Endroth stared silently ahead, the black pupils of his eyes blotting out the green irises. Eranna took her staff and pressed the rounded end of it into his chest. The tip began to glow and vibrate, causing Endroth to groan and writhe in pain. Eranna twisted the scepter, bearing it into his chest with all of her strength in anger.
“You see, Endroth, you have brought all of this on with your stubbornness,” she hissed, jabbing him in the chest a second time. “If you had only listened to me when I tried to convince you of the best way to deal with the human trash, I wouldn’t have had to go to such lengths to ensure my place in this kingdom. You joined with that insipid Faerie and ruined everything! You could have been my lover and I your High Queen. Together, our kingdom would have spanned two worlds, and all would be as it should.”
Eranna pulled the staff away, deciding not to waste anymore of her magic on this useless man. She straightened and closed her glowing red eyes until they had returned to their normal color. After a few deep breaths, she opened them again. King Endroth was slumped over, his hand gripping his burned chest. He was otherwise motionless. Eranna used her power over him to lift his chin until he was meeting her gaze.
“All will be set right very soon. It all begins tonight, Endroth. This time, you and that Faerie will not be in a position to stop me.”
~*~
Chapter Seventeen
The army leaving Damu’s city walls behind was solemn and silent. With Eldalwen and Rothatin leading the way, they marched toward the edge of Damu. Already the air was becoming cooler the closer they got to Mollac. Selena was glad for her cape and hood, mainly because everyone else was wearing red or carrying the red and gold banners of Damu, keeping her from sticking out like a sore thumb. She had a feeling that Eranna would be gunning for her, and while the thought made her nervous, Selena felt the warmth of her father and brother on either side of her, as well as Titus. His blue eyes gleamed in the waning sunset, his body a mass of rippling, powerful muscle beneath stark white fur. The other shifters he had brought dotted the crowd, all shifted into their wolf forms. Their fur dotted the sand in shades of black, brown, white, and red, creating a beautiful array of variety.
The Centaurs brought up the left side, their quivers full of arrows and their swords sharpened. Selena realized that Dargha had added a few new tattoos across her stomach. She smiled as she realized that the symbols read ‘Red Dawn’. She had to remember to get Dargha to inscribe the same thing on her. The Fae and Elves brought up the left, the Fae decked out in silver armor from head to toe—protection from the enemy’s iron weapons, Rothatin had told her. Bringing up the middle, mixed in among the shifters, were the wind-harnessing Damunians, their red dress and waving banners sported proudly.
Her focus snapped back to the borderline of Mollac and Damu. The white snow stretched on for miles in front of them, giving way to jagged purple mountains with white snowcaps and towering green pine trees. Selena’s hands began to shake and she stilled them, trying to think of other things so that she wouldn’t get overtaken by nerves.
The speech she’d given in the war room had gone far better than she’d expected. Selena thought back to the words she’d spoken so honestly to Damu’s army and used the words to comfort herself.
“People of Damu, I am told I must give a speech today and, I’ll be honest, I’m not sure exactly what I am supposed to say to you. I don’t think it would be very wise for me to stand here today and tell you not to be afraid, when I stand here in front of you today more frightened of this than I have ever been of anything in my life. Yes! I am afraid! But someone very close to me once told me that being brave does not mean a person doesn’t feel fear. Courage is a man or woman’s ability to lean into that fear, to embrace it and draw strength from it. Someone I love taught me that very recently and it gave me what I needed to learn to fly. Do I know how today is going to turn out? Absolutely not. I am told that my being here today makes the difference, that it will bring the Red Dawn in the morning and our power will be magnified a hundred times more than what it is now. But you know something? The Red Dawn does not just need me to appear, it needs you as well. You have believed, you have waited for my return, you have kept your faith and been patiently waiting for this day. And now, I am asking you to stand with me, to hold on until the morning when the sun splits the sky with a red glow. I am telling you that I cannot do this without you. Will you stand with me?”
The cheers and chants had been deafening and Selena had collapsed onto her throne—which had been brought into the war room for the occasion—releasing the breath she’d been holding the entire time. She clutched Titus’ wolf tooth tightly and closed her eyes, wondering where the words had come from, when her nerves had melted away and a confident woman had emerged. Titus voice had invaded her mind, smooth as silk.
I always knew you had that in you.
Selena lifted her chin now and marched alongside her fiancé, her brother, and her father, new confidence gripping her insides and expanding in her chest. Her fingers tightened on the staff in her hand and her jaw clenched in determination. She was doing this for Titus, for her future in-laws, and for Rose and Zoe. For Adrah, Dargha, and Tinutai, for Rothatin and the beautiful Pixies, the Elves and war-torn wolf shifters. She held their faces up in her memory, not losing sight of one for a single moment so that she couldn’t lose her nerve.
And then, the enemy appeared on the horizon, approaching them from the other side of the border where sand met snow. As they got closer, Selena could make out Eranna’s army. On the backs of saddled polar bears and in chariots pulled by the same beasts, were some of the ugliest creatures Selena had ever seen. They have to be the Witches and Warlocks, she decided. Their hooded robes in shades of blue, gray, and black barely concealed twisted, grotesque faces and gnarled limbs. They looked more like walking trees than anything else. They carried curved, iron weapons and heavy burlap satchels hung from their waists.
The Witches carry explosives, Titus spoke into her mind as they came to rest on the edge of Damu, their feet planted firmly in the sand. They are much like the grenades carried by human soldiers in your world, but they are filled with enchanted potions. Be sure to watch out for those; they could turn you into dust on contact.
Magic grenades … .dust … .got it.
Inwardly, Selena trembled. The shivers were made worse by the chill coming from Mollac and the sight of Minotaurs bringing up the left. Their horns were sharpened to deadly points and so were their long-handled axes. Selena found Ruen at the front, his eyes glowing red, his golden rings shining brightly in his nostrils. Bringing up the left were what appeared to be humans. Clothed in deerskin and fur, their angular features and slanted, narrowed eyes reminded her of the red foxes that used to frolic and play in the woods back home.
That’s because they are fox shifters, Titus said, his ears twitching as he turned his head to scan the approaching army. Don’t let their beauty fool you, they are twice the size of foxes in your world and they are deadly and cunning, incredibly fast in whatever form they decide to take.
Selena could see the deadly glint in their dark eyes and decided to take Titus’ word as truth.
Bringing up the forefront were Eranna’s possessed Werewolves, their glowing red eyes a match for the Minotaurs. Selena recognized Orwen instantly. The Awcan Alpha was flanked by at least two hundred other wolves.
Tell your army to leave the wolves to us, Titus said to her, his voice quavering with anger in her mind. Selena knew that he hated to see his father this way, wrapped in Eranna’s tentacles like he had been not so long ago. Selena patted his head affectionately and turned to her father.
“Titus asks that the other wolf shifters be left to him and his wolves,” she said.
Eldalwen nodded before turning to bellow the message out to the army. Word rippled along the crowd like wildfire until everyone had been made aware of this rule.
“Titus says thank you.”
Eldawen turned and looked the massive wolf
in the eye. “You’re welcome, son. We will give you what time you need to break the enchantment over your kinsmen. By the time the Red Dawn approaches, if they are still on the wrong side, we will obliterate them.”
Selena looked down to Titus and then back to her father. “He says, ‘so be it’.”
Selena knew that Adrah had given him a charm blessed by Fae magic. It would rid the shifters of their possession just she had done for Titus. Depending on how long it took him to get close enough to use it, he would not have much time to convince his father and the others to switch sides. Selena hoped that at least Orwen would listen. She didn’t think Titus would ever be the same if he had to kill his own father on the battlefield.
Silence fell over them as the enemy army came to a standstill, facing them on the other side of the border. Humongous, white snow owls circled overhead, barking sounds coming from their mouths as they swooped by. One owl, the largest, carried Eranna. Her black gown fluttered around her and her matching hair flew behind her head like a banner from beneath her silver helmet. Her glowing, red eyes surveyed the battlefield below.
“Coward,” Selena hissed.
“Eranna will not get her hands dirty unless she has to,” Thaddeus said from her other side. “In the meantime, watch your head. Those owls like to drop stones.”
Selena fought the urge to cover her head as one of the owls screeched and dipped; she held on tighter to her staff. Her father took a step forward and raised his sword.
Within the silence, a low roaring pulsated in Selena’s ears and she realized that it was the sound of her own racing heart. She saw her father’s mouth open and knew that a roar had escaped his lips, but she did not hear it or the resounding, answering call that came from the army around her.
“Charge!” that word was clear, though, and Selena had no choice except to raise her staff and move. Forcing her legs into motion, Selena sprinted alongside her father toward the enemy, who had kicked it into high gear as well. The last thing Selena remembered clearly before the chaos hit, was a gust of wind working its way up her arm.
~*~
All around him, metal crunched against metal. The bark of foxes mingled with the growls of wolves. The roars of the Minotaurs mingled with the battle cries of Centaurs and Damunians. Gusts of wind whipped snow and sand up into sprays of grit and damp ice that coated Titus’ fur. The screech of owls overhead mingled with the explosive pop and following flash of bright light that accompanied the Witches’ bombs.
Titus dodged the third bomb to fall near him, leaping away in time to avoid the white flash. Two Elves locked in battle with a fox shifter were not so lucky. All three disintegrated into black dust that was carried away on the wind. Titus barred his teeth with a growl and lunged at the warlock who had thrown the bomb, tackling the ugly creature to the ground and tearing his throat out with a single snap of his jaws. He flung the body aside and pounced onto a Minotaur who was already fighting off two of his pack mates. With Titus’ help, they brought the massive beast down, horns first, to the ground.
Titus stood back and searched the sea of fighting bodies, looking for his father in the fray. The wolves were mixed together, only distinguishable by the eyes. Titus barked and howled the signal to his wolves, commanding them to fall into the formation they had practiced and drive the enemy wolves toward the center of the battle. His companions obeyed, turning on their possessed enemies and strategically fighting them back into the center of the battle. Titus leaped forward to meet his father, who was coming at him with exposed teeth and a throaty growl. Titus avoided his fathers’ snapping jaws, protecting his throat as he threw his body at Orwen’s, watching as his white, furry body went skidding across the snow. Titus didn’t even bother to counterattack, realizing that his wolves were now in a tight circle around the red-eyed wolves.
Titus swiftly shifted to his human form and grasped the talisman blessed by Adrah. He closed his eyes and swiftly chanted the words given to him by Adrah to pull on the charm’s power. It exploded out from his chest in a flash of light, striking the red glow from the eye of every wolf trapped within his circle. His father shifted, falling to his knees in the snow, his dark hair glistening in the light of the high, full moon. Without a stitch of clothing on, Titus was freezing. Instinct had him wanting to shift, to protect himself with a layer of white fur, but he was not done yet. Forcing himself to ignore the cold, Titus held his arms up and took a step toward the wolves trapped within his circle.
“Listen to me!” he bellowed, noticing the confusion that crossed his father’s face. “You have just been released from the evil queen’s possession. You have been turned against your brothers and sons for the good of a kingdom that is sure to fall. Come back to us! Come back to your pack, to your homes, to your mates. We need you to win this fight! We need to stand together against the tyranny of Eranna before she turns our beloved Mollac into a cold wasteland ruled with an iron fist! If you are not for us, then you are against us and we will be forced to kill you.”
Some of the wolves howled in acknowledgement, others barked angrily. Orwen stood and faced his son, his hands fisted at his side.
“My son. You are alive.”
Titus nodded. “I’m sorry, Father. I thought that working for Eranna would save you, I thought it would buy me some time and she promised your freedom.”
“The dark queen is a liar and an arrogant fiend.”
Titus nodded. “Yes. I knew that you would never go to her of your own free will.”
“When you did not return, I offered my service to Eranna for your mother and sister’s freedom. I never would have done it had I known that she was turning our people against each other.”
Orwen turned to the wolves behind him and added his voice to Titus’. “My friends, we have made a very serious mistake! We have allowed the evil of Eranna to overtake our lands and rip apart our packs. Where we once turned tail and ran, now we must fight! I know that I was one of those in favor of running, and it has taken the courage of my son to show me the error of my ways. The time for running is over!”
“You’re right,” said another voice as a black and gray wolf shifted into the form of the Joison pack leader, Almred. His silver hair and matching gunmetal eyes combined with dark skin to create a striking appearance. He squared his shoulders and faced Orwen with a scowl. “It is not time to run, it is time for self-preservation. Going against Eranna is suicide. The members of the Joison pack went to her gladly to offer our service. If this means that we must fight against our kind to ensure our pack’s survival, then so be it.”
“Coward!” Titus spat, crossing to join his father in standing against Almred. “You would allow Eranna to make you her bitch, while killing your sons and brothers?”
Almred bared his canines and growled, saliva dripping from the corners of each one menacingly.
“Watch it, puppy. I could rip your throat out in a second.”
“You and your pack have chosen your side,” Orwen said, placing a beefy shoulder in front of Titus to block him from Almred. “And we have chosen ours.”
With his voice raised, Orwen turned to the other wolves. “Let every man who wishes to be free of Eranna’s tyranny join with his brothers in battle. Let all others who stand against us be condemned to death.”
In an instant, all three men had shifted back to wolf form, taking their places on their chosen sides. Titus was thrilled to see more wolves coming to their side, abandoning Almred, his pack, and very few others who had chosen the side of evil. Titus braced himself, waiting for his father’s signal. Chills rolled up his spine as Orwen’s howl rang out over the battlefield. He and the other wolves joined in, springing into a run, teeth barred, their courage soaring as they flashed their sharp teeth at the enemy.
~*~
Selena was exhausted. They moon had been high for hours and the morning had to be near, but it didn’t feel that way just now. She lifted the scepter and pulled on another gust of wind to propel a Minotaur and his sharp axe away from her;
she sent the beast crashing into three others, leaving them to the bows and arrows of the Centaurs.
The Centaurs were beautiful in battle, the most magnificent thing Selena had ever seen. They ran together as one, in groups of four and in five, in perfect formation, shooting their arrows with precision and speed. The Fae and the Elves fought together valiantly, the Faeries careful to avoid the iron weapons of the enemy. Selena whipped her staff over her head and swung it like baseball bat, catching a witch in the middle with it before bringing the rounded end down onto the hag’s head. With another swing, she deflected one of the warlock’s deadly grenades, sending it flying into the ranks of the white fox shifters. The explosion took ten of them out at once, disintegrating them into ash on contact.
Selena fought for breath and wiped at the sweat on her forehead. She was rapidly running out of steam. Sunrise couldn’t come fast enough for her.
“Well, what do we have here?”
The deep, gravelly voice was familiar and Selena turned to find Ruen standing behind her, his axe gripped between his meaty fingers.
“I see someone taught you how to fight.”
“I see you’re still as ugly as sin,” Selena taunted with false confidence. “Some things change, others don’t.”
Ruen growled, his wide nostrils flaring. “I should have killed you when I had the chance. No one will stop me now.”
Selena jammed her staff into the snow and left it there. She reached for the two curved knives at her side, her birthday gifts from Thaddeus. Hoping to remember everything he’d taught her about fighting a large opponent with the knives, Selena raised the weapons to meet Ruen’s first blow in the air. The larger weapon made Ruen clumsy, allowing him only one swing of his axe for every three or four swipes of Selena’s knife. His strength was greater than hers, though, and Selena had to use every ounce of her speed and agility to avoid the crushing blows of his axe. She ducked to avoid the sweep of his horns as he charged at her, then used the wind to lift her from the ground and over Ruen’s bulky body. As he turned to swipe at her with his axe again, Selena pulled her staff from the ground and swung it, deflecting the blow that nearly decapitated her. She followed it up with a blow to Ruen’s midsection and one to the head. As Ruen stumbled backward, Selena ran toward him, using the staff like a pole vault to launch toward him, landing a solid kick to the top of his head. With a roar, Ruen went down to his knees, still reaching for Selena with his large hands. Selena avoided his grasp and grabbed her knives, moving at lightning speed toward the Minotaur. The two blades disappeared into his chest all the way to the hilt and Ruen threw his head back with a roar of agony. Selena planted a kick in his chest, throwing the beast to his back, before jumping onto his torso to retrieve her knives. The red glow faded slowly from the beast’s eyes as Selena pulled her blades from his chest. She turned away from the gruesome sight and cleaned her blades in the snow. Selena could hear Eranna’s enraged cry from above and she looked up to where the evil queen circled overhead on her owl. She kicked Ruen’s corpse and glared up at Eranna.
Daughter of the Red Dawn (The Lost Kingdom of Fallada) Page 21