Richard Tuttle - Sapphire of the Fairies

“The Dark Riders took themaway,” Fredrik said. “They asked about the horses and whether theyhad seen anyone since camping here.”

“You were able to hear theconversation?” Tedi asked, shivering with the thought of being thatclose to Dark Riders.

“All of it,” Fredrik declaredas the three boys headed towards the wagon. “Garth and Kalinacertainly sounded pretty calm in front of the Dark Riders. I’m notsure if they will be coming back.”

“Where is Niki,” Tedi asked.“Didn’t you untie her?”

Fredrik froze by the campfire andstarted looking all around the campsite. “I did untie her before Icame to get you two,” he exclaimed. “Where has she gone offto?”

Just then, the three boys heard a thumpfrom inside the wagon. They scrambled over each other in theirattempt to open the wagon door. Arik was first to get there andthrew open the door. Niki shot bolt upright at the sound andfinally let out her breath when she saw who it was.

“Are you trying to scare me todeath!” Niki exclaimed as she returned to her searching.

“What are you doing?” demandedArik. “She will skin us alive if she catches you inthere.”

Fredrik and Tedi crowded into thedoorway, craning their necks to get a good view of inside of thewagon. “This may be our only chance to find out who they are,” Nikiasserted. “Why don’t the three of you go back outside and watch tosee if they are returning?”

The three boys tumbled out of thedoorway and paced around outside. “I can’t believe she is doingthat,” declared Arik.

“I think it is a good idea,”remarked Tedi, “if she knows something good when she seesit.”

Niki came out of the wagon, strugglingto carry a long package wrapped in canvas. “This was too long tounwrap inside,” she smirked, “but I think it is important. It wasso well hidden, that it must be very valuable. The wagon had beenmodified just to hide this.”

Tedi smiled and thought he might growto like this red-haired girl. The four of them gathered to helpunroll the canvas wrapping. The article had obviously been wrappedfor years and the ties were old and brittle. When they hadsucceeded in unrolling the canvas, they discovered an ancient swordin a jewel-bedecked scabbard. The hilt of the sword was gold withintricate carvings, but it was also devoid of the gems that soobviously once adorned the hilt.

“Somebody has already stolenthe gems from it,” Tedi remarked. “This probably once belonged to aking. Do you think Garth and Kalina stole it?”

Four pair of hands probed the emptysockets in the hilt as if measuring the huge size of the gems thatused to be there. “I’ll bet if they were diamonds, one of themwould have been worth enough to live like a prince for a lifetime,”Fredrik spoke.

“What are a pair of gypsiesdoing with something like this?” Arik mused, unaware of the pair ofeyes that were watching him from the woods.

One of the boys turned the sword overto look at the other side. This side of the hilt was similar to theother side, except in place of the large holes where the gems usedto reside, was a single line of glass beads and one of them wasmissing. Niki looked down at the canvas and found the missing glassbead. “Look what you oafs have done,” she scowled holding up thebead.

“Why blame us?” Fredrik asked.“You’re the one who brought this thing out of the wagon. Maybe wecan just stick it back in and wrap the sword up again.”

Niki tried to stick the bead back intothe sword hilt, but it would not stick. “It is no use,” she sighed.“I think we ought to wrap it back up and plead ignorance if theyever notice it was disturbed.”

“That is if they ever returnfrom the Dark Riders,” Fredrik mentioned.

As if summoning a great evil would callit down on yourself, the four children looked up at the sound ofhorses entering the clearing. Garth and Kalina continued to ridetowards the group of children and the expressions on their faceswere not friendly. Niki was still holding the glass bead and sheimmediately put her hands behind her back.

“So,” Kalina admonished, “thisis the type of children we protect from the Dark Riders. Childrenwho rifle through someone’s belongings the moment they are out ofsight.”

“Perhaps we waste our time onthese vagabonds,” Garth added. “Surely, the Children of theProphecy would not be the type to steal from people who aredevoting their lives to protecting them.”

The four children backed themselves upuntil their feet were pressed against the stone ring around thecampfire and, still, Garth and Kalina rode slowly towards them. Thepair of eyes in the woods opened widely as they watched the scenebelow in the clearing.

Garth and Kalina dismounted and let thehorses roam free. Together they continued forward towards thechildren. Kalina looked down at the sword and gasped. She noticedthe missing glass bead and her face contorted in fury. “Garth,” shesteamed, “they were vandalizing it for the stones.”

Garth stopped and bent down and pickedup the ancient sword. He turned it over and looked at the jewels inthe scabbard and then turned it over to examine the glass beads inthe hilt. Seeing the bottom glass bead as the only missing piece,he slowly lowered the sword to the canvas.

Straightening up, he approached thegroup of children who were standing with their backs to the fire.The children tried to cringe away from the imposing gypsy, butthere was nowhere to go.

“We didn’t mean to harm it,”Arik blurted out. “It was an accident. Honest!”

“He’s telling the truth,”Fredrik offered. “Besides, Arik and Tedi had nothing to do with it.They didn’t even know that Niki and I were looking through yourwagon and we were only doing it to try to determine who youare.”

“Nothing gives you the rightto go through our belongings,” Garth bellowed. “Nothing! If Tediand Arik had nothing to do with it, at least they could havestopped it.”

Niki brought her empty hand out infront of her and prepared to hurl a Force Bolt at Garth. As her armstraightened in front of her, it grew cold and blue. Niki stared ather arm in disbelief as it grew colder and bluer and ice began toform on it. She looked over at Kalina and saw the thin smile ofsatisfaction on Kalina’s lips.

“She’s a witch!” Nikiscreamed. “She’s a witch and she’s frozen my arm.”

The three boys looked at Niki’s arm andturned their horrified gaze towards Kalina. Kalina simply continuedto smile at them.

Fredrik glared at Kalina. “Release herfrom your spell, witch,” he demanded. “Release her atonce.”

When Kalina made no move to restoreNiki’s arm, Fredrik reached for the power to teach the gypsy themeaning of real power. His face turned to wonderment and continuedits transformation to a mask of rage when he found out thatsomething was blocking his ability to reach the power. No. Notsomething, someone. He looked over at Kalina again and, still, shestood smiling.

“Do not try any more of yourtricks,” she said softly. “I find them offensive andinhospitable.”

Fredrik realized that if Kalina couldshut him off from the power, any other spell he might try on herwould result in disaster. “So, you do work for the Dark One,” hesaid. “Your little ruse about the Dark Riders being after us, wasjust an excuse to make us think we were safe until you could getout of us whatever it is you are after. Well, you will get nothingout of me. I would rather die than serve you.”

Garth stepped forward and thrust outhis hand. “Give me the glass bead,” he demanded.

Niki tried to lean back away from hisoutstretched hand and tripped over the rock ring of the campfire.Garth’s hand shot out and grabbed her tunic just before she fellinto the fire. Niki’s hand opened in a reflex action to break herfall and the glass bead rolled off her fingertips into thefire.