Chapter 47 The Storm Captain pt 3
“Yesterday it was what I can hear and feel, today is seeing what cannot be seen!” I laugh mirthlessly, hating each second of day two with every fiber of my body.
“Are you ready?” Whist asks, appearing beside us and keeping pace with her alicorn as she rides the cloud.
“Wait, no—” Alric shouts.
Whist laughs joyously, throwing her head back and closing her eyes as she lets the happiness run through her. “How is she ever going to learn if you’re always protecting her?”
“No, Whist, you don’t understand! She—”
“Bye, bye, daughter of Hellbane! I do hope you survive!” Whist croons right before she lets out a shrill whistle.
Her alicorn bucks, screeching wildly.
Alric tries desperately to hold on to my arms, but it’s no use. The beast points her head up, rising toward the heavens above at such a steep angle that my legs fall off her completely and the only thing holding me is Alric’s bare hands.
“Whist, I’m begging you!” he pleads.
Captain Whist laughs again and flicks her wrist. A burst of air hits Alric in the chest, yanking his hands away from me.
For a moment, I’m floating in mid-air.
The alicorn’s insane speed and the pull of gravity fight for which way my body should fall. I feel weightless, except for inside me. Inside me, I feel as if someone has filled my stomach with lead. I want to vomit, I want to scream, but the wind steals my breath away.
Gravity is winning.
I feel myself begin to plummet.
I hate heights…
Falling terrifies me…
Ever since that day…
I close my eyes tightly, but it doesn’t help. I see the cliff and the silver dragon above. I’m falling, plummeting to my death as the dragon unleashes molten fire at the cliff. I hear Elysandra's screams cut off abruptly and replaced with Zaries’.
Except, this time it’s different.
This time, it isn’t a few hundred feet into the deep water below.
This time, I’m falling straight toward the spiked peaks of the towers and turrets of Hellbane below.
I think back to my nightmare, to Elysandra’s words.
I deserve to die.
I shouldn’t even fight.
I let my body relax as I plummet, let the fear leak out of me like my tears as they fling away from my face and freeze.
This is the death I deserve.
You fool! You will not die today! Fate has more in store for you, child!
Unbidden, flashes of Zaries crying come to my mind. Oberon sobbing on the floor. Sylvain screaming, tearing things off walls, and breaking everything in her path. My queens, Serena and Avarica, standing over a shallow grave with disappointment in their ethereal eyes.
“Stop it!” I scream, begging my inner mentor to stop showing me these terrible things.
Their sadness is only part of it. Amaranthine will fall if you die today.
What?
My eyes fling open.
The ground is racing towards me, reaching for me, ready to embrace me in death.
“What does that mean?” I scream.
I see Stormcoast castle on fire, and Obsidian Reach crumbling in centuries-old rot.
I see Dragon Mount and Flamepeak erupting, twin sisters of fire that billow into the sky and black out the sun.
Everyone is screaming in agony or already dead.
This is what the dragons will unleash on my kingdom?
“How can I stop this?” I sob, desperately reaching out with my mind to try and harness the wind or rain or something to stop this from happening.
You are more important than you will ever know, Anara. His whispers fade in my mind as if he were leaving me. Abandoning me to die.
“No…no, no, no!”
I think desperately of Zaries, of our conversation on the turret. The sweet hatred of his voice, the conviction that he would be the one to kill me.
Right before I fell.
Realization hits me square in the gut. I fell before and I caught myself then. I can do this! I’ve done it once already!
I try to focus, try to remember what it was I did to save my life, and I feel a familiar heat burning in my chest. I stare in awe as my veins slowly start to glow, the heat inside me pulsating as my magic blooms from my heart.
I can see people below me now. They’re staring, screaming, wailing, begging for someone to help me.
I don’t have much time.
I close my eyes tight, grinding my teeth in frustration.
And feel it.
Like grabbing onto a leaf as it floats by, I seize the power of the wind. The roaring sound of falling through the air begins to dim, the wind that felt like it was slicing into me now feels more like a caress.
I imagine Whist’s cloud. I imagine the storm around me and I will it to move.
Thunder cracks and lightning warms my skin.
Wind buffets me warmly, drying me, kissing me like a long-lost lover.
When I realize I’m no longer falling I open one eye, afraid to see that I’ve actually died and all these warm and welcome feelings are the heavenly afterlife I don’t deserve.
I’m flat on my stomach, a thick layer of clouds between me and the cobblestones mere inches from my face.
“Praise be to the gods,” a man says, before falling to his knees in front of me with wide eyes. Stark terror slowly drains away from his features. “I thought I was going to see a young woman fall to her death”
The man, an older gentleman with a balding head and servant clothes, wipes sweat from his brow and shakes his head in disbelief.
“I’m not dead, am I?” I ask him as I shakily sit up. The cloud I formed beneath me dissipates and drops me on the cobblestones with a crack of my tailbone with a shout of pain.
“If you’re dead, you’re in hell,” the man barks a laugh and holds out his hand to help me to my feet.
“See, Alric, I knew she could do it!” Whist says from behind me.
I turn quickly, my now dry hair whipping in front of my face and blinding me.
Alric is there, clambering off the huge alicorn with wide, terrified eyes. He rushes toward me, smoothing my hair out of my face and searching my body for signs of injury. When he sees I’m unharmed, he lets out a relieved sob and crushes me to his chest.
“I’m okay,” I lie, patting his back feebly in the awkward embrace. I’m far from okay. I’m shaken up, terrified, and a little in awe of myself.
“If I had lost you again, I don’t know what I’d do.”
“What? Again?” I push away from him, confused. “We just met last week, I barely know you.”
“We have a lot to talk about, little one,” Alric whispers, his voice low as his eyes scan the gathering crowd as if he’s looking for a traitor. “But it can’t be here. It can’t be now.”
“Alric?” I plead, fingers digging into his shoulders. “Do you know where I came from?”
“Let us feast!” Whist declares, grabbing me by my elbow and pulling me onto her cloud and away from Alric.
I stare at him in confusion as we float to the barracks, but Alric just stands there staring. He looks lost, but hopeful, his red hair mussed and hiding his green eyes from me.
If Alric knows me, knows who I am and where I came from, why hasn’t he told me before? We had plenty of time on the mountain. He could have told me then.
He shouldn’t have said anything to you, Anara. He knows nothing. You must not believe a word out of his mouth. He’s dangerous, and not to be trusted!
But he saved my life? Protected me! Why would he lie about this, when he must know how much it means to me?
Why indeed…