Chapter 55 – Isolde
ISOLDE
Thyra’s eyes gleamed with excitement. “We have a chance.”
“We have to make the most of it.” I pointed to the king’s ship. “We have to defeat him tonight.”
Thyra nodded. “But first, what happened to Vale?”
My heart swelled at her concern. “He’s knocked out, but alive. I have shadows guarding him. Saga, maybe you should join him? Make sure he’s well?”
Her father could die, and though she understood that fact and didn’t support him, it wasn’t fair to have my friend be present for such violence.
“I’ll fly us there,” Qildor said, and Saga gave a nod of agreement, her gaze dipping down only briefly before the pair soared off into the night.
When I turned to my sister again, it was to find that she wasn’t alone. Two shadows floated alongside Lasvin.
“Find Thantrel. Bring him to the same place Isolde has kept Vale safe and help guard over both of them. Do not harm Vale or his sister. Attack only mages and those in Aaberg colors.”
“If the ship sinks, save them,” I added.
“Yes, if that ship sinks, save them. Take them to one of our ships and lock them up to protect others.”
“That should be good.”
The shadows disappeared, and Thyra exhaled. “I couldn’t resist doing the same as you.”
“How much more of that power can you use?” As much as I wanted to dive and kill Magnus right away, regrouping was far more intelligent.
“Not much. One or two more figures probably. If I switch to tendrils, I can last longer.”
“I think I’m at my limit,” I admitted, tugging at the magic again. Usually the darkness inside me was eager to come forth, but no more emerged from me. I’d drained myself at the worst possible time.
I did what I had to do. Aleksander would never have survived on the ship. And Vale . . . an image of him breaking Sigri’s neck made my breath catch. He needed to be where he was. Guarded.
“We don’t need them,” Thyra assured me. “We’re powerful enough with our winter magic, and if érebo is there, we have Sian. He can signal the other limiters.”
I glanced at Sian, and he nodded back. Despite his bravery, I couldn’t help but feel a tinge of apprehension. We’d promised Lord Balik that we’d do our best to keep his family safe, but we were bringing both Filip and Sian into a fight with King Magnus and potentially the Shadow Fae King too?
“We won’t leave.” Filip’s jaw tightened, and suddenly he looked far older than he really was.
“Half of us took vows to protect you against whatever may come, and we intend to honor them.” Astril said.
I leaned over Arava’s neck and peered at the ship below only to find that King Magnus was no longer there. Only chunks of ice littered the upper deck. Was he hiding in a cabin?
“Let’s find him,” I said.
We flew lower, the four gryphons and their riders behind Lasvin and Arava. A more thorough investigation revealed that no one was on the exterior portion of the Aaberg ship. I was debating having a vampire do a search of the interior when Thyra barked out a cold laugh.
“There he is!” She pointed ahead of us, to the west, at a ship that was separating itself from the battle. Fleeing. King Magnus stood on the upper deck, his telltale hair gleaming in the ship’s faelights as he gesticulated at the dragon not too far away.
I snorted. “I think Rynni might have scared him.”
He would have been stupid not to fear a dragon.
And luckily for us he didn’t know Rynni, unlike most pure-blooded dragon shifters, could only breathe fire once or twice before she needed a day to recover.
Her flames were no longer a threat. However, the healer still had teeth and a wicked tail that she would use to great effect.
“He has more than a dragon to worry about!” Thyra cut west.
We dodged a coordinated assault of mage magic, and I peered down at the ships on water.
Thanks to Rynni, many mages had been forced to jump ship and swim to other vessels.
Those that weren’t on fire. Some, however, seemed to be staying in the water—no matter how tumultuous the waves were.
To them, the threat of being on another ship that a dragon might attack was too great.
The dragon rounded back, readying to target another ship with her claws, when suddenly, Rynni’s maw opened. A roar blasted through the night, and the dragon began to thrash in the air.
“What’s going on?!” I could see nothing attacking Rynni. No mage magic, which from what I’d seen, generally gave off light or looked like fire. But Rynni looked as if she was fighting an invisible force.
Not invisible. The answer suddenly became clear. “Shadows are attacking her.”
Thyra scowled. “Sian, signal the limiters to help her!”
“And érebo?”
“Take a shot if you have one.” Thyra’s mouth tightened as Rynni dipped closer to the water and two mages on a ship blasted her with fire. Not that flames would damage dragon scales, but who knew what other types of magic users were on that ship? “Freyia, watch his back.”
Freyia and Sian soared off, the latter sending a beam of light into the sky. Signaling other limiters to join him.
I watched as we flew for the king’s ship, torn and agonized while Rynni fought an invisible force. But Freyia and Sian closed in quickly and Sian blasted light magic at the dragon. A glow encompassed her, and the dragon became a beacon in the darkness.
Eerie screams filled the night and my shadow magic, useless as it was after so many uses, shuddered. Retracted to a place deep inside me.
Chills erupted on my damp skin. “That was the shadows!”
“I felt it,” Thyra replied. “Look!”
Other limiters had already joined Sian and the light washing over the dragon was allowing us to see that at least a hundred shadow figures had been attacking Rynni.
They were more detailed than the ones Thyra and I made, and far larger too, but in the face of the light magic, the shadow forms screamed.
Some diminished in size. Some even disappeared.
“They have her,” I reassured myself. “They have—”
My words died on my lips as Rynni plummeted towards the water. The dragon continued to fight as if she weren’t dropping through the air and being attacked.
She’d hit the water in seconds, and then what? Could Rynni swim? If not, how would we get her out of the water? And would the shadows that remained continue harming her? Light could not penetrate so deep in the ocean . . .
“Change course?” Caelo yelled.
“I think—wait! She’s shifting!” Thyra shouted back.
Rynni seemed to have struck upon the issue of rescue. Her massive body shrank and by the time she hit the water, she looked fae in body. But was she still in trouble?
“Filip and Astril! Go to her!” I yelled. The limiters were still fighting shadows, now flying free in the air and illuminated by flashes of light.
Astril gave me a look that clearly said she should be sticking with us, but Rynni might have used her last seconds of consciousness to shift. I had to be sure she would not drown.
“We have two more Valkyrja, Caelo, and Arie to back us up,” Thyra said. “Go!”
Astril veered the gryphon to where Rynni had disappeared and flew away.
“Filip and Astril will find her.” Thyra sounded as if she were trying to convince herself.
I hoped so, but really, there was no time to dwell on other matters. We were still targeting the king’s ship. My hand grazed the grip of Sassa’s Blade as I prepared to enter battle again.
“Bleeding skies! Did anyone else see that?” Halladora shouted.
“I did!” Arie confirmed. “Three ships disappeared. They were there one moment and gone the next.”
My stomach sank. I had not seen that, but I knew what had happened. érebo, wherever he was, had cloaked those ships in darkness. Were they retreating? Or preparing for stealth attacks?
“The Shadow King is hiding them,” Thyra said, having come to the same conclusion. “Be prepared for anything.”
“We stay the course,” I added. Magnus was still our number one target.
The king had busied himself by targeting enemies who had fallen into the water. Killing them off one by one. He’d hit another mark when a swarm of gryphons and riders dropped from the gray clouds and chaos broke out on the upper deck.
Thyra shouted in disbelief. “It’s an ambush!”
Yes, but who had gone after Magnus before we could? Why would they dare?
I urged Arava to go faster, to find the answer to those questions and when the king’s challenger came into view, I understood.
Lord Riis and King Magnus were engaged in swords.
“Why isn’t the king using his magic?” Thyra asked.
“Lord Riis’s power is to negate,” I reminded her, excitement building in my chest. “He must have nullified the king’s power.”
“Ha!” Thyra grinned. “How long does it last?”
“Arie?” I asked the Riis male riding with Tonna.
“Varies,” Arie replied. Droplets of blood trailed across the bridge of his nose and down his neck, emphasizing that while I thought of Arie more as a Scholar, he’d grown up with Luccan and Thantrel and Lord Riis had insisted that they all train.
Arie could fight well. “Who my father is up against, and their power level, has to be taken into consideration.”
Once, Lord Riis had said that he could not negate more than three opponents during a fight. Considering Magnus was very powerful, I assumed Lord Riis could only focus on him—and likely not for too long.
“You ruined her!” Lord Riis’s words hit my ear as we closed in.
“She was a deceitful whore!” King Magnus yelled back.
Lord Riis rushed the king, swinging his sword with fury and skill, but the king was ready. The two powerfully built fae struggled against one another, locked in an impasse, blade to blade.
“Might as well help him out, no?” The cold built around my twin. I recognized that sensation as her readying to send an icy projectile. I was about to warn her off in case she hit Lord Riis, when the spymaster let out a roar.
He fell to his knees. Struck. King Magnus kicked him in the shoulder, and the blade Lord Riis held fell, skittered across the rain and blood-slicked deck.
“No!” A scream ravaged my throat as Magnus brought his sword down. The metal glinted in a flash of lightning, and Lord Riis’s head went flying.
Behind me, still on gryphonback, Arie roared. A struggle ensued, presumably Tonna keeping Arie on the gryphon. My wings snapped out, and I soared off Arava’s back.
I landed behind the king, my boots striking the wood hard. Thyra hit only a second after, and other boots joined. When King Magnus turned to take us in, he smiled, as if he’d expected nothing less.
“Isolde. And Thyra.” He pointed a pale finger at my sister.
“The rebel archer.” King Magnus wiped Lord Riis’s blood off on his pant leg.
“An orc and a faerie, presumably rebels, a Riis—unsurprising. And an oath breaker.” His eyes lingered on Caelo the longest. Once a Clawsguard, King Magnus would take Caelo’s desertion personally.
“You’re outnumbered,” I said.
“It’s a pity Vale didn’t find you, Isolde.”
I fumed, which, I suspected, was what he wanted when he added, “And if only I’d killed you at the theater, Thyra, none of this would have happened.”
“This was always going to happen.” My chin lifted in defiance. “You’ve reaped your own end, Magnus.”
“How presumptuous of you to deal out endings.”
A pulse of magic erupted from the king, and I reached for my power, only to find he had not directed the attack at me or Thyra.
No, we were unaffected, but everyone around us—our friends, those soldiers who had ambushed the king with Lord Riis, the king’s own soldiers—were frozen in place.
No help would come from this ship. It was only us and Magnus.
“I propose that we play by the rules of old,” the king said. “The strongest wins the Crown of Winter.”
I’d barely processed this turn of events when Thyra rushed forward.
Steel bit steel, magic flew, and I dodged two wayward magical blows as I debated what to do.
They were moving rapidly, both sure of their prowess and power.
If I struck, I was just as likely to hit my twin as the king.
So I held back and waited for an opening.
That moment came with the slash of enemy metal across my sister’s shoulder. Thyra screamed and doubled over, and I sent a stake of ice right for the king’s heart.