[Vankara Saga 03.0] War of Atonement

by SJ West

  “Vincent said Aurora’s mother might have been poisoned,” I said in a low voice, not wanting Aurora to overhear our conversation. “What did Seneca find? What was that purple goo that he pulled from her corpse?”

  “Apparently,” Dracen began, taking a seat next to me as he accepted a plate of food from Gabriel as well, “she had consumed a large quantity of nightshade berries.”

  “I presume these berries are poisonous.”

  “Very,” Dracen confirmed. “We believe they were given to her by Tyr and the others. Mostly likely, they were disguised in a sweet treat. If they mixed them with blueberries, she wouldn’t have been able to detect their taste.”

  “And was it this nightshade that caused the change in her behavior?”

  “They have been known to cause severe paranoia and hallucinations,” Dracen said. “You should let Fallon know that Aurora’s mother was already dying when the two of you came upon her. If anything, he saved Vorana from an excruciating death. Aurora probably would have died too if the two of you hadn’t come along. A small dragonling wouldn’t have been able to survive in these woods on her own for very long.”

  “I guess fate was looking out for both of us then,” I said.

  I couldn’t imagine my life without Aurora in it. She had become a voice of reason when I needed one. Our lives weren’t the only things that were bonded. Our hearts and souls were forever linked to one another in a way I couldn’t explain. It was beyond love, but my simple human mind couldn’t come up with the right words to give justice to the connection between us. All I knew was that I was grateful for it and would always consider myself lucky to have found her.

  After we ate, I helped Gabriel wash our dirty dishes in the lake. Gregoire and Vincent flew back into camp then, and I could hear them quarreling even before they landed.

  “We should burn it, Gregoire,” Vincent said as he swooped down to land a few feet away from the campsite.

  “I didn’t say we wouldn’t, Vincent, but this is not the right time to do it.”

  “You know that’s how Tyr is controlling them!” Vincent argued vehemently.

  “Of course I know that, but you’re allowing your emotions to get the better of you, old friend. If we burn the fields now, it will give away that we’re here. We just need to bide our time until we’re ready to attack.”

  “Can I ask what it is the two of you are fighting about?” I asked, as Gabriel and I walked back to the campsite.

  “We believe we’ve located the reason some of the dragons here have gone feral,” Vincent told me. “While we were hunting, we found at least a dozen poppy fields.”

  “Poppy fields? You mean the flower?” I asked.

  “It can also be used as a drug,” Gregoire informed me. “We outlawed its growth on our islands because of the deleterious effects it was having on the dragons who used it. Some of them became apathetic about life and some of them reacted as if they had lost their minds. I never thought Tyr would stoop this low to control the dragons that left with him, but I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. Apparently, he’s capable of anything.”

  “Gregoire’s right,” Dracen told Vincent, “destroying the fields now would not be advantageous to us. Once we have control of the Fae capital, we can deal with the fields and hopefully help the dragons who have become addicted to the drug they produce.”

  “What are they saying about the poppies?” Gabriel asked.

  I told him what had been said so far.

  “So we could possibly have hundreds of dragons going through withdrawal symptoms all at one time?” Gabriel asked, sounding concerned over the prospect.

  “We’ll stay to take care of them,” Gregoire promised. “Hopefully, we can convince the vast majority of them to return home so that their families can help.”

  I told Gabriel what Gregoire said.

  “At least you’ve found the reason behind their odd behavior,” I said. “Now you know how to fix them.”

  “If they want to be fixed,” Vincent said worriedly. “The ones who have become feral may not be savable.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked. “If they can’t be saved, what will happen to them?”

  “Some will die from withdrawal symptoms,” Vincent explained.

  “And the others?” I pressed.

  “We’ll take care of them,” Gregoire replied rather ominously.

  “And by ‘take care of them,’ I suppose you mean you will kill them?” I asked, saying the answer more bluntly.

  “We’ll do what needs to be done,” Gregoire told me. “Or would you rather we allow them to stay on your island and kill indiscriminately?”

  “Of course I wouldn’t want that,” I replied. “But there has to be a better way to handle them.”

  “There isn’t,” Gregoire said with finality. “Leave them to us when the time comes, Sarah. As I said, we will handle them.”

  Gregoire walked away and didn’t stop walking until he was on the other side of the lake from us.

  “His decision is not an easy one for him to make, Sarah,” Vincent told me. “But Gregoire is right. It would be better to give the few who can’t be saved an honorable death.”

  “I’m not sure I see a lot of honor in execution,” I replied.

  “It will be the best that they can hope for.”

  I didn’t stay up much longer after that. I asked to be excused to retire to my tent for the remainder of the evening. When I lay down on the makeshift bed of a few piled blankets, I hoped to find sleep immediately, but it alluded me until Aurora joined me in the tent. After I felt her curl up and snuggle against my stomach, the warmth of her little body brought me just enough comfort to slip into a troubled sleep.

  Sometime in the early morning hours, I felt Aurora stir against me.

  “Sarah, wake up!”

  My eyelids flew open, and I found myself staring into a pair of honey colored eyes.

  “Hello again, Vankaran child,” Lanai said as she sat cross-legged directly across from me. “What on earth has brought you back here?”

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  I immediately sat up and stared at Lanai as my mind tried to decide if I was still dreaming or if the object of our mission was actually sitting inside my tent like a gift.

  “You are not dreaming,” Aurora assured me, even though she sounded as astounded by the turn of events as I was. “She’s really here, Sarah.”

  “Actually, I came back to find you,” I told Lanai as I sat up to face her.

  Lanai tilted her white-haired head as she considered me with a penetrating gaze. “What would the Queen of Vankara need from a poor, old woman like me?”

  “I know who you really are, and I need your help. The Fae need your help.”

  “They haven’t needed my help in many years, child. I seriously doubt they would accept it even if I offered.”

  “Do you know what’s happened?” I asked. “Do you know what Nuala has done?”

  “Something evil I’m sure,” Lanai said with disgust and certainty.

  “Then you don’t know about the war.”

  Lanai’s face became drawn with worry, which only accentuated the many wrinkles crisscrossing her skin.

  “War?” she asked, as if the concept of such a thing was unthinkable. “Has she started one with your people?”

  I nodded. “Yes, that’s why we came here to find you.”

  “What is it that you think I can do?” Lanai asked in confusion.

  “You were the Fae’s leader once. We want to help you retake your throne and lead the Fae again.”

  “I’m sorry, child,” Lanai said with a shake of her head, “but I don’t believe this plan of yours will work. My people are the ones who ran me out of the city. I don’t see them welcoming me back with open arms, much less desiring that I should lead them in Nuala’s place.”

  “I think you’re wrong,” I told her fervently. “I think your people will want you back. How long has it been since you’ve been among your own kind?�
��

  “More years than I care to admit to.” Lanai lifted her eyebrows as she continued to look at me. “Then I would have to tell you how truly ancient I am.”

  I had to smile at Lanai’s reluctance to reveal her age to me. It was obvious that she had to be close to seventy, if not slightly older. Her short white hair and wrinkled face were dead giveaways that she had seen quite a few years pass by during her life.

  “From what I saw the last time I was here, the Fae fear Nuala. Considering how ruthlessly she invaded my country, I can only assume she’s been just as callous in her rule over the Fae all these years. They were so frightened of her wrath that they cowered inside their homes while I was there. Don’t you want the chance to give your people a better life?”

  Lanai remained silent for a little while as she considered my words. Finally, she asked, “And how exactly do you intend to retake. …” Lanai made a series of clicks and whistles with her mouth. I could only assume, from what I had been told, that this was the ancient language of the Fae and that she was stating the Fae capital’s true name in her native tongue.

  “We have troops coming, and we’ve brought dragons with us also.”

  “I hope you brought more than the three I saw outside,” Lanai said. “There are quite a few you will have to contend with on this side of the island.”

  “Yes, we have more,” I assured her.

  Lanai shook her head again as she said, “Well, I don’t know if this plan of yours will work, but if I can help your people and mine in any way, I will.”

  “Thank you,” I replied, feeling relieved that at least this part of our mission was complete.

  “Emma,” I heard Gabriel say just outside the front of my tent, “are you all right in there? Is someone else in there with you?”

  “Yes, I’m fine,” I reassured him. “We’ll be out in just a minute.”

  I looked at Lanai. “Would you mind if I introduced you to the others?”

  “I would be happy to meet them.”

  I led the way out of my tent. Once outside, I saw that the sun was just making its appearance for the day above the horizon. Gabriel was standing only a couple of feet away, wearing nothing but a pair of pants. It was the first time I could remember ever seeing Gabriel in such a state of undress. Apparently, Lanai and I woke him up with the noise of our conversation. He must have been so worried that he forgot he was half-naked.

  I turned back to the tent to lend Lanai a hand to help her out. Once she stood before me, I made the proper introductions.

  “Lanai, I would like to introduce you to a friend of mine, Gabriel. He helps me deal with the politics involved in ruling Vankara.”

  Gabriel bowed at the waist to Lanai. “It is a great honor to finally meet you.”

  “I am no one you should be bowing to,” Lanai told Gabriel. “I’m just an old woman, Vankaran.”

  Gabriel looked at me questioningly. “Did you tell her why we came here to find her?”

  I nodded. “Yes. She’s agreed to resume her place on the throne if we can win it for her.”

  “Tell me,” Lanai said, a look of confusion on her face, “how do you intend to beat the iron men protecting the capital?”

  This time I was the one who ended up having a questioning look on my face. “Iron men?” I asked. “What iron men?”

  “Those mechanical ones that have been standing guard around it for at least a week now,” Lanai told me. “There are easily a thousand of them. I thought you would be aware of them already.”

  “No,” I said, feeling my heart sink inside my chest. I looked over at Gabriel. “That’s where the automatons have been all this time? But why?”

  I remembered being told that the automatons had simply disappeared from Iron City, but no one mentioned the fact that they were now standing guard over the Fae capital.

  “I have no idea,” Gabriel admitted, looking troubled by this new development. “Let me wake Dracen. Maybe he knows why they’re there.”

  Gabriel turned his back to us and walked over to Dracen’s tent.

  I heard Lanai gasp. When I looked over at her, I saw that she had one hand raised with the tips of her fingers covering her lips. As tears welled in her eyes, I noticed she was staring intently at Gabriel’s back. When I followed her gaze, I spotted what she was eyeing.

  I wasn’t surprised when I saw the brown, S-shaped scar on Gabriel’s back. I had a vison of it being on the back of a man while he and I lay in bed together. At the time, I assumed the vision had come from Queen Emma and that it was her way of telling me the identity of the father of the child I now carried. But why would Gabriel’s scar cause Lanai to react the way she was?

  “What’s wrong?” I asked her.

  Lanai didn’t respond verbally. She simply shook her head at me. I wasn’t sure if she simply couldn’t make herself say something or if she was refusing to answer my question.

  “Can you tell what’s wrong with her?” I asked Aurora.

  “She is feeling a great many different emotions,” Aurora told me. “Surprise, confusion, sorrow, and … love.”

  “Love for Gabriel?”

  “I assume so.”

  “Can you tell why she would feel love for him?”

  “I’m sorry, Sarah. I don’t know.”

  I stood silently beside Lanai, not knowing what to say to her. I thought about pressing her for an answer to my question, but decided to bide my time instead. There wasn’t any way she could hide her emotional reaction from the others, and they were bound to notice her odd behavior as well.

  Lanai’s next action barely registered in my mind before I realized what was happening. Quite unexpectedly, and rather spryly, I might add, Lanai sprinted off behind my tent toward the woods.

  “Lanai!” I cried out, following her as quickly as I could without accidentally tripping over my own feet as I rushed after her. “Lanai, wait!”

  Just before she entered the tree line of the forest, a large white dragon wing swooped down in front of Lanai blocking her path. Not to be deterred, Lanai quickly turned on her heels and tried to run around the wing, but Vincent was having none of her foolishness. He lifted his wing slightly and scooped Lanai up with his appendage, effectively trapping her in his hold approximately ten feet off the ground.

  “Let me down this instant!” she demanded of Vincent. “I can’t stay here, dragon!”

  “Are you sure you want to keep her?” Vincent questioned me dubiously. “She seems to be more trouble than help.”

  Lanai scrambled to the edge of Vincent’s wing to look down at me.

  “Tell this fool dragon to let me down this instant!” she yelled at me.

  “Why were you trying to run away?” I asked her, still confused by her odd behavior. “I thought you were going to help us.”

  Lanai’s gaze was drawn to something behind me. I glanced over my shoulder to see that Gabriel and Dracen were running over to where we were.

  “Please,” Lanai begged me, “I can’t stay here. I have to go. Now!”

  “I’m sorry,” I apologized, feeling torn between giving into her demand and keeping her with us to help defeat Nuala. “We need you. Maybe if you told me why you feel like you need to leave, I could help.”

  Lanai just shook her head at me in a gesture that seemed to say she couldn’t bring herself to tell me what was wrong. She pulled back from the edge of Vincent’s wing and the next thing I heard were her soft cries.

  “Vincent,” I said, “do you know what’s wrong with her? Why is she so upset?”

  “I’m not certain,” Vincent replied, “but I get the feeling that it has something to do with Gabriel. When she looked at him, I could feel a great sadness emanate from her.”

  “What’s going on?” Gabriel asked me, slightly out of breath as he and Dracen finally reached me. “Why did she try to run away? I thought she agreed to help us.”

  “She did,” I said. “But there’s something about you that’s upsetting her.”

  “M
e?” Gabriel said in surprise. “I’ve never met her before in my life. What could I have done to make her want to run away?”

  I walked behind Gabriel and stared at the S-shaped scar on his back.

  “How did you get that scar?” I asked him.

  Self-consciously, Gabriel placed a hand over it. “I’ve always had it.”

  “You mean since you took on this form?” I asked.

  “No,” Gabriel said, sounding as if he might not fully answer my question. “I had it when I was Jacob too. It seems to stay put no matter what body I shift into.”

  “You never mentioned that to me before,” Dracen said with a great amount of interest in this new development.

  “I didn’t see any reason to tell you,” Gabriel replied. “To be honest, I never gave it a lot of thought.”

  “Is it odd that it stays with him?” I asked Dracen. “Should it have disappeared when he took this form?”

  “Yes,” Dracen answered. “If it wasn’t part of the real Gabriel, it should have vanished.”

  “What would cause it to stay after a shift?” I asked.

  “It has to be a form of magic. That’s the only explanation.”

  I knew Lanai was the only person who could solve the mystery of Gabriel’s scar. It was obvious she knew something about it.

  “Could the two of you walk away for a while so I can speak to her alone?” I whispered to Gabriel and Dracen. “I don’t think she will tell me anything if either of you are around.”

  Gabriel looked troubled while Dracen simply looked curious.

  “If you need us,” Gabriel told me, “we won’t be far.”

  I watched the two of them walk away before I turned back to Vincent.

  “You can let her down now. I need to get some answers from her to resolve this matter,” I told him.

  “Very well,” he consented as he slowly began to lower his wing, “but if she tries to run away again, do you want me to stop her?”

  “No,” I sighed. “If she would rather run off and hide instead of staying to help us, I don’t think she’ll be of any use to us anyway.”

  Once Vincent’s wing was lowered, I found Lanai huddled underneath her cloak with her knees drawn up to her chin as she rocked herself back and forth. She looked even more fragile than before, and my heart went out to her. It was obvious she was suffering from great emotional turmoil, and I hoped she would allow me to help her through it.