Shades of Starlight (Hiatus)

Book Two: Chapter Fifteen

 Sophie was screaming. I stayed silent, bracing myself. When we entered the void, I had still been crouching on Silveny's back. Now I was holding onto Sophie's harness straps, my knuckles whitening as we rocketed forward. The sheer force of the void was so strong, it felt like I was being pulled, stretched, and twisted in every direction at once. It wasn't pain, exactly, not really anything. I felt nothing except tugging, twirling, spinning, and the strange, cold emptiness around me.

A crisp, clear image appeared in my mind: a lush meadow surrounded by snow-capped mountains. White light flashed, thunder crackled, and everything snapped back into place. We were in the middle of a valley, circled by the same mountains in the image that had somehow been... transmitted into my brain. Silveny touched down on the grassy ground, next to a misty river. Tiny, cold drips of water splashed my skin.

"S-S-Sophie?" I stammered, staring around at everything. "Where-where are we? Did we just..."

"WHAT WAS THAT?!" Sophie shouted, her voice echoing off the valley walls. One second, we were soaring in the above Havenfield. The next, we were here. But I didn't recognize this place. And we definitely didn't light leap.

A sound filled my mind, an unfamiliar voice saying it. But it was a word... a word that I knew

"We teleported?" Sophie and I asked at the same time. We stared at each other without blinking.

"Did you just... did you hear... Silveny?" Sophie asked incredulously. Slowly, I nodded.

"Was that the voice in my head? I guess she can transmit to me, too," I reasoned. But Sophie's eyes were still locked on me.

"She spoke in her language, not the Enlightened one. And you translated it," Sophie whispered. I considered that.

"I guess... I'm a Polyglot. Mother's a Polyglot, and usually, Polyglots have more than one ability. It makes sense. I've always been really good at languages and mimicking," I told Sophie.

"Mimicking?"

"Talking in other people's voices," I answered, shifting my vocal tones a couple of octaves to perfectly capture Sophie's voice with mine. She shuddered.

"That's creepy."

"Eh. Maybe." I shrugged. Sophie suddenly looked very panicked.

"We need to go home! That must have looked terrible to the Councillors!" She exclaimed. I considered what had happened.

"Yeah, they probably think we just ran away," I mused. Sophie squeaked and grabbed at her Havenfield crystal.

"Sorry, girl," I told Silveny as we stepped into the light and let it whisk us away.

Havenfield was the definition of pandemonium. Bronte was screaming at Grady, Grady was screaming at Sandor, the Councillors were screaming at each other-the only one not screaming was Keefe. He was also the first to spot us, in the alicorn pasture, and gave us thumbs-up. I quickly unhooked Sophie's harness, smoothed my rumpled tunic, and ran over to my brother.

"STORMY! I'm so so so so so sorry for leaving you!" I cried, snatching her out of Keefe's arms and cradling her in mine. "I didn't mean to and I'll never ever ever do it again, I promise, okay sweetie? Do you forgive me? Do you? You do? I love you so much, baby girl!"

Giggling as my now-happy-again kitsune licked my face, I noticed that there was a sudden, tangible silence in the air. Turning, I saw that everyone was staring at me.

"So sorry for the interruption," I said, curtsying. They stared at me a moment more, then exploded with more screaming, even louder than before. I covered Stormy's ears as everyone rushed over to Sophie and Silveny.