TWENTY-SEVEN
THERE HE STOOD, Legend, an invisible wind whipping against his mane, a silver sheen to his entire body, glowing in the still darkness. He looked like – and you really couldn’t describe it better than this – an angel. Never did he look more beautiful at this strangled, crucial moment.
I stared and could not tear my eyes away. The sight of Legend had seemed to have made me forget the scene of imminent danger behind me. There was something… something I needed to do… What was it?
Legend seemed to jog towards me. As he reached me, I stroked his glowing mane, feeling a strange tingling sensation beneath my fingertips. There came a strangled sort of shout of surprise from somewhere – I turned my head, to see that it came from Viola, who didn’t seem as much scared as she seemed relieved. Atala turned around to see what she was looking at, scowling. This brought me back to earth. Atala. Was Legend here to help me?
The expression on Atala’s face seemed to answer that question. She looked quite horrified. She slowly loosened her grip on Viola’s neck. “Not one of those beasts again…” she muttered, but she seemed, quite surprisingly, too scared to move.
Viola, on the other hand, looked in much better spirits. She gestured to Legend, as if he held all the answers. Well, he did look like he held all the answers. But it still seemed a little far-fetched – was I to suddenly gain the ability to talk to horses? I stroked his mane affectionately, hoping to somehow find something. Help me Legend, I thought, what do I do?
Then came an answer.
She will be Stunned by my presence for a while, a soft, silky voice seemed to say inside my head. But she is stronger than anticipated. The heart itself won’t be enough. You must wish for a talent.
Wish for a talent?
Remember the Talent book you had? Wish for a talent and use it against her. Then use the heart.
I waited for a further explanation but it didn’t come. The soothing, calming voice in my head was gone. Legend turned his head and almost seemed to look me in the eye and give a short nod. Reassuring as that felt, I was discombobulated. I just had to wish for a talent. Just wish. It seemed like defeating Atala was based heavily on willpower. So I thought of the powers. Not super-strength or levitation, not prophecy… But what else was there? I didn’t have the time to read all that information in the book.
Atala moved her head, and the rest of her body followed. I panicked. Fear gripped at my insides harder than ever before. Could she actually kill me? She seemed quite intent to do so at this moment.
Focus! I had to do this. The powers… the powers… She was getting closer…
Psychic-Telepathic?, Legend suggested.
My mind flashed back at the pages I’d read. Yes, psychic-telepathic was one of them. That way I could look into Atala’s past, or touch an object and see its past… Yes, I could distract her. I willed it with all my might. Amandla’s disappearance, which was always at the back of my head all through this but seemed so surreal that it did not affect me, suddenly flooded in as terrifyingly and unmistakably real. Tears began to flood down my cheeks. I didn’t know if I could save her, but I had to try. I had to. I willed hard in my heart to get the power, kill Atala…
And it felt as though a wave of magic flowed through my veins and into the heart of my very existence. It had to be the power. And I thought hard. I thought hard to look into Atala’s past…
A dark fireball whooshed straight past, almost grazing my left ear.
More followed suit, flying out from Atala’s large, wrinkle-free palms. I dodged them, with much more ease than I had expected – my instincts had kicked in. I was so close to defeating Atala, so close, I could feel it… But even as I kept trying to look into her past, nothing came.
A fireball crashed against my right shoulder, leaving a gaping wound, blood trickling down my arm. I hadn’t seen that one coming. But right at that moment, instead of feeling the immense pain I thought I would, I felt a rush of memories flood past me. But they weren’t my memories.
Atala continued to fire and I clutched my right shoulder in a frantic attempt to stop the bleeding, trying to dodge the attacks in the meantime. Then the memories began to take shape. A horrifyingly old witch was giving her powers to… to Atala! These were Atala’s memories!
“Keep these powers,” the witch said. “They are yours now…” I felt the dark power of the soul-sucking witches flowing into me, scorching my bones as I screamed… But the joy! The power that overwhelmed me! I would no longer be human: those evil, haunting creatures that never cared about me… Being a human for ten years was far more than enough… I would eat the souls of those humans; no, I would not die out like that witch dying before me. I would take them and feed on them – they deserved no mercy… I began to laugh, immense power coursing through my veins…
My mind came back to the current situation, and I found myself crumpled on the ground, Zxander and Justin in front me. They were blocking Atala’s attacks, which seemed to grow in size and power gradually, and they were sweating furiously. I tried to stand up and fight but I couldn’t. Then Legend appeared in my line of sight. The still-beating Hope’s heart was at his hooves.
Don’t try to stand up, his voice tingled in my head, your friends are brilliant warriors. They are buying you time. Focus. Atala is no longer human, so you cannot read her mind telepathically. However, your contact with the fireball has allowed you to see into the object’s past: Atala’s past. Find what you need.
Calming down, I thought of the memory I had. It was of Atala becoming the witch. She had a furious rage and hatred towards humankind – I could feel it. They didn’t care about her. They neglected her.But wait, there was one person…
I felt the curls in my hair being gently tugged at. I was staring into my reflection in the cracked mirror of the old, neglected dressing table. I looked like a six-year-old. I could see her in the reflection too, holding the brush, combing through my hair with the perfect mixture of precision and gentleness. “Marya,” I heard myself saying, “They can’t find us here, right?”
“Yes,” my sister said, soothingly, “you’re safe with me.”
But I flashed back into another memory.
They bashed into the broken-down hut, and I could see their shadows flickering menacingly, accentuated by the fires burning all around. I could see Marya pleading them; she was innocent, she didn’t do anything… but they dragged her up, they pushed her against the wall. The largest man took out a shining axe. I screamed.
“Run, Atala!” Marya screamed. “Run!”
And I did. They didn’t come after me. I wasn’t important. And I ran. But I didn’t run far enough to escape from hearing the sound of the swinging axe, and my sister’s final scream.
I hate them. I hate them all.
…
“Let her fight me!” Atala shouted, throwing fireballs that were considerably larger than last time. “Let her stand up for herself!”
I stood up, still a little dizzy. I grabbed the Hope’s heart that was at my feet. “Here I am, Atala,” I challenged, “Come get me.” Then I added, “Not all humans are evil, you know.”
The fireballs stopped advancing. Zxander and Justin stood aside, both looking at me with puzzled expressions.
“What do you mean?” Atala breathed angrily.
“Your sister Marya wasn’t evil,” I said simply, my face determined, but I was starting to feel pity. But I had to do it.
“How do you…?” Atala was utterly shocked.
And I lifted up the heart. Somehow, I knew what to do now. “Hope’s heart!” I screamed, “Reveal your power!”
Horrendously bright light emerged from the pumping heart, illuminating everything in the cave. I tried to shield my eyes from it. With every beat the heart pumped to its rhythm, my hand burned from its heat. Atala screamed – a horrible, ear-piercing scream. And when it all died down, the heart stopped its pumping.
Before me stood a ten-year-old girl, much like the one I had seen in the mirror of that dressing table. She looked at me, puzzled, but I could see the rage that burned in her red-green eyes.
“Remember your sister,” I told her. “She was not evil. She was human. She loved you.”
Tears trickled down the girl’s face. She was shimmering. “I will remember,” she said, in a barely audible whisper. And she shimmered away. She was gone. Atala was gone.
“You did it,” a hoarse voice croaked. Our heads turned to Viola. She smiled. “Well done.” She was shimmering too. But no, she couldn’t…
“Viola?” I walked towards her. “You can’t go, Viola. I need you.”
“The job is done. There will not be another witch here for ages to come. You took Atala away.” She said simply, “You don’t need me anymore.”
“But…” I sobbed. She couldn’t go! “I do need you! All this Hope stuff…”
“You will understand. I must go.” A tear dropped from her eye. “Goodbye, Kristen.”
She shimmered away.
Zxander and Justin came beside me, trying to comfort me as I cried. Viola was gone too. How could she not have told me?
“Come on,” Justin said, “she’ll be happy wherever she is. It’s meant to be.” And I suppose it was.
“Yeah,” Zxander said, “Let’s go see the souls set free.”
And as we entered the room with the glass tubes, we saw that they were empty. The blue-tinted beings that once inhabited them rose up into thin air, disappearing one by one, finally free, and seemed to be waving goodbye to us. We waved back.
But something in the corner caught my eye. A ghost-like figure still rested in one of the tubes. She looked at me. And she – she, well – smiled.
“Amandla!” I yelled. And I remembered. I ran into the vault and saw –yes! – In the box, there was still one heart, beating continually, glowing slightly. And I took in my hand, held it close to my heart. And I willed. I willed for Amandla to come back.
The air before me glowed. And Amandla shimmered back right in front of me. “Hi!” she said cheerily. Tears of joy and relief tumbled down my cheeks and I hugged her so hard and for so long I was sure she couldn’t breathe.
So many things happened at once. Now Zxander was hugging Amandla and crying and I was demanding an explanation from her and Justin was grinning and telling us that it was now eleven fifty-seven and that we were just on time and that luckily none of us were dead.
The commotion stopped when Legend strode in.
Well done, Kristen, he said, I am almost done with my job. Come.
It seemed like I was the only one who could hear what he was saying. I stepped forward.
Touch my mane again, he instructed. And I did so.
This time it felt like magic from him was flowing into me. And so many things now made sense: all that I had to do, all that a Hope was to do, all those rules Viola was talking about – everything. This was overwhelming, but I held on tight to Legend, and when he was done transferring the information I needed, I stood up straight with the new knowledge of the responsibility on my shoulders. And I would take it.
My work here is done, Legend said, Goodbye.
This last word he said to everyone. And we all watched as he shimmered and glowed out of our existence. Legend. He wasn’t just a normal horse – he was a magical one – he was my messenger who came to show me my identity and my destiny. It was Amandla’s decision to teach me how to hunt that brought me to the cave at the right time. It was all connected. Amandla, the one who sort of brought me there in the first place, was to be captured to motivate me fully to save these souls. I could also save Amandla and return her to her normal body because conveniently, she was the last soul that Atala had ‘captured’.
This all had to do with willpower – so much of it. That’s why the word ‘want’ was very important. And getting what I wanted before was sort of a clue and a side effect (and maybe a reward too): Justin waltzing into my life, and Zxander and Amandla getting together. Well, now it was like this, I intended to keep it that way.
The Hope-related things in the cave around Atala were blocked off from her as one of the rules. That was why she could not get rid of the vault or get into it until I reached the Hope’s heart. And this was all quite mind-boggling – after all, where did all those rules come from? Did the universe just create it? Is there some kind of deity, a God up there? Well, I now believe in it. After all the extraordinary that were tossed into my life all at once, what couldn’t be possible? Yes. I believe.
There was so much more information flooding through me – I could feel it – but much of it was hidden in the corner of my brain; to be drawn out when needed, I guessed. I relayed all the information I could to Amandla, Zxander and Justin as we walked out of the cave. And we turned around for one last look. And I sang one last song:
“Seal your gates,
Do not open,
Until the day,
Another Hope is awoken.
Let it be the key,
Let it solve your mystery.”
Goodbye, cave.
That’s how my life started. And now, I’m no ordinary girl. I am Kristen Emerson. I am the one Hope who saved the souls, the one who will persevere in her walk into the depths and darks of the life of a Hope.
A/N - Hey y'all people who are still reading (if you exist)! Yes, this is near the end! I'm excited - about to finish my first book! By the way, this is not the end - still got a little epilogue so please stay tuned! If you're still reading all the way up to here, thank you so much - I can't express how thankful I am. Comments on your thoughts and opinions, suggestions for improvement, or simply any other random comment on this book will be much appreciated! :)