Chapter fourteen
There were two noticeable arrivals the next day. The first was the snow that must have fallen during while Draco slept. It was coating the landscape a glistening white, an omen of the imminent fight. The second was Carlisle.
He had been traveling, trying to find friends who would be willing to join the fight against the Volturi. He had only returned with one.
"Garret." The red eyed vampire introduced himself to Draco and Edward, who shook his hand.
Edward and Draco had been the last ones to come to the living room, even Jacob had arrived some time before, so once they were settled Alice began to speak.
"We all decided to keep the information that my visons have revealed about Aro's plan from the pack so that they would not be blocked. Although this did work to some extent, ever since we started training as a group the wolves involvement in this future battle have become an almost absolute and my visions have faded to almost nothing now."
"We will have to base all out tactics on the most recent vision and hope that Aro does not change his mind. Luckily for us he does not know that the wolves hinder my powers so he probably assumes that I know what he is planning and therefore won't change his plans."
"It was hard to place an exact date for when Aro would arrive but it was always going to be after the snow began to stick to the ground. This means that the fight is imminent."
"Jasper has drawn up a to-scale map of the sight, where my visions show Aro will arrive with his army. If we wait for him there, there is very little chance that the battle ground will change. Jasper has also drawn on the map where Draco will place the wards. Of course we cannot have the stakes in the ground to show their positions so as not to give them away to the enemy so we must all memorise them."
Jasper takes over from Alice now. "There are in fact several different layouts. The vampires in Aro's army will probably be able to figure out the positions of the wards based of their own blunders and our avoidance of them. When this happens I will give a signal for Draco to move onto the next configuration. So if you don't want to be caught by any of the wards you must memories these maps. For us vampires it shouldn't be too hard." Jasper looks to Jacob.
"Nor us wolves" Jacob said confidently.
"We will practice the changes of the wards during today's training but I presume there will be a delay between the lowering of and the raising of them." Jasper looks to Draco, who nods in confirmation. "We need to practice the transition until it becomes second nature."
Jasper pastes five sheets of paper to the wall, from which paintings have been recently removed. "These are the five layouts in order from one to five. Please memorise them."
後で
That evening the Cullen family dug the camping equipment out of storage and the entire ensemble, including the wolves, relocated to an area just outside of where the battle was going to take place.
Edward had set up his and Draco's tent a little way away from the rest of the group.
Draco shivered as the snow fell around him.
"I'll make a fire." Edward suggested and in a few blurs of action he had built a pile of timber not too far from the tent. "I'll go see if Alice has a lighter."
"I have a better idea." Draco said raising a hand to the wood and mumbling a spell. The wood was set a light and burns with a gentle orange glow.
"I thought you couldn't do magic without an instrument to wield it."
"Normally not. But I know a few basic survive skills that don't require a wand. How do you think I apparated us away from the Volturi?"
Edward hugged the blond close, his normally cold skin also warmed by the heat of the fire, and Draco sighed contentedly.
"Do you think Rosalie and Emmet will be back before Aro arrives?" Draco asked looking at the dancing flames.
"Of course. Why?"
"If I were them I'm not sure I would want to come back. They could just run of and spend the rest of their lives on an island somewhere together."
Edward chuckles, "That does sound nice. Perhaps I'll take you somewhere isolated after all this and keep you all to myself for a while." Edward said, "Don't worry about Rosalie. She may be abrasive at times but she is very loyal and Emmet does whatever she says so I'm certain they are still on mission, even if we have lost contact with them."
Draco nodded in understanding.
"Kiss me." Edward askes of the wizard and Draco complies. A gentle kiss that Edward slowly deepened.
A hand made its way under Draco shirt and began to caress the skin of his lower back.
Draco pulled away from the kiss but kept his arms were he had wrapped them around Edwards waist. "Is this really the time to be doing this?" Draco asked, knowing exactly what Edward had planned for the evening. "What with everything that is happening."
"This is the perfect time for a little bit of stress relief." Edward says with a smile. He moved quickly pulling Draco into his arms and carried the blond into the two person tent.
後で
Emmet and Rosalie did in fact arrive in the early hours of the next morning, they too bringing a pair of vampire friends willing to fight.
Draco would not know about this, however, until the fight with Aro had already commenced. This would happen about ten minutes after Edward woke him up from a dreamless sleep.
"Draco wake up." Edward shook the wizard by the shoulder. "It's time."
"Time?" Draco asked a little bit confused after returning from the land of nod.
"Aro and his army. They are almost upon us. You need to erect the wards."
Draco nodded in understanding and began to slip out of his sleeping bag but Edward, seemingly too impatient, took Draco into his arms and speed out of the tent.
Draco found himself on the battle ground, that he had spent so many hours committing to memory, in a moment, chilled the bone by the cold wind and staff in hand.
Jacob too was by his side. The wolf-boy nodded to the wizard and placed a hand on his shoulder. Draco immediately felt the power soak into his skin. He didn't feel the cold of the wind anymore. Although he could feel something cool pressed against his palm. He looked down to it and saw a pale hand clasped to his.
"Edward." Draco breathed. The cool fingers intertwined with his was the grounding touch the wizard needed to supress the darkness that threatened at any moment and to control the magic that the staff bestowed.
Draco felt the presence of a second vampire come onto the battle field. It was Jasper. He had with him the five layouts of wards that he had devised and he set them about Draco on stands.
"Thank you." Draco said to the blond vampire before shrouding himself, the wolf, the vampire and the maps in and invisibility cloak.
He started bringing the wards up one by one, he had spent most of the previous day trying to decrees the time it took so that transitions between the five ward layouts would be as quick as possible, and in only a few dozen seconds he had all the wards up and checked against the first chart. The wards didn't cover the entire field. But only the closet side to Draco. Jasper didn't want Aro to figure out what he was up against until the very last moment.
The power it took was almost tangibly painful to Draco and this was before they had even been disturbed by any vampires.
Draco nodded to Edward
"Ok," Edward said and the rest of the vampires started filtering out onto the battle field, dodging every ward the same as they had during training yesterday.
In the positions they had taken only the Cullens would be visible to the Volturi. The wolves and the other vampires would be hidden and Draco had even come up with a ward to help mask their scents to they would be truly invisible to the enemy.
A minute passed and the then another and then a cloaked figure emerged from the tree line at the other end of the field. More figures emerged and began to gather in the clearing. After a few moments it seemed they had all arrived, hundreds of foes. Out numbering the vampires and the wolves by tenfold at least.
Draco could hardly see him because of the distance but through the power of the staff he could sense the vampire king. He almost glided as he walked, his subjects moving aside for him as water moves aside for the bow of a ship.
He came to the front of the gathering and began to speak. "We are gathered here today to see justice is done to the Cullen family. Every one of them has aided in the escape of a criminal from our justice and now they will pay the ultimate penalty." Aro looks about, "It seems the offender himself is not here. Nor is Edward. But rest assured they too will be found and will be punished."
Aro doesn't say anymore so Carlisle takes a step forward, "We would like the chance to argue our innocence as well as the innocence of Edward and the so called offender."
"Your sentence has already been decided." Aro replies calmly, "There is no way out of this. This is the end of the Cullen clan. You must surrender to your fate."
"We will not go without a fight." Carlisle said.
"Surly you do not think the six of you can win against my army. Come now Carlisle, surrender yourself and I will promise a quick death for you and your spawn."
"We will not." The blond vampire states firmly.
The six vampires visible to the Volturi army as well as the hidden ones and the wolves all moved into an attack position.
Aro made a slight nod and a small number of the vampire king's coven broke away, heading towards the Cullens. At first they advanced slowly but quickly built into a run.
They did not get far before the fastest one reached the ward that stretched across the clearing. It shook violently with the impact of the powerful creature and Draco could feel the vibrations run through his bones.
The creature itself was sent flying back with a tremendous crack of lighting and fell to the earth, letting out a terrible scream as his body turned to flame and ash. The cry of anguish the vampire made seemed to settle comfortably in Draco's chest.
The advancing vampires stopped at the fall of their companion.
Aro began to talk again, a frown pulling at his pale lips. "I see that the wizard," he spat the word, "Is present. And you had the gall to proclaim your innocence, Carlisle."
Carlisle gave no response.
"Attack." The Vampire king shrieked.
A large group of the gathered vampires separated from the crowd and sprinted for where they must have known the barrier was. The first one hit the barrier with the same shriek as the vampire before had, turning to flame and ash. The impact was a lot more powerful that the first and Draco could feel the magic almost rip out of his body. A small painful noise escaped his lips.
"What was that?" he asked in an almost whimpering voice to the vampire by his side.
"New-borns." Edward replied squeezing the blonds hand in a gesture of comfort. "They are a lot stronger than older vampires."
Another one hits the barrier, "umph," Draco lets out a breath of surprise as the magic pulls painfully just under his skin.
"Aro must have made them specifically for the fight! Why did Alice not see this?"
"I can't…" Draco began. Another New-bon crashed into the barrier and the wizard could take it no more. The orange of the ward began to fracture and quickly dissolved away.
Draco felt his feet touch the ground at the shock of the loss and only Edward kept him from falling to his knees.
The next vampire ran into the maze of wards still erected between it and Draco. Unfortunately for her, she ran passed a pair of wolves crouched and ready to pounce behind an invisibility cloak. They plucked her out of the air, ripped her apart and spat her back into a ward that rendered her to ash before Draco could even blink.
The new-born just behind her must have clocked what had just happened and dived for the barrier his aim surprisingly accurate. But without being able to see the wolves on the other side he could not have known he was flying into open jaws.
On the other side of the field Jasper pushed his leg out tripping a rather large vampire that was barrelling towards Draco and tripping him into a barrier that shattered his granite body into hundreds of shards that spilled out onto the snow like a shattered ice sculpture.
With each body that hit a barrier Draco could feel the power leave him and with that loss the fear and the darkness and the rage that the staff encouraged continued to grow. The weaker he felt the more he wanted to give into the staff and just let all the magic rip out of him all at once and be over with it.
Draco felt a comforting arm wrap around his lower back. Edward not only supporting him with his touch but also his strength as well.
"I've got you Draco." Edward comforted, "Just remember I'll be right here for as long as you need me."
Draco focused on the vampires soft tones and pushed back against the fear that threated to take over.
The Delani clan and the other vampires had joined the fight now. Weaving in and out of the wards they could not see in an expert dance and show of vampire memory. They took out the new-borns by ripping their marble heads from their bodies and tricking them into the barriers that rendered them ash or fire of ice.
But the more the vampires collided with the wards the more they shattered and dissolved into sparks of nothingness. The wolves had yet to join the fight but as a blow to one of the closer by wards took the breath from Draco five of six of the wolves where suddenly exposed as a chain cascade caused the surrounding barriers too to fall. The wolves of course did not know this until a small group of the new-borns broke away from the rest and barrelled towers their poised-for-battle bodies.
The vampires too did not know which barriers still remained and which had fallen. They themselves avoided all the barriers as if they were still all erect but Draco caught Emmett at one point a little surprised that the second vampire he threw over his shoulder did not shatter the same as the first had and was almost himself pulled apart by the scrappy vampire and would have been if not for Alice's intervention.
The new-borns were, however, clearly untrained in the art of combat and soon the first wave of attackers had all been taken out.
It was quick but Draco caught the subtle signal from Jasper to re-arrange the wards to the second arrangement.
Draco looked to the chart in front of him. He quickly dissolved the currently standing wards and felt a relief flow over his body. A relief he had not felt during training when switching out the wards. With the stain gone he wanted to just give into the new found comfort and lean into his paramour but he knew if he did it would be the end of the said vampire and any possibility of a future with him.
In a burst of will power and devotion, that the Draco from a year ago would never have possessed, Draco began to raise the wards one after another. Some failed immediately and he had to re-cast them and some he found impossible to raise all tougher.
This second layout didn't just focus on the half of the clearing closest to Draco but also intertwined between the vampires on the furthest side, invisibly weaving between their clueless forms.
Aro had seemed to change tactics. Instead of a full frontal attack he whispered into the ear of a vampire by his side. This vampire stepped forward, avoiding any of Draco's new ward, just by luck it seemed.
"Alec." Edward warned.
During his time living at the Cullen home over the last month or so, Edward had told Draco about some of the vampires they would be up against.
Alec was Jane's sister. The very same Jane that they had destroyed in the last battle against Aro. Like Jane he had the power to influence the nerve receptors in the brain, so Edward had explained to Draco one rainy afternoon, but unlike his sister the power was neither instant nor localised to one vampire. He's power could creep over a whole crowd of people like a fog and cause them blindness of pain of even elation.
A black wispy aura not dissimilar to magic seemed to be seeping out of Alec as he stood slightly out form the crowd.
They had discussed this eventuality the day before and as Jasper had instructed Draco raised one more ward a ward designed to block curses. They had no way to test weather this would actually work against Alec's power but during the training it had worked to block Edward's mindreading powers and even Jasper's ability to control emotions.
The curse blocking ward drew power away from the main layout and a further few wards dissolved away.
The cloud of black slowly swirled closer and closer towards the shimmering ward.
"It's no good. The ward isn't holding his power back." Draco said to Edward, knowing he couldn't see the magic.
Edward was silent for a moment.
"Draco you need to take Alec out. The same way you did with me that day."
"No." Draco refused, "I can't. Defensive wards are one thing but giving into the power of the staff, I won't be able to come back."
"Draco, there is no other way. Who knows what will happen to anyone who gets enveloped by the smoke."
Draco really had no choice. "Ok." he concedes.
"Draco, you are a good person. I know this with all my heart. Just hold on to that. Take out Alec and try and hold on for as long as possible. We'll take care of everything else."
Draco nods in understanding, he aims the staff towards to vampire ensemble - if he is going to take out Alec he will try and take as many down as possible. "Kaminari," the blond whispers.
The bolt of lightning hits its mark, the smoke dissolves and the vampire who created it recoils from the bolt of lightning. A few other vampires are taken out by stray sparks.
All the vampires and wolves gathered to fight against to Volturi army sprang into action at once, weaving down the paths that the wards had created and barrel towards the unsuspecting and overwhelmed Volturi, who had not been able to see them before that moment.
Draco felt something dark in him shift. For the first time since he had left the wizarding world he felt like himself again? The power that he deserved as a Malfoy running rightfully through his veins. With this staff and the power of a dozen wizards at his fingertips even the Dark Lord would have to bow to his bidding.
The wizard rose the staff to fire again this time aiming it at Aro himself.
"Don't." a familiar voice came from Draco's right, "Leave the rest to us. Don't give into the staff, Draco."
"You do not give me orders vampire!" Draco spat. He pulled his hand from the cold grip of the vampire and re-aimed his staff at the familiar face.
"Jacob, now." Edward said and the blond's world went black.
後で
Draco woke to sunlight on his eyelids. He tried to role away from the offending light but at the lightest movement he groaned with pain as every muscle in his body ached as if he had recently been trampled by a heard of hippogriffs.
"Good morning, Draco." At the sound of Edwards voice the blond lets his eyes open and upon seeing the vampire's face the moments just before he blacked out come back to him.
"Edward, what happened!" he asked desperately, trying to sit up and draw himself closer to the vampire. The wizard winced as the movement pulled at his muscles.
"I think it would be best you didn't move." Edward said so Draco instead motioned for the vampire to lay down beside him and Edward complied.
Edward wrapped an arm around the blond and pressed his lips to Draco's forehead gently.
"What happened?" Draco asked more gently as Edward settled in beside the wizard. Edward's eyes were sad and Draco had the gut feeling that something terrible must have happened.
"You looked like you were going to give into the staff so I had Jacob knock you out. I'm sorry." Edward kissed the wizards forehead a second time.
"I mean, what happened with the fight? Did we win?" Draco rephrased.
"We won. "Edward said with an empty smile, "Aro's gone."
"I'm glad." Draco couldn't help but smile at the news. But the smile quickly faded. If they had come out the victors of the battle then why was Edward so solemn? "Was anyone injured?"
"Jacob broke a leg. Don't worry," Edward pacified Draco, "Carlisle set it and it's already healed over."
"What about everyone else. Was everyone else unharmed?"
"Draco," Edwards's voice was almost a whisper at this point, "We won the fight but it did not come without losses on our side as well."
"Losses. You mean casualties."
Edward noded his head.
"The gods!" Draco doesn't want to know but he has to ask, "Who?"
"Carlisle's friend, Garret. Irina too. Some of the wolves were taken as well. Paul and Seth."
"No, I can't believe it." Draco knew none of them well but the Denali sisters were all brave and beautiful and kind and Draco couldn't imagine the pain they must be going through at the loss of their sister. And Paul and Seth were so young, especially Seth. How could Jacob deal with such a loss in his pack, his family?
"This is my fault." Draco could feel his throat tighten at the pain of what Edward was telling him. The loss of those that fought for his life and much worse, because of its selfishness, the fact that Jacob would surly blame Draco for it made the young wizards heart begin to fracture.
"Draco. This is not your fault." Edward's eyes bored into the Draco's. "I need you to know that no one blames you for what happened and that I love you."
"How can this not be my fault?" Draco askes, his stormy grey eyes wet and threating to spill.
Edward kisses his love gently, this time on the lips. "Esme." Edward barely whispers as he pulls back.
"What about Esme?" Draco askes, having not understood the reason behind Edward bring up his mother.
"She's gone also." Edward's voice did not break and he did not cry but his features were twisted in such pain that if the sun were to look upon him it might stop shining.
"No. No. I don't understand." Esme, Edward's mother, the most kind being Draco had ever encountered. A woman who seemed to love Draco more that his own mother had ever showed. He would never see her again? Never see her kind smile or eat her lovingly made food? And Edward, his rock, the first person to ever love him had lost such a mother. How could he ever look at Draco after what he had caused?
"I do not blame you Draco. And neither would Esme."
Draco could not speak; could not reply to his vampire. Edward pulled Draco gently to himself and held him for a long time.