Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Seventeen

The sun was beginning to set on Val Luminara.

Justin laughed in triumph as he flew straight through the ring, the bell disappearing right out of his hands. The trumpets blared, and Lucas swooped in to slap him on the back.

“That ties us with Dasher's unit!” he exclaimed. “Twenty eight points each!”

“Blitzen's unit is the closest, and he's down by eleven points,” Willow added. “There aren't enough bells left for them to catch up to us.”

Grinning, Justin shot up into the air until he was high enough to see Laetitia. They were almost six miles away, but the torches burned bright enough that he could read them easily. Just like Lucas had said, both Dasher and Vixen had twenty eight points, with Blitzen in a very distant third place with seventeen. Dancer had six points, Donner had three, and Comet had eight, while Dancer, Prancer, and Cupid each had five.

“Wait a minute,” Justin said, then began to count on his fingers. “If those numbers are accurate…”

“Then there's only one bell left!” Willow finished for him.

“Aw, seriously?” Lucas whined. “Already?”

Again, Justin's heart began to race with excitement. One bell left. One more point to score.

He fixed his eyes on the green torch.

One more chance to beat Dasher.

“Let's get back to the bell jar!” he said, taking off in the direction of town. The others followed, and a couple minutes later they were flying over the outskirts of Laetitia.

With the wind roaring in his ears, Justin almost didn’t hear Lena laughing.

“What's got you in such a good mood?” he asked over his shoulder.

“Nothing,” she answered with a smile. “I was…I'm just glad it turned out I was worried about nothing.”

Justin kept a wary eye out as they flew above Laetitia's rooftops, ready for an attack at any time. But strangely, the sky above town seemed to be deserted. But why would—

He stopped in midair in front of the bell jar.

It was empty.

“Someone's already got the bell!” he exclaimed, spinning to face his squad. “What do we do?”

“There's nothing we can do,” Willow said. “We don't know which squad has the bell or where they are. We don't even know where the last ring—”

As she spoke, a streak of bright green light shot up into the sky, exploding into the shape of a fox head out in the distance.

“Team meeting,” Lucas said. “Let's go!”

It took them a little less than five minutes to reach Vixen's starting platform—which she had returned to its original spot after the game had begun—but it felt like an eternity to Justin. His ears twitched at every sound, convinced that the trumpets were going to play, announcing the end of the Games. Which unit had the bell? He prayed it wasn't Dasher's. Ending the game tied for first place wouldn't be bad, though his soul burned with the need to win. But that one bell was also all Dasher needed to win, and every second that ticked by was one second closer to them finding the last ring and scoring.

Justin's squad was one of the first to arrive, and they found Vixen standing alone at center stage. Justin kept to the edge of the stage, knowing that the more distance he kept from the old doe, the smoother things would go. But as he stood there waiting, a chill went down his spine and his fur began to stand on end. Turning around, he saw Tornado standing at the other end of the stage, his hate filled eyes trained squarely on Justin.

Don't pay him any attention, Justin thought, quickly looking away. Don't give him any excuse to start anything.

Over the next few minutes, more and more squads came down out of the sky to join them, until the entire stage was packed with young reindeer anxious to get back up into the air.

“Attention, everyone!” Vixen finally said, and the clearing immediately fell silent. “As I'm sure you've all realized, the Reindeer Games are one bell away from being over! Furthermore, we are tied for first place with Dasher's unit!”

“What are we doing here, then?” one buck demanded. “We need to be out there finding that bell before someone else scores!”

Voices rang out in agreement, but Vixen just held her hands up and they fell silent.

“The scouts have reported, and they say that the final ring,” she spun dramatically around and pointed upwards, “is there!”

“No!” Lena whispered.

Curious, Justin looked at where Vixen was pointing. She seemed to be indicating a spot right in the center of Val Luminara—no, the center of the bright, rainbow colored portal itself!

“It's only a matter of time before the other teams find it as well! We need to mount a defense of that ring before whoever has the bell can—”

“LOOK!” someone yelled.

The crowd began to mutter uneasily, and Justin squinted to see what they were looking at. What he saw made his heart drop into his stomach.

Three reindeer were shooting almost straight upwards at an incredible speed. He could just make out the twinkle of gold in one of their hands.

And they were wearing Dasher's colors.

“Silence!” Vixen shouted, quickly regaining control. “I need our three fastest fliers to get up there and stop them before they can put that bell into the ring!”

“No, no, no,” Lena whispered.

“Tornado,” Vixen said, looking at her grandson, “Willow…”

She paused, as if the words she was about to say physically pained her.

“...and Justin.”

Justin gasped, his ears perking up. “M- Me?”

Vixen clenched her teeth, but nodded. “Yes. Regardless of how I feel about you, I can’t deny that you have a natural gift for speed that few other reindeer, even fully trained fliers, can match.”

“This is outrageous!” Tornado shouted, shoving reindeer aside to confront his great grandmother. “You’re teaming me up with the lightless one?”

“His squad has scored a not insubstantial number of points for our unit,” Vixen admitted. She took a deep breath, closing her eyes. “It is undeniable that he has passion for what he does. Perhaps it’s time we reevaluated our opinions of him.”

Justin’s heart leaped up into his throat. The class began chattering frantically with each other.

“He’s not lightless?”

“But the council said he was!”

“Does that mean they were wrong?”

But not everyone was as pleased with the revelation as Justin.

“Grandmother, have you lost your mind?” Tornado demanded, towering over the old reindeer with his fists clenched. “After everything he’s said and done, you’re just going to forgive him and—”

“What is Christmas,” Vixen snapped, facing down her oversized grandson without a hint of fear, “if not the season of forgiveness? Now, are you going to stand there arguing with me and let Dasher’s unit win? Or are you going to swallow your pride, fly up there with Justin and Willow, and win this game for us?”

The class gave a resounding cheer. Tornado, clearly a hairsbreadth from exploding into a rage, stepped to the edge of the stage. Then he turned to glare at Justin.

“I’m not slowing down for you, lightless one,” he spat. “If you can’t keep up, you’ll be left behind!”

With that, he launched into the air at a speed Justin almost couldn’t comprehend.

“Let’s go, Justin!” Willow encouraged him. “I believe in you!”

Justin felt his heart skip a beat, but then he nodded and blasted off after Tornado. Soon they were both hundreds of feet in the air, speeding toward the last ring. Dasher’s squad was almost there. Did he even have a chance of getting there first?

“Go!” he heard Willow yell over the roaring winds. “Vixen only sent me because a squad has to have three people. You and Tornado are faster than me. I’ll catch up. Go!”

Justin looked at her, nodded, and shifted into his four-legged form.

And then he unleashed his power like never before.

HOOOOO…

LEEEEEE…

CRAAAAAAAP!

It was like flooring the gas pedal on the freaking space shuttle! Until this very moment, Justin hadn’t realized just how much he had been holding back. In less than a second, Tornado went from being fifty feet in above him, to a hundred yards below. Laetitia’s lights became nothing but a smudge of white on the otherwise dark landscape that was Val Luminara. He hadn’t been this high up since he’d first fallen through the portal! And unlike the sheer terror that had filled him last time, tonight a laugh of pure exhilaration spilled from his lips.

Flight really was the ultimate freedom.

He was so lost in the rapture of his, well, rapture that he almost forgot what he had come up here for in the first place. It took a sharp pull on his antlers from Lena for him to come to his senses.

“Justin, slow down!” she yelled. “You’re going to kill yourself!”

He didn’t listen. Slowing down was the last thing he ever wanted to do. He wanted to keep flying, straight up through the portal, out of earth’s atmosphere, past the moon and into the—

“Slow down! Please!”

Something about her voice cut through his trance. She sounded…scared?

“Please,” she begged him, “I don’t want it to happen again!”

Her hands were shaking on his antlers, he realized. Almost without realizing it, he slowed down until he was climbing at a much more reasonable pace. The ring was still about a hundred feet above him, but—to his own amazement—he had actually caught up with Dasher’s squad. They stared at him in shock, the golden bell shimmering in their hands.

He didn’t care.

“Lena, what’s wrong?” he asked, shifting back into two-legged form.

She didn’t answer. Her hands continued to shake.

He craned his neck around. “Lena, talk to me!”

She was trembling, her eyes as big as ornaments and her face as pale as snow. Tears were running down her face, freezing in the atmospheric chill and falling back down to Val Luminara in tiny gleaming crystals. Justin stared at her in shock. He had never seen her like this before. Strong, rebellious Lena, who didn’t always know exactly what to say, but never backed down from a challenge. Seeing her, helpless and petrified with fear, struck something in him. Not just because he never wanted to see her like this…

But because he had done this to her.

Suddenly, she gasped and pointed straight above him. “Justin!”

Justin whipped his head around, just in time to crash into the deer above him.

They had reached the ring. For the first time, it finally struck Justin just how insanely high they were. They actually seemed to be in the portal itself. Though it was far too massive for them to be anywhere near the edges, he could have sworn that he was perfectly level with the river of lights.

More importantly, the other squad had stopped to throw the bell into the ring, and Justin had just inadvertently prevented them from scoring the final point. The deer who held the bell yelped, juggling the bell from hand to hand as he fought not to drop it.

The gleaming gold ball danced in front of Justin’s eyes. All he had to do was reach out and grab it. But he couldn’t bring himself to care. Not when Lena was…

“Don’t you dare let this moment go to waste!” she declared, pointing a defiant finger at the opposing reindeer. “Get that bell, Justin, and win this game!”

Justin grinned. Whatever had just happened, this was the Lena he knew! Balling his fists, he rushed at the other reindeer. The green jacketed flier managed to dodge out of the way just in time, and he raised the bell over his head to throw it into the ring. Justin halted himself in midair, spun around, and came at him for another attack.

“A little help here?” the reindeer shouted to his teammates.

Justin slammed into him from the front, forcing him away from the ring. They tumbled antlers over heels through the air together, Justin trying to snatch the bell away while the other deer fought to keep it out of his grasp. Stretching as far as his arms could reach, the tip of Justin’s finger brushed the bell’s cold golden shell—

And then the other two reindeer came to the rescue. Each caught Justin by one of his arms, pulling him away from their squadmate. Justin didn’t fight them. Turning off his magic entirely, he let gravity do his fighting for him. In an instant he was back to his full weight. Both deer lurched in the air, struggling to adjust to their new burden. Feeling their grips slacken, Justin straightened his arms and slid right out of their grasp. For a few heart stopping seconds, he went into freefall, just like he had that fateful night three weeks ago. But then his magic kicked in again, and he shot back upwards like a firework.

The two reindeer tried to grab him as he streaked past them, but they were too slow. Justin’s eyes locked onto the one with the bell, who was making a mad dash for the ring again. Justin blasted toward him, trusting his newly discovered speed to get him where he needed to be in time. Sure enough, he caught up with his opponent just before he reached the ring, colliding with him hard enough to knock the bell clean out of his hands.

Taking a page from Lucas’ book, Justin put his hooves on the other deer’s chest and used him as a springboard to reach the bell. The smooth, shiny globe fell right into his outstretched hands.

“I believe in you!”

He laughed, spinning around in midair.

“Perhaps it’s time we reevaluated our opinions of him.”

Raising the bell over his head, he hurled it down into the ring.

“I know you’re not lightless!”

Both the bell and the ring vanished, and one last blast of the trumpets rang out, long and triumphant, as clear as day even from this high up. Far, far below them, Vixen’s torch changed from twenty eight to twenty nine. The game was over. Their unit had won.

Justin had won.

Muttering darkly to themselves, the opposing squad began the long journey back to ground level. Justin just stayed where he was, hovering nearly fifty thousand feet above the ground, too stunned to comprehend what had just happened.

“You did it!”

Lena jumped from her saddle, hugging Justin around the neck so hard that she yanked him downwards a few feet. Laughing, Justin hugged her back, and the two of them spun in wild circles up there in the sky.

“You were amazing, Justin!” Lena cried.

“No, we were amazing!” he said back. “I could never have flown like that if you weren’t guiding me!”

“I’m just so…I can’t believe…” Even though she was smiling, Justin realized that she had tears rolling down her cheeks again. “I thought it was going to happen again!”

“You thought what was going to happen again?” Justin asked, holding her close.

She hesitated, her eyes widening. After a few seconds, she finally said, “You’re not my first reindeer, Justin.”

He nodded. “Everyone keeps saying that this is your second chance. What about it?”

“It was…” She took a deep breath. “It was twenty years ago. I worked in one of Santa’s toy factories, just like everyone in my family has for thousands of years. But what I really wanted to do was fly.”

“The-Sky-Is-In-Her-Eyes,” Justin said, remembering what Vixen had called her their first day of lessons.

She nodded. “My parents tried to discourage me, but they knew it was going to happen anyway. It was such an inseparable part of my destiny that it was in my name.”

I really need to ask about elvish naming customs, Justin thought.

“And after centuries of practicing and studying, I was finally granted permission to be a Rider. I chose my first mount, a buck named Alexander. You would have liked him, Justin. He was a human who was given the Opportunity, just like you.”

Justin looked upwards, imagining someone else plummeting down through the portal like he had. How many humans had had their lives ripped from them just like him? How many of them had spent their new lives wishing they could go home? How many…

How many had come to appreciate their new lives the way he had?

“It was here…right here,” Lena went on. She hugged Justin tighter, her expression becoming vacant. “We were competing in the Reindeer Games. Alexander was a talented flier, just like you. The last ring was up here that year too. We went after it, but…but I was distracted by how close we were to winning. I forgot to guide him, and Alexander overshot his target. He…flew straight up through the portal.”

“Into the human world?” Justin asked in shock.

She nodded. “It’s dangerous to do without Santa’s magic to protect you. As soon as he went through, everything changed. The wind, the temperature, even the atmosphere. We both went into shock, and…”

Her voice trailed off, but Justin felt like he could imagine what had happened. A reindeer and his Rider, knocked unconscious by the savage elements, falling back down toward Val Luminara.

“I woke up from my coma a year and a half later,” Lena whispered. “It was so bad that even the doctor’s magic couldn’t heal me faster than that. And as soon as I was up, they told me…they told me that Alexander…”

Whimpering, Lena buried her face in Justin’s shoulder. Not knowing what else to do, Justin hugged her to him even tighter as she cried. He didn’t say anything. There was nothing to say. All that mattered was that they were both here, alive and well.

“When you started going that fast,” she whispered, “I was so scared that it was going to happen again. That you’d fly right past the ring and through the portal!”

“I’m sorry,” Justin said, cursing his own stupidity. “I should have listened to you.”

“Promise me you’ll never do that again,” she begged him. “Not ever!”

“I promise.”

Finally, she raised her head to look at him. “Justin…”

Then she gasped in fear.

“What—” Justin tried to spin around, but a strong hand wrapped itself around his neck. Tornado hovered behind him, his face a mask of rage. He was breathing heavily, each breath sending jets of steam shooting from his nostrils.

“Now that we’re finally alone,” he growled, “I want to tell you how I really feel about you, lightless one!”