Chapter 17
The Sapphire Princess
Through the deep blue, but transparent surface of the giant slab of sapphire, Lily could see the shape of a young girl around her age, trapped inside. Her eyes were closed, as if asleep. This should be the first time she's ever seen this girl, but for some reason, Lily thought that there was something oddly familiar about her.
"Found something interesting in that gemstone?"
Suddenly, a voice cut in and startled Lily. She jumped back and looked up to see the blue parrot perched right on top of the stone staring down at her. The others came running to her side from behind.
Eddie glared and spat out disdainfully, "This bird again?"
"What are you doing here?" Lily cried out.
"That should be my line," said the parrot. "How did you find this place?"
Lily blinked. "Huh? Wait, you didn't expect us to be here?"
"I asked first," the parrot fired back.
What was going on? Lily wondered. She was certain that this was another trap concocted by the Schemer when the parrot suddenly showed up. But going by the parrot's reactions, that didn't seem to be the case.
Eddie pushed his way forward and said, "We found this place with a map left behind by Mary Ann Duskbell."
The parrot raised an eyebrow. "Mary Ann Duskbell? Of the Sapphire Society?"
"So you DO know my mom!" Eddie cried out. "I knew it!"
"Mom?" The parrot's eyes lit up in blatant astonishment. "You're Mary Ann Duskbell's son?"
"That's right," said Eddie. "And this is my sister, Viv. But that's not important right now. Several years ago, she upped and vanished. What did you do to her? Where is she now?"
The parrot tilted its head sideways, as if unsure what to think. But then, it sighed and replied, "Boy, I had nothing to do with Mary Ann's disappearance. Neither did the Schemer."
"Don't lie!" shouted Eddie. "You guys and the Sapphire Society are enemies, aren't you? There's no way you guys had nothing to do with her disappearance!"
"It is the truth," the parrot snapped back. "But I see. Now I understand how you found this place. I always suspected the Sapphire Society knew about this chamber. And it appears they left behind clues for others to find it."
"What is this chamber?" Lily asked. "Who is that girl inside that huge sapphire?"
"This child is the Sapphire Princess," said the parrot. "And this chamber is her prison."
"Her prison? You're keeping her here against her will? Why?" asked Lily.
"Isn't it obvious?" said the parrot. "Because we want to, of course."
"Because you want to?" Lily could feel blood rushing to her head. "That's it?"
"Well, what did you expect from an evil wizard who has fun tormenting innocent children?" asked the parrot. It bent down to look at the trapped girl and added, "Look at her sleep away. I wonder what she could be dreaming of. Could it be of her mother, lost at childbirth? Or could it be her friends who have long since faded away with the passage of time? That would be quite sad, wouldn't it?"
As the parrot prattled on, the blood that rushed to Lily's head began to boil over with anger. How could this thing not feel anything but joy while it made a mockery of that poor girl's misfortune?
And still, it continued to mock.
"Oh, I know. Maybe her last words before she got trapped inside this block of jewel stone will give us a hint."
The parrot pecked it's beak twice on the stone.
Before anyone could ask what it did that for, a voice suddenly spoke up. It came from the stone and sounded like it belonged to a young girl.
Meekly, the voice whimpered, "Daddy . . ."
Hearing it was like a punch to the gut for Lily. And it was clear to her who the voice belonged to: none other than the Sapphire Princess.
"Aw, isn't that sweet?" asked the parrot. It did little to hide how much fun it was having, listening to the girl's crying. "She's a daddy's girl. It brings tears to my eyes. Especially when I know she will never see her father again."
It finished with a wicked cackle.
Finally, Lily reached her tipping point. Unable to tolerate the parrot's mocking attitude to the poor trapped damsel, she barked at the bird menace, "You shut up! Let her go, you mangy rat with wings."
The parrot turned its beak up and sniffed. "No," it replied bluntly. "You are not the boss of me, and you can't make me."
"Fine!" snapped Lily. "I'll do it myself!"
"True, as the chosen one of the Sapphire Bracelet, you're probably the only one im the whole wide universe with a chance to break the Sapphire Princess out of her prison," said the parrot. "But there's no way you can actually pull it off right now. You have far too little magic power."
"Well, we won't know if I don't try, right?"
With that said, Lily marched over and put her hands on the giant piece of sapphire.
"Give it everything you got, bracelet!" she ordered. "Help me save this girl!"
"Eek!"
"Whoa!"
"Squawk!"
Light shined from the bracelet's jewels, brighter than they ever had before. The giant gemstone's own glow intensified to match, becoming so bright that it made the others cry out and turn away. Even the parrot had to lift its left wing and cover its eyes.
And then -
"Lily! Lily! Wake up, please! Lily!"
Lily flickered open and she found herself lying on the floor. She glanced up to see Viv and Eddie out of the corner of her eye looking very distraught. That distraught turned into relief when Lily gingerly sat up.
"What happened?" Lily asked the twins. "Did we win?"
The twins gave each other looks that gave Lily a sinking feeling that she was not going to like the answer.
"See for yourself," said an all too familiar and hateful voice behind her.
Lily turned around and to her utter dismay, saw the Sapphire Princess still trapped and sleeping in a chunk of sapphire that was back to its usual, dimmer glow. And perched on top of the sapphire was the parrot.
"So this is what the famous Lady Sapphire can do right now?" it said. "How disappointing. Truly."
Lily glared at the bird. It was clear to her what must have happened: while trying to break the Sapphire Princess free with the power of the bracelet, she ran out of magic power and fainted. In other words, she lost.
"No, not yet!" Stubbornly, she shook her head and spoke in defiance. "Not yet. I'm still not done."
She tried to get back up on her feet. But the moment she stood up, the world suddenly spun around her and she collapsed back down.
"Yes, you are," said the parrot. "I know thanks to that bracelet you can recover your magic power faster than most humans, but even you can't go on without a full night's rest after all that magic you poured into the gemstone. Face it: you've failed."
Lily bit down on her lip as frustration mounted from her stomach.
And then thunder clapped over everyone's heads. All eyes looked up to see dark, bluish clouds swirling out of the ceiling. The clouds spiraled into the shape of a butterfly cocoon that then burst with another clap of thunder and a flash of lightning to reveal a robed person with their face covered by impenetrable darkness beneath their hood.
"Who. Is. That?" Eddie wondered aloud.
"Well, well, well. This is a surprise," said the parrot. "Rejoice, Lady Sapphire and company. Lord Schemer has decided to grace us all with his presence."
"Lord Schemer?" With wide eyes, Lily looked at the robed person, still unable to see his face no matter how hard she stared. She could only figure out he was a man from the title of "Lord" that the parrot added to his name. "So that's the Schemer?"
"THAT'S who we've been up against?" Viv cried out.
The flap of the Schemer's hood turned from right to left as he took a look around before stopping his gaze on Lily.
"So what brings you here, Lord Schemer?" asked the parrot.
The Schemer turned to face the parrot and said in a deep, distorted voice as if using a voice changer like you'd hear on TV, "I sensed that the defenses surrounding the Sapphire Princess' prison had been breached and came to investigate. But it seems I was concerned over nothing." He turned his gaze once more to Lily. "For a lot of things."
Lily shivered. Although she couldn't see his face, she could feel his eyes boring into her soul.
"So you are the one chosen by the Sapphire Bracelet," he said. "The one who calls herself Lady Sapphire."
"For the record, I do not call myself that," Lily cut in.
"I praise you for coming this far," said the Schemer. "Not many people can thwart me and my pranks."
Pranks? Did he just call all that trouble he caused, pranks? Lily became furious as she remembered the distraught the Schemer's "pranks" caused to Eddie and Melody, and perhaps many other people. And, of course, the Sapphire Princess.
Ignorant of Lily's anger, or likely ignoring it on purpose, the Schemer spoke on. "But it is clear that you are no threat to me. In fact, I would go so far as to say it is amusing to watch you struggle to oppose me."
"Oh yeah?" went Lily. "Why don't you come down here right now and see if I'm really a threat or not?"
The Schemer, however, shook his head.
"Another time, perhaps," he said. "For now, I must be going."
He snapped his fingers and blue smoke suddenly billowed out from beneath the sapphire stone with the Sapphire Princess in it and spun fast around and around them all like a tornado.
"Wait!" Lily cried out over the howling wind. "You're leaving? Just like that?"
"Indeed," said the Schemer. "Now that I've seen for myself what you can do, I see no reason to stick around."
"We're not done yet!" Lily shouted. "The Sapphire Princess! At least let the Sapphire Princess go!"
The Schemer refused. "No. If you wish to save the Sapphire Princess, come find me again when you are more worthy of my attention. Don't worry. As long as you continue to oppose me, we will meet again."
And then he was gone, along with the parrot, the huge sapphire stone, and the Sapphire Princess.
Lily sat on the ground and stared ahead at the empty space they left behind, unable to believe what just happened. She had lost. There was someone who needed help right in front of her, and she couldn't save her.
For a while, no one said a thing. And then Viv broke silence and asked, "Lily? You okay?"
"Yeah," Lily replied softly. "Yeah, I'm fine."
Truth be told, she was frustrated. But now was not the time to get down in the dumps. Like the Schemer himself said, they'll meet again. With that, there'll be another chance for her to rescue the Sapphire Princess again. And next time for sure, she won't lose.
Eddie swore.
"I can't believe it," he said. "I missed my chance to ask the Schemer about Mom."
"Don't beat yourself up over it, Bro," said Viv. "I doubt the Schemer would tell us anything anyway. For now, let's just get out of here."
"Yeah, good idea," said Eddie. "By the way. How do we do that?"
"Oh, that's right," said Lily. Finding the exit was the reason why they went to all that trouble to get here. But looking around what should be the final chamber of the dungeon, Lily couldn't find anything that looked like a way out. It didn't look like the Schemer and the parrot use any secret passageway. They just simply disappeared in a tornado of blue gas. "Good question. How DO we get out of here?"
No sooner did the question leave Lily's lips, light flashed from her bracelet and stretched out to the middle of the chamber. Familiar markings of light spread out into a circle under the gang. And then -
WOOSH!
In the blink of an eye, Lily and the twins found themselves back outside by the gym. The world around them was turned yellow by the light of the setting sun. A glance at her watch told Lily that it was already 4:30 in the afternoon.
"Oh, geez!" she said. "Look how late it is!"
"Wow," Viv said when Lily showed her the time. "That's a whole half day skipped! I hope none of the teachers get mad at us."
"Uh . . . Sorry, Sis," said Eddie. "But I'm afraid they probably are. Well, one of them at least."
Lily and Viv turned to see what Eddie was looking at and spotted Uncle Viceroy marching towards them. And boy did he look mad.
Lily had only ever seen her uncle be goofy with a habit for random weirdness like a character in a kid's sitcom. But soon she would learn the history teacher had the rage and fury of a tiger mom.
**********
Meanwhile, back at a certain dimly lit office at the heart of Bluestone Academy as the sun sank beneath the horizon, two occupants had a chat. They were a man with white hair and beard, and a big, blue-feathered parrot.
"Just as I thought, it was too soon for the girl to find the Sapphire Princess," said the parrot. "And what was that earlier?"
"What was what earlier?" asked the white-haired man. He sat reclined in his chair.
"Don't play dumb," said the parrot. "I thought the plan was to wait a little while longer before the Schemer showed himself."
"I felt like the situation called for the Schemer to make an appearance, and so I did," said the white-haired man.
The parrot, however, sighed and shook its head. "You're getting too impatient. I understand that you're excited the end goal is finally in sight. But it is exactly because of that, we need to really bide our time."
"But you have to admit that things are moving faster than we expected."
"And that's what worries me," said the parrot. "There is such a thing as moving too fast. Plenty of things can go wrong when that happens."
"Oh, I'm not worried," said the white-haired man as he got up and strolled to a table at the side of the room that had a crystal ball sitting on it. "That's what our dear friend is for."
He gazed into the crystal ball through which he could see a certain history teacher admonishing a trio of students for their truancy.
"If there's anyone we can count on to sort out whatever problems crop up to hinder our plans, it's Viceroy Kevin Lin."
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