Stephanie nodded and went to sit next to me.
"Is there anything I can do while I wait?" asked Stephanie.
"Oh, can you find Mallory?" I asked.
Stephanie nodded, and left. As soon as she exited, Mallory came in.
"Hi," she said.
I greeted Mallory with a friendly smile. "You ready?"
"Uh-huh," said Mallory. An awkward silence fell over us.
"Um," said Mallory. "Do you wanna walk with me on the quest?"
"Sorry," I said. "I already said yes to Holly. You're welcome to join us, if you like."
Mallory's hopeful face changed.
"Holly? You're walking with Holly? " she said.
"Yeah," I said, wondering what was up with Mallory. "Is there anything wrong?"
"No, no," said Mallory. "I'll just walk with Kae and Eli." She went back inside. I was contemplating Mallory's strange behavior when Kae walked outside.
"Hey," he said when he spotted her. "I thought the other guys would be out here by now."
"They were," I responded. "But Holly and Eli went to ask Amaryllis whether she was coming with us, and Stephanie should here soon. And Mallory is inside doing I don't know what." I frowned.
"You know, Holly and Eli have been gone awhile. We should make sure they're okay. You want to come with?" I asked.
"Sure," said Kae, and offered her a hand up. I accepted, and then we went to find Holly and Stephanie.
On the way inside, we met Stephanie and Mallory. They looked worried.
"Where Holly?" asked Stephanie. "She promised me she'd help me get my stuff together."
"Yeah, and Eli said he'd put our things into packs," said Mallory. "But he never came."
"Oh, they were going to ask Amaryllis if she was coming with us," I said. "They had been gone awhile so we were just going to see if they were..." my voice faltered. I knew we were all thinking the same thing.
"Let's go!" exclaimed Stephanie, and bolted for the hallway door. We all followed.
Chapter 7
We had been racing through the hallways of the cottage, and had turned the last corner that led to Amaryllis's study when we came upon a dead end.
"Wha- Where?" asked Kae, turning around in a circle.
"I don't know," said Stephanie, clearly troubled. She put her hand on the dry, cold, wall in front of us. "But it's magic. I can sense it."
Mallory put her hands on her hips.
"How can you sense it? And what does it do?" she asked.
"It's just a tingle. I'm not sure exactly how to explain it. I just know," answered Stephanie.
"Okaaay," said Mallory. "But do you know what it does?"
But before Stephanie could answer, the stone bricks on the wall shimmered. Words began to form on them.
Four brave souls on-forth
To rescue, forgot one of
Their fellow teammate
Five brave souls may march
Through my sturdy, strong, tall wall
So to find the ones
"What?" asked Stephanie.
"Phillip!" I cried, realizing what the message meant. "We forgot Phillip!"
"Come on!" I yelled, running back. "We have to get him!"
I heard Stephanie grudgingly come after me, and in a minute I heard the other's feet as well.
"Um, guys?" a voice called out from the darkness of the entrance hall. "W-Where is everyone?"
"We're here, Phillip," answered Stephanie. "Um, you see-"
Kae intervened here, wisely thinking the Stephanie probably wasn't one for the tactical job.
"We think Amaryllis is holding Stephanie and Holly hostage or something so of course we had to go after them we were so worried and-" Kae took a breath.
I admired Kae's eloquence. Even though he was talking in breathless tones, he was nonetheless eloquent. The breathlessness added to fact he was worried, as did the run-on sentences. I knew that in this way, Kae was as gifted as- Suddenly I had a sense of deja-vu. I remembered......
The perfect amount of concern in her voice, the confusion to show she didn't understand what we were doing, all added to her honeyed tones...
Kae was exactly like Amaryllis. Suddenly, Kae tugged at my shoulder.
"Let's go!" he hissed, still panting.
Oh, I thought as we raced down the corridors once more, I guess he was really breathless from concern. I felt guilty as I remembered how I had compared Kae to Amaryllis. We were a team. I needed to trust everyone. Still, something tugged at the back of my mind. But there was no time to think about that now. We had teammates to save.
Soon we were before the wall that had stopped us before. The words still glinted fresh and sharp and red. I only suddenly realized what an uncanny resemblance the words had to blood. But the words melted away, and then the wall did too. We were free to enter. But did we want to go?
We crept toward the study door on padded feet, not daring to make a noise. All was silent in the study. Fear shone on Stephanie's face, but she bravely stepped forward and peered in the study. Shock instantly overtook her face.
She stepped back from the door and I felt it safe to hiss," What's in there?"
"That's just it," whispered back Stephanie. "It's empty. "
"Like, empty of people, or empty of furniture?" asked Kae.
"People!" hissed Stephanie, shooting a you're an idiot look to her cousin. "Honestly, Kae!"
Kae grinned and put his hands up in surrender position, but Stephanie scowled, "And the strangest thing," she continued. "There were claw marks on the floor."
I frowned. "Well, we know something happened in there. But we haven't got anything but some claw marks. We don't have any useful leads," she said.
"Not true yet!" grinned Kae.
"What do you mean?" asked Stephanie, thoroughly annoyed and irritated with her crazy cousin. Kae lowered his voice before he spoke.
"Okay, I'll tell you," he said in exaggerated reluctant tones. I was sure he was just faking it, but she leaned in all the same.
"I was going to my room," he said. "When I saw Amaryllis creeping through the corridors. I, of course, being the brave hero I am, followed her into..." He lowered his voice even more. "...her BEDROOM!"
"WHAT?" cried Mallory. "I know we don't trust her but-" But she was overridden by Stephanie, who was fuming with exasperation at her 'brainless cousin'.
"Kae!" exclaimed Stephanie. "HOW could you do that?"
Stephanie was a very private person who had an extreme respect for others privacy.
Kae looked sheepish.
"Sorry, I- I didn't know she was gonna go to her bedroom-" he began, but I interrupted him.
"Yeah, okay. The point is, though, that we've got a lead. Holly and Eli might be in danger, so we'll discuss this later. All right?" I said. I gave them all the death glare. They nodded, and I gestured to Kae to lead us to Amaryllis's bedroom.
We slowly crept toward the room. The doors were white ebony, and carved with snails. I felt like throwing up at the realistic detail on the doors. Stephanie crept forward and put her hand on the door. She looked back at us, and pushed the door open.
Chapter 8
The monster roared. The room filled with it's stinky, sulfur-like breath. It had a reptilian armor of emerald green scales and fiery ruby eyes. It lifted its wings, beautiful, golden and shimmery. A thin deep blue web of veins spread through the filmy wings. I was horrified and shocked with wonder at the beautiful, terrible, monster. I looked beyond its long scaly body and saw Holly and Eli cowering in a corner. Holly's eyes were clenched tight in pain, and she was rocking in agony.
I was terrified, but I knew I had to do something. I reached into my pack and pulled out my small dagger I had packed in case we had to defend ourselves. I cursed myself for having the courage to bring a better blade. It glinted as I gripped its leather hilt. Bile was rising up in my throat, but I ran forward and threw the dagger at the monster. It took a glancing hit to its scales and hit the floor. So much for bein
g the leader.
Kae picked up a shard of glass from a vase the monster had knocked over and ran up to the monster and tried to injure the monster with it. It was no use. The scaly armor was impenetrable.
Suddenly, Stephanie called, "Its wings! Do the wings!"
Fortunately Kae understood. Unfortunately, Kae had no more weapons.
"Distract it!" I yelled to Stephanie. "I'll give my dagger to Kae!"
Stephanie nodded, and began saying lots of rude words to the monster. Its attention drew away from me, and I was able to scoop up my dagger and hand it to Kae.
Kae took the dagger and raked it through the monster's wing, grounding it forever. The monster retreated to a corner.
We ran toward Holly and Eli.
"What happened?" asked Stephanie.
Eli took a shaky breath and slumped and fainted. Holly adjusted herself so Eli wouldn't get a cricked neck, and then answered.
"I followed Eli to Amaryllis's study. I had almost caught up with him, but just as I was about to catch up, he turned inside the study. I heard him scream and went inside. I- I-" She gulped.
"Take your time," reassured Stephanie.
I sat back and looked around the room. It wasn't much like a bedroom. There was a tiny cot in the corner, but the room was huge and white, with a big domed ceiling. The cottage was much bigger on the inside than it looked like on the outside, I guessed. The rest of the room was empty. Holly had begun to speak again.
"I went inside, and that horrible dragon was inside, and he chased me all the way here, and all we could do was just sit here.." Holly's voice broke and she started crying.
Mallory said, "Um, Holly? If you don't mind me asking, why were you so afraid of it, I mean, yeah we were all scared, but none of us started crying and.."
Mallory stopped as the tears started to flow harder. Mallory was on the receiving end of death glares from Stephanie, Kae, Eli, and I, because Eli had woken up to hear Mallory's last question.
"Hey, Holly, it's okay," I soothed her while shooting Mallory a death glare. Mallory had the grace to look embarrassed. "It's fine, it's fine.."
"No, no," gulped Holly, wiping her tears away. "It's because I looked into his eyes. Remember last night Amaryllis told us about the Kreuk dragon?"
The others looked at each other and nodded uneasily. The night before, Amaryllis had regaled us with stories and tales of wild beasts and monsters.
"She said," said Holly, "that the Kreuk dragon, if you look it in the eyes, it will fill you with a burning sensation and is just horrible enough to endure and it reminds you of your worst fears. Until it's killed, the sensation remains."
I looked over to the dragon.
"So, has it gone?" I asked in a doubtful voice. Holly shook her head.
"It's only subsided because the dragon is injured. It'll be back," she said.
I nodded, my expression somber.
"That means we have to stay and kill the dragon. Otherwise poor Holly won't get peace. We should get some rest before the dragon regains its strength, though," I said wearily. "In case you haven't noticed, the day has gone by."
The others nodded, so I curled up between Holly and Phillip and fell asleep.
Chapter 9
What is that smell? I thought. I yawned and sat up with a Kreuk dragon staring at me. Its eyes were an amber green with swirly gold patterns.... Wait! Its eyes! I screamed and woke up the others. The minute I broke away from its gaze I was filled with a burning agony. Holly didn't do justice to the pain when she explained the agony the dragon brought on. A giant searing pain bore through me, threatening to tear me apart if I didn't give up. I cried out again and again, and I heard Holly wailing next to me. Holly's cries cut through my burning sensation like water slowly diluting poison, and I felt my eyes clear slightly. I looked at Holly clearly for the first time and saw her silky blonde hair blowing around her at the flapping of the wings of the dragon. My friends, who had at first been fighting the dragon, were now doing their best to evade it. I continued looking at Holly, who had mesmerizing gray-blue eyes that turned silver when she laughed, that could hold you in a trance for hours, and I saw Holly with open eyes, and I knew Holly's gift. I remembered how Holly had calmed down Eli when no one else before had been able to, not even his closest friends and family. Yet Holly, a girl he had never met before, had been able to calm him down. The thing that had been nagging her at the back of her brain since Kae had talked to Phillip and she had experienced the curious sense of deja vu. And she knew. Holly had the same gift as Amaryllis.
As soon as that revelation blew through my mind, the burning feeling came back. It was sharper than ever, pushing her to her limit, as if getting revenge for those moments of clarity. I doubled over with the pain and I just wanted to give up, to end it...
But no. I had a quest, and more importantly, my friends. I couldn't leave them behind.
"Holly," I croaked out. The sensation burned stronger, pressing me to the limit. Holly hadn't heard me. I tried again, but bile rose in my throat, preventing me from speaking. I coughed it out.
"HOLLY!" I yelled. Instantly, the pain spread to my throat, making me quite unable to speak. It didn't matter, though, Holly heard me, and turned toward me. Some of the pain that had clouded her eyes left.
"Evanna," she said. "Wh-"
"You have to do it, Holly!" I called. Every word hurt me. "Use your power! It's the power of voice!" A fit of coughing overtook me. But I had to get one more thing out, just to make sure Holly understood.
"Like Amaryllis!" I called. My voice was hoarse, and I couldn't be sure that Holly had heard. The pain had spread to my eyes, blinding me. I imagined Holly rising, becoming powerful. I imagined her speaking words, beautiful words, manipulating the dragon's actions. Then another scenario entered my head, one of Holly crumbling and doubling over, gasping in pain. I watched the dragon slowly catch all my friends, lastly eating me. That couldn't happen. I straightened once more and started to repeat her message to Holly, when a rich and powerful voice took over the room. It wove a beautiful chain of words, strong, united, and indivisible. As soon as I heard it I wanted to bend to its will, do whatever it takes to please it.
"Great Dragon Kreuk, please stand still," said the voice.
My vision cleared a little, and I could make out several misshapen lumps. The largest one, the one I assumed was the dragon, stood stock still.
"Kae Montoya, please hand me the dagger of Leader Evanna," said the voice.
Another lump moved and walked over to a different lump and handed the second lump something too small for my blurry, hazy eyes to see. The lump took the thing, probably the dagger, and plunged it through the middle of the biggest lump. My vision cleared completely, and I saw the dragon lying on the floor, still, with blood pouring out of its heart. I turned to Holly and saw her holding the copper dagger, and soaked in blood. Holly looked shocked at what she'd just done.
"I- I killed it," she whispered hoarsely.
Beaming, I nodded. My throat felt cleared of all nasty sicknesses and I felt the best.
"Yes, Holly!" I said jubilantly. "Don't you see? It's your gift!"
Holly turned toward her.
"My- My gift?" she stuttered. "But that means...."
Suddenly she was bathed in a golden light. The others stepped back, as there was no source for it. Holly closed her eyes and began slowly swirling up, up, up till she reached the top of the ceiling. She opened her eyes, and her eye sockets glowed white, and she became enveloped in golden majestic rays. Suddenly, the golden light was no longer there, and she was fluttering down to the ground, like a leaf in fall. As soon as her feet touched the floor, we rushed toward her. We were unable to speak, only watch, so awed we were at Holly's unearthly glow. But that soon faded, and we were able to speak again.
"Why... What..." tried Eli.
"Look," said Phillip, and he pointed at Holly's shoulder, the only part of her that still glowed. With trembling fingers Holly took the dagger and spl
it the fabric of her yellow and white cotton dress. Shining words were branded onto her shoulder.
Power of Voice
"What does that mean?" asked Holly on a whisper.
"Power of Voice," said Phillip immediately. "It's Latin."
When he got strange looks from the others, he said,"What? I took Latin in sixth."
We shook our heads and leaned in closer.
"Hey," I said. "It's okay, Holly. Remember Amaryllis said that we'd find our powers by undergoing challenges? I think this was our first one."
Her declaration was met with an uneasy silence. Surprisingly, the one who broke it was Holly.
"Well," she said in an unsteady voice. "Then this is perfectly natural. I have no reason to be afraid." Her voice grew steadier and stronger as she spoke. I believed every word Holly spoke was true. I knew that Holly believed it herself.
After a couple minutes of silence Mallory said,"We should get provisions and weapons and then leave. Who knows what other kinds of beasts are in this cottage?"
We agreed, and went off to find the supplies.
Chapter 10
I found an array of weapons in a cabinet.
"Guys!" I called. "Come and get it! Weapon of your choice! With gems, ivory, or leather!"
Eli rolled his eyes as he walked over.
"Really?" he asked. I grinned at him, and sighing, he chose a sword of bone with an ivory hilt.
"Nice." Kae leaned over Eli and plucked the sword out of his hand.
"Hey!" complained Eli, but I laughed. "Give!" he cried.
"Nah,' said Kae. "The balance isn't right for you. Try this one."
He handed Eli a short sword, slightly curved at the edge. The grip was of leather, and there was a sapphire in the pommel. Eli gripped it.
"I like it," he said, though still slightly miffed.
Kae grinned.
"See?" he said. "Now you have to apologize and beg for my mercy."
"In your dreams, Kae," said Eli.
I laughed and gestured to the weapons.
"Which one for you, Kae?" asked I.
"Hmm," said Kae, wearing a scholarly expression. He picked up a broadsword, perfectly straight and gold, with a large handle. He hefted it up, and he strained to hold it up.
"Oomph," he groaned. I laughed and handed him a copper dagger, like the one Holly had used to kill the dragon. It had bits of gold decorating the blade, but otherwise looked as deadly as can be.