“Now?” He asked, incredulous. “Are you serious?”
“Totally.” She muttered, feeling the adrenaline rushing through her veins. It was either she fought or the adrenaline would trigger a surge of emotion that she wasn’t ready to handle. “It’s either that or you have to deal with me running all over the world killing people.”
“Just to clarify, if I spar with you then you won’t kill anyone else.”
“Not for another hour afterwards.” She promised.
“An hour. Is that the longest you’ve ever gone without killing?”
“No. The longest is eighteen years and I’m still recovering,”
He seemed to sense that the was the end of the conversation and drew his swords as she drew hers.
“To make this more interesting, how about a change of scenery?” Silver asked, not giving him time to reply before she teleported them both to a long branch of the palace tree in Elvardis. “Careful not to trip, kingling.”
He smiled and raised his sword.
She made the first attack.
Unfortunately about ten minutes in, someone must have heard them, because her brothers, followed by a squadron of palace guards appeared on the branch surrounding them.
“We’re just sparring Endis.” Silver taunted. “I’m not actually trying to kill him.”
“She called in a favour.” The kingling said, by way of explanation. “Did you know she has wings?” His tone held a note of accusation.
“We did wonder where they’d gone.” Endis muttered, to which Marten raised a brow.
“I thought we agreed no more secrets.”
“We also said that we weren’t going to give you all of them straight away.” Endis retorted.
The two faced off against each other, clearly back into an old argument, one which Silver had no intention of listening to.
“Fifty minutes kingling.” She reminded him. “And I’m counting down, so why don’t you fill me in on your battle plans instead of wasting my time.”
Endis looked at her, a piercing gaze that attempted to discern her motives. He wouldn’t succeed, but just to annoy him she responded to his gaze with sarcasm.
“Still as beautiful and deadly as I was when you last saw me, brother.”
“I have no need to be related to snakes.” He muttered, clearly forgetting that he was a snake. “Why will you help us? You have no reason.”
Because I’m fixing an ancient mistake, she thought, then immediately wondered where that thought had come from. Must have been the left over adrenaline, she dismissed, there was no reason for her to ever have made a mistake. She was perfect. Realising her brother was still waiting for an answer, she gave him the usual shrug and dropped him the usual line for when somebody asked her why she did anything. “Boredom. I’m bored out of my mind. War gives me something to do.”
“Embroidery gives most women something to do.” Endis replied. “You’re certainly a raven among doves.”
“Get back on track, I want to see the war plans.” Silver replied. Embroidery certainly wasn’t something she would ever be caught dead doing.
“We’ve evacuated Morendor.” The kingling said after a long silence.
“Marten—” Endis protested.
Marten turned to him, “She’s our biggest ally. You’ve seen her kill. I’m surprised she asked rather than just taking them from the war room.” He turned back to her. “We plan to lure him here. He has no interest in taking an empty castle, so he won’t stay in Morendor for long. Meanwhile this city is prepared for war, our armies are staying in civilian homes while the people who can’t fight have been evacuated to a dwarven stronghold in the far north.”
“Who is controlling the armies?”
Endis cleared his throat. “As the oldest of all the fractions I have that honour.”
“Will you handle it as well as you did the battles of our youth, brother? Will you torture your brothers’ children to prepare them for the worst?”
“Our father ordered that you were to be made able to survive should anything happen to you.” Endis retorted. “I could not cross him. He was the king.”
“He was, until I ended him.”
“He died in battle.”
“He died by my sword.”
“You were with your ladies.”
She let out a humourless laugh. “Endis, did you really think there wasn’t a servant or noble in the castle that wasn’t terrified of me by that point. You,” she gestured to all of her brothers. “the magicians and our mother were the only ones inside the royal household who didn’t know about my darker side.”
“And why could your revenge not die with our father? Why did it have to be passed on to us as well?”
“You tortured me. You ordered the killing of all my friends. You did this to me!” She yelled.
The others who had wisely remained silent, paled at something. Probably her. Damn. Because of the wings she was coming apart at the seams again. The only place she would be able to get herself back together again would be at the back of Romana’s mind.
“I will be going now.” Silver muttered. “Rest assured, kingling, that the good people will be safe from me for a night.”
“Where are you going?”
“Back to hell.” She muttered darkly. “I will see you in battle.”
“We estimate his troops will be here within two days.”
“How many.”
“We counted around fifty thousand. Including giants, dragons, demons and necromancers.”
“And how many men do we have.”
“Just over thirty thousand.” Felix mumbled. “Among that over half are human and elven.”
“You’ve factored in the wytches and the rebel dragons.”
“The wytches have been given the wrong date.” Endis mumbled. “We did not want Romana anywhere near this battle.”
“Count in the wytches. I will deal with Romana.”
“How?” Marten demanded.
“She’ll not be harmed.” Silver replied patiently, knowing his protectiveness when it came to the girl was a fierce and crippling thing. “You have my word.” With that she turned and began to walk along the branch towards the tip. Then she remembered something and turned again. “Her familiars must accompany me into battle.”
“If they die, she dies. They stay away from this.” Marten said in a tone forged with steel.
“They come.” Silver easily dismissed the kingling’s command with an airy wave of her hand.
“They could get hurt.” Marten stated the obvious again. It was a battle for goodness sake; everyone was going to get hurt!
“Then you’d better make sure your archers keep them safe. They need to be there, they must kill the queen of the dragons. It is written in destiny, and once they do, the crown falls to them, and all dragons who wore her mark will wear theirs. All of the dragons will be on your side. That will solve a lot of your problems straight away.”
“And how do you plan to solve the other problems? For example the dragon demons.” Marten asked.
“There’s only one.” Roan spoke for the first time.
“Excuse me?”
“There is only one demon dragon. It will be Kobos’ personal steed into the battle.”
“And you know this how?” Marten asked
“Because the rebel general told us.”
“Tyrone?” Silver clarified.
“He escaped the wytches once one of Romana’s dragons set him free.”
Silver cursed, and jumped from the tree with a single leap, teleporting using air mid-fall.
She reappeared in a crouch in the girl’s reception area, Ash and Icarus waiting for her.
“Did you read his mind before you so casually let him free?” She demanded. “Was he free from malice towards us?”
“Yes to both.” Ash replied, and instantly she relaxed. “You are unstable, yet Kate wishes to speak with you.”
“She can join the queue.”
“I most certai
nly will not!” Kate’s voice drifted to her, and Silver felt the wrenching sensation of a forced teleport before she appeared in the middle of a white lake, standing on a small rock amidst the peaceful swirling waters.
“What is it this time?” Silver asked, shrugging off the mists that clung to this plane.
“By power of the blood oath you gave to me, I demand your compliance.” Kate said, and Silver whirled to find Kate hovering over the water behind her.
“Oh, why didn’t you just say so?” Silver asked, sitting down.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
A BLOODY DAWN RISES
“Romana?” an excited squeal greeted her as she walked back into her caves almost a day after waking up from unconsciousness on the shores of the Isle.
All three of her charges had hurried back both dressed in armour so lightweight and different from normal armour that it couldn’t really be called armour.
In fact it looked more like scales. Small arrow shaped pieces of metal were sewn onto thick fabric to cover every inch of the girls bodies. Even gloves had been made in the same fashion.
Katelyn did a small twirl, “What do you think Romy?”
“You look perfect.” Romana replied automatically. “You look safe.”
“Where are we going?” Averna asked.
“Katelyn and Lynette will leave for a bunker in the crab islands. Ash and Icarus will take you there.”
“What about me?” Averna asked, impatient now.
Romana sighed and gave her the news that the Coven had decided upon just that morning. “The Coven has decided that as long as you can see that you can’t die they would like you to fight. They want you to use your powers. But I want you to know that I can get you out of it if you don’t want to.” She desperately wanted Averna to say no. If she’d had her way Averna would have been safely in the bunker with Katelyn and Lynette, but the other queens had a good point; Averna could kill anyone within five meters of herself, just by focusing on them. She was the perfect weapon, but she was also still a child.
“I won’t die.” Averna said, “I want to fight, and I can help the healers too.”
That was the other reason that Averna was so good in battle, since her arrival at the isle they had discovered that her gift had a side effect, she could hold people to life if they were badly wounded.
“Okay. But I don’t want you putting yourself in danger, and you follow every order you’re given.”
“I will.” Averna replied. “But what about you?”
“I’ll be fine,” She hoped. “I can’t die, remember?”
Averna shook her head. “You can’t die, but I have a feeling something will go wrong, and there will be a death of someone close to you.”
“Who?” She glanced quickly at Lynette and Katelyn who were packing their things onto Ash and Icarus.
“Not them.” Averna muttered. “It’s someone I’ve never met before.”
Before she could reply, Icarus walked over to her, with Lynette seated comfortably on his back.
They’re ready. He informed her through their link as Ash walked over to join them.
“You both need to take care of each other.” Romana instructed the little girls gazing down at her. “Only obey the wytches. They’re the only ones I trust with you.” She floated up and hugged each of them. “Icarus will make you invisible for your flight, so no matter what you see on the way, you mustn’t make a sound, of they’ll hear you.”
“Stay safe Romy.” Katelyn whispered.
Romana nodded and watched as her dragons strolled to the opening in the cliff face and dived into the night sky.
“We need to get down to the town.” Averna said. “You know there will be some healers driving Cass crazy by insisting that they go with us.”
Romana nodded. The healers were a stubborn bunch, but they were also gentle, and putting them in a battle zone would only sentence them to death. Fortunately, since there were no wytch queens that were solely healers, she didn’t have to worry about them teleporting themselves to the battle. The only way that they were going to be able to get to Elvardis was if one of the wytch queens teleported them there, and none of the Coven would do anything like that without Romana’s permission.
She teleported to the town square, appearing with Averna by the well in the middle, directly between the Coven and the group of healers.
Everyone started yelling at her at once.
“Alright. Alright!” She bellowed to be heard over them. “There will be no healers going with us on this trip.” When the lesser wytches looked up to complain she silenced them with a wave of her hand. “I cannot sentence you to a death that would be inevitable if any of you were to come near that battlefield. You are vulnerable, and you have no way to shield yourselves from the magic and the arrows that will be flying around the people working in the infirmary.”
“We don’t care. We could end up saving your lives.”
“No.” Romana replied. “If one of us is badly injured then we promise that we will come to you in the bunker, but you must understand that I can’t let you risk yourselves. You are my sisters, and I would not see you hurt.”
They gave her an annoyed look, but bowed their heads in acquiescence anyway. With a sigh she teleported them away to the bunker, before heading over to where Cass was talking with Joanna and Allie. They were the three wytches directly below her in terms of power, and they would act as her second in command if she got taken out.
“What time did Marten say that they would arrive?” She asked Cass.
“Two hours’ time.” The vampire replied. “I’m not going to be there half the time, because it’s approaching dawn now. I’ll join the battle when I can.”
Romana nodded, even as Ash and Icarus arrived behind her with a gust of wind.
“Mother.” Icarus began. “You have to let Silver take over.”
“What? Why?” Romana demanded. “I have as much right to fight as she does.”
“You’re not going to have a choice.” Ash said. “Kate has made it so that she will be in control for the duration of this battle. It would be easier for you to surrender to her.”
“I won’t.”
“You must.” Now Allie was against her as well. “Kate needs Silver for this one, and Silver will be able to kill swifter and more mercilessly than you would. Plus, she’s a symbol; all of Kobos’ men fear her.”
“We all know of her, and Kate has made her swear not to abuse her leadership over us, even for this small amount of time.” Joanna added.
“I do not like it either.” Cass admitted, scanning the eastern sky warily. “But it would be easier for all of us if she didn’t have to waste magic fighting to get out.”
“It’s going to happen.” Joanna stepped closer and placed her hands on Romana’s clothes. Instantly she felt the rearranging of threads, and when she blinked her wytches armour had been replaced by a new, black set that looked almost exactly like the catsuit, only scaled with hundreds of pieces of black metal that was miraculously lightweight. “I designed it to resemble dragon hide,” Joanna muttered. “It will never break from a mortal weapon. Only magic will dent it.” She waved her hand over her own clothes and similar, grey armour with her own crest on it appeared. The other wytches were already wearing the same thing, including Averna. “It will also shield her wings if she decides to use them.”
Romana felt a weight around her eyes and knew the mask was in place. It seemed there would be no fighting it.
“Stay safe.” She ordered them all, as she gave into blackness and Silver was released.
*
“Nice threads.” Silver muttered as she teleported all of her personal effects onto her body.
“Don’t get used to them.” Joanna muttered, turning away.
Silver shrugged off the icy behaviour. The other wytches hated betraying Romana, especially when the girl was clueless about what was going to go down in this battle.
“Get yourselves ready.” Silver ordered. “We�
�re leaving in two minutes.” She looked down and found the death wytch staring at her wide-eyed. “What’s wrong with you?” She barked.
“Nothing.” She girl whispered, dropping her gaze.
Not in the best of moods Silver accepted a cup of something from one of the wytch queens, and drank it down thirstily. It was some sort of soup, she guessed, not that it mattered. It boosted her mood slightly as she assembled all of the wytches together in their colourful armour.
“Today we’re going to fight Kobos.” She began. “We know that there will be demons, and they are your top priority. Kill anything that looks undead, because nobody else will be able to.” She paused and looked at their distrustful faces. “Okay, look. I know none of you like me. I know most of you wish I was Romana. But the truth is, if she goes, she dies. So stop glaring at me like I’m the enemy, because one way or another you’re all going to be saved by me at one point or another today.”
There was some grumbling and agitation at that statement.
“Each of us here can teleport, so I’ll see you all outside of the command tent.” She sent them a mental image of the place they were going, and that quickly they were all gone. Thankful that someone else had taken death-girl, Silver did her own teleport, but instead of going to Elvardis where everyone would no doubt be waiting for her she reappeared in Kate’s plane, in the centre of the mist-shrouded lake where she’d been taken before, but this time Kate was watching what was going on in Elvardis.
“What do you want?” The Ancient asked, her face covered by her hair as she looked down towards the scene unfolding before her. “They need you.”
“Has the battle started?”
“Kobos’ army has arrived.” Was the only answer that Kate would give her.
“Then I have time.” Silver said, glancing down at the two armies that were assembling under the rising of a blood red dawn. “Kobos has a god-complex. He’ll want to make a show of it.”
“What do you want?” Kate repeated.
“If I’m going to do this then I need more power.” Silver told her bluntly. “Since you’re strictly observation-only, I figured you’d be happy to lend me some for a while.”
Kate's Legacy (Soul Merge Saga Book 2) Page 26