Odette, though, quickly grew frustrated. Her cheeks turned red, and they puffed out as she attempted to imagine the portal manifesting and failed.
“It’s not working,” Odette said in frustration, and she stamped her foot. “I knew it was too good to be true!”
“You have to believe, Odette,” Theo encouraged. “Try again.”
He took her hand. With the gesture, Odette’s expression cleared, and she gazed up at Theo in a semblance of purity. Innocence flashed across her face, and Theo’s kind eyes melted.
A portal in front of them blossomed. It opened up within the circle of the stone gate, glowing a bright pink hue and concealing what lay beyond.
Odette gasped and dropped Theo’s hand. She began jumping up and down. “Oh my gods! We did it!”
“Can the rest of us get through?” Delmare asked. She stepped closer, but the portal didn’t close.
“I think so, now that we opened it,” Theo said. “Follow us. We don’t know where it’s going to take us.”
“I can get us back, I’m sure,” Emma said.
“Let’s hope,” I said. Emma and I fell in line behind Theo and Odette, and the others gathered around us. I held my breath as I walked through the portal, hoping that it would take us to the Alicorn Court, and not a place where we’d end up trapped.
When I stepped out of the portal, it was like entering into another world. The eight of us gasped in unison as we turned in place, trying to take in what we were looking at. The grass below our feet was amethyst, while the skies lit up a teal blue, with a sapphire sun that gave everything a cool glow. Around us grew turquoise willow trees, and a river of silver rushed by. I could hear the tweeting of birds echoing against stone walls as we gazed up at a palace made of clear quartz. We were in some kind of courtyard, in a faerie land I did not know by name.
“Look!” Kiara pointed, and through the fog, a figure emerged. She was wearing a soft velvet robe that draped behind her, a crown that looked like it was made of starlight upon her feathery hair.
“Lady Iris!” Theo’s eyes widened as she approached.
The lines in her face creased, and she smiled. “Hello, Theodore. Odette.” She greeted them kindly, like a mother would. “You have passed the first test. Welcome to the land of the Alicorn Court.”
Theo stuttered. “You— you’re one of them!”
“Yes. I have dryca blood. My mother, my grandmother, and her mother before her have all served on the Court,” Iris said. “It was my duty since I was a little girl. I’m so glad that you finally found us. I wish I could’ve led you here myself, but the magical oath I took to the Court years ago prevented me from telling you of its location. But no matter— here you are.”
“Where are we?” Emma asked as she looked around.
“You are inside an illusion. A creation of our own minds,” Lady Iris said. “Many years prior, the first dryca combined their powers to manifest another realm, a place where the Alicorn Court could conference in solitude. Through the ages, this place has been sustained by the magic of the Court. So long as one member of the Alicorn Court is still alive, this place will continue to exist.”
“So you made another world? Are you gods?” Odette squeaked.
Lady Iris smiled, like the idea was humorous. “We are not gods. This castle and its surroundings are all we have the power to create, although unlike back on Earth, food does not nourish here and drink does not sustain us. We can only remain within the confines of the illusion for so long before we must return to Malovia. These days, the Court only uses this place for meetings— and to hide our most precious treasure.”
Lady Iris turned. She wound through the courtyard, and we began following her as she led us up a winding set of steps that went inside the castle. Once we were within the castle, I saw that the insides were bare— there was nothing within except the gleaming clear quartz that made up the building, cast blue by the light of the sapphire moon.
Lady Iris began to explain as she led us down the hallway. “The goddess Neva, the Specter Doe of Shadow, entrusted the Alicorn Court with the alicorn stone, believing we would bestow it upon those who needed it the most. For centuries, the Court