Chapter 10 Calytrix #2
I was feeling the same way, like my soul was focused somewhere else, and it was hard to stay in the moment.
Was there any point to this meal? We weren’t getting to know our future spouses—mine hadn’t even shown.
It was just wasting time. We would be better off on the ship heading south already.
This was just dragging out the inevitable.
I was ready to be done with it all when suddenly, beside me, Kol’s cutlery fell from his hands, crashing to his plate.
At once, Nyx leapt to his feet, knocking his chair over behind him.
Silence fell, and all eyes went to him. Collectively, we watched as he looked towards the ornate doors, tilting his head.
He snapped his head to his brother, and I did the same.
Kol looked frozen in fear. Something had seized him and had him in its grip.
I couldn’t tell if it was some kind of recollection he was experiencing or magic that held him captive, but he didn’t move, just breathed raggedly, staring at something none of us could see.
“The palace is under attack,” Nyx barked at my father.
Zaria, his mate, jumped to her feet, appearing torn between leaping to action with Nyx or tending to Kol.
I instinctively placed a hand on the stricken dragon’s shoulder, allowing her to give her attention to her mate.
If we were under attack, a dragon and ryder were our best hope of survival. We needed them.
“Hey,” I whispered to Kol. “What’s wrong?”
He said nothing, and I knew I hadn’t reached him, but I resolved to stay with him nevertheless.
“What is the meaning of this?” Father demanded, as if he blamed the visitors for this disturbance.
Maybe it was their doing? After all, it seemed to be a threat only they could hear.
Then a call went up outside the palace and echoed through the halls to our ears.
Confusion ripped through the guests. No one was sure what was happening, but it was definitely real. A panicked buzz erupted, and more fae got to their feet.
A palace guard raced into the room and came to my father at the head of the table, bending down to whisper to him.
His jaw clenched, and his fists balled. “There are undead in the bay. They approach the palace,” he murmured to no one in particular.
Undead? They were the creatures responsible for several attacks in the Twelve Kingdoms of late, weren’t they? Father had told us they could not reach our shores—how could they be here?
“Where are your cellars?” Nyx demanded as guards poured in to protect the duke and his important guests.
“I—we—” he stammered, more shaken than I had ever seen him.
I saw it on his face then. Father had lied about the undead to placate us.
He had merely hoped they could not reach our shores since most of the attacks were in the north.
We were woefully unprepared for this kind of attack in our kingdom.
Father never went to the expense of building up our fortifications, as he never believed real danger would come to our door when the target would naturally always be the crown.
But I could see that it was dawning on him the mistake he had made in not keeping the prince’s visit secret, and he was terrified.
“There is no time,” a guard shouted from the hall. “Bar the doors.”
Ice ran through my veins. This wasn’t good. Beside me, Kol was frozen and staring into the distance.
“Allow my ryder and I out,” Nyx ordered.
“It’s too dangerous,” Father argued.
“We have no choice, we can’t let them enter the palace.”
His words seemed to snap his brother from his frozen state. Kol slowly rose and looked his brother in the eye.
“No, brother, you stay here.”
“I must help,” Kol replied hoarsely.
Nyx shook his head. We could all see he was in no fit state to help with anything.
“You need the help. I have seen how this—goes.” His voice cracked over his words, and I trembled from their meaning. He had fought these things before, and from his appearance now, survival was little better than defeat.
Nyx strode around the table and faced Kol, clasping his face in his hands as the gathered crowd looked on in terror. “I need you to guard the prince.”
Kol swallowed, an argument on his tongue.
The prince stood. “Please, Kol.” He implored, but not knowing him, I could not tell if he was desperate for Kol to stay for his safety or for Kol’s.
“We need dragons in the sky,” Kol tried to argue.
“But if they get through, we will need firepower here, too,” Alaric argued.
Nyx placed a hand on his brother’s shoulder. “I’m not standing you down. I’m asking you to protect the crown. Can you do that?”
Kol nodded, eyes on the prince.
Alaric tipped his head to Nyx, signaling he should leave, and Nyx turned immediately, Zaria at his side, slicing through the fabric of her dress with a dagger as they headed for the door.
Presumably to allow her to fly. I watched in wonder at the freedom to be that kind of female until the guards lifted the bar and let them slip into the hallway.
“Seal the doors,” Father called. “Take your seats, the general will ensure our safety,” he said to the crowd with a quavering voice. Then he headed for a gathering of the heads of the guard in the corner to be briefed.
Looks of fear and doubt were exchanged throughout the hall, but dutifully, the upper classes of the Light Kingdom either took their seats or stood near them in small groups, murmuring. I was astounded by the calm in the room, given that we were all trapped and essentially waiting to die.
I thought of the other guard again for the first time in a while.
Was he on the ship and aware of the attack?
Could he help in some way? That same need to be far away pulled at me.
Somewhere at sea, if I had to pinpoint the feeling of the lure.
No, not at sea…over the sea. It was bizarre.
I feared I was losing a grip on my sanity from the stress I’d been under lately.
Kol began to pace, and Nova looked at me nervously. “What is wrong with him?”
I shrugged. I had no more clue than she did.
“He was taken in the first attack,” Alaric spoke. “They held him for over a year. Tortured him apparently, he’s still recovering.”
“Gods,” Nova gasped, her hand flying to her mouth.
I watched Kol over my shoulder, then looked back to my sister and the prince. “We should help him.”
“What can we do?” Alaric said, staring at the dragon helplessly. His air of disinterest was gone. I could see he cared for the dragon like a friend but felt powerless.
“He’s spiraling. I don’t know what he’s been through, but I think he is reliving it. We need to ground him if we can, keep him in the present.”
“How?” Nova hissed.
“Come,” I said, standing and tipping my head in Kol’s direction.
The three of us approached him, intercepting him on his pacing route along the wall.
The prince stood before him, attempting to make eye contact.
Kol halted, but his head remained hung low.
Alaric stood shorter than Kol and had to look up at him, but the dragon would not meet his gaze until finally the prince laid a hand on his chest and softly said his name.
Kol slowly lifted his eyes to meet his, and they stood there locked in each other’s gaze for several beats before the prince spoke.
“Sit with us,” he said and sank to a seat on the floor with his back against the wall.
It was the most normal and grounding thing I thought a prince capable of.
The gesture surprised me. Slowly, Kol slid down the wall beside him, and Nova and I knelt before them, creating a shield from prying eyes.
Such a mighty creature did not deserve the judgment of ordinary fae for showing his vulnerability.
From the distance, we heard a dragon’s roar, and the entire room shuddered in fear, no one more than Kol, who shook.
I put my hand on his knee, and Nova leant forward and clasped his hand. Together, we soothed him as best we could with soft strokes as Alaric began to speak.
“I remember when the enemy forces breached the city in the thick of the Battle of Amaya. We were just younglings, and they shoved us all in the cellars together with that weird, crusty old dragon for protection. Do you remember?” he said with a chuckle.
Kol didn’t face him, but he blinked, something dark clearing from his eyes, as if the prince had reached him, wherever he was lost. “He hated us,” Kol said distantly.
“He hated being stuck on babysitting duty,” Alaric agreed.
“We were hellions,” Kol smirked, finally looking at the three of us like he had rejoined the moment.
“We took turns using the fire magic we’d been learning to heat the stones he was sitting on.
He was furious but had to try not to show it because it would only have encouraged us. His arse must have been on fire.”
“He deserved it,” Alaric mused. “It was a brilliant idea you and Nyx concocted, because we were practicing our magic, how could he complain? I never understood how you and Nyx did that. It was like you were in each other’s heads. You just seemed to know each other’s moves.”
Kol smiled, summoning the same memory. Then his face fell. “This isn’t like that. These creatures and those who control them can’t be fought like a fae force. They are evil. They turn you into those soulless creatures or—”
“Or?” Alaric urged.
“Or they make you wish they had,” Kol whispered, a tear rolling slowly down his cheek.
“They hurt you?” I asked, feeling guilty for wanting to know.
Kol shrugged. “I guess. The worst thing was that they were able to. They cut me off from my dragon, weakened me, and stole my magic away. I was unable to defend myself. Void of everything, the pain didn’t matter. It couldn’t hurt more than missing my essence.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat. He was so broken. Nova sniffed beside me.
A crash sounded outside the doors, and pockets of fae gasped and cried out in fear. Those closest to the barricaded doors shuffled down to our end of the room.
“I can’t go back there,” Kol said, sounding panicked. He pushed to his feet, staring down the banquet hall to the door.
“No one is going anywhere,” Alaric said protectively. He stepped up beside Kol, who I now understood was his old friend.
“No,” Kol said to no one in particular and began walking towards the doors. Further bangs and shouts from outside could be heard as we made to follow Kol. To stop him from doing something stupid like trying to leave.
We needed him.
The doors shook, and guards yelled clipped instructions to one another out in the corridor. The threat was clearly closing in.
Kol let out a guttural growl, and his figure rippled before his clothing split at the seams. He morphed into a huge, deep jade dragon and roared his fury and frustration into the hall.