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“The criminal who stands before you now is Mavlyn of Fenwood. She has been accused of sedition and spreading propaganda by undermining House Ithir with her anti-war and anti-draft protests.”
The crowd burst into excited chatter as they realized who Mavlyn was—the person behind that scandalous anti-war article in the Talamh Tribune, and who had staged that daring protest outside the recruitment office. Several witnesses came forward to testify against Mavlyn, some of them students who had been at Roylan’s club meeting, others from the recruitment office, or who had been in the square when she and the others had been handing out those leaflets.
“Well?” Lady Mossi demanded, once the last witness had finished. “What do you have to say for yourself? Do you plead guilty to the charge?”
Mavlyn’s tongue finally loosened, and she realized Nox had released the geas. She felt a pressure on her mind, tasted the words Nox was trying to force her to speak, but she swallowed them down as she looked into Lady Mossi’s eyes and squared her shoulders.
“I plead not guilty.”
Lady Mossi scowled, and Nox’s black eyes flickered with surprise. Mavlyn felt the pressure in her head intensify, but she wrapped the mental blanket around her tighter, refusing to allow the darkness to touch her. “How can you claim such a thing when so many witnesses have come forward? Are you accusing them of perjury?”
“No,” Mavlyn said. “They are telling the truth. Just as I have been trying to tell everyone the truth about this war, about the Shadow sitting on your left who has poisoned all your minds and is trying to drag the kingdom into a civil war so she can destroy us all.” She wished she could turn and face the crowd, but though she could speak, Nox had a tight hold on the rest of her body. “I am not the one committing treason, Lady Mossi. You are.”
The crowd gasped, and Lady Mossi’s face mottled with rage. “I hereby find Mavlyn of Fenwood guilty of treason against House Ithir and the realm of Domhain,” she spat, banging the staff of her office against the stage floor. “She will be executed in three days' time for her crimes against the state.”
The crowd erupted at this, some of them cheering, while others yelled in protest. Mavlyn could hear her parents screaming and crying underneath it all, and her heart ached at the pain she was putting them through. The guards moved to take her away, but Nox held up her hand, and they halted.
“If you name your co-conspirators,” she said, “I will allow you to say goodbye to your parents.”
The pressure in Mavlyn’s head shifted, as though Nox was rummaging around in her brain, trying to force her answers to the surface. The names of the students who’d helped her burned a hole in her tongue, and she nearly released them as her parents sobs grew even louder in her ears.
Instead, she held Nox’s gaze and smiled. “I have no co-conspirators. The idea was mine, and mine alone.”
Nox’s lips thinned, and she ordered the guards to take Mavlyn away. As she passed her parents, who tried to reach out and touch her, she retreated back into the safety and comfort of the grove, allowing it to soothe the guilt and anguish that would have otherwise overwhelmed her.
The Mother of Shadows could take her away from her allies, her friends, her parents. But at least she couldn’t take away this.
38
Adara
Filling up the primal stones took more effort than I expected. I was lucky the dragons had thought to pack extra rations and share them with me, or I might not have managed it. But eventually, I filled all two dozen of the stones Einar had brought, and gave them out to all the dragons.
Yaggir had demanded we do a test run to make sure they worked, so I led him, Einar, and four other dragons out of the temple. Sure enough, there were shadow creatures lurking outside, and they pounced, eager for what they saw as an easy meal. The primal stone on my arm flared in response, and I had to hold myself back from attacking the creatures myself.
Instead, I stood beneath the temple portico and watched as Yaggir, Einar, and the others charged into the fray. They wore their primal stones on cords around their necks, and the gems flared to life, lighting up the night sky with bursts of reddish-blue color.
The dragons gleefully conjured icefire in their hands and hurtled them at the shadow creatures, looking for all the world like children having a snowball fight. The creatures screamed and fell to the ground as the icefire hit its mark, and I watched carefully as the magic raced across flesh, fur, and hide. I half-expected the icefire to incinerate them, but to my surprise, it sank into their skin instead, leaving them unharmed. Plumes of steam began to rise from their bodies, and their monstrous features began to recede.
“I’ll be damned,” Yaggir breathed as one of the creatures staggered to its feet. It was a Flamehorn—a large, deer-like animal with a crown of fire antlers circling its head. My breath caught in my throat—I’d only ever seen these in illustrations, never in the flesh. “It reversed the taint!”
The others looked at each other, their eyes shining, and I felt a swell of emotion in the bond from Einar. I knew how much this meant to him—when he’d helped Kiryan seal that portal, he’d never expected to see the glory of his homeland restored. And even when he’d been told that my power would give us the ability to do it, he hadn’t dared to allow himself to believe.
Until now.
The animals raced off into the hills, and I watched them go, torn between hope and sadness. I knew they would be reinfected with shadow magic and turned back into monsters, but there was nothing I could do to prevent that. I had to hope they would stay alive long enough for me to defeat Nox, so I could use my magic on them to return them to their normal forms, this time permanently.
Now that we'd vanquished the shadow creatures, we returned to the temple to tell the others what happened. The dragons were ecstatic, but though Quye seemed happy, her subdued enthusiasm reminded me of Mavlyn’s predicament.
“We need to leave now,” I told the others, interrupting their celebration. “Pack up your things and shift into dragon form, and remember, do not use your primal stones unless it’s absolutely necessary. I don’t have the energy to fight and also refill all your stones.”
After a brief logistics discussion, we packed up and headed out. For stealth purposes, we decided it would be best if I shifted into full dragon form so I could carry Quye, but that the others would fly in half-dragon form. Even if we stayed above the cloud cover, it was far more difficult to conceal a pack of two dozen full-grown dragons than it would be if they remained in their bipedal forms.
Einar flew alongside me in dragon form, helping me correct my flying techniques as we traveled. Flying alongside him was a dream come true, but the dire situation that lay ahead of us tempered my joy. We flew as fast as we could, avoiding shadow creatures and other threats whenever possible, and in two days, we landed in the closest forest, about five miles away from Talamh’s outskirts.
It took precious time, but Quye and I foraged the necessary ingredients, then brewed a potion to hide the dragons’ distinctive eye color and darken their skin. I didn’t have time to brew enough for everyone, so we agreed that Einar, Quye, Yaggir, and Diyani would accompany me, while Isador and the others stayed back and waited for our command.
“I don’t like the idea of giving myself fae features,” Diyani complained after they’d all downed the potions. Her striking gold eyes were muddy brown now, and her tanned skin had darkened to a beautiful ochre that offset her brilliant violet hair. “How long is this supposed to last?”
