Crystal Magic

Chapter 4. Two Princes

Gwynn and Sorrel had visited the Reserve several times before, on school trips and during summer and winter vacations. Near the outskirts of the city, the ancient pines stretched taller than all but the highest spires. They invoked a mystic awe that left all visitors quiet in reverence. For hours, she would chase after her sister and explore the forest, taking in the beauty of a forgotten age. Sometimes, Gwynn would even catch a glimpse of animals whose last refuge in the planet were these very woods.

Even now, covered in ice and snow, it was more beautiful than the rest of Perrault put together.

There was always a sorrow to the beauty and mysticism of the forest, Gwynn found. It made her wonder what Perrault used to be like—and why it had been destroyed to make the dying port city of the Border Worlds.

This was all that was left of what Perrault once was.

Getting to the Reserve was surprisingly easy. Sorrel was a fast flyer. For all her claims the previous night of being no pilot, Gwynn could tell that their father's gift for flight was there. With the hoverboard preventing the making of tracks and its relative silence, it was easy to get past the soldiers in the area.

Even getting past the tall gates was easier than Gwynn had anticipated. None of the usual guards were out, given the lockdown, so it was only a matter of flying high enough and they were through.

Once they'd landed in the Reserve, they dismounted the hoverboard and left it behind a tree. The forest was too dense to be traversed that way.

Coppelius lifted the magic crystal in one hand and waved the other over it. Matching the deep blue of the crystal, a spectral arrow appeared in the air, pointing a tentative direction.

"Is that a finding spell?" Sorrel asked, bounding up next to him.

"It is, but I have to have a pretty good idea what I'm looking for, for it to work." Coppelius started forward. "Luckily, what we're looking for has a strong aura of magic."

Gwynn bit her lip and said nothing, falling into her usual place as Sorrel's shadow. She could see the sparkle in her twin sister's eyes when she looked at the mysterious stranger. It put a pit in her stomach, the precipice of a free-fall.

They might be twins, but Sorrel was the younger of the two and she had always been, in a way, her little sister. She always would be. And her little sister was in love with a spacer sorcerer on the run from the law.

Gwynn wanted nothing more than to grab her sister's arm and run home, leave Coppelius behind and pretend none of this ever happened.

But she couldn't. Not just because they were in too deep as it was. But it was like they kept telling Coppelius, over and over again. He was someone in trouble, someone who needed help. They were someone who could give it, and were as used to giving as breathing.

For all her concerns, the doubts she harbored about Coppelius and the chaos he brought, even if Sorrel had nothing to do with any of this, Gwynn knew she would make the same choices.

"So, what's the aura of this thing like?" Sorrel asked, bounding through the snow after Coppelius as he continued to make a compass of his amulet. "Does it glow or something? Do you have special magic-sight?"

"It's not quite like that." Coppelius stopped as the arrow wobbled. "It's more like a feeling. Have you ever just known something, courtesy of intuition?"

"Yeah." Sorrel stepped beyond Coppelius. "Of course I have."

"It's like that, just a sort of gut feeling." Coppelius frowned. "The thing we're looking for—it's supposed to feel like the sun on a summer's day, like standing a little too close to a fire on a warm night. Not enough to hurt or burn—but enough to remind you of the power of light."