Immortal

by Nicole Conway

  I didn’t stop to look at them. I kept pressing forward, running as fast as possible while basically dragging Jae’s unconscious body along. Kiran was shouting in elven, firing arrows at the dragonriders who swopped in close to us.

  Suddenly, ten of them landed in front of us. We came skidding to a halt, staring into the swords, teeth, and flame of an enemy that outnumbered us. Then a dozen more landed behind us. Kiran took a protective step in towards Jae, his bowstring taut with three arrows ready to fire. The dragonriders moved as one, enclosing us in a circle.

  Because I was one of them, I knew that next came the inferno. They’d bathe us in an onslaught of venom that wouldn’t even leave bones behind.

  “Well? You gonna just sit there and chat about it or are you gonna do something, ladies?” I shouted at them. With my free arm, I drew my sword. No way in hell was I going down empty-handed. I clenched my jaw, squared my stance, and waited for the axe to drop.

  It came out of nowhere.

  A hailstorm of arrows from the sky rained down all around us, hitting the ground only feet away from Jae, Kiran, and I. But not a single one struck us. They sent our enemies scurrying for cover, however. Three dragons bellowed in pain, one dropping immediately after taking a well-aimed arrow to the back of the skull.

  Next to me, Kiran started cheering. He raised his bow in the air, and I looked up to see why. A small group of gray elves on shrikes went streaking past us, quicker than shooting stars, chasing down the dragonriders and locking them in combat. Well, all save for two.

  Two shrikes landed before us. They moved so fast it was like they’d materialized out of thin air. Their scales shimmered like mirrors, reflecting the starry sky. Their bony jaws snapped and their eyes gleamed, eyeing us down. Each was carrying a rider wearing a long battle headdress fitted with white horns.

  One I knew right away. I’d seen her before, although not up close. She had to be the gray elf princess I’d heard so much about. She pulled back the mask on her headdress, letting her long, white hair spill freely down her shoulders. Her eyes reminded me of a wolf’s—unpredictable, wild, and secretive.

  The other rider removed his mask.

  My mouth fell open.

  “Don’t just stand there like an idiot, Farrow,” Jace Rordin was yelling at me over the noise of combat, outfitted from head-to-toe in full gray elf battle-dress. “Get on!”

  “You have got to be kidding me.”

  With Kiran giving me cover, firing arrows at any dragonrider who came too close, I dragged Jaevid the last few feet and flung him over the princess’s saddle. The shrikes weren’t large, not nearly as big as a dragon, and I wasn’t even sure they could take the weight of two riders. But it’s not like we had any time to test it out.

  Once Jaevid was secure, the princess took off without us. I climbed onto the back of Jace’s shrike. The creature tensed, moving like a feline and preparing for takeoff. Kiran backed up a few feet and gave me a smirk and a dragonrider’s salute.

  “Wait!” I shouted. “What about him?”

  “No room,” Jace yelled back.

  We took off, streaking away from the ground and leaving our gray elf companion standing there, watching us with a knowing grin on his lips. What I would have given right then to have some of those powers—to tell Nova or Mavrik to look after him.

  But I’m not the one who works miracles.

  “Hold him down,” the gray elf princess spoke sternly. She scooped up a glob of something green, pasty, and smelly onto her fingertips.

  By the dim light of a small oil lamp, Jace and I struggled to hold Jaevid still while she forced his mouth open and fed him more and more of the stuff. It must have tasted bad because Jae fought us hard, but when she finished, he was already looking better. His color wasn’t so corpse-like and he was breathing more steadily.

  Jace and I stood back, giving the princess some space while she tucked a blanket around him snuggly. All around us, gray elf warriors rushed to and fro, mustering their arms in preparation for the coming attack. Their makeshift compound was pathetically tiny. They had maybe three hundred fighters, not counting the ones who were obviously children that normally would have been way too young to fight.

  We were only a mile inside the jungle, if that. They didn’t expect their aerial force to hold long. More dragonriders and legions of ground infantry would be headed straight for this jungle, ready to raze it to the ground.

  “Is this really all the soldiers they have?” I murmured to Jace, who was looking more concerned than I’d ever seen him. Not good.

  “Yes,” he replied.

  It wasn’t nearly enough, which I guess he knew. “Then we can’t stay here for long.”

  “The temple is two days away, on foot. Longer, if Jae can’t walk there himself.” He growled quietly.

  “Why not take the shrikes?”

  “It’s too dangerous, the altar is calling to the stone. The closer you get with it, the stronger the pull. We already had to evacuate the village. The shrikes will go mad if we try to take them anywhere near it.”

  “Jace, we don’t have two days.” I stepped in his way so he had to look at me instead of Jaevid and the princess. “There has to be another way.”

  “T-there is.” Jaevid interrupted us. He sounded so weak I almost didn’t recognize his voice. “I made a way.”

  “What are you talking about?” The princess looked as puzzled as the rest of us.

  Slowly, weakly, Jae pushed the blanket off himself and unbuckled the vambrace on his left arm. When he rolled his sleeve up, I could see he was wearing a bandage. He winced as he tore it away and showed us his arm.

  The gray elf princess gasped sharply. Her eyes went as wide as two moons.

  There was a mark on Jae’s arm—a black tattoo with a strange, swirling design. The skin around it was inflamed. It must have hurt badly, because Jae couldn’t stand to wrap it back up himself. The princess had to help him with it. While she did, I could see tears pooling in the corners of her eyes.

  “Why would you do such a thing?” she scolded him in a soft whisper. “You cannot trust those spirits.”

  “I didn’t have a choice,” Jae was smiling that stupid, self-sacrificing smile that made me want to punch him in the neck. “I had to be sure we made it.”

  “What is that? What’s going on? What exactly did you do?” I demanded.

  “He’s made a pact with the foundling spirits,” the princess explained. “They’re the direct descendants of Paligno, his firstborns. They have no loyalty or love for humanity—or my people, for that matter. Whatever bargain Jaevid has struck with them no doubt came at a terrible price.”

  I glared down at my sneaky, scheming, moron of a best friend. “Is that true?”

  “Felix, I had to. Surely you can see that now. Without their help, we don’t stand a chance.”

  I cursed and turned away. “What was the price, then?”

  He didn’t answer.

  “Was it your life?”

  When Jaevid still didn’t reply, I had to take a walk to keep from losing my temper. I didn’t make it far, though. There was a commotion in the camp; gray elves ran past me, hurrying toward the sound of calling voices coming from the jungle border.

  Over the white-haired heads of strangers, I saw a man standing head and shoulders above everyone else. He was dressed in dragonrider’s armor and bled from an open gash on his brow. I saw him looking—searching through the crowd—until our eyes met.

  “My son!” Prax started shoving through the gray elves thronging around him as though he were some sort of deity.

  He embraced me. In fact, he nearly choked the life out of me. His breathing sounded ragged, like he was trying to hold it together. Before I could get a word out, he grabbed the back of my head and kissed my forehead. “I saw your dragon. Gods, I feared the worst.”

  “My dragon?” I wasn’t sure what he meant.

  The look on his face, the dimness
in his eyes, made my chest suddenly feel constricted. I couldn’t breathe.

  “No. Not Nova. I just saw her. She was fighting. She was with Mavrik. They were going strong.”

  Prax bowed his head. “I’m sorry, boy.”

  My dragon was dead.

  My girl. My Nova. Before I could even fully process that information, things began happening all around me that kept me from being able to let it sink in. Our comrades in Emerald Flight had arrived just in time. They were helping the gray elves hold the line and keep the dragonriders at bay. But according to my father, that wasn’t going to last long. So the gray elves began to muster, to rally and prepare for the inevitable.

  Hovrid’s forces were moving. Northwatch had emptied and was headed straight for us. Eastwatch, too. Every minute that passed brought them closer and made our chances of success that much slimmer.

  Prax had left our friends behind, locked in combat, to find me. I guess he knew I wasn’t going to leave Jae’s side. He explained the situation to the rest of us while the gray elf princess stitched up the open wound on his forehead.

  “We need to get going.” Prax winced as the princess finished her stitching. “Once they hit the border, they’re going to come in like an unending flood. They won’t stop until there’s nothing left. What they can’t kill with blades and arrows they’ll drench in dragon venom. It’s going to be a massacre.”

  “We are prepared to do what we must to see the stone safely returned.” The princess didn’t look the least bit concerned. She flashed Jace a meaningful glance as she stood and picked up her war headdress.

  “That’s very noble, but I think you’re missing the point.” Prax countered. “Say you make it to that temple. Say you even manage to put the stone back where it belongs. What’s going to keep the forces from Maldobar from running you into the ground and taking it right back? I think we both know they’ve got you pinned into a corner. If these are the only fighters you’ve got left, then the war is as good as over already. We may have the stone now, but we can’t keep it. They’re going to take it back and there’s nothing we can do to stop them.”

  There was a tense silence. I had my suspicions that the princess, Jace, and probably everyone gathered here to make a final stand was relying on one thing—one person—to make sure that didn’t happen.

  And that person was Jaevid.

  None of us, however, seemed willing to say that out loud. We didn’t know what he could do, or if he could do anything to keep history from repeating itself. He was trusting in that deity, and we were trusting in him.

  “It’s time,” Jaevid appeared behind us like a phantom, dressed in his long, black cloak and resting his hand on the pommel of his scimitar. He was standing on his own, which was a vast improvement from before the princess had rammed that salve down his throat.

  “Time for what?” Prax glanced around at the rest of our group for an explanation.

  Jaevid pulled the cowl of his cloak down low over his head. “Our escorts have arrived.”

  While the gray elf forces continued to assemble and prepare for the proverbial meat grinder that was headed their way, Prax, Jace, the gray elf princess, and I followed Jaevid away from the camp. We went deeper into the jungle. Gradually, the sounds of the camp faded behind us. The air grew hotter, thicker and heavier with moisture. There was no light except from a single torch the princess was carrying. I’d heard Jace call her Araxie a few times. They must have had something going on, because he seldom left her side.

  We stopped when Jae did. He ordered us to douse the light. Darkness swallowed us, and I couldn’t keep myself from gripping the hilt of my sword. Alien sounds echoed everywhere. The calls of birds were like eerie laughter. Leaves rustled. Twigs snapped. My pulse was pounding in my eardrums.

  Right in front of me, Jaevid stood perfectly still. I could barely see him through the gloom, because his eyes were glowing again—bright green like emerald fires.

  I stepped in closer to him, letting my shoulder bump his on purpose. “I’m sorry, you know, for what I said before … about Beckah.”

  He didn’t look at me, but I could see the corner of his mouth twitch in a smile. “There’s nothing to forgive, Felix. You were right.”

  Somehow, that didn’t make me feel any better. “Doesn’t happen often, does it? Me being right?”

  “There’s a first time for everything, I suppose.”

  That made me laugh. It gave me hope. Even with those glowing eyes, the real Jae—my friend, my brother—was still in there somewhere. “As fun as it is, guessing what the heck you’re doing and how you plan to pull this off, I’d sure love to know what’s going on here. What are we waiting on?”

  He let out a sigh, as though he were steadying himself. “When I made a deal with the foundling spirits, they promised to give us their protection and help to reach the temple.”

  “You heard what Prax was saying to us, didn’t you?”

  Jaevid nodded. His expression had gone solemn and steely.

  “He has a point, Jae. All of this could be for nothing if the armies of Maldobar reach that temple. They could slaughter every last one of us and take the stone back. Then there’ll be nothing to stop the curse.”

  “Nothing except you,” he said.

  “Me? What can I do? I hate to be the bearer of bad news here, but I’m not the one with magical powers.”

  “Magic isn’t what started this war, Felix. And magic isn’t going to be what ends it, either,” he explained, so calmly that he might as well have been discussing our dinner options. “You have something I’ll never have, something that you said would take me a lot further in life than sword fighting or air combat techniques ever could. Something that has saved men’s lives and reputations countless times.”

  “Jae—” I knew where he was going with this.

  “Charm,” he interrupted.

  “I was talking about girls,” I clarified. It was embarrassing that he even remembered that, but he was taking it way out of context. “I seriously doubt a bunch of blood-hungry dragonriders and infantrymen are going to stop and listen to me try to schmooze them.”

  He turned to face me. The colored bands of his eyes were still glowing brightly, making me wonder who I was actually talking to—him or that gray elf god. “Hovrid is dead. The throne of Maldobar is empty. In truth, it has been empty for a long time. And once I put the stone back, Paligno’s curse is going to break. I have his assurance of that. The people who were deceived and enchanted into following his orders are going to have their eyes opened. They’re going to see what’s really been happening. They’re going to be confused, angry, and filled with shame for what they’ve done. They are going to need a new king, someone to guide them toward a peaceful future. There is only one person worthy and capable of making sure that happens. And that person is you, Felix.”

  I swallowed. “But I’m not even a legitimate noble. I’m a bastard child. The duke wasn’t my real father.”

  “It doesn’t matter. You’re all Maldobar has and everything it needs. You’re the natural selection, being the heir of the next most powerful noble family in the kingdom. But you’re also the best selection, because you know there can be peace between Maldobar and Luntharda. You have a way with people. They listen to you, even if they don’t know you. You’re going to need that charm of yours.”

  “I don’t know how to be a king,” I protested weakly. It sounded like a pathetic excuse, even to me. The idea of a crown—any crown—being placed on my head was horrifying to me.

  Jaevid gave me a reassuring punch in the arm. “I’m sure you’ll figure it out. Just promise me you will do everything you can to make sure the peace is lasting.”

  I told him I would, although I had no idea how I was going to keep that promise. I was too caught up in the way he was talking, the way he phrased things. It wasn’t like him. It wasn’t normal.

  It almost sounded like a goodbye.

  I was trying to w
rap my mind around the idea of being the king of anything. How was I going to tell Julianna? What was she going to say? What if I died, too? Did that mean my mother would be the next queen? Gods and Fates, I hoped not. She might’ve been worse than Hovrid.

  All of a sudden, Jae reached out his hand into the dark, empty air before us, almost as though he were inviting a dog to sniff it. Only it wasn’t a dog.

  A large, strange-looking creature appeared before him. It materialized out of nowhere, silently taking form and looming over us with an unsettling sense of intelligence winking in its eyes. With tall, black ears, a tapered snout, and a slender body, it looked a great deal like a fox. Granted, an enormous fox. But its jet-black fur was mottled with feathers. It had long tail feathers that dragged over the ground, and there were faint silver, swirling markings all over its body that were only visible when it moved. Two black wings were folded at its sides, and when it looked at me, I got a falling sensation in the pit of my stomach.

  More creatures appeared. They were smaller, about the size of horses, and while they definitely had vulpine faces and ears, their bodies were a mutant mixture of bird and fox. Their feathers came in a variety of vibrant colors and their glowing eyes seemed to peer straight through me. One with bright green, blue, and yellow feathers hedged towards me with its head down, ears back, and snout twitching vigorously.

  “They’re going to help us get to the temple,” Jae explained. He was already sitting on the back of one, holding onto fistfuls of its scruff for balance. “Don’t be afraid.”

  “How do we know they won’t turn on us?” Araxie glared suspiciously at the one that had apparently chosen her as its passenger.

  “We are not bound to the stone,” the big, black fox-monster’s voice hissed through the air as though it were insulted. It was so loud I had to cover my ears. “We came before it.”

  Araxie winced, but she didn’t falter. She had a lot of nerve. She eyed her mount skeptically, and then finally conceded with a frustrated snort.