Mernoth and Bardeck fought a few yards from her, the bond telling her they both had sustained minor injuries. She slowly began to shift position, working her way toward them.
Emallya felt it the second the sword plunged deep into Bardeck’s chest. Pain ripped through her and she faltered. Mernoth roared his grief and rage, the sound filling the sky. A hole tore open in her soul; it felt much like when she’d lost Rylin. Her swords dropped from numb hands. Heedless of the battle around her and the weapons raised against her, Emallya tried to run to her bondmate and the fading Mernoth.
Agony exploded through her as a sword slammed across her back. She landed face first in the field, muddied by the blood soaking the ground. Her head swimming, she looked for Mernoth. His great dark eyes were closed as the last of the golden color washed from his scales.
Maleena stood at the edge of a dense copse of trees, well back from the seething mass of bodies engaged in battle. One hand laid protectively over her belly as she concentrated on the battle. She’d promised to stay out of the fighting, but that didn’t stop her from participating. Her magic pulsed like a raging river inside her as she targeted groups of Kojen through eyes burning from the smoke, taking them out with weaves that burst every vessel in their heads.
She coughed several times and squinted at a group of close to fifty Hanoverian soldiers as they came near. Maleena wove a different weave this time and watched as they dropped their swords, their faces going slack as they fell to the ground, their soul shields crushed.
It wasn’t nearly enough. At least a thousand Kojen ripped through the human armies. Though the combination of forces fighting for Galdrilene outnumbered their counterparts, the Kojen mental attack devastated their ranks. Without the dragon bond or Border Guard training to protect most of them, it was no contest.
Nydara and Paki flew back and forth over the expansive battlefield, diving down and pulling as many children and women as they could from danger. The Mallay had been cleared, but the battle spilled well beyond the walls of the city and surged through the small villages near the wall.
Above, Shadow Dragons and Guardians fought a vicious war and on the ground magic weaves flew back and forth between the mages from both sides.
Mernoth’s grief filled roar tore across the smoke filled sky. Maleena turned to see Bardeck fall. Emallya tried to run to him and was struck down.
Oh Fates, no! Maleena surged forward only to be stopped by Amara. The Nagi refused to let her move forward. Amara had promised to guard Maleena and keep her away from the battle. Her heart broke as tears poured down her face. All she could do was protect Emallya from a distance and hope the woman lived.
Oksana cut people down searching for the one man in the battle she wanted more than any other. He was here, somewhere. Today she would make him pay. Quillan landed with a heavy thud next to her, crushing several of the Turindari around her.
“We have to pull back,” Kovan shouted over the din.
She slashed a man across the face, nearly taking the top of his head off. “What do you mean pull back?” she yelled. “They are dying all over the field.”
“So are our forces. We are losing too many younger Shadow Riders and mages.”
Oksana shot him a venom-filled glare. “No! We aren’t done here! We haven’t won yet.”
Kovan shook his head. “And we won’t today, Oksana. This battle is a draw. Stay and die if you want. We are pulling out and taking as many of the Kojen with us as we can salvage.”
Oksana cut through the men rushing at her, anger making her take it further than needed to kill them. She hacked at their bodies in frustration as Quillan took off. Around her, the Kojen pulled back. Sadira already took a number of them through a Jump.
Fury boiled in Oksana’s veins but she had no choice. She wasn’t going to stand here until she was alone and vulnerable. She called Dusa to her with a furious shout, feeling only a twinge of relief that the dragon was still in good enough shape to fly in and pick her up.
Kellinar felt exhaustion seeping in around the edges of his concentration as he fought through the endless battle. Too many had died. Where were the men of the Mallay? His zahri weighed heavy in his hands as he saw a Ke’han, the red handprint on his chain mail ripped open. Sightless eyes stared back at him. He turned to the next opponent and moved without thought, instinct carrying him forward.
Less and less Kojen engaged him, several Turindari and Hanoverian soldiers threw down their arms and ran.
And then, as soon as it began, it ended.
Kellinar stood in an expanse of bloody mud and bodies. Smoke blocked out the sun as ash drifted on the air like snow. He turned slowly. A field of death stretched all around him.
Dead black dragons lay among the bodies. Sorrow wrapped around his heart as his eyes found Tania’s blue Aylene lying with her throat ripped out. He walked slowly toward her but stopped when he came across Tania’s trampled body.
He closed his eyes to the sight of a friend lying lifeless in the dirt. So much death. So much blood.
Screaming pulled him away from Tania and he searched for the source. His heart stopped. Mernoth and Bardeck lay among the dead. A dull numbness crept over him as he sought Emallya. Maleena knelt in the mess on the ground, one of Emallya’s hands clenched in her own as she screamed for Serena.
Emallya took in sips of air as tears leaked out the corners of her eyes. Bardeck and Mernoth were gone. Nothing remained to hold her in this world anymore. Maleena’s calling for Serena and her pleas to Emallya to stay finally pulled her from her reverie.
Her breath shuddered as she squeezed Maleena’s hand weakly. “Shh… Do not cry for me, Maleena.” With great effort she raised her other hand and stroked the hair away from the face that looked so like hers. “I am not ending today. I will go on through you and the babe you carry.”
“What?” Maleena asked as more tears fell down her cheeks, making tracks through the soot.
“Eileana was my youngest sister. You are of my blood. The last of my family. The only thing the Shadow Riders have not taken from me.”
Serena appeared at her side and moved to lay her hands on her. Emallya used the last of her strength to stay her.
Emallya took another shuddering breath. “Save your energy for others. I have no wish to be healed.” She smiled weakly into the stricken faces gathering around her. “My embers. You are everything I hoped you would be. I spent my life waiting for you.” Tears spilled over the corners of her eyes and ran down her temples into her hair. Cold seeped into Emallya’s limbs and crawled its way into her body.
Another shuddering, shallow breath pulled into her lungs as her heart labored. “I have spent…over five hundred years…making sure the embers burned again…it is…my time…”
She looked away from their faces. Above her the smoke swirled in the breeze. To her eyes, it almost looked as if ethereal dragons soared in the smoke. The world grew dark and the warmth of Maleena’s hand faded.
Icy cold washed over her and once again she stood in front of a translucent veil. Rylin waited for her on the other side. Beside the silver, Bardeck and Mernoth stood along with Ilyana and her blue, whole again, their scars gone. Bodies broke or grew old, but the spirit never did. To the other side, her children stood, along with Eileana, her mother, and her siblings. As she stepped through the veil, warmth spread over her. This time, nothing held her back.
Rylin lowered her great silver head. “I have missed you.”
Tears overflowed as she embraced the dragon. “I have missed you too.”
Maleena couldn’t stop the tears. Her heart felt as if it was breaking into a million pieces. Even the warmth of Mckale’s arms didn’t ease the hurt in her heart. Emallya was gone. Bardeck and Mernoth were gone. How would they go on without them? How would Galdrilene survive?”
Kellinar turned and walked away. He couldn’t breathe, couldn’t believe they were gone. They were the Guardians’ rock. Everywhere he looked death overwhelmed him. Tallula and her golden
Seri lay in the battlefield as did Tania and her blue, and too many allies to count.
His only comfort was his bondmates had survived and Loki had remained in Markene. A tremor ran through him as sorrow overwhelmed him. Taela knelt in front of Maleena, smoothing her hair and talking to her, though Kellinar sensed Taela’s own terrible grief through the bond.
He watched Serena turn and make her way across the battlefield, searching for wounded to heal. Kellinar knew she was doing her best to think about something, anything other than the deaths of Emallya, Bardeck, and Mernoth.
Anevay walked up and put her arms around him. Kellinar clutched her to him and buried his face in her hair as her tears soaked the front of his shirt.
She cried out as something slammed into them, making him stagger back as a flash of pain dug into his chest. “Anevay?” A flash of black made him look up. Oksana looked him in the eye for a split second, malicious triumph twisting her face and a heavy black bow in her hands. A dark Jump opened as Oksana flew into it with her dragon.
“Kellinar…” Anevay breathed.
He looked down, his heart slammed in his chest as Anevay stared up at him, her dark eyes filled with pain. Her breath shuddered in her chest. Agony tore through him, her agony, it overwhelmed him.
“Anevay? Serena!” he yelled, panic flooding him.
One arm tightened around Anevay’s waist as her legs gave out and he raised his other hand to catch her head when it fell back.
Taela’s terrified and pain filled cry echoed across the battlefield as she raced toward them.
His heart pounded in his ears. “Serena!” Kellinar sank to his knees, easing Anevay down. Latia roared and landed next to them. Something had her pinned to him. With trembling hands he had to push Anevay away, barely registering the pain of something pulling out of his chest or the warm blood that spilled from the wound.
The broad arrowhead of a pure black bolt jutted from Anevay’s chest. “Oh no, Fates no! Anevay…” her name came out as a choked sob. “Serena!”
Kellinar looked frantically for his friend and healer. Serena ran toward him through the smoke and falling ash.
“Kellinar,” Anevay’s voice was no more than a whisper. “Always…loved you. From the first…”
“Shh...shh...” The sound came out shaky around the tears clogging his throat. He smoothed the ringlets of dark hair back from Anevay’s face. “Hold on, baby. Please hold on. Serena is coming. Please just hold on…”
Taela threw herself on her knees next to Kellinar, sobs shaking her body as she smoothed Anevay’s hair over and over. “No. No. No,” she moaned.
Anevay’s dark liquid eyes shimmered with tears as she turned them on Taela. “My bondsister…will always love…”
She looked back at Kellinar, pain filling her eyes and etching lines into her face. “It hurts, Kellinar.”
“I know, love.” He pulled as much of the pain from her as could, feeling Shryden move to block him from taking more than was safe. Kellinar brushed his knuckles across her cheek, the skin ashen under the creamed coffee color. Fear tightened like a vice around him. “Serena is coming, Anevay. She’s almost here.”
Serena staggered to a stop and fell to her knees across from him. Her eyes went wide and she gasped at the broad head arrow and the bloody mess on Anevay’s chest. She put her hands on the wound and closed her eyes.
Anevay’s face blurred as tears filled Kellinar’s eyes and he tightened his hold on her. If he could just hold onto her tight enough, she wouldn’t slip away from him.
She spasmed slightly in his grip and went still. Fear lanced through his chest as he looked frantically at Serena’s tear streaked face. Kellinar shook his head. No, Serena was here, Anevay couldn’t have…
He gazed down into Anevay’s face, one hand stroking her hair. “Anevay, wake up, love. Come on, wake up.” A strangled sob broke past his lips. “Please.”
Her beautiful eyes stared sightlessly back at him. He looked at Serena. “She can’t be dead, you were healing her.”
Serena stared at Anevay with hollow, lost eyes. “I couldn’t…not fast enough to save…” She raised overflowing eyes to his. “I wasn’t fast enough. I’m so sorry, Kellinar.”
With grief filled eyes, as dark and beautiful as Anevay’s, Latia laid her head next to them. A fading sorrowful keening coming from her throat. Ripples flowed along Latia’s scales, taking with them the bright yellow.
“Kellinar,” Latia’s voice was faint, full of regret and sadness. “I love you too. I’m sorry I didn’t protect her better. I’m sorry I didn’t feel the black Jumping in time. And I’m sorry we can’t stay with you. Forgive me. Take comfort that Anevay doesn’t go alone to Maiadar.”
Anguish crushed him at her words. “I love you too, Latia. There is nothing to forgive.”
The other dragons gathered around Latia, their voices raised in keening sorrow as they bid their friend and mate goodbye. Shryden raised his head and roared his grief to the sky.
Taela wrapped her arms around her middle and bent over until her forehead pressed against the ground, her body shaking with silent sobs.
Kellinar cradled Anevay to him, rocking back and forth. She couldn’t be gone. This was a nightmare he would wake from; it had to be. What had he done? How had he failed to protect her? Anguish gripped so hard his heart physically hurt. Kellinar drew a shuddering breath, his throat tightened around the lump in it, strangling him as he looked at Serena and whispered hoarsely, “Heal her for me. Please, Serena. Bring her back to me.”
Serena shook her head and swallowed, more tears spilling over. Her breath hitched in a sob and her face crumpled. “I can’t heal death, Kellinar.”
Kellinar bent his head and wept into Anevay’s hair as he continued to rock her. His chest constricted until he could barely breathe under the weight of the agony in his heart. “No, no, no. Anevay, I love you. I need you, Anevay…”
As their friends gathered around, Serena gently tried to pull Anevay from Kellinar’s arms. He tightened his grip on her, begging for her to come back. The anguish and pain ravaging his face broke her heart. Blood soaked the front of his shirt. It wasn’t all Anevay’s. The arrow bolt had hit him too.
With tears in his eyes, Vaddoc put his hands on Kellinar’s shoulders. “You have to let her go now.” His voice was thick with sorrow.
With Vaddoc’s help, Serena was able to get Kellinar to release Anevay. Mckale knelt and gently picked her up. With tender care, he laid her next to Latia’s body.
Kellinar gathered Taela into his arms and they sat there clinging to each other as the dragons gathered around them. Serena laid her hand on Kellinar’s arm. “I need to heal you before you bleed to death.”
He shook his head, the devastation in his eyes wrenching at her.
“Kellinar, I know how badly you hurt right now,” she choked back a sob. “But I don’t think Taela can handle losing another bondmate today.” She took a shaky breath. “And, I can’t lose another friend.”
Taela, her eyes red and swollen with her own suffering, gazed up at Kellinar. “Please, let her heal you. I can’t lose you too. I need you. Shryden needs you.” Their shared grief overwhelmed Serena. A fist closed around her heart.
The mention of Shryden seemed to cut through the dark place where Kellinar’s heart dwelled. He nodded, though he refused to let go of Taela. It didn’t matter; she would heal him that way. If only she could take away all of his pain.
By the time she’d closed the wound and healed the other minor physical injuries, Emallya’s body had been laid next to Bardeck and Mernoth.
Vaddoc, Mckale, and Varnen waded through the dead on the battlefield to return Tania and Tallula to their dragons.
The dragons raised their voices in keening sorrow as they set fire to each fallen pair, the intense heat reducing them to ash.
Shryden and Paki each laid their heads against Latia’s for a moment before they backed up and released their fire.
Mckale held Maleena as Emally
a, Bardeck, and Mernoth disappeared behind flames. Serena walked up and put her arms around Maleena and Mckale, laying her head on his arm. Vaddoc, Kirynn, Kellinar, Taela, Jocelynn, and Varnen gathered around, leaning on each other in shared anguish. The surviving mages stood in a half circle, their faces wracked with grief as they said goodbye to a couple that had overseen Galdrilene for generations.
Smoke from the pyres billowed into the sky, further darkening the day. As the flames slowly died back, revealing only ashes, Belan approached them hesitantly, his eyes haunted by the sadness of the aftermath. “Kellinar?”
Serena turned to Belan. Lost in his hurt, Kellinar was in no shape to handle anything else. “Yes, Belan?”
Behind him, a raggedy group of men stood covered in blood and injuries. All that was left of the men of the Mallay. Over five hundred had left and less than two hundred remained. The cost of their freedom was immeasurable. She took a deep breath, pushing her sorrow away in order to deal with everything that still had to be done.
Belan cleared his throat. “We have some serious injuries all over the field that need to be healed so we can get the women and children from the canyon and take them…” He looked around. Inside the wall, the Mallay still burned strong.
Serena nodded. There was a lot of healing to do. “I will Slide to Galdrilene and bring back more healers.”
Kellinar stared over Taela’s head at the battleground. A blessed numbness settled over him. The Ke’han, many of their numbers remaining intact, gathered slowly together with the Naga and Nagi. Mckale sat on Tellnox, preparing to take them back to…wherever they lived.
Lord Vesnar and Lord Telain and their remaining soldiers held a large group of Turindari and Hanoverian prisoners. A few chickens and goats set loose from the Mallay wandered lost and confused among the dead.
The soldiers from the border nations and the Border Guards moved about the battlefield, systematically killing any Kojen or enemy soldiers still struggling for life. There would be no healing for them.
Tears of War Page 42