by Renee Greene
She handed him the reigns and whispered, “Good luck! You will find allies among the crowd. Most high elves are not loyal to Fardoragh.” That was good to hear. Hopefully, it would make his escape easier.
He took a deep breath and hopped on the horse, hoping they wanted him alive for bait and wouldn’t shoot him with an arrow.
He rode through the crowd and jumped up on the platform. As he did, he pulled his sword and faced off with Godric.
Godric laughed and mocked, “Do you really think you can beat me and my men?”
“No,” Dylan answered. “I don’t.” He stepped back, looking like he was backing away from fear, but really he was just trying to get closer to Pyria. She was being held by a guard, and another stood near. “I don’t have to defeat you,” he told Godric. “I just have to do this…” As he spoke, he kicked the guard who was holding Pyria back and slashed through the ropes holding her wings. His strength was definitely back to do it in one cut. In fact, he was feeling very strong. Vanessa had indeed strengthened him. He was hoping to free Pyria’s hands too, but he was being attacked, so he had to fight. Godric and another guard struck at him, so he parried one and tried to dodge the other, but he got a cut on his side.
“Grab on!” Pyria ordered.
He knew exactly what she was doing. He threw his sword at Godric, grabbed around Pyria’s neck, and wrapped his legs around her. She flew up in the air with him and over the crowd, hoping no one shot at them so they wouldn’t kill Dylan.
Two guards did pull bows to shoot, but the people around accidentally bumped them so they couldn’t get the shot off.
Pyria flew Dylan up to the top of the palace wall, where he pulled the knife from his belt and cut the ropes binding her hands and tail.
“This will be easier,” she noted, as she grabbed around him and flew off. Guards charged at them, but could not follow her as she flew. Fortunately, Godric was not expecting them to fly away, so he didn’t have fliers there to stop them.
Dylan told her to head into the woods, a little away from where Vanessa, Elanil, and Smari were supposed to be waiting, as he didn’t want to lead the enemy to them.
“Hurry,” he urged as Pyria landed. “This way.”
They ran through the woods to meet up with the others. Dylan was panicked that they had been found, so they would either have been captured and not be there, or he’d get there and they would all be dead. That didn’t happen.
When he reached the spot, two high elves stopped him. They had their swords drawn.
“Friend or foe?” one asked. “You will not harm the princess.”
“What?” Dylan asked. “I don’t want to hurt anyone. I rescued Princess Smari.”
“I don’t know that,” the guard countered.
Smari walked up to them and said, “Thank you, my handsome gentlemen. You have served me well. Please, let them pass. They are allies. We must go. Will you please watch our backs as we do so we are not followed?”
“Anything for you,” the two elves replied, almost in unison.
Princess Smari then led Pyria and Dylan to the two horses.
“How?” Dylan asked as they walked.
She knew exactly what he was asking. How did she get the high elves to protect her so valiantly and not turn her in? “Easy,” she answered. “Do you not know that faun and faunens can charm people? High elves are particularly susceptible to charm.”
Dylan smiled at her explanation, but suggested, “Let’s get out of here as quickly as we can. I have a feeling pretty quickly Godric is going to decide that I’m not needed to get through the arch and kill me.”
“We should go,” Smari agreed.
Vanessa hugged Dylan and gave him a quick kiss. “You were a hero!” she assured him. “Let’s hurry to safety where I can heal you. You are bleeding.”
“Let’s get to safety,” he agreed. “I’d love the healing. I am going to need it because we aren’t going back to safety. We are going back to a war.”
Chapter 29: Dylan Learns How Ugly War Is
Dylan rode on one horse. Elanil and Smari rode on the other. Vanessa and Pyria flew by them.
“I’m so sorry,” Pyria apologized to Dylan after he explained how he would be killed because of her if he hadn’t save Smari. “I wasn’t trying to help Fardoragh,” she defended. She then explained how she was trying to get information about the attack, and when she found out they were going to kidnap Smari, she tried to help Smari get away without looking like she was. Unfortunately, she failed. She explained that she ran off, not wanting to get blamed, but then went after her to try to rescue her, but Fardoragh caught her, tried to beat information out of her, and only kept her alive to use to draw the humans out.
Dylan wanted to believe her. Hopefully her story was true, but he’d have to wait for Nea to confirm it.
When they all neared King Giles’s castle, they could hear the battle going on in the distance, the clash of swords and shields and the screams of people dying.
“I have to go help!” Dylan told Vanessa. “Take Smari and Elanil to the castle to safety. Your father and brother will be in that battle. I need to help them.” He looked over at Pyria and asked, “Are you going to fight with us? I know how good you are.”
“I have to redeem myself,” she answered. “I will fight beside you to the death if needed.”
“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that,” Dylan countered. “A famous general on our world said that the object of war isn’t to die for your country, but to make the other guy die for his.”
“Let’s hope,” she agreed. “Where do we go?”
Dylan looked over at Vanessa before answering, “We take Vanessa, Elanil, and the princess to the castle. They need to get there safely. It would look really bad to have the princess of the faunens die. Besides, Bryan and Alex will be protecting King Giles. We will be needed there, and they won’t be far from the castle.”
“Will they hide in the castle?” Vanessa asked.
“No,” Dylan answered. “Not if they follow the plan I suggested. They won’t want to lure Evander into the castle.”
They hurried toward the castle. As they came near, there was a fight going on at the wall. “I’ll fight while you get them over the wall!” Dylan called to Pyria.
She immediately called to Vanessa to pick up Elanil while she grabbed Smari, and they both flew up over the wall. Pyria immediately ordered soldiers on the top of the wall to get Vanessa and the others to safety. She then flew down to help Dylan over the wall.
Dylan was fighting ogres. He preferred that to high elves. Ogres were stronger, but they were slower.
Pyria landed right behind him and hit an ogre trying to attack from behind. The two fought back to back for a few minutes until Pyria could turn around, grab Dylan, and take off.
She flew him up to the wall and put him down. There weren’t many on the inside of the castle as the ogres had not breached the wall, but there were a few fliers shooting arrows, lighting fires, and causing chaos.
It wasn’t too hard to find where King Giles, Alex, Bryan, and Nea were. After all, all of Evander’s men were headed toward King Giles. Nea throwing fire was pretty obvious too. Fire nymphs were rare.
Dylan had seen Alex fight in training, but never on a battle field. It was terrifying to watch real blood being spilled.
Fortunately, Bryan was casting spells to block hits against Giles and his friends, and as many around him as he could. Still, he was limited in what he could do. After all, the sides were not divided by races. There were faun on each side, and tengai, and nekoj, and even ogres. There was no way for Bryan to only affect the enemy, at least none he could think of, so he used his magic to help those he could around him.
Dylan and Pyria charged into the fight.
Heremon was fighting near the king. He turned to Pyria and almost struck her, but Dylan cried out, “She’s not an enemy! Let her help!”
There was no more debate. They could use her help and trusted Dylan.
/> Dylan had fought before. He’d even been tortured, but never had he seen anything as ugly as the battle before him.
Pixie girls were flying around the battle field trying to heal as many as they could, but at times they would get struck. The soldiers went through great lengths to protect them.
Dylan couldn’t think too much about what was going on around him, as he had to fight for his life.
He’d become pretty good with his sword, but the fight was overwhelming. If it wasn’t for his allies fighting with him, he never would have survived.
As he parried a strike and kicked his attacker back, he looked up to see if the trap he’d suggested was set. Unfortunately, he couldn’t tell, as the pixies involved would be invisible and the cage they were to drop would be too.
The situation turned worse when he saw Takrin, the sheelaun, headed toward them with a sword in hand. Drinking blood would be hard during a battle, but the creature could fight with little fear of dying. It stopped, bit a wounded man, and began drinking his blood. Dylan couldn’t get there to help the wounded man, but other fighters attacked it and a pixie flew in, hoping the wounded man was not dead.
“Sheelaun!” Dylan called to Nea, as her fire would do more good than his sword.
“Busy!” she called back as she blasted close up on an ogre. If only she could spray fire over the enemy, but she couldn’t, as she’d hit her side too. There were already enough fires blazing around making it hard for the armies to fight.
Heremon and Salgothen both fought near King Giles. He wasn’t at the very front of the battle, but he wasn’t in the back either, as he mostly had his men protecting the castle. Hopefully, Evander would come quickly, so the battle could end.
As expected, Evander did fight his way toward King Giles. Giles’ men stepped back and allowed him to go.
“Scared of me,” Evander taunted as he approached King Giles. “Your men retreat, knowing they can’t kill me with your ring. Now, turn over the kingdom, and I won’t kill you, only put you in the dungeon.”
“Never, brother!” King Giles refused. “Stop this madness now!”
Evander laughed and attacked his brother. That wasn’t supposed to happen.
Dylan looked up. If only he could see what was happening. His plan had apparently failed.
He heard a scream, and the cage suddenly appeared and fell from a nearby tree. Some invisible, flying creature must have attacked the invisible fairies who were to drop the cage on Evander.
Panic struck. Evander could not be killed. King Giles would die. The trap hadn’t worked.
“Help, Bryan!” Giles called.
Bryan quickly surveyed the situation. What could he do? He quickly said “Sgaith” to stop a blow to Giles, but that would only have a limited effect. He had to do something and quickly, but thinking under pressure was not a long suit of his.
An idea suddenly came, and he called out, “It’s up to you, Dylan. I can’t hold this long.” He then focused for a moment and commanded as loudly as he could, “Faeir drzi!”
Suddenly, the entire battle field, at least as far as Dylan could see, stood suddenly still, no one moving, except for the flying creatures, some who glided as their wings held in place, and some who plummeted to the ground.
Dylan was the only one who could move. He’d question how later, as he knew what he had to do. He ran for the cage. It was heavy, but he pulled it over. He had to get it over Evander.
A rush of adrenaline surged through him as he reached to pick up the cage, but he suddenly noticed that he wasn’t the only one who could move. The sheelaun bit into his shoulder. He grabbed onto the sheelaun’s arm and flipped him over his back to the ground. The fangs ripped out of his shoulder and left it bloody. The sheelaun rolled to his feet, and Dylan kicked him back.
In a panic, Dylan lifted the cage, carried it over to Evander and was about to drop it on him when Bryan’s spell stopped. Evander kicked him back and threw his sword right at his chest, but the cage still fell over Evander.
Dylan was hit with the sword, but fortunately, Bryan called out, “Odmor!” and the sword broke before it hit him. It still cut, but did not impale. Dylan didn’t get to think about the cut on his chest, as he flew right into the sheelaun, who immediately bit into him again. Dylan couldn’t fight. He’d lost too much blood and went unconscious.
Nea blasted the sheelaun, hopefully with enough fire to kill it. It ran off in flames. Unfortunately, she burned Dylan some too. She ran to his aid. He was lying on the ground, bleeding, but Evander was trapped. She called for a pixie to heal, but the battle started again, making it hard for a pixie to get there.
“Let me out!” Evander called. “You cannot kill me!”
“I don’t have to,” King Giles replied. He sounded a horn that was echoed by many other horns sounding. That was a sign to stop the battle. King Giles walked up to the cage with Bryan, Heremon, and other guards around him. “I know the ring well, brother,” he pointed out. “It will protect from contact. It will protect from spells that will hurt you, but the spell to halt was benign. I did not have to kill you, but no matter how undefeatable you are, you will be it in a cage or dungeon. Now, call your army down. Surrender.”
“Terms,” Evander pleaded. “After all, we are brothers.”
“Oh, now that you want mercy, we are brothers,” King Giles mocked. “Yet, a few moments ago, you were trying to kill me. Perhaps we will negotiate after you have been in the dungeon for a while. For now, the surrender must be unconditional.”
Evander had little choice, so he conceded to the surrender. His army was taken as prisoners of war.
Giles’s army had won. The battle was over. Yet, there were dead men and wounded men, and many prisoners of war, so the aftermath would take time to clean up from and heal from.
The pixies had done a good job of healing as many fighters as possible or the deaths would have been much greater. Still, they could not save everyone. Jaylond was among the dead, and that was a sore blow to King Giles, particularly since Jaylond had died interposing himself in front of Giles to protect him.
More pixie girls flew out to help the wounded. Vanessa came immediately to Dylan. He’d lost a lot of blood, but he would live with her help. He’d just feel weak for a while.
Once she had healed Dylan enough that he could talk, he asked Bryan, “What happened? Could you not hold it longer? Could you not have just affected Evander? I’m not really sure what all went on.”
Bryan explained, “I could have just held Evander, but if I did, Giles likely would have been killed as we tried to get the cage on Evander, and we would have been fought and likely failed. I couldn’t stop just the enemy, as I have no idea what word to use, so I realized that if I stopped anyone with fairy blood that you would be left to put the cage on Evander.”
“That put a lot of faith in me,” Dylan noted. “You seriously expected me to lift that heavy metal cage?”
“Obviously,” Bryan answered, “and you did. I assumed that Vanessa had strengthened you for battle, and that your adrenaline rush would help, as it did.” He thought for a moment and added, “I am sorry. I did not realize that sheelaun are not fairies and would not be stopped.”
“Could you have held it longer for me?” Dylan asked.
“Yes,” Bryan admitted, “but I didn’t because there were flying people who were injured because of my spell and needed help before they died, and because the fires around were spreading. I could not let people burn because I made them stand still while a fire consumed them. While frozen, we could all see what was going on around us. They would have seen it coming, felt the pain, and now be dead. I gave you as much time as I could, and it was apparently sufficient.”
Dylan shook his head. Bryan had no idea how hard what he had done was. In fact, Dylan wasn’t sure how he did it in the condition he was in. He wasn’t entirely healed, but he was stable, so Vanessa had gone to help save men who weren’t.
Bryan and Alex helped Dylan up. “You are a true h
ero,” Alex noted. “Your father will be incredibly proud of you. In fact, the entire department will be.”
The department… Dylan suddenly thought of the troubles back home with the department. All the troubles weren’t over. They were far from over. The war with Evander wasn’t the end.
Chapter 30: Dylan Learns of More Trouble
“We need to go back,” Bryan told Nea as they stood by the arch.
“Take me with you,” she begged. “Please, take me with you.”
“There is great trouble in my world right now,” Bryan countered. “You saw what Director Mahon is doing. It’s not safe for you to come.”
“But I could help you,” Nea argued. “You need me.”
“I do,” Bryan agreed. “Never have I felt so at home in my world as when I was with you. Having someone to talk Elvish and Nymph with was incredible. I felt free of the language barrier and like… well… you understand.”
“I do,” she agreed. “Take me with you.”
“It’s too dangerous,” Bryan warned. “It’s no place to take my amazing girlfriend.” He smiled at her and she gave him a hug. “I’ll come back soon,” he assured her, “very soon. I don’t want to be without you for long, but I need to make sure it’s safe first.”
“Don’t forget me while you’re gone,” she pleaded. “Don’t let some other girl capture your heart.”
Bryan laughed. “Me? Another girl? Do you know me?” He shook his head and explained, “I won’t even talk to another girl. If I did, I’d stutter and say something stupid. Honestly, there is nothing to fear. I am incredibly socially awkward in my world.” He thought for a moment and added, “I’m socially awkward often here too, but I’m getting better.”
“True,” Nea responded. “You are becoming a better kisser too. You were very awkward at first.”
Bryan turned red, something Vanessa wasn’t used to seeing him do. “Just give her a good-bye kiss and let’s go,” she urged.
“I would like to make sure you don’t forget me,” Nea teased.
Everyone was watching, but Bryan still gave her the good-bye kiss. Definitely he wasn’t going to forget her while he was gone, and with a kiss like she gave him, he’d probably be back very soon.
