31. Chapter 31
W e fought for what felt like hours, but no matter how many of the enemy we destroyed, there were always more to take their place. We were losing. Worse still, Vahin was in trouble, and even though he refused to admit it, his thoughts were sluggish, and his wings were struggling to keep us in the air.
‘ Orm! ’ he roared in warning before dropping several metres. I knew we were nearing the end, despite my sharing every ounce of strength I had. My dragon was dying—he’d sacrificed his life essence for too long.
‘ I know. Hold on as long as you can, but land when it gets to be too much. If you can’t fight, head for the camp so I can protect Ani, ’ I said, pointing towards her tent.
From the corner of my eye, a violet light caught my attention. At first, I thought it was a necromancer using their magic, but as I focused, I saw it twist and turn, reaching ahead like a forest fire. That was when I felt it: a wave of power that tugged in my chest moments before the conflagration washed over us like a tidal wave.
The spectrae flickered, freezing in place, but what I saw on the ground left me speechless.
The undead attacking the camp were on their knees, soldiers cutting through them as if harvesting wheat.
Not only were the spectrae paralysed, but every monster on the battlefield had stopped. The pause was brief, but when they moved again, they had reverted to their primal state. They no longer followed orders, instead running amok in every direction, attacking friend and foe indiscriminately.
Undead draugrs were on their knees, and every wraith unmoving, leaving the Moroi frantic and confused. At the very centre of the commotion, wielding the uncanny magic, was Annika. She walked through the battlefield surrounded by a cohort of women, and everywhere she went, the undead fell to the ground.
As I looked down at my stubborn woman, I realised her magic felt different; it didn’t give me that soft thrill in my chest it usually did. Instead, there was a dark, ominous aura surrounding her. It was the death of light, the end of hope—and it frightened me.
It wasn’t Annika. It wasn’t even Alaric. It was something so primal that I felt claws tighten around my throat.
‘ Vahin? ’ I asked, but he couldn’t answer as he tried and failed to keep us airborne. The spectrae followed us as we hurtled towards the ground, their bodies almost tangible, bloated with the life they’d siphoned from my dragon. Annika must have sensed us because she raised her head, tilting it slightly, and I flinched from the emotionless, icy gaze.
Despite my reaction, I couldn’t look away, falling into the depths of her black eyes, feeling death itself weighing on my soul.
The woman I loved with every fibre of my being terrified me and even the beast hidden inside me recognised that what looked back at me was no longer my Ani, but a being that had existed before time—as if Nyja, 1 the goddess of death, herself had come down to even the scales.
I didn’t hear what she said as she cast a spell, but the world around me exploded, consumed by fire. The spectrae screeched as they were incinerated, their tethers instantly vanishing from Vahin’s core.
The wind roared in my ears as my dragon beat his wings, the flames filling his body with vitality. We ascended at such speed that my breath was ripped from my lungs, and my ears deafened when he roared his defiance.
Vahin was unstoppable, black scales glowing blue as purple lightning streaked down his wings and heavy storm clouds rushed down from the mountains.
He circled, creating a ring of fire, but it was the lightning that scorched the ground that stunned me. My prime dragon, the Aether of Storms, showered the ground with thunderbolts and only then did I see the biesy descending upon Annika’s group.
I could barely hold myself in the saddle as the immense power of Annika’s spell reverberated through my very core, the excess of its power straining our Anchor bond. I knew Vahin’s flames—we’d been through this many times fighting spectrae—but the searing cold was new, freezing the remaining breath in my lungs.
Annika’s spell didn’t stop, branching out like lightning and saturating the clouds until ash poured from the sky. The soft powder fell on my face as the spell spread, incinerating the spectrae and decimating everything dead and undead. It even burned the corpses untouched by the Lich King’s magic. Everywhere I looked, dragons were free to fight the living monsters, and they roared in challenge, chasing after their winged foe.
The ash turned into a bloody haze filled with the screams of dying harpies and the maddening song of latawce. They all died, ripped to shreds by our raging dragons. Thunder shook the sky, and the heavy clouds thickened. Bloody ashen mist became blackened rain, clinging to clothes and dragon scales alike.
I’m riding the storm , I thought, taken aback by the display of power.
Vahin seemed to grow stronger, as if the clouds were replenishing whatever the spectrae took of him. But he didn’t engage in the fight. He flew above Ani, his worry growing with each passing moment.
‘ I cannot reach her, Orm. Our bond is there, but her thoughts are obscure, and I can’t read them. I thought I was doing us both a favour when I blocked her, allowing myself only one last goodbye. Now she doesn’t want me back .’
‘ She may be angry that we left her on the ground, but she will always want you back, ’ I said. ‘ It must be something else. Stop fretting and land. We can’t help her from up here. ’
He folded his wings, plummeting to the earth, but before we touched down, he snapped his wings open once more, pulling us back into the sky.
‘ What are you doing? ’ I barked, feeling the uncertainty in his mind.
‘ Tomma’s dragon requests our presence. Rarógs 2 are heading for the centre of the battle and my Little Flame’s circle. ’
I cursed. The last thing we needed were those damn fire demons. They were massive raptors with burning feathers, wickedly sharp claws, and deadly beaks that could even tear through a dragon’s scales. They were so agile that it would take a concerted effort to defeat them.
‘ How many? ’ I asked sharply, remembering how many men and dragons they’d wounded during our last skirmish.
‘ An entire flock. They are coming from behind the mountain ridge, ’ Vahin answered, ‘ We need to help the others, but my Little Flame ... ’
‘ I know, but we need to keep them away from the battlefield. It’s our best chance at keeping Ani and the army safe. ’
I could sense the conflict in his thoughts—the same conflict I was fighting within my own heart—but he couldn’t dispute the logic in my words.
We looked down one last time. Carnage reigned over the battlefield, but the space around Ani was eerily quiet, as if the monsters feared approaching her. Annika’s valkyries took full advantage, slaughtering their way across the battlefield.
My thoughts of protecting the woman who was single-handedly dealing with most of the enemy’s forces felt so ridiculous now that I laughed. I didn’t know what her plans were, but I knew she’d cleared the sky for the dragons, and whatever else she was planning, my presence didn’t seem essential or required.
‘ Look down, ’ I said . ‘ All we have to do is ensure nothing attacks her from above. She is perfectly fine there with her women. ’
I felt Vahin’s intense focus before his thoughts filled with contentment. ‘ Yes, my beautiful destruction; sometimes she terrifies me, ’ he rumbled with such pride that I smiled, grasping my sword.
‘ That makes two of us. ’
I remembered how I’d dismissed Ani’s circle of homegrown warriors, suddenly ashamed. Those women, barely trained and unused to battle, truly resembled the All-Father’s mythical warriors as they protected not just Ani but each other. If we survived this, I’d make sure to raise a monument to those brave souls. I raised my sword in salute as Vahin changed directions.
‘ Homegrown warriors? She will rip out your tongue if she hears you calling them that, ’ Vahin rumbled in my thoughts.
It was nice to feel his strength returning. Dragons recuperated fast, and Annika’s strange magic and rumbling storm clouds had bolstered his recovery. I couldn’t be happier, even if it raised the hair on my body, which was not a pleasant experience.
‘ They are valkyrie warriors, and I shall deny calling them anything else from now until my dying day, ’ I said . ‘ Now, are you ready to rip out some feathers? ’
‘ I thought you’d never ask. Come, Ormond, let’s prove our worthiness to her. ’
The pride in Vahin’s voice made me smile, and I held onto the pommel as he made a sharp left. Flying towards our next battle, Annika cast a spell that silenced the battleground like the tolling of funeral bells.
‘ Asaro! ’ 3
My sweet, loving Nivale was death incarnate.
1. Nyja — goddess of war and death and guardian of souls that have died a violent death.
2. Raróg (s.)/rarógs (pl.) /Pron: ra-roog/ — a fire demon that appears as a horse-sized falcon with a beak and claws made of burning embers, and wings that start fires while in flight.
3. Die!