[Vankara Saga 03.0] War of Atonement

by SJ West

  “Of course,” Gabriel said, standing up from the log he and Lanai had been sitting on all morning. Apparently, he didn’t realize just how long he had been talking with his estranged mother. When he stood, he had to catch himself as his blood began to flow back into his legs. He extended a hand down to Lanai to help her up and to keep her steady as her body readjusted.

  I turned around to make my way back to camp, but I ended up turning back around when Lanai asked, “Would it be possible for me to go to my home before we leave? I would like to bring a few things with me.”

  “Of course,” I told her. “We’re not in any rush. It’ll be days before the fleets make it here, and we have plenty of time to get to the new campsite before nightfall.”

  “Oh, good,” Lanai said, pleased. “I wanted to show Gabriel where he was born.”

  “The last time I was here I noticed that most of the Fae live inside the trees. Is that what your home is like?”

  “Most of the trees this far from the capital are too small to make a good home in,” Lanai said. “I was lucky enough to find a thatch of trees that grew so close together I was able to make a home in their limbs.”

  “Like a treehouse?” I asked, instantly intrigued.

  “That’s exactly what it is,” Lanai said proudly. “I built it with my own two hands. It took quite a bit of doing too.”

  “I can only imagine. Would you mind if I accompanied you back to your home? I would love to see it.”

  “Well, my home isn’t anything grand, child, but you are more than welcome to come with us. It’s certainly not something most queens would care two wits about, but Gabriel tells me you’re a very different kind of queen.”

  I looked over at Gabriel wondering if he had divulged my secret about being a shifter to Lanai. He must have sensed what I wanted to know because he shook his head as if to answer my unasked question with a definitive no.

  “I would love to see it,” I told Lanai.

  When we got back to camp and told the others that we would need some time to retrieve Lanai’s belongings, Thomas immediately asked if he could come along.

  “Is it safe?” I asked Lanai. Since her house was built off the ground, I wasn’t sure if there was a chance of Thomas falling from it.

  “Oh yes,” Lanai assured me. “It’s perfectly safe for the boy to come.”

  “I’ll gather our things up while the rest of you are gone,” Dracen told us. “By the time you get back, we should be ready to go.”

  “Are you sure?” I asked. “I could stay to help you with that.”

  “No, no,” Dracen said with a dismissive wave of his hand. “Go have fun. There isn’t much to pack up anyway. It won’t take me very long. Just make sure you’re back before sunset so we can reach the other campsite before it gets too dark.”

  “We won’t be gone that long,” I promised.

  As we followed Lanai through the forest to her home, I began to wonder if I had made a hasty and uneducated promise to Dracen.

  “I thought your house wasn’t that far away?” I asked Lanai, after we had walked for at least half an hour.

  “It’s just a little farther,” Lanai assured me with a kind smile.

  A few minutes later, Lanai stopped walking.

  “See, we’re here,” she announced.

  I looked up over our heads but saw nothing but a dense mesh of tree limbs. Lanai walked over to a large leafy bush and squatted down beside it. I watched as she reached both arms inside the bush and began to fiddle with something. Directly above us came a rattle of wood. I looked up and saw a trapdoor open. A ladder made from wood and rope dropped down, providing a way into Lanai’s very well camouflaged treehouse.

  I looked at Lanai’s ladder and said dubiously, “I thought you said it was safe. I’m not sure I trust Thomas to not fall off that thing.”

  “No worries, child,” Lanai said, walking back over to us. Once she reached the ladder, she grabbed one of its rungs and began to unlatch a leather belt there that was tethered to a separate rope. This rope was tied to something within the treehouse itself.

  “Come here, Vankaran child,” Lanai said to Thomas.

  Thomas looked up at me questioningly as if asking for my permission.

  “I think it’s safe,” I told him as confidently as I could considering things.

  “Of course it’s safe,” Lanai laughed. “If he falls off the ladder, this will keep him from falling too far. I’ve tested it myself many times.”

  Thomas walked over to Lanai and let her tighten the leather belt around his waist.

  “Now, climb on up,” Lanai encouraged. “Once you’re up there, take the belt off and throw it back down to us.”

  Being young and adventurous, Thomas made it up the ladder in no time at all. It took a little more time and effort, but after a while, we all made it up the ladder and into Lanai’s treehouse.

  Her home had no walls to speak of. It consisted of a thick, thatched roof and a hardwood, planked floor. Supporting the roof was a series of thick branches arranged in an x pattern around the circumference of the floor. There was very little in the way of furnishings. There was a small table with a singular bench only big enough for one person to sit on. A lumpy looking sleeping mat lay on the other side of the dwelling. There were also a series of old wooden crates scattered around. All of them seemed to be filled with jars containing various liquids, pastes, and dried vegetation. The last time Lanai and I met, she was able to help heal Fallon’s wounds from Vorana’s attack with various home remedies. This was apparently the rest of her medicines.

  “Have you lived here since you left the city?” I asked, wondering why she had so little in the way of personal possessions.

  “More or less,” Lanai said, grabbing a well-worn leather backpack from the table in the room. “It’s not much, but you can’t beat the view.”

  On that point, I had to agree with her. The panorama was rather spectacular. Being so high in the trees gave Lanai a view of the surrounding forest that was breathtaking. In one direction you could make out a distant mountain range, and in the other, you could see a sliver of the ocean in the distance.

  “Sarah,” Aurora said in alarm. “I sense someone coming.”

  “Who?” I asked.

  Before she had a chance to answer, what felt like a gentle breeze stirred the air in the room. Lanai quickly stood up from her crates, looking up at the thatched roof. Before any of us could react, a set of black talons pierced through the roof, curling inward as the claws of a dragon completely snatched it off its posts to expose us.

  Lanai let out a small cry in surprise as we all looked up to meet the leering face of Tyr.

  “I had a feeling you would try something,” Tyr said as he looked at me. “You’re more cunning than Nuala gives you credit for, shifter. She still believes you’re cowering in that school, but I told her someone like you wouldn’t hide for very long.”

  “Is that supposed to be a compliment?” I asked, as I casually walked over to Thomas to bring him closer to my side. I wasn’t sure if my cloak would protect him too, but there wasn’t any other option left open to me.

  “Not necessarily,” Tyr said. “If you had been smart, you would have stayed in Iron City. Why are you here, shifter? What are you up to?”

  I didn’t get the chance to answer.

  I watched as Gregoire dove down through the white clouds directly above Tyr with his front talons spread wide. The speed of his attack was so fast and fierce that Tyr wasn’t aware of his brother’s presence until Gregoire was upon him. By that time, it was too late. Gregoire used his front claws to seize Tyr’s wings. The ferocity of his strike was so vicious, blood immediately began to gush from the puncture wounds made by Gregoire’s talons. Tyr let out a roar that vibrated the air with its force just before he reared his head back, striking Gregoire directly in the middle of the throat, forcing his brother to relinquish his hold on his wings. With his wings wounded, Tyr began to fall through the air directly towards
us.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  There was nothing I could do and nowhere for me to hide. I held Thomas close and prayed for a miracle as Tyr landed on what was left of Lanai’s treehouse. The impact of his heavy body caused the dry wooden plank floor beneath my feet to explode into splinters. I tightened my arms around Thomas as we were jettisoned into the air above the tree line.

  As we began to freefall back to the ground, I screamed to Aurora, “Fly!”

  I felt her claws clutch my shoulder tightly, possibly even drawing blood.

  “I will not leave you,” she informed me fiercely.

  My request was probably a futile one anyway. If I died, she would die too whether she flew away or not. Our lives were entwined with one another, and only death would ever separate us.

  I stared at the blue-sky overhead as gravity pulled our bodies back down to earth. And then I realized exactly what I needed to do. I thought of Vincent, using the power of my pendant to take us to him.

  It was only after we teleported to his location that I realized what a colossal mistake I had made. Vincent was flying through the air at that particular moment in time. We materialized just underneath his belly.

  “Vincent!” I called out to him as we continued to plummet to the ground.

  Vincent instantly altered his trajectory and stretched out one of his front claws to snatch us out of the air. We hung within the safe cage his talons made.

  I felt Thomas tremble against me, as I continued to hold him close, and considered the option of teleporting us back to the college, but immediately dismissed the thought. The others might need my help, and I wasn’t about to cower within the safety of the school while they fought our enemies.

  “We’re safe,” I told Thomas, hoping to ease his fears. “We’re safe.”

  But were we? I had no way of knowing what was happening. I sincerely doubted Tyr had traveled here alone. When we had encountered him at Ledmarrow, he had two other dragons with him.

  “Sarah,” Vincent said to me with a great deal of urgency in his voice, “be prepared for a slight jolt. I need to help Gregoire and Seneca in their fight, and I won’t have time to set you on the ground gently before entering the fray. I’ll need to drop you to the ground, but I’ll try to make the fall a short one. As soon as you can, move away from us.”

  “Okay,” I told him as I tightened my hold on Thomas even further. “I’m ready.”

  Without much fanfare, Vincent dropped us about three feet from the ground. The fall wasn’t too bad, but it did knock the air out of my lungs, causing me to grunt from the impact.

  I took a few precious moments to regain my breath. During that time, I saw a blue dragon tail sail over our heads, missing us by mere inches.

  “We need to move!” I yelled to Thomas.

  I finally let go of him so he could scramble to his feet. Once I was standing too, I grabbed his hand and ran for the safety of the trees right in front of us. I only dared to look over my shoulder after we were in the forest. When I did turn around, I saw Gregoire and Tyr literally butting heads, each trying to push the other back to gain the upper hand. Seneca was leaping into the air, chasing after another blue dragon. I presumed it was the same dragon who had helped Tyr torture Vincent at Ledmarrow. Vincent was in a standoff with a black dragon, who was taking in a mighty breath. I immediately realized what it was about to do.

  “Get down!” I yelled to Thomas as I tackled him to the ground and covered him with my body.

  I remembered Dracen telling me that black dragons could produce shockwaves so powerful with their roars that some were known to have decimated mountains. I braced myself for what was sure to come next.

  The dragon’s roar was so loud my ears began to throb from the force of it. The trees around us snapped like twigs near their bases. Luckily, the shockwave was directed toward us, causing all of the trees to fall forward and away from our position on the ground. I could only assume that the Mantle of Vankara protected me from the effects of the dragon’s roar. Since the dragons’ fight had decimated most of the trees to our rear, we were spared from being struck from behind.

  I chanced a glance behind us toward the action. The fighting between the pairs of dragons was fierce, beyond anything I had ever witnessed before. The power with which they hit each other seemed strong enough to destroy almost anything.

  My gaze was drawn to one lone figure lying motionless in the midst of it all: Gabriel. It was a miracle he hadn’t been trampled to death yet, but it had to be just a matter of time before he was squashed. I wasn’t even sure the dragons knew he was there. I quickly scanned the area, or what I could see of it, but Lanai was nowhere to be seen. I prayed she was still alive and somewhere safe.

  Gregoire and Tyr were locked in the most violent fight of the three. Although Vincent and Seneca were engaged in their own epic battles, the fight between the brothers was vicious. Neither of them was waiting for the other to surrender. Their fight was to the death and each of them had accepted that fact wholeheartedly. Unlike Gregoire, Tyr had not earned his gold scale marking him as an immortal dragon. He had to know that his fight with Gregoire could only end in one way: his death.

  I quickly stood up and pulled Thomas off the ground.

  “Get behind that tree,” I ordered, pushing him towards one of the larger fallen trees, hoping it would provide some protection. Once we were safely behind it, I watched the battle between the dragons and kept my eye on Gabriel.

  He didn’t move at all, and I began to wonder if he was dead. The thought of losing Gabriel pierced my heart with a sharp pang of sorrow. No matter the discord that had passed between us lately, I wasn’t ready for him to exit my life. I recalled my conversation with Fallon about not doing anything to prevent Gabriel from leaving Iron City, if that’s what he chose to do after the war. I didn’t want him to stay just because it was what I most desired. Yet, the thought of him being absent from my life, whether by choice or through death, wasn’t something I wanted. He had been the one constant in all of my lives, and I didn’t intend to live without him for the remainder of my last one.

  I was faintly aware of Thomas moving beside me, but I didn’t pay much attention until I heard him whisper, “Draconus Vi!”

  I looked up to the sky and saw Thomas’ illusion of a dragon army. The shadows they cast were immediately noticed by the other dragons. Seeing that they were now outnumbered, the black one Vincent was fighting and the blue one Seneca was battling both stopped as they studied the sky.

  It was a terrible mistake on both of their parts.

  Seneca and Vincent took advantage of their opponents’ dismay. Seneca immediately clamped his jaws down on the blue dragon’s neck. Blood gushed out of the wound, spraying the area red. Vincent reached out and clawed his opponent’s throat open with his talons, spinning the black dragon around with the force of the blow as his severed head was flung into the woods.

  If I were a stranger who just happened to stumble across Tyr in his current state, I might feel pity for him. His wings were torn to shreds and blood gushed from the various gashes that crisscrossed his body. He could barely stand and was using what was left of his wings to prop himself up, awaiting his brother’s final deathblow.

  “I want you to know that I take no joy in ending your life,” Gregoire told Tyr, breathing hard from the exertion of their fight. “You are my brother, and a part of me will always love you, but I cannot allow you to live any longer. Your desire to enslave humanity has brought you to this place, Tyr, and you only have yourself to blame.”

  “You’ve always chosen humanity above your own family,” Tyr wheezed, as his breaths became more labored. “Ever since you bonded with one of them, you have held them in a higher regard than your own kind. Go ahead and end my life, brother. I have nothing to live for anymore.”

  “Let me do it!” Seneca demanded, coming to stand beside Gregoire. “He killed my beloved, and I should be given the right to avenge her death!”

  Tyr began to chuc
kle. “Poor, deluded Vorana. She thought she could persuade me to change my ways. Your wife was a fool, Seneca. I did the world a favor by poisoning her and ending her pointless goodwill.”

  I felt Aurora tremble with anger on my shoulder.

  Seneca took a determined step toward Tyr, but Gregoire held out a wing to stop him.

  “Tyr is my responsibility, Seneca,” Gregoire stated gruffly. “I will take care of him.”

  “No, you won’t,” Tyr said with confidence. “Your moral compass won’t allow you to kill me, brother.”

  “You overestimate my love for you,” Gregoire stated coldly. “You are not the brother I grew up with. He was lost to me a long time ago.”

  Tyr laughed heartily, almost as if he knew something the rest of us didn’t. “I wasn’t talking about our familial connection, you fool.”

  Tyr lunged his body to the right towards the spot where Gabriel was still lying on the ground. Before any of the other dragons could stop him, Tyr picked Gabriel up by his legs with his mouth. As Gabriel hung limply from the dragon’s mouth, I watched in horror as Tyr bit down on my friend’s legs before spitting Gabriel out onto the ground.

  “Oh, no,” Aurora said in dismay, and I knew I had just witnessed something that twisted the odds back into Tyr’s favor.

  Tyr collapsed onto the ground with a resounding thud as he chortled. “Are you still going to kill me, brother?”

  Gregoire looked down at Gabriel’s still unmoving body with a great deal of pity before returning his gaze to Tyr.

  “What have you done?” Gregoire demanded. “Why would you do that?”

  “Isn’t it obvious?” Tyr jeered. “I told you your morality wouldn’t allow you to kill me. If you kill me now, you’ll kill that pathetic human. Weren’t you the one who always urged me to bond with one? Now I have.”

  “Stay here,” I told Thomas. “Don’t move until I tell you to.”

  Thomas nodded that he understood my instructions.