Before her was a room completely carved of glass.
Glimmering, iridescent glass in every color of the rainbow-it shone from the tables, to the bookshelves, to the walls. Darla had never seen anything so magnificent in her entire life. This room appeared to be something out of a fairy tale.
“Welcome to the Glass Room-the name is pretty self-explanatory,” Hugo began, stepping onto the glass floors which Darla feared she’d break. “Let me give a bit of back story. You’ve never been to Pharix City, our capital, buts it’s carved out of multicolored glass. This room was created from the glass that hadn’t been used for the city so it didn’t all go to waste.”
Darla looked up at the towering bookshelves stacked with old, musty-looking books and scrolls.
“Is this some sort of library?” she asked, walking over to a glass sculpture of a man holding a crossbow to his side. “Or a history museum of sorts?”
Hugo shook his head. “This is where the king and queen keep all their top-secret information-from banned books, scrolls, priceless antiques, anything their enemies might want to grab. It’s all here. Not even my dad knows about it, and he’s the king’s right hand man. I only stumbled upon it a few years ago.”
Darla gasped, marveling at her exquisite surroundings. She felt like she was inside a diamond or a pearl.
“So, what did you want to show me?” she asked inquisitively. “You said it was something very important.”
Hugo nodded, his expression darkening. Darla stiffened nervously. She and Hugo still weren’t friends. Maybe they’d be accomplices, but they’d never have a real, true friendship. That just wasn’t possible-not with all the pain and trauma Darla had inadvertently caused the Hannigans.
“It’s my mother’s prophecy-the one about you,” Hugo explained. “I believe it is trying to send us on a quest.”
Darla raised an eyebrow. “A quest? For what?”
Hugo hurried over to the glass statue of the man Darla had been fiddling with and unscrewed his tiny glass head as if it was a cork from a bottle of champagne. Out of the statue he pulled out a yellowed scroll tied with a black ribbon.
“What?” he asked, when Darla gaped at him. “I’m a bit of a snoop. If it wasn’t for me not keeping my hands to myself, we wouldn’t have this.”
Darla rolled her eyes. “Whatever. Let’s read it.”
She was desperate to find out what this infamous prophecy was. All she knew was the brief tidbits the king and queen had said when she visited their throne room. It had something to do about going head to head with the Shadow Master.
“Here,” Hugo said, thrusting the scroll into Darla’s hand. “I’ve already read it. You’re turn.”
Darla gulped-her destiny was scrawled onto a flimsy piece of paper. With a deep breath, she unwound the ribbon and opened it.
The girl from the world of monster origin
Coming again, the dragon mage
The devils are there, born of sin
They’ll release the great ones from their cage
Darkness comes in the shadow
Havoc released in the night
The sword of might can only do
As the mage leads the final fight
Death is her middle name
Golden fire will devour her whole
At the end, the dead will be the sane
And Earth reduced to coal
The words sent chills down her spine as she read the ominous prophecy. After rereading and rereading, she still could barely understand.
The girl from the world of monster origin…that was her. She was the coming again of the dragon mage. They’ll release the great ones from their cage…She assumed that part was referring to the Wreckers that the White Maidens summoned. They were still out there, the ghastly smoke beasts. Darkness comes in shadow…the Shadow Master, most likely. After that, she stopped understanding. What sword of might? Why is death her middle name? If she’s supposedly the human incarnation of golden fire, how will it devour her whole? But the last two lines made her shiver as if she was doused in freezing ice water.
At the end, the dead will be the sane.
And Earth reduced to coal.
Was that what the prophecy was saying? The world was going to end? All would be left dead and Earth, Darla’s home, would be destroyed? Even though Darla no longer lived on Earth, she didn’t want it burnt to a crisp.
“Are you okay?” Hugo asked, his eyebrows creasing. “You look like you’re about to faint or something.”
Darla nodded, feeling her heart pound in her chest. She didn’t understand anything about what she was supposed to do.
“So…what’s this quest?” she asked quietly. “Because I think we should leave tonight before things can get even worse.”
Hugo paused. “I think we’re supposed to find “the sword of might” otherwise known as the Spirit Sword.”
Darla remembered seeing the Spirit Sword in the painting. It was the legendary weapon wielded by Laurel Crowe, the first Mage.
“But no one knows where it is,” Darla said. “How do you expect to find it? It could be anywhere-the mountains, the oceans, the forests.”
Hugo looked taken aback. “I know the odds are not with us. We have little to no clues or evidence to where this sword might be. But all I know is that we need to find it. I don’t know why, but I think it may be the only thing to stop the Shadow Master. From what it says in the prophecy, I think it wants to…destroy Earth.”
“Destroy Earth?” Darla was dismayed. “Why? It’s not even from Earth. If it could destroy anything, wouldn’t it plan to destroy Pharix?”
Hugo shrugged. “I really don’t know. Anyways, I think I might have an idea where we should go first.”
“Where?” Darla asked.
Hugo reached into his side bag and pulled out the Dragon History textbook, flipping to the section on Laurel Crowe.
“Before she vanished, she was heading up to the Crystal Temples in the mountains. She had her sword with her. I think we should follow her path and see where it takes us. It might just lead us to the sword-or the Shadow Master,” Hugo explained.
Darla read over the textbook page. “She went to a lot of places before she reached the Temples though.”
“Then we’ll have to visit them all,” Hugo shrugged. “I’m not saying this will be easy. This could take weeks, and we might not find anything. But I have a feeling that this is what we should be doing if we want to save Fern.”
Darla took a deep breath. “Okay, so we should pack something-clothes, food, water, and weapons. Oh, and bring some textbooks.”
Hugo hurried over to one of the bookshelves and pulled out three faded-looking books with leather covers. They all looked ancient.
“Volume 1 Vince Pharix’s Manifesto, Forbidden Magix Guide, and the Secrets of Pharix,” he explained, dropping them all into his bag. “We leave tonight. Tell nobody.”
It was time for an adventure.