Chapter 39

Falling Hopes

Lauren watched in horror as the massive pulse of energy flew down and struck Lykan. She saw how Lykan had been able to block most of the strike, sending most back to the monster flying above. But the strike had been too much, even a weakened blow from such a monster was too much for anyone to handle. The fact that Lykan was unconscious and falling to his death was clear to Lauren.

She sprung to her feet. At least she tried to, the restraints on her body holding her still as her hands desperately fought for the clamps to release her harness. She did all this, while never taking her eyes away from the window, a window that now only showed clear skies and the falling tails and wings of a monster who only moments ago Lauren swore would be the death of her.

“Calm yourself.” Dathney said, placing a reassuring hand over Lauren’s hands that were still panicking to find the release latches.

Lauren paused, and then took in a deep breath as she looked at Dathney.

“You’ve seen it? You know he survives?”

A faint smile filled Dathney’s lips. “No one can see a future as bright as his.”

“What?”

“That is what the ice princess of Piran is finding out. When it comes to Lykan Vita one can never see his future, we are only able to see the aftermath of where he has been.”

“So he is dead? We watched him die?” Lauren asked, her mind still trying to go through everything it had seen. Her mind was still trying to decide if everything she saw had been real or not.

Shaking her head Dathney answered, “no. I still see futures of golden hues that are unknown and unpredictable.” She said in that same cryptic way that all Oracles seem to take on. It is the same tone that Lauren has when she has a secret, or at least she thinks she has enough pieces of a puzzle to put together a secret that Lawrence doesn’t already know. Such events were rare, but she did love them whenever they happened. She also knew this scenario for what it was, a hoax. Every time Lauren thought she had enough pieces to put together a good secret Lawrence already knew, or her assumption of the facts had been entirely wrong.

This was why Lauren gave a disapproving glare at Dathney and nearly missed the moment everyone started screaming in excitement.

“WAHOOO!” The crew, the gunners and staff that had all recovered were cheering wildly.

Confused Lauren looked forward, but had a hard time noting where to look. She looked where she had been a second ago, only to find the same empty set of skies.

Dathney then pointed further to the right, that was when Lauren saw the same sight that caused everyone in the crew to cry out in excitement.

Lykan was there, war bow in hand. He floated in the skies, the position where Lykan stood made it so a white cloud seemed to grow like fluffy wings. Her mind instantly assumed that he must have wings to be flying. A quick tilting of her head showed her the error of her mistake, but the impression of angel wings was forever burned into her mind when she looked at Lykan flying amongst the heavens with a war bow.

Her mind also shot to the thoughts of cupid, flying about with his bow and arrow.

He scanned the ship, then seemed to turn directly towards Lauren and asked loudly “you all okay?”

“Yes.” Lauren found herself answering loudly.

Only after she spoke did she realize her mistake. First there was a layer of clear material separating the boy from her. Second, his eyes were on the next row up, the captain’s helm.

Blushing Lauren looked about to see to her chagrin that the only people who heard her were her fellow diplomats.

“Yeah, we should be fine.” The Captain called out using some type of amplification device to enhance his voice.

Hearing that Lykan gave a thumbs up gesture, then turned around to fly back to the other disabled ships. That was when the Deadalist’s engines came to life and began turning about.

“Wait, we can’t abandon them.” Lauren demanded seeing the way the dragons were still swarming the defensive front.

“Sister, you must understand, we are more of a liability than an asset on the battlefield.” Lawrence said.

“Besides, with the matriarch dead, the swarm that had been following her will soon disperse.” Dathney said with a steely form of conviction.

“Is she always like that?” Lawrence asked, peering over everyone to try to make eye contact with the second Belkins prince, Khan Anwar.

“Like what?” Khan asked.

“Always playing up the weird and mysterious Oracle bit to get her way.”

“Hahaha. My friend you have no idea.” Khan said laughing at the joke and suddenly glad that some of the tension that had been plaguing the room was now alleviated. “Oof.”

Lawrence saw the elbow to the ribs, though it probably didn’t take an oracle to see that such a move would be inevitable after such a line.

Lauren for her part just shook her head and tried to watch the last vestiges of battle that she could. The last image she saw of Lykan was of him flying forward bow in hand as he made his way towards the defensive ship.

Just as he was about to head forth Lykan and everyone watching heard a sound that made their hearts stop, as everyone took in a reflexive breath.

“ROOOAAARRRRR!” The mighty dragon who had crashed to the ground roared back in defiance.

Lykan turned and looked down. Fired two arrows. Then with a resigned shake of his head he strapped his bow over his shoulder while pulling out his sword that had been strapped to his hip.

The ship that had been in the process of turning about, stopped just as it went past Lykan.

Lauren rushed forward trying to see what happened. Then the ship slowly, painfully slowly turned about. Only to show empty air. Lauren looked on in horror, knowing that Lykan heeding the call for battle had likely plunged to his death. All she could do was stare out into the vast open sky.

Lykan was gone from sight. The defensive ship had come back on line and was now able to offer some help against the dragon lings that broke through the defenses.

Ska-boom.

The ship rocked back and forth as its massive cannons fired trajectories that went up and over the defensive formation of ships.

“Bombs away!” The captain’s voice rang out.

At first Lauren thought the words were about the volley of missiles that had just been fired. Lauren watched as they streaked out overhead. Then finally landed in a lob well past the defensive lines of the ships. From there the shells burst apart spraying shrapnel everywhere.

She watched as dozens of shell casings broke apart from the charges and began cutting down dragonlings by the dozens.

Then the ground beneath her shook as apparently bombs that had been dropped straight down landed and also detonated.

Lauren felt her body go stiff as she realized what the blast below meant.

“Confirmed good hit. Returning to base.” The Captain called out.

Lauren felt her heart begin to pound as she realized that Lykan had likely gone down to take care of the massive beast, only for her own troops to drop bombs over his head.

She turned her head to lock eyes with Dathney.

Dathney for her part paused, let her eyes glow in their mysterious icy hue for a second, before she passed out.

Moving swiftly her husband, Khan Anwar, caught the falling Oracle.

“She has worn herself out.” Khan said, after a quick check on her vitals.

“Will she be okay?” Lawrence asked.

“She should recover just fine.” Khan answered.

“What about Lykan?” Lauren asked.

Khan went from looking at his wife to looking at the princess, a wry smile filled his face. “Ah, so she was right. You do have feelings for him.”

“What? Feelings no…I am just concerned about a great warrior for our country is all.” Lauren lied.

Khan looked that the princess, and then seemed to relax a little.

“What’s wrong?” Lauren asked after seeing the sudden change in demeanor.

“Nothing. I apparently was getting worked up over nothing.” Khan admitted to himself.

He could now see that what his wife had told him earlier was the truth, that she no longer had those types of feelings for Lykan. At first he doubted, who could not be drawn to such a powerful individual. But his wife had been resolute, telling him that “you will see my devotion. I will prove it to you.”

Holding his wife, he realized that she had done everything in her power to make sure the Belkins empire succeeded. Even going so far as to recruit Lykan Vita to their cause. He had been jealous. Jealous that he had not been the one to valiantly save his future wife. Jealous that his wife might have feelings for another man.

Still she had told him, such fears were unfounded. But he had never known the truth. He hadn’t been able to see what true infatuation would look like, until he saw the look of longing and hope that filled princess Lauren’s face. After seeing that face, Khan was certain that the look she now had was the look of unrequited love. Seeing the look on her face Khan couldn’t help but feel saddened.

The boy’s heart already belonged to another, one who he would likely never see again either. So much had come through in that one look that Khan almost lost sight of where they were and what was going on around them. He had been lulled into a false sense of security, until it happened again.

“RRROOOOOAAARRR!” While the roars from earlier had been monstrous, none had had this level of malevolence in them. This was the spine tingling, hair raising malevolence that only comes when you know the void of death is close at hand. While you know the eye is currently focused away, at a different part of the world it would only take one deep breath to draw its ire. One misplaced step to alert death’s gaze away from its current target and towards you.

Then the voice of the Captain called out, seeming to break every rule of preservation that was flowing through Khan’s mind.

“Moving to extraction point and requesting additional reinforcements. The target is not down. I repeat the target is not down.”