Daughter of the Red Dawn (The Lost Kingdom of Fallada) (32 page)

Eranna looked down upon all of this from her tower, wrapped in a raven black dress made of suede, a bustier of shining black leather cinching her tiny waist in. Over this she donned her silver armor and helmet, sheathing an iron sword at her side and taking her enchanted staff in hand. With a satisfied nod at her appearance, she turned toward the unmoving figure of High King Endroth, who sat staring off into space where she’d left him. Eranna laughed, the sound a throaty purr, as she approached the once mighty king.

Gifted with power by her
Witches
and
Warlocks
, Eranna had found it easy to compel King Endroth and place him under her spell. His pain at losing both his wife and daughter had weakened him, and even though he had
spurned her offers of marriage, Eranna enjoyed keeping him as her plaything. She ran a hand through his long,
now
graying hair, tugging on his beard with a giggle.

“Look, my dear Endroth, my army is nearly ready to march upon
Damu
. Aren’t they splendid? Even the
Witches
and
Warlocks
with their hideousness are of great use to me.”

Endroth stared silently ahead, the black pupils of his e
yes blotting out the green irise
s. Eranna took her staff and pressed the rounded end of it into his chest. The tip began to glow and vibrate, causing Endroth to groan and writhe in pain. Eranna twisted the scepter, bearing it into his chest with all of her strength in anger.

“You see, Endroth, you have brought all of this on with your stubbornness,” she hissed, jabbing him in the chest a second time. “If you had only listened to me when I tried to convince you of the best way to deal with the human trash, I wouldn’t have had to go to such lengths to ensure my place in this kingdom. You joined with that insipid
Faerie
and ruined everything! You could have been my lover and I your High Queen. Together, our kingdom would have spanned two worlds, and all would be as it should.”

Eranna pulled the staff away, deciding not to waste anymore of her magic on this useless man. She straightened and closed her glowing red eyes until they had returned to their normal color. After a few deep breaths, she opened them again. King Endroth was slumped over, his hand gripping his burned chest. He was otherwise motionless. Eranna used her power over him to lift his chin until he was meeting her gaze.

“
All will be set
right very soon. It all begins tonight, Endroth. This time, you and that
Faerie
will not be in a position to stop me.”

~*~

Chapter
Seventeen

The army leaving Damu’s city walls behind was solemn and silent. With Eldalwen and Rothatin leading the way, they marched toward the edge of Damu. Already the air was becoming cooler the closer they got to Mollac. Selena was glad for her cape and hood, mainly because everyone else was wearing red or carrying the red and gold banners of Damu, keeping her from sticking out like a sore thumb. She had a feeling that Eranna would be gunning for her, and while the thought made her nervous, Selena felt the warmth of her father and brother on either side of her, as well as Titus. His blue eyes gleamed in the waning sunset, his body a mass of rippling, powerful muscle beneath stark white fur. The other shifters he had brought dotted the crowd, all shifted into their wolf forms. Their fur dotted the sand in shades of black, brown, white
,
and red, creating a beautiful array of variety.

The Centaurs brought up
the left side, their quivers fu
ll of arrows and their swords sharpened. Selena realized that
Dargha had added a few new tattoos across her stomach. She smiled as she realized that the symbols read ‘Red Dawn’. She had to remember to get Dargha to inscribe the same thing on her. The
Fae
and
Elves
brought up the left, the
Fae
decked out in silver armor from head to toe—protection from the enemy’s iron weapons, Rothatin had told her. Bringing up the middle, mixed in among the shifters, were the wind-harnessing Damunians, their red dress and waving banners sported proudly.

Her focus snapped back to the borderline of Mollac and Damu. The white snow stretched on for miles in front of them, giving way to jagged purple mountains with white snowcaps and towering green pine trees. Selena’s hands began to shake and she stilled them, trying to think of other things so that she wouldn’t get overtaken by nerves.

The speech she’d given in the war room had gone far better than she’d expected. Selena thought back to the words she’d spoken so honestly to Damu’s army and used the words to comfort herself.

“
People of Damu,
I am told I must give a speech today and, I’ll be honest, I’m not sure exactly what I am supposed to say to you. I don’t think it would be very wise for me to stand here today and tell you not to be afraid, when I stand here in front of you today more frightened of this than I have ever been of anything in my life. Yes! I am afraid! But someone very close to me once told me that being brave does not mean a person doesn’t feel fear. Courage is a man or woman’s ability to lean into that fear, to embrace it and draw strength from it. Someone I love taught me that very recently and it gave me what I needed to learn to fly.
Do I know how today is going to turn out?
Absolutely not.
I am told that my being here today makes the difference, that it will bring the Red Dawn in the morning and our power will be magnified a hundred times more than what it is now. But you know something? The Red Dawn does not just need me to appear, it needs you as well. You have believed, you have waited for my return, you have kept your faith and been patient
ly
waiting for this day. And now, I am asking you to stand with me, to hold on until the morning when the sun splits the sky with a red glow. I am telling you that I cannot do this without you. Will you stand with me?”

The cheers and chants had been deafening and Selena had collapsed onto her throne—which had been brought into the war room for the occasion—releasing the breath she’d been holding the entire time. She clutched Titus’ wolf tooth tightly and closed her eyes, wondering where the words had come from, when her nerves had melted away and a confident woman had emerged. Titus voice had invaded her mind, smooth as silk.

I always knew you had that in you.

Selena lifted her chin now and marched alongside her fiancé, her brother
,
and her father, new confidence gripping her insides and expanding in her chest. Her fingers tightened on the staff in her hand and her jaw clenched in determination. She was doing this for Titus, for her future in-laws, and for Rose and Zoe
.
F
or Adrah
,
Dargha
,
and Tinutai, for Rothatin and the beautiful Pixies, the
Elves
and war-torn wolf shifters.
She held their faces up in her memory, not losing sight of one for a single moment so that she couldn’t lose her nerve.

And then, the enemy appeared on the horizon, approaching them from the other side of the border where sand met snow. As they got closer,
Selena could make out Eranna’s army. On the backs of saddled polar bears and in chariots pulled by the same beasts, were some of the ugliest creatures Selena had ever seen.
They have to be the Witches and Warlocks
, she decided. Their hooded robes in shades of blue, gray
,
and black barely concealed twisted, grotesque faces and gnarled limbs.
They looked more like walking trees than anything else.
The
y
carried curved, iron weapons and
heavy burlap
satchels hung from their waists.

The
Witches
carry explosives,
Titus spoke into her mind as they came to rest on the edge of Damu, their feet planted firmly in the sand.
They are much lik
e the grenades carried by human
soldiers in your world, but they are filled with enchanted potions. Be sure to watch out for those; they could turn you into dust on contact.

Magic grenades
…
.dust
…
.got it.

Inwardly, Selena trembled. The shivers were made worse by the chill coming from Mollac and the sight of Minotaurs bringing up the left. Their horns were sharpened to deadly points and so were their long-handled axes. Selena found Ruen at the front, his eyes glowing red, his golden rings shining brightly in his nostrils. Bringing up the left were what appeared to be humans. Clothed in deerskin and fur, their angular features and slanted, narrowed eyes reminded her of the red foxes that used to frolic and play in the woods back home.

That’s because they are fox shifters
, Titus said, his ears twitching as he turned his head to scan the approaching army.
Don’t let their beauty f
oo
l you, they are twice the size of foxes in your world and they are deadly and cunning, incredibly fast in whatever form they decide to take.

Selena could see the deadly glint in their dark eyes and decided to take Titus’ word as truth.

Bringing up the forefront were Eranna’s possessed
Werewolves
, their glowing red eyes a match for the Minotaurs. Selena recogni
zed Orwen instantly. The Awcan Alpha
was flanked by at least two hundred other wolves.

Tell your army to leave the wolves to us,
Titus said to her, his voice quavering with anger in her mind. Selena knew
that he hated to see his father this way, wrapped in Eranna’s tentacles like he had been not so long ago. Selena patted his head affectionately and turned to her father.

“Titus asks that the other
wolf
shifters be left to him and his wolves,” she said.

Eldalwen nodded before turning to bellow the message out to the army. Word rippled along the crowd like wildfire until everyone had been made aware of this rule.

“Titus says thank you.”

Eldawen turned and looked the massive wolf in the eye. “You’re welcome, son. We will give you what time you need to break the enchantment over your kinsmen. By the time the Red Dawn approaches, if they are still on the wrong side, we will obliterate them.
”

Selena looked down to Titus and then back to her father. “He says, ‘so be it’.”

Selena knew that Adrah had given him a charm blessed by
Fae
magic. It would rid the shifters of their possession just she had done for Titus. Depending on how long it took him to get close enough to use it, he would not have much time to convince his father and the others to switch sides. Selena hoped that at least Orwen would listen. She didn’t think Titus would ever be the same if he had to kill his own father on the battlefield.

Silence fell over them as the enemy army came to a standstill, facing them on the other side of the border. Humongous, white snow owls circled overhead, barking sounds coming from their mouths as they
swooped by. One owl, the largest, carried Eranna. Her black gown fluttered around her and her matching hair flew behind her head like a banner from beneath her silver helmet. Her glowing
,
red eyes surveyed the battlefield below.

“Coward,” Selena hissed.

“Eranna will not get her hands dirty unless she has to,” Thaddeus said from her other side. “In the meantime, watch your head. Those owls like to drop stones.”

Selena fought the urge to cover her head as one of the owls screeched and dipped
; she
held on tighter to her staff. Her father took a step forward and raised his sword.

Within the silence, a low roaring pulsated in Selena’s ears and she realized that it was the sound of her own racing heart. She saw her father’s mouth open and knew that a roar had escaped his lips, but she did not hear it or the resounding, answering call that came from the army around her.

“Charge!” that word was clear, though, and Selena had no choice
except
to raise her staff and move. Forcing her legs into motion, Selena sprinted alongside her father toward the enemy, who had kicked it into high gear as well. The last thing Selena remembered
clearly
before the chaos hit, was a gust of wind working its way up her arm.

~*~

All around him, metal crunched against metal. The bark of foxes mingled with the growls of wolves. The roars of the Minotaurs mingled
with the battle cries of Centaurs and Damunians. Gusts of wind whipped snow and sand up into sprays of grit and damp ice that coated Titus’ fur.
The screech of owls overhead mingled with the explosive pop and following flash of bright light that accompanied the
Witches
’ bombs.

Titus dodged the third bomb to fall near him, leaping away in time to avoid the white flash. Two
Elves
locked in battle with
a
fox shifter were not so lucky. All
three
disintegrated into black dust that was carried away on the wind. Titus barred his teeth with a growl and lunged at the warlock who had thrown the bomb, tackling the ugly creature to the ground and tearing his throat out with a single snap of his jaws. He flung the body aside and pounced onto a Minotaur who was already fighting off two of his pack mates. With Titus’ help, they brought the massive beast down, horns first, to the ground.