Honor galloped behind Amalia as the thunder clapped over head. It will be harder to be accurate with bows at least, she thought as she practiced sitting straighter on the wolf, squeezing Amalia with her knees as she drew the bow back.
She had not held one in a long time, and even though Kaylar had tried to have her practice with it, she had never felt a familiarity with it. But today, when she drew it back, with intent to fight, her body moved in a way that suggested a memory. The muscle in her back was tight, the elbow with the string was down; the other bent in slightly to hold the bow at an angle that would not give her welts from the string. She lowered it. I wonder if there was ever a spell that could erase the mental scars Ieshans have left on my brain, she thought as she lay against Amalia.
The dragon was taking off from the cliff side after not one, but two sets of lightning had arced at it, searing the darkened sky with their light and roar. Rosalea cursed lightly under her breath.
“I am not taking you near that dragon,” Amalia said, hearing Rosalea despite the noise not being meant for her wolf. “Nauru will not forgive either of us if you do not come home.”
Amalia turned, loping parallel to the river that split the town side of the forest from this side of the forest, heading north. “No, not this way. I need to see if I can find Beryn. If we can cut the head off the snake, the body will die,” Rosalea recited an old proverb as if it would make perfect sense to the wolf.
“If the Gods see fit to deliver her to you, then we will go after her.”
Rosalea felt herself scowling at the wolf. “Then why are we down here? I thought you understood what we needed to do?”
“I do!”Amalia said in a smug tone that got right under Rosalea’s skin because it was so intense.
“Amalia!”
“Yes?” panted the wolf.
Their progress was halted not by fire or by humans with dangerous arrows. It was by Connall moving into view ahead of them and howling.
Amalia stopped, Taigan brought a panting Honor to a stop just behind her. Two other wolves emerged from the trees to the side of them. “You were not invited here,” said the leader of the other pack in a mocking tone.
“Funny,” Amalia said as her hackles began to stand up. “I thought with all the fire threatening your space, you might like to have some help.”
“We have things well in hand.”
Amalia looked north, and then she looked back to Connall. “I see your part of the woods do not burn.”
He bowed to her in a mocking way. Then, he said simply, “Kill them, except the human woman.”
Taigan threw himself off the side of his horse as a wolf leaped at him from the cover of bushes near them, the teeth clicking shut close to his head. Rosalea guessed that Taj had warned him.
Amalia was tackled by Connall himself, but Amalia literally threw her with her magic, sending Rosalea tumbling head over heels into the grass toward the river. Rosalea landed on the flat of her back, and as she stared up into the stormy sky, she saw the approach of the red dragon. He called the dragon, she realized.
Amalia yelped sharply, calling Rosalea back to her senses despite being banged up. Taigan was using his dwarven sword to fight back from the wolf that was coming at him, Honor was standing stock still and snorting, with Taj on his saddle.
Amalia was struggling against Connall and two other wolves, and a dragon with who knew what magic was about to land.
Rosalea howled. She did not know if any wolves would be listening for her like they were when Taigan took her from Miron, but she did know that she would not sound like a wolf, and she knew she did not belong here according to the rest of the pack.
Then, she put the bow over her body, pinning down the arrows in her quiver, and she ran to help Amalia. The white wolf fur was showing blood, and Rosalea felt panic surge through her as she drew her knife.
The wolves fighting Amalia were focused on that fight. Rosalea raised her knife. A faint memory stirred, of rushing Ulric once, wanting to kill him. Back then, she had not been able to do it.
Today, she plunged the blade right into the black wolf’s hip, twisted and pulled back. The wolf did turn back to bite at her, but Rosalea was able to duck back just far enough to avoid the teeth clicking shut near her. The wolf tried to lunge, but the injury was too much, and it lost its footing with a yelp. Rosalea backed up, shaking off her bloody knife and keeping a strong grip on it.
The wolf’s brown eyes were wide with pain and panic, but Rosalea was trying to decide if she had to do more to it or just jump back in and try to help Amalia, who was pinned by Connall and the other wolf.
She backed up more, forgetting for a moment about the dragon, and she knocked an arrow, planning to just plant it somewhere in Connall’s middle. Would it kill him? She was confident it wouldn’t. He was too big and strengthened by the magic of being a mystic. Rosalea wished it would though.
She drew back, but the wood of the bow came to life in her hands, curling around her left hand as the wood sprouted leaves. Rosalea tried to let go, but the grip of the now living wood was too strong. She was pulled by her left hand toward a waiting dragon, who was clearly the source of this particular problem. I have to confess, I have never thought to bring people’s weapons back to life, Rosalea could not help but admire just the tiniest bit as more panic spiked through her. She tried to dig in her heels and straighten out her fingers so that her fingers could slip free.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
It worked luckily, but she had a new problem. The wolf she had stabbed grabbed her with its teeth by the shoulder, capturing her. She was surprised that the pressure was intense, but did not crush into her shoulder.
For a second time that night, Rosalea was sent flying as something hit the wolf that had grabbed her. This time, she landed on her side in the grass, which began to grow wildly around her to also try to grab her. Rosalea scrabbled to her feet as she saw Nakai fighting the wolf that had grabbed her.
Rosalea had lost his knife. She missed her magic. Her bow was on the ground, but it was destroyed. She had only arrows in a quiver.
Taigan yelped as he suddenly came to his knees. Rosalea knew that feeling. The dragon’s spell of ownership disrupted his thought process. Honor tried to stand over him, but he was not going to be a match for the mystic that paced back and forth and readied itself for a pounce.
We are in so much trouble, Rosalea thought as she stood still, the dragon approaching calmly now. Rosalea let Nakai work to defend his sister. She couldn’t do anything about the dragon, but she could try to help Taigan. She sprinted over to him, the dragon chuckling as she took his dropped blade up and stood between him and the dragon and the traitor mystic.
“If you come willingly, I will let all your animal friends go,” Carnelian said. “We need to talk, you and I.”
Rosalea hesitated. The way things were right now, it was… maybe a good trade.
“Do lizards only make stupid deals?” a familiar voice called from the trees. Lightning arced down again, blinding everyone as it struck the dragon with a big boom. Raisa. Rain between Rosalea and the wolf became like needles of ice that pelted all around her as Raisa’s imber magic came into play in the environment, pricking the enemy wolves and driving them back as little blade after the little blades of sharpened ice dropped against them.
The dragon was not that affected, but she was definitely disoriented by the lightning strike. Rosalea hoped that Raisa had another one of those in her despite the sickness that had been slowly spreading through her.
Rosalea glanced back at Amalia. Nakai was standing over her, Connall was standing beneath a shield of water that could only just stop the driving ice blades. Things felt stalemated for a moment.
Rosalea picked up Taigan’s bow. It took more force for her to pull back, it was a hunting bow, and not a lighter weight fighting bow as he had first handed to her. She knocked an arrow, pulled back the string, Connall was talking to Raisa, but she didn’t hear as she focused. I have not fired an arrow in years, please let this one fly true, she thought desperately.
She let go. The string was wet, slick, and it burned her fingers when she let it go. That made her yelp. Perhaps it was that noise or the fact the arrow feathers were wet when it flew through the air, but Connall moved just enough that the arrow struck him on the shoulder, stopped by the bones instead of piercing through heart or lungs.
He did go down for a second, the arrow hit him so hard.
The dragon got back on her feet and tried to just rush to grab at Rosalea. Nakai launched himself at them, his wings going out and getting peppered by his sister’s ice rain before she could adjust it. Rosalea reached out for Nakai.
The dragon turned her head and reached out for him.
Thunder cracked overhead but did not land anywhere near them.
The dragon grabbed Nakai out of the air with her teeth on one of his wings.
Apparently deciding that there was too much resistance, and she had captured a prize with having, she chomped Nakai harder.
Rosalea thought she might have screamed, but she heard screaming as the dragon took off. Raisa and Amalia ignored Connall and his wolves as they ran after their brother.
Connall was still on the ground. Rosalea tugged on Taigan, “Just pretend we are going toward the dragon, and the spell will let you up. We have to go,” he was white and trembling, so she repeated herself.
He nodded, and they climbed up on Honor and he galloped them south, toward the bridge over the river, as if he was headed toward the town that he was now bound to.
The uninjured wolves gave chase for a little way, but Nekana and Bazil appeared near the bridge. They turned and fled.
“Where is Amalia? Was she not with you?”
“The dragon took Nakai!”
Bazil ran back the way they had just come.
Nekana looked a little crushed. “What happened?”
“Connall called Carnelian. She came for me. She came for me!” Rosalea felt the panic, the horror spreading through her.
Nekana winced and danced. “If I leave you alone, there is nothing that will stop them… but if I stay here,” she looked the way Bazil had just run.
“Please go and protect your family,” Taigan said. “We will go back to the den and Taj will help us stay away from the wolves. We will go the long way around to it.”
Nekana hesitated… but then also ran after her family.
Rosalea felt herself shivering. Taigan turned Honor back toward the den.
“That dragon is going to keep coming for me. We have to do something.”
Taigan looked thoughtful. “We cannot go after Beryn, even though you want to. What else can we do?”
Rosalea did not know.
Smoke from the slowly extinguished fire was burning her nose. Somewhere not too far off there was the unearthly shriek of a boar… that had likely been burned by the poison.
“The den is elevated. It is our best chance until we can regather,” Taigan said again.
Rosalea felt tears leaking from the corners of her eyes. She felt cold and wet. She felt… anxious and cold inside. I have to do something, she thought, clinging onto Taigan’s bow as he took them back.
Please be all right, she thought to all the wolves. This was always a trap, but it was for me as much as it was for you. The dragon must have known for some time right where she was; Connall had told her.
Why would he side with someone burning his home?
She felt sick. What is the dragon doing with mystics it captures?
Neither of them spoke when they reached the den. Nauru ran up to her and cried again. She held him tightly and pressed her face into his coat. Taigan took back his bow and sword, climbed a tree, and put himself on watch to protect them from anything coming this way.
Sasha limped out. “Even Raisa went when you called. I wish… I could help. Where is Miri?”
Rosalea realized with a sick feeling she had not seen the pup with her mother… she had not seen Mere either.