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Chapter Eleven

Part Eleven

Kyle came to slowly. He lay still for a moment, staring at the rock of the ceiling for a moment as he tried to recall what had happened. The last thing he remembered was saving Karen from smashing into the wall headfirst and then that troll had…

“Darya!” He sat bolt upright and looked around frantically. He knew Darya had to be alive since he was, but he still breathed a sigh of relief when he saw his heart friend lying in a pool nearby being tended by one of Ystelyan’s healer. Talira was kneeling on the opposite side and holding Darya’s hand while the healer worked. She looked wan and tired but at his yell she looked up at him and smiled.

“Thank goodness, you’re awake,” she said. “That means he must be recovering.”

“Of course he’s recovering, silly,” the healer said. He too looked at Kyle. “He’s going to be okay. One of Valeria’s healers stabilized him before our mirian brought him home. It was close though. Whoever attacked him wasn’t playing around.”

“Ystelyan-mirian is very pleased with both of you,” Talira added. “Given the number of unpredicatable things that happened, he says that it really went quite well.”

“Ah.” Kyle swang his legs out of the bed. “I should go and report to him.” He started to stand, but sat back down with a bump as the after-effects of Darya’s injuries and continuing unconsciousness made him light headed. “I’d better do that a little more slowly,” he said.

“You’re dizzy?” the healer asked.

“A little,” Kyle admitted. “I probably will be until Darya wakes up.”

“That shouldn’t be too long now,” the healer replied. “Do you need a tonic to keep you going until then?”

Kyle shook his head carefully. “I should be okay. It’s not too bad.” He climbed cautiously to his feet, placed one hand on the wall for support and walked slowly towards the exit. “Is our mirian in his throne room?”

“Yes.” Talira nodded. “I’d come with you. I haven’t made my report yet either, but…” she trailed off and her eyes strayed back to Darya’s pale face.

“Of course, Tal,” he said. “You stay here. I’ll be right back once I’ve reported to Ystelyan-mirian.”

***

By the time he reached the throne room, Kyle was wondering if he should have taken the tonic.  His head was spinning as he pushed open the doors and nearly fell into a young goblin’s arms. The girl helped him to a chair as Ystelyan strode over.

“Are you all right, Kyle?” He frowned.

“Just dizzy, my mirian. Litrian offered me a tonic to tide me over until Darya woke up which I think I should have taken, but–”

“Litrian’s tonics taste awful,” Ystelyan said. “I don’t blame you for refusing it. I’ll get Malisia here  to make you one of hers. You should have waited until Darya woke up to make your report.” He nodded to the goblin girl, who bowed and slipped from the room.

“No, I wanted to talk to you.” Kyle forced himself to focus. “I suppose you know what happened. But that troll, do you know how he managed that?”

“Well, he’s definitely a troll so he has to be a heart friend, doesn’t he?” Ystelyan said. It seemed a reasonable enough assumption but he was frowning deeply and Kyle could see a problem with the theory.

“But from what Darya told me, Huldre hates humans. I mean really hates them, and Ema is Hannah’s heart friend.” He frowned momentarily at the thought of the Earth Warrior. “I haven’t heard of any other earth affinity heart friends.”

“That’s not unknown,” Ystelyan sighed. “Though he was in full form, so a disconnect with his heart friend is unlikely. But from what I managed to sense he’s old, really old. Possibly as old as I am. I think that we’re dealing with the exiles here. I sent Tal to see if any of her former people would still speak to her, but she was so frantic when she got back and saw Darya that I haven’t had a chance to get her report yet. We should go and talk to her once Malisia has brought you that tonic.”

“The exiles?” Kyle asked. “I thought you said they tended to ignore Earth and its shadow?”

“Most of them do. Or I thought they did anyway.” His scowl deepened. “Something seems to have changed.” He looked up as Malisia returned with a steaming goblet. “There, once that’s taken effect we’ll go and talk to Tal.”

***

“I managed to talk to my mother.” Talira was still kneeling in the pool, holding Darya’s hand. “Once I managed to persuade her that I wasn’t going to eat anyone or kidnap my siblings, she was even pleased to see me.” Surprised pleasure threaded through her tone at that. “No one else would talk to me though.”

“That’s not surprising,” Ystelyan sighed. “Did your mother know anything?”

Talira shook her head. “She said that the Idri Council still has the ban on contact with Taloa. She wouldn’t be surprised if both the reclaimist and tolerant Idri ignore it at will. I mean, who’s going to censure them if they get caught? But no one is moving publically yet. She’s planning to leave that bitch Xantaria-ida’s service, though, and says that if anyone knows anything it’ll be Andarian-mirian. She’s promised – formally – to send me a message if she learns anything. Oh, and she wanted me to thank you for saving my sanity.”

Ystelyan smiled at that. “You’ve done well, Talira-alra.” He looked down as Darya groaned and his eyes fluttered open. “Welcome back, Darya. How are you feeling?”

Darya sat up with another groan and raised a hand to his head. “Like I got hit by a pile of very sharp rocks. Did I manage to block it from reaching the queen?”

“Yes, she seemed completely baffled by that,” Ystelyan said.

“Well, she saved my life when I was a baby,” Darya said. “Though I might have been more circumspect if I’d realised it would rip through my shield like that.” He considered for a moment. “But probably not. Valeria is too important. Is there any news on my mother? I would have asked Valeria but nearly dying is kind of distracting.”

“Yes, the imp finally returned,” Ystelyan said. “She’s recovering well physically, but is obviously traumatised.”

“Anyone would be,” Darya said. “But mother is tough, she’ll recover.”

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Chapter Eleven

Part Ten

Dariad did not possess a strong secondary life affinity like his father, but he had enough to recognise essence inversion when he saw it. So he took one look at the pathetic bundle in Karen’s arms and rushed her and Valeria down to the goblins’ chambers while the others carried in the other casualties.

Ekrian opened the door and gave a horrified squeak when he saw the moss girl. That was enough to bring Alaryia to the door, who blanched when she saw the girl. Her eyes tightened and flashed with obvious anger and she all but grabbed her out of Karen’s arms. Read the rest of this entry »

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Chapter Eleven

Part Nine

“D-did he…” Valeria’s voice shook as she stared at Darya’s slumped form.

“He leapt between you and Huldre’s attack,” Karen confirmed. She was kneeling by Kyle, who must have passed out when Darya lost consciousness. Valeria frowned slightly at that. How had she forgotten the bond affected humans that way? But she had more pressing concerns. She took a breath to pull herself together.

“Why would a renegade save me?” she asked. Read the rest of this entry »

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Chapter Eleven

Part Eight

Valeria watched the Warriors and their Heart Friends rush through the portal into her throne room and scatter as they searched for danger. Her stomach churned for the seemingly indeterminable wait while they were out of view. Dariad must have sensed her anxiety because he reached out and squeezed her shoulder reassuringly. A moment later, Lydia and Bennu reappeared in view of the portal and waved them through.

Passing through a spatial gate was always disorientating. There was a moment  of transition when everything went black and seemed to spin violently before the portal spat Valeria out the other side. She staggered and because the floor was a couple of inches below where she expected to find it and would have fallen if Lydia hadn’t caught her. Valeria clung to the girl and gasped to repress her nausea as she waited for the portal sickness to subside and the room to stop spinning.

“Are you okay?” Lydia asked in a low voice. Valeria waited a moment longer while the last of the dizziness faded and then nodded.

“I get portal sick. I should have warned you. That’s why I never use them if I can help it. Right then.” She headed up the steps to her throne and seated herself, relaxing back and reaching for the control. A stab of relief that wasn’t her own shot through her and she blinked in surprise. The defensive weavings on the throne did have an intelligence of sorts, but they didn’t usually express emotions. If the throne was actually relieved at her return then the situation must be bad.

Your brother is a monster, your majesty, the defense system said inside her mind. Valeria felt her mouth drop open – it had never spoken to her beyond formal responses either. Wait until you see the dungeons. Now it sounded grim.

Later, she replied, though she didn’t like the sound of that. I need to deal with the dragons, and with the rebels and their slaves first.

Ah, the dragons have already mostly done the latter for you. Shall I show you?

Yes, please. Valeria opened her eyes and a glowing disc appeared in front of the throne. An image of the courtyard formed in itand circled around, showing Sirin and Maran unconscious not far from one of the escape tunnels and a dozen or so circleted  speakers lying where they’d fallen in a battle with the dragons. She swallowed fearfully at the sight but the throne immediately reassured her that there had been no fatalities so far.

Where are the non-circleted ones? she asked.

Out of range. They were fleeing when they moved out of range. There was a pause. Except for this one. An image of Huldre appeared in the disc. There’s something strange about him, your majesty.

Valeria was about to ask it what it meant when Huldre unleashed his successful attack on the dragons.

“What the hell?!” Hers wasn’t the only shocked cry from the room. She took a steadying breath. You’re right. That is strange.

“Damn! He’s heading for the doors. I think he’s sensed us!” Karen said. She readied her axes and took up a guard position between the throne and the doors to the courtyard. Alban ran up on the dais, and turned towards the door with an arrow already aimed at it.

Stop him, Valeria ordered the defenses.

Yes, your majesty. There was a crack and a fork of lightning shot from the carved lintel over the doors and across the courtyard striking Huldre directly in the chest. A strike from the Storm Palace’s defenses had stopped rampaging dragons dead in their tracks before but Huldre merely staggered back a few steps. He shook his head before continuing lumbering towards the doors.

Alban swore violently and for once Valeria was too shocked to chastise him.
What? she began but then pulled herself together. There would be time to worry about that later. Lock the doors. It won’t hold him long, but it will buy us some time. We need to think.

Yes, your majesty. The door began to crackle with bands of lightning. Valeria looked up at the guards Dariad had sent with her. “He’s unusually strong. Hopefully he’ll use some of it up breaking through the doors. The moment he does everyone hit him at once with everything you’ve got.”

“If the defense system couldn’t take him down, I don’t know if we can,” one of the guards muttered. Valeria glared at him, even though she was wondering the same thing. A banging thud against the door made her turn her attention back to the disc.

Huldre was methodically punching at the door with slow, measured blows, even though he knew there were several dragons behind him. He also had to know how many guards were with her. As she watched, the dragon who had grabbed the one which had nearly frenzied reappeared, just as Kyle and Darya reached Huldre.

The Water Warrior began glowing with a fierce blue light which rippled and surged like water as he struck at Huldre with his Urami. Simultaneously, Darya struck at the troll with a massive whip of water drawn from the pools in the courtyard.

Huldre grunted in discomfort and bits of rock fell from his back onto the flagstones. He paused briefly in his punching to swat at Kyle, but the boy ducked. A rock shield formed behind the troll and he went back to pounding away at the door, which was beginning to crack. He hit it one more time and it shattered inwards in an explosion of splinters, forcing the waiting guards to shield themselves as he strode into the throne room and headed for Valeria.

Once they’d recovered, Valeria nodded and they struck at him with everything they had as another bolt of lightning struck him from the throne. This time Huldre was driven to his knees. He started clambering to his feet as Karen leapt on him and struck at him with her axes. He screamed and flung her to one side, sending her head-first towards the wall. There was a blur and Kyle caught her.

“Hello, Karen,” he said as he set her back on her feet. “You’re looking well. I take it this crazy idea was yours?”

Huldre in the mean time had sunk back to his knees. Karen’s axe had bitten deeply into his head and he was bleeding profusely. He glared at Valeria and gave an animal snarl.

“Very well, Valeria. You win, but I’ll make sure you don’t enjoy it.” He lifted his hand and fired a blast of rock shards at her and then vanished.

The throne threw up a shield but the shards ripped through it. Valeria flinched back and closed her eyes, but they never hit. She opened them again to see Darya collapsing to the floor just in front of her.

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Chapter Eleven

Part Seven

Valeria gasped and straightened in her seat. “It’s started!” she whispered.

Dariad didn’t have to ask what she meant. He clapped his hands and the guards he’d assigned to the mission formed up in front of his throne.

Valeria looked at Xania. “When we get there, keep the portal open until we’re sure we’ve won the day. I don’t want to be trapped by the dragons.”

“Of course, my queen.” Xania bowed and then turned and spread her arms. The air between them twisted, sparkled and then visibly ripped a gate through to the Storm Palace and Valeria’s throne room, right next to the throne. Valeria took a deep breath, summoned all her courage and stepped forward.

Karen laid a hand on her shoulder. “Let us go first. If there’s any dragons in the throne room you’ll be toast before you can activate the defences. We can defend ourselves, so let us check it out.”

Valeria gave her a long look and then nodded. “Very well.”

Karen turned to her siblings. “Come on then.” She paused at her brother’s sullen expression. “Come on, Drew, she’s apologised and I don’t think it was entirely her fault.” That didn’t seem to move him.

“You are impossibly stubborn sometimes,” Lydia said. “but we don’t have time for this. Lives are at stake. You want to be responsible for people dying?”

“No, but that doesn’t mean I have to like any of this,” he said, but he did draw his knives and move to join his heart friend at the portal.

***

Kyle and Darya waited by the pool as the dragons swept in to attack the palace. As Ystelyan had predicted, the first response of the usurpers was to send out a large group of guards who were all wearing those thought surpressing circlets. Etiran and the other ‘drainer’ whose name Kyle hadn’t caught landed on opposite sides of the courtyard and proceeded to feed on the army while the other dragons risked their necks to draw their fire and keep the controllers from noticing what was happening until it was too late.

It worked like a charm. Prince Maran and his followers were so busy trying to reach one of the escape routes they didn’t realise that they should be paying attention to what the two non-combatant dragons were doing until the enslaved troops started falling over like dominoes. Kyle saw the shocked horror on the Prince’s face through Etiran’s eyes and smirked. And they were right out in the open, which meant they couldn’t open the ones in the throne room for some reason.

“It’s time,” he said softly. Darya drew his knives as Kyle readied his urumi and teleported them both directly into the courtyard. Darya landed directly in front of Sirin and slashed at her with his knives while Kyle darted behind the troll and struck at him with the flexible blades of his urumi.

“You! You’re dead!” Sirin’s scream made Kyle shudder. Even when she wasn’t focusing her sound affinity, the songstress’s voice held a lot of power.

His pause gave Huldre enough warning to dodge and turn to face him. He swung one hammer-like fist at Kyle, who scrambled out of the way. Huldre caught him in the stomach with his other fist as he dodged, sending him crashing to the floor. Only his shield stopped the blow from doing any serious damage. The troll loomed over him and raised a foot to stamp on his head as Kyle rolled away desperately and teleported to the other side of the courtyard.

Darya, on the other hand, had the merfolk’s natural immunity to their own kind’s abilities and didn’t even blink at Sirin’s shriek.

“Obviously I’m not, dear aunt.” The knife flickered in his hand and he sliced her cheek open. “And I’m rather discontent with you for hurting mother.”

“She deserved it, traitor!” Sirin lashed out at Darya with a whip of water from one of the pools, but he blocked it casually and took control of it, turning it into a rope to bind her. She swore as she struggled, unable to break free. Darya casually sliced open her other cheek.

“Now, now, be nice, Aunt Sirin, or I’ll cut your tongue out,” he said icily and turned towards Maran, who seemed frozen in shock. “I’m not happy with you either, your highness. But we can discuss that later.” One of the dragons grabbed the prince from behind and drained him to unconsciousness.  Another took hold of Sirin and the mermaid soon joined Maran on the courtyard flags.

Kyle rubbed at his ribs as he looked around the suddenly silent courtyard. Of their opponents, only Huldre remained standing. Etiran landed by Kyle and took his human form.

“The uncircleted ones ran away. The others are rounding them up.” He looked towards Huldre. “Need some help with the troll?”

“I wouldn’t mind,” Kyle admitted. “He’s a flaming troll, he shouldn’t be that fast.”

“I noticed. He must have a very unusual affinity spread.” Etiran studied the troll who was standing calmly on the other side of the courtyard, as if daring them to come after him. “And he must be insane. He isn’t afraid of us at all.” He scowled. “I don’t like this. He’s up to something. Stay here, let us take him.” He gestured to the two other dragons and they flew towards the troll.

“I didn’t think my shielding was quite that good,” Huldre rumbled. Then he raised one hand and fired a blast of stone shards at the nearest dragon. The attack should have failed, should have fizzled completely against a dragon, but it didn’t. It tore through his hastily erected shield and his hide and wings, sending him crashing screaming into the flagstones. Blue blood spattered everywhere as the dragon, now in human form, struggled to rise. From his laboured breathing and clenched fists Kyle knew what was about to happen. He pelted across the courtyard and grabbed the dragon, trying to pin him down.

“Don’t!” Kyle whispered as he began feeding as much energy as he dared into the dragon. “Restrain yourself, you’ll kill everyone here if you don’t.” Darya joined him in trying to hold the struggling dragon down.

“I-I can’t,” he whimpered as the other dragons joined them. Kyle looked up at Etiran.

“Take him home, quickly!”

Etiran nodded, grabbed the other dragon and vanished. Only then did Kyle have a moment to wonder where Huldre had gone. He looked up and realised the troll was lumbering back towards the throne room doors. He moved to follow him when he felt the twist in the air – someone had opened a gate to the throne room at some point during the fight. He summoned the other dragons to his side with a thought and headed towards the doors.

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Chapter Eleven

Part Six

“I honestly don’t know what I’d do in your situation, Val,” Dariad said after she’d explained her theory that Ystelyan’s dragons would be attacking the Storm Palace.  “But I think you’re right. Ystelyan seems to want to keep Darya and the water warrior happy, and they’ll want revenge for this.”

“Yes, it’s strange,” she said. “I wouldn’t even have thought a dragon could care. Why does he care?”

“He probably doesn’t,” Dariad said. “But he knows that they do and he wants to keep his servants happy to avoid trouble. That would be my guess.” Read the rest of this entry »

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Chapter Eleven

Part Five

“My first inclination is to say destroy it…” Dariad trailed off thoughtfully. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Valeria shaking her head at him and realised that she was thinking the same thing he was.

“Your first inclination?” Alaryia gave him a shrewd look. “I sense a but coming.” Read the rest of this entry »

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Chapter Eleven

Part Four

“Are you feeling better?” Kyle asked.

Darya nodded. “Is there any news about my mother’s condition?”

“Not yet. Ystelyan-mirian has sent an imp into Caerdu to try and gather information, but it hasn’t returned yet. I’m sure she’ll be okay though.”

Darya nodded again, but didn’t look convinced. “What about the Storm Palace?”

“Oh, the imps he sent there have returned. Sirin had a net ward up, but our mirian’s imps are slippy.” Kyle sighed. “He’s gathering a team for us, but this is going to be difficult. They have those damned circlets. Which means they’ll be able to fight the dragons with us, and that the poor sods doing the fighting will be innocent. They seem to have half of the non-circleted speakers under some sort of control as well.”

Darya scowled. “So sorting out the real guilty parties won’t be easy.” He folded his arms. “But it just makes it more important to deal with them. How do we handle this?”

“I don’t know.” Kyle rubbed the bridge of his nose tiredly. “Ystelyan-mirian says to round everyone up and sort them out here. It’s going to be a bit of a nightmare logistically to move that many people. We do know who the ring leaders are at least. Prince Maran, Sirin and some troll guy. The troll seems to be behind the mind-control. He’s primarily an earth affinity type, of course, but he seems to have an unusually strong mind affinity.”

“Huldre,” Darya said flatly. “I’ve had the misfortune to meet him. On the upside, if we take him out it should release the mind control on the non-circleted speakers.” He tilted his head slightly. “On the downside, I’m not sure how noticable that would be when everyone is running around in a panic because of the dragons.”

Kyle snorted then frowned. “Where was Valeria when all this went down? Couldn’t she have used the defenses against them?”

“There was some kind of emergency at the thunderbird’s eyrie. She left mother in charge. My imp didn’t get the details, but she took Alban with her.” He paused. “Damn, I hope little Salia was out of the way as well. Maran will kill her if she falls into his hands.”

“Then it’s very good that she’s not there, though I’m not sure where she is will be much of an improvement,” Ystelyan said from the doorway. “It seems she was at the eyrie. It was attacked because Gerian targetted her.” He paused while Kyle and Darya both swore. “Indeed. Though I doubt he’ll hurt her. He needs her after all.”

“Yes, but she’s just a kid,” Kyle said.

“I know, but he already has her. We’ll worry about that later,” Ysteyan said. “For now I want to review what Darya’s imp showed him, if he’s calm enough to show me. It might reveal more about who’s guilty and innocent.”

“I can do that, I think. Can I use the pool to project it?”

“Of course.”

***

“This is more serious than I thought,” Ystelyan said after they’d watched it.

“That screaming sound. What was it?” Kyle found himself breathing deeply to repress the nausea the sound had caused.

Ystelyan looked to one side thoughtfully. “I don’t know. It didn’t feel like a Talori or Speaker effect though.”

“Which only leaves dragons or goblins,” Kyle said. “That makes no sense.”

“No,” Ystelyan said softly. “There is one more group it could be. I just can’t imagine what interest they might have in provoking this.” He shook his head. “Whatever it was, it feels like a fairly short term and blunt tool. They’ll probably be putting circlets on the victims pretty soon. We’d better move quickly before they have chance to dig in. I’m giving you two of my strongest willed and most skilled feeders. They’ll knock out the circleted ones while you and the four other dragons I’m sending round up the rest.”

“Yes, my mirian.” Kyle bowed.

“Will you be sending Tal along?” Darya asked.

Ystelyan hummed thoughtfully and then shook his head. “Not after last time. She’s still a bit unreliable and I have something else she may be able to help me with.”

***

“Dariad!”

The sound of Alaryia’s voice made both him and Valeria jump. Dariad turned towards her and gasped. She was stalking down the hall towards them clutching a water imp in one hand, and it looked more like a spy imp than a messenger one. Valeria squeaked in surprise beside him and he didn’t blame her. Water imps were hard to grasp and this one was squirming about but showing no sign of getting loose.

“Ambassador, what…?”

“I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings but for some reason Ystelyan is spying on you. I was having a bath and found this in the water. It was sneaking through the plumbing looking for something, and I’m fairly sure it’s not the Mabain. He wouldn’t send an Imp for that.”

“Ystelyan is the first blue dragon?” he asked.

“You know that without asking? That’s interesting.” Alaryia stared at him.

Dariad shrugged, looked at Valeria and mouthed ‘It was looking for Lorelei?’

Valeria nodded. “I think so yes, probably.” She gave Alaryia a shrewd look. “Does she know?”

“I hadn’t told her that bit.”

“He can’t decide if he trusts me or not.” Alaryia looked amused. “But I gather you know what it’s looking for?”

“Not what, who,” Valeria said. “There’s a bit of a situation developed at the Storm Palace. You don’t need to know the details. One of my mermaid citizen’s was injured and is being treated here. One her sons went renegade a couple of years back.”

“And he’s an important enough part of Ystelyan’s court for him to send an imp to check on her condition?” Alaryia pulled a face. “What do you want me to do with this? I could destroy it but he’ll only try again, and I might not spot the next one.”

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Chapter Eleven

Part Three

Makina gently shook Salia awake not long after sunrise. Salia blinked and looked up at the goblin blearily.

“Good morning, my lady. Your breakfast is ready.” Makina gestured to a platter of cooked meat on the table. “I hope you like it. Would you like a bath?” Read the rest of this entry »

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Chapter Eleven

Part Two

Sonia was sitting on just outside the gates when Betula led them back to Waldhafen. She was talking to a white-haired wind nymph in the branches of a nearby tree. As they approached, she rose to her feet.

“Walk with me, Daniel,” she said. “I think we need to talk. You too, Ebona.” Read the rest of this entry »