Flora nodded and her lips tightened grimly. “Your return is not going unnoticed, My Lord. Many will be happy you are back. Others will only try harder to kill you. But we don’t really have time to discuss that right now.”
Elora and Cassie both pushed around Trik and Cush with Lisa right behind them. “Lead the way, Flora. I trust you.” Cassie told her.
Without another word, Flora turned and hurried from the door. Cassie and Elora took off after her, ignoring the male voices objecting behind them.
“Um, Flo,” Elora spoke up as they followed her towards the direction of the blast, “we were just here and we were lucky to get away with all our bits intact.”
Flora lifted a hand and waved for them to follow without responding. They stumbled over the crumbling stone and coughed as their feet stirred up fresh dust, creating a cloudy haze around them.
“Cassie,” Trik’s voice carried up from behind them.
“It’s fine, Trik. She’s not going to hurt us,” she called back to him.
“In here.” Flora turned to look back at them, and Cassie and Elora both gaped at the opening that seemed to appear out of nowhere in the floor. Cassie stepped up to the hole and looked down. It was pitch black.
“Is it safe?” she asked Flora.
“We’re in a tunnel that was just blown up by freaky elf magic and you’re worried about whether the possible escape route from said blown up tunnel is safe?” Elora asked dryly.
“Good point,” Cassie shrugged.
“I’ll go first,” Tamsin said as he reached them.
Trik held out his hand to stop the light-elf king. “You should let me.”
Tamsin shook his head. “You are too important…”
“It shouldn’t be either of you,” Cush spoke up. “You are both important.”
“Oh, for crying out loud,” Elora groaned, “what does it matter? We’re all going to die of asbestos poisoning if we stay here any longer, geeze.” She looked back at the group and rolled her eyes just as she took a step.
“ELORA!” Cush, Lisa, and Cassie yelled at the same time but they were too late. She stepped off into the nothingness of the hole and disappeared.
“ELORA!” Lisa yelled as she looked down into the black void. “Where is she? Is she alright?”
“She’s probably fine,” Flora assured her.
“What do you mean probably?” Lisa growled as only a mama bear could. “You don’t know where she is?”
Flora shook her head. “The portal took her wherever she wanted to go.”
“Portal?” This time all of the elves spoke up at the same time.
Flora jumped at the collective deep voices. She nodded.
“There’s no reflective surface,” Trik pointed out.
“Not all portals need a reflection, King,” Flora addressed him. “There was a time long ago when the Forest Lords gave three portals that did not require reflections,” she paused and waited. “Do you remember?”
Trik closed his eyes and tried to focus, tried to remember a time before light and dark elves, a time before war and destruction. Yes, he remembered.
“Master portals,” he said breathlessly.
Flora nodded and smiled like a proud teacher.
“I’m sure this is supposed to be important,” Cassie interrupted, “but my best friend just took off into this master portal and I’d like to know where it took her.”
“It will have taken her to wherever her heart longed most to be,” Flora explained.
“Is that the only place it will take you?” Cassie asked.
Flora shook her head. “No, it will act based on intent as well. But for your friend, since she most likely wasn’t aware she needed to be giving herself a location, it took her where she longs to be.”
Cassie looked over to Lisa. Do you know where that is?”
“Might be with Oakley, or it might be at the store,” Lisa told her.
Cassie nodded her agreement.
“Either place is safe, Cassie,” Lisa assured her. “You need to go with Trik. I can take care of Elora.”
“You will be a target,” Cassie argued. “You can’t just go off by yourselves.”
“I’ll get her and then come back to the light-elf castle, piece of cake,” Lisa assured her. Cassie didn’t look convinced.
“I will accompany them,” Cush said, “if that is alright with the King.” He turned to look at Trik, waiting for his response.
Trik nodded and then motioned towards the light elf on his left, “Rincavornon, you will go with Nedhudir and keep Lisa and Elora safe.”
Lisa stepped up to the edge of the hole and looked down into the darkness. She decided the best place to start would be with Oakley.
“Be careful.” Cassie grabbed her in a quick hug.
Lisa patted her back. “We’ll be fine.”
“We really should be on our way now,” Flora interrupted.
Cush stepped up beside Lisa and motioned for Rin to do the same on her other side. They both placed large hands on each of her elbows. “We step together and you think of where we need to go.”
She nodded at him and without a glance back, Lisa stepped off into the void with the two light elves beside her.
“Your turn,” Flora told Cassie with a small smile.
Trik grabbed her hand to keep her from stepping closer to the edge of the hole. He gave Flora a look that had her taking a step back and then turned to the rest of the group. “We go to Tamsin's castle, the throne room.” Then he stepped off into the portal pulling Cassie with him.
Melda, the she elf Cassie knew as Flora, watched as the last of the light elves crossed through the portal. She counted to twenty just as Lorsan had told her, to ensure everyone was all the way through and then held her hand out over the portal. At her whispered words she watched as the hole shrunk in on itself until it was completely gone. Melda smiled to herself as she dusted her hands off. “Get silly human girl to trust you. Check.” She made the motion of checking off a list in the air. “Convince silly humans and elves to go through a portal. Check. Close off all portals so that there is no way to return to human realm or for elves to return to the elfin realm.” She paused and grinned. “Check, check.”
Elora blinked several times as her eyes attempted to adjust to the bright light around her. She had expected to fall a few feet, hit the hard ground, and have her teeth jarred out of her head. But instead, it was as if she had just walked through an open door. One minute she was in the crumbling tunnel of Lorsan’s castle and the next she was, well… Where am I exactly, she thought to herself.