Heavy rain drenched the field again as the group rode toward the bridge. It scrubbed the scent of death and smoke from the air and provided false purity to Leria again. The clouds knitted across the sky in a great, thick blanket and distant peals of thunder warned of heavier storms moving swiftly from the south.
No amount of rain could wash away the horror they'd escaped. Nor could the thunder deafen her to Isandel's last words before they rode away from the lycar clan.
Elery gripped a pair of braided leather reins around her fists, keeping her gaze steadily ahead. Her mind stayed far from the questions which prowled the outermost edges of her attention. Questions that threatened to inject themselves to the forefront of her mind should she let her composure waver.
The soft patter of rain on grass turned loud and hard when the molner set hoof on the bridge. The droplets slammed into the wood, rapping so loudly it masked the sound of the hooves beating against the lumber. Night crept closer as they rode. Once again darkness swept over the land and the storms intensified.
"We cannot ride all night through this!" Cylphi yelled.
Even with Cylphi's voice raised, Elery struggled to hear her. "We have no choice! We've no resting point until the waypoint inn."
Isandel swooped down to fly low above them. So low, should she have chosen to, Elery could have reached up to brush her fingertips against the smooth scales of his underbelly. "The Princess is correct, we cannot stop. Dread energy flares from behind us. Necrocasters have no doubt cast their phantasma once again."
"Can you not do as you once did with Dakkan?" Elery yelled. She sputtered as rain splashed down on her tongue. "He told us of his trip to your den. How he turned back and found himself at the entrance of the tunnel. Can you not transport us?"
"Simply an illusion, Princess. I did not transport him. He walked, afflicted with a powerful hypnosis."
"How much of your power is simple trickery, dragon?" Elery snapped. "I should like to know, before you confess that our fight was an illusion as well!"
"No need to worry, Princess. What you experienced was quite real. If you don't believe me, you can always summon Misani."
She lashed the reins and spurred Ishthemir on. Her eyes stung from raindrops hitting against them, forcing her to squint and narrow her field of vision to a thin line. Steely clouds blotted the moons and stars, darkening their path.
In the cold, dark, wet night Elery thought would never end, anything could have been an enemy in waiting. Knowing this rose the fine hairs on the back of her neck.
They could not see the inn until it was right before them. The lantern above the door swung in the wind, which had picked up steadily until it meant traveling could prove deadly.
By then Elery could feel the swell of darkness of which Isandel spoke. It was like a claw around her chest, squeezing the air from her lungs.
The wind-beaten group sheltered the molner behind the inn and filled the food and water troughs, then retreated inside. The innkeeper lay sleeping on a cot behind the desk.
"I'd hate to wake him," Cylphi said.
"Take the others up to the rooms to dry off. Keep Dakkan out of sight; I don't know how welcome his presence would be."
Cylphi, Zethir, Taelin, and Dakkan walked upstairs, dripping water on the hardwood floor.
Isandel, again in his seryn/dragon hybrid form, stood beside Elery and pushed his drenched hair from his face. How he continued to re-emerge from his dragon form with his strange robes she could not guess. For the moment she was too preoccupied to ask.
"Go upstairs with the others," Elery said.
"I thought you would have me at your side at all times."
She turned her head and glared. Picking strands of her own hair from her face, she groused, "You try my patience, Mad God. How might you suggest I explain your appearance?"
"Well if you would let me take a seryn form no explanation would be required." He grinned, tilted his head to the side, and flicked a droplet of water from his fingertip. "Would it, Princess?"
She stepped closer, undaunted by the minor height difference. "I command you to go upstairs, Dragon."
He stepped back and bowed. "As you wish, Princess."
Her fists trembling at her side. "Damned creature," she muttered as his tail slid out of view around the bend of the staircase. She rapped her knuckles against the heavy desk until the innkeeper's eyes fluttered open. He grumbled and sat up, rubbing the sleep from his face. "I'm sorry," she said. "But I'm afraid my friends and I are in need of your services tonight, and I bring ill news from Andethayn."
"Princess?" He roused and He gazed around the room, then turned his attention back. "What friends?"
"I've sent them upstairs. We are wet and cold, and our steeds can move no further through this tempest."
He looked outside. "Aye, I imagine not."
"I've come with my companion, two seryn men..." She crossed her arms, doing her best to ignore the cold drip of rainwater down the small of her back. "And one lycar rogue."
The old man regarded her with silence, then nodded. "If he keeps your company, I trust he will not cause trouble."
"I've one other." She wished to find the most delicate way of explaining her last companion, but nothing would come. "I've made a pact with Isandel. He is with the others."
"You brought that mad beast here?" He put his hands on his desk, his eyes widening.
"He'll cause no harm. I'll see to it. I have his oath of loyalty. I take all responsibility for him, and the others. Please..." She walked forward, clasping her hands together. "Do not turn us out. Andethayn has been lost and the enemy we seek is far larger than I once suspected."
"Andethayn is lost?" His reaction flowed smoothly from shock to despair. "How could this have happened?"
"The threat of the necrocasters is more than we could have thought possible. If the Mad Dragon is correct, we deal with a powerful force beyond our imagining. When we leave I mean for you to come with us. My country will protect you."
He sat on the low stool between the cot and the desk, placing his hands over his face as his elbows rested on the desk. Then, after a few breaths, he raised his head again. "Take what you need. I will be ready when you are set to leave."
"Thank you." She offered a brief salute before rushing upstairs, unfastening her chest plate as she went.
Everyone else had already shed their clothes and hung them in the bathroom. The group sat with towels, drying themselves. Elery shed her own clothing as quickly as she could, taking a towel from Cylphi.
"What shall we do for clothing?" Cylphi asked. "Our own certainly will not dry anytime soon."
"I don't know," Elery admitted. "And we can't ride out nude."
"A mater easily handled." Isandel strode through, rubbing a towel against his hair. His tail swung behind him, patting Elery's shoulder as he walked to the bathroom. He touched the clothing, then pulled his hand away and drew water from the cloth to fling it into the bathtub. It disappeared down the rust-caked drain.
Elery stood and walked toward him, noting how the scales of his tail crept up toward the middle of his back before dwindling to smooth, pale skin. She wondered if the scales were bothersome. She recalled times during hunts, while slaying the reptilian beasts of the field, when scales would slip into her clothing to stick against her skin.
"Where did you get these robes?" she asked, looking the material over as it hung from the bathroom ceiling.
"I weave new clothing each time I transform. It's no large feat. The excess hair is better used than wasted."
"I...don't understand."
"Unlike my scales, excess hair sheds when I take a smaller form." He finished with one set of clothes and moved to the next, pulling water from it. "I use my power to weave the hair into clothing."
"But..." She brushed her fingers over the gold-trimmed robes. "The color. Your hair is black."
"Your ignorance is amusing. Should changing the color of strands of hair be so difficult?"
She rubbed the water from her skin and handed over her own clothes. "Your powers are varied. I suppose that's to be expected from someone with the title of 'God'."
"Your kind gave me that title. It was not one I asked for." He took her clothes and hung them. "Or wanted."
Dakkan snorted from across the room. "I've no love for the rain."
Cylphi walked over to Elery and began to dry her back. "Is it really okay to travel with Dakkan?"
"We've been over this—"
"No, that's not what I mean." She sighed. "His presence will make negotiating with other kingdoms very difficult. Not to mention towns. They may turn us away."
"If they turn one of us away, they turn us all away. That is how it will be from now on." Elery turned to Zethir and Taelin, who sat at the edge of the bed drying off their legs. "What of you? Our enemy is not a simple army as I believed. There is little treasure to be found in slaying a phoenix, I imagine. I would leave you to my kingdom if you wished."
"We might have been criminals there, but Andethayn was our home." Zethir looked at Taelin and took hold of his hand. "It was where we were bonded.We had friends there and cannot know if they live until this danger passes. I only hope the fellow members of our guild are not condemned. We keep ourselves well below the Duke's attention, but..." He tossed his towel aside.
"I will see to it that nothing comes to you or your friends," Elery said.
"And on the point of treasure, I'm sure that isn't quite so out of reach," Taelin said. "The dead have no need for riches, after all. We'll find our payment one way or another."
Within the hour they were dressed once again. The rain pattered against the window and timber roof above them, swelling the wood until the occasional groan and creak joined the song played by the rain and thunder.
They slept, each finding a space for themselves within the inn, and the sounds of the night passed away into the dark silence of sleep.
The peace did not last.
Elery sat up with a rough jolt and grasped her sword beside the bed. The rain had eased but the thunder and lightning lingered. A darkness mired in dread filled her chest and swaddled her in unease. She turned her head to gaze at the window, only to find Isandel standing before it with his arm resting against the frame. A wild snap of lightning raced across the sky, illuminating cloud and field in a dazzling flash of light.
"You feel it, do you not?" Isandel asked. He didn't turn from the window. "Her presence grows. She is tracking you through her puppets."
"Why? Why me?" Elery lifted her hand from her sword.
"I told you I would explain when—"
"Explain now."
He turned away from the window as the heavy boom of thunder rattled the inn. As if in response, a low groan came from above them as the wood settled. "Misani is not a crystal familiar. She is something else. Something...ancient." He leaned against the wall. "Her powers lie in all aspects of nature. Only one who had the ability to balance all forms of casting within themselves could ever hope to draw her out."
The idea of it felt beyond the realm of possibility. "One familiar which rules all forms of casting...?"
"As I said before: you are rare, Princess. I sensed it in your father as well, but he could not draw her from her prison. He lacked the ability to commune with crystal familiars. But I had faith that one day his child would come to me and prove herself stronger." He returned his gaze to the window. As lightning illuminated the room again, it briefly lit his face to give her a glimpse of his troubled expression. "Late is the hour in which you learn these things, Princess of Lyewryn, and we've lost much time. Had you pursued me sooner perhaps this could have ended differently."
"What do you mean?" She stood and walked to the window.
"Her army is approaching. She is coming for you."