Heir To The Nova (Book 3)

by T. Michael Ford

  Maya sniffled, “I put Winya’s blade on your forehead. I thought you were dead, but she ghosted through your body and couldn’t find anything drastically wrong. Since you were unconscious, we couldn’t even contact Rosa to open up a portal to get help.”

  “She ghosted through my body?” Ok, that sounds really creepy. “At least tell me the dragon is dead.”

  Maya nodded, and I clung to my mate for support because I was still a little unsteady on my feet. I tried to clear my mind so I could reach out to Rosa.

  Chapter 12

  “Fool! Imbecile!” Loose plaster and shards of rock fell like hail from the ceiling and walls of the wretched old keep. Even the howling winds and crashing ocean seemed to have muted themselves in the face of the being’s wrath. Once again, she had visited the keep in the guise of the Duke’s old lover, a move she knew was sure to cause him pain. Her black dress was slit past her thigh on one side, her coppery skin reflecting shadowy shapes from the odd torch lights that lined the chamber. With all the sinuous moves of a snake and the eyes to match, she enjoyed his discomfort.

  The creature that was once the dreaded Duke Pharmon lay prostrate on the stone floor, bony hands over his head; but still he couldn’t take his eyes off of her.

  “I warned you, Lifebane,” she sneered, exposing her long black teeth, making the words sound like a hilarious joke, “that I would not tolerate magic being restored to this world. Yet again, you fail me!”

  “Mistress, my forces have overrun all of Ocance and are advancing into Anshea. We are making great progress,” he sputtered.

  “Recall them, recall them now,” she demanded. “During this progress you are touting, the Child of Light has again evaded your trap and rescued two towers of wizards, right from under your nonexistent nose! He’s playing you for a complete fool; you have all the cards and yet the Nova are winning this hand. For the last time, my Lord Duke, marshal your forces and destroy them. Do it personally!”

  “I’ll need more than zombies and skeletons to topple that fortress,” he grated in a voice like rusty chains.

  “Idiot, it would never have come to this if you had been halfway competent in the first place. A full frontal assault on the fortress is the last thing we wanted.”

  The Kerr stopped her rant abruptly and tilted her head as if listening to some unheard missive. After a few moments, she looked up and directed her words toward the crumbling ceiling. “I agree, Brothers; we cannot afford to allow the Nova this victory.” She sighed wearily and muttered, “In for a penny, in for a pound, I suppose.”

  Redirecting her attention to the Duke, she booted him harshly with her tall-heeled shoe.

  “Get up! Marshal your forces! Attack Sky Raven!”

  “And what other support will you provide, Mistress,” he spat angrily.

  “For you, Duke, just for you.” The demon smiled sweetly, and then her voice shifted to a hollow dirge-like tone “For you, I will open the gates of hell itself; and if that’s not enough, the Kerr will intervene directly and the universe itself will burn!”

  Chapter 13

  Entering a small glade a short way from the crater, we saw a portal already shining open in front of us. Rosa’s mind was a jumble of stress and irritation, so I couldn’t clearly make out what the issue was back in Sky Raven; but I guess I would find out soon enough.

  Still using Maya for support, the two of us hobbled over the threshold. I know Winya said I didn’t break anything, but it sure felt like I did. The new version of the enchanter’s portal thankfully didn’t involve having to walk through a pool of water. Rather, it was more like walking up to a wall of midnight black curtains, putting your hands out to find a seam, and then sliding through. With our heads through the “curtain”, the view was as expected; we were back in Sky Raven’s portal enclosure from whence we had left earlier.

  What was different was that the place was in an uproar. Not all of the water or air wizards had been led to their quarters yet, and they were in a tizzy. The strike teams were still moving gear and boxes, and healers were circulating around checking everyone for scrapes and cuts. One of them, a young boy in healer’s robes rushed up to offer us assistance, but then took a look at the two of us. His eyes grew very large and he shook his head firmly, pointing us toward the infirmary building. Great, more walking.

  We had only made it a few feet up the cobblestone street before I felt the pitter-patter of tiny gauntlets on my chest. Looking down, I saw Nia angrily hovering and beating on my armor. She looked up at me and growled, “By the stars, what is wrong with you two? How do you always manage to leave me out of these things?” She was incredibly angry, but I could see concern and a large measure of relief on her face, too.

  Maya cooed and held out her hands for the pixie to land. “We’re fine, Nia. There’s no need to be so upset.”

  “You’re fine?” my bodyguard screeched, not wanting to be mollified in the least. “No need to be upset? Look at you; you’re a filthy, soggy mess! And Alex…” Nia landed on Maya’s hands and turned on me, pointing angrily at my wings. “Mr. Alex, I once saw a pigeon get eaten whole by a wyvern, and when it was crapped out the other end, it still looked better than you do right now!”

  A bit daunted by that visual, I tried to explain. “Nia, you know we aren’t doing this on purpose. It’s just how things keep turning out.”

  She sighed and put her hands back on her hips. “I know, I know. But I still don’t like it one bit.”

  “And she isn’t the only one! Believe me when I say you both are getting a stern talking to tonight once this is dealt with. An adult dragon of all things! Now get your butts over to the healers and then help me deal with this mess already!” Rosa radiated irritation across the link, but I had the feeling most of it wasn’t directed at us.

  Several blocks of hard travel later, we finally made it to the infirmary, only to find what seemed to be a dwarven kegger in progress on the steps outside. Most of Elsa’s ‘boys’ were well into their cups already. They had broken into one of the food crates that they had rescued and were snacking down on crackers, bacon, and salt pork. From what I could gather, they were both celebrating their victory and honoring their dead. A few healers buzzed around them trying to repair some of the lesser cuts and burns, but the dwarves wouldn’t stand still long enough for them to accomplish anything. Similarly, the young healers were having no luck in keeping the infirmary area quiet with all the bawdy singing going on either. Finally, they just resigned themselves to passing out wax ear plugs to the non-dwarf wounded.

  From what I was hearing, they lost four dwarves in the raid, and a number of them were in Alera’s hospital with terrible burns. The revelers seemed to bounce from teary sadness to unbridled triumph from minute to minute. I guess Elsa’s people process grief differently than humans.

  Frustrated, one of the healer girls gave up trying to work on the partiers and, instead, ushered us through the crowd and into the infirmary proper. She handed us some light-colored patient robes and pointed toward a changing room. Realizing there was no arguing with a healer in her own infirmary, we shed our armor and leather undersuits, donned the robes and walked out, sitting on the offered stools.

  “Wings out, please,” she commanded, and we both basically had to slide out of the arms of our robes, with Maya holding onto the front of hers to preserve some modesty. In a few moments, we had five or six students swarming over each of us with small blades and tweezers. It took them a fair amount of time to dig the wood shards, pine needles, and rocks out of my wings and stop the bleeding. My dark elf wasn’t nearly as bad off, and they finished with her long before me. Once they started the actual healing process, one of the girls, noticing that Maya was struggling to keep covered throughout all of this, dashed into a side room and came back with a apron that they helped her put on so that she had use of her hands.

  “Got yourselves banged up again, I see,” Alera intoned from behind us, sliding gracefully into the room. She started checking over her pr
otégés’ work with a critical eye, eventually shooing them away with a wink and a smile. “Well, they didn’t do too badly, considering they’ve never worked on anyone with even a remotely similar physique as you two before. Still, they missed some bruising and we should take care of it.” She called in some older students and quickly gave them precise instructions on the bruise repairs before she walked around and addressed us again. “Your bodies are fine, but you’ve both lost a lot of feathers. Hmmm, I think I might have just the thing for that now that we’ve been getting fresh herbs delivered nearly every day.”

  She walked off into another section of the healers’ building as Maya and I exchanged glances, wondering what she was going to bring out. As we sat there exposed and waiting, Elsa and Darroth walked through the door.

  “I see you two didn’t get by cleanly with that fight,” commented Elsa, who didn’t look all that great either at the moment.

  “I heard about your losses, Elsa, and I’m sorry,” I said, looking down, not really knowing what else to say.

  She dropped her head slightly. “We lost four on the way back. The undead were easy to get past, but those bat things don’t seem to use their eyes. Nonetheless, it was a good day; nay, make that an epic day for us. They died on the battlefield, and for a dwarf warrior, that is the highest honor we have. Tonight their spirits will be hosted in the great halls of our hallowed forbearers. That honor has become rare to us now that we have closed our walls.” She smiled at us. “But if I overheard Rosa correctly, you two had a bit more than a few demons. Am I right? An adult dragon, really?”

  Darroth’s eyes bulged and his mouth dropped open. “You two faced a dragon out in the open? How did you get away?”

  Maya smiled savagely. “Get away? We didn’t get away, we defeated and killed it!”

  “You killed it…so…it’s dead then? Just outside the portal?” he asked with a dazed and wistful look.

  “Yep.”

  “Wait, you two didn’t become attached to this one, did you? No relative of the twins? It didn’t save your life or anything? No lasting words of wisdom to be grateful for?”

  “Well, no, I don’t think it really said anything to us; too busy trying to kill us and all,” I said, wondering what he was getting at.

  “Great beards afire!” Darroth exclaimed, roughly dropping his plate of food and his tankard of ale on a nearby table as he turned and ran out the door screaming, “Clara! Gemma! Get ready, girls, we’re gonna need the cart!”

  Elsa looked at us with a shocked expression on her face. “What the…?”

  “Don’t ask me,” Maya chuckled. “I’ve never seen him move that fast, and he even spilled his ale!” They both looked at me expectantly, waiting for an answer.

  “Dragon hides, claws and teeth,” I sighed. “He just realized there’s a fortune in rare materials out there. To an armor and weapons smith, it’s just about irresistible.”

  Maya snickered, “Then why aren’t you out there with him, oh master smith?”

  I smiled, and made my hand simulate a pair of minotaur horns. “Demon parts are better!”

  They both laughed as Alera came back around with two jars in her hands. “Not interrupting, am I?”

  “No, of course not,” said Maya.

  “I’ll just take my leave then. We dwarves get queasy watching people drink anything but good honest ale.” Elsa chuckled and stalked out the door to rejoin her men.

  Alera handed us each one of the jars of liquid. “From what I hear, you have some knowledge in potions, Alex; but I think you’ll find a healer’s potion to be a bit…different.”

  Maya and I looked at each other and downed the potion in two gulps each. That was when I realized that my tongue was registering the strong taste of black ginger. Oh-oh, my dark elf became deathly pale and looked like she really needed to cough, but just couldn’t quite find enough air in her lungs to accomplish it. Her emerald eyes started watering, and the look on her face was of unimaginable disgust. Somehow, through sheer strength of will, she managed to keep it down and started fanning her face to try and cool herself.

  Alera was practically ready to fall on the floor laughing at our plight. “Oh, come on, it’s not that bad; in fact, I think it tastes rather good,” she said in between bursts of laughter.

  I quickly grabbed Darroth’s half-empty tankard of ale off the table and passed it to Maya, who gulped it down eagerly to rid her mouth of the awful taste. I looked at Alera and shook my head sadly. “Alera, most dark elves are extremely repulsed by ginger. Your average adult would take an arrow over a ginger cookie any day.”

  Her laughter quickly died out, finally realizing what I had actually said. And then her expression ranged from horror to extreme panic. “By the stars, my Princess, I am so sorry! I had no idea!”

  Maya wiped her mouth, and gratefully handed me the now empty mug. Her normally silky voice now registered a choking roughness that made me wince. “Don’t worry about it. The only one here who I expect to know about dark elves is Alex, so you’re forgiven. Besides, consider it payback for all the unkind thoughts I had about you when you were touching Alex during the tournament at Xarparion.”

  “Maya, I hope you realize I would never…” Alera protested, practically hyperventilating in obvious distress.

  “I know…now,” my silver-haired girl whispered and reached out, enveloping Alera in a sisterly hug. “I really hope we can be better friends someday.”

  Alera had tears running down her cheeks as she nodded eagerly.

  Nia, who had been watching all this silently from the table where she had been polishing off the last of Darroth’s lunch, stood up, launched herself into the air, and buzzed around us.

  “Black ginger or not, that stuff works great. Look at your wings, you guys.”

  I looked at our wings and was stunned to see that many of my feathers were already mended, and the lost ones were regrowing from the broken quills at a phenomenal rate. In a few minutes, you won’t be able to tell they were ever damaged. I flexed them and did a partial slow extension and contraction, and there was no pain or tenderness at all.

  “All ginger aside, well done, Alera,” Maya complimented, as we both stood up. Alera bowed gratefully and took her leave as we headed back into the dressing room to change.

  Back in armor and feeling a lot better, we retracted our wings and headed toward the keep. Nia flew off to visit Rosa for a while, leaving us to our own devices. On our way, we passed Mingt in his red fire wizard robes. Trailing behind him were the four older Fire Tower students from Xarparion and our two stable boys. Maya’s grandfather noticed our approach and stopped the procession, bowing slightly.

  “Granddaughter, Sir Alex, checking on our progress, I see.”

  Maya smiled. “Yes, Grandfather, I hope things are going well for you.”

  “Yes, very well; very well, indeed. We haven’t had all that much time to talk since we arrived here, have we?”

  “I am sorry to say; no, we haven’t,” I said. “How are you settling in?”

  “Quite well, actually. Your fortress is an absolute marvel, and I am very glad to have made it here before the end of my days. As for these fellows, I think they are starting to come around, if only a little.” The older students nodded and bowed slightly to us, a little nervous; and I could see their eyes searching with some trepidation for a certain six-inch dynamo with wings.

  “I have taught them how to better control their magic, how to limit their flow and still achieve that they need; although it took a long time to teach them not to overdo it. You don’t need a rock the size of a wagon to squash a bug when, with a little control, you can do it with a pebble. No, I’d say these boys are progressing rather well.”

  “And how about these two, Grandfather?” Maya asked, bending down and hugging our two stable boys. “Jaython and Wyeth, you two get bigger every time I see you!” They, of course, melted at the attention, looking at her with shy, worshipful grins. She tousled their hair fondly and gave each a
motherly peck on the cheek.

  “A little young yet to be casting spells, but I’m hoping if I can get them on the right track mentally early enough, in a few years they will be powerful wizards indeed,” Mingt said proudly. “Well, I do believe you two have other places to be at the moment, although I don’t envy you in that role. Also, I realize I have been extremely lax in my role as a pre-nuptial chaperone, but I think the whole wings thing threw all that out the window. Granddaughter, you and Alex are obviously made for each other; the ceremony is just a formality. And one more thing, Maya. Do stop by every now and again; we have much to catch up on.”

  She nodded and watched them stride off in the direction of the main courtyard. As we approached closer to the keep, the sound of arguing overcame the normal sounds of day-to-day bustle. Finally, we found the source.

  “I’m telling you, you’re talking to the wrong man,” Captain Jarsin growled at the small group of wind and water teachers who had him surrounded.

  “You’re the Captain of the Guard, aren’t you?” one of them prodded, getting angrier by the minute. The rest of them nodded in agreement.

  I looked at Maya and we both sighed. She unhooked her helmet from her belt and began to raise it up to put it on.

  “What are you doing?” I asked.

  “Covering up, I can’t imagine my being a dark elf will make this conversation any friendlier, “she said, looking away.

  I stopped her, shook my head, and lifted her chin so that she was staring into my eyes. “This is our fortress. I will not have you hiding your face in shame any longer. Any issues with your people are past history; they are allies now and damn good ones. If I have anything to say about it, they will remain our friends for a very long time. But that all starts right here, right now,” I said, snatching the magic scarf from around her neck, which she had forgotten about.

  Her eyes shining, she nodded and hooked her arm through mine. We walked forward a few more paces and then stopped to listen to the argument.