Chapter 15 Rift #2
Setting a hand to my heart, I grip it, because if I don’t, I might just sob.
Still, a tortured sound comes out of me as we all sit in this terrible place, feeling Strom’s emotions through our Bloodbond.
Laerke can’t feel it as well, but I know she can feel it enough, her intense gaze worried as Mikkel sits up beside me in bed.
“I don’t think we need to answer the question, how is Strom,” Mikkel says now as he wraps one arm around me.
His energy is tight-strung like a live wire, as we all feel the vast inner darkness swamping my Second Drake.
“Suffice it to say, Strom’s been like that ever since everything went down.
He’s refused the Jarldom, you know. Instated Annika as Jarl-In-Arms, for now. ”
I raise my eyebrows at that. Jarl-In-Arms is a temporary position, used in times of war for when a Jarl perishes and someone needs to jump into that spot immediately. It’s usually used when there’s no Jarl-Heir and one needs to be found.
Not when one has been there all along, trained up and ready to go.
“That’s bad.” I close my eyes now, feeling down through my connection to Strom. I feel him turn as he senses me search our Bloodbond for him; for a moment, he regards me, as I see his handsome face rise in my mind, his emerald eyes burning, vivid.
But those eyes are devoured by darkness, malachite, as the crimson brimstone around them burns. They’re eyes of war rather than love, as we watch each other a moment through our Bloodbond.
Then Strom shuts me out once more.
I don’t push this time, because he’s not shut our connection down all the way. It’s bad news, however, as I come back to the moment with the twins.
And see their knowing glances.
“Strom’s in a bad place, because of the attack and his Jarl’s death.
” Laerke fills me in now, as I feel the twins’ vast concern flood me.
“They estimate they lost about seventy percent of their clan in the attack, plus almost all their best fighters. Strom lost fifteen members of his family, including his Jarl and four sisters. They’ve pulled in all their reserve fighters here to Harnakje over the past two days, and emptied their villages into this stronghold to protect them.
Harnakje has its own protective magic against the Black Dragon, apparently, so it’s been used as a secret hideout for the True Knights for generations.
It’s why all these inner ruins were already fortified and ready to go. ”
“I’ve never seen any fortifications here.” I lift my eyebrows now, amazed at how prepared Jarl Jorg Eriksson was against such a calamity as this.
“No one has.” Mikkel chuckles as he lifts an eyebrow with a sly smile.
“Those Erikssons are a wily lot; apparently, they’ve fortified this place with their most ancient clan-magic for generations, hiding everything that matters from prying eyes.
They let the most devastated parts of the heritage site be seen and visited by those who are curious about history.
But the vast majority of it,” Mikkel whistles now as he shakes his head, “has been hidden for millennia by stronger magic than even Laerke and I devise for safes in our clubs. Good stuff.”
“Bone Magic, and Bloodwalker.” Laerke nods, her gaze flicking from Mikkel to me.
“Apparently, it was a deep secret in their Lineage, which only those inducted into the True Knights were party to. We’re safe here for now, and provided for.
But all talk is about Stockholm now, which is why Bjorn has been back and forth, discussing what’s to come with the King and his still-loyal Jarls. ”
“Still-loyal Jarls?” I ask, raising an eyebrow.
“The Jarl’s rebellion has become official, with Jarl Oggi Magnussen’s attack on the Old Palace.
” Mikkel fills me in now on everything I’ve missed.
“Over two-thirds of the Jarls in the northern clans have split from the King and defected to the Magnussen boarder-lands to follow Oggi, along with the Danish Blood Dragons, led by Emil. The southern Swedish Jarls are caught in between, though the Norwegians and Icelanders are with the King. Some are feeling pressure to side with the rebels before war comes from both sides, however. It’s a dangerous situation, which the King and Prince are trying to control from Stockholm with intense last-minute talks between all the yet-loyal Jarls, and even a few of the rebels who will hear him out.
But an all-out war within the Blood Dragons is imminent.
And the rebels know Jarl Oggi has the Black Dragon on his side now. ”
“Jesus.” I whistle low as I process how much of a shit-storm all this has become. I sit back in the pillows as I take a deep breath, letting it out.
Knowing at last where all this divisiveness is coming from.
“That cosmic sundering energy. It wants us to fight,” I say now, as I regard both Mikkel and Laerke.
“That divisive cosmic force we were taken by in the stars—that’s what’s linked to the Black Dragon, and what creates the Black Rift.
That energy is behind all of this, creating war amongst us, driving us to fight and kill each other off, because the Black Dragon has been released again in the world.
That cosmic destruction energy… it wants all of this to happen.
It wants us to kill each other off and feed it through the Black Dragon, and its Black Rift, so it can devour all the stars in the cosmos.
All our brightest lights. To put those lights out forever… as it grows, and grows, and grows.”
I don’t know where my tirade of thought just came from, but I feel the ancient truth in my words, as Mikkel and Laerke stare me down. Because both are aware now, just like I am after our terrible battle against that malevolent, divisive energy in the stars, that this is what we’re up against.
The Black Rift was only its manifestation in ancient times, just like the Black Dragon was created from the Rift’s energy later. We know now, however, that the origin of that energy in our world came from the Void.
And it wants to devour all of us, as it puts out every light in the everlasting cosmos.
Forever.