by Jada Fisher
It was like a seal had been broken as tears ripped through Ain’s façade. He whirled to her, clinging to her in a hug while he sobbed into her hair.
She gave him a moment, because he needed it, and she wanted to give him so much more. But they didn’t have the time. They needed to get out of there, and fast.
“Come on,” she said, patting his back and guiding him toward Gaius, who had sidled up to him worriedly. “We need to get back to Margaid and tell the council what happened.”
Ain nodded, wiping his face before climbing onto his mount. Fior quickly rushed to Eist, and she got right back on top of him.
Together, their cadre rose into the air, sans Allynbach who was still openly weeping over the rubble. There were no words to describe the heart-wrenching pain she felt as he grew smaller and smaller below them until he disappeared entirely.
Another loss for them. Another soul to mourn. And Eist was beginning to wonder if she really would ever get him back.
9
Rock Bottom
Eist tossed and turned, her stomach sour, her head pounding, and her heart aching.
Even though she was back in the tent she had been sharing with her friends since they had joined the battle, she still felt like she was trapped underground in the temple, watching as she helped her dragon bury her friend.
They had made it to the council in one piece, where they then had to tell them of their failure. Eist couldn’t bear to even look them in the face as she told them not only had she let her friend get possessed right in front of her, but they hadn’t even managed to complete the spell. Not only was the Blight still around, but it had a human vessel.
And Eist didn’t even know what that meant.
She tossed again, her face heated and sweat dribbling down her brow, when she felt a cool breeze drift across her. She looked to the tent flaps only to see that they were completely still, the campfire crackling behind them.
Curious, she sat up. It wasn’t like she was going to get any sleep as it was. Standing up, she hobbled out of her tent on sore legs.
But instead of walking into the campsite, she strolled straight onto the path outside of her home.
Eist stood there, blinking owlishly, as she tried to figure out if she was in a dream or not. But that question was quickly answered as light washed over the entire hill, and two glimmering forms rose from the ground.
She shielded her eyes, unable to look at the figures for several moments. Even when her gaze did adjust, she still could only barely make them out through the shimmering around them.
“Mother?” she asked, hardly believing that what she was seeing was real. “Father?”
The two forms smiled at her, faces barely visible, but she could feel both the love and light exuding from them.
“How is this possible?” she asked, rushing toward them for a hug. But she passed right through them, nearly stumbling in the dirt. “Wha… What’s going on?” she asked, looking at them in bewilderment.
“We’ve missed you, darling. You’ve gotten so big.”
“How are you even here?”
“We’ve been forming the bonds of the Blight’s prison for all these years now. When it broke free, we were released.”
“Most of us was released, that is,” her father added, his voice just how she remembered it. Tears were welling up in her eyes again, and she wished she could just hold them. “Bits of us were lost when our spell was broken.”
“What bits?”
“That doesn’t matter. We’ve been watching you since we arrived. It’s taken us time to learn how to contact you, but we did try so hard to help.” Her mother’s voice cracked slightly. “You’ve made us so proud, you know. You’re exactly how I thought you would be.”
“Mother…” There was no point in hiding her tears and she sobbed outright. “That was you in the library, wasn’t it?”
She nodded. “It was. I was so happy to see that you had received our gift. But you seemed like you could hardly hear me.”
“Oh, that,” Eist said with a chuckle. “So, you know how you guys sent me a, uh, gift before you locked yourselves away? Well, a bit of the Blight followed it and both Grandfather and I fell ill. The fever caused me to lose a good chunk of my hearing.”
“Oh, darling, I’m so sorry!”
Eist shrugged. “I get by alright.” She wanted to hold them so badly. To bury her face in her father’s strong chest and never let go. Surely in their arms, nothing else that was terrible could ever happen. But she couldn’t do that. Because they were dead. Even if they were right in front of her, they were dead. “You said you wanted to tell me something?”
“Yes. We’re so sorry, my dear, but our existence is…complicated.”
“We’re tied to the Blight,” her father continued for her. “We’re not a part of it, but we exist with it. We bound our destinies so tightly that we won’t know rest until it is destroyed.”
“Then I’ll destroy it!” Eist said much more confidently than she had any right to. “You two have given enough.”
“We believe you, my child, but that is not what we must warn you of.”
“Then what did you need to tell me?”
“That we saw your friend was taken as a vessel of the Blight. We are so terribly sorry, but you need to believe us that he is lost to you. You cannot waste your time trying to save him. You must destroy him just as you would the Blight.”
“But—”
“That is not all, dear. Our sweet, brave Eist. The Blight has always been held back by never truly being a part of this world. It can only interact directly at specific times, and it often exhausts all of its energy. Much of its power it couldn’t wield, as it didn’t have a proper anchor into this realm.
“But it has an anchor now. It is a part of this realm just as much as you are, and it will use its newfound power to rend everything apart. You have to stop him.”
“But how?” Eist asked, feeling herself sink down into that well of despair. She’d been treading it ever since they had flown away, but she felt like she would drown at any moment. “I didn’t even know that it could take a vessel.”
“Although it has gained great power from its possession, there is a catch. The Blight is now subject to the rules of this realm, including all of its limitations. It had a singular form, your Yacrist. While it might be able to attack with phantom limbs or spears, it is largely contained to his body.
“Use that. And use the rules of this land against it. If there’s anyone that can stop him, it’s you, Eist. Everything has been building to you.”
Her mother gently knelt, her glowing, translucent hands cupping Eist’s cheeks. “I’ve been dreaming of you since I was a little girl myself, when I saw the miraculous person you would be. That is why we gave ourselves to buy you the time you needed.
“But the time we bought for you is gone now, and you have to find the way we couldn’t.”
Eist blinked at them, tears welling up in her eyes. “Wait, you…you sacrificed yourself for me?”
Sure, Eist knew that they had in a sort of abstract way. They sacrificed themselves for the good of the entire world. For every boy and girl so they would be free from the Blight. The thought that it was just for her seemed borderline impossible.
“Of course. Your mother saw in her dreams how you would be the one to take down the Blight, but you needed time to train. The Blight was threatening to wipe everything out right there and then, so we searched for a way to buy you enough years to grow up.
“And it was worth it, my dear. Seeing you alive and flourishing was worth every year of oblivion.”
Eist’s lip trembled. So many people she knew would never have any idea how it felt to be loved so completely. “I miss you guys.”
They both drifted forward to hold her or hold her as best they could, given the situation.
“We miss you too, our dear Eist. And we will see you to victory. Please, find a way and destroy the Blight so we can finally know peace.”
And it was standing like that, huddled in their glowing light, that the house drifted away, leaving her standing in the middle of the camp. Eist let out a shuddering breath, then wiped her tears away.
“I promise,” Eist reiterated before and turning and walking back to the tent.
She may have not been the one to start the war, but she was going to finish it.
For everyone she loved.
THANK YOU
Thank you so much for reading Unleashed, the sixth book in the Brindle Dragon series. After all the training, it is definitely time for the full power of the dragon riders to be unleashed. Of course, the full evil of the Blight has also been unleashed.
I really enjoy hearing what readers think so if you could leave a review for me on Amazon, that would be really cool.
The next story in the Brindle Dragon series will be published soon. In the meantime, you might want to check out Oracle, if you haven’t read it already. It is the first book in the Dragon Oracle series which features a normal girl trying to live a normal life. The only problem is that she has visions of the future and finds herself mixed up with shape-shifting dragons.
Get Oracle here:
amazon.com/dp/B079KXS1SR/
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