All's Fairy in Love and War (Avalon: Web of Magic #8) by Rachel Roberts Page B

She had been working on a strange hand mirror whose silver frame was adorned with two metal antennae. “Oh.” She stopped when she saw Kara. Her green skin blushed purple.
    “Princess Kara, this is Tasha, Tangoo’s assistant,” Lorren said.
    Goldie squeaked, insulted.
    “And Goldie, the wonder dragon,” he added.
    Tasha bent into a low, clumsy bow and stammered, “An honor, Your Magnificent Wonder Highness.”
    “Please, just call me Kara,” she said and smiled. The goblin girl seemed about her age, Kara noticed. “It’s nice to meet you.”
    Tasha stood, self-consciously wiping the smudges from her smock.
    “Look at all these spells Tasha made all by herself,” Lorren proclaimed, proudly pointing to a rack of shelves neatly stacked with labeled vials. “What are you working on now, a love spell?” he teased.
    Tasha flushed purple again. “I finished those in my first year of training.”
    “Ah, those things never work, anyway,” Lorren laughed.
    “How would you know?” Tasha asked slyly.
    “Funny. Where’s Tangoo?” Lorren surveyed the cluttered laboratory.
    “He’s checking the mirrors for the princess’s ride,” the goblin girl said, and looked at Kara. “I’m so sorry about your friend. I’ve been keeping her as cool as possible.” Tasha gestured to an enormous tank sunk into the floor. It was filled with a pool of shimmering quicksilver, with a strange lump in the middle. Kara gasped. The lump was Lyra’s head and broad shoulders! The cat’s blurred features were a melted mockery of her once beautiful face.
    “Lyra,” she sobbed, kneeling by the tank. She didn’t need a sorcerer to tell her that Lyra’s time was running out fast.
    “Yes, it certainly is a shame,” a cool voice echoed across the room.
    The trio whirled around, startled to find Tangoo standing right behind them.
    “Master Tangoo!” Tasha cried.
    “Tangoo, Princess Kara is here,” Lorren announced.
    “I can see that, Prince Lorren.” The sorcerer smiled thinly, looking down his hawk nose at Kara. “Princess, you did not fare so well with the Firemental horse.”
    That’s an understatement, thought Kara.
    “But, I am happy to say, you look ready to ride now,” he continued.
    “If I get the crystal, it can save Lyra?” Kara asked anxiously.
    “The crystal of the Fairy Realms certainly has the power to bring the cat back,” Tangoo assured her.
    “If her unicorn jewel enchanted the cat in the first place, why can’t the princess undo the spell herself?” Lorren asked suspiciously.
    Yeah, why hadn’t she thought of that? Kara asked herself.
    Tangoo’s sharp eyes darkened. “Well, my obstinate yet positive young prince, if the princess were a magic master, that might be possible, otherwise—” he waved his slender fingers. “Good-bye kitty.”
    Lorren’s brow furrowed.
    Kara’s heart sank as she fought to stay strong. “How can I find the stallion?”
    “It will not be easy,” the sorcerer warned. “Firementals are most difficult to harness. That spell took months to conjure. But it cannot hold. The creature will dissolve back to fire.”
    “Oh no! How long have we got?” Kara asked, frightened.
    “The horse may have already reverted to fire.” He tapped his goatee with a slender, green finger. “However, if you were to find the Blue Rose, that would give the Firemental enough magic to stay in its stallion form, long enough for you to ride the mirrors.”
    “The Blue Rose! An ancient talisman that holds powerful elemental magic!” Tasha cried, reciting her schooling perfectly.
    “Quite right, my eager-eared apprentice,” Tangoo praised.
    Tasha beamed.
    “The Blue Rose is a myth,” Lorren said dismissively. “Everyone knows that.”
    “I beg to differ, my inexperienced but pigheaded prince,” Tangoo countered. “I know where it is hidden.”
    “Where?” all three asked.
    “In the lair of the Spider Witch.”
    Kara frowned. That didn’t sound good at all.
    “Oh, don’t worry,