“She likes your cooking, too,” Hael said, giggling.
Adina held her hand to the side and shook her head. “No. There is a dragonbound scout nearby. We need to warn the others.” She looked up the hill and waved to catch Rin's attention. “Rin, Ragan. Gather the orcs and your weapons. We're not alone.”
The orc by the wagon wheel startled and let the hat drop from his face. “Whassit?”
“A scout is watching us, Merkt. Help me warn the others.”
The tiny hairs on Hael's neck and upper arms prickled. The sky was clear and calm, but the air suddenly smelled different, as if it were about to snow. That didn't make sense. She knew it only snowed when it was cold, and never with a sky as clear as this.
“Something is happening,” she whispered as she joined Adina by the orc, who was still trying to find his bearings after being abruptly yanked from his nap.
Adina patted the sword hanging from her belt. Even in the relative safety of their camps, she never took it off. “Ragan has been training you. Go get your axe and keep it close.”
“I don't need the axe if we need to fight something.”
Adina regarded her with curiosity and concern. “Do you know how to do combat magic?”
“How do you think I destroyed the hive?” Hael whispered as the prickle became static. She let her consciousness drift downward and surveyed the interior of the hill. There was ore here. Not much, but enough, and it was within reach. “I am not like the others. I am not a blue mage of simple little magics. I'm something else.”
Rin passed her baby off to Daelis, then picked up her sword and approached Hael. “Adina? Do you feel that? What is that?”
“Magic,” Hael whispered as the air sparkled violet. She narrowed her eyes and turned toward Merkt. “I need magic orcs, anyone who can shield. Gather the others and surround them by magic orcs. I'll help.”
There was no time for that. The sparkles became embers. The night exploded into crackling violet and resolved into a low-pitched tone like the call of a dying grotto bird.
The tone became beating wings as seven enormous violet dragons snapped into existence. They circled the camp, huffing as they flew in low arcs.
Ragan pressed an axe into Hael's palm. “Adina, those don't look like Regiment dragons.”
“They're not,” Adina replied. She looked toward the center of the camp, where Juna helped the orcs hide panicked people beneath wagons. Adina pulled her sword and glared at the nearest dragon. “Sarding hell. Those are Crown Warlocks. They're my father's. They must be here for me.”
Ara squawked and walked with Adina up the hill. When she reached the top, Adina raised her sword above her head and shouted, “You want me? Come down here and let's talk.”
The dragons gathered above her, then descended to land on the hill. They snorted and scraped at the grass as their cloaked riders jumped to the ground. Upon their faces were violet masks with intersecting silver lines. One line ran horizontally across the nose and cheeks, and three intersected vertically, set in an open triangular orientation with the longest line on the left and the shortest on the right. This was the same symbol Adina had tattooed on her wrist, which she had told Hael was a mark of her paternity. It was also a rotated version of the markings on a Jarrah mask.
One warlock stepped forward. He banged the end of his baton on the ground and it expanded into a bladed pole. “You are none of our concern, Your Highness.”
Adina shrank as more batons became blades. “Why are you here?”
The warlock raised his arm and the dragons launched themselves from the hill to continue circling the camp. “We have other business here.” He stepped forward and looked past Adina. “We did not expect these . . . undesirables . . . here. You keep poor company, Your Highness. No matter. We have been instructed to leave you as we find you, and unharmed.”
“What do you want?” Adina growled.
“To finish what was begun in Jadeshire.”
“Jadeshire?”
Next to Hael, Rin gasped. “Oh, no.” She grabbed Ragan's arm and dragged him toward an awning off the sleeping wagons, where Daelis huddled with their daughters. “Ragan, help me protect my family. Please.”
“Until the end,” Ragan replied. He waited until she was beneath the awning, then stood in front of it to shield them from view.
Up on the hill, the warlocks laughed. “You have no magic, Your Highness, and neither do the Goldtrees. You can't protect them. Stand aside.”
“I will not,” Adina growled. “You teleport yourselves back to Anthora and tell him if he wants them, he needs to come here and speak with me first.”
The warlock struck Adina with the back of his gloved hand, then shoved her to the ground as she tried to recover. Ara yelped and snapped at the warlock. He stuck out his hand and violet light burst from his palm to knock Ara off her feet. She didn't resist the fall as she tumbled down the hill and landed in a silver heap near the cauldron. Her unfocused blue eyes came to rest on Hael.
“Ara!” Adina screamed. She reached toward the dragon, then swung around to slash at the warlock's ankles.
He kicked her sword aside before stepping over her. “His Majesty said nothing about sparing the life of your dragon, Your Highness. I apologize for your loss.”
The air crackled and fog gathered beneath the wings of the purple dragons.
This needed to be finished. And quickly, before they hurt anyone else.
Hael felt the orange magic within the buried ore. She caressed it, lengthened it, molded it into needle-sharp spears.
And then she pulled it.
The seven approaching warlocks stopped, wide-eyed as the glowing orange ore pierced their bodies from beneath. It pinned their feet, their hands, their bodes, and their blood rained upon the earth.
Above, the dragons screamed.
“Hael! No! What have you done?” Adina cried. She dragged herself to her feet, then ran past the skewered warlocks to reach Hael. “The dragons. Kill the dragons. Now!”
Wings thrashing and jaws snapping, the shrieking dragons dove at the camp.
Blue light exploded around them. The wings beat against the huge domed shield Juna held above the huddling caravan.
“I can't hold long,” Juna gasped, his face strained.
Adina grabbed Hael's arm. “Can you do that again? Can you do to the dragons what you did to the warlocks?”
Her heart pounding, Hael looked up at the berserking dragons. “I . . . I can do something else. Juna, let me take the shield.”
She held her hands over his and felt the blue magic transfer to her. She held the shield still for a breath, then began to form it. Blue transitioned to orange as spikes grew upward from the dome. The dragons who were close were pierced, but most were still above, still out of reach.
She took two deep breaths, coiled her muscles, and jumped.
The dome exploded, sending spikes and fragments outward with the speed of an archer's arrow.
The dragons screamed, then fell silent as orange magic shredded their bodies. Scales and blood rained upon the camp and the few people left exposed crowded beneath awnings or dove under wagons.
Juna threw a small shield above himself, Hael, and Adina before falling to his knees. He looked up at Hael with a mixture of fear and reverence in his eyes. “You're . . . you have orange magic? Why? How?”
Sobbing, Adina clutched Hael's arm. “Ara's gone. He reached in and stopped her heart as he threw her. My soul is torn in half.”
“Adina, I'm sorry. I should have killed them first,” Hael whispered. She was exhausted and her balance was sideways, but that didn't matter.
Adina pulled her into an embrace. “That was not your fault. Why . . . why didn't you tell me you're a gods-damned reaper?”
“I don't understand,” Hael said as the last of the scales plinked off Juna's wavering shield. “I have orange magic. So did my mother. All other Uldru are blue.”
“Orange magic is death magic, Hael. Transmutation magic. Pa
in magic. Those who possess it are called reapers. That magic you pulled from the ground, that you transformed from Juna's magic . . . that can kill anything. You don't even know what you are, do you?”
Hael squeezed Adina and kissed her cheek as the shield evaporated. “I know who I am. What I am is whatever I want to be. I killed these things because I needed to.” She swayed as Adina's tears touched her cheek. She kissed her again and whispered, “They hurt you and killed her. They wanted to hurt our friends. I watched enough people die in Vetarex. Seven hundred Uldru and a thousand Varaku died because I couldn't let my people be hurt anymore. It was better to kill my own people than let them continue to suffer. They knew what was happening, and they chose to die to give some of us a chance to escape. Some of them piled themselves in a tunnel. The weak, the old, the ones who knew they couldn't survive the starvation we were about to face. Once the survivors were past me, I filled the sacrifices with spikes. Flesh and ore blocked the tunnel, and the few Varaku who were left couldn't chase us.”
“And the rest of the Uldru followed you because they feared you,” Adina whispered as she wept.
“No,” Min said, her hand settling on Hael's elbow. “We followed Hael because she saved us. She stood before us before the hive fell and she helped us see that it was better to die fighting and free than live any longer as slaves. We knew from the moment she spoke that she was the whisper passed down from generation to generation since the beginning of our enslavement. One hundred and forty-seven escaped the hive, but over a hundred died on the second day when the chasm bridge collapsed behind those of us who still live. Hael wrapped her magic into a cage to keep the rest of us from falling into the crumbling pit, and we survived to enter The Above. She is the whisper of the generations, our Golden Mother, the one sent by the true gods to bring us light. She is a mother to none, but she is Mother to us all. Her pain and labor and loss birthed us from darkness to light, and now this world is our world, and now she is helping us grow.”
Hael sniffled as she nuzzled Adina's ear. “I don't want to kill anyone else.”
“I hope you never have to again,” Adina whispered. “You use death to sustain life because you are kind and honorable. I love you, Hael.”
“I love you, Adina. You are my friend and when we are ancient you will still be my friend.”
“Adina.” Rin and Daelis were next to them, crying babies in their arms and a wild-eyed toddler grabbing at their knees. Rin looked toward the still form of Ara and said, “Honey, I'm so sorry. We need to know . . . how did they find us?”
Adina let go of Hael and spun around to look at Ara. “I . . . I'm not sure. We need to figure that out immediately because he's going to send more when these ones don't return. They were after you, not me. If it's about you . . . do you happen to have anything enchanted with you? Specifically, anything that might have been enchanted by my father?”
“Only this,” Rin said. She pulled the book out of her pocket and held it up. “Tessen said Nylian gave it to him so he and Shan could write to each other. He left it behind, so we used it. We were careful not to say anything to give away our location.”
Adina's hand jumped to her mouth. “That didn't matter. He always knew where we were. He can track his objects, Rin. I don't understand why he came after your family. It has been almost two years since the last attempt, and now . . . why?”
“You don't know, do you?” Daelis asked. His eyes danced toward the speared warlocks, toward Ara, toward the covered cauldron. “Do you know how we're related, Adina? Your mother and Kemi both know. Did they tell you?”
“You're my Aunt Nyra's grandson. Your father was Nyra's son,” Adina said, her brow tensing.
“Yes, but I'm also your father's grandson. I'm your nephew, by your illegitimate eldest sister.”
“Ranalae Nightshadow . . . was my sister?”
“Yes. We're related twice, and that's probably why we look so much alike.” Daelis closed his eyes and kissed the baby's head. “Rin, I think we now know who ordered my father's assassination. Maybe it was Lindaer Starbright's men who carried it out, but it was under Nylian Lightborn's orders. Now he tried to finish what he started. My family was supposed to die tonight, wasn't it, Adina?”
Tears running down her face, Adina gave a sharp nod. “I'm certain of that, but I don't understand the rest. If my mother knows that you are the rightful heir to the throne before any of her children, why did she give you sanctuary?”
Rin grimaced as a sob shook her shoulders. “Shan. This is about manipulating Shan. Whatever the High King is doing, he needs our son. I think he's trying to break him, mold him into the Spellkeeper Ranalae wanted to turn him into. He just lost Marita. If he lost us, too...”
Adina ran her fingertips along the binding of the book Rin held. “Then he will have lost everything. I was never taught much about Spellkeepers, but I imagine one with nothing left but his power would be a particularly potent weapon.”
“He has Maritan. His son,” Daelis said. “Please don't tell me your father is going to kill my grandson.”
“He won't,” Adina said. She looked down at Juna, who sat exhausted at her feet. “Children bind Spellkeepers to the world, and to their sanity. If he were to lose his son, he would become a force destructive enough to level the whole of the Diamond Realm, and he would answer to nothing beyond his own grief and psychosis. My father will use Shan's child to manipulate him and force him to behave. Shan knowing the rest of his family is dead would make it even easier for him to be controlled.”
“What has that monster done to my child?” Rin whimpered.
“I don't know. I was never allowed to know because I am nothing. No magic, no potential, just a seventh child without any significance beyond a title. Rin, Daelis, I'm sorry. I wish I could tell you more but my heart is so broken right now that I'm having trouble remembering anything.” She shook her head as she stared at the book binding. “I do know he'll find you again if you keep that.”
“Sard,” Rin muttered. “This book is his only tie to us. He just went through the worst day of his life. We can't abandon him.”
“You're not.” Adina touched the back of Rin's hand, then gently pried the book from her fingers. “I'd toss this in the fire, but it would be cruel to all of you. Shan's journal would burn along with its twin because what happens to one happens to both. I don't want to steal your words from him. I think you should write one last note to him, then we put this in a crate and bury it here. He won't be able to track you anymore. Be careful what you write. Don't tell him what happened here, just that you figured out my father was tracking you through the book and you have to leave it behind. I'm so sorry, Rin. I wish I'd known about the journal sooner, but I don't think it would have changed anything if I did.”
“My poor baby. I don't think he'll forgive me. Maybe he shouldn't.” Rin stepped around Juna to embrace Adina. “Sweetie, you didn't do this. I can see the pain in your eyes. You need to go mourn your Ara.”
Adina wrapped her arms around Rin and whimpered. “I was five when she bound to me. I barely remember anything before her. I felt the tie sever, and now the emptiness is creeping in. I can't ask you to help me with this, not with what's happening to your family.”
Rin plucked the book from Adina's shaking fingers. “Adina, honey, you're our family too. I need to go write this note now, and then we need to leave as soon as everyone has eaten. Stay with one of us, okay? I don't want you to be alone right now.” She grunted at Ragan, who was busy trying to calm a pair of frightened young Uldru. “Daelis, Ragan, come with me. Help me figure out what we need to say to him.”
“I'll stay with her,” Hael said. She glanced down at the book. If that was what brought the warlocks here, she wanted to be away from it as soon as possible. She squeezed Adina's hand and braced herself as the elf leaned against her. “I'm too tired to stand up for many more breaths. I haven't done magic that big since I killed the hive. Let's go to my wagon to sit, and you can cry on me. Okay?”
/> “Aren't you tired of me crying on you?” Adina asked, her voice hoarse.
“No. I will always be willing to hold you through your pain. Come. Let's sit before my legs figure out how tired they are.” Hael put her arm around Adina, then set her hand on Juna's shoulder. “Juna, rest. You saved everyone here today, too. I hope they know that.” She looked toward wide-eyed Min, and then let her gaze sweep across the gathering of Uldru now circling them. “Did you all see the magic?”
Nods accompanied a chorus of yeses.
Min smiled, her uneven teeth glittering in the firelight. Her mate held her hand. “Hael and Juna saved us all from the masked creatures and attacking dragons.”
Hael reached for Juna's hand and pulled him to his feet. “Juna, your strength of magic equals mine. These people are not my people. They are our people. We are nearly to our home, and you and I will guide them there together. Go rest with your family now. We will leave this place shortly.”
The crowd parted to let Hael and Adina through. They climbed into the wagon and went to the back, where Hael had sectioned off a spot for herself. She arranged her blankets and pillow, then laid down and held out her arm so Adina could lie with her.
“I shouldn't have left her out there alone,” Adina sobbed.
Hael smoothed her hair and kissed her brow. “She's not alone. My people are with her. Uldru have death rituals, and nothing needs to be spoken to begin them. They were picking flowers for her when we came in here, to make her pretty so you remember her as pretty when you say goodbye. Underground it would have been fungus blooms. Here, there are flowers, and that is better. Let your tears come. They're important.” Hael inhaled deeply. The jasmine scent of Adina's hair was already fading.
“It is an honor to be allowed to cry with you,” Adina whispered. She wrapped her arms around Hael and wept.
THERE WAS WATER HERE, more water than Hael had ever seen. And behind that circle of sheltered water, more water glittered in the moonlight. Streams trickled down the slopes to wind into a thick forest. It was quiet here at the end of the mountain pass, quiet and still aside from the noises of night birds and the settling trees.
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