Island Shifters: Book 02 - An Oath of the Mage

by Valerie Zambito

  “What have you seen, Oracle?”

  “A beast comes.”

  “How do I defeat it?”

  “You will not defeat it. I see six others who will battle the beast.”

  “When?”

  “Not for a very long time, but do not concern yourself, Mage. When the time comes, I will find you.” The old woman gave him a wide, toothless grin, and shuffled off behind the tree again and disappeared.

  Her enigmatic message did not disturb him as it once surely would have. What will be, will be, he thought. If a threat surfaced, he would rise up to meet it. Until then, he would put it out of his mind.

  He resumed his walk out of the village, but took a different route this time. After so many years of traveling the land with Arias, he now knew a far shorter way than the one he had taken previously.

  He hoped Aquataine was still operating waterway transportation and that a boat would be available. If not, he would have to walk. He did not have any coin to purchase a horse.

  As he traveled through Haventhal, he tried not to think about a reunion with his family—was not sure he wanted to experience the pain of what he may find. But, thoughts of them continued to creep into his consciousness. Especially, his wife. A love like the one he shared with Kiernan was impossible to forget. She was extraordinary in every way. Her beauty, her compassion, and her strength were unique and special but not the only reasons he loved her.

  He loved her the most for the way she loved him.

  He was a better man by virtue of having Kiernan Everard Atlan in his life.

  Did he still?

  The answer to that question was the one he dreaded the most.

  When he finally arrived at the Aquataine grate, he was pleased to discover that it had been kept clear of overgrowth. It was a good sign that the watershifters were still allowing passage.

  An Elven Gardien appeared, but he simply nodded at Beck and then melted back into the forest as quietly as he came. Fortunately, the Elf must have recognized him somehow, even though the Gardien looked far too young to remember him.

  Beck climbed through the grate and descended the limestone steps into the caves of the watershifters. The little water port village was deserted as it was late at night here, but he was relieved when he spotted a boat anchored at the dock. Oddly, it looked very similar to the one Digby owned.

  Beck continued forward, but then stopped in his tracks when Digby appeared on the boat’s deck. He was waving his arms, his tall, pale body jumping in the air to get his attention. “Prince Beck! You made it!”

  As Beck neared, the watershifter knelt.

  “I must admit, Digby, that I am very surprised to find you here.”

  The watershifter shrugged his thin shoulders. “I promised you I would wait, Your Grace.”

  “But, all this time? I am not sure what to say or how to thank you.”

  Digby’s face registered confusion. “You are actually back much sooner than I expected, Your Grace.”

  “Sooner than you expected?”

  “Yes,” he replied in a slurpy tone.

  Beck’s heart skipped a beat. “Digby, just how long have I been gone?”

  The watershifter scrunched up his face in thought. “Oh, nine or ten hours.”

  Beck’s hand flew to his face. The beard was gone.

  “That means that I have only been gone from Nysa for a little over three days.” It was almost impossible to comprehend and his legs threatened to buckle when he realized what this meant.

  He still had a family to go home to.

  There was still hope for Kenley.

  Digby nodded, but Beck did not see it. He was already stepping onto the boat. “Please rise, Digby and get me to the Kondor grate as fast as you can. There is no time to waste.”

  “Still impatient I see,” remarked the watershifter with a wry grin.

  “You are wrong, my friend. Impatience does not drive me this day. It is love.”

  Digby looked at him and tilted his head in consideration. “There is something very different about you, Your Grace.”

  “Yes, Digby, there is,” Beck agreed.

  CHAPTER 24

  Into the Jaws

  Airron walked beside Rogan across the undulating stone landscape, his soft leather boots kicking up wisps of dust with each step. The sun was making its crawl into the western horizon, but the heat was still intense, and Airron wiped at the sweat beading on his forehead.

  “Do not worry, my friend, I will be guarding your back,” Rogan assured him.

  “It is my front that I am worried about.”

  “Unless Avalon Ravener has developed immunity to fire, she does not stand a chance against the two of us.”

  Airron wished he could feel as confident. He would have died both times he went up against the witch had help not intervened. Besides, it was not Rogan who would be fighting this day. He was along to remove Kenley from harm’s way. It was Sapphire and Kiernan who would help him battle Avalon. With no spell casting or combat experience to offer, Diamond remained at the camp to care for Kenley once she was freed.

  “Do you think it will work?” Rogan asked.

  Airron snorted. “Oh, yes, the prospect of my death will draw the witch out. Just the sight of me sends her into a screeching tantrum every time. Trust me, it is not pretty.”

  Rogan turned around. “I don’t see the others.”

  “You are not supposed to. It is called an invisibility spell for a very important reason.”

  “I didn’t realize how cheeky you get when you are nervous.”

  “I am not nervous. I am resigned.”

  Airron wiped the sweat again with the back of his hand. The heat was unbearable, but it would not be long. He could see the cave entrance now and the large, one-eyed figures standing on the ledge in front. Movement caused him to squint in the glare. Below the ledge, five of the Cymans were halfway down the mountain and one was carrying a child in his arms. What was Avalon up to?

  “Get ready,” he warned Rogan. “Whatever happens, take

  Kenley and run.”

  Rogan’s only reply was a grunt. Was it a grunt of defiance or acknowledgement? He hoped the latter, and his friend did not attempt any heroics where he was concerned. Kenley was the important one, not him.

  The silence was deafening as they drew closer to the witch’s sorcerous jaws.

  The Cymans had reached the valley floor, but Airron’s eyes were again drawn upward when Avalon appeared at the cave entrance using the body of the young girl she murdered at the mining settlement east of here.

  She watched him come and when he was within shouting distance, she yelled down to him. “Approach no further, Elf. You are in perfect killing range right where you are.”

  “I am here for the girl!”

  “Of course, you are.”

  “Give me the girl and I will turn myself over to you to do with as you wish.”

  Avalon snickered. “How noble. But, why would I want a dried up, marked bodyshifter like you when I have a young pureblood on my hands?”

  The comment gave him pause, as it was his first inkling into Avalon’s motives. “Because you want me dead and you know it.”

  “I can have both.”

  “I might have something to say about that.”

  “Where is the earthshifter?”

  “Busy.”

  He could see her shrug. “My plans will work with any Savitar body. Ready to give up yours?”

  “Actually, I have grown pretty fond of it.”

  The Cymans stopped and stood fifty paces away from them, Kenley struggling in the arms of the soldier holding her. Airron felt a sudden shift in the air, and a slight breeze brushed past him. It must have been the women. The time was now. He needed to goad Avalon off her perch so that Sapphire and Kiernan could do their part.

  “Remember,” he said to Rogan. “Grab Kenley.”

  “Three down and two to go,” Avalon trilled in a singsong, confident voice.

  Ai
rron shook his head in confusion. “Riddles again, Avalon?”

  “Purebloods, Elf! This is about salvaging what the shifters have squandered away. Massa will be a land where the strong rule the weak, not the other way around! My brother was right, but I will admit that his methods were flawed. I do not need a Demon Army to help me succeed. Not when I will have pliable purebloods under my control. Together, we will be invincible!”

  As if rehearsed, one of the Cymans stepped forward and turned the child around, lifting her up.

  “Noooo!” The heartbreaking wail pierced the air and suddenly Janin was visible as she sprinted out of the circle of invisibility and toward the Cymans.

  Rogan cursed.

  It was not Kenley Atlan that the Cyman was holding, but Jala Radek.

  “Maman!” cried the girl when she saw her mother, little hands reaching for Janin.

  Rogan started after her, but before Janin was able to get within ten paces, she smashed into an unseen barrier and was thrown back onto the stone floor. The force of the impact rendered Janin unconscious.

  Rogan reached his wife just as the five Cymans turned and started back toward the steps cut into the mountain.

  Airron could not see Sapphire, but could hear her voice. “Rogan! I cut a hole in the shield! Go through now before it collapses.”

  With a worried glance at his wife, Rogan raced toward Sapphire’s voice and then leapt into the air, summoning fire as he did and hurtling a fiery arrow at the Cyman furthest away from his daughter. The Cyman tried to dodge the flaming missile, but he was too slow. The soldier roared in pain as his clothes caught fire, and he fell to the ground and tried unsuccessfully to douse the flames.

  Rogan kept running.

  Avalon stepped further out onto the ledge, threw her arm out toward him, and a large fragment of loose rock at the base of the mountain pitched toward the unsuspecting Dwarf.

  “Watch out, Rogan!” Airron yelled, running now, too.

  Rogan ducked, but within inches of his head, the rock bounced harmlessly off an invisible shield.

  Thank you, Sapphire.

  “So, you have a sorceress with you,” observed Avalon. “Show yourself, witch!”

  The Cymans were running now with Jala back toward the safety of the mountain. A scream filled the air and another Cyman went down.

  Avalon threw her arm out again, and the invisibility cloak was ripped away.

  Kiernan, visible now, had reached the fleeing Cymans and was trying to wrench Jala out of the arms of the soldier carrying her. From behind, another Cyman grabbed Kiernan around the neck, lifting her off her feet. As she dangled in the air, she kicked out and thrashed violently in an attempt to free herself from the man’s grip around her throat.

  Sapphire, dark hair flowing behind her as she ran, pointed and screamed at Kiernan’s attacker.

  “Bindeno!”

  The soldier let go of Kiernan and dropped to the ground like a felled tree with his arms and legs glued tight to his sides.

  Rogan summoned a club of fire and stalked toward the Cyman holding Jala. She was crying for her father now.

  Seeing his opening, Airron shifted into his eagle form and took flight. In just a few flaps of his powerful wings, he cleared the distance. Diving toward the fighters on the ground, he reached out with his curved talons and snatched the little girl out of the one-eyed creature’s arms. With his burden struggling beneath him, he wheeled away from the group. Flying low to the ground, he pulled up when he saw the blonde sorceress rushing forward. He set the girl down gently and it was at that moment that a crushing blast hit him and sent him flying end over end through the air.

  Not again!

  The last thing he remembered was the sound his skull made when it hit the stone ground.

  With Jala safely away with Airron, Kiernan unsheathed her sword, but it was unnecessary. Sapphire jumped onto the back of the Cyman towering over her and grabbed his head in her hands to cast the killing curse.

  “Morbendi.”

  Rogan chased after the last Cyman, but Kiernan screamed at him and he pulled up short. “We have Jala. Let’s go!”

  Sapphire jumped free of the falling giant and they ran back toward camp, the sound of Rogan’s footsteps following on their heels.

  Kiernan risked a look back. Avalon was no longer standing in the cave entrance.

  When they reached Janin, Rogan bent down, lifted his wife into his arms, and continued running. Kiernan sucked in her breath when they came across Airron with an anxious Diamond, holding Jala, standing over him. Sapphire quickly cast a hover spell and Airron rose off the ground. She guided his lifeless body through the air with her hand around his arm.

  At the campsite, Rogan set Janin down tenderly on one of the bedrolls, and then reached for his daughter.

  “Are you all right?” he asked her, wiping her hair out of her face.

  “Daddy! Reilly!” the little girl squealed, pointing back toward the cave.

  He pressed her face into his shoulder. “I know, baby, and we are going to get him out. I promise.”

  Kiernan looked back toward the mountain. Three Cymans were dead, one fled, and another still lay incapacitated by Sapphire’s binding spell. Avalon Ravener was not going to come out again and that left her with no other choice. She had to go in after the children.

  Diamond crouched next to Airron where a frightening amount of blood was beginning to pool under his head. “I need bandages!”

  Rogan hurried to his pack and retrieved them for the sorceress. She accepted them, but looked up at Kiernan with concern in her eyes. “I wish I could do more, but I am not a healer.”

  Kiernan looked down at Airron’s ashen pallor. He looked close to death. “I know. Keep pressure on the wound and watch over him until I get back. He will be all right. He has to be.”

  Rogan, who had been tending to a waking Janin, glanced up at her with a question in his eyes.

  “Yes. I am going in,” she answered.

  He nodded. “I expected as much. Diamond, will you stay and look after Airron and my two girls?”

  “Of course.”

  “I am coming, as well,” declared Sapphire.

  Kiernan nodded and the trio took off at a sprint back toward the mountain.

  “Should I set an invisibility spell?” asked Sapphire.

  “Don’t bother,” Kiernan replied. “She knows we are coming. Just remember the plan. Bind her so I can mindshift her. Rogan, the Cymans will be up to you.”

  “Hope they like heat,” he growled.

  It did not take long to cross the distance, and passing the Cyman on the ground, Kiernan was the first on the stairs that led to the cave entrance. She raced upward, slowing only when she neared the top ledge. Holding her hand in the air to stop the others, she listened carefully, but did not hear any sounds.

  Cautiously, she scaled the remaining few steps and crouched on the lip of the shelf. She peered into the cave. It was empty. She motioned for the others to follow, and they hugged the left wall as they walked further into Avalon’s lair. The chamber was large and decorated with tapestries, heavy furniture pieces, and lit braziers that cast large dancing shadows on the walls.

  Kiernan stopped and glanced up at the wall on her left. Two sets of iron shackles were set into the stone at just the right height to hold a man’s outstretched arms and legs.

  This was where Avalon held Beck.

  Filled with fury at the sight, she almost screamed out a challenge to the witch, anxious to meet her face-to-face. With effort, restraint prevailed, and she turned her head away in revulsion.

  Advancing forward silently, she exited the main chamber and into another just as large and that held several blanketed pallets for sleeping. She was wondering just how many rooms this hideaway held when she saw three passageways branching off at the back of the room. She looked back at her companions. “We are going to have to split up.”

  Rogan nodded. “I don’t like it, but it seems we have no choice.”

&n
bsp; “Be careful,” she warned her friends. “Remember, if you find either of the children, just pick them up and run. Do not stop for anything or anyone else.”

  Kiernan walked to the passage on the left, Sapphire took the center, and Rogan, the far right.

  As soon as Kiernan stepped inside the dark and narrow passageway, she wished she had a torch. In the pitch blackness, she held her hands out against the walls to guide her way forward. After only a few paces and a slight bend in the corridor, a faint glow came into view ahead.

  Inching forward slowly, her hand suddenly lost contact with the wall to her left, and she realized there was another passageway or alcove off the corridor she was in.

  Unfortunately, the realization came too late, and she did not even have a chance to scream when an enormous hand snaked out and clamped over her mouth, dragging her into the dark depths of the recess.

  Rogan called light to his palm and the narrow corridor lit up in a soft yellow glow. Immediately, he saw that the walls were dotted with dark alcoves. Walking forward slowly, he looked into each recess warily as he passed, but all were empty. With the exception of his footsteps that rang with a hollow echo through the tomb-like tunnel, it was quiet.

  Around a slight bend, the muted glow of another chamber appeared ahead. Moving faster now, he made his way through the passageway and strode out onto the shelf of a cliff face overlooking a depthless black canyon. Glancing to the left, he noticed Sapphire stepping clear of the center corridor, but Kiernan was nowhere in sight.

  Directly across from the shelf where he stood was another sheer cliff, and the two were joined together by a long stone bridge that spanned the chasm between them.

  On the cliff on the other side of the bridge stood Avalon, five

  Cyman soldiers, Reilly and Kenley. Alarmingly, both of the children had leather collars around their necks. A Cyman soldier was holding the leash attached to the collar on Reilly and Avalon was holding Kenley’s leash.

  Avalon Ravener did not know it, but with that despicable act, she just purchased his silent vow that she would die that day. No quarter given. No mercy shown. Nothing short of the end of her existence in this world would satisfy him. It did not matter at whose hand, as long as it came to pass.