dark faerie 06 - ever dead (17 page)

Dulci nodded. “I’m sorry about that, Hank. I
would
tell you that I could bring you back without them ever knowing you were gone, but my powers are limited to a single day as far as that goes.”

Standing up and facing Hank, “
You
however may have the power to manipulate several days at once…eventually.”

He smiled, “Cool!”

Nodding, Dulci looked down at Luci.

“If you don’t mind, Hank, I will take Luci with me and we will meet you at the cottage when you are done.”

“Sounds good,” Hank grinned, “I’ll be there as soon as I can!”

Waving, he then turned and headed back to the office as Luci and Dulci watched him go.

Are you sure about what you felt in your vision?
Luci questioned Dulci when Hank was gone.

Dulci nodded,
Unfortunately…
quite
sure.

Both were silent for a time…thinking over the revelation.

But it’s not necessarily him…correct?
Luci continued, glancing up at Dulci worriedly.

Dulci returned Luci’s worried stare.

No Luci…it’s not necessarily him. All I felt…was the death of a powerful wizard…

Chapter 31

One fleeting week later, Hank strode out of the Summer Palace in front of an army. Time passed faster than normal in Faerie, even with a time changing oracle, but it flew by in the company of a host of new friends.

It was a bright and cool day…a perfect day for a battle in Faerie. The air was electric with energy as wild magic swirled overhead while the warriors readied themselves.

Today, life would change forever.

Hank walked in front of an army made up of regiments of both Seelie and Unseelie warriors. Since Pironin and his Kolograt clan had only their own interests at heart, many of the Unseelie of Faerie did not side with him. Queen Shade had done an amazing job of corralling those factions of Unseelie that were against Pironin to the Seelie side for the war…Allies…at least for the time being.

Queen Shade could charm anyone…even the enemy. Hank wished he’d had more time to speak with her. Being part human, it would be awesome to ask her so many things about life in Faerie. For now, however, there was a war to fight.

Adjusting the strap on his helmet, Hank once again felt the satisfying intensity of the armor’s magic. Dulci had grinned at his discovery of the armor’s power. He’d worked all week with it…wearing it…getting to know it…letting its magic mingle with his own…forging the magics together to work in pure harmony.

Turning his head to the left, Hank glanced at Dulci, resplendent in her own, glowing armor.

A polished silver helmet was fitted on her head, her golden hair flowing out from underneath it. A
very
fitted breastplate covered the front of her, strapped on with leather straps over her shoulders. In her right hand she held a short yet graceful looking silver sword, in the left a polished shield with some sort of talisman engraved on it. She handled both with the comfort of someone long accustomed to the accessories. She was beauty defined in metal and leather.

Feeling his face flush, Hank moved his eyes forward again before Dulci could notice his ogling of her. He was thankful to have her beside him at this moment in time, even though she didn’t have the power to take a life.

Wondering about that fact when he noticed her prepping for battle, Hank had asked her why she was joining them. According to her, even though she could not take a life, it was well within her power to wound any of the enemy soldiers she could reach, taking them out of play during the battle. There were a myriad of ways around
any
magical impairment…one just had to get creative when it came right down to it.

Feeling something brush his leg, he grinned down at Luci, now fitted out in a gleaming set of armor of her own. When Hank had arrived at Dulci’s cottage a week ago, he’d found the oracle fitting Luci with a heavy piece of leather covered with lightweight metal plates. Luci stood by passively as Dulci worked with the brown leather, seemingly enjoying the attention. As he studied the armor closer, he noticed it was covered by ancient symbols and lettering that looked like hieroglyphics or runes.

Magic charms and ancient runes of protection
Dulci had explained,
to keep Luci safe.

Luci was now looking up at him, excitement showing on her face for the coming battle.
This is gonna be fun!
She exclaimed wordlessly.

Hank shivered at Luci’s words, worried at the red dog’s over-exuberance for the coming battle. Although he also felt the excitement of finally being able to test his magical powers, he was sometimes overwhelmed by the thought of going up against Pironin himself. He was a
powerful
wizard, with unimaginable skills garnered from centuries of practice.

Benton, standing on the other side of Luci covered in his own elaborate armor, looked down at the animal with an excited grin. “Wait until those Kolograt assholes get a load of our talking dog!”

The four of them broke out in unabashed laughter…a welcomed release of the tension that had been building up all morning.

Hank looked ahead to Queen Shade as she and her Teleen faery husband, Dylan, led the column behind a row of her personal body guards…including Soap and Nautilus.

Hank had met the queen briefly on the previous day when Benton had introduced them. He then revealed that Hank was the one who had come up with the new process of moving the Unseelie back across the barrier.

Shade had shaken Hank’s hand, a beautiful smile on her lips that radiated warmth as her dark-brown eyes met his. He’d been immediately smitten with the young queen; impressed both by her strength of commitment to Faerie as well as her beauty…which was unparalleled in Faerie…except for Dulci of course.

Her husband Dylan stood beside her and had taken a dimmer view of the young wizard, usually threatening any who dared step too close to her with his deep, steel-colored eyes while drilling in his claim to the young and beautiful queen. His power pushed against Hank’s, a dominating power that showed all that he was king.

Hank had taken his hand in turn, sending a calming spell of acceptance into the staunch Teleen warrior as he did so. The exchange of power brought a smile which spread across Dylan’s face as he welcomed Hank to Faerie, thanking him for coming to their aid.

The king was a force to be reckoned with, but he didn’t blame him for being so protective of Shade. The young woman had more than one admirer waiting to take the king’s place in a millisecond. It had to be a rough life.

Hank was amazed at the potent effects of his
own
magic, having conjured the calming spell without thinking…or even knowing he
had
the ability to cast spells in such a way.

It was exhilarating!

The four of them now following directly behind the queen had been chosen to lead the assault on Pironin himself as the rest of the army concentrated on his clan of followers.

While still unsure of himself, Dulci seemed to have an unbounded faith in Hank’s abilities as a wizard. She was the one who devised the plan of attack on the powerful wizard, and the one that had sold the idea to Shade.

As the army crested the rise of a hill, Shade held up her hand to halt their advance. A formidable wind suddenly pressed towards them…and with it a haunting wail of deathly magic that brushed against his exposed skin and sent a horror of shivers down his spine. He’d never felt evil quite like this before and he mustered every brave cell in his body to still his wired heart in the wake of the first true fear he’d felt in a long time.

Before them was a large valley full of scraggly trees and thorn bushes. Hank’s eyes were immediately drawn to the ridge on the other side of the gorge, his heart moving to his throat at the sight. An old man wearing a brown robe stood on a large rock, holding his staff to the heavens as his long white hair swirled around his face. As Hank watched, a bolt of lighting suddenly shot out of the man’s staff and moved rapidly toward the sky.

When the lightning reached the first cloud, it shattered into a thousand bolts of energy, streaking across the sky overhead and quickly turning the beautiful day into an edgy-looking dusk.

Thunder ripped through the valley as the lightning overhead took on a life of its own, jumping from cloud to cloud and striking the ground around them. Water was then suddenly cascading down on them, forcing all to cover their eyes to even look ahead.

Hank wondered if he could counter the magic and bring back the beautiful day when he felt Dulci’s hand on his shoulder.

“That’s what he wants you to do, Hank,” Dulci yelled through the thunder, seemingly reading his mind. “He would like nothing better than for you to expend some of your magic on the weather overhead.”

Hank nodded before turning back to face the wizard across the valley. Pironin was staring back at him now, the sneer on his face daring Hank to come over and meet him.

A shiver ran down his spine as he stared back, working to keep his nervousness from showing as he moved his lips into a tentative smile of his own.

Hank’s smile had no humor in it however…nor much confidence if truth be known. Not knowing what else to do, it was merely a brave face that he gave the magic being across the way…an attempt to hide his own feeling of inadequacy at the wizard’s power.

He could feel the evil magic emanating from the ancient being across the valley…tendrils of power and evil that probed at Hank’s soul, poking and prodding at him for weaknesses…eating away at his confidence.

Dulci was suddenly in front of him, her back toward Pironin, blocking the probing tentacles of the wizard in moments. Hank shook his head to clear it.

“He had you in a spell,” Dulci spoke quietly to Hank. “You must block his magic, use your mind to shut out his power or he will try to control you.”

“Time to go!” Benton crowed as he joined Dulci in front of him, a determined look on his face. “You ready to take out this wizard waste of space?”

Nodding, Hank turned and followed Dulci back down the hill, his mind still buzzing from Pironin’s attack on his mind. Luci and Benton followed closely behind, as well as two of the queen’s personal guards…Soap and Nautilus.

Detaching themselves from the main force, they would not be a part of the central attack. Their job was simple…to target and eliminate Pironin.

Chapter 32

Snaking their way back through the army until they got to the bottom of the next valley, they then turned right and made their way down the stream. The going was rough as the downpour of rain made everything slick.

Traveling about a quarter mile, they then started ascending the hill once again. Reaching the top, they observed the battle forming below.

Hank watched as Pironin stepped down from the rock and joined ten others in a circle.

The Alliance Circle!

Hank could see the magic swirling around them, gaining power before a stream of the red ectoplasm cascaded over the hill, fortifying their own troops with the dark magic.

With the influx of magic, the enemy soldiers grew in fierceness as they rapidly started beating back Shade’s troops. It was like they were on steroids, pumped up and pushing at their enemy’s lines with a slamming force.

“We need to get this over with!” Soap exclaimed, looking back at Dulci, his eyes widened in worry. “They’re devastating our army!”

Dulci nodded worriedly as she turned toward Hank, her eyes conveying so much in the span of a second.

“Kneel before me, Hank.”

He didn’t question the request, dropping immediately before the beautiful oracle.

Placing her right hand on his forehead, she held her left out in a similar fashion…although there was no one there.

Closing her eyes, colorful orbs suddenly swirled around them as he felt part of his power drain away from him. Almost immediately however, another power entered his being, swirling within him and lifting him off of his feet.

The ethereal energy that now coursed through his veins threatened to explode his chest with its enormous power. Electrical energy snapped at his fingertips as his sight was lost to the bright, overpowering light suddenly appearing overhead

A bolt of lightning suddenly struck him in the chest, causing him to yell out in pain. He clamped down on his teeth, barely bearing the pain that threatened to explode his heart.

Breathe…just breathe…

His mind was telling him to breathe, but he couldn’t! The force of the power within him was pressing at everything in his body until he thought he would expire.

Dulci’s magic never wavered, holding him off of the ground until the lightning had expended itself, causing him to then fall into a heap at her feet.

Finally able to catch his breath, he glanced up at Dulci who was smiling at him tenderly.

Suddenly the magic within him surged again, the power seeming to come from his right. Glancing that way, his heart skipped a beat at what his eyes beheld.

Howie!

His brother was there, at least a ghostly image of the man, pulling himself up off of the ground before smiling at Hank.

“Hey, little brother,” Howie smiled as he offered his hand to Hank.

Taking his brother’s hand in his, Hank jumped to his feet and wrapped his arms around the apparition. Hugging for a few seconds, no further words crossed between them as they both then picked up their staffs and turned to face the others.

“The transition is complete,” Dulci shouted over the roar of thunder and rain. “Heretofore, the two shall be as one!”

Benton stepped up beside Dulci, staring at the now doubled wizard.

“Cute trick,” he said while rolling his eyes. “
Now
can we go kick some Kolograt ass?”