Scarlet and the Keepers of Light (15 page)

17

The Lightning Trip

Even though Scarlet woke feeling rested, it seemed as if she had just lay down when her mother shook her gently awake.

“Scarlet, sweetheart. It’s time,” she said softly.

Scarlet opened her eyes to find her mother sitting on the edge of her bed, tears unmistakable in her light blue eyes. Scarlet wanted to say something reassuring to her, something that would ease the worry and fear they both felt, but she couldn’t think of anything satisfactory. She settled on “I love you,” and threw her arms around her mother’s neck.

Her mother held her tightly, rocking her gently as they both let tears fall freely. It felt good to let go. Safe, if only for a moment, in her mother’s arms. So much of Scarlet’s life was now unknown territory, filled with danger and uncertainty.

They met her father, Melody, and Cricket downstairs in the dining hall. When she saw her sister, Melody jumped from the table and ran to give Scarlet a hug. Her swollen eyes gave away the fact that she too had been crying.

“It’s not good-bye,” Scarlet said, trying to sound as reassuring as possible. “I’ll be back before you know it.”

“I know. That’s what Cricket said. I’ll be okay,” Melody chirped, giving Scarlet a smile so big that she felt a lump rise in her throat.

“You are a brave girl, that’s for sure,” Scarlet added, giving Melody a tighter squeeze.

Everyone tried to act as normal as possible at breakfast, and for the most part they did a pretty good job. They talked about things that had nothing to do with Scarlet’s coming quest, and even managed to laugh a little. Their time together ended quickly, though, and soon they were all seated in Xavier’s study, going over the final preparations for departure.

Scarlet’s dress was exchanged for leggings, boots, a blouse, and a traveling cloak. Looking at herself in a mirror, she had to smile. She looked like some hero from Tolkien or a King Arthur tale. Her father had changed as well. He looked wilder somehow, a thick shadow growing on his face and a desperate look in his eyes. His clothes had been exchanged for an outfit that Xavier said had been the garb of ancient Tounder warriors. It was strange to see him dressed that way, although to Scarlet, through childhood eyes, he looked dashing. His pants were made from beetle leather, and he wore boots lined in fur. His shirt, like Scarlet’s entire set of clothes, was spun from spiders’ silk and was certainly shinier than anything Scarlet had ever seen her father wear. According to Xavier, spiders’ silk was stronger than steel, and though the clothes were light and comfortable, they could protect the wearer from knives, swords, and even, Xavier suspected, a bullet, although he admittedly had never seen one.

***

Charles grunted as he hefted the large pack of supplies several Tounder had just lugged into the study onto his back.

“Sorry there isn’t much I can do about the weight,” Xavier said. “Some things are the same whether you have magic or not—packing for a trip being one them.”

Despite his conflicting emotions, Charles smiled. He was going to miss chatting with the old Tounder. “Where is Dakota?” he asked, noticing for the first time that the big dog was missing.

“He’s looking for the best route out of the clearing. The woods, I’m afraid, are filled with Mortada,” Xavier responded, though his face betrayed no real concern.

“Mortada!” Charles exclaimed. “We’re surrounded by them?”

“Yes, but I wouldn’t worry.” Xavier walked over to a large chest in the corner of the study. “This is actually advantageous to us.”

“How is that, exactly?” Charles said, failing to keep a sarcastic edge out of his voice.

“We’re going to slip you past them, and as long as they still think you’re in Illuminora, they’ll remain watching over the oak while you—”

“Get a head start?”

“Exactly.” Xavier smiled. “Now, I have a few more gifts for your journey.” He pulled two items from the chest, each wrapped in a soft white cloth, and handed one to Scarlet and the second to Charles.

Scarlet and her father looked at each other quizzically, and then, with a shrug, Charles removed the cloth. A gilded sword, its hilt inlaid with silver in an elaborately interlaced design, glittered under the lights in the study. He pulled the blade from the scabbard, revealing metal polished to such a shine that its dazzle hurt his eyes.

“It’s so beautiful!” Scarlet exclaimed.

“You realize, of course, that I have no idea how to use a sword . . .”

“When the time comes, you’ll find a use for it, I’m sure. Besides, from what I understand, the premise is rather simple,” Xavier said, with a little wink at Scarlet. “Sharp along the edges, pointy at the end.”

***

Curiosity had now gotten the better of Scarlet, and she too unwrapped her package. Instead of a single item, as she had originally thought, there were several, and an odd assortment of items they were. The largest was a beautifully carved wooden staff, silken to the touch, with a small crystal shaped like an acorn wedged into a carved slot at one end. The crystal gleamed as Scarlet turned it in the light, shining a green very much like that of her eyes.

“That staff was carved from the wood of the great oak,” Xavier said proudly. “A very rare and mysterious treasure. It is not often that the oak gives up her wood.”

Scarlet thanked him and picked up the next item, a green satin bag about the size a child would keep marbles in, with a drawstring gathered at the top. Scarlet opened the bag and peered inside. It looked to be filled with grass seed. She looked up at Xavier, but he didn’t offer any explanation. The next item was a curiously shaped stone, weightless as a piece of paper and attached to a coiled bit of leather cord. Scarlet placed it on the cloth and picked up what looked liked a black rock.

“That’s flint,” her father said, recognizing the familiar stone.

Finally Scarlet came to the last item, a pretty bracelet of simple interlinked white and yellow gold hoops. Scarlet placed the bracelet on her wrist, gathered up the flint, stone, and seeds, and gave them to her father to stow in his pack.

Dakota met them at the tunnel that led out of Illuminora and up to the trunk of the great oak tree. He nodded to Scarlet and her father before turning to Xavier.

“Can you maintain our current size beyond the clearing?” Dakota asked, his eyes flashing.

Xavier looked concerned. “How far beyond the clearing do you need?”

“Ideally—a mile,” Dakota answered.

“I’m sorry,” Xavier said. “I can possibly manage a few yards beyond, maybe a little bit more—but not much. That power is from the tree, it’s not my own.”

“That will have to do,” Dakota said, his mind turning over rapidly. “I have a distraction in mind, but we are going to have to be moving when we break through the clearing.” He looked at Scarlet and her father. “You up for that?”

“Guess we don’t have much choice,” Mr. Hopewell admitted. He looked to Scarlet, who managed a smile.

“Let’s get a move on,” Dakota said.

As they exited the castle, Scarlet caught sight of Delfi, standing sheepishly by the entrance. She waved to Dakota to give her a minute and ran over to him. Without even waiting for a word, she threw her arms around his neck.

“I going to miss you so much,” she cried.

“I tried to make them let me go with you,” Delfi said with deep regret in his voice. There was a touch of anger as well.

“I wish you could. It would be so much better if you could,” Scarlet said, breaking her embrace with Delfi and looking up at him, tears in her eyes.

“Xavier said I was too young, and my parents were even less keen on the idea.”

“But you’re a year older than me!” Scarlet protested.

“I know . . . I said that. Xavier said if he had a choice in all this, you wouldn’t be leaving either. Said it was the worst thing he’s ever had to do, whatever that means,” Delfi said.

“I’ll come back, though. I promise I will,” Scarlet said, her voice breaking. She hoped with all her heart that it was true, but she couldn’t really know. She had absolutely no idea what was out there waiting for her.

“Take care of yourself, so you do,” Delfi said, and gave her another hug.

The rest of the walk up the stone steps was solemn and quiet. No one seemed to have anything to say until it came time to move from the safety of Illuminora. The Hopewells embraced in tearful silence. Scarlet held on to her mother for a long time, feeling the weight of the coming separation and all that it meant.

When they finally parted, Mrs. Hopewell bent down to speak to Dakota. She reached out and placed a timid hand behind his ears and smoothed his rough fur. “I used to feel like my life was so in control. Now it feels so out of control, I don’t know how to think about it anymore. Not to mention that I haven’t even come close to understanding all that’s happened.”

“I can appreciate that, Mrs. Hopewell,” Dakota admitted.

“I used to tell Charles that it made me feel so safe to have a big German shepherd in the house, to scare off burglars
or . . . or . . .” Tears began to fall openly down Mrs. Hopewell’s cheeks, and it took her a moment to regain her composure. “You keep my baby safe,” she managed.

Dakota looked up at her with his piercing blue eyes. “Mrs. Hopewell, as long as I have breath, I will bring her home to you.”

Breaking down completely, she threw her arms around Dakota’s thick neck. Dakota stood stoically while she sobbed against him, although his eyes glistened a little more than usual. Finally she broke her embrace and went to her husband, sharing a few intimate words.

“Mr. Hopewell,” Dakota announced after they had all said their good-byes. “I’ll lead the charge out. Stay close to me, and I’ll try to run at a human-friendly speed. The key moment is going to come when we begin to change. It’s going to be a little alarming. We can’t stop running though. It’s very important that we keep moving.”

Dakota looked out from the oak tree at the forest beyond, his eyes filled with both concern and apprehension. “At the half-mile mark, the Stidolph will attack the Mortada. It’s going to be violent. You have to stay strong, Scarlet. We can’t stop and help, no matter what. We have to break free. Do you understand me?”

“Yes,” Scarlet said, her voice wavering.

“There’ll be a time for you to fight,” Dakota said, trying to sound reassuring. “Just not yet. We have a lot of work to do first.”

Scarlet was scared, and her fear was clear in her eyes, which now were brimming with tears. She was leaving her mother and sister, and outside of Illuminora, where she had felt safe and wonderful, the world seemed poised to kill her, if it could. The Mortada, the evil figures who had broken into her house, who had caused her family to flee their home, were waiting outside the tree.

Then it was time. Her thoughts, her apprehension, would have to wait. Dakota took off, running a bit faster than Scarlet would have thought of as human speed. She could hear her father’s footsteps pounding behind her, and although it seemed as though they had been running only a short distance, she could already feel a stitch forming in her side.

Through the haze of fear and the pain of her burning lungs, a thought occurred to Scarlet that sent a wave of panic through her. She had been thinking of the clearing in reference to when she had arrived. Then it had seemed such a short distance, but now they were no more than six inches tall. The clearing would be a great distance to someone that small. Every inch was like a foot, every foot several yards. There was no way she would be able to keep up this pace for that long.

Suddenly she felt a strange, uncomfortable sensation, and she could hear Dakota yelling at her to keep running. She felt as if every bone and muscle in her body was being stretched to its limits. The grass and weeds that moments ago had been taller than her began to shrink, first to just below her head, then to her waist. Scarlet willed her feet to continue moving forward, trying her best to focus only on Dakota bounding ahead of her.

Within a minute, the grass was being crumpled underfoot instead of waded through, and the world around her had become instantly more familiar. She had been in Illuminora so long that she had forgotten how strange it was to be shrunk. The stitch in her side began to fade, and the terrain whirled past as they dodged trees and leaped over underbrush.

Moments later the first Mortada caught sight of them, and with a call to his companions, he set off in pursuit. He was fast. Impossibly fast. Though they’d been taken by surprise, the Mortada had already closed the distance between himself and Scarlet’s father to only ten feet. She dared a look over her shoulder and instantly regretted her decision. She was overcome by a feeling of hopelessness.

As the Mortada reached out to seize her father, the first of the Stidolph arrived. The massive wolf hit the Mortada like a freight train, sending the lithe figure sprawling into the woods beyond. The Stidolph was joined by several more, but, heeding Dakota’s words to keep moving, Scarlet couldn’t tell exactly how many. A minute later the only sign of either the Stidolph or the Mortada was the vicious growls and cries of pain and anguish that carried through the forest behind them.