by Walls, Devri
“Maybe I should go get Alcander,” Emane said. He walked off without waiting for an answer.
When Emane was halfway back to the city, Kiora stepped out to face the glittering barrier that had mocked all her efforts thus far. Everything she had planned hinged on this spell working. She closed her eyes, trying to feel the power of nature moving around her. It took less time than it had in the library and she willed it to her, jerking at the first painful prick.
“Eeeon fota leon see linow,” she whispered. But as the last of the spell left her lips, nature’s magic retreated. She clenched her fists, taking deep breaths. What she wanted to do was scream—or punch something.
Alcander strolled toward her. “Why are we trying to remove the barrier now?” he asked casually, his blue eyes intent on her.
“I need to make sure I can do it.” She huffed and turned to face him. “But it’s not working.”
He raised an eyebrow. “What do you want me to do?”
“I have no idea. I have tried the incantation over and over again, but nothing happens. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong.”
“Try again.” Alcander motioned.
“Eeeon fota leon see linow.”
“Foo ta.”
Relief barreled through her. “I’m pronouncing it wrong?”
“I’m not familiar with that incantation, but I have never heard fota used. I am guessing it is foo ta.”
Kiora grinned. With her confidence mended, she spun on her heel, facing the barrier. “Eeeon foo ta leon see linow.”
The colors in the barrier lightened and the flow of magic coming from the top thinned, but only for a moment.
Kiora’s shoulders drooped. “I don’t have enough. I need nature’s magic.”
“Kiora, no,” Alcander said. “It’s too much.”
“Can you think of any other way to get us out of here?” she said with her back turned. He didn’t reply.
Nature responded quickly, with little urging from her. It stabbed, merciless and forceful, beginning its loop around her body. It was worse this time. Her vision blurred, and hot blood trickled down her upper lip. She repeated the spell and more magic entered to supply the incantation with what it needed. Her body shook under the pressure. The barrier flashed, then vanished.
“Kiora!” Alcander grabbed her, putting one hand on each side of her face. “Let it go. Can you hear me?”
Kiora was worried that if she tried to speak, she would lose her hold. If she couldn’t do it now, what made her think she could control this power during a battle? She couldn’t quit. Shaking her head, she took a step forward.
Alcander reluctantly moved out of her way, his hands slipping from her face.
Kiora wiped the blood from her nose with the back of her hand. Squinting, she took stiff, deliberate steps toward one of the rooms that had not been converted into stables. It seemed so far away. The magic looped faster. Her heart pounded and each beat hurt worse than the last. She touched the doorframe and repeated the incantation again. The barrier appeared, blocking the doorway.
“Test it,” she grunted, falling against the wall. “Make sure . . . it works”
Alcander walked in to the magic. It seized him, checking his thread before letting him through.
Kiora muttered the incantation a third time, pulling the barrier back down. Having completed the test, she released the magic and crumbled to the ground.
Alcander was at her side in a moment, pulling her into his lap. He anxiously looked over her, running his hand over her hair and pushing her face against his chest. “Your body can’t handle what you are putting it through,” he murmured, his lips against her forehead. “Please stop. You are going to kill yourself.”
“I have to do this,” she whispered. “It’s the only way.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Into the City
THE SOUND OF TROOPS being assembled jolted Kiora straight out of bed. She inwardly cursed everyone’s desire to ensure she got enough rest instead of making sure she was awake when she needed to be.
She had been up half the night working with Drustan on the final parts of her plan. And although she had probably been in bed a couple of hours, it felt like five minutes. She fumbled around for her boots, only finding one. Bleary-eyed, she scanned the room until she located the other one a few feet away.
She snatched the boot, hopping on one foot while trying to put it on and nearly falling. Growling, she moved to a chair and plopped down, yanking the boot on.
Malena fluttered in through the balcony doors. “Relax, Kiora,” she said. “They have it under control.”
“I’m relaxed,” she grunted, shoving her hair out of her face. “I’m fine.”
“I could hear you grumbling from outside,” Malena said.
“I’m supposed to be down there helping. Not up here sleeping.”
“Those two boys of yours insisted you not be disturbed,” Malena said with a knowing smile.
Kiora groaned, covering her face with her hands. “Don’t call them that.”
“They are both very loyal to you.”
“You’re not making it better,” she said, her voice muffled through her fingers.
“You have chosen Alcander, then,” Malena said mildly. “I wasn’t sure.”
Kiora slumped in her chair. “Yes.”
Malena fluttered over. Landing on the arm of the chair, she looked up. “How things have changed from the first day I found you hiding in the woods, trying to run away from who you were meant to be.”
Kiora bit her lip. “That was a very bad day.”
“But not the worst, was it?”
Kiora shook her head. “No, not the worst. If you would have told me then what I was going to go through, I don’t think you could have talked me into it.”
“And yet, you are here. Would you change anything?”
Kiora frowned. “Of course I would. Look at what’s happened.”
“You only say you would change things because you are not thinking deeply enough.”
Kiora rolled her head to the side, raising her eyebrows as she looked at Malena’s perfectly tiny face. “You’re telling me I’m wrong?”
“Our experiences make us who we are. Your pain has only amplified your beauty, both inside and out. You are your experiences—and what you choose to do with them. To change that is to change you. What part of you would you give up?”
A blast from above rocked the room and Kiora leaped out of her chair, running for the door. She took the stairs two at a time, Malena flying right behind her. Bursting out the front doors, she found Drustan waiting for her.
She jolted to a stop. “You’re awake.”
Drustan eyed the barrier that rippled with residual Dragon fire and magic. “Indeed. Alcander does not hold my need for sleep in the same regard as yours.”
Another attack slammed into the barrier.
Drustan gave her a glance over his shoulder and began to shift into the small Dragon they had discussed last night, with webbed skin between his scaly toes. “I have never shifted from land-breathing lungs to gills midflight. This should be interesting.”
“I don’t like interesting.” Kiora scanned the area to ensure everyone was preparing for the battle. The circular shape of the city made the final planning both intricate and tricky. The two entrances closest each other, behind the main house, were each filled with a small group of rebels. These were the two doors that would be opened first.
There were so many moving pieces to this plan, it unnerved Kiora—too many things to go wrong.
To her right, Emane and Alcander ran side by side around the perimeter of the city towards the foxes’ stables, followed by a group of Taveans. Alcander threw open the first door and Emane coaxed a fox who burst out, leaping and bounding from the stables. He passed it to a Tavean, who mounted it and directed the fox down to the center of the city to wait.
The foxes and Tavean riders would be in the air for the battle, raining down magic and acid on the ar
my the Shifters were going to force into the center of the city. Their first job was to keep the army in the center. They could not allow the enemy to come up one of the sets of stairs. That would place them between the rebels and their exits—that could not happen. And two, they had to keep the Shifters from shifting. She couldn’t battle against a room full of Dragons and keep everybody alive.
Kiora climbed onto Drustan, watching the barrier anxiously.
And they waited. Time ticked by slowly, with not one attack. The tension in the city was palpable, with all eyes directed above. The minutes ticked by, turning into the half hour, and then the hour.
The rebels shifted from one foot to the other. The only sound in the city was the rustling of wings. The foxes felt the nervous energy as well and pranced back and forth, leaping into the air for a few wing flaps before being forced back down by their riders.
Then, finally, another ball of fire impacted, followed by a second, third, and fourth.
“Now,” Kiora said.
Drustan and Kiora flew toward the first barrier—Lomay’s glittering gold one. She pulled at nature. As the magic entered her, her heart slammed painfully in her chest, immediately jolted out of its normal rhythm. Her nails dug bloody half moons into her palm. Each time she used this magic, it was worse than before.
Working quickly, she took down Lomay’s barrier. It came down easier than she expected. Drustan shot upwards before flipping back around to allow Kiora to replace the barrier. She slung it much lower than it had been, bowing it in the middle so it almost touched the roof of the main house.
“Enough?” she asked. Her vision blurred, and she put her thumb and forefinger in the corners of her eyes. She found blood. Panic rose within her.
“You can’t take it any lower. Let’s go.” Drustan shifted, switching to gills.
Kiora took the air bubble spell she had learned from Lomay and directed it so that the bubble only surrounded her head. This allowed her the freedom of movement she needed.
Kiora looked up at Nestor’s remaining barrier with wide eyes as she prepared to unleash the lake.
“Now would be good,” Drustan gasped. His wings jerked as he struggled to pull oxygen from the dry air around them.
She used everything she had to swipe at Nestor’s barrier. It vanished, and Kiora immediately shoved the nature magic away from her. The water seemed to hesitate as if the barrier was still there, then it dropped, crashing over them. It slammed into Kiora and Drustan like a brick wall, pushing them against the bottom.
Kiora ground her teeth to keep from crying out. Her leg was crushed between Lomay’s barrier and Drustan’s body. He thrashed, fighting against the onslaught of pressure and the current that raked them across the bottom. Finally, he managed to wiggle free, heaving himself forwards.
Kiora pulled at the water around her, using both hands to form a pillar of water within the lake. It swirled, becoming thicker as it spun. Grunting, she shoved it upwards as hard as she could.
***
ARTURO FLEW OVER THE lake—watching, waiting. He was flying low enough that he risked exposing his thread, but he needed to see. The surface of the lake still rippled from the previous attacks that Jasmine’s followers had launched.
The army prepared the next attack. The Shifter-Dragons blew fire at the few who could control it, who then spun it into a glowing ball. It took four or five of the enemy, mostly Taveans, to each Shifter-Dragon in order to keep the power in check—it was simply too much for one to control. Kiora could have handled it herself. He couldn’t help but feel a certain amount of pride in her.
As they were about to wrap the ball of fire in magic to protect it from the water, the lake suddenly dropped, pulling away from the bank. The enemy stilled. He heard their thoughts, wondering if maybe, just maybe, it had worked and the lake was now pouring into the city.
Then Kiora sold it. An explosion of water burst forth from the middle, sputtering and spraying as if the barrier had indeed given way—the water meeting a pocket of air below. Two more geysers burst up in rapid succession, showering the enemy and sending the surface of the lake into a bubbling and rolling soup. A roar went up as the enemy rejoiced in their first victory against the impenetrable city.
***
KIORA PULLED ANOTHER WAVE of water, spinning and rolling it before forcing it upwards, desperately hoping the show up top was more impressive than what she was seeing down below. She was about to reach for more when the water above her began to glow. Another round of attacks tore toward them.
Kiora cursed her lack of forethought. Drustan jerked them to the side. She had hoped that once the geysers went up, the enemy would move toward the entrances. She didn’t know if Lomay’s barrier would hold against the attack—it wasn’t as strong as Nestor’s barrier.
The fireballs roared by. Waves of displaced water pushed Drustan to the side as the attack connected with the barrier. Lomay’s extra protection was always supposed to be just that—extra, not primary. It shimmered and rippled, becoming dangerously thin.
No, she thought, glancing through the gold film to the rebels below her. I will not allow this to happen. Not again!
Another fireball lit her view. Spinning around on Drustan’s back she pushed magic toward it with one hand, and a burst of water right behind it with the other. The ball exploded under her counterattack. Magic and fire rolled outwards before being swallowed up by the wave. She then forced both the fire and water up for one more spectacular show of watery explosions.
Nice job, Arturo thought. You have convinced them. They think they’ve broken through.
They almost did, Kiora thought, still shaken.
She tapped Drustan’s side to let him know it was time for the next phase. He swam toward the golden barrier. It had come down easier than she had expected the first time, and she hoped that Lomay’s barrier would not require the same amount of magic Nestor’s did.
Using her own power, she whispered the first three-quarters of the spell, praying another attack would not come. If it did, it would break through the barrier without question—the spell she had begun had weakened it considerably. As if reaffirming her concerns, the barrier rippled beneath her, becoming clear in several places. She opened a hole for her and Drustan to pass through.
The lake poured out ahead of them, splashing into the city. The sound of water against stone and wood was sickeningly similar to the last time the barrier had been breached, and a bitter sickness rose in her throat.
Drustan tried to wiggle and push his way through, but Kiora had kept the hole small on purpose and they became lodged. The water pushed from behind, desperate for an exit. The pressure built, finally popping them out.
When they shot free of the barrier, Drustan struggled to keep his altitude up, nearly flipping upside down. His gills closed. Immediately, his flying stabilized and he swooped around the enormous waterfall that now poured into the city.
Kiora maintained her hold on the barrier, trying to ensure that the pressure of the water did not tear a larger hole. She struggled against the force as it stretched and pushed against the edges. Worried she might lose hold, she pulled at it, trying to shrink the hole to a manageable size.
“No! Let it go,” Drustan said. “We need to get the water in here quickly. They will launch more attacks, and this barrier will not hold.”
He was right. She opened it back up. The waterfall pounded down, spraying the city with a fine mist.
Kiora’s arms were shaking. The water level rose below her. Where the barrier of Nestor had resisted Jasmine’s attempts, Lomay’s barrier was weak, and seemed to want to give way. “This is going to have to be enough,” she gasped. She shoved the edges of the barrier back together and yelled the incantation to seal it.
Her wet hair clung to her cheeks, and she pushed it back. “Ready?” she yelled. The rebels prepared themselves, foxes and riders taking to the air.
Kiora mentally reached out to the rolling water she had just dumped onto the floor. It obed
iently divided into nine sections. The tenth hall needed to remain clear—it sheltered the Domats, and all the rebels would escape there. One more mental push, and the water rushed down the halls
She had reached the point of no return. Steeling herself, she called nature’s magic again. Falling forward on Drustan, she gritted her teeth and pulled down all the barriers in the city—with the exception of the flimsy protection of Lomay’s that held back the lake.
***
ALCANDER WAS IN THE first two groups down the hall. The water pulled at their ankles and splashed around their legs.
Using magic, he pulled back the stone guarding the entrance. It was unnerving, looking outside without seeing the colored magic raining down. Alcander pushed toward the exit, calling the others forward. The enemy outside roared with glee, running toward the entrance and the fleeing rebels. Alcander screeched to a halt, holding up his arms to stop those behind him.
A Winged man had been closer to the entrance than his comrades and came around the side, flying through the door. Before he could fire, Alcander threw a bolt of white-hot magic from his staff, breaking the man’s wing. The first line of the army, Taveans with black hair and red eyes, was almost at the door.
“There are too many of them. Retreat!” Alcander yelled. The words were like cotton in his mouth. Knowing it was a farce did not make it entirely easy to look so weak in front of his own. “Another exit!”
