sick with anguish. But she let them take him away.

  Chapter 13