Cry of the Wolf (Avalon: Web of Magic #3) (7 page)

A
DRIANE WIPED HER
eyes, coughing from the dust and grime. The valley below was a speeding blur of greens and browns. Ahead lay the mountains, their base draped in thick, swirling fog. The boy had wedged the rock securely between himself and Adriane.

She flinched as the boy reached down, retrieving something from an embroidered saddle bag. “Here, drink this.” He handed her a soft pouch over his shoulder.

Very carefully, she let go of his waist with one hand and took the pouch. She flipped open the lid and took a careful sip. It was water. Warm, but it tasted clean and pure. She took long gulps. And she felt better.

“Thank you.” She handed it back.

She studied the boy in front of her. He was maybe fourteen or fifteen years old. His hair was sandy brown with blond streaks, long but not unkempt. His skin was bronzed, although Adriane saw no sun in the sky. He seemed healthy enough. He wore a loose-fitting white shirt with half the long sleeves ripped off, cloth pants stitched up the sides, and leather-like sandals.

“What kind of magic was that?” he asked.

“I’ve never seen creatures like those,” Adriane replied.

The boy shook his head. “Not the imps,
your
magic.”

She didn’t know how much to tell this boy. “Uh … I have a gemstone. It controls magic, but I’m not very good at it.”

“Not good?” The boy laughed. “You fought off two dozen imps!”

“You were watching me?”

“We’ve been watching you since you entered the valley.”

“Nice timing,” Adriane grumbled.

“What were you doing down there?” he pressed.

“I … I got lost.”

“Lost? Where were you going?”

“I need to get to those mountains. I … uh … I’m looking for … my friend.”

The boy spun around to face her, folding his leg beneath him, perfectly balanced on the winged animal’s back. Eyeing Adriane curiously, he poked at her cheek and tugged her hair.

“Ow! Quit it! That hurts!” She knocked his hand away, then quickly gripped his arm as she tilted out over the swiftly moving ground far below.

“Are you human?” he asked.

“You know, I might ask you the same thing,” she answered, pulling away.

“Are you?” the boy asked again.

“Yes. What else would I be?”

The boy shrugged. “You use magic—you could be anything.”

Adriane was starting to get a little annoyed.

“What’s with the rock?” He gestured with his chin, letting his long hair fly over his face.

“What about it?” she asked stiffly.

“You risked your life for it. Magic?”

“I don’t know. I think so … ” She hugged the motionless, silent rock.

The boy looked at her sharply. “Where did you come from?”

“Over the rainbow,” she answered.

“How old are you?”

“One hundred and fifty.”

His eyes opened wide. That shut him up.

“Look, who are you?” she asked impatiently.

“My name is Zachariah—Zach. This is Wind Dancer. I’m human. He’s a griffin.”

The griffin snorted a hello.

“I’m Adriane. Thank you for rescuing us.”

“What are you doing out in the Shadowlands?”

“What are
you
doing here?”

“That’s a stupid question.”

“
Your
questions are stupid. You’d think you never saw another human before.”

“I haven’t,” he answered.

That shut her up. What was he talking about?

Wind Dancer turned his head toward Zach and gave a few angry squawks.

The boy looked up with a quick glance. “Hang on, we’ve got company.” He swung back into his riding position.

Adriane twisted around. Behind them she could make out about a dozen figures soaring through the air, coming at them fast.

“Your little magic show has attracted a lot of attention,” Zach said.

“What are those?”

“Can’t tell yet. Too big for gremlins, maybe gargoyles. Nasty things.”

“Worse than a manticore?”

The boy stiffened. His eyes narrowed suspiciously. “What do you know about manticores?”

“Nothing really. I … my friends and I met one once.” Should she trust this boy or not? He
had
saved her life. He sure didn’t seem to trust her much.

“Must be some friends,” he grunted.

“They’re gaining on us,” Adriane yelled, looking over her shoulder.

“We can’t outrun them, so we’ll have to lose them,” Zach told her calmly. “Hold your legs tight against Windy. When we turn, lean into the wind with us, keep your weight centered and hang on. Got that?”

“I think so.” She told herself not to look down as she tightened her grip on the boy’s waist.

Zach patted the griffin’s neck, then wrapped his fingers in the big ruff of lion’s mane that grew along the neck below the eagle head. “Okay, Windy, let’s go.”

With a beat of his strong wings, the griffin angled off to the right and dove straight down. The ground twisted, careening by at a dizzying speed. Adriane saw something white flashing on the mountaintops. When the mountains turned upside down, she closed her eyes and hung on tight as Windy dropped like a cannonball into the thick fog at the base of the foothills.

But even with hardly any visibility, Windy flew fast and sure.

“Whatever you do, don’t use your magic,” Zach shouted over his shoulder.

“Why not?”

Howls pierced the mist, echoing off the cliff walls behind them.

“They’re magic trackers. Duck!”

Adriane obeyed a second before a jagged rock flew just inches above her head. They were flying perilously close to the sheer cliff face. “Next time can I have
two
seconds?”

“Okay… duck!”

Windy dove under a wide arch that bridged a gap between mountains. They were flying through a narrow gorge, surrounded on both sides by long spikes of rocks that jutted out like rows of gigantic teeth.

Adriane looked down at a sheer drop into nothingness.

Windy gave a hissing snort.

“Are you using magic?” Zach accused.

“No!”

“They’re still on us.”

Windy gave the boy a few squawks. Zach was thinking, trying to make a decision.

“Windy thinks you’re okay,” he said finally. “Animals have a strong intuition.”

“I wouldn’t know,” Adriane replied bitterly, thinking of Storm.

“We’re going inside.”

“How can Windy see anything through this mist?” she yelled.

“He knows these mountains cold.” Zach laughed. The boy was actually enjoying himself. “Windy could find a craven’s nest in an ice storm.”

“I’ll remember that the next time I need a craven.”

“Besides, we’ve flown the Serpent’s Teeth before… just never in the mist.”

Windy dove and twisted, narrowly avoiding the spires and spikes that seemed to loom out of nowhere before disappearing back into the mist. Whatever creatures were trailing them weren’t faring as well. Tremendous crashes were followed by painful howls that echoed over the gorges.

“Ooo, I bet that hurt.” Zach chuckled.

Windy squawked, banked to the left, and flew straight for the mountainside.

“Where are we going?” Adriane asked, eyes wide.

“In there.” Zach pointed directly ahead to the sheer rock cliff.

At the last minute, Adriane made out a thin vertical break in the cliff wall. Windy turned on his wing tip and slipped through the crevice. Adriane hung on tight and closed her eyes. They broke through the cliff wall, emerging into a wide canyon completely surrounded by mountains. The griffin straightened out and glided, perfectly balanced atop swift currents of warm air.

“Ha! Let those demons try
that
!” the boy whooped, hugging the griffin. “Good flying, Windy!”

The griffin spat back a response, reminding them how he felt about demons.

Adriane felt a pang of jealousy, thinking of the close moments she’d shared with Stormbringer. If Zach felt that way about Windy, he couldn’t be so bad, could he?

The mists vanished as the griffin descended in slow circles. Below was a wide plateau crisscrossed with gorges. On the far side, the mountains rose, towering against swirling purple skies.

They dropped into a deep gorge. Adriane made out a swift-moving river at the bottom. Spindly trees dotted the scrub grass and ran up a slope to a series of caves cut into the rock wall. The griffin landed on the far banks of the running waters.

The boy slid from Windy’s back and leaped to the ground. “We can stay here until everything calms down.”

Clutching Rocky in her arms, Adriane slid to the ground. Her legs felt like rubber, and she could barely stand up. She gently dropped the rock and it rolled over to the riverbank, coming to a stop, then sitting motionless and silent.

Zach gave Windy a firm pat. With a snort and a shake of his eagle head, the griffin took off into the air. Adriane watched him fly away. “Where’s he going?”

“To hunt. Don’t worry, he’ll keep an eye out for trouble.” The boy turned and began walking up the slope toward the caves.

“Where are you going?” Adriane called.

“I have some dried fruits in the cave.” He pointed at the river. “The water runs down from the mountains, it’s fresh and clean.”

Adriane watched him walk away. A real human boy in Aldenmor—the
only
human, according to him. It was amazing. Then again, being in a magical world was amazing. So far it had been one shock after another.

What was it about him that bothered her? Should she trust him? He seemed friendly, but there was something … secretive about him that made her feel uncertain.

She plopped down on the bank of the river. Light seemed to reflect evenly off the canyon walls although there was no direct sunlight. She could have been sitting at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, except that the rock strata were layered with pastel green and orange instead of the rusty sand colors of Arizona.

Adriane untied her hiking boots, took them off along with her socks, and put her feet in the water. It was cold and
sooo
refreshing. She bent over and splashed some on her face and neck. Then she checked the rock.

“Having a good time?” she asked.

Leaning over, she rolled the large rock toward her feet. “You need a bath.”

Adriane splashed water over its crusted surface, peeling away layers of mud and dirt. She was a bit surprised at how much had built up. She stopped and inspected it. A patch of yellow had appeared under the layers of grime. Blue speckles seemed to shift against the yellow. “Wow! Are you an ugly duckling?” She started scrubbing harder and more layers of dirt and mud fell away. Adriane’s eyes widened. “Look at you.”

Underneath the muck, the rock was shiny smooth, its surface a pretty yellow, dotted with purple, blue, and orange speckles. The colors were moving, melting in and out of one another, reminding her of a mood ring.

“You are the most beautiful rock I have ever seen!” Adriane announced.

The rock beamed as the shifting colors shone even more brilliantly.

“That’s not a rock.”

Zach was standing behind her. He handed her a small slab of granite, a plate filled with dried apples, dates, and raisins. Adriane’s mouth started to water.

“Go ahead. It’s not poison.” Zach popped a date into his mouth to demonstrate.

Adriane practically grabbed the slab away from him. She had never been so hungry in her life! “Thank you,” she said, stuffing two dates into her mouth. Not bad, she thought, although right about now even a craven would taste good.

Zach was inspecting the now-clean rock, carefully touching it here and there with long, sure fingers. Looking worried, he bent over and put his ear to it. Then he pushed sandy hair from his face, and focused intense green eyes on Adriane. “It’s an egg.”

Adriane stopped in mid-chew. An egg? “How do you know—sorry.” She finished chewing and swallowed. “I’ve never seen an egg like that.”

“See this section?” He pointed to a shifting splotch of blues. She bent over to look, self-consciously aware of how close her face was to Zach’s.

“The shell is thinner there,” he explained. “And warmer. Whatever’s in there, it’s alive, applying constant pressure to the weaker sections of shell.”

Adriane sat back.
Alive!
It wasn’t a rock after all. But then… what kind of egg was it?

“What do we do? Sit on it?” She smiled at her joke.

Zach broke out laughing. “No, I don’t think it’s a chicken.” He fell over backward, holding his sides. Adriane laughed along with him, mostly out of relief that she was still alive.

“Nothing we can do.” Zach chuckled, wiping a tear from his eye. “These kinds of eggs hatch when they’re ready.”

“These kinds?”

“Magic,” the boy replied matter-of-factly.

Adriane tried to figure him out. It was time for some answers.

“What are you doing here—I mean here in Aldenmor?” she asked.

“I told you, I live—”

“But how did you
get
here? Did you fall through a portal also?” Adriane was suddenly terrified that if he did, he’d never found a way back.

“I was born here.”

“Where are your parents?”

“Dead.”

“Oh… I’m sorry… ”

“I don’t remember them,” Zach explained. “They died when I was really little.”

“How did you manage? I mean, how did you—”

“I was raised by… um… ” The boy turned away. “… animals.”

Adriane’s eyes opened wide. “And you’ve never seen another human?”

“There are no other humans in this world, that I know of.”

Adriane suddenly felt awkward. She didn’t exactly consider herself the finest example of human society to meet the only boy from another world.

“I’m going to find Windy.” Zach got to his feet.

“Then what?”

“I’ll take you to the mountains. You said you had a friend there,” Zach reminded her.

“Yes … I’m not sure where she is, exactly.”

“The sooner you find a way to get home the better.”

She looked at him uncertainly.

“This is a dangerous place,” he explained.

“Oh, really. I hadn’t noticed.”

Zach’s eyes twinkled and he smiled.

Adriane’s eyes were downcast, but she smiled as well. “What do we do with our egg?”