Page 45 of Terragnata and the Heir of the Earth

“No!” I yelled—dread that Gia could now be at risk rising in my throat. I prayed he had bluffed, that he had never even seen her. He never showed any evidence of it, save the knowledge of her name. My eyes fell to the small pile of ash that appeared where the Fae had just stood.

The Dragon circled above me, letting out a loud roar of triumph, followed by more breaths of fire scattered in the air. Numb, I watched him for a few moments until he grew tired and landed on the barren ground. He shifted upon impact and tilted his head at me, his expression inhuman. I slumped, devoid of energy to deal with an unhinged Fae. He came over to sniff me curiously, perhaps my defeated posture posing no threat to his animal instincts. I looked up to see the slits that remained in his eyes.

“Ezren,” I pleaded. “Please, don’t fight me. Come back.”

His expression remained blank. I touched my hand to his. He jumped back upon contact, but I held tight, letting his motion pull me up. I wrapped my arm around him, placing the back of his head in the crook of my elbow. And before he could do a thing, I buried my face into his neck and let out a sob. He stilled. I looked up, tears blurring my vision, nervous to see if the depthsof his eyes were still slits. His pupils reformed circles, set in that gorgeous green.

His arms came around me at once, pulling me tighter into him. I wept without restraint. The catharsis was over, and my family was still gone. A part of me had always known it would feel like this, but even now, the rage stayed simmering inside me. Fayzien was dead. And it had fixed nothing.

“It won’t ever go away, you know,” Ezren murmured. “Loss is that way. It ebbs and flows. Sometimes, it has the power of a current trying to pull you under. But you are strong, Terra. You will fight it every day. You may not always win, but youwillwin more than you lose.” He tilted my face up to his. I found a pain in his eyes that I hadn’t noticed before.

“You killed Fayzien,” I mumbled, unable to say anything else. “Did you mean to? How did you know I needed help?”

“Same as before,” he said, disbelief in his tone. “I heard you scream my name.”

The sounds of screeching from the mountainside ripped into our world before I could reply.

We ran.

The screams grewlouder and more unnatural as we neared the edge of the plain. Fayzien had been alone, leaving his company to penetrate the mountain wood and flush out our group. The sun was rising now, not yet visible above the eastern peaks, but high enough to send a glow over the valley.

We were fast, but blind to where the group was, or how they were holding Fayzien’s company back. The warriors did not know they were now following the orders of a dead man.Who would command them now?

At last, we reached the edge of the Nameless Valley. I flowed my magic into the mountain slope’s dirt, running it upwards, hoping to get a sense of what unfolded in front of us. Dane and one of the other Witches appeared in our sight. We ran to them, and they each took one of our arms. A moment later, we were moving through space and time in the unexplainable way of the portal.

The group was north of where we had left them and at a higher elevation. I jogged over to Jana. “Fayzien, he is?—”

“Dead, yes we know.”

“How?” I asked.

Jana placed her hands on my shoulders and spun me around. “Look.”

From our high point on the mountain, I could see the sun reflect off of hundreds of creatures moving between the trees in our direction, like cockroaches scurrying away from light.

“What the?—”

“We ran from the warriors initially,” Jana said, “evading and spelling them to confuse their direction or slow their pace. We figured once you killed Fayzien it would be like cutting off the snake’s head. Maybe we could stop them somehow, convince them to turn around. But then, all of a sudden, they were no longer Fae. It makes sense; Fayzien would’ve never had the support of Viri warriors.” She shook her head. “We should have known.”

“Crona,” Ezren breathed. “By the gods, I have never seen so many. He must have enchanted them.”

“Exactly,” Dane responded. “And masked their appearance with a glamor. I have never heard of a Witch creating a glamor so difficult without Fae help, but… he was part Fae, after all.”

I peered down once more, looking at the small non-flying bat-like creatures that roamed up the mountainside. A thousand strong, scaled and fanged and web winged.

“What are they?” I whispered.

“Lesser Fae, some would call them. Easily masked and charmed. One alone is harmless, and they are rare enough. Some males hunt them, for their scales are known as… performance enhancers. But I have no idea how Fayzien herded so many together. They don’t dwell or hunt in pairs, let alone numbers such as these,” Dane explained, wonder and dread mixing in his words. “I would have thought they’d disperse upon Fayzien’s death, given his spell ending. But they may be so deep in fear and confusion that they’re still moving. He must have drawn on the valley somehow.”

“Drawn on the valley…?” I echoed.

“A thousand years ago, the valley was said to be the source of a Death Witch’s power. She either sacrificed something here, or, well we don’t know for sure. It’s mostly thought of as a housemaid’s tale. Still, the valley has never been named. It seems to… lend and reserve power in abnormal ways. This phenomenon has been documented over the years, but the explanation remains a mystery. Some think it’s what feeds the realm barrier, some have more… sinister beliefs.”

“We should get the hell out of here,” Parson chimed in, refocusing the group. “They’re stupid creatures and have no direction now. We’ll be able to elude them easily.”

“If we leave,” I asked hesitantly, “where will they go? Will they cross into the human lands?”

“It is possible,” Jana said slowly. “There isn’t near as strong of a barrier keeping the magic realm from the human, as there is the other way around. If they are confused enough, they may continue in the direction they were sent.”

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