Chapter 62
Chapter
Sixty-Two
Elias gripped the pommel as Gerard descended, flying to where King Alaric had fallen. Branches and leaves blurred past. Gerard landed.
The king lay on his side, greenery crushed beneath his large body. Thankfully, King Alaric’s eyes remained open. His jaw gaped, teeth showing. He wheezed.
Gerard stepped close and lowered his head, nudging his father’s scaly throat.
Elias unstrapped himself and sprang from the harness. “Stay as a dragon,” Elias yelled to Gerard. “I don’t know what that magic was, but if we can get him to shift, we can fly him to the monastery and get him to the healer doves.”
Whilst many doubted the warrior monks’ ability to fight, no one doubted the healer monks’ capabilities. Gerard butted his father’s chest with his head. He growled low in his throat.
“Your Majesty.” Elias hesitated and then pressed a hand to the green scales. The king’s eye fixed on Elias.
“You need to shift,” Elias said, slow and loud. “Then we can fly you back to the White Monastery where you can be treated.”
The king stared at Elias for several moments. Then his eyes closed. He shuddered. The air thickened and rippled, and the scent of smoke grew thick. Elias took a step back as the king shifted into his human form.
Elias tugged off his own dirtied and bloodied coat and draped it over the king’s shoulders. It was far too small. But he managed to do up a single button at the man’s throat. The tall man trembled.
Elias wrapped an arm around the king. He helped him to his feet, leading him towards Gerard.
The trees whooshed. The air swirled. Elias cried out as a powerful blast of wind streamed past him, causing him and the king to fall to the ground.
But the wind smashed straight into Gerard, who was clearly the main target of the attack. Gerard stretched his wings, flapping against the blast. He took a step. Suddenly he was catapulted up, into the trees and above. He roared as he spun away.
Elias stared after him. Then he clutched at his throat. He opened his mouth wide, trying to get a proper lungful of air. But he couldn’t. He choked.
Over twenty wind sorcerers, including Anais and Beau, emerged from amongst the trees. Half of them had their gazes fixed on Elias, their fingers dancing and flowing in unity.
They’d cut off his air.
Above he saw Gerard turn and attempt to fly back towards them. But the other half of the sorcerers had their attention fixed on the dragon. They flung their hands forward, blowing Gerard further up into the sky.
He can’t get close enough. They will keep blowing him away.
“I don’t know how you survived,” Beau snarled. He and Anais stood at the front of the group, uninvolved with the casting. “But it ends for you now. You die here!”
“And you better not have harmed Mother!” Anais yelled.
Elias’s vision spotted as his lungs begged for air. He doubled over. With trembling hands, he signed. He blinked rapidly as the world blurred and grew fainter. Sparks danced on his fingers.
Beau and Anais laughed.
“Really, Elias?” Anais shook her head.
So they still didn’t know what he could do. They hadn’t seen him fighting in the air.
Anais laughed. “You’re really going to try that shitty little—”
Elias jabbed his fingers forward. Lightning struck her.
She screamed. Her whole body turned rigid as the lightning zapped along her skin. Then it jumped to Beau. Then to the next sorcerer. Then the next. And the next and the next and the next, until all of them spasmed and gasped as the lightning coursed through their bodies.
Elias sucked air into his lungs. He stood. “I guess my sparkles aren’t quite as shitty and pathetic as you thought!” he yelled. He glanced between Anais and Beau. “After all, they killed your mother.”
He let all his power flow from him into them, burning them up. His legs shook as his magic flowed, until he was sure they were dead. Then he stopped. He dropped his hands. His half-siblings and the other sorcerers collapsed on the ground as the lightning exited their bodies.
Elias swallowed. He took deep, gasping breaths. He swayed and closed his eyes. He’d used so much energy tonight. He didn’t know how much longer he could keep fighting.
The wind stirred around him. His eyes snapped open as he lifted his hands, ready to fight again. But it was Gerard landing beside him. He looked over Elias.
“I’m fine.” Elias was wounded, sore, and exhausted beyond belief. But he was fine. He placed a hand on Gerard’s body.
Gerard turned to his father. The king hunched, naked on the ground. Elias staggered over to him.
“Your Majesty!” Elias gripped his shoulders and helped him stand. The king wobbled. Elias led him to Gerard, who lay waiting on the ground.
“Climb up, Your Majesty.”
The king climbed into the harness, his movements shaky.
Elias got in behind him. Thankfully the harness had been designed to hold up to three people. He strapped both of them in. It did not go unnoticed to Elias that the king had yet to speak.
What was that magic that had hit him? What did it do to him? Elias had never seen that strange pale light before. Could it have belonged to those robed figures?
“We’re ready!” Elias yelled.
Gerard took to the skies. They flew straight towards the monastery. But as they flew, Elias spotted the three strange robed and masked figures amongst the trees.
It’s them.
Elias sat up. He lifted his hands and signed, dragging up the last dregs of the magic still in his body. He gritted his teeth. He screamed as he flicked his fingers down. Lightning zigzagged. It struck them.
Elias did not wish to kill them. They needed to be interrogated. After all, he did not know who they were or what their part was in all this plotting.
But Elias and Gerard had to get the king to the monastery. Saving him was their top priority. And he did not want these people getting away or attacking anyone else.
So Elias pulled on every last drop of energy he had left. He let it all flow and watched them collapse. But still, he kept pouring out his lightning, until he felt like he would pass out, until he was certain they were dead.
We’ll collect their bodies. Hopefully we can learn something from their corpses.
Elias closed his eyes as they flew. He sagged in the harness, the exhaustion too much.
In a handful of minutes, they landed in the courtyard at the White Monastery. A crowd had gathered. Elias had never seen the courtyard so full. But the dignitaries, nobles, ambassadors, and everyone else edged back, giving Gerard space to land.
Gerard’s siblings ran towards them.
But Elias’s gaze fixed on one specific individual amongst the crowd. “Grand Healer!” Elias shouted. “The king needs your help!”