Page 14 of Wynter and the Stone Dragon

“My beautiful daughter. You will one day return and free our people.”

This time a tear did escape and course down his cheek. He kissed the infant’s cheek before he turned with a tortured expression. As he exited the room, he gave a low order to the Queen’s attendants to follow him. Wynter kept her fingers pressed to her cheek, sure that she had felt the touch of warm lips against her skin.

She returned to the balcony. The swarm of invaders were almost to the wall surrounding the castle and interior city. A few minutes later, she could see Everes and eleven other men climbing to a series of platforms on the high wall.

Larenta drew a sobbing breath and murmured, “I love you, my King.”

The group on the wall raised their staffs. Everes turned and looked up at Larenta before he slammed his staff down with both hands.

Larenta began to speak in a language that washed through Wynter. It was the language she spoke in her head when she used her powers. The ancient power coursing through her grew in strength and she understood perfectly what her mother chanted.

“I command the powers of the ancients to give me their strength. Light of my light. Blood of my blood. I command the power of the stars, the planets, and the spirits of my people. I will defend you to my last breath. Protect my land. Protect my people. Banish the creatures to the bowels of the earth. Set the protectors upon these walls and let none breach their defenses. I so command it!”Larenta lifted her arms and spread her hands.

White lightning and blue streaks flashed from Larenta’s body. The blue bolts hit Everes first before arcing horizontally and connecting with each of the men standing on the platforms. White and blue light rolled down the face of the ramparts.

The flow of energy looked like a tsunami, growing larger until it crashed down on the dark, horrific creatures. The ground under the creatures’ feet heaved and split, ripping open a crevice that spread as far as the eye could see. Hoards of the creatures fell into the widening gap. Yet even as she watched, others used their peers as stepping stones to make it out of the crevice.

A low moaning cry slipped from Larenta and her knees buckled. Wynter wrapped her arms around her mother. Shock held her immobile when their bodies connected and she held her mother upright. Her energy flowed into her mother, surging until it crashed down on the creatures. More creatures came however, those that survived the magic defenses still pouring forward, undeterred.

“I can do no more,” Larenta whispered in a drained voice.

“You must lie down,” Wynter urged, guiding Larenta back into the bedroom.

Tears blinded her as her mother paused by the cradle to lift her newborn babe into her arms. Larenta climbed onto the bed, rocking the babe and cooing softly to her. Tortured sobs filled the room as Larenta rocked back and forth, her body shaking.

“Pow-pow, we have to do something,” Wynter cried.

Pow-pow shook his head. “These are memories, Wynter. What has happened cannot be changed.”

Tears coursed down Wynter’s cheeks as the creatures’ thunderous rampage overwhelmed the last of their magic defenses and they breached the walls. In that moment of despair, Wynter turned and saw Arastan through the window of the Ring of Power. Larenta twisted toward the glowing circle. Wynter’s breath caught in her throat as Larenta begged the man who would become her father to take and protect her child. When Arastan nodded, she sent Wynter through the doorway between their worlds—magic to magic, one loving, devoted parent to another.

The door to the bedchamber burst open and one of the alien creatures stepped in. Pow-pow drew Wynter close and Larenta released the last of her magic just as the creature fired its weapon at her. The two powers combined in an explosive force that rippled through the kingdom, turning the alien creatures to ash and Larenta’s people to stone.

Wynter pushed on Pow-pow’s front legs until he released her. She walked over to the bed. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she lifted her hands and whispered an ancient spell.

“Sleep i uireb sleep -o mín núr. Glenn- bar na i galad where mín came a rad- sídh, nin rís. Nin naneth.”Sleep the eternal sleep of our people. Go home to the light from whence we came and find peace, my Queen... my mother.

The soft, powdery flakes that made up Larenta’s body transformed into brilliant prisms of tiny lights that rose from the bed. Wynter followed them when they floated out of the balcony’s French doors. They rose higher and higher until she couldn’t see them anymore.

“Pow-pow, take me for a ride. I want to see my parents’ home,” she quietly requested.

“It would be my honor, Princess Wynter of Erindale,” Pow-pow said with a sad smile as he bowed his head.

ChapterSeven

Pow-pow flew over the sun-drenched land. The castle seemed frozen in time. Stone residents remained forever captured in their last moment. Twelve protectors stood as sentinels over the kingdom. White energy and royal blue lightning crackled between them.

Outside the castle walls, a long ravine stretched for nearly a mile in each direction. The gap was so deep that at one time molten rock from the planet’s core had flowed within it, leaving a hard crust as evidence. On the other side of the ravine was a blackened forest. Ghostly trunks of dead trees populated the landscape for hundreds of yards into the once lush forest.

Past the dead trees, life thrived. Wynter saw a frightened herd of deer running through a meadow and a pack of wolves that sought cover in the thick forest as Pow-pow’s shadow passed over them. A lone bear ambled along the riverbank, undisturbed by the dragon flying overhead.

Wynter tucked her head close to Pow-pow’s scales as she thought of her biological parents. It was painful to think about their lives being cut short by the strange creatures. It also hurt to think about her adoptive parents. Why had they kept the truth from her? Why did her father hide this ring? Did he plan to tell her about her birthplace someday or would he have kept it a secret forever?

A spiral of smoke rose through the trees nearly fifty miles from the castle. Wynter’s breath caught when she saw a girl of about thirteen carrying a basket to a quaint hut surrounded by six outbuildings and several pens filled with livestock. The girl looked up and froze.

At Wynter’s silent request, Pow-pow circled overhead. She knew her parents’ creed. She should never interfere and she should never allow knowledge or suspicion of the Mage-line—but how could such a thing be wrong when she belonged here?

The girl dropped her woven basket and ran for the hut, screaming. The door swung open and a woman in her mid-thirties caught and held the girl against her body, searching the area nearby before looking up and noticing their presence with alarm. The woman pulled the girl inside and slammed the door.

---