“And Hedda herself.” I ponder what would need to be done, and the timeline. “Our auric fire has been helpful in battling the beast, and the division energy that powers it. We might be able to battle the Usurper down into the trap if we had the full Intercessoria on our side.”
“Perhaps.” Heathren and Insinio exchange a glance again.
“Getting the top brass to agree to this is going to be a bitch,” Insinio says in his burly voice as he lifts an eyebrow.
“What choice do they have?” Heathren is dire as he lifts an eyebrow back.
As Insinio grins then, giving a low, battle-ready chuckle, I know our plan is formed. I only hope the Intercessoria can come through before Lithava gets everything ready for Hedda’s second ritual.
But as if reading my mind, Insinio turns to me now, his vivid silver eyes serious. “Rikyava. I gave you a promise the last time we saw each other. I promised I wouldn’t leave you and yours out in the cold with the Black Dragon; I will uphold that promise any way I can.”
“Even if we have to quit the Intercessoria to make our stance known, then we will,” Heathren says to me now as his pale eyes somehow gleam a brighter white, ridiculously intense by the fire’s light. “Sin and I don’t agree on many choices the top brass make; a little rebellion is healthy for them, from time to time. I will call you when we’ve secured their cooperation and have their containment field transported to the Outer Island. Then, we’ll need you and all your drakes to work your specific runic magic to cleanse and repair King Örn’s. Archangel magic doesn’t play nice with Blood Dragon runes; we can’t cleanse and repair Blood Magic, so you’ll have to.”
Pulling a golden smartphone from a pocket in his battle-leathers now, Heathren taps a few commands into it. I see him spread his wings, then send a pulse down into it; an aura around the phone shivers, then cracks, as tiny white-gold runes shiver off it and explode into thin air.
“This Intercessoria phone has been decrypted; use it to call all the allies you have, and ask your King to send forces.” Heathren hands it to me. “The battle to contain this thing will be brutal, and will need more firepower than even one Lineage alone, perhaps. But if we coordinate it right, perhaps it can be done. Just as it was long ago.”
As Heathren finishes speaking, I nod, knowing this plan is solid. I can’t help feeling trepidation, however; because even though the Black Dragon was trapped in the past, I also know King Örn warned me that route might not be possible for us.
He insisted I had to find my own way to defeat it. Not just that, but Maryse also warned me not to trap it or fight it. She said I had to solve this problem withloving unification, to get rid of the Black Dragon for good this time and close the Rift that gives it power.
Ending the cosmic division energy’s presence in our world, completely.
But even as Insinio and Heathren each place a palm to their hearts now, honoring me and my hunt before raising their massive silver-dark Archangel wings and flashing out via portal, I know the Archangels are probably right. This trap is our best plan for putting the Black Dragon away again, and closing the Rift in our world so that this cosmic division force can no longer get at us.
And now it’s time to call all the allies we have left.
Lifting the little golden phone Heathren gave me, I call my King first. I’m put through to him at once, as if he was expecting my call, thanks to Bjorn being with him and everything that’s going down right now.
“Yava, speak to me, niece. What news?” King Huttr says in his growling basso voice as he answers, though I feel all the love he has for me, and his concern, despite him giving no pleasantries.
“Uncle. I’ve spoken with the Intercessoria. They’ve agreed to help us.” Quickly, I relate to him everything that was said during my meeting with the Juds, and everything that was decided.
Growling like a furious bear as I finish, my uncle snorts on the phone, then speaks again.
“So it is,” King Huttr says as he decides. “Our Blood Dragon forces are ready, niece. Once you and the Intercessoria are ready to battle the Black Dragon and trap it, Stockholm will send every warm dragon-body I can muster to the Outer Island. Just say the word.”
“Thank you, uncle.” I feel my King’s robust good nature expand now through the bond we share as extended family. Like a scalding hot dragon-body coiling all around me, I feel his fierce protection, and his love.
We’re warriors; we don’t sayI love you, orgoodbye. I feel his deep love coil all around me now, though, as we share a deep moment of silence together.
“Bjorn is here with me.” King Huttr’s voice is quiet, as if understanding there’s tension right now between us. “Is there anything you’d like to say to him before I hang up?”
I pause, feeling out now along my Bloodbond to Bjorn—finding he’s still got shields up against me, even though they shiver now, like he might want to talk.
But he needs to open up for us to really talk. I know that the time is not right yet; there’s no pushing Bjorn on anything when my most stubborn drake sets his mind on something. I know as much as I want to just jump into my First Drake’s arms and hash all this out, or fuck it out between us, it’ll have to wait.
“Just… tell him to be safe. Until he can make it back to us,” I say quietly.
“I shall.” My King is gentle, as he gives a deep rumble on the phone. Far away, I feel Bjorn shudder, as if forlorn I didn’t ask to speak with him.
But I’m decided; it needs to wait. “Thank you,” I tell my uncle.
Then hang up.
Despite the tension between me and Bjorn right now, I feel how our plan is in motion, as King Huttr’s vast energy begins to sway things. And now that it’s moving, everyone needs to be notified; though Bjorn and Ström both have shields up, I send Baldur and Mikkel out to inform Mormor Annika, the Erikssons, and the True Knights of the plan.
Lærke has already found a cell phone somewhere and has stepped away to another room to call her and Mikkel’s assets, those that weren’t attacked by Emil Beck. Which leaves me alone in the room now, pondering whether to call my connections from the Red Letter Hotel Paris.
