Daughter of the Red Dawn (The Lost Kingdom of Fallada) (27 page)

“We have to take a stand against her, to give the wolves under her possession a fighting chance. There has to be a way to break her hold over them and give those who want it a choice
. You have already offered so many of us refuge. Could I trouble you to take in a few more?”

“Anyone seeking refuge during these dark days is welcome here and I am more than happy to gather those who have already come for you this evening. It would be best if they were to hear it from you; you are their leader now, Titus.”

“I will do my best to lead them.”

“And what of Orem?
If the
Alpha
of the Awcan pack should choose the other side?”

Titus’ jaw tightened and he shook his head. “He won’t.”

“But if he should? I
have to
know that you will do what you must when the time comes, Titus. You must put your loyalty to the other
shifters, your faithfulness to Fallada above all else; even familial ties. Can you do this?”

Titus felt his heart breaking at the thought of having to face his father on opposite sides of
the battlefield, b
ut he knew that Adrah was right. There was always the chance that he would have to kill him. He squared his shoulders and forced a show of confidence that he did not feel.

“Of course,” he said. “I will do what I have to.”

Adrah nodded, seemingly satisfied.
“Very well.
I will take you to them now. Then you will rest. Tonight, you shall
have
your time to speak and select those who will
follow
at your side. There are six days until the Day of the Red Dawn. You will leave here with all shifters willing, as well as a
contingent
of my own Warrior
Fae
. They will travel with direct orders from me to defer to you, and in your absence, King Endroth.”

Adrah turned and guided him from her chambers and through the maze of corridors lining
Osbel
Tower. When they reached the outer courtyard, Titus’ heart slowed, pulsing noisily in his ears at the sight that greeted him. The little girl with the raven black locks ran forward first, her brown eyes sparkling in the sun, her screech of joy accompanied by a gap-toothed smile.

“Titus!”

He knelt down just in time to catch her, bringing her tiny child’s body up against his chest. He buried his nose in his sister’s hair, tears springing to his eyes as he inhaled the familiar scent of pine and clean outside air.

“
Farrah,” he whispered her name, holding her back from him to inspect her. Satisfied that she was all right, Titus stood to embrace his waiting mother. Rashi’s face was heavily lined and Titus felt nothing but guilt at t
he sight of her red-rimmed eyes
. It was no
wonder
his mother looked so worn and grieved; she’d lost her son to the evil queen’s hands and now her husband.

“I’m back
.
I’m here
, M
ama,” Titus crooned as he held her, letting her spill her grief out onto his shoulder. He had failed her. His father hadn’t meant to, but by turning himself over to Eranna, he too had failed her. Titus rubbed her back gently, absorbing every tear she shed into the fabric of his shirt. When she was finished, she pulled away and smiled up at him, stroking his jaw with a trembling hand.

“My son,” she whispered. “You have come back to me.”

He nodded. “Yes. Very soon, we will all be together.”

“Adrah has told me of her plans for you. Are you ready to do what has to be done?”

“We have already spoken of it. There is to be an assembly tonight.”

“I must warn you,” Rashi said, her eyes wide, “they will not be receptive at first. Many of them think to hide out the coming war here in Goldun. They think that they will be safe from her here.”

Titus frowned. “That i
s madness! Those are our pack mates out there, our families. We have to save them!”

“I know this, my so
n
, but they do not. You have to tell them; you have to make them understand. Come, you should rest. You will need
every ounce of your strength. Adrah has given us a lovely apartment here in the tower with plenty of room for you.”

Titus grasped his mother’s hand and lifted Farrah onto his hip. At the prospect of
a
hot meal and a nap, he was suddenly very drowsy. “That sounds wonderful,” he said, allowing Rashi to lead the way.

As they walked, Rashi eyed him curiously out of the corner of her eye. After a
while she smiled.

“Oh my.
When were you going to tell me that you had found your mate?”

Titus felt a flush coming over his cheeks at the mention of Selena and his mother’s perceptiveness. He had n
ever been able to hide anything from her.

“I was going to get to that later.”

She squeezed his hand. “Is she of the Awcan pack?”

Titus winced. “Sorry to disappoint you, but no. She is not even a shifter.”

Rashi gasped.
“Oh dear.
You’d better tell me everything that’s happened. Mating between our kind and non-shifters is rare. This is truly an odd match.”

“You have no idea. Mother, how do you think you’d feel about being related to royalty?”

~*~

“Close your eyes. Now, slow your breathing and try to grab on to that feeling you get just before you start to run.
I don’t mean that rush of adrenaline; I am talking about something that hovers just above that within your senses. That oneness you experience with the very air around you. Do you feel it?”

Selena focused on keeping her eyes closed as every hair on her body seemed to stand on end. Did she feel it? Hell, how could she
not
feel it? She could feel everything around her; the heat that she was slowly becoming accustomed to, Thaddeus standing just behind her and Eldalwen circling her, the deep timbre of his voice vibrating through her.

“Yes,” she
said,
her grip on the staff in her hand tight. “I feel it.”

“Good,” Eldalwen said. “Now, focus on it. Pull it into yourself. The best way for me to explain it, is like a ball of energy coming directly from your center. It will expand and
grow as you focus it, until you can no longer contain it. You will release it from your body in a blast of power. Channel it through the staff. Think of the weapon as an extension of your body. It is now a part of your arm. Use it to direct the wind in the direction you wish it to go. Now open your eyes, without losing your focus on that feeling.”

Selena opened her eyes slowly, squinting against the sunlight that blinded her at first.
They stood on the balcony of the Eastern tower of the palace overlooking the city. Th
ough the air around them was ca
l
m
, the charge of energy that Selena felt
was
like the winds of a hurricane. She was glad that they’d brought her to this tower. The sensation she was experiencing was all too familiar to Selena, and she’d always related it to
running. Now, there was nowhere to run and Selena had to do something with her power.

She allowed her thoughts to drift back to the fight with the Minotaurs, with the surge of power she’d felt then. Just when she thought the energy welling in her chest would bring her to her knees, Selena thrust the scepter out in front of her, her lips parted on an uncontainable scream as a the power worked its way out of her chest and down her extended arm. The wind whipped around them powerfully, blasting her hair back from her face and howling noisily. Thaddeus’ grin was wide, his own hair flying in the face of the windstorm she’d just conjured up.

“Well done!” he bellowed to be heard over the wind. “You’re doing it!”

Eldalwen was silent, but his grin was wide. Selena held on to the scepter and laughed, closing her eyes against the feel of the wind on her face and dancing through her hair. This was
it,
this was what everyone had been expecting from her when they found out that she was the eldest princess of Damu.
Maybe
, she thought,
just maybe I won’t let them down
. The power coming from her was massive, something she would have never thought herself capable of. The realization lifted her spirits, gave her more confidence. At least, until Eldalwen’s voice shattered it.

“Now make it stop!” he yelled near her ear, jolting Selena out of her ‘I am woman, hear me roar’ moment. She frowned, realizing that the wind was still going and she had no idea how to stop it.

This could be a problem.

Selena decided not to let it get the best of her. She kept hold of that feeling, deciding that if focusing it outward caused it to manifest, focusing it back in on herself
should contain it. Selena tried it and it worked. Within seconds, the air was still again, though her hair was beyond repair. She couldn’t suppress a giggle at the sight of Thaddeus’ locks standing on end as well. He frowned and worked to put it back to rights as Eldalwen pulled her into a crushing hug.

“That’s it! You are learning fast.
Much faster than a certain brother of yours.”

Thaddeus’s frown became a scowl. “Hey!”

Selena smiled. “Sorry, big bro. Daughter of the Red Dawn here. It’s kind of pre-programmed.”

Thaddeus rested his hands on the hilts of the two curved swords he wore at his side and grinned smugly.
“Oh yeah, little sis?
Let’s see you take it to the next level then.”

Feeling confident after her first achievement, Selena crossed one leg in front of the other and rested her weight on the staff. “Bring it on. What’s next?”

“Oh, nothing too taxing for someone as powerful as yourself,” he said with a mischievous glance in Eldalwen’s direction. “You can handle it.”

Selena looked to Eldalwen, who appeared to be enjoying every second of this exchange. “Well, will one of you tell me what it is?”

Eldawen grinned.
“Flight.”

Selena’s mouth fell open. “Shut up.”

Eldalwen shrugged and swept his hand out over the dessert below. “The air will carry you if you let it. You must allow it to happen naturally and not try to force it. Pull on the current around you and allow
it
to propel you along. It is much like the speed you gain while running and pulling upon the wind.”

Selena shook her head.
“No way.
It is nothing like that. While running
,
my feet are on the ground. What you’re talking about is insane.”

Eldawen
laughed.
“Insane, maybe; i
mpossible, no.”

He slowly backed away from them, keeping his eyes locked on Selena’s. With his back braced against the outer wall of the tower, he looked out over the balcony’s edge.

“Watch.”

The second the word had left his lips,
her father
had launched himself away from the wall at a run. He was nothing more than a
blond
blur as he disappeared over the side of the balcony.
With a gasp, Selena ran to the balcony’s rail, gripping it until her knuckles were white as she watched Eldalwen careening toward the desert sand. A gasp tore from her mouth as he swooped back upward at the last second, twirling a few times in the air before shooting back up toward them. When he landed on the balcony in front of her, Selena thought for sure her heart was ready to beat right out of her chest it was hammering so fast. She clutched her chest tightly, both amazed at what she’d just seen, and terrified at the thought of them wanting her to do the same. She shook her head rapidly from side to side.

“No way.
I’m not doing that. I can’t.”

“There’s really no way around it, Selena. It is an imperative part of your training,” Thaddeus said with a shrug. “The important thing is to remember not to embrace your fear of falling. You have to focus on your power at its height and allow it to do its job. After a
while, all of this will become second nature to you.”

Selena knew she could trust them after all they had done for her, but she just couldn’t get past the part where she was supposed to jump over a balcony railing and possibly fall several stories before flying.

“Is there any way
we can do this from the ground?”

Eldalwen sighed. “We could, but it’s easier the first time to try it from a high point. Once you’ve flown the first time, you will recall the feeling and become capable of channeling that while on the ground.”

“There’s only one problem with that,” Selena said. “I’m not jumping.”

“Well, that leaves only one option,” Thaddeus said, his hands crossed over his chest.

“What’s that?”

Suddenly, Thaddeus had lifted her into his arms. Before she had a chance to register what was happening, he’d run across the balcony and tossed her right over the edge.