Page 112 of The Dryad Storm

“No,” I snarl back, stepping out of Yvan’s embrace to face her down, “I willnotbe silent.” A hot flash of Yvan’s support fires through our Wyvernbond, along with a simmering rise of Raz’zor’s, Ariel’s, and Naga’s flame through our horde bond. “If we remain divided,” I say, “Vogel will pick us offone by onewhile he kills off the rest of the Natural World. And then it will be truly over. Forallof us. Erthia’s NaturalMatrix was anchored in a Great Tree that Vogel destroyed. And now, that Matrix is close to being irretrievablybroken. If any more Forest is destroyed, it willfully break. We’ll have no more clean water. No more food. Nothing butthat.” I level a finger west, at the leagues of Shadow-destroyed land beyond our shielding. “Without the Forest,everythingunravels.”

“And a Death Reckoning will descend,” Hazel growls, a wild look in his full-dark eyes, “before the Shadow sweeps in to consumeeverything!”

“These are outrageous lies,” Iris growls at Yvan. “Your mother speaks the truth! The witch is still linked to Vogel!”

“I’mnot,” I counter, raising my III-marked palm. “I’m joined to theForest.”

“Let us bring you to our trees so you can hear them out,” Alder offers Vang Troi, Iris, and their allies, displaying her III-marked palm, as well. “Let us link youallto our Forest.”

Vang Troi gives Alder a look of pure outrage. “You want us to link to adyingforest?”

“No,” Alder vehemently counters. “To the remainingliving Forest. Because if it dies, Erthia islost. We arealllost. This needs to be ourunifying fight.”

“It came as a shock to me, too,” Yvan offers, impressively paring back the ferocity in his fire’s flow. “That there’s a bigger fight underneath all the things we’ve been aligned over. But there trulyis.”

His words don’t soften the belligerent flow of Vang Troi’s and her allies’ power, not one bit. In fact, they only serve to stoke our adversaries’ ire higher as Soleiya glares fiery daggers at me.

Hope shrivels in my chest. Because if we can’t even convince Yvan’s ownmotherto hear us and the Forest out when I know she and Yvan love each other deeply, what hope is there for any type of alliance with the East?

“Do you intend to hold me prisoner?” Soleiya challenges Yvan. She casts a pointed look at the barriers my allies have thrown up to wall us off from Vang Troi’s forces.

“Let her pass,” Yvan stiffly rejoins, his fiery aura and his mother’s battering against each other.

My allies open a portion of our shield-wall, and Soleiya strides through it to Vang Troi’s side, anger flickering through Yvan’s fire as his mother glares at me, making her alignment clear.

Vang Troi and her forces begin to draw up power once more, and I move towarn Yvan and the others just as Sage lets out a strangled cry and falls to the ground.

Alarm leaps through everyone’s magic as Ra’Ven drops down beside her and grabs hold of Sage’s arms. “Ti’a, what is it?” he cries, his aura of emerald runic power crackling around Sage with impassioned urgency as he launches into a questioning stream of Smaragdalfar.

Sage raises one shaking, fasting-wound-marked hand, then convulses and lets out a soul-shearing cry, her bloody fastlines flaying open further.

The fasting wounds begin emitting tendrils of Shadow smoke.

Horror singes through me as Sage’s terrified purple gaze swings to mine. “Vogel is in me! I canfeelhim...”

“Aughh!” Thierren cries out as he, too, drops to his knees, desperately cradling his fastmarked hands as his marks also begin to seep Shadow smoke. “It’s happening to my fastlines, as well!” he chokes out. “Vogel is wresting control of me!”

“Get them to the trees!” I cry. “The Northern Forest’s Great Tree broke my fasting to Vogel. The East’s trees might be able to break their fastings, as well.”

Alder, other allies, and I rush to Sage and Thierren, Yvan and I taking hold of Sage’s arms.

“This is some trick!” Yvan’s mother cries to Vang Troi. “Strike down these Crows!”

Yvan shoots his mother a harsh look and spits out a blistering epithet in Lasair as we hoist Sage to her feet.

“Disarm!” I call out to Sage and Thierren. “Disarm in case Vogel takes you over!”

Sage and Thierren give me panicked looks before hurling all wands, blades, and styluses aside, my allies swiftly requisitioning them before we bring Thierren and Sage to the Forest lining the huge mountain ledge’s back edge.

Sage unexpectedly lunges for me, and I stumble back as Yvan and Diana swiftly restrain her. Sage’s expression has turned alarmingly wicked, her eyes glowing gray as she bares elongated, steel-hued teeth, Vogel’s voice hissing from her mouth. “I willripthose pointed ears from your head, Fae Witch. And then I will shove them down your throat, along with the bloody pieces of your Icaral beast’s cursedwings.”

Beating back a pulse-speeding rush of fear, I stare Vogel down. “Push her palms to living bark,” I grit out as Sage breaks into chilling laughter before turning feral, attempting to snap at Yvan as both he and Diana drag her to a large Noi Maple, while Rafe and Alder drag Thierren to an adjacent Noi Birch. Diana forces Sage’shands to the bark as Thierren slams his own palms onto the tree trunk and Rafe grabs hold of his wrists from behind, keeping them there.

A slash of fear tears through the Dyoi Forest’s aura as Thierren turns and sets his chillingly altered gaze on me, his eyes lit with a gray glow.

“I’m coming for you, staen’en witch,” Vogel’s voice seethes through Thierren’s mouth before he gives me a wide, murderous smile.

The Zhilaan Forest’s warrior might shocks through me, my own outrage rising with it. “Oh, I’ll be coming for you too, Vogel,” I vow. But my bravado evaporates as Sage and Thierren buck wildly against my allies’ holds on them.

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