by Eric Vall
“Laika, I want you to stay with Alyona here at the castle,” I instructed. “I don’t like the idea of the princess being in the woods with a bunch of guys who want to kill her so they can open the Breach.”
“Me either,” the wolf warrior agreed, and her tail swished in agitation at the thought.
“Ravi, you and I will fly above the canopy and keep an eye on the search parties,” I directed the phoenix. “If anyone finds a Sect member, I want to know about it.”
“You got it,” the firebird replied with a salute.
“Be careful,” the princess murmured.
I could tell she wasn’t happy with my decision, but she knew I was right. It was way too dangerous for her to be in the forest. For all we knew, one of the traps Gavin had mentioned was for her. We’d already seen what the Green Glass Sect was willing to do to a child, so I didn’t even want to think about what they would do to the princess to keep her from spoiling their plans.
Alyona pressed a brief kiss to my cheek, and then the princess and Laika returned to the palace doors and walked inside.
Ravi and I shared a look before we took off running toward the gates out of the city. As soon as we hit the open air, we both shifted into our flying forms, and I flapped my wings and felt the wind rush under my belly. We soared over the hunting party who stood at the edge of the forest, and I saw Nike dividing them into groups. We looped around the field that separated the forest from the city gates, and then we flew over the canopy of trees as the groups set out.
I loved everything about being a dragon, but flying was my favorite part. I kept an eye on the warriors searching the ground while I dipped and spun through the air. Then I glanced over at Ravi, who flew about a hundred yards away from me, and she looked exhilarated as the wind blew through her orange feathers.
I realized she and I should do more flying during the campaign. She probably missed it just as much as I did.
Then I heard a shout from the ground behind me, and I changed direction and veered back toward the noise. I didn’t see any kind of fight yet, so I hovered over the canopy and waited to see what was going on.
“I found a black robe, Lord Evan,” one of the centaur warriors shouted as he held up the garment for me to see.
“One of them is probably close,” I called down to him. “Keep searching.”
I resumed flying, but I stayed closer to the trees in the area the robe had been found in, and I used my dragon sight to scan the ground. I knew the owner of the robe had to be close, and I wasn’t letting any more of these assholes escape our grasp.
Within moments, I heard one of the Solas squeal in the next group, so I veered in her direction and heard shouting. Then I shifted to my human form just above the tree line and dropped into the clearing.
“He’s already tied up, my lord.” Jager pointed to a man who was slumped against a tree with a glowing rope around his torso.
The Sect member was laughing hysterically as we approached him with caution.
“You found me!” he giggled as blood ran out of his mouth and down his chin.
I frowned and reached out to check his status.
Classification: Human
Condition: Miasma poisoning
Priority: Healing required immediately
Danger: At risk of imminent death
Status: Critical
I furrowed my brow and sent out a wave of glittery healing power. The status briefly changed to lower the danger, but within seconds, it returned to “imminent death.”
I growled as I tried to figure out what was poisoning him, and I knew I had to figure it out and fast.
“What’s wrong, my lord?” Jager whispered. “Should we just kill him?”
“No.” I shook my head. “He’s trying to kill himself.”
“Is that a problem?” the hunter asked with a raised brow.
“We need to get that rope off him,” I said as I realized the glowing rope was likely the cause of his poisoning. “I don’t want anyone else to get poisoned by the miasma, though.”
“Oh, we can help with that!” a Sola offered. “Our purity protects us unless we have prolonged exposure.”
“Okay, let’s unwrap him, then,” I directed. “Once the rope is off, I’ll take care of the rest.”
The three Solas in the group approached the Sect member. One untied the rope, and the other two grabbed either end and began to fly around the tree to unravel the captive. The rope slowly lost its radiance as the fairies removed more of it from the Sect member’s body, and the man looked down at the loosening cord and groaned.
“You’re not getting out of this that easily.” I smirked.
As soon as the man was free of the glowing rope, I blew another wave of healing magic onto him. The glitter settled on his body, and this time, his status improved without going back down.
“It doesn’t even matter,” the man moaned. “They’ll kill me somehow. That’s why I got left behind. I’m not worth anything to the Sect.”
“Well, joke’s on them,” I chuckled, and a dark grin spread across my face. “You’re worth something to us now.”
Chapter 13
Our new captive groaned and sat up against the giant, dark blue tree he’d been tied to as he regained his strength. His shaggy brown hair was stuck to his forehead as sweat gathered on his brow. His robe was gone, likely the one we’d found nearby, and his black and green tunic was stained and tattered. He wore black trousers that were covered in the dirt and grass from the forest floor, and he looked like he’d rolled around on the ground before being tied up.
I shot out my sticky webs to cover the lower half of his body and hold him to the ground. I wasn’t about to let him escape. Too many of the Sect had gotten free of my wrath, and I wasn’t adding to the count any time soon. Once I was sure I had him pinned, I pulled the Sword of Healing from my spatial storage and faced him.
“Where’s your tattoo?” I demanded as I scanned the skin I could see.
“What tattoo?” he laughed hysterically, and the sound was like fingernails on a chalkboard.
“The green leaf,” I answered as I bared my teeth and pressed the sword to his throat. “Tell me where it is.”
A drop of blood trickled down his neck from the point of my sword.
“It doesn’t matter.” The man shrugged his shoulders as though he didn’t have a care in the world. “They have their ways. I’m dead.”
“I can nearly kill you and then heal you as many times as I need to,” I growled and dug the sword into his skin a little further.
“Okay!” the Sect member cried out in fear. “It’s on my arm!”
He nodded to his left arm and closed his eyes. He looked like he expected me to cut off the whole arm, which would have been interesting, but I only planned on getting rid of the curse eating away at him so I could get answers.
So, I pulled the sword away from his neck and then cut through the sleeve of his tunic. As the fabric fell away, the green leaf tattoo glowed and shimmered on his shoulder. The cursed tattoos were a way for the Green Glass Sect to communicate with its members and, as I discovered a couple weeks ago, to kill anyone who dared to give away their information.
I pressed my sword to the ink and focused on removing the curse. As Miraya began to heat up in my hand, I watched the glow of the curse fade from the man’s arm, and his skin slowly returned to its pale color with the contrasting black ink now outlining the tattoo.
“Now that we have that out of the way, who are you?” I asked.
“Jacob,” the Sect member mumbled and refused to meet my eyes.
“Okay, Jacob, tell me why the Sect left you behind,” I ordered.
Jacob looked around the clearing at the angry faces of my group, and the hate for him and his people nearly oozed into the air around us. By now, the other hunting parties had joined us, and he was surrounded by a dozen centaur warriors, the dryads, the Solas hunters, Nike, Ravi, Aaliyah, and me. He seemed to realize there was no escaping all of
us, so he groaned again and looked down at his feet.
“They think you’re dead anyway, so you might as well answer,” I prodded.
“They think I’m dead?” Jacob’s eyes widened as he snapped his head up to look at me. “Why? You healed me before I could die.”
“That’s what happens when I get rid of the curse in your tattoo.” I shrugged. “I’ve done it a few times now.”
“Wait, the glow was a curse?” Jacob nearly shrieked.
“You didn’t know?” I quirked a brow. “I find that hard to believe.”
“No!” he yelled. “Why would I let them give me a cursed tattoo?”
“I don’t know, because you’re all crazy for following a lunatic like Olivier?” I suggested. It seemed logical to me.
“The sage is not a lunatic,” Jacob muttered, and his face creased with a frown.
Well, this guy knew more than he was letting on since he just confirmed my theory about Olivier being the sage. I couldn’t decide if he’d been smug or stupid to come into Hatra himself, since I could easily recognize that face when he used it.
“If the sage isn’t a lunatic, then why didn’t he tell you that the tattoo is cursed?” I countered. “And why is he trying to open the Breach?”
Jacob’s brown eyes narrowed before he dropped his gaze to the ground again. Guess he didn’t have an answer for that.
“Let’s get back to the main point here,” I said. “Why did they leave you here?”
“Well, I was supposed to die, so you already ruined part of it,” Jacob spat.
“Don’t get too attached to the idea of not dying.” Aaliyah smirked before she ran her tongue over her sharp fangs.
“Especially if you keep beating around the bush instead of answering me,” I added through clenched teeth.
“Listen, I was just supposed to tell you about how I kidnapped those centaurs to throw into the rift and then die,” Jacob said with a shrug. “I don’t know anything else.”
“Who put the curse on the rope?” I asked as I skipped back to something he had to know.
The rope that had tied him to the tree laid on the ground next to the captive and looked less menacing without the green glow of the curse. It must have been deactivated when we untied it.
“One of the mages,” Jacob mumbled.
The glow of the rope reminded me of the glowing knife I’d seen the night we rescued the centaurs from the skyraptor, so I pushed more on my hunch.
“Is it the same curse that was on the knife?” I kept the question vague to see if he really knew anything.
“The sacrificial knife?” Jacob’s eyes widened. “How did you know about that?”
“I have my ways.” I smirked, but even with my theory confirmed, we had a mage out there who was cursing things left and right to get the Sect what they wanted.
That made him dangerous.
“Who’s the mage that’s performing these curses?” I interrogated. “What’s his name?”
“No. I can’t.” Jacob shook his head with vigor. “Whatever you can do to me, he can do ten times worse. I’m not giving him up.”
I pursed my lips as I considered my captive’s statement. He was scared of this guy, which made him not want to talk. Maybe he wouldn’t give up the mage willingly, but I had another idea.
“I bet I know someone with more magic than your mage,” I said with a smug smile as I crossed my arms over my chest.
“Yeah, right,” Jacob retorted and rolled his eyes.
“Okay, get word to Penelope,” I told the Solas.
One of the Solas widened her blue eyes before she nodded. Then she conjured one of the small glowing balls and whispered to it, and the ball jumped from her hand and flew above the canopy of trees toward the Solas’ village.
The rest of the hunting parties started murmuring to each other in surprise. Only a few of them knew what Penelope could do, but word was spreading quickly.
“Are you sure, Lord Evan?” River asked as he strode to the front of the small crowd, and he raised an eyebrow at my tactics.
“He doesn’t want to tell us everything.” I shrugged. “So, I’ll take away his choice and get what we need.”
I glanced back at Jacob and watched his expression change from smug to worried. He didn’t know who Penelope was, and he was slowly losing the tough guy act. He wouldn’t be tough at all once the fairy got her magical hands on him, though.
“Well, you know I would just kill them all,” River grunted. “So, you do what you think is best.”
I nodded as the centaur commander returned to the ranks, and I stared at Jacob, who was twisting his hands together as he grew more and more nervous. The wait for the fairy to arrive was enough to get a little more out of him.
“Okay, sir, I know one other thing … ” Jacob trailed off.
“Well?” I nudged.
“I know where the Sect is going,” he claimed.
I raised a brow and waited for him to continue.
“They’re going to Colaruma!” Jacob wailed and covered his face.
“Where the hell is Colaruma?” I asked with a furrowed brow.
“I don’t know, I swear!” he cried as he sat up and threw his arms out to the sides. “I don’t know what they’re doing there. I just heard the mages talking about it right before one of them cursed the rope. That’s it.”
The captive slumped back against the tree, closed his eyes, and crossed his arms over his chest. His temper tantrum was limited with his lower body webbed to the ground, but he tried to be petulant.
Then I saw a flurry of wings as Penelope fluttered to a stop next to me.
“Hello again, Lord Evan,” the matriarch fairy said with a twinkle in her sapphire eyes. “You’re in need of my magical skills?”
“Yeah,” I confirmed. “I was hoping you could teach me how to do it, too.”
“Are you sure?” Penelope asked as she blinked in surprise. “Can dragons even do my kind of magic?”
“You never know when a dragon might need to get the truth out of someone,” I chuckled. “And I’m a quick learner. So, let’s test it out.”
“I told you everything!” Jacob sat up again. “I swear!”
“Yeah, you’ve said that a couple times now,” Ravi chimed in as she casually preened her feathers. “None of us believe you.”
“Nope,” Trina agreed and shook her head.
“We don’t believe anything from you bastards,” Marina added with a fierce look on her face.
“Not at all,” Polina growled and furrowed her brow.
“You should’ve just killed me.” Jacob laid back down and pouted.
“That would be too easy,” I laughed.
“Be forewarned, it doesn’t hurt as much if you don’t fight it,” Penelope advised the traitor.
I snickered at Jacob’s bewildered reaction before I turned back to Penelope. “So, how do we do this?”
“Well, I’m not sure if dragon magic is the same.” Penelope pursed her lips and rubbed her chin as she looked up at me.
“I have a little more power than most dragons,” I said with a wink. “Just show me how you do it.”
“Okay.” The Sola shrugged and reached her hands out to the captive Sect member. “First, I have to tell my magic where to go. I like to use my hands to direct it.”
I watched as the smoky coils of green magic began to form at her fingertips, and then they snaked out of her fingers and toward Jacob. I wondered if my terra magic would work since that’s how I’d found the Solas’ secret village. I decided to give it a try, and I reached out to my spiritual sea and the mountain it now touched to access my terra magic. Then I copied Penelope’s movements as I held my hand out toward the prisoner. Within seconds, a greenish blue tendril peeked out of my finger, and then more appeared until I had the same five coils reaching out from my hand. I guessed the color was a little different because of my magic, but I concentrated on the task at hand.
“Good,” Penelope said with a surprise
d smile. “Then, I speak to my spirit and tell it to find the truth. And it will pull it out from there.”
“You first.” I gestured to the captive with my other hand.
“Of course,” the Sola leader replied as she refocused on her magic.
The green smoke meandered its way through the air between them, and Jacob’s eyes grew wider. Then the magic vines shot into his startled mouth and dove down, and as they returned, Jacob gasped.
“Something big is going to happen at Colaruma,” he breathed. “I don’t know what, though.”
“Ah, he is telling the truth about that.” Penelope frowned. “Something has been taken from him. A memory, maybe?”
“Let me try,” I suggested as I pushed my own teal colored magic toward the traitor.
My coils didn’t move as effortlessly as Penelope’s. They were more disjointed and spastic, but they finally reached Jacob’s mouth, which he now tried to hold shut. I was pleased to see the magic seeped through his lips anyway, and the tendrils came back up with Jacob’s groan and an answer right behind them.
“I don’t know what’s happening at Colaruma,” he said again.
Hmm, I can feel the block, too, Miraya murmured in my head.
In my mind’s eye, I could see the spirit as she stood in the grass at the base of the mountain and ran her fingers through her long, white hair. Her face was set into a puzzled expression as she pondered the lack of memory.
“Can we heal it?” I asked her.
No, it’s not a wound, the sword spirit replied. It’s more like a hole. Maybe a spell that erased his memory.
“I’m sorry, what are we healing?” Penelope looked at me with a quizzical expression.
“Oh, I’m talking to the spirit of my sword,” I explained before I realized I had no idea if that was normal, so I quickly continued. “Anyway, she said it looks like a memory-erasing spell.”
“Ah, yes,” Penelope said with a nod. “That would make sense. The magic can’t pull out something he doesn’t have.”
“Can we undo it with another spell?” I asked.
“No, a memory-erasing spell quite literally erases the memory itself,” Penelope clarified. “Since the memory only belonged to him, it no longer exists if he doesn’t have it.”
