Call A Dragon
DAPHNE
Lightning flashes high in the sky behind me, followed by the shaking bellow of thunder and clouds that suddenly plume bright with veins of blazing red and crackling silver. My chest warms and I leap from the rooted throne to stand amidst the small group of Woodland Fae who have all turned their attention to the north.
"What's happening?" I whisper to myself, my mind going straight to thoughts of Ash and Bregda, whom we left in the Hidden Realm to come here and fail to retrieve my oracle. "What land is that?"
"That be the Missing Meadow, your Majesty," Lucas informs me, coming to stand at my side. "And that be foreign magic."
"Ha!" Klyesque chirps. "It's not foreign to me."
And just like that I'm turning to face her. She nods in affirmation and we share a look of only half trepidation as we realize precisely who's anger must be lashing there. Pulling her aside so that we might speak privately.
"He must have headed out after us," I say thoughtfully, my gaze flickering over the now calm setting of the trees all around us. "The Missing Meadow...is that-"
"Yours?" Klyesque supplies. "It is. It also serves as the barrier between the Woodland Realm and the lands to the north. The Ice Palaces and the Land of Winter." She shakes her head. "But I know Ash, Daphne, and if he headed in that direction, it was not to catch us."
"For what, then?" I grumble, throwing an alarmed look over my shoulder when I see the storm clouds dispersing. Evaporating into the dark of the night as if they were never there at all. "Why would he head that way?"
Klyesque shrugs, quieting as our little conference is suddenly joined by Sylvan, whose gaze now dances about the quiet landscape beyond. "The shadows are whispering, Daphne. We should go," Sylvan says, his hand on the hilt of his sword.
My gaze narrows on him, the disappointment of failing my sister's command at the height of my sudden wariness. "Oh? And should I expect that you mean to return with us to the Hidden Realm? The realm of the lost? Am I simply to allow you to waltz right in behind us? Even though you might very well tell your mother one day of where it lies?"
He stares at me. Blinks. Show's his palm and the marking that resides there. A signature in magic that boasts of our previous deal. "I pledged to you. I made an oath. That is not something so easily broken. Besides...if you must....you may blindfold me."
Klyesque snorts. "Blindfold you? Aside from me, you are our only other sword. Blindfolding you would be imbecilic, to say the very least."
"So then don't," he quips, glaring at the woods in exasperation. "But now that the forest is within her command, Adam will have felt the snap. The magic no longer belongs to him and-"
"Wait!" I interrupt, narrowing my eyes on him. "What do you mean - within my command? The forest is - what?"
Klyesque's teal eyes sparkle and she grins mischievously. "You are marked now, Daphne. Did you not feel it? Can you not see? All of the woodlands will now bend to you. The forest, the trees, the gardens and thorns. They too, are your soldiers. It is written upon your skin. Underneath. You have reclaimed your power, all. You are their master."
Flinching slightly, I glance down at my mail covered arm and push up the sleeve searching for the ink I felt burn into my flesh. The markings. The tattoos that I felt sketch into my skin while I sat upon that improvised throne, but...they are not there. All that I see is the oath. The deal I sealed with Sylvan.
"I see nothing," I say, glancing at Sylvan and noting that he wears his markings the same as Ash. The same as Azriel. Why not me?
Klyesque snorts, noting the direction of my thinking and laughing into the night. "You are a queen, Daphne, not a princess. Flexing your magic is what activates your flesh."
I whisper, "What are we to do now? We were to fetch the oracle and if it is true, and the oracle is with him, the...false one...how in the realm are we to succeed? How might we get to him? How might we proceed?"
Klyesque frowns, considering, as does Sylvan who whistles for Starfire and is wholly unsurprised when she is followed by Delago, and Trielle.
Sylvan reaches up for Starfire's mane and then turns to me. "I know where they are keeping him. The boy."
My chin jerks upward, my breath catching in my throat. "How...what?"
Sylvan sighs, "The shadows whisper, Daphne, and it is already nightfall. If you would only listen, you would find that I am not the only one they speak to. If you reach out with your magic...you will see...you've no need to feel helpless. For you are the Queen of Hidden Fae, the rightful ruler of the Woodland Realm and should you decide to reach for your power, you might just find that it will answer you."
"He is right, your Majesty," Lucas agrees, meeting my gaze. "The forest recognized your blood and the forest goes on for many a step toward the north. If anyone knows where the king-" he grimaces, readjusts "-false one has hidden Eli, it would be the woods. It would be the trees. You should ask them."
The musings of the trees come back to me, trembling my soul, 'The poison grows thick beneath our roots, the false one’s grip too threaded through the soil to release. Surrender him and release us. Surrender him and free us all.'
My muscles tense and I whisper, mostly to myself, "The trees...they have been poisoned. Their roots...their...sap...their...blood. They long for release from him. They want me to surrender him...but I...I..."
Suddenly, it comes to me.
Suddenly, I know.
Surrender.
Sacrifice...
The Tithe.
Celeste.
Peeling my eyes away from the group, I reach inside the front of my shirt and pull up the necklace, staring at the whistle as it dangles before me.
"Daphne?" Klyesque murmurs. "What are you doing?"
Placing the mouthpiece between my lips, I meet her eyes and say, "Making my choice."
Time to call a dragon.
Pressing my lips together...I blow.