White Witch, Black Magic

We all stare at Avaysia. Being forced to marry somebody you’ve only met once seems harsh, but being forced to marry your own cousin is downright wrong. In Regnum, boys and girls are allowed to choose whom they marry. We also wait until we’re eighteen, sometimes longer. I still have two and a half years before marriage becomes a serious prospect.

I try and imagine what it would be like to come through these woods six months from now, not to rescue my family, but to be married off to a prince I’d met only once before…and that prince is my cousin…I can’t picture it. I usually have a very vivid imagination, but I cannot comprehend how awful it must be for Avaysia.

“Why don’t you run away?” Bella asks. She sounds appalled at this revelation. I can tell that if their places were swapped, she’d disappear into the trees in the middle of the night and never glance back.

I wonder if Avaysia has thought about that option. Does she know that if she did run, she’d probably be caught immediately? That even if she did manage to escape, she’d probably be dead within the month?

Avaysia straightens. “Tis my duty to protect my kingdom, no matter what the cost. Marrying Alex is a small price to pay for the safety and happiness of my people. As a princess, I would have ended up marrying Alex anyways, or someone like him. I may even be happy with him, but, as princess, that matters not.”

I pick up the hint of disbelief in her voice, and know she doubts that she will be happy as Alexander’s queen.

“What would happen if the necklace were lost on the journey?” Jake asks.

“War. Almost certainly. King Louis would hold me hostage, if Queen Margaret would let him. Father would have to choose: risk his country and people in a bloody fight, or let me die.”

It’s clear from the way she speaks that Avaysia would choose the latter option in a heartbeat. I wonder if I have the same courage as this girl. Suddenly, being magical and a good swordfighter seems much less impressive. This girl I originally thought a shallow little princess is prepared to sacrifice everything in order protect her country and her people. I have misjudged her.

“What if the magic doesn’t work for Louis?” I ask. “Would he give you back the necklace and send you home?”

“I doubt it. Since Alex and I might end up married in a year or so anyways—”

“Ew!” Bella cuts in. “That is so gross. Cousins—yuck!”

“—he’d probably just keep me there,” Vay continues, ignoring her. “And the necklace, even if it isn’t magic for him, would still look pretty on Queen Margaret.”

“But would he wage a war?”

Avaysia thinks for a moment. “I don’t think so. Sort of pointless, really. In fact, he might give me back the necklace, if Alex asks him to.”

“What is Alex like?” I ask.

“I’ve only ever met him once…” Avaysia begins.

“Vay, you have to have formed an opinion on the guy,” Bella says. “You can tell us.”

“He…seemed nice enough.”

“You’re lying,” Jake says instantly.

“I am not!” Avaysia snaps back, a little too quickly and a little too loudly.

“Yes you are,” I tell her. “What is he really like?”

Avaysia’s eyes dart from person to person, then she sighs. “He talks a lot, mostly about himself. He likes to be complimented, and spends a lot of time looking in mirrors.”

I sense this isn’t all. We wait, but when Avaysia doesn’t continue, I say, “And? Vay, you can trust us. What else?”

Avaysia’s eyes are shining with tears when she speaks, and her voice is barely above a whisper. “When he was visiting with his mother, a few years ago, he hit a serving girl for interrupting him. When she dropped the dish of soup she was carrying, the food splashed on his shoes. He was so mad that he shoved her. She fell into the mess of shattered bowl, and a sharp piece cut her face. Her hands were hurt, too.”

“Zoë,” I whisper, remember the loquacious maid from the kitchens. “Poor thing.”

“Zoë. She was that scarred serving girl, wasn’t she?” Wren asks. “The one who kept following you around, right, Emma?”

“Yes,” I say.

A fat tear rolls down Avaysia cheek and falls into her lap. “When I went to Zoë’s aid, Alex asked if I was princess or a scullion.”

“Scullion?” Bella asks.

“Kitchen maid,” I say.

Bella nods and Avaysia continues, “He yanked me to my feet and said, ‘look at me when I’m talking to you!’ then he slapped me across the face. It made me jump, and I cut myself on a shard of pottery I’d pulled from Zoë’s hand. When he saw the purple marks in the shape of his hand the next day, he told me that it would serve as a reminder of my place in the world. The bruise remained on my face long after he left, and I still have the scar on my arm.”

Avaysia extends her left arm and pushes back the sleeve. A jagged line runs from the crook of her elbow to the side of her arm. It’s about three inches long and a pinkish-red color. Another tear slides down Avaysia’s face. It lands on her scar.

“Oh, Vay…why would you marry him?” Bella asks.

“I have to,” Avaysia murmurs. “I have to, to protect my people and all that I love. Maybe—maybe he’s changed in the last two years…”

“Two years?” Jake says. “You saw him last when you were thirteen?”

“Fourteen. I’d just had my fourteenth birthday. He was seventeen.”

“So your necklace appeared a few days after he left?”

“No.”

“A month?” Wren guesses.

Avaysia shakes her head.

“It appeared that night, after he hit you, didn’t it?” I say.

“Whoever gave it to me wanted to keep me safe. Maybe they were keeping me safe from him, too.” Another tear runs down Avaysia’s face.

Wren stretches out his hand and brushes the tear away. “We aren’t going to let anything happen to you,” he tells her. “We aren’t just going to dump you and leave, okay? We’ll keep you safe, both in this dratted forest and in Flumen.”

“Thank you,” Avaysia says. She sighs, pushes her tangled blonde hair out of her face, and rubs her eyes. “What I wouldn’t give for a bath!” she complains.

“I usually prefer showers, but a bath does sound nice,” Bella agrees.

“What’s a shower?” I ask.

“Oh, of course you wouldn’t know. When you take a shower, you stand in a tub and turn a knob. The water comes from the ceiling, sort of like rain, but in an enclosed space, and you can control the temperature.”

We all stare at her.

“What?” she asks.

“You can make it rain,” Jake says. “Anytime you want, and you can control how hot or cold the rain is? What kind of magic do people in your world have?”

“It isn’t magic. It’s science.”

“See-essence?”

“Ss-eye-en-ss. Oh, never mind. We’ll just stick with baths.”

I yawn and stretch. I haven’t slept in a while, and my eyelids are growing heavy. It’s warm in our little mud hut, and the pounding of the rain and howling of the wind have taken on an almost soothing tone. The horses, still huddled nearby, have already drifted off.

My head bows as the strength leaves my body. I slump sideways and would’ve smashed into the mud wall, probably breaking it, but Jake catches me. He lowers me to the ground, where I curl into a ball. Jake stretches out next to me.

“No need to keep watch in here, right Emma?” he says. I can hear the smile in his voice.

I yawn again in response as my eyes slide shut. Tiredness rolls over me and I sink into a deep, dreamless sleep.

l l l

When I wake up, the first thing I notice is the quiet. The storm has stopped, and light is shining faintly through the holes in the mud hut. The rain has really done a number on the mud, which is pooling on the ground.

The second thing I notice is that I’m curled up next to Jake. My head rests on his shoulder, and his arm is draped over me. I jump up and scramble away from him, blushing furiously.

Jake’s eyes blink open as I’m sitting up. He watches as I move back, his face as red as mine. As I scuttle backwards, I bump into Wren and Avaysia. Judging by the way they’re positioned, Wren fell asleep and Avaysia purposely snuggled up to him. There will be no embarrassment written on her face when she wakes.

Roused by my hitting them, Wren and Avaysia open their eyes. Wren jumps when he notices Avaysia so close to him. She, however, is already taking in the color on my face and Jake’s, and the fact that we are eyeing each other warily.

Bella lifts her head off the book she’s been using as a pillow. I can see that she notices the blush on my cheeks just as Wren does. Bella’s eyes dart from Jake to me, then from Wren to Avaysia, who are still squished together. Then her face reddens slightly and she stares down at her book.

“Nice hair, Princess,” Jake says to fill the awkward silence. “And the rest of you, too. Especially you, Emma. It looks as if a mouse made a home there.”

“And yours is just so neat and tidy,” I shoot back.

I’m grateful for the playful teasing, though. It distracts Avaysia, who is smiling smugly at me, and glancing at Jake meaningfully.

“It sounds like the storm stopped,” Bella says, changing the topic.

I dissolve the mud hut (well, what’s left of it, at any rate) and we all blink in the sudden light. My small glowing balls are bright enough, but aren’t particularly powerful, and can in no way compete with the sun.

The world looks completely different. The tree the horses had been tethered to before the storm has been uprooted and flipped upside-down. It dangles from two other trees, looking like it could fall and crush us at any moment. Leaves and branches are everywhere. The tents are ripped up and wrapped around trees. They’re torn to bits and completely useless now.

Wren’s hammock has survived pretty well. It’s tangled around a tree, but when he frees it, it’s still in one piece. He shakes the sticks out of it and lays it in the sun to dry.

“Lucky we never left the path,” he says.

“What path?” I ask.

“Yeah, do you mean the one that is now completely impassable?” Jake adds.

“Which direction is which?” Avaysia says, looking around at the dense forest that surrounds us.

“How long were in the mud hut?” Bella says.

“No idea,” Jake replies.

I pick up a random stick, and recognize it as the decorative piece of wood I’d used as a wand…eight days ago? Maybe nine? I’d last seen it right before we ran into the ogre. Jake had taken it from me and pocketed it. I hadn’t thought about since then.

It may have been nothing more than a pretty little stick, but it was good for theatrics. I waved it at Jake and smiled.

“Remember this?”

“How could I forget? But how did you get it back? I tossed it when I left you in the net, before the Oli showed up.”

“The storm must have blown it back to me.” I balance the wand on my right palm, the tip pointing away from me. “Point me,” I whisper. The wand spins almost 180 degrees, so it’s pointing slightly to my left. I turn until I face the same way. “That way is north,” I say, pointing with the wand. I swing my arm to the left. “Which means we need to go west, that way.”

“How do you know?” Avaysia questions.

“Because, Vay, it’s magic.”

“But how can you be sure?”

“Since when have you been able to do that?” Jake questions.

I remember Wren asking me the same thing when I made my sword fly through the air.

“Since two seconds ago,” I reply. “Come on. We don’t know how much longer the sun will be up for.”

“Wouldn’t it be better to wait here until the sun sets, then continue tomorrow? We know the sun will set in the west and rise in the east.”

“You don’t trust me, Vay?”

“I have no idea how fickle magic might be. I prefer to rely on something that hasn’t changed in years.”

“Do you not trust the magic, or are you just trying to delay your wedding another day?” Bella says.

Avaysia turns bright red and mutters something that sounds like, “would never…my duty as princess…”

“I guess that answers that,” Jake says. “Westward!”

My stomach gives a very audible grumble. I place a hand on it, trying to muffle the sound. “How about a little food first? I’m starving. I haven’t eaten since before the storm, however long ago that was.”

“Should we shoot something, or deplete our stores?” Avaysia asks.

A plump bird flies overhead, cawing. I point at it and a jet of light shoots from my fingertip. The bird gives a surprised squawk as the blue light strikes it. The bird drops like a stone as an arrow soars over it, missing by centimeters.

The bird falls dead at my feet and the arrow embeds itself in a tree, about thirty feet above the ground. Wren sighs and lowers his bow. He’d seen the bird at the same time I had and attempted to shoot it.

“Show off,” he mutters.

I pick up the bird and dust it off. Holding it out to him, I say, “You cook it, and I’ll get the arrow?”

“Fine,” he mutters. “You’ll be the least likely to crack those spindly little branches.”

“I could get up to it,” Jake says. “I’d climb that tree there, then jump over, and viola.”

“Just where did you come from?” I ask.

“I was part of a circus for a while.”

“You have circuses here?” Bella gasps.

“Yep. I was with them for about six months…it’s a long story.”

“Wonder which path would take longer?” I say.

I’d been planning to go straight up the tree that the arrow is stuck in, but that would involve careful maneuvering to stay on the thicker limbs, as well as a fairly light person. Jake’s path is longer, but the tree he pointed out is a good deal sturdier.

“Race you to the arrow?” Jake says.

“Challenge accepted.”

We walk to the bases of the two trees. The girls and Wren have taken sides; they’re backing Jake, Wren’s rooting for me.

“On your mark, get set, GO!” Wren shouts.

Jake springs up, catches the lowest branch of his tree and swings himself onto it. The first branch on my tree is hip-height, but very thin. I’m careful to stick close to the trunk of the tree as I shimmy my way up. Jake is a little above me, bouncing from branch to branch.

The tree starts to sway beneath me as I climb higher. I’m five feet from the arrow…three…nearly there…I stretch out a hand to grab it just as Jake launches himself from his tree to mine.

The spindly little pine quivers dangerously with both of us in it. My hand clamps on the arrow at the same time as Jake’s. It’s too close to call.

“Tie?” I ask.

“Tie,” Jake agrees.

He pulls the arrow from the tree, taking my hand with it. My balance thrown off, I jerk backwards. My fingers slip from the tree trunk. I start to fall, grabbing for anything that will stop me. As I flail, my hand connects with Jake’s, who’s trying to catch me.

I dangle from our clasped hands for a minute. Then the branch that holds Jake begins to crack. It’s a thin little limb and the combined weight of Jake and me is too much for it.

The branch snaps and we both go down.

Jake lets go of me as self-preservation kicks in. He must grab onto something, because I don’t see him. I try to do the same, but there’s only air. I plummet towards the girls and Wren. There is no way I’ll survive if I hit the ground.

But I don’t make it that far.

I grab a wad of my cloak in each hand and spread my arms as wide as I can. My ankles snap together, trapping part of the thick fabric. The wind catches me up and my fall turns into a controlled glide. I tilt my arms back and soar up. Very, very carefully, I angle myself down and begin to spiral.

I loop around, coming closer to the ground with every circle. When I’m about five feet from the dirt, I spread my legs. The cloak snaps up and my legs swing down. I stumble a bit as I collide with the earth, but I’m unhurt.

Wren, Bella, and Avaysia are staring at me with their mouths hanging open. I glance up and see Jake dangling from a branch of his tree, using his legs to hold on. He’s gaping at me, his upside-down face astonished.

“I think I’m getting the hang of this flying business,” I say, looking around at everyone. Four blank faces greet my words. Jake is slowly swinging back an forth, using only one leg to hold on now. “Come down here, Jake, before you fall, too. Somehow I doubt you’ll be able to fly.”

“Since when could you do that?” Avaysia shrieks.

“Since two seconds ago,” I reply. Wren and Jake say the same thing at the same time I do, both having asked the same question (but for different reasons) and having heard the same answer.

“I thought for certain you would die!” Bella cries. Her eyes are wide and her hands are over her mouth. “Are you all right?” she asks, throwing her arms around me and squeezing me to death.

“Can’t—breath!” I gasp.

“Sorry,” she says sheepishly, letting go.

“Can’t people fly in your world?” Jake asks, jumping from the last branch of his tree. “Since they can make moving pictures—”

“Moovles,” Avaysia says.

“Movies,” Bella corrects.

“And they can make it rain indoors whenever they want. I’d have thought they’d be able to fly, too,” Jake finishes.

“We can,” Bella assures him. “Well, not individually. We have things called helicopters and airplanes. I guess they’re sort of like gigantic metal birds that you sit inside of and they fly from place to place.”

We all gap at her.

“Are there lots metal animals in your world?” I ask.

“They aren’t really animals,” Bella explains. “They’re just modeled after animals, see? We have trains, which used to be called iron horses, but no one uses those anymore. They’re far to slow.”

“What were those things I saw in your head?”

Bella looks at me, confused. “When did you look inside my head?”

“When you first crash landed here, I wanted to be sure you were safe, so I peeked into your mind. There were all sorts of loud, ugly metal monsters roaring down a smelly black…something.”

“Those are cars. Again, sort of like horses. They came after the train, and they’re a more personal thing. Cars are generally for one to five people, whereas trains can seat a hundred or so.”

“What was the black thing they were on?”

“That’s called a road.”

“We have roads here, but they’re nothing like that,” I tell her.

Bella shrugs.

“What sort of magic does you world have?” Jake asks.

“I told you already. We don’t have magic, we have science.”

“What else does your world have?” Avaysia asks.

“Lunch,” Bella replies as her stomach growls. “How’s that bird coming, Wren?”

l l l

Lunch is good. There isn’t nearly enough meat on the small bird, so Wren and I shoot some more. Well, I don’t shoot them, exactly, but you get the idea. A couple of birds and other forest critters later, we lick our lips and continue on our way.

The path is gone again, but I performed the Wind Rose spell, as I have decided to call it, every hundred feet. The compass is lost somewhere in the trees. We hack our way through the woods, heading west. Neverard and I take the leading, with Jake riding double behind me. Avaysia and Bella are on Winter, who walks at the back. Wren is on foot.

Every few hours, we rotate who sits where, and who walks. Even Avaysia takes her turn without complaint. Her dress is completely destroyed from the branches and brambles, the hem caked with mud. The rest of us aren’t much better, and we all smell strongly of horse.

We pass the time by making Bella explain as best she can everything about her world. We spend a long time talking about electricity. I’m astonished that they can control the sun, but Jake seems to grasp the concept without too much difficulty.

“Alright! Enough with the twenty questions,” Bella cries after several hours of this. “I want to ask some stuff, too.”

“What’s twenty questions?” Avaysia asks.

Bella puts her head in her hands and groans. I laugh as Bella rubs her hands across her face with a sigh.

“Okay, my turn,” Bella says. “First, what are your names? Full names, I mean. And I want to know where you’re from.”

“Emma Vivaskari Rose,” I say. “I live in Regnum, in one of the two villages.”

“Wren Christopher Vallean, at your service, milady.” Wren does a mock bow to her. “I also live in Regnum, in the village that Emma doesn’t.”

“Princess Avaysia Rosalind Christina Regalda, of Regnum, daughter of King Dominic—”

“I just want your name, Vay, not all of your ancestors’ names, too,” Bella says, cutting Avaysia off. “What about you, Jake?”

“Jacob James Brunswick.”

“And where’s your home?”

“You’re standing in it.”

“And where did you live before you moved into this lovely little forest?”

“I grew up in Collina, if that’s what you’re asking. I haven’t had a real home since I was…” he pauses to think about it. “Since I was twelve.”

We were quiet for a moment, then Bella says, “Well, that sucks,” which I though pretty much summed it up. I tried to imagine not having a family or a home since I was twelve. I’m fifteen and a half…almost three years ago, I would have been tossed out…I can’t really picture it.

“Why?” Bella asks Jake.

He looks at her, sadness etched into the lines on his face and filling his blue eyes. “War,” he says simply.

He won’t say anymore on the subject, so Bella continues to pelt us with questions, asking about our siblings and parents, our lives, what we do every day…her list seems endless.

“What about women’s rights?” she asks.

“Women’s whats?” I reply.

“Rights. You know, fair treatment, voting—though I guess you don’t have that—equal pay, that sort of thing.”

I shrug. “We each do what works for our families. The girls and boys get the same amount of say, and we all try to treat each other the same.”

“Good.”

“Is it the same in your world?”

“Pretty much. Well, in my country it is. Not every country is like that, though.”

“What county do you live in?”

“The United States of America,” she says proudly. “Or the USA for short. It’s the land of the free and the home of the brave.”

“What are some of the other countries in your world?”

“There are hundreds of them. Canada, Mexico, Italy, Bulgaria, Russia, France, England, Australia, Ireland. Tons more.”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know them all…China and Russia—those are big ones; Japan; Iceland—which is actually green; Greenland, which I’m pretty certain is covered in ice; Argentina; Egypt; Bolivia; France, no, wait, I already said that.”

“Those are really strange names,” Avaysia says, just as I’m thinking France. That sounds familiar.

“What are your countries called?” Bella says.

“There are only six in our world,” I begin. “And our world doesn’t have a name.”

“Six that you know of. There could be land across the oceans that you don’t know about.”

“Six that we know about,” I amend. “Regnum, Collina, Holz, Montanum, and Flumen.”

“Some of those sound like they could be Latin or German.”

“What?”

“Never mind. But that’s only five. What’s the sixth?”

“The Sylvian Woods is counted as it’s own county, and it isn’t really owned by anyone. Sort of…neutral territory.”

“How big is this forest?”

“Pretty big. It’s long and skinny. At least, that’s how it’s drawn on the maps at school.”

“You have school here?”

“Of course we do.”

“What are some of the jobs people here have?”

“Teachers, candle makers, metal benders, healers, house-builders, that sort of thing. You?”

“It’s much the same. We have doctors, who must be like your healers, and electricians, who are sort of like candle makers, I guess. We call the house-builders masons, and metal benders are blacksmiths. There aren’t many of them in my world anymore.”

“Why not?” I ask.

“See-ence,” Vay says. “Right?”

“Sigh-ence,” Bella corrects. “But yes. We have more efficient ways to shape our metal than heating it over a fire and smashing it with a hammer.”

“Like what?” Jake questions.

“Um…” Bella looks stumped. “I don’t really know. The little I could explain would probably just confuse you more.”

“Hey, look!” I interrupt. “There’s that cat again!”

A black cat leaps from one tree branch to the next and disappears. I’m just wondering if this is good because we always escape from danger when the cat appears, or if it’s bad, because we always end up facing danger right after the cat shows up. Neverard snorts and paws the ground.

“What’s going on, buddy?” I ask him.

Underneath me, I feel Winter tense. Avaysia, who’s sitting right behind me, tightens her grip on my waist nervously. Bella and Jake, who are on Neverard, look at us. Wren notches an arrow, preparing for the worst.

We’re all looking around for trouble, expecting something to come barging out of the trees or sweeping down from the sky. None of us would have guessed that the trouble would come from within the group itself.

Winter shudders beneath me. I hear a meow from somewhere off to my left. Winter’s ears prick up and her head swings towards the noise. The meow sounds again. Then, before I know what’s happening, Winter takes off.

She shoots off into the trees. Branches whip my face and I hear Avaysia cry out. Winter is running flat out across the ground, veering away from the others. Their shouts grow fainter as the distance between us stretches.

I cling to Winter and Avaysia clutches me. I’m trying to yank on the reins to make Winter stop, but she isn’t responding to anything. Someone shouts and I throw a quick glance over my shoulder.

Jake is racing toward us on Neverard. The stallion is taller and more powerful than Winter. With Bella gone and Winter carrying two, Neverard is far faster. Neverard and Jake are gaining on us, darting between trees.

Jake is just behind us now…we’re level…he’s pulling ahead…Neverard cuts across us and freezes. Winter stops so suddenly I nearly fall over her head. I just manage to stay in my seat, even with Avaysia pushing me over.

“Thank goodness!” I say.

“Are you girls alright?” Jake asks.

I’m about to answer when Winter takes off again. My mouth snaps shut and I very nearly bite off my tongue. Winter skirts around Neverard and gallops away. This is when I know something is definitely wrong. Horses get spooked all the time, but once they’re stopped, they should be fine.

Winter isn’t running from something, she’s running towards it.

Jake is level with us again, Neverard running as close to Winter as he can with all the trees. Jake shouts something, but the wind whips his words away.

“What?” I scream back.

“JUMP!” Jake hollers. He beckons with one hand.

I could time it just right, and leap it from one horse to the other without getting hurt. Probably. All those years of jumping from tree to tree would finally come in handy. I glance behind me at Avaysia. She’ll have neither the timing nor the skill to make it. And if I go first, a second rider would only slow Neverard down, while the lighter load will let Winter run faster.

I point over my shoulder at Avaysia and shout, “Her first!”

Jake nods.

“Avaysia, you have to get to Neverard!” I scream.

“What?” I hear her shout back.

I grip Winter with my legs, twist around, and grab Avaysia. Before she has time to cling to something, I heave her off Winter’s back and as far towards Jake as I can. Jake catches her and swings her onto Neverard behind him, her feet barely avoiding Neverard’s hooves.

“Hurry!” Jake cries.

I pull my feet out of the stirrups so I can make the leap. But my feet won’t come. They’re stuck fast. I try to yank my feet from my shoes, but the laces are tied too tightly and I can’t.

“I’m stuck!” I shout.

Behind Neverard, I see a fleeting glimpse of a girl a little older than me with long brown hair standing in the trees. Then she’s gone. The sight of the girl sends shivers down my back.

Ahead of us is a fallen tree. Winter leaps over the trunk easily. Neverard’s path would take him over the branches, and that’s a jump he’ll never make. Not with two riders. He stops and Winter streaks in a new direction. I know that by the time Jake gets over the tree, Winter will have carried me far away.

“STOP!” I scream, panic coloring my voice.

The magic explodes from me, uncontrolled and undirected. It blasts me up into the air, ripping my feet from my boots. I shoot higher and higher—ten feet, twenty, thirty…my ascent stops. I hang in midair for a moment, then plummet back toward the earth.

Everything slows down around me as I fall. Or maybe I just process it faster. I have time to think that this is the second time I’ve fallen today. I register that Winter is gone, and that the black cat is back. And there’s another girl lying on the ground, but it isn’t the brunette.

This girl has thin white hair. She’s sprawled in the dirt and is wearing a plain white gown that’s streaked with dirt and torn in many places. The black cat pads up her to and transforms into the brunette girl. The brunette starts trying to wake the other.

There’s a loud squeaking sound, like all the air being squeezed out of a balloon, and I slam into something soft that sinks beneath me. I go another five feet before whatever invisible force I’ve hit throws me back up.

As I rise and fall again, the white-haired girl opens her eyes. She and the brunette stare at me as I hit the net again and am thrown back into the air, but lower this time. Both girls have purple eyes, though neither are as dark as mine. They stare at me for a moment, then turn into the black cat and Winter. With a last look at me, they disappear.

Then I hit the net again, this time headfirst. The jarring does something to my vision, which turns fuzzy. The world flips over as I go up a third time, then everything turns black.

l l l

I wake up lying on the ground. My head hurts and my body aches. I want to lie here in the soft dirt for a while, but I hear someone coming through the trees.

Someone is shouting for me, screaming, “Emma? Jacob? Where are you?”

I moan.

“We’re over here!” someone replies. It’s Jake, sitting near me.

Avaysia appears, coming through the trees. “What happened?”

“Winter...was a girl...the black cat, too...my head hurts so much...”

Jake looks worried. “Where’d Winter go?” he asks.

“Told you. Isn’t Winter...she’s a horse…that girl…”

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

I groan again. I just want to sleep. Can’t they see that?

“She’s bleeding,” Avaysia whispers. “Breathing, bleeding, bones. Well, she’s breathing, so now it’s the bleeding we take care of.”

“What are you babbling about?” Jake asks.

“It’s what you’re supposed to do with an injured person. Make sure they’re breathing, then stop any bleeding, and then check for and treat any broken bones.”

I feel cool fingers touching my skin. There’s a ripping sound, and I peek out from under a half-closed lid. Avaysia is tearing apart the hem and sleeves of her dress and wrapping the fabric around my cuts.

“How do you know that?” Jake asks.

“I asked the healers back home. I may be hopeless in combat, but I’m not entirely useless out here.”

Avaysia continues to gently wipe away blood and bind together the worst of the cuts. She has a fair amount of scratches from our wild ride, and Jake as a couple, but they both ignore these as they tend to me. I haven’t got the strength to protest.

I lie in the dirt as Avaysia gently cleans me up, fading in and out of consciousness. I’m starting to come around for good when I hear shouts and breaking branches. Jake calls back. Soon, Bella and Wren come into view, forcing their way through the trees.

“Emma!” Bella cries. “Are you alright?”

I manage to lift my head about two inches, but the trees start spinning, and I feel like I’m going to be sick. I lie still again, waiting for the feeling to pass. As it goes, a strange warmth spreads through my body, heating me. The heat becomes more specific, concentrating on the places that hurt the most, where I’ve been cut.

“Oh,” Avaysia breaths.

“Wow,” says Jake.

“Wicked!” Bella gasps.

Before their eyes, and mine, my cuts stich themselves back together. The skin seals itself, looking the same as it did before, except for a few pink lines.

“How did you do that?” Wren asks.

“I have no idea,” I say. “I’m really sick of telling everyone that.”

“Sorry,” Wren says.

“It’s okay,” I tell him, sitting up.

The heat is leaving, taking all the pain and dizziness with it. I feel fine. In fact, I feel almost as I did before the whole horse-chase through the woods. Just a little wearier.

“So what happened?” Jake asks.

“Winter wasn’t a horse,” I start. “No, listen, really. I’m serious. And I’m not delusional, Vay, don’t look at me like that. The black cat we’ve been seeing all over the place? I think she’s in league with Winter. They’re both actually girls, human girls, probably a little older that me. Winter had white hair, and the cat was a brunette.”

I know they must think I’m nuts, but all anyone says is, “How did you survive that fall? We—” Wren gestures to himself and Bella “—saw you pop up from among the treetops.”

“Did you use your cool floaty cloak thing?” Bella wants to know.

“I bounced. Off some invisible force that went down and tossed me back up.”

“Like a net catching a tight-rope walker,” Jake says.

“Or a trampoline,” Bella adds.

“A what?” Avaysia asks.

“Never mind.”

“So we’re down to one horse, all our supplies are gone, we have no idea where we are, or where the trail went. We think there are two girls conspiring against us—”

“At least two,” I interrupt Wren. “There could be more.”

“And we only have a few days left to get Avaysia to Flumen,” Wren finishes.

“But really, what else can go wrong?” Avaysia asks. “We’ve survived a giant, a wolf attack, being turned into rabbits, getting chased by a dragon, and a runaway horse.”

“You’ve forgotten the thunderstorm and the ogre,” Jake adds. “And never say it can’t get worse. It can. Always.”

“Thank you, Captain Sunshine,” I mutter.

“Just being honest.”

“Well, we don’t need honesty right now,” I tell him. “We need rest, and some help would be nice.”

“And where are we going to find that?” Jake asks.

“Well, we might get some in Flumen, but that’s still a long way away.”

“You don’t know that, because we’re completely lost!”

“No! I can do the Wind Rose spell and find which direction we need to go!”

“And I can follow the sun. I’ll admit, yours is a lot more convenient, but it’ll only take us west. We could end up in the ocean, or over in Montanum. Or we could get lost in the Sharp Peak Mountains. Admit it; we’re lost!”

“Will you two shut up?” Wren snaps. “I thought I heard something.”

I look away from Jake’s flashing blue eyes and realize that we’re shouting at each other, standing about six inches apart. The girls are watching the argument like a tennis match; their eyes bounce back and forth.

I unclench my hands, which are balled into fists, and listen.

Snap, snap.

There’s a faint breaking noise off to the left.

“What was that?” I ask.

“Possibly lunch. Now hush,” Wren hisses.

Snap, snap, snap.

I see something moving behind the trees. Wren takes out his bow and strings an arrow. He pulls it back and aims at the shadow. But what steps out from behind the huge oak is nothing that we would ever dream of killing.

Wren lowers his bow. Avaysia’s eyes are round, and Bella’s mouth hangs open. Jake and Wren have identical expressions of shock. I feel the same way as I stare at the beautiful creature before me.

Snap.

I turn. Bella, Avaysia, Wren, Jake, Neverard, and I have been completely surrounded by these creatures.

The white one with the steps forward. She has purpley-blue eyes and a horn of silver and lavender. Her mane and tail are silver. She bows her head in greeting and speaks in a voice soft and clear.

“Hello, strangers. My name is Atlanta. Welcome to The Land of the Unicorns.”