by Jada Fisher
Unleashed
The Brindle Dragon, Book 6
Jada Fisher
Copyright © 2019 Fairfield Publishing
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Except for review quotes, this book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without the written consent of the author.
This story is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual people, places, or events is purely coincidental.
Contents
1. A Crooked Sort of Journey
2. Reconnecting
3. Guardians of Many Shapes
4. The Monotony of Violence
5. Boot on the Other Foot
6. Last Ditch Effort
7. Déjà Vu
8. Loss
9. Rock Bottom
Thank You
1
A Crooked Sort of Journey
“What happened to you?”
It was a simple question, but Eist was under no delusion that it would have a simple answer. In fact, she wondered if she would ever get a simple answer to anything ever again.
Dille sighed wearily, sagging in one of the chairs. They were in the same council room where Eist had been grilled about her vision. It seemed impossible that it had just been the previous day, but it was.
The city was going mad at the collapse of the castle and Eist knew that if the five of them hadn’t booked it out of there on their mounts, they would be in another interrogation. Thankfully, nobody seemed the wiser about their involvement in the crumbling of the strongest and grandest building in all of Rothaiche M’or.
“Can this wait until tomorrow?” she asked as Eist looked her over yet again. The more she stared at her beautiful friend, the more she looked like Dille, just if someone emphasized all of her best features. Her dark skin was flawless and had taken on a deep, red tone that reminded Eist of earth deep, deep down that had yet to be drained of life by farming or roads. Her lips were full while her lashes were thick and dark, framing her deep, honey eyes and making them look both mysterious and mischievous. Even her hair spoke of so much time passing, surrounding her head in a cloud of thick, black curls. “I know that I was only gone for a few minutes for you, but for me… Well, it was a whole lot longer than that.”
“I don’t think we should wait,” Yacrist said, looking strained as he stood with his arms crossed over his chest. He seemed to be vibrating with barely-held-back energy, and Eist couldn’t blame him. He had no idea what had happened to his family, and the home that he had known his entire life had crumbled to the ground right in front of them.
Oh, and they had watched the Blight break into their world and take to the sky.
That wasn’t exactly something to gloss over either.
“I… I’m not sure how to explain it. I went into the past, I suppose you could say, but it wasn’t like I just popped out of a portal there and ended up walking around until I found my way back.”
“What do you mean?”
Unsure if they were still as close as they were, Eist carefully reached for her friend’s hand, hoping to reassure her. Dille stiffened a moment, her breath seeming to catch, before she did relax. “I was born. I remember being a child. I lived a whole life.”
“But how is that possible? You already grew up here.”
“Did I?” She shook her head and sighed again. “It’s all really complicated. I don’t know if I started there, was sent back here to live again only to get knocked back into a portal so I could fly around and make sense of it all, or if there’s some other mixed-up order of things. Time doesn’t seem so straight to me anymore. It’s like more of a ball of woven thread all twisted up and tied together.”
“So what you’re s-saying,” Athar said breathlessly, “is that you went into the past and lived a whole life then came here?”
“Well, no. It wasn’t so linear as that. I fell into a portal in the past and I was just sort of…hurtling, I guess. Through… nothing? I can’t really explain it. But then I was dumped out long, long ago and I didn’t know what I was going to do until I ran into this little guy.” She jerked her thumb toward Fior, who chirped happily. Except his chirp had a much deeper tone now and the difference bothered Eist. She loved seeing her little guy so big, but she had missed all of it. She would never get that time back. “You see, my mind was blank, like a slate that had been washed off. I didn’t know who I was or how I got there or anything. But the moment Fior saw me, he started jumping and yelling, and after a few sharp barks from him, I started to remember bits and pieces.
“We eventually found a sort of…witches coven, you could say. But back then, it was called a temple to the spirits, I guess. They taught me how to control the magic in me, taught me spells and all sorts of things. As the years passed, memories started to come back until I was able to recall all of both of my lives.”
“And then you came back?” Ain asked, sounding somewhere between awe and disbelief.
“No. And then we fought in a war. I, uh, I think it might have been the first great war.”
“What?” Eist couldn’t help but blurt. “You’re kidding.”
“Uh, no. I’m not. Fior and I were quite a team. But then I had a vision. One that said you needed me more than anything. And I remembered you, I remembered what you mean to me. So, I went down into the deepest part of the archives and found the ancient spells that opened the portals.”
“And—”
“No. That’s not when I came back either. I ended up back in the first place where my dragon was waiting there for me, like she knew that I would be arriving right then and there. Dragons are more attuned to the magic of our world, of all the things that we can’t see. Even more than we give them credit for.
“Then I opened a portal and was finally spit out just a few minutes after I had left.”
“It was a bit more than a few minutes.” Or at least it had felt that way. To Eist, it felt like her entire world had been turned upside-down, inside-out, shaken, cut down the middle then burned in an inferno. If she hadn’t had her rage to cling to, she was sure that she would have crumbled into despair right then and there.
“And those same portals are what you knocked Valatos and Farmad into?”
She shook her head, her large curls bouncing around her. “No. All of my portals for me had very specific paths or destinations in mind. The ones I shoved them into were like the one Fior and I got sucked into.”
“Which is different because…”
“Those were gates to things outside of our dimension. Outside of time and life and, well, everything as far as I could figure. That’s why I was falling for so long. And that’s also how I was able to run into Fior over twenty years later and have it only be a small time for him.” She squinted, as if thinking hard. “Although, if I think about all the time that’s looped back for me, uh… I suppose it’s been around fifty plus years that we’ve been gone.”
Eist sputtered several noises before she pulled herself together enough to comprehend that. “Fifty years? But you look…five years older, maybe six. How is that possible?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. I remember growing in the first place I landed, but not during the great war. Fior did, though, but it doesn’t really make sense that no one commented on how I never aged.”
“Yeah, out of all of this, that’s what doesn’t make sense,” Ain grumbled.
Suddenly, Dille was leaning forward, her big, umber eyes staring into Eist’s. “There’s something I have to tell you.”
“There’s a lot of things you have to tell me.”
She let out the slightest smile before seeming to steel herself. “Look, when I went into my other life…the one before, or after…or in the middle of this—I g
uess I don’t even know—but anyway, in that life, I kinda, maybe, sorta became friends with your parents.”
“What?” Eist asked, feeling like she couldn’t possibly get any more shocked and yet feeling that same overwhelming surprise swamping her again. “You were knocked back into my parents’ time?”
“Yeah. But I only knew them for a real short while. I started having these dreams that kinda led me to them, and the next thing I knew, I was helping them stop a ritual that was going to sever the already pretty tenuous connection between the Three and our world. That’s when I fell into a portal there too.
“Well, fell is a very generous term. I cut a guy’s hand off because he was trying to pull your mother in. Also, I think it might have been the same one-handed guy you were fighting tonight. Either that, or the similarities are uncanny.”
“Wait, Valatos, my family’s jester, was making ritual portals back in Eist’s parents’ time?”
Dille nodded.
“Why would he do that?” Eist managed to ask, trying to process everything that was happening. “Pull my mother in, that is. Or make that portal in general.”
“Probably because he was actually trying to create a sort of ancient severing seal, but your mother altered it using the sheep’s blood he had been using. There were some…unintended consequences to that, it seems.”
“Consequences that involved the two of you hurtling through time?”
“Uh, I think hurtling through existence is more accurate.”
“Huh.”
“But what I want to know,” Dille said, her too-keen gaze swiveling away from Eist to Yacrist, “is why I’m pretty sure I saw you using spells against that horde.”
“That’s right,” Ain said, seemingly eager to jump to that. “Since when do you use magic?”
“I, uh, don’t.” The boy shifted from foot to foot. It was unusual to see him as anything less than effortlessly confident, but Eist would be lying if she didn’t admit that she was curious too. She felt like she could usually see the glow of enchantment around people, or see it in the ties that surrounded people, but Yacrist had none of that.
In fact, when she closed her eyes and tried to look at what might bind him, everything got a bit…fuzzy.
“I may not underst-stand most of this, but I am almost c-certain that I saw you use magic.”
“They’re spells,” Yacrist said softly. “From the books that Eist and I have been studying. There are ways that you can manipulate the energy that connects everything without having any ancient dragon’s blood in you. It’s not really using magic, it’s more just knowing the rules.
“That’s how Valatos was able to do that ritual back in your parents’ time, I’m guessing. He didn’t seem like he had the ability, unlike the…” His face drained of a bit of color. “…that other guy.”
“Farmad,” Eist forced herself to say. “That’s his name.”
“At least he’s gone now,” Ain grumbled.
“I wouldn’t count on that,” Dille said solemnly. “I came back, after all. And now that their master is out, it’ll be pretty easy for it to call them to its side.”
Eist felt the breath rush out of her and she sort of collapsed against the back of her chair.
That was right. The Blight was freed. After everything her parents had given up, had sacrificed, the Blight was set upon the world once more.
They had failed.
They hadn’t even known what they were up against. Not really. They had all sort of cursory knowledge and a vague idea, but until that morning, Eist hadn’t even known that her parents used magic.
“What’s the point of having these dreams or visions if they’re just going to trick me?” Eist hissed. “If we hadn’t sent the riders away to some fake battle, then maybe all of this could have—”
“Wait, who said it was a fake battle?”
Eist looked to Dille with wide eyes. “Isn’t it? I thought you said it was a diversion.”
“It was, but that doesn’t mean it’s fake. I’m certain that I saw just how very real it was. The war is starting on the dawn, and it will be a bloody one.” She closed her eyes, as if she was sorting memories she had. “I wish I could remember if they win, but I don’t think I’ve seen that. I think… I think this is my…now? And all those other things are my past?
“I don’t really know. It’s all so confusing.”
Finally, something to do. A task that Eist could throw herself into and bury her emotions underneath. She jumped to her feet, feeling her determination come back a bit. “Then we have to help them! If we leave now, then—”
Athar’s large hand came to rest on her shoulder. “Eist, you’re wounded. We’re all battered. We n-need to rest and grab su-sup-supplies.”
“He’s right,” Ain added before she could object. “The sun is rising, so it’s too late to reach them before this battle the both of you have apparently seen. We all know that the bells will sound if they need reinforcements, so showing up damaged and already defeated will help no one.”
Eist wanted to argue with them, but they were right. Even with Yacrist’s spells, her wounds were wearing on her. Every moment, she felt a little colder, a little weaker, a little emptier. But maybe that was also because she had just seen a creature that could end her world and everything she loved rise from what was supposed to be its eternal prison.
“I guess I should get to the healer’s hall then,” Eist said, wrinkling her nose. She’d been so good about staying away from there that it pained her to go back.
“Wait a minute, I think I can do something to help.” Dille stood and reached into one of the many pouches attached to her belt. Feeling around a bit, she pulled out a vial and tossed it to Eist.
“Drink that,” she said plainly, closing the distance between them.
Eist did as her friend asked, chugging the liquid down. It didn’t taste as awful as she thought it would. No, it was a bit like fruit and…earth? Not exactly something she enjoyed but not vile enough to churn her stomach.
If her stomach could even churn anymore. She did have a dagger pretty close to it just a bit earlier.
“Hold still,” Dille continued softly, her bigger hands spreading out across Eist’s wounded middle. Although everything about the woman had changed, it was bizarre to see that even her fingers were longer, more tapered. They’d grown graceful with age, but everyone else was still the same.
Ugh. Magic seemed to complicate everything. Eist was tired of it.
But she was distracted from her irritation by a sort of shifting in her stomach followed by a warm rush through all of her limbs. Some of her soreness abated, and she felt like she could breathe easier.
“How’s that?” Dille asked, stepping back.
Without thinking, Eist pulled up her torn, dirty tunic to look at her middle. There was still the seal written in blood by Yacrist, but above it, the wound from Valatos was shimmering with a sort of golden sparkle as it shrank a bit. The skin around the edge was pink, and slowly going pale, but not closing entirely.
“Huh,” Eist murmured. “That’s impressive.”
“It won’t heal entirely, but it’s something I learned that works on people with magic in them. Basically uses the energy in you to speed things up.”
“That could come in handy,” Ain said, coming up alongside and bending to stare right at Eist’s healing middle. It was only about then that she realized she had her tunic up all the way under her chest, which was probably the most exposed she had ever been in front of her male friends.
Huh.
She looked to Yacrist and saw that his eyes were locked on her injuries and the seal. Athar, however, was staring up at the ceiling and a bright red. It was cute, even if it was a little silly.
“Well, we should at least try to get a couple hours of sleep,” Dille said, wiping her hands on her clothes.
“Yeah,” Eist agreed. “So are you going to come up to our room?”
After all, if what Dille was saying was true,
then she hadn’t been in the academy dorm in decades. She might not even remember it.
“I…uh, I think perhaps I should spend tonight out with my dragons. I’ve got a lot of introductions and explanation to make to the two of them.”
“Right. That makes sense.”
“W-we’ll walk you to your do-do-doo- your room,” Athar said, finally looking back to her.
Eist nodded, feeling strange all over again. “Are you sure, Dille?”
“Yeah. Look, I still know you, and I’m pretty sure I still love you, but I need a little bit to figure out where I am and what exactly is the past.”
“Right, right. That makes sense.” Eist looked to her little boy who wasn’t so little anymore. “You remember where our room is, Fior?” Her dragon, now the size of two horses with his broad, shovel-like head as big as her upper body, snuffled at her before nodding. “Alright. Sounds good.”
There were farewells all around as the boys called their own dragons down and gave them their goodnight pets and check-overs before sending them back outside. Eist had no doubt that both Allynbach and Gaius would be waiting for them on their balconies the moment Ain and Yacrist got to their room while Ethella would no doubt plop herself right on the roof above Athar’s room.
They were all definitely going to miss classes the next day. If there were any, that was.
When it came time for Dille to depart, Eist had to resist holding onto her. The whiplash between having lost her closest friend and then suddenly having her back again—but older—still hadn’t faded much. Eist didn’t know if it ever would.
“You promise you’re never going to disappear again?”
“I promise,” Dille said, pulling Eist into another soft embrace.
They held on for quite a while, longer than what was probably necessary, but Eist just wasn’t ready to let go.