Why didn’t he see it before? Her poisoned food and wine dampened his sight. Maybe he wouldn’t have seen it before now anyway. It took this desperate moment for him to recognize the signs.
A small circle of dark grey smudged his vision of her perfect beauty. It tucked into the hollow where her slender neck met her chest. Her bright golden pendant in the shape of a star slipped aside for a moment. It must have hidden that spot all this time so he couldn’t see it until right now.
His pulse thudded in his veins. He would have one shot at this. If he missed, she wouldn’t give him another chance. His eye skipped around the room again, and this time, he saw what he wanted. He coiled his legs under him to spring. His right leg still throbbed in pain, but he paid it no attention. It was all magic. It wasn’t real. Once he got away from her, he would be fine.
She gave him her patronizing smile. How she enraged him to revenge himself against her. He loathed her lying beauty and her insidious charm. How could he ever let himself fall for her?
He didn’t let himself hesitate. He exploded into action. He grabbed the table edge and upended it in front of her. In a heartbeat, he charged across the room and seized a heavy iron frying pan off the wall. He sent it spinning across the room. It wavered in the air and struck her in the neck, right in that grey spot.
He never stopped to see the result. He rocketed around the table and yanked the door off its hinges. He lunged outside into the garden and jumped. He launched himself into the air and extended his wings. In a few quick flaps, he cleared the wall and soared away over the mountains.
He skimmed over peaks and forests. He narrowed his eyes against the wind. How good it felt to spread his wings and fly like he hadn’t flown in weeks. He wanted to fly all the way back to Urlu without stopping, but he couldn’t do that now.
He barreled over the landscape. He flapped hard to pick up speed before he banked to turn back. He bent his head low and trailed his tail out behind him against the wind. He pumped his wings harder than he’d ever worked them before. The wind whined off his scales, but still he pushed himself harder.
The castle burst into view, and he angled around to the north. He bent all his murderous animosity for Althea against that castle. He only regretted he wouldn’t be able to wipe out her men in the process.
Liars! All of them, liars, deceivers, and murderers. He came screeching in going a hundred miles an hour and let loose a shattering blast of his fiery breath against the north wall. It pulverized in a smoking pile of rubble before his might. He zoomed into the air and tilted northward again. He streaked into the mountains to escape, even though he knew no one down there would come after him.
He hovered in mid-air above the mountains for another pass. His eye picked up tiny figures racing around the walls. As he expected, the different troop factions diverted from the east and south wall to defend the north side. He stooped and plunged out of the sky. At the last second, he flicked his right wind and attacked the castle on the east side. He shattered the wall and left it gaping open to attack.
How long could he go on? He would have decimated the whole castle to the ground, but at that moment, he detected some movement in the forest beyond the lake. He soared high in the sky out of sight and beheld a distant regiment of the Faery army charging in fast.
Horsemen and infantry broke through the trees. They rushed around the lake and attacked the castle. Half of them closed with the Loch Nagar forces near the breached west wall. The others flooded around the corner and found the north wall in ruins. They charged inside and disappeared.
Chapter 26
Hazel dropped her hands to her side. Cold clear calm descended over her. A hush fell over Loch Nagar castle, but that didn’t fool her. Something was coming. It was coming out to meet her.
Soldiers fought all around the castle walls. The tide of battle waved first one way and then the other. First Faery took the upper hand. Then Loch Nagar drove them back and almost crushed them.
None of that meant anything. Hazel took a step forward. Her foot touched the lake water, but she didn’t sink into it. It solidified under her heel, and she strode across it to meet her destiny.
She made it halfway across before she saw it. Something golden shot over the roof. It soared into the sky and hovered there. It blazed bright yellow against the sinking sun. A brilliant golden star shot its rays to the four corners of the world.
Hazel didn’t have to look to recognize Althea. The woman floated high above the castle with her arms extended on both sides. Those golden shafts of light streaming out of her trickled down through the air and sprayed scorching fire over the Faery troops.
Hazel took a deep breath for the final confrontation when a blue streak whizzed out of nowhere. It split the sky in half and collided with Althea. Hazel stared in horror at the blue dragon catapulting across the sky. It was Fergus.
He smashed Althea sideways and wrapped his tail and neck around her in tight coils. The two airborne figures somersaulted over and over. They came to a standstill high over the mountains, but they kept tumbling one on top of the other in an epic battle to the death.
From her position down on the ground, Hazel beheld the two locked in mortal combat. Fergus slashed his fangs at Althea, but the witch retaliated with invisible weapons of her own. The dragon barely made one dive for her before he whipped back his head screaming in agony.
The noise ripped Hazel heart. Althea twisted out of his grip. She writhed around at the waist and seized the dragon by his long neck. She cracked him like a whip and sent him spinning away from her. Her grip stopped him flying away to the ends of the Earth, and she jerked him back hard. His wings flopped, and his tail and limbs hung limp in the air.
A deafening roar ripped out of Hazel’s throat. Before she knew what she was doing, she launched herself off the ground at Althea. Althea didn’t see her coming. She cracked Fergus one more time and sent him flying away. He sailed over the mountains and plunged into the black forest far away.
Bloody rage filled Hazel’s heart to bursting. She spread her arms and shrieked her vengeful fury to the skies. She barreled through the crisp air on a collision course with the golden figure flying high overhead.
Hazel didn’t register the moment when she changed. She knew only her own endless rage and lust for blood. She would rip Althea to shreds for what she’d done to Fergus. Her furious emotion sprouted out of her back and gave her wings. The next minute, a burnished red dragon charged Althea with her eyes narrowed to slits.
Althea turned around to face the incoming dragon. She lifted her hand, but before she unleashed her power, Hazel opened her mouth. Instead of fire, she breathed all her monstrous power on Althea. A shimmering torch of pure energy blasted through the skies. It hit Althea in the palm and knocked her spinning through the air.
Hazel never stopped flying. Her unbridled fury gave her unstoppable speed and power. She barreled straight into Althea and smashed her out of the sky. She coiled her long neck around the stricken witch and carried her high into the air.
The atmosphere thinned out the higher Hazel flew, but she didn’t care. She fluttered there where the sky disappeared and the stars winked in space. She whipped back her neck and hurled Althea into the ground with all her might.
Althea plummeted out of the sky and slammed into the Earth so hard she made a crater in the mountain behind Loch Nagar castle. The tremor shook the castle to its roots, but Hazel didn’t see that. She stormed out of the clouds flapping all her muscles to their utmost. At the last instant, she curled her neck in tight, folded up her wings and limbs, and smashed down on top of Althea to drive her deeper underground.
The next instant, Hazel rocketed skyward one last time. Destroying Althea did nothing to dampen her passion. If anything, it fueled it to greater heights of rage. She wanted to destroy the whole world. She would never stop killing until she laid waste the land. She would wipe the name of Loch Nagar out of existence.
Hazel rose above the castle. Down on the grou
nd, the witch struggled out of her hole. She got her feet on level ground and looked up. Hazel narrowed her eyes at Althea. Althea straightened up to confront the dragon, but Hazel had enough of this pest. She inhaled a deep breath and exhaled power at the witch. Althea raised her hands to defend herself, but Hazel held nothing back. Monstrous black smoke billowed out of her mouth. It plumed all around Althea.
The witch screamed. Her arms flailed around her head, but Hazel wouldn’t quit. She unloaded all her fury and poisonous hatred against this woman. Hazel called up all the evil that made the curse a force of destruction and mayhem, and she vented it all on the witch. This woman would never raise a finger against the world again.
Hazel didn’t care if the Faery King thought Althea was good. She didn’t care if Althea stole the Stone of Scone to protect it from the curse. Hazel didn’t care about anything. She craved blood and death and destruction.
Althea twisted and contorted in the depths of Hazel’s spell. She curled and folded over herself. She roiled off the ground. The smoke disfigured her beauty until her skin rotted off. Her limbs twisted and smeared into nothing. Althea rippled one way, smeared another way, and eventually dissolved into space.
Hazel closed her mouth, but she wasn’t finished—not by a mile. She turned her sights on the castle for any sign of something to destroy. A deep, yawning ache ate away at her insides. It hungered to devour anything in her path. She wanted to pour her evil and hatred and pain on anyone in view.
Her gaze rested on the castle, that source of all this trouble. She unfurled her wings and flew to a point above the parapet overlooking the battle on the ground below her. She watched the pathetic armies struggling against each other. They would drag this out until doomsday if she didn’t intervene.
She could end this in the blink of her eye. She could settle this once and for all. She didn’t even have to open her mouth. She flapped her wings forward and shot a thousand piercing magical daggers. They blasted into the castle walls, and the whole edifice went up in a massive explosion of dust and flying rock.
Hazel retracted her wings and flapped again, and again. She thundered her power against the castle until she smashed it to smithereens. Soldiers from both armies scattered for the hills. The Faery King bellowed to his men to retreat beyond the lake. Hazel saw and heard nothing but her own power hammering the castle into the ground.
The more rubble flew into the air, the harder she hit. The tallest towers imploded and sank behind the walls. Men, women, and children, livestock and birds poured out of the castle and ran for their lives.
Hazel squinted through the dust and smoke. She wouldn’t quit until she reduced Loch Nagar to an ash heap. She blasted again and again. The outer wall crumbled to expose the inner courtyard. Soldiers, scullery maids, page boys, and grooms bolted.
When at last Hazel paused to check her progress, nothing remained of Loch Nagar castle but a smoldering mound of stone, twisted beams, and dust. She flexed her wings a few more times until the air washing off her scales blew the clouds of smoke aside. She accomplished what she wanted to accomplish, but still she couldn’t be satisfied.
Voices attracted her attention. She craned her head around on her long neck and spied people running over the hills in the distance. She flew over their heads and watched their desperate flight in search of safety. Hatred and seething murderous power glinted in her eyes.
Now that she let her power loose on the world, she never wanted to stop. She wanted to let it rip until the end of time. She wanted to hunt down one measly target after another. She wanted to leave skeletons and rotten corpses in her wake. She wanted the whole world to tremble at her approach.
She flew faster across the lake to the great multitude of people fleeing through the woods. The Faery King called out to encourage the vanguard. Faery and Loch Nagar people alike filled the column. He helped them all. His soldiers surrounded them to protect them, but they couldn’t protect those people from Hazel.
Hazel made a pass over the canopy to check their progress. She banked to return. They were sitting ducks. She could wipe them out in a few easy passes. She hovered over their heads. Their terrified glances up at her only fueled her rage. She wanted to make their worst fears come true. She wanted tales of her destructive impulses to spread before her until everyone feared her.
She flew all the way back to the ruined castle before she turned around one more time. She bent low over the lake and rocketed forward. She blasted over the treetops and let her power burst forth. She plowed a massive furrow in the ground. She uprooted trees and flung them aside. Her shining power split the column in half. People, horses, and livestock sailed away on both sides. Bodies smashed into trees and bounced on the ground yards away from where they stared.
Hazel cut a swath of chaos through the fleeing multitude until she came to its end. She launched herself skyward for another pass and peered down on her victims from on high. No one dared continue the way they wanted to go with her fluttering over their heads. They scattered far and wide.
Hazel tucked her wings against her body to dive. She zoomed out of the clouds. The wind whistled in her ears and hummed over her scales. She swooped low over the last remnant left alive down there and opened her mouth to let her power tear them to pieces when something slammed into her with catastrophic force.
The air exploded out of her lungs. She screeched in frustrated rage, but she couldn’t move. She couldn’t fly. She couldn’t whip her head around to bite. Something held her immobile and hauled her straight up into the heavens.
She lashed her body right and left in desperation. She fought her way to a standstill high above the Earth before she paused long enough to see what was holding her. Gleaming blue coils wrapped all around her. A spiked tail strapped around her limbs and crushed her wings against her sides. A long blue body curved over her chest and squeezed her so she couldn’t move.
She reared back her crimson head and lashed the blue dragon with her fangs. Their heads bobbed to and fro. They feinted, bit, and slithered sideways to miss the next vicious stroke coming in. Hazel raged in all her furious might against the blue dragon. She would kill him, just like all the others. She would leave him incinerated on the forest floor for interfering with her attack. She would flay his flesh from his bones and drink his blood in greedy swallows.
Try as she might, though, she couldn’t get near him. He held her in an iron grip she couldn’t break, and he always danced out of the way of her menacing teeth. She gathered her resolve to end this. She curved back her neck and narrowed her eyes at him.
She opened her mouth to blast him with her power, but only a simple jet of flame spurted from her throat. She tried again and again. She possessed no power against him beyond the fiery breath of any ordinary dragon. She couldn’t use her magic to defeat him.
The flames flickered over his sides, but they didn’t harm him. He kept his head clear and let her blast away to her heart’s content. She didn’t bother him in the slightest. He let her rage. He let her bellow. He didn’t try to stop her.
She twisted in his clutches. Tiny ants scurried around the forest floor below her, but she couldn’t get near them. They reformed their column to make their escape while the blue dragon occupied her in the sky.
She craned her head around. Out of sheer spite, she breathed her magic breath on them. It worked. The devastating shiny force poured out of her and erupted in the trees. Screams floated into the sky until the blue dragon jerked her around and cut off her fire.
So that was it. She could use her power against those fleeing people, but not against him. She hated him. She would kill him the minute she got free from his infuriating hold on her. She threw all her energy into breaking his grip, but he wouldn’t let go.
He tumbled over and over through the clouds. He held them both aloft with his great leathery wings. She couldn’t stop him. She couldn’t free her tail to strike, and he always evaded her bites so she caused no damage.
Their battle carried them f
ar over the mountains, but it didn’t cool Hazel’s temper. The longer it lasted, the more enraged she became. Her power swelled inside her to monstrous proportions. It would never wane. She would destroy the whole world if he gave her the chance.
She sensed his strength fading, but hers only ballooned stronger than ever. She let rip her magical breath every which way just to make him mad. She blew the peaks off the mountains and sent snow spraying into space. She uprooted forests and dried up rivers. She slaughtered rabbits and deer and badgers in their holes just for the fun of it.
The blue dragon unfurled his tail from around her body and cracked it through the air. The tip struck a shattering blow to the side of her head. Stars burst in front of her eyes, and she broke off her vengeful destruction to face him.
He delivered three more blows in rapid succession until she screamed in pain. He peppered her flanks with vicious punches until she went limp and submissive in his clutches. Slowly, slowly, little by little, he lowered her to the ground until they alighted in the forest still entangled in each other’s coils.
Chapter 27
Fergus drew a ragged breath. Hazel lay still under him and panted for breath. He pinned her to the ground under his great weight and listened to her scales rustle against his body. His muscles shivered from the effort of holding her, but he would go a lot further to break her out of this murderous rampage of hers.
The red dragon lay still for a long time. She didn’t try to break free to blast the world to kingdom come anymore, but he had to be ready for anything. Her power broke its bounds to defeat Loch Nagar and now she couldn’t get it under control again. She might explode into rage again at any moment.
All of a sudden, she shivered in his arms. She shrank under his weight. He barely had time to shift himself before she changed back into a woman. She whimpered in his arms and laid her head against his chest. “Fergus! I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to.”
Destiny Stone Page 19
