“Thank you,” said Shawna, smiling more than she had at any Christmas morning.
It was amazing how much one appreciated nice clean clothes when all you had for a long time were nasty old dirty ones. Lula had used her magical expertise to create a very pretty, but useful and durable, outfit for Shawna. She had made leggings woven out of thin bronze colored fibers from a hardy tree called a Griffon Tree, so named because of its fluffy blooms like the tail-tufts of Griffons. She also made a lovely, simple, long sleeved shirt made from pearly spider-web threads, spruced up with a few well placed purple and black ones.
Shawna asked where the colored thread came from, and Lula blushed, saying that she had sneakily yanked the purple ones from the town weaver’s hut and the black ones from Mira’s tail. Lula couldn’t make boots, however, so she had asked around until she’d found a young man to make some for her. Shawna frowned at this, especially when she found out it was the same pompous teenager who had boasted about making swords.
“How did you make all this so quickly?” Shawna asked Lula, impressed.
“Well, besides my talent and skill, fairy-dust helps.” She winked at Shawna.
An elderly woman had been watching Lula and Shawna. After the new clothes had been fashioned, she teetered over and offered for Shawna to use the bath if she liked. The old woman remembered being young and how important vanity was then. Now it gave her joy just to help someone and to see the gratitude on their face. Shawna had never been so dirty in her life and felt like the thing from the black lagoon. After her refreshing bath in an ancient but sturdy wooden tub filled with lavender blooms, and arrayed in her new fairy-woven clothes, she felt more than confident to find Orin and give him a good telling-off. He’d been avoiding her again ever since his long talk with Faolon.
“What’s wrong?” Lula asked as Shawna absent-mindedly played with her still freshly blossoming imp bracelet.
“Nothing. I’m fine. More than fine.” She smiled.
She had taken two steps out of the door, graciously accepting a little honey-bun from the grandmotherly lady, when the teenaged boy strutted up to her. He was carrying a pair of nicely made leather boots ringed with fur around the top and down the sides, and something else. He stopped in front of her and held out the boots.
“Er, um, thanks,” said Shawna.
“And I wanted to give you this.” He blushed while handing the other object to her.
It was a sword scabbard made of dark leather and decorated with braided leather strips like the wolf skulls.
“You need one. You can’t go around holding onto a sword like that. If people saw it—” but he didn’t finish his thought, instead he just looked nervously at the ground.
She decided he was actually all right.
“No, really,” she said warmly. “Thanks. You didn’t have to. That’s really sweet.”
He beamed. “Here, let me help you.” With an awkward smile, he wrapped his arms around her waist to fasten the scabbard, then quickly stepped away.
She slid her sword into it, and it fit perfectly. It was nice to not have to constantly make sure it was secure, even though Orin’s quick-fix strap had worked just fine. She then pulled her sad Easter Bunny boots off and tried on the new ones. They also fit perfectly and were very comfortable.
“Wow.” She was truly impressed at his craftsmanship. “You can’t believe how relieved I am to get those pink boots off. They were a real insult to fashion.” She laughed.
He laughed with her, though he clearly didn’t get the joke at all.
He looked like he was about to say something until she said, “Do you know where Orin is?”
His face fell, but he answered with a shrug. “Um, I think he was over at the…uh…his family’s farm.” He pointed towards a low hill. “That way.”
“His family? Were they here last night?”
The boy shrugged and looked uneasy. “It’s over there.” He pointed again.
“Okay. Thanks.”
She walked in the direction he had pointed, waved goodbye, then realized she had never asked his name. She never saw his shoulders droop as she turned to walk away. She and Lula followed a winding path through tall green grasses and yellow flowers for longer than she expected. Lula was flying around and turning them pink.
“No. Blue,” she was muttering to herself, looking increasingly frustrated.
The cottage didn’t look far away from the village, but the path continued to wind and gradually climb upwards, and she thanked the boy again for such comfortable boots. Finally the path rose then dipped, and she could just make out the top of a thatched roof. A wooden fence without a gate greeted them. A little ways on, bits of charred wood and metal were strewn along the side of the trail. She didn’t think much of it, and wondered what his family would be like, and why she hadn’t met them earlier. I’m sure they were more interested in him than the rest of us.
“Oh! Oh, no,” gasped Lula.
As they crested the hill, Shawna couldn’t believe her eyes. There was no cottage. Before them was a burnt skeleton of a destroyed home. Half the structure was gone. All that stood were a few beams holding up a small section of roof. The rest was total wreckage. No one was there. They both ran down to the scene expecting to find Orin, or worse, bodies. However, as they drew nearer she noticed grass and vines creeping into the fallen home. This had happened a long time ago.
“What happened?” whispered Lula. “This is the right place?”
“I think so,” said Shawna, picking up a blackened brittle piece of metal. “This is where he pointed. I’m sure.”
She looked around. Orin either hadn’t come here, or he had already left.
“Look.” Lula pointed at some fallen beams. “That wood is Griffon wood.”
“So?”
“So, it’s been clawed and torn apart! You can’t do that to Griffon wood. It’s stronger than stone. Only shadow-ore can cut it. The stuff their axes are made from.”
She looked more closely and saw what resembled claw marks and splintered ends.
“No animal could make marks in this wood like that, but It looks like an animal did.”
An angry voice cut through the air. “What are you doing here?!”
They jumped and whirled around. Shawna grabbed the iron hilt at her waist, but it was only Orin standing behind them, arms crossed. He didn’t look happy to see them.
She released the sword. “I was looking for you. We were told you were here at your…” She glanced at the ruins.
“Go away,” he said, glaring at the both of them.
“What? No. What’s wrong with you? And what happened here? Is this?” She didn’t know how else to ask, so she just quietly said, “Your home?”
Orin’s eyes flashed, and he had his knife in his hand faster than a heartbeat.
“What are you doing?” Her voice wavered a moment, then held strong with growing vexation. “Orin!”
She was so hurt by this sudden action and the blazing rage in his eyes that it was as if the blade had actually cut her.
“No you don’t!” he yelled, as Lula flew at him.
He did a quick maneuver, and before Shawna realized what had happened, he had his arm around her from behind, and the knife pressed to her throat. Lula froze, shocked, and afraid of what he might do next. Shawna’s own shock snapped to fury, and in one rapid motion she elbowed him in the stomach, turned as he bent over, and knocked him backwards with a viscous kick to the gut. Lula’s jaw almost fell off. Orin landed with a crack on some disintegrated wood and lay there, sprawled, groaning. Shawna unsheathed her sword and stood glaring razors. Lula zoomed towards the ground before he came-to, snatched all of his weapons, the bow and arrow, knives, and sword in a cloud of gold, and shot them far into the field. They burst into pink blooms in mid air and twirled to the ground.
“Your necklace,” Lula said.
Shawna looked down and saw that it was floating up to her chin
. The two sapphires were glowing with a fierce light. They looked like they were on fire, but they didn’t burn her. Orin shifted and slowly raised himself to a sitting position, still clutching his abdomen. His face was a flurry of emotion, then he looked over her shoulder in astonishment. His eyes widened, his lips started to part.
She turned her head to look just as an arrow shot past, merely an eyelash from hooking a small loop in her necklace. It struck and quivered in one of the last standing beams close to Orin. She spun around, sword now raised at the stranger. Lula was hovering next to her, and they both stared at the man pointing an arrow at Shawna’s heart.
He smiled at her petrified expression. Her heart was pounding like a waterfall, her thoughts racing like river rapids. She couldn’t think straight. Lula was looking between the two of them, hesitant to make a move. No one was watching Orin.
“Who…what—” she stammered, but the man cut her off.
“Give me the necklace!”
It was no longer showing any signs of power as she touched it with her fingers.
“Orin!” he shouted. “Now! Get the necklace! Don’t move, fairy, or this arrow will spear her between a heartbeat!”
Lula stayed where she was, her eyes flaming, ready to turn him into a helpless pink mole-rat and feed him to Antares.
“Orin!” he shouted again.
Shawna dared not move, keeping her gaze locked on his. She tried to swallow, but her mouth was dry. Orin walked up to her. The man grinned, but it slid off his face as Orin stepped in front of her. She had the urge to stab him in the kidney.
“Orin.” He snarled like a wolf. “What are you doing?!”
“What I always should have done. Betrayed her as you both betrayed me, Gavan!”
“Betrayed you?” he fumed. His arrow trembled slightly with rage. “How did we ever betray you? We saved you! And now that the shards are before you, our only salvation, you let them slip away? You know what will happen if we don’t stop this!” Spit was flying from his lips like a slavering dog. “You can’t believe in this madness? You know the truth. You’re a fool to believe otherwise!”
“The truth?” Orin said more calmly. “I don’t care what you or she thinks is the truth. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, the truth shifts, as do lies. I’ve made my own decisions.”
Gavan’s eye twitched and his nostrils flared. The arrow was now aimed perfectly at Orin’s chest.
“I don’t believe in whatever prophecy that dragon told,” Orin said. “I believe in Shawna.”
A hidden knife spun through the air from Orin’s fingertips at Gavan, but in that same instant where Gavan had stood was now a large black wolf, and the knife missed him by inches. It all happened so fast, Shawna only had time to blindly stumble backwards as the wolf lunged at Orin. Lula wasn’t sure what to do now that boy and beast were a swiftly fighting blur of fangs and fists. She was afraid of turning Orin into a mole-rat, though she wasn’t convinced he didn’t entirely deserve it either. Shawna heard hooves galloping up the hill.
Mira!
She galloped over the hill, enraged, her horn wreathed with white fire. Without slowing, she leapt over Orin just as he and the wolf separated, and plowed her shoulder into the wolf’s body. He went flying, twisting in the air for several yards, then slid in a plume of dust. She thundered towards Gavan, and Shawna was sure she meant to trample him, but a moment before her deadly hooves reached him, a hawk launched itself into the sky. She reared. Her horn grazed the hawk’s feathers, singeing them, but Gavan had transformed just in time and flew to the clouds.
She spun on her back hooves, and pointed her blazing horn at Orin crouching on the ground and wiping blood from his lip. Shawna’s eyes also blazed at him as she stomped away to stand near Mira, sword still in her white-knuckled fist. Lula remained where she was with a glare to rival both Shawna’s and Mira’s.
“What were you doing here?!” Mira’s shout at Shawna made them all flinch. “I thought I made it clear you were to stay away from this boy!”
Shawna couldn’t reply, and Mira didn’t wait for her answer as she turned on Orin.
“I am going to either run you through, or get the truth from you, boy,” said Mira, stepping towards him. “Or perhaps both. If you breathe in a way that displeases me I’ll puncture your lungs before you’ve finished that breath!”
He slowly stood up. She walked up to him, horn still lowered, and Shawna fought the desire to protect him as he had her. But he also tried to…a knife to my throat! Her eyes narrowed to slits. At first she thought Mira really was going to impale him, but just as the point of her horn nearly touched his chest, she suddenly shuddered, snorted, and took several frantic steps back.
“No,” she gasped, her eyes rolling and rimmed in white.
As quickly as she had lost it, Mira regained her composure, and pointed her horn at his chest again from a few feet away. He seemed just as confused by her reaction as everyone else was.
“Where did you get that?” Her tone was so saturated with fury and disgust that Shawna’s stomach turned over. What was wrong?
“Get what?”
“The stone?!”
Everyone tensed at her animosity, and Orin slowly raised his hand to the golden stone hidden beneath his tunic. When he brought it out into the sunlight, Mira reared and screamed, flashing her hooves like silver scythes. Orin stumbled back and fell, but before he could gather his feet under him again she lunged, reared, and smashed her hooves on either side of his curled body. Her ears were pinned flat against her head, and the point of her horn was a hair’s breadth from his skull. Lula and Shawna watched all this in bewilderment. Orin was breathing heavily, his arms still half-raised to protect himself.
He stared, terrified, as Mira touched her horn to his brow. His eyes rolled back, he went pale, and then fainted. He lay there for a minute, then gasped and opened his eyes. Mira had raised her head but remained standing over him. They were very still. Shawna knew Mira was talking to him privately. He closed his eyes again and covered his face with his hands. Mira snorted, reared again, and smashed to the earth just as Orin scurried out of harm’s way. The whites of her eyes rolled in madness as she twisted her head around, as if deciding whether to kill him or not. Shawna had never seen Mira so dangerously enraged, not even when the molochs had attacked them. After a few restless breaths, she seemed to be calm enough to speak again.
“Those were her plans?” was all she said to Orin, so that everyone else could hear. “You must tell us everything. If you won’t, I will.”
“No,” he said. “No.” He sat up and caught Shawna’s eyes. “I’ll tell her. I’ll tell all of you…the truth.”