Island Shifters: Book 02 - An Oath of the Mage (40 page)

“Bindeno!”

The soldier let go of Kiernan and dropped to the ground like a felled tree with his arms and legs glued tight to his sides.

Rogan summoned a club of fire and stalked toward the Cyman holding Jala. She was crying for her father now.

Seeing his opening, Airron shifted into his eagle form and took flight. In just a few flaps of his powerful wings, he cleared the distance. Diving toward the fighters on the ground, he reached out with his curved talons and snatched the little girl out of the one-eyed creature’s arms. With his burden struggling beneath him, he wheeled away from the group. Flying low to the ground, he pulled up when he saw the blonde sorceress rushing forward. He set the girl down gently and it was at that moment that a crushing blast hit him and sent him flying end over end through the air.

Not again!

The last thing he remembered was the sound his skull made when it hit the stone ground.

With Jala safely away with Airron, Kiernan unsheathed her sword, but it was unnecessary. Sapphire jumped onto the back of the Cyman towering over her and grabbed his head in her hands to cast the killing curse.

“Morbendi.”

Rogan chased after the last Cyman, but Kiernan screamed at him and he pulled up short. “We have Jala. Let’s go!”

Sapphire jumped free of the falling giant and they ran back toward camp, the sound of Rogan’s footsteps following on their heels.

Kiernan risked a look back. Avalon was no longer standing in the cave entrance.

When they reached Janin, Rogan bent down, lifted his wife into his arms, and continued running. Kiernan sucked in her breath when they came across Airron with an anxious Diamond, holding Jala, standing over him. Sapphire quickly cast a hover spell and Airron rose off the ground. She guided his lifeless body through the air with her hand around his arm.

At the campsite, Rogan set Janin down tenderly on one of the bedrolls, and then reached for his daughter.

“Are you all right?” he asked her, wiping her hair out of her face.

“Daddy! Reilly!” the little girl squealed, pointing back toward the cave.

He pressed her face into his shoulder. “I know, baby, and we are going to get him out. I promise.”

Kiernan looked back toward the mountain. Three Cymans were dead, one fled, and another still lay incapacitated by Sapphire’s binding spell. Avalon Ravener was not going to come out again and that left her with no other choice. She had to go in after the children.

Diamond crouched next to Airron where a frightening amount of blood was beginning to pool under his head. “I need bandages!”

Rogan hurried to his pack and retrieved them for the sorceress. She accepted them, but looked up at Kiernan with concern in her eyes. “I wish I could do more, but I am not a healer.”

Kiernan looked down at Airron’s ashen pallor. He looked close to death. “I know. Keep pressure on the wound and watch over him until I get back. He will be all right. He has to be.”

Rogan, who had been tending to a waking Janin, glanced up at her with a question in his eyes.

“Yes. I am going in,” she answered.

He nodded. “I expected as much. Diamond, will you stay and look after Airron and my two girls?”

“Of course.”

“I am coming, as well,” declared Sapphire.

Kiernan nodded and the trio took off at a sprint back toward the mountain.

“Should I set an invisibility spell?” asked Sapphire.

“Don’t bother,” Kiernan replied. “She knows we are coming. Just remember the plan. Bind her so I can mindshift her. Rogan, the Cymans will be up to you.”

“Hope they like heat,” he growled.

It did not take long to cross the distance, and passing the Cyman on the ground, Kiernan was the first on the stairs that led to the cave entrance. She raced upward, slowing only when she neared the top ledge. Holding her hand in the air to stop the others, she listened carefully, but did not hear any sounds.

Cautiously, she scaled the remaining few steps and crouched on the lip of the shelf. She peered into the cave. It was empty. She motioned for the others to follow, and they hugged the left wall as they walked further into Avalon’s lair. The chamber was large and decorated with tapestries, heavy furniture pieces, and lit braziers that cast large dancing shadows on the walls.

Kiernan stopped and glanced up at the wall on her left. Two sets of iron shackles were set into the stone at just the right height to hold a man’s outstretched arms and legs.

This was where Avalon held Beck.

Filled with fury at the sight, she almost screamed out a challenge to the witch, anxious to meet her face-to-face. With effort, restraint prevailed, and she turned her head away in revulsion.

Advancing forward silently, she exited the main chamber and into another just as large and that held several blanketed pallets for sleeping. She was wondering just how many rooms this hideaway held when she saw three passageways branching off at the back of the room. She looked back at her companions. “We are going to have to split up.”

Rogan nodded. “I don’t like it, but it seems we have no choice.”

“Be careful,” she warned her friends. “Remember, if you find either of the children, just pick them up and run. Do not stop for anything or anyone else.”

Kiernan walked to the passage on the left, Sapphire took the center, and Rogan, the far right.

As soon as Kiernan stepped inside the dark and narrow passageway, she wished she had a torch. In the pitch blackness, she held her hands out against the walls to guide her way forward. After only a few paces and a slight bend in the corridor, a faint glow came into view ahead.

Inching forward slowly, her hand suddenly lost contact with the wall to her left, and she realized there was another passageway or alcove off the corridor she was in.

Unfortunately, the realization came too late, and she did not even have a chance to scream when an enormous hand snaked out and clamped over her mouth, dragging her into the dark depths of the recess.

Rogan called light to his palm and the narrow corridor lit up in a soft yellow glow. Immediately, he saw that the walls were dotted with dark alcoves. Walking forward slowly, he looked into each recess warily as he passed, but all were empty. With the exception of his footsteps that rang with a hollow echo through the tomb-like tunnel, it was quiet.

Around a slight bend, the muted glow of another chamber appeared ahead. Moving faster now, he made his way through the passageway and strode out onto the shelf of a cliff face overlooking a depthless black canyon. Glancing to the left, he noticed Sapphire stepping clear of the center corridor, but Kiernan was nowhere in sight.

Directly across from the shelf where he stood was another sheer cliff, and the two were joined together by a long stone bridge that spanned the chasm between them.

On the cliff on the other side of the bridge stood Avalon, five

Cyman soldiers, Reilly and Kenley. Alarmingly, both of the children had leather collars around their necks. A Cyman soldier was holding the leash attached to the collar on Reilly and Avalon was holding Kenley’s leash.

Avalon Ravener did not know it, but with that despicable act, she just purchased his silent vow that she would die that day. No quarter given. No mercy shown. Nothing short of the end of her existence in this world would satisfy him. It did not matter at whose hand, as long as it came to pass.

“Sapphire, what a pleasant surprise,” remarked Avalon. “Since you have so conveniently delivered the
Savitars
to me, I assume that you thought about our conversation. Does this mean you are you with me?”

“Yes, Avalon, I am with you.”

Rogan went cold inside.

Slowly, he stepped back into a crouch and faced Sapphire, summoning a ball of fire.

“Do not even think about it, shifter,” she ordered. “Any fire you throw at me will be directed right back at you by my shield.”

He shook his head at her in disgust and let the fire go. “After all you know of Avalon Ravener, how can you possibly ally yourself with her? Demons breath, Sapphire, she killed your own mother and admitted as much to Beck.”

Sapphire turned a hostile glare back toward Avalon. “So, it was you. I had my suspicions, but did not want to believe it.”

“What is that firebrand saying?” Avalon demanded.

“You killed my mother, Avalon.”

“Your mother?”

“Gemini Starr! Do not play dumb.”

Avalon shrugged her shoulders without even a pretense of remorse in the action. “I had no idea that Gemini Starr was your mother. Her death was payback for Adrian and that was all.”

The dark-haired sorceress clenched her fists.

“Sapphire! The world is ours for the taking! We will have five purebloods at our sides. Do not grow soft on me now, girl! My rule will have no place in it for cowards!”

Sapphire continued to glower silently.

“The power, Sapphire! Together, we will rebuild the coven with you as the High Priestess. Every sorceress on the island will be under your thumb, and every Lord and Sovereign will bow to you!”

“I thought you were made of more than that, Sapphire,” Rogan commented bitterly. “I never would have believed the promise of power would turn you to the side of evil.”

“This isn’t about power for me,” Sapphire told him. “Massa is an island of magic, Rogan, and should be governed by magic users. I have always felt that way. We are stymied by the ridiculous laws of people far beneath us. Think about it! To this day, magic users remain in exile. Only their place of confinement has moved from Pyraan to Bardot. Do you see magic performed anywhere other than Bardot? No. There are thousands of shifters on the island, probably far more than anyone suspects, but they do not come forward because of the stigma attached. This cannot continue! Magic is too valuable to throw away. Whether through sorcery or shifting, as a people we need to explore the depths of magic’s possibilities. With free reign, the strides we can make to create a more advanced society are limitless!” She shook her head. “My mother never understood this.”

“And, neither do I. No decent human being would suggest the subjugation of others to achieve their goals. There are other, better ways.”

“It is the law of nature, fireshifter. Those eliminated in the struggle for survival are trivial. Only the strong shall prevail.”

Avalon clapped her hands. “Well said, Sapphire! I will ask again. Are you with me or against me?”

Sapphire sighed audibly. “It must be done. I am still with you.”

“Wonderful! Now…wait, where is the bodyshifter?” Avalon asked.

“As good as dead.”

“No, not as good as dead! Until, I see his corpse, he still lives to cause me trouble. I will see all of the
Savitars
dead once and for all, here today at Farout Falls!”

A scuffling commotion broke out at the far end of the shelf. Two Cyman soldiers held a struggling Kiernan between them. “Ah…here is the Princess now.”

“Maman!” Kenley screamed and tried to wrestle away from Avalon, but the leash around her neck pulled her up tight. Kenley’s hands flew to her throat in an attempt to relieve the pressure Avalon was exerting.

“Stop! You are killing her!” Kiernan screamed and renewed her fight to break free from her captors.