Richard Tuttle - Sapphire of the Fairies

After examining the stalactite, Jennevashook her head. “I can’t tell if it goes through or not. Theeasiest way will be to shatter it and see what happens. Let’s findsomething to provide cover. When it shatters, pieces of rock willbe flying all over the place and I won’t have any shieldsup.”

They scampered off the roof onto a pileof gold and slid to the floor of the lair. Alex found somefull-length silver shields and dragged them to the opposite side ofthe lair.

“I can hold the two of theseand we can hide behind them,” Alex declared as he indicated to Kazand Yorra to leave the chamber. “Will they besufficient?”

Jenneva nodded and focused on thestalactite. Suddenly, the hairs on the back of Alex’s head stoodout and he looked around frantically to see if someone else was inthe lair. High above him, he picked out a small pair of eyes justas Jenneva yelled, “Down!”

It was hard for Alex to tell which wasworse, the concussion of air and rocks smashing against the twoshields as he strained to hold them away from Jenneva and himself,or the absolutely deafening sound that reverberated off the wallsof the lair. The reverberation lasted for over half a minute. Theringing in his ears lasted much longer. Jenneva ended up prone onthe floor with Alex on top of her. The two shields lay on top ofboth of them. Pushing the shields off, Alex looked up to find thepair of eyes, but the chamber was so full of dust that he could seenothing past the shields.

Jenneva slowly got up and startedanother incantation. Within seconds, a whirlwind was created in thevent and started twirling violently. Gold and silver coins startedto rise off the floor in the center of the lair to be caught up inthe whirlwind, but quickly dropped back to the floor. What did getcaught in the whirlwind was the dust and within moments Jenneva wasable to see across the chamber again. She turned towards Alex andsaw his lips moving, but all she could hear was a ringing in herears.

Mind speech is the only waywe will be able to communicate for a while, Alex.

You didn’t mention that wewould go deaf, Jenneva.

I’ve never quite done thisinside a mountain before, Alex. It won’t last long. Let’s see if wehave an entrance hole.

Alex again hoisted Jenneva up onto theroof of the vault and they crawled to where the stalactite hadbeen. Alex smiled when he saw the hole in the roof. It was toosmall for him to fit through, but Jenneva would be able to make it.She obviously had the same idea because she was already loweringherself into the vault. Alex grabbed her hands from the lip andstretched his arms into the vault as far has the hole would allowhim. She dropped the short distance remaining and Alex lowered thelamp down to her. She was soon gone from his view and Alex turnedhis attention back to the vent where he had seen the small pair ofeyes. He hoped it had not been Kaz or Yorra coming back down thevent. He would know soon enough because the unicorns would returnwhen the dust stopped flowing out of the vent.

Having nothing to do for a while, Alexslid off the roof and scooped a couple of handfuls of gold coinsinto his pouches. Kaz and Yorra returned and settled down on thefloor.

How did you and Jenneva avoidgetting hurt down here? inquired Kaz.

We hid behind some old silvershields. Did you see anyone in the vent on your way up? Alexasked.

Nobody, but the concussion blew abird out, an osprey I think, though it was hard to tell. Poorlittle thing must have been frightened out of its wits. Is Jennevain the vault? Yorra snorted.

I am and I would like to come outnow, Jenneva answered.

Alex scrambled onto the roof and stuckone arm in as far as he could. He heard something scraping alongthe floor and then felt Jenneva’s hands grab his arm. Steadily,Alex hoisted her up until she could grasp the rim of the hole.Repositioning himself so he was squatting over the hole, he reacheddown and grabbed her arms again and straightened his legs until shecould stand on the roof of the vault. She reached into her pouchand extracted the Crown of Light and smiled at him. Replacing itinto her pouch, she slid off the roof and mounted Yorra. Alexquickly followed her and mounted Kaz and the two unicorns leapedinto the air and spiraled into the vent.

On the short flight to the top of themountain, Alex’s ears began to clear and he could hear sounds now,although the level was still low. Upon landing, the unicornsinvoked the spells that hid their wings and horns and looked likelarge horses again. By the time Garth and Kalina returned to themansion, their hearing was restored and the ringing wasgone.

“I shall never belittle theability to hear properly again,” chuckled Garth. “I wonder how theChildren are doing? What are we going to tell them,anyway?”

“I will tell them that weretrieved it magically,” stated Kalina, “and when they ask how, Iwill tell them that they are not ready for that lesson yet. Whatdoes it matter, anyway?”

Garth and Kalina strode into thesitting room and found Arik talking with General Fernandez. “Whereis everybody else?” Garth asked.

“We don’t know,” Arikanswered. “Somebody noticed that Tedi was missing and everyone isoff looking for him. We didn’t realize it, but no one has seen himsince we came back from the cave. Tanya thought he might still bethere trying to figure a way to get into the vault. Fredrik andNiki left separately. I think Fredrik searched the mansion and thenwent outside. I am not sure where Niki went. I am supposed to stayhere in case Tedi returns.”

“I think that is an excellentidea,” Kalina responded. “Garth and I will ride out to the cave andsee if the others are there. If anyone returns here, tell them tostay put.”

Garth and Kalina ran back outside andmounted Kaz and Yorra. Swiftly, they rode to the cave and entered.Tedi was laid out on the floor with Niki kneeling next to him.Tanya was sitting with her left sleeve and left pant leg rolled upand Fredrik was cleaning scrape wounds she had incurred. When Garthand Kalina dismounted, Fredrik rose to meet them.

“Thank goodness, you’ve come,”Fredrik blurted out. “Tedi was stuck in that tunnel when there wasan explosion of some type. We think he may be deaf. Niki is tryingsome spell that she learned from one of those healing books youpurchased in Melbin. Tanya had to crawl into the tunnel and dragTedi out. She got scraped up pretty badly.”

Garth retrieved some ointments andbandages from his saddle pouch and tended to Tanya, while Kalinawent to check on Tedi. Kalina bent down and examined Tedi’s ears.Niki moved aside, but did not say anything. After the examination,Kalina sat on the floor of the cave.

“I think it is just atemporary nerve deafening,” Kalina announced. “He should be allright in a day or so.”

“Of course, he will be allright,” announced Niki boastfully. “I have fixed him up with ahealing spell. He will be able to hear fine in a day ortwo.”

“What spell did you use?”Kalina asked as she shot Niki a sideways glance.

“Nerve Crescendo,” Nikianswered smugly. “He would have been deaf if I did not. The spellmust be used before the nerves go totally dead. By the time you gothere it would have been too late.”

Kalina smiled grimly. “Very well,Niki,” she said. “Let’s get him back to the mansion and get him tobed. Are you well enough to ride, Tanya?”

Tanya just nodded and rolled her pantsand sleeve back down over the bandages that Garth had applied.Everyone rode back in silence and Kalina dropped back so far thatGarth went to see if there was something wrong with Yorra. When hegot alongside Kalina, she put her finger to her lips.

“There was no damage to hisears,” Kalina whispered. “That fool girl may well have started himon the road to insanity. His ears were probably affected about thesame as ours were. His hearing will improve now, slowly at least,but eventually it will be hard for him to stand the noise. Hishearing is going to be so sensitive that his own breathing will belike the roar of the wind in a thunderstorm. If we do not find away to deaden the nerves, he will go crazy.”