Owen entered the mind of an eagle winging to the battle. He did not dare use his mind to sense directly, or to contact Briana. That his why she did not contact him he was certain. This must be a total surprise. "Quiet Wizard! Quiet Dragons!"
Baird took that as the first "command" Owen had ever given him. Falos said nothing and none broke silence from that point on.
The Eagle dove at the Wyrms scratching at their eyes. The occupied Malagae didn't waste a spell on them, but soon there were hundreds of Eagles. Several Wyrms were blinded before the Malagae finally reacted, blowing many of the Eagles from the sky. This allowed the Unicorns a shot and two of the Malagae died in blue fire. Several Wyrms crashed to the ground before the Malagae regained control. Owen could see two dead Unicorns, two charred fairies. Other fairies were riding Unicorns, and the Fairies were showering the dark ones with all manner of lightning, fireballs ice, javelins and rocks. Briana rod an enormous blue dragon with her arm up and ward energy pulsing around her. There were Bears and two Rock Gnomes which were fighting a host of four legged and very toothy hellhounds that Belaros must have called with his black magic. "These are called hellhounds in Baird's manuscript", Owen thought. "Like giant black wolves." The Demon himself was enveloped in a black swirling nimbus that turned aside every attack. He suddenly flashed with a bolt of lightning, killing Owen's Eagle, and the images ceased. "Briana must have killed his Wyrm, or her dragon did", thought Owen.
Owen knew what he must do to reach Belaros. It was black magic, and the thought of it made his stomach curl. "I must not become like him, but how else to penetrate that ward?"
Owen dipped directly into the tree tops, which parted in front of him. This is what the Mother had tried to tell him, and he had finally realized that. She would help him dodge the trees. He would hit Belaros from the nearby tree line, not the open sky. The Dragons were not far behind him, catching since he entered the trees. They would hit the enemy from the sky above, shortly after Owen's ploy. The Dragons would be no match for the Demon and the host of Malagae. "My plan has to work."
Baird sensed the dark magic and recoiled from the black shroud Owen had caste about himself. He deduced Owens strategy at the edge of the tree line and jumped off, using the magic skills of a ten thousand year old wizard, and landed on a high tree limb overlooking the clearing. He was totally invisible to the combatants, and would stay that way until Owen struck. "I hope that boy comes out of this without that black pawl. I should have purged those spells from that damn book!"
Owen came out of the trees in a fast glide, with only the sound of the whistling wind, drowned by the noise of battle.
Briana was caught in a battle she was not prepared for. She had been planning a visit to the Mother Tree ever since her song. She felt she could speed the waking process, or that at least she should try. She had foolishly made the flight after solo hunting on the nearby mountains. "Why not?", she had thought. Now she was ashamed of herself. "I should have known. But then who else would have been here to save the heart tree? At least Onadath knows. Maybe he can send help."
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Delishaterina knew something was terribly wrong. The forest was keening in pain and alarm. A powerful call from Briana was heard, for all aid at any cost to protect the Mother. The electrifying call had the Fairies flying at dangerous speeds to reach the Mother, whipping through the trees in a blur. All of Mother's creatures were moving as fast as possible in that direction, so the Fairies had to take care and not collide.
" D..e..li..sha..ter..ina", called Mother. She was waking faster now.
"Y..e..s. M..o..th..er", she answered.
"H…ur…r..y."
The fairies flew even faster as the trees whipped and swayed to ease their path. "The Demon will feel our wrath!"
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Now Briana was in real trouble because she had nothing that could penetrate the Demon's wards and they were badly outnumbered. She and Zana both faltered and were weakening fast. Even dragon fire could not penetrate the Demon’s black wards. The valiant bears and fairies and the treasured unicorns were dying. If the Demon killed the Mother, the whole forest might die. Belaros wanted her alive too. He was not trying to kill her, just wear her down. Other creatures were hastening to their aid, but they were not near. Most of the fairies had left to join Owen. The hosts were yet too far to help. It was up to her, and she was failing.
"My senses deceive me. What illusion is this?” thought Zana.
"I see it too": What she saw did not make sense. For only a split second she thought she saw the reflection of a soot black Dragon dripping with black nimbus, closing on Belaros from behind at breathtaking speed, a young Vampire Dragon. This image frightened her to the core. "Owen? Could it be Owen? Yes, but alas, Owen the Dark! "
Then there was an explosion of swirling blackness and light as the Dragon struck with its obsidian claws outstretched and its fangs open, spewing black fire. Its blood red eyes were brimming with feral fury. On contact, the explosion threw Zana backwards, and Briana tumbled to the ground. She landed with a thud and rolled to avoid a flying Unicorn.
A hellhound saw it's opportunity to strike, but just before it could close its jaws on Briana’s head, it was blown to dust by a bolt of green lightning. Baird made his presence known and began taking the little Demons out one by one.
She rolled away to look back at the carnage, and saw the Dragons that had arrived and were tearing into the Malagae and wyrms. The battle was fierce and bloody, and the black magic was telling. She saw one Dragon fall crashing and dead, dragging a Wyrm and it's rider to a similar doom. Owen was tangled in a pile of dead hellhounds, struggling to get free.
Then Owen changed, and stood to face the Demon Belaros, whose wards were gone and who drew two black on black swords and attacked Owen with startling speed. Owen countered with two blindingly bright blades. A deadly dual ensued with the two opponents blurred in motion and their four blades flickering faster than her eyes could follow. She could see that both were totally absorbed in their epic battle, and neither had any time to ward or attack with magic. They were both vulnerable. Two hellhounds and a malagi were slinking up on the combatants, waiting for a chance to attack Owen.
But then Zana landed nearby. “Climb on, Briana. You are in danger here.”
Briana focused, and saw the wyrm and malagi bearing down. She threw up wards just in time as flames and black lighting bore down. She leaped up on Zana, who spun expertly to avoid the wym’s claws.
“We must protect Owen! He is totally absorbed in that fight.” But the wyrm would not relent. She found herself in a dual with the largest wyrm of the host and the malagi on its back. Belaros had weakened her wards with his back magic, and she was barely able to hang on and power her wards as bolts of black lightning battered them almost continuously.
Zana was more adroit, larger and stronger than the wyrm, and she bathed them both in molten flames. The lightning stopped as the malagi warded himself against the intense flames. This gave Briana the chance she needed. Sounding a clear single tone in a short yet complex melody, she flicked her wrist, and the malagi's heart exploded with such violence his ribs blew a hole in his armor. The dark wizard fell limply from the wyrm's back as Zana latched onto the wyrm's throat with her jaws.
Briana suddenly convulsed, feeling a piercing pain and her heart stop for a beat, and then re-start with a brutal thumping and a different rhythm. She felt a wave of darkness and rage descend upon her as never before. She clutched the fur at the nape of Zana’s back tightly so as not to fall off.
By the time Zana had dispatched the wym, and they turned their attention back to Owen, he was lying on the ground with one of the black swords through his heart. Belaros was crumbled next to him without his head, which lay several feet away. Several smoking, hellhounds and a malgi lay about them both. The malagi was crawling toward Owen with a dripping dagger. He had a ring on his finger glowing with black light.
"Noooooo",
Briana screamed. "Take me to him!"
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Before Baird jumped from his back, Aluin spoke dark words of power that enveloped him in black nimbus soot that sloughed off, only to be replenished again. This was the dark spell in Baird’s old book that claimed to be able to absorb wards of darkness. He could see a large man dressed all in black, in a cloud of dark wards ahead. He was casting black lighting at a huge blue dragon with what could only be Briana on it’s back. The lightning splashed against a blue shield that must have been her ward spell. The blue shield flickered, yet held. He caught a glimpse of huge, hellish looking hounds in mortal combat with bears and fairies on Unicorns. Dead creatures littered the field before by far the largest tree he had ever seen, and the sky was filled with black wyrms and their malagae riders. Briana’s blue wards were taking shots from all sides, as the malagae were being pounded with bolts of energy from the Unicorns and lightning from the fairies.
He reached out with his claws, opened his jaws and belched black fire as he struck Belaros from behind, intending to tear him into small pieces. When his black nimbus struck the dark shield, the reaction released a tremendous surge of energy that stunned Aluin and Belaros, and killed all those nearby. Aluin saw the blue dragon thrown from the sky as he felled Belaros and tumbled into a group of hell hounds, crushing them and becoming tangled in the bodies.
Aluin stumbled to his feet and drew his two Elven swords just as Belaros reached him with two hideous, evil looking blades that seemed to leach light and energy and spit it out in dripping ichors. He blocked and countered every blow, reaching into the deepest depths of his training and speed. Belaros was the fastest and strongest opponent he had ever faced, yet he held and gave back more with every parry, repost and thrust. The Demon was surprised by the way Aluin was mixing kickboxing with blade handling, and he was struck repeatedly.
“He is tough”, thought Aluin. “My blows are having less affect than they deserve.”
“This boy is more powerful than Mother said”, thought Belaros. “But my hounds come, and Wubnod too. Let’s see how this upstart fares then. I just need to hold him for a few more seconds and when he is dead, I WILL have the girl!”
Although he was fully absorbed by his fight with the Demon, Aluin could sense enemies approaching. Several hell hounds and a powerful malagi, were trying to separate him from Belaros, so they could strike. He had no choice but to try and keep Belaros between him and the others, but try as he might the hounds went one way and the malagi the other. Just when they were ready to strike, a blast of green fire blew the hounds into burning chum. The malagi raised his hands to blast Aluin with a spell. Aluin turned slightly away from the Demon and spoke, while swinging the sword in his right had towards the Demon’s neck and aiming the sword in his left hand a the Melagi. Several things happened in the same instant: the malgi was hit with a blast of blood red energy and thrown back, and down; the sword in the Demon’s right hand struck Aluin in the heart, and; the sword in Aluin’s right hand carried through the Demon’s neck, separating his head from his body. As the Demon died, a heavy stream of jet-black cloud streamed from him to a large black jewel in a ring on the downed magi’s hand.
Pain like no other he had ever experienced lanced through Aluin, and the cursed evil sword drained his life force, spilling it upon the ground in black ichors. His swords fell from his numb hands and he collapsed into a maelstrom of darkness, cold and clammy – then nothing.
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Briana still felt the link, tenuously like through a murky, dark fog. With the battle still raging around them, Zana was about to spit flame at the malagi, but Briana had an idea. "No, Zana. I need its life force." She sang an angry crystal note and the malagi froze with the dagger raised.
After landing close by, Briana said "guard us, Zana." She picked up one of Owen's swords and angrily sliced both of the malagi's arms off. Blood sprayed and hung in the air at her command. She felt the power of the Ruby course through her. The glowing black ring went with the arm, several feet away. She took the black sword's grip in her hand with revulsion, and a nerve shaking charge rattled her teeth as she tossed it away. Black tendrils followed the blade, flowing from the slice in Owen's chest. She grabbed the bloody malagi around the throat with her right hand and placed her other hand on Owen's chest. A roar from Zana and sudden roiling heat let her know that time was short. She sang anyway. The blood swirled, and Owen's chest closed. The malagi screamed long and loud and then croaked as his body shriveled into a dry brittle husk that crumbled into dust and blew away in the wind. She saw what Owen had called collectors swarm and vanish in a large nimbus of black and white swirls, thousands upon thousands of them.
Owen coughed and cried out. "He is alive!! Take him Zana, and FLY". She grabbed Owens other sword and leaped on Zana's back. The big blue dam grabbed up Owen, and took to the sky, bowling Baird over in the process.
"Hey, I'm on your side, Briana! We must guard that black ring. It contains Belaros."
"To me, Falos", called Baird.
Briana looked back to see half a dozen hellhounds slinking toward Baird, while three dragons belched flame over two wyrms and malagai that were trying to get to Baird. She saw Baird pick up the severed arm with the ring with one hand and throw a rope of emerald fire with his other hand, crisping the slinking hellhounds.
A rock gnome shook it's way up from the depths close to Baird. One of the wyrms got through the dragons and the malagi on its back shot a bolt of black lightning, which splashed on Baird's wards, knocking him to his knees. The grinning malagi made ready another bolt from point blank range, and was crushed by the great stone fist of the gnome who had leaped up to grab the wyrm's throat with its other hand. The weight of the gnome brought wyrm and malagi crashing to the ground broken, knocking Baird off his feet once more.
The fairy hoard had arrived at last. The tide was turning. A dozen gnomes burst through the earth to protect Baird and to help kill the remainder of the Demon's spawn. A dark storm of poison darts joined the roiling dragon fire, targeting the wyrms and malagae in the sky.
The Forest Mother had fully awakened, and was very angry. The sky darkened in a sudden swirl of dense clouds and staccato bolts of white lightning and large balls of ice that pummeled the black worms and their masters with a ferocity far beyond what the fairies and wizards had shown. The dragons retired, sensing the puissant violence to come. In the heart of her power, peals of ferocious thunder drowned all other sounds as the Forest Mother vented her anger. She threw powerful shock waves of air at the host of wyrms, tumbling them out of control. The malagae abandoned their own attacks in a desperate effort to simply survive and escape.
As if on command, the remaining dark spawn turned and ran, the wyms with malagi vanishing outright. The rest of the demon's spawn and hellhounds disappeared in the dusk of the failing day and dense cloud cover. The battle was over.
"B..r....in...g him ......t o...m ..e.e...e, B..r..i..a.....n..a!"
"I heard the forest mother, Zana. Bring Owen to the heart tree. I trust her to save him because she needs the Dragon King's protection."
Zana flew under the branches of the heart tree and deposited Owen among the roots. "Leave the swords with him, Briana. The Rubies still glow. There is life in them yet", said Zana.
Briana dismounted and placed the pommels of the swords in Owen' hands, crossed over his chest. She stepped back as shoots of new growth spurted up from the ground around him, weaving a living blanket around him and the swords. Before long, he was covered within a mound of vines and flowers. She watched as four Unicorns lay down with their horns resting on the mound. Soon, they too were woven into a much larger mound. The whole structure began to glow an eerie blue green.
She felt the link strengthen, and the darkness drain away. Her heart fluttered and slowed. "Owen, can you hear me?"
"Y..e..s..sss". "B.r...ia...na, m.y he..ar.t. I h..e..ar y.o...u. Y..o.u...ha..
ve s...a...v....e...d me. S.l..e..e...p. . n..o..w."
She wiped the tears from her face and dried her eyes.
"He will be stronger than ever, Briana. Mother will gift him with great power. You too, Dragon Queen." It was the fairy Queen, Delishaterina.
Briana turned to face her, and the swarm of fairies, unicorns, dragons, scores of animals, and Baird still carrying the severed arm. She realized that all of these could hear her thoughts, so there was little point in speaking aloud.
"So what do we do with that", asked Briana. She indicated Baird's gruesome possession.
"As long as the fiend is trapped in this ring, he is no threat to us", said Baird. He spoke phrases of high magic and passed his free hand around the ring in swirls. It fell off of the dead hand at his feet. Casting the arm away, he used both hands to weave his magic without once touching the dangerous ring. Slowly, a weave of green filaments formed a cocoon around the ring and hardened into a diamond hard casing.
"That looks solid Baird, yet his mother will come for him, bringing even more souls from Hell. Were Owen healthy I would suggest you join with him Briana, and take this ring into the void to our Mother. She will have no pity on this monster", said Zana.
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