| | | | | “You ready?”
Destiny wasn’t too sure about how she should answer to Ryan’s question. They were all now at the spiral door, all heading off to Krokotopia in a quest to defeat a teenage necromancer called Vladimir Thorn. One minute, she had been a normal initiate necromancer thriving in her studies, the next she was heading off to a quest that was of utter importance to the spiral.
She recalled the last time she had been in the spiral chamber. At the time her cousin Esmee had been showing her a surprise for her orientation, when she had been positive she would be placed in fire. But, she had been marked as a necromancer, throwing away her big plans for the future. When she heard this, Destiny had done everything she could to revolt. That hadn’t been too long ago, and yet a lot had changed, including the fact she and Sophia were fighting more than ever. Destiny gave a shudder when Sophia had found out she had been placed in the school of Death.
“How did orientation go, my favorite pyromancer?” Sophia had asked.
Destiny fumbled with her fingers as she stuttered. “Well, um, th-the thing is, kinda, well, um,” She had been scratching the back of her hood, her fire robes had been on at the time. “It sorta has to b-be my secondary school.”
Sophia’s expression looked stunned, but her eyes seemed to glimmer. “Really? Did you happen to be placed in, well, I don’t know, the opposite school?”
“No Sophie, I didn’t get placed in Ice.” Apparently Sophia had been hoping they would get put in the same classes. “Well, what school WERE you placed in?”
At the time Destiny couldn’t bring herself to say she was in death. All their lives they had been raised and told not to get too close to necromancer, in fear of being backstabbed. They were taught they were not only backstabbers, but a bad influence, aggressive, cunning, elusive, creatures that had arose from the remains of darkness and doom, cursed to eternally reap themselves and everything around them. And now she was forced to admit she was one of them. Did this mean she would be one of them? Had her fate just been dumped like that? Was her future not a pillar of light, but a tomb of eternal darkness?
Don’t fret, soothed a voice inside her. Change is completely normal.
But why? Argued another. Why this and now, and why does it forcefully cripple me?
Destiny shuffled her feet and nodded over to the death plaque as a part of the circle dug into the gravel.
Sophia gasped. “You don’t mean-“
“I’m afraid so.”
“But how can you be in death? You were so sure?”
“Look, it’s going to be all right. We’re still friends here, and fire will be my second school. We still might have a class together.”
“Like that’ll happen! Fire is the opposite of Ice, and if I take Fire as my secondary school when my primary is Ice, everyone will think I’m a doofus.”
“It doesn’t matter what they think.”
“Then how come you were so nervous about what I thought?”
“I didn’t want to lose you!”
“You can’t lose a friend because of a stupid school!”
Sophia seemed to calm down after that.”How about we go see the teachers in Ravenwood?” She asked. “I still haven’t seen my secondary teacher.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Agreed Destiny. “Where to?”
“Professor Wu.”
“You chose LIFE?” Destiny burst. “That’s the opposite of my school!”
“It’s not too bad-“
“Are you kidding? Those fools are weak! So weak, in fact, they have to rely on spells that heal themselves and never really do much damage! Why? Because they’re sissies!”
Sophia stood in shock to Destiny’s outburst. There was a long silence when Sophia muttered, “I guess you really are a necromancer, Destiny.” She headed toward the Life school.
“I didn’t want to be a necromancer!” Destiny shouted at her. “I didn’t have a choice!”
Before heading into the Life school, Sophia replied, “You do have a choice, Destiny.” Then she disappeared into the Life school.
Destiny turned away from her when she spotted a familier figure standing alone in the snow behind Kelvin, the ice tree.
Esmee had witnessed everything. She then turned and ran behind the Ice school. Destiny was now feeling more alone then ever. Most necromancer’s wouldn’t mind, but she was different.
What was she turning into?
“Uh, Destiny? Hello?”
Destiny snapped back into reality. Chris was sitting next to the door, his back leaning against one of the sides. Jason was holding a key that had the letters KT on it. Natalie and Ryan were standing next to her.
Should I bring Sophia along? Destiny thought. She would be more comfortable with her alongside her. But mo. She couldn’t bring herself to place her in such a predicament.
“I’m ready.” Destiny said.
In turn, Jason fitted the key into the lock and flung the door, revealing a barren landscape of sand and pyramids and deserts. The sky was a deep black.
“Wow, this sure is the Balance schools’ home turf,” Remarked Destiny as they all stepped through. Natalie shut the door behind them. “No wonder the Balance school’s here.”
“Did you know he was left handed?” Ryan asked.
“Really?” Destiny asked.
“Not only was Balance peaceful, but he was inventive as well,” Jason said. “When Fire predicted Valkoor thorn, the boy who arose from the remains of the monster, would return, for unknown reasons when the other offered to build a school for Balance magic on the Ravenwood grounds, he simply found Krokotopia, then fled the offer with his tail in between his legs and built a school for Balance underground where only balance students know the location.”
“You believe he was hiding something?” Destiny asked.
“Yeah, we believe tha-“ Ryan was cut off by an orange mander holding a lantern.
“Past cerfew, kids,” Said the mander. “You need to get into your tents and stay in there until morning.”
“Oh, shoot!” Natalie slapped her hand against her face. “We completely forgot about tents!”
“Well I guess I’ll have to send you back to Wizard City.” The mander replied.
“No!” Ryan shouted and ran up to the mander. “Please, this is an urgent-“
“Sorry kids,” The mander said. “But you’re all going to have to go home back to your-“
“Wait!” Called an unrecognizable voice. A girl emerged out of one of the tents pitched next to the Krokotopian Library. She wore red and white clothes and had black hair tied up in a ponytail like Destiny. “I’ll take them in.”
The mander didn’t protest. He just shrugged and walked away.
“Come in,” The girl invited, holding a flap of the tent to form an entryway.
“Wait, Jason said, holding everyone back from the tent. “Who are you, and why are you doing this?”
“I am Neela Waterpetal, an adept pyromancer.” She replied. “As for your second question, I have to stay in Krokotopia for a while, although I want to travel to various locations throughout the spiral. So, to amuse myself, I take people in when they need it, like a tavern.”
Hesistantly, Jason entered the tent that had three benches out lining the sides. Jason immediately knocked out on a bench in the north. The other two were taken quickly by both of the diviners, Ryan on the left, Natalie on the right.
Neela got three blankets out of a bag. She placed a red one on Jason, handed a purple one to Ryan and another blue one to Natalie.
“Storm’s my school, but this will work.” Natalie said.
Neither Chris or Destiny had a place to sleep. Neela grabbed two more blankets- one yellow, one green – and gave them to Chris. As he was setting up, he tried not to show it, but for the first time Destiny could see a tiny smile, and noted he was glancing back and forth from his pack to Neela.
Neela got out a red sleeping bag after Chris settled in. She padded it out on the sand, and pulled out the ribbon that held her ponytail in place. She spotted Destiny. “Oh!” Neela cried out in shock. “I’m sorry, I didn’t see you were there.” She looked around. “Here, you can share my sleeping bag, its big enough for the two of us.” Neela got in and scooted to the left.
Following Neela’s example, Destiny took off her hat and undid her ponytail. She squeezed inot the sleeping bag next to Neela.
Neela took out two more blankets and folded them into fours. She handed a black one to Destiny. She was opening her mouth when Destiny interrupted. “Yes, I’m a necromancer. Don’t ask.”
“Hey, I was only going to state that you don’t talk much, like the conjurer over there.” Neela placed a tan folded blanket under her head. So they served as pillows.
“Oh, you mean Chris over there?” Destiny placed the makeshift pillow under her head. “The pyromancer over there snoring his heart out is Jason, the boy diviner over there is Ryan, and the girl diviner over there is Natalie, his sister.” Destiny held out her hand to Neela. “I’m Destiny.”
“Nice to meet you,” Neela took Destiny’s hand. “So what are you all doing?”
“Not sure, really,” Destiny replied. “I think we’re supposed to find something here.”
Neela yawned. “Anyways, save it for tomorrow, I’m really tired.” Neela blew out the fire in the lantern.
“Neela, can I ask you something?” Destiny asked.
“Didn’t really give me a choice there, did you?”
Destiny laughed. “Good one! Anyways, I was wondering, as an adept, do you know Meteor Strike by any chance?”
Though it was pitch black, Destiny could see the smile on Neela’s face. “Of course I do.”
“Can you teach it to me?”
“When you’re an adept, yes.”
Destiny shuffled to her side, feeling the best she had felt after starting the mission.
Destiny awoke not to be in the tent, but in an icy glade where snow was covering the field and land, and a frozen lake behind her, and snow was slowly drifting from the sky to the ground. It was a wonderland of ice.
Ice.
Suddenly a huge lion dashed out of the trees, running on its paws. A girl was riding it, a girl who she hadn’t seen before but yet was very familier.
It was Ice, the first to use Ice magic.
Then the lion pricked one of its forepaws on a thorn, and roared in pain, and Ice was trying to calm him down.
The blood that had gushed out of the paw was now flowing like a stream, ruining the beauty of the glade, spelling out in letters-
Destiny awoke, and immediately sat up straight, noticing Neela had already woke up.
But that didn’t matter. The dream, it mystified her, it even scared her a little. But it had really confused her. She couldn’t remember what word the blood spelled out, or what its purpose was. But one thing was clear:
Ice had been trying to tell her something.
Destiny got dressed and redid her hair before coming outside. Unlike the night before, the air was fresh and renewed, as if they had already defeated Vladimir.
Neela was sitting in front of a fire she had assembled, and was cooking some meat. She turned around and noticed Destiny. “Good morning,”
“Hey Neela,” Destiny greeted. “What’re you cooking?”
“Fish,” Neela said. “Want some?”
“No,” Destiny remembered the last time fish had been served. She had refused to eat it, so her family punished her by not allowing her to leave the table until it was cleared. She had been sitting there for three hours before eating one bite. She had thought it was disgusting that they would take the time to go out and fish when they could just buy a perfectly good can of tuna right from a store. It wasn’t fair to just take the ocean’s belongings.
“Take an apple, then.” Neela threw an apple at Destiny. It landed in the sand. She picked it up and brushed off the sand.
“Why is there a cerfew, Neela?” Destiny asked.
“Lately, a band of criminals have been stealing goods from Krokotopia,” Neela explained. “They call themselves the Death Bandits, consisting of three necromancers, two boys and a girl. They wear black clothes with a red trim. The girl does anyway, and the boys have a white trim.”
Destiny was almost positive that the gang belonged to Vladimir. But the real question was,
Who were the other two?
“Hey, do you think you can wake everybody else up?”
Neela’s request snapped Destiny back to reality. “Yeah, I can do that.”
Destiny went inside the tent and shook everybody up. She let everybody go out for breakfast except Jason.
“Jason, before Ryan was cut off by that mander, he said we were looking for something. What is it that Balance hid?”
“Balance intented the one of the greatest treasures of all: the Krokodial.”
“What’s that?”
“It’s like a compass, only a lot better,” Jason said. “Balance made it to suit your needs and wants.”
“So that means-“
“It’ll give the person who finds it first an enourmas head start on being able to find all desendants.” Jason finished.
“So you’re saying we can use this Krokodial to track down desandants?”
“Exactly what I’m saying.”
“Okay, so this Krokodial gives us a head start. The information won’t be useful unless we know where it is.” Destiny replied.
“I think it’s pretty obvious where the compass is located.”
Destiny racked through her brain until she thought, Why had Balance come here in the first place?
To build the balance school.
The Krokodial was hidden in the school of balance.
“Who will lead us there?” Destiny asked. “Only balance students know where it is!”
“You say you’re looking for the balance school?” A familier voice called.
Neela was standing in the entryway of the tent. “My secondary school is balance,” Neela said. “I can take you there.”
Before Jason could protest, Destiny said, ”Great! We’ll head out this afternoon.”
Neela smiled and left. Jason turned to destiny. “What did you just do?” He asked.
“I just bought the five of us a ticket to the balance school,” Destiny replied. “You can thank me after we get the Krokodial.”
“She could be working for Vladimir!”
“She’s going to take us to the balance school, how’s that being our rival?”
“It could be a trap!”
“If she was a minion of Vladimir, she would have contacted him and I would have caught her in the act!”
Jason had nothing to say to that.
All of a sudden a girl in ice robes and long black hair appeared in the tent.
“Destiny?” Sophia asked. “What’re you doing here? I thought you were good enough to be accepted into Dragonspyre Academy!” Sophia turned to Jason. “And what are you doing with HIM?” Apparently Sophia remembered Jason from the first incident with Vladimir.
“For your first question, Death students are taking an-around-the-spiral field trip to study different culture’s fighting skills,” Destiny couldn’t believe how well she was making this all up. “And Jason just teleported to me to to tell me how he was going to take a stand against Vladimir.”
“Oh,” Sophia believed everything. “Anyways, I wanted to show you something,” She pulled out a necklace. “I went to the bazaar and bought a chocker that gave me Blizard, and would you take a look at THIS!” Sophia handed Destiny the necklace and pointed out a line that ran along the face of the necklace. Destiny took them apart, making it a locket.
“It’s a locket, but it didn’t contain pictures.” Sophia said. “It contained this.” She pulled out a blue sliver of glass shaped like a thin diamond, so think it was like a sliver.
“You have a knowledge of artifacts, what do you think it is?”
Destiny turned the sliver, observing it. She turned to Jason, who just shrugged.
“I have no clue,” Destiny said, handing the sliver back to Sophia. “Here you go again.”
“Oh well, I’ll just put it back in the locket.” Sophia put the sliver back in the locket. “Anyways, good luck with Dragonspyre Academy.”
“Thanks,” Destiny said as Sophia teleported back to Wizard City.
After they all ate breakfast, they concentraited on what to do next.
“Me and Chris will be going to the wand shop,” Jason said.
“You guys are maguses, you already have a good wand.” Natalie said.
“Picking out one for your brother,” Jason replied. “He’s in the library looking for something.”
“That’s strange,” Said Natalie. “Ryan’s not the type to go to libraries, or even to read.”
“Maybe he’s a traitor,” Jason suggested.
“you’ve been thinking that everyone’s a traitor lately,” Destiny mumbled underneath her breath.
“Ryan’s the one who formed the whole organization!” Natalie defended. “That’s not exactly being a traitor.”
“Never mind this whole thing about traitors!” Destiny said. “I had a dream last night, and Ice was in it.”
“You mean Ice the first to use ice magic?” Natalie questioned.
“No, I mean Ice that cools off a bruise, yes the first to use ice magic!” Destiny told them about the glade and Ice and lion and the blood and ended with, “What do you think it means?”
“It seems Ice was trying to contact us,” Jason pointed out.
“Yeah, really useful,” Destiny replied sarcastically. “Any ideas on WHAT she was trying to tell us?”
“Possibly something about her desendant,” Jason said.
“How is a lion pricking its paw give us a hint to the desendant of ice?” Natalie asked.
“The original wizards can be tricky,” Jason mused.
“We should get to this later,” Natalie said. “We should try to find Ice’s desendant.”
“I think I know just who to contact,” Destiny said.
Before either Natalie or Jason could ask, Destiny teleported.
Destiny found Chris Mythflame heading to the Ice school. He turned and saw Destiny.
“Destiny?” Chris asked. “Are you all right? You fainted after the duel! And aren’t you supposed to be enrolled in Dragonspyre Academy?”
“Class starts in the afternoon,” Destiny said. She was getting annoyed of this Dragonspyre Academy thing. “Anyway, I need you to do a fovor rfor me.”
“What is it?”
“I need you to be on the lookout for any strand thauatmerges in paticualr, considerably maguses or masters.”
“Okay, but-“
Destiny cut him off. “Thanks, bye!” She teleported to Jason.
“I think that would do nicely for him,” Jason was saying as Destiny teleported.
“Don’t we need to get to the balance school?” Destiny asked.
“Neela said she wanted to find a ring that gave her phoenix.”
The doors in the wand shop slammed open. In the entryway were three Kroks.
“I think she’s the one!” Cried the Krok in front. He pointed a finger at Destiny.
“That I’m a what?” Asked Destiny.
“Someone just reported that they had seen a Death Bandit here.” The Krok said.
“What makes you think I’m a Death Bandit?” Destiny questioned.
“Black and red clothing,” The Krok pointed out.
Destiny looked down at her clothes, and sure enough, her Frost-Touched Cap and her Cryptkeepers Cloak were lack lined with red. Only her Onyx Studded Boots were different, and those were completely black.
“If you think Destiny is a Death Bandit,” Jason said. “You’re crazy!”
“Maybe we are,” The Krok countered. “But the reporter isn’t.”
“And just who that may be?” Jason raised an eyebrow.
“That is classified,” The Krok said simply. “Now hand her over, or I might believe that all of you are Death Bandits.”
“Look,” Destiny shoved Jason and Chris away so she was face-to-face with the Krok. “I am NOT a Death Bandit. I teleported to Jason here not a minute before you arrived. So how can someone report us that quick?
“Furthermore,” She continued. “Jason and Chris here aren’t necromancers. And just because I’m one doesn’t nessisarily mean that I’m bad.”
“She’s right, you know,” Jason agreed.
“Step aside and let us do the work,” The partrolkrok argrued.
“And most of all,” Destiny said. “Krokotopia is a place of balance. Balance is peace. And it is not peaceful to just barge in here and accuss us of being criminals without any evidence whatsoever except for the fact that I wear black and red clothing!”
The kroks weren’t paying any attention, though. What they were paying attention to was a massive tornado of sand a hundred times as big as the Krokotopian Library right behind them.
“I thought there weren’t supposed to be any sandstorms for a long time!” The wand shop keeper protested.
The sandstorm leaned in the doorway ambushing the Kroks and giving time for the trio to flee.
They ran out, breathless. “We need to split up!” Destiny yelled. “Chris, get Natalie! Jason, find Ryan! I’ll look for Neela! Meet up at camp! Without arguing, Jason and Chris left Destiny to the ring shop.
Destiny ran in, finding Neela purchasing something in the ring shop.
“There’s a huge sandstorm out there!” Destiny grabbed Neela’s arm. “We need you to lead us to the balance school NOW!” She ushured Neela out the door as she was crying, “Hey! I was about to buy that ring!”
“That’s the least of our problems!” Destiny yelled as she guided Neela out of the raging sandstorm.
Once they reached camp, they saw Chris and Jason had done their jobs.
“Neela, where’s the balance school?” Jason asked.
“It’s underground in Krokosphinx,” Neela replied. “You need to take a boat to get there.”
Destiny was paying attention to the sandstorm. It was causing havoc everywhere on a huge rampage.
Even they accused me of being a Death Bandit, Destiny thought. It deosn’t mean they deserve THIS.
Destiny ran to the sandstorm, challenging it as much as she had the patrolkrok. She saw the same patrolkrok in the sand, unconscious. It was clutching a little circular bottle of remains of a gold coin. Destiny pried his hand open and snatched the bottle.
No messing around now, Destiny thought. You need to stop this sandstorm.
“Are you nuts?” Natalie yelled at Destiny.
Destiny turned around to face her. “If I don’t stop it, it’ll wreck Krokotopia!”
“But you aren’t a sorcerer!” Natalie called back as Destiny continued to charge the sandstorm.
Maybe I’m not a sorcerer, Destiny thought as her boots pounded the sand. But I nee dto do what’s right.
Now Destiny wasn’t ten feet away from the tornado of sand. She spread her feet wide apart and planted them firmly in the ground.
She spread her arms out wide, and cried, “Stop!”
The sandstorm stopped destructing a house and raced towards Destiny instead. She braced for death until it stopped.
No, EVERYTHING stopped! The people had stopped, the noise stopped, everything did. Except for a boy around Destiny’s age with brown hair dressed in novice balance robes, who seemed to be coming towards her now.
“What people don’t understand,” The boy said. “Is that some living things do bad things because it’s what they know.”
The boy made a soothing gusture towards the sandstorm, and all the sand returned to its source.
“The best way to teach someone something is to be gentle to them, not to be aggressive, the sorcerer said. “If that’s what they are taught, then they won’t know peace, and peace is vital in this world. If there is no peace, then the spiral will corrupt.”
The boy turned to face Destiny, and she noticed one thing she hadn’t noticed before; his eye color. They were a tan, matching the sand beneath their feet.
The boy lowered his head. “That’s what an old, well, how should I put this, an old friend didn’t understand.” He stretched the word friend, as if being sarcastic. “Venged for power, he did. Me some buddies thought we had stopped him, but he still raged on.”
“I don’t really like war either,” Destiny said. “I may be a necromancer, but I’m just different.”
The sorcerer smiled. “I forgot to mention,” He said. “I know exactly what you’re looking for, Destiny Seagem.”
The sound of her name startled Destiny. She had not laid eyes on him until now.
“How do you know my name?” Destiny asked, raising an eyebrow.
The boy simply smiled and said, “I know a lot of things.” He grabbed a nearby stick. “I know what you’re looking for and where it is.”
“If you know what I’m looking for, then just say it.” Destiny challenged.
“I can’t,” The sorcerer said. “Because we’re not the only ones who can move around when time has been stopped.”
“Who’s watching us?”
“If I told you, then it would give away my identity.” The boy said. He stared drawing something in the sand with his left hand. His other hand started fading into sand, drowning to the ground, and started consuming the rest of his body. “I don’t have much time before I fade away.”
“Why are you fading?” She asked.
“Just remember what I said,” The boy replied, then his body completely turned into sand, time turning back to normal.
Destiny looked down at the design the boy had made. It was a capitol V with spikes along the lines.
It was supposed to be a thorn, in the shape of a V.
Vladimir Thorn.
Destiny ran back to the others with a need to tell them what had occurred. Ryan spoak up for the first time.
“What the heck?” Ryan questioned. “One second it was raging, then ‘Pop!’ It was like there wasn’t a sandstorm in the first place!”
“No time to explain,” Destiny said. “We need to move out right now before something phenomenal occurs again!”
Jason turned to Neela. “All right then,” He said. “Take us to the Balance school.”
They arrived on good timing; the school was letting out. A swarm of sorcerers climbed out of the school, and clamored onto the boat that the six had previously taken.
“Down the ladder,” Neela instructed. “Then you’ll see the wonders of balance.”
As she went down the rungs, Destiny thought about what the boy had said. His words rung in her head: If I told you, it would give away my identity. It was clear that he didn’t want himself to be known. And he knew about the Krokodial, that part was obvious. Could he be the balance desendant? No, a normal desendant couldn’t stop time and have their body dissolve into sand, even with all their power. Besides, there was something in his eyes that said otherwise. She wouldn’t forget the tan color in his eyes, the eyes of the sand.
They were all on the ground of the underground school now. A girl with light skin, long brown hair, dressed in balance novice clothes was talking to the instructor.
“ But I’m telling you, I saw it!” The girl persisted.
“My dear, it could have been merly a halucination,” The balance teacher replied.. “Sorcerers can get them commonly.”
“But I haven’t had a halucination in my life!”
Neela opened her mouth to speak for the girl, but Ryn stopped her. “We need her stalling him so we can find the thing we need.”
Destiny looked around. There were almost no hding places whatsoever to put the Krokodial. She turned to the book pedisool. Maybe it’ll give us a hint or tow, she thought.
She flipped thourhg the book and found nothing of use, but did notice a line going around the stool.
“Any of you have something to cut deeply with?” Destiny asked.
“I have a daggar,” Jason volunteered. But it’s really fancy and castly and strong so-“
Destiny smiled. “Give it to me.”
“But-“
“Now, if you want to find the Krokodial!”
Jason gave the daggar to her, and Destiny began to cut through the line. It turned out to be successful. Natalie lifted the top off, and were stunned by what they found.
On the botton part was a slabb of rock that concealed the rest of the botton half, secured by seven latches on the north, south, east and west edges so there was no way to pry it open. In the center was a wheel with seven little circles to insert a finger in, and above each of them were strange symbols. Half of covering the wheel there was a little needle sticking out at a 3:00 angle.
“Okay, anyone here know how to read Krok?” Jason asked. Everyone shook their heads.
“Oh, you need a translator?” Called a voice. It was the girl that had been arguing with the balance instructor seconds ago.
“Okay, girl, what’s the catch?” Destiny asked. “You want gold or what?”
“I don’t need any gold,” The girl went over to the stool and wrote down the notes on a tablet. When she was finished, she handed the tablet over to Chris. Everyone hurryied over to him to peer over his shoulder except Destiny. The girl stopped her.
“Hey, I saw you earlier,” The girl remarked.
“You did?” Destiny asked. Then a male voice called from above.
“Emma, I’ve been waiting for ten minutes!” The voice called. “Hurry up!”
“One minute, I’m conversing with this girl,” The girl called Emma said.
“Emma Strongblood, now!” The voice yelled.
“Why, Dylan?” Emma asked. “So you can attempt to rip me off with treasure card trades?”
“Hurry, the boat to the oaisis is leaving!” Dylan called.
“All right, all right!” Emma murmered. “Sheesh, why do older brother have to be so annoying?” She climbed up the ladder to greet Dylan.
“So what to the notes say?” Destiny asked.
“Each of these seven marks represent a school!” Natalie exclaimed.
“Wait, Neela called out. She looked to the pedistool, then to the tablet. “Give me the tablet to me. I have an idea.”
Jason reluctantly gave the tablet to her. Neela looked from the tablet to the pedistool several times before asking Destiny, “What’s the first schoool in the Ravenwood school cycle?”
She pondered for a moment then replied, “Storm,”
Neela pressed a finger in a hole, and moved it clockwise until it reached the needle, and a latch on each side clicked open.
Destiny could see where this was getting at. “Ice!” She burst.
Another latch opened.
“Fire! Death! Myth!”
Three more latches on each side clicked.
“Life!”
Another.
“Balance!”
All the latches had opened, allowing the slab to be lifted. Chris rushed over and removed the3 slab off the pedistool, revealing a dusty compartment that hadn’t been open for years, a scroll and a smooth stone with markings on it and a needle in the middle.
“The Krokodial!” Natalie exclaimed. “We did it, we found it!” She got out the Krokodial and held it up for everyone to see. Her brother wasn’t paying any attention to the Krokodial, he immediately took out the scroll.
Natalie handed the Krokodial to Chris, who after examing it, pronounced, “It’s a fake.”
“What?” Jason exclaimed. “That’s nonsense!”
“It makes complete sense,” Chris said. He flipped over the Krokodial to reveal an image that left everyone gaping in horror.
It was a capitol V with spikes along the lines.
“Oh my gosh!” Destiny slapped her hand against her face. “Vladimir beat us from the start!”
“Who is this Vladimir you speak of?” Neela questioned. “I deserve to know!”
Jason opened his mouth to protest, but Natalie quickly shushed him and told Neela everything she knew about the fight against Vladimir.
“Would you like to join us?” Destiny offered. “Sure, the Krokodial was a fake, but you showed smarts in getting us to it.”
“I’d be honored,” Neela said, accepting.
Suddenly, Chris Mythflame teleported to Destiny. Before he could open his mouth, Destiny said, “Don’t ask.”
“I was wanting to tell you something before you teleported away last time!”
“Well, don’t just stand there, what is it?” Destiny demanded.
“This girl called Esmee Lionblood wanted me to tell you something, she’s vacationing in Grizzleheim.”
Then it hit her. It slapped her across the cheek. The rest of the dream came back, to her!
Because what the lion’s blood had spelled was E-S-M-E-E.
Her cousin was the desendant of Ice.
“Anyways, that’s all I’ve got, so I guess I’ll take my leave.” Chris teleported away.
“Esmee,” Destiny said softly, almost to a whisper. “She’s the desendant of Ice.”
“How do you know?” Jason questioned.
“Her last name is Lionblood. In my dream there was lion’s blood in an icey glade.”
“Even if she is, we have no idea of her whereabouts, and Vladimir already beat us to the Krokodial,” Neela pointed out.
“Wait,” Destiny said. “The whole point of Chris coming is to tell us she’s in Grizzleheim.”
The six looked at each other. “We have our heading,” Jason announced.
“Let’s go,” Natalie started to climb the ladder.
Before he could get on, Destiny stopped Ryan.
“Jason said you were searching for something in the library,” Destiny pointed out. “What was it?”
“Oh, don’t worry about it now,” Ryan said. “It was actually with the fake Krokodial.”
“Yeah, ut you haven’t answered my question,” Destiny said. “What is it?”
Ryan eyed Destiny closely, then answered, “The Prophecy of Fire.” | | | | |
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