Wings of the Valkyrie

by Charley Case

  “Penny,” Danica shouted while laying a hand on Victoria’s chest, “are you hurt? Do you need a potion?”

  Finn had found a woman through his friends at the Market who, unbelievably, had a recipe for a healing potion that would work on dragons. Finn had commissioned four of them to be made, in case. Each one cost more than the entire box of regular potions at Danica’s feet.

  Shaking with anger at what Missy had done, and hoping that those last four arrows finally finished the bitch off, Penny didn’t answer. Instead, she turned and saw her hoard with the three eggs nestled into the shallow bowl she had formed atop the pile. The anger instantly moved to the back of her mind as she saw that while the last one was small, all three were perfect in every other way.

  She had done it. Her family would live on for another generation, and her exile was over. She had brought honor to faerie dragon-kind and ensured they would persist for a while longer.

  Penny suddenly slumped to the floor, her strength gone after the intense fight. She tried to crawl back to her eggs since they needed her to watch over them while they matured. She needed to be there when they broke free so they would imprint on her, and she could pass her intelligence on to them.

  Otherwise, they would only be wild drakes, devoid of true intelligence.

  Penny struggled, but she was too exhausted to do much more than flop her arm toward her hoard.

  Gentle hands scooped her up off the floor.

  Penny hissed and shot a warning flame up at whoever was trying to stop her from getting back to her eggs.

  Danica screamed and dropped her before stumbling backward and falling on her ass. “What the fuck, Penny?” she shouted, checking to be sure she hadn’t caught fire.

  Penny felt bad about hissing. She hadn’t meant to, but it came out. She couldn’t help it.

  The elf climbed to her feet and cautiously walked over to Penny and looked down at her as if she were trying to figure out whether she was the same dragon she had grown to love. Penny watched as Danica looked past her into the room with the hoard and the three eggs. Her face went from confused to wide-eyed excitement in a flash.

  “Oh. My. God. Penny! Why didn’t you say anything? You can hiss all you want, but I’m putting you with your babies.” She leaned down to scoop Penny up but hesitated. “Don’t catch my hair on fire, please.”

  Penny felt her hackles rise as Danica carefully picked her up again. A long low growl rumbled in her chest, making Danica quickly move into Penny’s room and lay her in the shallow depression beside the eggs.

  Penny felt thankful that Danica had helped, but there was an overwhelming evolutionary mechanism that was causing Penny to lash out at anything that wasn’t her eggs right now. Penny watched with suspicious eyes as Danica backed out of the room and pulled the door to a crack, then stuck her head back in.

  “Love you, Penny. You did great.” Then she pulled the door closed, and the quiet hum of power flowing from the hoard into her three babies once again surrounded Penny.

  The faerie dragon felt a pang of guilt and used a little of her magic stores to flick a finger at the wall. A message seared itself into the white paint, right where anyone entering the room would immediately see it. By the time the sizzling of boiled paint finally died, Penny was curled around her eggs and fast asleep.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Mila blasted a charging Rougarou into pieces of bloody pulp with a quick pull of the Ivar’s trigger, then dropped to a knee as she ducked the slashing talons of a second wolfman and cut the legs out from under it. Finn chopped the thing’s head off as soon as it hit the ground and gave her a wild-eyed grin before kicking another Rougarou in the crotch and sending it four feet into the air.

  Blocking a set of talons meant for her face with Gram, Mila sent a shot of magical energy through her leg as she kicked the beast in the chest. There was a satisfying crunch, and blood sprayed from its mouth as it stumbled backward.

  Remmy appeared beside the stumbling Rougarou and slashed its hamstring open before sucking in a breath and vanishing again. The creature stiffened a second later as a hole appeared in its chest, on its way to the sand.

  They had killed a dozen of the monsters in the last five minutes, but the portals were still open, and Rougarou continued to pile through.

  A popping noise behind Mila made her throw up a shield and point her gun at the source of the sound.

  “What the fuck happened?” Danica shouted as she pulled an arrow from her hip quiver and sent it into the head of a Rougarou that had stepped through its portal. Her hands were blood-covered, but she didn’t seem to be hurt.

  “Danica, what are you doing here?” Mila shouted while sending a bolt from the Ivar and taking the head clean off a wolfman that had taken the elf’s sudden appearance as a chance for a quick kill.

  “Missy escaped. She stabbed Victoria and was attacking Penny when I got back. I forced a potion down Victoria’s throat, but she was pretty bad off. She wanted me to come and warn you about a possible attack.”

  Mila focused on the one thing in that explanation that stood out most. “She attacked Penny? Is Penny okay? She said she wasn’t feeling well when I talked to her this morning.”

  Danica let three more arrows loose, dropping two of the creatures before replying. “It was more like Penny was attacking Missy. I’ve never seen her that vicious before. She almost killed Missy outright, but the fight pulled the anti-magic bracelets off Missy, allowing her to portal out. But she was close to death when she left.”

  Finn slammed a shoulder into a charging Rougarou that Mila hadn’t seen rushing into her blind spot. Remmy appeared and slit its throat before vanishing again.

  Mila saw a new void portal open and couldn’t believe her eyes when Missy stepped through while chugging a healing potion. She was blood-covered and looked like someone had thrown her into a blender face-first. The healing potion kicked in immediately, or more than likely it was the second one she had drank. Every step she took saw more of her flesh knitting back together—everything except the angry scorched eye socket. That stayed empty .

  Missy’s wings burst from her back, their top half still black and trailing down to golden at the feather tips. She flexed her back and rolled her shoulders with her silver sword gripped tight in her hand.

  Seeing the blade reminded Mila that they hadn’t picked it up after the fight in the street. She frowned at the stupid move and squared off with the approaching fallen Valkyrie.

  “I knew that stupid crispy bitch would find a way to you. She’s not nearly as defeated as Azoth thinks, but he’s already written her off. Not me. No, I had a thrall keep an eye on her. Even those empty husks can use a tracking stone.” Missy swung her sword in a series of windmilling chops, warming up her still-healing arms. “Let me guess, she tricked you into coming then sent the pack after you? She should have learned that she needs to be a little more hands-on with you.”

  Missy lunged the last ten feet and brought her sword around in a wide arc, her snarling face screaming with bloodlust.

  Mila powered up a shield and hunkered down, gritting her teeth, ready to take the wild swing before countering. But the hit never came.

  Mila looked up to see that a portal had opened behind Missy, and a long black and purple tentacle had reached through the blackness and wrapped itself around Missy’s waist.

  The battlefield suddenly went quiet as the Rougarou stopped attacking. They crouched into defensive positions and slowly backed away from the four of them.

  Missy screamed in rage, kicking her feet in the air as the appendage lifted her two feet off the sand. She seemed to consider chopping the tentacle, but before she could act, it pulled her body violently pulled backward and through the portal.

  Portals opened behind each of the remaining Rougarou, and they quickly vanished into them before they closed. Soon, the only portal remaining was the one Missy had disappeared into.

  After a second’s silence, Azoth stepped out of it. Mila felt the thick
dark power radiating off him that left a metallic taste in her mouth. The difference in his power levels compared to the last time they had stood this close to one another was night and day. This was a Drude at its full strength. If she hadn’t grown in her power, she feared that his presence would have driven her to her knees.

  He stood tall, the sleeves of his robe hanging at his sides hiding his arms and any weapons he might be holding. The stance made Mila wonder if he’d regrown the arm she’d chopped off or if he was hiding the deformity from her.

  His hood slowly swiveled, taking in the carnage sprawled across the sands, until the infinite black void that passed for his face stopped on Mila.

  “Two days, little Valkyrie,” he said in that voice that sounded like a thousand rusty hinges all groaning at once. “I should have let Yaminah continue her ploy. Perhaps she would have coaxed the Reaper’s location from you. Until she reported back, I thought she had been trying to escape. Missy, on the other hand… I may have broken her a little more than I had originally intended. Her mind… Well, you understand.”

  “Oh, I understand all right.” Mila’s face was a mask of disgusted anger. “You’re a sick fuck who doesn’t understand how to control his minions.”

  Azoth stared at her, not moving a muscle, for long enough that it became awkward.

  “Two days. If you do not bring me the Reaper, I shall unleash a plague of death and destruction across this broken-down ship that will leave billions dead and the rest wishing to join them. Their fate is in your hands, little one. Make the right choice.”

  He turned and started toward his portal, the sand he crossed looking like a thousand snakes had been writhing in a ball across its surface.

  “Does that mean you’re calling off your dogs until we meet in two days?” Mila wanted to know where they stood as far as random attacks went.

  Azoth laughed, a truly hideous sound. “I will not make it so easy for you. I made promises to my minions and will reward them greatly if they can bring me the weapon early. But, be warned that if you do not freely give me the Reaper, then I shall unleash my army to burn this all to the ground. Think of it as a fun little game of keep away.” He paused, then turned to look over his shoulder at her. “So you know I’m serious, you might want to look into the missing people.”

  Then he stepped through the portal and disappeared.

  “What an asshole.” Remmy wiped the blood off her daggers on the fur of a dead Rougarou.

  “A powerful asshole,” Danica retorted.

  Mila put the Ivar back in its holster. “Powerful or not, his days are numbered.”

  “Only if the untested device works.”

  Mila clenched her jaw while staring through the space where the portal had been. “It’ll work.” A frown grew on her face, and in a much quieter voice she added, “it has to work.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  They teleported back to the condo after Finn did a little earth magic to make the bodies and blood sink deep into the sand. The last thing they wanted was to have the Feds looking into two dozen butchered wolfmen found in a national park.

  As soon as they appeared, Mila went straight to Victoria who was lying on her stomach on the floor. Her bloodstained shirt had been removed and was in a wad in the center of an alarmingly large pool of her blood.

  Mila saw that the stab wound in the center of her back had mostly closed, but blood was still slowly oozing from it.

  “How are you doing, Victoria?” Mila knelt beside the elder Valkyrie and put a comforting hand on her bare shoulder.

  Victoria groaned and turned her head to face Mila, although she kept her eyes closed. “I’ve been better. I can feel the potion trying to heal the last of the wound, but something is keeping it from happening.”

  “Danica, toss me one of the gym towels, would you?”

  Danica went over to the towel cart they kept in the dojo, grabbed one of the small hand towels, and tossed it to Mila.

  After snatching the towel out of the air, Mila wiped away the blood to get a better look at the wound. Leaning in, she pulled the towel over the split skin, making Victoria wince. “Sorry.” She patted Victoria’s back but swiped again to clear the fresh blood.

  Mila saw black rot around the wound’s edges and growled. “That bitch. She somehow channeled some infernal magic into the wound, which means the anti-magic bracelets still need a little work.”

  “Fuck.” Victoria weakly pounded a fist on the floor. “I was afraid of that. This will take weeks to heal. There’s no way I can be at a hundred percent in two days.”

  “I think I can get it out. Give me a minute.”

  Victoria twisted her head so she could frown up at Mila. “You can’t do that. It’s not how this works.”

  “I’ve been doing it since back in Idaho.” Mila raised an eyebrow. “It’s not all that hard. You only need to flush it out with celestial magic.”

  “You can’t put your magic into something. That was the whole point when we were talking to Rebecca about the fundamental differences between a Drude and a Valkyrie. We can channel our power into spells, or use it to reinforce our bodies, but you can’t take raw magic and move it someplace else.”

  Mila sat back and cocked her head at Victoria. “That’s exactly what we’ve been doing when we charge the device.”

  Snorting, then wincing in pain, Victoria shook her head. “No, that’s the genius of the device. We aren’t putting power into it. It’s taking power from us. That’s why it drains you so completely. It goes until you only have so much left then it stops before it kills you.”

  Mila didn’t do that. She chose how much power the device got because she was the one charging it, not the other way around. No wonder Victoria dreaded using it—having to trust that the device didn’t accidentally kill you every time must have been terrifying.

  Mila decided it was better to show than tell in this instance. She reached out with her power tentacle and probed Victoria’s back until she felt the infernal infection. In a quick but forceful move, she stabbed into the wound with her power.

  Victoria clenched up, her arms pulling in under her chest and her legs drawing up to lift her butt and lower back into the air. Golden and black sparks shot out of the wound in a violent spray that crackled into nothingness before they hit the floor.

  It only took a second, but Victoria stayed clenched for a good thirty seconds after the magic was expelled. Mila watched as the healing potion finally finished its work and closed the wound, leaving perfectly smooth and pink skin across her spine.

  Victoria finally relaxed and fell back to the floor. She was breathing hard, but reached a hand to her back and felt around with probing fingers.

  “What the hell was that?”

  “I told you it was easy.” Mila rocked back onto her heels and stood. She turned and headed for Penny’s room, wanting to check on her friend before she got into a lengthy debate with Victoria about what was and wasn’t possible.

  Finn fell in beside her as she crossed the dojo. “You did good out there today.”

  She smiled up at him and knocked on Penny’s small door. “Thanks. I had a pretty great teacher.”

  He chuckled, then reached for the handle of the large door and turned the knob.

  “Uh, shouldn’t we give her a second to answer before we barge in?” Mila pulled him back from the door before he could walk in.

  “I’m pretty sure she won’t answer.” He pulled her to the door and opened it.

  Mila’s breath caught in her throat when she spotted Penny wrapped around her three eggs. “Why didn’t she say anything?”

  “It’s part of the whole mystery thing. For whatever reason, faerie dragons are driven to give birth isolated from their friends and family. She warned me about it years ago.” He was looking down at Penny with a warm smile nestled in his thick beard.

  Glancing up at the wall above the hoard pile, Mila raised an eyebrow at the message burned into the paint like a brand.

  “We
ll, you don’t see that every day.” Finn laughed. “At least she let us know what’s happening.”

  The message was simple. “Sorry, Danica. Love you too. I’ll be out for at least a week recovering. Don’t bother trying to wake me. It won’t work.”

  “Well, shit.” Mila crossed her arms. “We’ll have to teleport the whole hoard, then.”

  “Are we going somewhere?”

  “Well, we can’t stay here. Missy more than likely figured out where the building is by looking out the windows during her short and violent stay. You heard Azoth—he’s encouraging them to come after us. This is why we set up the second location at Rebecca’s.”

  Finn nodded, pulled Penny’s door closed, and headed back out into the living room. Mila followed, recognizing his decisions face. He was about to get shit done. It always gave Mila the chills to see him in his element.

  Danica had found a t-shirt for Victoria, who was leaning on the back of the couch, her face still full of confused wonder.

  “Remmy,” Finn’s tone was confident, “I need you to tell everyone we’re evacuating the building. They have an hour to pack up what they need for a few days, a week at most. Then we need to empty the building. Have them go to Christine’s if they don’t have anywhere else to go. Grab a few things for yourself, and meet us here when you’re done.”

  Remmy gave him a sharp salute. “Got it, boss,” she replied without any humor. She knew Finn’s serious voice and headed for the door at a jog.

  “Danica, we need to teleport Penny and her entire hoard in one go.”

  Danica blanched, her eyes growing wide. “I don’t think I can do that. That’s literally tons of gold in there.”

  “You can do it, but you’ll need a little help. You and I will head over to Rebecca’s and Lance’s to get things ready. In the meantime, Mila, you and Victoria pack some things for the rest of us while we’re getting things ready for Penny. Keep your guard up. I think we have at least a few hours before Missy will try anything, but it never hurts to be ready. If she shows up, you two need to lead her on a nice long chase to get her away from Penny. In her current state, she’s completely defenseless.”