Wrath and Army

Chapter 32

The next time Trianna woke, it was only reluctantly.

“Trianna. Trianna. Wake up. They’re calling us to get up. We’ve got five minutes until you’re expected to be down there and giving some epically inspirational speech to every Elf on Genalidad.”

“Wait, what? Five minutes?” Trianna rolled out of the bed so hard she landed with a heavy thump on the floor.

“Nicely done. Get dressed.” Waneta tossed a pair of black silk leggings and a hunter green long sleeve silk shirt at her.

Trianna got dressed and rand down the spiral staircases to the bottom of the tree four at a time. She ran across to where the Beast had attacked last night, and stopped dead.

The Beast’s carcass had been removed- the only evidence that it had ever been there were the smoldering splotches of gray blood and green acid that no one dared to touch for fear of death. A five-foot-tall platform had been grown out of the ground, and hundreds of Elves were clustered to the front of it, and more were trickling through the open East Gate. The golden light reflecting off of them shot grief through Trianna’s chest—when she had walked through those gate the first time, Addie had been with her, and so had Whispercord.

Trianna shook the memories of her friend out of her head and jumped onto the platform. Instantly the chattering crowd went silent. From the front, Waneta, Edmond, Violetta, Laolín, and Guylon all stared expectantly up at her. She cleared her throat nervously and began.

“I know that I haven’t been at Basilicus for several years, and not on Genalidad for the first thirteen of my life, and so I don’t know much about how things work here. But I do know that Gorga is a tyrant, and that after a thousand years, she needs to be ousted from her role of power. From what I’ve picked up so far, many, many people of all Races-Humans, Elves, Dragons, and even, while they existed, the Pixies and Dwarves-have plotted against and failed to overthrow Gorga. But they were missing two things that we have: the support of Raynan, King of the Forest, and this,” Trianna pulled the Shifter Tooth from the hem of her sleeve as she said this, “The Shifter Tooth. Yes, this is what you believe it to be. The first tooth of the first Greater Dragon. I have not used it yet, but seeing as it does exist, I can only assume that it has the same powers as it is told to have. I am going to use the power of both the Tooth I hold in my hand as well as Raynan’s support.”

Trianna held the lapis lazuli Tooth in both her hands. She rammed her will against it, hoping to activate it, and it began trembling in her grasp. She could feel its pull, and even through closed eyelids she could see the orange glow emanating from it. She sensed several beings, all humans, approaching Basilicus. Within seconds, about three hundred humans had arrived- men, women, children, and elders, all levitated about an inch off the ground by a cloud the same color as the Tooth’s glow. They were set gently down on their feet, where they stood stock-still amongst the crowd of Elves, staring in wonder, terror, or confusion at the place to where they had been transported to from their homes.

“Hello. I am the Elven Princess Trianna, and I have called you here with the power of the fabled Shifter Tooth to form an army and finally destroy Gorga’s thousand-year reign of terror.” Not a soul moved, and even the birds and the wind were silent as the humans looked at each other, the back up at her. One of them stepped forward, a young man about eighteen years old.

“But look at the children, and the elders! You can’t expect us to endanger them.” He said, and this was a fair point. About a quarter of the people that the Tooth had summoned were children.

“I don’t. When we train those seventeen and above and sixty and below, we will train them as well, and if anyone over ten years old or under seventy wishes to fight, that is their choice, and I will not stop them. But I promise you, no one under eleven or over seventy-one will be allowed to partake in the upcoming battle.”

The man bowed his head and retreated into the crowd.

“Very well. I’ll fight with you.” A woman of about twenty stepped up and held her head high, a fiery rage burning in her eyes.

“Me too.” The man walked up again and stood beside the woman.

One by one, everyone summoned stood behind the woman, ages ranging from five to eighty.

“Thank you. I hope that, despite the circumstances, you will all survive this war. I appreciate the sacrifices that you are willing to make. Now we must begin training you before the full-on war.”

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“Your Ladyness!” Chanan burst through the doors of the throne room as a messenger finished a report from the guards of her castle.

“You are dismissed,” said Gorga to the boy, who scurried out of the room hurriedly after casting a fearful glance at Chanan.

“What, Chanan? Please don’t tell me that there’s been another fake sighting of the eps; I am not in the mood.” Said Gorga irritably.

“No, no, nothing like that. Approximately half the population was seen floating towards the ElvenCity of Basilicus on orange clouds.” Panted Chanan.

“What? Orange clouds? Are you sure?” Asked Gorga, standing and sweeping over to Chanan.

“Yes. I saw it with my own eyes. Men, women, children—people of all ages, all floating towards Basilicus.”

“No. It cannot be true. I cannot believe it. How could she learn its secrets so quickly?” Gorga said, more to herself than Chanan.

“The secrets of what, Your Ladyness?” Asked Chanan, thoroughly confused.

“The Shifter Tooth, the Shifter Tooth! Did I or did I not tell you to find and destroy that Tooth before the eps got it! And you failed! You failed me, and now those who oppose my rightful rule have an army of half the population! You have enabled my enemies to act against me! You have failed me, Chanan, you have failed me miserably. Go, remove yourself from my presence before I scour the scum of your existence from the face of this planet.” Chanan scurried from the room quickly.

Damn. The eps had an army. They had the ShifterTooth. They had the support of Raynan. They had the Elves. The last thing preventing her from destroying them in open battle was the hope that her Beast would do it first.

Gorga strode through the door behind the throne and into her bedchambers. She swept to the table beneath the window, where a crystal ball sat, with gray fog swirling gently inside.

“En oculi per vitrum et metalla,” said Gorga. These words normally cleared and condensed the fog into an image of whatever the metal eye of the Beast was seeing. But the fog simply became black and fell to the bottom of the crystal sphere. The Beast, her ultimate weapon, her trump card, was dead.

Gorga shrieked in rage, throwing the crystal ball against the far wall. The castle echoed with the sounds of breaking crystal and Gorga’s wrath.