Light the Reign (The Forgotten: Book 3) (28 page)

The glowing rain continued to fall down upon
them, and Layna watched as the wall of the shimmering water came
towards them. She raised her arms to it, welcoming the refreshing
downpour. The light seemed to wash over her, calming and soothing
her, and she fervently hoped that the beasts experienced a similar
feeling as it washed them clean of the atrocities committed against
them.

The dragon-beast – which had previously been
in the sky – crashed down to the ground with an ear-piercing
shriek. As it hit, it split into the many parts that it was, dozens
of individual animals rolling away from the impact. Layna cringed,
but was heartened as they all started moving again, shaking out and
flexing limbs that had been attached to other creatures for so
long.

Many of the soldiers had dropped their
weapons to their sides, watching in amazement as the creatures
before them transformed back into ordinary beasts. Others still
held them at the ready, but more than one had their mouth hanging
wide open.

Layna collapsed onto the ground with relief.
It had worked. There would be no more fighting or dying. The
thought of the dying reminded her of what she had just done, and
she raised her hand to her neck where the mark of the Dark King
was. She had spent so much time worrying that she would turn out to
be like him simply because she was of his bloodline. And now, when
she had finally accepted that bearing his mark did not determine
her fate, she had been forced into performing blood-magic.

With shaking hands, she took out the small
mirror she had for communicating with the Council back home. She
angled it so that it showed her the small mark behind her right
ear.

She let out a strangled sob.

It had turned bright red.

*

Katya heard the call for mages to add their
power to a spell that Layna was developing, and immediately added
her own, fending off an attack as she did so. The horde had turned
out to be far larger than they had thought, and she hoped that
whatever spell Layna was concocting would help to sway the odds in
their favor.

At the moment, with their sheer number along
with the devastating blows of the dragon-beast, their troops were
getting depleted faster than Katya cared to think about. Even
though the gate open to Gelendan continued to produce more soldiers
by the minute, the portal seemed to be supplying bloodbeasts at the
same rate. There was no telling how many more it contained.

Katya worked her way towards Layna and
Gryffon to see if she could determine what kind of spell she was
working. The clouds above started to glow with a soft light, which
grew brighter and brighter as Katya watched. It seemed to pause, as
though Layna couldn’t go farther with it, and Katya tried to pour
more strength into their connection.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw
something sneaking through the shadows towards Layna and Gryffon.
They were both looking ahead of them, out across the canyon where
the bloodbeasts were, and did not see it approach. She broke her
contact with their spell, hoping that the lesser energy wouldn’t
affect their enchantment, but needing her wits about her.

Katya growled deep in her throat and Marak
wound down her arm at the ready. As the figure emerged from the
shadows, she saw that it was Kali. She was holding a long dagger
out in front of her. The blade caught the light and glimmered with
a dull greenish glow. It was no ordinary blade, probably enchanted
to cut through magical shielding and to magically poison its target
as well. It appeared that Kali was not going to take chances on the
two monarchs living through another of her attacks.

Katya lowered her arm to the ground to allow
Marak to slither off, and approached the woman herself, very
quietly. She raised her hands to form a spell before her, but
realized that for some reason much of her power was still tied up
with Layna’s though she was not consciously supplying it. She could
tell that if she withdrew even the tiniest portion, it would all
fall apart. So, it would be like old times, just her and Marak
going in for the kill.

She positioned herself behind the woman,
keeping one eye on the arm with the poisoned weapon at all
times.

“Stop,” she commanded Kali.

The woman whirled around, the dagger poking
at the air between them. Had Katya been standing a foot closer, she
probably would have gotten sliced by the tip. Depending on what the
blade had been doused with, a slice might be all that it would
take.

Katya stepped sideways and slightly
backwards, warily eyeing Kali’s movements. She doubted that the
woman would use magic herself, connected as her quarry were to it
at the moment. They would realize she was there the second she did
so.

Instead, she lunged forward and tried to
plunge the knife into Katya’s stomach. Katya moved out of the way
again, and saw the tip of Marak’s tail disappear underneath the
woman’s robe. She unsheathed her hidden knives. Having used magic
against the bloodbeasts, she had only the knives she always wore
with her, but no sword.

She used one of the knives to knock another
blow off-course while she waited for the bite from Marak she knew
to be coming. Sure enough, after another moment, Kali suddenly
stiffened. She looked slowly down onto her arm where Marak was
making his way slowly out from her sleeve.

“Marvelous, isn’t he?” Katya asked her,
letting her guard down slightly. Now that Marak’s poison was
spreading through her, she had little time left. “He was a gift
from my father.” She paused, thoughtful, for a moment. “Seeing as
how you are the reason he is dead, I’m sure he’d be quite pleased
that the two of you were introduced. Of course,” she smiled cruelly
at the woman, “I made some improvements to him myself.”

Kali looked at her wrist where two small
puncture wounds were oozing blood. She slumped forward slightly,
then scowled at Katya.

“How dare you! Can’t you see that they need
to die? The beasts must be allowed to cleanse the world. It’s what
the prophecy says!”

“I’ve never been very fond of prophecies
myself,” Katya told her.

Layna and Gryffon both suddenly collapsed
onto the ground, and Katya grew unexpectedly weaker from her
connection to them. Kali took advantage of her distraction, and she
turned and dove towards Layna with jerky movements, holding the
blade out in front of her. Katya shook off the weakness and moved
with blinding speed to intercept her, knocking the blade completely
out of the woman’s hand. She crumpled to the ground, defeated, and
Katya stood over her until she drew her final breath, making sure
she didn’t try and make any last desperate attempts. She felt more
and more power being drawn through her into Layna’s spell, and she
closed her eyes and breathed deeply a few times to regain control
over her power. She put up shields to limit the amount of power the
spell could draw out. Hopefully whatever she was doing was almost
completed, she could tell that it was eating away at many of the
mages connected to it, Layna and Gryffon included.

She was dragging the body away from the
monarchs for good measure when something strange happened. She
could feel Kali’s life-force, recently departed from the woman’s
body being dragged away to be used for a spell. Blood-magic. She
immediately readied herself to defend against it, but then realized
where the power was being dragged to.

Layna was drawing in the power from the dying
to help to power the spell. Katya felt sick to her stomach. Even
though she wasn’t directly causing the deaths, benefiting from the
dying force of a creature was still considered blood-magic. The
power gained from it was easy, and therefore corrupted those who
dabbled in it easily. Had Layna turned down a dark path?

With enough power for the spell, Layna set it
loose, and the clouds above showered down a rain shimmering with
magic. Katya was awestruck as she witnessed the single-most amazing
spell she had ever seen. The rain actually washed away the changes
that had been made to them with the blood-magic spells that had
twisted and distorted them into the fearsome creatures they were.
Now, before their very eyes, they reverted back to the normal dogs,
bears, lions, and even smaller creatures like squirrels and
snakes.

Layna made an agonized sound, and Katya’s
attention was immediately drawn to her, worried that Kali had
somehow completed her mission from beyond the grave. Layna was
looking in her mirror at the mark of the Dark King behind her ear.
As she turned her head, Katya could see that it had turned bright
red, the same color that Nathair’s had been. The color of
blood-magic.

Katya moved forward to comfort her friend.
“The fact that it pains you so much that you had to do it proves
that you’re not like him.” She realized now that Layna must have
lost control of the spell, and it was drawing the power from the
mages of its own accord. If she hadn’t used the extra magic to
complete it, she would have ended up being responsible for their
deaths instead. Katya far preferred her having simply taken
advantage of the already dying.

Layna looked up at her with puffy eyes, on
the verge of tears. “Does it? I used blood-magic.” She looked down
at her hands as though they were physically covered in blood. She
whispered again, barely audibly, “I used blood-magic.” She rubbed
her hands together, trying to rid them of the unseen taint.

Gryffon touched her gently on the shoulder
and Layna turned into him, burying her face in his shoulder and
unleashing the tears that had been waiting to come.

“They would be glad their deaths were not in
vain,” he whispered into her hair, “they are the reason the rest of
us will live.”

She sobbed for some time, while Katya stood
on awkwardly. Hunter came to stand beside her, but did not comment
on the situation. Gryffon gave him a tight-lipped smile and a
nod.

The sounds of victory could be heard around
them: Triumphant yells, clapping, and even the occasional crying
from relief and sorrow.

Hunter finally cleared his throat as soldiers
began approaching their position to congratulate the Queen on her
impressive use of magic. Gryffon gently nudged her off of him, and
she wiped her eyes on blood-stained sleeves. Seeing the blood, she
clenched her teeth together, putting on a brave face.

As the first of the soldiers came into view,
whooping to one another and cheering, she even gave them a
smile.

“We did it, Your Majesties!” exclaimed the
closest, patting Hunter on the back as he neared them. Hunter
smiled broadly and reached out to shake another’s hand.

“What should we do with all these animals?”
another asked, peering down over the canyon’s edge.

Katya looked down into the canyon, and
indeed, it was now littered with animals. There was no telling what
kind of impact they would have on the local ecosystem.

“I’ll take care of it, Queen Layna,” she
offered, “I can work with the tribes to make sure they are rounded
up and appropriate homes are found.” She could tell that having
been forced to use blood-magic had pushed Layna to the edge of what
she was able to handle. After everything she had been through,
Katya could hardly blame her. And now, to have had to have given up
her daughter’s talent and her own integrity in order to save her
people…Katya felt the need to lift the burden from her, even if it
was only a tiny bit.

The look that Layna gave her was one of such
profound relief that Katya got a warm feeling. The fact that she
wanted to – and got enjoyment out of – helping a friend simply for
the sake of making them feel good, made Katya feel good too. She
had come a long way since being a cold-hearted assassin. She took
Hunter’s hand and pulled him in for a hug. He happily obliged,
giving her a kiss on the top of her head as well.

More and more people streamed to where they
were gathered, all cheering triumphantly. Slade joined them with a
group of the tribesmen and hesitantly made his way over to where
she and Hunter stood.

He eyed Hunter warily, who glared back at him
stonily. He cleared his throat.

“I just wanted to say that I’m sorry,” he
mumbled, “I believed Kali’s lies and I shouldn’t have, and I hurt
you in the process. I didn’t really mean for it to go quite how it
did. But between thinking that you were part of the Dena’ina,” he
glanced over to where several of the actual Dena’ina were standing,
“and still believing that they were responsible for my parents’
deaths…”

“And everything else Kali had told you,” she
filled in as he trailed off, unable to come up with the words. She
sighed, and held out her hand in a gesture of peace. He took it
gratefully and shook it, while Hunter watched, still glaring.

Hunter pulled her back in, putting his arms
around her in a backwards hug, and Slade backed off. Katya found
that she rather enjoyed the embrace, and was pleased that Slade got
the hint that the truce was all he would get from her. While she
could forgive him for what he did, she had no desire to promote any
sort of relationship with him, even friendship. That he could have
so easily played with her emotions like that still hurt. She looked
over her shoulder into Hunter’s kind eyes. She would stick to the
man she knew would always be there for her. Who had been there for
her when she was little. Her other half.

CHAPTER 16

People lined the streets of the capitol in
anticipation of the second annual Festival of the Dragons. As
promised, the reinstatement of the religion was incorporated into
the celebration, though Layna did manage to meld the two ideas
together. They taught the truth of the dragons’ origins and pointed
out their fallibilities, but still regarded them as gods. Already
hundreds of priests from Gelendan and Treymayne alike were making
the pilgrimage to see the Kiani Stones on display, and Layna had
arranged for them to hold a religious meeting in order to combine
their faiths and select a council of their own to ensure that there
were no ulterior motives being carried out behind the veil of
religion.