Page 102 of The Dryad Storm

In a split-second glance across the skies, I catch sight of the Amaz Dryad, Alder, and to my surprise, Thierren Stone, the young Mage who aided Lukas and me when we escaped from Valgard. Both Alder and Thierren sit astride giant eagles and feed elemental power into our horde’s circular fire-shield with branch and wand. And Fain Quillen is there, carried by what I sense is his Wyvern-shifter partner, Sholin, in dragon form, as well as Andras, a Varg-rune-marked axe gripped in his hands.Sage, Ra’Ven, Kam Vin, and Ni Vin are borne aloft on eagleback, the Vu Trin sisters shooting bolts of sapphire Noi power into the shield from runic swords.

I notice with a flash of dread that two of my Errilor Ravens are missing, along with the Dryads Luptus and Larch. And... Jules Kristian... he’s alarmingly bloodied and unconscious and secured to Errilith’s back, with no sign of Lucretia anywhere. Or my cousin Or’myr...

A circle of suspended silver Alfsigr and emerald Varg barrier runes shimmer to life just inside my horde’s Wyvernfire barrier, and I spot the rainbow-decorated renegade Elf Rivyr’el Talonir astride one of our horde mates, his starbright stylus raised, silver eyes flashing as he casts defensive rune after defensive rune into our horde’s barrier.

“Join shields!”Kam Vin commands us, and Yvan joins Trystan and the others in pushing our smaller orb shield’s power into our horde’s larger, circular shield in a blazing stream.

“Hello, Black Witch!” a jovial voice calls from one side, and I turn just as Bleddyn Arterra soars close on eagleback, a Varg-marked sword gripped in her emerald green hand, an incredulous grin forming on her mouth as her gaze sweeps over my altered features. “Nice ears!” she calls out, motioning toward her own ears’ points.

My relief in finding Bleddyn here is overtaken by the sudden, empathic sense of a colossal wall of Shadow storm forming to our west. Vogel’s dead tree slams through my mind, a cry forced from my throat.

Yvan pivots midair and our eyes meet, a questioning energy flashing through our bond.

Horde Witch!Raz’zor booms into my mind, red fire swirling around the thought as his pale wings beat down to either side of me and Soleiya.What do you see?

“Vogel’s coming!” I cry. “I can sense him flying in from the west with more power than we can shield against!”

The smile whisks from Bleddyn’s face. “Time to get the hell out of here!” she yells.

“On my mark!” Kam Vin cries, raising her sapphire stylus before swiping it down.“GO!”

My allies draw in our shielding around us, and we surge toward the sky portal’s huge horizontal maw as one, our shielding forcing back the Vu Trin forces in our way.

A defensive line of Vu Trin, Amaz, and Lasair on Wyvernback hover before thesky portal, the horn-helmeted commander of the Vu Trin forces, Vang Troi, and Freyja Zyrr in the line’s center, along with a young Smaragdalfar-Amaz sorceress.

Concern flashes through Vang Troi’s visible sapphire aura as her eyes find both me and Yvan’s mother. “Hand over Soleiya Guryev and the Black Witch,” she booms out, “and we will grant you passage!”

“We need to retreattogether!” Yvan yells back as we soar in toward their defensive line. “Vogel’s about to overtake usall!”

My gaze slides to the knot of Fire Fae, surprise slashing through both my fire and Yvan’s to find my old nemesis from the Verpacian kitchens there—Iris Morgaine.

“Iris, get East with us,now!” Yvan thunders, both anger and concern flashing through his power as we slow before them, my sense of Vogel’s incoming power mounting.

“I willneverlet you bring that evil witch back East!” Iris snarls at him, golden fire swirling to life around her upraised, glowing hand.

“This is your last warning!” Vang Troi bellows as she raises her runic sword, its sapphire-glowing Noi runes catching blue fire.

“Don’t make us fight our way through you!” Kam Vin roars back.

Vang Troi’s aura triples in intensity.“FIRE!”she cries.

Her entire line of soldiers attacks as one, hurling bolts of runic power and arrows at us, Vang Troi’s lash of might coming at us in a huge column of blue flame, the sky lit up sapphire.

“Draw the bulk of our shield’s powerforward!” Vothe growls as we relaunch our trajectory toward the sky portal.

In one, unified swoop, my allies yank almost all our shielding’s magic forward and blast it toward the Vu Trin’s magical attack just as a monstrous mass of Shadow power slams into our weakened rear, exploding it out of existence in a spray of chromatic sparks.

I blanch, desperation crawling up my throat as the wall of Shadow power races toward us and the fortified front of our shield slams into the line of Vu Trin and their allied forces, forcing them through the sky portal.

Vogel’s wall of Shadow hits our back, speeding us into the sky portal’s golden depths.

The world snaps out, my vision cutting to liquid gold as Raz’zor, Soleiya, and I hurtle forward through the seemingly endless gold only to blast out of it what feels like mere seconds later.

We streak into an overcast, twilight world, a Shadow-corrupted landscape beneath us, gray smoke ghoulishly rising from the steely ground toward a grayed sky, the Vu Trin forces we pushed through a distance in front of us.

Heart thundering, I whip my head backward, a hot whoosh of relief blazing through our bond as I meet Yvan’s gaze, my allies and loved ones streaming from the portal into the sky and rapidly reconjuring a shield around us. But when I look past the sky portal, my relief curdles. Leagues upon leagues of Shadowed wasteland stretch before me, a darker mass of Shadow filth hanging over the distant western horizon, a sickening dread pooling inside me at this visual proof of Vogel’s expanding reach.

I slide my gaze to the East as Yvan soars in beside me, recognizing the signature lines of the purple Dyoi Mountain Range through the gray mist ahead. The sight shocks through me, every rootline inside me lurching toward it.

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