“Your Queen!” he yelled, and the cheering swelled even as the heads bowed low.
Coren held up both hands, and the troops quieted.
“Thank you all for this,” she began, her voice shaking. She pitched it louder, and the strain disappeared. “Today, we travel to fight the witches who have twice attacked our own land. Tomorrow, we protect the innocent Sulit from the same. The fight ahead will be difficult but saving Sulit is worth it. Trust in your Generals and pray to your gods. I will never ask you to die for me. But you may choose to fight for your country, for your families, and for your future!”
After that, there was no hope of silencing the troops.
“Well done,” Noshaya said, dipping her head in respect.
Coren took a deep breath. “Let’s board, then.” Only Noshaya, Dain, and the elites knew their second-stage plan to push south and find Mara. Although Coren felt a little dishonest hiding this information from the armies, she also wanted to keep the mission focused and uncompromised by questions of loyalty.
A few hand signals were all it took for the lines of soldiers to file quickly onto the boats. Coren paced the deck of the first one, nerves pinging with energy and anticipation. As the call for all in sounded, the boarding planks were drawn in, and she felt the churn of the water beneath them as the boat began to move.
She glanced down at the water, now clear of plant material. Sy and Giddon had directed a team of volunteer citizens in clearing the channel of Sulit spells and replacing those that helped the boats sail forward without wind. She could feel the pull of the water’s sources as it was funneled around the boat by the spell.
It wasn’t unlike what she and Sy had once done when beaching their tiny craft, but the spells didn’t drain anyone’s magic.
Dain sidled next to her, leaning on the railing. Noshaya was on the fourth boat, their Commanders manned the second, and Sy and Jyesh the third. She knew bringing her brother was a risk, but so was leaving him with Cusslen and Gernant nearby. She genuinely believed he could change, and she wanted to give him the chance. But she also hadn’t said a word when Resh had packed some of Dain’s sleeping powder into both of their bags.
Altogether, Coren had two thousand of the best Riatan soldiers sailing across SunMelt Lake today. She prayed this would be enough.
“Good day for it,” Dain said, shielding his eyes against the glare of the sun on the water. Coren nodded, gazing directly into the sparkling ripples before them.
“There are so many things that could go wrong,” Coren said, admitting her fears for the first time.
“There are also so many that could go right. You know, it’s bad luck to doubt a mission.”
She glanced to Dain and caught his grin. She could tell the coming battle excited him. He was a soldier, through and through.
“Whatever happens, thank you for your help,” she said. He laughed, and she realized she was still speaking of doubt. But all she could think of were how many moving parts there were to this plan and how many ways things could fall apart around her. She knew more than anyone on this boat just how much of a threat Mara really was.
They stood several more minutes in silence before Dain pushed away from the railing. “I’m going to make the rounds.”
She nodded, still staring at the horizon. It would be a few hours yet before the shoreline was even in view and near dusk when they landed. Then they still had at least a day’s trek to Rurok, maybe more for troops carrying supplies. But there was no other way past NewMoon Falls except right over the edge.
Once Rurok was liberated, she, Sy, Jyesh, and Dain’s twenty elites would push south in search of Mara. Dain and Noshaya would stay to fortify the city and manage any continued Brujok attacks.
It wasn’t a perfect plan, by any means, but it could work.
Coren turned and watched the glittering towers of StarsHelm shrink. The unfinished bridge loomed to the south - one of Graeme’s planned legacies. She was glad it had never been built, although it would have made this journey faster.
Bridges go both ways, and she’d rather keep the witches on the other side of the lake.
They had made it nearly to the center of the lake when the lookout man gave a shout.
Dain came running, scaling the ladder to the man in seconds and then he shouted to Coren, pointing in the distance.
She shifted her eyes to their vertical slits, her vision growing sharper and stronger, and she gasped, her knuckles white with gripping the railing.
Heading right toward them - right toward StarsHelm - were dozens of tiny boats of witches.
She had been right.
Coren permitted herself a grim smile before shifting her body fully into Vespa form and shooting into the air. These witches would never make it to her city.
Pumping her four great wings hard, she made it to the boats in just a few minutes. She scanned the forms to make sure they truly were Brujok and not fleeing southern Sulit.
Then one gave a vitriolic shriek and hurled a harpoon in the air, not quite high enough, but well aimed. Coren answered with her Vespa’s cry and spiraled higher. Her creature mind took over, gauging the distance needed for a death spiral, and she screamed down onto the boat, shattering the wood and the witch at once, water splashing up in great waves all around her.
Her wings were soaked, though, and it took too long to gain altitude again. Another witch hurled a dagger, and it plunged into her soft belly. Coren retreated just a bit. She needed to wait for the boat. She couldn’t take on all these witches at once.
This was not the final fight. Saving Penna and Kosh was more important.
She flapped back to the boat and shifted as she hit. Dain rushed to her, his hands firm on her stomach as he braced her and yanked.
Coren growled through the pain and allowed him to wipe away the blood before she shifted the muscle and skin together again, then the linen tunic and her blue leather armor. She was beginning to see why Lorental may have fought in a partial shift. The armor was better protection than feathers.
“Thank you,” she panted, meeting Dain’s eyes. His gaze flickered down to her lips, but she broke free from his stare, adjusting her clothes.
“Please be careful,” he said, his voice low.
She nodded. “How should we do this?” They hadn’t prepared at all for a water attack. The boats had very little defense against the witches’ elemental magic. “They could raise the water and topple us over in seconds.”
“How far does your shifting reach? Can you take apart their boats from here?”
Coren eyed the distance. “Not quite yet, but soon. We need Sy and Jyesh, too.”
“Fly them here. Tell the other three boats to go around the witches if possible. We’ll stay here and engage,” he decided.
Coren needed no further instruction. She took a running jump off the deck and made her way to the third boat. Sy and Jyesh were already on top, waiting for her. With barely a warning, she grabbed Sy and hugged him to her, then flapped into the air again. Depositing him on the deck next to Dain, she turned and went back for her brother.
By the time she’d gotten back, Sy was already straining to shred the nearing boats.
“Try the water instead!” she yelled, before rising into the air once more. She had to tell the other boats what to do.
SY WATCHED HER GO, cursing in awe under his breath. Dain made a noise of agreement.
“She’s incredible,” Dain said.
Jyesh huffed. “Can we get back to battle now? I think we should start by saying hello. A nice, large wave hello.”
Sy grinned. The First Son had grown on him over the last few days. Instead of taking every opportunity to subvert Coren, her twin had actually been helpful. Snide, but accommodating.
Together, they pushed at the water sources all around them, shoving a gigantic wave over the top of the witches’ low, narrow boats. As the water settled, Sy shouted in triumph. Many of the boats had been completely overturned, dumping their passengers. The wet wit
ches struggled to right their boats, some using their own affinity with water to help.
But some were definitely in trouble, and Jyesh began to wash them under the waves over and over, his grin growing with each witch that stayed beneath the dark water too long.
This game ended quickly, though, as their boat drew close enough for the witches’ spellcasting. There were plenty of plants living in the depths of SunMelt Lake, and soon their watery fronds and slimy ropes of stems were slithering up the sides of the boat, cracking the wood and wrapping the legs of any soldier too close to the railing.
The soldiers hacked the plants to pieces as soon as they crept on deck, but the boats groaned with pressure.
Sy and Jyesh ran from side to side, dissipating the sources of the thickest stems and repairing the boat as they could, but the other three boats were still close enough to be in danger. The witches’ tiny boats darted between and around the slower Riatan vessels. They’d never make it to shore in time.
They needed more shifters.
More spellcasters.
Coren had been right - the Riatans were sorely unmatched against Brujok.
Sy searched the sky for her and saw her in full Vespa form, a writhing witch in her claws. Coren swooped to the edge of the falls and dropped the screaming witch into the abyss below, then wheeled around to pick off another straggler. It was slow work, though.
“Sy!” Dain yelled, drawing his attention back. The wind had picked up considerably, and Dain was struggling to hold on to the rail. He forced his way forward, pointing to a mass of witches. It was too late to stop them.
Several of the witches were banding their wind strength together, creating a swath of air current wide and powerful enough to blow the boats off course. One boat spun away, its wheel turning so wildly that none of the soldiers could grasp it.
“The second boat,” Jyesh yelled. “It’s going to go over the falls.”
Sy scrambled to the opposite rail, staring behind them in panic. Magi help them, Jyesh was right. They were caught in the swirling water, and it was going to suck them straight over the edge and onto the sharp rocks below.
Meeting the witches on the water was the worst thing that could have happened.
“Coren,” Sy screamed, waving his arms and pointing to the boat. He didn’t know what she could possibly do, but he had to let her try.
He began shifting the water beneath the second boat, trying to draw it away from the edge, but it only dipped and rocked more precariously in the wind and waves.
Coren abandoned the witches’ boats, swerved directions, and swooped down to the second boat’s deck, grabbing a soldier in each claw. Their weight was too heavy, though, and she was dragged too close to the water. An enterprising witch flung another harpoon up, catching the edge of Coren’s bottom wing. She shrieked in pain, and her grip on the men faltered. One slipped through her claw, splashing down into the churning water.
Sy saw her wrest herself free from the binding and fly awkwardly toward them. She dropped the other soldier on the deck as she shifted partially, tumbling to her side with her wings tucked beneath her.
“I can’t do it that way,” she panted, but she pushed up to her feet, rolling her shoulders, and took off into the skies again.
Sy helped the young man to his feet, searching the water for the one she’d dropped.
“There,” the survivor yelled. He grabbed a buoy and tossed it to his friend, another soldier running to help haul him up the side of the boat. The man was half-drowned and holding his arm at an awkward angle, but he was alive.
Sy kept working with the water, building it up like a dam before the doomed boat. Jyesh appeared by his side and helped, but they wouldn’t be able to hold it long. It was just too heavy, too huge.
Coren was circling the boat as it sloshed and jerked toward the roaring falls, and Sy imagined he could feel her panic as well as his own.
There was nothing more they could do.
“Help me,” Dain yelled, breaking through Sy’s inaction. “Or we’ll be in the same spot.”
Sy left Jyesh and rushed to the helm, where Dain was straining to steer their boat away from the witches’ whirlpool. Together they wrenched the wheel, turning the boat north in a painfully slow arc.
Dain slumped against the wheel and wiped sweat and lake water from his brow just as an enormous shadow passed above them.
Both men looked up at the same time, and terrified shouts filled the air around them as others did the same.
“What in the name of FatherSun is that?” Dain whispered, clutching the wheel as the pair of creatures soared above them, bellies black as night and wings wider than the boat itself.
Sy knew, but he didn’t believe. The creatures banked and dove closer, one of them eying Sy intently.
“Draken,” Sy whispered, giving in to his instinct.
“Impossible,” Dain answered. “They’ve been extinct for thousands of years.”
Sy shook his head. “I don’t know how, but those are Draken.” He was more confident now that he could see the whole animal in profile. The massive, muscular legs, the way the scales shone in the sun, fading from black to dark purple, all the way to delicate lavender at the tips of their wings.
But were they friendly?
“If we have to fight those and the Brujok, I’m turning the boat around,” Jyesh said, groaning as he joined them at the helm, dark humor lacing his words.
Just as the pair of Draken swung past their boat, Sy caught the edge of a voice in his head.
Save a few witches for me, Sy. I’ll be right back.
He nearly toppled from the steps leading down from the wheel as he gaped at the sky. He knew that voice. It was more impossible than seeing the Draken, but he knew that voice.
“Nik?” he whispered.
“Nik?” Jyesh repeated, fixing his own gaze on the creatures. He shook his head and blinked, as though shaking away a crazy idea. “Who’s Nik?”
Sy didn’t get a chance to answer, though, as a Brujok scaled the side of the boat and flung her body at him with a scream of rage, daggers flashing. They were being boarded on all sides, and there was no more time to worry about the Draken or the boat about to crash onto the rocks below NewMoon Falls.
NIK AND SHURI FLEW in perfect synchronization toward the boat, which was even now beginning to tip over the falls. Nik was tiring, and he wasn’t sure they would make it in time. The journey here had been hard.
But Shuri seemed confident, and her powerful motions braced him as they approached. The boat had hung itself momentarily on a wide swath of rocks, but more witches had joined the group, pushing the water against the boat.
It started to tip and roll.
Screams from men and women filled the air, and some tilted dangerously over the edge, clinging to the rails on the deck. Boxes and loose ropes toppled over the edge, falling silently into the spray of water far below.
A Vespa raced to catch a single soldier who had lost her grip, and Nik grinned in his mind.
That’s my friend, Coren, he told Shuri. You’ll like her.
Introduce me later, once we save this ugly lump of wood, Shuri said, as their bodies swooped in from the falls and pushed hard into the side of the boat.
For a second, Nik thought they had misjudged. The boat was going to roll the opposite way now, and all those people would slip right into the water and fall to their deaths on the rocks.
But then the boat scooted backward from the edge just a bit, its broadside parting the water with a groan of creaking wood.
Nik reached deep and found more of his shifter magic, pulling at the water and the wood like a rudder. Slowly, the boat rotated to a better angle, and Nik and Shuri adjusted their positions. Pushing the point of the boat’s hull back through the water like an arrow, they laughed to each other as they ran right over a dozen of the insignificant witches.
Their own whirlpool sucked a few of them straight past the rocks, shooting them out into open air before they fell,
screaming, below the falls.
As the spells broke, the water calmed, and the third and fourth boats began to right themselves, their course growing straighter with each smoothing wave.
Coren shot past Nik and Shuri and dropped her soldier on the deck, then swerved and faced off with them.
Nik’s eyes widened, realizing she was ready to fight if needed, even though they had just saved a fourth of her crew. She didn’t know who he was. She opened her beak and screamed at them.
She would never win against Draken, but that wasn’t about to stop her.
Shuri answered the scream before Nik could stop her, but she ended in a giggle in Nik’s mind.
Sorry, she said. Nik rolled his great Draken eyes. She wasn’t sorry.
Coren, he yelled into her mind across the water, trying to stay in one place in the air. It’s Nik. I’m a Draken!
He opened his mouth in what he hoped was a silly grin, tongue lolling to the side, and barrel-rolled past the boat. The people below screamed and scrambled, and Nik felt the dull thud of a bow sword arrow hit his scales.
He resisted the instinct to retaliate and yelled to Coren again.
She hovered a few long seconds before shifting her face and body mid-air. The four wings kept her aloft, and her clawed hands glistened golden and poisonous in the sun glinting off the water.
She’s beautiful, Shuri said. Do you think you can shift and land on my back, and I’ll slide you down to the deck?
What about you?
I’ve got a little taste for witch blood all of a sudden, she said, and Nik felt the grin in her voice. He swooped up above her, focusing on finding his human form and his clothes. It was all still a bit shaky, but he tumbled down her scales and onto the deck with pants and one boot on. The other boot and his shirt landed next to him, as the soldiers scattered.
Coren landed a second later, and she was in his arms a second after that.
Dream of Darkness and Dominion (SoulShifter Book 3) Page 30