80. Kami

80

Kami

S hockingly fast, that's how I'm moving through xylem and phloem, through the magic of communication that belong to our green masters. The ancient trees in the leshy's forest lend their strength, a power I never could have tapped before.

I'm not sure how, but Malkar has made me a super dryad. On par with a leshy, maybe.

Well…maybe not. Leshy's are almost godlike in their territories. And this is not my forest, yet it's one the leshy shares without limit.

For that I thank him.

My delusions of grandeur aside, I'm soon surging through the woods all around, my concentration on Folas allowing me/us/the trees to sense what I'm searching for.

I find him near the apothecary in Lancer, along with six or seven dozen mercenaries and soldiers. A small army is converging on us one powerful step at a time, too close for comfort .

Folas lingers at the back of the pack, and it looks like he plans to let them do all the work.

He's joking with some of Enwiss's companions as they stroll through southeastern Lancer like they haven't a care in the world.

I want so badly to end them.

Unfortunately, I don't see Rilitar or Enwiss with this lot. They appear to stick to the plan to let Folas and his evil henchmen end us first.

There are enough savage elves and battle mages present that I know this won't be easy no matter how powerful Malkar thinks we are.

First though, to even the playing field.

I zero in on Folas's ears, and a red gem winks at me.

As if it's alive.

Folas grabs his ear and frowns, rubbing the high point where the gem is set. He's got several stones in both ears, affording him power he doesn't deserve.

Killing him outright would be ideal, but I highly doubt he'll be that easy to take down. Those stones and gems he wears are for more than decoration.

They allow him to resist magical injury, or so Malkar muttered at some point while cursing the elf. So I know I won't be able to simply zap him even if I did have the power.

Perhaps if he's distracted, though, I can wind through and steal the stone?

I'll need to come in from behind them.

"Hmm. I sense something present that doesn't belong," he says casually and lifts his hands.

Magic swirls over his fingertips, so I burrow back inside the trees, as deeply as I can.

I'm nothing but bark and leaves, roots and stems. My spirit that of the forest .

Part of me hears the guys asking me questions, but if I answer, I'll alert Folas that I'm much more than a tree.

After a few moments, his attention moves on.

The group is moving faster. If I don't make a move soon, they'll be on us, and we'll be down two magic users. Too many bad guys versus five "good" monsters.

I'm honestly not sure if we classify as good, but whatever keeps me breathing feels good to me, and my guys— my guys, how about that?—have been plenty good to me.

I let the roots elongate, trailing behind Folas and the pair of fire mages with him.

The trees don't like fire mages, and I share their feelings. I'm going to be having nightmares for ages after my time with Beyrthnel.

Even now I have to force myself to forget it, because if I think too hard on all that he showed me, I'll give up before we even try fighting this battle.

I shift inside the tree and let myself end a root and sharpen it, needing something to pierce Folas's ear to recover that gem. Once I've gotten the gem, I'll use the trees to slow down our enemy and maybe even take a few out.

But as my root shoots out of the ground to attack, Folas whips a sword at me and cuts me off.

The pain isn't there though, because I'm part of the tree. And that root was a small part of it, easily replaced.

"There you are," Folas says, his eyes sparkling with glee. "I've been waiting for you…necromancer."

Crap. He knows it's me. I mean, for all Folas knows, the leshy is angry with them. Or the darker trees, deep in the leshy's territory, are getting back at the elf for his and Rilitar's treatment of the forest's creatures before.

But no, Folas has been waiting for me .

There's a furor in the crowd in front of him. I hear Oz's bellow, then the clash of weapons. Ries is shouting as well.

Shoot. They weren't supposed to attack until I retrieved Folas's gem for Malkar.

I dig back through the tree and enter another, striking out.

The fae surrounding Folas are faster and hotter, and I shriek as they set me ablaze.

"Oh no, you don't." A deluge of water puts out the fire, and Ries whips a water spike at the mages spewing flame.

He nails one fire mage through the throat, but the other singes me again.

It's odd, how I'm feeling it as though it's really burning me.

But I know my physical flesh remains intact, not hurt.

Mentally, I'm writhing in agony as more trees burn.

The mages around us are setting the forest on fire while Ries does his best to put out the flames.

It's an effective tactic. There aren't enough of us to battle them in the first place. But now, we're helplessly outmaneuvered, effectively minus Ries because he's too busy trying to save the forest.

Folas laughs. "Nice try. Die like a good girl should and we'll send along your fellow monsters as tribute to Beyrthnel. But we'll make them a reward from Caethybdue. A parting gift from our god's lovely sister."

Folas makes an odd gesture as he pulls the red gem from his ear and cups it in his hands. He breathes on it and says some words.

Then I'm sinking through the tree and coming up through its bark, pulled through a distance and up through the earth—which shouldn't be possible—until I'm physically standing in front of Folas.

And everyone else on the battlefield.

It feels as if everything freezes while I stare at Folas in horror. Yet the battle, if I can call it that, rages on.

But now the majority of the horde focuses on surrounding me and Folas.

Their animosity presses, and I sense their hatred like a physical attack.

Folas smiles, still as handsome and vile as he's always been.

The knowledge he's known Ahza intimately hurts me, that my brother felt affection for someone so unworthy of him.

Someone who helped in Ahza's death.

"Your power is now mine, Kami." Folas breathes over me, and I can't move.

I can't blink or breathe.

Suppressed by the heavy weight of dragon magic as it seethes and burns into my pores.

Distantly, I hear Malkar roar.

But this pain mixes with the conflagration in my mind.

Ahza is close, closer than he should be to a person on this side of the Veil, one alive.

Yet…that's not exactly true.

I'm Death's Daughter, and I've already died once.

Are you really going to let this fucker take your life, Bitch Bag? Come on. Avenge me, Kami. You know you want to.

It's Ahza's voice, though I know it's not him. He's gone now, at peace, while my memories ravage the sanity I can feel slowly slipping away.

Losing him all over again because I wasn't strong enough to stop this mad elf and all the nastiness he's got planned for the world.

Of course I do, you idiot. I can't get out the words, but I shout them in my mind all the same.

Then do something about it, my brother would have said .

I want more than anything to help the others, to rid the world of Folas. One less bastard to hurt the downtrodden.

Well, what the hell? You only die twice. Maybe.

I stare into Folas's eyes as he nears, his mouth open to ingest my power.

And using a sharp branch behind him, I stab through his ear, slashing it from his head as dark green blood splashes all over my face.

Burning and blinding me in one eye, the fiery dragon magic upset at being curtailed.

Freed from my paralysis, I scream with Folas as we clutch our respective wounds.

But I'm faster than he expects, and I steal his discarded ear from the ground and suck it back through the earth, away from him.

The pain is crushing, but my short victory makes it all worth it.

Especially when I hear Crash laughing like a banshee as the fires of his fury lay waste to so many who deserve it.

Including me.