Song of the Unicorns (Avalon: Web of Magic #7) by Rachel Roberts Read Free Book Online Page B

cave. The mages’ jewels wove gold and blue light across the interior, illuminating an immense chamber.
    Lyra landed inside, and Emily ran to hug the big cat.
    “I am so happy to see you!” she cried.
    Lyra nuzzled her sleek head against Emily’s face, her bright green cat’s eyes dancing. “I couldn’t let you go on an adventure without me.”
    Adriane scratched behind Lyra’s ears. “Would never be the same. How did you find us?”
    “ I just looked for magical mayhem, ” Lyra purred playfully. “Of course, I was expecting to find the blazing star.”
    Staring into the black depths of the cavern, Tweek, still in Ozzie’s grip, spoke quietly. “Adventure? Is this a normal day for you mages?”
    “You have no idea,” Ozzie mumbled.
    “Tweek, this is Adriane, Dreamer, and Lyra,” Emily introduced her friends.
    “Pleased to meet you, I am an Experimen— geek!”
    “Yeah, we know,” Ozzie said, shaking a few loose branches from the E.F. “Why do you always show up just when something bad is happening?”
    “Ozzie!” Emily scolded. “Put him down.”
    “It’s not my fault,” Tweek said, straightening stray twigs and scrub. “Someone is using fairy magic to twist elements of nature.”
    “Who?” Ozzie said, arms crossed over his chest.
    “I don’t know.”
    “What do you know?” Ozzie demanded.
    “The square root of absolute shrub is four times the leaf.”
    “What’s that?”
    “Twigonometry.”
    “So someone is after the lost magic,” Emily guessed.
    “Yes, yes!” Tweek waved his twiggy arms.
    “Hoooob.”
    “Teeeeooo.”
    “Squoooook.”
    Everyone heard the mournful sounds echoing from the depths of the dank cave.
    “What was that?” Tweek asked.
    Emily stood still as a statue. The noises pulsed in a rhythm strangely familiar to her. “I think that’s your missing magic—unicorns.”
    “Unicorns?” Tweek gasped. “Sounds awful!”
    Adriane spread her golden light across the back walls, revealing a series of tunnels running in several directions. Shadows shifted across the rocky ceiling in reaction to the intrusive light.
    “What is that?” Ozzie pointed.
    “Bats,” Emily answered. “They live in the outer caves.”
    “ Gah! There must be thousands of them!”
    Adriane knelt by Dreamer, gently stroking his neck. “Which tunnel leads us to the magic?”
    More strange, out-of-tune noises echoed through the cave.
    Dreamer barked excitedly, pointing his nose to the tunnel on the far right.
    “Okay, lead the way,” Adriane told her packmate.
    The tunnel snaked through honeycombed caverns, the mages’ magic gems illuminating eerie limestone fingers on either side. It was if they had wandered into some bizarre subterranean universe. They passed extraordinary natural sculptures that looked like frozen waterfalls and melted castles. Along the ground, weird lacy rocks twisted crazily and disappeared into the dark. Emily could sense they were going deep underground.
    “Toot.”
    “BLaaARP!”
    “Lalala.”
    “That way.” Emily pointed as the tunnel ended in several other offshoots. She edged in front of Dreamer, moving quickly. The noises were getting more agitated.
    “It’s getting stronger,” Emily said.
    Dreamer agreed, growling low in his throat.
    “Be careful.” Ozzie walked in front of Emily protectively, his stone emitting a faint golden glow.
    They passed a grand chamber. Enormous stalactites hung like icicles from the ceiling. Trails of iridescent water dripped onto spiky, yellowish stalagmite spires surging from the cavern floor.
    “It’s got to be right around here,” Emily said, continuing down the tunnel, her stone now pulsing bright blue.
    “I don’t see anythi—!”
    Twonk!
    Ozzie bounced off… nothing!
    “Ozzie, are you all right?”
    “Perfect.” The ferret leaped to his feet, whiskers springing back in place.
    Reaching over the ferret, Emily’s fingers bumped up against an invisible barrier. “There’s something here,” she said,