Island Shifters: Book 03 - An Oath of the Children

by Valerie Zambito

  Once that happened, the Ellvinians would not stand a chance. Not against the combined might of the military and shifter magic on this island. The Ellvinians were capable fighters, but they did not possess enough of their Ascendency powers to overwhelm the entire Massan nation. No, the Ellvinians would not gain much more ground into Massa then the land on which they now stood. At least there was that, Kellan thought as he prepared to meet the imminent charge.

  All was suddenly silent for a moment as the Ellvinians and Massans stood across from each other in the city square. Wispy clouds of breath misted in the bitter cold of the morning. Feet shuffled in nervous anticipation. In just a few short seconds, men would die, but for this brief period of time, Kellan could believe that all was well. In the sounds of the gentle ocean waves slapping at the wooden pilings of the wharf and the mundane squawk of a seagull, he could imagine that there was still a chance that life could return to how it was before the Ellvinians came. He could hope for a miracle.

  But, as soon as the Ellvinian in the center of the enemy line lifted his sword high above his head, Kellan scoffed at such wishful thinking. As soon as that blade dropped, the fighting would begin and lives would end.

  He watched the quivering tip of the sword point and held his breath as he waited for the downward slice that would signal the charge. Muscles tense with restless energy, he vowed that not a single dark Elf would get through this gate. As long as he still lived and breathed, the gates of Northfort would hold.

  A sudden roar shattered the tormented silence and all eyes turned north.

  It is Jain!

  Are you sure, Maks?

  Of course.

  Kellan felt his stomach drop. That had to mean that Jain was on his own. Kane was a shadow dweller. He would never give away his presence to the enemy.

  From the harbor, avian screams joined Jain’s roar. Small halos of white ripped through the sky as a convocation of bald eagles flew in a V formation straight for the city square. Kellan had never seen eagles fly in a flock. Immune from the threat of most predators, the large birds preferred a more solitary existence with a single mate.

  The eagles approached low over the battlefield, but instead of soaring past, the large birds dipped from the air and with screeching yells, raked sharp talons across the faces and backs of the Ellvinians in their path. Cries of pain mingled with the shrieks of the eagles, and the Ellvinian archers quickly stepped forward and drew their bows.

  The eagles shot back into the air before the Elves could release their arrows and banked toward the outer wall where they dove to safety behind the stone parapet.

  Kellan watched the air shimmer and the eagles morphed into squatting men and women. Naked men and women. Shifters! But, how? He thought all of the shifters were taken away.

  Kellan’s puerile miracle had arrived after all. More screams ripped through the early morning as a group of shifters cut a destructive path through the mass of Ellvinians. The earth shifted, great gouts of fire exploded upward into deadly columns of flame, and Ellvinians turned on each other in violent skirmishes.

  The sudden assault from the rear created enough confusion and ruin in the ranks of Ellvinians to allow the attacking shifters to make it through the enemy horde. Eyes glinting with deadly resolve, the men and women burst through the line and sprinted toward the gates. There, in the middle of the cluster of shifters was Kane and Jain.

  Sight of his twin brother and an overwhelming desire to protect him, bolstered Kellan into action. He leapt from the parapet and arched out over the heads of the running shifters. With bone-crushing force, he landed hard on one knee and drove a fist into the ground with all of the might of his elemental magic. The earth rippled outward in expansive rings from the depression he made in the ground. Ellvinians went flying through the air as the earth heaved and buckled from the impact. Forceful expletives and cries of pain rang out as bodies slammed into the ground and bones broke.

  That single act of devastating power caused the improbable to happen.

  The Ellvinians began to retreat.

  * * * * *

  Besides the scattering of black eyes that watched from the safety of the city buildings, the Ellvinians had left the square. Presumably to strategize on how best to use their numbers to combat the Massans’ magic.

  Kellan stood bemused as he listened to the strange story of the thirty shifters standing before him. According to them, they willing went aboard one of the Ellvinian ships. For some reason, they explained with a scratch of their heads, they thought it would be a good idea to visit Ellvin and happily followed the dark Elves into the hold.

  The ship set sail and they were out to sea less than a day when fighting broke out on deck. When their three Ellvinian guards below deck ran topside to investigate, the shifters, of course, followed closely behind. What they saw even now remained a source of such incredulity that they seemed reluctant to continue.

  Finally, they told Kellan it was an old woman who saved them. She fought the Ellvinians with magic that sent Elves crashing to the deck or overboard into the sea with a sweep of her arm. An old lady with white eyes! And, a crow perched on her shoulder!

  When the fighting was over, she said the oddest thing to them. She said, “Massa needs you. Hurry now!” and once the words were delivered, she climbed onto the ship’s railing and dove off into the ocean. That was the last any of them had seen of her.

  None of the shifters knew how to sail the ship or turn it back toward Massa, but fortunately, they had several bodyshifters with them. Almost all had a dolphin form and they were able to transport everyone home.

  Kellan did not know what to make of it, but had no time to ponder the strange riddle when Kirby Nash waved him over. “I’ll be right back,” he muttered to the shifters and walked over to where the Captain, protectors and children were having a discussion.

  “I wonder if any of the bodyshifters has a mantath form. That animal could do tremendous damage,” Haiden said. The mantath, a very large, long-snouted mammal covered in armored plates of hardened skin, was the largest and strongest animal on the island. But, it was very rare for any human to get a glimpse, let alone a form, of the shy creatures.

  “Not likely. Airron Falewir is the only known shifter with enough power to call forth such a large form,” Kirby answered. “But, do not be discouraged. With the addition of thirty shifters, I have much more optimism regarding our chances. Even though we are outnumbered, we can do this. I have faced odds such as these before with Kiernan Atlan and came out on top.”

  “We are not Savitars,” Reilly pointed out.

  Kirby smiled. “I know, but your skills are quite remarkable, and I will not be surprised if your abilities one day surpass those of your parents.” Kirby looked around at the group. “To be honest, if I have to meet twelve hundred of these bastards in the field, there is no one else I would rather have at my side.”

  Kellan could not resist. “Except perhaps my sister.”

  For once, Kirby did not blush. “You are wrong, Kellan. I happen to be very glad that Kenley is far from—.”

  A low, ominous battle horn sounded in the north, and Kellan froze. One of the defenders atop the crenellated wall shouted and pointed toward the sea. “Dear Highworld! Look!”

  Kellan turned north, but could not see over the buildings. He turned and ran to the stairs that led to the gatehouse. He was not the only one that had the idea and he felt several people behind him pushing him ahead. He went through the gatehouse door and looked out to sea.

  Kirby was wrong. Thirty shifters were not going to make a lick of difference. Not when the odds in their favor just shriveled to obscurity under the black stain appearing on the horizon. Ellvinian ships. Hundreds of Ellvinian ships. Tens of thousands of the enemy.

  They were doomed. Kellan knew that Iserlohn alone did not have enough soldiers to meet this enemy and wondered if even combined with the military forces of the Elves and Dwarves it would be enough.

  Kellan looked at the royal p
rotectors and citizen defenders. “Go now to Nysa and my grandfather, King Maximus. Go to King Thorn in Haventhal and King Erik in Deepstone. Tell them to prepare the island for war. The shifters will hold the gates as long as we can.”

  “I’m not leaving!” Kirby declared. “Do you have any idea what Kiernan Atlan would do to me if I left her sons on the front line of battle? Trust me, my chances of survival are much better here. Probably less painful, too.”

  “None of the protectors are leaving,” Dallin declared in complete contempt that Kellan would even suggest it.

  Kellan looked down at the defenders from the mayor’s estate down on the ground in front of the wall. “We’re not leaving, either, Your Grace,” one shouted up and waved a pitchfork in the air.

  “But, someone has to warn the Kings!” Kellan snapped.

  “Send a bodyshifter,” Gregor suggested.

  Kellan could pick out the bodyshifters from the mismatched pieces of clothing they wore donated by whatever the defenders could spare. Most of it looked like small clothes, but at least they were no longer naked.

  Gregor made his way to the gatehouse door. “I’ll have them draw sticks. Whoever pulls the short one, goes to Nysa.”

  Kellan snorted. “Defending the gates is the better option?”

  “Apparently to this lot it is.”

  After he left, Kirby pulled Kellan aside. “Look, if I don’t make it today, can you tell Kenley…can you tell your sister that I loved her. Tell her I never loved anyone as much as I did her and I’m sorry we won’t be together.”

  Kellan was taken aback. He knew there was some flirtation between the two, but did not know it was this serious. The Saber Captain must also know that the chances Kellan walked away from this alive were just as nonexistent as his, but maybe he just needed to get it off his chest. Maybe he just wanted someone to know the depths of his feelings toward his sister. Kellan was not about to take that away from him. “I will.”

  He glanced down to the ground as one of the bodyshifters below cursed and kicked angrily at the dirt.

  It would seem the short stick had been drawn.

  CHAPTER 31

  BATTLE AT THE GATES

  The defenders located torches and lanterns in the shops along the square to provide light as the night deepened. Heavy clouds blocked out any help from the stars. Kellan thought the Ellvinians might wait until dawn to strike, but Kirby felt confident it would happen under the cover of darkness.

  The Massans were waiting.

  Bodyshifters stood waiting to summon their most ferocious forms. Earthshifters, fireshifters, and mindshifters prepared to unleash lethal mayhem into the enemy lines. The non-magical defenders equipped with sword or makeshift clubs, organized into configurations that would allow them the greatest longevity against a much larger foe.

  The rules of war were simple. Kill or be killed.

  Kellan stood at the crenellated wall, scanning the darkness for any hint of movement when he felt a presence beside him. He turned. It was Reilly.

  Kellan offered his friend a joyless smile. “Where are the girls?”

  “Kane will not let Izzy out of his sight, and Jala is standing with the fireshifters.” He snorted. “After Alia, that little sister of mine is quite literally burning for vengeance.”

  “How is Digby?”

  Reilly shook his head. “He is soaking in a tub now, but he needs more water. He is just too distraught to care.”

  “What can we do for him?”

  Reilly shrugged. “What he needs is beyond our ability to give him. He wants his daughter back.”

  Kellan nodded with a heavy heart. Digby, Liliana, and Alia were like family to him and it tore at his insides that such a thing could have happened so quickly—so violently.

  He glanced sideways at the Dwarf. He knew what he had to say—the words were easy enough, yet his mouth felt uncomfortably dry. “We cannot let the Ellvinians through the gates, Reilly. Whatever happens, they cannot get through.”

  A long pause. “I know.”

  “What can you do?”

  Reilly frowned. “A whole lot of damage, but only as a last resort.”

  Kellan turned his gaze back north and to the moonlit sea beyond, dreading the watershifter’s answer to his next question. “How would you do it?”

  “If I can get past the Ellvinians and closer to the ocean, I can create waves high enough to flood the entire city, but there are two problems with that. One, I will be in the midst of the enemy while shifting and would need some very heavy protection.”

  “The other problem?” Kellan asked.

  “Water is a very powerful force, my friend. Anything I do will kill the defenders as well as the Ellvinians.”

  Kellan’s grip on the parapet tightened until the stone cracked beneath his hands. “This must be how the shifters in Pyraan felt when they confronted Adrian Ravener. Over four thousand shifters perished, including my grandparents, when the Mage flooded the land. Are we really to share their same fate, Reilly?”

  “I can see no other recourse,” the watershifter admitted.

  “Then, I think your last resort has arrived.”

  Reilly cursed and turned his head away.

  Kellan blinked back hot tears that sprang to his eyes. “I wonder what our parents will think after we are gone.”

  “I hope they will understand that we did all we could,” the Dwarf replied gruffly. “I hope they will be proud that we upheld our oaths.”

  “I think they will.” Kellan wanted to say more to his friend, but the words escaped him in that moment. Instead, he resumed his watch and a breath hitched in his throat. Where a moment ago all was empty and dark, now Ellvinians filled his vision. Their eyes looked like ghastly black holes as they came forward from the shadows of the night. Together, this time, in perfect formation. Not hurried and disordered like the last time, but with measured, deadly grace. They made no noise as they poured out of the city and into the square, a merciless, relentless tide of dark Elves.

  Kellan grabbed Reilly’s arm. “Who will you take with you?”

  “Jala and Dallin. They will give me the best chance to do what I have to do.” Reilly squeezed Kellan’s hand in his affectionately. “I’ll see you on the other side, my friend.”

  “I’ll be waiting.”

  Reilly turned and ran down the stairs.

  “Fireshifters!” Kirby Nash cried out from below and the shifters standing along the bottom of the wall stepped up together and hurled fire into the advancing mass of Elves.

  Shouts of terror echoed through the night and the smell of burnt flesh once again drifted to Kellan’s nose. Elves flailed their arms as they attempted to put out the fire racing up their bodies, but just like the conflict outside of the mayor’s estate, their movements only served to ignite their fellow fighters closest to them. One Ellvinian peeled away from the group and even though his entire body was engulfed in flames, attempted to reach the line of defenders. He took an arrow in the chest before he got close.

  Mindshifters sought out the men on fire and directed them further back into the enemy line to cause as much damage as possible. It was a horrible, brutal use of magic.

  Out of the now stalled horde of Ellvinians, a group of Battlearms bypassed the flaming center and with swords drawn prepared to catch the Massans unaware from the right flank. Kellan thrust out a hand and the earth pushed up through the cobblestones of the courtyard directly in the path of the oncoming Elves. Surprised cries rang out as their running feet stopped abruptly and they pitched forward. The rotating dirt swirled at their feet and sucked them into the ground to their knees.

  Kellan turned away from the ensnared Battlearms. They would cause no further harm this night.

  The enemy lines from the back finally broke through and trampled over their burning comrades. With no further obstacles between the two forces, there was no stopping them now and they clashed with terrible impact.

  Kellan snarled at the sight of an Ellvinian smashing hi
s fist into the face of a young female mindshifter. He launched himself from the rampart and directly into the melee with Maks landing next to him. The noise was deafening as four-legged animals ripped and tore at flesh, birds in the air dove down to rake sharp claws at exposed skin, fire raged, the earth heaved, and sparks flew as swords crossed.

  Kellan knelt and crushed both fists through the cobblestones of the square. Reaching down into the dirt and sand, he shifted the earth. Filtering through the softer soil, he summoned the harder substances up through the loam and an earthen armor of stones and clay rolled up and over his arms and body. With a growl, he shot to his feet and swung his arms. Those who tried to take him down, died in the process.

  Kellan and Maks fought their way toward where he last saw the embattled mindshifter. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw four different replicas of Kane and his breath caught every time a sword plunged through a chest made of air.

  Izzy sat atop a Grayan wolf and slashed a dagger at any Elf who managed to get by the wolf’s sharp jaws. Not many did.

  There was no sign of the Radeks.

  The cawing of a crow close by caused him to turn. Kellan blinked in disbelief. An old woman fought alongside the Massans with a crow perched on her shoulder. Despite her age, the woman moved deftly and with lethal consequence as she inflicted death to the enemy with every point of a twisted finger. Every so often, the bird would take to the air to slice at the eyes of the woman’s opponents if they moved in too close and then it would settle back onto her shoulder.

  He remembered the tale the kidnapped shifters told him and if he ever saw them again, he promised he would offer them an apology for finding their story unbelievable.

  Kellan shook his head and continued on. Several swords licked out from the night at him, but they either bounced harmlessly off his armor or the wielder lost his arm to Maks. At last, he saw the mindshifter so brutally assaulted, but she already had the Ellvinian in her mental grasp, and he was now protecting her from his fellow fighters.