by Unknown
“Morgan did,” I whispered. “I assume he became pretty powerful.”
“Yes, he did,” Arach sighed. “But all that power mattered little when he got too cocky and lowered his guard.”
“Roarke,” I said simply.
“Yes,” it was Mini V who answered. “Everyone was shocked by your death. I think even Prince Morgan himself was stunned but cat-sidhe are wily creatures, quick enough to use such moments to their advantage. King Roarke used the moment to kill Prince Morgan, though he paid a price for it.”
“Cats always land on their feet,” I said grimly and then a thought occurred to me. “Where's Hunter? Please tell me Roarke's son is alive.”
“He lives,” Arach nodded. “Roarke sent him to live with Kirill in Pride Palace. Wily indeed. The King of the Fire Cats was smarter than all of us. I wish I'd followed his lead.”
“Hunter is with Kirill?” I asked with surprise and then smiled. “Like father like son, I guess.”
“Oh yes, the Intare love him,” Mini V smiled.
“There's more to that smile than affection for Hunter,” I narrowed my gaze on her. “Have you been to Pride Palace too?”
“You used to bring us along once in awhile, when you took Prince Rian and Princess Samara to visit their uncles,” Mini V smiled wider, showcasing sharp teeth. “I love to run with the Pride. They're fun.”
“Yes, they can be fun,” I chuckled.
“But I haven't seen them since you died,” Mini V whispered.
“You'll see them again,” I vowed.
“I know,” she smiled. “I believe in you, Aunty Queen.”
“Thank you,” I smiled briefly but then I turned suddenly to Arach. “I want to see the realm.”
“What?” He gaped at me.
“I want to see what happened to Faerie,” I went on. “Take me flying. We don't have to land, I just want to see it. I have to see it.”
“Right now?” Arach asked.
“What better time than now?” I nodded. “Mini V, can you take Dex and go tell my daughter we'll be a little longer than I thought?”
“Of course, Queen Vervain,” she nodded and although I had to give him a push and a lot of encouragement, Dexter eventually went with her.
Chapter Thirteen
I anxiously followed Arach into the cave which led out into the rest of Faerie. We left our clothes in a pile beside the main gate and then transformed into dragons.
Magic tingled through me, rushing through veins and lengthening bones. Skin turned into scales, feet into claws, and nails into talons. My spine extended into a tail and wings sprouted from my back like they'd been curled up inside me all along. My dragon emerged as if coming out of a long hibernation, stretching her stagnate muscles and cracking idle joints.
I sighed, ecstatic to be free of the confinement of my human body, and looked over to where Arach stood; a vibrant, scarlet dragon with a stripe of onyx down his belly and brilliant yellow eyes which glowed in the shadows. He tried to stretch his wings but even though the tunnel was large enough to accommodate two dragons, it wasn't large enough for us and his wingspan. He gave up, folding his wings over his back as he headed outside. Our massive feet thudded across the drawbridge, sounding like war drums, as we passed over the magma moat.
We stood in the sunlight for a moment, on the scorched Road of Neutrality, and then Arach gave a deep sigh. He cast a baleful look in my direction before launching himself into the air. I went up after him, my back legs automatically tensing and releasing, to send the mass of me shooting up heavenward. I spread my wings out, catching the currents, and soared higher after my mate.
We caught a nice draft and circled over the central forest; the Forgetful Forest of Faerie. But the name no longer suited it. There was damage done to the Forgetful that looked permanent. War was one thing that even the forest couldn't forget. Giant trees which had stood for thousands of years had been burned to ash, large patches of ground completely blackened, and in the center of it all was the Castle of Eight.
The home of the ruling House of Faerie was made up of eight enormous trees, all hollowed out by magic but still very much alive. Seven trees encircled the eighth, which was the largest tree in the entire forest and was placed in the exact center of the rest. Pennants normally flew from the top most branches of that central tree, flashing in the bright sunlight. Those pennants were missing, there were no colorful displays to indicate that the High Royals of Faerie were in residence and the lack of them made my stomach clench. Were King Cian and Queen Meara dead too?
It looked to be possible. There were no knights on the ramparts and no faeries wandering the inner courtyards. The elemental gardens within those courtyards looked overgrown and forgotten; a forlorn testament to the previous glory of the High Court. The seven trees forming the castle walls were charred and cracked in several places, and although new growth was starting to show on the upper branches, all of their lower branches were gone. Something had battered the castle nearly to death.
I couldn't take anymore so I veered left and up, heading to the Air Kingdom. Arach followed, shouting something I couldn't hear. My wings beat angrily, lifting me towards Air. The rush of wind against my cheeks helped cool the heat that had risen at the sight of the ruined Castle of Eight. I didn't cry. Partially because I was prepared for the damage and partially because it took a lot to make my dragon cry. But somewhere within me, my human heart wept.
The cloud cover loomed thick above me but I shot straight into it and within moments, I burst free of the clinging mist and rose up before the main floating island of the Air Kingdom. The grass was burned away in places and I could see scorch marks on Castle Bláthaich too but it wasn't as bad as the Castle of Eight. The damage was minimal and the castle was still intact. Here, there were signs of life and I took a deep, relieved breath to see it. Unfortunately, the inhabitants of Air didn't share my relief and when we were sighted, they gave great shrieks and fled towards the safety of the castle.
“Vervain, I was shouting for you to stop,” Arach growled from my right. “You can't just take off by yourself. It's not safe anymore,” Arach slid his gaze towards the emerald castle of Air. “We need to leave. Air will see this as an attack and will take measures to defend itself.”
Even as he said the words, a host of knights with beautiful butterfly wings and shining armor came rushing out the main doors of the castle. On the castle steps, they took to the air, lances glinting in the sun. My dragon recognized the weapons immediately, some sort of cell-memory instinctively warning me that these were no ordinary lances. These were made to kill dragons.
The stress made me burp but in my current dragon state, that burp became a belch of flame. It poured out of me, igniting the leriewoag dock and the surrounding area. Grass turned instantly to ash and floating trees burst into flaming fireballs. The trees quickly burned free of their chains and drifted up into the air like meteorites heading in the wrong direction. The inferno spread with devilish speed, igniting the entire lawn. The knights of Air were knocked back by the heat wave, sent toppling through the sky.
I looked over to Arach in shock but he was staring at the wall of flames in front of us with a slack-jawed, goofy expression. I nudged his face with mine and he transferred that look to me. He looked both intimidated and aroused.
“It's been awhile since I ate some of that seaweed jam,” I explained.
“Well now they'll really take this as an act of war but at least we can use it as cover for our escape. Hurry, Vervain,” Arach pulled his wings together and dropped through the clouds.
I swung around and dove after him. The cloud cover passed by and still we kept going, wings pressed in close and neck arrow-straight to gain speed. Right before we reached the tree tops, we both veered upwards and slowed to a stop, hovering above the Forgetful Forest.
“I'll be sure to get you some suppressive seaweed jam when we return,” Arach smirked.
“What about Water and Earth?” I asked him as I kept a wary
eye on the clouds above. “Will they try to attack us as well?”
“If we stay high enough, I think we'll be fine,” Arach's wings whooshed a slow tempo as he hovered before me. “Castle Deuraich is empty now, all of the water fey have retreated to the sea and the crystal tunnels are barricaded. They won't pay any attention to us circling overhead.”
“And Earth?”
“Earth has very few inhabitants left to cause us concern,” Arach said grimly. “Come along, A Thaisce. I want this done with and you back safely in Fire.”
He headed toward the Water Kingdom and I followed. The journey didn't take all that long since Water was placed right beside Air. Soon I was hovering before the cliffs of the great basin which held the ocean of Faerie, otherwise known as the Kingdom of Water. Much of it looked the same.
Water still flowed through the center of Castle Deuraich, diving over the steep cliff with a liquid roar. The path up that cliff still curved like a ribbon beside the waterfall and the pool of crystalline water still frothed fabulously below. Even the meadow around the pool was as I remembered, untouched by the hand of war.
The castle itself was not so lucky.
I circled lower to inspect the destruction. The dual front entrances of Deuraich were riddled with rubble. Only water passed through there now, streaming steadily beneath the wreckage of scorched stone. Looking over those blackened patches, I wondered if there was anywhere left in Faerie which didn't bear the brand of dragon fire.
Amid the crumpled castle remains, a few jagged towers tore at the sky tenaciously, like broken teeth in the mouth of a dying shark. King Guirmean's personal tower was mostly gone; I could see pieces of it littering the seabed below, but that wasn't as shocking as the complete destruction of the water basin's tower. The basin had served as a magical connection to the entire Water Kingdom and all of its faeries. Guirmean had showed it to Arach and I once; an act of friendship which Arach appeared to have betrayed in the end. The Dragon King had chosen vengeance over honor.
“The ocean is as it ever was,” Arach shouted through a rush of wind beside me. “Let's be gone from here, there's no more to see.”
I didn't respond to him as I circled around the rubble that was once Castle Deuraich. I veered right, heading to the Earth Kingdom. From what I could see on the edges of Water, Arach was correct, the ocean was the same. But then I guess it's rather hard to burn an ocean. The densely forested kingdom of Earth was much easier to kindle.
And it had been kindled.
Earth was nothing but a wasteland. I dropped a couple of feet in shock before I caught a current and righted myself. As far as I could see, the land was decimated. Arach hadn't just burned Aalish to ash, he'd incinerated her whole kingdom. Cauterized it like an open wound. The ground was exposed earth, spotted with blackened tree stumps and painted with scorch marks. There wasn't a single spark of life anywhere. No scurries of movement, no pale green shoots poking up through the earth, no birdsong or animal calls. Nothing. It was a dead kingdom.
I spied the mountain which housed Castle Crith-Fuinn, and swung down to circle it. The gates were swung open on their pivot hinges and debris littered the dark passage. Something caught the light and glittered up at me. My dragon couldn't resist the lure of that gleam and I landed before the mountain gates. Arach quickly dropped down beside me.
“What are you doing?” He snapped.
“Just looking,” I shifted back to human and carefully stepped over the rough ground till I found the object I was after.
I crouched and retrieved an unusual sword. Swirls of black bled through the rich brown blade down to both of its razor-sharp edges. The weight and thickness of it made me think it was stone but its hilt was definitely steel. The steel ran up through the center of that strange blade, almost all the way to the tip.
“It's petrified wood,” Arach said from beside me. He'd changed into human form too. “They used it against us. It worked well for killing both fire and dark fey but it was created specifically to pierce dragon scales.”
Metal weapons, being forged by fire, don't often work well against dragon-sidhe and even if it did manage to pierce our scales, it wouldn't kill us. Crude wood spears had been used by humans to kill both dragons and dragon-sidhe but it required a hit to specific spots of our underbelly, a feat which was hard to accomplish when a dragon was in flight. The most popular dragon killing method had been utilizing a massive, metal-tipped, wood spear with a catapult device so that the spear could be launched with enough force to slide right through a dragon. This way, the metal tip would breach the scales and the wood shaft could pierce the heart and kill the dragon, whether it be sidhe or not. It was called the dragonlance and all dragons had learned to fear it.
But the fey, being ever ambitious, had made improvements.
“Petrified wood,” I whispered and tossed the weapon back to the ground. “It sounds like a weapon created out of desperation.”
“And it worked,” Arach nodded. “On both you and Rian.”
“But Morgan killed me,” I frowned.
“Earth shared their knowledge with the other kingdoms,” Arach grimaced.
“So I was killed by a piece of petrified wood?” I frowned, remembering the time I had been staked through the heart. It hadn't killed me since I wasn't just dragon-sidhe, I was also a goddess, made immortal by drinking from the Grayel.
“You were brought down by a lance,” Arach swallowed hard. “Then Morgan used a sword very similar to that one,” he waved at the discarded weapon, “to behead you.”
“Well, I can't say I didn't have that coming,” I huffed, thinking of all the gods I'd killed in the same manner.
“Vervain,” Arach framed my face with his hands. “You were one of the greatest faerie queens to ever exist. You did not deserve to die like that.”
“Did you really kill this entire kingdom because their queen laughed when I died?” I whispered.
“I killed an entire kingdom because it was the only way to appease my dragon,” Arach said grimly. “The Earth Kingdom paid the price for your death because I couldn't destroy Water.”
“All those faeries,” I took a shaky breath. “They were innocent, Arach.”
“No, they weren't,” he said firmly. “By the end, none of us were.”
What are you doing; sightseeing? Faerie snapped in my head. Get out of here, you stupid girl! You risk the entire future by putting yourself in danger.
“It's Faerie,” I said to Arach before I spoke to her. “Arach said the Earth Kingdom is dead.”
The Kingdom is defeated but you cannot kill the earth, it will grow anew. That is irrelevant though, because you will fix this... if you don't get killed by one of the few remaining spriggans first!
“Spriggans?” I looked around me warily and caught a sleight movement within the open gates of Castle Crith Fuinn. “Faerie says we need to leave.”
“I agree,” Arach peered into the black mouth of the mountain. “Let's go home, A Thaisce.”
I nodded and shifted back into my golden dragon form, barely hesitating a moment before I launched myself into the sky. Being in the Earth Kingdom was a little creepy, like being in an old, forgotten house where you knew people had been murdered. It felt haunted, like so much trauma had happened there, the land itself had absorbed it and now wanted vengeance.
We headed back to the Fire Kingdom in silence. I was sad and tormented by all Arach had done in retaliation of my death. I kept seeing flashes of crushed stone and burned trees. And that sword. I'd never thought to die in Faerie. It was one of the few places I'd felt safe. The knowledge that I had died there, at the hands of a faerie I considered to be family, not only hurt me, it stole all sense of security from me. Because if it could happen there, it could happen in Pride Palace. It could happen in Heaven or Hell. I had no sanctuary.
By the time we reached Castle Aithinne, I was too upset to land. I had seen Air, Water, and Earth but I hadn't thought to check on Fire. So instead of circling down with Arach, I f
lew over Aithinne and out into the Fire Kingdom.
I heard Arach screech as he curved back up into the air and chased after me. He caught up with me easily and sent me a grim look but didn't say a word. He knew what I needed; to see that our people and our kingdom was safe.
The Fire Kingdom spread out before me as perfect as it had ever been. The Weeping Woods wept water droplets as steam rose from lava-filled crevices. The plains were arid but filled with life, boasting several villages full of faeries. Verdant meadows spotted the the cinnabar soil, and flocks of fey birds took flight as we passed over them. It was as if nothing had happened there and I sighed contentedly to see it.
Then our fire fey started to come out of their homes to stare up at us. There were no waves, no cheers or calls of greeting. They simply stood together in somber groups and watched us. It hurt to see their wariness but then someone pointed and a cry carried up to me. They had noticed that one of the dragons was pure gold. No stripe of red on its stomach.
I couldn't ignore the calls of my name and immediately circled down to fly low and let them see me. I knew I didn't have time to stop and speak with all of them, there were too many villages, too many fey to reach. So I just let them take a long look before I flew on toward the border of our kingdom. Their jubilant cries followed after me.
Then I reached the border of our land and realized that there was still one kingdom left to see.
I landed in what used to be our swamp lands but was now a lush garden surrounding numerous hot springs. Just past the misty springs was the pebbled beach of the Tine. I went down to stand in the lapping shallows of the warm water and stare at the mountains on its far banks.
“Darkness is untouched as well,” Arach said from beside me, his taloned dragon feet digging into the pebbles and sending up sprays of water. “You don't need to go there.”
“You don't want me to go there,” I corrected as I turned to face him.
“Night is nearing and I want my wife in my arms when it falls,” he said simply. “I know you feel the need to see everything and fix any damage as soon as possible, but I need more time with you and I'm unwilling to share that time with the dark fey.”