Page 35 of The Emerald Dragon Prince
“But how?” Leo asked. “Up until five minutes ago, none of us knew that we possessed any magic at all.”
“Or did we?” I asked, inspiration striking me. I moved closer to my brothers, gesturing for them to gather around. “Don’t we always feel better when we’re all together? And haven’t things been falling apart at an accelerated rate as we’ve all grown and gone our own ways with our mates?”
“Yes,” Selle answered me uncomfortably. “I don’t like the idea of us growing apart because we’ve found our mates, though.”
“We aren’t growing apart,” Tovey said, putting his hand on Selle’s arm. “We’re just growing. We’re all mated to dragons who are brothers. I have the feeling we’ll remain closer than a lot of brothers do when they go off to marry and have families of their own.”
“And we’ve been through so much together,” Misha added.
“We’re powerful when we stand together,” Leo said, glancing at me with a knowing smile.
“Powerful enough to break a dark sorcerer’s spell and free Osric’s army?” I asked, guessing what he was thinking.
“Do you think we can?” Obi asked, nearly bouncing with excitement.
“We could try,” I said.
I held out my hand. Leo quickly put his on top of mine, and Selle added his hand to the pile. Misha, Obi, and Tovey were quick to join us. As soon as all six of us had joined our hands between us, I felt a rush of something deep and powerful encircle us.
“You see?” Osric said, like he was a teacher and we were his star pupils. “Together, you have more power than you know.”
“Let’s try to break the spell on the soldiers,” I said, closing my eyes.
I assumed my brothers did the same. I didn’t know what we were looking for or how spells were cast, but I knew what a bond felt like. I knew that magic was woven through the spaces between worlds, between life and death, all around us.
Much sooner than I would have expected, I felt something within me snag on something else that felt like sticky spiderwebs. It seemed to be shrouding the soldiers and keeping their essential life forces prisoner.
“That’s it,” I heard Leo say. “That sticky stuff. That has to be the spell.”
“How do we get rid of it?” Misha asked.
“It’s like spiderwebs,” I said. “How do we get rid of spiderwebs?”
“Just brush them off and send them away,” Obi said.
The six of us went to work, sweeping what we felt around the soldiers away and willing it to dissolve like candy floss.
Our efforts worked. Even though I had my eyes closed, I could hear movement and murmuring all around us as the soldiers blinked back to sense. It was more than just the soldiers around us, too. I could feel more spiderwebs of magic all around us, throughout the castle.
“Get the others, too,” I directed my brothers, turning my focus to the rest of the castle.
After a few minutes of work, Misha suddenly gasped, which caused me to open my eyes. I found him staring at nothing with wide eyes and a look of joy on his face. “Azurus!” he gasped.
A second later, Obi shouted, “My bond is back! Argus! I’m coming!”
Obi turned and dashed for the door, but Osric, who had been moving among his men, checking to make certain they were alright, blocked him from sprinting back into the castle.
“We’ll rescue him,” Osric said. “We’ll rescue all of them. But we have to be organized and careful about how we do it.
“My mate is revived and he’s trapped somehow,” Obi said all the same, clinging to Osric. “We have to hurry.”
“I agree,” Leo said, stepping away from the rest of us. “We need to attack the Great Hall now.”
I felt a bit hollow and let down as the magic circle my brothers and I had made vanished. From the expressions my brothers wore, their bonds with their mates had all been restored. I felt for mine with Emmerich, but it was as heavy and hollow as it had been. It made sense, since Nazeing had cast a different spell on him, but I was still bereft.
“Leo is right,” Osric called out to his men. “We need to attack the Great Hall now. If ever we had the element of surprise on our side, it is now. Form ranks and follow me!”
The soldiers did exactly what Osric ordered them to do and organized themselves into lines. Instead of charging ahead at the front of the army, like we’d all done last time when traveling through the doorways into the Great Hall, my brothers and I took up positions in the middle of the army, where we would be protected.
