Alosha (36 page)

Karl froze, for a moment, then peered down the side of the gun at the sixbullet chamber. The empty chamber. Seeing his enormous mistake, he threw the gun aside and went to choke Cindy, possibly break her neck. Ali knew he had the strength to do it. Yet she had anticipated his move.

She was queen of the fairies, she had powers he could not even imagine. Leaping through the air, she pushed Cindy aside and grabbed Karl by the throat. She moved so fast neither of them were able to follow her. When she had him, however, trembling in her arms, she forced him to stare at her.

“I want to ask you a question,” she said in a cold voice. “You want to answer it honestly. The night my mother died, the car was hit with red laser beams. Obviously the dark fairies attacked with their fire stones. I was carried to safety, away from the fire, before they could finish off the car. But before that, I saw a figure standing beside the car, a person who looked a lot like you.” She paused. “Was it you?”

He shook his head anxiously. “No, Geea! I swear it!”

She heard the lie. “Wrong answer,” she said.

Ignoring Cindy, ignoring even the cosmic spiral in the sky that had begun to pick up speed and color, Ali dragged Karl
past
Lord Vak's invisible barrier to the hole below the Yanti.

Yet the sight of the Yanti made her pause in wonder.

The medallion was no longer gold; it was moving with the same spiral that filled the sky: the outer edge glowing red, the second layer streaked with orange, then yellow, green, blue, violet, and finally white at the center, where the diamond was. The seven circles of light possessed all the colors of the spectrum. But the white light was the brightest; it quickly became blinding, as straight overhead the moon burst forth with a hundred times its normal light. Clearly, what was happening in the sky was happening to the Yanti, only she did not know which was causing which.

The top of the mountain was soaked in color. Shifting rainbows played over the snowy peak like buckets of watercolors dumped from the sky. A strong breeze rose around the mound; it too moved in a spiral, taking the shape of a tornado. Ali's hair lifted into the air; the strands sparkled in the colored beams. For a moment her anger faltered. So much was happening at once, and it was all extraordinary.

Then she thought of another night, one year ago, and her anger returned with a vengeance. Crouching beneath the Yanti, she held Karl's head above the hole that led to the center of the mound. She was not sure how far the fall to the bottom was, but figured it would be enough to kill him.

“You were there!” she said, as the wind howled in their ears. “You brought the dark fairies there!”

“No!” he cried.

“You killed my mother!”

“I didn't! Please!”

She shoved half his body over the edge. “I'm going to kill you!”

His face was a mask of terror. “No! I didn't kill her!”

She pushed him further. “Liar!”

“No, Geea! Your mother's not dead!”

Truth. She heard truth, finally. She pulled him back from the edge.

“What are you saying?” she demanded. “No lies.”

He breathed heavily, the colors of the Yanti and the sky running over his twisted face like frightful emotions. “I got her out of the car. I took her away.”

“But the burnt body? We buried her ashes.”

“No. It was another body. The dark fairies brought it, I don't know from where.”

More truth, she could hear it in his voice. Yet she could not accept what he said, could not let herself hope. The pain went too deep. Even so, she released him, let him stand away from the hole. The invisible barrier that guarded the Yanti no longer seemed to bind him. She supposed it had been enough that she had brought him across the barrier.

Across the top of the mound, the wind continued to spiral upward as the
light poured down. Cindy stood thirty feet off to her right, and she seemed to be worried that Ali was listening to Karl.

“He's just telling you what you want to hear!” Cindy called.

“You know I'm telling the truth,” Karl told her.

Ali considered. “Where is she?”

Karl shook his head. “Give me the Yanti and I'll give you her.”

She snorted. “Don't give her to me and you'll die.”

He was scared but he was still devious. “No. You won't kill me. I'm the only one who knows where she is. Even Radrine doesn't know. If you kill me there will be no one to rescue her.”

“Rescue her from what?”

“From hunger. From thirst. I have been gone long enough as it is. She must be pretty hungry by now.” He paused. “Do you still want to kill me?”

“He's lying!” Cindy shouted.

“Shh!” Ali snapped. The trouble was he was telling the truth. She had to move carefully. “How is she?”

“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.

S
he 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 black 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.