The Emerald Dragon (The Lost Ancients Book 3) (25 page)

I moved closer to her and held out my hand. “I have no idea if this will work or simply blow all of us up. But I have magic, use mine and your skills. Save him.”

Orenda looked to Covey and Harlan, and at their nods, then took my hand. I was dragged through her healing spell and saw what fought to take Alric’s life. The injury on his side was serious, but it was the poison from Glorinal doing the most damage. Orenda repeated spell upon spell, targeting the poison.

I felt the poison fighting back. Orenda wasn’t going to be able to handle it. I sent all of my hatred for Glorinal into the ball of poison killing Alric. Then I destroyed it.

Chapter Forty-Three

I felt the poison vanish from his bloodstream, but I doubted I’d be able to say how I knew for sure. However, the force of the spell releasing it also sent both Orenda and I flying backwards. Since the others had been close behind us, that meant we all ended up in a massive pile of arms and legs. I rolled to my feet first. To find Alric stiffly pushing himself up on one arm and looking at all of us.

“What happened?”

I ran forward and started kissing his face. All the pain and confusion I’d had about him vanished the moment I thought I’d been about to lose him. I didn’t care who saw, let them think I’d gone crazy for…Carlon? That wasn’t whom I was kissing.

“Who is that and why is he in Carlon’s clothes?” Tag had gotten to his feet after me. He was watching Alric, for that was who lay there, with a wary look.

Orenda slowly rose to her feet as well, her face was a mix of confusion, fear, and something else. “I broke the glamour. But I didn’t know there was one.”

“Actually, we broke it.” I gave Alric’s battered face one more kiss—this one he had the ability to return—then looked back to Orenda. “Orenda and Tag, meet Alric. No, he’s not Carlon. There was no Carlon.”

“I thought of him as being real,” Alric said as he stiffly stood up. He looked much better now, even though his clothes were covered in the remains of the green slime from his wound, and his face still had a few bruises. But even his sword wound was healed. Apparently, Orenda and I were very good at this shared magic bit. “And right now we need him to get us out of here before that damn mayor sends more syclarion guards. The last one I fought couldn’t have lived to make it to the gates, but they’ll send more when they don’t hear back from anyone. And when they don’t get this.” He reached back where he’d been lying and pulled out the emerald dragon from one of the faeries’ tiny bags. I wasn’t going to ask how he made the bag work, at least not in front of everyone. As far as I knew only my flying miscreants could use them.

Part of my mind immediately went into panic mode. He’d found my stone, that was mine, he couldn’t have it. But when I looked at Alric, I felt the power it had over me vanish. It was as if I was now aware what that stupid green dragon was doing to me for the first time. I swear I saw the eye wink at me.

Orenda’s eyes got larger as she looked from Alric to the stone and back. Alric ignored her and closed his eyes. Then opened them with a start. “I can’t fix the glamour. Not for anything.” He looked at me and said a few words and I found myself a foot in the air, then gently set down. “My magic is fine, I simply can’t glamour.”

I winced. “That may have been me. Orenda needed my magic to help heal you, and I may have been a little overzealous.”

Alric shook his head. He could disguise himself without glamour, but aside from his bad hair, he was looking far too elven lord-ish right now. Even the elven lord markings on his left cheek were showing, faint under the dirt and bruises, but I could see them. “There’s nothing we can do about my appearance here. We need to leave, now.” He looked down at the sword I’d been fighting with and took a step back.

I looked down wondering what was wrong. It was far more ornate than anything I’d seen Locksead’s men or the syclarions have. However, it was just a sword.

“Where did you get that?” The whole lack of glamour thing was making him pale, but he seemed to have gone another shade lighter as he looked at my sword.

“I picked it up during the fight, it was just there on the ground. I have no idea whose it was, but it must have been one of the syclarions.” Even Covey, Harlan, and Orenda were looking at me oddly. Tag wasn’t, but he looked as confused as I felt. “What? It’s a sword, people. Alric’s is fancy. Now that he’s not hiding it again anyway.” I waved to his and noticed they looked similar. Did he have a spare?

Orenda was shaking her head. “That looks like a spirit sword. They both do. But they can’t be real.”

“Oh yes they can be.” Covey peered over at my sword. “Never noticed about his, but yours definitely is.”

I backed up from all of them. “Would someone just tell me what a spirit sword is?”

The ground gave a sudden jolt and I fought to keep my feet. The others bounced a bit, but

only Tag actually fell.

“It is mine.” The voice behind us was raw and gravelly and once belonged to Glorinal.

We all spun to find Glorinal and five rakasa behind us. Glorinal was on a long chain
h
eld by the largest rakasa, but with enough slack that I knew he could reach all of us if his master let him.

One of the rakasa took advantage of our distraction by the mutated elf and charged forward. I barely saw him out of the corner of my eye, but the sword and my arm went up with speed and sliced the creature in half as it leapt toward me.

Alric swore as he engaged another one, but it met the same fate. The rakasa and these odd swords were not good companions. Although Alric’s action had probably been more skill-based than mine had. I knew I moved the sword, but I didn’t recall thinking it. It just happened. Covey and Orenda engaged two of the last rakasa, with Tag running an assist for Orenda. She looked pale and terrified but her people would be proud at how well she fought. Still, it took far too long for either Covey or Orenda to take down the creatures. Alric and I had an advantage with these odd swords, but if more came we’d be hard pressed to keep up.

Glorinal grinned and scuttled forward on all fours. “I will take sword. And bring masters glory.” He bowed to the lead rakasa. He’d paid for misleading them before and was back in their good graces.

“This time, we know you have dragon. We feel it.” The lead rakasa turned toward Alric, pulling Glorinal’s leash with him. The former elf whined a bit and tried to keep his eye on my sword but turned toward Alric.

“You cannot fight all.” The lead rakasa raised his clawed hand and twenty more of the creatures came out of a small crack in the ground behind Glorinal.

“Everyone get behind Alric and I. We’ll hold as long as we can, but you need to be ready to run.” Two more rakasa charged and two more were sliced down. Covey didn’t argue but she also didn’t look like she was planning on running anywhere.

They were toying with us. As if the lead rakasa was sacrificing his own people for some reason instead of sending them all at once. I was focusing on trying to survive, when the sword in my hand vanished.

“Alric!”

He spun and saw my empty hand. “Call it back. Someone is trying to break the connection. You somehow called it to you. Call it back.” He spun back to slice three more rakasa.

I didn’t know how I called the thing in the first place so I had no clue as to how to do it this time. I just thought hard about the feel of it in my hand. Suddenly it was there.

And another rakasa lost its head.

Glorinal wasn’t fighting but was extremely focused on my sword. I had a bad feeling who had made it vanish.

The rest of the rakasa, aside from the large one holding Glorinal’s chain, charged forward. Alric went down on one knee as one went under his defenses and clawed his thigh. But he rose immediately and ran through that one and three more. It took me a few seconds longer, but I managed to do the same. Covey and Orenda were still fighting, but we’d kept Tag and Harlan in the middle of us.

“We can’t keep this up,” I said to Alric as eight more rakasa came out of the ground and charged us. For a race of beings who had supposedly been destroyed, they’d managed to repopulate themselves very well.

A clash of metal boots running in step came from down the road, but they weren’t close enough to see who was coming toward us. Most likely the mayor had figured out something was wrong and sent reinforcements. Armored reinforcements. Our only hope was that the syclarions and the rakasa would take each other out fighting for the honor to kill us.

I was focusing on the next wave of rakasa when Orenda let out a gasp. One echoed by Covey and Harlan. I heard a few very colorful swear words come from Alric. I looked up, but instead of armored syclarions, a group of about twenty, elaborately armored men jogged into view. Rather, elves. At least if the markings on their armor and weapons were any indication. They looked like they had stepped out of one of Covey’s history books.

“In the name of the king of the elven empire of the west, stand down.” His voice was cultured and elegant but the massive two-handed sword at his side said his fighting wouldn’t be.

I wasn’t sure if he was talking to us or the rakasa, but the rakasa knew. With a roar they spun around and charged the elven fighters. Glorinal whined, but the rakasa holding his leash was the only one who held back.

The lead knight unsheathed his sword. The men behind him pulled out theirs as well and the area became a massive battlefield. More rakasa came out of the crevice to replace their fallen brethren.

Alric and I stepped back, trying to stay between the battle and our friends. It said a lot that aside from the initial gasp at the sight of the elves, none of them said anything. Alric’s face had turned to stone, but he was mostly watching Glorinal. I would have thought he’d be happy at being rescued by his own people but his reaction looked like he would have been happier with the syclarions.

Within minutes, only a dozen rakasa remained, and no new ones had appeared out of the ground. Glorinal pulled on his chain, but whether he wanted to leave or be allowed to attack the elves was unclear.

“You win now.” The lead rakasa didn’t seem too upset about the huge piles of his people lying on the ground. “We will get our dragon back and we will take you.” He spun back to Alric and I. “All.”

Within the blink of an eye, Glorinal and the rakasa vanished into the crevice and the ground slammed shut after them.

Adrenaline fled my body and I debated if collapsing in front of a bunch of elven knights was proper etiquette or not. The thought would soon be moot, as my legs were seriously thinking of buckling.

Orenda had no such problems. “Thank you, kind sirs.” She said as she walked around Alric and me to the elves. “Our warriors were hard pressed.” She did an elaborate curtsy, but the lead elf barely looked at her. In fact he stepped around her and stopped in front of Alric.

The captain took off his helmet. I think everyone still conscious drew in a breath at his beauty. Pale hair, far lighter than even Alric’s natural color tumbled out from under the helmet to fall halfway down his back. Unlike Alric, his high lord facial markings were proudly displayed on his left cheek. A high lord in the military.

“Alricianel Lis Treann Flairn Delpina, you are under arrest for grand thievery from a royal outpost. Hand over the artifact and we will not bring in your companions.” The lead elf knight looked barely winded after his fight.

Alric didn’t flinch but reached in his jacket and pulled out the emerald dragon. Orenda started to object, but stopped before she got any words out once one of the elven knights turned to her.

She might be an elf, and a full-blooded high ranking one at that. But these knights didn’t care.

The lead knight waved to one closest to us to take the dragon.

“I was referring to the artifact you stole. The glass gargoyle of binding.”

I think all of us choked on that one.

“I brought that to the elders, I haven’t been back since. Why the hell would I steal it?” Alric looked more winded than I’d ever seen him after a fight, but he also looked confused at the knight’s comments.

“Wait, they lost the glass gargoyle?” That was Harlan. He’d been staying out of things as much as possible, but that affront was too much for him.

“We didn’t lose anything. This person,” the elf captain pointed to Alric, “used a bag of human gold to bribe one of the few outside merchants we allow to breach our enclave. Alricianel rode with the merchant into the enclave. He then broke into a guarded facility and stole the glass gargoyle. Many witnesses saw him engage in this activity.” His voice changed and I could almost see him reading from an official decree. “Under orders of the king and queen, I have been charged to bring you back to answer for your crimes. The addition of this other artifact in your possession might raise the crime of treason. You had the obsidian chimera as well, yet have failed to bring it to our people. You have much to answer for.”

Alric had traded the obsidian chimera for the lives of one-third of the people in Beccia. He’d almost lost his life trying to get it back before the mine collapsed.

I knew this elf before me wouldn’t care one bit if I told him any of it.

The set look on Alric’s face told me he knew that as well. He stepped forward, handing his sword to the nearest guard, and held his hands out for the chain the captain carried. “I will have my day in court. This will be resolved.” He looked toward me and nodded. “This is the only way to clear my name.”

The elven guard glanced at my sword and me. “What treachery is this? How does she bear a spirit sword?” The disgust in his voice was akin to finding something slimy and gooey on the bottom of one’s shoe.

Alric opened his mouth to answer, but I had had enough. “I
called
it. Isn’t that how it works?” I showed off some of the fancy moves I’d modified from Orenda’s knife teaching. “Per your people, it belongs to the one who calls it.” I was making this up, but now that I knew what these swords were, some of Covey’s past comments about them came back to me. The concept of them had been an obsession of hers a few years ago. I had no idea how this one came to be lying on the ground near me, but I wasn’t telling this bastard that.