Scarlet and the Keepers of Light (19 page)

Delfi lowered his head, nervous and a little scared of what Jud-Byr was about to ask of him. The dwarf had saved his life, but he didn’t want to leave Scarlet.

“You will pay this debt by watching over the little lady. You guard her with your life.”

Delfi smiled. “You can count on it.” He extended his hand—this time with much more assurance than the first time he and Scarlet met—and Jud-Byr shook it firmly.

There was little left to say after that. Dakota and Jud-Byr exchanged a few private words, and then the four companions set off to the west. Scarlet looked back over her shoulder once at the dwarven village growing smaller in the distance, feeling a little pang. Taking leave of that place of merriment and order felt almost like leaving her own childhood behind.

She gave herself a little mental shake and turned forward again, calm and resolute.

Her quest, she knew, had just begun.

22

A Forced Good-bye

They tore through the meadows at a full sprint. Chosen ran as if he were being chased by death itself, and Brennan was struggling to keep up, despite his youth and longer legs. Something bad was happening. Brennan could feel it as much as he could see it on Chosen’s twisted face. Time itself was against them.

There were other signs that something was amiss. A series of darkly luminous clouds had appeared on the horizon, unlike any Brennan had ever seen before. They had a purplish glow and moved quickly in circular patterns, almost as if they were searching for something . . . or someone. As ominous as the clouds were, and as uneasy as they made Brennan feel, it was in their direction that Chosen ran. Brennan had no choice but to follow.

Chosen offered no explanation for what was happening, or for the sudden need for such haste, and Brennan was so caught up in the rush that he didn’t ask.

They’d been at it all day, and with each mile the clouds grew closer, the sense of foreboding stronger.

At a small rise in the land, Chosen halted suddenly. Brennan came up alongside him, drawing in great gulps of air. Chosen was scouring the countryside, desperately searching for something.

“She is close. But where?” he said to the air.

Without a word, they took off again.

***

Dakota seemed uneasy. They had been traveling nearly two whole days, keeping a steady pace, and although Scarlet was enjoying the time with her father and Delfi, she couldn’t help noticing the change in Dakota’s manner. Something about the storm clouds behind them seemed to bother him greatly, for he kept stealing glances back at them, and stared fixedly that way whenever they stopped to rest.

The clouds did look odd, tinted a luminous purple and moving in a strange swirling pattern. They almost seemed to be following the four travelers, although Scarlet was sure that was just her imagination. In any case, Dakota’s attitude worried Scarlet more than the clouds themselves.

By the time they stopped for lunch on the third day, the clouds were so close that Scarlet’s father had begun searching the relatively flat landscape for a place to take shelter. “Do you think we’ll be able to reach a patch of woods or the base of the mountains before those clouds get over the top of us?” he asked Dakota.

Dakota didn’t answer; he seemed to be concentrating intently on something. Scarlet’s father turned to her instead. “You guys stay here and finish eating. I’m going to scout ahead and see if I can find some kind of shelter. That storm looks bad.”

Scarlet and Delfi nodded, busy eagerly filling their empty stomachs, laughing between bites.

***

“There they are!” Brennan shouted. He could just see the tiny figures of Scarlet, Delfi, and Dakota far ahead under the lowering darkness, which had descended like a curtain to just above their heads.

Chosen looked desperately around, searching the air for an answer; they were too far away to reach the cloud in time. He turned to Brennan.

“I’m going to send you after her,” he shouted. “We don’t have time. Just find her and keep her safe until I find you.”

Brennan tried to speak, but suddenly felt himself being hurled through the air. For a moment he could still see Chosen shrinking in the distance, his hands held together in a sort of prayer. Then the black mist wrapped around Brennan, cutting off his vision and hurtling him toward the massive vortex ahead. Then he felt something pull at him, slightly at first, and with tremendous force. The world seemed to spin. He was no longer aware of what was up or down, where sky and earth began. He was only aware of the sensation of falling in all directions.

***

Charles had left his pack with the group and set off at a jog toward the west, hoping to come across something that could shield the group from the storm. The terrain was flat in all directions, though, and after jogging for ten minutes, he realized that there was nothing anywhere near that would help.

A stray thought struck him as he stopped and turned to walk back to the group. In fourteen years, he had never taken Scarlet camping. It seemed like such a fatherly thing to do, and now, in this strange and dangerous place, they were doing exactly that.

He was musing wryly that he’d have much preferred a nice quiet campsite somewhere in a national park when an ear-splitting
crack
echoed through the plains.

It sounded as if the earth itself had opened up. Charles felt his spine turn to ice as an overwhelming fear swept through him. And then a sound even more terrifying filled the air—the sound of Scarlet screaming.

Charles took off at a full sprint toward the group, toward Scarlet. With each step he took, the sky grew darker. Across the plains he could see that the purple vapor had descended to the earth just behind Scarlet, Delfi, and Dakota, framing them as they ran desperately toward him, away from the clouds bearing down on them.

“Run!” Charles shouted, his own legs feeling rubbery as they pounded the earth. The cloud was gaining on Scarlet. At any moment it would swallow her up, and though Charles had no idea what that would mean, his fear had pushed aside all rational thought.

Dakota, who had hung back to stay between Scarlet, Delfi, and the cloud, was the first to be engulfed. One second he was galloping along, barking encouragement to the two young ones, and the next he’d been lifted off his feet and sucked into the black shroud. Charles watched in horror as Delfi was sucked away next, leaving only his precious daughter, a fraction of a second from vanishing into the vortex. Charles was only steps away. He reached out just as she was lifted off her feet, clutching the first thing his hand touched, his fingers locked grimly around on the strap of Scarlet’s pack.

For a brief moment, everything seemed frozen. Charles gripped the strap desperately, looking into the terrified eyes of Scarlet, who was suspended in the air above him, only held down by her own grip on the pack. He knew that he was screaming, but he could not hear himself. Everything seemed to have gone absolutely silent.

Then, without warning, the sound of ripping fabric tore the silence apart.

The strap of the pack had come off in Charles’s hand; its stitching had not held. Charles fell to the ground, still clutching the now useless strap. Scarlet had disappeared. He reached out to her, and felt the oddest sensation as it entered the blackness, as if his arm were no longer connected to his body. Struggling to his feet again, he made to charge into the cloud after her, but it was gone.

Before him stretched only a clear blue sky, and the amber grasses of an endless plain.

23

Welcome Home

Scarlet landed hard in overgrown grass; her head thumped against the earth, sending a burst of sparks up behind her closed eyelids, and a dull ache throbbed in her brain. It took a moment to reorient herself, and when she did, she sat up gingerly, feeling numerous muscle twinges and bruises that were sure to bother her for several days. Her first clear thought was that she had landed somewhere familiar, a place she knew quite well, and yet she didn’t—
did
she? This place had a wild and deserted look that didn’t fit her memories.

Scarlet suddenly remembered her father, Dakota, and Delfi. She got to her feet and began to search frantically for them. Dear lord, she hoped that she wasn’t here alone. Relief came quickly as she caught sight of Delfi getting to his feet several yards away, and then Dakota emerging from the woods not far from them. But where was her dad? She looked down at her pack, her oaken staff tied to the top. One of the straps was torn off. An image flashed into her mind with dreadful clarity: her father’s arm, momentarily reaching out for her and then vanishing as she was swept away. An enormous wave of grief rolled over her, pulling her under. What had happened to him?

Delfi reached her just in time to catch her as she collapsed in tears. He didn’t need to ask her what was wrong, just held her while she cried. Dakota came up beside them, allowing Scarlet her moment of sorrow, while he took stock of their surroundings. He thought he knew where they were, but what had happened? There was something very wrong here.

Soon Scarlet’s tears began to subside, and she managed to look up at Dakota. “Is he dead?”

“No,” Dakota answered, almost too quickly. “The fog just faded before it got him, that’s all. He’s fine.”

New tears began to fall down Scarlet’s cheeks, but she was able to keep control of herself.

“Where are we?” Delfi asked, still keeping a firm arm around her shoulders.

Dakota looked around, his eyes glowing fiercely. “I’m lost for an explanation, but—”

He stopped abruptly, as if reluctant to continue. Scarlet had hardly registered his words, anyway. She’d shrugged off Delfi and was walking away, toward the nearest building—there had to be a building under that mound of vines—as if drawn by a magnet.

Yes, there was a way in—that must be the front door through that gap in the tangled vegetation, she thought as she got closer. Or—not a door. Just an opening. The door was gone, she saw now. She kept moving forward like a sleepwalker, though she could hear Delfi protesting behind her.

“Wait, Scarlet! It might not be safe. You don’t know what’s in there.”

She went on, walking across the door itself, which was lying flat in the opening, the wood almost disintegrated, some shelf fungus sprouting from one side of it. She was in a hallway, with stairs in front of her. She stopped short, looking at the carved ball at the end of the banister. Could it—

She stepped forward and looked through an open doorway to the side. A room covered thickly in dust and cobwebs, pale tendrils of vines creeping over the floor. A television, its screen shattered. For a moment she saw a ghostly image in front of the TV: a gangly half-grown German shepherd, ears pricked, watching the weather forecast with calm concentration. Then she felt a nose touch her hand, and came back to the present.

With Dakota stalking protectively by her side, she crossed to the warped, decayed mantel and reached for a framed picture. She brushed away the thick layer of dust on the glass with her hand. Looking back out at her was a young girl, flushed with happiness, holding a puppy with big paws and startling blue eyes.

***

The house was absolutely still, not a breath of movement in the air. Scarlet sat on the bottom step of the stairs, her head in her hands. Delfi sat beside her, and Dakota lay at their feet. She couldn’t remember putting the picture down, or walking out of the room.

“I don’t feel as if I’m that girl anymore,” she said, sniffling. “Everything’s so different. This can’t be home. I don’t even know where home is.”

Delfi just patted her hand; he obviously had no idea what to say. Looking at his anxious face, Scarlet realized she needed to pull herself together. They couldn’t just sit around while she felt sorry for herself. She had a couple of worlds to save, she thought ruefully.

“Come on. We’d better get going,” she said, standing up and turning to offer Delfi a hand. Suddenly a soft breeze filled the hall, blowing down the stairs from above. It felt good, and Scarlet tipped her head back to feel it on her face. Then it grew stronger, and a blizzard of paper filled the air. Pages were floating down the stairwell, spinning in circles, filling the hall.

Reaching out, she caught one of the dancing sheets of paper. There were a few lines of writing on it—her own handwriting, notes from a dream:

. . . I’d come to a magical village, sparkling with light, beneath a great oak tree. At the foot of this tree would be my family and friends, greeting me as if they’d been waiting for me for years. It would be the grandest homecoming . . .

“Well,” she said, not sure whether to laugh or cry, “this isn’t exactly the homecoming of my dreams.”

***

Outside, they looked around. Only a few other houses in the neighborhood were still standing, and even those looked as though they wouldn’t hold up to the roots and vines much longer. There were no cars on the broken pavement of the road, no people anywhere to be seen. No lights shone anywhere, though dusk was coming on.

“It’s as if we’ve been gone for ages. How is that possible?” Scarlet asked. “It’s only been a few months.”

“I wish I had the answers, but I don’t,” Dakota confessed. “Something is very wrong. Something Xavier didn’t see.”

Darkness was coming quickly upon them as the sun sank beyond the western horizon. Sounds began to disturb the stillness. Although the familiar croaks of frogs and the rhythmic ebb and flow of crickets were clearly evident, they could also hear strange, wild cries, the calls of animals that were surely out of place in the once-suburban landscape.

“We need to get away from here,” Dakota said, looking apprehensive and a touch wild himself. “Whoever is responsible for this, we don’t want to be found exactly where they sent us. We need to find some sort of shelter to rest and make a plan.”

Scarlet thought for a moment. “What about my school?” she asked. “It was a tornado shelter and everything. It should be safe, shouldn’t it? I mean, it’s not too far.”

“You mean we have to go to school?” Delfi kidded, trying his best to lighten the mood. Scarlet could see that he didn’t want her to get upset again.

“I think it sounds like an excellent idea. That school’s as good a chance as any to find shelter,” Dakota said firmly. “Stay close to each other and keep your eyes on a swivel.” In response, Delfi looked at Scarlet and rolled his eyes in dramatic circles.

They set off quickly to the main road and toward the school. It was only a mile up the road, and they reached it in under half an hour. Made of brick and steel, the school did appear to be intact. Scarlet’s hunch had proven accurate. Although the school was covered in vines and overgrown plant life, the simple, single-story structure was doing its best to hold out against the unchecked overgrowth around it. This made getting inside the building, however, a little bit difficult; every door they tried proved to be either locked or completely blocked by plant life. Vines and thick foliage covered the windows as well.

It took several minutes before Scarlet remembered magic. Something about being back in her world, wild and strange though it was, had pushed the idea from her mind. She was staring at the front door to the school, which was slightly ajar and blocked by the thick intertwining roots of a willow tree that was growing through the pavement. A smile lit up her face.

She leaned forward and whispered to the roots, which responded immediately, retreating from the doorway and revealing a clear path to the inside of the school. Scarlet was amazed at how quickly it happened. She wondered whether the plants in her world, unused to magic, did not have the same resistance to it that the plants in Satorium did. She made a mental note to ask Dakota about it once they had gotten inside the school and had a chance to discuss what was happening. To be honest, whether or not the plants back home reacted more quickly to magic was the least of the many questions that needed answering.

Although it didn’t really matter what room they chose to rest in, Scarlet found herself leading Delfi and Dakota to Ms. Thandiwe’s classroom. The halls were completely dark, the windows covered and the electric lights not working. Scarlet and Delfi sent a few spheres of light out ahead of them to light the way. In certain parts of the hall tree roots had broken through the floor, although in the absence of light, no other plant life had flourished inside the building.

Once inside Ms. Thandiwe’s classroom, the three companions collapsed onto the floor. There were still many desks and chairs in the room, but for the moment the floor looked much more comfortable.

“What happened?” Delfi asked, not really expecting an answer but feeling the need to voice what he knew everyone was thinking.

“I can only guess,” Dakota answered. “But I think Xavier must have underestimated the prince’s strength. He has done something to this world.”

“He’s here?” Scarlet cried in alarm.

“No, no. Of that I am sure. If he had escaped, we would certainly have known. But that doesn’t mean he hasn’t found a way to act upon this world from his tower prison. It’s as if he’s sped up time, and I’m nearly positive he must have sent some of his minions over to begin preparing for his eventual escape. We were oblivious over there, and all the while this world has been under siege.” Dakota looked as angry as he was uneasy.

“So we aren’t safe here,” said Delfi.

“Certainly not,” Dakota answered. “Why else would he have sent us back here?”

“Can you send us back to Illuminora?” Scarlet asked, hope in her voice.

Dakota remained silent for a long, uncomfortable moment. “Without Xavier’s direct help, I have no way of sending us back. Even with his help, it took fourteen years to break the barrier, and a considerable amount of planning to hold it open long enough to get us back.”

Dakota’s words fell on them like a heavy curtain cutting short a promising show. There was a finality in his simple statement that drained away the last vestiges of hope, leaving only a foreboding sense of doom. How could Scarlet learn magic if they couldn’t go back? Would any of them ever see their friends and families again?

“We should rest for now,” Dakota said. “Perhaps in the morning things will look different.”

There was no argument from Scarlet or Delfi. They found places on the musty carpet and prepared for what was sure to be a sleepless night.

“I should ask the roots to close the doorway again, just in case. That way nobody else can get in,” Scarlet said.

Dakota nodded. “Be quick, and be careful.”

Scarlet returned to the school’s main entrance and whispered to the willow.
The branches quivered at the sound of her voice,
and in less than a minute the entrance was again sealed. On her way back to the classroom, Scarlet noticed something she hadn’t before: a flyer, hastily taped on every classroom door.
She took one down and looked at it. A few lines of what looked like verse followed a short note:

Dear Students,

This letter is to tell you where to find us. It’s in a riddle in the hope that the monsters won’t understand and be able to find us. I have no idea how intelligent they are. The school is no longer safe. Leave as soon as you can, and follow the clues in the riddle. Be careful, and good luck.

—Ms. Thandiwe

A presidential donation, given forth, the citizens to enlight.

The 3
rd
’s great love, kept safe behind vaulted doors.

A mighty building, we hide in plain sight.

Where the 2
nd
and 4
th
are our neighbors.

Scarlet wasted no time. She went immediately to the library; the thought of finding Ms. Thandiwe, an adult who she trusted and could help explain what had happened, was too much to pass up. The library was dark and wild. Many plants had invaded through the numerous windows. Scarlet sent several spheres of light into the cavernous room and began looking for books on US government. The riddle had mentioned a president, so books about the government seemed like a good place to start. She got history books, assuming that since the riddle mentioned the third, it would be about older presidents.

Scarlet gathered together a stack of books and was about to leave when she stopped to pick up a book about Washington, DC, as well. She then hurried back to Ms. Thandiwe’s classroom, where Dakota was about to leave to find her.

“Where have you been?” he asked, deep concern in his voice.

“I found this,” Scarlet answered, showing the flyer to Dakota, who read it quickly. Delfi came over and read it as well.