Page 110 of The Dryad Storm

Vogel holds fast and smiles, thrilling to the parasite-beast’s vicious testing of its bonds, as well as its magic-siphoning aura.Ah yes, Vogel gloats,here is the tool needed to take down the Dryad Witch and her forces.

“Elloren and her allies aren’t as safe and shielded as they would imagine,” Vogel murmurs to Damion and Priest Alfex before closing his eyes and tugging on the Wand’s Shadow tethers.

Multi-eyed ravens burst from the surrounding Shadowed trees, their unearthlycaws resonating through the air. One lands on Vogel’s shoulder, the rest darting down the trunk’s central, gaping Void and disappearing into its swirling mist.

“My runic eyes are everywhere,” Vogel croons as he opens his own eyes and fixes them on the swaying V’yexwraith demon. “And my sanctified Shadow power is strengthening. The V’yexwraith’s siphoning power will hasten the Magedom’s triumph over all.” He holds the demon’s terrifying attention. “The Dryad Witch and her allies think they have closed off the East from us with their shielding, but there remains a way to destroy its forests.”

“How?” Priest Alfex inquires, his wide eyes focused on the V’yexwraith.

Vogel turns and waits for the priest’s rattled gaze to meet his. “The Wand’s V’yexwraith can manifest wherever Shadow-tethering runes have been marked. And we have marked those runes at the headwaters of the East’s largest river.”

An awed look of comprehension washes over Priest’s Alfex’s face. “The Vo,” he murmurs.

“The V’yexwraith will have a fight on its hands,” Damion counters. “The Selkie abomination Gareth Keeler has managed to cast an incredibly strong dome-shield over the Vo River’s southern spillway. Our Shadow sea hasn’t yet penetrated it.”

Vogel calmly listens to Damion’s warnings as the V’yexwraith hovers over them, a swaying presence.

Vogel flicks his Wand’s tip toward the V’yexwraith, and the beast’s huge mouth opens wide. In a split second, another fanged jaw accordions from its mouth, then another from inside that one, one after the other, straight toward a now shrieking Priest Alfex, until the terminal long-toothed mouth chomps down around the priest’s head.

Shocked sounds rise all around as Alfex convulses then falls to the ground in a heap, a bloodied grotesquerie where the back of his head once was, his green hue rapidly fading to gray as his elemental energy is consumed, a line of gray mist flowing from the traitorous priest’s corpse into the maw of the Wand-beast. The V’yexwraith draws in its multiple mouths and bares its teeth, grayed blood streaming down its jaw as it consumes the last of the mist, one bulbous, gray eye bubbling to life on its eggshell head.

A shocked silence reigns.

“My Shadow sea is a diversion,” Vogel states before angling his Wand toward the huge, swaying demon and murmuring a primordial spell.

The V’yexwraith lets out an Erthia-shuddering shriek, and its form begins to spin and blur, the Mages surrounding Vogel flinching back as the V’yexwraith is sucked down into III’s Void abyss, the swirling mist taking on a paler gray hue before morphing back to steel.

Vogel turns to Damion and gives him a tight smile. “We’re going to infiltrate the East from theNorth,” he smoothly clarifies. “And bring down the entire East and the Dryad Witch via its largest river—the Vo.” Vogel’s smile inches wider. “We’ll invade the water supply of the forests of Noilaan and strangle the trees at their very roots.”

Chapter Twelve

Dryad Warrior

Elloren

Northern Dyoi Mountain Range

“Hand over the Black Witch of Prophecy!” Vang Troi’s powerful voice booms out over the Dyoi Mountain ledge as the Vu Trin high commander takes a step toward me.

Yvan’s fire rises to a focused inferno, his wings arcing around me. “Vanglira,” he warns, “stay back.”

Naga and the rest of my horde as well as my Lupine allies have closed in to form a defensive line between me and Vang Troi’s surviving Eastern Realm forces, tension mounting in the air, my Errilor Ravens gathering around me.

Fain steps forward, glancing between Yvan and Vang Troi. “Let’s all take a deep breath, shall we?”

My breathing labored and my power still depleted by my fight with Vogel, I take in the curved sword gripped in Vang Troi’s hand and the runic blades and battle stars strapped all over her body. My concern intensifies as the two formidable Amaz soldiers—Freyja Zyrr and Alcippe Feyir—along with my old kitchen nemesis, Iris Morgaine, close in around Vang Troi.

Our opposing sides are close to equally numbered.

“Move one step closer to my sister, and I will separate you from your head, sorceress,” Diana growls at Vang Troi, raising a clawed hand, golden hair coursing over her forearm in lethal warning.

“We’re all on the same side,” my brother Rafe states calmly but firmly, holding out a conciliatory hand toward Vang Troi.

Vang Troi and her combined Vu Trin, Amaz, and Lasair forces don’t budge, their eyes and power focused on me, murderously bright. The rhythmic scald ofYvan’s mother’s aura knifes into me in pulsing spikes from where she’s still bound to Raz’zor, raising the hairs on the back of my neck as a threatening ball of golden fire bursts to life above Iris Morgaine’s raised palm.

I can’t help but gape at Iris’s unglamoured form, her formerly blond hair now a fiery Lasair-crimson like Yvan’s and Soleiya’s, her ears sharply pointed, her green eyes afire with rage. I tighten my hold on the living branch in my hand, my depleted power recharging too slowly as I draw on the magic of the Dyoi and Zhilaan Forests. Both the Dyoi and Zhilaan are twining their support around my rootlines, the maternal Dyoi filling me with a growing sense of its Life-supporting root network, Yvan’s kindred Zhilaan infusing me with pure warrior energy.

Dryad’kin, the Dyoi murmurs through me with embracing affection.

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