The Dark Throne (23 page)

My war-markings tingled at the tightening of the air inside the circle of Valkyrie. Vell marked Gray last, and as she drew her ivory staff over the breastplate of her Knight, the hill began shuddering, a low and insistent vibration, like the hoof-beats of a faraway army. I felt the Caedbranr watching in interest, a tendril of its power sliding down my arm, probing closer to the inscription dug into the dirt. Farin grabbed my ear as a gust of cold wind suddenly assaulted the circle, whirling about the glowing glyphs, lifting the pale powder into a funnel of luminescence. I tugged my scarf up over my mouth and nose as the wind grew stronger; I had to brace my legs and lean into the force of the gale, gasping at the shock of the cold. It felt as though a blizzard engulfed us, but rather than snow, shining swirls of white cut swathes through the air. The whirlwind shifted and moaned, Vell’s unbroken song carried through the wind; I narrowed my eyes against the growing brilliance, and just as the light crested, bright as noon sun shining down on fresh snow, it settled onto the Valkyrie, drenching riders and mounts and wings with white light. The howling wind reached a crescendo as Vell sang a high, commanding word; shielding my eyes, I saw her drive her staff down into the center of the glyphs. The earth shuddered, the wind convulsed, and then the air settled and the light faded.

I blinked against the after-images imprinted on my eyes by the brilliant light. Vell still sang softly, her legs folded beneath her—though I hadn’t seen her move; her hands still gripped her staff, which glowed faintly. Tendrils of light, thin as spider-silk, floated from the staff to each of the Valkyrie and their mounts, fading into invisibility even as I watched. I let my scarf fall away from my face as I turned my gaze to the
faehal
, my eyes widening in wonder. The
faehal
stood pawing at the ground, magnificent, folding and unfolding their living wings, turning their heads to inspect their new appendages. It seemed as though all who had been touched by the ivory staff were more beautiful than moments before: brighter colors shimmered in the coats of the
faehal,
reds and greens and blues; and the armor of the Valkyrie shone with its own soft silvery aura.

After a stunned moment, in which the warriors looked down at their own hands and flexed their fingers even as their mounts tested their control of their new wings, Gray blinked and shook herself slightly. A wave of hot wind flowed over the hilltop again. My skin prickled in warning, the wind familiar, linked in my mind to limb-freezing terror and the glimpse of a nightmare creature. I looked at Vell, but she continued to sing softly, one hand now drawing glyphs in the air with two fingers.

“To the sky,” commanded Gray, a fierce, wondrous joy in her words.

“The beast approaches,” said Farin, leaping from my shoulder to thrust her shimmering blade at the gray clouds.

As the Valkyrie adjusted their saddles, now sitting behind the great joints of their
faehal
’s wings, Arcana turned to me, saying in her blank beautiful voice, “If you are going to put up any defenses around the High Queen, now would be the time.”

I frowned and almost asked Arcana exactly what she meant, but then, pricked by the Caedbranr, my hand slid into my belt-pouch. Four smooth dark stones sat in my palm when I opened my hand.

“You have used these stones before,” said Arcana. “Good.”

Gray mounted her winged
faehal
, eyes alight with excitement. Each of the Valkyrie carried two of the massive dragon-spears, and a bow with a quiver strapped to the flanks of their mount, filled with a half-dozen thick arrows. They also carried great coils of silver rope, and some carried grappling hooks and silver weights like those I’d seen affixed to the great net. Gray’s mount shook his head, and she touched his sides with her heels. He had been a beautiful creature before the wings, a palomino with a pale gold coat and silvery mane; now his wings shimmered deep gold and bronze, silver and snow-white and blue-grey. He tossed his head, tested the balance of his spread wings, and plunged down the hill at a gallop. I heard Gray give a wild cry of exhilaration as I lost sight of her on the slope of the hill; and then I saw her, a fantastic vision even for this world of magic, her
faehal
gaining height with each stroke of his powerful wings, his legs still moving at a gallop in the air. Farin gave a whoop of triumph, arrowing through the air to join the troop of Glasidhe now streaming toward Gray. Calliea was the second Valkyrie to take to the air, her heart-shaped face bright and fierce, her golden whip coiled at her belt. In twos and threes, the Valkyrie raced down the hill and leapt into the sky, their mounts taking to the air with such grace that it was hard to believe they hadn’t been born with their gleaming wings.

Vell did not watch her winged warriors take to the sky. She stared into nothingness, her golden eyes dark with concentration as she sang and sketched invisible runes in the air.

“She weaves the wind under their wings,” said Arcana, now standing beside me. A copper spark drifted from her mouth as she spoke. “I will stand outside your protection.”

“You’re not going to stand inside, with Vell and me?” I asked warily.

“How can I protect my Queen if I am being protected myself?” said the Morrigan, walking her strange gliding walk until she stood a small distance away from me. At her simple explanation, I wondered at my distrust of her; but then I told myself that an ancient goddess would be cunning, and more than capable of making me believe her loyalty. And for that matter, if
I
were inside the circle, I wouldn’t be able to take part in the battle either. The thought made me hesitate, but then the Caedbranr spoke into the tumult of my mind.

You must choose to use what strength you have regained wisely
, the Sword said.
Though you are my Bearer, you will not be able to both protect yourself as well as the High Queen if you choose to fight.

I took a deep breath. I didn’t like the idea of being sealed inside the protection with Vell, but if that was my role to play in this battle, I would perform it to perfection.

And besides,
added the Sword,
you are not part of the choosing of the
vyldgard
. Therefore, it is not your battle.

Every battle against the Darkness is my battle,
I replied emphatically.

While your fervor is no more than I expect from a child of Gwyneth, it is idealistic. You must conserve your power to face your true enemy, not a hunted beast.

“Tess,” said Luca, interrupting my silent debate with the Caedbranr. “You are staying here with Vell?”

“Yes,” I said. I showed him the stones in my palm. “I’m going to cast a protection around her.” I grimaced. “And me, I suppose.”

“That puts my mind at ease,” said Luca. “Chael will stay with you as well.”

The lithe
ulfdrengr
nodded at me, his amethyst eye grave. “I will contribute what power is mine to your protection.”

I nodded. “All right.” I gave him the stones; in a strange way I could still feel them as he carried them, placing one stone at each cardinal point of the compass. The concept of a diamond of protection seemed to be almost universal throughout the Fae races that wielded some form of
taebramh
. I’d created my first diamond instinctually on the banks of the Darinwel, perhaps guided unconsciously by the Sword or by past Bearers. During my convalescence in the Hall of the Outer Guard, I’d read a book detailing the use of runes and objects of power. Sage and Calliea had proven to be facile in conversation about both healing and the use of
taebramh,
though neither of them used it regularly themselves. So I held the process in the back of my mind, even as my
taebramh
uncurled languorously; I remembered the feeling of casting the last protection much like I remembered the feeling of drawing a blade or leaning forward into a run.

I looked at Luca.

“Be safe,” I told him, my throat tight.

“There is no glory in safety,” he replied with a grin. “But I will find you after we kill this beast, and we will drink to its death.”

I smiled, his confidence buoying me. “A toast to the death of the dragon. I like it.” Then I glanced over at Arcana. “Arcana won’t be within the protection, but the protection would have to be broken for anything to happen to Vell.”

“You have a warrior you can trust with you,” said Luca with a nod. “Chael may not say much, but he is loyal.”

“That’s without question. I’m just…letting you know. About Arcana.”

Luca grinned. “Perhaps the Evermage thirsts for blood just as we do.”

“I have not seen a dragon hunt in a millennia,” said Arcana. “It will be interesting.”

Luca laughed. Then he took my face between his warm calloused hands, kissed my forehead and leapt onto his mount, galloping down the hill to join the ground forces led by Finnead.

“The stones are laid,” said Chael.

I tore my eyes away from Luca’s diminishing figure and drew one of the small daggers from my boot-top. I tugged off one dark gauntlet and pressed the blade into my forearm, opening a small shallow cut, just deep enough to draw blood. It didn’t escape me that I’d winced at Vell doing just this only moments ago. She remained focused on her song and her runes, eyes staring into the distance.

I walked the perimeter of the small protective diamond, smearing my blood on each stone; for extra reassurance, I marked Chael’s forehead with my blood, and pressed my thumb to Vell’s forehead as well. She didn’t flinch at my touch, her entire consciousness focused on her windweaving and the wings. I drew a rope of my
taebramh
from the well behind my heart, and let it flow down my war-markings, careful to direct it to allow Vell’s power free travel both into and out of the diamond. My blood called to my power, and the stones flared, a white-hot line of
taebramh
running between them. Chael offered me his blood; he’d only pricked himself, a dark drop welling up from the pad of his finger. Lost in the rush of power and intent on building an impenetrable protection, I opened my mouth and he slid his finger over my lips. His blood tasted sweet, and the flood of his sharp icy power streamed into me like a cold mountain river. I laid his power into the protection, weaving it with my own, drawing ropes of shining
taebramh
up and over us in glimmering arcs, connecting each of the stones both on the ground and in the air; and when I was finished I broke my connection with the spell. I would be able to access the protection again, if I needed to reinforce it with more power, but there was no sense in draining my reserves before the battle. As I looked out from within the diamond, the air shimmered slightly; it was like gazing across a hot parking lot in the heat of summer.

The protection softened the next wave of hot wind, muting it to a warm ripple that would have been pleasant but for the knowledge that it came from a dragon’s wings. I stared into the sky and my breath caught in my throat as I saw the roiling black cloud of smoke, towering like the anvil cloud of a terrible storm. I pulled my scarf up over my mouth and nose; even muted by the protection of direflame and my own wards, being doused with dragon-smoke was not an experience I wished to repeat. Chael watched stoically, standing on Vell’s other side. The next rolling blast of hot wind brought a rush of ash and grit through the air, but again it was merely a warm current about us, and the smoky ash drifted about the protection but did not cross the shining lines of my
taebramh
. I breathed a small sigh of relief.

The ground forces now spread themselves in a long line two ranks deep; I glimpsed Finnead at the center of the line, and Luca beside him. Why did they both have to place themselves in the most perilous position, I wondered, my chest tightening with anxiety as another blast of hot wind flattened the sparse grass against the hill. Vell’s singing changed in pitch and her hand drew runes faster and faster, her fingers twisting and sketching at such a speed that I had to look away, slightly dizzy. I glanced up at the sky, just in time to see the dragon smoke and ash swept away before a strong cold wind, which rushed against the foreboding black cloud and stripped away some of its menace. But as the gale streaking through the sky from the hilltop pushed back the dark smoke, it revealed, piece by terrible piece, the great beast we hunted.

I followed the outline of the great serpentine form with my eyes, my heart beating faster as I measured the impossible size of the creature; it defied any sense of logic, and our warriors, in the sky and on the ground, suddenly looked tiny and vulnerable against the monstrous beast. Its bat-like wings, capped at the joints by long thorny spikes, sliced through the sky, each arcing stroke propelling the dragon a staggering distance through the air, generating that tempestuous blast of searing wind. I swallowed hard against the bitter fear rising in the back of my throat. The Caedbranr sent its power through my war-markings, but the emerald glow did nothing to comfort me. Scales the grey color of scorched wood covered the dragon’s massive body, the edges of each scale black and shining like the carapace of a beetle; and as the leviathan moved, its body undulating with each stroke of its wings, I glimpsed the dark red glow of a burning ember beneath its scales.

The dragon’s long tail cut through the thinning smoke, sweeping behind the beast just as I remembered, tipped with a mace of wicked spines. Its back legs were heavily muscled, reminiscent of a horse’s hindquarters, if one could compare the massive beast to a horse; and its forelegs were jointed like those of a lion, made for propelling its incredible bulk into the air. Almost unwillingly, my eyes followed the long serpentine neck, and I shuddered as I saw the dragon’s head. Its huge triangular head, crowned with four long arching spikes, seemed too massive even for its gargantuan neck, the ash-gray of its body darkening to gleaming, sinister black. Its eyes were slits of scarlet, its nostrils slashes; but what struck me most were the teeth bristling from its jaw. Its teeth were black, gleaming black bone, mottled with scarlet, each fang large enough for me to see even at this distance; and as I watched, the dragon, still at least a league away, opened its massive jaw and bellowed a tongue of flame.