Island Shifters: Book 03 - An Oath of the Children (44 page)

Kellan, Kane, Reilly, Jala and Izzy sprinted out of the gates with their protectors—human and
animal.
Kenley swooped back down to the ground and walked over to Kirby.

“Kirby,
you need to
keep everyone back, including the Draca Cats.
The shifters
will come
with me.”

Not surprisingly, he
opened his mouth
to
argue, but she held up a hand. “You heard Emile.
We are dealing with a
creature that was once a
Mage, and it
will take magic to defeat it.
We cannot be distracted by
concern for
your safety.”

His eyes flared in anger. “
Our
safety?
Are you—”

Kenley leaned forward and planted a soft kiss on his lips. “Do
not let your feelings for me cloud your duty. You know that the
Savitar
children have the best chance to end this nightmare. Let me go.”

The words struck home
as they were meant to. No one could ever accuse Captain Kirby Nash of shirking his duty.

He
nodded reluctantly, but when
she turned to go,
he grabbed her
from behind and leaned down to whisper fiercely,
“Come back to me, wife.”

Her mouth twitched up into a smile and she patted his hand on her shoulder.
“I will.”

Kenley motioned for the children to follow
and
they made their way through
the host of Draca Cats. She was grateful Kirby did not put up more of a fight.
If she had her way,
she would have many more years
ahead of her
to argue with
Captain
Nash.
That settled,
she put all thoughts of Kirby
out of
her mind.

She knew Baya was still making her way through the Grayan
Forest.
Baya!

I am here, Princess.

Have you seen—?

The beast? I heard
your discussions. No.
I have seen nothing yet.

Keep your eyes out.

Of course.

Kenley
stopped when she reached the center of the
wet plains.
She waved Izzy forward and tenderly stroked her cheek. The young feralshifter looked much older than when Kenley had seen her last. Her eyes
more
haunted. Battle will do that she supposed. Reaching out, she ran a hand down the back of Jala’s hair and
then
smiled at
each of
the boys. She loved these children so much. More than friends, they were family, and she did not think she could recover from the loss of any of them.

“We are going to do this just like we
do in the games we play, except instead of me as your target, it will be the Vypir.”
The children
nodded, but they
looked so tired. She could only imagine what they had been through over the past few days
and knew she had to do something to
stir their blood oath.
It was the only way to give them the
enhanced strength and speed they would need to survive. “We can do this,” she
whispered
ardently. “Yes, we are the children of
Savitars
,
but more
importantly, we are
the
defenders of Massa!
We cannot fail in our duty this day!”

Eyes of
every color
swirled with the intensity of magic that dwelled behind them and she knew
the
green
of hers
matched theirs. She could feel her muscles strengthen, her vision sharpen, her hearing amplify.

She could feel
the
blood oath.

“Just like the games, but remember, this is, or was,
a wizard.
We cannot
let up for a single moment.”

Five heads nodded
more
eagerly
this time.

I see it!
It is coming, Princess!

Baya’s warning sounded in her mind
mere
seconds before she heard
a
crashing
movement from
the Grayan.
The Vypir
was coming toward them. Fast.

As one, the six standing alone in the plains turned to meet the threat.

Kenley took a deep breath. “Kane, you are first.”

Golden eyes glinted with deadly purpose as he took off at a sprint toward
the
oncoming Vypir without a word. The beast burst out of the woods running on all fours. Large
knuckles
helped to swing its body forward at an alarming rate. Even from this distance, she could see how muscular and strong the arms and legs were.

As soon as the Vypir saw Kane, it straightened into an upright position and began to take
leaping bounds that brought him closer to Kane faster than Kenley would have liked.
Kane replicated and five images of her brother tore toward the beast. But, instead of closing with the image in the lead position of the wedge
as—without fail—all other opponents did,
the Vypir veered off and slammed into the far right image on the wing. The real Kane.

With a
powerful
backhanded swat, the Vypir sent Kane reeling through the air.

Kellan
screamed out in fury and
advanced
next, swirling his hands in a circle to soften the wet ground at the Vypir’s feet to lock it in place before it could go after Kane.

The Vypir shrieked
as it struggled to lift its feet.
Kenley
silently urged Kellan on as she
watched the beast sink lower and lower into the ground. But, then the Vypir’s
lips moved
in a silent chant and
it burst up out of its snare.

Izzy crawled
onto the back of a Grayan wolf
and
crept
off to flank the creature, and
Jala
called
fire to her palms and hurled it at the Vypir as she ran
forward.
The fire
latched onto
its
white garment,
similar to what the Ellvinians wore,
and burst into flames. Again, she saw the Vypir’s lips move and the fire was
quickly
extinguished.

Kenley realized then that if they
continued to fight the Vypir
one on one, the ancient wizard would use spell-casting to defeat their shifting. They would have to make it impossible for him to combat all at one time.

“Shifters! Together!
All at once!”

Kenley
lifted off the ground and
watched
as the children circled the
Vypir.

“Now!” she screamed and they attacked.

Kellan opened the ground beneath the Vypir once again and it fell into
the furrow created by the wet roiling earth. The beast started a chant, but Kenley slammed it hard with a direct force of air and pinned it to the ground.

Jala hurled another fireball into the creature and the bottom half its already charred garment flared.

Izzy directed the Grayan wolf close
and
the animal clamped its jaws on the
Vypir’s arm and,
after a few violent tugs, ripped the limb
from its body.

Reilly called forth water from the wet grass and
a liquid stream
slithered
up the Vypir’s face
and transformed into a suffocating
mask. As the water found its way into the beast’s nose and mouth,
the Vypir
struggled in panic, but Kenley and Kellan kept
it
restrained
with air and earth.

Finally, Kane unsheathed the sword of Iserlohn and the lethal ring sounded
chilling
in the dawn light.

Kenley alighted from the air and stood over the Vypir with the rest of the children. When it stopped moving,
she
gestured for Reilly and Jala to let go of their magic.

“Let me have the sword, Kane,” she told her brother.

He handed the
family
heirloom to her and she held the point under the chin of the Vypir. Emile told her that it would have to be beheaded. If she did not do it, given enough time, the beast could probably heal itself. She knew her father had such powers.
Still, looking down at the pitiful creature, she hesitated.
With an arm missing and his hair and clothes singed, it no longer looked like an evil beast. It looked like a wounded animal.

Suddenly, the
Vypir
took a
loud,
gasping breath and its enlarged chest rose off the ground. Instinctively, the shifters took a step back as they prepared to assault it again.

“No,” Kenley said softly. It was up to her to end this now.
She moved back toward the Vypir and the sword in her hand quivered as she held it against his throat.

The Vypir’s eyes were open now, watery and filled with pain.

“No…more,” it croaked out.

Kenley flinched
at hearing
it
speak, but kept the sword close.

Through lips cracked and bleeding, the Vypir begged,
“No more…don’t want to live…no more.”

Sympathy overwhelmed Kenley for what this creature, once an Elven Mage, must have endured during its transformation.
She
stood
still for a
long time,
the
sword tip
hovering
over the Vypir’s throat, but
found
she could not do it.

A calloused hand gently reached for the sword and removed it from her fingers. She stepped back in a daze and watched as Kirby Nash lifted the sword
of Iserlohn
high over his head and took the Vypir’s head from its shoulders.

C
HAPTER
36

T
HE
R
ETURN

Two days later, as Kellan stood up to
swipe
the back of his hand across his sweat-filled brow, he spotted the
The Wanderer
on the horizon. He looked around in satisfaction. Most of the debris and wreckage from Reilly’s wall of water and from the battle had been cleared. Hammers rang out as carpenters worked
to
repair the
wooden
docks and shop fronts on the pier.

Several Ellvinians remained in Massa to help with the
restoration, but most of the
Shiprunners
and
Battlearms had already sailed back to Ellvin. Miraculously, only a handful of ships were destroyed. Most, were pushed out to sea with the tidal wave and the
experienced
Shiprunners on board
were able to
deftly sail them
away from the danger.

Emile appeared at his side. “Your parents?”

Kellan nodded with a smile. “I hope so, Emile.”

Kellan sent a young Massan to round up the children and protectors and within the hour, they all stood on the
platform
and watched as
The Wanderer
neared.

Even from the distance
that separated them, Kellan could see clearly that the
parents
were
distressed. In their agitated haste, they
did not
even
wait for Rafe Wilden to dock the ship.
Kellan’s father picked up his mother and shot toward shore using a hover spell, and Airron Falewir bodyshifted into a dolphin and cut through the water faster than any watershifter he had seen with Rogan Radek
clinging to his back for dear life.

After Airron and Rogan pulled themselves from the water, all four
Savitars
strode down the extended dock with menace in their eyes and deadly power in their movements.
The workmen that saw them coming
dove into the ocean
to get out of their way.