Ashes And Spirit (Book 3) (67 page)

She spun and cut down a Turindari soldier. Twisted to engage another only to realize they were frozen, all looking into the sky. A heavy silence hung in the air. Taela followed their gazes. In the air above, hundreds of crystalline dragons and their riders flew against the shadows. The green fire couldn’t harm them, the dark weaves thrown simply slid off, leaving no damage.

A crystal dragon and shadow collided. The raking claws of the shadow slipped against the pristine scales of the crystal dragon, while in turn, its claws tore through the shadow’s scales like a blade through paper.

Taela snapped her attention back to the ground battle as everyone around her thawed. Some threw down their weapons and ran, others fought with renewed ferocity as if they could still win even as the shadows began to lose.

Kirynn slid back again with Jocelynn and Belynn moving in step with her. Adilynn moved with them, and with her, the four fingers of the Boromari line. Though Kirynn and her fellow riders were faster and stronger than those they fought, the sheer numbers were pressing in on them. Not enough to push the line as much as they were allowing though.

Another step back. Then another. They were almost to the tunnels in the upthrust of rock under Markene. The Turindari and Hanoveran pressed forward, victory in their wild eyes at the thought of the Boromari army being pinned against the rock.

Their victorious expressions turned to terror as two fingers of the Boromari army poured out of the tunnels to their sides. At the same time, howls rose up from the rear of the mixed Turindari and Hanoveran armies. Kirynn smiled. The other three fingers of the Boromari must have emerged from the tunnels farther out. The enemy was now trapped on all sides between nine fingers of the Boromari. The line moved forward.

The commotion in the sky drew everyone’s attention, and for a breath, the battle stopped. Kirynn stared, stunned at the sight of what looked like dragons made of crystal. What were they? Where had they come from? Wait…was that…Anevay? Emallya and Bardeck? She shook her head. No, that was impossible.

She didn’t think about it more. The battle on the ground began again as if it had never stopped.

Mckale watched the crystal-like dragons flying above him with horror. There had been no doubt in his mind from the moment the battle began that there was no winning this one. The number of ground troops or their skills would mean nothing when in the end the Guardians would be killed. Everyone would fall under the rule of the Shadow Riders anyway.

Even knowing that, he’d held out hope for something else, anything else to even the odds. Seeing the dragons that looked so much like Rylin had the morning Maleena pulled her from the lake so long ago drove home the knowledge of the weave. It felt like a knife twisting in his chest.

“Tellnox, I need you!”

“I come,”
the green returned.

Mckale never let up while he waited for the dragon. His twin blades cut through the Kojen in a steady rhythm. He turned to engage the one he sensed coming at his back only to have it disappear under the weight of Tellnox as the green landed hard and shot flame over Mckale’s head.

Making use of the temporary moment of safety, Mckale sprinted for the saddle. Tellnox was in the air as soon as he touched the saddle. Mckale didn’t bother with the safety straps as the green opened the Slide.

Though the aerial battle continued above the lake, Mckale saw only Maleena, laying at the edge of the water, her hands clasped with those of Azurynn. What in the name of the Fates? He leaped from the saddle as the green landed and ran toward the lake only to be stopped by Nydara and the black that moved between him and Maleena.

“Do not,”
Nydara sent at the same time the black snaked her neck and hissed at him.

Mckale halted, bewildered and astonished.
“What is happening?”

Nydara huffed a puff of smoke.
“It must be done or we will all die, the world will die. It may still die.”

K
alila stumbled to a halt, her blood-slicked sword hung heavy at her side. There was no one left to raise it against. They had held the bridge. Above, the sky was empty except for the Guardian Dragons and those that appeared to be made of crystal.

On the far side of the river, south of the castle, the Boromari dispatched the last of the Turindari and Hanoveran armies. Two fingers broke off and streamed south, chasing down those that had tried to flee the battle.

It was over. All around her, people bellowed victory cries.

A slow sweep of her gaze across the battlefield showed the cost. The cold breeze she hadn’t noticed during the fight swept over her as the rays of the sun setting low on the horizon cut across the sky in red-orange bands. Markeni soldiers, and many of their allies, lay twisted with the bodies of Kojen. The thick, pristine snow from earlier in the day was now trampled and only patches of a bloody-gray mess remained. The faded red, yellow, and blue of three Guardian Dragons added to the bleakness. Likely their riders were dead too. She didn’t want to think who they might be.

In the silence that followed the victory cries, only the crack of pennants snapping in the breeze and the groans of the wounded and the screaming of an injured horse remained. Suddenly weary beyond anything she’d felt before, Kalila lifted her sword and slid it into the sheath, heedless of the thick blood that stained the blade.

Slowly she turned and began to walk toward the bridge where a gangly, young man stood where she’d left him, still holding her horse. Though the battle was over, the Defenders who had survived closed in around her.

Mckale stood next to Loki and watched as one by one the crystalline dragons and their riders returned to the lake, returning to Maiadar where they belonged. His eyes lingered on the group flying over him—Emallya, Bardeck, Anevay, Tania, Tallula, and Brock. Emallya turned her head as Rylin hovered over the surface, smiled at him, then the two disappeared with the rest right behind her.

And then they stood alone next to the perfectly smooth lake with the only surviving Shadow Rider. Azurynn’s hands fell away from Maleena’s. In a flash, the black dragon snatched her rider’s limp body up in her claws and fled east.

Not caring about the shadow pair, Mckale rushed forward, pulling Maleena from the water. Grief constricted his chest until he couldn’t breathe as he held her body. Nydara slowly sank to the ground and stretched her neck out, laying her head close to where he knelt in the grass. A heavy sigh shuddered through her as she closed her eyes and a slow ripple ran down her scales taking the color with it.

Mckale held Maleena tight. He bowed his head, broken sobs shaking him. The ground trembled in time to his sorrow.

A gentle but insistent tug on his arm pulled him from his grief. He looked up into Serena’s determined face. “Let me try to heal her.”

Why would she even offer false hope? Maleena had already predicted the weave would kill her. She knew it before she even sent Kellinar and Taela to Maiadar for it. He shook his head. “You can’t heal death.”

Serena glowered at him and let out an exasperated sigh. “Let me try to save her.”

“She isn’t breathing, Serena.” Mckale looked down at Maleena’s still form and ashen face.

“Lie her down before I knock you out of my way,” Serena growled at him. “There has been enough death this day. I will not allow her to join in it.”

He stared at Serena then nodded. Grief warred with hope. He laid her on the ground. Serena motioned to Nira who ran to her side. “Get her heart moving and breathe for her.”

Nira began to pump her hands rhythmically against Maleena’s chest, stopping at regular intervals to blow air into her mouth. Serena placed her hands on Maleena and closed her eyes.

One by one, the riders and the dragons that were able gathered around. Mckale tore his gaze from Maleena only once to rake it over those gathered. He knew immediately who was missing, and as he returned his attention to his bondmate, a new wave of sorrow broke over him.