Her front claws curled over the lip of the damaged rock, drawing Asher’s scrutiny. They were darker, much like her scales which had taken on a deeper shade of bronze. As they had deepened, however, her specks of gold and silver had increased, especially along her neck.
Asher…
The ranger’s face dropped. Had he really heard that? The voice had been female and not a voice he had heard before. But it was familiar.
Avandriell? he replied mentally.
The dragon reared back, lifting her claws and head to the sky. Her wings fanned out, making her size all the more impressive.
“Asher?” Adan still had some caution in his voice but the ranger kept him back with an outstretched arm.
He knew what was about to happen.
Avandriell pushed up from the rock and beat her wings. She cleared the boulder and beat her wings again. Within seconds, the dragon was climbing into the sky, there to soar and experience her first taste of real freedom.
It was no time at all before she disappeared from sight but, somehow, Asher knew exactly which direction she had flown in. He turned in a slow circle, following the mental pull that kept him connected to her.
“What happened here?” Adan’Karth whispered.
“Energy,” Asher grunted. “It had to go somewhere,” he added with a shrug.
Backtracking, they eventually returned to The Evermoore’s western edge. Most of the company had continued ahead, leaving Reyna and Nathaniel behind with the extra horses.
Reyna looked past them as they emerged, concern marring her expression. “Where is Avandriell?”
Asher looked up, guiding their attention to the sky. There, against the pale clouds of snow, Avandriell glided through the air. He enjoyed the awe that illuminated their faces, filling him with pride. She was beautiful, graceful, and exquisitely fierce.
Nathaniel glanced briefly at the ranger. “Is she…”
“She’s bigger,” Reyna confirmed, her eyes the superior of the two.
“How can she be bigger?” the old knight queried in disbelief.
“It’s a dragon thing,” Asher told him casually, unwilling to get into it.
“Is that what the noise was?” Reyna asked.
“Most definitely,” the ranger replied, his ears still ringing slightly. “Adan, you felt it just before it happened.”
“Yes,” the Drake said, his eyes fixed on Avandriell. “She was drawing on an enormous amount of magic.”
“Perhaps it’s a good thing you stay with her then,” Asher said. “The next time Avandriell… grows, the effects could be worse. The last thing we need is the king losing a leg.”
Nathaniel whipped his head around. “Lose a leg? What happened in there?”
Asher mounted his horse and looked up at Avandriell with the same question on his mind. Had she really spoken to him? He could feel her looking down at him, watching him. If she could speak to him, the ranger knew she would do it again. And, though he would never admit it to anyone, he looked forward to the long conversations that would take them from dawn till dusk.
One day…
22
Where Worlds Collide
As thick clouds rolled over The Moonlit Plains, it became harder to track the sun and grasp the passage of time. There was only death. Dwarves, elves, Centaurs. They all swarmed around Alijah and they all fell at his feet, there to add to the gruesome foundations of the battlefield.
So many dead. So many misguided fools.
It angered the king all the more. He was being forced to kill his kin because they had fallen under the spell of Vighon Draqaro. Even Inara and his parents had a hand in this. Alijah promised himself that these deaths would be placed on their shoulders when it came time to punish them.
The king welcomed the snowfall, sweating as he was. He decided that it must have been hours since he entered the battle. He blamed the chaos of it all for losing his sense of direction. Multiple times, he tried to use his bond with the Reavers to discern the right path to the doorway, but every attempt left him vulnerable to attack.
Malliath had tried to help him, guiding him from the sky, but Athis and Ilargo hounded him in and out of the clouds. In the briefest of reprieves, Alijah would look up and see the dragons exchanging blows and illuminating the clouds with their fiery breath. He reached out to get a sense of his companion’s injuries and found them similar to his own, though his had been inflicted by a group of dwarves who had managed to push through his defence of Reavers.
Keep going, my friend, he urged.
Destroy the tree! Malliath fired back.
Alijah could feel him fighting through the pain, just as he was on the ground. It will be done! he promised.
I am flying over it now! Malliath growled, before Athis collided into his side and Ilargo snapped at his front leg.
Alijah dropped his scimitar as he too was wounded across his left arm. The king turned to see a dwarf raising his axe in the air, ready to bury it in the Reaver under his boot. Alijah quickly retrieved his Vi’tari blade and rammed it up into the dwarf’s ribcage, slipping the steel between his armour just as the dwarf had sliced him between his dragon scales. He cursed the clumsy dwarf and shoved him from the end of the scimitar.
Ignoring the pain in his ribs, likely caused from overextending his previous injuries, Alijah felt for that pull in his mind and followed it to Malliath’s location in the sky. The dig site was to his right. Then, using the most basic form of his bond to the Reavers, he commanded all those around him to close in on his position.
“Advance!” he bellowed, having them fight their way towards the pit.
After several minutes of pushing through the melee, a wild Centaur used its superior height to gain an advantage. Alijah glimpsed the incoming attack only a second before the spear was launched at
