Page 73 of Enchanted in Time
Still, she couldn’t leave Irmgard behind. She raced back and was bashing wildly at the air to chase the evil gnomes away.
“Hit at us! Evil woman! Must not be! Tie her up!”
Hannah whacked and kicked all around her surroundings. In between, she would feel Irmgard’s body in an effort to find the ropes that were binding her. There was one. She pulled, but it was tied too tight to undo. Irmgard opened her mouth, but it seemed she was dealt an invisible blow, for a moment later she passed out, and her head dropped to the ground.
“IRMGAAAARD!” Hannah flailed her arms even more wildly and bashed at the unseen forest gnomes, but there were far toomany. Boom! Boom! Boom! She heard the trolls coming closer and closer. “Irmgard!” But the unicorn didn’t respond.
Hannah looked up. The trolls were not even ten yards away. They were thundering toward her from every side. She couldn’t escape them anymore. In a final, desperate move, she was lashing out wildly to chase away the forest gnomes when the whole plateau began to quake once more. More trolls?
The first to appear were the luminous spikes at the edge of the mountain plateau. The next moment, a horde of unicorns galloped onto the plain. Their faces had a look of determination. Their muscles were tense, and they emitted a radiant white glow. Their light drove off the gray wind that was sweeping across the plain, and it cleared the view of the rocky ground. Right at that instant, Hannah spotted the red flower. It was growing on the side behind the trolls! Hannah had to get over there.
She leapt up and dashed toward the trolls. The monsters were already raising their clubs when the unicorns attacked them from behind. The magical creatures rammed their hooves into the giants’ backs and knocked them down. As they crashed down onto the ground, chunks of rock broke loose from the crag and came raining down from the mountains. Roaring, the trolls immediately stood up and turned to face the unicorns.
Hannah seized the chance! She bounded past them and raced toward the bright red point at the edge of the mountain plateau. The wind grew stronger and more ominous as if it were fighting the unicorns’ light. Once again, the view of the ground was obscured, and Hannah could no longer see the flower. She kept running toward where she had spotted it only moments before. As she sprinted toward it, not once did she turn to look at the battling trolls and the luminous unicorns. How long would the magical creatures last against these monsters? Their strength was dwindling, and the light they emitted was fading. All thatremained was the gray evening sky and the dense mist that was spreading across the plateau as the view grew worse and worse.
Hannah could barely see her hand in front of her eyes as she fought her way half-blind through the mist. The wind grew stronger and stronger, and she had to struggle to stay on her feet. She shielded her face from the biting wind, and her hair was whipping around her ears as she leaned into the gale and fought her way forward with every arduous step.
“You’ll never get it!” She could hear a menacing voice inside her head. “The soul belongs to me!”
Suddenly, Hannah felt it. The Evil was trying to take hold of her, of her heart and her thoughts. Like a cloak, it was wrapping itself around her from behind. “Yield, Hannah, and come to me. I will bring you to your children!”
“No, you will not! I will not go with you!”
“You will not? How dare you oppose me?”
Cold laughter echoed throughout the area, but only Hannah could hear it. A chill ran down her spine, and she tensed all her muscles as if that could shield her from the Evil.
“If you do not come to me, I shall go after your children! I shall go to your time and take them! Never again will you lay eyes on them! Never again will you stroke their hair. They’re small and weak. I shall take their souls, and you will never be able to save them!”
“NOOOOOOO!” Hannah kept battling her way forward. But the Evil was holding her arms and legs in its grasp. She could not take another step.
“Yield, and I shall spare them! But take just one more step, and I shall seize them!”
Hannah’s eyes filled with tears, but she would not yield to the Evil. She clenched her fists and gritted her teeth, and a feeling of strength surged through her body. She trudged onward. A single step. Then another.
“With that, you have now sealed their fate. I shall take them once I am done destroying you!”
The sound of icy laughter echoed throughout the hills. Darkness spread across the plateau. A hand tore at Hannah’s heart. She screamed with pain, but she would not stop. Every step was torture, each and every step a test of courage. The hand tugged harder and harder at her heart. Then, suddenly, it squeezed. Hannah could not breathe.
Was this the end?
She could see nothing. She closed her eyes. The pain engulfed her, but she focused instead on her children’s faces. Leon, with his big brown eyes that he’d gotten from Andrew; Emi, with her adorable dimples; Marco, with his crooked smile. Oh, how she loved her children! She had to hang on for their sakes. She kept her eyes closed and continued to fight. She turned her thoughts toward her children with every ounce of strength she had. The love that went coursing through her drove away the hand clutching her heart until at last she could breathe more freely again.
The sound of thunder was nearing. Were the trolls on their way again? And yet, back there was light. It was growing brighter, although the sun was nowhere in sight.
The unicorns came trotting up. Had they driven away the trolls?
“Beware and do not attempt to fight me!” the dark voice bellowed across the mountains. “Turn back, or I shall destroy your herd, just as I did the others!”
But the unicorns did not turn back. They charged toward Hannah, and with them, the light returned. At last, Hannah could see it: the red fireflower—not even two steps away. Hannah dashed over. She bent down and wrapped her fingers around the stem. Once again, the hand clutched at her heartand attempted to pull her back, but the unicorns’ presence had weakened the forces of the Evil.
With every last ounce of strength, Hannah pulled on the flower and plucked it. As the stem broke, the darkness fell away, and the grasping hand released her heart. She felt that she was free, and she took a deep breath in. A moment later, she was engulfed in total blackness.
27
Absolute silence and darkness. Hannah heard nothing, saw nothing, smelled nothing. But she could still feel. She could feel the stem of the fireflower in her hand, and she knew that the Evil could not touch her.
“Where is the soul of Mirabelle’s mother?” she called out into the gloom.
