Chapter 17 #2
I recoiled into the hard sticks beneath me, unable to look away as the Dragon came for me, my death a certainty glimmering in its silver eyes. Feathers clung to it like a mane, coating the backs of its legs too, though the talons which were outstretched and aimed my way drew more of my focus.
I really did scream then, fear and failure coating the sound as my end rushed towards me with such certainty that I could do nothing to escape it.
But just before the spirit could attack me, Hendrix leapt from the trees, swinging his sword and colliding with the beast so hard that they were knocked aside.
The two of them hit the edge of the nest to my left and the entire thing rocked violently as if it might flip over.
A sharp branch snagged in the rope which bound my hands and my desire to survive this place took over as I began to tug and saw at them.
Hendrix swung his blade again but the Dragon twisted to meet it, claws swiping with a savage blow which knocked the sword from his hands.
The Fae didn’t even flinch, ducking beneath the strike of the enormous beast and ripping a pair of daggers from his belt instead.
I cursed him as I watched him holding his own against a Dragon with a brutal efficiency which defied humanity. He moved so fast that the Dragon couldn’t catch him, parrying strikes from its razor-sharp claws and ducking low as it whipped its feather-lined tail straight for his head.
With a jerk, my bindings loosened as something snapped and I ripped my hands free of them, scrambling upright just as the Dragon lunged for Hendrix once more, its talons making it beneath his guard at last and striking him savagely across his chest.
Blood flew in a wild arc, splattering the tangled sticks and twigs which made up the creature’s nest, and Hendrix’s bellow of pain set my heart racing.
He fell back with another agonised cry and the Dragon pounced, its talons sinking into the nest either side of his head as it released a bellowing roar which made the forest shake.
Lightning exploded from its jaws as the rain pounded down on us even more forcefully and Hendrix jerked and roared as it slammed into him.
My lips parted in shock. He was going to die. The great Fae warrior had been felled by a spirit of these cursed woods and I was watching as it stole his final moments from him.
I stared at the Dragon, its focus fully on my enemy, and in that moment I fell prey to what I could only describe as a madness of my own.
I broke into a run, a cry parting my lips as I took a running jump and leapt onto the back of the Dragon, landing squarely behind its shoulder blades, its thick, serpentine body jolting beneath me as it reacted to my presence.
Electricity coursed over its skin, lashing every inch of my body through my saturated clothes as it wheeled its head around and snapped at me. But I held on, my position too close to its head to allow it to reach me, the smooth scales beneath my palms flexing and rippling with effort.
The Dragon roared in fury, but beneath that I could feel a hollow ache in its soul. I didn’t know how else to describe it, but I knew the loss which clung to it. The spirit was lost, empty, aching and alone and I understood all too well how that felt.
I was gutted by that feeling, the weight of it humming in the air around us, my chest hollowing out at the emptiness this poor being endured.
I was one with the spirit in that second, every moment of sorrow, regret and guilt which had plagued me for so many years humming throughout my body, my pain a mirror to the agony encompassing this creature of legend.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, my grip on it tightening, my hold becoming an embrace as the purity of its heartache washed through me and my own grief sharpened in reply.
My fear shattered and reformed in pain, my breaths coming as sharp stab wounds which stuck at my aching heart.
A tear slipped from my eye and rolled down my cheek, mixing with the rain before spilling from my skin and falling against the shining scales of the Dragon beneath me.
A jolt rocked through my body and I gasped as a blast of wind barrelled over me, whipping my hair away from my face and almost tearing me from my position on the Dragon’s back.
The spirit stilled, its head tipping back and a note of song escaping it which echoed out into the trees, everything falling eerily silent in its wake as even the rain paused to hear it.
The scale where my tear had fallen shimmered and sparkled before my eyes, and I stared as the white darkened to lilac beneath me, that single scale becoming something new.
My spine arched as a jolt of power raced through me, my vision sharpening on the sky above, my veins buzzing with unknown energy, my world dividing and reforming in a single heartbeat.
I sagged forward as the power released me as fast as it had come, my arms locking around the spirit’s neck as I choked down heaving breaths and tried to get my bearings in a world which seemed to have flipped on its axis around me.
Something white fell against my cheek in a soft embrace as if trying to soothe my trembling soul, but before I could turn to look at it, the Dragon leapt from the nest and burst into the sky.
I screamed as it took off, needing no wings to propel it toward the heavens but instead riding the wind as if it were born from it, its long body undulating in a current I couldn’t feel but which pulsed in the air all around us.
The outstretched branches of the trees slapped at my skin as we raced higher and higher, my grip so tight I was afraid I might choke the beast in my desperation to hold onto it and not plummet to my death.
My screams didn’t let up as we tore through the canopy and exploded into the sky beyond it, escaping the clutches of the forest as if we were breaching the surface of a great ocean.
The Dragon straightened, stilling in the air as it released another note of its sweet song into the sky.
I peeled myself upright, blinking as the rain slowed, then stopped, the forest revealing itself beneath us. We were so high that only the clouds remained above our heads, and I had to fight the swaying sense of vertigo as I forced myself to look down.
The forest extended in a great ring at the heart of the world below, the trees roaming in all directions, taking up so much of the land that it took me a moment to pick out anything which lay beyond its borders.
To the east, the glimmering wall the Fae had built divided their realm of Rivenspire from the one I’d grown up in, Arringfall.
The Fae and human lands extended beyond it, ringing the edges of the Taking Trees in a terrifyingly narrow band which ended abruptly at the edge of the ocean that surrounded Rathian on all sides.
I’d already known that we didn’t have another fifty years to break this curse but seeing so plainly the way the forest had devoured the land was chilling to behold.
I forced myself to look to the northwest where the Blight lay; the dark and barren lands where Bane Crownthief and his army of Hollows resided. The Necromancer the only thing in this cursed world which may have been worse than the forest.
I swallowed thickly as I took in the shadow of the lands he’d claimed for his army of the dead, hating to see how much of this narrowing world he’d managed to steal for his own.
He was a monster which devoured the land and gave no heed to Fae or humankind.
I’d gladly see him destroyed by this forest. He deserved the worst kind of death for his heinous deeds.
I turned my gaze back to the trees as the Dragon cried out again, spotting a few turrets and roofs, a windmill and even a flagpole still flying a tattered flag between the leaves.
Mostly there was nothing but greenery to see, but my gaze fell on an enormous elm tree which stood taller than all the rest, set right in the heart of the forest. There was a presence to it that made me feel as though it was watching me, the impressive branches fanned out and reaching for the eternal sky.
The tree didn’t sway or twist in the wind like those surrounding it.
In fact, it was eerily perfect, and the light reflecting from its golden-hued leaves in a shimmering glow made my chest tighten.
“That’s where we have to go to reunite the amulets?” I asked, uncertain why I was asking anything of a wild spirit. But as the Dragon turned its head to look at me, I found a deep wisdom in its eyes which resounded within my soul.
The spirit bellowed again and I screamed as it plummeted back into the trees, my arms locking tight around its neck as we shot towards the ground at an alarming pace, and I couldn’t help but clamp my eyes tight in fear.
The spirit halted with ethereal grace, and I peeled my eyes open to find it landing softly in the heart of its nest.
I slid from its back and it turned to look at me, pinning me in its silver gaze as my heart rose to pound in my throat.
A long moment passed between us, an understanding so primal that I felt it in the roots of my soul. We shared a loss too hard to bear and we shared the same desire too. Somehow, the Dragon knew I needed to win the boon the forest had to offer its saviour, not for me, but for something so much more.
The Dragon dipped its head, its brow pressing to mine, the cool scales sending zips of static across my skin. I didn’t dare breathe. I reached out to place my hands on either side of its enormous face and it allowed its eyes to fall closed.
“Don’t fail me.”
Shock splintered through me at the echoing voice inside my own head, but then the Dragon spilled away into a gust of wind, my hands closing on nothing as an amulet fell into the centre of the nest where it had stood just moments before.
My hand shook as I bent to take hold of it, the metal cool between my fingers as I lifted the amulet to inspect the carved dragon upon its surface.
I released a shaky breath as I looped the chain around my neck and a trembling laugh escaped me.