Chapter 11

CHAPTER 11

E sta landed at the same time I did, but I wasted no time cutting the magic off me and sprinting toward my attacker.

He was also running toward me, a grin on his damn face.

"You shouldn't be here," I told him right before I hugged him hard.

"I rather think he was right on time," Owen supplied as he landed near us, traces of his green power still around him. "It may or may not have been my idea to mess with you a little."

Krew hugged me back equally as hard. "I wanted to come, brother."

Smoke came at either side of us, and I spun to find Esta there, in her dragon form, looking like she was ready to crispify my brother, the king of Wylan.

"Krew," I laughed. "Next time warn Esta, would you? You are lucky you didn't get eaten."

Krew gave her a nod of his head. "Apologies, Your Gr—" his words trailed off as he took in her size, in all her dragon glory. His wide eyes met mine before he let out a choke of a laugh.

"I know," I told him. "I so know."

Esta was still glaring, so I sent some tendrils of warmth racing along her skin and wrapping around her scales. A peace offering.

Esta shifted back, smacking me with her wing in the head as she spun, only to cross her human arms and roll her eyes at me. "What is it with you Wylan men? You see a dragon for the first time and you smile."

"With joy, sweetheart," I explained to her. "Dragons exist. That's something to be excited about."

She squinted at me. "Fine."

Krew reached out his hand, "Sincere apologies, though, Your Majesty. I did not mean to laugh. Just truly shocked to see your dragon form for the first time."

Esta's eyes went from mine to his. "Welcome to Dra Skor, King of Wylan."

"We would have let you all know ahead of time, but my wife insisted we did not."

"And he always listens to his wife," Owen provided, giving Krew a slap on the back.

Krew's eyes met mine as he said, "Happy wife, happy life, I've learned." Krew gestured for the head of his guard who handed over a flask he tossed at me. "You stink, brother."

"I imagine I do. Owen tried to take my head off."

"Nonsense," Owen argued. "I may not be the smartest man in the realm, but I don't particularly wish to be a sharpening post for dragon talons any time soon."

Esta tried and failed not to smile.

Malachi, who had walked over with Amory, took the flask from me and helped himself to a drink.

Why was everyone always stealing my whiskey?

"Owen and Keir, clean up. Let's have lunch," Amory offered.

My brother was in Dra Skor. I couldn't believe it. We had to train the others, question the men on the ship, and had much to discuss, but for this moment, all the things we needed to accomplish could wait. My brother was here.

The unbelievably turquoise water of The Pit sloshed against my boots. I was pacing in the water, explaining what needed done to change Whit back. Training the group of six men who would be working with Emric and me in healing Dra Skor. If we could all manage to heal one shifter a day, things in Dra Skor were rapidly about to change.

I only wished the traitor would be unmasked before the majority of Dra Skor was healed. Whoever our threat was, they were causing enough damage in one form, I didn't want to unknowingly give them the advantage of two.

"You will need to grab hold and yank on your own magic to get the poison out of the shifters," I finished explaining. "Remember to think of it not as destroying the poison, rather moving it out of them. You must seek it out first, then move it." However the poison had been created, it was safe to say it had to be infused with iron somehow. "The shifters will speak to you as you send the magic at them, as we believe it helps the process along. For them to be using an aspect of their shifting powers that is not stuck."

Whit sat in the water with me, the fox who seemed to guard The Pit and two wolves waiting nearby. I was going to change Whit back, and then the fox and wolves would hopefully be healed as well as practice rounds for my trainees.

"Clear your thoughts, focus solely on seeking out then moving the poison within them. A concentrated attack."

It took me a few minutes to seek out all the poison within Whit .

In the full moon eve, there sat she, Whit sent me. I instinctively knew he also sent it to the others.

"Back to this?" I asked him. "The sea shanties?"

"Is there ever a bad time for a sea shanty?" Emric called out.

"Yes," I responded, but grunted immediately after, as the sharpening of the poison hit my powers. We were almost there.

No longer a guest, a fullness of breast.

"Quest," I corrected through gritted teeth.

I haven't been able to appreciate a woman in nine years.

Emric's voice rang out, "Priorities, Keir. Breasts over quests!"

"And yet you came to Dra Skor with me," I jested.

It does appear you got a twofer out of that deal, Your Grace, Whit sent to only me.

I ignored him. If he was going to make a crude comment about Esta's breasts, no matter how much I did appreciate them, he was going to find his human jaw quite sore. I sent him one look which had him ducking his head in apology.

"Would you like my help?" Krew asked from where he stood leaning against a tree with a navy trunk and watching closely.

I shook my head. "No. They need to know they can do it on their own. I'm almost there. If the rest of you could manage to act like adults for even half a moment." I reached out and grabbed ahold of my own magic, yanking hard.

There were multiple gasps from the men on shore.

And there, falling back into the water was Whit. He had dark hair and dark eyes, a wide grin on his face as he looked at his hands. "Unbelievable."

I allowed one of the others to send their Enchantment at the poison mass in the water, explaining that it had to be destroyed. I reached a hand down for Whit.

He leaned in and gave me a hug as soon as he was back on his feet. "Thank you, Keir. "

I hugged him back. "I am only sorry we couldn't have gotten to you sooner."

"I had faith you'd get to me eventually, Prince," Whit laughed. "And gods you're tall."

"Gotta say it," Emric said as he moved to give Whit a clap of a hug. "You are a little older than I thought you'd be."

"What is age anyway? When we were all frozen in ours for years? I should be older yet."

"Valid point," Emric laughed.

Feeling he would pass out soon, I did Whit the favor of drying his clothes as soon as we moved to shore.

It took close to an hour and a little coaching, but all three of the other shifters, shifters chosen for the first lottery day, were healed. Four total shifters were changed this day. I inhaled deeply taking in the blue hues of The Pit. I'd used a fair amount of magic but was also far from exhaustion.

"Why didn't you let me help?" Krew asked, bumping my elbow to his.

"I want your help. Just not here," I said quietly. "I sent Esta to find someone I need your help healing."

Krew rubbed his hands together. "So, I finally get to do something?"

We'd stayed up entirely too late talking the night before. I knew he was plenty busy in Wylan. And as far as we both knew, there were no people from Corsha hiding out in Wylan. And if they weren't in Wylan, then where were they? Where had an entire country of people fled to? Granted there could be a few Corshans in Wylan, but an entire country full of people would be damn hard to hide.

Maybe a few more Agrian spies were still in Wylan too, but even then, they were there for help and information, not harm.

I now knew there was a team of Wylan Enchanted set to sail to Brakken in a few weeks. Since their Enchantment was wrapped up in their water source, it stood to reason that Brakken might be the easiest country to fix. Three of the five countries in the realm were beginning to heal.

Too much was going on, yet here I stood on Dra Skor soil next to Krew. How much things had changed in just a year's time. We were unraveling the evil my father had suffocated the entire realm with one shifter at a time.

"Too bad your trip isn't longer," I told him. "With the two of us together, we'd have the whole damn country fixed in a few weeks."

Krew laughed. "We do make a good team, do we not?"

Esta landed just as a few shifters arrived, taking in the four shifters now in their human forms. Whit had already passed out. The others were close, a carriage waiting just outside The Pit to take them to the castle to finish healing.

Esta let out a roar of approval just before the canine shifters sent up a howl that made every hair on my neck stand up.

"It is a good day for Dra Skor," Krew said with a grin.

"It is a good day for the realm," I agreed.

We landed at The Drak, Nyx meeting us in his dragon form. The queen's cousin Samori was already there stamping around also.

Krew muttered to me, taking in the rougher looking dragons, "Your dragon queen is definitely... smoother looking."

Esta shifted into her human form to supply, "I'm going to take that as a compliment."

Krew gave her a nod of his head. "I meant it as such. I didn't know if you would take to the word pretty being used to describe a dragon."

She was finding it hard not to like my brother, even if he was king of her biggest and longest rival. "I wouldn't hate it. "

So four shifters healed isn't enough for you today, Princey? Nyx asked.

"Not today. Not with my brother here." We had sent Emric back with the others. This was personal. And an experiment of sorts. It was not the lottery order, but being close to the queen of Dra Skor had its perks. As long as I healed the canines at The Pit, anything I did after that was superfluous.

My eyes went to Samori behind Nyx as he climbed a low hanging tree branch. I had no idea how it didn't break under his weight. Every time I had ever seen him out flying, he'd been flying like hell itself was nipping at his heels, randomly doing dips and dives. I think it was just how he was. Stillness was not something Samori did.

Nyx gave his head a shake and stared at me. What does that mean?

Owen snorted. "That means it's time for Dra Skor to see what the Valanova brothers can do together."

I looked over at him. "We might need your help, so don't get too cocky yet."

He opened his jacket and immediately handed the whiskey flask over to Esta. "Would you mind holding my whiskey, Your Highness?"

Esta gave me the most incredulous look, having no idea what to do with Owen. With a man who asked a queen to hold his whiskey.

None of the rest of us knew what to do with him either.

A cracking noise demanded all our attention. The tree branch finally broke and Samori plopped into the purple water.

Nyx let out a roar of a laugh while Samori seemed unbothered.

Stomping beats soon thundered into The Drak sending calm ripples across the lake as Kian and Savanna arrived. It was weird not seeing them at the shore. As I understood it, the land dragons preferred their caves and lairs to be near the shore, where they felt called to protect from.

You rang, Princey Poo? Kian called out.

"Please tell me he will be like this in his human form too," I said to Esta, taking the flask for a quick drink before handing it back to her.

"Oh yes," she agreed. "He's a pain in the butt in all forms."

As I moved to head into the water, she pulled on my arm stopping me. "Keir."

"Yes?"

"No burn out today."

I cocked my head. "Is that an order?"

"Yes," she snapped.

"Worried about me, sweetheart?"

"Yes," she said the same exact way.

I winked at her. "Don't be. Krew is here."

"Everyone keeps saying that but?—"

"No buts, just watch."

Our conversation ended up being over because I got shoved by a dragon head of the land variety. Is Nyx serious? You want to try to heal us today?

I laughed and shoved him off. "Yes. I've wanted to heal you for a while, old friend. And I need you to hurry up and recover so we can go wave riding soon."

"Deal," he huffed, his breath smelling absolutely horrible.

Can I watch Kian go first? Savanna asked me, stomping from one foot to the other.

I could see she was nervous, so I gestured to Krew that I needed a moment and went over to speak to her. "It's not going to hurt. It will tingle. Do you trust me?"

Yes.

"Let me show you." I sent out my Enchantment to her front talons. Not in warmth, but as if seeking out poison so that it would feel exactly the same as the real healing.

It doesn't hurt, she confirmed. Kind of feels nice, actually.

"Exactly," Esta muttered under her breath.

Owen made a choking sound from behind me.

All of these people were too much today. And here I was, just trying to get things done. "I promise my best to not hurt you, Savanna. But please do watch us heal Kian so you feel more comfortable."

She pressed her large snout into my chest, and I ignored her slimy nostrils. Thank you, Keir.

I turned to Krew with a smirk on my face.

"Ready to do this?" he asked me.

I nodded. "It's going to take a minute to seek out all the poison."

Krew shot me a cocky grin. "No, it'll take you a minute to seek out all the poison."

"Ready, Kian?"

He gave us a little roar and shook his body as his affirmative response.

Releasing our magic at the same time, we sent a decent amount at Kian, wrapping around him and making him glow instantly.

Krew was sending his to seek out the poison and strengthen mine at the same time. Sure enough, in only a little more than a minute, I felt that sharpening on our magic.

"Ready?" I asked Krew.

"Dammit it's heavy," he offered, taking one step back.

"It always is," I responded.

And then we yanked, tearing all the poison out of Kian. I was right. It was entirely easier doing this with Krew, whose magic could combine with my own.

Owen took care of the black mass floating in the water for us.

There in the water stood a young man with blond hair. Someone I cared for like a younger brother. "Good to see you in this form," I told Kian.

He let out a loud laugh. "This is nuts!" He spun around and tested out his human legs.

My eyes went to Esta's at the shore. "He is exactly how I pictured him."

Kian tucked his fist under his chin in a pose. "Handsome, you mean?"

"Young and full of life," I countered, already moving toward him. "You never disappoint, Kian."

He stopped and I could see the weight of the exhaustion fall over his face like a blanket. "Nor do you, Keir. Nor do you." I caught him before he smacked his head into the ground.

I carried him over to Esta.

"No burn out feelings yet?" Esta asked me.

She was starting to be a worried old hen. "No."

She looked to Owen before looking to Krew and then to me. "The two of you using your powers together. You're... formidable."

Krew shot her a grin. "We prefer it this way."

"Easier to fix kingdoms this way," I added.

Within five minutes, Savanna was also in her human form. She looked as thin as Esta was those first few days. All the shifters we healed did, for that matter.

I wasn't tired yet though. Not even close. "Hey, Samori?"

Esta's voice rang out clear. "No. Six is enough for today. He just came along to watch."

I turned to look her in the eyes. "Krew and Owen can do it. How about that?"

"Fine."

Samori let out a snort and then lightly pushed Owen all the way out to Krew, still standing in the water.

It took a little longer for Samori, Owen not used to using his magic in this way, but Krew and Owen managed to heal the queen's younger cousin. One at a time, I had laid the healed shifter's human sleeping forms at Esta's feet.

"Seven shifters healed today," Owen said as he rubbed my shoulders entirely too aggressively. "Going for bragging rights, or a record?"

"Neither. Kian and Savanna were just the first shifters who made me feel welcome here. This was personal. While Krew was here, I wanted it done. Samori was just a bonus. I didn't want us to work to burnout, but I wasn't tired yet."

Kian, Savanna, and Samori were moved to Serkan's old lair momentarily. Esta would send a healer to fetch them to take them to the castle with the rest of the healed shifters.

"I have something I would like you to see," Esta told us as we readied to leave. "I will escort you, Owen, and the Wylan king back."

"You can call me Krew, you know," Krew said with a laugh.

"I'm trying to show you that I respect all you've done in Wylan. And that I am relieved you didn't send your brother here to off him."

"And I am trying to show you that I am thankful you didn't off him. That it is possible we could all do away with formalities in the near future," Krew provided.

Esta's eyes went to mine. "Is he always this stubborn?"

"Runs in the family," Owen answered. "Let's go."

"Are the three of us too heavy?" Krew asked her.

But Esta had already shifted and blew a smoke ring at Krew as her response.

"Right," he muttered. "The dragon queen is pretty and very strong. Got it. Though I am not sure I'll ever get used to seeing that." Then after a moment. "But where does her crown go?"

I laughed. "Their shifted forms wrap around their human forms to protect them. So it's still there. Underneath the scales. I had the same question. I thought they'd all be naked when they shifted back and forth."

Fortunately, not, Esta provided, and I sensed the humor in her tone. It'd be far harder to get things done.

"You'd have my attention," I deadpanned.

Her response was to do a roll, making us all cling to each other, blues and greens of our Enchantment running along our veins.

We rode in a content silence for a bit, and the shifters who were running protection for Esta met us as soon as we left The Drak. Samori had been one of those shifters, and I realized my error. I needed to be more careful about any extra healings. Though in his human form Samori looked no older than fifteen, he'd still been helping. He was an adept flyer. Maybe just sticking to the lottery would be better, they'd be better able to plan protection for Esta that way.

I was lost to my thoughts as we rode, thinking of the lottery. Every three days we would heal four or more shifters. So we had a break now. The breaks were to account for burnout, and to allow the newly healed to rest, not leaving Dra Skor too vulnerable while they healed.

Next up would be Jagen, the former king and queen, and Morana. The fact that Zaire would have to wait for the next batch of four healings at The Drak brought me an unnecessary amount of pleasure. Though if he was truly loyal to Dra Skor, we could use another dragon on guard.

I didn't know all the cities of Dra Skor well enough yet, but I recognized Arava as we neared it some time later. "Back to The Pit?"

No. Listen.

My stomach lurched as she held her wings out wide and dropped us down. We flew low over the tops of buildings. I could hear the thump of music; lights were sprinkled everywhere in such a way that the entire city felt alive instead of nearing the end of a day. In the case of a certain area, people packed into a small courtyard together laughing and chatting.

"Is today some sort of holiday?" Krew asked.

She banked around for another lap, letting out a roar from the sky as she did.

Numerous people picked up their heads to the sky and cheered.

No. They celebrate. Today was the start of the lottery. Seven shifters were healed today. They celebrate you.