by Jada Fisher
She snarled at him, putting pressure onto the wound that made the attacker howl. She opened her mouth to demand that he yield, when a thick tail yanked her off her feet and up into the air.
“Let me go!” she snapped, struggling against the hold. Her eyes darted around, interpreting her world that was suddenly upside-down. She stilled, however, when she noticed the color of the appendage wrapped around her middle.
“Wait a minute, you’re—”
She was cut off again as a portal opened right above them and none other than Fior came hurtling downward. Branches snapped all around them, and Eist’s captor let her go.
She hit the ground hard, driving all the air from her once more. She barely had the mind to lurch into a sitting position and scuttle backwards as more arrows buried themselves in the space between her legs.
“Wait!” she cried, with her hand up. “I think we got started on the wrong—”
She felt magic concentrating in front of her and tried to fight to her feet, but she was still breathless from her fall. Thankfully, before the spell—whatever it was—could finish, Fior was in front of her and letting out a mighty roar.
That stopped her attacker, but then the dragon that had tried to haul her into the trees darted in front of Fior and let out their own responding bellow.
“Wait, Fior, wait! He’s one of your kind!”
Both dragons seemed surprised by each other and abruptly stopped their shouts. Silence soon settled in, and Eist struggled to her feet.
“Dille?” she called, looking out as the dark night began to lighten like the sun was high in the sky for her. “You alright?”
“I’m fine,” she said, getting to her feet. “How about our new friend?”
Eist looked to the attacker, who was still in an aggressive stance, a bow in their hand and a sword in the other.
“You have a brindled dragon.”
“Yes, I do,” Eist said slowly.
“I’ve been told mine is the last one.”
“That’s because it probably is, as far as most people know.”
“But you’re the witch that sent me here.” They removed their mask and Eist saw the long, thin face of a man who looked to be somewhere in his forties. Considering he had a dragon at his side, that meant he had to be several centuries old. “And you…” he said, his eyes darting to Dille. “You were in my coven. You disappeared. Did she take you too?”
“Uh, no. I kinda took myself. Oh, it’s complicated. How about we just set the weapons down and you let me heal you? Or sorta heal you. I’m not very good at it. Magic isn’t exactly prevalent where we come from.”
But he ignored that offer. “What are you doing here? Why did you send me here? I had a wife! Children!”
Eist felt guilt twist in her stomach. “I’m sorry, but I haven’t really done that yet.”
“What do you mean!? You’re here, aren’t you? You spoke to me when I was going through that…that place. You told me to be cautious, and to wait for you. That was five years ago! Five years of waiting in the wilds outside of some primitive academy they’re trying to build around what used to be one of our temples!”
“Oh, five years, that’s a lot better than Brunillde,” Dille remarked absently, making Eist wince.
“Better than who?!”
Eist raised both of her hands in what she hoped was a placating gesture. “Look, I’m sorry that apparently I got you stuck here, but I haven’t done it yet. I don’t know why, or even how I would of. We barely figured out how to get ourselves here.” Eist licked her lips. “But if it was me that called you here, well, I’m guessing it’s because we need your help.”
“Why in the name of the Storm should I help you?”
If it worked with Brunillde, then why wouldn’t it work with this strange man? “Because we’re going to destroy the Blight once and for all.”
His eyes flitted between the two of them and she could see the hatred and disbelief within them. But after a moment, he strapped his bow to his back.
“What do you need me to do?”
“I’m coming with you.”
Eist looked up at the man from where she was mixing the paste for the circles. The man, who she had learned was named Zenith, had helped them grab a total of seven eggs from an impressive clutch, and was now watching as she and Dille prepared for their trip back to Brunillde.
“What?” Eist asked, looking up at him incredulously.
“You heard what I said.”
“Actually,” Dille muttered. “Eist is hard of—”
“No, I heard him,” she said. “I just… Why do you want to come with us? Why not ask for me to send you home?”
“Because, technically, you haven’t even sent me here yet, so I figure you can’t send me back. But maybe what we could do is have me come along with you. I remember Brunillde. It’d be good to see her again.”
“You’re not just asking us to bring you along with us, though,” Dille said slowly, calmly. “I know you wouldn’t leave your dragon behind, which means that I would have to change the ritual to include him too. Five people as opposed to three? That’s…that’s something.”
He just shook his head. “Yeah, I saw your little ritual there. It’s passable, I suppose, but it reminds me of exactly why you were best at offense than incantations.”
“I…”
Eist stood up. “Wait, did you just insult Dille’s competence?”
He shrugged. “Is it an insult if it’s true? Anyway, move over. I’ll show you how it’s done.”
Eist and Dille watched as he began to draw his own circles, taking up much of the clearing that the dragons had cleared out. The two exchanged glances but let him do what he willed until seven concentric circles were all interconnected with each other.
The moment the last rune was in place, the circles burst into a miasma of light. It was similar to the battlefield of Margaid, and Eist had to shield her eyes from it.
“Warn a girl, will ya?” she snapped.
“What? Oh right, I wondered if you had the sight on ya given those eyes of yours. Just breathe deep and blink a lot. You, M’baya—”
“It’s Dille now, actually.”
“I could not care less. Just lead her to the circle she needs to be in then get into your own.”
“Geez, I see his manners clearly didn’t travel through time along with him.”
Eist allowed herself one small snicker before calling Fior to her. She still couldn’t really open her eyes against the swirling light that they were all standing in, but thankfully, Zenith was able to tell him where to stand.
A few moments later, they were all right where they were supposed to be and Eist felt her anxiety increase.
“Are you sure you accounted for all the eggs?”
The way Dille had explained it, each of them was their own little mini-life that required special additions to the circle. And a whole lot of other things that Eist hadn’t really understood. But she didn’t need to understand in order to be concerned that the witch they had just met had somehow forgotten that.
“Yeah, yeah. Believe me, I got everything. I also fixed some parts. I’m surprised the two of you even managed to get here without getting completely turned inside-out. Your protections are as haphazard as your entry.”
“Thank you for your input,” Dille said through gritted teeth.
“You’re welcome. Now, everyone breath deep. M’baya, I want you on the response chants. Little girl, you just shut up.”
“I am not—”
A sharp uptick in magic cut her off, and she felt the spell building under her again. With any luck, it would work without a hitch and maybe she could find out why future her snatched two people from time and how.
11
Home Again
Eist’s feet hit the ground without too much pressure. She wobbled a little but was able to stay upright. Her stomach gave the tiniest twist, but on the whole, she was just fine.
A quick glance around told her Dill
e was standing a bit to her side, looking rested and well-fed and otherwise hopeful. That was a pretty good sign if there ever was one.
“Did we make it?” she asked, looking around.
“It feels like it.”
Eist agreed with that. There was a vibrancy missing to the air, and her whole body rumbled as if hungry—not for food or water or anything of that nature, but the connection to magic that she had been so spoiled on in earlier times.
True to his word, Zenith had gotten them back to Brunillde without all the dizziness and stomach churning or even any surprises. From there, all three of their dragons used their roars to burrow into the mountainside, using the earthquake as cover. It worked out better than Eist could have ever imagined, and after only a day of clearing rubble, they had a nice, large area to build a nest for the eggs as well as allow them room to run around as they grew.
Eventually, they would get too big for the cave, but neither of the witches seemed too concerned. They said they’d come up with something, even if it meant leaving the academy.
From there it was a short rest, with both of them teaching Dille everything they could of the old spells they used against the Blight, and then the two young women were in yet another set of circles, waiting to be sent home.
Right on cue, a portal opened above their heads and Fior glided gently to his feet, looking much more pleased than the past several times they had hopped.
“That’s my boy,” Eist said, giving his nose a pat. “Do you realize that you’ve just saved your entire species?”
He preened at that, letting a little ripple go along his dappled scales before he gave her entire upper body one solid lick.
“Ah! Gross! Come on now, Fior. I’ve been wearing these clothes for days now. I don’t need you making it worse.”
“Four days, actually,” Dille said with a long, relieved breath. “Somehow, we might have just saved the world in four days.”
Eist couldn’t help but whistle. “Wow. Sounds impressive when you put it like that.”
“Normally, I prefer to be humble, but yeah, I’d say what we did was pretty impressive.” They shared a knowing laugh before she grew contemplative, looking out at the grassy field they were standing on. “Do you think anything has changed?”
“Only one way to find out,” Eist answered before looking to Fior. “You want to fly ahead and tell the others we’re here?”
He chirped and took to the sky, pulling off a spinning move that was definitely for show, but she didn’t mind. Even if the world felt…strange now, all empty and tired, it was still her home. She wanted to hug Athar, tease Ain, and perhaps drink with Ale’a again.
…just perhaps not so much at once.
“Shall we?” she asked, looking to Dille. Her friend nodded, and they strode across the grass together.
Only moments later, the top of the academy came into view, and then they dipped down into a little valley between gentle hills. Eist remembered waiting for Dille’s caravan to come over the road just a half-year earlier, thinking it would be just another academy year.
She didn’t think she could have been any more wrong about that.
But as they rose out of the valley and crested the hill, her breath stopped short. Her legs locked into place, keeping her still while every bit of warmth fled from her body.
“What—” But Dille’s question sputtered out on her lips as she too saw who was waiting for them, barely a field’s length away.
Tall and broad with the muscles that came from years of hard training. Strong cheekbones. Dark, thick hair. Brilliant blue eyes.
Yacrist.
“There are my two favorite people in the world!” he said joyously, grinning brightly at them. He brought his hand up, wagging a finger at them as if they were a young dragon that had just gone where they shouldn’t. “Now tell me, did you two do something you shouldn’t?”
Eist looked to Dille and Dille looked right back to her, the two of them communicating in a way only two life-long friends and soldiers could. They were too far from the gate to make a run for it, and they didn’t really have that much of a location advantage either.
“Oh, come now,” Yacrist said, still sounding just as happy as ever to see them. “What’s with those expressions? Haven’t you missed me? I’ve been working real hard on something, and I just can’t wait to show you.”
There was the flapping of wings and Alynbach landed behind him. It had only been a month or so since she had last seen the purple dragon, but he was much bigger than she remembered. He was no Veralda, but he was much more menacing than he had ever looked before.
“Come on, just hop right aboard.” Yacrist held his hand out, his smile crinkling at the corners like it always did when he was especially pleased with himself.
All it took was for her eyes to sidle over to Dille’s and the tiniest nod, then they were off.
The two of them split into two directions, sprinting as fast as they could. Eist dove down the hill, sliding on her belly over the slick grass, then popping up to her feet to see which of them he’d try to chase. Whoever he went after would be the bait, with whoever he didn’t going behind him to get the drop.
Except he hadn’t moved at all. He just stood there, watching the both of them with amusement.
“Ah, I see. It wouldn’t be a reunion if we didn’t play a game. I suppose I could spare a little time for a laugh!”
His hand reached out again, but it shot out way further than it should have, snapping out like a crack of lightning until suddenly, a black, tentacle-like thing slammed into her stomach and knocked her off her feet. Her mind flashed to what had happened to Yacrist, and for a moment, she was absolutely frozen, locked in that terrible memory.
But the tentacle wrapped around her foot and dragged her right back to Yacrist. She yanked her leg back, as hard as she could, but it held fast.
A squeal to her left echoed across the flat plain, and Eist looked over her shoulder to see that a tentacle had wrapped around Dille’s hair, pulling her inevitably toward him too. Dille’s hands scrambled at her belt for a potion, but then another tentacle shot out to grab her wrists.
Well, if Eist couldn’t get free, then she was just going to have to expedite the process.
Whipping herself forward, she gripped the tentacle and used it to yank herself through the air. She tried to call upon the energy that had come so easily from other times, but instead, a vast emptiness burned at her, leaving her hollow for a moment.
She hung there, wanting to slingshot herself toward Yacrist and punch him in that face that she loved so much, but the magic just wasn’t there.
Her belly hit the ground first and the tentacle continued to reel her toward Yacrist.
“Whatcha doing there, Eist?”
She looked up at him and drew in a deep breath, finding the magic that was so hard to reach now that she was back in the time of world-starvation. “Stopping you,” she answered frankly before ordering her body back to her feet again.
It was just like her fight with Farmad, where one moment, she was on her back and the next, she was on her feet in front of Yacrist. She slammed both of her hands into his chest, and the both of them were knocked back by the resulting blast.
When she landed, she was relieved to see that there were no tentacles attached to her. She breathed deep, grinding her feet into the ground, and called upon more of that energy that flowed so thinly.
Bolts of light popped into existence all around her, filling the air like a hundred arrows. When Yacrist came to a stop, still upright, she loosed them all toward him at once.
He smiled and relaxed as if everything was fine. That lasted for less than a breath before his eyes went wide and he had to jump high into the air to avoid the volley. Eist could guess at what had happened. He probably had tried to shift like his old form would, but he was solid now.
He had to follow the same rules she did.
Yacrist landed hard in front of Dille, the force of his feet hitting the g
round sending the witch right onto her back. The woman pressed her hands upward and called a shield of magic around herself just as Yacrist’s arm turned into another spearing tentacle.
It bounced off on the first hit, and Eist could feel it all the way from where she was. On the next hit, the sharp point made it slightly into the enchanted barrier. Eist knew she had moments at best. They were outmatched. Outclassed.
Rushing forward, she drew her shortsword. She put everything into charging as hard as she could toward Dille, and once she was close enough, she vaulted off the shield with all her might.
Swinging her sword, she managed to cut the tentacle as she forced golden light through her blade. It turned to ash as soon as it hit the ground, and she tucked herself into a roll as she landed right in front of her friend.
Yacrist was back to seeming happy about the current situation and summoned a dark, inky blade to his hands.
“Come on, friends. I’d really rather not hurt you.”
Eist helped Dille to her feet, her mind running through all her options. How had they gone through so much to end up so powerless in an empty field just outside of the academy?
“What do we do now?” Dille asked.
“Follow the plan,” Eist said. “Gather supplies and find the spell they used to harness the power of the brindles.”
“I meant right now,” Dille panted, pulling a spell vial from her belt as Yacrist began to stalk toward them.
“I know,” Eist said before whirling on her friend.
“Wha—”
Although Eist had had plenty on her mind, she had watched both Dille and Zenith create their spells, felt how they twisted magic to their whim. Reaching into the last dregs of energy that she could feel swirling around them, she raised her hand and called a shaking, wobbling portal of light into being right behind Dille. And before her friend could react, Eist shoved her backwards into it.
“What are you doing!?” she heard Dille cry, frantically trying to grab at her.
“Saving your life,” Eist answered resolutely before pulling her friend’s grip from her tunic and closing the portal off.