CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE #2
The women ceased talking and turned toward me.
Two sets of curious eyes landed on the moonflower in my hand.
“What type of flower is that?” asked the woman with the broomstick, tucking a strand of short black hair under her ear as her dark brown eyes surveyed the bloom in my hand.
She had medium brown skin, with reddish undertones, like the mahogany broomstick she cradled in her hand.
“It’s a moonflower,” I answered before explaining. “I used its magic to put one of those beasts to sleep. I think I can do it again.”
The Fae woman extended her hand with a warm smile.
“Farryn. Nice to meet you. Let’s try it then.
” I shook her hand, returning her smile.
“My name’s Elvira. And this is Nix.” The witch stuck out her hand next.
“Zorana. Pleasure to meet you both. It will be even more pleasant once we’ve made it out of this cavern alive.
I agree—asleep would be much better than not.
” We exchanged a commiserating smile as I shook her hand.
Then I stepped hesitantly toward the manticore.
Nix weaved his way through my legs, stalling me.
“How attached are you to your hands?” he asked.
I gulped. “Umm…very?”
“Then let me.” He jumped onto my shoulders, carefully pulling a moonflower out of my braid with his teeth.
Before I could protest, Nix sprang onto the restrained manticore, agilely placing the petal above its nose.
I gasped with worry when the manticore snapped its jaw, but Nix leapt high into the air, splaying his paws wide as he sailed away from the threat.
In a rush, I called upon the moonflower’s magic before the manticore could displace it completely.
You are growing drowsy, I thought with all my willpower.
Sleep. It’s time to sleep—deep and peaceful.
The manticore’s eyes fluttered a few times, then closed.
Lightning flashed, drawing our collective gaze upward.
Farryn’s eyes darted to the beasts flying above, guarding the cavern entrance, and back to the conked-out manticore.
She turned toward her friend. “Do you think you can use its magic too?” she asked, gesturing toward the moonflower.
“May I?” Zorana asked politely, holding out her hand.
Hastily, I placed a moonflower within her palm, but she shook her head almost as soon as she touched the bloom.
“I can’t sense its magic. Did you grow it yourself?
” she inquired. I nodded. Zorana handed the moonflower back to me.
“That happens sometimes—plants can be sensitive to the hand that tends them. Or the location where they’re grown.
I always grow the herbs in my tinctures and potions myself for that very reason. ”
Zorana’s expression turned pensive. “Alright—new plan. Farryn, you help Corvin and Tercel on the ground. Try and see if you can daze the manticores with your pixie dust. I’m going to take Elvira on my broomstick.
See if we can lull more manticores to sleep from the sky.
We need to neutralize them or we risk a lightning bolt to the back on our way out. ”
“Will do,” Farryn consented. “I just wish I had some more rope.”
“Oh!” I said, digging into my satchel. “I have some. Take mine.”
“Perfect! Thank you,” she said, accepting the coil of rope from me.
A loud, chill-inducing screech filled the cavern.
Instinctively, my hands came up to cover my ears.
The same pained expression flickered across Farryn and Zorana’s faces as my whole body shuddered in repulsion, an unpleasant shiver running up my spine in response to the grating sound.
Whirling around, I spotted a manticore landing, its sharp claws dragging across the cavern floor as it hit the ground.
Corvin dropped from the sky, touching down on one bent knee, his midnight-black wings unfurled at his back. Tercel soon followed, both of them squaring off against the manticore. Without hesitation, Farryn took off running in their direction, rope gripped in her hands.
I lurched forward on impulse, but Zorana gently grabbed my arm.
“There are still two above,” she said pragmatically.
Her eyes drifted skyward, while mine tracked Corvin a moment longer.
The manticore, crouching down low in a defensive position, raised its tail high until it curved over the top of its body—and then it struck, lunging forward with deadly accuracy.
Even knowing Corvin possessed the ability to shift, my breath still caught in my throat.
Sure enough, however, a raven and a falcon spread their wings, crossing paths in an aerial somersault before shifting back, the manticore’s barbed stinger having missed its mark.
It roared in confused anger, reassessing its strategy.
The beast swiped a claw next, and Corvin rolled his body, dodging its second attack.
I breathed freely again as Zorana straddled her broomstick.
“Hold on tight,” she advised. Tearing my gaze away from Corvin, I secured myself behind Zorana, clutching her tightly around the waist. Nix paced back and forth.
“We’ll be back soon,” I told him, hoping it was true.
She kicked against the ground, and then we were rising, rising up toward the remaining manticores.
“Don’t let go of me,” Zorana repeated. “Things are about to get interesting.”
That was an understatement.
The moment they noticed us, one of the manticores peeled away from the entrance, changing its trajectory to give chase.
At the outset, it glided past without attacking.
Taunting us? I tracked its location with unease.
Was that dried blood on its face? We circled each other slowly, neither of us willing to make the first move.
All at once it lunged, accelerating toward us at breakneck speed.
I screamed, but my fear was premature—Zorana’s control over her broomstick was absolute.
As the manticore threw itself forward, she dropped us lower, speeding around to face the manticore once again, in a game of cat and mouse, each of us jockeying for the advantage.
This manticore didn’t roar in outrage like the others had been wont to do, it turned and regarded us with patient anticipation.
Some predators liked a challenge.
“Our turn,” Zorana said. “Ready your magic.” She tightened her hands around the broomstick.
I squeezed my knees more forcefully against her body, temporarily loosening my iron-clad grip on her waist to grab a moonflower from my braid, its trumpet-like iridescent white petals soft and silky in my hand.
The witch leaned forward—and then we were the ones pursuing the manticore, zigzagging through the air in a haphazard pattern, trying to position ourselves above its head.
The manticore swiped a claw and we pivoted; it lunged to bite and we lurched to the right; it whipped its stinger forward and we rolled a complete rotation, momentarily upside down, to evade its strike.
I looked for an opening to use the moonflower, but I found none.
The beast finally roared—now, we’d made it mad.
Now, it was done playing games. And it wanted us dead.
Abandoning its prior patience, the manticore barreled at us going full speed.
Zorana pointed her broomstick, and we plunged downward, shooting away from the trailing manticore.
Rapidly, it closed the distance. I couldn’t see it, but I could feel its breath, hot on my neck.
“Zorana!” I shouted, and she sped up, but it was too late—the manticore’s jaws snapped at my back.
And clamped down on my satchel, wrenching it from my body with violent force.
The impact jerked me backward. For an instant, I thought I was going to fall again, but I managed to reclaim my hold on Zorana’s waist, thanks to my knees anchoring me in place.
The manticore’s roar drifted farther behind; it paid the price for attacking too soon.
All the while, we plunged swiftly downward toward the cavern floor.
Surely it won’t catch us again. If anything, we were picking up speed.
Fast, fast, and faster still. Wait, Zorana was planning to stop…
right? Suddenly, it became clear to me we were dropping much too quickly, drawing much too close to the ground—
A scream tore from my throat.
At the last possible moment, Zorana leveled out the broomstick, so we never hit the ground.
The manticore was less fortunate. Following close behind, it failed to stop in time, hitting the ground in a painful-looking impact.
Taking advantage of its disorientation, Zorana finally managed to maneuver the broomstick as close as we needed.
As we hovered, I dropped the crumpled moonflower onto the manticore’s head, releasing its magic.
The manticore shook its head and started to stand, eyes stubbornly refusing to close.
Anxiously, I grabbed another moonflower and repeated my attempt to put it to sleep.
The manticore rose slowly to its feet. Unlike the others, I could feel it fighting me.
Rage or hunger or malice—evidently some ill emotion flowed powerfully through its veins, strong enough to keep it awake.
Fighting me. A single moonflower was not going to be enough.
I reached for another bloom, and then another.
The manticore stumbled on its feet, then laid back down.
I threw the last remaining petal onto its head and the last reserves of my strength into the magic.
Finally, it slumbered.
Zorana flew us all the way back down until her feet touched the floor.
I dismounted the broomstick and immediately staggered a few steps.
Apparently, my body still believed it was flying.
At least, the woozy sensation in my head suggested as much.
I stopped walking and waited for the world to stop spinning.
“Can all witches fly that skillfully?” I asked while I acclimated to my surroundings.
“Not usually,” she responded with a smile.
“I just spend a lot of time in the sky.” She swung her leg up and over the broomstick so that she could stand.
I gazed across the cavern floor, counting five scattered manticores—sleeping, trussed, or knocked out cold.
That’s all of them. Farryn, Tercel, and Corvin wandered over to where we stood in the central chamber.
Were they laughing? I guessed that was a good sign about everybody’s well-being.
Nix padded alongside them. Silently, I crouched down, and he jumped into my arms, eventually settling himself around my shoulders.
Corvin stepped close. “Are you okay?” he asked.
I struggled to hide the exhaustion in my voice. “I’m alright. Just tired. Like I ran around the island a few times.” I expected everybody else must feel the same after the experience we just shared. “How about you? Are you okay?” I asked in return.
Corvin gave me a roguish smile. “Like I said, nobody’s ever died on our adventures.”
As if on cue, a stalactite came crashing to the ground, not far from where we all stood.
I looked skeptically at Corvin. “Or been impaled?”
Zorana chimed in. “Technically, yes. But they survived.” She gestured toward the cavern entrance. “We should get moving. We don’t want to be here when the manticores wake up or escape their bonds.”
As we turned to leave, Tercel patted the closest one’s head. “Sleep peacefully, kitty.”
“Did he just pet that manticore?” I whispered to Corvin, who chuckled as we walked away.
“No fear and no common sense,” Farryn muttered under her breath, but with obvious affection.
I could feel Corvin studying me. “You’re limping,” he remarked with a frown. “Are you sure you’re alright?”
“She’d be better if you hadn’t woken up those manticores,” Nix sniped.
I gave the cat a slightly chastising scratch on the head. “My hip is a bit bruised,” I admitted to Corvin.
A small storm cloud flickered in his eyes. “I’m sorry you got hurt.”
“It’s not your fault,” I said with a shrug, and then we were stepping outside the cavern for the first moment in what felt like many days, but had only been a few hours.
Our small group stood at the edge of the mountain, away from the cavern entrance.
Tercel threw his head back and let out a long, drawn-out howl.
Laughing, Zorana did the same. “You do all realize we almost died? Right?” I asked faintly.
Tercel patted my shoulder good-naturedly.
“All the more reason to declare our triumph!”
Farryn spread her iridescent pixie wings. “Someone will need to take Elvira.”
Right, we could fly off the mountain. No need to hike for hours when you possessed wings.
“I can take her on the broomstick,” Zorana offered.
Corvin’s hand came to rest gently at the small of my back. “She’ll fly with me.”