Dragon Talons (Indigo Apocalypse Book I)

Chapter Twelve: This Chapter Confuses Me, How About You?

SARAH:
I watched Huntor spin in the air and narrowly miss slicing Qudorzo's head off his shoulders. "Your friend has learned some new moves, do you know where he gets them from?" "He reads a lot." I answered. Pheequa nodded, as if that made sense. Zavala and Wenzi worked with Quedesha, slashing and bashing at each other, much like Kitana and Diana. I shrugged off my fear, or, tried to, and opened my wings. "Just get off the ground, that's all." Quedesha said. Like her brother, she was gentle, kind, sweet, but I knew she was a full warrior, had seen battle and blood more times than anyone else. Hell, it was the reason why the Head ordered them to train Huntor and Wenzi. But Pheequa, Pheequa was gentle and sweet. I realized that she was a kind of mirror, another version of myself. "Ok, just get off the ground. Breathe, flap, breathe, flap, breathe, flap." I repeated those words to myself, and took a baby step forward, then another. I breathed, flapped, breathed, flapped again. Winds from my wings churned snow up, and, stealing myself, I jumped, and screamed. Pheequa screamed from below, "BREATHE SARAH, DON'T SCREAM." I shuttered in a breath, then flapped, releasing it, then breathed again. Then, smiled. "Shit, shit, shit, holy fucking shit, I'm flying, I'm flying, I'M FLYING." Then, naturally, I fell. I screamed as I fell, and landed in the snow. Snow sprayed all around and I rose, brushing it off. I trudged up the hill, and spotted Pheequa's smile before she hid it. "Shut up." I growled. "I didn't say anything." She said.
I slumped on my way to the ground, feeling despondent and sad. Pheequa wrapped an arm around my shoulders. "I'm sorry flying is so difficult for you Sarah. So sorry that to you, everything is harder. I know you're jealous of Huntor and Wenzi." I nodded, sniffling as ttears ran down my face. I knew that here, here I could cry, and no one would judge. No, because everyone struggled with something here. No one ever got everything right, or were good at everything. But I wanted to be, wanted to be good at everything, to be able to lift a sword as easily as I did my fans. I looked over the lake that stood in the center of the training field. Dracons were diving in and out of the water, swords or fans or spears in hand. I watched, transfixed, then rose slowly. "Something's wrong." I said. Pheequa rose, "What?" I pointed to the lake. "Look, they're not training, their diving for something, something that either, eludes them, or, is fighting them." "Strange. There's nothing in there today, we didn't place a beast for them to train against, I don't—" her words froze in her throat as a wave rose and slapped at the dracons, sending them flying. "That's not possible." Pheequa muttered. I ran, flying over the snow with my small booted feet. Huntor, high, high above, dove toward the lake, Qudorzo flying after him. Huntor folded his wings and dove as another wave lashed out, sending more dracons scrambling. I looked around, spotting archers with their bows trained on the water. "HOLD YOUR FIRE." Huntor bellowed. "HOLD FIRE." Then, he dove into the water. Waved slashed, sending water high into the air. Without questioning it, I dove in after him, my wings braced for the cold. I swam, flying swiftly through the water. This, yes, this was the place that was my territory. Flying through the water, silver-white wings flapping with powerful thrusts, mind going to autopilot, and instincts older than gods taking over. I rounded a slope, a slope that sank lower into the lake, and, froze.
I blinked, several times, trying to clear my vision, and, make sense of what the freaking hell I was witnessing. There was a flurry of bubles, then, then, then, "Holy shit." I said slowly. The strangest creature was there. A kind of sea version of a sphinx, only, it was the body of some kind of sea predator, with the head of, the head of, I swam and collided with the creature, hugging her hard, and yanking her up to the surface. She gasped, and started thrashing against me. I slammed my fist into her chin, knocking her out. Huntor surfaced next to me and took Leia's limp body out of my arms. He flapped up, spraying water everywhere. I swam to the edge and ran up the bank toward them as he flew toward a building. Wenzi and Zavala were on either side of me. "How the freezing dragon talons did she even get in the castle grounds, forget the Snow Kingdom." Zavala asked. No one answered and we burst in the building. I took the stairs five at a time, and flew down the halls, bursting in the room like a hurricane. Huntor was over Leia's semi-human, semi-fish body, hands glowing with Indigoism. I yanked a chair toward me and sat, my own hands glowing with silver-white power. I rested them against her head, and found flashes, flashes of memories. A small island, a woman, yelling at Leia, swinging a beer bottle for her head. Leia in bed with five others, cuddling them close. The same woman screaming at Leia, a belt flying for her face. Then the woman's limp body, burned and bloodied, Leia and Kaio standing over her, lightning crackling between them, storm clouds above. They spoke, inhuman voices that sounded old and young, "Our debt has been repayed, be tortured, in the pits of Tartarus. Kimopoleia has saved us again. We will repay her back, destroy the world, raze the worlds."
I gasped as I pulled out and away, just as Leia lashed out, gripping my hand in a death grip. She gasped, breathing deeply, then said, "Huntor, Huntor, oh Huntor I'm so sorry, so, so, sorry, I tried, I tried, I, tried." "Tried what?" Huntor asked gently. "I, I, I tried to stop her, tried to bring her back, tried to convince her, but, but, she wasn't her, she, she, she, she spoke, but, she wasn't her. She was scary, so, scary." Huntor's body went stiff, and his eye went cold and void. "WHo are you talking about Leia?" He asked, and I could hear the ice in his tone, hear it, and know, know whom he suspected. "Sydney." Leia said, then, passed out cold. "No one goes in to see her." Huntor was talking to the Head, Qudorzo, Quedesha, and Pheequa. "She has at least three guards on her door at all times. No one goes in, no one feeds her, no one even breathes in her presence without my knowledge. As of right now she is a member of my court and under my protection. Any harm that comes to her will be considered as an act of war." They all nodded. "I will only say this, she holds information that is imperative to me. Until I receive that, and can see her safely home, no one, and I repeat, no, one, goes in unless you have my vocal approval." Again, they nodded. I realized that, in this, Huntor was the alpha. That no matter their centuries of battle, their centuries of blood, torture, power in strength, that they were horribly outmatched in a battle of wills. That, against Huntor, they truly had no chance, even with their combined strength. I turned to enter the room again. Leia laid there, eyes closed, face void. I stepped to her side, resting a hand on her arm. Whatever made her into a half fish thing pulled back enough for her to change into her human skin, her, naked, skin.
    "I have something for her." Seeka's soft voice. I turned and she held out a dragon skin cloak. I draped it over Leia's body and gripped her fingers. Seeka left me alone with her, and I remembered what I told Zavala. I rested my lips on her cheek. "Please be ok. Please Leia, be ok." I stroked her fingers softly, feeling my heart beating, hoping against hope that she would be ok. Behind me, I heard Huntor conversing with Qudorzo and Quedesha. "How did she get into the Snow Kingdom? Let alone the royal castle itself." Quedesha asked. "I don't know, but that's one of the questions we're going to ask." Huntor said. "As of right now, noe one saw her, no one fought her, no one is aware of her presence. If word gets out—"Act of war, we got it Huntor." Pheequa's soft gentle voice. "We will protect her at all costs Huntor, but you are aware that you're playing a dangerous game with the royals." "Hard to play the game when you don't know the rules." Huntor muttered, a smile in the words. "I know the rules and the score, currently, I'm ahead of them, but they think they have me with this supposed death plan for me they have." "What is your plan?" Qudorzo asked. Huntor must have given him his grin, because he said, "You'll find out, soon, I expect. Very, soon." Then, Leia, gasped, and, attacked. I was thrown against the opposite wall as she threw me off her with a horrifying hiss, and all I knew was agony in my head. Huntor roared something, and as fast as light, he was there, blocking me from Leia, no, blocking her, from, me. I saw her crouched on the bed, and, my heart, stopped. Leia wasn't Leia, well, not totally, her face was feral, nullified of any feeling. She hissed at Huntor, baring long white fangs. Her eyes glowed green, and her skin had a kind of bronze gold glow to it. I saw inch long claws on her fingers, and nearly fell to my knees as I stood. She hissed at Huntor as he stared at her, into her. "Leia." He warned. Suddenly, her body relaxed, and her face went so still, so calm, I, knew.
    "Wrong, name." She said slowly. Huntor shrugged, tilting his head in an arrogant angle. "Leia, Kaio, Kimopoleia, whatever." The being that controlled Leia, laughed coldly. "You know, she tried to find you, to, warn you. But, it, doesn't, matter." "And why is that?" He asked. "The Dark Queen will rise, no matter what you do to try readying yourself, or, delaying it." The whole room, the world, went quiet, as if every dracon in a million miles heard those words. "Oh, will she now?" Huntor's voice was as sharp as dragon talons, and as cold as the Breath Falls. "She will kill you, you, and your weak lonely mate Sydney." Huntor fell, his knees cracking against the stone of the floor. I wasn't sure if he even was aware of the agony. No, because the agony that struck his face, that agony, it was raw and deep, Leia, or the thing in her, laughed. "You didn't really believe that disgusting full-blooded beast was it did you?" She shook her head, and I found strength as I rose. "Leave, right, now, while you have the chance." The thing stared into my eyes, and I saw thousands of years of confinement, of malice, of agonized hunger. "Khione." She said slowly. "Is long gone. As you will be." She laughed, deep and long. "She's never far away, you need her to survive, you're part indigo, part of her, you need her as this one needs me to live." I bared my teeth. "We'll see about that." I lundged, but Leia thrashed in her bed, and screamed, then, was still. Then, she gasped, and lurched up in the bed. Her eyes were panicked as she looked around wildly. When she saw me, I saw recognition, then her eyes landed on Huntor, still kneeling, his face contorted in raw agony. "I'm sorry Huntor." She said. "I tried to stop her, I tried, I, tried." "Where is she?" He asked. Confusion ran through me as I wondered who he was talking about. "Huntor?" I asked. Tears filled Leia's eyes. "Where, is, she?" He asked. "WHERE IS SHE?" He shouted. Zavala ran in, eyes going wide with agony and pain. She shook her head as she slid across the stone to Huntor. "No, no no no no. Love, Love, it's not, Love Love Love." "WHERE?" He shouted at Leia. "I don't know." She sobbed. "She ran away, I tried to follow her, but, but, but, but—"SHe has her." Leia, nodded.
    Feeling like I was missing something major, I asked, "What in the freaking Hells are you two—"Huntor turned an agonized face toward me, "Sydney is gone, captured, by the Dark Queen, or, more likely, on her orders." "I'M SORRY." Leia screamed. "HUNTOR PLEASE, I'M SO SO SO SORRY, I TRIED TO STOP HER, I TRIED." He bared his teeth. "Kimopoleia did this, stopped you, as whoever is under the Dark Queen's orders forced Sydney to run, to break the bond between us. But who would have the strength, the sheer determination to, to, to, to." His face blanked, and, for the first time, I saw true unhinged surprise and fear cross his face. "But that's impossible." Leia shook her head. I opened my mouth, ready to demand to know what he was thinking, when Zavala said, "No, no no no, it's not true, Huntor it can't be. You're mine, will always be mine. I, I, I, love you. She doesn't, she can't. Please, please, please, don't do this, please." Huntor rose, face resolute, "We have to go, now, now, because—" he froze, as voices echoed from the hall. Qudorzo's voice was strong and firm as he spoke to Veevuqui. "He will see you in a moment, he is currently visiting some of the wounded." "As Princess of the Snow Kingdom, you are required to let me pass." "I am under Huntor's orders that he must not be disturbed. I can tell him you came by, but am unable to let you pass." I heard her spit, and say, "Tell him to meet me in the Northeast tower, at once, we have his lessons." Qudorzo gave his ascent, and Veevuqui left. I looked at Huntor, who was plotting, his face in that dangerous frown. "They're rushing the schedule. They're going to do it today." "You can't go." Zavala said, tears in her voice. "I have to." He took her face in his hands. "What happen between us wasn't just sex, we both know it, but what did happen after wasn't our fault, it was tthe Dark Queen's. Direct your anger to her ZZ, she deserves your fury, your ire, not Sydney, not me." "I can't loose you, please, please, please, I can't." "You aren't, I will still be here, still be your friend, you're best friend." Tears fell from her eyes, Leia looked on with sorrow in her own eyes. Huntor turned to face me, "Here's the new plan Sarah." He laid out everything, and as he did, I began to see every risk he was taking, not just to get his true proper mate back, but to expose the Snow Queen, her children, and the others. Expose them, for perhaps the biggest kind of treason anyone could expose. He said to me, "Contact Kitana, tell her to assemble her, Briella, Diana, Kitty and Camille. They need to get to the Dragon Talons at once." "Why?" I asked. Instead of answering, he asked, "Where do you hide one of the most deadliest beings in all the worlds? Right in your own damned kingdom." "You mean, all this time, she's here, in the Dragon Talons, in that mountain range?" He, nodded. "It's the reason why no one can cross the Spines and survive, because her spiders are there, and since no one here knows how to fight them—"You need an army." I said. "You need an army to fight through there, to get into the Spines." Huntor smiled. "Guess that's why we have one." I frowned, as he passsed me.