“Fine, for now.”
“Did she get burned in the attack?”
“Some, not much. I got her out quick.” He paused. “Give me what I want and you can see her tomorrow.”
“No. You cannot have the Yanti. You would use it to bring more elementals into this dimension, all over the place. You would destroy the world.”
“That’s my business.”
“It’s mine. You only care about yourself, your childish dreams of power. I have to worry about both dimensions. I won’t give you the Yanti.”
He was afraid but nevertheless acted cocky. “Then your mother will die. Slowly, alone.”
She heard the lie. “No. My mother is the only lever you have left over me. You kill her and you have nothing.” She pointed toward the rear of the mound. “Get out of here.”
The order shocked him. “You will just let your mother go?”
“I’ll save her later. Now that I know who you are, you have lost your advantage. It doesn’t matter where you go, I’ll catch up with you. And if I find you have harmed my mother in any way, you’ll suffer.” She turned back to the Yanti. “Now get out of my sight, you make me sick.”
Karl crept away, but he called over his shoulder just before he climbed down the mound. “You’ll never find her!” he shouted.
Then he was gone.
She would find her, she knew in her heart she would.
The light from the sky and from the Yanti were forming a bridge. Ali watched as a white beam pierced the collage of colors that rose between the two. She had to shield her eyes, it was so bright. Yet she saw a green sphere begin to form deep inside the mound, where the elven army would supposedly enter their world.
Ali could see no objects inside the sphere—no trees, fields or flowers—yet she knew she was glimpsing the border of the elemental kingdom. The sight filled her with longing; the green light was home. Her heart ached to step into it and leave the human dimension behind.
Perhaps the green sphere heard her wish. It began to expand, out of the cavity of the cave, until it surrounded the whole mound. Ali clapped her hands in delight. Yet still it grew, in brightness and wonder, until it encircled the peak. Standing in the center of it she felt as if she remembered an entire lifetime as Alosha. Only the memories came too quick and left too soon to make sense to her.
It did not matter. She felt happy, truly happy.
Until the white beam of light between the Yanti and the moon suddenly turned red and the green sphere was darkened by the ruby glow. She looked up to see giant flames leap from the edges of the moon. Like long arms of wrath striking at the space between two worlds, the burning moon signaled to Ali that the Yanti was finally opening.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
She could stop it, she knew, by picking up the Yanti and disconnecting it from the light of the full moon. It was what she had come there to do, what Nemi had told her to do. To close the Yanti before it opened and the main army of the elementals came into their world.
Yet she chose to leave the Yanti in place.
A part of her wanted to talk to Lord Vak.
Another part told her that she was crazy.
The green sphere, although streaked red by the column that connected the moon to the Yanti, continued to expand, over the peak and down into the forest. In her mind, Ali had always thought the army of elves and dwarves would come thundering out of the cave at the top of the mountain. Indeed, she walked in that direction, to the edge of the mound, to see the elementals emerge. Yet the size of the sphere must have been the size of the opening. The cave was no longer necessary to bring in the enemy.
But were they really the enemy?
That’s what she wanted to find out.
Then they appeared, in an instant, a thousand soldiers. No, a million, their legions spread over the entire mountain, row upon row, even down into the trees. Never in her wildest imagination had she thought there would be so many.
They were mostly elves, but there were plenty of dwarves, all clad in battle gear, with long spears and sharp swords, and steel armor that glistened in the burning moonlight like fires born of ancient grudges. Thousands were on horseback, more stood on foot, and they had brought bows and arrows and long iron ramming rods to take apart humanity’s cities. They even carried canoes, she saw, to ride the river down to the base of the mountain and into the city and thus speed up their attack.
Yet Ali knew that these tools were the least of their weapons. These soldiers were elementals—each possessed some form of magic that could bewilder the bravest human solider. The army looked out of place and time, but it would take nuclear bombs to stop it.
Then what would be left of the world?
Ali had not realized it but Cindy had come up at her side. Both stared out at the vast army, and their hands reached out and their fingers clasped.
“Were we too late?” Cindy asked.
Ali sighed. “I let the army come through.”
“Why?” Cindy withdrew her hand, an angry edge to her question. “Do you want them to win?”
“I want to talk to Lord Vak.”
Cindy scanned the sea of soldiers. Several had begun to look toward the top of the mound, their expressions hard. “Where is he?” she asked.
Ali lifted her arm and pointed. “There.”
Lord Vak was easy to spot. He stood near the base of the mound—two hundred feet below—and was the most striking of all the elementals. At least as tall as a man, he had broad shoulders and carried a black spear in his right hand that tapered into a silver blade. His gold crown was unusual. Lined on all sides with jewels, it rose to a sharp point that seemed to threaten the very sky. Ali had memories of that crown. She had told him once that he ruled with a weapon attached to his brain.
Like his soldiers, Lord Vak was arrayed in armor, yet his face was uncovered, and as she looked down their eyes met, and she felt as if an old stream of misunderstandings—it could have been an ocean—flowed between them. Once again she sensed her days as queen of the fairies, and she knew that as Alosha she had feared and often resented Lord Vak. Yet she had never hated him, and she had always respected him. The king of the elves was many things but he was not a coward, and he never lied.
He stared up at her and nodded in recognition. At least that was all she thought he was doing. But suddenly a swarm of arrows flew through the sky in their direction. She barely had time to raise a shield. The arrows hit the magical barrier and fell to the ground.
Lord Vak angrily raised his hand and the arrows stopped.
Ali called down to him. “Let’s talk,” she said.
“You wish for me to come up?” he asked. His voice was surprisingly soft, yet deep, and it carried with it the strength of countless years of life. She sounded like a chipmunk next to him.
“Yes,” she said.
She was not sure how he would accomplish the task, but she should have known better. Stepping from his horse, he raised his hand and a series of pillow-shaped clouds appeared before him, leading up to the edge of the mound like a series of steps. He started up briskly.
Ali dropped her magical shield so he could get by. Then she groaned.
“Oh no,” she said.
“What is it? Did you forget what you want to talk about?” Cindy asked.
“No. I remember talking to him before. He gets angry easily.” She turned toward the center of the mound. “I need the Yanti!”
With Cindy at her side, Ali hurried back and grabbed it off the bamboo sticks and put the silk string around her neck. The moment she did so the sky stopped spiraling, and the columns of light and the green sphere vanished. They were left alone with the normal light of the moon. As she suspected, the three parts of the Yanti—the seven-sided outer band, the inverted triangle, and the diamond—although separate, stayed together.
The wind ceased blowing and the top of the mound went still.
Lord Vak reached the top and walked toward them. She couldn’t help but notice he still had his b
lack spear in his hand. He nodded out of respect as he approached. She worried she was going to have to do another one of those acts where she pretended to remember more than she actually did. Boy, she was getting tired of that.
He was handsome, seemingly youthful, his face much more human than she would have imagined, his long blond hair curled like an actor on TV. His blue eyes, especially, reminded her of her father’s eyes. The elven king had ruled many, though, through hard times, and in his expression there was little joy, and no humor. He came straight to the point.
“You arrived here in time to stop my army from coming through,” Lord Vak said. “Why didn’t you, Geea?”
She tried to speak with authority, but it was not like when she had faced down Karl. Lord Vak was every bit as powerful as she, if not more so.
“I wanted to talk to you,” she said. “This war is madness, you have to stop it.”
Lord Vak sighed as if it were an old argument. “Thirteen years ago you threatened to take birth as a human to stop the war. I see you have carried out your threat. But tell me frankly, Geea, what have you accomplished with all your sacrifice?”
Ali hesitated. “I have learned what it means to be human.”
“And?” he asked.
“Hey, I’m human and proud of it,” Cindy interrupted.
Lord Vak glanced at her. He didn’t say anything.
Cindy gamely offered her hand. “I’m Cindy Franken. You’re Lord Wak?”
“Vak,” Ali whispered. . . .
“That’s what I said. How are things going, Vak?”
Lord Vak ignored Cindy’s outstretched hand. “Who’s this?” he asked Ali.
“A friend,” she muttered. She added in a stronger voice, “She’s a good friend, and that’s one of the great things about being human. There’s always plenty of love to share with your friends.”
Lord Vak frowned. “Humans and love? Humans are the only species in the universe that kill each other. Even trolls do not do that. Do not lecture me on the heart of humanity.”
Ali searched for an angle, knowing it was probably hopeless. He was not going to be persuaded by a speech, yet she felt she had to try. “I know they’re not perfect. I know they can be stupid and mean. I’ve seen the way they treat each other, and the damage they’ve done to their world. But they learn quickly, and they try so hard. I’ve only got a chance to watch them for a few years, and all over the world things have changed for the better.”
Lord Vak spoke seriously. “You see them through the eyes of your love for them. I see them as they are. Humanity is cruel and vicious. The more years they are given, the more pain they cause. No golden future awaits them, and there will be no future at all for us if we do not destroy them. I told you that the last time we spoke, and I tell you again tonight because I wish you would join us. Your powers are great. If you wanted, you could help us end this war in half the time.” He paused. “Will you not join us, Geea?”
She paused. “No.”
Lord Vak raised his spear. Ali immediately created a shield between them, made of earth, water, fire, air, and space. She simply had to will it into existence, without effort. It glittered between them like an energy field built of a million pulsating stars. The elf saw it and lowered his weapon.
“I do not want to harm you,” he said.
“Could have fooled me,” Cindy muttered.
“All I am asking is that you give humanity more time,” Ali said.
“You know as well as I do that there is no more time,” Lord Vak said gravely.
That was a huge remark. What did it mean? She desperately wanted to ask but she could not appear to be an ignorant thirteen-year-old girl. Then he would never talk to her.
“Can’t we just talk about this?” she asked, feeling pain over the communication gap between them. But Lord Vak shook his head.
“There is nothing left to say,” he said. “If you won’t join us then you are against us. There can be no in-between in such matters. You must know it will only make the final battle that much bloodier.”
Ali saw that pleading with him was useless. Sharpening her tone, she held up the gold medallion around her neck. “You forget I have the Yanti,” she said.
He didn’t look impressed, which did nothing for her confidence. “So? You did not use it in time. You cannot send us back, Geea.”
Was that true, she wondered? He did not sound like he was lying but that did not mean what he said was true. According to Radrine, she had possessed the Yanti longer than Lord Vak, and she knew more about it than any elemental. Ali tried to remember her exact words.
“Lord Vak is ready to use the Yanti to bring his army into this world. No doubt he will succeed. But he cannot tap its full power. A code was placed upon it, I suspect, a mystical formula. The Yanti does not always obey his will, nor, I think, would it obey mine if I had it with me now. . . . What did you do to it, Geea?”
A code? What code?
That was the key, it had to be.
But what was the code?
Since she had met Nemi, there had been one thing she had hesitated to discuss with the others. That had been the name Nemi had called her by. He had never told her to keep it secret, and yet she had automatically known it was important. Many of the books on magic and fantasy she had read had spoken of the power of knowing a person’s secret name. She remembered back to the instant when she had first heard the word Alosha, how it had sent shivers through her body. For that matter, she had never told anyone Nemi’s name.
There had to be a reason. She did not consciously know what it was, but she was sure it existed. Radrine had spoken of a mystical formula. Was it possible she had tied the power of the Yanti to herself with her name? She did not remember doing it, but it felt like something she might have done.
There was only one way to find out.
Lord Vak looked at her strangely.
“Don’t try to stop me, Geea,” he warned. “It is too late for that. You would only anger me, and all the other elementals.”
Ali backed up a step, taking a firm hold on the Yanti.
“What about angering me?” she asked. “Do you worry about that? You seem to forget that I am human now. I feel as they do, talk as they do, think as they do. Most of all I love like them, and I do love them. That’s one thing I could never explain to you, or to any elemental.”
He raised his spear again, stepped forward, bumped into the barrier. His face darkened; he saw she had something up her sleeve. “I know that tone of yours,” he said. “There is to be no fairy magic used here tonight.”
“Says who?” Cindy asked, glancing back and forth between them.
Ali smiled, suddenly feeling confident that her guess was right, that the Yanti would respond to her secret name. “But tonight is my night,” she said. “And I am after all a queen.”
Lord Vak raised the hand that had brought the magical steps to life, no doubt reaching for a spell that would counteract her barrier. But before he could succeed she held the Yanti close to her lips and whispered three times, “Alosha . . . Alosha . . . Alosha.”
In an instant the mysterious power returned: the sky spiraled; the wind howled; the green sphere swelled; the red column that connected the moon and the Yanti burned, as flames leaped off the edges of the moon. Only now she stood in the center of the red beam and once more her hair was lifted from her head as a power unlike any she had ever imagined filled her body.
In that moment Ali felt deeply connected to all that surrounded her: the forest, the mountain, the elemental army, Cindy and Lord Vak, and even the stars in the sky. She felt they lived inside her and that she breathed through them, and because of that connection, she sensed that they were now under her command, at least for the moment.
Holding high the Yanti, that now shone with many colors, Ali spoke in a voice much greater than her own. “I command the elemental army and all their soldiers and leaders to depart from the human dimension!” she cried. “With the exception of Farble and Padd
y, I want the elementals everywhere on this mountain to leave this world! Except for a single canoe, I ask that all their weapons be gone, and for their magic to return to their own world where it belongs!”
Lord Vak started to speak but froze, as if turned to stone.
His spear fell from his hand onto the ground.
All around the mountain top the elemental army went still.
The huge spiral in the sky halted. The light of the Yanti began to fade and the wind died down. Then slowly, as if evaporating in a sun that had yet to rise, the elementals started to disappear. One by one across the peak the army faded, dwarves and elves alike, like imaginary figures from the pages of fantasy books returning to places humans would call merely dreams. Last to fade was Lord Vak, and Ali caught his expression as he went to disappear.
He looked very angry.
“Goodbye,” she said.
He suddenly pressed his palms together, in a prayerful gesture directed toward the moon, and he stopped fading. He chanted a word softly—Ali could not quite hear it. But she suspected it was his own secret name, for he said it three times, like an invocation of power.
When he was done he was as solid as before. The fact caught Ali off guard; she momentarily lost control of the magic shield that separated them. For an instant she even forgot about the Yanti, until Lord Vak took a bold step forward and grabbed the medallion with one hand, and put a knife to her neck with the other.
“You want to say goodbye? Forever?” he asked quietly.
Cindy jumped forward but Lord Vak kicked her in the chest—without losing an inch of balance—and sent her falling onto the ground, stunned. Ali did not move, merely stared into the deep blue eyes of the king of the elves. Finally, she realized, she was out of her depth. Her full powers had only begun to return, and this being that stood before her was centuries old, and no doubt knew every trick in the fairy book of magic. Her warm blood pounded beneath the knife, and the blade felt like ice against her skin.
Yet she knew she could not surrender.
“I cannot give you the Yanti,” she said.
He pressed the blade deeper into her neck. “You will die, Geea.”