As soon as the Wind Warriors were far enough back, their own elite warriors rose above the heads of their troops, raised their arms, and flung them forward as if pitching intangible forces at the Alphas and at Bradley.
She heard the attack, louder than the loudest train she had ever heard, before she saw its effects.
The elite Wind Warriors had thrown a series of giant, hurricane-force columns of wind directly at the Alphas and at Bradley, and her people scattered under the onslaught like wheat before a combine harvester.
The Rune Corp employees in the building paused their chanting as they watched the destruction of their strongest team.
As soon as the Alphas were down, the Wind Warriors rallied and renewed their attack on the building.
Before they could go too far, their progress was cut short, however, as a giant wall of flame rose from the ground in front of them. Even through the walls of her building, Cara thought she could hear the tormented screams of the attackers who were unable to stop their forward momentum in time as their flesh was engulfed in burning, inescapable fire.
Cara looked closer and saw Bradley, propped up on one elbow, still fighting. He held the wall of fire as long as he could before finally dropping to the ground in exhaustion. As the flames disappeared, the Wind Warriors approached once again, albeit more cautiously this time.
Her head dropped in mourning, Cara took a deep breath and walked over to Oodrosil. It was almost time for their last line of defense, and to do so, she was going to need the mighty yew tree’s help.
She put her hand on Oodrosil’s trunk and began to communicate with her old friend. She immediately connected with the tree’s thoughts, but there was something wrong. Despite the yew’s valiant efforts at directing the boulders and the trees outside, the tree’s thoughts—its energies—were disjointed, distracted.
It was as if the spirit of the great tree were elsewhere, with someone else. Cara tried her hardest to get Oodrosil’s attention—to focus the yew on the impending disaster at hand—but she found herself suddenly shut out from Oodrosil’s mind completely.
Cara kept her hand on Oodrosil’s trunk, but opened her eyes and turned to look back at the video screens. Some of the Alphas were slowly getting to their feet again, but their formation had been broken, and the Wind Warriors swarmed over and past them as they re-focused on what Cara assumed was their main mission—to overtake Rune Corp and to steal their technology and their divinium.
Cara reached out to Oodrosil one last time, even as she felt the pounding at the building walls increase, and she saw the first crack in the plastic shielding that heralded the end of the company her father and she had spent their lives building.
CHAPTER 79
TAMAMI WATCHED from miles above the embattled Rune Corp building as the last of the three units the Emperor had dedicated to the siege descended and joined the assault.
All was quiet in the outpost, and only she, General Hiroshi, and his messenger remained.
Below, she could hear more than she could see the utter destruction that was being wrought by both sides. The humans were putting up more of a fight than the Emperor or she would have thought possible.
Many of the screams she heard were from her own people, and this saddened Tamami. She offered a silent prayer to Araki, asking that their life essences would return to the Wind Dragon and be born again into higher stations than those of soldiers in their next lives.
The pain and loss of life was regretful but unavoidable, but she had predicted that the Emperor would act this way, eventually attacking Rune Corp to obtain Merrick’s special form of divinium and the technology his company had invented that allowed even humans to wield magic so easily and effectively.
How could he not?
It was the right thing for the Emperor to do, or at least that is what the people would think. After all, the citizens of the Cloud City already believed that Merrick had killed their Prince during what was supposed to be only a friendly sparring tournament. When it was revealed to the citizenry that the Prince had miraculously survived, the people would still want Merrick’s head for his attempted assassination. And they would also want to be assured that Merrick’s group of humans would not be capable of using the power of the dragons against them in the future.
At first, only a few knew that the Prince had not perished, including the Emperor, the Abbess, and Tamami herself. Now that the Emperor had deployed his elite unit to the Earth City to await Merrick’s return while under the command of the Prince himself, word was spreading quickly among all their forces that Prince Takehiko had indeed survived the assassination attempt.
Without even having to die, the Prince had become a martyr—a name around which the Wind armies could rally.
She was sure that the Emperor hoped the Prince and his forces would be successful in capturing Merrick and in determining the source of the Rune Corp divinium, but she also knew that the Emperor would not rely on that to happen.
To ensure his possession of the magical stone and the human technology, the Emperor had decided to take advantage of Merrick’s absence and to simply take what he wanted directly from Rune Corp itself.
She knew the Emperor well enough to know that he acted not only from a logical standpoint but also because he felt it was his divine duty to keep the power of magic from humans…unless, of course, they were humans who fought for the Emperor himself and for the glory of Araki.
Tamami also knew that the Emperor did not actually believe that Merrick was worthy of being the Ard Righ, despite what he had been leading Merrick to believe.
She prayed that the siege below was successful and that Merrick’s precious Rune Corp was destroyed once and for all, but she disagreed with the Emperor about Merrick’s destiny. She hoped that he would survive whatever the Prince had in store for him and that he would finally realize that his future lay with his fellow Drayoom and not with the humans.
Tamami had only one more piece of her plan to put into motion, and then she would be one step closer to realizing her dreams, and the dreams of the Abbess, of creating a new era—not just for the Wind Family, but for all her Drayoom brothers and sisters everywhere.
And even though Merrick did not know it yet, he would play a major part in those dreams, even more so than he already had.
CHAPTER 80
“I HAVE A PLAN,” Merrick said, his body still held fast to the ground by the branches of pure divinium.
Jonathan grunted.
“Think about what it took to get this far,” Merrick said. “First, we needed to use Terrada’s magic to make it across the sea. Then we had to use Araki’s magic to fly over the forest when the trees were too dense to move through. Finally, we had to use Sigela’s magic to see our way through the last part of the forest because it was too dark. That only leaves Lagu’s magic that we haven’t used yet.”
“How’s water going to help us get loose from these trees?” Jonathan said as he struggled to raise his head up enough to look at Merrick as he talked with him.
“It’s not,” Merrick said. “Not directly at least.”
Merrick closed his eyes and concentrated as hard as he could. Lagu’s language was the one he had studied the least, but he remembered some basic words, and he began to emote the Water Dragon’s words for forming water from air. He looked over at the trunk of the dying tree that held him with its branches and saw a sphere of water now floating directly in front of it in the air.
Carefully, Merrick commanded the water to pour out of the sphere and onto the roots and the soil that surrounded the tree. As Merrick watched, the divinium tree seemed to straighten itself slightly. And then, faster than possible, the tree righted itself completely, and the colors inside its black veins glowed richer and more full of life just like the divinium trees they had encountered earlier.
As the tree continued to grow healthier, its roots and limbs loosened around Merrick and Jonathan.
“I think this was all part of a test,” Merrick said, rub
bing his neck where a thick root had just released its hold. “Abred knew all of the dragon languages. It makes sense that only someone who knows all four of the dragon tongues should be able to make it to the heart of Abred’s forest.”
“That makes sense,” Jonathan said, making his way to his feet with a soft groan as the last of the branches released him.
Jonathan raised his leg, about to step onto the black grass in front of him, when Merrick pulled him back.
“Wait,” Merrick said. “I think this was more than a test. It was also a lesson. Isn’t that right, Oodrosil?”
Merrick shouted across the clearing to the shimmering black yew tree.
“I’ve figured out the secret of the stone. Divinium isn’t a stone at all. It’s not even a tree. It’s a living being unto itself. Maybe even a single living creature that you’re just a part of—that all divinium is a part of.
“I can’t just take as much divinium as I want from here, no matter how noble my intentions might be. If I did that, it would mean killing parts of this forest. I realize that now.
“That’s why you let Ohman come here for the divinium. Because he was smarter than me. More mature than me. Wiser than me, for certain.
“Since I began this journey, I’ve been rescued by living creatures from Terrada’s kingdom again and again. Things that weren’t Drayoom or even human, but were just as noble. But I was still enough of an idiot to break off a branch from the first tree I saw when I arrived here.
“I swear to Terrada that I understand my lesson now. If you will allow us to leave this place, I will only take branches from trees that have already fallen—trees that have passed on to their next lives already.
“I thought I’d find a new truth at the end of this quest, but instead I’ve had to learn the first rule of magic once again—that magic is neither created nor destroyed, and that I need to work in tune with my surroundings—with the elements of the planet—instead of just taking from them when it serves my personal agenda.
“Please let me approach, mighty Oodrosil.”
The yew did not respond.
Merrick looked over at Jonathan.
“Stay here,” Merrick said.
Merrick spoke the words of Araki and floated into the air. He walked forward, the bottom of his feet mere inches above the grass, just as he had seen the members of the Wind Family do when not among their clouds.
As he walked above the grass in this holy place, Merrick remembered a dream he had last year, about an open field of grass being a living creature.
As he moved closer to the yew tree, Oodrosil did not stop him.
Merrick halted mere inches away from the divinium tree. With caution, he held his hand out and touched its ancient trunk. Where his skin touched it, the tree glowed and swirled in greens, reds, blues, and whites.
Moving images flooded Merrick’s brain so fast that he could barely process them all. He saw energy in the form of color endlessly being transported across the world and then back again as the planet engaged in a complex and intricate balancing act. He saw hurricanes, twisters, earthquakes, and waves decimating random populations of humans. And then he saw Ohman standing under a pulsating black tree—a tree that Merrick recognized as the same one standing directly in front of him in the clearing.
The scene changed again, and he saw Oodrosil standing alone in the middle of an immense green field, long before the day that it had chosen to live at Rune Corp. The mighty tree’s shadow began to move on its own, and Merrick watched as it turned into the black yew tree in front of him.
The images faded from his mind, and Merrick focused on the black yew tree. As he looked closer, he saw a faint image of Oodrosil shimmering just behind its layer of pulsating black bark, like a mirrored reflection from another dimension.
The one tree was a reflection of the other. Each tree was the other.
Merrick cast a glance at a different tree to his left and saw the faint form of a Drayoom, or maybe even a human, merged with its trunk like an apparition as well.
When Merrick looked closer at the individual pieces of the forest surrounding the clearing, he saw bodies and faces hidden in each of them.
And then he knew.
Just a few moments ago, he had thought that he finally understood the secret of the stone—the truth behind the divinium of the forest—but once again, he hadn’t understood anything at all.
The divinium in this forest was more than a collection of magical trees and stones and insects.
It was also more than just a living organism.
The divinium in this forest was directly tied to the collective life force of every living thing on the planet.
However large Merrick had come to think the forest was, he now suspected that it was immeasurably larger—big enough that he might never find its end, even if he walked through it forever.
“Does my life force, my inner magic exist somewhere in this forest as well, Oodrosil?” Merrick asked. “Am I paired with a tree or a rock somewhere here?”
He silently wondered if Mona’s internal energy existed here also.
But the black yew tree did not send any images into Merrick’s mind in reply to his questions.
Perhaps he was still not yet ready for all of the forest’s secrets, Merrick thought to himself.
Merrick felt suddenly tired, and keyed by his fatigue, Merrick absently replayed a mental video of Rune Corp workers leaving, exhausted at the end of the day and being restored by Oodrosil as they departed.
Merrick had often wondered from where and how the mighty yew tree tapped into that much power on a daily basis without ever showing signs of wear on its own body. Looking around at the multitudes of tiny, almost imperceptible lights pulsing on and off throughout the forest, he finally knew the answer.
“This is how you heal the Rune Corp employees every day when they leave to go home,” Merrick said. “You let them draw from whichever piece of the forest represents their life force. Does that mean that they’re going to live shorter lives? Or do you give them some of the magical energy from this place, taken in almost imperceptible quantities from across the entire forest?”
Despite the lack of response from Oodrosil, Merrick hoped for and suspected the latter.
He had been taught repeatedly that the only way to take energy in a responsible manner was to borrow it in small, infinitesimal amounts from myriad sources, where no single donor felt the pang of loss to sharply.
Merrick’s inability to consistently apply this lesson to his own life was why Oodrosil hadn’t wanted Merrick to find the Forgotten Forest in the first place or to discover its lost secrets. Oodrosil was afraid that if Merrick saw the vast power of the divinium from this forest, he would take as much back with him as he could carry, with no care to the damage he’d be doing to the living forest or any of the creatures it represented who lived on the planet.
Merrick bowed his head to Oodrosil.
“I didn’t know,” Merrick said to Oodrosil. “I won’t forget my lesson this time.”
Silence.
“I’m not Ohman, but I hope you’ll allow me to come back here in the future and to carry on Terrada’s quest to unify the dragon tongues,” Merrick said. “I’ll give everything I have to do so. Even if it takes my whole lifetime or my life to accomplish it.”
A final image flashed into Merrick’s mind—an image that he did not want to see.
It was an image of him sitting on the throne of the Earth Clan as its Ard Righ.
Before he could respond, the images in Merrick’s head went dark, and he knew that it was time to go. He turned around and glided through the air, back to where Jonathan waited.
“We have to go back to the Earth City,” Merrick said.
Merrick looked back to gaze one last time at the embodiment of Oodrosil’s inner magic. Standing in front of the black tree were the two bone-white, naked figures Merrick had seen when he and Jonathan had first entered the forest. Their faces were still placid and calm, but Merr
ick thought that he saw the male figure show the faintest sign of a smile.
“Are we taking any of the divinium back with us?” Jonathan said.
“The next time we come back,” Merrick said, as the two of them began their journey out of the forest and back to the shore. “Now that I’ve seen what someone has to do to get to the center of the forest, I’m not as concerned with the Emperor finding and using this place any time soon.”
Jonathan laughed and shook his head, as the two of them readied the boat.
They still had a ways to go before getting home, but this time, at least Merrick knew the way.
CHAPTER 81
AT LAST, OODROSIL THOUGHT, Merrick had learned his lesson.
He had saved the tree instead of trying to fight his way out of the situation. And more importantly, he had learned that he could not take unthinkingly from the Forgotten Forest. He had finally shown temperance and wisdom and restraint.
Now, with Merrick under control and on his way back to the Earth Clan, Oodrosil could pay its full attention to the situation at Rune Corp.
Cara’s hand was still on Oodrosil’s trunk, and the tree used this connection to communicate with the mind of Ohman’s daughter. Oodrosil could tell exactly what Cara was thinking and what she thought had to be done.
After a quick assessment of the situation outside the building, Oodrosil agreed with her plan. The tree told the other Earth elements outside what it planned on doing so that they could prepare, and then the mighty yew tree disconnected from all of them.
Oodrosil focused, and soon the earth under and around the Rune Corp building began to shake.
With all of its force of will, Oodrosil caused the ground around the building to heave upward and to form a protective shell around the entirety of the building. Some of the Wind Warriors were engulfed in the ruptures of the earth while others were entrapped in chasms that led deep into the ground.
A large portion of the enemy forces were decimated, and the rest seemed to have their collective will sapped from them as they turned from thoughts of siege to acts of saving their wounded and fallen comrades as quickly as they could.
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