Vishana reached for it. “I will take it with me back to the Dragon Reaches and entrust it to the Keraastar Knights.” She paused, then flashed a keen look at Camille. “You must take over their training soon enough. You know this.”
She nodded, looking as weary as I felt. “I know. I have no clue how, but I imagine I’ll find out the hard way.” She bit her lip. “May I hold that for a moment?” Vishana handed the spirit seal to her, and Camille silently clutched it in her hand. After a few minutes, she handed it back. “I know what I need to know.”
We waited for her to explain, but she just shook her head and turned away. “It will come in time.”
Vishana signaled to Vapor. “Take them back to the elves. We will finish the job here. We won’t rest until we’ve hunted down every single soldier and sorcerer that we can find.”
As we gazed over the thousands of fallen bodies, it crossed my mind that the goblin race had just taken a huge dent, as well. Maybe not as much as they had dealt out to the elves, but big enough. Payback? Their deaths couldn’t begin to atone for what had happened to Elqaneve, but it was a start.
“Do you think this will put a stop to the incursions over Earthside?” Delilah frowned. “Telazhar probably has offshoot regiments out scouting down rogue portals.”
“Yes, but the necromancer’s dead, and so are most of his reserves. We can take care of the few who might come through before they find out what happened to their glorious leader. Once word gets out that the dragons destroyed most of his armies, my bet is that the remaining forces won’t be so keen to get involved.” I leaned down and picked up Telazhar’s staff. “What about this? We shouldn’t just leave it lying about.”
Smoky took it and—with one swift motion—broke it in half. I thought I could hear a faint scream, and then a whiff of shadow spiraled out of the broken ends and the staff lost the inner light that had set it agleam.
Morio reached out and stroked the wood. After a moment, he smiled grimly. “It’s dead. And he’s dead. I think a bit of his essence remained in the staff, but breaking it did the trick.”
“Are you sure?” Delilah worried her lip. “We didn’t actually see him die.”
“The lightning finished him. He’s dead. I felt his spirit vanish into the Netherworld.” Vapor grumbled lightly. “I would have liked to have a bite of him. He was a scourge and he wrought more damage than perhaps any other mortal on this world.”
I thought about what he said. The Scorching Wars had swept across Otherworld. Tens of thousands and more had died in the wake of Telazhar’s armies. And still more had died with his return. There was no punishment that could have ever been equal to his misdeeds. But he was gone now, and hopefully the Hags of Fate would judge his soul and send him to the abyss rather than let him go around on the circle again. As a blaze nearby flared up from one of the dragons finishing off yet another party of goblins, I suddenly wanted to go home. I wanted out of the muck and the blood and the smoke.
Camille voiced my very thoughts. “Too much. It’s all too much. Delilah and I fought our way through the fall of Elqaneve. The screams still ring in my head. I stole the shoes off a dead woman so that I could run.” She paused, looking up, her eyes filled with the mist of memory. “I want to go home.”
“Come, my love. We’ll go.” Smoky moved back and the air around him shimmered as he shifted back into his dragon form. Camille mutely hoisted herself up on his back. Just as silently, Delilah climbed aboard Shade’s back, and when I turned, Vapor was back in dragon form. I accepted a lift up from Morio and settled myself between the vertebrae. One by one, the dragons we had come in on shifted, and when we were all seated on our mounts, we took to the sky, leaving the carnage behind. As we entered the Ionyc Seas, all I could think about was how much I wanted to see my wife, and how all I wanted to do was hold her in my arms and forget about the rest of the world.
Chapter 7
Back at Elqaneve, I checked the time and saw that it was getting close to sunrise. After a quick thank-you to the dragons, I left Camille and Delilah to talk to Trenyth. Roz, Vanzir, and I crossed back over to Grandmother Coyote’s portal. We arrived home with ninety minutes to spare. The moment I got home, I called Nerissa and she insisted on coming over. She sounded like she had been sitting up all night.