Myths and Gargoyles by Jamie Hawke (interesting books to read in english txt) 📕

each other yet. She crossed over to Ebrill and Kordelia, taking each of their hands in hers and starting a chant.

Both Ebrill and Kordelia looked at her anxiously and with more than a little pity. When she realized they weren’t chanting with her, she frowned, glaring at me first, then back to them.

“What?” she asked.

“It’s not going to work that way,” Ebrill explained. “Avalon has changed. It was gone, but he,” she nodded my way, “brought it back.”

“Why should that change how it’s accessed?” I asked.

“It’s… complicated,” Aerona said, eyes narrowing as they roamed over me. “Who are you?”

“I explained,” Ebrill hissed. “You know who he is.”

“Yes, I understand. He is the man who came back to our time, and he was a lot of help back then. He has powers that allow him to alter his surroundings, in a sense—like an alchemy of life, but not exactly. I remember him from before, but… what I don’t understand is why one man should hold so much power.”

“It’s not like I’m that powerful,” I countered, and everyone in the room scoffed.

“Jericho…” Ebrill stepped over to me, taking my hand and expanding her wings slightly so that I wasn’t looking past her at the others, only at her. “You silly man. Do you realize what you’re capable of? If you would allow yourself, transmutation alone is… incredibly powerful. But more than that, you restored Avalon. You have the ability to reach into its vast stores of power. Of creating access points, of deciding who comes and goes. At least, for now.”

Not sure how to process all of that, I said, “For… now?”

“What she’s saying is,” Aerona cut in, “nothing lasts forever. It’s what I’m worried about, regarding my lead.” We turned to her, and she continued, “The longer we connect with Avalon, the more likely those others are to find the connection. It’s like, imagine you open a door and there’s light. The only way others will see the light is if they’re in the right place to do so, but stumble around blindly long enough, it’s likely they’ll find it.”

“You’re saying I create some sort of magical footprint,” I replied, trying to understand. “One they could, in theory, latch onto and use to access the powers of Avalon as well?”

“Even return to Avalon, yes,” Ebrill chimed in. “When Avalon was cut off from this world, the other side was expelled. It was… a major blow.”

“But the simple fact is,” Kordelia added, “that without access to Avalon, we can’t hope to find the rest of our team. We can’t hope to stand against the remaining nine, including Thiten. She’ll come for us, for you, there’s no doubt about it. You have to be ready.”

“And ready means…?”

“Have a team. Access Avalon only when absolutely necessary. In and out. Even accessing its magical boosts—keep it to a minimum.”

“Agreed,” I said, and then pulled the Liahona from my jacket pocket. Sometimes I felt like a doofus wearing my jacket around in the summer heat, but for the convenience of having a storage place for this magical item, it was worth it. At one point I had considered replacing the red jacket with something more subtle so as to not stand out, but then I remembered the company I kept. No point, really.

Closing my eyes, I focused on the magic of the Liahona, on creating a portal to Avalon. When I opened my eyes again, a shimmering purple and blue oval hovered in the middle of the room. With nods all around, we entered one by one, me last.

We emerged into the land of Avalon very much like I remembered it. Not from the chaos and destruction as we had left the place, but from the rolling hills and lush greens as I had first seen it.

I turned to the see the portal behind us. Aerona eyed it with worry, before saying, “It’ll stay, I’m afraid. Not exactly like this, but we’ve just created a new way for others to access this land.” I grunted, annoyed that she felt the need to remind us of this as if we had a choice. Catching on, she added, “Sorry.”

“Which way?” I asked.

“I was stone here until you brought me back, but not… dead.”

“You were conscious?” Ebrill asked in horror. “I wasn’t—maybe in a dream sense, but never aware of my surroundings or that I was a basically a statue.”

“Same,” Kordelia added, eyeing Aerona with skepticism.

“It was… different,” Aerona admitted. “But yes, I was aware at times. In and out. I imagine it was the magic of this place, but I was here all along, sensing the time passing, the flow of magic around me. I felt the moment you two were ripped away,” she made eye contact with Ebrill and Kordelia, “and it was later—some spell from the other world that pulled you from here.”

“My aunt—er, Gertrude?” I asked.

She nodded. “Maybe, or it could have been the enemy, but Gertrude intercepted. I wish she were here to ask. But the point is, I felt it, and there were others that I never felt leave. Such as Yennifer.”

“There weren’t many others,” I pointed out, racking my mind.

“Not in our little group,” she admitted. “But there were other groups, naturally. The ones with Pintras, Megha… the Princess Artian, they were all fighting, and remained. Or… kind of…”

For the first time in her little speech, Aerona’s eyes showed doubt.

“Kind of?” Ebrill asked.

“It was like some were with me, others half-there, half somewhere else. Maybe they weren’t there at all, but some sort of magical imprint? I can’t be sure, because I was stuck in the stone. But now we can find answers.”

“You still sense them?”

“I was here so long, I remember exactly where I felt them from. In which directions.”

“And… Rianne?” I asked. “She’s here?”

“We can find out.”

Setting out, we moved along the ridge, looking down over the waters that had receded and showed thick mists beyond. The wind blew but didn’t bring the smell of the sea as I expected,