Daughter of the Red Dawn (The Lost Kingdom of Fallada) (33 page)

Titus stood back and search
ed the sea of fighting bodies, looking
for his father in the fray. The wolves were mixed together, only distinguishable by the eyes. Titus barked and howled the signal to his wolves, commanding them to fall into the formation they had practiced and drive the enemy wolves toward the center of the battle. His companions obeyed, turning on their possessed enemies and strategically fighting them back into the center of the battle. Titus leaped forward to meet his father, who was coming at him with exposed teeth and a throaty growl. Titus avoided his fathers’ snapping jaws, protecting his throat as he threw his body at Orwen’s, watching as his white, furry body went skidding across the snow. Titus didn’t even bother to counterattack, realizing that his wolves were now in a tight circle around the red-eyed wolves.

Titus swiftly shifted to his human form and grasped the talisman blessed by Adrah. He closed his eyes and swiftly chanted the words given to him by Adrah to pull on the charm’s power. It exploded out from his chest in a flash of light, striking the red glow from the eye of every wolf trapped within his circle. His father shifted, falling to his knees in the snow, his dark hair glistening in the light of the
high, full
moon. Without a stitch of clothing on, Titus was freezing. Instinct had him wanting to shift, to protect himself with a layer of white fur, but he was not done yet. Forcing himself to ignore the cold, Titus held his arms up and took a step toward the wolves trapped within his circle.

“Listen to me!” he bellowed, noticing the confusion that crossed his father’s face. “You have just been released from the evil queen’s possession. You have been turned against your brothers and sons for the good of a kingdom that is sure to fall. Come back to us! Come back to your pack, to your homes, to your mates. We need you to win this fight! We need to stand together against the tyranny of Eranna before she turns our beloved Mollac into a cold wasteland ruled with an iron fist! If you are not for us, then you are against us and we will be forced to kill you.”

Some of the wolves howled in acknowledgement, others barked angrily. Orwen stood and faced his son, his hands fisted at his side.

“My son.
You are alive.”

Titus nodded. “I’m sorry
,
Father. I thought that working for Eranna would save you, I thought it would buy me some time and she promised your freedom.”

“The dark queen is a liar and an arrogant fiend.”

Titus nodded. “Yes. I knew that you would never go to her of your own free will.”

“When you did not return, I offered my service to Eranna for your mother and sister’s freedom. I never would have done it had I known that she was turning our people against each other.”

Orwen turned to the wolves behind him and added his voice to Titus’. “My friends, we have made a very serious mistake!
We have allowed the evil of Eranna to overtake our lands and rip apart our packs. Where we once turned tail and ran, now we must fight! I know that I was one of those in favor of running, and it has taken the courage of my son to show me the error of my ways. The time for running is over!”

“You’re right,” said another voice as a black and gray wolf shifted into the form of the Joison pack leader, Almred. His silver hair and matching gunmetal eyes combined with dark skin to create a striking appearance. He squared his shoulders and faced Orwen with a scowl. “It is not time to run, it is time for self-preservation. Going against Eranna is suicide. The members of the Joison pack went to her gladly to offer our service. If this means that we must fight against our kind to ensure our pack’s survival, then so be it.”

“Coward!”
Titus spat, crossing to join his father in standing against Almred. “You would allow Eranna to make you her bitch, while killing your sons and brothers?”

Almred bared his canines and growled, saliva dripping from the corners of each one menacingly.

“Watch it, puppy. I could rip your throat out in a second.”

“You and you
r
pack have chosen your side,” Orwen said, placing a beefy shoulder in front of Titus to block him from Almred. “And we have chosen ours.”

With his voice raised, Orwen turned to the other wolves. “Let every man who wishes to be free of Eranna’s tyranny join with his brothers in battle. Let all others who stand against us be condemned to death.”

In an instant, all three men had shifted back to wolf form, taking their places on their chosen sides. Titus was thrilled to see more wolves coming to their side, abandoning Almred, his pack, and very few others who had chosen the side of evil. Titus braced himself, waiting for his
father’s
signal. Chills rolled up his spine as
Or
w
e
n
’s
howl rang out over the battlefield. He and the other wolves joined in, springing into a run, teeth barred,
their
courage soaring as they flashed their sharp teeth at the enemy.

~*~

Selena was exhausted. They moon had been high for hours and the morning had to be near, but it didn’t feel
that way
just now. She lifted
the
scepter and pulled on another gust of wind to propel a Minotaur and his sharp axe away from her
;
s
he sent the beast crashing into three others, leaving them to the bows and arrows of the Centaurs.

The Centaurs were beautiful in battle, the most magnificent thing Selena had ever seen. They ran together as one, in groups of four and in
five, in perfect formation, shooting their arrows with precision and speed. The
Fae
and the
Elves
fought together valiantly, the
Fae
ries careful to avoid the iron weapons of the enemy. Selena whipped her staff over her head and swung
it like baseball bat, catching
a witch in the middle with it before bringing the rounded end down onto the hag’s head. With another swing, she deflected one of the warlock’s deadly grenades, sending it flying into the ranks of the white fox shifters. The explosion took ten of them out at once, disintegrating them into ash on contact.

Selena fought for breath and wiped at the sweat on her forehead. She was rapidly running out of steam. Sunrise couldn’t come fast enough for her.

“Well, what do we have here?”

The deep, gravelly voice was familiar and Selena turned to find Ruen standing behind her, his axe gripped between his meaty fingers.

“I see someone taught you how to fight.”

“I see you’re still as ugly as sin,” Selena taunted with false confidence. “Some things change, others don’t.”

Ruen growled, his wide nostrils flaring. “I should have killed you when I had the chance. No one will stop me now.”

Selena jammed her staff into the snow and left it there. She reached for the two curved knives at her side,
her
birthday gifts from Thaddeus. Hoping to remember everything he’d taught her about fighting a large opponent with the knives, Selena raised the weapons to meet Ruen’s first blow in the air. The larger weapon made Ruen clumsy, allowing him only
one
swing of his axe for every three or four swipes of
Selena’s knife. His strength was greater than hers
,
tho
ugh, and Selena had to use every ounce of her speed and agility to avoid the crushing blows of his axe. She ducked to avoid the sweep of his horns as he charged at her,
then
used the wind to lift her from the ground and over Ruen’s bulky body. As he turned to swipe at her with his axe again, Selena pulled her staff from the ground and swung it, deflecting the blow that nearly decapitated her. She followed it up with a blow to Ruen’s midsection and one to the head. As Ruen stumbled backward, Selena ran toward him, using the staff like a pole vault to launch toward him, landing a solid kick to the top of his head. With a roar, Ruen went down to his knees, still reaching for Selena with his large hands. Selena avoided his grasp and grabbed her knives, moving at lightning speed toward the Minotaur. The two blades disappeared into his chest all the way to the hilt and Ruen threw his head back with a roar of agony. Selena planted a kick in his chest, throwing the beast to his back
,
before jumping onto his torso to retrieve her knives. The red glow faded slowly from the beast’s eyes as Selena pulled her blades from his chest. She turned away from the gruesome sight and
cleaned her blades in the snow. Selena could hear Eranna’s enraged cry from above and she looked up to where the evil queen circled overhead on her owl. She kicked Ruen’s corpse and glared up at Eranna.

“You wanna come down here and do something about it, bitch?”

“Do not tempt her,” Eldalwen said as he appeared by her side, his sword coated in the black blood of the Minotaurs and the blue gore of the
Witches
’ and
Warlocks
’ innards. “How are you holding up?”

Selena caught one of the flying witch-bombs in midair before it could land, hurtling it back at the warlock that had thrown it before using a gust of wind to propel him away from her soldiers.

“I’m exhausted,” she admitted, swinging her scepter to club a white fox flying right at her face.
“How much longer until the Dawn?”

Eldalwen glanced up at the sky, which had just begun to lighten from midnight to royal blue. “Minutes,” he promised. “Just hold on.”

Selena nodded and turned back to back with Eldalwen as he had taught her, fighting against the Minotaurs, wolves
,
and foxes. She dodged the occasional falling rock from the owls above and made sure to avoid their sharp talons; she had seen them swoop down and carry handfuls of
Elves
and
Fae
up into the air before dropping their bodies to the cold, hard ground below. She shuddered at the thought of ending life that way. A blow from a falling rock
finally clipped her and
caught her off balance, knocking her to the ground. The back of her head struck the cold, snowy ground, sending pain radiating out from her head to other parts of her body. The ringing in her ears drowned out the sounds of her father’s concerned voice as he crouched over her, shouting her name and waving his hand in front of her face.

Selena closed her eyes and then opened them, shaking her head to try to clear it of the dizzy sensation that was gripping her. She was reminded of a time she’d sat down in the cellar wit
h
her grandmother during one of
the wors
t
tornadoes
to
ever hit
Twin Oaks. Just the sound of all that swirling, howling wind had made Selena dizzy. She’d clapped her hands over her ears to block it out, but it had been too powerful. Thankfully, their house had survived
,
but many others hadn’t. It had
taken months to rebuild many of the stores and homes that had gone down in the face of the monstrous twister.

Selena flew upright, a wide smile on her face as inspiration struck. She didn’t know where the memory had come from, but it had given
her the
answer to ending this thing once and for all.

“We need a twister!” she shouted to Eldalwen, whose face instantly
crinkled in confusion at Selena’s declaration.

“I think you’ve sustained a very serious head injury,” he said, helping her to stand.

Selena shook her head. “No, I’m fine.”

Really, her head hurt like hell, but she could ignore it.

“I just figured out how we’re going to win this thing
.”

Eldalwen grinned. “Spoken like a true warrior. I’m all ears, daughter.”

“Back home we have these big storms called twisters. Long story short, they happen when cold air fights against hot air, creating a funnel of storm clouds that can spin at up to one hundred miles per hour. They’ll tear up anything in their path.”

Eldalwen’s eyes widened and so did his smile. “Yes!” he cried, clapping his hands together. “My daughter is both strong and smart! We stand on the line between Damu and Mollac, with cold winds shifting on one side and hot on the other.”

Selena nodded.
“Exactly.
When the Red Dawn begins, we can take this thing to the air. Fly up and amass all of our power into a twister.
Half of us on one side, half on the other. Once that funnel cloud hits the ground, it’ll do all the work for us.”

“A display of power,” Thaddeus said as he grabbed a Minotaur by the horns and slammed it down to the ground. “I like it.”

Selena nodded. “All we have to do is hold on
until
the Red Dawn.”

~*~

Titus was fading rapidly and he knew it. Holding up the fight throughout the night had been easier said than done. Open scratch wounds from the foxes lined his ribs and the bite mark of another wolf had taken a chunk out of his thigh. He knew that Adrah’s
Fae
could heal him when this was all over, but at this point was beginning to doubt that he would survive long enough.