by N M Zoltack
“Go ahead,” he mumbled. “Tell me what I am.”
She softened a moment. “Rase, you’re a victim. Life hasn’t treated you kindly, so you’ve decided that means you can do what you want, that you can take whatever you can—”
“I’ve only ever took whatever we needed, not what I wanted!” he argued. “Life has been horrible to us, to all of us, and it all started because of Pa! That man, that… that…” He was sputtering with rage so much that he couldn’t even talk.
“Yes, what happened to Pa had been terrible, but why had that man reacted as he had? Because Pa was a thief, Rase, and you know that. You became a thief, too, didn’t you?”
“I…”
“And worse. You used and abused people.”
“I wouldn’t say that,” he grumbled.
“No? That dagger? The blacksmith?”
He gaped at her. How had she found out about that? Did she have more magic than just healing?
“Everywhere you go, you make people’s hearts and souls darker, blacker. Rase, I’m worried about you, but I think… I’m worried your fate has already been decided.”
“And I’m going to end up dead in a pile of my blood just like Pa, aren’t I? Just like Ma.”
Leanne glanced away.
“You wouldn’t heal me even if I begged,” he said as she turned to help yet another knight. This one lay there, not moving, maybe dead already, but that didn’t stop Leanne from trying to tend to him. Her hands weren’t glowing yet.
“You’re upright, walking about with hardly a limp. You wet your dagger with the blood of how many people? No, I don’t think you need to be healed.”
“This knight fought against Vincanans!” he protested. He crossed around to the other side of this knight so he could see her face, so she could see his if she would only look at him. “So did I! Is that so wrong of me to fought for Tenoch?”
“Did you fight?” she challenged as she removed parts of his armor. “Or did you merely just attack someone here, somewhere there?”
“How do you know all of this?”
“I can see into your soul, Rase,” she murmured. “So can the dragons—”
“The dragons! Are they the reason why you have magic?”
“The dragons have found in me a worthy servant,” Leanne said, her tone taking on a dream-like quality. “They have given me a reason to live.”
“And you think I have no reason to live.”
“I did not say that, but you need to change your path, Rase, before it’s too late. The dragons have wraiths, Rase, wraiths who are meant to scare people to stay on the path that leads to the light, but you live in the shadows, don’t you? And you have for some time. The dragons will come and haunt you, Rase. They will realize soon how much you take from others, and they will then take your life.”
“No, No. Leanne, that won’t happen.”
“Why not?”
“I won’t leave you behind,” he said desperately.
“That choice is not yours to make.”
“I won’t,” he insisted, “and you won’t leave me behind either.”
Leanne hung her head and stepped away from the knight.
“He’s dead, isn’t he?” Rase asked.
“He’s dead, so I can’t help him.” Without lifting her head, she made eye contact with Rase, and it was so easy to read her thoughts.
That Rase was dead, too, so she could not help him either.
“You’re wrong,” Rase spit out. “You can help him. You can bring him back. You can save him. You have magic now. You can do anything.”
“I can only do what the dragons allow,” she said sadly, “and magic cannot cure all ills.”
“How do you know unless you try?”
“Rase… We are siblings no longer.”
“That is not your call to make.”
“The dragons have reborn me,” she murmured.
“How? Tell me so that I can be reborn too! Do not go to a place where I cannot follow!”
Leanne was silent for a long time. There was a commotion as newly injured knights arrived and others trudged off, back to the fighting. Honestly, Rase thought the injured ones so be the ones to remain guarding the healing hall while the fresh knights go off to attack, but no one had asked for his opinion so he kept his lips shut.
“The dragons already picked those to be reborn,” Leanne murmured. “When the dragon fell, there was a great light. That light touched me. That is how I have magic. I can heal, Rase, and I will use that gift of the dragons to help as many as I can.”
“But you can’t help me.”
“No. I fear I can’t.”
“That’s fine,” Rase said with a smile and a nod. “You don’t have to worry. I can change. I will change. You’ll see. The dragons will see. My soul, my heart… they won’t be black anymore. I can do this, Leanne. You know how I used to be.”
Leanne said nothing.
But Rase did not leave. He hadn’t the slightest idea how he could change. What was wrong about wanting what was best for his family? Yes, he had gone about it the wrong way, but honestly, would it have been possible for him to support them if he had gone about it the right way? Atlan was dying. The castle had been under attack how many times now?
And Leanne, she could barely look at Rase. She did not think he could change.
Maybe he couldn’t, but that wouldn’t stop him from trying.
73
Bjorn Ivano
The maid cowered by the bed as if she thought that if she remained almost frozen in place, she would be invisible.
“You have to leave, and you can’t through the doors,” he said desperately. “Do you know where the queen is?”
The amid shook her head. “I… I came here to see… Sometimes… She does not sleep a lot. Sometimes, she needs me in the night… When I came here, she was gone. I… The fighting…”
“If the Vincanans break through, they will kill you,” he said. “You have to trust me. I can get you out of here.”
“How… How did you get in here?”
“Through the balcony.”
The maid rolled her eyes. “I figured that much considering you broke the balcony door. How did you reach the balcony?”
“Would you rather I explain, or should I save you?”
A horrific bang on the door made them both jump.
“If you can save me,” she muttered.
“You have so little faith.”
“You have faith?” she asked as she slowly crossed around the bed toward him.
He impatiently held out his good hand. “I don’t have faith, no. I have hope.”
“Hope in what exactly?”
“Just hope,” he mumbled, and he guided her past the glass out onto the balcony. “We need to be careful, and you'll have to—”
Another bang on the door. Bjorn glanced over his shoulder in time to see the door shake, and he winced.
“We have to go now.”
The maid clung to him, her fragile body trembling.
“Now’s not the time for that,” he said firmly, using his hand to get her arms down from around his neck.
“But now is the perfect time to be afraid.”
“Now’s the time to be silent. You have how many ears?”
“Two…”
“And one mouth. Don’t use the one. Use the two. And your two hands. See that vine? Grab it.”
She glanced at him. At his nod, she reached over and grabbed it.
“Tighter. Have a good grip on it. You have it tight?”
The maid nodded.
He scooped up her legs with his good arm and lifted them over the side of the balcony.
She shrieked as she dropped a good bit before she tightened her grip enough to hold herself in place.
“Not quite what I had in mind,” he mumbled.
He grabbed the next vine over so that they wouldn’t hang on the same vine. He slowly let the vine feed through his hand, stopping himself with his hand and his
feet once he was almost level with her.
“Do you see how I did—No, don’t!”
She was reaching for the same vine he was on. Before he could convince her otherwise, she was dangling on the same vine.
Desperate, Bjorn struggled to reach for a different vine, but it was too late. The one they were on snapped, and they plummeted to the ground. He managed to grab another vine and slammed his poor shoulder against it as a result, but the maid wasn’t so lucky. She landed far beneath him, her one arm and the opposite leg bent at awkward angles. Her scream died the moment she struck the ground.
Sick to his stomach, Bjorn struggled to walk down the vine to the ground. He didn’t have to kneel beside her to check and see if she had died, but he did so anyhow.
A loud commotion sounded from above. He glanced up to see Vincanans gazing down at him.
“Is that the queen?” one of them shouted.
Bjorn shook his head, but they did not believe him. Several noticed the vines, and they climbed down.
“She’s not the queen,” one said.
“We can’t continue on like this,” one of them hissed to the first. “We don’t know where she is—”
“Is your blade even wet, boy?” the first one snarled.
The other merely stood there, unfazed. “She’s not there. She could be anywhere within the castle, or maybe she even is not in the castle. We do not know.”
“We…” The first eyed Bjorn, who backed away. He did not wish for them to take exception to his being there, but he also did not want to turn his back to them, so he merely walked backward.
“There they are! The king! The prince! Kill them!”
Knights and guards appeared as if ants bursting from an anthill, but the other Vincanans from the queen’s bedchambers had climbed down by now. Instead of a massive showdown, the Vincanans merely raced over to the tall tree near the castle walls. They climbed up to the alure and jumped over the other side of the wall walk.
Bjorn pointed to help the guards chase after the Vincanans, but one of the knights approached him. Shoving back Bjorn’s hood. The former champion wasn’t even certain when he had covered his head again.
“Are you… You are. You’re Bjorn Ivano.”
Bjorn did not recognize this knight, but clearly he did him.
“You don’t recognize me, do you?” the knight asked.
“Aren’t you a little short to be a knight?” Bjorn asked.
The knight punched Bjorn hard in the stomach. Thankfully, Bjorn had tightened his muscles beforehand so the blow did not make him lose his meal, and he merely stared down the shorter knight.
“I’m Radulf,” the knight hissed. He removed his helm to reveal a turned-up nose, black hair slicked back with sweat, and dark eyes.
“Ah, you were a squire when I saw you last,” Bjorn said. He knew he was being petty, but he was captured, plain and simple. He might as well taunt the boy. “When I bested you on the tourney field.”
“Yet I have the shield, and I am only sixteen years old! One of the youngest knights ever! And you? You’re not a champion. You’re a disgrace, and you knew what would happen if you…”
Radulf glanced around and noticed the maid.
“I did not kill her,” Bjorn said wearily. “I tried to save her from the Vincanans—”
“A likely story,” the young knight snapped. “The queen can do with you as she wishes, and I hope to have an up close view of your execution.”
Bjorn hung his head and accepted his fate. Deep down, the spark of hope he tried to always cling to seemed to dim to barely a spark.
74
The One True Queen Rosalynne Rivera
At long last, a cheer went up from the knights and guards, and Rosalynne tilted her head for Ulric to escort her over to her jubilant warriors. The scullery maids had long ago ran off, and Rosalynne chose to believe they were all right.
As she approached the soldiers who had gathered on the side of the keep that housed her bedchambers, she grew worried. Amee sometimes came to her room at night to check on her.
The guards and knights gave a rousing cheer as she approached, however, and she bid them all a few words commending them for their bravery. Although many spoke over each other, it soon became clear that the bulk of the Vincanan forces had headed straight for her bedchambers. The knights feared as much and had gathered there, but the Vincanans had managed to break through. As she was not there, the Vincanans escaped down the vines and climbed over the alure and had fled into the night.
“They will return, most likely,” Rosalynne said grimly, even though she supposed she should hope that only one would and for a much different reason than anything related to war and conquest, although one could certainly argue that an alliance made to end a conflict and war could be deemed a conquest of another sort.
How long ago it had been when Aldus had first advised to Rosalynne that she might consider marrying Marcellus Gallus. And now, if Vivian had her way, it would happen.
Honestly, the thought sickened Rosalynne. All of this bloodshed could have been avoided from the very start if only Rufus Vitus had not died in her arms.
The murderer had never been found, she just realized. Whoever the perpetrator had been, he had the blood of all those lost in the war on his or her hands.
But now was not the time to worry about that. The perpetrator would most likely never be found, and besides, Rosalynne had one other issue to worry about.
“Vivian,” she murmured.
“Where is she?” Ulric asked again.
She glanced up at her… Guard. Ulric wished to be her guard. As much as she almost could accept that so that he could be close to her at all times, it also felt wrong. He was more than that. A friend, a confidant, a…
“Let us return inside. We can send out scouts to ensure the Vincanans are not planning to double back for a second assault. I had been thinking before the battle that we should soak everything we can in water, everything wooden especially. When the dragons then try to burst them into flames—”
“Nothing will combust.” Ulric grinned.
“I was also thinking about the armor of the knights. It’s necessary because of their claws, and if, Fates forbid, the dragons and Vincanans ever attack at the same time, but what might help to prevent the heat from being trapped in the armor?”
“You said to wet the wood…”
“Oh, we can speak of this later. Let us go inside and have a meal, a large one, for all of the knights who are not on patrol, and I’ll have to go and see the injured ones—”
“After you eat,” Ulric said with a laugh. “How about wet mud?”
“Wet mud? I do not know of anyone who would want to eat or drink wet mud…” She gave him a curious glance as she headed back inside the keep.
Ulric burst out laughing. “No, no. I meant over the armor. It might help to prevent rust like water would on the metal.”
“I will speak to Emerson Fenne about it.” She paused and glanced behind them. “Why are the knights and guards not following us?”
“I think they wish to be guards to patrol or else scouts.”
“But not all of them are needed,” she protested.
“They seek to serve you, My Queen.”
“Ulric…”
“Have you any other ideas about how to defend against the dragons?” he asked.
“I have one other thought,” she mused. “When the sun is at a certain height in the sky every day, it blinds me, and I cannot see.”
“You wish to use the sun’s light against the dragons.”
“If we could have a large circular metal object, it would not even have to be a mirror, but so long as it could bend the sun’s rays, we could blind the dragons.”
“You have told no one of these ideas?”
“Not yet. I tend to do a lot of thinking late at night.” She bit her lower lip. “Are you hungry? I almost do not wish to venture back down to the kitchen.”
“I will go with you,” he
promised.
“I know, but are you hungry?”
“I can eat.”
She laughed, and they started down that way when Aldus Perez appeared. His face was fierce, and her appetite vanished.
“What is it?” she asked. “Who has died?”
“You have supposed correctly, My Queen.” Aldus merely shook his head. “Wystan Bartone, you know of him?”
“Yes. I sought to have a meeting with him, but no one could…”
“No one could locate him? Well, he has been found dead, and he is not the only one.”
“Who else? And when were these bodies discovered?”
“Cricket Woodham,” he uttered. “I only just learned about both of their deaths, but… My Queen, I must say that I am fearful for my own life. Someone appears to be hunting down Sabine’s council members, and I was one of them!”
“Hire yourself a guard then,” Rosalynne suggested dryly, but her happiness that the battle had ended had fled her as well, and she turned to Ulric. “I will retire for what is left of the night,” she murmured.
But when he escorted her to her room, out the window, she noticed the broken balcony door and also the dawn already on the horizon.
75
Olympia Li
The Li princess could not help feeling lost as she left the female warriors behind. The Valkyries rejected her, much as it felt like the dragons had rejected her too. It pained Olympia to think that she was unworthy, that they might not care for her because the dragons thought so little of her. Maybe the dragons were furious that her parents had done nothing to stop Jankin. They had not stopped the man. They did not go to war with him.
Maybe the dragons were even happy with Jankin Rivera for his actions because he had avoided war for the duration of his reign. Like it or not, Olympia knew that the reason why Jankin had killed her parents was because he knew the Vincanans were entertaining the idea of warring with Tenoch.
He killed two for the sake of peace. In his mind, he had been a hero. The people of Tenoch had praised him for it.