A blaze of sun-defying light shot right at Luke as his mist-white Dragon startled back. In a surge of power, Layla felt the Ephilohim pull a storm of magic down through the ether – slamming their wings into a shield right in front of Luke as Hunter’s strike found him. Hunter’s strike hit Luke and the Ephilohim, just as they opened a portal. All of it flashed out then, disappearing as Layla and her Bind were left breathing in shock with Hunter still before them and a ring of unconscious or dead Royal Dragon Binds all around.
And then Hunter looked at her with his insane galaxy-bright eyes.
And flashed out in a portal through the ether also – gone.
Layla and her Bound men were left in shock in the ruined fortress of Vittria beneath the cool white starlight as Hunter disappeared. She didn’t know whether he’d gone to chase Luke and the Ephilohim through the ether, or if he’d gone elsewhere, now that the last of his Royal Dragon Binds had been ripped from him. As she breathed hard with Adrian and the others, staring in shock around the overgrown hall, she saw Royal Dragon Binds gradually begin to stir around them. As they began to shift down with terrible groans, some gripped their heads or hearts, some sobbing as they returned to human.
Some laying deathly still.
“We need to see to these people.” Dusk spoke softly now as he nodded around the hall. “They may not even know who they are right now, since Hunter’s Bind was probably in them for a long time to make them loyal.”
“We need to find out where Hunter has gone and finish him, Dusk!” Rhennic growled back as lightning flashed in his dark violet eyes, gesturing angrily to where Hunter had just disappeared. “He’s just lost his entire army – now is the time to give him ourfinal strikewhile we can!”
“These Royal Dragon Binds followed a murderer for ages; they need solace, Rhennic.” Reginald admonished quietly now as he raised a hand, pouring a soothing wave of Siren-magic through the hall. As Fury put a hand out also, bolstering his brother’s calming inundation, it turned into a massive ocean, flowing into everyone there. Gradually, those who were sobbing stilled, blinking at Reginald and the rest. As confusion filled their faces, Layla feared the worst – that they had lost their minds, since Hunter had possessed them for so long with his madness. But even as a number of people stared blankly, a few shook their heads, blinking as if throwing off a dark trance.
“I still say we need to move, now.” Rhennic asserted as he turned back to the group. “Hunter is on the run, and we need to finish him while he’s still shaken from his loss.”
“If it was a loss for him.” Fury spoke darkly as he glanced to where Luke and the Ephilohim had vanished. “Thatfinal strikewas terrible. I don’t even know if Archangels could survive something like that…” And though Fury didn’t say it, it was on all their minds.Or Luke.
Taking a deep breath, Layla pushed that thought away, focusing on just getting through this until the battle was over. “We’ve had a lot of wins, and my trap was effective, but even in his current state, Hunter’s no fool. He’d run someplace he’d be strong, and overpower us with his own magic next. If Luke and the Ephilohim are alive, I’m sure they’re spent now, so they probably won’t come to our aid again. That means all our chess pieces are off the board on both sides – it’s just us versus Hunter now. Even so, I won’t underestimate him. And he’s probably still monitoring our Bind to see if I’ll slip up and allow him to know what we’re doing next.”
Just then, Layla saw one of the Royal Dragon Binds take a deep breath from where she sat, her gaze fixing on Layla and the group with clear intelligence. A slender woman with caramel skin and luscious dark hair down to her waist, she pushed up from the floor, approaching their group unsteadily but with regal bearing. As her straight dark brows frowned, Layla saw beautiful rose-blush Crystal Dragon scales flash at her temples and cheekbones with curling lines of gold, the same glimmering down her collarbones and breasts, accentuating her slim waist and thighs. Moving to Layla, she glanced at Dusk, then looked at Layla once more. Reaching out, her eyes were wondering as she stroked the Egyptian cuff on Layla’s wrist – which Layla still wore with Reginald’s pearls, enchanted to remain on her through all her shifting.
“Athena Aegypti Chryssali koua-hak hai Ishet Arlohaina. Nenna henti aea? Nennante hakne mea khris?” She spoke in a luscious alto as she gave Dusk a confused glance now.
“Holy shit.” Dusk spoke as he stared at her, his lips fallen open as an enormous wave of refraction-light washed through his hair and scales. “Holy fucking shit.”
“What’s she saying?” Rhennic frowned as Dusk reached out, clasping the woman’s hands.
“She says she’s the Egyptian Crystal Dragon Queen Ishet Arlohaina, my ancestor,” Dusk spoke now with tears in his eyes. “And she wants to know where she is, and how Layla is wearing her bracelet.” Taking a deep breath, Dusk responded to the woman in his ancient Egyptian Crystal Dragon language. Layla didn’t understand it, but she read his meaning through the Bind as Dusk informed his Lineage’s ancient Queen that she had been under Hunter’s Bind a long time; many thousands of years. As he spoke, her eyes filled with tears, waves of sad rose-gold light flowing through her scales and hair. But as Dusk explained that he was her descendant, she gave him a beautiful smile, cupping his cheek in her palm.
As she spoke again, Layla felt Dusk’s translation in her mind.
“It was like a dream; a terrible dream.” The ancient Crystal Dragon Queen Ishet Arlohaina spoke as she surveyed them now. “A Dragon as powerful as the ages came to me, naming himself Orrin Alumedi and asking me to be his Queen. At first our negotiations were peaceful. But when I saw darkness in him, he threatened my people of the Nile and all our lands and the beautiful peace I had built over the centuries… and I knew I had to save them. I went to him willingly to save my people from destruction – but then he took me, and Bound my heart. And I lost myself, far down into a pit of such darkness there was no coming out of it.”
Speaking back to the ancient Crystal Dragon Queen, Dusk held her hand as Layla heard his words translated. “My dearest Queen – can you help us? Do you have any idea where Orrin might have gone? Any place he kept you and the other Royal Dragon Binds through the ages that might be a second lair? We need to find him, and finish this fight while he is still weak.”
“Orrin Alumedi is never weak.” She shook her head with a warning glance now. “But yes, I remember a place where he kept us in stasis through the ages, except when he called us out to fight. Here, I will show you, though I do not know where it resides.”
As the Crystal Dragon Queen lifted her hand, touching her fingertips to Dusk’s temple, Layla saw power flood through her scales with a melodious sound – and then memories were suddenly tumbling into Dusk. It was like some kind of Dragon mind-meld, as the ancient Queen poured memories of a massive crystal-pillared space through Dusk. But unlike the place they’d found in the Thin Ways, this location was above ground, with enormous columns of selenite-diamond heaving straight up in a forest around a central space, like New York City around Central Park. It was night, the sky bright with a billion stars and a piercingly white nimbus upon the rim of the horizon. That nimbus was like the Twilight Realm though sharper, as Layla saw a hundred thousand impossibly ornate diamond-crystal sarcophagi in the location the Queen showed them.
The sky’s nimbus just the same as here.
“It’s Vittria.” Layla understood as she saw thousands of Royal Dragon Binds climbing out of those stasis-chambers to a tone resonating through the crystal forest – a summons from Hunter. “Hunter kept his army in those sarcophagi, and that place is another piece of the fractured realm of Vittria, that he found and used for his purposes.”
As the Crystal Queen took her fingertips from Dusk’s temple, Dusk explained what Layla had said. “And he kept us there for ages,”the Queen nodded,“never withering – his to command.”
“He must have used the ancient resonances imbued in that place from the Old Dragons to keep his army hale.” Rhennic frowned, gazing around at a few confused Royal Dragon Binds who had approached their group now. Others were still lost as they remained with hands over their faces or curled up with their arms around their knees, some still pale and lifeless.
“He hid them there,” Dusk nodded now, taking up Rhennic’s thought, “but he didn’t dare hide Nimir in the same place, in case one of his peons saw Nimir and got away, blabbing Hunter’s secret to someone who would know what to do with it. But like the cavern in the Thin Ways, that place in Vittria must have extended his army’s lives, tremendously. Even the strongest Royal Dragons and Royal Dragon Binds don’t generally live tens of thousands of years.”
“And Hunter lived here,” Layla breathed, glancing around. “Vastly extending his own life through Vittria’s resonances.”
“So he overpowered other Binds through the ages, then stashed them away to use them when he wanted them.” Adrian growled now, furious as he set his hands on his naked hips and surveyed the people all around. “Bastard. I always wondered what he meant when he said he had an army of Binds, yet always seemed to appear alone. He meant he had an army ofdisposables, that he popped out of their pods whenever he wanted them, then put back again when he was done.”
“Giving Royal Dragon Binds throughout history a bad name, and making other Lineages and the Twilight Realm High Court hunt us.” Layla breathed sadly as she stared around. “Adrian, we need to help these people. We need to find and finish Hunter, maybe in the location where he hid his army… but I can’t just leave my kin like this. The Intercessoria are the only ones who can find this place, but I doubt they’re coming back anytime soon… with everything that happened just now.”
Stepping forward then, the Crystal Dragon Queen set a hand to Layla’s arm, smiling sadly. “You must face our mutual enemy, and though I feel too weak to fight with you, let me help these people here so you may be free of worry as you battle. I know harmonics to heal these Dragons’ mental and physical wounds. We will convalesce here, for I sense a bounty of food and water in this place. And you may go with a clean conscience – and bring Orrin Alumedi down.”
