Emerald Wars (The Dream Traveler Book 3)

by Nicole Knight

  He was now jogging toward the ship with the older man still in his arms. It took me a moment to place who he was. The way that Violet’s Father looked at the man in Axel’s arms I knew he was important. Then the crown in his hand caught my eye. This was the true King of Tate, and he was in our custody. He would be Violet’s other Grandfather. I hoped he came willingly, as it seemed cruel to bring the fragile man out of this castle and to the rockiness of a ship just to be our prisoner.

  Axel carried him to the life raft and placed the man inside. He and Violet’s father paddled the boat back to the ships. I waited as the men disappeared into the ship, and then they returned to the deck a few moments later. As I worked with the next dead patient I watched Axel and his father-in-law get back into the lifeboat, and paddle their way back to shore. By the time they were at my side, I had revived two more fallen allies, including one of the beasts.

  “Good to see you,” Violet’s father said to me.

  “Likewise, Violet was torn up when she found out you were captured.”

  His facial expression changed for just the briefest of seconds before he put back on a warrior's mask. He acknowledged my statement with a simple squeeze of my shoulder.

  “What’s happening?” Axel asked me, looking at the chaos happening in front of us. We were hunkered down behind a barricade that the twins had created. When I signaled to them, they’d create another one for me to dash behind.

  “Well, Princess Samantha and Queen Victoria are engaging each other. Queen Victoria had the upper hand being formless until Prince Kennan shot a dark mass of some sort out of his hands. He missed Violet and hit Victoria, causing her to take a solid form.”

  “You mean she's flesh and blood now?” he asked with a gasp.

  “Yes.”

  “That means if she dies again…” he trailed off.

  “Then she’s gone to us forever,” I finished.

  “Wait, Queen Victoria is alive?” Violet’s father asked.

  “Well she wasn’t, but now she is,” I answered. It was all so complicated.

  “How?” he asked sharply.

  “I’m a necromancer, surprise!” I said, with a little of what Violet called sarcasm.

  “Good Goddess,” he said softly.

  “So is he,” I said, as I pointed to Proctor. “Your daughter probably is too, but we can explore that option later. Right now, we need to cut through their army. They were clearly expecting us, thanks to the Siren Queen. Their numbers were likely triple ours. The dragons are occupied trying to take down the one Prince Kennan has on his side. They have managed to take out a catapult I saw being wheeled to the treeline. That’s that plume of smoke over there,” I said, and pointed to the pillar of smoke in the sky.

  “What side are those creatures on?” Violet’s father asked, pointing to a fallen beast.

  “Ours.”

  “Thank the Goddess.”

  “Yes, do you have any magic?” I asked him. He looked a little taken aback for a moment by my direct question, but then he smiled.

  “You are very quick aren’t you?” he asked me.

  “Do I have to remind you who I am related to? What’s your ability?” I asked, trying not to waste any time.

  “I can manipulate water and air,” he said.

  “Perfect, get out there and freeze anyone you can. If we can just immobilize them, things could swing our way quickly.”

  “Consider it done,” he said, and then jumped up and ran toward the conflict with his hands raised. A long stream of water rose from the ocean and coiled toward him like a long rope. Giving him a constant source of water to begin his deep freeze of Prince Kennan’s forces.

  “You,” I said to Axel. “Provide some back-up to Violet, she needs a distraction so that she can get the upper hand.

  He grabbed a spare sword lying on the ground and ran toward the treeline. Our forces had pushed them into the trees now and most of the conflict was no longer on the beach. Combat became close quarters with the trees caging everyone in.

  “Proctor, do you have any more tricks up your sleeves? I remember hearing something about skeletons,” I called across the beach.

  “Now that you mention it, yes. It’s going to take a lot of energy though. Keep working on the fallen while I work on a skeleton army. I’ll have to try to find the closest graveyard with my magic,” he said.

  Wait, he’s raising an army of skeletons? Oh dear Goddess, that was absolutely terrifying. However, it could be exactly what we need to add additional numbers to our side, and at least be a distraction to our enemy. We still haven’t been able to get an accurate read on the numbers making up Kennan’s forces, which was genius on the Prince’s part.

  About ten minutes later, Proctor came running back to the beach from the left side of the trees, which had been lacking bloodshed.

  “That was fast,” I said as I saw the first skeletons crash through the tree line. They picked up fallen weapons off the beach and began charging at our enemies. They were disgusting creatures, all in various states of decay. They were surrounded by dark transparent magic, it danced around their forms as they moved. Hundreds of them crashed through the forest, and stunk up the area. I hoped Kennan saw them and shit his pants.

  Chapter Twenty Nine

  Axel

  An enemy approached me and he looked pissed, at the same time I heard someone charge at me from my right. I focused my magic on my two blades, and did two simultaneous defensive maneuvers. I disarmed the enemy in front of me, and then I stabbed the side of the man to my right. He fell to the ground and screamed in agony. When I pulled the blade from his side he screamed even more. The disarmed opponent in front of me pulled a small blade from his boot, but I brought the handle of my sword down on his head before he could stab me with the dagger, and he fell unconscious to the ground.

  This was what I remembered from my life before Violet made her way into it. I was in battles all the time. This buzz of adrenalin I was feeling, it was what I had spent so much time living for, even though I hated what Eduard had me doing for him. Now I’d much rather be doing this to defend Violet’s kingdom, and mine.

  I charged past my unconscious opponent, deeper into the trees and searched for any sign of Violet or Queen Victoria. Anyone that I could help would be ideal. I was fifty feet into the trees when I saw Princess Samantha and Queen Victoria. The Queen almost took my breath away because she looked so much like Violet. They had the same hair, skin tone, eyes and nose. If it weren’t for my soulmate bond and her lack of freckles, I might have thought she was my wife from this distance. Queen Victoria had a gash on her arm which was dripping blood, it looked pretty nasty. Princess Samantha was bleeding from her leg, and her hair was standing on end, like she had been electrocuted by lightning. Knowing the power that Queen Victoria had during her life, she had likely struck her opponent with lightning multiple times.

  Goddess, I hope it hurt.

  I latched onto as many single objects as I could at a time, six to be exact. They were all rocks and sticks of various sizes and I started hurling them at Princess Samantha to be a distraction. One hit her on the side of the head, it wasn’t hard enough to make her lose consciousness, but it was enough to piss her off.

  She snarled and threw a bolt of fire at me, which I dodged by rolling out of the way. I landed on my feet in a crouched position, and then kept running to avoid the large beam of flames that was being shot at me. It reminded me of a flamethrower I had seen in one of Violet’s favorite movies. Trees around me were catching on fire. I hoped Violet’s father saw the flames and would put them out.

  The beams of fire were pretty powerful, and just kept coming. I hoped that at some point her energy would just fizzle out, and allow us to finish her off.

  I latched onto more objects, this time seven, and hurled them at the Princess, but at the last second I changed my mind, she’d just dodge them and attempt to burn me to a crisp, again. So instead I twisted the objects into a circle around Samantha, creating a to
rnado, much like the ones from the century storm. It was a funnel of dangerous objects swirling around her. If she took more than a step in any direction, she’d be hit by a rock or sharp stick. I wasn’t able to add another rock here and there with my magic and maintain my control over the cyclone. So instead I improvised and started tossing more in the old fashion way, with my hands. My nose bled from the effort it took to keep the objects moving. I didn’t have full control over the element of air, so it wasn’t like the wind was keeping the objects up in the air on it’s own, it was all me.

  This was the hardest I had ever pushed my magic and it was exhausting, but I felt successful, it was slowing Princess Samantha down, and only infuriated her further. People messed up when they were angry and distracted and I could only hope that she would, and soon.

  Victoria flashed me a quick smile. She was standing on the other side of Samantha, and we were facing each other. I felt her take control of my objects with a gust of wind, and continued the cyclone with the elemental magic. I let out a small sigh of relief and wiped away the blood running from my nose.

  “It’s a pleasure to meet you,” I called out to the former Queen, and my wife’s great grandmother. Today was like a crazy family reunion I never signed up for.

  “The pleasure is all mine,” she said, she still sounded just as elegant as the day she ruled our Kingdom.

  Princess Samantha screamed out, sounding a lot like a caged animal. Queen Victoria recognized how desperate our foe was becoming. People did crazy things when they were desperate. Queen Victoria raised her hands, generating more wind and added in somelightning, then she sent bolts of white hot electricity toward the raging Princess.

  I couldn’t see what happened because I was blinded by the light, but I could smell burning hair. While I was blinded I could feel that all the objects in the Queens tornado spread out, as if there had been an explosion in the center. All the objects went flying out in every direction and I dropped straight down to avoid taking a rock to the ribs.

  When my vision returned to normal the women were no longer exchanging magical blows, instead they were fighting hand to hand. Princess Samantha was on top of Queen Victoria, hands around her throat. Victoria raised her hand for Samantha’s throat. I charged headfirst to Samantha, prepared to knock her off of Queen Victoria. I was three feet away when she raised hand in my direction and I was knocked back with a massive fireball.

  It hit me square in the chest, and burned through my leather armor. I smelt strongly of burnt leather and I rolled around on the ground to put the fire out. It left an angry stinging burn, but I ignored it. Queen Victoria was in trouble now. I pulled myself to my feet, looking for a new angle to help.

  I tried to charge again, approaching Princess Samantha from the back, and narrowly avoided another blast of fire. I managed to get my hands around her, and then I was on top of her. Queen Victoria was free, and I could hear her gasp for air. Princess Samantha and I hit the ground beside her.

  “Hold her down,” Queen Victoria said as she rolled over. “I have a trick up my sleeve.”

  “You better hurry,” I said, as Samantha thrashed under me.

  “What I’m going to do is likely going to kill me. If it does, tell my family I love them,” she said to me.

  “I will,” I said. I felt a pang of sadness. She was about to do the same thing that Violet had in the trials. I wonder if it was an omen, or if the Queen was willingly changing roles to spare her great granddaughter.

  The Queen placed her hands on the other woman’s head as she continued to thrash around. I kept all my body weight on her. I felt a little guilty touching another woman this much, but I knew I shouldn’t. This was to end the threat, not to sleep with her.

  “This is going to hurt,” Queen Victoria said, looking up at me.

  “I hope it’s over soon for you,” I said, taking pity on her. She knew death was coming for her, and she was willing to face it head on, on her own terms.

  “I mean for you,” she said, and then it felt like the world exploded, as Princess Samantha screamed.

  I was thrown back from the force of a violent explosion. It was like a scene from the action movies that Violet and I had watched back in her apartment. There was a loud boom, and the force of the explosion sent me flying. My back and head slammed into something hard, and then everything went black.

  Chapter Thirty

  Violet

  I heard Victoria scream right after I passed her, and prayed to the Goddess that she’d be alright. I didn’t have time to go back and check on her. Kennan was shooting massive black blobs of inky darkness at me. I was still trying to figure out how to gain the advantage while I dodged his attacks.

  Kennan’s shot missed me and hit the tree in front of me. Have you ever seen a tree literally melt? Me neither until just now. How the hell did he get that ability?

  He aimed another shot at me, and I made a stone barricade between him and I. The stone lifted from the ground instantly to provide me with some protection. It seemed he needed about thirty seconds to recharge whatever this black stuff was before firing another shot. I had about twenty five seconds to make a move.

  The dragons flew overhead again, lighting trees on fire as they went. The leaves immediately ignited. Ash fell around me like snow, landing in my hair, and quickly covered the ground.

  If I only had one word to describe this scene, it was destruction.

  I forced water around Kennan’s hands, and quickly turned it into ice. I then wrapped him in vines tightly and covered them with a layer of ice, as quickly as I could. I maybe had seconds left before Kennan's ability would recharge. The question was, did he need his hands free to aim the attacks?

  I tried to think of anything else I could do to defeat Kennan while I stood there with the ash still raining down on me, and coating the ground. I was tired, I was hurting, and I just wanted this to be over.

  “Give up!” I shouted at him.

  “Oh Violet, I’m just getting started,” he said.

  Then from another part of the dense forest I heard what sounded like a nuclear explosion. Light flashed bright, even brighter than a lightning strike. I felt my vision go white, and then debris flew through the trees. We must not have been as far away from the source of the explosion as I thought, because it all flew straight toward me.

  I dove to the ground face first, and caught a mouthful of dirt. I saw rocks smacking against the ice encasing Kennan. I listened for the telltale sign of it cracking, but all I could hear was the ringing in my ears from the explosion.

  I watched as cracks formed on Kennan’s frozen cocoon, and I knew I had seconds to prepare before the ice went flying and he aimed more darkness at me. I called up my lighting and aimed it at him right as the ice splintered everywhere. I threw a lightning bolt into his body and he shook violently. He was covered in water and the electricity never found a path to leave his body. He had just enough control to release a ball of that darkness I was terrified of, and it hit me in the shoulder.

  In that moment, death would have been too kind a mercy. It felt like my shoulder melted completely off my body. I felt my limbs shake as I seized up in pain, and I withered and curled up in pain. I heard a piercing scream, and I wasn’t sure if it belonged to me or not. I couldn’t feel anything belonging to my body anymore. I spared a glance to my shoulder and was surprised to see it was still there, holding my arm onto my body, but it was covered in the black substance.

  I had to think this through. How did he get this ability? It had to be brand new, or else he would have used it against me before. It was too powerful for him to hold back on. He would have gloated the minute he stole this power.

  It didn’t matter though, my magic was supposedly limitless. If I could understand what I was trying to do, then I could do it, in theory. I wondered if I could pull this stuff off of me, and then throw it back at him. If I could, he may stop using it, afraid that I will use it against him.

  There was only one way to find out. />
  I used my magic to scrape the black inky magic off of me, and I formed it into a black ball, which floated in front of me. The amount of concentration this took was unbearable and mind boggling all at the same time. This was brand new to me, and I was in so much pain that it felt like I was dying again.

  When I was satisfied I had control over it, I snuck a peek at Kennan. He was absolutely terrified. It was that exact moment when I knew the tides had turned. I hurled it back at him. He jumped out of the way, but a small portion of it hit his foot in the air. He went crashing down to the ground screaming in agony as his dark magic ate away at the shoe he was wearing.

  Inspiration stuck and I created a dome around us of all the elements to keep him near me. Now that the tides had turned, I didn’t want him fleeing from me. I wanted to finish this once and for all. Inside of the dome my lighting jumped around, bouncing off the inside of the globe like a strobe light. I put all my effort into doing everything I could to bring Kennan to his knees. I didn’t know exactly what I was doing as I did it, but I was pushing a lot of magic out, and I hoped it knew what to do. It didn’t make any sense to me, but neither had anything else since I got to the Morthlands, I just learned to roll with it.

  The one thing I did know was that if I could cripple Kennan enough, if I could take away his source of power, then it was game over for him.

  I reached for control over the black stuff still on his foot, and I forced it to start climbing higher, up his leg. Kennan screamed out in pain.

  “You bitch!” he called out. Spit flew from his mouth and an anger settled into his eyes that I had never seen before.

  “I’ve been called worse. I’m sure you remember,” I said, sounding as cool and collected as I possibly could. Being trapped in a large dome of elements upped the ante on anyone’s anxiety.

  “Just give up,” I told him.

  “Never!” He shouted.