Page 20 of Wind and Water (Reign of the Witch Queen #2)

Chapter Ten

Liam

I ’ve been a soldier for my entire adult life.

For more than fifteen suns, I have trained and fought.

I have faced Venora’s army and her creatures on the battlefield more times than I can count.

Yet walking across the shallows of the lost land toward the black tower, I’m more afraid than at any time I can remember.

As a soldier, I am prepared to die. I am not willing to watch Wren come to harm.

Focusing on the magic that shields the centaurs, I feel their strong yet rough magic bolstering my spell. It’s my first time feeling the energy of centaur magic. They are nothing like I expected, leaving me ashamed of the prejudices of my people.

Both Martin women immediately called out the ugly way elves view the other species who share our world when we’ve made no attempts to know them.

“Are you alright?” Wren asks as we get close enough to see the smoothness of the seamless stone rising from the sand and water. It’s as if the tower were cut from one piece of black glass that sucks in the sunlight rather than reflecting it.

“I worry that I’ll not be able to protect you.” I’m relieved that I closed my mind to her, as I worry my fear will be reflected back to me.

“We follow the plan. The point is to get Momma back and stay alive. Nothing more.” Her voice is tight, and a slight whip of wind disrupts the stillness.

“Easy, sweetheart.” I keep my voice soft and soothing, even as a thrill runs through me at seeing her magic pushing to get free.

I stop far enough away that we can see the top of the tower. The evil emanating from it makes bile rise in my throat. I’ve never felt anything like it.

Wren whispers, “When this is over, if I never see that horrid thing again, it will be too soon.”

“Ready?” I wish I felt more so.

“As I’ll ever be. Though I feel like a cornered cat.” She pulls her shoulders back and stares up the side to the top. “Venora Braddish, I am Wren Martin of the human world. You will return my mother to me unharmed.”

The first shadow demon floats out of the tower. It’s soon joined by many more.

“They know we’re here.” My instinct to draw my sword is so strong that my fingers itch. Reminding myself to stay with the plan, and that a blade is of no use against shadow demons, I call my magic and hold the golden ball tight in my hand.

From high above, Venora’s voice fills the air. “Another puny human woman who thinks she can best me. I am the ruler of this world. None can command me.”

“I only want my mother. Send her down safely, and we can talk about whatever you want.” Chin up and voice clear, Wren shows none of the fear she must be feeling.

Pride for her courage swells inside me.

“Who is that with you, human? Is that another of Elspeth’s spawn?

Shall I tell you what I did to your brother, Riordan, or would you prefer to be surprised when you meet him on the other side?

” Even at the distance of an eighty-foot-tall monstrosity, her eyes meet mine, and the venom she feels toward my mother reaches me.

Hearing that one of my beloved brothers has fallen cuts like a knife deep in my soul. Still, I hold my emotions at bay. She wants a reaction. She uses fear to manipulate people. “My mother is the true queen of Domhan. My brothers and I have always been willing to die to serve her.”

“You will make an excellent shadow demon, and I will revel in absorbing your magic. I can already taste the sweetness of your power, like liquor one can’t get enough of.” She points to the demons flying in a circle around the peak. “Bring him to me.”

They swoop down and their shrieks rise to a deafening pitch.

I call the golden light, and when they close in, I put myself between Wren and the evil and throw the light while calling for fire.

My magic streaks across the air toward the shadow demons.

A wave of centaur magic blasts into the gold, and it erupts so brightly, both Wren and I have to shield our eyes.

Two demons are shredded to nothing, and their essence falls to the water like ash.

“Not possible,” Venora cries. “What have you done?”

Wren steps to my side. Her voice is gritty and commanding. “Give me my mother back right now.”

Face twisted with hate, Venora reaches through a magic wall. Her hand disappears for a moment. She pulls Birdie into the daylight by her hair.

Birdie squints against the sunlight. Probably blinded for a moment before she focuses on us and the long fall she faces if Venora lets go. She locks her gaze on Wren and screams, “Run!”

“Never,” Wren says under her breath. “Send her down here unharmed or you will regret ever being born.”

Venora’s laughter is sickening as she hangs Birdie half over the edge of the parapet. “I make no deals. The only way this useless human lives is if you trade your life for hers, chosen one.” The last two words are biting and disdainful.

“Why don’t you come down here and get me?”

Gripping the hilt of my sword and conjuring another ball of fire, I swallow my desire to grab Wren and run to keep her safe. Instead, I whisper, “Don’t take it too far.”

“You are so small. Do you think I have to lower myself to reach you? That tiny human mind has no imagination.” A bolt of black lightning shoots from Venora’s free hand. Sulfur fouls the air. Magic powered by the demon realm stinks of it. These are lessons from my youth.

Rather than attack her quarry, the bolt is headed straight for me. I leap out of the way, and the water explodes around us.

Unharmed, but wet, we barely catch our breath before the shadow demons swirl toward us.

There must be a hundred of them. It’s a wonder their shrieking doesn’t deafen us all.

The closer they get, the more grim the impending outcome.

It’s the effects of those who have lost their souls and their magic to the witch queen.

I must fight the sense that there is no good in the world.

When they are nearly on us, I scream, “Now, Wren!”

Venora shoots another bolt of her dark magic toward the ground.

Wren’s cheeks turn bright red. The water around her feet pushes back as the wind swirls around her. She screams, and the wind gusts upward as she pushes her palms toward the demons. The demons struggle against the gale, but it blows them back.

Changing her focus to Venora, Wren sends the wind up the side of the tower.

Venora stumbles back from the edge, similar to what we saw in the dream, her lightning shifts and arcs away, harmlessly hitting the water in the distance.

She looks at Wren with black eyes. “You want her, you can pull her broken body from the lost lands before my army kills your false heir and brings you to me.” She throws Birdie over the side.

Birdie’s screams fill the air.

Even with my mind closed off to her, Wren’s horror, rage, and fear wash over me.

I use my magic to slow Birdie’s fall, but I know it won’t be enough.

Wren stretches her arms wide and brings them together, her palms slapping above her head. The water rushes forward and up until it meets Birdie’s flailing arms and legs.

Centaur magic binds with mine to further slow her descent.

As the water falls back to the land, I snatch Birdie into my arms before she can crash.

Still thrashing and screaming, Birdie takes a moment to realize she’s safe. Her face is swollen and bruised, and her shirt is torn at the shoulder. She grips me like I might not be real. “We have to get out of here. She’s hiding them.” She points west.

Fifty yards past the tower, the water churns. There is only one thing that can make water move that way. The marching of troops through the shallows. The horizon shimmers, and one by one, elven soldiers dressed in black with a red V signet at the chest appear and march toward us.

Venora’s horrible laughter hurts my ears.

With Birdie’s arms and legs clinging to me, I grip Wren’s arm and back up. “We have her. Time to run.”

Wren turns, and together we rush past the centaurs.

I toss Birdie onto Wellon’s back.

She screams but hangs on to the centaur.

Once Jadar plucks Wren from the water and puts her on his back, I swing onto Belloc.

Lightning pierces the air, and the stench of sulfur comes with it. It strikes the water to our left, forcing us right.

Looking back, I let the shield magic fall as I’ll need my strength for the battle to come. A thousand troops rush toward us.

A black cloud of shadow demons swoops across the sky. Several lift a centaur, and when they reach a fatal height, they drop him.

My gut knots. They outnumber us ten to one. We cannot win in a full battle.

“All who defy me will pay the price.” Venora’s voice rattles the sea.

She hurls a fireball east across the lost lands.

There is no doubt of its destination. The magic needed to create such a missile is disturbing.

She should be weak from the conjuring, but she stands on the parapet and watches gleefully as it explodes in the forest where the centaur village is.

That maniacal laughter fills my ears.

Several centaurs stop their retreat and shoot arrows into the enemy line.

They are exposed to the shadow demons, who rush in and pick up two more and drop them. Their bodies break on the ground beneath the shallow water.

“Retreat! Retreat!” A shadow demon whisks by me, and a chill runs up my spine. A mad idea, not fully formed, wakes in my mind. “Belloc, get me close to Wren.”

Without question, Belloc rushes dangerously across the galloping centaurs until we’re next to Jadar and Wren.

Her eyes are wide as she clutches the centaur’s armor in a death grip. Seeing me, she screams, “They’re dropping the centaurs to their deaths.” The horror of it is clear in her tone.

“You have to get us out of here.”

“What? Me? How?” She looks around as if the answer will be found somewhere in the charging centaurs.

“The same way you caught your mother with the wave. It will have to be big, and the wind must push the shadow demons back as well. I’ll help with my fireballs.”