Into The Wildewood Part 26

"I saw the white cat and that white deer-maybe I'll see the unicorn, too." Laurie sounded excited.

Knot climbed back onto the dashboard and wedged himself against the winds.h.i.+eld. He hooked his claws into the AC vents. Keelie wished she had one of Sir Davey's crystals to give the truck more power. Laurie pushed on the gas, and finally the lumbering ski chalet was on top of the hill.

On the horizon, the night sky glittered with thousands of stars. Keelie had never seen this many stars when she lived in Los Angeles.

From the corner of her eye, she saw a shooting star. She made a wish-please let me save the unicorn and Dad. It was two wishes, but maybe given the circ.u.mstances she could hope for a two-fer deal.

Laurie rolled down her window, and Keelie heard a roaring sound. Raven heard it, too. "We're getting close to the power plant." They were driving along the ridge.

Suddenly, they slowed. The trail seemed clear to Keelie. "Can't we go any faster?"

She glanced at Laurie, whose expression was strained. Her eyes were strange with some unexplained emotion. Raven called out, and the truck rolled to a stop.

Keelie watched, horrified, as her friends wailed and ducked, cringing as if something were swooping down on them. She knew what it was. She felt the Dread beating around her, renewed, stronger than ever before.

"Keelie, I can't move." Laurie brought her feet up to the seat and wrapped her arms around her knees. Raven s.h.i.+vered and leaned against her.

Keelie opened the door and jumped out. "Come on, it's not much farther."

"I can't go, I'm going to die." Laurie was gasping. "I can't breathe. Something bad is going to happen."

"Don't go, Keelie." Raven's eyes looked huge in her pale face. Her black hair blended into the darkness around them. "I don't want you to die."

The scent of cinnamon floated in the air. "It's the Dread, guys. It's not real. Fight it." Elianard must be using up every drop of power on the mountain to feed it.

There was a pounding of frantic hooves, followed by a strangled whinny, and then a shrill scream. Keelie froze. "Please, don't be Einhorn."

"Einhorn, the unicorn?" Raven sat up straight.

"It feels so real." Laurie's face looked strained. "Let's get out of here."

Knot's ears were flat against his skull. He growled. The bhata bhata yanked at Keelie's hair and pinched her ear, pulling her forward. "Ow, I'm coming." yanked at Keelie's hair and pinched her ear, pulling her forward. "Ow, I'm coming."

"Who are you talking to?" Raven looked as if she wanted to crawl under the seat, but she forced herself to straighten. "I'm coming with you, Keelie."

Knot's tail whipped back and forth. He yowled, then jumped over Raven's legs and streaked away. The whine and roar of the power plant's turbines was overwhelming. Keelie could hear the intertwined notes of Elia's harp.

"Stay here if you're afraid." She hurried after the cat, the bhata bhata clinging to her hair. clinging to her hair.

"You're more elf than human if you're not feeling this!" Laurie yelled after her, putting her hands over her ears and closing her eyes. She probably thought the turbine's throbbing was part of the Dread. There was no time to explain.

Knot looked back, his tail las.h.i.+ng wildly. Keelie saw him meow. He wanted her to follow him, but she couldn't without any light. She reached into her pocket and brought out the rose quartz. At first it flickered, but once it powered up, it shone like a super-watt flashlight. "I'm coming."

Behind her, she heard the camper door slam. Raven was clutching the fender and looking as if she was about to throw up, but moving steadily forward.

A faint tree voice sounded in her head. Keelie tried to concentrate on the message, and when she reached the edge of the woods it came through. It was Tavak.

Einhorn has fallen.

Below her, the headlights went out. Keelie looked back and Laurie waved, a brief flutter of white in the darkness. She waved back, then, heart heavy, followed Knot.

The clearing was not far, but undergrowth tugged at her clothes. The trees were all dead here, and weeds had taken over. Keelie was overwhelmed by sadness; so many trees were dead and gone, and their spirits clung to the earth, trapped. She felt them call to her, but their voices were dim.

A light flickered ahead, and Keelie pocketed the rose quartz. She hid behind a boulder scaly with lichen. Elianard knelt in the clearing, at the foot of a huge, ghostly tree. A white form was splayed out at his feet. Lord Einhorn.

The unicorn faded in and out of consciousness as Elianard held his amulet over its horn. Nearby, Elia played her harp, tears streaming down her face, her eyes locked onto the failing unicorn.

Keelie stayed hidden. The tekt.i.te around her neck had grown uncomfortably warm, and so had her aspen heart talisman. Again, she looked up into the night sky, and she saw another shooting star. Help me to save Einhorn. Help me to save Einhorn.

She ripped the leather thong from around her neck and held it aloft. The tekt.i.te, no longer black, glowed like a small, leaf-shaped star, each tiny rune picked out in brighter light.

Opening her senses to the trees, Keelie summoned Tavak and Evas.

Tavak answered, Tree Shepherdess, I'm here Tree Shepherdess, I'm here.

Evas replied as well. Milady, we hear you Milady, we hear you.

From the Faire, far below, Keelie sensed Oamlik and the other sick oaks. She sent a message, but they were still under the harp's spell.

Near her, Knot paced back and forth. What had she been thinking? She'd fought her way up here, put her friends in danger, and for what? Einhorn was dead, the trees were immobilized, and she had no way of finding her father.

A sickening, meaty crack was followed by the unicorn's scream. Elianard rose, the lovely spiral horn in his hand. The silver light outlining Einhorn's body slowly faded.

Elianard turned to look toward the rock, and Keelie felt his penetrating stare bore right through to her. "Round Ear, you come too late. You cannot stop me."

He marched toward her. Fear filled Keelie, but she wasn't going to run. She stepped out, her voice shaky. "I stopped you once before, I can stop you now." But she could tell he was not fooled.

"You are too late. You are not one of us." Elianard pointed toward the power plant. "This is what your species does, it destroys, but the humans won't destroy our elven lands. You think me harsh to take the unicorn's magic, but it will save many." He held the b.l.o.o.d.y horn in one hand, unaware of the irony of his words.

Keelie clenched her fists. "You've hurt the people at the Faire, too. What justifies their sacrifice?"

Elia stopped playing her harp and stood up. "Nothing. They should not have been harmed."

Elianard turned to his daughter with raised brows. "Why did you stop? Continue. Our work is not yet done."

"No, father, please don't do this." Elia's haughty look was gone, and she seemed haunted and afraid. "Think of what will happen to you. Think of me."

"Don't be foolish." Elianard gestured impatiently. "Einhorn's magic can't save the Wildewood, but it can save the Dread Forest. His death is one of honor, and his magic will give me the power to save the elves."

He closed quickly on Keelie and s.n.a.t.c.hed off the tekt.i.te and the charred heart, yanking the cords over her head. They snagged on her pointed elf ear, and Keelie cried out. She tried to hold onto the cords, but he was too strong. He threw them to the other side of the clearing and then grabbed her right wrist, squeezing until her hand went numb and she dropped the rose quartz.

He pushed her down, and Keelie curled into a ball, overcome by the Dread without the stone's protection. She would die here, alone, as her mother had died in a plane crash, as her father might now be dying somewhere in the forest. The unicorn was dead, and Elianard had won. All was lost. She trembled, thinking of all the ways that Elianard could hurt her.

A tiny voice in the back of her mind reminded her that if she had her rose quartz, she wouldn't feel the Dread. She remembered the way she'd pulled on the rose quartz even when it was far from her.

Elianard was pus.h.i.+ng Elia back to her harp. The beautiful elf girl sobbed, but began to play again. Elianard resumed his place by Einhorn, holding the horn triumphantly over the unicorn's body.

The unicorn faded even more. The feeling of sorrow from the trees was unbearable. This wasn't the Dread, this was the combined grief of thousands of trees, living and dead, mourning their guardian.

Keelie's face was wet with tears. She couldn't do anything. She was just a kid. If her father couldn't help, what hope did she have?

"No!" She thought of Dad dying as Mom had, alone. And leaving her alone, too. She was afraid to open herself to feel for the rose quartz. What if she felt the trees' pain instead?

A touch on her cheek made her cry out. Elianard glanced at her, then froze, staring.

Keelie didn't know what he was looking at. Would she die now? She thought of her friends, still by the camper. She didn't want to die alone. The touch came again, and Keelie saw that it was the bhata bhata. It sat on her arm in a watchful pose. Yes, you can feel for the rose quartz Yes, you can feel for the rose quartz, the tiny voice told her. She would find it.

Keelie opened her mind. Her fists closed around moist clods of cool earth-and she felt power.

Huge power. Power that yawned just under the surface of the mountain in a vast, unending pool. She gasped. This was not her little pink crystal. It was warm and earthy and yellow, like a molten sun, like a vast nouris.h.i.+ng river that she could draw on, again and again.

Blind with grief, she picked up a strand of it and wove it around herself. The Dread abated. Keelie sobbed and took the power, channeling it through her body until she felt as if she would explode, her skin tingling and her blood pulsing with it. She pushed a bright ribbon of it into the unicorn, and his eyelids fluttered. She stood and ran to him. He had faded, his glow gone. She saw his worn fur, with the bare spots, the stump of his horn b.l.o.o.d.y and broken where Elianard had ripped it from him.

"Get away from him, misbegotten brat. You can do nothing for him now." Elianard seized her shoulders, but before he could wrench her away she pulled on the power thread and pushed the molten energy into the dying unicorn.

The power crashed through Elianard, too, and he cried out and released her, reeling back across the clearing. Elia stood and, eyes on Keelie, lifted the harp over her head and smashed it to the ground.

Keelie felt the Dread vanish with the harp's destruction, and at the same time, the trees sang out their release. She sensed their movement. They were coming.

Elianard turned and ran, cras.h.i.+ng down the mountain. Keelie didn't worry. He was headed toward the approaching trees.

The power thread had wrapped tightly around the unicorn, and with her magic sight, Keelie saw him absorbing the molten energy. But still he lay, eyes closed. Had it all been for nothing?

She wrapped her hand around the unicorn's mane, aware that Elia was watching, and put her forehead against his cheek. A hand reached down to hand her the rose quartz. Elia smiled uncertainly, then stepped away. The rose quartz in her other fist, Keelie felt for the magic that had helped her before, the strong Earth magic that rose from the mountain beneath her. Then, from the unicorn, she guided it out, far out. She felt it spread like a river overflowing its boundaries. The forests for miles around soaked it in, and green sprang anew.

When there was no place for the power to go, Keelie sent it home, back into the earth below. She was conscious only long enough to hear the explosions on the other side of the ridge, as the power plant blew flame far into the sky.

twenty-eight.

A cool whisper blew across her cheek. Keelie opened her eyes and saw the unicorn standing over her. She sat up and stared. He glowed as before, but where his horn had been was a jagged, b.l.o.o.d.y stump.

She turned and saw Raven standing by the boulder, her fist covering her mouth, crying huge tears from her wide eyes.

"Raven? Are you hurt?"

Raven shook her head. "I'm okay. I'm okay." But her eyes went to the place where the unicorn stood.

"You can see him." Keelie stared at her friend, surprised.

Raven took a tentative step forward, and the thing she had in her hand glowed like a star. It was the tekt.i.te. The unicorn watched her approach, eyes intent.

"Give it to me." Keelie reached her hand out.

"No." Raven's eyes were fixed on Einhorn. "Don't be afraid, my lord."

Einhorn moved toward her, and she touched the tekt.i.te to his wound, his head nestled against her like a grieving child.

Keelie went to stand behind Raven and Einhorn, watching them together. The tekt.i.te wasn't enough. She could feel it. She placed her palm flat against Raven's back, feeling her heart thud, then reached down to the well of power and pushed it through Raven and into the unicorn.

Einhorn tossed his head, and Raven fought to keep the tekt.i.te on his wrecked horn. Her hands glowed, then her arms, as Einhorn's aura engulfed her until they were a single glowing object. Keelie felt herself burn, part of that s.h.i.+ning s.p.a.ce, and then she fell back into her own body and collapsed on the leaf-strewn ground.

Einhorn reared, glorious once more, his horn restored and gleaming. Keelie staggered to her feet, and Raven turned and hugged her. The two girls clung to each other, laughing and crying at the same time as Einhorn bowed his horn low to the ground, then galloped into the forest.

She'd never gotten to speak to him. A tickle in her mind formed itself into feathery thoughts.

Tree Shepherdess, in saving me, you have healed the forest, and in turn you have healed your father and his people from the humans' poisons. May they realize that they have in you a phoenix, bringing forth a new era and a new way for the elves.

"Keelie, are you okay?" Laurie stood behind her. "I heard the explosion and came running. The Dread is gone."

"I'm okay. Did you see him?"

"Your dad? No. Is he around here?" Laurie kicked at the shards of the smashed harp. "What happened here?"

Dad. How was she going to find him with Elianard gone?

Keelie felt a little shaky, but better than she had in days, as if she'd had a full night's sleep. The green tinge was gone from her skin. She looked around the clearing. Elia had vanished, and so had Einhorn's broken horn.

We have found your father, Tavak said. Tavak said. Follow the bhata Follow the bhata.

The leaves above them shook, and bhata bhata poured down the trunks of the trees and raced across the clearing. Hundreds more of the stick fairies flew and crawled around them. poured down the trunks of the trees and raced across the clearing. Hundreds more of the stick fairies flew and crawled around them.

Laurie screamed and climbed onto the boulder. Knot leaped off and streaked into the forest after them, with Keelie in pursuit and Raven right behind.

"Hey guys, wait up!" Laurie's voice was far away.

With a noise like a thousand castanets, the bhata bhata led the way, and Keelie jumped over logs and dodged branches, racing with Knot beside her. The ghostly trees of the forest weren't scary now, and as they ran, the living trees grew larger until there were only the tall ancients around her. led the way, and Keelie jumped over logs and dodged branches, racing with Knot beside her. The ghostly trees of the forest weren't scary now, and as they ran, the living trees grew larger until there were only the tall ancients around her.

Knot slowed, stopping on a giant root, and Keelie saw that the tree was p.r.i.c.kly with bhata bhata, their berry eyes focused on the roots below them. Knot leaped down, and Keelie clambered over and saw, nestled in the crook of the vast tree's base, her father's still figure.

"Dad." She jumped down and knelt beside him. He was breathing, and his skin was once more sun-browned.

You healed him, Tree Shepherdess, the old tree above her said. He was safe here until you came. He was safe here until you came.

Thank you for guarding him, Ancient One. She wondered how she'd get him back home. She wondered how she'd get him back home.

She nudged his shoulder. "Dad?"

He moved a little, and then he yawned, stretching wide. He opened his green eyes, a mirror of her own. "Keelie?"

"I'm here, Dad."

"Lord Einhorn ... " He fell silent, his head c.o.c.ked, listening to the forest. His eyes widened. "You've had quite a night."