Eye of the Oracle by Bryan Davis

Author:Bryan Davis [Davis, Bryan]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fantasy
Publisher: AMG
Published: 2010-06-10T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 7

The Price of Betrayal

The Ovulum slipped off Sapphira’s foot, and its splash erupted in a gigantic spray that wrapped around the girls in a tight waterspout. As the other two snakes spun away, the swamp dried at the girls’ feet. The Ovulum sat next to Sapphira’s toes, pulsing crimson halos that seemed to spin the water around, making a vacuum that drew everything upward, including the girls’ hair and their drenched clothing.

Sapphira’s arms ached, but she kept her grip on the serpent, still coiled around Acacia as it snapped with its needle-like fangs. Lifting her firebrand higher, Sapphira shouted, “Give me a new firestorm! I need all the power I can get!”

Tongues of fire leaped from her hand, and the stick exploded in a shower of streaming flames. The fire expanded into a new spinning wall that circled around them inside the waterspout. Sapphira’s vision suddenly sharpened. Sadness crept through her mind. There was no doubt; a new portal window was taking shape, but, with her arms throbbing, could she keep the writhing snake at bay?

Air rushed upward, and the sunlight winked out. They zoomed down, the whole world plunging so fast their bodies seemed to lift off the ground and hover in midair. The walls of fire and water blended together into billowing clouds of vapor. Then, in a splash of fire and steam, they crashed into a shallow bed of water that cushioned the blow of the rocky ground below. Sapphira lunged for the snake, but it had slipped from her hand. Now crawling on all fours on wet stone, she groped for its neck. When she finally found it, she jerked it up, but its limp body lay loose within her fingers. The snake’s head had been crushed.

Sapphira glanced around. Elam stood next to her holding a thick scroll. “That snake won’t bother anyone,” he said, smacking the scroll’s heavy dowel against his palm.

The portal’s column of light flickered between blue and orange and finally settled on a muted orange hue. Acacia stirred next to Sapphira, trying to push the serpent’s coils down to her ankles. With her soaked white hair plastered against her pale face, she looked like a frazzled ghost.

At Sapphira’s feet lay the Ovulum, cold and dark, but unharmed. She breathed a long sigh and gazed at Elam, barely able to whisper, “Thank you.” She reached over and helped Acacia unwind the snake’s coils. A dozen more hands joined in, one pair wringing out Sapphira’s dress, another combing through Acacia’s hair.

Acacia pulled her clinging sleeve away from her skin. “We need to get out of these wet things.”

“You know,” Elam said, pointing his thumb at the exit corridor, “with Morgan gone now, I think it’s safe to explore. There are quite a few rooms I was never able to see.”

Sapphira smiled. Elam’s chivalry never seemed to falter. She nodded toward a lantern near the museum door. “Give me light!” she called out. The lantern’s wick ignited. “There. Come back when the fuel’s about half gone and tell us what you find.

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