50. Onora
Chapter 50
Onora
P lains sprawled out for miles as they traveled, the sameness of it a weariness all in its own. Time seemed to stretch and warp, minutes feeling like hours, each step leading them to a future unknown. A danger unknown.
Onora felt it deep in her bones. Every second with Dryston felt too precious, too breakable. She committed them all to memory, absorbing every moment, every breath, as if it were her last.
only you have the power to defeat her.
The voice’s words rattled in her brain all day. What would that entail? What would it mean to be the only one with the power to defeat Evoleen?
Onyx nudged her face, distracting her draining thoughts with a coo and a caress. She wrapped her arm around the gryphon, giving her neck scratches. Onyx leaned deeper into her, a rumbling purr coming from her chest as she did. This trip had been a bonding adventure with her, and she took turns flying, then circling back to walk with her amongst the others. There was no point in her moving too quickly.
For she had no idea what they would encounter when they came to the temple, and they very well could need the entire army.
Halst had brought several extra gryphons, ones that would obey her command, ready for any support they would need, and Onyx spent much of the day playing with them, rumbling in the grass, then flying up and twirling around one another in the air.
“You two are very close now,” Dryston said, a soft smile on his face as he took in the way Onyx kept close.
“Are you jealous?” she teased.
“I would be, if I didn’t like Onyx so much.”
Onyx cooed, dipping behind Onora to come to Dryston and nudge him playfully. He laughed, pulling out a small treat and giving it to her. Dryston spoiled the gryphon rotten, but Onora loved it. He spoiled her too, and she’d grown more used to it. He had a need to provide for others, and she had to admit that his attention to what she liked and needed made her feel so safe with him, so calm.
Gods but she loved him.
It ached like a bruise, yet blissful as a cool summer breeze on her cheeks. All her old wounds had sealed up, healing over, only for this love to lay her bare, vulnerable, aching, giving it to him and begging him to be gentle.
And he was. Always. Bit by bit her trust came back to her. Inch by inch she found vulnerability with him easier. Others? Not so much. But with him, yes.
They passed over the Emerald Gorge by noon, the going slow across the bridges and the flyers all took to the air, keeping watch, exulting in the freedom of flight. Dryston teased and enticed Onyx to chase him, and Onora let out a yell of angry curses as Onyx lurched up, cawing as she flew, twirling to chase him.
He looked back, flashing a grin that suddenly turned to shock as his body lurched and he let out a grunt of pain.
“Drys!” she cried out, making Onyx fly closer.
She saw it then, the arrow in his shoulder. Cries greeted their ears from the ground. Bedlam broke out below. Elves had emerged from the forest, full of their glinting armor, long bows ready, scythes flashing as they slashed at their soldiers.
Dryston was already flying for the enemy, his hands poised and ready with shadowfyre. She flew over too, uncoiling her power and taking in a shaky breath. She didn’t have great control yet and she still couldn’t tap into the goddess’s powers fully, but she hoped the ball of shadowfyre she was coiling up would work. Aiming to the farthest enemies from her allies, she let it go with a cry, and it barreled forward, narrowly missing Dryston and flashing on a hefty group in the back.
They screamed, the fires consuming them, and the others moved to evade, many falling to the swords of Killgan’s warriors. Arms shaking, she held tightly on to the saddle horn, focusing to regain her power. That had taken a lot out of her. Smoky tendrils caressed her cheek, and she drew her bow, taking aim. She would have to go with her old training for now, though she’d only just started practicing aerial fighting.
She pulled her arm back, aiming, taking in a deep breath, when commotion in the other direction caught her attention. More came from behind the hills, a swarming mass of soldiers rushing them from behind. Onora focused there, unleashing her first arrow and hitting her target, then one right after the other.
More poured out of the forest, and the battlefield was a flurry of blood, shadows, and a variety of magic creating bursts of multicolored light. A blast hit the gorge and a wave sprayed up, taking warriors back with it, and Onora shifted Onyx, guiding her with her knees to loop around and go lower. It was more dangerous, but she needed to be closer, to help the people stuck on the ground.
She sent out arrows, more shadows, whatever she could muster in her to help those on the ground. But there were so many, so, so many. They would be overwhelmed. She leaned forward, patting Onyx on the neck.
“I need you to drop me in the middle,” she said.
Onyx tilted her head, giving her a backward glance. It was a risk. One that might kill her. And perhaps it was foolhardy, but she needed to, she had to try.
Will you help me?
The goddess seemed to yawn, her power unfurling at the request.
Maybe a little faster?
A chuckle resounded in her mind.
Yes, dear, let’s teach them a lesson.
Onyx dipped, understanding as she always did, and followed as Onora guided her to the middle of the enemies from the hills. They cried out as she came near, arrows whizzing past, when one sliced open her cheek.
She didn’t have time to think about that. Pulling out her axes, she unbuckled herself from the saddle and when she was close enough, she jumped to the ground, rolling and somehow making it upright. She was surrounded, and she heard Dryston’s cry of anger from somewhere, but she needed him to stay back, stay far away.
Now!
The ground beneath her turned first to frost, the crystals bursting from her feet outward, making the elves surrounding her back up, gasping. But they weren’t quick enough, and it climbed up their feet and legs, claiming them, wrapping around them until their screams were covered up with ice.
Then darkness drifted around her, swirling and warping the world in her vision, and the warriors cried out. She was aware of them fleeing, feeling their footsteps reverberate in the earth and she somehow knew where each one was precisely. The darkness sought them, collapsing them in like a crumpled piece of paper, swallowing their cries into the void.
When it cleared, her breath puffed in the air and she looked around to see that they were all dead, save for a few fleeing far off on the plains, away from them. The warriors on the other side must have fled or been killed because all she saw were her allies staring at her in blank shock, then Dryston landing in front of her, sprinting toward her as the world went black again.
She woke in Dryston’s arms. His hand stroked her hair and she nuzzled closer to him, enjoying the warmth of the furs.
“Where are we?” she asked.
“In the Harrow Woods,” he said. “Only a little ways in. How are you feeling?”
“Good,” she said, then sat up swiftly, checking him for his arrow wound.
He chuckled. “All healed.”
She let out a sigh of relief. “No poison?”
“None that the orc healers couldn’t fix.”
“Did we lose very many?”
He shrugged, tucking a tendril of hair behind her ear. “Not as much as them.”
“They were elves, Drys,” she said, the information her mind hadn’t been able to process before coming to her full force. “Wearing the armor of King Leeth’s soldiers.”
Sadness flashed in his eyes. “Yes. And it seems they were waiting for us—it was meant to be a trap.”
She cupped his face, giving him a long look before she kissed him. “We know nothing yet.”
He nodded, pulling her tighter against him. “We will take it one day at a time.”
The flap to their tent opened and Enid poked her head in. “You’re awake! Good, because Killgan wants to discuss strategy.”
Onora scrambled to her feet, her body barking in pain as she did, and Dryston wrapped an arm around her waist to help steady her. They walked to Killgan’s tent where the other leaders were all gathered around a table, lit by flickering lamplight.
“That was an interesting trick you did today,” Killgan said, eyeing her appraisingly.
“I wish I’d done it sooner,” she said.
“You saved many lives today—we’re grateful,” he said. “After the attack, we believe that the humans will be waiting for us. Enid, tell them what you saw.”
“I went scouting with Kaemon earlier,” Enid said, hand resting on the hilt of her sword. “I didn’t go far enough to see everything, but there’s enough fires and other movement in the fields between the woods and Venatu that it seems they are ready and waiting for something, at least. Either us, or they are preparing for the portal to open.”
Onora drew in a deep breath. This was going from bad to worse.
Killgan gestured to the map on the table. “Avenay has been helping us chart where exactly the temple may be.”
She leaned over, looking at it. The temple that Dryston’s colony had been slaughtered at wouldn’t be it, no, it would be one farther out. She’d spent little time in the woods outside Venatu, but enough strange folktales had been inspired by it that she had little doubt that it was where the temple was located.
“We need to focus on getting Onora to the temple safely,” Avenay said, pointing to the woods. “It may take some time to locate it. There’s a chance that it’s shrouded, much like Evolis was. If this is the last one, then it is the most powerful source. I believe it is closer to the eastern edge of the woods, near Venatu. Older maps show a road leading to a spot there. We are four days away from the full moon. Based on the ritual in Evolis, and dates compared to the most recent attacks, we believe that is when they will be trying to perform the rite to bring Evoleen back.”
“We will go to the woods, ready to engage and hold them off for you. But there very well may be many in the woods as well. We need all the flyers to go overhead and see if you can locate the temple that way first,” Killgan said.
“This is dangerous,” Onora said. “Can we not traverse those woods and avoid the human soldiers altogether?”
Killgan shook his head. “We would have to pass through the mountains, and these are too treacherous. The flyers could try that way first, but if you’re attacked, we will be at least a day away from you.”
“We can’t risk that,” Dryston said. “We proceed with the original plan.”
Onora swallowed her protest. They were right. But it meant that many would die for this to happen. She had half a mind to leave in the night, go it alone with Onyx. But that would be foolishness. There was too much at stake now. Far too much.