Cry of the Wolf (Avalon: Web of Magic #3) (8 page)

Zach shrugged. “It likes you. Take it with you.”

Great, a pet whatsit! That’s all she needed. She slipped into her socks and laced up her boots, watching Zach deftly climb the steep slope above the cave opening. How could a human boy, hardly older than she was, have survived on his own here for so long? What wasn’t he telling her?

She stood up and stretched her legs, watching the river wind its way around a bend in the gorge. She had crossed the valley and had made it past the foothills. Was she close enough to reach Storm?

She held up her wolf stone and concentrated, picturing the silver mistwolf. She began to turn slowly, gazing into the golden center of her gem.

“Storm,” she called out. “Where are you?”

The light around the canyon grew brighter, reflecting off the water, until it suddenly flared out, washing her entire field of vision in pure white. She closed her eyes and felt herself once again race through a tunnel. Images flickered at the edges of her sight. She opened her eyes and looked at the mistwolf pack.

“Storm, can you hear me?”

“Yes. I am here.”

The voice in her mind startled her. “Are you all right?” She could hear the other wolves. They were agitated, angry.

“Yes. Stay strong, warrior.”

“Stormbringer!”
Moonshadow stood in front of Storm, snarling. Adriane watched him through Storm’s eyes. The great black wolf held Adriane in his golden eyes. Was he looking at her, or at Storm—or both?

“Was it not bad enough that a human killed our pack mother? Your human will only put you in danger. The pack must be protected. There will be no contact with humans! Never again.”

Adriane cringed. She would never do anything to put Storm in danger. She could feel Storm’s despair. Her best friend was torn between her new wolf pack and the human with whom she’d bonded.

Fog quickly gathered at their feet, and rose until it obscured Adriane’s view. The mistwolves vanished and Adriane was thrown violently out of Storm’s mind.

She blinked, watching the sparkling river cut its path through the base of the ancient gorge. A human had killed the pack mother. But the only other human here was Zach.

“W
HAT WERE YOU
doing?”

Zach’s voice startled Adriane and she whirled around to see him sliding off Windy’s back. Windy’s large, brown bird eyes studied her sharply. She hadn’t even heard them approach.

“I was … trying to find my friend,” she said, covering the wolf stone with her hand.

“I told you not to use magic!”

Adriane felt her face redden. “It’s not like there’s no other magic in this world.”

“This is not some game,” Zach continued angrily. “You and your friends can’t just show up here and start doing anything you want. Your actions have consequences.”

“I know that.” She crossed her arms defiantly. “But if my friend’s in trouble, I have to help.”

“The one in trouble right now is you. And us,” he added, his gesture including the griffin, “now that we’ve helped you.”

Adriane felt a stab of guilt. She didn’t want them to get in trouble because of her.

Zach started pacing back and forth, brow furrowed. “Those creatures are not going to give up.”

Pop!

“The last thing we need around here is more magic!”

Adriane looked around. That sound… it was so familiar.

Zach stopped pacing. “Who knows what horrible monsters will show up next!”

“Ooooo … ” A red dragonfly head peeked over the boy’s shoulder.

Adriane’s eyes went wide.

Zach followed her gaze. “What the… !” He jumped back, swatting at the bat-sized dragon.

“Pweek!” The mini dragon leaped into the air, flapping shiny red wings, and hovered in front of Adriane.

“Fred!” she cried.

“Uh-uh… ” The dragonfly shook its head.

“Uh… Barney?” Adriane guessed.

“Pweoooo!” the dragonfly said, angrily releasing a small spark.

“Fiona?”

“Dee dee!” The red dragonfly landed happily on Adriane’s shoulder, nuzzling her neck, her round jewel eyes sparkling.

Zach slapped his forehead. “What did I just say about magic?”

Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop!

Four more dragonflies, all different colors, popped in, chittering and flying around Adriane. She was never so happy to see anything in her life.

“Ooooo!” The dragonflies spotted the egg and zipped over, nudging one another aside for a chance to land on it.

“What are you doing here?” Adriane asked happily.

A yellow dragonfly—Goldie, she remembered—fluttered up to her, golden-faceted eyes twirling. Clearing her throat with a quick spark, she spoke carefully, “Kaa raa skeep a peep peep.”

“What?”

Purple Barney jumped up, nudging Goldie away. “Kaa raa dee dee!”

“What are they saying?” Adriane asked.

“How should I know?” Zach scanned the skies, as if a horde of monsters might drop in any second.

Windy stuck his head next to Adriane and let out a loud, deep squawk that startled everyone.

The little dragons screeched and hid behind Adriane. Fiona poked her nose up over Adriane’s shoulder. “Poot!” she yelled back at Windy.

Windy squawked at Zach again, a little more softly this time.

“Windy says they have a message from your friends at Ravenswood,” Zach translated, checking out the blue dragonfly that had landed on his shoulder.

“What?” Adriane felt like dancing. “Well, why didn’t you say so!”

The dragonflies all jumped back up and flew happily around Adriane.

“What’s Ravenswood?” Zach asked her. “Is that where you live?”

“Yes. It’s a wildlife preserve and my friends and I are guides there,” she explained.

“I like the name.”

The dragonflies all twirled and spun in a circle around Adriane. Fred dropped a small roll of paper into her hand.

“What’s this?” She carefully unrolled the paper, turning it this way and that, studying the drawing scribbled on it. “Some kind of map?”

“Let me see that!” Zach grabbed the paper. As he examined it, his eyes narrowed.

“Where does it lead?” Adriane asked excitedly.

Zach looked up, astonished. “The Fairy Glen,” he said as if he couldn’t believe it.

“Yes!” Adriane almost jumped for joy. Ozzie must have drawn her a map and sent it with the dragonflies. “Why, that little ferret! The Fairimentals will help me find Storm!”

“Storm?”

“Um… the friend I’m looking for,” she said, avoiding the boy’s eyes.

Zach ripped the paper to shreds.

Adriane’s hand flew to her mouth. “No, wait! What are you doing?”

“This must be destroyed.”

“That was from my friends!” Adriane yelled. “It wasn’t for you! You had no right!” Adriane felt like crying, but stopped.

Zach’s face had gone ashen. “Who sent this?” he asked accusingly.

“Ozzie. He’s an elf.”

“An elf?”

“The Fairimentals sent him to Earth to find… humans,” Adriane said.

“The Fairy Glen is the heart of this world!” Zach was clearly distressed. “What if the witch found this?” He threw the tiny scraps of paper into the river.

“You mean the Dark Sorceress?” asked Adriane.

Zach swung to face her. “She is using magic to destroy this world!”

Adriane’s heart ached remembering the giant creatures lying dead across the hillside.

“First your stone, then these… ” Zach started to say.

Fred sat on his arm and cocked his little blue head, smiling.

“Dragonflies,” Adriane said.

“Yeah… ” he went on. “She’s probably got half the planet looking for us by now.”

“Maybe that’s the point,” Adriane said slowly.

“You think she’s after you?” Zach asked.

“She wants magical animals.”

“Goook!” The dragonflies leaped into the air, bumped into one another, and popped out.

“Well, I think we can rule them out,” Zach said. “And it’s not Windy. There’s no other magical anim—” He stopped.

The egg! It was sitting still, colors shifting boldly across its surface.

“She’s after the egg!” Adriane concluded.

“Yeah, whatever it is, it’s magical, all right. Windy even sensed it. I thought it was
your
magic attracting all the attention. It’s that egg.”

Zach stood still, as if he were listening hard to something. Ominous shadows moved slowly across the river as the sky darkened.

The griffin had stood up, his sharp bird eyes scanning the skies.

“What is it?” Adriane asked nervously. Something didn’t feel right. She checked her wrist. Her stone was pulsing with bursts of red light.

The griffin spread his wings, squawking and spitting loudly.

Adriane didn’t have to ask what the spitting sound meant.

“We have to get out here… fast!” Zach leaped onto Windy’s back.

Something streaked across the sky, smacked into the canyon wall with a
boom
, and ricocheted off like a flaming pinball. A tree exploded in flames, sending shards of wood flying everywhere.

Adriane ducked in terror, covering her head. Fireballs began to rain down into the canyon.

The griffin screeched up at the skies.

“Let’s go!” Zach yelled at her.

Adriane skidded over to the egg, grabbed it, and hoisted it up to Zach. He stared at it for a moment, then took it, and reached for Adriane. Gripping his hand, she threw her leg over the back of the griffin and pulled herself up behind Zach.

Explosions rocked the riverbank as fire rained around them.

With a ferocious beat of his wings, the griffin was off the ground, Adriane barely holding on. Windy rose into the sky and stopped, hovering in place.

A dozen winged creatures had swarmed into a line across the top of the gorge, blocking their escape.

“Gargoyles!” Zach breathed.

Adriane could make out what at first looked like big, hairy, flying apes. Then she saw pointed leathery wings flap in the air, and wicked-looking bony horns that ran down their arms, backs, and legs. She could see their fierce, blazing eyes bearing down on them.

Windy circled. There was no way out.

The monsters advanced, flying slowly into the gorge.

Zach was desperately searching for an alternate escape route. “We can’t get through them!”

A booming voice cut through the air. It was loud and gravelly and completely undecipherable.

Windy squawked.

Zach told Adriane, “You were right. They want the egg. They want us to hand it over and they’ll let us pass.”

Adriane hugged the egg close. “This is your world. What do you want to do?”

The boy sighed. “I’m open to suggestions.”

Adriane scanned the ridgeline along the top of the gorge. She saw boulders balanced precariously along the edges. “Take us close to that wall,” she said, pointing to the far side of the canyon.

“We’ll be trapped over there!”

“I’m going to try and loosen those rocks on the ledge above,” she told him.

“With what?”

“With this,” she said, raising her wrist. The wolf stone pulsed with power. “If we can break their line, Windy can fly through the opening and we run like lightning.”

“That’s crazy!” Zach exclaimed.

“That’s my suggestion.”

The boy looked at the egg for a moment, then glanced back at Windy. The griffin snorted his vote.

“Okay, let’s do it.”

Zach guided Windy toward the far wall of the canyon. The strata reminded Adriane of sand sculptures, layered with pastel shades of green, red, and purple.

Adriane scanned the ridgeline. Huge boulders lined the lip, hanging over the drop. Remembering how she had used the power of her stone to move objects before, she focused on the largest of the rocks. In her mind, she saw it moving, breaking free of its ancient bed.

The gargoyles had turned their line toward them, advancing like flying nightmares. Green fire sizzled between them, forming into a fireball that danced over their heads.

Adriane concentrated harder and felt a familiar sensation, like she was pushing through water. But it was too thick, too hard to break through. A drop of sweat ran down her nose.

Zach glanced at her and up at the rocks above them. “Go for the small one.” He pointed to a spot below the boulder. “See? It’s wedged just under the cliff line.”