The Last Druid

by Colleen Montague

  “The boy is not the traitor here—he is innocent of everything you tried accusing him of. He has proven his loyalty over and over again, and you saw it as too little, too late. All you were able to see was the life he led as a child, the dark events that befell his mother before he was even born; you tried to have him damned from the moment you first saw him! I have half a mind to reduce you and your fellows to ashes for all you have done, not just to him but also to the citizens around you, as well as me!”

  Mrok’s mind was working hard, trying to find a way to regain control of the situation; it showed plainly on his face. He straightened up, trying to make himself appear taller than her. “Stop this,” he said slowly through gritted teeth. “Stop this right now, girl. You do not understand that this has to be done. You must stand aside!”

  Elenia scowled at him. He actually thought it was all Calla’s actions, that she was proving to him how much of a child she was by not understanding. The damned fool—Calla had known perfectly well how wrong he was even before she tried running off on him. He had the nerve to think this was all some kind of child’s game? His words made her even angrier, the energy of her own soul flaring up to create a wall of flames at her back for all to see.

  The nerve of him—he refused to believe what she actually thought of him. She saw only darkness emanating from his soul and the souls of the others on the Council. They had all been corrupted, and whether they realized it or not they were willingly opening the doors to the threatening darkness that drew ever closer.

  They lost the right to her protection a long time ago.

  “I must do nothing for you,” she said coldly. “Ever I tried to warn you whenever you were going astray and always you ignored me, taking each event as the work of someone else—the work of the boy, because his father was a master of dark magic. I gave you so many chances to set things right, but your old tricks to stay in power only became worse. If any here are to be labeled traitors, let everyone see that it is you of the Council!”

  With these last words she reached out with her mind, locking on to one particular wave of their energy: it didn’t come from their souls, but was linked directly to their physical forms. Its stability meant they would be able to keep their present appearance. But if a powerful magical being like herself was able to tug at it enough their forms would shift, and she could turn them into whatever creature she wanted to. It was the kind of spell she used rarely, and only as punishment for the most severe of crimes—those she performed it on suffered a tremendous amount of pain from the transformation itself, and she was always left feeling some kind of guilt afterwards. It always pained her to hurt another living thing this way.

  But this was the only way the Councilmen would learn.

  She grabbed hold of that wavelength in all of them at once and pulled on it hard. Mrok cried out and dropped to the ground writhing in agony, as did the others of the Council. Elenia started altering their physical forms; as everyone watched the men’s skin darkened to almost black, their existing limbs thinning out as another set grew out from their midsections, and their eyes grew unnaturally large in their heads. Slowly they began to shrink until they disappeared within the folds of their robes.

  “For the crimes you have committed against myself, my servants, and the people you were sworn to protect, I strip you of your natural forms and curse you to live out the rest of your lives as creatures that all will despise.”

  The Councilmen gave one final collective shriek before they were swallowed up by their clothes and fell silent. As the crowd stared at where they had been, the only things to emerge from the folds of fabric were ants.

  So ends this Council, Elenia thought to herself.

  It was over. Guards came up and started dropping their weapons in piles on the pavement; people began cheering and chanting hers and Calla’s names; children started running around in the streets stomping on any bugs they found—a very quick end to the once-Councilmen.

  Elenia felt a ripple of energy somewhere within her. It came from Calla’s soul; the girl was coming around again. Elenia turned to Hiran, who stood off to one side with a mixture of confusion, relief, and fear on his face. She walked over to him. His eyes went wide and he stiffened as she came closer.

  “Catch her, Hiran,” she said calmly. “She is waking up again. If I remain in her body for much longer my presence will start to damage her.”

  He blinked in surprise, then nodded. Elenia immediately let go of Calla’s mind, pushing against it with her own to force them apart again. It would hurt them both, and Calla was bound to feel the effects of the merge later on, but it wouldn’t be enough to cause any lasting damage. Elenia pulled herself away, being careful to do so gently to keep from taking a piece of Calla’s soul with her. After several minutes they were half-apart, making the separation easier from here on. Elenia pulled herself completely out of Calla’s body, and the girl promptly dropped into Hiran’s waiting arms.

  Elenia, in her own form once more, stretched slowly to ease some of the soreness from the merge. She turned to face the two mortals behind her. Calla eyelids fluttered open and she stared at Hiran, apparently unaware that he was leaning over her. He said something to her that Elenia couldn’t hear as he helped her stand back up. They both turned to meet Elenia’s gaze.

  —You have only tonight to enjoy this victory—she said, projecting her thoughts directly into their minds so no one else could hear. –We have won this small battle, but our greatest one is about to begin.—

  XXXII

  Hiran

  Hiran sat on one side of the field and watched as the three women went on with their lesson in magic. Calla stood within a large ring of stones with her back towards him, her attention focused on something in front of her. Her body was shaking as she struggled to raise a pillar of stone right from the ground. She was giving this her entire focus.

  Hiran felt himself frowning. This wasn’t going as well as it could have, he could feel it. Her task had been to draw a pillar of stone directly out of the earth, which meant manipulating the soil material to create the object. She understood how it was supposed to be done, but she kept pouring so much of her energy into it. Calla had her entire focus on this one thing, when the point of the exercise was to get her to focus on raising the stone with only a fraction of her mind.

  She had been at this for a week now, but she still wasn’t showing any signs of getting stronger.

  He sighed and crossed his arms over his chest. Time was running out—they were reminded constantly of that nowadays. Ever since the old Council had been removed reports had come flooding in: the Dead Lands were still growing, the decay spreading ever closer towards them; whole groups of Brilken soldiers had been crossing the border to attack some of the smaller towns and villages; refugees were flooding into Elenan, more and more coming with each day; and the new Council had ordered every possible preparation to be made for the city’s defense and for the coming battle. Elenia had sent two of her Nymphs down to help train Calla in the hopes that she would be at least somewhat ready to face Dranl when he finally came.

  She had learned much in the past week, it was true, but she was nowhere near ready for that battle.

  Hiran watched as the younger of the two Nymphs came up to stand next to Calla. Even across the field he could hear her clicking her tongue in disapproval. “You do not understand the point of this?” she asked. “You know how the spell is supposed to work. Now you are supposed to do it with less focus: leave yourself open and let the energy from the world around you seep into you. Step out of this protective shell you have created around yourself! Do you think in battle your opponent will let you take so long with one attack? If we had been fighting I could have killed you four times by now.”

  “Now, now, Miin,” said the other Nymph, an older woman named Kosh who sat slightly behind the two young women. “You cannot expect her to master such arts in just five minutes.” She stood up and walked to stand at Calla’s left, putting both hands on her
shoulders. “Sometimes endless practice is not the answer. The secret to mastering Earthmagic is reaching your Moment, that one point in time when you can see the energy emanating from the natural life and elements around you as well as feel it; you develop a kind of sixth sense that is attuned to it. The Moment comes at a different stage for each of us, sometimes when we are really young or sometimes later in life, or even sometimes when we are staring Doom in the face, but the outcome is always the same: you feel the different energies in the world around you as a kind of extension of your other senses, and so become able to will it into whatever form you desire.”

  As she spoke Kosh stepped away from the other two and turned so her back was towards them. Hiran watched as she stretched both arms out to either side and stand stock still. For a while nothing happened, an eerie stillness settling over the field as he and the two other women watched, sensing that something was about to happen. Then with a sharp crack something pierced through the earth’s surface, quickly growing taller as branches started sprouting out of its sides. As the tree in front of Kosh continued to grow the earth groaned loudly in protest.

  The old Nymph moved to stand next to the massive maple, beckoning for Calla and Miin to join her. She reached up to snap off a piece from the lowest branch. “It is true, Miin,” she said as the other two came up, “that you have had several centuries more than Calla to practice your Earthmagic. But even you are not yet a master—your Moment has not yet come. But when it comes for each of you, you will discover that anything will be possible.”

  The twig in Kosh’s hand immediately began to crackle. Small flames sprang from the leaf edges and along the stem until it was completely engulfed. It burned for about a minute before it sharply jumped away from her hand and took to the air, turning into a yellow oriole before disappearing from sight.

  It seemed that was a sign that today’s lesson had concluded.

  Calla walked towards him slowly, the disappointment visible on her face from even this far away. She looked almost…defeated; there was no other way Hiran could describe it. It was hard, borderline unfair, to have her attempt to master powerful Earthmagic in such little time. She had been put through so much already—she did not like having this new problem to worry about on top of everything else.

  “You do not look happy,” he said as she came up.

  “I take it you were watching?” she asked flatly.

  “I was. You really are doing well, you know.”

  “Not well enough.” Her voice took on a bitter tone. “Dranl’s getting closer every day and I’m still worse than useless.” She started to walk past him.

  Hiran stood up and grabbed her by the arm. “That is not true and you know it.”

  She shoved him in the chest to get him off of her. He just let her, letting go of her arm. She was upset, but didn’t have an outlet to release her pent-up emotions; she had put no feeling behind that action. Hiran bit his lip in concern—she had been getting moodier all week. If something didn’t change for the better for her, sooner or later she was going to snap.

  He followed her down the rough path of trampled grass that wound back to Elenan. “Calla,” he said after a moment, “you are just being too hard on yourself.”

  “Then why don’t I feel any better from that?”

  He reached forward and grabbed her again, this time locking both arms around her to keep her from trying to push away again. “You are not letting yourself feel any better. You are simply overreacting to nothing. The strain of everything you have been put through is starting to eat at you.”

  “I’m fine,” she said quickly.

  Hiran put one hand on the side of her face with his thumb under her chin and tilted her head back, forcing her to look him in the eye. “Then why does a statue stand more relaxed than you?” he asked as gently as he could. “Calla, you have gone through hell and more in these past months. Do not tell me those shadows of memory do not still fill your heart with fear.”

  As he let his words sink in her pale green eyes said it all: those moments did still haunt her, every one of them. He couldn’t count how many times in the last six nights she had started screaming in her sleep—the monsters, deaths, and destructive moments she had witnessed were attacking her in her dreams. The news of Dranl’s approach—spurred on by Bralon, undoubtedly—was making it worse for her. She needed a change, something that would take her mind off of the impending doom; she had been focusing too hard on what lay ahead.

  Gods, he could see in her eyes what she refused to say out loud. She wanted him to reassure her, give her some kind of comfort or guidance, maybe even tell her this was all nothing more than a horrible dream and that she would wake up soon. She was scared. He sighed and loosened his hold on her; he could not convince her she would not be forced to endure any more trials.

  But there was only so much more she could take.

  He dropped his arms so that he held her loosely by the waist. “Come on,” he said, pulling her gently along the path to the city.

  They walked on in silence, right up to the city’s outer wall. Other Nymphs were busy here, knitting stone they summoned from the earth with that of the existing wall, building up the whole structure, making it thicker and—hopefully—stronger. It seemed Elenia was just as worried as Calla was about what lay ahead, if not more so. The Nymphs didn’t turn from their work as the two passed by them. As they walked Hiran noticed a few of them were doing some kind of work at the base of the wall: a wide, deep trench had been dug a few feet away from the stone, and there was some kind of noise coming up from it. Suddenly a bright green pod appeared over the edge, opening to reveal its bright pink inside lined with long, rigid teeth, as were the outer edges.

  Hiran raised his eyebrows as the creature slipped back out of sight. Snapvines…he had heard only stories about them when he was a child. Elenia was said to have these vicious plants lining the walls of her own fortress; now she was having a bunch of them planted here. It wouldn’t add much to the city’s defenses—one snapvine plant was only supposed to have five of those “pods” that acted as pincers to drag food to the fanged mouth located down at its base. Only capable of grabbing one living thing at a time, the plants would only be able to slow down Dranl’s forces at best.

  Calla slowed down and tried to go give the plants a closer look. Hiran tightened his grip around her waist slightly and pulled her away. She did not need the added stress from a snapvine bite.

  They passed through the city gates and into the plaza. So many people were crowded here there wasn’t much room for them to get by. Walking in single file Calla and Hiran weaved their way through the crowd, heading back towards the palace. Calla still kept her rooms there, and even Hiran now had a place there to stay; the only change was that the rooms of the former Councilmen remained empty. The members of the new Council had chosen not to move in, preferring their current residences more.

  As they entered through the massive oak doors they found it was almost deserted inside. The Council was meeting in the central hall, their voices echoing faintly down the silent corridors. The sound of their steps bouncing off the walls as they made their way upstairs, Hiran and Calla saw only a few servants bent over their work who never turned to look at them before they reached Calla’s door.

  Calla moved ahead of him and opened it, letting it swing wide as they entered. She had hardly taken three steps into the room when she reached up behind her head and pulled off the thin over-shirt she was wearing, tossing it to one side and letting it fall wherever it would. She tugged at the heavier shirt she had worn underneath to straighten it out as she walked over to her bed and let herself fall face-first onto the mattress; she groaned quietly as she buried her face in one of the pillows.

  Hiran stood awkwardly in the doorway; Calla hadn’t been clear as to whether or not he was invited in. She hadn’t said much of anything for the entire walk back. He walked over quietly and sat down on the edge of the bed next to her. She didn’t even stir. He gently placed a h
and on her back, feeling disappointed when she didn’t try swatting it away. She had been unable to tolerate that kind of touch since he’d rescued her, probably thanks to Dranl and the Demon planted in her. But now…

  He had heard rumors back in Kida of how no one seemed brave enough to show interest in her; she had felt lonely as a result of it. With an uncertain future on the horizon, was she suddenly craving his companionship?

  Hiran’s heart thumped a little harder in his chest—it had to be too good to be true. Still…

  Adjusting his position, he carefully reached over with both hands and started untying the knot up by Calla’s neck; her shirt was laced up only along her back, and she needed a servant’s help putting it on this morning. As he slowly started pulling at the laces she abruptly pushed herself up onto her elbows, twisting around trying to grab at his wrist. He stopped her with one hand and gently pushed her back down with the other, whatever protests she had quieting instantly.

  “It is all right,” he said to her as he finished untying the back of her shirt. “This is not what you might be thinking it is.” He felt the tips of his ears start to burn with embarrassment. He could sense the girl’s uneasiness as slid back down.

  He opened the back of her shirt to expose the pale skin underneath. He reached up to place his hands at the base of her neck, pushing his thumbs into the muscles; they were incredibly hard from the tension. Hiran felt Calla flinch—he was pushing down too hard. With a frown he tried to ease the pressure of his touch and started working his fingers into the muscles of her back. Slowly he worked up and down along her spine, frowning at how quiet she was.

  “Hiran?” Calla finally asked; she sounded tired.

  “Hm?”

  “Do you think we’ll be all right?”

  His hands stopped as he thought how best to answer her. He leaned forward and kissed her lightly on the cheek, right next to her ear. “I have faith in you,” he replied. “You will find everything you need, and you will be all the stronger when you do.”