Kara (25 page)

But that had been two hours ago. There was no
sign of anyone on this human side. He had eventually found a dirt
road, and carefully followed it. Dante was hungry and scared out of
his mind.

What if he never found his sister? What if
the humans captured him and made him their pet?

He wanted to cry. Why had he chased after
Snow alone? Hambone would have come with him. Even Grace would be
better than nobody.

Looking up, he saw a light far off on the
road. Actually, he saw a series of lights—torches. perhaps. But one
light stood out from the rest. It was green.

Was that Grace looking for him? Was she with
the others?

His heart leapt with the hope it was his
friends. He raced off toward the light.

***

Kreitan.

He held in his visible revulsion as the
princess summoned him once again. They had traveled slowly because
of these interruptions. Night fell around them quickly before they
had made much progress. The last stop, time was taken to light
lanterns before moving forward once again. Kreitan was extremely
irritated with everything in this maneuver.

Kreitan called for his small party to halt.
He dismounted and walked over to the carriage.

We need to stop here a moment. They are
close.
For some reason, Euphoria spoke to him using that
ungodly voice. Every word sent waves of shuddering through him.

“My men are becoming weary. If there is a
serious fight, they might not perform to their usual caliber.”

A soft chuckle of scraping metal came from
the carriage.

Your men are just food to me. What good will
a crossbow do against a wizard? Now be gone.

Food? Anger rumbled again deep within him.
This creature had no real use for anyone other than a meal. If only
he could… But he quickly caught himself. Kreitan didn’t know how
far her power could work, but he didn’t want his mind to betray
him.

He relayed the princess’ orders to his
soldiers.

“What is this all about, Captain?” Taylon
spoke up as Kreitan came around to check on the men.

“Nothing of your concern.”

“Why is the princess with us? Where is the
king?”

Kreitan waved away the questions. He looked
out off the long road toward some bushes and small clumps of trees.
The glow from the lanterns provided him with few details of their
surroundings.

“Captain, with all due respect, what is going
on?”

Something moved out in the darkness. Kreitan
tried to make out what it was.

“Sir…”

Kreitan whipped around and grasped Taylon by
the throat.

“When did all this questioning of your
captain start? It is becoming more than annoying. Trust in my
leadership, or I will find a new second-in-command.” He shoved
Taylon away.

Kreitan stalked forward, entering the
darkness beyond the lanterns’ reach. Whatever he had seen lurked in
the shrubbery ahead. Carefully, he drew his side crossbow and
waited.

The weapon was near silent when it released
its bolt.

“Ahh!”

Kreitan quickly ran forward. A spy. His
instincts had been right. He parted the bushes and there lay a fox
with the bolt through its shoulder.

“Don’t hurt me.” the fox pleaded looking up
at the man.

The captain froze, doing his best not to show
surprise.
A talking fox?
Seconds later, Kreitan stepped in
closer, using his boot to hold down the creature. It yowled as his
boot singed its hide.

“Are you with the wizard?”

“What?” The reply came in the midst of
whimpering cries.

The captain’s boot lifted and then came down
hard. A bone cracked somewhere in the fox. It let out a howl of
pain.

“Answer me! I don’t ask a second time.” His
voice was sharp, yet hushed.

The fox coughed once.

Schunk!

Kreitan jumped back unsure of what happened.
He drew his sword and pointed at the man now laying there. This was
indeed magic. Had he caught the wizard?

“Captain?” Taylon came from behind.

“Pick up this man. If he makes any false
moves, kill him.” Kreitan enjoyed watching the his expression go
from pain to horror.

“But who….”

Kreitan turned and looked at his
second-in-command, a long stare that dared him to utter one more
word.

The captain approached the carriage with
renewed vigor. A self-satisfied warmth spread through his body.
Maybe he could still enjoy a nice supper.

Kreitan noticed the mirror on the back of the
carriage. A dim blue light radiated into the darkness, enticing the
eyes to look. The curtains parted, the door opened, and Euphoria
stepped out.

Immediately, the soldiers went to attention.
All eyes were on the princess.

In the moonlight, she was beautiful, but a
sense of terror and horror oozed from her, so that all who looked
upon her were scared. She walked with confidence past Taylon, who
flinched as she passed closely by.

Kreitan too, felt the dread, but did his best
to keep it at bay. He tried to appear to have command of the
situation.

“Your majesty, I believe I may have captured
the man we spoke of earlier.” Kreitan dared not mention the word
‘wizard’ in front of his men.

Euphoria’s gaze fixed upon Kreitan. She gave
the man a brief glance. “That is no wizard,” she said.

Murmurs erupted from the men at the word, but
all held their place.

“But I saw this man transform from a fox to a
human. Surely, this is him.” Kreitan’s words came out like a
scorned child. Anger blossomed in him melting the fear.

Euphoria turned on him and took two quick
strides to be right in front of the captain. She stared into his
face. Her eyes lost their color and became black.

“This is a member of the
were
clan.
His only ‘magic’ is the transformation. Silly human, did you think
that it would be that easy to catch a wizard?” Her voice was low,
harsh, and scalding.

Inside, Kreitan’s smug attitude collapsed.
Fear bubbled again to anger.

“You doubt me? Do I need to demonstrate what
I do to those who irk me?”

She turned and approached Taylon and the
prisoner. Without warning, her hand shot out toward the captured
man and grabbed his neck in an iron hold. The man’s expression went
from shock, to discomfort, to pain, and then extreme pain. A
wordless cry etched on his face as his skin became taut.

Euphoria released the man. He fell back to
the ground barely moving, barely alive. Before their eyes, the man
slowly transformed into a fox again. The animal curled into a ball
whimpering.

The princess brought her hand to her face and
licked her fingers clean, as if they had bits of chocolate icing
left from a morsel she had consumed.

She turned back to Kreitan. “Do we understand
each other?” After a brief stare, she turned her head to look at
Taylon.

“Bring the fox. Our prize is very near. Very
near indeed.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

An alarm went off in the house. Everyone was
stunned awake. Ynob rose immediately and quickly quieted the noise
, but everyone was frazzled.

“What the heck was that?” Snow shouted at the
wizard. She had been plucked out of a nice dream.

“Someone’s coming.” Ynob said in a hushed
whisper.

“The evil thing?” Kara asked fearfully.

Ynob paused before answering, which made
Kara’s panic rise even more. “I don’t think so. I think…it is
humans.”

Hambone came to stand beside the wizard, more
alert now. “Witch Guard?”

Again the wizard paused, his face screwed up
in concentration. “I can’t tell.”

Grace flew in with a mad rush. Twittering and
sprite-speak, more like sprite-yelling, could be heard echoing
through the house.

Hambone interpreted. “Soldiers and a
carriage. And Dante…!”

“Why is Dante with them?” Kara looked around
at everyone.

Snow looked ready to shoot out the door. Ynob
grabbed her shoulder before she could.

“That won’t help him,” the wizard said barely
keeping a grasp on her.

“It’s all my fault.” She shrugged off the
wizard’s grasp and started for the door and then did a U-turn.
“So…so…so what are we going to do?” She looked at Ynob and all the
rest of the faces. No suggestions came forth.

“Then I say we take ‘em. They’re only
humans.” Snow said.

“Humans with crossbows and weapons,” Jesset
countered.

“But you have some weapons here. And how many
did you say were out there, Grace?” Hambone waited for the sprite’s
reply. “See, six. That’s not bad odds.”

“Plus we have a wizard.” Snow exclaimed. All
eyes turned to Ynob.

He stared out the door blankly. Slowly, he
turned. “They also have that dark magic creature with them.” Ynob
said.

Kara looked from Snow’s face to Hambone’s
face to Jesset’s. Hope seemed to have left them.

“Kara…”

Kirt stood in the doorway from the bedroom,
holding on to the wall. He was in noticeable pain. She ran to his
side.

“Father, what are you doing up?”

“This is all my fault.”

“No…no.”

“Yes it is. If it weren’t for me, we wouldn’t
be in this mess. Give me to the Witch Guard.”

Kara hugged her father tight.

“Sir, they aren’t here for you,” Ynob said
solemnly.

As if in answer, Kara’s necklace began to
glow. Ynob pointed at it. “I believe that creature led its humans
here to retrieve that,” Ynob stated.

“But I need to protect Kara from whatever is
out there.” Kirt protested.

Grace was the one who answered in a long bit
of chirps and tweaks. Kara looked to someone for a translation.

“She said that’s why we are all here. We are
all here to protect Kara. The only thing you need to do is rest so
that she can enjoy her father when this is all over.”

The wizard motioned for Jesset to come
forward. Jesset took Kirt around the waist. After a kiss on his
daughter’s forehead, Kirt went with Jesset back to his room.

Kara looked around at everyone. “I’m going
out there right now. I’m not about to cower in here and wait for
whatever they have planned. They have Dante, my friend, and I plan
to get him back.”

And with that, she marched out the door.
Protests from Birch and Snow soon followed her. Grace came behind
her, followed by Hambone. Ynob couldn’t believe what was happening
but followed as well.

She didn’t go far, just outside the door.
Some trees still provided cover. Lights and shapes danced in the
distance, but nothing more of the raiding party ahead.

The necklace continued to glow.

I am here for you,
Rose said, but the
voice faltered with the next words.
The mirror?

“Look!” Hambone pointed in the distance to
the largest shape, something that looked like a coach. Toward the
back of the entourage, a large oval glowed the same color as Kara’s
pendant. All stared at the shape. A hideous cackle; sounding like
dry crunched up leaves, reverberated everywhere in the night.

“Oh…” But the wizard could not finish his
words. Terror had come, just like the night.

***

The wizard was in a cottage?
Kreitan
shook his head in disbelief when Euphoria stated that they had
arrived at their destination.

The princess exited the carriage. “Order your
men to stay back from the house. The wizard has put up protective
measures.”

He held back on a comment and did as he was
bade. A green ball of light zipped through some trees and into the
house. Kreitan watched, unsure of what he had seen.

“Sir, what are we doing here?” Taylon was
again asking questions.

“Just follow orders.” Kreitan did not want to
deal with pestering inquiry. After this was over, he would deal
with Taylon’s trust issue. So far, his second-in-command was the
only one questioning anything.

Turning to Euphoria, he saw that she was
petting the fox. He took a step toward her but sensed movement at
the house. Several figures lurked in the trees by the door.

It was Euphoria’s nasty laugh which caused
one newcomer to run forward. His hand grabbed for his sword, but
paused drawing it out. In the dim lantern light, Kreitan recognized
the one coming forward.

The little girl.

Around her neck, something glowed.

***

Kara ran out of the trees yelling. That lady
was doing something to Dante. “Don’t touch him!” she shouted.

“No, Kara!” Snow cried out.

But Kara was already out in the open, plain
to see. Several of the Witch Guard immediately pointed crossbows at
her. Their instinct overcame their fear.

She halted about fifty feet from the enemy.
Ynob said there was a protection barrier around the house.
Hopefully, she hadn’t crossed it yet.

The lady turned slowly toward Kara. “My, my.
Such a bold little girl.”

Kara then recognized Princess Euphoria. At
the castle once with her father, Kara had seen the young princess
up on a balcony. Euphoria’s beauty captivated her then. Even in the
moonlight, she was gorgeous. But this was not the kind sweet lady
the townsfolk talked about. Something was different.

Little spiders of fear danced inside her, but
she did her best to keep them at bay. “Leave him alone,” she
shouted. “He didn’t do anything! None of us did!”

Euphoria didn’t approach her but stepped away
from Dante. The mirror on the back of carriage still glowed.

“Do any of us ever do anything?” Euphoria
threw her hands up in mock indifference, and then she stared at
Kara as if expecting a reply.

The anxiety and dread built up more, and she
wished she hadn’t run out like that. Kara shivered but stood
resolute. “Let him go.”

“Wow. Such powerful words from just a small,
helpless girl.” Euphoria began pacing again toward one of the
crossbow men. The soldier stood his ground, but his demeanor told
all. Nerves made him wobble and his eyes jumped from woman to girl
then back.