Rain and Night - A Glorybringer Story

Chapter 29

Glory hurled herself onto her hammock the moment she was alone in the audience room. What had happened to Deathbringer? He wasn't loyal to Fierceteeth — he hated her! And why did he act as though he never even knew her? Something was wrong. Deeply wrong. Terribly wrong. 

He's under a spell, she realized ominously, turning deep blue with apprehension. A spell to make him forget about his relationship with Glory, probably. And a spell to make him devoted to the NightWings. There was no way Deathbringer would have betrayed her like that, unless he was being forced to against his will. 

Tears spilled out of her eyes as she realized that there was no going back. The animus spell would be permanent. And if an object, like a piece of jewelry he was wearing, was making him like this, she'd never get close enough to rip it off of him. 

Fierceteeth ... she's going to pay for this. If Glory couldn't reverse the spell, the only thing she could do was take revenge on Fierceteeth. That awful NightWing. Pretending Glory was dead, overworking the RainWings, and now enchanting Deathbringer to be loyal to her. She growled. Fierceteeth was going to pay dearly for what she had done. 

But, an unwelcome piece of news momentarily distracted her from her worries. Or rather, gave her another problem to deal with. 

"Queen Glory!" A RainWing yelled as he burst into the room. His chest was riddled with claw marks. Another three RainWings came in, one of them bloody and unconscious, and the one propping her up had a mauled front leg. A blue one was sobbing. They were so beat-up and downcast that she couldn't even recognize them. Covered with blood and claw marks ... they had clearly been fighting with something. "We were attacked!"

Glory sat up straighter immediately. Attacked?

"Who attacked you?" She demanded urgently. 

"A bunch of NightWings!" The blue one gasped between her sobs. "They killed Guava!"

Glory felt chilled to the bone. The NightWings had killed one of her subjects unprovoked! She growled, this time loud enough to be heard. 

"We were gathering fruit near the big orchid patch," said the RainWing with the injured leg. "And then suddenly a bunch of NightWings jumped on us and attacked us. We camouflaged ourselves to try and get away, but they still managed to injure us and kill Guava."

"Any other information?" Glory asked. They shook their heads sadly. "Well, get yourselves to the healer's hut. On your way, can you tell Starchaser and Granduer to meet me here?" The three conscious RainWings nodded and two of them hauled the unconscious one away. 

Glory stood, taking deep breaths. Soon, Starchaser and Granduer arrived, looking grim. 

"Did they tell you what happened?" Glory asked. 

"Yes, they did," Starchaser answered, frowning. Granduer lashed her tail. 

"Fierceteeth must've ordered her dragons to attack any unsuspecting RainWings they see," Granduer theorized. Glory hoped that wasn't true. They'd have to be more careful than ever.

"And," Starchaser added. "I don't know what's happening with Deathbringer, but I'm pretty sure Fierceteeth did something to him to make him leave us."

It was Glory's turn to frown. "I know," Glory said, worried. "Right now, I think it's a spell. Perhaps Fierceteeth found an animus and paid them — or forced them — to cast a spell on him that made him loyal only to her." She forced back her tears. 

"That's concerning," Starchaser commented. "Is there any way to reverse the spell?"

"I don't think so," Glory admitted, swallowing hard and trying to control herself. Don't cry. 

"We'll have to ignore that for now," Granduer said. "Fierceteeth won't hurt him, since he's more valuable alive than dead. And, there's more serious problems for us and for her. I feel like there's going to be a big battle sometime soon. We need to prepare in case it happens."

"The RainWings get mandatory venom training," Glory pointed out. "But they're trained to not hit any living thing. It'll be hard to train them on that ... but we'll try."