Secret of the Unicorn (Avalon: Web of Magic #4) by Rachel Roberts Read Free Book Online Page B

you.”
    “How is that rotten little pointy-eared creep?”
    “Oh, he’s fine,” Ghyll said.
    “Do you know what’s happening on Aldenmor?” Emily interrupted.
    “All portals to the Fairy Glen have been closed. It’s as if the Fairy Glen just vanished.”
    “That’s awful!” Ozzie exclaimed.
    “So I guess I’m stuck here,” Ghyll said.
    “You and all the others that got through,” Emily pointed out. “Are you hurt?”
    “No.”
    “Well, if you need anything round these parts, I’m your elf,” Ozzie said.
    “I’ve been hopping around in these woods for hours and I’m famished. What do you have to eat in this world?” Ghyll’s long purple tongue snapped out.
    “Now you’re talking my language!” Ozzie grinned and patted himself on the chest. “Stick with me. They have the most incredible food here, you won’t believe it—”
    “Er, Ozzie?” Emily broke in, knowing that the ferret could easily discuss food all day long. “Why don’t you take Ghyll back and get him settled in? Storm and I can keep going without you.”
    “Where are you going?” Ghyll asked, blinking big eyes.
    Emily hesitated only for a moment before answering. After all, if Storm and Ozzie felt the flobbin was a creature of good magic, she had nothing to worry about. “We think some injured creature ran away into the woods,” she explained. “We’re trying to track it down so we can help it.”
    “I’m a natural magic tracker. Perhaps I can help,” Ghyll offered, puffing out his large chest.
    Emily gave a quick glance at Storm, then asked Ghyll, “You haven’t seen anything… peculiar around the woods, have you?”
    Mistwolf, ferret, and flobbin looked at one another.
    “That’s a relative question,” Ghyll answered.
    “Come on, Ghyll!” Ozzie grabbed a flipper and pointed toward the trail. “I’ll show you around Ravenswood.”
    “Excellent.” Ghyll looked down at Ozzie. “Lead the way!”
    Emily and Storm continued in the opposite direction. The sun angled on its late afternoon arc, sending bright patches gleaming off leaves and rocks.
    “What do you make of Ghyll?” Emily asked Storm.
    “I sensed nothing dangerous about the creature,” the mistwolf answered.
    “Something doesn’t feel right. I mean, if he’s a magic tracker for the Fairimentals as he says, he’s not very good.”
    “How so?”
    “There’s enough wild magic flying around here to attract every creature on Aldenmor, and yet Ghyll didn’t even mention he sensed any magic.”
    “He didn’t say he didn’t, either,” Storm said.
    “Yes, I suppose.”
    Emily turned her attention back to finding the hurt creature. She was afraid the encounter with Ghyll had wasted valuable time. How far had the magical creature gone?
    “ Why don’t you try to reach out again ?” Storm suggested.
    Emily faltered. “Let’s just check the clearing beyond those trees.”
    She pushed through the underbrush, Storm at her side. Suddenly she changed direction.
    “This way,” she said, heading across a small, nearly dry streambed. The signal had shifted; whatever they were following was still on the move.
    But what were they following? All she knew was that something was out there, and she had to find it. An all-too-familiar grinning skull face popped into her head, but she refused to consider it. What they were after couldn’t be evil.
    Still, Emily felt frustrated. “How are we supposed to help creatures that won’t even let us get close?”
    Storm shook her shaggy gray head. “ If a creature is too far gone to recognize help when it comes, it may be too late. ”
    “No!” The word flew from Emily’s mouth before she could stop it. “We can’t give up. We have to keep going.”
    Storm gazed at her with patient golden eyes. “ Lead on, healer .”
    A slight breeze carried a light note. Listening closely, Emily picked up a fast swirl of faint static, like interference on a car radio. Within the jumble, she caught a flurry of notes. They