“Missing?” He stilled. “You mean, it’s gone?”
“Yes!” I tried taking deep breaths, but it was like gulping air. “If that key is lost, we’resoscrewed!”
“It’ll be okay. We’ll find it,” Charlie said soothingly as he stroked my arms.
His attempts to calm me weren’t working. My body shook against his hold. “But what if wedon’t? I’ll fail to fulfill the prophecy. The world will be doomed because I was stupid enough to misplace my key! This is allmyfault.”
I cried into Charlie’s front. He wrapped his arms around me and rocked me from side to side. “I promise it’ll be all right,” he said, but his voice wavered.
There was a whinny from the hallway. I pulled away from Charlie’s arms and stuck my head out the door, wiping snot from my nose— I was an ugly crier.
My spirits lifted when I saw Oberi trotting down the hallway. Around her horn was my key, suspended on the chain. She slid to a halt, and I immediately removed the key from her horn, fastening it around my neck again.
“Oberi! Thank goodness,” I wept. “She found my key!”
Charlie stiffened. “What?”
“It’s around her horn. It must’ve fallen off when we were messing around in the woods, and she went back to look for it,” I said in relief. “Good job, Oberi!”
Oberi nickered. I flung my arms around her neck and gave her a hug. “Ancestors, I’mnevertaking this thing off again! That was too close! Right, girl?”
Oberi gave a hot snort that blew Charlie’s hair back. He frowned.
“It was fortunate Oberi managed to find it. We might not have located it if we went back to the woods,” I said, stroking her fiery mane back. “It was so lucky.”
Charlie sighed, and his shoulders sagged. “Yeah. Reallucky.”
Oberi swished her tail, and it smacked Charlie in the face. I clutched the key, promising myself I’d never lose it again. I couldn’t be careless like that. It wasn’t okay to mess up when the world was counting on me.
From now on, no more mistakes.
* * *
A couple of weeks later, Kallie, Marcus, Charlie and I gathered in the Lair. We had gotten together to review the plan for getting to the Elven gate, before we headed to Shade Hills on our field trip.
“Are we all in agreement?” I said. “We act casual for as long as we can, and then, once we get an opening, we sneak into the woods so we can test our keys on that gate. Then we rush back, so we can rejoin the group again and no one notices our absence.”
Marcus and Kallie gave remarks of agreement. Charlie remained silent.
Oberi was giving Rishi pony rides around the cave. Rishi meowed as Oberi pranced up and down in her unicorn form, tossing her head joyously.
“Do you think weshouldbe doing this?” Marcus asked. “Running off during a field trip to Shade Hills is a huge infraction. It’s enough to get us tossed into Cellblock 9, if the guards realize we’re missing.”
“We don’t have a choice,” I said. “If we’re sneaky enough, we won’t get caught.”
Charlie brushed back his hair, which was falling into his eyes again. I could tell it was irritating him.
I touched Charlie’s locks. “Your hair is getting a little long,” I said. “Let me cut it.”
“How? We aren’t allowed scissors, and I’m not going to the prison barber,” Charlie said.
Most inmates were forced to get their hair cut by the guards when it got too long. They always did a horrible hack job.
Kallie conjured a pair of hair cutting scissors with a hairdressing cloth, and handed them to me. “Here you go.”
“How can you dothatand not conjure something to get us out of here?” Marcus complained.
“Come to think of it, you did conjure swords for us to use in McCauley’s class last semester,” I added.
