AllFreeNovel
Share Us
These were words for Fel only, as his uncle could control that. So he meant to fight the creatures from another world on his own? Well, he was a dragon, and an extremely competent fighter. Still.
Tzaria’s voice sounded in his head. “I got one of them.”
One. There were likely many ironbringers—but not that many. Fel could sense the structure yielding to his command. As if they were the metal parts of his hand, he pulled the rods from the earth slowly but firmly, making them float in the air. He was about to squash the dome, so that it would no longer be a circle, when he saw those creatures, some fifty of them, coming in his direction. Fire should take care of them, but he was unsure how to wield both types of magic at the same time.
“Leave them to me,” Ekateni said.
Fel threw the metal structure away from the city, to an area without houses or people, then bent it. Most of its glass finally fell, crashing on the ground with a thunderous sound. At the same time, his uncle sent a gigantic blast of fire toward the incoming creatures, burning most of them. Fel was free to send his fire towards the rest. Unlike in Umbraar, they didn’t burn like paper, but much slower, like thin pieces of wood, and they fell while still burning. The black smoke slowly dissipated to reveal a severely damaged city, with roofs broken or missing, and a few buildings on fire here and there. Even the castle had broken windows and damaged turrets. Among the ruins, many of those creatures still roamed while some of them flew towards Ekateni and Fel.
As much as his uncle had told him to turn around and flee, he wasn’t going to leave Leah’s city at the mercy of these creatures. He focused on that feeling of fire on his chest, getting ready to burn the approaching creatures, when he noticed his uncle was also flying towards him. That was reckless, to give his back to his enemies. But there was something odd about him, not any specific feeling like anger or fear or worry, but rather an absence of any emotion. Perhaps he was just focused on the battle. Still.
“Ekateni?”
His uncle opened his mouth, then sent a huge blast of fire towards Fel. This was a hundred times worse than when he had been blasted by the Boundless on the way to Fernick. He could no longer feel his wings or any part of his body, and hit the ground with a huge thud. A loud buzz didn’t let him hear anything, feel anything. Still, he saw the sheen of fire on blue scales. His uncle’s blue scales, flying towards him.
It felt unreal, as if it was happening to someone else, those huge teeth getting buried on his neck, so much dark blood flowing, and his life fading. A shrill, loud scream echoed in his head. Was it his?
And then there was only darkness.
26
The Amulet
Leah didn’t quite understand that dreadful feeling, didn’t understand what was happening, except for that gigantic, devouring anguish. She found herself on that hill again, watching her city burn, horrible creatures flying above it, and the dome gone.
Fel was flying low. No, falling. At least his uncle was close by. Leah wanted to run to him, but there were too many creatures there, and she would be a needless distraction.
But then her eyes could not believe what she was seeing. Was she seeing it? Or was it one of her horrific nightmares? Unwittingly, she tried to cross her hands—and felt them touching.
And yet, how could this be? It couldn’t be real. The image she saw was Ekateni attacking Fel. It made no sense. He was now biting his neck, so deep and so hard that dark blood gushed from the wound, and here Leah stood, unable to help, unable to do anything, even her scream stuck in her throat as she felt her skin turning into ice.
Nobody could survive a wound like that, not even a dragon.
She’d seen Tzaria changing forms after being wounded, and maybe that would be a possibility, but Fel hadn’t been able to swap into his human form. Leah realized that she was now running to him, running to call him, to see if maybe he could find his human form, to see if she could maybe help him somehow.
The already dark sky was getting darker with those creatures flying towards her, even if the worst darkness was inside her, while the fire from the city illuminated the night. At least Ekateni took flight, leaving Fel’s body alone, but then the blue dragon flew straight into one of the broken beams from the dome, which traversed his body. Leah couldn’t grasp what was happening, but at the same time, she was more focused on Fel, lying still, his life gone or fleeting.
Three flying creatures were advancing towards her. She had commanded them once, and yet felt empty now. Perhaps it had been an impression of commanding them, when in reality she had been doing their bidding by opening a passage to this world. Perhaps she could try to bring in something from another realm to help her, use her deathbringing, and yet nothing came. While she stared at that absurdity, all that came to her was a deep sense of nothingness. Was that a sense? Or would she fall into the space between space, the gap between realms, the real hollowness that was that in between?
A circle of light appeared in front of her. Tzaria was there, and spread her arms, as if to stop Leah, stop her from running.
“We have to leave,” the woman said.
Leave? Was she insane? “I have to get to Fel.”
“There’s no more life in his dragon form. There’s nothing here. I can’t fight these creatures. Not in my current state.”
This was the time when Leah should do something heroic, should have a brilliant idea, should come up with an amazing solution, and yet all she felt was pain. At the moment when she most needed to think, all she found was emptiness.
She felt the woman holding her hand, then tracing a circle on the ground, saw the flying creatures approaching, then saw everything turning black. That inviting blackness, where she belonged, that nothingness where nobody could feel pain.
Perhaps she could dream about human Fel, find him in this place, find him before he left for the land of the dead. Even her city was now at the mercy of those creatures. Everything lost. If only she had considered Iona’s proposal earlier, if only she had planned better, if only she could turn back time. Now she had this scar in her soul, and the guilt of not having done enough.
“Leah?” Tzaria’s voice echoed, but it sounded far away. Everything was far away, and here she stood in darkness. There was something sticky in front of her, something that didn’t let her move, and she could no longer feel Tzaria’s hand. Leah was hopelessly lost, with no idea in which realm she was, and yet being lost was so small in comparison to the enormity of everything she was losing.
No, she couldn’t give up. She had to hold herself together, had to find a way. How? When she couldn’t even move? Something had definitely trapped her. The question was what.
* * *
