“I told you a long time ago that I wasn’t good at following orders.” I hiccupped and realized I was still sobbing. And that we were on the losing side of a battle. The relics were gone, but this was about more than just them, even if they were what led to it. This was the conclusion to a battle that started over twenty-five hundred years ago. With Edana’s skills and power, there was a good chance she could rule things around here for a very long time, even without the relics.
That wasn’t going to happen.
I motioned Covey over. “Guard him.” Just because I’d chosen not to use the weapon didn’t mean I was going to let the people I cared about die. The Ancients hadn’t been prepared for the final battle and had been alone. We had allies this time. And I was going to see if adding an Ancient to the current mix could tip the scales.
Chapter Forty-Seven
Covey nodded and went into berserker mode. I kissed Alric one more time, then stepped away from them and changed. Anger raged in me, but it was more focused now. The relics were no longer an issue, and I knew Edana was aware that they were gone.
As my height changed, I spotted her. She was at the far side of the battlefield and had changed into the syclarion’s dragon-like form. I used to think it was fearsome—now it just pissed me off.
Unfortunately, there was that huge field of people between us. Now that my memories were back, I knew that Edana didn’t care if her people were killed—as long as she got what she wanted, which was full control over everything and everyone. I wasn’t going to risk others just to stop her. There had to be another way.
Alric had once asked if I’d had wings when I changed. I now knew that I did and I didn’t. We could control our wings and whether they appeared or not. Whatever had forced me into changing at the Spheres hadn’t been under my control, so no wings.
I remembered I had them this time. I moved even further away from my friends, most of the enemy were staying clear of me on their own.
“Stay back,” I yelled, then flexed my wings into being. I gave one massive flap. Went about ten feet up, then slammed backwards into the woods behind us.
Garbage, Crusty, and Leaf flew off their battle cats and up to my face.
“Boom!” Crusty shouted then spun in a mid-air circle.
“Is good, we fly, you fly.” Leaf bounced around in the air.
“Why you in trees?” Garbage narrowed her eyes as if there must be something she was missing.
My memories were coming back, but apparently physical memory took longer.
“I’m trying to fly across the field.” I could tell that on some level the faeries knew this was going to happen. I’d deal with that, and anything else they might know, when we got rid of Edana and her troops. Boon companions to the Ancients, indeed.
“We help!” all three shouted and immediately a few thousand more faeries swarmed me.
Queen Mungoosey flew to my face. “Pleased we are that you have returned. We will help.” She gave a regal nod and a flick of her long gray tail.
I cautiously flapped my wings again and slowly rose above the trees, surrounded by my cloud of faeries.
Yells came in full force from across both sides of the battlefield. A few archers took aim, but my hide was too thick for their arrows to pierce.
Edana hovered in the air, but stayed on her side of the field. She wasn’t near as large as I was, but she’d been flying and casting spells for the past twenty-five hundred years.
At least I had the faeries.
Taking to the air was better than fighting on the ground in terms of not killing our own troops. But we could still hurt them from up here—or rather, Edana could.
More memories were flowing back. Like when my parents died. It had been an ambush over the ocean. Syclarions didn’t like large bodies of water any more than we did, but Edana had sacrificed dozens of her own people in order to murder my parents.
The fleet of constructs now joined us. I might not have dozens of my people flying alongside me like she did, but I had my friends. I banked away from the battlefield and toward the ocean. This fight was going to end today one way or another. By taking the top fighters out of the ground battle, I was hopeful my friends had a chance.
Edana chased after me and showed no hesitation when she must have realized where I was going.
“You want to die as your parents did? Or are you simply trying to run away?”
She wasn’t close enough for her voice to carry but I could taste the spell that carried her words to me. As soon as I sensed the spell, I knew how to do it. Providing I survived, I wasn’t going to have trouble learning magic anymore.
I didn’t respond, but flapped harder. The faeries were around me, with the mass of chimeras intermingled. Bunky and Irving flew the closest to me.
I waited until I got far enough out that getting back to land would be difficult for someone who was injured. Yes, if that someone was me, this was a bad plan. I just had to make sure it wasn’t me.
When I could barely see only a thin outline of land behind us, I spun. A few times actually. Navigation in this form wasn’t easy. However, I made it look like I’d intended to do that and came out of it facing Edana and her flyers. They’d picked up the sceanra anam along the way, and they and the chimeras were already racing toward each other.
The faeries stayed with me, but it was me and a cloud of faeries verses Edana and twenty or so flying syclarions. I wasn’t holding out a lot of hope, but I wasn’t giving up either. Alric had been willing to die to save me—that needed to be addressed.
Edana was smaller than I was, but she flew as if she knew what she was doing. My memories were coming back, but still not a lot of the physical abilities. She flew in closer and let loose a fire spell.
I was shocked at how quickly the flames hit and how horrific the pain was until I was able to put them out. That was no normal fire. My hide in this form had the ability to withstand normal fire—this spell was designed for my people.
“Your parents died because of a spell like that,” she yelled. “Of course we had been attacking them for hours, no land in sight, nothing but water. I doubt you’ll last that long. I have no idea where you’ve been hiding for the last twenty-five hundred years, but you’ll wish you were back there before the end.”
She was busy taunting me and didn’t notice the arrow of faeries that went for her back. I’d seen them kill with those war sticks of theirs and while we weren’t that lucky this time, they did make her pull back in pain.
And fury. She lashed out and sent most of her attackers tumbling into the ocean. Then she spun on her own people. “You let them through!” She reached out and one of the flying syclarions burst into flames and fell into the ocean.
If I could keep her at this long enough she might work her way through all of her people.
“Your son won’t be coming back this time, by the way.” I was crappy at taunting and I was seriously outmatched here.
“He was weak. Like you. You shouldn’t have destroyed the staff. You could have had everything.” She fired another bolt, but this time I got a wing and a spell up to deflect it. Not great, still hurt, but not as bad as the first one.
Or so I thought.
My wing was beginning to go numb, and that numbness was spreading toward my heart.
“Stupid girl. I thought highly of you; you’d created a weapon unlike any other. I thought you must be brilliant. But you were just lucky.” She fired another shot.
I moved and missed most of it, but was having trouble staying aloft as my entire body started going numb. I had hope that the faeries survived their fall into the ocean; I knew I wouldn’t.
Push was one of my best spells before I knew who and what I was. Even though the memories of other, more complicated spells were coming back to me, that one was just waiting to be used. It was an elven spell, not one used by my people.
I flung the spell down at her as hard as I could, pushing me up as I pushed her down. It gave me more lift. I’d be able to
fall a bit longer before I crashed into the ocean. But she’d managed to deflect the worst of the spell. Three of her own people were slammed into the ocean at her deflection.
Half the faeries were in the ocean, and the remaining ones went for the other syclarions. The constructs were fighting the sceanra anam, but they were being overwhelmed.
And I was growing number.
“Would you just die? You can’t win, your spells are juvenile, and your body is about to give up.”
As she spoke, Edana slammed me with more fire spells. I managed to block two, sent a third back at her, but the fourth hit my side. I spun, trying to put it out, but I couldn’t do it. I was falling faster, and the smell of salt from the water was as unwelcome as it was strong.
I flung whatever spells I could at her, but they were weak and badly formed. I gave one last thought for Alric, the faeries, and the rest of my friends then closed my eyes as my body surrendered to the pain and I fell toward the waves.
Minkies appeared in front of me. Seriously? Last visions should be of Alric, not tiny furry, feathery creatures. Maybe I actually was dead, because just as I had my thought about the minkies, a song burst in my head.
When I’d changed this time, I hadn’t had a chance to remove my armor—including the shoulder pieces. They were now wherever my clothing went when I changed. Those pieces weren’t from my long ago ancestors, they were from my parents, and their strength was coming to me in the song. I’d not been able to get the full impact before because I hadn’t known who I was, who they were.
In my spinning, I saw Edana smiling as she watched me crash into the ocean.
The song from my parents filled my ears, and the minkies stayed right alongside me as I hit the icy waves.
The coldness of the water shocked my body into responding and fighting off the spell. Pretty sure my parents and the minkies helped as well.
My people didn’t swim, but that didn’t mean that I couldn’t fly out of the water. The minkies were in front of me and around me, mentally cheering me on as the song of my parents soared through my blood.
I had talons, cruel long ones. I grabbed Edana’s side with them and flung her away as hard as I could. I wanted to rip her apart, but my body was fighting to recover. Flinging her away seemed like the best way to give myself a few moments of respite.
The faeries were trying to get the rest of the syclarions, but either they were a different class of magic users than most of their kind, or Edana gave them extra power. They were slowly defeating the faery horde.
“Pick on someone your own size.” It was a cheesy line, but the power flowing through my veins right now was stronger than any ale. I sent the slowing spell, the push spell, and a fireball all at once. The remaining syclarions were wrapped in flames and pushed by my spells into the water where they slowly vanished under the waves. Since I was throwing them in the water, the fireball seemed a bit much, but that was one spell I’d not learned from Alric—it came from the old me.
The faeries swarmed around me, but there were so many that I couldn’t pick my own out. “You need to pull your friends out of the water. Then help the constructs.” The flapping of wings behind me told me my stalling time was over.
The faeries nodded and left as I spun to Edana. She was bleeding from the gash in her side, but she still flew strong. The song of my parents increased and only one minkie remained. He nodded, then vanished.
Edana and I met in the air. Her skill against my size and the spirits of my parents. At first she tried to do quick strikes, but on her third dive in I froze her with a spell. It wouldn’t stop her but it allowed me to grab ahold of her. We were locked together, both of us fighting to get in the final strike.
She gave a vicious grin, and then changed into her non-flying form. Whatever spell she used was targeted against me as well. I became human and we both fell into the ocean.
I didn’t release her as we hit, but swimming was not something I was good at and I needed my arms to stay afloat. I knew as soon as I let her go though, I’d lose. Syclarions were stronger than humans. And somehow she’d locked me into my human shape. With armor on.
And a sword.
I’d forgotten about it, but it had come back with my clothing when she forced the change. I pulled my sword free, and ran her through.
The shock in her eyes as the blade hit was something I hoped my parents’ spirits could sense. I wasn’t a violent person, not if I could help it. But she deserved to die. Too many lives had been destroyed because of her greed and need to rule.
She tried hanging onto me as she slid off my blade, but I managed to stay clear. She sunk lower in the water until I could no longer see her.
The rest of the syclarions were gone, and the faeries and constructs had turned the battle and were chasing the last of the sceanra anam.
I was in the middle of the ocean, treading water, wearing armor, and holding a sword. Changing forms right now would just make me sink faster, not to mention I was so cold there was no way I could have focused enough to switch. I’d won. I destroyed the one who’d killed my parents. Now I was going to drown.
It took my brain a few minutes of pitying itself before I was able to fight back. I got the sword back in the sheath, closed my eyes, and focused on Garbage, Leaf, and Crusty. I didn’t add ale, or sugar, just how much they meant to me. And that I was in danger.
“We come!” I was shocked to hear Garbage that quickly. Even more so when I opened my eyes and saw them leading two boats that were being magically sailed against the wind and at high speed. Alric was at the bow of one.
“We save!” Crusty got to me first, followed by the other two. They started kissing my hair.
“Girls! This is great, but I’m freezing. How did you get them here so fast?”
“Went get them before you go swimming. Knew you need.” If Garbage got any smugger her head would explode.
The first boat got to us before I could say more. Alric looked ready to jump into the water, but Covey pushed him back. “You are recovering from being dead. I will not allow you to undo that by diving into that water.” She pushed his chest again. “We don’t have another tree goddess.” With that she dove into the water and came up beside me. “Looks like a certain Ancient might need some help?”
I hugged her and she hauled us both to the boat. Alric was allowed to help lift me into it and I was immediately wrapped in blankets.
I looked up at the faces in both boats. People who were truly a family to me. I’d thought I’d lost my people, my family. I’d just found a new one. My thoughts were cut off as Alric pulled me close, held me tight, and kissed me for a very long time.
Epilogue
I rolled over and watched Alric sleep. In the past week it had become my second favorite hobby. He looked so much younger when he slept. All the worries he still carried, even though he claimed to have left them in the elven enclave, were still in his eyes.
But asleep he looked like an elven angel. My elven angel. The battle for the relics ended just eight days ago. Seven days ago Alric and I said goodbye to our friends and headed out deep into the forest above the enclave. He had found another one of the elven traveling houses when he’d gone back to argue the case for destroying the relics. We’d hitched it to our horses, and went into the woods. Alric claimed to just be wandering, but somehow we ended up in a perfect meadow with a stream.
Seven days of glorious peace. No relics, no faeries, not even any discussion about my being an Ancient, and him almost having to kill me.
Alric didn’t open his eyes, but reached out and pulled me into his arms. “What shall we do today?”
I started to answer when the side of our traveling house shook. Then the door rattled.
Alric was on his feet with his sword in his hand before I could even process the sounds. It was a good thing we both had sleeping clothes on, or flinging open the door would have been far more interesting for anyone bothering us.
Three familiar bright zips of color flew into t
he house, yelling and jabbering. I didn’t get up, but I could see more hovering in the meadow. And cats. Lots of cats.
“Girls, you promised us we could have a month off,” I said, then climbed out of bed and wrapped my robe around myself.
“Is bad! You come!” Garbage yelled, while flying around trying to see everything in the house at once.
Alric sighed, banished his sword, and turned. “What’s bad?”
“Fighting. Bird lady under attack!” Leaf was also looking at everything. There might be something really happening, but I also figured they’d wanted an excuse to visit.
“Bird lady?” Alric only had pants on, so he reached for a shirt.
I sighed this time. Watching him without a shirt was favorite thing number three. “I’m thinking they mean Qianru?”
“Yes!” Garbage spun in a tight circle. “Let loose the kittahs of war!”
The End
Dear Reader,
* * *
Thank you for joining Taryn, Alric, and the faeries in the final book of The Lost Ancients series. This was a great book to write and I’m so glad you joined us!
This series has ended, but in case you missed it—there are still some shenanigans to be dealt with! Stay tuned for a NEW adventure with all of the gang in 2020/21. Updates will be posted on all social media outlets—so make sure you’re following me somewhere.
If you’re also interested in a little bit of space opera, please check out the completed Asarlaí Wars trilogy.
Fancy some tea and adventures? You might be interested in the steampunk cozy series: The Adventures of Smith & Jones.
I really appreciate each and every one of you so please keep in touch. You can find me at www.marieandreas.com.
If you enjoyed this book (or any book for that matter ;)) please spread the word! Positive reviews are like emotional gold to any writer and mean more than you know.
The Diamond Sphinx (The Lost Ancients Book 6) Page 33
