Somehow, he understood and released his magic and sank to the ground. His sobs were heartbreaking to hear and Kiernan dropped down next to him to cradle him in her arms.
Thankfully, he never looked up to see the rest of the grisly scene parading before her eyes. Some of the bodyshifters had tried to shift into a fish form that would have saved their lives, but were stopped grotesquely halfway through the transformation. Ravener’s conjuring must have stripped their abilities.
She saw the body of wolves. She saw pretty Katrin Allendale who looked as if she was asleep as she passed by with her pale, ghostly face frozen in death. Mistress Halloran, Jakob Martyn, Joshe and Jeni Falewir, professors from the Parsis Academy, friends—all drifted slowly past her. When the children and babies came into view, the despair became too much to bear, and she leaned over to the side and retched. On hands and knees, she trembled as her stomach muscles contracted painfully. The sickness refused to stop.
After what felt like an eternity, she felt Rogan touch her arm, and she brushed her hair away from her sweating brow and got to her feet.
She looked out over the top of the swirling bowl of death in time to watch Ravener and his Cyman Army heading east toward Haventhal. As they moved on, the Arounda Ocean filled in behind them. For as far as Kiernan could see, it was nothing but blue water outside of their shield. Pyraan was completely flooded and every living thing that once called this land home was gone. Everything and everyone. Gone.
They were all that was left of the Magical Kingdom of Pyraan.
Chapter 12
No Mud
Beck felt numb as he rode silently behind Kiernan and Rogan. For hours, he debated whether his grief was going to render him insane or just kill him on the spot.
Everything happened so suddenly that he found it difficult to wrap his mind around the reality. In a vicious act of violence, he had lost everything in his world. His family, his friends, his home. All gone. And now, the prospect of venturing into the unknown and vast land of Massa after a lifelong confinement in exile only served to exacerbate his feeling of aloneness and smallness.
He noticed Kiernan look back at him worriedly as had been her habit on the painful ride. Her green eyes, filled with such compassion, soothed his broken heart. His watery eyes burned with gratitude and a ghost of a smile lifted the corners of his lips as he realized that he really was not alone. He still had Kiernan, Airron, Rogan and Bajan.
“There he is,” Rogan said, pointing ahead to where Airron stood on a boulder off the road waving his arms to get their attention
As soon as they approached, Airron smiled and jumped down. “I didn’t expect to see all of you here. What happened? Is it safe to go back?”
Beck shook his head, suddenly finding it difficult to swallow. “No, Airron, we’re not going back.”
Airron tilted his head, waiting for him to say more and, when he didn’t, turned to Rogan. “Tell me what’s going on.”
Rogan cleared his throat uncomfortably. “I…I’m sorry, Airron, but the land of Pyraan is no more. Adrian Ravener razed the land and killed everyone.”
Airron’s perpetual grin slowly vanished as Rogan’s words registered in his mind. It would take time for him to process the news, Beck knew. He had lived through it and still couldn’t believe it had happened.
“What?” he asked softly. “But, we had thousands of shifters there.”
“We are all that is left, Airron.”
Bajan walked over and nudged Airron consolingly, but the Elf didn’t seem to notice the big cat leaning against him. “My parents?” he asked, looking at Beck. “Your parents? They are all dead?”
“Yes.”
“I should have been there!” he yelled, backing away from them. “Why did I let your father talk me into leaving?”
Before Beck could reply, Airron’s body shimmered and contorted downward, and he disappeared in a covering of feathers and wings and shot into the air.
“Let ‘im go, ‘e will be back,” said a deep voice.
Beck whipped his head around to the Cyman prisoner, Titus, who stood in the middle of the road with no bindings and his arms crossed at his chest.
Beck crouched instinctively, but Titus held his hands out and said, “Do not worry. I am not going to ‘arm you.”
“It’s not my safety that I’m worried about,” Beck growled.
“I told the Elf I would not try to escape and ‘e took off the rope. I ‘ate Adrian Ravener as much as you and want to see ‘im destroyed. If there is a way we can do it without ‘arming the Cyman people, I would like to try.”
“Why do you hate your leader so much?” Beck asked, suspicious of the Cyman’s motives.
“I will tell you, shifter, but let us first settle at camp and wait for the Elf. Then, I will tell you why there is nothing I desire more in this world than to be the one to drive a sword through Adrian Ravener’s black ‘eart.”
***
Beck was stirring Airron’s pot of stewed rabbit and leeks over a fire when the Elf reappeared. It was painful to see such grief etched on a face usually crinkled in laughter. Beck was just grateful that his friend hadn’t been there to witness the horror of their parents’ final moments. The image of his mother reaching out to him would be the source of his nightmares for many years to come.
“Do you want something to eat?” Kiernan asked Airron gently as he sat down on the log beside her.
He shook his head. “No. I’m not hungry.”
Kiernan reached over and squeezed his hand. “I hope you realize that we’re here for you, Airron. We are your family and always will be. You do know that, don’t you?”
Airron nodded. “You know what it feels like to lose a parent.”
“I do. I was only five when my mother died, but I remember her well and the pain of losing her.”
Beck dished out a plate of the rabbit stew and handed it to Titus. The big Cyman shifted on the log and took the food hesitantly. Beck didn’t know if it was his extreme grief or that he just didn’t care anymore, but he decided not to bind Titus. There was something genuine about the young Cyman, and Beck believed him when he said he would not try to escape.
“There is no mud ‘ere,” Titus suddenly blurted out.
Beck reached behind him for a few twigs and threw them in the fire to keep the blaze hot. “Mud?”
“That is all we ‘ave in Nordik. Mud.”
Beck looked up in surprise. “Well…we do get mud after a rainy spell, but the sun dries it out quickly,” he said, not sure if he was understanding Titus correctly.
“We ‘ave no sun.”
“Of course, you do,” Beck scoffed.
“We ‘ave no sun. The Mage’s dark arts ‘ave blocked the sun for many years. There is only cold and rain…and mud.”
Beck shuddered. How can something so intrinsic to life be absent?
“I feel for your loss,” Titus said to Airron. “I sometimes wished death for my own Ma rather than she keep living a life of pain and suffering as one of Ravener’s slaves.”
“Why do the Cyman people allow this?” Rogan asked. “Is there no way to defeat the Mage?”
“You were there, Dwarf! You saw what ‘appened with your own eyes. The Mage destroyed thousands of your magic people with little effort. There’s no fighting that.” He put down his plate and stood. “That is why I tried to tell you to surrender. It did not ‘ave to end this way. Your parents did not ‘ave to die.”
That riled Rogan. “The shifters did their duty, Cyman! If they had bowed down to the Mage, they still would have died. It just would have been a much slower, painful death, like the one your people are living!”
“I ‘ear you, Dwarf. ‘Tis just that the shifters were the only chance your island ‘ad. The only chance my people ‘ad. It will take powerful magic to destroy Adrian Ravener.”
“Don’t count us out just yet. We travel to the land of Iserlohn now with the hope that the King of Men can aid us in uniting the lands against Ravener.”
“Un
ification is your only ‘ope against the Cyman Army. You,” he said, pointing to each of them, “are the only ‘ope against the Mage. You must figure out a way.” He sat back down and speared a hand through his shoulder-length hair, clearly agitated. “Would you like to ‘ear what you are fighting to avoid? What ‘tis like to be one of Ravener’s slaves?”
They all nodded.
“Even though the Cymans are good people, they will stop at nothing to advance Ravener’s plans. They ‘ave come to believe that fighting for the Mage is what is going to save their loved ones. For years, Ravener ‘as brainwashed and dominated the Cyman male. One of ‘is cruel games is to parade the women slaves naked and chained together by their necks in front of the men as they train. If a soldier so much as looks up at the women or slacks for one second in the training, Ravener ‘as that soldier’s Ma, sister or daughter whipped raw. The female is left lashed to a pole for the entire night in the cold temperatures, and all the soldiers ‘ave to listen to ‘er cries for ‘ours.”
He took a deep breath. “The males are whipped and starved and tortured on a daily basis. We do not get much time with our families. Only enough so that we do not get too ‘ardened and forget why we fight. The Mage also did something even more tortuous on the voyage ‘ere. ‘E gave us false ‘ope. ‘E vowed that as soon as we defeat the people of Massa, ‘e will give us our freedom. It is a lie, but the Cymans ‘ang on to that shred of ‘ope with everything they ‘ave.”
He paused. “And, all of what I just told you about the men, it is ten times worse for the women.”
Kiernan let out a distressed breath.
“Why is it that you know the truth and can see through Ravener’s lies?” Airron asked.
Beck answered before Titus. “Because his father is captain of the Cyman Army.”
Titus looked at Beck. “Yes, ‘e is and ‘e is not fooled. ‘E has seen great evil at Ravener Keep. If there is a way to leverage this war with Massa to the Cyman’s benefit and spare ‘uman life in the process, ‘e will find it. ‘E is a good man.”
“Are there other Mages where you come from?” Kiernan questioned.
“No. There is just Adrian and ‘is sorceress sister, Avalon Ravener.”
“What can you tell us of this Avalon? Is she as evil as her brother?”
Titus’s eye glazed over. “In my opinion, the witch is worse. Ravener listens to ‘er and she whispers evil in ‘is ear. She is sick and likes to play ‘er own kind of games with the Cyman male.” Red spots colored his cheeks, but he went on, explaining how the Cyman people came to be through Ravener’s experiments with humans and Desert Trolls.
Beck’s face hardened into rock. “I have sympathy for the plight of your people, Titus, but I will fight them to the death as long as they stand with Ravener. I can’t let what happened in Nordik be repeated here in Massa.”
Titus nodded. “And, the Cyman people will fight Massans to the death until they get their freedom.”
Beck held out his hand to Titus. “Friends until enemies?
Titus took it. “Friends until enemies,” he confirmed.
Beck waved his hand and dirt rose up off the ground to cover the fire. “We should get some sleep. We have two days of travel before we get to the border of Iserlohn.”
Abruptly, Bajan rose up off the ground beside Kiernan and started to growl. Next, came the soft scuffling of boots on the road. Beck quickly stood and peered between the trees surrounding the clearing of their campsite. His jaw fell open. “Rory?”
The young fireshifter flinched. “Yes, it’s me.”
Beck ran out to greet him, the rest of the group following close behind. He grabbed the smaller boy in a bear hug that lifted him off his feet. “How did you escape the flooding?”
“I was looking for you and made it around the shield just in time.”
“This boy has the blessings of the Highworld, that’s for sure,” Airron declared, mussing his hair. “Twice now thought dead and then resurrected from the ashes!”
Kiernan gave him a hug and Rogan patted his back. When Titus came into view, Rory turned to face him with a glare.
“Don’t worry,” Beck told him. “He won’t hurt you.”
“Rory, do you think it’s possible that anyone else survived?” Airron asked hopefully.
“No. There is no one else. Pyraan is gone.”
***
Kiernan rode with the hood of her cloak up in the light drizzle of the early afternoon. This visit back to her homeland had her more on edge than she realized it would. She trailed behind her companions as they approached the northern border of Nysa, and her anxiety intensified with each passing moment.
Despite the nerves, however, her heart and mind longed for home, and old memories flooded through her. She recalled the big kitchen on the first floor of the palace and snatching freshly baked cookies with her best friend, Larkin Malley. She thought of her caretaker, dear Miss Belle, who became a surrogate mother to her after her mother died. Kiernan smiled fondly thinking about the Royal Guard and how they would all take turns teaching her to fight with wooden swords in the courtyard near the stables. She remembered spending countless hours helping the groundskeepers in the beautiful gardens or simply reading a book beneath one of the large willow trees. It had been a very idyllic and indulgent upbringing for a little Princess, and she had always felt treasured by the people of Iserlohn.
But, that was then. She wondered how they would feel about her now. After her father discovered her shifting ability, she was swept away to Pyraan so quickly and discreetly that she never had the chance for a proper good-bye to those she loved.
Up ahead, Beck stopped his horse and waited for her to catch up so he could ride next to her. It would be tricky on the narrow path of the heavily wooded forestland in which they now rode.
“How are you feeling?” he asked as she squeezed in beside him.
“Better when you’re near,” she answered and leaned over to kiss him, the horses dancing between them. He kissed her back, placing his hand on the back of her head.
“Mmm…this is something that I can get used to.” With his lips still pressed to hers, he murmured, “Keep your eyes up front, Falewir.”
Kiernan heard Airron chuckle, and it was a nice bit of levity that they all needed.
Beck broke away, but held on to her hand. “Kiernan, as soon as we deliver Ravener’s demand to your father, I plan to continue on to Deepstone and then Haventhal.”
“I know. I’ll be ready to go with you.”
Beck squared his shoulders. “That’s not a good idea. You’ll be safer in Nysa with your father and his armies.”
“I go where you go,” she said, fixing him in her green eyes to make sure he understood that she would tolerate no argument. Although, she looked forward to returning to Nysa, Beck was her home now.
“Kiernan…”
Suddenly, she alerted on the unmistakable whisper of several bowstrings being drawn taut.
“Hold!” she hissed to the others, and they all stopped immediately when they sensed the caution in her voice.
The Royal Guard is here, Princess, and it is about time. To think, a person of your distinction skulking in the back woods instead of receiving the royal escort as is your due.
Kiernan smiled at the hauteur in evidence in the thoughts of Bajan. As you well know, I have not had a royal escort in several years, my friend.
Hmmrf. Ridiculous human rules.
“Beck,” she murmured quietly, “make sure Titus keeps his face hidden.” At his nod, she inched her horse past the others to the front.
An authoritative voice rang out. “You have entered the land of Iserlohn! State your purpose!”
Guardsmen wearing the scarlet and black of Iserlohn materialized from behind the trees. Their tunics marked them as Nysa’s elite Royal Guard, also known as the Scarlet Sabers for the thin, single-edged curved swords they carried at their hips.
Kiernan stopped her horse and Bajan sidled up to her side.
r /> “Does a long overdue visit home warrant passage?” she asked coyly.
The officer in charge who halted the group strode forward, naked sword in his hand. “I will ask one more time, state—” The officer froze in his tracks when he saw Bajan and then looked up at her.
“Kiernan?”
She smiled at his impetuous lack of formality. “Yes.”
He realized his mistake and immediately dropped to one knee, left fist on the ground in from of him, and the Scarlet Sabers accompanying him followed suit. “Forgive me, Princess! It has been a long time since you’ve been home.”
Kiernan looked down at the fair-haired head bent in deference.
“Colbie, is that you?” She casually lifted her right leg over her saddle and dismounted.
“Yes, Your Grace, I’m now captain of your father’s Royal Guard.”
Kiernan laughed. “Royal Guard now, is it? Does my father know, Colbie Nash, that the last time I saw you, you were trying to steal a kiss from me in his stables?”
The young captain blushed fiercely as snickers came from the Sabers behind him. “Quiet!” he snarled over his shoulder and immediately bowed his head in front of her again.
“Please rise. All of you.”
As they did so, Colbie asked, “May I inquire as to your purpose, Your Grace?”
“I am here to see my father, Captain,” she answered, reverting to protocol. She needed to reestablish her authority with these men lest they decide she was no longer within her right to give commands as the Princess of Iserlohn.
Colbie impulsively reached out to move her hair from her neck, revealing her athame. “The rumors are true,” he confirmed. “You’re a shifter.”
“Yes.”
He backed away a fraction, and that modest movement stung. Much more than she thought it would. Fortunately, she didn’t have time to dwell on hurt feelings. In order to give the people of Massa a fighting chance of survival, she had to get to her father.
“The King never really explained where you went,” he told her. “At first everyone thought that you were simply away on missionary duties, but as time wore on, the rumor of your exile surfaced.”
“It is true. I have been living in Pyraan for the past six years, but recent tragic events require that I speak to my father immediately. Our business with him is urgent. Please lead the way, Captain.”
She turned and walked back to her horse. To her surprise, she realized that the Sabers had not moved. With her hand on the pommel of her saddle, she caught Beck’s eye and read the meaning in his look. He would remain silent. This was her homeland and her battle to win.