Egon Wood ( E Gon )

Theresa Ashdown ( Tha Ris A )

Rayner Moonfall ( Ray Ner )                                                                               

Pet: Bear Ares ( Ar Es )

Ceridwen Vix ( Care A Dwhen )

Pet: Owl Snow ( Snow )

Mali ( Mal E )

Mace Kane ( Mace )

Pet: Horse Nilas ( Neil Ass )

Duzna ( Duz Na )

Vestomer ( Ves Tom Ear )

Adisa Rathmore ( A Dis A )

Salina Mortem ( Sa LI Na )

Lilith Calarook ( Lie Lith Cal A Rook )

Talia and Sapphira ( Tal I A & Saf Fi Ra )

Chapter Twelve: Unforeseen Discoveries

Ceridwen and Egon raced through the forest, Ceridwen on Artemis, Egon on Apollo. Egon pulled on the horses reins, and came to a complete stop. Ceridwen halted Artemis and turned around when she no longer heard Apollo's footsteps.

"And you stopped why?" Ceridwen asked with a hint of annoyance in her tone. 

"How are we going to find the shell? This forest is huge, it's like looking for a shell in the ocean, but in the forest..."

Ceridwen flashed a glaze of un-amusement at Egon's shot at a joke. "Simple. We don't..." Ceridwen smiled and continued to ride.

          "What? Now we can't just leave, because I'm NOT going without my staff!" Egon emphasized the word not, then kicked Apollo to catch up with Ceridwen.  

"Oh don't bust a vein. We aren't giving in to the temptresses' little quest, but we are getting you staff back." Ceridwen informed.

"And how is that...?" Egon urged Apollo to trot so he was side by side with Ceridwen.

"I've heard tale of a plant that grows in this forest. It's said to produce juicy berries, which if consumed, allow you to control the one you fed."

"And I suppose you think Sapphira is willingly going to eat the berry?" Egon questioned.

Ceridwen let out a laugh. "Not for one second do I believe that. But I have my ways of persuasion."

***

"Lilith should've already reached the children!" Vestomer scolded Duzna. "So why hasn't she brought back their remains?!?" With every word the king inched higher and higher until he was looming over Duzna with his final remark.

"Sire, I can't answer that─" Duzna was cut off before he could finish.

"Of course you can't!" Vestomer growled.

"But..." Duzna replied.

"But what?!" Vestomer sunk back into his throne.

"I can insure they do not succeed on their mission." Duzna smiled. He rose from his bow, turned and calmly strolled to the doors of the throne room. Vestomer scratched his beard and massaged his temples, not impressed with Duzna's statement.

Duzna opened the massive door and peeked his head out. Vestomer did not hear the words he spoke, but within seconds Duzna returned with a girl.

She wore a black cloak that draped to her feet, dark leather boots, which were only visible when she took a step, and a hood that covered her face. Her presents seemed to bring an eerie, un-natural feeling of hate.

Not the kind of hate Vestomer had toward the Magic Born, but a hate she had brought. It barricaded all emotions, except the desire to hate everything and everyone, but her.

When Duzna and his guest arrived at Vestomer's feet, they bowed, then the girl calming removed her hood reviling her face. As the king uncontrollably gazed into her eyes the anger rapidly increase, and hate boiled in his vein, more so than before she entered.

The girl's irises were blacker than night, darker than death, and more enchanting than any siren's song. Her black hair flowed like river of tormented souls heading to the underworld. More bizarre then her features, was a distance sense of boldness creping through her smirk.

"Adisa! That is your king, DO NOT play with his mind!" Duzna ordered. Immediately the feeling of unknown hate evaded Vestomer's body.

"Oh she'll do just fine, the children won't see her coming, she'll attack, snuffing out there hope, and leaving them in despair." Vestomer held a despicably evil smile upon his face as the words left his mouth.

"How will I find them?" Adisa pondered aloud to Duzna.

Duzna reached into his cloak and pulled out a vile, which was attached to a chain around his neck. He removed the necklace and detached the vile of liquid.

The evil sorcerer lift the vile to eye level, and for the first time since the castle fire, a hint, a tiny fragment, a miniscule of sadness dangled in his pupils.

"This vile contains the blood of my son. He was a Magic Born, such as I, and when the Rebels decided to attack I left him, hidden in the forest, but extracted his blood. So what ever happened, where ever I was, I could find him."

Adisa stood, not moved by Duzna's story. "And you can use someone's blood to find them?"

"Only if they are bound to you by blood. The vile will glow brighter as you come closer to your target." Duzna unsheathed his knife and sliced a gash into his palm.

He closed his hand a squeezed until a trail of blood dripped into the vile. Duzna swirled the liquid until it began to emit a faint light. "Now Adisa Rathmore, you can find Rayner Moonfall." Unfortunately the feeling of pity was limited and left Duzna's body with the words he spoke.

Adisa snatched the vile from Duzna's hand and laughed. "When I return their bodies will not be recognizable..." Adisa raised her hands and Duzna backed away.

Every shadow in the corridor shrieked and slithered to her finger tips. Soon she was standing in the eye of a swirling vortex of darkness. The cloud of pitch blackness spun faster and faster until it shriveled into nothingness, along with Adisa.

"Where has she gone?!" Vestomer sprung from his seat, confused.

"To retrieve the children, as you requested." Duzna replied.

"I know! But how!?" Vestomer raged, perplexed at the situation. 

"Her powers of darkness allow her to seep into a shadow, and emerge into another." Duzna informed.

Vestomer's raised eyebrow lowered, his grim look of confusion evaporated, and the anger wrinkles on his forehead faded. 

"Well then, all is going according to plan..." Vestomer spoke calming, then re-seated himself upon his throne. 

***

Mace led on Nilas, while Theresa followed on Nyx, and Ares trudged slowly behind them. The two rode in silence until they arrived at their destination.

"Welcome to the Valley of Thieves..." Mace slowly pulled one of his axes from its sheath, which was strapped to his outer thigh. "If we travel through here, we will arrive on the other side of mountain faster than if we climbed over." Mace inhaled and calmly exhaled. "But be prepared, they didn't name it the Valley of Thieves for nothing."

Theresa lifted her right hand and three knives from the wristlet oh left forearm floated into the air. The razor sharp blades were then aimed toward the entrance of the valley.

"Don't worry, I'm ready..." Theresa turned her palmed upward and the blades began to circle five inches above the surface of her hand. Mace nodded and he pushed forward. Theresa followed. 

***

"THERE!!" Ceridwen's words made Egon shake in his saddle. They had be riding for so long, in silence, he was a bit startled at her sudden statement.

"Ahh...What...Who's there?" Egon asked searching for an enemy.

"Not who, but what. The berries!" Ceridwen said as she yanked on Artemis's reins and leapt from her horse. 

"Woah boy!" Egon halted Apollo and raced after her. "Are those─"

"Oh yes..." Ceridwen said as she plucked two berries from the bush. "Ready to get you staff back?"

Egon smiled and the two hopped back onto their horses, and raced toward Sapphira's pond. 

***

Mace twirled his axe in one hand and held onto Nilas's reins with the other. His icy eyes twitched back-and-forth from one side of the cannon to another. The Valley of the Thieves was a narrow path with massive cliffs of rock on each side.

Theresa, still levitating throwing knifes above her hand, asked.

"Do you hear that?" As she asked Nyx stopped, catching the drift of perilousness Theresa felt. "You heard it too, girl?" Theresa sagged down and patted Nyx's neck.

Suddenly Mace heard a whoosh sound from above. As he arched his neck toward the sky a silhouette fell, blocking the sun as it came, so all Mace saw was a dark being dropping from above. "What in the bloody─" Before Mace could find the words the shadowy figure landed on top of him, knocking him off of Nilas.

Theresa lunged from Nyx and blasted the man off of Mace. She pend him against the rocky, rough wall with her mind and hovered one of her knifes at his throat.

"Move and you lose your voice box!" She commanded. Ares and Nyx bolted to her side, growling in agreeance.

The man laughed and then spoke, as Mace was lifting himself off the ground.

"Little girl, honestly the state I'm in, you've seen to it that I can't. But don't worry, that'll soon change..." 

Mace's eyes grew large and his throat dried, as he ripped his second axes from its sheath on his thigh. "It's a trap..."

"I'll have to say, you're smarter than you look, too bad that won't help you now." The men laughed once more.

"It was a diversion...so they could..." Mace's gaze drifted to the entrance of the cannon and he gulped. "...barricade us in." Mace's hands began to glow bright white and a thick sheet of ice materialize on the blades of his axes, climbing their way to a pointed edge.

Mace leaned over to the man Theresa still had pend against the wall. "You're a bloody fool. Its plain barmy if you believe you'll make it out alive." Mace smirked at the man.

Theresa extended her hand and hovered a massive bolder toward the man. "Nighty night!" And with those words she flung the rock at the man's temple, and knocked him out, cold. "Ok let's get this over with, we have places to go."

Theresa closed her eyes and twelve nearby fist sized pebbles began to float around her. She opened her eyes, tightened her wristlets, and drew two throwing blades. 

Mace twirled his axes, smiled, and turned around. "Oh that's nice, they brought friends." Mace said with a hint of sarcasm.

Theresa and Mace now circled back to back as the thieves inches closer. There were three at the entrance and three at the exit, rapidly making their way toward the two Magic Born.

"Not to worry, so did I..." Theresa drifted her eyes toward Nyx and Ares and the panther along with the bear roared, barring their razor like teeth, in reply.   

"I'll take these bloody morons." Mace said pointing to the ones advancing from the entrance. "You take the others."

Theresa nodded. "Shall we teach them not to mess with Magic Born?"

***

Ceridwen slapped Artemis's reins, urging her to sprint faster. Egon kicked Apollo in the side, as the two bolted toward the location of his staff, Sapphira's pond. 

Ceridwen's mossy green irises enlarged as the landscape before her grew closer and more visible. Her mouth dropped open as to two neared to lagoon.

Astonishingly, the once filled lake was drier than the sand of a desert. Ceridwen's eyes were fixed upon to motionless bodies in the center of the pit. She vaulted from Artemis and raced to Sapphira's aid.

Just then Egon caught up with her, slid off Apollo, and immediately, when they locked eyes, he knew, Sapphira was dead.

"NO! She was the only way to get my staff back!" Egon rushed to Ceridwen's side and rolled Sapphira over. The mermaid had burn marks littered all over her body. Beside Sapphira laid Talia with an arrow protruding from her body, her sister that Ceridwen had killed earlier that day.

"Well that's not the problem here..." Ceridwen said pointing to Egon's staff that was laying ten feet away.

Egon darted to pick it up, but was stopped by an immense heat.

"The girl's right, that's not the problem..." The sharp, familiar words were poured into Egon's ear like a vile toxin.

Ceridwen whirled around and nocked an arrow, because she knew that voice all too well. "Duzna..." She released the arrow but it simple fazed through her target. "A heat mirage..."

"Precisely my dear." Duzna waved his hands and his body was engulfed in flames. Suddenly scorching heat was summoned behind Ceridwen and his image reformed.

"A heat mirage?" Egon pick up his staff, and looked a Ceridwen queerly.

Ceridwen gripped her bow and locked eyes with Duzna as he circled her, striking fear in her heart. "Yes...Duzna can manipulate the heat and appear anywhere, yet he can't harm us..."

"Are you sure...?" Egon watched as the evil wizard took pleasure in tormenting Ceridwen.

"Yes dear...are you positive I can't incinerate your organs?" Duzna's face was pure glee, nothing but malicious glee.

Ceridwen's pulse rapidly increased, like a terrified hare racing back to its burrow. Her heart swiftly vibrated in her chest like a hive of bees, and for a moment she had no idea whether she was safe or in grave danger.

And Egon's words didn't reassure her security.

"Then how is Sapphira dead...?" Egon pointed his staff toward the wizard. "Leave, NOW!"

Duzna evaporated and seared in front of Egon. The despicable sorcerer steamed inches from Egon's face. "And who's going to make me, you? I'm untouchable! But you're not..." Duzna let out a crazed laugh, while flames of insanity dance within his eyes. "And what is preventing me from melting your flesh?" 

"You can't, it's not within you power."  Ceridwen said, more of a question than a statement.

"My powers limit me from touching you, but I can control the heat in the air. Where do you suppose all the water went?" Duzna inhaled and closed his eyes. "And by the taste of things, the fever of the day is heightened!" Duzna's eyes burst open and a threatening fire swirled with in his pupils.

"Then do what you came here to do!" Ceridwen scream, realizing she couldn't prevent the inevitable.

"Oh my darling, I'm not her to kill you I'm here to warn you." Duzna gleamed at Ceridwen and his eyes were glazed with madness. "If you don't cease your mission, I will kill you, and it will be excruciating" He grit his teeth as he roared the words.

"But why wait? Why give us a chance?" Egon questioned.

Ceridwen expression of concern was absorbed with Egon's words, as she realized the truth. "Because you can't, you can't hurt us. You're too weak. Harm is not upon us, only your fear of us completing the mission and ceasing your madness forever!"

Ceridwen turned around and strolled toward Artemis, Egon followed.

"You've obviously miss judged this situation..." Duzna calmly, growled with the tone of a snake, hissing his threats.

Suddenly, before Ceridwen could exit the pit, a wall of fire barricaded her way. With no time to escape, or react, a circle of a blazing inferno incase the two children.

Egon shielded his eyes when the flames rose. Ceridwen threw over her hood, trying to hide from the charring furnace.

"I may be weak, but you are no match for me. A cursed orphan searching for the key to free her parents, and an adolescent striving for power only to come up empty handed every time." Duzna tore away Egon heart strings with his last comment and left Ceridwen in a cauldron of brokenness with the one before.

The circle began to tighten around the two, becoming more and more miniscule by the second. Suddenly the heat was close enough to burn skin. Ceridwen had passed out from lack of air.

The fire cremated its way through Egon's flesh. He dropped to the ground gasping for air. The oxygen was being ripped from his lungs and soon he would end up like Ceridwen, and the scorch would consume them both.

His heart pounded, His blood boiled, His skin seared, and his esophagus was inflamed with heat. Egon was cradled in a ball, eyes shut, huddled on the ground. Then when all hope was lost, the unbelievable, the unthinkable, and the undiscoverable, was released from his body.

A glowing light brighter than a thousand suns emitted from Egon's presents. His hands were filled with luminous ball of golden light. His eyelids exploded open and shining white orbs glowed in the place of his eyes.

The intense glistening lights erupted in an uncontrollable wave, which streamed outward. When the dazzling light made contact with the fire, the flames vanished. When Egon could see once more Duzna was gone. His body was trembling and his hands shaking.

"Was that...you?" Ceridwen's voice was dry and mystified.

Egon slowly trudged over and clamped a hold of his staff. He took a prolonged breathe and finally found the words. "Yes..."