SHARIF WASTED NO TIME. As soon as Gwen grabbed the fringe tassels, the flying carpet soared away faster than any athlete could run.
Peering down into the frantic streets, Gwen said, “Orpheon’s taller than most people, and he’s probably still wearing the short apprentice’s tunic he used when helping Sage Rubicas. Even so, how are we supposed to spot one person in all that chaos down there? Everyone is rushing toward the harbor.”
“It should be easy, Gwenya,” Sharif said with a quirky smile. “He will be the only one running the opposite direction.”
With the city alarms blaring, people scrambled out of their houses, cinched their robes tight, and gathered homemade weapons. At intersections, streetcrystal lamps blazed with golden or sapphire light, crackling with magic energy.
Sharif banked the carpet sharply. “If Orpheon is working with the merlons, he will want to get to the sea as fast as possible. Perhaps he has arranged for another merlon spy to meet him at the water.”
As far as Gwen could tell, none of the running Elantyans below looked like Orpheon. “Why would any person shift his allegiance to the undersea people? What could a human hope to gain from the merlons?” The apprentice had always rubbed her the wrong way, sneering at her, blaming her for the accident with the aja crystals when he must have sabotaged the array himself.
Sharif clenched his jaws, clearly upset. “We can ask those questions when we catch him. Irrakesh reserves its most unpleasant prison cells for traitors. I hope Elantya has similar accommodations.”
Gwen leaned forward, trying to ignore a brief flash of dizziness from being so high up — and saw a tall man duck furtively into the shadows. The man was working his way along a sheltered street, moving from doorway to doorway, away from the harbor.
“Sharif! Circle around.” Gwen pointed to the alley. “I think I saw him!”
As the flying carpet banked, the sneaking stranger looked up in surprise. As soon as he saw the carpet and its riders, Orpheon bolted. He raced with long-legged strides away from the buildings toward the hillside vineyards on the island’s outer highlands.
“Follow him with your eyes, Gwenya,” Sharif said as he concentrated on guiding the carpet.
Holding on, she shouted, “Orpheon! We know what you’ve done. Stop, or you will face the consequences!”
Sharif gave her a strange frown. “What consequences can you and I impose?”
Gwen shrugged. “I was hoping to intimidate him.”
The traitor wasn’t intimidated, though. He put on a burst of speed and ran under an ornate arch topped with baskets of hanging flowers.
The flying carpet sped onward, cruising low, but the apprentice sprinted inhumanly fast. Seeing the pursuit close in, he left the whitewashed dwellings behind and headed toward the sea.
From the carpet, Gwen could hear the crashing surf. “Hurry! We don’t want him to get to the water.”
“There is no shore up here, Gwenya. Only cliffs. High cliffs. He will be trapped.”
Orpheon raced up a steep rocky path bounded by grapevines tied up on posts. The assistant moved so swiftly that his pumping arms tore away dark-green leaves. Gwen wondered if the merlons had provided the apprentice with some kind of stimulant or enhancement to give him such a boost of speed. “That would be just great,” she muttered. “Spies on steroids.”
As the carpet got even closer, she saw that Orpheon had strapped five or six scrolls to his belt and carried three others rolled in his hand — the stolen shield spell scrolls!
Kicking up dust with each step, Orpheon ran through the vineyards, but Sharif did not relent, chasing him toward the high cliffs. After two years on the island, Rubicas’s apprentice must know there could be no escape in this direction. According to Sharif, the gravel path would hit a dead-end up ahead.
“Trust my carpet, Gwenya. We will catch him. He has no place to go.”
As they closed in, Orpheon halted as the narrow path turned a corner. The traitorous apprentice found himself faced with an abrupt end to his path. The sheer black rock dropped away to deep water. Seabirds, a few clumps of moss, and succulent flowers found places in the lumpy stone wall, but no human could ever climb down the spray-slick cliff. Foamy waves curled against the jagged rocks far below.
Orpheon stared longingly down the cliff toward the deep water, then faced his two young pursuers as Sharif landed the carpet. Blocking off the spy’s escape, they stood together, but Gwen did not forget that Orpheon had already stunned a powerful sage like Rubicas. “Be careful, Sharif.”
The young man from Irrakesh showed no concern. “You have nowhere to run, Orpheon.” Piri’s shimmering ball hung in its pouch around his neck.
“Give us those scrolls back and nobody needs to get hurt,” Gwen added, recalling a hundred tough-guy movies she had seen. She tensed her muscles, remembering the zy’oah self-defense moves her mother had taught her. Special Elantyan training? So many things to wonder about… .
“You know nothing of what you speak.” Orpheon sneered at them as if they were no more than insects. “Elantya is doomed. The merlons will destroy you all. They will sink this island beneath the waves and return the ocean to its purity, as it was before filthy land-dwellers came through the crystal doors.”
“Get over yourself!” Gwen said. “Elantyans have done a lot of good here.”
Sharif added, “They unified the whole network of civilizations and stopped the dark sages’ armies with the Great Closure.”
“Great Closure?” A flash of fiery hatred ignited behind Orpheon’s eyes, an incomprehensible fanatical gleam. “Azric has made his promises. The merlons will kill all land-dwellers, destroy Elantya. Then the sealed crystal doors will once again be opened.”
“Azric!” Gwen cried. “With the merlons? He’s the one who’s been riling them up?”
“The merlons will help him reverse the Great Closure. Azric’s immortal armies have had centuries to grow more powerful, and once they are unleashed, all worlds will fall!”
Sharif let out a low growl. “Azric has been trapped outside ever since the Great Closure. In disguise, he walked among us on Irrakesh — and killed my brother.” Sensing Sharif’s outrage, Piri flashed blood red in her crystal ball, startling Orpheon. He raised a hand to shield his eyes.
Without thinking, Gwen seized the chance and yanked the scrolls out of the traitor’s other hand. Orpheon jerked backward, but Gwen wouldn’t let go. The two strained and tugged — until the parchments ripped.
Gwen stumbled off balance, but Sharif caught her. Triumphant, she held fragments of the precious scrolls, while the spy held the other torn scraps. “At least the merlons won’t get them now. Sage Rubicas can piece the rest together.”
Orpheon flung away the tatters in his hand, letting them blow over the cliff. But he still had several intact scrolls in a pouch at his waist. “You are fools, both of you! Naive dreamers.”
Gwen balled her fists. “I still don’t get it. Why would any human willingly serve the merlons?”
Orpheon sneered at this. “You assume I am merely human? That was your first mistake.” His body shimmered, his skin grew rough, lumpy, then scaly. His eyes enlarged, as did his mouth. His hands became webbed, and claws hooked out of his fingertips. “I was one of the original generals in Ulkar’s army, countless centuries ago. We sacrificed a Key after he opened a crystal door and the blood magic gave us the power to control the cells of our bodies. Now I can take any shape I choose.” His amphibious lips curved in a cruel imitation of a smile. “Azric is not alone in his fight.”
Shocked, Gwen and Sharif rushed Orpheon, hoping to seize the last scrolls, but the transformed apprentice easily dove backward off the cliff. His sleek aquatic body dropped downward in a clean arc.
The two looked over the cliff edge just in time to see the shape-shifter plunge smoothly into the waves and disappear with barely a ripple.
“Now that’s something you don’t see every day,” Gwen said.