Chapter 6
Sympathetic Magic
Damien
Icatch Eloise in my arms as her body seizes, and she crumples to the ground, blood blooming across her thigh.
Carefully, I test the wound, but I find no direct cause of the injury or for the way her eyes roll back in her head and her spine arches in a rigid, bone-bending fit when I probe it.
Nevina’s arrow struck Phantom, and Eloise bled.
Damn it! We should have foreseen this. Their bond goes both ways.
Eloise is suffering the effects of Phantom’s injury.
Which means I must get Eloise to Phantom and remove that arrow from the dragon’s leg or she won’t heal.
And I need to do it before Nevina finds us, or the dragon, and finishes the job.
Calling on the darkness, I surf the night, becoming one with the cool air as I rush west, searching for the clearing Eloise mentioned.
Nevina’s passionate curses reach me as she finds her rabble beast’s tack missing and her soldiers scramble to produce a replacement.
Shades are generally faster than elves, and we can see better in the dark when the moon has set, but that’s assuming we can fully shift and surf the darkness.
I can’t do that with Eloise in my arms. That said, while elven hunters are trained to move silently and quickly in full dark, Nevina is no hunter.
She’ll have to use her magic to track the box and her lamp to guide her way.
My head start means I’ll get there first. The question is, can I fix what’s happened before Nevina catches up?
I move as fast as I can with Eloise’s rigid body clutched to my chest. Truly, she weighs next to nothing, and I wonder if she’s been eating enough.
How much stag did she have tonight? How much blood?
As always, she was more concerned with Ariadne’s and Warbill’s health than her own.
What she still doesn’t understand is that her health, her existence, is more important than anyone’s on this planet.
She is the dragon, our best hope for freedom.
World be damned, she is the force that keeps my heart beating. I swear to the goddess that if we make it out of this alive, I will force her to take better care of herself. No more unnecessary risks.
The forest opens sooner than expected, and I find the dragon in a mass of downed trees, the box and cart smashed a few yards to the east. The beast never made it to the clearing and must have crashed into the edge of the wood.
I rush to Phantom’s side, set Eloise gently beside the dragon, and grip the sunlight arrow protruding from their thigh with both hands.
It burns, and I feel my body changing, becoming mortal, but I don’t hesitate.
Bracing my foot on the creature’s white scales, I use all my remaining might to pull the arrow free, and then I toss the evil thing as far as I can throw it.
My palms have blistered, but as soon as I’m free of it, they begin to heal.
I hope to the goddess that the same will happen with Phantom and, by connection, Eloise.
Immediately, her body relaxes. The rigidity in her arms and legs gives way. Her breath evens out. She doesn’t wake, but she appears to be sleeping now instead of tortured with internal pain.
“Did Dad send you to save us?”
I turn to find a set of wide blue eyes staring up at me.
The boy, Zander, looks just like his father, with a head of tousled brown hair and the intense stare of a shade who has seen too much, too young.
His sister, Zarissa, clings to his side and is covered in tiny cuts and burns.
Although both their shirts are bloody, they’re alive and they appear to be healing.
“Are you injured?”
“No, sir. The box broke when we fell, and my sister was burned, but we’re okay now,” Zander says.
Zarissa holds out her arm where a bar-thick stripe of blisters mars her skin. “Zander dragged me away from the elf magic.”
“Good. You did the right thing. But you both must follow my orders now, exactly, or the elf queen will have you again. Understand?”
Both children nod.
“First, I must know. Did you eat or drink anything since your capture?” Nevina once placed a magical tracker inside Eloise by convincing her to eat a single gumdrop.
Nevina definitely knew exactly where the crate was, but was the tracker in the crate itself or inside the children?
Before I take these children with us, I must be sure they aren’t magically tagged.
“No,” the boy says. “Dad told us never to eat or drink anything from an elf or silver coat. They gave us that.” He points at a broken bowl beside the crate. A puddle of blue sludge remains in it. “But we didn’t touch it.”
“Nothing from the shade soldiers either? No candy? No food?”
“No,” they both say in unison. “They offered it to us, but we know better,” Zander adds.
I hear the dry rasp in his voice now and notice the severe thinness of Zarissa’s arms, the fatigue that seems to weigh both of them.
They’re telling the truth. Thank the goddess.
That severely limits the chances they’re tagged.
“Excellent. You’ve done very well. I know you’re tired and you can’t shift, but I’m going to need you to follow me, as fast as you can run. Got it?”
Zarissa swallows hard, but they both nod.
I lift Eloise’s unconscious body into my arms again, noticing that she’s no longer bleeding.
As the dragon has healed, so has she. But no signs of life come from Phantom, and Eloise remains asleep.
I leave the dragon, and I run, pacing myself so the children can keep up.
To their credit, they give it their all.
Victus taught them well. But I hear the thundering of rabble beast feet in the distance, the sound of voices cursing when they find the cart and, I assume, the dragon.
And then a lone rider closer behind us. Closing in.
I glance over my shoulder to see a shade in a silver uniform no more than five hundred yards back. A New Stygarde soldier—one I don’t recognize. He sees us, and he locks on. I try to move faster, but I can’t with Eloise in my arms. Can’t risk losing the children.
Like the thunder of a nearing storm, he closes in. There’s only one thing to do.
I stop, set Eloise down, and draw Dawnbreaker. My blade feels exceptionally heavy in my hands as I turn to face the soldier. I might best this one, but there will be more. There will be elf magic. Sunlight. I’ll have to hold them off until Eloise wakes.
“Get behind me,” I tell the children. They obey, the boy searching the ground and picking up a heavy stick. Already brave, this one. My throat tightens at the desperation I see in his eyes.
I sink deeper. Raise my sword higher. I meet the silver coat’s eyes…
and frown. This is no soldier. He’s barely a man, with the build of a teenager and the glazed eyes of one drugged to serve Nevina.
Only a dozen yards away now, I know this is someone’s child…
their stolen child. As innocent as the two little ones behind me.
I sheathe my sword. I can’t kill the boy.
I’ll have to knock him out with my bare hands.
I prepare myself for a fight. He closes in.
And then, he’s gone.
Fire consumes him. I raise my arms to protect my face from the radiating heat.
The blast of dragon fire drives down from above, a swirling inferno contained within a perfect column of incinerating intensity.
Although I can’t see Phantom, I know they are behind this, the only creature capable of this destruction.
It swallows the shade and the beast he rides on, singes the trees, the underbrush, the ground.
Never have I seen anything like this. It burns as hot as a star.
I take several steps back until my legs bump into Eloise.
She’s sitting up, and her normally green eyes are glowing as blue as the dragon’s.
When I turn my face back toward the soldier, the fire stops. I lower my arm and can’t believe my eyes. The man is no longer. Now, there is only ash in the shape of what once was soldier and steed. The wind picks up, and the cremated flesh breaks apart and snows down between the blackened trees.
Phantom lands in front of me and chuffs. I follow their gaze to Eloise, who is now rubbing her head and blinking up at me.
“Little dragon?”
Eyelashes fluttering, she says, “Ow. Why does my leg hurt?” She rubs her thigh where the blood stains her clothes. I don’t have time to answer her before she sees the children and immediately forgets her aching leg. “You must be Zander and Zarissa.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Zarissa says.
“Thank the goddess!”
“Eloise…” Under the guise of helping her to her feet, I pull her into my arms and hold her there. She hugs me back.
“Are you all right?” she asks me, as if she didn’t just give me the fright of my life.
I nod. “Let’s get back to the cabin. Quickly. It’s not safe here.”
“Wait! The children…they might have a tracker—”
“No. They ingested nothing.”
She nods. “I’ll check them on the way back, just to be sure. Help me get them on Phantom.” She leads us toward the dragon and mounts quickly. I help Zander and Zarissa strap into the ingeniously designed saddle.
“As fast as you can fly,” I say to her, meeting her eyes.
“What happened while I was out?” she asks.
My jaw ticks as I grind my teeth. “As. Fast. As. You. Can. Fly,” I repeat.
She returns a nod and grips the strap in front of her. “Hang on!” she tells the children. Phantom shoots into the night sky and disappears.
Thank the goddess. I offer a prayer for her to make it back to the cottage safely and break into shadow, blending into the night.
I’m about to take off toward the cabin when the sound of pounding feet heralds a pair of rabble beasts ridden by Nevina and another soldier.
I stop and wait, nothing but a shadow. A shadow with ears.
“Where is Xerxes?” she snaps at the soldier beside her. “I ordered him to search this part of the forest. If he somehow disobeyed my orders, he will pay with his life.”
The elf soldier at her side dismounts, squats down and scoops a handful of ash from the charred forest floor, sniffing it ruefully. He allows the ash to sift through his fingers. “It appears he already has, my queen.”
At first, Nevina looks angry, then she releases a dark chuckle. “No loss. Plenty more shade children where he came from. If the rebels wish to execute their own, I won’t stop them.”
A chill runs through me. This is how New Stygarde has bolstered their army.
All those children Brahm and Nevina stole from the villagers, all those children demanded as a blood tithe to the kingdom—they aren’t just using them as servants and labor; they’re training them as soldiers, sacrificial pawns to play against the rebellion.
My teeth clench with my desire to kill her.
She looks around her, seeming to notice the scorched earth fully for the first time, devastation that could only be caused by intense heat. “Only a dragon could do this,” she says softly. “I knew it wasn’t just magic levitating that crate. They have the beast.”
“It appears so.”
“Where did she find the dragon?” Nevina seethes. “I was told it was dead!”
“I do not know, my queen. No one has seen the creature in centuries.”
She shakes her head. “We must double our efforts. Send word to the hunters and the Rivertoads. Double the bounty on their heads.” She yanks the reins, bruising her rabble beast’s mouth as she signals for it to turn. “Come. We must inform the king.”
To my relief, they ride off toward the campsite, never knowing they were mere feet from me.
I move in the opposite direction, my heart sinking and my stomach turning to lead.
We had one advantage. Up until today, New Stygarde didn’t know about Phantom.
The dragon was our secret weapon, along with Eloise’s newfound magic.
That advantage is gone.
Not a single being on Tenebris hasn’t heard of the dragon.
It’s what started the old war to begin with.
King Entrydal wanted the dragon for its magic.
My father, King Malek, believed the beast should remain free.
Neither Nevina nor her father knows about Aurora’s prophecy, that the son of King Malek will protect Dimhollow and bring peace to Tenebris with a dragon at his side.
Peace to Tenebris. Not just Stygarde. All of Tenebris.
Eloise is the dragon.
And I fear what’s in store when my brother and his elf queen realize what that means.