Chapter twenty two:
Ray fires a red beam from his wand breaking the tentacle. His arm that has the hand holding the wand is suddenly grabbed by another black tentacle.
This time Ryan swipes his front claws at it destroying it. He then swoops down towards Darcy shooting fire at her.
Darcy takes this opportunity and fires a beam ending with her arm getting a bit burned due to a late dodge.
Ryan is hit on the head by the beam and crashes onto the ground tossing Ray off to also land on the ground.
Ray hurries to his feet and hurries to his stunned familiar. "Ryan!" He checks the others head seeing a bruise on his head. He turns hearing a chuckle and Darcy starts to come closer. He pulls out his wand ready to defend himself and Ryan when he is jumped from behind. His wand is wrestled away and Darcy uses a spell.
"Lights out." Darcy tells him then the next thing Ray can see is black as a flash from Darcy's wand forces him to pass out.
Back with Michael and Gavin the two watch as Gus uses a special spell to send a scroll of the plan that they have come up with to where Geoff is.
Gus turns to them all including his son Spire. "Okay. Now we get ready for battle." He snaps his fingers and servants come in with the royal families armour.
The Hyena familiar of Spire, who is named Lyra, transforms and lets the armour be put as well.
With them all ready to go Gus lets Spire and Lyra take the lead and even Michael and Gavin follow along. They arrive to where the royal army is standing in their lines, with the witches and their familiars wearing the royal armour standing together.
Spire moves in front of them with Lyra trotting up behind him as they both stand tall.
Michael and Gavin stay back with Gus to watch.
"Darcy has returned and she is using followers to capture and force familiars to become an army!" Spire announces to the army that listen with obedient silence. "We must stop her and free the familiars that are under her control! We will move in on the location from all sides. Do not kill if it can be avoided. We must do our best to free those that they have trapped." He then turns to some guards up front. "Shadow, Rubin, and Iris, you and your familiars are some of our best track and search. So you will be in charge of searching for and freeing any other prisoners. Focus on the search more than fighting. The witches whose familiars are captured. Plus Darcy's familiar sounds to also have been captured. Look for them and free them."
Those that were called upon softly nod in understanding.
"We move out!" Spire turns and with Lyra at his side they begin to lead the way.
Gavin transforms into his familiar form and lets Michael get on as they'll join those in the air. He also lets Gus get on board with Michael. He waits for the foot soldiers to go by then follows after the flying ones out to take to the sky.
Spire signals to Gavin who takes the lead to show him where they need to go to make sure that they arrive at the right location. He leads the foot soldiers along glancing up every now and again to make sure that he can still see Gavin.
"Hold on Ray. We're coming." Michael breathes softly to himself as he makes sure that Gavin is going the right way.
They travel along working to get as far as they can before they'll have to stop for the night. They don't want to be too tired to fight by the time that they get there. They have planned for it to take one night break before they will arrive there.
After traveling for awhile the darkness starts to come and Gus looks to the sky.
"Let's get down." Gus tells Michael who glances back to him. "We will set up camp and rest for the night. So that way we will get there tomorrow ready to fight."
Michael nods then turns to Gavin. "Okay Gav. Let's land."
Gavin screeches and swoops down to a spot that they make a camp for the night that soon will be upon them.
Ray blinks as he begins to awaken and his vision is a little blurry. He finds that he can't really move his body as it feels unusually heavy. He blinks a few times to clear away the blurriness then he finds that he can see cage bars. He's back in a cage. He tries to move and though he feels stiff he can kind of push himself up. He pushes his torso up with his hands on the bottom of the cage to glance around. In which he does look around. His eyes quickly landing on Darcy, with her burns bandaged, who is standing by Ryan who is in his familiar form.
Ryan's eyes are open but they look like they are staring off into space as if he can't see whats actually in front of himself.
"Ryan." Ray manages to croak out and Darcy turns to look to him as he continues to stare at his familiar.
"Good to see you're awake." Darcy moves over to the cage and crouches in Ray's view making him look at her. She smirks widely at him. "We have managed to reclaim your familiar. I had to use a different spell though it managed to work."
"Let him go." Ray tries to plead only to be laughed at.
"Oh you think you're so funny." Darcy rolls her eyes. "I am not letting him go. I am not letting any of them go. And because of the stunt the two of you pulled we had to delay our attack." She pulls out both Ray's wand and her own. "You know your wand was quite useful. I used it to channel the spell from my wand into your familiar to make him cooperate with us once more." She informs him then tosses his wand off to the side at another witch who seems to be standing guard. "However I can't have you go and breaking the spell again. If you did have a role in that which I am sure you did somehow. So You're going to have to go away."
Ray feels his heart sink at hearing this but he does his best to glare at Darcy. "You can kill me. Just remember this. You will not win the war."
Darcy grins wider upon hearing those words come from Ray. "We'll see about that." She raises her wand which begins to glow and she waves it in a complicated pattern as if drawing out an actual magic circle; including all the details.
Ray shifts to look around her trying to get a look at Ryan again. He wants the last thing he sees to be his partner. "Ryan." He finds his voice better this time. "I know you can do it. Break free and get help." He stares at what he can see of his familiar waiting for the strike to come. He doesn't let himself look away when a glow happens and he feels like his life is being just drained. His eyes begin to slip closed, and he manages to look at Ryan's eyes one last time before his eyes fully shut. He falls to the floor of the cage laying there limp and doesn't appear to be breathing.
The glow fades after this happens.
Darcy moves out of the way to stand by Ryan. "Take him back. Tell the other prisoners that this is what awaits them if they try anything." She turns away as the cage with Ray's body is taken back to where the other witches are being held. She looks up at Ryan who continues to stand there as if waiting for orders. "Now then. Hopefully you'll remember how to use that fire breath of yours." She reaches up and as if knowing what to do Ryan leans down so she can climb up or pet him. She strokes his horns and neck. "Now that I have seen you in action I know for sure that you will be with me when we attack. We'll go tomorrow. Can't have another mishap happen."
Burnie is sitting in his cage anxiously then turns hearing footsteps.
A cage is slammed down getting everyone's attention and even Burnie stares in horror realizing that Ray isn't moving.
"Let this be a warning!" The witch that had brought Ray in calls out. "If any of you try anything this is what will happen to you." He kicks the cage with Ray's body in it with no respect to the young witch. He turns and leaves.
Burnie feels tears go down his face. He reaches out and only manages to brush his hand against Rays. He shivers as he can feel that the warmth has already left. "I'm sorry." He sobs to the young witch. "I shouldn't have made you take such a risk. I am so so sorry." He hangs his head as he cries blaming himself for the young witch's defeat.
No one else speaks as some watch while others turn away. Though all knowing the gravity of such a situation.
After a few moments a voice finally speaks up.
"Is there something we can do?"
Burnie wipes his eyes pulling his hand away from Ray. He turns to where the voice came from a female in a cage that had been by Ray's own. He can see anger and determination in her gaze, as if the death of a witch she's only met here has brought back the spark to fight back inside of her. "It's too dangerous." He shakes his head and turns away to stare at the floor of his cage. "I am not going to let anyone else end up like him."
"I don't care." The female informs Burnie though he doesn't turn back to her. "Now listen here." She leans closer to the bars of her cage. "Either something will be done without you or with you. Make your choice. There has to be something that we can do."
Burnie turns to look around hearing some of the others making sounds of agreement. He feels the room become a bit lighter as if the renewal of the desire to fight against this has lifted the gloom that hung in the air. He sighs heavily able to tell just how serious they are about doing something. "Okay." He agrees and turns to the female who had first spoken. "We'll figure out something."
"Do you think we can do what Ray did?" The female asks hopefully though Burnie shakes his head.
"I don't think doing the same thing that we just did will end very well. They might even have made the spell stronger to try to keep us from breaking it again." Burnie informs them and sees nods of understanding. "We are going to have to go for a different approach." He glances down thoughtfully then decides to take a closer look at his cage. He is very knowledgeable about magical things so maybe he can figure out a little trick or something.
The others watch half in uncertainty about that and half in hope that he will find something.