by Dawn Chapman
Dare I think back to them as Xanou lay dying at my feet? No, I looked back into the heavens, forcing myself away from it. I knew there were terrified Tromoal, those that had supported him and those who would continue to do so even in his death.
I wanted to rush forward and claim the throne I knew was now mine, but I looked up into the skies and saw the circling Tromoal.
“Are you with me?” I shouted at them.
I knew there was some sneaking away. But the majority of them I had. I knew I did. They wanted me to win. They wanted me to be their queen.
The ground rumbled with the sounds of them landing. They were amazing creatures. Each of them lowered their heads to me, the low rumbling as their voices echoed through the ground toward me. They wanted me to acknowledge them in the only way that I could.
We are with you, they cried back to me.
Oragor?
The warriors are yours to command, Matriarch.
On screen, the number popped up.
TROMOAL WARRIORS AT YOUR COMMAND
2,047
It was only fair that I took the best of the clan’s warriors back to Maicreol. The females who lacked energy and some of the young needed to stay.
But I had won. I had everything to do, and the means to now do it.
I felt it within me... so I did. I lowered my head, as low as it could go, and I started to rumble from within myself. I vibrated along them, in a lower pitched keening noise. They would know what I was saying. They would know I was fighting for them.
Here in the middle of their homeland, I heard them, and they heard me.
In the middle of this, I saw one other creature land before me, stretching his wings high and letting his voice be heard above all.
I then saw Akillia, with Zurath on her shoulder, moving to stand before me. She laid her hand on top of my nose.
“I’ve never been as scared in my life. I’d never dreamed I…we could do that.” I opened my eyes to her. I saw what and who she was in this world. Just a human, just a wonderful person who was fighting for all the right reasons.
If I could have smiled at her, I would have. I loved how she was looking right into my soul. She saw what I really was now, and she wasn’t scared. She was happy.
“Come back to us,” she said.
And maybe I would, but I looked back to the skies. “No, I... We need to make this journey together. If you can’t do this with me, then I’ll make sure you get back another way.”
“No,” she said. “No, I’ll be fine. I just need Zurath to keep me warm.” I wanted her to not feel the cold, to feel wonderful on my back. Feathers would help, certainly.
I looked over the side of my shoulder, and she seemed to understand what I wanted. She moved to climb back on, and I let her. I liked this, I liked that she was able to do this, and she patted my side.
I don’t know what I deserved to get this kind of support, but I knew I really needed them behind me, and I loved all the support they gave me in their minds and soul.
This time, I stretched the wings, and I knew what I had to do was huge. I knew the way we could go was only fraught with danger and colder than I’d ever imagined in my entire life. I wanted it to be warm, I wanted things to get better... but they wouldn’t right now, and I needed to just get in the air, suck it up, and do it.
I pushed with my wings, felt the ground dip and the air surge up beneath them. I was amazed at how beautiful being in the air felt. I moved my wings faster and faster, hoping that I would soon be in the air, and I would then find Maicreol before me.
Oragor, will you guide us back?
Of course, Matriarch. Queen of the skies.
Into the Darklands, and then home? The ground and the mountains started to part, and I could see the seas, the winds and the darkness that took them. Then the skies twinkled and folded once more as if we had stepped from their realm once more to the demon lord’s home. Akillia tucked into my back.
I pushed forward. With each beat of my wings, I knew at least I was getting closer. I tried to push quicker, but the pace was something I couldn’t set. It was like I could go no faster than the speed of the others. they needed me to set the pace, and they matched it. They matched me because they needed to. They wanted to be with me, and then they made sure it was a pace we could all keep up.
Eventually, I could see the land before us, but my mind was getting lost in all the ways this could fail. Then I saw something else. I saw the signs of people as they lit up the lands around us. I saw the many, many people, the lanterns in the sky. There was something really going on, and I knew it was dire. I struggled with each beat. I wanted to fight back, to be better, to be quicker.
Then I started to recognise the lands, and I knew I wasn’t far... I was almost home. I felt it. Then there was a rush of energy as I felt a pop. We were back inside the digital world. The difference here made me feel almost weightless. I felt like I had more energy.
I pushed onward. I wanted to see all my friends again. All those who had my well-being in their mind. I wanted to be more than this. In fact, wow, I didn’t know if they’d think I was good enough to lead now. I mean would they even recognise me...
I swallowed as I saw the old camp where Akillia and the others had been. I made for it and managed to ease in so the landing wouldn’t be so bad. I sucked in a breath and took the landing easily.
It was as though the ground had melted beneath me, and Akillia jumped from my back. The fire eagle with her made for a quick landing too, and he looked about, his eyes eager on everyone and everything.
I felt tired now, deflated, and everything around me started to shrink as though I wasn’t needed anymore as this amazing triumph started to sink in. I looked back, and I saw everything I’d brought with me. Each of the warriors, brothers, fathers, sons. I love that they had come with me, but I instantly worried for their lives.
Suddenly, I felt much colder than I had, and I realised as my skin started to fade that my limbs moved with it.
Then I felt nothing because there was nothing. I had nothing on.
Akillia came toward me with her jacket as I clasped my hands together, my ring back where it should be. It never left? “Here, a little modesty for you.”
I took it and covered up. “I don’t know what to say.”
Hundreds had come out to see the vast numbers of the Tromoal who weren’t attacking them. I looked around and saw all the faces of the people who loved and cared for me and many more. and I wanted to hug them all. I kind of really needed to hug them. I opened my arms, and Jessica and Dahlia came to me. They hugged me tightly, and I told them I was happy to be home. They were laughing and giggling, and I didn’t understand why.
“What is it?” I asked.
Then I noticed they were all watching me, all the people here, and all the Tromoal. “What’s going on?” I asked again.
“The battlefield’s taken a turn for the worse. We have a lot to catch up. Lila’s stuck in Tridon too.”
I groaned inwardly. I needed a breath then debriefed properly. Abel came toward me with more clothes. “You know we need you, right? You brought them home. Only you can lead them.”
I looked out to the Tromoal watching, and I knew they were waiting for me to do something, to maybe say something, but I didn’t know what to say to them. I couldn’t be alive any more than I was here, right now.
I was alive, and they knew it.
I pushed myself up and looked out to them, all of them. I clung to the clothes I’d been given. I felt the wind in my hair as I stepped away from Akillia and back to where we’d landed.
Then I did the only other thing I knew I could to get back some of my integrity with the way things had gone with the ring. I twisted it.
This time, it reacted. The power that it gave me seemed to fill my veins and flood my system with what I wanted from them. I looked out into the darkness, and I saw nothing but love shining back at me.
Many, many questions I was sure of it, but they didn’t m
atter.
I raised my hand to the air, let the ring’s light pulse out into the night, and I said,“Together we are united as one. Together we protect each other. And today, we stand, and we fight.”
The roar that came back filled my mind with the joyous rambunctiousness of everything we were.
Did we have the power to finally win against what was coming? I didn’t know. I knew we would try, though.
Akillia stood by my side, and I looked at her. “There’s something I need to tell you,” she said.
I cocked a head at her. “What is it?”
But I didn’t need to be told. I looked back to the caves. “He’s gone, right?”
She lowered her eyes. “No one knows how they got out, but their clutch isn’t there now. Somehow...”
I had known because he had come to me, and I had seen him in more than one way. I had felt him in every way. I just wish it was a permanent way.
I didn’t need to know where he was;, only that I would find him again.
I placed my hand on hers and looked deep into her soul. “I’m okay. Give me the rundown.”
I listened as Abel, and the others briefed me on the state of our frontlines in Macrovak City, the plains, and Lila’s new situation with Gestal’s Hamu.
“They know what we have back here now. They’re not stupid. We need to wait while they decide and make their moves. I need them to show their full hand.”
“You think they will?”
“They don’t know what we have either. They’ve seen the power with the Tromoal, but they don’t know how much we can push them. Will they die for us or run.” I wouldn’t let them run, and I knew if I was there, they’d die for me, for the true cause, to save Puatera.
“Then we move to watch them, from the highest point we can, and we pool everything we have, every person reports in, every food item, every potion.”
I saw a smiling face before me, and Candice nodded. “We’re more than ready. We’ve been waiting.”
So this was it then. I glanced at the party before me, and I nodded.
Though it might be tough, I think we really are ready. There were two thousand forty-seven Tromoal with me. Several of them were not only clan leaders but extremely powerful as well.
I hoped they’d be powerful enough.
I finally wobbled a little on my feet, and Akillia gripped onto me, holding me up. “We need to get you some food and maybe a few more healing potions.”
I couldn’t deny I needed something else.
Steve was the next to approach me. “What the hell did you do out there, Maddie?”
I shrugged. “If you don’t know, I sure as heck don’t have a clue. If there’s a way you can help me learn more about how I can manage the Tromoal side of me, I’d really love to find out.”
“I will look into it and see what I think I can tell you.”
I grinned at him. “Thank you.”
Chapter 36
I had thought about a good few things when Candice came back to me and wanted to chat on a different level.
I looked up to her serious face and wanted to know the truth. “Lay it on me,” I said. “I need to know.”
“Lila’s stuck over in Trofoth with an army. We tried to move the portals and line them back up again, but something we did broke it. We can’t get them going again, and well, we could really do with their army here.”
“How dire is the situation?”
“They’re hitting the lower section of the desert now. They blew one of the feed lakes up and cut the water supply to one of the towns, but that’s not quite the worst of it.”
“Oh, fill me in, please.”
“The machines they’re using are so big that we can’t beat them without the Tromoal.”
“Good job I brought them back then.”
“It is, but we need you to get that portal working somehow. We know you, Steve, and Dresel can work it.”
I laughed. Why the hell she thought I would be good messing about with portals, but then I remembered one of my titles—Portal Guardian. “Oh,” I said, “yeah, guess there’s that.”
“Yep, so will you go back with Steve and take another look?”
“Of course. If that army is worth having here, we’ll get them here, come hell or high water.”
Candice grinned. “That’s good then. Steve’s just getting some other stuff together, but he said he’d meet you down at our portal’s side. Dresel will meet you there too.”
“He’s back here?”
“He’s been in and out a lot the last couple of weeks, with everything going on with the sisters.”
I gave her a dubious look. “What do you mean?”
She shied away from me. “Candice,” I demanded. “Tell me the truth. I don’t want any lies.”
“The younger one, Dahl, is sick, dying.”
“What?”
I didn’t know why everyone around me that I got to know or liked was sick. “What’s with your species for getting ill?”
Candice shuddered at this, and I lowered my head. “I’m sorry. We’re not the best when it comes to dealing with stuff. But the outside world is full of some things we can’t control, we can’t cure. Sometimes, that means they can walk again, or run, or fly. Other time it just means no pain toward their final days.”
I choked at this and was reminded of Alex in the bed in the hospital. I knew that pain. I didn’t want it for anyone, especially these three young girls.
“I’m sorry,” Candice said. “I know you don’t understand our world.”
She didn’t understand the situation with Alex. He was alive in here, his soul, spirit whatever you wanted to call it, hadn’t died when his body was almost gone out there. I wanted to tell her, but I also felt the familiar presence of Tibex.
You can’t.
I know. I don’t know how it worked, so I don’t know if it could ever be done again.
No, and neither do I.
Portal?
I’ll talk to you there. Okay?
I didn’t nod or answer back. I motioned for Candice to move, and I followed her out and into the bustling space that was protecting most of our loved ones.
She turned, and we picked up a few things on the way out. It wasn’t a long walk to where there were horses waiting, and I groaned as I climbed up on one.
“Where the portal is, it’s quicker to get there like this than any other way.”
I could fly if I could force the change more often. I guessed that would come with practice.
“I’ll take your word for it,” and I nudged on the horse so we could get there as quick as possible.
“Didn’t know you could ride,” I asked Steve.
“Err, I kind of only ever have a few times. Terrified I’ll fall off, that’s for sure.”
I tapped my chest. “Been spending some well-earned Karma?”
He laughed, and I grinned. “Well, at least you don’t have to worry about falling off then.”
As his horse took a stumble, and he managed to stay on, we both laughed.
I was glad of this. The severity of what was going on around us and the pressure I was feeling from everywhere, I enjoyed the moment. Just trailing off for a bit on the back of another animal. Although I worried about what was coming, I also thought maybe we had a much better chance.
The portal was up ahead, and several people stood around it, watching as it pulsated in and out, and seemed like it wanted to do something but then just failed.
Steve drew up and went to the first person he could find. I hung back a bit, hopped off, and then just walked to the portal. My ring started to pulse with it, and I felt like there was a huge amount of energy within it.
I could hear Steve behind me, and he was talking tech stuff with a couple of them, magic and mystery. All I could see glued to the frontal energies of this mystical yet solid thing were the inner guts, lines and lines of numbers. The code?
“Steve,” I shouted. “Come here.”
He came up b
ehind me and placed his hand near mine but didn’t touch the portal itself. “What do you see?”
“Lots of things, energy, numbers.”
I looked to the others around the portal. They weren’t people I knew or trusted, so I hung back. “I don’t want them anywhere near here when we’re doing this. You have to get them out of here, okay?”
“Okay, why? They’re healers and will be ready to help if something goes wrong.”
He nodded and moved away to tell them they had to leave. They didn’t seem happy but cleared the immediate area. They moved to a spot where they could still watch, but they weren’t involved with the actual fixing of the portal.
I placed my hand back to the portal’s energies. “It’s just not quite there. The code is trying it’s best to find its mate, but it can’t quite connect.”
“I need Dresel to get me through to Lila. Better boost the signal if he must.”
“I don’t know if he can do that.”
“Well, we’ve got to try, so please ask him.”
Steve seemed to back off, and his eyes glazed over. I liked the way his body glowed with energy even while he was only doing something as simple as using his interface. I waited for some news, and then there was a click.
“Maddie!” the voice came through via comms. It was panicked and very upset.
“What the hell,” I said.
Steve was by my side, but he couldn’t hear her. “What’s going on,” I asked.
“Did Jessica pass on my message?”
“No,” I replied.
Lila tried to form words, but it came out in dribble. “Akillia, there’s a hit on her!”
“There’s a war going on here, Maddie. I’ve messed up big time!”
I tried to get words in, “Wait, war what? Just listen to me. I can fix the portal! But I need your help there. It’s slightly off-kilter. It just needs moving, slightly. With my guidance, you can do it.”
“What?”
“Get whoever you can to the portal horizon, and you’re going to have to push. I mean I need just strength, not energy, pure brute strength. We’ve got to move it but just a touch.”
I could hear her in the background as she started shouting, but her words scared me. She was really up against something there. Goosebumps exploded up my arms when I heard her say, “Stop fighting each other and listen! We need to get that portal working, and Maddie’s here to help.”