Exile: Sídhí Summer Camp #3 (36 page)

“I agree,” Sarah said softly, supporting
Colin with a couple of simple words.

“Nearly a month after Chi’Kehra ordered the
synth crystal to move his people to earth, the ruins remained
inert. They appeared unresponsive. The umbra’s armies were
literally on his doorstep when he gave into desperation and tried
to mentally push the crystal into doing his command.”

“That’s what killed him?” someone
whispered.

Colin nodded his head. “The man tried to
merge with the power of the ruins as he gave the new command. I
know this is what happened because I spoke to the single guard that
lived through the resulting explosion.”

“So,” Sarah began, breaking the silence, “we
know the valleys and earth will soon be merged, and there is no way
of stopping it.”

“Yes, the ruins are locked-into the
Chi’Kehra’s original command,” Colin said somberly.

“The chaos our valley is going through will
soon be minor compared to what is about to happen. We need a plan
of emergency as of yesterday,” Sarah said intently.

“Yes, but finding the umbra, before the In
Between disappears, is critical,” Nick added.

“Agreed,” her dad rumbled as numerous heads
bobbed in agreement. “The destruction they caused in the valleys
thousands of years ago was bad enough, but we fought them. The
Earthborn mundanes will never have a chance against them.”

Sarah tried to shut her mind to the
remembered atrocities the umbra committed to numerous valleys, but
memories transferred to her by eyewitnesses flashed before her
eyes.

Entire villages devastated, blood everywhere
as the umbra snuck up behind people and ripped them to pieces in
broad daylight. People, unable to fight what they could not see,
went mad with grief as umbra butchered loved ones. Neither adults
nor children escaped from the slaughter the umbra embraced.

She clenched her teeth in anger. She would
never allow the black-hearted creatures to have free reign
again.

“When they come out of hiding and join forces
with the Dhark Empire, the union will be nearly unstoppable,” Nick
said, following her thoughts.

“How long do you think we have?” Bea asked.
Her eyes glowed with determination.

Sarah eyed Bea thoughtfully and realized it
was the phoenix that was glowing, not her eyes. “Bea, bring it down
a notch,” she said quietly, issuing the over-used phrase the
trainers used when working with phoenix.

Hissing in exasperation, Bea disappeared
abruptly.

“Where…”

Cory cut Nick’s question short. “Don’t ever
get too near an emotional phoenix. They tend to leak white-fire the
way a glass of iced tea does on a hot day.”

“I’d like to disagree with him, but he’s
right,” Bea said, appearing across the room from them. “Back to the
question, we need time to find the umbra. How long do you think we
have?”

Sarah glanced at Colin silently questioning
him. He obviously had a lot more experience than she did.

He shrugged his shoulders. “Perhaps a month,”
he said in an obvious guesstimate.

“I think that is a fair guess, but we
honestly don’t know. Sídhí months are half again longer than
Earth’s moon cycle, but the final leg of the journey will be much
shorter than the first part,” Sarah said, glancing at various
people seeking their reaction to her words. “The collapse could be
today or next month, but I don’t think it will be longer than two
months.”

“Any idea which valley they are in?” Bea
asked in frustration, pacing the length of the room in long,
agitated strides.

“No,” Sarah said bluntly.

“We’ll never find them in that time frame,”
Bea said in exasperation. “We don’t even know where to start.”

“Ah, but I think you will,” Sarah said,
glancing at Nick. When he gave her a short nod of approval, she
knew he had either guessed or read the idea from her mind. “The
umbra thought I had been taken care of. Since it’s obvious I was
not, I think I will be their top priority. They will want me dead
before the dimensions collapse.”

“In other words,” Nick said with a hard glint
in his eyes, “we will return to the dragon’s summer camp and play
bait.”

“No one will believe it. Why would Chi’Kehra
be at a summer camp?” Miranda spoke-up.

“We’ve been monitoring all the news channels
and no one can decide who Chi’Kehra is,” Sarah’s spymaster said
with a wicked grin curving her lips. “Miranda, you weren’t here,
but her worldwide announcement didn’t sound anything like her. One
station hinted they might know, but if they do make the correct
guess and figure out Sarah is Chi’Kehra, her return to camp will
blow their story out of the water. Like you said, who would believe
the all-powerful Chi’Kehra would attend a teenage summer camp?”

“What about the dragons?” Sarah’s dad asked.
“They’re bound to question your disappearance over the last few
days.”

Sarah chuckled softly. Several people,
including her mate, rubbed hands down the back of their neck.
“Guardian Alexander knows who I am.”

“High Councilwoman Cornelia’s grandson?” Cory
asked, smirking. “Cornelia is older than dirt. Bloody, arrogant
dragon needs taken down a peg or two.”

“My thoughts exactly,” Sarah murmured her
agreement. “I plan to bring Alexander in on the plan, and if they
don’t agree to help us catch the umbra, I’ll lock their gateways so
tight they’ll have a single, one-way gateway with a ticket to the
North Pole that can never be altered.”

Trying not to laugh, Nick coughed.

When the others stopped laughing, Nick
brought up a point she had been considering, “I think the other
valleys need a heads-up. Since it no longer looks like there is a
question as to if the valleys will appear on Earth, but when,
everyone needs to be prepared.”

“I agree they need to be warned. The
pre-warning could save thousands of lives, but the kicker question
is whom do we warn? If we warn everyone, there are dhark lords in
the empire that will warn the umbra,” Sarah said, voicing her
concern aloud. “Our becoming bait hinges on the umbra thinking I am
clueless as to their true mission on Earth.”

“I don’t think that is a problem,” Nick said.
“The group that tried to kidnap me, never mentioned re-energizing
the ruins, and the umbra that told me about it is dead. And before
you mention the other umbra that was hiding In Between, my
kidnapper told me about the ruins while we were inside the In
Between with no one else around.”

“It might work,” Colin said thoughtfully,
“but don’t underestimate them. They know you are Chi’Kehra. And if
they are already working with the Dhark Empire, which I think they
are, the umbra will tell the dhark lords you are Chi’Kehra. The
empire is well aware you can open and close gateways. There is no
real reason for you to return to camp.”

“How else do we pull the creatures out of
hiding?” Sarah snarled, revealing her frustration. “This place is
too well fortified. They would never attack me here.”

“Agreed,” Nick nodded, throwing his support
behind her.

“Oh, I don’t disagree with your idea. I think
you should return to camp as soon as possible,” Colin said with a
smirk. “They will know you are playing bait, and that is exactly
how we will catch them.”

Sarah gazed
unseeing out the large window. Smoke from several fires turned the
normal beautiful view hazy. She tried contacting Mac once again,
but the phoenix had his mind locked shut. There weren’t many people
strong enough to keep her out, but he was one. Oh, she could
probably smash through the barrier, but it would turn his mind to
pulp. She might be angry at the bird brain, but she didn’t want him
dead.

Huffing in exasperation, she ignored the
people milling around the room. After hours of discussing what to
do about the umbra and the collapsing barriers, she had finally
called for a break, believing food and a short rest would help
moderate the shortened tempers.

“I hope fly boy caught Clara and Maynard
before he disappeared,” Nick said, rubbing his palms down her
arms.

“Well, there is one way to find out,” she
said with a slight smirk. Turning from the window, she glanced at a
bare spot on the floor before turning her attention elsewhere.

A few seconds later, she located the shards
of crystal she had peppered Clara’s body with. Locking on a single
shard, she ported the piece of crystal - and she presumed - the
body containing it.

A shard of crystal, covered in dried blood,
dropped to the polished flagstone floor.

“Well, crap,” Nick said with a snarl.

“What’s up,” Bea asked, looking curiously at
the small piece of crystal. “Is that blood?”

“I think I should have used smaller pieces of
crystal to tag Clara with,” Sarah said thoughtfully, indicating the
shard with a flick of her fingers. “Want to go on a short
trip?”

Nick wrapped his fingers around her arm.

“I knew I didn’t need to ask you,” she said,
looking up at him with a grin. “Be ready for a hostile
welcome.”

She ported the three of them into Dragon
Valley, appearing within a few feet of the remaining shards. The
small pile of blood covered tracking devices lay near a severed
hand and a shrunken band of spiked crystal. Too bad, her hand would
eventually grow back.

The large, rock-walled room held several
conversation areas, two fireplaces, and a couple of flat screen
televisions. Dried blood covered the nearest leather sofa.

Clara and Maynard were nowhere to be
seen.

That did not mean the room was empty.

A dozen armed men and women aimed guns and
swords at them.

Beside her, Nick and Bea snarled and tensed
for a fight.

“Stop,” Guardian Alexander snapped, striding
forward in a ground-eating lope.

“Why does it not surprise me you are here?”
he asked, stopping a few feet shy of them.

“Where are they?” Sarah asked, ignoring his
sarcastic question.

“Not until you explain how you knew to search
Councilman Maynard’s home,” he said, glaring at her.

“We only received an unconfirmed tip of his
involvement less than an hour ago,” Lizzie said, as she stopped
beside her fuming mate.

“He showed up when we were fighting with
Clara,” Sarah said, putting a light restraining hand on Bea’s
shoulder, “but I was actually following the crystal I tagged her
with.”

Turning to the phoenix, she said, “I think
checking In Between would be a good idea.”

The woman nodded and stepped away, before
disappearing.

“Another phoenix,” Alexander stated
needlessly, crossing his arms.

Sarah tilted her head in question, but he
didn’t take the hint. “I take it you’ve met Mackenzie?”

The dragon shifter grunted his agreement.
“Yes, when we caught Eve and her son, Lawrence.” He gave them the
entire story in a few quick sentences including Lawrence’s part in
making Sarah think her lifeBud had been destroyed when it had only
been torn. “When the boy realized his head was on the chopping
block, he told us everything he had done.”

“That’s why it bled so badly. It wasn’t
burned out, just shredded to pieces,” Sarah said with a slight
shiver as she remembered her grief.

“Can you find Clara?” Alexander asked.

“Not quickly, not without those,” she said,
motioning to the shards of crystal. “Maynard had to have cut them
out of her.”

Alexander muttered a word, one not worth
repeating.

“Nick and I will be returning to camp in the
morning, and I have a feeling the umbra will use her when they try
to catch me,” Sarah said. “We’ll capture her sooner or later.”

A new voice entered the conversation. “We
know who the leaders of the Khr'Vurr are so we are closing the camp
and sending the kids home.”

A beautiful woman, short of stature with
long, golden blonde hair approached them. Even if Sarah hadn’t seen
pictures of High Councilwoman Cornelia, she would have recognized
the arrogant tilt of the woman’s head as someone who thought they
were all powerful, not to mention the power signature blazing
around her petite form.

“The camp needs to remain open,” Sarah said
softly, as she locked gazes with the woman.

“No, that will be impossible. I realize you
are under a bit of pressure young lady, but this is Dragon Valley
and you have no say in our decisions,” Cornelia said with a sniff
of disdain.

Sarah gave a moment of thought to her next
action. She could explain the threat the umbra represented, or she
could teach the old dragon not to mess with her or her people. Pure
irritation with the dragons, and the dragon council’s original
mandate forcing the other valleys to send their children to a camp
created to flush-out the Khr'Vurr, made her pick the latter
option.

Sarah allowed a slight smile to curl her
lips.

In front of her, she heard Alexander suck in
a sharp breath, while his sword hand clenched into a tight
fist.

Nick inched backward a bit, no doubt removing
himself from her line of fire. His laughter rang softly through her
mind. After everything the dragons had put the other valleys
through, he was all for teaching them their place.

“That, High Council Woman Cornelia DeLeigh is
absolutely correct,” Sarah said, pausing to let the woman take a
good look at her face so the old dragon would understand exactly
what she faced. “I am sure you will be able to explain to your
fellow council members why your primary synth spring has dried up
overnight. That will, of course, close every gateway and make the
walls of your valley collapse. I highly suggest coming up with an
emergency evacuation plan.”

Cornelia’s face turned white then splotchy
red. Her eyes began to glow with ill-concealed fury. “We will not
be manipulated,” she said, curling her face into a snarl.