Dryad's Touch (Void Waker Book 1)

by A. W. Graybill

  He shook his head. “To smear us even further, it seems.” She dug her nails into her arms, feeling the pain to keep her in check. Thaos continued. “They are making the first moves, Elona. Day by day, prophecies are coming true. They want this war more than anything. I am just as you are; I thought I was given another chance. But my sister, all my kin, do not appear to want that.”

  Eyes clenched shut, she screamed in her head, lies. She needed to play into him, let him think he was leading her. Yet she could not figure out how to while keeping her plans secret, while keeping her absolute hatred for him completely to herself. “What more do you want from us, Thaos?” she asked without opening her eyes.

  “That is a very good question, Elona,” he purred, his scent rising to her. She opened her eyes to see him looming over her. “What do I want with you or with all of you? Perhaps I want you to help me in the coming war, perhaps I want protection from the others.” He smirked. “What are your intentions with the child, Elona?” The question caused her anger to skip a beat, her eyes widening.

  “I do not know what you speak of.”

  “Do not play coy with me.” His head tilted, tiredly searching her eyes. He continued in a mocking tone, “Drudan, you and I will have a child. I love you.” That smirk faded, flashing blue eyes becoming intense. “Is it there?” Reaching his hand out to her, he closed his eyes. She allowed him to touch her abdomen, tilting her chin upwards. When he found that her womb was yet barren, he smiled. “No.”

  “If it were, would you have killed it as you did the child that you replaced Craith with?”

  He narrowed his eyes for a moment, fingers curling close to his chest. “Siva had no right to you or the children you could bear.”

  Wanting to stay in the present, Elona hissed, “You request I stay at your side, yet you continually spy on me. You want me to help you in whatever schemes you have, yet you do not trust me.”

  “Can you blame me for not wanting to?”

  She was silent. No, she could not blame him. It was she who had sold him out to his siblings during his last attempt to gain the god slaying sword Void Waker. It was she who had gained their support and abandoned him on the field. It was Elona, the only one he put near complete confidence into.

  Thaos moved closer, face emotionless, but pain filled his eyes. “I plan to have you help me. I need you to help me, if only in defense, if only because you owe it to me. Whereas with this child… Unless you’ve some great plan, why give him a child, hmm? His blood is not worthy to mix with a goddess such as you.” He stepped even closer, causing her to step backwards. Her back pressed to the wall. “If you have grand intentions, let it be my blood.”

  “Stop...” she breathed when his lips came to rest at the nape of her neck, his hands holding to her waist.

  “I made you, Elona, let us create other things.”

  Elona shook her head. “The blood of Gaia courses through me.” His hands tightened on her waist, pushing her into the wall, causing her to gasp.

  Eye to eye with her, he shouted in her face, “I gave you my power!” He crushed her against the wall and his hands grasped her face. “I brought you back to life. I made you as you are, Elona.”

  “I did not ask for this,” she hissed, her fingers digging into his hands. “If I had, you are no longer what I desire, nor have you been for quite some time. You abandoned me long ago. But you know it was for the best. I have no love for you. You’ve no love for me, Thaos. I have realized that, so should you.”

  Fury flashed in his eyes, and his lips locked on hers, teeth gnashing as he kissed her. The anger was suffocating. His hands clawed under her gown and dug into her bare thighs while he pushed himself into her. Remembering similar situations in the past where he had taken what he’d wanted regardless of how she felt, she pushed at him and bit his lip.

  “Get off,” she breathed, tasting his blood.

  Thaos sneered and appeared as though he would push on.

  “You told me to keep near,” a gruff voice murmured. Looking past Thaos’s shoulder, Elona saw Drudan striding towards them, a skeptical look on his face. Regardless of any doubts she thought he might have, he grabbed Thaos by the shoulder and pulled him away. “I see why,” he grumbled, his hand taking hold of his sword.

  Thaos licked the blood from his healed lip, his eyes darting between them. “Your boy still has not learned his place.” He looked to want to attack Drudan, but she knew his plans and evil intent. She was not as naïve as he wanted her to be. It had been years since Thaos had last interacted with her and it possibly surprised him to see such strength from her. She would no longer be the girl he knew so well.

  Still, she could not let Thaos know her plans.

  “We should leave, Elona,” Drudan said, fingers going white around his sword.

  Elona shook her head. “We stay, for now. When we leave, Talamnar will be open to them as well.” Drudan shot her a look of disbelief, hand falling away from his weapon. “Leave so that I may finish my business with Thaos.”

  “That was business?” Drudan snapped, his self-control breaking away more and more each day. She wished he would trust her. “Elona, please, let us leave and be through with this demon! He has already proved himself a liar. We need not sacrifice more to this god.”

  “Thena proved herself a liar,” she replied and closed her eyes. Never before had she spoken of Thena in such a way. “Thena led us there knowing we would not be prepared.”

  “Those are lies, and you know it, Elona!”

  “I see he has not controlled his temper either,” Thaos said, amused. “Still the young boy who threw himself before your beauty unthinking, offering up all he had.”

  Elona had no time to come between them before a deep pain entered her heart. Becoming wide-eyed, her mind suddenly awakened and her fatigue wiped away, she gasped. Something coursed through her, something that left her long ago.

  A name fell through her mind and trembled on her lips. “Arisa...”

  Both god and immortal stared at her with different expressions, one of worry and one of absence.

  Drudan spoke first, “She answers you at last?”

  Elona shook her head once, her throat tight from holding back tears.

  “Leave, Drudan,” Elona muttered. “I will speak with you presently.”

  “Is she dead,” Drudan demanded, pain etching his face. When she would not answer him save for a tiny nod, he returned to the battle at hand. “You defend a god, nay, a serpent who has raped you, beat you, killed your people, and led many astray? And now he has had my sister killed?” When she still would not speak, he threw his hands in the air and mocked her. “Yes, Mistress. We will speak later. But do not expect us to be your mindless followers. You have your dead for that.” Footsteps heavy upon the obsidian, he rushed from the room, cloak billowing out behind him. Knowing his temper had not been as such since the time Thaos had dwelled with them and knowing that peace would need to be set to their minds about Arisa, she needed to be quick.

  “You,” Elona said, hatred burning in her eyes when she turned on Thaos, “how did you have her killed?”

  Thaos tilted his chin upwards. “If I could have done that, I would have done so long ago. Elona, you know that.”

  The void in her soul widened. At that moment she wondered if he were playing her at all. The only beings apart from her that would have been able to kill Arisa would have been the other gods with their access to Void Waker. She was gone, no longer a presence on her mind. Elona wanted to collapse.

  Instead she took a deep breath. “You will have our assistance under conditions. Conditions that if you do not follow, so help the gods, I will fight alongside them whether they want it or not.”

  He considered her for a long moment, his maw forming a wide, untamed smile. Even if he couldn’t have her, he would be able to play with her still. Or so he thought.

  “Name your conditions, Elona,” he replied, crossing his arms over his chest.

  “You give us th
e respect and privacy we need. You will not touch The Chosen. You will not corrupt my people. You will not touch me ever again in any way unless I say you may.” She thought over her next words, wondering if she would even be present to see the war all knew was coming. “If you instigate the war instead of trying to prevent it as you say you have, we will not fight at your side.” Rippling across his face was the effect she wanted, a look that showed he knew he was no longer in control.

  “Then what will you do?” he quietly asked.

  She shook her head once. “I will seal you off from our territory and not be a part of the final conflict, but we will find ways to hinder you. We will not help guard your borders. We will not help gain information. You will never speak to me again.” In the back of her mind, she knew he was going to instigate a war regardless. This agreement would only make it harder for him to keep it from her.

  “So be it,” he muttered. “Learn to control your dogs. I can only handle so much of their temper and foolishness before I touch them.”

  Elona’s jaw tightened as she fought not to say anything more that would keep him from leaving her presence. Things would become dangerous. She knew their recent skirmish and the loss of Arisa was only a precursor to what lay ahead.

  Still, she had her own design.

  And she would need her Chosen to perform it.

  DRUDAN

  “What is it, Drudan?” Marun asked. “What news do you have of Arisa? None of us have heard from her, and Karasim is nowhere to be found.”

  Drudan turned burning eyes on his brother, wanting to answer him but not finding the words. Elona kept too many secrets from him. The constant betrayal as of late ripped his heart apart. His sister was dead. That was irrevocable.

  “Drudan,” Eamon pressed from his corner of the room, his hand curled in the hair of one of Maida’s sorcereresses. The room was depressing. Dark and sharp just like the tower they had made temporary home in. The curtains against the window and the pointed furniture were another reminder of Elona’s betrayal. Everything around him suffocated him. He loved her, he kept telling himself. He tried to convince himself that Arisa’s loss was just an oversight, that Elona knew what she was doing.

  “Drudan,” Gaius prodded from his seated position beside the window.

  Drudan stood still in quiet fury. “Elona will be returning us to his hands. First, she willingly leads us to danger and ignores my warnings; now, she makes secret plans while defending Thaos.” Drudan caught his expression in a mirror. The lights from the storm and the crystals outside stretched across his face. His hair was a mess, his face burned scarlet. He had not felt this much rage in a long time, not since the death of his only child. For years he kept himself contained, hoping his goddess knew what she was doing. But through current events, he wondered if she was in her right mind at all.

  Eamon shook his head, disappointment clear in his eyes. “Brother, you wait this long for your anger to show, but why? We agreed she was cautious and wise and would not hand control back to him.” The smirk Eamon wore defeated Drudan. “You took so long to confide in us, telling us to bend to her will.”

  Drudan remained quiet, his eyes hard on the door. He’d had a devoted love for this maiden since the day he’d seen her. He still had a hard time trusting her with Thaos. When it came to Thaos, she had always been weak. The words she said at the shrine, and subsequent talks, did not fully convince him that she reciprocated Drudan’s love.

  Drudan murmured, “Arisa is dead.”

  The room grew quiet, each brother wearing a different expression. Gaius stared with mouth slightly parted; Aiden’s neck and face turned red behind a thick beard, and Marun stared at the obsidian floor. Almost expected, Eamon flew forward and shoved Drudan.

  “This is your fault!” Eamon yelled, spit flying from his mouth. “You told us to follow her, you told us to keep quiet and keep our heads down. Arisa is dead?” Letting out a brief fit of laughter, he continued, “I thought we were bound to rule as equals, yet you put yourself in her bed every night while ignoring our pleas. Knowing you were the only one she would truly listen to, we trusted you.”

  “Eamon,” Marun started, but Eamon raised his hand.

  “Be quiet, Marun!” Eamon shouted. “You’ve wanted to speak up. There were many times that I had to listen to the complaints of the others while you bedded Elona. We never realized you were killing us all just to please her. We had an arrangement with that elven fiend!”

  Drudan shook his head. “I tried!”

  “How were we to know, Drudan?” Eamon spat. “We’ve not seen nor heard from you since Elona gave the call to leave. I hope hiding between her legs wrapped in her weak mind was worth it, brother. I am on the verge of leaving this disaster you call a goddess.”

  “I could not do that to Elona,” Marun spoke up, eyes still downcast. “She has always been there for us. I still have faith in her.”

  “I lost my faith the moment Thaos entered our sanctuary,” Aiden said. Tilting his chin upwards he showed the pride of not only a Thrason, but also of a necromancer. “I would pull those dead I control from her if anything more goes awry. She claims protection of her people, nay our people, yet she leads them to the wolf.”

  Standing, Gaius looked at each of them and finally let his voice be heard. “You and Eamon control her military forces, Drudan. Would you really leave her that vulnerable?” He looked around, his ponytail sliding from his shoulder. “And you, Aiden, are you so daft to believe that she would not crush you if she saw dissent in the ranks? Anyone who thinks they can walk away, do not forget that the mark you hold can be used for control as well. Elona can cause pain, can take complete control of you, yet she chooses not to.”

  Gaius was right. If Elona wanted to, if she got too far drawn into Thaos’s schemes, she could cause them to do things they never thought they would have. Under the advice of Thaos, she had done so only once when Aiden would not heed her. Forcing pain through their brother’s body, she made him carry out Thaos’s task.

  “We know she can control one, that shows clear by her control of Drudan, but can she control all?” Eamon asked. His question led to silence. Drudan had always been the leader for his siblings. In a time past, he was to be king of Darso. However, Drudan had heard that Thaos and Elona had had a looser hold on their subjects than Darsus did and he had tried to merge the two kingdoms. His siblings followed, even Eamon and Marun who wanted nothing at the time had followed him, had helped convince several thousand people to follow after civil war broke out.

  Where would he go from here? He loved her, but he knew he would eventually have to choose between family and her.

  When the door opened, they all looked to see Elona standing there with bare feet. There was an expression on her face she rarely wore. Drudan had only ever seen that disappointment and betrayal directed at Thaos.

  How loudly it spoke to him then.

  As Maida’s sorceress rushed past Elona and from the room, Elona glanced over her shoulder and waited for several moments with a dead stillness.

  “You would leave me,” she whispered, closing the door behind her. Her eyes passed over each of them, while behind her eyes sadness reflected. She looked at Drudan. “You would lead them against me?”

  “You spy on us,” Eamon stated. She shot him a look but said nothing.

  “I will lead them away from you when the time comes that I feel you are no longer able to handle your position,” said Drudan, taking a step towards her.

  “I will not go, Mistress,” Marun murmured. Elona glanced at him, her face softening for just a moment before she looked back at Drudan.

  “You lack trust and confidence in your goddess.” Her voice trembled.

  “I will not faithfully follow you as long as Thaos is involved,” he retorted, coming closer. His chest was tight. Drudan didn’t want to stand up to her like this. But Eamon was right. “You helped this demon without our consent. I quietly followed. We all did. Now, the situation is not in your hands; you
refuse to listen to advice still, and you continue to draw nearer to him.” His voice rose with each word. “You said you would give him nothing, Elona. Nothing! Yet you’ve given him lives, and for all we know you will be placing your power back in his hands.”

  “You dare accuse me of such things, ingrate?” Drudan shifted on his feet, the words felt like a blow. “I would never and will never give you to him. Has it slipped your mind what I endured to have you sealed to me and not him? What I went through to divert attention from all of you onto myself to protect you? Now, now, you cannot trust me?”

  “You are weak, Elona!” Drudan shouted, and the pain deepened on her face. It mattered not to him at this point. “Take my mark. I’ve had enough of this.” When she would not move, he stepped forward, roughly grabbing her hand and thrusting it against his chest. The others were still, waiting for an opening. “Take it.”

  “No,” she whispered.

  “Take it! You take it so that I might fight him or die trying. I will not allow my family to be hurt again.” Elona shoved him away. Her wrist had turned bright red for a moment after he released her. Frantic eyes searched the room, and Drudan knew she would only find support from Marun and Gaius.

  He realized too late that they had pushed her too far. Moving quickly, she stretched her hands outwards before pulling back and screaming, “Have you forgotten who you serve?”

  An immediate burst of white hot pain rushed through his body, hitting every nerve within, causing him to fall and howl, barely able to breathe. His was not the only strangled cry in the room, and this caused him more grief.

  Elona continued to scream, pulling pain from each of them. “Have I been too soft on you? Have I not lost people too? Have I not bled enough for you? Or should I continue to give you this pain so that you might feel the years of the torment I took for you?” She pulled harder at them again. As strong as Drudan was, he too writhed on the floor as his chest felt ready to break open. A new pain arose with every passing moment. From the tingling in his toes to the thumping in his head.