Chapter 79 #2
Once the flames subside, Daegan’s shoulders rise with a deep breath. I look around him at the ground and see a charred skeleton in front of him. Unfortunately for me, I’ve now seen dozens and dozens of brutalized corpses, and this one barely has any effect.
I don’t like that I’ve gotten to this point. The idea that I’ve become numb to death and violence disturbs me. And saddens me.
“What was that?” I breathe.
“Scout, I think. He was about to attack you. Terra magic.”
“They had them sneaking about all the way up here?”
Daegan looks around like a vicious predator with his dark eyes and murderous expression, daring another to challenge him. But there’s no one else, as far as I can see. “Stay alert,” he says, then gestures for me to keep going.
Before I do, I take one last lingering look at the battlefield below.
I see a red dragon still fighting valiantly, but carnage is in full bloom all around him.
The world is beginning to approach the pitch blackness of night, though, and I fear we won’t be able to distinguish what’s going on down there very soon.
We need to hurry.
The cacophony of screaming voices, dragons roaring, and metal clashing below intensifies. It’s completely dark now. All we have with us is Kezra illuminating the way, plus a torch that Daegan has lit. Good thing she’s leading us.
As I look back now, though, I see something curious, and I can’t help but stop and watch.
“You guys,” I say reverently.
In the darkness below, just outside the walls, something is happening.
Golden, sparkling trails are beginning to weave intricate designs in the air, spreading far and wide.
A golden lattice of fairy dust hanging over possibly the entirety of the elven army now hangs in the air, and everything has gone almost quiet.
I think people are looking up in confusion, not realizing the death that’s about to rain down upon them.
Through the illumination of the dust, I see shapes flying at the tiny fairies, possibly arrows, but the fairies continue on.
The world remains quiet for a moment as a roar rings out into the night, shaking the mountain.
And suddenly, a cataclysm unlike anything I’ve ever seen before unfolds.
Dragon fire lights the edge of the fairy dust, and then the wild, bright, explosions begin.
Big, booming bursts of fire ignite as it travels at rapid speed along the design.
It creates a sheet of explosive fire that covers an entire army, showering those below it with death.
It’s loud, it’s powerful, and it’s utter fucking devastation.
For the elves and their few allies, anyway.
Some, mainly the water elementals, will survive. But not many.
They laid enough dust to cover possibly the entire space that the elven army was consuming.
“I guess your friends arrived,” I say to Kezra.
“I said they would.”
With the last remains of the bright orange and gold flames sprinkling the air, it gives just enough light to reveal the absolute carnage below.
Thousands of charred bodies.
And now I feel sick. I didn’t want this.
I didn’t want anyone to die. I didn’t want this war.
And while my father is truly heinous, I can’t be happy about half of my people being exterminated either.
Maybe they didn’t know. Maybe they weren’t given a chance to understand what’s even happening outside their kingdom.
I have to sit for a moment, tucking my head between my knees while I take deep breaths.
“Should we have tried harder to get some of them on our side? Maybe…” I take a shaky breath. I can’t see Daegan, but I know his attention is on me. “Maybe some of them have lived their lives in ignorance and didn’t even know they’re on the wrong side of things. What if no one told them?”
“You can’t think that way. They’re grown elves who knowingly went into war. The responsibility of knowing what they’re fighting for, of believing in their cause, is theirs alone. You don’t do such a thing lightly. And if they did, that’s on them.”
I squeeze my eyes. I will not shed another fucking tear.
I don’t answer him, but I stand, dust the sand off, and continue following Kezra, who says nothing for a moment.
I don’t look back.
As we climb, I imagine Raef celebrating the victory below. He was the one who helped figure that move out, along with Kezra. I don’t blame Raef. Not one bit. He deserves to fight until his last breath.
“Almost there,” Kezra mumbles ahead of us, so quiet I almost don’t hear her. We’ve gone up and down several sand dunes, and we’re getting close to the end of them before the terrain shifts into rocky mountainsides.
“It’s so strange that she’s found a pocket of emberstone here now. Haven’t your people explored these lands thoroughly over the last thousand years?”
“Yes, but…” Daegan pauses. “The sand dunes can change with the wind. They frequently create new formations. If the stone was just revealed today, it’s almost like…”
“Like we were meant to be here in Torrynth, on this very day, searching for a way to free the land,” I finish his thought for him, and he gives me a faint smile, his face full of wonder and awe, mirroring how I feel right now.
“It’s like Everrynd revealed it for us. She’s begging for us to set her free. ”
A strange, faint white glow shimmers just ahead. No matter how hard I try, I can’t make out what it might be. Daegan, also noticing the radiance ahead, starts the descent into the dip with more caution in his steps. But he doesn’t cower.
It seems like Kezra is flying directly at the mysterious glow, and as we get closer, it finally occurs to me what it is.
Or who it is.
“Maethrel?”
Daegan keeps walking, his steps becoming more confident again.
“I’m so stupid,” I say as we reach him.
Daegan pinches his brows as he looks back at me.
I shake my head as it finally sinks in.
“You need to be here to cast the counter curse, don’t you? A witch.”
Maethrel nods with a triumphant, tight-lipped smile.
Daegan looks at Maethrel with pure ire, but very little surprise.
Maethrel always seems to have just one more trick up his sleeve.
I can’t even begin to guess why he didn’t just tell us from the start, but it turns out he always planned to be here anyway.
I guess he didn’t deem it a necessary detail to worry about.
There’s a chunk of rocky land exposed in this deep groove in the dunes. Daegan approaches the small pocket of black, shimmering stone that’s shaped almost like a bowl, and big enough to hold all the relics. “Emberstone,” he confirms. Though no one doubted it.
“Items in the circle,” Maethrel orders pleasantly, as if he’s giving an afternoon lesson to children.
We do as he instructs, unloading all of the items. Daegan saves the stud in his brow for last, taking a deep breath before he moves to pull it out. Then he pauses. “Do we even need this now?”
Maethrel shakes his head, then approaches the circle.
Daegan glances at me with heavy, intense eyes, smiling at me like I’m the most important thing here. There’s a finality swimming behind them, like he’s also feeling like we’ve finally done it.
It’s almost over.
“Now what?” he questions Maethrel as he wraps his arm around me and pulls me in close, his smoky aroma wrapping around me like a warm sheet.
“When this spell was first cast, I didn’t know what I was doing—”
“I’m sorry,” I cut in. “You said ‘I?’”
Maethrel’s stare suddenly feels ancient and terrifying. Like something’s been sleeping under there for an eternity, biding its time. Chills run through me, but not out of fear. Maethrel, or whoever he is, isn’t here to hurt us.
“That’s right. I’m not a descendant of Ethmarel. Well, technically I am. But I’m also Ethmarel reincarnated. And I’ve helped you along so that I can finally right what I wronged a thousand years ago.”
Beside me, Kezra gasps in surprise. “So… Are you Ethmarel or Maethrel? She? He?”
“Maethrel.” He replies simply.
“Reincarnated? That’s a thing?”
“Oh, it’s very common. What’s rare is remembering your past life. But I’m an oracle, after all. I know more than most.” His gaze dances between Daegan and me, unsettling me for many reasons.
This is the witch responsible for the ruination of so much of our world, standing directly before me.
A female in a past life, I guess. I’d chastise him for all of the damage he’s caused, but there’s no time.
He’s here now, righting his wrong, and he’s been helping us this whole time.
We couldn’t have done it without him. Still, I can’t help but feel a little disgusted, looking at him now.
“So it’s going to work this time?” Daegan asks.
“It should.”
“I still don’t understand why you couldn’t do this yourself when you knew so much already. You literally lived it, apparently,” I say.
Daegan and Maethrel don’t break eye contact for an incredibly long, tense moment, and I’m sensing I’m not privy to all the information involved in this exchange.
I continue to glance between the two of them, then hold my gaze on Daegan. His jaw twitches with anger.
“I couldn’t,” Maethrel finally answers, calm as his forest when vicious spiders or wraiths aren’t attacking you. “It was prophesized to be you, not me. And your efforts have been valiant indeed. None should underestimate what you’ve accomplished in a such a short time.”
Daegan scoffs, keeping his hand on my waist, though he’s gripping it much tighter now.
“I cannot apologize for deceiving you,” he continues as he looks over a scroll he pulled out of his pocket. “It was necessary. Just as everything else was.”