Page 234 of The Dryad Storm

A knot of my allies swerve toward me, and Vang Troi and Hizar’drile land and immediately begin booming out orders. The bulk of our forces fans out and masses in front of my horde’s wall of Wyvernfire, Trystan, Vothe, Fain, and Sholindrile amongst them. Rafe, Diana, and the rest of our Lupine Dryad’khin dismount from eagleback and speed toward the V’yexwraith in a blur, along with Freyja, Valasca, and other Amaz, to aid Yvan and Ariel in battling the colossal demon.

Dryad of my heart!Raz’zor snarls to Oaklyyn through the horde bond.

Oaklyyn lets out a battle cry and launches herself toward Raz’zor’s Shadow tree–impaled form, while Sylvan, Iris, Bleddyn, and Alder, accompanied by several Lasair, including Soleiya, rush forward and set about freeing and healing Naga and our other impaled horde mates while I fight to keep hold of the increasingly leaden Shadow Wand.

Rafe, Diana, and Andras get to the V’yexwraith first, all of them joining Yvan and Ariel to leap at the V’yexwraith with vicious growls, claws slashing. Yvan strikes the demon to the ground, and it goes strangely limp, its form growing as transparent as a specter, my allies’ attacks passing right through it.

My eyes widen as the creature turns and fixes its multiple churning gray eyes on me, its Void tree blasting through my mind once more with painful force.

“Elloren!” Gwynn and Mavrik call out.

I tear my gaze from the demon to find the twinned Dryad’kin sprinting toward me, their Agolith Flame Hawks winging in behind them. Rivyr’el, Ra’Ven, Sage, and Yulan and her heron, along with Jules and Lucretia and Jules’s Noi Kestrel are close on their heels.

“I have the Shadow Wand!” I cry out to them.

The Void tree hammers into my mind with shattering force and I wince against the pain. It’s as if the wretched Wand wants to crack my skull apart and wrest itself from my grip, its increasing weight pulling my hand to the Shadowed earth while the magical tension of the orbs above us begins to feel like a thousand tightly wound springs, soon to be released to rain hell down on us all.

“The moons,” I force out, gritting my teeth against the Void tree’s assault as my allies draw near. I gesture skyward. “They’re Shadow-iron explosives! They’re going to fall once they siphon up enough of our power!”

My fear notches higher as I’m overtaken by the sense of the orbs hooking into all the incoming allies’ magic with invisible Shadow tethers, latching tight. Threads of my Dryad’khin’s power begin to stream toward the evil orbs, graying as it goes.

Rivyr’el stiffens, staring up at the moons. “Well, that’s not good,” he drawls.

“Portal us all back to the East,now!” I insist.

“Wecan’t,” Sage counters, voice hard. “That portal will take hours to recharge for the return trip.”

“We have to stand our ground and fight,” Lucretia grits out, her water aura being siphoned upward as she speaks.

“Fightfast,” I urge as the roar of Vogel’s army beyond our shield intensifies, Yvan now standing sentry around the prone V’yexwraith with our allies, our larger force assembled just beyond them. “Vogel is dead,” I inform my companions as the Wand weighs down my hand, “but his army is positioned just past our stormwall of Wyvernfire. A much bigger army than we can defeat with our power being siphoned away. And the Deathkin runes marked through our shield won’t hold it forever.”

“Can you get a reading on a way to defeat those moons?” Sage asks Gwynn and Mavrik as my uncle Wrenfir, Marina, Gareth, and Thierren Stone join us, along with Alaric and Nerissa.

In answer, Mavrik and Gwynn take each other’s hands and thrust their branches toward the sky. Misty ropes of gold streak toward the moons and blast over the orbs’ surfaces in a flash of golden light that rapidly morphs to gray, their gilded power swiftly absorbed.

“We can’t destroy them,” Mavrik grimly states as he lowers his branch, both his hawk and Gwynn’s agitatedly ruffling their feathers where they perch on their shoulders. “A Shadow-geomancy locking spell surrounds each of them.”

Gwynn nods, expression grave. “Only a Strafeling geomancer could destroy those moons before they fall.”

Frustration spikes through me.Or’myr. I need you, cousin. But you’re with Tierney, guarding the Vo. Leagues away...

The Void tree impales my mind once more, forcing a cry from my throat, the evil Wand in my hand bolting pain through my temples that’s so intense, my knees start to buckle. Wrenfir grips hold of my arm, steadying me, and I glare at the Shadow Wand, filled with the sense of it drawing up power for another mind attack, possibly strong enough to knock me unconscious.

“What is it, Elloren?” Wrenfir insists.

“The Wand,” I huff, gray streaking through my vision. “It’s attacking mymind—”

Color suddenly explodes through my sight, the vision of a prismatic tree materializing into being. The gray clears from my vision as the prismatic tree’s branches lock hold of the Void tree, the multihued tree’s chromatic light power flashing through my rootlines as the two trees begin to wage war, their limbs locking like buck antlers.

“The Verdyllion,” Gwynn gasps, gesturing toward the Sublands to our north.

“It’s coming in beneath us,” Mavrik finishes.

My sense of prismatic power intensifies, silver Wyvernfire wrapped around it. An image of the multicolored Verdyllion shimmers into my mind, superimposed over the prismatic tree.

The Shadow Wand’s Void tree sends an ear-splicing shriek through my skull, lashing gray branches against both the Verdyllion and its tree, as if seeking to beat the images into submission. Dazed, I glance down at my free hand and find glowingcolor streaking through my III mark at the same moment that my surrounding allies hold up their palms, revealing the same.

“Unshield these Sublands!” Rivyr’el urges Gwynn and Mavrik. “While you still can!”

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