"Right now, I am just Anise Sinclair, the Princess of Riverford. At most I only have a piece of the Lady of Light within me. Since the Lord of Shadow prevents everything from truly dying I might be able to find her essence. Then I might be able to cleanse that evil from her. Then I might be able to save this world from the decay it has suffered over the centuries." She smiled at Peck full of hope. "Hope is far from gone."
She then concentrated on the Sun Rune. Every intent focused in on finding the true Lady of Light's spirit. She searched for the connection between her Light and the Lady's. She fully immersed herself in this search. She would make the Lady of Stone a liar. She would save the Dragon from that corruption. She would save this world from its destruction. As soon as she found that connection she would begin her march to her destination.
Peck opened his mouth to reply, but found he had no words. The tone of her voice -- her
name -- shifted his perception. He watched while she slipped into meditation --
Anise Sinclair -- and moment by moment, she became less a goddess sent from the stars and more a young woman only doing the best she could, with a heart as strong as a dragon.
Somehow, the latter commanded greater respect.
He sat cross-legged at the flap of the tent to prevent anyone from interrupting her, and for the next few hours he watched her in quiet fascination.
As Anise focused on the sunlight and on the lingering ache in her hand, the outside world slowly faded. Her body relaxed and stilled, eventually paralyzed in sleep while her mind -- and her spirit -- lifted away. Her eyes were closed, but the candlelit tent gently came into focus. She could see the stacks of books, the burning wick, the glowing coarse cloth walls, Peck's tired and confident face -- and herself, sitting with her head slightly bowed, breathing deeply. This was what one might call an out-of-body experience.
The old dead pirate -- gray and dark -- grinned, towering over Anise's body. He said nothing, but his meaning was clear: now she was within the Lord of Shadow's grasp, if only she would make a wrong step and join the other spirits in eternal servitude.
A brilliant light shimmered beyond the tent, calling her. Outside, the pirates of the Rook seemed to move slower, their voices quieter, as if it were all a dream. Anise shifted between them, floating rather than walking -- she would find that in this state she could imagine herself in any form she wished, with whatever powers she desired, though none of them would affect the real world. The light beckoned across the woods far below.
Below the Roost, the Dragon's leathered and dark-dripping wings were spread wide over the trees, as black as the sky, blue eyes shining down greedily upon a bright violet light. A young woman sat upon an armored gryphon, holding up the violet Lantern, speaking to a Pirate and a Kith as they held each other for safety.
A green light shone dimly, deeper in the forest at the base of the Roost's mountain. Hidden beneath layers of foliage, the green Lantern lay hidden at the bottom of a ravine. A blood-rat sat on top of it, protected by the Lantern's power from a monkey-bat that was attempting to bash it with a rock.
At the crumbled heart of the destroyed Mountain, the Lady of the Pond stood among the rubble, facing a little girl whose eyes glowed green; she left flowers and grass in her wake. Water roiled, and roots snaked under the rocks in threat. The Lady of Stone remained nearby, her focus on the eclipse.
To the east, beyond the Mountain, a Pirate city was on fire. A Kith tribe and the forest itself invaded Oyagun-Nai with deadly intent. Vines and trees crushed buildings, wolves and blood-rats sought out blood, guns flashed and fired, corpses littered the streets. Beside the city, an old temple had escaped the flames; within it was a statue of the Lady of Light, glowing softly, and a pedestal each for wind, fire and the forest. The pedestals for fire and forest had been activated, their handprints alight. Wind, only, was missing.
To the southeast, a red light glowed and flashed. The Witch traipsed through the woods carrying the red Lantern on a stick, returning to her ruined cottage.
In the wasteland to the east, created by the forest fire not so long ago, a tribe of Kith had gathered to escape the smoke that permeated the southern woods. Reus and Peck's brother, Kep, trudged north together through the wasteland, headed straight for the burning city of Oyagun-Nai. To the spirit's vision, Reus seemed to be an unstable presence, a glimmer of enchantment.
Among the bony ashen trees, a young woman knelt screaming in despair among rings of fire and shifting roots of her own making, while the Lord of the Flame listened to her grief -- the same young woman that Anise had met briefly at the river. The Lord of the Breeze sat in a treetop not far, spying unseen. He spotted Anise and watched her in silence.
The bright source of sunlight brought Anise to the Lake, where the rotting ship still lay broken around the scarred white tree. Deep beneath the gold-glimmering water, past the serpentine shape of the monster that guarded it, was a stone coffin. The sunlight radiated from within, but even in her spirit-state Anise could not see inside. Her vision began to flicker with darkness, and she would feel lightheaded and disoriented; something was happening to her body she'd left behind.
Gray spirits traversed the woods and climbed up toward the Roost, one by one surrounding Anise's body in an attempt to draw her energy and to prevent her spirit from returning. They stared at her with empty eyes -- but they flickered in the face of the sunlight that Anise had brought back with her.
“Could I know your name in case I see you again?” She asked the boy quickly, but slow enough and clearly so that she could be understood. As she climbed onto the gryphon’s back, she quickly addressed Palla, “And Palla, any important, last-minute gryphon-riding tips I should know so I don’t fall off and die?”
The boy stared up at Naia, the violet light of the Lantern reflecting in his eyes. "L-Lozaelaem," he replied.
Palla laid a protective hand on Lozaelaem's head and raised her head with a fierce look for Naia. "Hold on."
Behind her, the Dragon swooped low; the trees bent and rushed under its blackened wings, and its bony teeth were sharp and wide. Blue eyes sparked, their focus entirely on Naia and the violet Lantern in her grasp.
The gryphon shot into the sky with a catlike leap; feathered wings struck the wind, and Naia was soaring over the forest, higher and higher into the clear cold night. Above her, the expanse of sky stretched endlessly, streaked with stars and galaxies. Behind, the Dragon rushed past, struggling to change course due to its enormous size. Below, the island stretched out beneath her. The beaches were white sand, the forests were dull with a coat of dust from the destroyed mountain. The Lake shimmered with a gold sheen, and the wasteland to the east lay blackened with bony dead trees. Above the wasteland, a seaside town lay in flames, besieged by war. To the west, atop a smaller mountain, the signal light at the Rook had been lit.
With a great rush of wings, the Dragon had soared into an arc and followed Naia once again, and would surely capture her in its skull-teeth if nothing would be done.
The gryphon instinctively made for the Rook, flapping fast to stay ahead of the Dragon, but could be made to change course at the tug of a rein.
"If I brought the Lantern," she said in a hoarse voice, as shaky as her legs. But there was a new steal there to match the flickering fire in her eyes."Could you show me how to unlock it?"
Artemis was getting her family back. And then she was going to kill the Dragon.
Oseely's usual grin and lax demeanor had stiffened to something stoic and wise, reflecting his centuries of experience while he watched the grief and fury and resolve roil and burn within Artemis. He dropped from his perch to stand before her while the fire licked the waste; the dead and broken trees shivered and groaned with the weight of Artemis' emotion.
He waited with old patience while the heat dissipated, while her breath became even, while the tears in her eyes caught a new determined gleam.
"Not unless I possess someone, and I'm not keen on doin' that," he said in a solemn tone.
"The Lords and Ladies can't touch that temple -- it's protected by powerful magic. The place where the Lanterns were created. I kin tell ya how to work the machine, though." For a moment he studied her, looked through her eyes to her will -- an easy thing to do, with the mark of the flame upon her.
"If you bring that Lantern here to me," he said at last,
"I'll tell you what to do." He gestured with his head toward the south, where the Witch's cabin lay.
Nura suddenly chirruped and spun in a circle, wings spread and eyes cast upward. The signal light at the Roost had been lit, calling all gryphons back home, and gleamed behind the remains of the mountain-dust that settled on the island.
The Dragon had left its perch on the Mountain's ruins; its wing-stretched silhouette darted over the treetops, its great skull-jaws wide in pursuit of a single armored gryphon. From this distance it was impossible to see the rider, but the violet flash of light in the rider's hand was unmistakably a Lantern.
The gryphon flung and twisted through the air, far faster than the Dragon; the air throughout the island was filled with the thunder of each flap of the Dragon's newfound wings.
Between the wasteland and the Witch's cabin, the tribe of Kith at the edge of the woods had begun casting spells of war. The return of the Dragon had filled the Kith with a rekindled hope for a return to the Way Things Were -- and a renewed hatred of the Pirates. Whispers had circulated among them of the return of the Lady of Light, the death of Tyaelaem, the weakening of the Lord of Shadow.
They drew circles in the ashes, drank enchanted potions, sacrificed small animals and threw their carcasses to the fire. Out of hands grew paws, out of teeth grew fangs. Terrible beasts rose out of the encampment, scaled and furred and clawed, each colossus towering over the tents, each with bright shining yellow eyes that lit up the night. The Kith screamed their enchantments, and the monsters howled.
At the north side of the wasteland, Reus raised his head and looked back, his yellow eyes shining, ears perked.
Keb waved at the big wolf with a gesture of an arm. "C'mon," he urged, looking up toward the column of starlit smoke that rose out of Oyagun-Nai. "I've got a bad feeling about this."
Antlers
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