“The trellian was too hard to fight, she got away.” One of Locksead’s men spoke, whose name I hadn’t bothered to learn. He grunted and walked closer to me. “But I got the cat.” Something heavy was dropped on my legs and I assumed he meant Harlan. Hopefully like me Harlan was of more value alive than dead.
I needed to find out who was behind this before they realized I was conscious. I knew the rakasa were after the emerald dragon, but I had a feeling their plans for it wouldn’t be sharing world domination with a bunch of thieves. That left the mayor as the instrument of my current situation. Whether he’d bribed Locksead’s men recently, or they were part of a bigger plan I had no idea. Right now, I needed to figure out how to break free, save Harlan and the faeries, and flee. Great. At least Covey was still free. Maybe Orenda was as well.
“Tag! Bring in that damn elf!”
My heart broke at that yell. More for the fact that Tag was working with these bastards than Orenda being grabbed, but there was a little bit about her as well.
“I have her, stop yelling.” There was a shuffle of feet. It sounded like Orenda was still conscious and walking in.
“Why ain’t she gagged?” Jackal said. “You know she won’t shut up.”
“I’ll have you know, my clan will find me no matter what you do. And they will destroy you.” Orenda sounded rattled but not scared. That was a good start. Just from what I’d seen during our trip she was a better fighter than most of the morons in camp.
“I told you what would happen if you kept talking!” Tag yelled then I heard a slap. Orenda was quiet.
“Gag that one, now.” A deep voice rumbled from the far end of the camp. “I think the digger girl is awake. Want me to check?”
My heart dropped at that voice. It was the syclarion guard who’d rode in from the city gates with us. Of course he was part of this; he and Jackal had been best friends the last few days. Booted feet told me the rest of the syclarion guard contingent had now joined us.
“You always break them when you check.” Another syclarion voice, this one was one of the guards from the gate. “Let one of the other people do it. We need her alive.”
I heard voices coming closer and I tried reaching out for anything. Magic. Leftover dragon bane strength. Anything. Nothing. I had nothing to grab. I hadn’t done any magic since we started this trip, so I couldn’t have over-taxed myself. However, there were no fire ants, no urges to throw up, no connection of anything even remotely magical for me to grab. It was as if I’d reverted to being a magic sink.
Hands flipped me from my side to my back, twisting me awkwardly since my legs were still pinned by an unmoving Harlan. I couldn’t fake it anymore, so I opened my eyes. Carlon stared back at me.
“She’s up, but she don’t look too good.” He roughly pulled me to my feet, pushing aside Harlan’s breathing but unconscious body as he did so. “We need some tea.”
I didn’t know who was more shocked at that, me or the gang of thugs surrounding us.
“This ain’t a tea party, boy.” That was the gate guard, with three of his men behind him. The others had taken positions around the edge of the camp. None of them were in armor, so that was a plus. Not that that mattered when it came to fighting syclarions. They didn’t need metal to make them damn hard to kill.
“I know it’s not.” Alric almost sounded like himself with his snarl. “It’s fatal to faeries and if she doesn’t start talking I’ll pour it all over them.” He pulled me around to where a pair of teakettles were left on the remains of the morning fire.
I was facing Alric, so my brief relief didn’t show to anyone else. I wasn’t sure how hyper faeries would help us, especially since we were extremely outnumbered. However, if it meant getting the girls out of here, I was all for it.
“Please don’t do that!” I worked on channeling Harlan’s acting buddies. “I’ll do what you want, just don’t do that.” I forgot my hands had been bound, so I automatically reached out for the tea and then realized my hands were untied. Alric had done it as he pulled me up and I hadn’t even noticed. My momentum unbalanced both of us for a moment, which still gave us the mostly desired result. A huge pot of cold tea poured all over the passed-out faeries.
I thought it hadn’t been enough, as not a single faery moved. Then the pile started moving and Garbage Blossom stood on top and gave a huge shake. I grabbed the second teakettle out of Alric’s hand and got as much of it onto and into the faeries as I could. At this point even Jackal had probably figured out tea wouldn’t kill them. Garbage was good. She got enough in her to start pulling at the other faeries. All of them started lapping tea off themselves like a bunch of kittens.
We were blocking the faeries’ cage from the others, but my throwing the contents of the second teakettle on them hadn’t been what should have happened, not to mention I was free.
“Grab her. Can’t you idiots do anything right?” The syclarion gate guard was clearly the leader of the group and started barking orders. I ran and dove under the table. Peering out from under it, I saw Tag toss a dagger to Orenda—clearly her hands had been freed as well—and arm himself with one. I flashed him a smile. I would never tell him I’d briefly believed he had betrayed us.
Most of our weapons were still inside our wagon, but I wasn’t sure how I would get to them. Alric was even further away from them than I was but was somehow still holding on to his Carlon persona as he drunkenly tried to chase me, then stumbled back to the faeries’ cage just as Garbage Blossom forced the door open. I rolled out from under the other side of table.
A dozen very messy and extremely pissed-off faeries flew into his face before the stench of the sewerweed he wore pushed them away. They weren’t moving like they would have if they had drunk all of that tea, but it had cleared the chocolate stupor off them.
I waved my hands at them to get their attention. “Get away from here!” They were focusing on attacking the people around them but I saw the guards pulling out crossbows. Right now the faeries couldn’t win, but they might be able to later. “Go find Bunky!” I still couldn’t feel anything magical, but I thought as hard as I could for them to leave, get help, then save us. I had no idea where they’d find help. Not with the closest city clearly under syclarion control.
Garbage whistled for the others, and they all circled the camp once, and then vanished.
One of the syclarions reached over to grab me, and Alric shot him with a crossbow.
Then all hell broke loose.
Covey charged into the clearing and jumped on the back of a syclarion guard. She had the garrote she’d borrowed from Orenda and found a way to make it work through that thick neck. Then she stabbed him through the heart a few times for good measure and jumped off as he tumbled to the ground.
Tag and Orenda both came out swinging and engaged another syclarion. I had to do something, so reached down for a sword lying near the table, and fought back. No idea where the sword came from, but I wouldn’t argue with plain luck.
We were massively outnumbered; all of Jackal’s men, except for Alric and Tag, were working with the syclarions. We were being cornered, as if they wanted us all alive. For now.
One of the syclarions got a lucky strike on Alric that could have killed him had he not blocked most of it. Okay, they wanted some of us alive.
I was about to surrender. I’d give them the emerald dragon, make them let the others go, then try to find a way to blow up the relic, the syclarions, and myself.
It was hard to hear over all of the fighting, but I thought I heard faery war cries. A fleet of flying snakes was heading our way. However, they were flying oddly. Then I realized it wasn’t a bunch of sceanra anam, but regular snakes, huge ones from the look of them, carried by a bunch of hyperactive faeries. Judging from their speed, I’d venture to say they went into town and found some more tea.
People were still fighting but the war cries and the hisses of the snakes were getting louder. I had a bad feeling about this. “Everyone, move away from
the enemy. Now.”
The screams came once the faeries dumped their snakes onto all of the syclarions and Jackal’s men. Apparently, they were venomous. And equally apparent, even the thick skin of the syclarions wasn’t enough to stop these vipers.
My friends all moved a step or two away at my yell; if I didn’t know better I’d almost say they moved at the exact moment of my yell. Once the snakes were dropped they moved even further.
It took a few minutes for the snakes to kill whom they could. Then they vanished.
I looked around, but there wasn’t a single snake in sight. Nor any faeries.
Jackal and all of his men were down and their stiffness told me the snakes had gotten them.
Only three syclarions were left standing. They might not have gotten a full dose of the venom, but all the rest of the attackers had succumbed.
One started to run off, and Alric tore after him. We couldn’t afford to have the mayor know what happened and send more guards.
Orenda squared off against another one. She was pale, but she also looked pissed and still caught up in the fury of the fighting.
The last one was closest to me, I raised my newfound sword, but Covey charged forward and pushed me out of the way to face him.
Within a few minutes, both remaining syclarions had collapsed and weren’t ever getting up. Orenda started shaking, and Tag led her off to the steps of our wagon to sit.
I looked around at the carnage before us. There were seven syclarion bodies here. One was missing, the one Alric had chased. I waved to Covey, who was running the syclarions through with a sword in case any were faking it, and jogged in the direction that Alric had been running.
I had to go a little bit away from the camp, but I found a body. It wasn’t the syclarion. It was Alric, still holding onto his Carlon facade. I ran to him, but he was convulsing and a green froth was bubbling out of his clenched teeth.
He had a nasty looking sword wound on his left side, but I had a bad feeling that wasn’t what had actually taken him down. I ripped open his shirt. His entire chest was a mass of green ooze and blood. The wound from Glorinal was being helped by the injury he took fighting the syclarion. Together, they were killing him.
I wiped away the tears. I knew whatever Glorinal did was magical, but I had no way to know how to heal him. Whatever had blocked my magic vanished when the syclarions died. However, I didn’t know what spells to use. The only one who would know the spells was the man dying in my arms. Or maybe not.
“Orenda! Covey!” I knew Orenda had collapsed after the fight. But I needed her. I needed anyone and everyone to save Alric.
“Now! I need you now.” Sobs swallowed my voice as Alric’s chest started rattling. He was going to die and I couldn’t stop it.
“I’m here, what do you….” Orenda arrived first. She stopped running when she saw Alric.
I wiped the tears away again, and turned to her. “You need to heal him. Now. Save him, work whatever healer magic you have. But save him.”
She looked at me oddly. Even dying as he was, he was holding on to that damn glamour. Carlon’s passing shouldn’t be affecting me this much. I didn’t care. “I will explain later, just heal him.”
Covey and Harlan came running up as well, with Tag limping behind. I felt Covey and Harlan each grab one of my shoulders and squeeze.
Orenda looked at all of us, confusion clear on her face, but she dropped down next to Alric’s head. She closed her eyes and held her hands over his chest. After a moment she shook her head. “There’s nothing for me to hang onto. I simply don’t have enough magic to do what needs to be done.”
I moved closer to her and held out my hand. “I have no idea if this will work or simply blow all of us up. But I have magic, use mine and your skills. Save him.”
Orenda looked to Covey and Harlan, and at their nods, then took my hand. I was dragged through her healing spell and saw what fought to take Alric’s life. The injury on his side was serious, but it was the poison from Glorinal doing the most damage. Orenda repeated spell upon spell, targeting the poison.
I felt the poison fighting back. Orenda wasn’t going to be able to handle it. I sent all of my hatred for Glorinal into the ball of poison killing Alric. Then I destroyed it.
Chapter Forty-Three
I felt the poison vanish from his bloodstream, but I doubted I’d be able to say how I knew for sure. However, the force of the spell releasing it also sent both Orenda and I flying backwards. Since the others had been close behind us, that meant we all ended up in a massive pile of arms and legs. I rolled to my feet first. To find Alric stiffly pushing himself up on one arm and looking at all of us.
“What happened?”
I ran forward and started kissing his face. All the pain and confusion I’d had about him vanished the moment I thought I’d been about to lose him. I didn’t care who saw, let them think I’d gone crazy for…Carlon? That wasn’t whom I was kissing.
“Who is that and why is he in Carlon’s clothes?” Tag had gotten to his feet after me. He was watching Alric, for that was who lay there, with a wary look.
Orenda slowly rose to her feet as well, her face was a mix of confusion, fear, and something else. “I broke the glamour. But I didn’t know there was one.”
“Actually, we broke it.” I gave Alric’s battered face one more kiss—this one he had the ability to return—then looked back to Orenda. “Orenda and Tag, meet Alric. No, he’s not Carlon. There was no Carlon.”
“I thought of him as being real,” Alric said as he stiffly stood up. He looked much better now, even though his clothes were covered in the remains of the green slime from his wound, and his face still had a few bruises. But even his sword wound was healed. Apparently, Orenda and I were very good at this shared magic bit. “And right now we need him to get us out of here before that damn mayor sends more syclarion guards. The last one I fought couldn’t have lived to make it to the gates, but they’ll send more when they don’t hear back from anyone. And when they don’t get this.” He reached back where he’d been lying and pulled out the emerald dragon from one of the faeries’ tiny bags. I wasn’t going to ask how he made the bag work, at least not in front of everyone. As far as I knew only my flying miscreants could use them.
Part of my mind immediately went into panic mode. He’d found my stone, that was mine, he couldn’t have it. But when I looked at Alric, I felt the power it had over me vanish. It was as if I was now aware what that stupid green dragon was doing to me for the first time. I swear I saw the eye wink at me.
Orenda’s eyes got larger as she looked from Alric to the stone and back. Alric ignored her and closed his eyes. Then opened them with a start. “I can’t fix the glamour. Not for anything.” He looked at me and said a few words and I found myself a foot in the air, then gently set down. “My magic is fine, I simply can’t glamour.”
I winced. “That may have been me. Orenda needed my magic to help heal you, and I may have been a little overzealous.”
Alric shook his head. He could disguise himself without glamour, but aside from his bad hair, he was looking far too elven lord-ish right now. Even the elven lord markings on his left cheek were showing, faint under the dirt and bruises, but I could see them. “There’s nothing we can do about my appearance here. We need to leave, now.” He looked down at the sword I’d been fighting with and took a step back.
I looked down wondering what was wrong. It was far more ornate than anything I’d seen Locksead’s men or the syclarions have. However, it was just a sword.
“Where did you get that?” The whole lack of glamour thing was making him pale, but he seemed to have gone another shade lighter as he looked at my sword.
“I picked it up during the fight, it was just there on the ground. I have no idea whose it was, but it must have been one of the syclarions.” Even Covey, Harlan, and Orenda were looking at me oddly. Tag wasn’t, but he looked as confused as I felt. “What? It’s a sword, people. Alric’s is fancy. Now that he
’s not hiding it again anyway.” I waved to his and noticed they looked similar. Did he have a spare?
Orenda was shaking her head. “That looks like a spirit sword. They both do. But they can’t be real.”
“Oh yes they can be.” Covey peered over at my sword. “Never noticed about his, but yours definitely is.”
I backed up from all of them. “Would someone just tell me what a spirit sword is?”
The ground gave a sudden jolt and I fought to keep my feet. The others bounced a bit, but
only Tag actually fell.
“It is mine.” The voice behind us was raw and gravelly and once belonged to Glorinal.
We all spun to find Glorinal and five rakasa behind us. Glorinal was on a long chain held by the largest rakasa, but with enough slack that I knew he could reach all of us if his master let him.
One of the rakasa took advantage of our distraction by the mutated elf and charged forward. I barely saw him out of the corner of my eye, but the sword and my arm went up with speed and sliced the creature in half as it leapt toward me.
Alric swore as he engaged another one, but it met the same fate. The rakasa and these odd swords were not good companions. Although Alric’s action had probably been more skill-based than mine had. I knew I moved the sword, but I didn’t recall thinking it. It just happened. Covey and Orenda engaged two of the last rakasa, with Tag running an assist for Orenda. She looked pale and terrified but her people would be proud at how well she fought. Still, it took far too long for either Covey or Orenda to take down the creatures. Alric and I had an advantage with these odd swords, but if more came we’d be hard pressed to keep up.
Glorinal grinned and scuttled forward on all fours. “I will take sword. And bring masters glory.” He bowed to the lead rakasa. He’d paid for misleading them before and was back in their good graces.
The Emerald Dragon (The Lost Ancients Book 3) Page 27