Page 67 of Earth Dragon
She could feel the pull of his will as he manipulated the air around her, even the water within her, to get her to open her fingers. He was channeling the elements in the same way Maize could, only he had also learned to manipulate light and sound. It was pointless. They were fighting what could not be fought.
But Maize’s hands closed around hers, then Ionna’s, then Blair’s and together they held the crystal firmly in place.
“Give it to me!” the lord exclaimed in frustration, whipping the yard into a frenzy as he conjured a whirlwind to dance around them. It tugged on their hair, yanked at their gowns, but they held firm.
“Enough,” Lady Marigold said from the doorway, and in the following blink the lord was gone from sight. “Poking holes,” the lady huffed, disappearing back inside.
Then there was a racket as the men came scrambling together through the door of the shed, running into the backyard and halting at the sight of the women, hands still clasped tightly.
“Did he get it?” Ewan asked, out of breath from the sprint.
“No,” Shannon said.
“He performed the spell,” Malcolm said. “We barely even realized it was happening. We’ve all lost our elemental magic.” He paused, looking from one to the next, before he finished, “We’re too late.”
“Not yet,” Lady Marigold’s voice drifted from beyond the still open back door, beckoning them inside.
***
“What will he do now?” Ewan asked, all eyes turning on Shannon where she stood by the fireplace. They were all standing, none feeling like having a seat. There was an energy in the air that was part terror, part determination. She didn’t quite know which she could lean into most.
The box, the box, the box.
“I do not know,” she admitted. “But chances are… He will want to gloat.”
“So, he truly is a knave,” Greer murmured. “Why would he not wish to hide himself away? Avoid any confrontation? Watch from afar as things fall apart?”
“Because it was never about making them fall apart,” she said. “It was about standing at the center of it all as it does.”
“The king of chaos,” Ewan remarked, and she nodded slowly.
“Something like that. I do not know if he believes what he preaches, but the one thing he has always said to me is that there should be no borders. We should revert back to how we lived in the beginning.”
“Tribes?” Hugh asked. “Truly?”
“The people will never revert,” Ewan said. “They have their way of life. Society will not crumble simply because there are no longer any crowned heads. The villages will continue to function. The lands will not fall apart.”
“They might,” Hugh said. “With enough strife, everything sooner or later begins to crumble. Without the elemental magic to keep the balance… To further peace…” He trailed off, but they all knew that he was right.
Sooner or later the kingdoms would be at war again. Over grain, over streams, over which mountain to cross where. The prosperity that had secured centuries of the kingdoms standing on equal footing would be undone.
“Will he remain within the citadel?” Ewan asked.
“Yes,” Shannon said. “He will come for me.”
He had always promised her that he would.
She swallowed against her drying mouth, her tongue feeling swollen and strange, her hearts heavy and her breath uncooperating. But she would not cower before her fear. Not anymore.
She clenched the crystal.
What did she dream about?
She hadn’t been allowed to dream of wanting something for herself for her whole life that trying to grasp at an answer felt like trying to capture smoke with her hands.
“I thought he was dead,” Lady Marigold said, all eyes turning to her.
“What?” Ewan asked, clearly surprised. “You know him?”
