Chapter 33 #3
“Who do you think? Your husband wants you back!” he taunted, the words rocking through me and leaving me absolutely wrecked.
He saw the blow he had dealt me and reached for my sword handle to push it away from him, but I sliced open his throat in a daze. My heart was still thundering in my ears as his hot blood sprayed into my face in a long spurt before I could get away from his thrashing body.
It felt like I was under water, disjointed and dazed with the roar of a crowd vibrating through the ground beneath my stumbling feet. They screamed for my blood and pain. They screamed for my subjugation.
I will not allow them to do that to you.
“Ornella!”
The shout roused me, and I blinked away the fog and the memories, looking up to see Ciaran was defending my position from the three remaining fighters. It was not very difficult for him, so he was glancing at me in concern.
“Are you alright?” he asked as I looked around for the leader who seemed to have slunk away somewhere.
I shook off my distraction and quickly picked up the sword that I’d dropped so I could stand at his side again. “Sorry! I am fine,” I began to reassure him.
The ground shuddered so hard beneath us that several mudbrick buildings partly crumbled, and we had to brace. Chunks of balconies and pillars hit the ground around us, and I heard the faraway screams of terrified civilians.
We all turned to see that the leader had grown a tree in the middle of the courtyard with flailing branches that slammed into the buildings around it. He was clearly a lot more powerful than the others.
The tree leaned toward us with the groaning of wood, and we barely managed to duck and jump through the tangle of swiping limbs. One of the male dryads was not so lucky, however, and was heaved into the wall so hard that he blasted right through the bricks.
“Fuck!” Ciaran cursed, and I turned to look up at him in astonishment.
“Ciaran! You said it—”
“Watch out!” he shouted and shoved my head down as another branch lashed out at us. Another of our assailants was pitched into the air and then was hit with another branch that sent him flying over the buildings.
“Move!” I urged Ciaran, grabbing his arm to pull him with me toward the edge of the courtyard. I knew it would be unwise to hide in the buildings, since the tree could knock them down, but we needed to get out of the open.
We had just reached the wall when I heard the beating of wings and looked up to see a griffin city guard appear from over the buildings.
“Everyone stand down!” he shouted before he stopped, hovering in the air with eyes wide in horror as he took in the tree and the destruction.
Vines suddenly whipped out from the highest boughs. The guard screamed as they crushed his wings before he was slammed to the ground in a heap of golden armour.
“We need to set it on fire!” Ciaran hissed resentfully, clearly loathing the loss of his magic.
No sooner had he said it, several flaming arrows were launched into the trunk of the tree, causing it to straighten with a hollow groan. The limbs began writhing in such a flurry that it became impossible to dodge all of them.
“Ciaran!” I screamed when he was abruptly struck and thrown against the wall ten feet away.
I immediately took a step in his direction when something moved suddenly in the corner of my eye.
I barely skidded to a halt in time to avoid being sliced in half when the blond leader appeared and began swinging at me wildly.
“You stupid whore! You think you can defy Laisren?” he snarled, his strikes coming so fast that I could hardly keep up to block all of them. “You will be returned to him if I have to bring you back in pieces.”
He was much more talented with his sword, so I knew he was no lackey. He was one of Laisren’s key enforcers, although he must have been promoted after I fled because I had never met him before.
It was all I could do to keep up with him, my footwork getting sloppy as he quickly gained ground to corner me against the wall. I couldn’t help my attention slipping to Ciaran every few strikes, and I was relieved to see he was trying to push himself upright again.
I managed to dodge a strike aiming for my abdomen. But the blow still sliced across my side deep enough that it made my heart stall with a knowing horror.
I cried out in pain, and my hand immediately pressed against the gaping wound, but I knew that it was too late. My side was soaked, and my green, maple-scented blood was pooling on the ground around me. It did not flower for once, since the magic in it had been repressed.
I lost the sword when he struck his next blow because my grip had grown too weak, and then he quickly kneed me in the stomach.
“He will thank me for putting you down,” he hissed as he held his sword up over his head. I tried to move away, but the pain in my side made me scream as I clutched it. Before I could fully accept the fact that I would never see Sage again… the blade was slicing down at me.
Another large body appeared suddenly out of nowhere, catching my assailant off guard as they parried the blow that was meant to end my life. I expected it to be Ciaran saving me, but I saw an unexpected face instead.
Prince Faolán…
And thank all the gods, he was more than a match for Laisren’s enforcer. He drove the vicious male away from where I lay, their sparring an impressive blur of motion as they battled hard for dominance.
Laisren’s man eventually seemed to realize that Faolán might be a better fighter.
He gave a bloody smirk after the prince managed to catch him with an elbow and backed into the courtyard toward the writhing tree.
I watched the two males anxiously as Faolán followed, undeterred as he was forced to begin dodging all the tree limbs.
“Easy now,” said another male softly, and I turned to see Seaghán kneeling next to me. He put his hands on my wound to heal me, and I gave a sigh of relief once all the pain finally ebbed away.
“I need to… get to Ciaran,” I croaked, still weak and dizzy from the blood loss.
Seaghán nodded and put an arm around me to help me shuffle toward Ciaran who was sitting up against the wall with blood covering the side of his head.
I glanced toward Prince Faolán who was still holding his own in the fight.
The other two Oak Wood dryad males had also appeared and were the ones firing flaming arrows at the tree that was now half ablaze.
We had almost reached Ciaran when the tree suddenly lurched with a creaking moan, branches slamming to the ground on either side of us. I looked up at Ciaran in time to see the brick wall crumbling down above him.
“No!” I screamed and yanked away from Seaghán who shouted at me in protest.
I dove onto Ciaran without any hesitation and covered him with my body to shield him from the debris raining down from the blast. I felt heavy chunks of stone landing on me, crushing me against him, but I held my position until the commotion settled around us.
Alive. We were… alive.
How were we alive?
“Are you alright?” he gasped and then coughed on the brick dust floating between us.
“Fine,” I grunted, my arms trembling as I braced under the pile of rubble on top of us. Luckily, I could already hear several people hauling away stone slabs and digging through the bricks. It only took a few moments before we were uncovered enough for me to lift myself off Ciaran.
I sat up anxiously to check his wounds but hesitated as he came into sharper focus than I was used to. His green blood seemed more vibrant, and its sweet nectar and rose scent was more potent than it had been before.
“Well, it was about time,” he wheezed and nodded his head between us at what I was now wearing.
My armour. I summoned my armour to protect him.
I was stunned as I raised my hand to examine all the intricate bands of thorn and bone that interlocked over my forearm.
It looked similar to Sage’s suit but was decidedly more feminine in the way it conformed to all my curves.
Similar to my saddle, it also had living vines and flowers sprawling across the bone.
It was beautiful.
I reached up to pull off the helm so I could look at it, but it snagged on my antlers.
Ciaran reached up with a grunt of pain and guided my hands so I could feel how my antlers had to slide through the hooked slits on either side of the helmet.
Once it was off my head, I set it down on the ground next to Ciaran and sat staring at the skull-like face.
It had those black, empty eye sockets just like Sage’s helmet, but there were honeysuckle vines etched on the forehead and temples.
“Did the poison wear off for you? I am still unable to feel my magic,” Ciaran admitted.
“No,” I answered as my mind turned inward to trace my tether to the armour, which felt so strong and vibrant. “It seems the armour attached itself to my shapeshifting abilities and not to my magic. Dryads have a very limited use of shapeshifting while under the powder’s thrall.”
This was why it had been so difficult to summon the armour before. I was using the wrong power to access it.
Someone was climbing through the rubble next to us, and we both turned as Prince Faolán knelt next to Ciaran. The rider tensed when the dryad put his hand on his arm to heal him, but I could see the tension seeping out of my friend once his pain was gone.
“I was unable to kill that male. The others are dead, but he escaped into the Tithriall,” the prince admitted.
“You saved our lives. I am grateful,” I said sincerely. Faolán merely nodded, still clearly dissatisfied, but then his attention landed on my helmet.
“Impressive,” he commented before cocking his head at the rest of the armour. “Is it made of thorn or bone?”
“Both,” Ciaran replied as he pushed himself upright. “We need to go before more griffins arrive.”
Faolán stood and held out a hand to each of us so he could haul us to our feet.
“Because you are stalking their queen,” remarked the dryad prince with obvious intrigue.
I whirled on him. “Were you following us?”
“We were following them. They came to the bar after you left, and I had some suspicions about your distrustful nature toward us after what you said of the Rowan Wood. So we decided to keep an eye on them, and my instincts were proven faultless,” he explained himself.
But then his face hardened into an expression that was a far cry from his smiles the night before. “Why are they after you?”
“They want me returned to Sumarra and the plethora of males there who think they own me,” I ground out.
Faolán’s jaw ticked as he glanced at his companions who had gathered behind him. They seemed to share his anger at my insinuation.
“We are going back to the Oak Wood early. This has been a… most disturbing revelation that we feel must be brought to the attention of the Trinity. I want you to come with us to share your story with my mother,” he admitted.
“If she must act in defense of your female kin, then she could use your insight and advice.”
My mouth dropped open in so much astonishment that words escaped me for a moment.
“I… cannot,” I admitted regretfully. “Our business in the Vale is time sensitive.”
“What could be more important than the suffering of so many of our kin?” he asked. He was not being derisive or even skeptical of me; he was genuinely concerned.
I glanced up at Ciaran to get his thoughts, but he was watching the sky for griffins and seemed to be ignoring the conversation entirely.
“Is there Rot in Sumarra?” I began haltingly.
“Ornella, we do not have time for this,” Ciaran urged. His hand closed around my arm, and I thought I heard the distant shouts of guards drawing closer.
“It would look like decay,” I insisted when the males frowned at me in confusion.
“The Dead Wood!” Seaghán suggested to Faolán who nodded thoughtfully before he looked back at me.
“We assumed it was a sickness in the trees,” the dryad prince admitted with a suspicious frown.
“It is not,” I assured him. “I cannot go home with you, but there is much for me to share so that you may inform your Trinity of the truth. Meet us at the bar from last night an hour after sunset if you want to know more.”