Fablehaven: The Complete Series (257 page)

An earsplitting roar drew Kendra’s attention away from the pond. The bellow came from Gorgrog. Astrids and phoenixes had flown out to confront him, and many of the tall dryads and lammasu were bullying their way through the demon army to reach him. The astrids and others had formed a ring around the Demon King, holding back his allies while a small number of them engaged him in combat. Although the combat was not nearby, the shrine occupied higher ground, and Kendra could see Bracken leading the attack. Warren and Vanessa fought alongside him.

As Kendra watched, Gorgrog hacked an astrid from the air with his serrated sword. The Demon King towered over his opponents, stomping and slashing as they tried to surround him. The attackers looked like chipmunks assailing a gorilla.

A woman stepped up beside Kendra. Tall and graceful, wreathed in light, the woman shone with ethereal beauty. Kendra immediately recognized her from a vision she had experienced while using the Oculus.

Rostimus dropped to one knee, head bowed. “Your majesty.”

“Rise,” the Fairy Queen said, her voice rich and serene amid the cacophony of battle.

“It’s you!” Kendra exclaimed, entranced by her presence. “It’s really you! Why did you come out?” Worry filled her voice. The advance of the wave of reinforcements had already begun to slow.

“I am acting in accordance with our plan,” the Fairy Queen replied. Her eyes regarded the fight with Gorgrog. “But I may have to deviate. Brave and capable as my son may be, Gorgrog is too much for him. I will not stand aside and lose my son as I lost my husband.”

“Why is he fighting Gorgrog?” Kendra asked.

“We must at least injure the Demon King for our plan to have a chance,” she replied. “Kendra, when my people retreat, go with them. This shrine will shortly be overrun.”

“I will see her to safety,” Rostimus pledged.

The Fairy Queen gave a nod. She turned to a slender, beautiful fairy warrior. “Ilyana, oversee the retreat if I am unable.”

“Yes, your majesty,” the fairy replied firmly.

The Fairy Queen drew a shining sword and took to the sky, flying without wings. Gorgrog, noticing her approach, sent Bracken tumbling with a vicious kick. The Fairy Queen swooped at the Demon King, and her sword clashed with his. Her bright blade looked tiny against his monstrous weapon, but the great force of his blow did not overpower her. Their swords connected again and again, each clash resounding loudly. There came a lull across the rest of the battlefield as many of the participants turned to watch.

At that moment, Peredor landed beside Kendra with her brother in his arms. The astrid placed him gently on the ground.

“Seth,” Kendra gasped, kneeling beside him. Her brother was a mess, his face pale, his shirt tattered, his shoulder and sides drenched in blood. Vasilis glowed dimly in his grasp.

“I need a unicorn!” Peredor shouted.

“Hey, Kendra,” Seth murmured weakly through chapped lips. “I got Graulas. We got the artifacts.”

A handsome warrior came and knelt beside them, touching the tip of his sword to Seth’s forehead. Then he placed a palm against his chest. Some color returned to Seth’s face.

“The poison had almost taken him,” the unknown unicorn said. “I’ve purged the venom, but considerable internal damage remains. I have stalled the bleeding and tried to stabilize him. You need to get him to the Sands of Sanctity.”

“Thank you,” Kendra said as the man hastened to rejoin the battle. The forces that had rallied from the pond were now being pushed back. The Fairy Queen had lost the initiative with Gorgrog and was struggling to survive his incessant blows. As Bracken sought to aid his mother, Gorgrog struck his sword from his hands. Kendra watched in horror as a follow-up swing whistled toward Bracken. The Fairy Queen partly deflected the huge sword, but the stroke still sent Bracken reeling to the ground with a gaping wound across his chest.

“No!” Kendra cried, feeling useless.

Warren and Vanessa frantically helped the astrids, fairies, dryads, and lammasu hold back the encroaching demons vying to come to the defense of their king. The Fairy Queen stood over her fallen son, desperately deflecting mighty blows from Gorgrog.

Kendra had no way to help! She was about to witness the demise of the Fairy Queen, Bracken, and the rest of her friends. If only there were something she could do!

Her eyes fell on Vasilis. The weapon held her gaze, and the sounds of battle receded. She had a peculiar feeling that the weapon was calling to her. She made up her mind in an instant. “Seth, can I borrow your sword?”

“Vasilis?” he asked.

“Bracken and the Fairy Queen are about to die,” she urged.

“It may not work the same for you as for me,” Seth warned, sweat beading on his forehead. “But sure, take it. I’m in no shape to use it.”

Kendra glanced at Peredor. “Get my brother to the Sands of Sanctity.”

Seth held out Vasilis, and Kendra accepted the weapon. The dim blade flashed to life, shedding a brilliant white radiance. Kendra immediately felt galvanized, her senses sharpened, as if her whole life had been spent half asleep, and only now had she truly awakened. As blinding light beamed from her sword, the demons nearest to the shrine faltered, turning their heads away and trying to shield their eyes. Astrids, dryads, unicorns, and fairies once again drove them back.

But Kendra was focused beyond the nearby demons at the contest between the Fairy Queen and the Demon King. All her most desperate hopes and desires—to see her parents again, to rescue her grandparents, to protect her friends, to save the world from this demonic invasion—converged on the antlered form of Gorgrog. He was trying to kill Bracken and the Fairy Queen. He was the leader of the demons. He embodied the threat they had to overcome.

Vasilis towed her forward with such violence that her feet hardly touched the ground. She skipped ahead in huge bounds, much faster than any mortal could possibly run. Demons parted before the intense fervor of her blade, and, as Gorgrog drew nearer, rather than fear, she felt elation. All of the energy others claimed to perceive inside of her seemed to have suddenly surfaced. She felt no hesitation, no worry, only an overwhelming euphoria at finally being able to help the people she loved.

Sensing her approach, Gorgrog backed away from the Fairy Queen and turned to confront the newcomer. Kendra rushed at him, demons blurring by at either side, Vasilis shining like a white sun. The demon stood many times taller than Kendra, but she jumped before reaching him, gliding up so that she was almost level with his head as their swords clashed explosively.

The impact sent Gorgrog staggering backwards amid a coruscating shower of sparks, a white-edged notch in his monstrous sword. Kendra landed lightly, Vasilis humming in her hand. Behind the Demon King, Kendra noticed the Fairy Queen chopping at one of the black chains dangling from his belt, attempting to free a dehydrated corpse from its tether.

The Demon King was entirely focused on Kendra, eyes squinted against the brightness of Vasilis. The surrounding demons cowered back. Kendra stood her ground, and the Demon King charged her. Guided by an impulse from Vasilis, rather than try to meet his blade with hers, Kendra stepped aside as he swung his sword in an enormous overhand sweep. The blade plunged deep into the ground beside her. Springing forward, Kendra hacked at his leg. Flashing brilliantly, her shining blade sliced through fur and flesh like light through shadow.

With pure white flames running wildly up his leg and side, Gorgrog collapsed heavily. Kendra leapt forward, and Vasilis glared like lightning as she slashed him with a fatal stroke.

As she backed away from the blazing form of Gorgrog, Kendra realized that the demon horde had grown tranquil. The astrids and fairies around her began to fly away. From the mass of stunned demons came a dark warrior who looked like a slightly smaller version of Gorgrog. His antlers branched more like those of a moose, and he wielded a great battle-ax.

“Orogoro,” the Fairy Queen said, now standing beside Kendra, a withered brown corpse cradled in her arms.

The huge demon rushed forward to claim the crown from the burning form of his father. While Orogoro reached for the crown, face contorted in pain from the searing white flames, the astrid captain Gilgarol landed behind him and, with a mighty stroke of his longsword, slashed off one of his huge feet. Orogoro wailed in anguish.

“Away,” the Fairy Queen cried, flying skyward, the corpse still in her arms.

Crelang and Rostimus alighted beside Kendra.

“Well done,” Crelang said.

“We have orders to take you away,” Rostimus added respectfully.

“Let’s go,” Kendra said. With the fall of the Demon King, and with Bracken out of danger, her euphoria had abated. She saw Bracken, Warren, and Vanessa being carried away by other astrids.

Rostimus picked her up and took to the skies. Crelang glided at their side. A flying demon belched fire at them, and Crelang pierced its neck with a javelin. No other enemies harassed them. The entire demon army seemed confused. Kendra began to hear voices crying, “Dragons! Dragons are coming! Dragons from the west!”

Rostimus brought Kendra to the top of a wide ridge behind and to one side of the shrine. Many of the other creatures of light already awaited them. From the high vantage point, Kendra looked out to sea, where at least twenty dragons were speeding toward Shoreless Isle. Kendra watched for a long moment, wondering if the dragons might make the difference. She had slain the Demon King, but a vast host of demons remained.

“Do you need healing?” Rostimus asked.

Kendra patted herself. “I don’t think so.” She studied the crowd around her, searching for familiar faces. “Have you noticed any of my friends?”

Rostimus and Crelang guided Kendra to Trask, Newel, and Doren. She asked if they had seen Seth, and Doren pointed her in the right direction.

Kendra found her brother seated beside Bracken. Both had already been revived by the Sands of Sanctity. Seth rose excitedly when she approached.

“I watched you with the binoculars,” he gushed. “I think Vasilis may like you even more than me! After you took the sword, I remembered that Morisant hinted the sword might take to you. I couldn’t believe you did it!”

Kendra hugged her brother tightly, relieved that he seemed all right. Then she turned to Bracken, and they embraced desperately.

“None have ever seen a blade shine so brightly,” Bracken said into her ear, making no attempt to hide his awe. “What you did was impossible. Not in our most farfetched fantasies did we hope to slay Gorgrog.”

Kendra released the embrace, feeling pleased and embarrassed. “What happens now?”

“Now we pray our plan works,” Bracken said, brow furrowed.

Behind Seth and Bracken, Kendra saw the Fairy Queen seated beside an older gentleman with a frail build. She held his hand and spoke softly to him, but he sat motionless, wearing a vacant expression.

“Who is that with the Fairy Queen?” Kendra asked.

“My father,” Bracken said softly.

“What?” Kendra exclaimed. “I thought he was dead!”

“None of us actually saw him die,” Bracken explained. “We assumed he had been destroyed. As we fought Gorgrog, Mother sensed his presence, but she hardly recognized him. When Mother and I recovered him, at first we thought he had been changed into one of the undead. But then we realized that he was cocooned in powerful demonic spells that kept him alive, conscious and feeling, but on the brink of death. Gorgrog had been wearing him as a trophy, dragging him around Zzyzx for centuries. I can’t imagine my father’s suffering. The Sands of Sanctity brought him back physically, though he has not aged well, and there is no sign of his horns. He’s catatonic.”

“How terrible,” Kendra said. “Is there hope he’ll recover?”

“There is always hope,” Bracken said. “Unicorns are among the most skilled healers, and Father had a resilient spirit. Time will tell. Mother swears he seemed to smile when Gorgrog fell.”

Kendra, Seth, and Bracken watched from the ridge as a multitude of flying demons rose up to engage the oncoming dragons. The dragons attacked without reservation, lightning flashing from their jaws, or glaring bursts of flame, or seething streams of acid. At their lead flew Celebrant, scales gleaming like platinum. He looked to be everything Raxtus had described—enormous, agile, powerful. Whenever his teeth or claws struck, demons plunged from the sky.