Song of the Unicorns (Avalon: Web of Magic #7) (12 page)

“Oh no!” Emily ran to the unicorns.

Riannan’s head fell listlessly against the net, a dulled, lifeless horn protruding from her head.
“Emily,”
she rasped.

“Riannan!” Emily cried. “What’s happened?”

“Our magic… it’s all gone.”

“H
OLY ROOT ROT
!” Tweek shuddered, threatening to fall apart. “Where’s their magic?”

Emily tried to determine if the unicorns were hurt, but her healing gem flared with warrior magic. She swiftly pulled her wrist away.

“My horn.”
Riannan smiled weakly. “
I got my horn, Emily.”

“Yes,” Emily whispered proudly. “You did.” But what should have been exquisite crystal was dull and colorless, completely without magic.

“Kara,”
Calliope whimpered.
“My hair got all messy.”

“Shhh, it’s okay.” Kara’s jewel blazed furiously. “We’ll get you out.”

Dreamer growled as the portal pulsed with green light.

“What trick is this?” boomed a voice from inside the swirling portal. Jewel pulsing wildly, the knight stepped out.

Lyra and Dreamer leaped in front of the net, blocking the knight from his prey.

The knight turned his horned helmet toward the mages. Red eye-slits pulsed in rhythm with his green jewel.

Scrambling to her feet, Adriane faced the knight.

But Emily pulled her back. “No, Adriane. You can’t fight, not now.”

The knight raised his staff. A beam of green light began scanning the desert. “Where is the unicorn magic?”

“He doesn’t have it!” Emily whispered to the others.

“But if he didn’t capture it, then where did it go?” Adriane asked.

Emily and Adriane held their breath as the knight’s magic fell over the rainbow gem and the wolf stone. It slowly passed over the unicorns’ horns without even a twinkle.

“Riannan gave her magic away,”
Electra said, shuffling in the cramped net.

“We did, too,”
Ralfie added.

“Riannan said it was okay,”
Violet sniffled.

“I gave it up so the knight could never get it,”
Riannan told Emily.

“Where did it go?” Emily asked.

“I don’t know.”
The unicorn hung her head.
“I couldn’t focus it.”

Dreamer and Lyra growled as the green light moved over them.

Emily felt frantic. She had been entrusted to keep the unicorns safe, and now their magic was missing. She’d failed miserably. “Tweek, how do we get them out?” Emily’s voice was tight with panic, realizing the knight could easily pull them away at any moment.

“We need a goblin spell book. Anyone got one?”

“No!” Ozzie thumped his tail.

“Oh wait, I do.” The E.F. held up his HORARFF. “If only we had a jewel that wasn’t all flooie so we could focus goblin magic.”

“What about this one?” Ozzie held out his ferret stone.

The knight’s magic edged toward Kara.

“Hurry!” Adriane urged.

Tweek started rifling through images, letters, and documents. “I have over three hundred different dictionaries in two hundred languages stored in my HORARFF, plus local street map directions,” Tweek said proudly.

“Gah!” Ozzie sputtered.

Suddenly, the knight’s green beam fell over Kara. The jewel upon his staff flared as it scanned the unicorn jewel.

“You think to hide the magic in this jewel,” he hissed. “Give it to me!”

“Kara’s got the unicorns’ magic?” Emily gasped.

“Makes perfect sense,” Tweek said, studying his HORARFF. “Magic attracts magic.”

“Stay away from them!” Kara’s voice rang out. She stepped toward the edge of the ring with Dreamer and Lyra, drawing the knight away from the net. Gleaming diamond magic sparkled from her jewel.

The unicorns mashed together as they scrambled to watch the blazing star. “
Yay, Kara! Go blazing star!”

Kara bowed to the cheering unicorns, jewel blazing with power. “I’m back!”

A bolt of green magic shot from the knight’s jewel.

“Ahhh!” the blazing star screamed as the foul magic encased her. Shimmering in green light, her body twisted into a haggard, green-skinned banshee.

The unicorns gasped. “
Boooo! Hissss!”

Lyra roared, ready to strike.

“Lyra, stay with me. I need your help,” Kara commanded, flicking a tress of greasy hair away with gnarled fingers. Her blue lips scowled. “Nobody messes with my accessories!”

Fists raised, she fired a dazzling bolt of diamond-white magic back into the knight. With a twirl, Kara transformed herself into a twinkling pointy-eared sprite with flowing turquoise hair. “That’s better.”

“Whoohoo, Kara! Yay! Oooo, pretty!”

“Twingo!” Tweek projected a series of symbols and letters in the air. “Ozzie, try this. ‘Plithree floob.’”

The ferret held his jewel and called out the translation. “Feel my beard!”

With a fizzle, Ozzie sprouted a long beard. “What the—?!”

“Fuzzy got fuzzier!”
the unicorns shouted.

“Yay!”

“Not yay!”

“Oh, right.”

“That’s not right,” Tweek mused.

“You’re telling me, you, you,
you
—!” Ozzie flapped his beaver tail and pulled at his beard.

“Give me the magic!” the knight growled, his murky green power smashing into Kara.

The green magic slithered to the sand, revealing a black imp with blood red eyes.

“Black is
so
not my color,” the Kara imp said. She waved her arms and twinkled into a small purple spriggle with huge sparkling lavender eyes.

“Okay, okay, try this one.” Behind the net, Tweek had projected a new line of symbols. “‘Rathroo migwump.’”

“Fix my shoe!” Ozzie called out.

Ozzie’s left foot expanded into a huge red shoe. “
Gah!
This is ridiculous! What kind of magic is this?”

“Oops, wrong dictionary. That’s pixie magic.”

Again, the knight hurled his vile green magic at Kara. The blazing star fought back with a stream of shining white light. The dual forces of magic crashed into one another, slamming back and forth in a magical tug of war. No matter how hard each battled, neither Kara nor the dark knight could hold the advantage over the other. They were at an impasse.

Dreamer and Lyra stood on either side of Kara, guarding her, helping to keep her magic focused.

“You cannot hold out forever,” the knight hissed as the blazing star morphed into a massively ugly ogre.

“You’re right,” Kara’s gruesome ogre voice bellowed. “There is
no
way I’m missing the school dance next week!” The blazing ogre forced a huge wave of magic back at the knight.

“What is this?!” the knight shouted. A pink halter top now adorned his upper body, matching the bunny slippers on his feet.

“Ozzie, hurry up!” Adriane called out impatiently.

“Okay, try this one,” Tweek said, stopping the scrolling symbols at a page of incantations. “‘Ngop maj beembo!’”

“Open the freezer!” Ozzie yelled. A pile of ice cubes dropped on his head.

“Close, but no twig,” Tweek fretted. “Focus the magic with your jewel!”

“I’m going to focus you into mulch!” Ozzie concentrated on his stone.

“Bimidee bootilee aoool!” Tweek shouted.

Ozzie held up his jewel. “Release the toads—doh!”

“No,
aoool!”

“Ties that bind!” The ferret stone blazed with light. “Yes!” Ozzie quickly spread the golden magic over the net. The green grid that had trapped the unicorns melted away and vanished.

“Fuzzy did it!”
Ralfie hooted.

“Way to go, Fuzzy,” Adriane said.

The ferret quickly shone the light over his feet and face, removing the giant shoe and beard.

“Quickly now.” Emily and Adriane herded the group into a semicircle. “Just like we practiced.”

“
How? We don’t even have our magic anymore!”
Dante cried.

“And Kara’s a—!”
Calliope looked at the magical duel.
“What is she?”

“That was low!” The blazing star’s voice bubbled from a mass of slimy yellow tentacles. Still holding the evil knight at bay, her jewel blazed and she became a magnificent fairy princess with shining silver wings. “Wings never go out of style.”

But Emily saw that Kara was starting to lose the tug-of-war. The blond girl couldn’t keep this up much longer.

Under the power of the knight’s jewel, the blazing star twisted into a goblin with knobbly green feet, then snapped into a whiskery rabbit-like brimbee. Finally, she morphed into a scaly, lizard-like Skultum, the creature from whom she’d absorbed her shape-shifting powers in the first place.

The Kara Skultum snarled, lizard eyes flashing in panic. “I can’t change back! Help!”

“Release the magic in the jewel!” The knight jerked his staff backward, extracting a flash of glowing magic from Kara’s gem. The magic warped, expanding into the shape of a skultum. Scaly snakeskin shimmered along its reptilian body.

Kara morphed back to her regular self, but her eyes were wide with fear. She held up her jewel—but nothing happened. She couldn’t shape-shift!

“This is not unicorn magic!” The knight roared.

The blazing star stared in shock. The knight had taken her shape-shifting magic. The unicorn magic wasn’t in her gem after all.

Kara quickly regained her composure. “You really didn’t think I’d hide the unicorn magic in here, did you? Oh, that is
so
obvious.”

Swirling his staff in the air, the knight hurled a trio of magical whirlwinds at the mages.

Adriane, Kara, and Emily all fired their jewels at once. Each mage struck a tornado, forcing the whirlwinds against the rocks. Magic sparked as the rock towers began to quiver and melt.

The unicorns honked a few feeble notes.

“
It’s not working!”
Violet cried desperately.

The knight thrust his staff forward, sending the whirlwinds spinning furiously around the mages and unicorns.

“Hey, why don’t you pick on someone your own size!” Tweek’s voice rang out loud and clear across the desert.

The Experimental Fairimental stood right behind the knight, peering out from the base of a rock tower. “Hey, metal head!” The E.F. rattled his twigs at the startled knight. “Perhaps you should try fighting a real Fairimental.”

The knight glowered. “I will have your power, Fairimental!”

“Stick and stones may break my twigs…”

Emily’s heart raced, fearing for Tweek. But she knew he was buying her enough time. She turned to the unicorns. “We may not be able to work our magic alone, but we can do this together.”

“You cannot defeat me!” the knight shouted at the E.F.

“Well, you’re right. I give up.”

Where Tweek stood, the air suddenly filled with twigs, grass, and shrubbery. The valiant E.F. had exploded, scattering over the dry desert floor.

The evil knight laughed.

“Oh no!” Emily cried. “Tweek!”

The knight turned his pulsing red eye-slits toward the mages and unicorns. There was nothing now to stop him.