Page 2 of The Dryad Storm

Alder’s magic plummets as the Shadowfire spreads through her Forest. Certain of her narrowing window of time, Alder spins, rasps out a Dryadin spell, and thrusts her branch toward Vestylle, hurling out magic.

A green, glass-like shield rises from the ground before Vestylle, her friend’s silver eyes widening as she’s forced to a halt at the top of the staircase.

Emboldened, Alder turns and throws the Queenhall’s door open, bursts through it... and skids to a stop.

High Mage Marcus Vogel sits on dragonback just past the rapidly decaying dome-shield, his dark cloak flowing behind him, Fallon Bane on dragonback beside him. There’s a dark gray wand in Vogel’s hand.

Shadow curling from its tip.

Vogel narrows his pale green eyes, a vicious glint in them as his lip ticks up. “Dryad,” he croons. “We’ve been searching for you.”

Pulse quickening, Alder pivots her gaze to Fallon Bane, who gloats at her from astride her multi-eyed dragon, a dark wand in her hand. Fallon and Vogel are surrounded by an army, spectral fingers of Shadow mist rising around them from the plaza’s stone floor.

Alder looks around frantically as her sense of her kindred eagle’s proximity intensifies. The heat in her rootlines turns agonizing, her trees crying out to her as they burn, the giant Shadow trees the Mages cast over Cyme looming mockingly above.

Rage blasting through her, Alder raises her living branch and aims it straight at Vogel.

“Go ahead, greenling,” Fallon Bane chides, a smug smile overtaking her mouth as she raises her dark wand toward the distant sky.

Roaring wind powers to life over Alder’s flaming Forest, forming churning clouds rife with black lightning. Two tornadoes descend from the unnatural clouds, and Alder watches, wide-eyed, as they funnel toward the flaming trees.

An explosion detonates, and Alder flinches, her rootlines contracting painfully as the gray Shadowfire whips into the tornadoes, then bursts over a huge expanse of her Forest. A vision slashes through Alder’s mind’s eye, overtaking her sight—her beloved animals futilely trying to flee from the terrifying Shadowfire as her miraculous Forest, more complex than any human city, burns. Color is stripped away from the Forest as it falls to the unnatural fire, the Shadow leaving behind only gray waste just as it has in the city, consuming all color except for the green of the Mages’ skin, the Forest green hue of her own skin, and the emerald green of Vestylle’s.

And the green glow of her and Vestylle’s magic.

Warrior fury sizzles through Alder, and she glares daggers at the evil forces before her. A spell snarling from her throat, she raises her branch once more, tenses her rootlines, and pulls on her power...

... only to find it depleting to char as her kindred Forest is murdered, tree by tree.

“It’s working,” Vogel observes to Fallon, all the Mages’ eyes focused on Alder with glittering looks of anticipation.

Panic rising, Alder glances down to find the hue of her hands and lower arms graying as her power is siphoned out of her. In some small recess of her grief-razed mind, realization hits. They’reexperimentingon her. Her gaze slides to the Shadow Wand in Vogel’s hand, and she canfeelit. Feel the Wand eating her Forest’s magical aura and siphoning away both her power and the elemental magic of the trees as her Forest burns, its magic morphing into twisted Void power...

“Azion!”Alder screams again, the name torn from her heart.

Time is running out. Her shield is wavering along with her diminishing power, and Vestylle will have to seal the portals in a matter of minutes. But in this moment, she doesn’t care. She can sense Azion, her beloved winged one,right here.

Commander Damion Bane emerges from the Shadow mist, gliding into view on dragonback, a bright, wicked smile on his face as his dragon halts beside his sister’s.

His green eyes narrow on Alder with delight. “Is this what you’re looking for?”He raises a limp golden eagle in the air, the bird’s talons gripped in his fist.

The ground seems to shift beneath Alder’s feet, and she almost drops to her knees.

All the gold and russet hues have been stripped from Azion’s beautiful form, only pale gray remaining, one of his wings nearly torn off. Black blood cakes his feathers, his injured wing hanging limply from his body. His powerful beak is tied with dark Shadow vine, and his once golden eyes... they’re ash-hued as they meet Alder’s gaze with a misery so acute that Alder fears she might come undone.

In that split second as their eyes meet, a thousand memories flash through Alder’s mind. Countless sunsets with Azion on her shoulder. The two of them nestled high in the trees of their Forest. Watching Azion’s first hatchlings emerge, proud joy in both their breasts...

Damion hoists the eagle and shakes him like one might shake a sack of millet. “It was crawling toward your shield,” he sneers. “Was it looking for you? Put up an impressive fight, I’ll admit. I enjoyed breaking it. It flopped around so pathetically after I smashed its wing.”

Wrath surges through Alder’s veins. With a growl, she leaps toward Damion Bane, ready to hurl herself through her sputtering shield, even as every military instinct within her blares outStop! It’s a trap!and Vogel raises his Wand...

The door behind her bangs open, and a cord whips around her ankles and wrists, then gives a violent backward tug.

A protest bursts from Alder as her legs are pulled out from under her just as Vogel’s bolt of Shadow hits her shield, the decaying barrier punching inward, its green hue turning gray.

“Stop!”Alder growls as the side of her shoulder and face collide with the tiled ground and she’s slid backward. She glances behind her, finding herself tethered by glowing emerald Varg cords, Vestylle dragging her toward the Queenhall’s Subland entrance as Azion lets out another soul-breaking squawk of distress.

Clawing futilely for purchase, Alder looks toward the Mages just as Vestylle blasts out green rays of light from her stylus. Several suspended Varg runes, big as wagon wheels, flash into existence and hurtle toward the Queenhall’s dome-shield.

---