Celtic Rose (36 page)

“I knew that Gatorade helped when you were exercising and playing sports; I never thought of it helping a hangover. Of course I’d never had one before, and I guarantee I won’t be having another, thank you very much,” Kallisto said obnoxiously, and walked to the camels to put the food in the satchels. William went to another to put the Gatorade in, looking confused.

“Ah, Gatorade, that’ll come in very handy. Good thinking William,” Keira praised. William smiled brightly.

“Huh, looks like goat boy is good for something after all,” Gabriel said, mussing William’s hair. William glared at Gabriel and tried to smack his hand away, but Gabriel had already moved, which only served to make William glare harder. The fact that Gabriel wasn’t there for the fight seemed to have made the animosity between them worse than it was before, at least from William’s point of view. Gabriel seemed to be more tolerant of William since Keira came along.

“Now all we need is a tent and a lot of blankets. Is that right, Keira?” Kallisto asked. She nodded. They made their way to a vendor on the side of the square that had a lot of blankets displayed and made their purchases, then rolled their blankets so they could tie them to the camels. The tent was the last thing they needed, and the only one they could find seemed rather small for all eight of them–or ten if you counted Six Toes and Lady–but Keira said it would be fine so they grabbed it. They stopped by the hotel and gathered their stuff. They’d left the window open so Lady could come and go as she pleased, and she flew in while they were getting their stuff together.

“Hello Lady,” Kallisto said, walking over to her. She gave her a rub and Lady gave her best cry and nuzzled Kallisto’s hand. Since she’d be traveling with them, Kallisto had found a perch for her so she’d have a place inside the tent. Lady stared at Kallisto intently, wanting her to take the vision. Kallisto focused on her eye and visions of Lady’s day flew through her mind; hunting, watching the group, enjoying the feeling of flight, and then the vision she really wanted to show Kallisto popped up; Maulro and his men badly beaten, hiding in the shadows by the entrance to the city. They were waiting for Kallisto and the others to make a move.

“You guys…we’re going to have to find a more discreet way out of the city. Maulro and his men are waiting at the entrance for us.” Kallisto’s vision came back and she realized everyone was already around her. She figured they must’ve seen her go into the vision.

“Great! Now what are we supposed to do? There’s only one entrance to the city and stone walls all around. How are we gonna get out without being noticed? Pole vault the walls?” William griped.

“No, we won’t go over the walls. We’ll go under them,” Keira said happily. Everyone just stared at her.

“Look, Hon, I don’t think you totally grasp the situation. We’re running out of time. I don’t think we have enough time to dig a tunnel under the wall,” William said sarcastically. The comment got him a smack on the head by Gabriel. William dropped, yelling profanities which got him a bar of soap thrown in his mouth by Ephiny. Kallisto was surprised at her perfect aim and at the fact that he didn’t get a chipped tooth. William stood up, spitting and sputtering loudly. He threw the soap at Gabriel, who caught the soap and squeezed; when he opened his hand it wasn’t a bar anymore, but a pile of soap flakes. William stopped and stared. Gabriel smiled widely with his devilish smile.

“Talk to her like that again and this...,” he pointed to what was left of the soap, “will be your neck.” He walked over to the sink and dropped the soap in, using some of it to wash his hands. William stood astounded.

“What were you going to say, Keira?” Kallisto pressed.

“Well, there are some hidden tunnels that go under the walls. The founders built them in case they were about to be breached so they could get away. Not many people know about them anymore, but the priests who trained me told me about them. They thought it might be useful knowledge for the cursed ones. Turns out they were right,” Keira said, not so surprised at what Gabriel had done. Everyone agreed that it would be the best way out. They traveled back to her house to pick up Six Toes and off they went.

The tunnels were hidden right behind the very pub where they’d met Maulro and his men the first time, and where they first saw Keira. There was a boulder the size of an elephant in front of the entrance.

“Great, now what are we supposed to do, chisel our way through?” William said, half laughing. Gabriel made a motion with his hand and William instinctively ducked. Gabriel started laughing.

“Not so dumb after all,” Gabriel bellowed through the laugh. William just glared. “I think Ephiny and I can handle this,” Gabriel said when he was done laughing. Ephiny looked at him soberly, but went along beside him and they shoved against the giant boulder. Kallisto could see Ephiny’s muscles straining–she never knew Ephiny had muscles like that. Gabriel’s veins were popping out with the strain he was using. First William and then Talus went to try and help, and after a moment of that Ramina and Kalan tried. Kallisto shrugged her shoulders and started forward, only to be stopped by Keira, who was smiling.

“You guys better stop before you get a hernia,” she said, laughing quietly. Everyone stopped and looked at her. “The boulder is magically set in place, and only magic will remove it. Sorry guys, I should’ve told you before, but I couldn’t pass up watching you try. I can move the boulder out of the way but I think I’m going to need Kallisto and Kalan’s help.” Keira looked to them, while Kalan and Kallisto looked back at her, confused.

“Come stand by me and each of you grab one of my wrists,” Keira said, holding her hands out. They hesitated but went ahead and did as she asked. Her wrists started to glow under their hands and it felt like power was being pulled from their very center and shoved into Keira. Keira had closed her eyes while it happened, and then she opened them quickly. They were glowing green again and as Kallisto watched the boulder started to glow green. There was a loud rumble as the boulder started to shake, and then it levitated off the ground and moved to the side. It crashed loudly as it dropped back down to the ground beside the opening.

The opening to the tunnel was huge, more like a cavern than a tunnel. They would be able to ride their camels through it easily and still have room to spare. Keira dropped her arms immediately and fell. Kalan caught her, but she fell none the less. She looked weakened like she had after fighting all of Maulro’s men the night of the fight. She was breathing harshly, but she was conscious.

“Sorry…it just…takes a lot…out…of me,” she said between breaths.

“It’s alright Keira, that’s some amazing power you have there,” Kalan said. Keira smiled. Her breath started to go back to normal.

“Nobody ever gave me a name for it, but I can be a center, or focus, to help others use the power that they have in a different way. So really it was Kalan and Kallisto that did it, not me,” Keira said humbly.

“Well, we aren’t the ones that were drained by it, so I don’t think you should give any of the credit to us,” Kallisto countered.

“Yes, but I don’t have the power to levitate–you two do. That’s the only reason I was able to do it.” Keira smiled brightly.

“Yeah, this ‘who deserves credit?’ bit is great and all, but the noise from the boulder is sure to bring onlookers so...can we go now?” William said hurriedly.

They nodded and helped Keira up. They grabbed the camels and started in through the opening. Six Toes and Lady were perched on two of the camels. Six Toes looked fine and at ease, but Lady started shuffling her feathers.

“Here, she’s going to need the blinders on. She doesn’t like closed in places.” Gabriel handed Kallisto the blinders. She took them from him and started to put them on Lady, but she jerked back.

“Come on Lady, it’s just for a little while and then we’ll take them off, I promise,” Kallisto pleaded. Lady allowed her put them on. As they entered the cave Kallisto realized the boulder needed to be moved back so no one would be able to follow them.

“Keira, we need to put the boulder back. Do you think Kalan and I can do it ourselves?” Kallisto asked, handing the reins to Talus. Ramina took Kalan’s without being asked.

“I think it would be possible. You both felt what it took, yes?” Keira said. She still looked weak. They knew if she couldn’t do it they had to. They both nodded and so did she. “Just concentrate really hard on levitating the object. You’ll both have to push your power into the boulder. It might make you feel weak for a while. If you feel it’s taking too much out of you then stop. Doing something like this can take all your power and with that your life,” Keira instructed. They were reaching for each other as she spoke and froze in mid-reach. They couldn’t take the chance of killing themselves because of some stupid boulder.

“What are the chances of someone finding this hole before we’re able to get out?” Kallisto asked.

“Oh, I’d say the chances are 100 percent. Look there,” William said pointing. Some people had come into the alley looking for the noise and were staring at the cavernous mouth and the boulder. They were far enough in the onlookers couldn’t see them but if any of them decided to check it out they’d be found quickly. Chances were Maulro had heard about it already, and he and his men would be on their way.

“No choice then. Come on Kalan, we’ll just have to pull back if it starts to weaken us.” Kallisto held her hand out to him. He looked at it and then over to Ramina, who smiled solemnly. Kalan sighed heavily and grabbed her hand. They held their other hands out toward the opening. Kallisto pulled all she had from her center, but Kalan was hesitating.

“Come on Kalan, we have to,” she said through her teeth, straining as hard as she could. Finally Kalan pushed as hard as she was, but nothing was happening. The people outside took in sharp breathes as they saw the boulder start to glow and rumble, but it wasn’t moving anywhere. Kallisto could feel it pulling on her and making her weak. Kalan felt it too and started to back off.

“They need a more powerful battery. William, get over there and help,” Gabriel said. William actually smiled brightly. He ran over immediately and put a hand on both of them. The power flared and Kallisto pushed harder. Kalan felt it and pushed harder as well. They started feeling stronger instead of weaker. Kallisto noticed the eyes of the people outside go from the boulder to them. As she looked she noticed they were glowing very bright; it was lighting up the whole tunnel. A woman screamed and the onlookers turned and ran.

“Well if the boulder didn’t bring on Maulro and his men, then that definitely will,” Gabriel said, chuckling. “You’re like a super D cell battery, William,” Gabriel continued, still laughing. The boulder finally lifted up and started to move. They got it over the opening and saw a glimpse of Maulro’s face just as they dropped it. As they powered down William turned towards Gabriel and made a not so nice gesture with his finger. Kallisto gave him a good smack on the head. He grabbed his head and looked at her apologetically.

“Well, now that we’ve said goodbye, I suggest we get our ever loving behinds out of here,” Ramina said. They jumped on the camels and Gabriel lit an electrical ball that flew in front of them, guiding their way out.

“Hold on tight Six Toes, we’re going to be hauling it for a while,” Keira said. Six Toes dug his claws in tightly and seemed to bear down on the seat. Keira led the way. Kallisto tightened Lady more securely onto the saddle and followed quickly. Lady flapped and held her wings out as thought she was gliding. They went as fast as the camels could go.

They finally made it out of the tunnel, which seemed to have taken forever even though they were traveling extremely fast. It came out quite a ways from the city and they kept going as fast as they could. They traveled farther out from the city and then headed to the right, running for several miles before they slowed down. Kallisto undid Lady’s tether and took off her blinds. She put the glove on and had Lady get on her arm. Kallisto pet her for a bit and gave her a kiss and then put her arm up, letting her fly for a while.

“Go now Lady; keep an eye out for Maulro, but keep out of sight. Fly and hunt, do whatever you need, and come back to me when you want to rest,” Kallisto told her. Lady seemed to bow her head and took flight. She went back the way they had come. They rode on for quite a while.

“Do these camels stink to anyone besides me? I mean, jeez, these things need a bath,” William griped. Ephiny giggled.

“Honey, you have a human nose. Just imagine how Gabriel and I feel. Think of the stink and make it ten times greater, and you’d have our sense of smell,” Ephiny told William, still giggling. William smiled at her.

“Yeah Will, just think; we have a sense of smell ten times better than yours. Just imagine how you smell to us. Phew man, you stink worse than these animals ever could,” Gabriel said and started laughing. William stared at him with one of his dirtiest looks. Gabriel didn’t pay him any mind. That was the last they heard from William for quite a while.

Much later, as it started to get dark, Lady came back and flew over their heads. As she went over she let out a cry and stared at Kallisto. Kallisto stared back.

“Maulro and his men are far behind. It will take them at least a day to catch up, as long as they stop and bed down for the night. If they keep coming through the night they’ll only be behind half a day,” Kallisto said as the vision came.

“Maulro and his men
will
bed down for the night. They’ll need to rest. They know now that they can’t take us unless they’re at full strength. Unless Maulro is overconfident in his ability, in which case they’ll be easy prey by the time they make it to us; either way, no harm, no fowl. Let’s keep moving for another hour or so and then we’ll stop and rest for the night,” Gabriel suggested. Everyone agreed. Lady flew ahead of them to scout. Six Toes, who had started out on Keira’s saddle, moved to Gabriel’s saddle and curled up behind him.

“That’s so strange,” Keira said. Everyone looked at her as she stared at Six Toes. “At the house, I didn’t think anything of him jumping into your lap because it was his chair you were sitting in. I thought it was a little strange that he gave you a kitty kiss, but I chalked it up to you allowing him in your lap without pushing him off. But now he is on your seat instead of mine. He normally hates anyone else, and it takes him a long time to get used to someone coming around. I finally broke him from hissing at strangers but this...” She gestured at Gabriel and Six Toes with her hand, “this is just completely unfathomable.” She giggled slightly. She stared at Gabriel the way Ramina, Ephiny, and Kallisto looked at their men. Kallisto could see love in her gaze. It seemed like it was there before, but the cat’s actions seemed to have made her love him even more. Gabriel stared at her that way too. Kallisto knew the way he felt because of the way he acted the first time he saw her. She wasn’t worried about her betraying them, so it didn’t bother her as much as it had before. Now she was happy that he was finally able to have someone. After centuries of being alone, he finally had someone and so did William. It bothered her a little before because William loved her and she was with Talus, but since he had Ephiny she didn’t feel awkward anymore. Gabriel being alone never bothered her because he was the protector. She thought he needed to be alone so he could focus on the job at hand, but even though Keira was in the picture he still protected Kallisto from her brother, and if he had the chance he’d protect her from Maulro and anything else that came along. But she did wonder…if it were between Keira and her, who would he choose?