The chosen one, p.14
The Chosen One, page 14
Without looking, Damian snapped his fingers, and a familiar green light covered Fort. He immediately found himself standing opposite Sierra and Colonel Charles, neither of whom looked very happy.
“I’m sorry, Fort,” Sierra said quietly, looking down at the ground. “I couldn’t hold on to your mind, and when I went looking for it, it was just gone. I don’t know where you went, but I couldn’t find you anywhere. I looked for Jia, but by then too much time had passed, and my lord’s spell kicked in.” She looked back up, meeting his eye. “I would do anything for my lord Damian, of course. But I really wish I hadn’t failed you in the process.” She sighed.
Fort’s heart broke at her words, but the feeling passed immediately as Colonel Charles groaned. “Do I have to stand here and listen to this nonsense?” He pointed a finger at Fort’s face. “You. Gabriel told me you intended to destroy magic. You disgust me, Fitzgerald.” The colonel sneered. “Not only would that have deprived our great nation of its most powerful weapon, but it would have also ensured I’d never see my son again. There was no way I was letting that happen. You forced me to ally myself with this… creature.” He pointed at Damian.
Gabriel moved to stand in front of Fort, who couldn’t look away, not while he was still under a Paralyze spell. “You lied to me, Fort,” Gabriel said softly, right in Fort’s face. “You said that spell would take me back to the Dracsi world after all this was over, but it wouldn’t have worked if you’d gotten rid of magic. Sierra told me everything, once Damian arrived.” He gestured around at the mind-controlled students. “This, by the way? This feeling of losing, knowing there’s nothing you can do to save the people you love? That’s how I felt when you made me abandon my brother. So I hope you enjoy it.”
Fort tried to respond, but all that came out was a low moaning noise. Gabriel just looked at him with disgust, then shoved him hard, sending Fort flying.
Fort landed painfully, his body still in the position he’d been standing in, his head hitting the dirt hard enough to almost knock him out. He groaned, but the pain quickly shut off as yellow light glowed around him, removing the pain from his conscious mind. “Hey!” Sierra yelled, moving to his side protectively. “Try that again, and I’ll make sure you feel it all, not him.”
“Whatever,” Gabriel said, then stood behind his father.
Are you okay? Sierra asked in his mind as she felt around his head. Does this hurt?
Pain shot through his skull at her touch. Yes! he said in her mind. All of it, but you being under his spell the most! Please, Sierra, you have to fight it!
She looked down at him sadly, then slowly stood back up. There’s nothing to fight, Fort. This is how it’s meant to be.
It was as if he’d lost Cyrus again. Everything was falling apart, too quickly for Fort to even grasp how bad it was. He tried to respond to Sierra, but before he could, his body rose from the ground and floated over to where Damian was waiting. Even paralyzed, Fort could feel the magic radiating off Damian and cursed himself for failing everyone so badly.
Not only had he failed Sierra, but he hadn’t even found a way to destroy magic. And worse, he might not have even needed to, because it looked as if Jia and Rachel’s plan would have worked. Without Sierra’s magic, they’d have actually stopped Damian.
And now there were no more options, no more backup plans. They’d lost. And the Old Ones would return.
“Forsythe,” Damian said, staring at Fort like he was some kind of bug. “Sierra tells me you intended to destroy magic.” He reached out a hand, and the invisible magic holding Fort in place tightened around his body, slowly crushing him. He tried to scream but still couldn’t control his voice, so only groaned loudly. “I’m sure you didn’t think this far ahead, but do you know what destroying magic would have done to me? I’m made of it, you pathetic little nothing!”
The pain was immense, and even if Fort could have spoken, he’d have had trouble coming up with any spells due to the extreme agony. He moaned again, just wishing there was some way out of this…
And then Ember plowed into Damian, knocking him to the ground.
“You do not hurt my father!” she roared, and lashed out with her teeth and claws, raking them across Damian’s chest. Damian screamed in pain, then quickly morphed back into his own dragon form, now missing several scales where she’d attacked.
“You were paralyzed!” Damian roared at Ember, knocking her away with a powerful blow from his paw.
“I’m a real dragon,” she said back with a sneer, showing all of her teeth. “Which means I’m as naturally resistant as you are, if not more so. I was pretending, Elder, until I had my chance to strike.” She glared at him in a rage. “You have a lot to learn, don’t you?”
Too quick for her to dodge, Damian grabbed her with his teeth and threw her aside, then cast spells at once right at Ember, but the younger dragon just brushed them aside with her own magic. “He treats you like a pet,” Damian said, sneering right back at her. “Has he let you out without a leash yet?”
Ember slowly smiled. “You sound scared, Elder. Good. You should be. From what Father tells me, you didn’t know about your dragon heritage until recently. But I have been attuned with magic from the beginning.”
Damian snorted. “That means nothing. We shouldn’t be fighting, little one. We’re the last two dragons and should stand against these humans. Join me, and I won’t hurt you.”
Ember laughed, then pointed at the missing scales on his chest. “It looks like you’re the one who’s hurt, Elder.” With that, she launched herself back at him, even as several of Damian’s spells exploded off her scales and into the TDA army, sending a group of soldiers reeling. One bolt of lightning almost hit Fort, but Ember managed to knock it aside with her tail, even as she raked her claws over Damian’s haunches, making the older dragon scream out again.
“Do you not know what your ‘father’ plans?” Damian shouted at her, striking out with his own claws, only for Ember to teleport behind him and attack again. “Forsythe wants to destroy magic altogether! If he does so, you would die, too!”
Ember flinched at this but narrowed her eyes dangerously. “He told me that we might need to leave,” she said quietly.
“We?” Damian said. “He never cared for you. He’d have given you up in a heartbeat.”
No! That wasn’t true, and Ember knew it! Fort struggled against his paralysis with all of his strength but still couldn’t budge a muscle.
Ember, though, flashed him a glance, the slightest doubt entering her eyes, and it was enough. While she wasn’t looking, Damian reached around and grabbed her by her neck. He pulled her forward, over his shoulder, and slammed her into the ground hard enough to almost knock the rest of the soldiers off their feet.
Don’t touch her! Fort screamed in his mind, unable to do anything else. But even worse, he couldn’t reassure Ember, let her know that he’d never have abandoned her, and he’d have done everything he could to still see her in Avalon.
But he’d hidden the truth in the past, and now she couldn’t be sure. Just another failure on his part that would end up dooming them all.
“The humans can’t be trusted!” Damian shouted at Ember as he held her head to the ground, avoiding her thrashing claws. “They’ll promise you the world, but all they care about is themselves!”
“Lies!” Ember shouted, but she sounded less sure now, even as she struggled against the older dragon.
“No, humans lie,” Damian told Ember, holding her down as he glared at Fort with pure hatred. “Because they lack our power, our connection to the chaos. They’re jealous of us and must be controlled, ruled over, if we’re to have peace. It’s the only way.”
“Father!” Ember shouted. “He’s… I can’t—”
And then she went silent as her eyes began to glow with a purple light.
Spirit magic.
NO! Fort couldn’t let Damian take another of his loved ones away, not like this. He doubled his efforts to free himself, pushing against the magical hold on his muscles until he felt like his head might explode from the effort, but it was like the connection was completely blocked, and nothing moved.
Not knowing what else to do, he shouted LET ME GO! in the language of magic and put all of his willpower behind it, every last ounce of anger and guilt and sorrow he felt.
Just like that, he crashed to the ground, pain shooting through his body again. He groaned and pushed himself to his feet, not even realizing at first that he was free and could move.
“What?” Damian said, glaring at him in confusion. “How did you free yourself?”
Fort didn’t say a word. He reached for the Healing staff on his back and held it in a defensive gesture. If he could hit Ember with it, the staff’s magic might be able to restore her, since she’d only just been taken over.
“Let her go!” he shouted, and leaped straight at Damian. The dragon breathed a plume of fire at him, only for Fort to pass through a teleportation portal before the fire could hit and emerge just behind both dragons. He drove his staff down toward Ember’s paw—
But Damian was faster. He swung out with his tail, sending the staff spinning off into the courtyard.
“So pathetic,” the dragon sneered as he let go of Ember, who stood up, staring at Fort with the same rage that Damian had. “I don’t know how you did that, but I’m glad you did. I’ve been waiting for this for far too long.”
“Ember!” Fort shouted, holding his hands up in surrender, hoping she could somehow resist the Spirit magic like all the other spells. “Everything I told you was the truth. I’m sorry I ever hid anything from you. All I cared about was making sure you were okay. Please believe me!”
Ember growled low in her throat, and Fort could feel the heat from the building fire. This wasn’t working; he had to get rid of that Spirit spell somehow!
“They all betray us eventually,” Damian said to Ember as she let loose a dangerous-sounding growl and took a step toward Fort. “You would have learned that sooner or later. I just wanted to speed up the process.”
Fort’s one Healing spell wouldn’t cut it, not against Damian’s magic, which meant he’d need to use the language of magic again if he wanted to free Ember. He could already feel a vision coming on just from releasing himself, but if he could cancel Damian’s Spirit magic, it wouldn’t matter what happened to him: Ember could take care of the rest. He just had to give her a chance.
“I hope you can forgive me,” he whispered to her in English, then changed to the language of magic. “Free this dragon from—”
Ember slammed against him, knocking him to the ground and disrupting his spell. “You lied to me, Father,” Ember said, her teeth just inches from his face. “You told me you wanted me near, yet you would have sent me away or killed me when you destroyed magic. Damian is right—you cannot be trusted!”
“I’d never let you be hurt!” Fort shouted at her, barely able to argue—or even think—as the vision began to cloud his mind. He frantically tried to put together more spell words, anything that might be of use, but nothing was coming to him. “Ember, I never want you to leave me, but I need to protect you and the world—”
Before he could finish, she snarled, then launched an attack straight at his head, her jaws wide open.
“No!” Fort shouted, throwing his arms up to stop her, barely able to believe she’d actually hurt him…
But her teeth didn’t close around him. Instead, he opened his eyes to find himself back on his feet, facing Damian.
“Wow, she wasn’t pretending that time, was she?” Damian said with a wide smile. “That must have hurt, eh, Forsythe?” He turned to Ember, who obediently bowed before him. “I like the initiative, but this one is mine, young one. And I’m not done with him yet.”
Fort stared at his dragon in shock. Even with everything, even with Ember being controlled by Spirit magic, he couldn’t imagine she’d actually hurt him, not Ember. But maybe it wasn’t just the Spirit magic. After all, he’d hidden so many things from her that she couldn’t trust him anymore.
None of his friends could. All the things he’d done to try to help, or save someone, he’d ended up lying and betraying other people in the process.
And now here he was, alone against two dragons, and no one deserved that more. If he’d told Jia and Rachel what he was doing, they could have made sure Sierra was safe. And if he hadn’t tricked Ember to begin with, trying to get her to Avalon, she’d probably still trust him.
No matter what Damian did to him, it couldn’t be worse than how he already felt, staring at the hatred in Ember’s eyes and knowing he’d just doomed the world.
You have much to learn, the woman’s voice from the vision said, pulling Fort’s mind away from Ember and Damian, the worst thing that could possibly happen at the moment.
He desperately fought against it, pushing back as hard as he could, but he knew he couldn’t last long. The vision was just too powerful.
Damian grabbed the Healing staff in his jaws, then whipped it right at Fort, who managed to catch it in a daze as it slammed into his chest, almost fumbling it to the ground. “This has been a long time coming, Forsythe,” Damian said to him, rearing up on his hind legs. “I’ve gone easy on you each time, knowing you weren’t born on Discovery Day and therefore useless. But your constant interference must come to an end, and if I enjoy it too, well, who could blame me? Now defend yourself, with that staff or with whatever magic you think you possess.”
Fort felt his legs go weak as the world around him shimmered, the vision crashing over him like a wave. He held up the Healing staff as best he could, remembering Sergeant Tower’s instructions, but the staff shook in his hands as the woman’s voice grew louder.
You must see, Forsythe! she said. You have been chosen for this from the start!
Damian reared his head back in surprise and anger. “Who is speaking to you? You were not chosen, you sad little human. I am the one destiny picked to fight the Old Ones! You were chosen for nothing!”
Fort had no idea how to even respond to that, or the woman’s voice. The staff fell from his limp hands, and he stumbled forward, barely able to keep standing. “I’m not chosen,” he said quietly. “I never wanted to be. I was just trying to help.”
The world began to shimmer around him, something he didn’t remember from other visions, but for all he knew, he’d just forgotten. It wasn’t like he was thinking the most clearly at the moment.
Damian began to laugh. “Then you failed, human. And now you pay the price.”
Just like Ember had a moment earlier, Damian came straight at Fort, his jaws open wide enough to take Fort’s head off.
But before Damian could reach him, something grabbed Fort from behind as his sight began to waver, and suddenly he was no longer outside the destroyed Oppenheimer School. Now it looked like he was standing in an almost familiar-looking castle, staring up at someone who could not possibly have been there.
“I’m breaking the rules, but I couldn’t let you be hurt,” Fort’s father told him sadly.
Fort blinked, his mind completely fogged over now. “Wow, this is the strangest vision yet!” he said, just as everything went dark.
- TWENTY-THREE -
YOU MUST SEE IT, THE woman’s voice said.
But another voice, one from inside Fort, was louder: You failed.
And that inner voice kept Fort’s mind in the present, even as he found himself standing on the edge of an island floating above the ocean, covered in fog. He looked around, every part of him wanting, needing to go back to the Oppenheimer School, to try to rescue Ember and his friends from Damian. He had no idea where the dream of the castle and his father had gone and didn’t care. Right now he needed to wake up.
“Hello?” Fort shouted, looking all around him. But other than the sounds of the ocean below, he heard nothing in response. “Please, let me wake up! I don’t know why I’m getting these visions, or what they’re trying to show me, but I can’t be here. I have to get back!”
All you have to do is see, the woman’s voice said, this time from behind him. Fort turned, and in the distance, he could see a figure approaching through the fog.
“I’ve seen enough!” Fort yelled at whoever it was. “I don’t have time for this. My entire world is about to be destroyed, and I have no idea how to stop it, but I can’t stay here. Please, just send me back!”
You have been chosen for a reason, said the voice as the figure approached, still masked by the fog. Your choice will—
“Oh, forget this,” Fort said, not willing to wait another second. He concentrated as hard as he could, then willed with all of his might for these awful visions to just stop, to go away already. “Leave me alone!” he yelled in the language of magic.
The woman seemed to cry out, almost in pain… and then she was gone.
So was the island, and the ocean below it.
Only Fort wasn’t back at the Oppenheimer School. Instead, now he floated in a great darkness, almost like space without the light from stars.
Great. Of course he’d just make things worse by trying to end these visions.
“Please, let me wake up!” he shouted, but there was no response now. Maybe his spell had been too specific, and now the voice really was leaving him alone.
And that meant he could be trapped here for who knew how long.
Fort let out a primal scream, unable to take any more of this. His friends were trapped under Damian’s magic, and somehow he was stuck in the middle of nothing, with no way to escape.
“Look, I’m sorry!” he said loudly, hoping whoever it was could still hear him. “I shouldn’t have made you leave me alone. Please, send me back. I need to help my friends, my whole world!”
But there was no answer.
He screamed again in frustration, then forced himself to take a deep breath. Clearly yelling wasn’t helping, so it could be that he was going about this the wrong way. Casting a spell had gotten him here, so maybe another spell would get him home?
