by Lynn Landes
Brynley stares at the beautiful elf and remembers Nienna’s lesson. Even though he looks like an elf, with his fair skin and beautiful golden armor, he is surrounded in a black mist. “I’m not allowed to talk to strangers,” she starts to say but Glendan interrupts her.
“Iago will not hurt you.” He calls to the animal who instantly kneels down to his knees. “See, he loves to give rides.”
When he steps towards them, Farley snarls, blocking Brynley and nudging her away from this new threat.
Glendan eyes the dog carefully and sighs. “I can see that your dog won’t make this easy for me, will he.” With a twist of his wrist, he fires a dart, whispering a spell and instantly Farley falls on his side stunned and immobile.
Before Brynley can scream, Glendan grabs her and leaps onto the saddle of the Griffin. He snaps out a command and they spring into the air. Brynley is too stunned to scream, she holds on terrified she will fall to her death and watches her sanctuary disappear from view.
Glendan laughs out loud as he flies away with his prize. He knows that Queen Phaydra will arrive soon with her hive and he needs to have the child in a secure location before that happens.
Chapter 18
Micah’s eyes snap open as the door opens to her cell. Swinging her legs over the cot she steps to the side of the cage and watches him approach.
“We haven’t much time,” the elf says. “Glendan is saddling his Griffin now.” He inserts the stolen key into the cells locks, whispering a spell of release. The door shimmers as the magic is dissipated and the door creaks open slowly.
Micah indicates her throat and steps to him grabbing a handful of his skin she pulls. She stands back to watch as he rips the rest of the camouflaged shell from his body. His relief is instant. The spell allowed for him to wear the skin of the dead elf guard and not be detected but it will decay fast now that it is off.
“Now, my Queen. I have your raven waiting in the forest.” Together they hurry from the tower. Beautiful music greets their ears as they pass the celebration of her capture. Tonight the elves will sleep in peace not knowing that soon their world will come to an end. Her demon soldier guides her to the ride he has prepared for her.
This is no ordinary bird. This raven is a massive beast meant for swift flight, it can rival any griffin in strength and cunning. She mounts quickly and is forced to hold back the bird as Glendan’s Griffin flies overhead. Micah grins and runs her hands down the inky black feathers.
Her demonic guard looks up to his queen, “I will follow you with our soldiers. Give the signal when you are ready.”
Micah nods, kicking the bird to the air.
The Griffin is faster than she anticipated and she is forced to follow at a great distance behind Glendan. Micah worries that she will not catch them, but she will not turn back. He will pay for his betrayal and she will finally best her sister.
Glendan is out of sight for some time before she spies him again. This time, she can see that he is holding something in his arms and her grin spreads. It is a child and she is fighting him. Perfect, she thinks.
Unslinging her bow from her saddle she nocks an arrow and takes aim at the flying griffin. She releases it, following its path with anticipation. The black arrow slices the beast across its eye, causing it to scream and go into a downward spiral.
Brynley screams and scrambles to hold on, just as Glendan does the same.
She falls from his lap, screaming, “Iago!”
The Griffin hears her plea for help and tucks his wings, ignoring its bloody eye. Just before she strikes the tree tops he captures her in his massive claw, pulling steeply back up into the air. His wings strain against the speed to climb back up towards the sky. The sudden dive has Glendan ripped from the Griffins back and falling into the tree tops with a crash.
Elves are swift and he catches himself as he passes through the broken branches. He searches the sky for the wounded creature and leaps through the trees from branch to branch following the falling beast.
Iago lands in a clearing and opens his claw, rolling Brynley to the ground. Terrified she looks up as he uses a paw to rub his left eye. Openly crying now, Brynley looks up just as Micah shoots arrow after arrow at the large Griffin.
Glendan leaps from the trees, landing in front of them with his sword. Quick swings of his sword deflects the incoming arrows sending them flying into the surrounding trees.
Iago calls to Brynley and she rushes to the protection the Griffin offers with his wings, only to fall to the ground when he screeches in pain once more. Another dark arrow has found its mark in the creature’s wing.
Glendan leaps into the surrounding trees, as the raven passes by diving at the injured griffin with its claws extended for the kill. He leaps down onto the birds back, attacking Micah with a yell of defiance.
Brynley seizes her opportunity and soothes the beast speaking to his mind she urges him to follow her lead.
“Don’t die, Iago. I can take us home,” she pictures Nienna and the gate opens. “Hurry, run!” she screams diving through.
Edward and Nienna move from the bedroom into the clearing outside. “That’s odd, I thought for sure they would be outside playing.” Nienna murmurs.
A sick feeling of dread claws its way through her body and Gage feels her concern. Calling for his brother he rushes to the clearing behind his house.
“Farley!” Edward yells running to the dog.
Nienna, calls to Brynley and tries to control her growing panic. She is gone and so is Glendan.
Lilliana and Syrran join them, “Where is Glendan?” She asks.
No one moves for a moment as the realization hits them, she is in trouble. “Do you think he took her to the Elf Kingdom?” Nienna asks trembling with rage.
“Why would he…” Gage starts to ask but stops when he looks at Lilliana.
“We’ve been betrayed,” Lilliana gasps.
“Can you help Farley?” Edward asks Francesca. Kneeling at his side she runs her hands over him looking for signs of injury. “This is black magic. He is alive, but I’m afraid it will have to wear off.”
“I’ll look and see if they are in the area.” Gage and Daniel take to the air while Nienna drops to her knees shaking with rage and terror for Brynley.
“I failed her,” she whispers.
“No, lass we both did.” Edward murmurs fighting tears. One second she is weeping and the next Brynley is running from the forest with a massive Griffin crashing through the trees behind her.
“Nienna!” Brynley screams and all hell breaks loose. Micah breaks through the brush and branches, hot on her heels.
Nienna grabs Brynley even as Gage lands in front of them to protect them from the new threat.
Daniel draws his sword and Francesca steps in front of Edward, who picks up Farley and backs away from Micah. Glendan races through the gate just as the child closes it and stares at her in shock. She is much more powerful than any of them gave her credit for.
Iago flares his uninjured wing over the group standing beside the Angel’s to protect the child.
“That bad man took me and that mean lady shot Iago!” Brynley sobs out and Nienna pats her back.
“It’s okay, sugar. Gage will take care of them,” Nienna promises, clutching the child to her. Every human instinct to protect her child flares and she murmurs, “They will never touch you again!”
Gage looks to Daniel, “You heard her,” he grins and they touch the tips of their swords together, igniting them in holy flame.
“Don’t be so sure, half-ling,” Glendan demands cocky and sure of himself, he calls out a spell and releases Micah’s voice. Better to face them together than alone, at least until Phaydra arrives. Turning to face his animal he snarls, “Beast, you will pay for this betrayal!”
Iago shrieks a loud husky sound and scratches the ground with his clawed back legs. Though wounded he does not hesitate to spread his wings to offer what protection he can.
Desperate to protect the bir
d, Brynley opens the ground beneath it and drops him through a gate to the elf, Nyx.
One minute Nyx is working in her beloved gardens and the next she feels the flare of unseen magic. She knows that feeling, she has felt it once before. When the sky rips open above her and a massive beast falls to the earth below with a startled screech she leaps into action to help the wounded animal and calls for the King and Queen to be brought.
Micah gasps in excitement at the display of power she has just witnessed. “So much power in one so young. It will be mine!”
Lilliana glares at Micah and feels a strange pressure building in her chest. It begins to boil and burn inside, so much heat. “It’s time to go home, Lilly-girl,” Micah calls, “Bring me the child or watch as I destroy your new found clan?” From the air around the house, Micah’s soldiers arrive in full force. Demonic Drow, their black armor glints in the sun, they are ready for war.
Glendan grows desperate in an attempt to grab the child and flee. All of his plans revolve around capturing the child for himself.
Micah sees his movement and calls to her soldiers who dive from the air on the backs of midnight colored ravens. He tries to flee but they lift him in their talons, tossing him back and forth between them. His blood rains down on the small group as Brynley screams in fear, burying her face into Nienna’s neck.
‘Brynley,’ Lilliana calls the child’s mind. She looks at her in surprise and scrubs at her tear stained face. ‘When I sing the first note, take them all and go to the Elf Kingdom. Take the image from my mind,’ she orders.
Leaning back her head, Lilliana steps into the center of the clearing, arms outstretched and sings. The first haunting note causes every raven in the sky to fall. The birds pain filled screeches follow them down as their terrified riders fight their mounts to keep them in the air.
Micah screams in rage and leaps at Lilliana.
The demonic army surrounding the group clutch their ears in agony, falling to their knees.
Brynley takes the image from Lilliana’s mind as directed but just before she opens the gate, the child flinches in Nienna’s arms, going limp.
“Gage!” Nienna screams, pulling a dart from the child’s neck. It vaporizes to black mist in her fingers. Her heart drops with dread. “No…” she shouts, shaking Brynley attempting to wake her up.
All sound is overshadowed by a distant vibration building in the distance. It grows louder with each moment of time passing until the buzzing is too loud to drown out. Phaydra the Drow Queen steps from the shadows of the trees and opens her eyes, piercing Nienna with her red glow.
“I know those eyes, so void of life,” Nienna glares. She knows that there is something worse than rage, anger, or disgust and it is apathy. How many years did she look into the eyes of this dark elf wishing for a spark of love, compassion or even interest? That will not be Brynley’s fate! Her arms close tighter around the unconscious child.
Syrran uses the distraction to charge Micah, striking with an explosive kick to her chest that sends her skidding across the earth to rest at the feet of her sister. Where Micah is petite, with black hair, eyes, and the long teeth marking her as a blood drinker, Phaydra is every bit the Drow Queen. Tall, and lean with exquisite ebony skin and long porcelain colored hair, braided with jewels. Her red eyes glare down at her sister with disgust.
“Did you really believe you could best me, little sister?” Phaydra stares at the small group before her and with a wave of her hand, she gestures, the buzzing pauses. The deep silence is eerie as she speaks.
“Do you hear that Dragon Singer? That is the sound of my hive, they are awaiting my command.” Micah leaps to her feet and lashes out at her sister with a strike of her barbed tail.
“You are not in control here, Phaydra! The Dragon Singer is mine!” Micah starts to say.
Phaydra casts her own whip out, a wicked snap marks its passage as its lodges in Micah’s throat, injecting its poison into her neck. She falls twitching to the ground while her soldiers move about in disjointed chaos. The call of the Hive sounds close by, calling to them and they immediately disappear into the forest and sky to join them in the distance.
“Three angels, a human, a Drow, and a half-ling… against the entire Drow army.” Phaydra steps further into view and glares at the group who have now moved together to face her. “I will take both Singers with me, though I would prefer it to be without too much mess.”
Lilliana stands, shivering, behind the group and knows it is time to sing for their lives. The pressure inside did not release with the single note, if anything, it has only stoked her power to more intensity. She stumbles to her knees and groans. Syrran kneels at her side and when she looks at him, her eyes flicker with a red flame that matches her beautiful hair.
“Lilliana?” He gasps in disbelief.
“I’m sorry, Syrran. I was afraid of this,” she whispers.
Daniel isn’t sure what is happening behind them, but he nods his head and the group spread out to form a protective circle around the couple on the ground.
The Hive noise begins anew, as the swarm of Drow closes the encircling wall of armored bodies tighter around them.
“Give me the Dragon Singer,” Phaydra demands without ever taking her eyes off Nienna.
“Never!” Nienna snarls.
Stumbling to her feet, Lilliana groans and almost doubles over in pain. “I’m coming,” she calls out and Syrran hisses.
“No,” he fumes but Lilliana takes his face in her hands and kisses him on the mouth. He gasps when the heat emanating from her mouth burns his face.
“Let’s give her the Dragon Singer,” she demands in a raspy voice, her eyes are ablaze.
When she smiles Syrran watches her eyes make the final shift to the burning eyes of a dragon!
Syrran nods and steps back, releasing her, trusting her to know her path.
Lilliana closes her eyes tight and pushes her way through the group protecting her.
Phaydra watches satisfied as she stumbles towards her, a broken relic of the past. “Excellent, now bring me the child,” she orders loudly over the din of her soldiers as they land in the woods and surround the house.
Nienna prepares to fight when Lilliana moves to do as ordered. Stumbling forward Lilliana glances back at her protectors and they all step back in shock.
“Down!” Syrran yells and they drop just as Lilliana throws back her head and sings. Two hundred years of pressure, released in an instant, the shock wave rolls out across the surrounding trees, through the house exploding windows. Phaydra is propelled backward through the trees into the embrace of her hive soldiers.
Once in ages too far gone to remember Lilliana would sing. Tunes and melodies laced with magic and her voice would call to them; the ancient beasts, but no more. This is a song of Genesis. Lilliana lifts into a storm of swirling fire and wind, a red haze of passion and magic engulf her completely.
Phaydra is helped to her feet by two of her soldiers, and they stare in horrified astonishment as Lilliana releases another note, causing her to shift into a rippling mass of flesh and bone. A scream of birth is torn from the conflagration of fire and magic as leathery wings uncoil above the clearing and begin to beat. The down draft from the immense wings push Syrran and the group in their shadow to the ground from the force.
The Dragon slowly opens its jeweled eyes and seeks her clan. She watches the threat closing in around them and a dance of flames ignites beneath the hard glittering scales of her chest. She roars in anger, in warning to all who oppose her. Beating her vast wings she drops down and lands, the weight of her massive body shakes the earth around them, causing limbs and branches to fall freely from the trees. She stands over her new found family, protecting them from the approaching menace. A sweep of her sleek armored tail sends trees crashing back into the forest to land on the soldiers waiting to attack. The impact of the trunks and limbs flatten any who are not quick enough to move. Their screams of fear and pain can be heard as she roars again, dar
ing any to approach her unwanted.
There is a reason the Elves are given a young dragon and this is it. With her full glory and power, Phaydra’s sorcery holds no threat against a full grown dragon and she knows it. Her soldiers swarm around her to protect their queen, even as she orders a second wave to attack the creature.
The soldiers obey, swarming over and around the house behind the dragon, attempting to surround it. The archers fire their crossbows and bows. The black tipped projectiles fly true, only to glance and ricochet into the surrounding forest from the thick steely hide they impact against.
Spearman rush forward with long lances. They drive the barbed tips into the flanks of the huge beast. The crack of splintered wood sounds around the clearing as the shafts break and twist from the abuse. They step back in astonishment and fear as the wall of dragon scales shifts in front of them.
The Dragon lifts her head from the protective crouch she was in to look at the cursed souls attacking her. A great intake of her huge lungs and she exhales a river of flame into the area surrounding her. The intense Dragonfire consumes everything in its path. There is nothing left standing in the clearing to the edge of the trees. The house is burned to ash along with hundreds of Drow soldiers. Their burnt armor and weapons litter the smoking ground.
Francesca works desperately with Daniel to wake Brynley, as the battle rages around them. They force the poison from the Drow dart out of her body and cover her in angel dust as Lilliana annihilates the Drow attack.
Syrran uses the carnage of the Dragonfire to help Gage drive back the straggling soldiers that fight even knowing they will not survive.
Standing and uncurling her body from around her charges, the Dragon watches as Phaydra orders another assault on them even as she runs away with her personal guard around her, leaving them to their fate. She smiles, curling her reptilian jaws she bares her monstrous jagged teeth and calls to the Drow Queens mind, ‘I can taste your fear Phaydra.’
Syrran fights beside Gage protecting the unconscious body of Brynley. He watches as the magnificent beast leaps into the air after the Drow Queen. He yells to Nienna, “Help hold the line here. I have to stop this before she goes too far.”
