Chapter 44
CHAPTER FORTY FOUR
Through some miracle, I made it out of the labyrinth before all others.
I’d only met two dead ends before finding a shaft of light that led me outside to where the Great Elm loomed at the heart of a circular courtyard ringed with a high wall.
The tree’s bark was covered in rivers of beautiful markings and its branches fanned above me with leaves that gleamed beneath the rising moon.
Dusk had given way to the dark blanket of night during the time it had taken us to reach this place, and I feared how long I had been parted from Ferris.
I could feel the Great Elm’s power down to my bones, this spirit of the ancient wood.
It was assessing me as I approached it with the Bear, the Wolf and the Fox around me, casting its judgement upon my worthiness.
My spirits let out groans and whimpers of joy, like they were hopeful of what was to come at the culmination of the Great Hunt.
Jadina wailed, clawing at her hair and looking around in anxious need.
Because she had not yet done my will, but she was clearly in turmoil over it as Benson remained close to her in anguish.
The Great Elm’s power crackled through the atmosphere, drawing the hairs on my arms to stand on end and my lips to part in awe of it.
It was so very fearsome, but majestic in its size and beauty too.
Its strength hummed in the earth, buzzing in the air.
This sacred being could offer me the boon.
I was so close to capturing it, so close to all I had dreamed of for so, so long.
It was an ache in my soul that demanded an answer tonight.
But not just yet. Not until Ferris was safe.
I wrenched my gaze from the ancient spirit and all its power as I sought out a far more important being.
“Ferris!” I yelled, looking from one tunnel opening to the next, having no idea which one I might find her in. But as if in answer to my cry, her scream carried from one to the right and the Raven swept out of it in a whirl of shadow, followed by the coiling bulk of the silver Dragon.
“Ferris!” I shouted again in relief, running forward to meet her as she sprinted from the labyrinth in the Dragon’s wake, the Unicorn right behind her.
But beyond them was the Tiger with a snarl on its lips, its body coated in the creatures of the forest, small critters clinging to its shape, chattering and shrieking at me in warning.
The Tiger collided with the Unicorn, knocking it to the ground and making it whinny in alarm. But the Unicorn was a beast of its own, its hooves striking the Tiger in the chest, poison ivy blossoming beneath its strike, making the Tiger roar in agony and shrink back.
I met with Ferris and caught her hand, shoving her behind me as Islasees stepped from the tunnel with the Rat running at his heels.
The dog-sized spirit was covered insects, its body a river of moving ants and shifting cockroaches, their wings flickering.
With a squeak, the Rat ran to meet with swoop of the Raven and they collided in a clash of claws and talons.
The Bear, the Fox and the Wolf ran to assist Ferris’s spirits, the collision of magic around us crackling through the atmosphere and setting the air alight.
At a will of my mind, Jadina and Benson ran at Islasees, caught in the grip of my potent power as they turned on their own master.
Islasees gasped in horror at what I’d done to them, a sneer curling his lip as he brought up his sword and beheaded Jadina with a barbaric swing of his blade.
“How dare you!” Islasees bellowed at me as her head thumped to the ground, lunging for Benson next and cutting him down the same way. Islasees gazed at his dead comrades with a look of rage then stalked toward me with his bloody sword lifted.
“Your wicked magic is a taint on Rathian,” he spat.
“Stay back,” I growled at Ferris, raising my own sword as Islasees slowed to a halt in front of me, glancing from me to my human with intrigue.
“You protect such a being as that?” he scoffed at me. “Why not take her head and have her amulets? Though I will defeat you regardless.”
“Do not dare lay your eyes on her,” I warned, raising my sword as our ancient hatred rose between us.
Islasees glowered at me with an icy despisal of everything I was. “Death has addled your mind, Crownthief. I recall how you sneered at the humans alongside so many of our people.”
“Your people,” I corrected, tapping my temple to point out the mark. “I’m an outcast remember?”
He stepped to the left and I mirrored his movements, glancing at Ferris as she backed away toward the Great Elm.
“Yes, so why have you abandoned your wasteland to join the Great Hunt? You want the boon I suppose. Do you believe the Great Elm can reinstate you into Fae society?”
“As if I would ever wish for a place among the filthy Coterie again.”
“What then?” He stepped forward but didn’t make a swing for me.
He was testing me, trying to predict how I might move next.
But I wasn’t going to let him play his war games with me.
“I don’t think even the Great Elm can bring your family back from death.
” He said it with such gloating at their demise that I couldn’t stop myself as I ran in and cast the first blow.
Islasees’s sword whipped up to clash with mine and then we were dancing a violent dance, his years of brutal training making him a terrifyingly efficient warrior.
I was not so well practised these days but I was larger than him in stature and I had been born of warriors.
We were powerful in different ways but both of us were capable of cancelling out the other.
I just had to make the right decisions in this fight.
Because it wasn’t just my life I was fighting for now, it was Ferris’s too.
And I would never forgive myself if I failed her.
The Wolf howled keenly as it collided with the Tiger beside us and the Dragon swooped down from above, a mighty strike of its tail knocking the Tiger on its back, allowing the Wolf to leap on top of it.
I didn’t imagine these spirits could destroy one another but their fight meant they would not interfere with me and Islasees.
It was better this way because his death needed to come by my hand and mine alone. He needed to see the moment when I snatched away his victory from him and I’d watch as I crushed the life from him in payment for all he had done to my family.