Dorian Wraith's Arc

Chapter 14 of 27

Dorian tracked the column for an hour along the low walls and the ditch beside the south road. The king rode in the middle. Two soldiers dragged Evander behind the black horse. A rider at the rear carried the bird cage on his saddle, and inside it Beak clutched the bars, no bigger than a sparrow. Dorian did not know where the road went. He did not care. He would not let the king reach it. He crouched behind a stand of thin trees, opened the pink and yellow grimoire on his knee, and found the shadow page. He thought of Evander's bruised chest. He thought of Beak shrunk to nothing. His hands warmed. He pressed his palm to the page and pushed. Shadow poured out of the ditch in a black wave and rolled over the column. Horses screamed. Men shouted and clawed at their eyes. Dorian ran forward through the dark, grabbed the king's sleeve, and spoke the teleport word into his own chest. Yellow light cracked around them both. They landed in a field of dry grass, alone, the column and the shadow and the road gone. King Ambrose staggered, drew his sword, and turned on him. "You dare put a witch's hand on me." Dorian held the grimoire against his ribs. "Where are you taking him. Why do you hate us. Tell me." The king's face did not move. "Witches are a threat. That is all." "He is your son." "He chose you." The king stepped in and swung the sword at Dorian's neck. Dorian threw his free hand up and shoved. Wind slammed out of his palm and hit the king in the chest. The sword flew wide. King Ambrose went off his feet and landed on his back in the grass, breath knocked out of him, blade six paces away. Dorian walked to the sword and kicked it further. He stood over the king with the grimoire under his arm and his hand still open. The king wheezed and glared up at him and said nothing. Dorian had him. The column was somewhere on a road he could not see, moving without its king, and Evander was still walking in the middle of it with Beak in a cage on a stranger's saddle. Dorian had traded the man for the miles. He had won the fight and lost the trail. “Tell me where you’re taking him!” Yelled Dorian. “To the fountain of Lethe. To make him drink its enchanted waters so he’ll forget you ever existed.” Said the king with an evil smile.