Fablehaven: The Complete Series (238 page)

“I’m all right.”

“You cope, but you’re not all right. I understand your worries and your pain. Kendra, I promise you that I will do everything in my power to protect you and your family.”

Feeling tears threatening, Kendra turned her head away. “Thanks.”

“These are dark times, but every generation has its challenges.” Bracken stood. “Raxtus returns. I was starting to worry.”

Kendra scanned high and low but could discern no sign of the dragon until she felt the whoosh of his wings as he landed nearby. Once on the ground, he flickered back into view. “It was a bloodbath,” Raxtus reported.

“Do any foes remain?” Bracken asked.

“None,” Raxtus said. “I searched carefully.”

“Roon?” Bracken asked.

“There was a throne in the main hall. A big, charred man now sits on it. If it was Roon, he’s very dead.”

“He had guards?” Bracken asked.

“At least two dozen,” Raxtus confirmed. “It must have been quite a skirmish. Severe losses on both sides. A boar the size of a hippopotamus was savaging some of the corpses, but I drove it away.”

“Any women or children?” Bracken inquired.

“No.”

Bracken gave a quick nod. “Let’s have a look.”

They glided down to the gate first. Inside the wall, a few armored men lay where they had fallen, surrounded by a dozen goblin corpses. Kendra allowed herself only brief glances at the deceased warriors. Bracken paced around the area, crouching, fingering footprints, rolling bodies, moving aside battered shields.

“Anything between here and the keep?” he finally asked.

“Not really,” Raxtus said. “You’ll see. It looks like everyone retreated to the main hall to make a last stand.”

Raxtus flew them up to the keep. The heavy doors had been blasted to splinters.

“There was magic at work here,” Bracken said.

Kendra instantly pictured Mirav.

“You can wait out here with Raxtus,” Bracken offered.

“I’ll come with you,” Kendra said.

The cavernous hall was built around a long hearth where embers still smoldered. Huge trophy heads of exotic magical creatures stared down from the walls—triclopses, wyverns, trolls, and strange horned beasts. Kendra regretted joining Bracken the moment she entered the room. She had never imagined such carnage.

A score of armored men lay butchered among a host of fallen foes. Kendra saw dead minotaurs and cyclopses, as well as a grisly variety of goblins and hobgoblins. Arrows or spears protruded from many of the bodies. Some limbs were missing.

Seated in a throne on a raised dais at the far side of the room, a carbonized cadaver presided over the massacre. A slain tiger lay beside the throne, fur matted with gore. Kendra tried to pretend she was looking at a phony scene on a gruesome carnival ride, but the smell kept persuading her otherwise.

“Quite a fight,” Bracken murmured.

“Yes, it was,” answered a masculine voice.

Kendra jumped. For a moment, she had a horrible certainty that the charred corpse on the throne had spoken. But then the tiger arose.

Bracken drew his sword and strode forward. “Who are you?”

“Peace, unicorn,” the tiger said in a slow, tired voice. “I assume you are no friend of the raiders.”

Bracken kept his sword out. “We came to warn Roon.”

The tiger sighed. “Would that you had arrived last night.”

“They attacked at dawn?”

“Two hours before sunrise.”

“Who?”

“A wizard. Several skilled warriors. Some lycanthropes. And the rabble you see strewn around the room. Minus the wizard and a couple of the more skilled warriors, we would have won the day. Roon always loved a brawl.”

Bracken stepped closer. “Who are you?”

“I am Roon’s guardian. He called me Niko.”

“May I approach you?”

“You wish to verify my identity? Considering the circumstances, I will take no offense.”

Bracken crossed to the tiger. Despite the deep, rational voice, it was still a tiger, and Kendra reflexively clenched with fear as Bracken knelt and placed his hands on the large paws.

After staring the tiger in the eye, Bracken backed away. “You’re a shape-shifter.”

“Correct,” Niko said. “Which is how I survived. I had retained this form throughout the skirmish. Once Roon fell, I pretended to succumb to my injuries.”

“Healing yourself internally while leaving some external damage,” Bracken said.

“You have the idea.”

“Tell me about the battle,” Bracken invited.

“First tell me more about your purpose here.”

“A demon called Graulas has taken control of the Society of the Evening Star,” Bracken said.

“I remember Graulas. Shouldn’t he be dead?”

“It’s a long story. The short version is that he’s healed. The Society now possesses all five artifacts. They’re using the Oculus to track down the Eternals.”

Niko arose, shaking his fur as if shedding water. His wounds disappeared. “I have been waiting here to see who might come. I honestly did not expect allies.”

“You wanted a bite of whoever planned this,” Bracken said.

“Something like that. You desire knowledge of the battle?”

“Please.”

The tiger stretched, claws extending. “As a glance at the walls will reveal, Roon son of Osric was a master hunter—a giant of a man, with a magnificent beard and a taste for mead. For centuries, this stronghold has served as his private hunting ground. He maintained two other secret hunting arenas not far from here. On all of his properties, he bred extremely dangerous game. The men who served him came here as apprentice huntsmen. To serve Roon meant to renounce the outside world. He never shared his secret, but they knew he had an unusual arrangement with Death. He drew the best to him. One to three perished every year on the hunts, but still they came.

“Blindsided, outnumbered, his men stood with him in the end. Old and young fought fiercely and died bravely. We all tried to save him. Roon felled more foes than any of us, first with bow, then with spear, then with mace, then with sword. His silver knife slew the pair of lycanthropes on the steps of his dais. But magic made the fight unfair. In the end, the woman whose arrows were fletched with phoenix feathers found her mark. In crimson flames Roon fought on, until alone, finally beaten, he staggered to his throne to die.”

Kendra had never pictured a tiger shedding tears.

“Tragic,” Bracken said solemnly.

“Hunting alongside Roon was the joy of my existence,” Niko said. “In the end, I failed him. There were too many foes, several of them powerful. This is a dark hour. Putting my personal bereavement aside, the loss of another Eternal is the real tragedy today.”

“Two left?” Bracken asked.

“Two left.”

“You don’t happen to know where we might find them?”

“To what end?”

“They must be warned,” Bracken said. “They still imagine concealment to be a protection. Instead, I will encourage them to travel to Wyrmroost, where Agad now resides. Walls that strong might protect them.”

The tiger began to pace. “Perhaps fortune smiles amid calamity. I am the single being in the world who might be able to help you. You see, I am the chief guardian of the Eternals, appointed by Agad eons ago. As such, I can sense the positions of the other guardians. Our lives are bound to those we have sworn to protect. When they die, we die. Except for me. I live on as long as any of the Eternals remain.”

“Can you be killed?” Kendra asked, speaking up for the first time.

“I can,” Niko replied, “although none of my opponents have proven clever enough to succeed yet.” The tiger regarded Bracken coolly. “Tell me about your fairy princess.”

“Her name is Kendra,” Bracken said. “She’s fairykind, and here to help.”

“I can see. Does she know who you are?”

“She knows enough.”

“And the dragon who was nosing around earlier?”

“Our ride.”

“I’ve never seen a dragon like him.”

“He’s one of a kind.”

The tiger growled. “Our enemies have struck a crippling blow. Roon was the mightiest of the Eternals. We must hurry before our cause is lost.”

“Tell me about the other Eternals.”

“I know of them,” Niko said. “I lack specifics. The wizards kept the details secret. But I can sense the location of their guardians. One of them was in South America for years, until recently fleeing to North America. That one is now in Texas, near Dallas. The other is an inveterate wanderer. That guardian has been around the globe dozens of times, but is currently in the Los Angeles area.”

“Both in the United States,” Bracken said. “That could be fortunate. They could be much farther from Wyrmroost.”

“But not much farther from here,” Niko said dryly.

“Can you assume human form?” Bracken asked.

“I lack that ability,” Niko said. “No humanoids. Closest I can get is an ape. But I can do a variety of animals approximately my size. I can fly. I can swim.”

“We don’t have paperwork to travel,” Bracken said. “We may have to cross the Atlantic using old-fashioned means.”

“How long will it take our adversaries to find the others with the Oculus?” Niko asked.

“I don’t know. We have an inside man at the Society, but he has been out of touch. Our problem is that Graulas may place the Oculus into the hands of Nagi Luna.”

The tiger roared. The outburst made Kendra jump, awakening a primal fear. She felt like her heart must have paused. Raxtus poked his head in. “Everything okay?”

“It will not take Nagi Luna long,” Niko snarled. “We must depart at once.”

“Who’s the tiger?” Raxtus asked.

“He helps guard the Eternals,” Kendra explained.

“Can you fly us across the Atlantic?” Bracken asked Raxtus.

“Like to America? Sure. We’ll want to follow shipping lanes so we can rest as needed.”

“How quickly?”

“What’s the destination?”

“Texas or California.”

“Carrying you two, if we go hard, maybe three days.”

Bracken turned to Niko. “Could you keep up?”

“No. But I’ll follow as fast as I can.”

“We’ll want to keep in touch. I’ll leave you with a communication node.”

“Very well.”

“Roon must have an impressive armory,” Bracken said. “Mind if we comb through it to better equip ourselves? We recently escaped from a dungeon.”

“Help yourself,” Niko said. “I’ll show you the way. Have you a name, dragon?”

“Raxtus.”

“Dragon fire would be a suitable way to consume these fallen warriors.”

“I’d be honored, but I have no fire,” Raxtus said awkwardly. “I’m something of a disaster as a dragon. My breath makes plants grow.”

“I see,” the tiger said. Transforming into a hulking gorilla, Niko walked over to the throne and retrieved an iron key ring. “Follow me.”

The gorilla led them out of a door in the rear corner of the hall, then underground by way of a winding stairwell. In the gloomy hall at the bottom, the gorilla used a key to open an iron door, then changed back into a tiger. Bracken conjured up a light.

Beyond the door they found a room stocked with weapons and armor. Kendra gawked at the racks of halberds, spears, javelins, tridents, axes, cudgels, maces, mauls, and an endless supply of arrows and quarrels. The armor ranged from heavy plate mail that would transform the wearer into a human tank to light leather pieces that would hardly hinder movement. Shields of countless shapes and sizes hung on two walls.

“Who is in here?” the tiger snarled. “I could smell you from the corridor. Come out at once!”