Nectar of War: The Song of Verity and Serenity (The Nectar of War Series Book 1)
Nectar of War: Part 5 – Chapter 73

LAVEN HEPHAESTUS ARVENALDI, II

I PULL A BOOK within the Marl Study and the floor to ceiling bookshelf heavily turns.

“The ring is within here?” Maivena asks.

I step into the hidden room and bring her with me. “Yes, only you and I know of its placement.”

The bookshelf closes behind us and we enter through the secret drawing room my father had put here years ago.

Maivena circles a hand and the candles flare around the room.

“It is held in my fathers favorite book.” I lead her to the next bookshelf and grab for the poetry book he would always read to us over a bonfire. “Poetry of Nuemasy.”

“Nuemasy still writes some of the best poetry to this day.”

“He does.” I smile. “Even in his hundreds of years.”

I open the book and in a small corner where no words are written, I have a cutout where Yaro’s ring is placed. I pull it from the poetry book and tuck it into my pocket.

“Now, we see what else we can learn from that rogue. There is no way he does not know what this ring does. He likes to talk, and we will need to make it quick.”

“The funeral,” Maivena nods.

“How many recognizable bodies were there?”

“Sixty-three of the eighty. Twenty-nine injured. Ten were not possible saved.”

Not able to be saved like me since their time ran out.

“How has Ethel progressed since last night?” That wound was horrid and I feared there was no return from it.

Maivena smiles. “She is on the mend as the Healer said, but she will have a ways to go before she is active again. Forcing Ethel to be still will be the hardest.”

“Forcing a Fondali woman to be still is a task all its own.”

Maivena shoves my arm and holds her hand out to me and I take it.

* * *

We walk through the dark hall of Unalave and down the left hallway where Jaxyn is. Two guards are at the end of the hall standing before his cell where the door is lifted, but the barred door is intact.

“Jaxyn,” I speak first.

Maivena steps closer to the bars and Jaxyn easily takes interest in her.

“Ivella Fondali,” she holds her hand out to him through the bars and I step closer, as do the guards behind us. These are the Queens Sentinel given to Maivena through Stravan and Dyena. The same guards from her Coronation in Provas.

Jaxyn examines her hand before standing, taking it, and smiling. “Hair of the winter, skin of the summer, eyes of ice and fire, Orviantes. One with hair of the raven. You may have lost two Dragons, but you gained two more in their place.”

I touch Maivena’s shoulder. “What are you speaking of?”

He lets go of her hand and she looks up at me.

“What of our Dragons?” Maivena demands.

Jaxyn does not answer her. “I would like a gift the next time you see me.”

Just like Agivath, but how to know he speaks the truth as Agivath does is the standing question.

“I have one now.” Maivena turns to me and I reach into my pocket revealing the ring. Her urgency grows as he now speaks of the danger to Vaigon and Vorzantu.

The moment he sees the ring, he stumbles back into the farthest part of his cell where we can barely see him other than the brightness of his blue eyes. “Where did you get that!”

“Your kind ambushed us last night and this was left behind.”

Good, do not tell him everything.

“You should not have that!” Jaxyn shakes his head. “Whose?” He points. “Whose name is written on the inside of that?”

Neither of us answer him.

He knows these rings well.

But it seems it instills the fear into him that I hoped for.

“We will discuss that later,” Maivena responds.

“Boy!” His eyes transition from Maivena to me. “You need to tell me whose name is written in there, you can do great harm with those! One ring is the strongest, the others are additions and not as powerful. They all are seeds of disaster!”

“How many are there?”

“Three and one in the making. One for each Leader and if that ring belongs to who I think, you can ruin this nation if it lands on the wrong hands.”

I look down at the ring sitting in my palm. “Do not worry about that.”

“Oh, I will!”

“Tell me about our Dragons and I will tell you the name engraved.” I offer.

“Tell me the name in the ring and I will tell you about your Dragons.”

He is fucking impossible.

“Unfortunately, we do not have all day to stand here and go back and forth. We will be back tomorrow to see if you will change your mind and tell us what this is you are sputtering about our Dragons.”

To my surprise, Jaxyn is shooing us away. As we move backward the door to his cell closes and locks.

“We must replace them, now.” Maivena grabs my arm and we take down the hall to leave Unalave and replace the children.

XENATHI — QUAMFASI CITADEL

DONVARSA MANOR

“Ira!” Ivella shouts the moment she enters her family’s large home. “Ira!”

He ascends directly to her and she looks up at him with urgency while grabbing his shoulders. “Where are the Dragons?”

“Hunting, I was just with them.” Confusion takes over his face at her question.

Before saying anything else, she takes us to the woods just outside of the home, and at our sudden appearance, it startles Vaigon and Vorzantu who were hunting large birds in the tree.

Vorzantu turns and lets out a scream at us as the large birds flee.

Maivena releases a breath as they come swarming in our direction.

They hover in front of us as their wings flare to keep them at our level. Vaigon leans his head forward and Maivena smiles as their heads connect. Touching Vorzantu’s growing head I am shown his avid hunt for the large bird that turned to failure through a vision he shows me. I smile. “You will catch another, we had to be sure you were safe.”

Looking over their current size, their heads are nearly the same size as mine, and by tomorrow it could be bigger. The free rein they both have is giving them room for growth that Dragons in the past did not have due to being held in caves.

Dragons form bonds, and it is pertinent that they have as much interaction with us as possible. The relationship between them and us will continue to grow, and since we have been around them since hatching, they will have no connection with another rider as they do with us.

There is not only us for Vaigon and Vorzantu to know, they must learn bonds between our family’s and our children that will be Heirs to the next Dragons.

In their eyes I see the life of every Leader in my family.

These Dragons will not see an end as long as Maivena and I are here.

We are now one of the strongest Houses to live in Voschantai Universe solely because of Vaigon and Vorzantu. Lorsius may have begun to ruin, but by naming me Heir he set his ruin for failure as I now hold a new reign in my hands. Maivena and I have brought fortune and greatness back to my family name.

“Watch over them, danger may lurk.” Maivena says to Ira and he shifts into his wholly black Wolf to follow them.

Maivena holds on to my arm as we watch Vaigon and Vorzantu set off toward the sun, and I hear them release a loud and deep roar over the land, their land.

“Come, the funeral awaits.” As I turn to walk away, Maivena stands there, watching them until she no longer has sight of them nor Ira.

Grabbing my hand, we leave for the burial of those lost.

XENATHI BORDER

Rows of families walk by carrying the body of their loved one in dark caskets as we stand exactly where the ambush occurred.

Maivena approaches the rows of caskets, and with a gentle prayer said she touches the first casket of many and fire flares from her hand taking each casket to flame.

“In light of this,” I say to my family that stand quietly near me. “We will use their erratic methods of fighting to enlist harder training. This was the first ambush of what will be many more to come.”

Over the fire Stravan and Dyena stand with those of New Quamfasi, as we stand with our people.

Stravan looks at me and nods.

“This outcome shall not be for any of us.” I turn to them. “Promise me.”

Levora attaches to my arm and we all stand closer as the cries from the families around us blend with the ever growing flames of fire.

Maivena returns at my side and the families of the dead throw orchids into the fire after a prayer is sent.

As a whole, we all walk to the fire. “For reign, for blood, for us.”