by Candy Crum
“There are some abandoned houses in the center of the city. The Guard doesn't go down there, and it's secluded. We usually meet in the auditorium here since it’s pretty useless now that Adrien doesn’t give grand speeches, but we didn't want anyone to see you with us just in case. We wanted to protect you if you decided against helping us.”
Well, that was shocking. He was lost further in her charm than she'd thought. And his friends must have been impacted in some way as well. Whatever the case, it was a good plan.
“How will I know which house?” she asked.
“It's the only one with red curtains in the window,” he told her.
Talia nodded. “I’ll be there. Now, run along before someone sees us talking. If anyone has—”
“It's about our counseling.” He smiled.
Talia gave a quick nod in acknowledgment and made her way down the hall to the stairs before heading to her office. Things were going her way, and she couldn't be more excited. As long as she continued to tread lightly and gather the help that was necessary, she would have everything she’d planned for.
CHAPTER SIX
Elysia sat on the back of her over one-ton steed, Chaos, listening to him snort and scrape his large, front hoof against the forest floor in preparation.
Everything was deadly silent as the warriors in Team Two stood behind their fearless leader, waiting for the crack of thunder overhead to signal the beginning.
All around her, Elysia could hear the rustling of wolves, foxes, squirrels, raptor birds, and other familiars as they awaited the same call.
“Schatten!” Elysia called out to the shadow warriors that specialized in subtlety. “My father will undoubtedly send your counterparts to the trees. He will keep them low enough to engage, but high enough not to be seen. Make sure they don’t find their targets.”
“Then we’ll go higher, Elysia,” Rae, one of the Schatten said from behind her.
Elysia turned in time to see several druids raise their hands to the sky, vines unraveling from the trees and wrapping around them before pulling them upward.
Had she not seen it herself, she never would have heard them.
During training, those men and women spent most of their time learning the intricacy of the plants and how they grow. As much as a normal druid knew, these warriors knew far more.
They were able to control and shift anything within the plant, allowing those movements to be almost silent.
The Chieftain had once explained it to her in a way she hadn’t understood then, but as she grew, it made perfect sense.
“When you ask a tree to move, you ask its permission to allow you to move it. You do all the heavy lifting, and it’s noisy and clumsy, even when it looks poetic to someone else. Now, imagine connecting to that tree so deeply that it helps you. You become one with one another and the movements become seamless and silent. Like a familiar to her master druid. It takes incredibly hard work and years of study. Not even I am capable of such a task, but that’s why we have them. Because you and I are just way too hyper. Mostly me… but you’re not much better.”
She’d been offended then, but he’d been very right. No one in the Chieftain’s bloodline would ever be capable of such a feat.
Especially Cathillian.
His mind was far more scattered than anyone she knew.
A deep, grim Boom! sounded out overhead, bringing a smile to Elysia’s face.
“Just a friendly warning! Anyone that let’s my father win…” Elysia began.
There was a laugh beside her. “We love our Chieftain, but he’s a goofy, old man. We can take him,” Faylinn said.
Elysia smiled and shook her head as she wordlessly told Chaos to step forward. “He might be senile at times, but he’s still strong. Don’t underestimate him, or we lose. And then I have to go against all of you to reclaim my honor.”
Those that were closest to Elysia laughed, knowing her sense of humor, while others wore their fiercest war-faces and nodded in understanding.
Chaos was slow at first, but then began to move faster, leading the small army behind them into battle with his master druid.
There was quite a distance between the southernmost village and the northernmost, but both approaching from each direction made the distance much shorter.
First blood was spilled from above. There were no sounds in the canopies to mark the “kill”, only the Schatten that fell, a vine snatching him up at the last moment to carefully lower him the rest of the way to the ground.
Within only a few moments, a healer pulled him free to heal him, but Elysia did not see if he was sent back out, only that he wasn’t one of hers. Her team had successfully gotten their first target.
After tapping Chaos on the shoulder, Elysia jumped off, not waiting for him to kneel. She lowered herself into a crouch and ran forward, using trees and brush to hide her as best as she could.
With a wave of her hand, she motioned for everyone to fan out.
More men and women dropped from the trees, vines catching them in their falls as designated healers came to get them.
Soon, Elysia could hear the sounds of battle commencing.
She stood, looking around as her ears were bombarded with the clashing of metal, the gnashing of teeth with the larger animals growling and snapping at their enemy familiars, and the thunder gently rolling above.
Where are you, old man? Elysia asked herself.
She decided to fight her way through until she drew him out.
Running at full speed, she arched backward, narrowly missing the swipe of a sword through the air as she slid to a stop.
Turning, she saw a terrified druid from her father’s team that was in his early twenties standing there, sword raised and suddenly shaking.
“Elysia! I’m sorry! I didn’t see that it was you!” he shouted over the chaos, his light green eyes wide.
She smiled darkly before lifting her hand. A vine shot from the ground and wrapped around the sword, and with a flick of her fingers, it thrust the sword backwards, the handle punching him hard in the stomach. Then, she lifted her hand, the handle then rising to smash him in the face.
Releasing the vines, she ran forward and backhanded him, sending him stumbling back into a tree.
As the man collapsed, struggling to catch his breath, she came to stand over him. She smiled as she leaned over.
“This is battle training, young man. I’m not your superior. I’m your enemy, and you just let me take you down. Next time, don’t treat me like I’m helpless. Punch me in the face, or I’ll do far worse to you.”
A healer ran up and dropped by their sides.
“See to it he gets his ass back out there,” she said to the designated healer before turning back to him. “Next time, I expect you to forget my title. Battle training is life and death.”
He nodded nervously as she gave him a smile and a wink before standing.
Taking a few steps back, she looked above to the tree with low branches. She jumped hard as her eyes turned an even darker green, the lowest limb popping and cracking as it moved down to meet her.
She grabbed hold and pulled herself up before running farther down the limb and jumping to the next tree, again moving the branches to meet her.
This time, she scurried higher, making sure to watch for any Schatten. Placing both of her hands against the thick trunk, she connected to the life within, pushing outward to feel for the life all around.
The birds in the trees scattered from branch to branch and the squirrels hid in holes in the trunks, watching the war below them.
As she looked around, using her magic to feel for what she needed, two things were brought to her attention.
Elysia jumped back several feet as a Schatten dropped directly on top of her. This one was fearless and didn’t care who Elysia was. The warrior only saw an enemy.
A smile spread across Elysia’s face as the Schatten moved forward, her eyes glowing with power.
The woman charged, pulling a
large knife from her belt as she did. The Schatten weren’t quite as skilled in hand-to-hand combat in comparison to the other warriors, though they were still terrifying.
It was their magic that killed.
Elysia knew if the woman got hold of her, she’d lose, and she’d just found her father. She couldn’t lose yet.
Without hesitation, Elysia jumped down, her hands catching the branch as she used her momentum to swing herself back up and over. As she came back up, she wrapped her legs around the Schatten and jerked, pulling her off the branch entirely before dropping her to the ground.
Vines shot from the tree like lightning, wrapping around the shadow warrior and pulling her up and deep into the tree where Elysia could no longer see her.
Breathing a sigh of relief, Elysia dropped back down to the ground and began running, deciding she didn’t want to risk another run-in with a Schatten.
The sound of hooves echoed through her ears as Chaos charged forward, knocking several enemies out of Elysia’s path before she jumped, only barely making it high enough to lie on his back so she could pull herself the rest of the way up.
“To my father,” she breathed out before Chaos rose on his hind legs, causing everyone in their immediate area to step back for fear of being trampled.
The horse galloped through the woods, easily clearing others out of the way and jumping over anything that didn’t move.
The thunder grew louder as they neared the Chieftain, and Elysia knew he was aware of her approach.
Lightning shot from the sky, bolt after bolt raining down around them in a large circle, stopping them hard in their tracks.
Chaos rose to his hind legs again before slamming his front hooves down hard on the ground, his head nodding up and down fervently as he huffed and snorted his annoyance.
The Chieftain’s lightning was strong enough that Elysia knew she’d never be able to stop or reroute it with her own magic, so she decided to take another road to disturb it.
Sliding off her horse, Elysia pulled her sword from its sheathe and threw it, the metal passing through a bolt of lightning and disrupting its path.
Using the disruption, she used her magic to finish redirecting it toward her father.
It blew past, hitting a tree and creating a large scar in its bark. It missed her target, but it did what she’d hoped: stopped the barrage of electricity from raining down from above.
As Elysia ran forward, she heard someone call her name out from the side. It was Arabella, one of her friends.
The woman threw a staff to her that was made from the Heilig tree, a tree that grew stronger and sturdier with every natural death of a druid in the Forest as they channeled what was left of their power into the massive trunk until their final breath was taken.
Elysia caught it just in time to swing it around and block the attack from her father as he brought his own staff crashing down.
The wood from the Heilig tree was unbreakable to anyone other than an Elder druid—power both father and daughter possessed.
The wind whipped around them as Elysia struggled to push back against him. He may have been old, but he sure as hell wasn’t weak.
Realizing she was getting nowhere fast while pushing against him, she quickly dropped and tumbled out of the way, narrowly missing the end of the staff as it came down hard on the ground next to her.
Rolling back onto her heels, Elysia’s eyes turned darker green and she grunted loudly as she swung her staff upward, a root just under the ground breaking free of the earth and bringing with it several large chunks of earth flying toward the Chieftain.
Twirling his staff like a fan, a heavy gust of wind blew forward, shooting the pieces of earth back at Elysia, hitting her hard and sending her back onto the ground with a loud Oof!
The Chieftain stalked toward her, but she was able to throw her hand up, a root lifting from the ground and bringing him down.
Taking the only opportunity she knew she’d have, she jumped up and kicked his staff away before wrapping the root around his waist, squeezing him.
A smile spread across her face as she was about to declare her victory, but she hadn’t noticed his eyes glowing.
His free hands dove into the dirt around him, the ground under Elysia shaking as large roots moved and shifted, opening the earth below her feet and swallowing her up to her shoulders.
A deep, hearty laugh echoed out as he moved the roots back into place, pinning her there. She watched her father effortlessly unwrap himself and move to sit on his knees.
“Oh, child. That was pretty good! But I keep trying to tell ya! I’m number one!” he laughed.
Something patted her hard on the top of her head as she squirmed around in the dirt, trying to move. He’d only given her enough space to breathe.
She struggled to look up and saw Zobig pull his enormous front paw away, having been the one to pat her. The black bear made several noises as he made his way to stand by the Chieftain, and Elysia wondered if the bear was laughing at her.
He was quite the smartass, so she didn’t doubt it for a moment.
“Zobig says he’s taken out several of your men,” the Chieftain said with a smile. “Ready to accept defeat?”
Elysia laughed. She’d managed to wiggle her hands up into the open space her father had left for her ribs to expand.
“Chaos has taken out just as many of yours. Maybe more!” Elysia shouted.
She twisted her fingers, willing the roots to loosen the area around her as a vine shot down from the tree to lift her out before her father could seal her back in.
Within seconds, Chaos was by her side, his head low as he stared down Zobig. The black bear stepped forward and roared in response.
“Elysia, Chieftain,” Moira, the captain of the designated healers said as she stepped forward.
Father and daughter never allowed their eyes to leave one another.
“Yes,” the Chieftain answered.
“We have exhausted our healers. Everyone is safe, and there have been no casualties, but I sent word to those further out that the battle would have to end. As instructed, I ended the drill once our magic began to wane,” she said.
The Chieftain smiled. “Well, daughter, I guess we’ll have to call this a draw. Until next time?”
Elysia rolled her eyes. “Yeah. Sure. But I know you. Until we get an honest rematch, you’re going to keep saying you beat me.”
He shrugged. “Well, I trapped you way better than you trapped me. Oh! And my familiar could eat yours. So, while I’m going to say it’s a draw, like you were so kind to point out, yes. I’m the winner.” He gave a big, cheesy smile. “After all—I am…”
“Yeah, yeah. Number one,” Elysia interrupted as she waved a hand in the air. “Now, why don’t you sound the thunder to signal the end before anyone gets injured, and they can’t be healed.”
The sound of loud thunder cracked overhead, echoing through the skies as it did. “Don’t be sad, Elysia. You shouldn’t be intimidated by my awesomeness. You did pretty good out there.”
Elysia looked at him incredulously. “Awesomeness? You’ve been drinking too much wine with the young people.”
In a move that reminded her of her son, Cathillian, the Chieftain dropped his jaw in feigned shock as his hand lazily came to rest over his heart. “What? Never! They think I’m cool! I can’t let ‘em down.”
Elysia laughed, unable to hold it in any longer. Her elderly father was just as much of a child as any kid in the village—but she knew better than anyone that day that he was still quite a force to be reckoned with.
CHAPTER SEVEN
The sun had just begun to set when Samuel headed toward Lord Girard's manor. With one hell of a hangover, he was already regretting the decision to move at all.
It had been a while since he’d had one, but Ren was far worse.
He'd thought it over repeatedly, and he wanted to make the city stronger. If someone—including the remnant—could just walk in and take anything they
wanted because the guards were babies, well, that wouldn’t benefit him at all.
It would take even longer for the city to get back on its feet, and his people would be even further burdened. They needed steady work.
Oddly enough, the only person in the city he felt comfortable discussing these things with was a druid. Well, a druid and his young friend. Their people trained hard, and Samuel knew it. They’d understand what he did about strategy and prevention.
While the rearick didn't go to such lengths in their training—in fact, they had no formal training at all.
They sparred and grappled and fought from the time they were very young. They were tough, and life in the mines hadn't done anything except make them stronger, more powerful.
They'd seen their fair share of fights with the remnant through the years, but the Arcadians hadn't. The druid people hadn't either, but they were serious fighters. Cathillian and Arryn were his last hope to protect the city—to protect a city he hated so his people could survive.
He walked up the steps and knocked on the front door. Arryn opened it and smiled. "Samuel! How are you? Come in."
Arryn stepped aside and Samuel walked past her into the elaborate living room. Cathillian came into the room then, a large smile spreading across his face.
"Samuel! What are you doing here?" the druid asked as he crossed the room to meet his friend. "Did that little sassy ass of yours finally decide to take me up on learning nature magic?"
The rearick didn't miss the sarcasm in the other man's voice.
Samuel shook his head. "Yer a real funny one, ain’t ye? No, I came fer somethin’ else. Yer the only ones I figured would take me seriously."
That got their attention. They looked at one another for a moment before turning back to Samuel, curiosity on both their faces.
Arryn motioned toward the couch, signaling for him to take a seat.
"I talked ta the Chancellor about this already, but I figured she’s got enough ta deal with. Especially when we can do a pretty good job of it ourselves."
