Crystal Doors #3: Sky Realm (No. 3) (3 page)

The great experimental chamber was crowded with sages, neosages, journeysages, apprentices, and novs, as well as anemonite scientists who had escaped the merlons with Lyssandra. Around the room, they clustered at experiments and defense projects in various stages of completion. In the gear-up to defend against Barak’s merlons, some eager workers were assigned to help Ven Sage Rubicas expand his shield spell. Others aided Lyssandra’s father Groxas in his pyrosage duties. The rest helped Vic’s father prepare cannons, catapults, sunshine bombs, handheld arrowpults tipped with crystals of fire aja, and undersea equipment, for land and sea battles. During breaks, Dr. Pierce had also been planning a rescue mission for his wife, but now that Ulbar’s merlons had brought her back, he would start working on a means of reviving her.

Seawater aquariums lined the curved walls from floor to ceiling. The massive tanks were home to all manner of ocean life — colorful electric eels, strobe snails, multihued plants — and aquits, the small shape-shifting messengers of the sea, which reminded Vic and Gwen of doll-sized mermaids. But no tank anywhere in Elantya had ever held as exotic a treasure as the one beside which the twin cousins now stood with their friends and Ven Rubicas. From the head of the reservoir that held Kyara Pierce’s ice coral-entrapped form, Vic’s father watched over his wife while Ven Rubicas read from yet another spell scroll.

Vic couldn’t tear his eyes away from his mother. A xyridium pendant, identical to those that he and Gwen wore, hung on a fine chain around her neck. Kyara’s long dark hair seemed to float beneath her head, and her eyes were closed, as if in sleep. Dressed in a gown of filmy green layers, she looked like an enchanted princess from a fairy tale.

“S’ibah,”
the Ven Sage ended in a whisper. “Hmm. That should keep the seawater circulating until we find a way to free her.”

“We didn’t know we would have to keep her in seawater to maintain the preservation spell,” Vic’s father said.

Gwen said, “According to Azric, releasing her all at once from the ice coral would be fatal. We’ve got to find some other way.”

Vic’s father swallowed hard and shook his head in dismay. “If Ulbar hadn’t told us, I might have made a mistake and injured Kyara.” His face twisted into a mask of grief and guilt. “Or worse.”

“She is safe for now, Sage Pierce,” Lyssandra said quietly.

Vic knew his telepathic friend was only trying to comfort them, but he could not keep the bitterness from his voice. “
Safe?
You mean like Sleeping Beauty was safe in a crystal coffin?” The copper-haired girl placed her hand on his arm to draw the unfamiliar reference from his mind. She winced as she understood his meaning.

“But Sleeping Beauty wasn’t dead, Taz,” Gwen pointed out gently. “And neither is your mom. If only waking her up were as easy as a kiss.”

A wild look of hope stole into Dr. Pierce’s eyes a split second before he plunged his head face first into the water and pressed his lips to the ice coral above his wife’s mouth. Although Vic and his friends could breathe under water because of the gill spell Orpheon had cast on them, Dr. Pierce could not.

Vic’s father stood up straight. Water streamed down his face. “I had to try. No idea is too crazy. We can’t give up.”

“Hmm,” Ven Rubicas said, inspecting Kyara’s frozen form. “If your method had succeeded, we would have seen some result by now.”

Vic put an arm around his father’s wet shoulders. “It’s okay, Dad. We’ll find a way. We knew it would take some time.” Vic was an optimist, but he could understand how his father felt: he was so close — right here with the person he had been dreaming about seeing again for years — and yet unable to talk to Kyara, to touch her. Vic’s mother probably wasn’t even aware of their presence. And, if they did not come up with a solution, she might remain a beautiful statue permanently.

Sharif leaned closer to Vic. “It is possible that the Air Spirits of Irrakesh would know how to save your mother.” To Vic’s surprise, Piri glowed white with pride and then red with anger, then alternated between the two. “No, Piri,” the prince assured his small friend. “Even though I turned my back on them, I would never ask the Air Spirits to grant a wish and drain their life force.”

Piri’s glow turned to a deep blue of sadness.

Just then, a large wine-red magic carpet twice the size of Sharif’s purple one sailed through one of the arched open windows of the chamber and glided to the floor beside the tank. A middle-aged man with dark skin and a red turban rose smoothly to his feet from a cross-legged position on the rug.

Sharif started to greet the new arrival, but the man gave a sad shake of his head and made a formal announcement. “I have news for Prince Ali el Sharif from his father, His Most Exalted Majesty, the Sultan of Irrakesh. As of this moment, the Prince is no longer a student at the Citadel. The Sultan commands his son to return to Irrakesh immediately.”

4

THE HOT MINERAL WATER that steamed and bubbled around the five friends did not soothe and relax Gwen as it usually did. Instead, it reminded her that her life was changing once again, and apparently there was nothing she could do about it. The Sultan’s messenger had departed immediately, giving Sharif only one day to gather his things, say his goodbyes, and wrap up any uncompleted business at the Citadel. The prince would have to return home.

Gwen had no more control over this situation than she’d had when Azric murdered her parents, or when she’d gone to live with Uncle Cap and Vic, or when she and her cousin had been thrown through a crystal door to this strange world, or when the merlons had attacked them aboard the
Golden Walrus,
or when she and Vic had found out that they were the subjects of some mysterious prophecy. And on and on. It seemed she was never in full control. Gwen touched the five-sided medallion on its thong around her neck and thought of how so many unpleasant and confusing circumstances had been thrust upon her and Vic. And now Sharif had no choice, either.

The young man from Irrakesh sat close to her in the hot springs pool at the center of the apprentices’ living area, gripping her hand tightly, as if he thought she could keep him here in Elantya. Piri hovered close to his face in her eggsphere, glowing a sunny yellow and trying to cheer him up by rolling her sphere up his cheek and down the center of his nose. But Sharif would not be comforted.

“You do not wish to go home,” Tiaret said. A statement, not a question.

“No, I do not. In Irrakesh, the second son of a Sultan is of little consequence. My kind and wise brother Hashim should have been the next Sultan. My father doted on him, and after Hashim’s death my father could scarcely bear to look at me. When I asked to come to the Citadel to study, he seemed relieved and told me it would be a good many years before he would call upon me for any duty. Even my sisters were more important to him, since they had been married away to form alliances with other powerful families.”

Gwen sat bolt upright in the water. “You have sisters?”

Sharif nodded. “Seven of them. All are grown and married already, but Naima and Zari — the two who still lived at the palace when Hashim was murdered — comforted my father, and he felt no need for me to stay. I was released from any court obligations, so I came to Elantya to study.”

“Like
The Student Prince,
” Gwen said, remembering the old musical her father had liked to listen to.

“And now I am ordered home at my father’s whim,” Sharif said, “no doubt to begin serious training to become Sultan many years from now. A responsibility for which I have absolutely no desire.”

Vic gave Sharif a look of commiseration. “Peter Pan didn’t want to grow up, either.”

Lyssandra touched Vic’s arm and gave a sad smile as she drew the thought from his mind. “I am not certain any one of us wishes for that, yet we grow up by need, not by choice.”

“So it is in the Great Epic,” Tiaret pointed out. “I have not been a child since the Grassland Wars.” Her teaching staff lay at the edge of the hot springs pool and she gripped it with one hand as if to emphasize that she might be called upon to defend them at a moment’s notice. “And you, my friends, have battled the merlons and seen betrayal and death. Your names are already written in the Great Epic. You cannot cling to your childhoods. The prophecies —”

“Of course. The prophecies!” Vic said, slapping the surface of the bubbling water and sending a hot splash into all of their faces. “Lyssandra, didn’t you say we’re all part of the prophecy in that children’s song? Sing it for us.”

“The fingerplay? Of course.” Lyssandra said the rhyme, adding the hand movements that went with each part.

“Raised from deep beneath the ocean,

Five required to be complete,

Prophecies are set in motion,

Leaving evil no retreat.

Forming bonds from worlds divergent,

Pledged to serve and to protect,

At the time when need is urgent,

Ancient powers intersect.”

Vic listened, fidgeting with his medallion. “See, Doc?
Five
required to be complete.”

“So if all of us are in the prophecy,” Gwen concluded, “then we need Sharif here to help us fight Azric. We can’t just let him go back to Irrakesh and stay there.”

Piri twinkled an optimistic aqua, and cautious hope lit Sharif’s eyes. But the hope died away as quickly as it had flared. “No, my father will not believe that. He believes his needs — and those of Irrakesh — are more important. The other prophecies speak only of the two of you who are needed to create a Ring of Might that can defeat Azric.”

Gwen, whose heart had leapt with joy at the idea that Sharif might be allowed to stay, denied this. “Prophecies don’t always mean what you think they mean,” she pointed out. “What if we can’t do this without your help?”

“Sheesh, that reminds me,” Vic said. “I came up with a theory about that whole Ring of Might thing last night. Something Lyssandra told us about one of her dreams got me to thinking — kind of in the Scotty-only-has-three-hours-to-fix-the-Enterprise-before-everybody-gets-blown-up sort of way. I knew Azric and the merlons would be coming, and somehow it just popped into my head.”

Hoping that her cousin had found a solution to their current dilemma, Gwen found herself becoming impatient for him to get to the point. “In other words . . . ?”

“In other words, Doc, I think we’ve had enough hints now.” He pointed to the medallion at his neck. “Where did I used to keep this?”

“As a fob on your keychain,” she said immediately.

Vic sighed with exasperation. “Well,
we’re
all Keys, aren’t we — the five of us?” Without waiting for an answer, he plunged on. “And I used to keep my medallion on a key
ring,
not a keychain.”

“So . . .” Gwen began.

“So this Ring of Might you and I are supposed to forge isn’t the snatch-it-from-Gollum-and-toss-it-into-the-Cracks-of-Doom kind of ring.”

Gwen’s heart skipped a beat as the truth of his words sank in. “The Ring we’re supposed to forge is a Key Ring? The five of us, right here.”

Vic gave her an eyebrow shrug. “I’ll take Misunderstood Prophecies for a thousand, Alex.”

“You’re right. We’ve been forging that Ring for months now,” Gwen said. “And it’s up to us to make sure that it stays together and is strong enough to stop Azric.”

“His plan is to unseal the doors, reunite his immortal armies, and conquer all worlds.” Tiaret looked at Sharif with somber golden eyes. “If he should succeed, Irrakesh too will be in grave danger. Perhaps if we explained to your father —”

“No,” Gwen said, “as the children of the prophecy, it’s Vic’s and my responsibility to forge the Ring and to make certain it stays together.”

“We could all go to Irrakesh,” Lyssandra suggested. “That is another way we could all remain together.”

Vic’s mouth fell open and his aquamarine eyes glowed with enthusiasm. “Sheesh, of course, why didn’t I think of that? Sharif, didn’t you say that the Air Spirits of Irrakesh might have the power to help my mom?”

Piri’s sphere flickered orange with worry.

“Yes, but —” Sharif began. Gwen wondered if the prince was reluctant to let them meet his stern-sounding father.

Just then, a concussion seemed to rock Rubicas’s entire laboratory building with a sound like sonic booms striking a thousand brass cymbals. The water in the hot springs sloshed wildly and splashed out all over the stone floor. By the time Gwen blinked and wiped the water from her eyes, Tiaret had already sprung from the pool and was racing toward the stairs that led up to the experimental chamber, her teaching staff in hand. The rest of the friends scrambled out and followed, wearing only their swim brevis and not bothering to dry off.

When they slid to a stop at the top of the stairs from the underground chamber, the entire room was in an uproar. Water had sploshed from the aquariums and from Kyara’s preservation tank, where Cap was feverishly checking the tank and ice coral for any damage. A large, jagged crack ran across the smooth marble floor. And pyrosage Groxas was lying flat on his back beside Ven Sage Rubicas’s high stool and marble lectern.