“How?” he whispered.
“I let go,” Anders replied. “Let go of the hate, Merglan.”
Merglan shook his head, “I won’t allow you to beat me.”
“You can still come back from this, Merglan. You don’t have to let the rage and killing continue; just give it up,” Anders said.
A hateful scowl returned to Merglan’s face and he cried, “Never!” Merglan raised his sword to stab Anders.
Anders heard Maija’s cry as he watched Merglan raise his blade. A glint from swift-moving armor flashed beside him. Hannah blocked Merglan’s lethal blade.
Anders moved faster than he ever had, reaching for his sword and bringing Lazuran up off the ground. Merglan swatted Hannah’s attack to the side, kicking her onto her back and leaving her momentarily exposed. Anders slid in between the Norfolk rider and the evil sorcerer, blocking Merglan’s attack on his blood relative. Merglan’s eyes grew wide with anger. Anders then saw a flash of amber behind the madman. In the blink of an eye, Maija was behind him. She reached around his head, pulling her dagger across Merglan’s throat. The blade that Merglan’s assassin had stabbed into Maija’s chest only a few weeks ago, severed the sorcerer’s neck and spilled his life out onto the front of his chest. Anders stared in surprise while Merglan’s body remained standing for a second, before it fell forward. Blood pooled around him as he lay dead on the ground at Anders’ feet. Anders stood, looking down at their enemy’s dead body. His gaze rose to Maija, who stood panting with her teeth exposed in a hardened grimace.
Maija’s eyes lifted from Merglan’s body and locked with Anders’. She nodded, saying, “The Prophecy is fulfilled.”
“We did it,” Anders said in disbelief. Anders began to feel emotions returning after his soul had returned to his body. He was still trying to comprehend all of what had just happened, then remembered seeing Zahara clawing at the energy sphere.
“Zahara!” he shouted and instantly felt her mind’s presence. He looked and saw her and Raffa looming over Killdoor’s body. The purple-scaled dragon Hannah had been riding lay motionless under the enormous black dragon’s body.
Hannah stumbled to the ground next to her dragon and fell on him in tears. Anders watched as she mourned the death of her bonded. “What the hell happened?” he asked Maija.
“You became... magic,” Maija said, sounding as though she barely believed her own words. “Killdoor tried to kill Zahara when you two passed out and,” she pointed to Hannah. “They got between them. Raffa reacted before I did. It all happened so fast, they were ripping into each other and Hannah’s dragon didn’t make it. Zahara came to, Hannah flung herself at Merglan, and I...”
“You ended it,” Anders finished.
Maija nodded, “They’re gone.”
Anders glanced down at his hand. He still held the wooden block. Lifting it up, he grabbed the top half with his right hand and pulled. The two halves came apart easily. He stared at its contents. Inside, a sphere of energy sparkled like the night sky. He and Maija marveled as it floated up and hovered in front of them.
“Father?” Anders said.
Ivan’s voice came from the soul hovering in front of them. “You did it, Anders. You let go.”
“You showed me how,” Anders said.
“I’m proud of you and wish I could stay, but I, too, must go,” Ivan said.
“No, you can’t go,” Anders said. “You, you can stay with us, inside one of the sapphires.”
“Anders, it’s long past my time to go. I have done my part and guided you all to the final goal. Now I can leave this realm in peace and be reunited with your mother, Jazz and your brother.”
“But she’s right here,” Maija said, pointing to Hannah.
“That is not my Hannah,” Ivan said.
“She’s my brother’s granddaughter,” Anders said.
“That’s not possible,” Maija replied.
“It is. I saw it in Merglan’s memories,” Anders said.
“Anders,” Ivan said through the soul floating in front of them. “Remember me as your father and not as the stranger who came in a time of need. I love you, son, but it’s time for me to go.”
Ivan’s soul turned to mist. He felt Ivan’s warmth pass through him with fatherly love. Ivan’s soul then mixed in with the flowing streams of magic and was gone.
“It’s over,” Maija said to Anders.
Anders looked at the massive orc and kurr army still pressing down on their forces. “If it’s over, then why are they still fighting?” Anders asked.
Hannah came to their side, wiping the tears from her eyes. Anders glanced to where their dragons had been. The purple dragon’s body was already aflame, returning its soul to the flowing magical force of the universe. He felt a pain in his heart for what she was going through. Without a single word, Hannah pointed north beyond the fighting armies. A cloud of dust plumed beyond the battle.
“We need to heal Zahara and Raffa. We’re the only ones who can stop this now,” Anders said. He looked down at Lazuran’s hilt and saw the sapphire’s energy had been drained. Without magical energy in the crystals, he couldn’t communicate with Tarron to make sure the former dragonrider’s soul had survived. Anders hoped his new mentor would still be sentient when he had the chance to harvest more energy into the sapphire, but for now, he focused on healing Zahara and helping Maija mend Raffa’s wounds. When their magic had worked its course, Anders climbed onto his saddle while Maija joined him on Raffa and they took to the skies.
Chapter 100
From the Ashes
Anders looked down on the enemies’ writhing bodies. Yet the bulk of the orc and kurr army continued to pressure the allied armies, pushing them back against Aquina’s outer walls. Anders found the sight much more horrific than when he’d arrived. Dead dragons were piled in mounds, each mound surrounded by a field of carcasses of which he knew he would find representatives of nearly every race and culture found in Kartania. After joining the fighting as Merglan and Killdoor met their demise, Aquina’s cavalry was putting a sizable dent in the enemy’s flank, but the rest of the elves, dwarfs and humans had been backed up against the city.
Anders turned his head, making one more sweep through the skies with his eyes and his mind in search of the last of Merglan’s riders who had been alive before his final encounter with their master. Not sensing anyone, Anders spoke freely but silently to Maija and Hannah, saying, Start at the rear and make sure to keep the fire a few lines away from the front. We don’t want any of our own getting caught in the inferno.
Their reply was a sober silence followed by the unleashing of streams of intense fire onto the enemy. Anders no longer felt the anger he had before, yet he realized that they had to continue with the flashing deaths they were now delivering to Merglan’s forces. This action was necessary for the survival of thousands of soldiers and warriors who had been defending their freedom with undaunted bravery.
Zahara set down carefully where the orcs and kurr had last been fighting. The roaring flames had died down to intermittent flare-ups that sizzled throughout the gore-slicked battlefield. Anders stared at the bodies of two dragons, caught in a deadly grip obviously seconds before they hit the ground. The elven dragonrider still sat in his saddle, slouched forward onto the dead dragon’s limp neck, a Northland rider’s blade through his chest. The Northland rider lay on the ground near his dragon. Neither the riders nor the dragons had survived.
Anders closed his eyes for a moment, so tired of seeing death and from so much fighting. His body still buzzed from the sensation of briefly becoming magic’s true form. The sound of rapidly approaching feet came from his right. He opened his eyes to see Nadir and Natalia slowing to a halt. He saw their armor, blackened with dried blood. Their faces were hardly recognizable through the battle-grime. A moment later he saw Raffa soaring in to land next to them.
“You did it!” Natalia said, sounding surprised. “That crazy Northland sorceress was right. Merglan’s dead.”
Maija hopped down off of Raffa and ran into Natalia’s arms. Raffa stepped closer to Zahara and Anders dismounted. He looked past Nadir for any sign of Thomas, Kirsten or Max but couldn’t see them.
Nadir came to him, “You did not expect this?”
Anders eyed the elf, “You did?”
Nadir sighed, “No. There have been many things that I did not expect, but I hoped you would come back to us.”
Anders watched Hannah call in a wounded dragon that was trying to return to the allied armies after losing its Norfolk rider. She used her magic to heal it, then climbed on to fly out over the plains in search of any other surviving riders and dragons. Anders imagined how difficult it would be to be in her position. Zahara was still alive. He did not have to face the fact that his bonded had died.
“This was a high price to pay for the death of one tyrant. I had hoped to face him before it came to all-out war,” Anders held out his hand as a show of respect for Nadir. “Can you forgive me and Zahara for the damage and destruction we have brought to your people?”
Nadir shook his head, grinned and grabbed Anders’ hand, pulling him in for a hug. “You don’t need to ask for our forgiveness, Anders. You and Zahara saved our people. You and Maija saved all of the races and generations to come.”
“I would never have had the chance to do it if all of these forces had not arrived. Thanks to Hannah and her dragonriders, we will be able to see our civilizations continue to grow.”
“I saw you three go down after the black dragon,” Nadir said.
Anders glanced at him and nodded to Maija, “She gave us the opening we needed, then Ivan came to me.”
