Heir To The Nova (Book 3) (21 page)

“That glow isn’t just for show; mind you, the nebulia do use it at ceremonies all the time. It’s a holy light, you could say; with the ability to burn, if not kill, demons and undead. But it is a skill that only the most seasoned nebulia can achieve and is a great honor for you two.”

“Ok, note to self, no dancing around Bel,” Maya grinned, and I nodded in tacit agreement.

“Now,” Mother continued, “I believe that all you would need to do to retract your wings is to picture yourself without them.”

Picture myself without them, huh? Ok. It took a minute to really get a good image in my mind, but once I did, I instantly felt them shrink and retract into my body, almost moving under my skin. I reached around with my free hand and felt my back, and for the most part it was normal. No extra wings or a humpback or anything, just a tightening of the skin back there. Still not satisfied, I pulled off my shirt and used my mage sight to scan my back. It looked mostly normal, the only indication of wings were two lines of small downy feathers that ran behind my shoulder blades where the wings would normally attach.

I was smiling as I looked over at Maya and found her struggling with this one. She shot me a look of disgust. “Oh, laugh it up, why don’t you? Let me guess, you think this is funny because I got flight so easy and now I’m having trouble? Well, too bad! Winya, a little help here?”

Winya’s laughter filled my head. “No problem!” And just like that, her wings vanished as easily as mine did. Maya inspected herself before turning back to me. “See?”

Nia piped in, “Great, so I guess class is over then, huh? Oh well, thanks for letting me practice on you guys for so long!”

“Wait? Do you mean we were ready sooner?”

She smiled mischievously. “Well, duh. You two are supposed to be a bit smarter than the average newborn pixie, you know. Honestly, I just wanted to see how long I could keep you two on the posts before you jumped off. You lasted a lot longer than your average pixie, too. Most try to fly day one.”

“And how many do?”

“Actually, most of them can fly after the first day, just for very short amounts of time. You two will still need to fly every day to build up your strength.”

“Oh, I think I could agree to that,” I said, scooping my now wingless girlfriend up in my arms.

Later that night after another afternoon and evening of flying and resting and flying again, we were finally alone back in our room. Maya was sitting cross-legged on the main bed with her wings partially extended facing away from me. She had her vest open in the back, but still on her shoulders to keep herself covered in the event someone barged in, which sadly, happened quite frequently. Our bedroom had become a favorite meeting spot for friends and family alike. At the moment, I had my wings hidden and I was standing behind Maya trying my best to massage the soreness out of her shoulders and wings.

“Owie!”

“Sorry.”

“No worries, it was a good owie. I had no idea muscles could even get this sore. Are you sure you can’t mix up one of those drinks again?” she asked coyly.

“Believe me, I would love to have one right now, too; but the healers need all the herbs they can stockpile right now. So we are going to have to settle for this.”

“Hmmm, hard choice. Fall asleep and feel great in the morning, or get a great massage out of the deal and actually remember it in the morning. I think I’ll go with option two…ouch; yeah, right there.”

Her shoulders and whatever you call a muscle in the wings were bound up extremely tight. I was actually having a very hard time working them out. The idea of asking Alera up here to take over had even crossed my mind a few times. But Maya said I was doing a good job so why not keep at it. Massages require a lot of hand strength and we blacksmiths have plenty of that.

“Alex, I’ve been thinking. I think now might be a good time to make a stand, so to speak. We have personally been responsible for many victories against the Lifebane, but his armies are still advancing unchallenged around the world.”

“So what do you have in mind?”

“We need to draw him out of his hideaway and crush him. If this is what our destiny is, then I say we get to it.”

“I agree, and I take it you know of a good piece of bait?”

She smiled at me over her shoulder. “Xarparion. I know it is risky since the portals will be guarded; but if we can free our people, then that would be a big slap in the face for him. And it might be the final push needed to send him over the edge. Now, again, I know it’s risky…”

I silenced her with a finger on her soft lips. “It’s a fine idea and not as risky as you think. Rosa can make the new portal come out anywhere, and I doubt they have the towers themselves too heavily guarded. They will be concentrated on the old portals and the outer walls. With nowhere to go, the students are as trapped in their towers as the undead are kept out. It will take some careful planning, but I think we can pull it off.”

“So you like my idea?”

“Very much. Even if it doesn’t get him to come after us himself, at least our people will be free. I like it, let’s go talk to Rosa and Higs.”

“Uh uh, you can talk to Rosa in your mind while you finish my massage!”

The next few days were busy. If we weren’t flying, we were in planning meetings for the rescue attempt. The group of us commandeered a small room off the throne chamber and called it our ‘war room’. Rosa brought out her magic maps from the Enchanter’s Hall, and the bunch of us sat around the table critiquing the operation. Those in attendance were usually Alera, Higs, Hons, Rosa, Maya, and me; with Elsa included frequently due to her experience in stealth operations. The course of action that best seemed to fit our situation was something Elsa called a ‘snatch and run’. In other words, get in, grab the tower students, and run for the hills…quickly.

My father and I tinkered with the designs of the armor every evening, late into the night. These modifications were not only to accommodate our new wings, but also to adjust some of the base enchantments in light of our new abilities. One of the things he taught me was how to weave enchantments into items, a process similar to how one would weave cloth. This resulted in much stronger magic being incorporated into the item, but with some restriction on the number of enchantments one could place on a single piece. Out of all the sections of armor, both Maya’s and mine, the item that took the longest and gave us the most trouble was my shield; but we finally achieved something my father was satisfied with.

The day of the operation was sunny and cool; and in the large walled-in paddock that housed Rosa’s new portal apparatus, the various teams were preparing. Maya and I were sitting on top of the wall above the enclosure, watching the beehive of activity below our feet.

We were rather happy to just sit there and watch them. It was actually the first time that they let us out into the general public since we changed. Rosa felt we should mingle with the populace, showing off our wings, so that everyone in Sky Raven would become accustomed to them. Of course, the sight was a big hit with the children, and the questions and requests to touch our feathers were relentless. Maya was self-conscious as always, but after a few minutes, she calmed down and saw the wonder of it all through their eyes and laughed. Rather than viewing us as freaks as she feared, they were even more awestruck by her beauty. After the children finally grew bored and wandered off, we noticed large numbers of adults were finding excuses to amble by where we were sitting, just to get a good look. They just nodded and smiled or performed a slight bow. We were intentionally keeping our wings extended for just this purpose.

Finally, things began to turn serious below us, and we perked up to pay attention.

The plan we concocted required several teams of people to be effective. Captain Higs, with twenty of his men, would secure the ground around the portal in Xarparion. According to Rosa, it would anchor itself in the grassy commons directly between the Air and Water Towers. Thankfully, the towers were next door to each other, with the colossal central building looming as the third leg of the stool.

The druid girls would be coming and bringing Reggie in case of trouble. Lin and Julia had many friends in the Air Tower, so we reasoned they would garner the most support in convincing the air students to leave. Ryliss would be tagging along as well, primarily to provide some physical defense for the other two once they were in the tower proper. Alera had warned us that we could face any range of welcome, from happy to disbelief to downright hostility, based on the situation in the tower and how the morale and command structure fared inside. So we should not necessarily expect the wizards to follow blindly at first, nor a warm welcome.

Rosa made Ryliss and Maya throat scarves that had the same enchantment on them as Maya’s First Day dress so neither of them would appear as dark elves and cause even more distrust.

Maya and I were assigned the Water Tower. The other group preparing below was a late addition to our scheme, a strike team of dwarves led by Elsa. Apparently, when we first started including Elsa in our planning, she cornered Rosa and asked her to open a portal to the dwarf capital so she could grab some of her team. Their job was to find and retrieve the last of the magic supply crates from Warehouse 13. Unfortunately, as the guard force found out that fateful day when the school fell, Warehouse 13 is very close to the front gates, so the chances of encountering undead are pretty much a sure thing. I knew from Rosa’s thoughts that she wanted whatever is in those crates very badly, so she readily agreed to Elsa’s proposal. By coincidence, it seems a much younger Rosa had actually visited the dwarf capital in her youth so she’d had an accurate spot in her mind picked out to place the portal for the trip.

I snickered when I imagined the reaction of the dwarves when a magic portal suddenly appeared in the middle of one of their meeting squares. I suppose if one of your own, and a princess at that, is the first one through, it would salve over the situation. Word has it that she marched into the tavern where most of her ‘boys’ were drinking and slammed a two pound chunk of bacon on the table, shouting, “Who’s with me?” From the report I heard, she had to leave a number of disgruntled volunteers behind.

It looked like most of the preparations were winding down, but it was still another twenty minutes or so before Rosa gathered up the courage to speak to everyone. “Can I have your attention please?” Her voice was barely louder than normal, and I could see her struggling with the discomfort of speaking to a large group. I brushed Nia off my shoulder with a nod toward my mentor, and the clever pixie darted over and cast the amplification spell just as she had in front of another portal not long ago.

“Thank you again, Nia. Alright, could I have your attention, please? Thank you. As you know, in a few minutes, I am going to open a portal to Xarparion between the Wind and Water Towers. Once the portal is open, Nia will fly through and see if it’s clear. Since she is the smallest, she has the most likely chance of avoiding a trap if there is one. Once she is safely back and the coast is clear, we will go into phase two.”

“At this point, Alex and Maya will go through, followed shortly by Captain Higs and his men.” Higs saluted Rosa and the other guards sang out a savage bark of martial spirit. “With the immediate area under our control, Elsa and her dwarves have volunteered to do a surprise run to Warehouse 13 to grab the rest of the gear there. You all understand that even though it’s not that far from the portal, you are on your own, correct?”

Elsa beamed confidently. “Stealth is our business; we won’t be seen unless we want to be.”

Rosa nodded again. “At this point, the trio of young druids will fly to the top of the Wind Tower and try to make contact with the students inside. Having done that, they will hurry them down to the main lobby area on the first floor for evacuation. Remember, people are limited in what they can bring along; if they can’t run with it, it stays behind. Alex and Maya will do the same for the Water Tower. Any questions?”

One of the dwarves spoke up. “From what I understand, you wizards put up this stone wall around the towers in the first place, right? Why don’t you just take it down and walk through the front door?”

Rosa smiled, seemingly more comfortable with the situation now that she was in the middle of it. “Good question. If the students have followed standard practice, then they would have warded or trapped the entire first floor. Anyone who walked in would be walking into their death. The only ones who can remove the wards quickly enough for our purposes are the ones who placed them in the first place.”

Rosa continued, “With that underway, Hons and his team will then start their work on taking down the walls. Once that is done, the rescued students will be funneled back here by the guardsmen. Any more questions?”

“Yeah, why aren’t we taking the twins, I mean the dragon girls?” a guardsman in the back questioned with a grin.

“Remember this is a stealth operation. The silvers, powerful as they are, are a bit too obvious to use for this operation, the goal here is to not be seen.” The man shrugged, seemingly accepting that answer.

With no other questions, Rosa brought me over to the portal and gave me a crash course in portal operation and travel. She had added a number of new features; depending on the setting, the portal will run autonomously, or it could be customized for time of day, or even passwords. She also made sure only an enchanter could alter the base commands, so that a portal couldn’t be hijacked and used against us like a pirate capturing a ship.

“This should be fun,” Maya exhaled beside me as we waited our turn.

I turned and smiled at her. “You always say that.”

“That’s because it’s always fun when we get to fight alongside each other!”

“You know, I’m still not sure who the crazy one is around here.”

She smiled brightly as she fiddled with Winya as a dagger in her hand, like a child with a shiny toy. “Oh, that would definitely be me, trust me on that one.”

Nia came blasting through the portal in front of us with a serious look on her face. “The coast is clear! Looks like all the undead were either at the old portal sites or along the walls. I barely saw any inside the school grounds. Burrr…it’s really cold there, too.”

“Are the students alright?” asked Rosa.

She shrugged. “Didn’t see anything telling me they wouldn’t be, the towers are still sealed up.”

“Excellent! Higs, waiting on your orders,” I said.

The new captain smiled and unsheathed the sword I had enchanted for him, what seemed so long ago. “We’re ready; let’s go get our people back!”

With that, Maya and I drew our weapons and charged through the portal. We came through the other side in only a few seconds but time almost came to a standstill when we emerged. The wondrous Xarparion campus was now a gore-covered battle field. There were bodies everywhere; staff, guards, wizards, undead, horses, and even some small children. Here and there, small flocks of crows feasted on the remains, hopping from body to body in a gruesome dance. In a way, the cold that permeated the air and made our breath come out in clouds of moisture was a blessing; at least our noses would catch a break. I was surprised that the dead were still here, I would have expected the Lifebane to have resurrected these poor souls into his foul army. The only thing I could think of was he left them here as a warning of sorts.

Maya reached out and squeezed my hand reassuringly and murmured, “Oh, yes, there will be a day of judgment for this.”

Higs and his men grimly filed out of the portal behind us and took their places, forming a perimeter around the portal. The dwarves, Elsa at the lead, followed and silently made their way to their objective with the map Rosa gave them. Finally, the girls came out with Hons and his team.

“Not the same as any of us remember it, is it?” said Hons hollowly.

“No, it isn’t.”

He cringed a bit as his hands formed into fists. “They are going to pay for this, I promise you that.”

“In time, Hons,” Lin growled. “Right now, we need to free our people before the undead know we’re here.”

“Right, sorry; we will get to work then.” Hons and the others went to work on the Wind Tower leaving the druids with us.

“Have fun you three,” said Maya.

“Have fun she says, when they get the Water Tower and we’re stuck with the jackass wind users,” Lin spat on the ground and groused as they stalked off. I looked at Nia and motioned for her to go with them. She nodded and did so without complaint.

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Ryliss

Jules, Lin and I took on hawk forms; the trip up to the top of the Wind Tower was hardly a few beats of our wings to reach. The top of this tower had a pointed roof, sheathed in some form of coppery metal. A central flagpole projected from the top with the now ragged banner of the Wind Tower drooping heavily in the light breeze. With no apparent entrance there, we had to land on the topmost balcony overlooking Central and the portal far below.

In the past few days, I had been working non-stop with the two druid girls to make some sense of the revelation that Prince Alex’s mother had revealed, that I was a druid, too. Not the moves-rocks-and-summon-lightning type, but more the shape-changing, friend-of-nature type. I found all this very funny and ironic, seeing that I am the least attuned-to-nature dark elf that I know. Julia says that the Earth Mother picks her servants, not the other way around; so I must have a purpose in life that is yet hidden.

I do know that the more time I spend with Naurakka, the more in touch I am with her savage feelings. It’s like I feel her blood running through my own veins. Not a very scholarly explanation, but it is the truth. But there have been a lot of occasions where there has been no scholarly explanation during this adventure.

The wings that Prince Alex and Maya have acquired are most curious. Not having been raised around much magic, I am stunned that they even work. Neither human or elf bodies were ever meant to have wings; but then, who am I to talk–I’m a hawk right now.”

The balcony was large enough to hold all three of us as we returned to our natural forms. Lin and Julia as humans, and me as a dark elf magically disguised as a human; all of us in standard earth wizard robes.

Jules tapped tentatively on the leaded crystal door that appeared to lead to the interior. When no one answered, she shrugged and looked at me, at a loss for what to do next. Sighing, I produced a small bone dagger from my robes and slid it into the seam between the two swinging doors. A brief bump up on the latch released the doors to open inward and we walked inside, closing the doors behind us.