Infinity (5 page)

Chapter Five

“Allie?” Mercedes asked as Winston began to circle the top of my palace, bringing himself down slowly so that he could land without jarring us.

“Mer…” I swallowed and kept my face forward, not looking at her.

“No.” I could hear her sniffle behind me, and I reached back with one hand to wrap my arm around her waist, despite the awkward angle, trying to find a way to comfort her. She buried her head in my shoulder and started to sob. “No, no, no, no, no.”

“I’m sorry.” Tears begin leaking out the sides of my eyes. “If I’d known Bavasama was going to send troops out, I’d have never sent your sisterhood to Sorcastia. I wouldn’t have let you get so close to the border. I’d have kept you inside the palace. It’s—”

“You didn’t know.” Mercedes’s voice sounded hollow, and she sniffled again. “You signed a peace treaty. You couldn’t have known she was going to start another war with you the minute she was back over the border.”

“I should have known.” I felt my stomach starting to knot with anger and guilt. “I should have known that she would try this instead.”

I knew that my aunt had something up her sleeve—she’d made that clear before her departure. She hadn’t meant a single one of the promises that she’d agreed to in our treaty. I just didn’t know what she was going to do about it—and I definitely didn’t think she’d act so soon. She wanted to become Golden Rose, be queen of the world we lived in and everything that it encompassed, empress of the lands of both light and dark.

I swallowed my rage as I thought about how easily she must have believed we’d be destroyed. How she thought she could just take my kingdom like it was nothing. That we’d be so unprepared that she could just send an army in and take us over less than a week after our truce.

Winston swooped low as he let himself glide across the back garden, narrowly avoiding the goblin workers who were relandscaping parts of my back garden before he reached the flat, green clearing near the aerie that the dragons used as their own sort of landing strip. Some of the other dragons raced toward us in their human forms.

“Come on.” I swung my leg over Win’s shoulders and grabbed hold of Mercedes’s hand, hoping to get her head off my shoulder long enough for us to get down. Instead of responding verbally, she let go of me and brought her legs together next to mine. She slid down Winston’s flank and into the waiting arms of Dravak, the youngest of the trainee dragon warriors that made their home at the aerie. Once she was on the ground and had moved out of the way so I could get down, I pressed myself close to Winston’s side before slipping down to join her.

Small, tentative hands grabbed my waist as Dravak moved to help me, and my feet hit the ground harder than they would have normally. Not bad enough to hurt but enough to know that the young dragon still wasn’t strong enough to handle even my weight.

Once I was free, Winston lumbered off to find somewhere more private to shift from his dragon to his human form. If it had just been him and his clanmates around, he’d have shifted where he stood, but he, and the rest of the dragons, was much more modest when non-dragons were nearby.

“Your Majesty?” Dravak asked. “What happened? We saw smoke in the far forest, and then one of the dragons flying patrol brought a message that the Forest of Ananth was burning.”

“Summon the elders for me,” I said quickly. “Tell them to send a messenger to Dramera. We need the entire Dragos War Council here as soon as possible.”

“Your Majesty?” Tietsien, a gold-and-red dragon hybrid whose hair—and scales—changed color in the sun, ran out of the aerie toward us. “What’s happening? The messenger—”

“Bavasama’s army attacked the dryads in the Forest of Ananth,” I said. “Everything between Lake Wevlyn and the White Mountains is burning.”

“By the stars.” He brought his hand to his mouth, his eyes wide with horror.

“Send someone to get the Dragos War Council,” I said. “I need them. Now. We’re mobilizing for war.”

“I’ll go myself. Dravak and I will both go. We can say that we heard the summons directly from the mouth of the Rose and that they should come to you immediately. The minute the Prince Consort has returned, we’ll leave.”

“We’re fine.” I said. “Go now.”

Tietsien raised an eyebrow at me. “But—”

“Mercedes and I can take care of ourselves. What we can’t do is summon the Council. Now, go.”

“Allie?” John of Leavenwald’s scream hit my ears, and I turned away from Tietsien to see my father racing across the backyard, Rhys hot on his heels. Boreas and Aquella—the heads of the Aurae, the wind nymphs, and the Naiads, the water nymphs—were following closely.

“We’re okay!” I held my hands up to show him, and Mercedes did the same. “We’re both okay.”

“Oh, thank the stars,” John said as he slid to a stop in front of me and pulled me into his arms, crushing my body against his chest and lifting me up so that he could bury his head in my hair. “We’d had a messenger about the fire, and—”

“We’re okay,” I repeated as he kissed both of my cheeks and pulled me close again. He let go of me with one arm and immediately grabbed Mercedes, pulling her into a three-sided hug with us. I looked up and saw that Rhys was crowded close to Mercedes’s back, his nose burrowed into her hair.

“I was so worried about both of you girls,” John whispered, dropping his forehead down to meet mine. “I knew the dryad’s were in the forest and that you wouldn’t leave without her. I thought we’d lose you both—and the dragon.”

I reached around to pat his back as he just squeezed us tighter. “We’re both okay. Winston’s fine, too. We’re all back safe.”

“Thank the Pleiades,” he murmured into my hair.

“John?” Rhys asked. When I looked over, I could see that he’d melded himself against Mercedes’s back now, his arms tight around her waist as if to assure himself that she was still there—and alive—in front of him. Rhys tilted his head toward Boreas.

“While I agree with your gratitude, Leader of the Woodsmen”—the man cleared his throat—“there are other things we must be concerned about now. The first being the remaining dryads.”

I looked over at the silver-skinned man and swallowed. “Boreas, in the fire…”

“Yes?”

“Darinda didn’t make it out. None of them made it out. Mercedes is the only one left.”

His pale face turned almost translucent, the edges of it green as his eyes widened. “All…?”

“That can’t be,” Aquella said, her own sea-colored skin paling as well. “You can’t mean that they’re all…
gone
?”

“How?” Boreas asked, his shoulders hunched and his hands pressed to his stomach like I’d punched him. “How could the leader of the Dryad Order—”

“Bavasama’s army was waiting for us in the forests,” Mercedes said in a quiet interruption, her voice trembling. “We’d left Sorcastia an hour before, and we were hiking toward the resting grounds inside the Forest of Ananth. We’d spent the day coaxing life into one of the fields near Lake Wevlyn, and we were tired, so we decided to stop and camp for the night.”

“Mer—” I grabbed her hand and squeezed it tightly.

“We weren’t going far from the road, just to a place we could rest with our trees and be protected.”

“You don’t have to…” Rhys lowered his face down to the top of her head as John wrapped his arms tighter around me.

“They came out of nowhere,” she said, her voice cracking. “We didn’t know what happened. One minute we were walking and the next they were there. And they brought iron. Swords and spears. They brought iron into the forest, and they surrounded us.”

Rhys let out a choked noise, and I knew the lord general of my army was sickened at the idea that anyone had brought exposed weapons into the forest. Even though he was always armed, when he was near the dryads, he took extra precautions to keep the iron parts covered so no one would accidentally be harmed if he brushed against them.

Aquella gasped, and both she and Boreas looked ill.

“They drove us into a circle, poking at us with the weapons. They forced us back-to-back and then…” Mercedes shuddered.

“Mercedes, you don’t have to tell us anything you don’t want to,” I whispered.

“They brought out torches,” she continued like I hadn’t said anything, like none of us were even there.

“They had torches and iron, and they set fire to the trees around us. They stood there and set fire to our trees and they…” A tear slid down her cheek. “They laughed.”

I closed my eyes and swallowed, trying to force down the lump that had formed in my throat. “Oh, Mer,” I whispered.

Dryads were psychically linked to the things that came from the ground. The trees and the flowers and the plants that we ate. They mourned for every leaf when it fell. Mercedes had told me once that they felt the passing of everything, and now my best friend had been trapped in a forest fire, forced to feel that pain as everything around her died.

“We’ll find them,” Winston said. I turned to see him behind me, his shirt still in his hand and his eyes snapping with blue-black fire. “And when we do, I promise you, I’ll kill every single one of them.”

“Win?” Mercedes looked up at him and then pushed forward so she could wrap her arms around him. “I want to go home.”

“I know, Mer,” he whispered into her hair. “As soon as we solve this…”

He looked over at me, his eyes wide and filled with pain. When we’d first come here, I’d promised to find a way home. I’d sworn to them, and then, the first chance I’d got, I’d backed out on that promise. I’d trapped all of us here, and now—because of what I’d done—my best friend had lost the new family she’d made for herself as well.

“As soon as we end this,” I said quietly. “I’ll find a way to get everyone home. I promise.”

“Your Majesty—” John said from beside me.

“Rhys, call up the army,” I said, not skipping a beat. “Send men to all the villages to gather troops. Anyone they can spare. Rouse as many men as you can and bring them here. Get them into fighting condition.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.” He nodded once, curt.

“Allie,” John started again, but I just ignored him. He was the one who had pushed this peace treaty, and the instant Bavasama was out of my sight she had broken her word, attacked the dryads, almost killed my best friend.

“Win.” I turned to look at my boyfriend. “The War Council of the Dragos is coming. I sent for them while you were shifting. I need you to persuade them to commit every single dragon warrior to the aerie and the defense of Nerissette.”

“The warriors are yours.” He squeezed Mercedes again and then let go of her, letting Rhys comfort her instead. “I will make sure of it.”

“Allie,” John said, sterner this time, and I turned to look at him.

“Bring me an army.” I kept my eyes on his. “So we can end this once and for all.”

“They just laughed as it burned,” Mercedes said numbly. I turned to watch as the two remaining members of the Nymphiad stepped forward to take her from Rhys’s arms, encircling her in their own. “I don’t know what to do. It’s gone. They’re gone. All of them. They’re gone.”

“Shh, Sapling.” Aquella soothed her as Boreas patted her back. “Shh, come with us, and we’ll help you prepare the rituals.”

“I don’t know what to do,” Mercedes said, her voice sounding empty. “I’m the only one left. They’re all gone, and I don’t know what I’m supposed to do now.”

“We’ll help you, Sapling,” Boreas rumbled as he and Aquella led my best friend away. “Just trust us to help you now.”

I watched as the two nymphs helped Mercedes stumble away, their heads bent low over hers as they half carried, half dragged her between them. Winston tightened the grip of his fingers on mine, and I looked over at him again. He looked as lost as I felt. Rhys face was blank as well.

“Raise an army,” I said quietly, my eyes still fixed on my best friend’s hunched back.

“You’ve signed a peace treaty with Bavasama,” John said. “If you raise an army, then it will be seen as an act of war.”

“Good.” I swallowed. “Because it
is
an act of war. And you want to know something?”

“What?”

“I wasn’t the one who broke this peace treaty,” I said. “She already did that. I’m just the one who’s got to figure out how to make it right.”

“You can’t.” He shook his head, his free hand clutching the hilt of the sword on his hip, his knuckles white. “There’s no way to make this right. War will not make this right.”

“Then what would you have me do?” I snapped.

“We can send riders to detain your aunt before she reaches the border. Demand reparations. Find out if this is some rogue element of the army who is refusing to honor her peace agreement.”

“These weren’t rogues,” I said, my voice shaking as I pulled my hands free from both John and Winston. I looked at Rhys. “This was my aunt, showing you what she thinks of peace. Now, raise an army. That’s an order from the Golden Rose of Nerissette.
Your queen.
”

“Allie?” Rhys asked, watching Mercedes as the other two nymphs led her farther away.

“You once asked for my permission to chop a man to pieces for insulting her.” I kept my voice low, and he looked over at me, his eyes angry. “Now I’m giving you a country full of them. They killed her people in front of her.
Her family.
I suggest you make sure your sword is sharp. I have a feeling you’re going to be doing a lot of chopping before we make it to the Palace of Night.”

I stepped away from the three men and started toward the empty plain where the mermaid’s pool had once been, before my aunt’s army had burned it to the ground and the mermaids who had lived there disappeared. We had a memorial for the missing mermaids planned for the space but nothing had been finalized yet. Right now it was just an empty field where nothing could grow. I wished Talia, the queen of the mermaids, were there. She always knew what to say to give me strength.

“Allie!” I turned to see Winston chasing after me. “Allie!”

“What?”

“What are you planning? Our army is exhausted. We aren’t prepared for another long siege. We don’t have the soldiers or the weapons.”

“I’m not planning a siege,” I said. “I’m not going to fight her into a truce. This time there is no surrender that doesn’t involve me taking over my aunt’s throne and banishing her to the Bleak.”