Wings of Tavea - By Devri Walls Page 0,119
totally helpless. They all were.
“Faster, Drustan,” Alcander yelled.
Kiora could feel Drustan’s muscles straining underneath her, pumping his wings with everything he had. She watched the blackness swallow the Manor behind them.
“There is no way we can outrun this thing,” she said, looking frantically around. Another idea entered her mind—it was madness. But the options were limited. And by limited she meant: certain death regardless of the choice. “Drustan, go for the lake.”
The lake was more of a pond between the Manor and the tree line. Alcander spun around, looking at her like she was mad. Emane and Drustan didn’t question her—which made her feel worse about possibly drowning them all.
The Shadow was closing the distance fast, and Drustan dove without hesitation into the lake. After passing the surface, Kiora felt a tingle of magic. As they cut deeper through the water, the pressure on her ears increased exponentially, as did her magic. She used the last of her air to say the incantation, forming an air bubble around the four of them. Above them the Shadow drifted over the lake, leaving them in total blackness.
Kiora couldn’t see anything, but she was sure they all sat with their necks craned towards the surface, waiting to see if the Shadow would reach down for them.
“How did you know?” Alcander asked, breaking the silence. “How did you know that would work?”
She was quiet for a minute. “I didn’t.”
“Why would you even think it would work?” he pushed.
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “Sometimes I get feelings or thoughts, only they don’t feel like mine. They are almost like someone else’s memories.” Like a vision without the pictures, she thought. Thankfully, no one pointed out what they were all thinking. If her thoughts had been no more than her own silly thoughts, they would have drowned.
They waited under the water, settled on the bottom, until long after the Shadow had left. Without the Shadow’s covering, light sliced through the water, illuminating their surroundings. Kiora was grateful all she saw were fish, no mermaids.
“All right,” she finally said. “I’ll pop the air bubble and replace it with a normal bubble. Drustan, can you swim us to the top as fast as you can?”
“Of course.”
“What if the Shadow is waiting?” Alcander asked.
Kiora looked at him helplessly and shrugged. “Then the bubble will pop when we leave the water. I don’t know what else to do. We can’t stay down here forever.”
Alcander shook his head, rolling his eyes to the heavens as if looking for divine help.
“Just trust her,” Emane said, wrapping his arm around her waist. “She did just save us all.”
Alcander’s eyes glanced at Emane’s arm, his lips tightening to a thin line. Turning around he asked, “How fast can Dragons swim?”
“Make sure you have a good hold,” Drustan answered.
The four took a deep breath as Kiora disabled the spell and put up a concealment bubble. Drustan kicked off the bottom with his powerful back legs and sped towards the surface, the force of the water threatening to pull them off his back.
Kiora’s lungs burned as they exploded from the lake, moving straight into the sky. An audible sigh of relief issued forth from all.
“Where to?” Drustan asked.
She looked around, completely unfamiliar with the area. “Alcander?”
He scanned the ground before pointing to some rocky outcroppings barely visible to the North. “There. It’s the highest ground I see.”
Drustan made a slight adjustment in his heading.
As the tension finally dissipated, Emane spoke up. “Thank you, all of you.”
“You didn’t think we would leave you there, did you?” she asked.
“I had hoped you would, for your sakes. But no, I didn’t think you would.”
“We can’t lose the Protector now,” Drustan said, “we just got started!”
Emane groaned. “How is it, after what we just went through, you can still be enthusiastic?”
“Dralazar is dead—I have much to be enthusiastic for.”
Dralazar was dead, at her hand. The look in his eyes as he dropped to his knees would probably haunt her dreams forever.
Emane placed his hand on her shoulder. “I am sorry about your sister.”
Alcander joined the sentiment. “Truly, Kiora, I am sorry as well.”
When she didn’t say anything, Emane leaned forward. “Kiora, it wasn’t your fault,” he said, somehow knowing her thoughts despite their severed connection. “She chose her side. You did what you had to.”
Her heart constricted. “I know,” she said, even though she wasn’t sure she did. “I lost Layla a long time ago.”
They flew silently for a moment before Drustan said, “So that was the Shadow. Didn’t look so bad.”
She smiled at Drustan’s attempt to lighten the mood “Not bad at all. Should be incredibly easy to get the lights back.”
THE END
Coming soon
Wings of Nestor
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Devri Walls is the author of Solus Series as well as a brand new children’s book entitled Monster Security Services.
Devri lives in Kuna, ID with her husband, two kids and one very bouncy lab. After suffering from an abundance of creativity with not enough places to put it, she turned to writing. Which in the end, turned out to be exactly where she should have been putting it all along.
Devri Walls © copyright 2012
All rights reserved as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
StoneHouse Ink 2012
StoneHouse Ink
Boise ID 83713
First eBook Edition: 2012
First Paperback Edition: 2013
Cover design by Phatpuppy Art
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to a real person, living or dead is coincidental and not intended by the author.
Published in the United States of America
StoneHouse Ink
Table of Contents
Title Page
Acknowledgements
Dedication
CHAPTER 1: The Other Side
CHAPTER 2: Illusions
CHAPTER 3: Deception
CHAPTER 4: The Test
CHAPTER 5: The Canyon
CHAPTER 6: Slaves
CHAPTER 7: Wings of Tavea
CHAPTER 8: Dreamless
CHAPTER 9: Tracking Trackers
CHAPTER 10: Debts
CHAPTER 11: Exceptions
CHAPTER 12: The Domat
CHAPTER 13: Magic's Desire
CHAPTER 14: Not a Shifter
CHAPTER 15: Jasmine
CHAPTER 16: Taken
CHAPTER 17: Save Him
CHAPTER 18: Answers in Wings
CHAPTER 19: Discovered
CHAPTER 20: Island Rebels
CHAPTER 21: Bonding
CHAPTER 22: Mermaids and Shadow
CHAPTER 23: Found
CHAPTER 24: The Manor
About the Author
Copyright Information
Table of Contents
Title Page
Acknowledgements
Dedication
CHAPTER 1: The Other Side
CHAPTER 2: Illusions
CHAPTER 3: Deception
CHAPTER 4: The Test
CHAPTER 5: The Canyon
CHAPTER 6: Slaves
CHAPTER 7: Wings of Tavea
CHAPTER 8: Dreamless
CHAPTER 9: Tracking Trackers
CHAPTER 10: Debts
CHAPTER 11: Exceptions
CHAPTER 12: The Domat
CHAPTER 13: Magic's Desire
CHAPTER 14: Not a Shifter
CHAPTER 15: Jasmine
CHAPTER 16: Taken
CHAPTER 17: Save Him
CHAPTER 18: Answers in Wings
CHAPTER 19: Discovered
CHAPTER 20: Island Rebels
CHAPTER 21: Bonding
CHAPTER 22: Mermaids and Shadow
CHAPTER 23: Found
CHAPTER 24: The Manor
About the Author
Copyright Information
Table of Contents
Title Page
Acknowledgements
Dedication
CHAPTER 1: The Other Side
CHAPTER 2: Illusions
CHAPTER 3: Deception
CHAPTER 4: The Test
CHAPTER 5: The Canyon
CHAPTER 6: Slaves
CHAPTER 7: Wings of Tavea
CHAPTER 8: Dreamless
CHAPTER 9: Tracking Trackers
CHAPTER 10: Debts
CHAPTER 11: Exceptions
CHAPTER 12: The Domat
CHAPTER 13: Magic's Desire
CHAPTER 14: Not a Shifter
CHAPTER 15: Jasmine
CHAPTER 16: Taken
CHAPTER 17: Save Him
CHAPTER 18: Answers in Wings
CHAPTER 19: Discovered
CHAPTER 20: Island Rebels
CHAPTER 21: Bonding
CHAPTER 22: Mermaids and Shadow
CHAPTER 23: Found
CHAPTER 24: The Manor
About the Author
Copyright Information