“The idea will be to have Nicole fly us, since Nicole’s queen presence will hopefully work for those Helen can’t influence, and under the cover of shadow magic, we would begin to relocate the eggs. There’s a chance the dragons will relocate or destroy the eggs rather than let them fall into enemy hands, so we ideally want to do this before our army begins the assault.”
Elena’s jaw dropped. “That sounds like a really bad idea. If we’re caught… we alert the dragons early.”
“We’re shadow witches. We don’t get caught,” Garek scoffed.
“Oh yeah? And why are we here again?”
That shut Garek up.
“More likely they will notice their eggs starting to go missing,” Janus said then. “Which is why it’d only be started a short while before the attack. A few hours before, we’re thinking. You can manage the cloaking for that long?”
“Yes,” Elena said, privately thinking it’d be yet another personal hell to force through such extensive cloaking again. Even if her magic was enhanced with Garek and Nicole’s influence. “But I will hate you for it afterwards. When will the attack happen?”
“About eight hours from now,” Tara said casually, and Elena had to suppress a squeal of outrage.
“That much time, huh?” She was pleased to see Garek appeared as disconcerted as she felt. “We’ve been abusing our magic for a straight month. I thought we’d have some time to recuperate.”
“You do. About four hours,” Tara said. “I’m sorry, we would give more time, but we know the dragons have spies in the Realm Market and Bastion. We can’t afford to waste any more time than necessary. It will eventually reach a point where they’ll be completely prepared for us, or even discover and rout the army before we’re fully in position. Right now, the advantage is with us.”
Elena snorted, before grabbing Garek by the hand and dragging him away, Nicole following automatically. “Don’t disturb us for four hours or I’ll personally rip your face off,” Elena said.
Yvonne chuckled, and Nicole happily curled herself on the ground, letting Garek and Elena crawl into the space between her paws and neck, absorbing Nicole’s warmth. Nicole began purring without conscious thought, and honestly, it was both a surreal and relaxing experience for Elena. Connected to both of their minds, feeling both of their emotions and thoughts, and feeling for the first time in a long while, complete, rather than hollow. Like the universe finally made sense. Though she wouldn’t exactly call being stuck on the coastline of hostile territory a particularly smart place to be.
Left alone at last, Garek and Elena were simply too exhausted to do anything else than actually sleep. Nicole’s soothing rumbles helped them over the edge to a dreamless, blissful recuperation.
* * *
Nicole flew through the air gracefully, like a glittering golden angel, and Elena and Garek clung to her back. Elena once again was reminded of just how much she hated flying, as they soared through the air cloaked by shadow, guided by Helen and Callum to the location of any potential nesting grounds. They reached one part of the nesting grounds with ease, high up in the mountains that towered over River’s End. The cold whipped through Elena, and she clung to Garek’s waist tightly, not wanting to let go, trying to keep herself calm.
They had to slide off Nicole as she was perhaps big enough to accidentally bump into the two dragon sentries, but their first brooding cave yielded bad results. The eggs had all been removed except for two, but they scooped them up anyway, because two dragons were better than none. Dull green eggs, which hatched into the most common color present among the dragons. The second brood cave was empty. The third had broken eggshells and dark fluid-like stains on the ground, as if someone had rampaged through the batch and squashed them. The more they looked, the more the group’s collective hearts sank. Something had already happened to a majority of the eggs.
The final cave in their explorations, however, finally yielded results. It also had far more dragons guarding the entrance than the others – eight of them in total, with four of them directly inside, by the eggs, zealously keeping watch over a large mound of green, blue, red, gray and brown eggs. No gold. Nicole was as rare as they came. As the others figured out how they’d smuggle out or secure the eggs, Elena stayed with Nicole just outside, cloaked, while they watched the spires of River’s End, lit up with faint firelight and starlight, knowing any minute that the invasion would start.
What happened to all the eggs, do you think, Nicole?
The queen gave a soft snort of air through her nostrils. Something bad. The rooms smelled like death. Nicole sounded a little distressed, as if the thought of those broken eggshells pained her. It also sounded like Nicole wasn’t sure about what had happened to the eggs.
“It’s starting,” Elena whispered, watching Nicole’s shadow-covered wings raise up and down in a nervous habit.
Mixed with the firelight and the stars, and the swell of the moon above, came the flickering of lightning, of blue, tendril-like bolts of what Elena knew to be ice streaking from above. Renne and Maya together, attacking with their deadly ice magic, raining death upon the dragons.
It felt strange, watching the battle from a distance. She didn’t have any stones in this battle, any investment for it to be won or lost, really, but she was still a direct contributor to the effort. All those people had been smuggled there under darkness, without detection, right under the noses of the rulers who had prepared for everything except for the combined, ridiculous power of two shadow witches. Since normal shadow witches struggled even with cloaking one additional person for longer than a couple of hours at a time. But Elena and Garek had used their magic for hours and hours, flexing it like a mental limb, always pushing it to the limit, perhaps brushing over that limit a few times… but never breaking.
I can hear their rage, Nicole said sadly, as blasts of dragonfire coated the air, attempting to incinerate soldiers. They could only see the battle by the lights – the figures were too distant to make out otherwise.
The dragon guardians behind them grew agitated, stretching and twitching their wings, their necks, jaws moving. What are they saying? Elena urged Nicole, knowing that the others were stuck within the nesting room, still figuring out the best thing to do with the eggs in the middle of all the flickering fires that kept the heat high for the eggs to incubate.
They are receiving orders, Nicole said, her voice suddenly cold. Her teeth displayed in a snarl. They will destroy the eggs if it looks like they’re losing.
Shit, Elena thought. That didn’t sound very good at all.
Garek’s voice interluded in their minds. We have no choice, then. We better take out these dragons before they have a chance to enact their orders.
Except none of them here were exactly equipped for fighting. Tara and Janus wouldn’t stand a chance against the dragons. Nicole… they absolutely couldn’t risk revealing her. As for Garek and Elena…
We weren’t supposed to engage in any action, Elena accused, feeling a tight band of panic hit her chest.
We have Helen, Garek said. Maybe she’ll be able to do something to them with her magic.
Elena didn’t exactly feel confident. She gasped when a huge, golden form flew over them, bigger than anything she’d ever seen living in her entire life. Three times the size of Nicole, and Nicole was already a humongous dragon by herself. Elena clamped her hands over her mouth, even though nothing should be able to hear them under the cloak of shadows. Nothing but people perhaps like Helen, who felt the throb of emotion with her every breath.
Nicole tucked her wings tight to her body, and looped her tail around in a gesture of fear. She’s so strong, Nicole thought, as the glittering and formidable dragon flapped towards the battle, golden light flickering around her.
Do queen dragons have magic? Elena’s stomach dropped at the sight, wondering if a golden was somehow the equivalent of a draconic nuclear bomb or something.
Yes, but it’s different for each one, Nicole said, and she sou
nded annoyed at herself for some reason. I don’t know what type of magic she has.
Elena sincerely hoped it wasn’t a magic that would fuck up the entire advance in River’s End.
Magic hummed out around them, and Elena felt a light push on her emotions. It wasn’t subtle to someone who was expecting the effects, and to Elena’s horror, she saw the dragons increase in their aggression, their snarling, before opening their jaws and belching out flames. The flames thudded into Nicole, making it obvious she was standing there, falling just shy of Elena, who was thankfully concealed by Nicole’s body.
“Oh, fuck,” Elena cursed.
What happened? Garek’s voice hit them in mad panic, and the dragons advanced on Nicole’s invisible form, still spewing fire.
Elena’s brain shut down in sheer, uncontrollable fear for a moment, before something in her galvanized. She stretched her magic out and stabbed it into the four dragons, bringing patches of them into the shadows.
Like when she was younger, and her magic strong and unrestrained, damaging others around. She pumped her magic into the dragons, choking them in the shadow until the divide between reality and darkness caused their limbs to separate.
Two collapsed, decapitated. The other two, suddenly missing major parts of their bodies, from wings to legs to lower jaws, flopped and gave gasping, pained growls, the fire completely dissipating in their throats. Nicole moved protectively in front of Elena, and Elena uncloaked her so she could finish the job on the last two and their suffering.
Thank you, Nicole said, and it broke Elena’s heart to hear the sadness in that thanks. Sometimes the things that needed to be done were the things no one wanted to do.
Trying to suppress the sick feeling in her stomach, Elena stretched her magic out over the other four dragons as well within the egg enclosure. The result was just as unpleasant, just as cruel, and when Elena finished, she was spat straight out of the shadows, trembling violently, unable to think, to function, barely remembering how to breathe.
Soft, warm limbs wrapped around her as another face emerged from the darkness, firelight dancing in his brown eyes. Words escaped his mouth, but none made sense. More words echoed in her mind, along with confusing images, but all Elena wanted to do was blot everything out, to just sleep.
To sink into oblivion.
12
Garek
Escorting the eggs out of the cave was significantly easier without any dragons barring their way. In human form, he was able to carry two at a pinch, though it meant being cautious with the steps. Nicole, unable to balance them on her back without risking them rolling off, was able to carry around six at a time in her jaws, and they spent the next few hours shifting the eggs. Not exactly exciting, thrilling work, compared to the raging battle in River’s End, but still important to their future plans. Of having the dragons bond instead to humans, of raising a new generation receptive to unity, rather than division. He thought he understood why raiders in olden times would take the children from conquered tribes.
Raising them into new cultures destroyed the divide. Though it was also a kind of tragedy to need to rob them in the first place. Perhaps what they planned for these unhatched was cruel.
Best not to think too much into that. Meanwhile, Elena was strapped to Nicole’s back, unconscious, but secure upon the dragon with the linen bindings looping around Nicole’s spikes. They barely had enough for Elena, since it was only Tara’s insistence on carrying some sort of medical tools around with her that enabled the bindings to be used in the first place.
The weakspot was a mile away from the caves, and it was so small, barely covering ten feet of ground, that it was little wonder that few knew about it. Tara and Janus did, thanks to general Witslaw, the one responsible for engineering their escape all those years ago. He’d told them about the secret passageways out of the palace, along the coast, and the weakspots in Albalon’s reality canvas that royals in the past had used to escape.
They were just shy of a hundred eggs by the time they finished. They used Garek’s Realm Market signet ring to transport everything to the market gates, since they couldn’t do a direct teleport to Bastion. The teleports only matched to their equivalent location in other realms. The Realm Market, however, had waystones attached to their location, which simply brought their wielders to it.
The teleporting took a while, too, since Garek needed to touch the objects with his bare hands to teleport them, and Elena was out for the count. Out because she had tapped into the twisted side of their magic, the part that threatened everyone else. The part he hoped he’d never have to feel again. There was something about that blackness which sucked at his soul, trying to taint it, and tug him into that state of nothingness.
Hired Bastion merchants stood at hand with carts, ready to wheel off the eggs through the Bastion gateway under heavy protection. Ten four wheeled carts pulled by mules were ready for distribution, and they were able to load around eight eggs into each one, leaving the final few waiting for an additional two carts, and some steady hands. Garek helped, and watched as Elena was carted off as well, hoping she’d wake up soon. His heart twanged slightly, watching her wind out of sight, cradled by the heavy armored guard called Gerran who belonged to prince Callum.
She’ll be okay, Nicole assured Garek, and he gave a small smile in return. Mission accomplished, he stuck close to Nicole, and saw Helen, Callum and Yvonne all appear anxious. Tara and Janus had gone to personally attend over the eggs, and now their little group all stood by the gates, slightly forlorn, perhaps feeling useless due to their lack of engagement with the battle for River’s End.
“I feel like we should be doing something,” Callum admitted in a low voice, his blue eyes narrowed. “We’ve done what we were meant to do, but… There must be more. Maybe to do what that shadow witch did to the dragons. Or get Helen to inject mass hysteria in the fighters.”
“I’ve already boosted our own fighter’s morale,” Helen said quietly, her fingers clasping together. “Before we left, I made sure to make them all confident and determined. My influence with the dragons now is weaker, they have something protecting them...”
“Taking down those dragons almost killed Elena,” Garek snarled. “Shadow magic is not to be taken lightly. Unless you want to put your soul through a grinder, I’d rather not use it in a battle.”
Yvonne rubbed at her chin, grimacing slightly. “I’m with Callum, in all honesty. Maybe we can –” but before she had a chance to finish, Nicole, without warning, scooped up Garek in her left set of claws – and they teleported directly back to the spot they’d left.
“What,” Garek spluttered, before instinctively cloaking Nicole with his magic, because she was slightly too visible at that point in time.
I need to be here, Nicole said simply, and didn’t elaborate any further. Pretty cryptic, but Garek wasn’t planning to argue with her. Not like this. Not when he felt the resolve shimmering off her. Within seconds, they were joined by Yvonne, Callum, and Helen.
“What’s happening? Where did…”
“They’re here, still,” Helen answered Yvonne, and Garek pulled them all into the shadow magic as well.
“She says she needs to be here,” Garek informed them, still feeling a little mystified. Unsure how to progress, not willing to leave Nicole alone. “No explanation.”
“Wherever she’s going, I’m going,” Yvonne grunted. “Not planning to let her die on my watch. Maybe you need some water magic.”
“Maybe you need my magic,” Helen said softly, and Garek nodded.
“Sure, whatever,” he said.
On my back, Nicole said. Garek relayed the instructions, and the two humans and two unicirim clambered onto Nicole’s spine, wedging themselves as comfortably as possible in the crook just past her wing joint, or perched between two blunted spikes for secure seating.
Still cloaked, they lifted up into the air, and Nicole headed straight towards River’s End.
“I really hope she isn’t pl
anning to fly right in there and murder us,” Yvonne hissed. “I’ve got other things to do.”
Garek let out a half-laugh, half groan, his fingers icy on Nicole’s spikes, wondering what in damnation he’d gotten himself into. The lights of the distant fighting grew closer, until he was able to make out figures – smaller dragons weaving in and out of larger, fire-breathing ones. Unicirim flying – some with Bonded spitting their magic out, others with normal witches at an advantage from the air. Maya and Renne wreaked devastation with their icy arrows – but Nicole ignored all the biggest clusters of fighting, instead heading straight towards the enemy queen, who radiated destructive magic. Buildings collapsed around the queen, and exiles and unicirim and humans died under the golden, electrical blasts.
Clearly, the queen had enough power in her to take out huge swathes of their army in obscene amounts, and Nicole, naturally, was heading right towards the biggest danger. Cloaked in shadow, no one stopped them, no one knew they were there. Streets blazed beneath them, swamped in flames, and distant sounds of agonized screams mingled with the roars and curses of battle.
Despite all his insistence of staying away from the action, of not participating in the war… here he was. Clinging to Nicole, not sure how exactly he could help beyond not dying and invisibility. He didn’t want to tap into that darkness Elena managed. She’d used it, and it took her out, with no indication of just when she’d wake up again. He remembered how darkness tasted, with its horrible, cloying, magnetizing sensations that threatened to suck him in. With his returned memories, he knew how it felt, to be so close to the darkness that one wrong misstep would take him away. A slip of willpower might be likely, given how much he’d been challenging his own powers for the past month.
They approached the giant queen dragon, and he saw the others tense around him, Yvonne holding onto a spike with one hand, scanning for water sources to draw her magic from.
Show me, Nicole ordered Garek.
His stomach dropped to his boots, but he obeyed before he had time to raise up some really good counter protests. Nicole bloomed into existence in front of them, wings spread like sails to slow her glide to a hovering halt, and he heard her bellow out a challenge to the opposing queen, in a language his brain couldn’t comprehend.
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