Cry of the Wolf (Avalon: Web of Magic #3) (5 page)

I
T WASN’T SO
much a sensation of falling. It was more like flying, drifting in a dream. Adriane was surrounded by a golden glow, as if she were inside a bubble of light. She couldn’t tell which way was up. Through the glow, she could make out what looked like rivers of stars.

Shapes came into focus. She was skimming over a cratered surface. Then she saw trees, a forest landscape.

“Humm-hamm-hamuckamuck!”

The strange sound rose in the distance.

“Hamma-doo-wark!”

Someone was singing, or at least trying to sing. It sounded more like a bullfrog croaking. She squinted, straining to make out any shapes through the golden light.

“Humm-dumm-dokkarrood!”

The singing was getting louder.

Adriane fell with a stomach-lurching drop and hit the ground—

“SPLAAGfooF!” The singing stopped.

—hard.

Well, not that hard. Something soft and mushy had broken her fall. The golden light faded, leaving a faint afterglow, matching the glow from her wolf stone.

The sky above was a milky gray. All was still.

She sat up and surveyed her surroundings. Maybe she didn’t fall through the portal after all. Dense woods spread around her, not too different from Ravenswood. But as her eyes adjusted to the gray light, she realized that the trees—what few were still standing—were covered in a thick, tar-like muck. What looked like hanging moss at first was, upon closer inspection, rubbery, moldy, black seaweed choking the trees. The ground was damp with not a blade of grass in sight. Not a
color
in sight! Unless you count gray as a color. She shivered as it hit her: she
had
fallen through the portal. She was not on Earth anymore, and she was totally alone.

“Mmmmfff!”

Something cold and clammy was squirming in the mud right underneath her! Adriane screamed and leaped to her feet.

Something kicked its way out of the soft dirt.

“Who is you that rained on me?” the creature sniveled, shaking off dirt and mud like a dog.

“Huh?” She must’ve fallen out of the sky right on top of this creature. Adriane stood with her wrist raised, breathing fast. The wolf stone pulsed with golden light, reacting to her distress.

The thing began feeling around in the dirt, searching for something as its large round eyes found Adriane and widened in terror. “A witch!” It fell back over its own big feet and groveled in the dirt. “I am only humble Scorge. Do not turn me to stone, O Witch!” it wailed.

“I’m not a witch. I’m sorry. You frightened me,” Adriane said, watching the creature warily.

“I frightened you?” The creature smiled, showing rows of little pointy teeth. “Must be very poor witch.”

It stood up. It was sort of apelike in appearance, hunched, with long arms. Its short orange fur on those parts that weren’t covered in mud made it look like a deranged orangutan.

“Uh … I’m sorry I landed on you, um, sir
.
My name’s Adriane. Are you all right?”

“No! Me is not
‘All right!’
Me is Scorge.” The creature began frantically pawing in the dirt.

“You made Scorge lose big magic stone.” He stopped, seeing Adriane’s jewel. “Soooo…” The creature pointed a stubby finger at her wrist. “That means you must give Scorge magic stone.”

Adriane’s gem was softly pulsing with light. “I don’t think so.”

“You not from around here … ” Scorge moved toward Adriane and her jewel.

“No, I’m from … over the rainbow,” Adriane said, backing away.

“Where is this rainbow place, near Moorgroves perhaps?” it asked slyly.

“Uh, maybe. You just stay away from me now.”

“Scorge need magic stone!” The creature charged at Adriane.

Before Adriane could react, her jewel exploded with power. A beam of searing gold light shot out at Scorge, knocking the creature fifteen feet in the air.

“Oooowahhh!”

“Oh, I’m so sorry!” Adriane ran over to the downed creature. She hadn’t meant to use such force, the jewel had just reacted. “Are you okay?” “No! no! no! Me Scorge!” He shook his furry head. “Me thinks Scorge don’t want that jewel.”

He got up, hanging his orange head in defeat.

This was not the best way to make friends in a brand-new world, Adriane thought. “Maybe I can help you find your stone,” she suggested.

“Must find stone!” Scorge lifted his head, his big eyes lighting up. “Get big reward!”

“I think it might have rolled that way.” Adriane pointed to a shallow gully in the dirt that traveled up and over a hill behind them … although she was fairly certain a rock didn’t roll uphill.

Scorge scurried up the hill in the direction his “magic stone” had rolled, desperate to catch up to it. “Scorge get big reward for big stone!” He glowered back at Adriane, then tripped over his big feet and fell over the ridge, disappearing down the other side.

A great big magic stone? Adriane thought to herself, tapping her own stone in the bracelet on her wrist. Could this Scorge really have a giant-sized magic stone? She had to be careful. The magic seemed much more powerful here, and dangerous.

“GaooahooHoo!”

Scorge’s cry came from over the hill. Adriane looked around. If no one had heard Scorge’s horrendous screaming by now, there probably wasn’t anyone else nearby. Sighing, she carefully walked up the hill.

Adriane peeked cautiously over and saw an empty riverbed. Scorge’s dilemma became all too clear: the riverbed was filled with hundreds of identical muddy, gray rocks. She was startled as Scorge suddenly burst out sobbing uncontrollably.

“Oh, me face! Baddest luck find Scorge!” he bawled. “Me, me, me!”

He was so pathetic. Despite how rude he’d been to her, Adriane felt sorry for him.

She got an idea. “Hey, maybe I can help you find it,” she called out, walking down toward him.

Scorge looked up, wary, but still crying.

Stepping into the riverbed, Adriane held out her gemstone, moving it carefully over the large rocks. She didn’t even know if this would work, but as Ozzie had told them, magic attracts magic.

Adriane’s wolf stone was beginning to pulse. She continued to wave it across the muddy riverbed when suddenly one of the many gray rocks began to pulse a dull, dirty light. “Look, Scorge!”

Scorge ceased his crying. “Ooo!”

He lumbered over and gleefully kissed the big stone over and over again. Adriane flinched as she watched him kiss a rock covered in dried mud and goo.

“So, now that I helped you, maybe you can help me, huh?” Adriane hoped she wasn’t pressing her luck.

Scorge stopped in mid-smooch. “What witch want from Scorge?” He gazed suspiciously at her and hugged the rock close.

“Where am I?” Adriane asked. “What is this place?”

“Pooowa.” He spit out some dirt. “You never heard of the Shadowlands?”

Adriane gasped. The Shadowlands. This was a place of terrible danger. This was where Lyra escaped from that sorceress. The cat had been burned by the Black Fire poison here. This was where the manticore came from! She shivered. This was not good at all. Was Storm lost in the Shadowlands, too? Or had the mistwolf ended up somewhere else?

“GraaaK!!” Scorge was trying to lift the rock, but it wouldn’t budge. He toppled over it instead. He got up and tried again, and fell over the immobile stone. This time he got up and kicked it with his big toe.

“OOhhhAAAA!”

That didn’t work. That rock wasn’t moving.

“What you do to magic stone?” Scorge yelled, hopping around, holding a swollen toe.

“I didn’t do anything.”

“Rock schtuck!”

Adriane gazed out at the desolate landscape beyond the riverbed. “How do I get out of here? Which way do I go?”

“Me don’t care what way witch goes!” Scorge said angrily. “Me go get imps. They move stone with big magic. Make bad witch disappear!”

Imps? What are those? She shuddered.

Before Adriane could stop him, Scorge scampered off down the ravine without looking back and was gone.

A wave of fear swept over Adriane. Steady, she told herself. As much as she didn’t want to, she knew she had to move. Although there was no sign of the glowing green poison that was called Black Fire, she knew it was here. All around her, the landscape was harsh, bleak, completely barren. Dark patterns instead of clouds swirled eerily in the sky, constantly in motion. It felt to Adriane like the land itself was trying to breathe, gasping for air. She had to find Storm and get out of here.

But Storm could be anywhere! She felt panic rising.

“Calm down!” she said aloud. She hugged herself, then exhaled deeply. One hand found the wolf stone on her wrist, and she instantly felt better. It was probably a good idea to go in the opposite direction from Scorge. Whatever imps were, she didn’t want to wait around and find out.

Adriane held the wolf stone out, and, as if in response, a glow ignited, slowly swirling in its center. Gazing into the amber light, Adriane concentrated as hard as she could on Storm. She imagined leaning against Storm’s soft fur. She relived, in her mind, the quiet moments they had spent together.

“Storm, where are you?”

The wolf stone suddenly flashed. A burning white-gold light washed out Adriane’s vision completely. She felt as if she were being pulled through some kind of tunnel at breakneck speed, zooming past hazy images she could not decipher. Cloudy shapes began to form in front of her. Dozens of figures slowly came into view, all four-legged creatures, silhouetted on a lush green hillside.

Lush green? Adriane became aware that she was looking upon a forested, mountain landscape, when a moment before all around her had been barren and gray. Mistwolves paced back and forth. She could smell them and hear them. And she was among them. She was one of them!

Storm?

Where was Stormbringer? Adriane looked carefully at each mistwolf. None was familiar. Suddenly she recognized the big, black wolf she had seen in the portal—Moonshadow, the pack leader. He sniffed the air, then turned sharp golden eyes on her.

Adriane gasped.

The huge wolf spoke directly to her.
“Stormbringer! Let the human go.”

Stormbringer! He had called
her
Stormbringer! No, Adriane realized, she was seeing through Storm’s eyes!

Suddenly the connection was cut off, as if someone had just hung up the phone.

The searing glow of Adriane’s jewel faded, and the greenery around her gave way to gray. Adriane was again standing in the same muddy riverbed where Scorge had left her.

She had been in Storm’s mind, seen through her eyes and saw that Storm had her real family now. Even so, Adriane refused to believe that Storm would ever turn her back on her.

Adriane squinted. More gray forests, rolling into hills … and, in the distance, she could make out snow-covered peaks of a mountain range.

That was where she had to go. She could only trust in the magic to guide her.

Adriane walked out of the riverbed in the direction of the mountains. They had to be a good ten miles away.

Something
clunked
behind her.

Adriane whirled around. But all was quiet.

She turned back and took a few steps, when she heard a clattering in the rocks.

She turned again, her senses on high alert. “Who’s there?” She scanned the riverbed. “Scorge?” No answer.

Then she heard it again.

“Whoever you are, I know you’re there! Show yourself!”

Adriane’s heart pounded in her throat. She flashed on the nightmare vision of the manticore. That monster had terrorized the animals at Ravenswood until she, Emily, and Kara had sent it back through the portal—maybe right back here.

She heard a short rattle and froze. Then one large, oval rock, the size of a beach ball, shook back and forth.

“Huh?”

The mud-crusted rock teetered among the other gray rocks … and fell over. It wobbled and then slowly began to roll
itself
!

Adriane’s jaw dropped. She watched in amazement as the rock gingerly toddled toward her and came to a stop at her feet.

“Hello,” Adriane said awkwardly. “Great. I’m talking to a rock.”

The rock rattled and shook and settled back at her feet.

“So you’re, like, just a rock?” The rock said nothing. “Well, I’d love to stay and chat, but I’ve got to roll.”

Adriane turned and began to walk away. The rock rolled after her. She stopped. The rock stopped. “I guess you didn’t like Scorge, either,” she said over her shoulder. The rock said nothing.

She started walking away again. This time she was pretty sure what to expect. She smiled when she heard the gravelly rattle behind her. Without looking back, she said conversationally, “Well, it is a nice day for a stroll—er, roll? You from around here? I’m just visiting.”

Adriane began the long hike from the riverbed up into the desolate forest. She realized she was actually grateful for the company of the rock, and found it comforting, even. I guess this must be a pet rock, she chuckled to herself.

“Is that what you are, Rocky? A pet rock?” She leaned down and rubbed the rock playfully. It rolled in a happy little figure eight around Adriane’s feet. “Yes, you are! Who’s a good widdle pet rock? You! That’s who!” If the rock had a tail, she was sure it’d be wagging it right now. Just wait until she showed it to the others—a pang of homesickness swept over her.