The Rising

by Kristen Ashley

  From that place in the trees.

  Five stones standing around what appeared to be a slab.

  Those stones were not of nature, but they were so large, I could not imagine how they had gotten there.

  Except, perhaps, very mighty magic.

  “Finally,” he whispered jubilantly.

  And then he kicked his heels into our steed.

  Princess Serena

  Lowgate, Sky Bay

  AIREN

  Their four horses galloped through the gate, and the guards there did not delay in rushing it closed behind them.

  They took the sea path only shortly, before they cut onto the track that would guide them to the top of the cliffs.

  It was a grueling climb for their steeds, but they made it and galloped over the top and down into the forested mountains on the other side.

  Brix broke off first when his Fell, Baldrick and their mounted squad of gnomes came into view.

  Brix joined his people and they immediately rode to their positions.

  Gal broke off next when Fern and her women came into view.

  Gal joined them and they rode to their positions.

  They made a turn and passed Silvanus.

  Serena lifted her staff, and the Zees, on foot, turned and stole through the trees.

  She felt it before they joined the final battalion, and when she did, her gaze jerked up to the tips of the trees.

  “Ride on,” Chu clipped, and she realized she’d lost speed.

  She loosened her grip on the reins and again drew abreast of him.

  “You feel it?” she asked.

  “Ride on,” he grunted.

  “Chu, do you feel it?” she pushed.

  He turned to her and slightly lifted his chin.

  He felt it.

  Then he faced forward and they both rode on.

  When they met them, they headed straight to the front.

  Darma, Genia and Heloise were there.

  Serena and Chu rounded them and turned their mounts to come to a halt facing them.

  “All are in position?” Serena asked.

  “Yes,” Heloise answered, and Serena noted her lieutenant did not look at Chu.

  “One squadron will have to take orders from a Trusted, is this going to be an issue?” she demanded.

  “No, Serena,” Darma stated firmly.

  Serena stared hard at her mentor.

  She then did the same with both of her friends.

  It was Heloise who spoke.

  “A new Airen. A new era.”

  With that, her heart grew light.

  These words had a double meaning.

  One of them was that, they would try.

  That was all that could be asked.

  Serena nodded once, sharply.

  She then ordered, “To your posts.”

  Instantly, they broke off.

  Serena looked to Chu, and before she could speak, he did.

  “They will lay down their arms.”

  She opened her mouth.

  “My love,” he said quietly, “they will lay down their arms.”

  She didn’t care about that.

  She knew that.

  She cared about what might come before that.

  “You are my love too,” she stated.

  “Pardon?”

  “You are my love too. I am in love with you, Chu.”

  He smiled. “I know.”

  She frowned. “I know you know, but it needed the saying.”

  “Yes,” he whispered. “It did.”

  He then shifted his horse so it was right alongside hers, grasped her about the neck with his hand, and pulled her to him for a wet, thorough kiss.

  Chu released her mouth, but not her neck, when he declared a gruff, “And I love you.”

  Only then did he let her go, pull his reins to the right and ride off to head his squadron of Nadirii.

  She watched him until she could see him no more through the trees.

  She then turned to the warriors that sat atop their horses amongst the forest.

  Her gaze moved through them.

  “Fortitude, sisters,” she whispered. “For if the goddess is with us, we will not lose a one of us today.”

  And then she shifted her mount to face the direction of the grazing plain.

  Queen Silence

  Antechamber, Guest Bedchamber, Sky Citadel, Sky Bay

  AIREN

  As was Mars’s wont, he had already given me mine, so I held on tight with limbs and other parts of me as I enjoyed the velvet violence of his thrusts as he sought his.

  “You’re…a gods-damned…minx,” he grunted, his fingers digging into the curves of my behind where he held me aloft against the wall.

  I grinned.

  “I should be atop Hephaestus,” he growled.

  “Then hurry,” I whispered, pulled his head down and kissed him.

  My bottom slammed repeatedly into stone, and my throat welcomed his groan, as he gave me his seed.

  He pulled his mouth from mine, his torso back, but kept his neck bent so he could watch himself glide in and out of me through his aftermath.

  Mars finally sunk deep and I sighed in contentment at the feel.

  And his eyes came to mine.

  “Brazen,” he muttered on a false complaint.

  “You may thank me later,” I told him.

  His mouth twitched before he pulled me off his shaft and set me on the ground.

  My husband made certain I was steady before he moved away, tucked himself in and began to do up his pants.

  He looked so handsome in his leathers and mantle, his sword scabbarded at his back.

  Which was why, upon seeing him, I had instigated what had just happened.

  Then again, he always looked handsome.

  He was almost to the door when I called, “Should I wait for you to have breakfast?”

  His eyes came to mine.

  “Yes.”

  I smiled brightly at him.

  His face softened.

  And then he was gone.

  Prince Cassius

  Outside Highgate, Sky Bay

  AIREN

  Mars moved into position next to Elena.

  When he was there, Cassius leaned forward and said, “Good of you to show up.”

  “My queen was in a mood,” Mars muttered.

  “So was his,” Elena stated, jerking her head toward Cass. “So we got started early.”

  “We did as well,” Mars retorted. “She just wanted seconds.”

  Elena burst out laughing.

  He could hear True at his other side groaning about such words uttered regarding his cousin.

  But Aramus was on the other side of Mars, and he was chuckling.

  Cassius clenched his teeth.

  He then looked down to the plain which was covered in snow.

  And lines of battle-ready AG soldiers.

  He turned his gaze right, looking beyond True, to where the entirety of the road up to Highgate was lined with Airenzian, Nadirii, Firenz and Dellish soldiers.

  His eyes went up, and there he saw two of Frey’s dragons.

  One was seated on an outcropping halfway up the cliffs, tail stirring, tongue lolling. The other lay regal across a back balcony of the Citadel, its neck arced tall, wings at rest high at its back, clawed front arms crossed at its breast, tail curled about its flank, red eyes aimed at the plain.

  The silhouette of Frey stood on the railing next to it.

  Cassius’s head turned left.

  Beyond Ellie, Mars, to Aramus, Tor, Lahn…

  Apollo.

  As if sensing his attention, Apollo leaned well forward.

  “I would not lose another woman or man,” Cassius called.

  Apollo said not a word.

  He wheeled his horse and rode back through the Highgate.

  Watching him go, Cassius raised his gaze to the cliffs beyond the gate that had, for centuries, been the first bastion of defense for the all-imp
ortant Bay.

  Along it stood manned cannons.

  And amongst them, ordinary citizens.

  Some who had come to watch.

  Some who held bows in their hands and quivers of arrows at their backs who had come to help if it was needed.

  It would not be needed.

  “They will lay down their arms.”

  Ellie saying this brought his attention to her.

  “They will not lay down their arms,” he replied.

  “They will lay down their arms.”

  “My darling, they’re not going to lay down their arms.”

  Her gaze swung to the plain. “We are not outnumbered this time.”

  They would not lay down their arms.

  He did not repeat himself.

  He ordered, “You do not leave this position.”

  Her eyes jumped again to him.

  “We agreed,” he reminded her. “We do not leave this position. The rulers of all realms, including the Princess Regent of this one, stands still, watching their defeat, gaining it not having to lift a finger. Yes?”

  She didn’t reply.

  “It’ll be over soon,” he muttered, his eyes drifting back to the plain.

  “They must know this is futile. Why won’t they lay down their arms?” she asked.

  “I don’t know the answer to that question,” he told her, not taking his attention from the thousands of men lined before him. “For, honest to the gods, I do not know why they’re taken up in the first place.”

  His wife shuffled her horse closer to his.

  He remained steady on Caelus.

  They sat their steeds.

  And waited.

  Marian

  Silbury Henge, Argyll Forest

  AIREN

  “What is this place?” Marian asked carefully as she watched him move from stone to stone, touching each with a reverence she had never seen of him.

  Nor would have ever expected.

  He did not answer at first.

  “Daemon, I do not get a good feeling about this place,” she warned, when he was standing at the last, great stone that protruded from the ground.

  It was one that had part of it shorn by time or other earthly element, the great slab that had fallen away embedded in the earth beside it.

  And he was glaring at it with distaste.

  He turned to her, his expression changing, and she absolutely did not get a good feeling about that new look on his face.

  She started backing up.

  “You should not run, for you know I will catch you,” he said.

  She continued backing up.

  He shrugged, the apology all over his expression screaming in her face even if he was fifteen feet away.

  “I needed your magic, of course,” he said.

  “You cannot have it,” she replied.

  He nodded his head, slowly moving her way.

  She started backing up much faster.

  “I know,” he told her. “Thus, I shall have to take it. It is too bad he escaped. I could have perhaps…eased things for you if I had his magic too. It was rather strong. Not as strong as he liked to think. But it was strong. Indeed, I hope yours is enough. I would hate to have to delay, having to find another witch.”

  That fucking, fucking priest.

  “Daemon, what do you intend to do?” she asked, still backing away.

  “Free them,” he answered.

  That surprised her, so much, it nearly caused her to stop.

  But only nearly.

  “Free who?”

  He smiled.

  It was horrible.

  And thus, no other thought entered her head.

  Instead, she turned to race away.

  Frey Drakkar

  Back Balcony, Sky Citadel, Sky Bay

  AIREN

  The cry of the captain at the front who raised his sword carried all the way up to him where he stood on the balcony.

  “Seriously?” he heard his wife ask behind him.

  She’d heard it too.

  “I’d rather you be inside,” he said, again.

  “Compromise, husband,” she reminded him. “I’m back here, so no stray arrows or whatever, come near me, you’re there, like you’re immune to stray arrows, but we won’t get into that. And you tell me what’s happening.”

  “Loud enough we can hear too!” Cora called from her place at an opened window where all the women had gathered.

  Gods save him from parallel-world women.

  Or any of them, for that matter, since the queens of this realm were back there too.

  “Fuck,” he bit, as he watched and saw the first lines break into a charge at the lane.

  “It’s beginning,” Finnie said.

  “They’re charging,” he announced.

  “Balls,” he heard Silence say.

  And then they came as whirling zing noises.

  The strike of them against rock came as loud cracks.

  The company of mermales formed from their tridents imbedded at random intervals all over the sides of the cliffs.

  They took their tridents up.

  And on a call from Jorie, who had formed amongst them, they let fly.

  The tridents soared through the air, puncturing all the soldiers charging at the front of the line, bringing it down.

  Those long staffs with their wide, cruel, triple prongs did not cause a wound from which a soldier could arise.

  The weapons winged their bloodied journey back to their owners just as wolves raced, barking loud, from the forest, to stop at the edges of the plain, surrounding the troops.

  The lines became wavy as surprise at being confronted by mermales and wolves rippled through the standing.

  “Is it done?” Finnie called.

  Frey watched.

  Another call from another captain and another line broke off to press forward.

  “What are they thinking?” Finnie asked.

  He did not know, for they’d have to climb over the dying bodies of their own only to face a zigzag phalanx of soldiers at better vantages than they.

  “They’re making a point,” he said.

  “A stupid one,” she replied.

  He could not argue that.

  More disarray was occurring through the rest as the Nadirii battle cry could be heard and all around them, Nadirii warriors came charging out of the forest, except to their left flank. That was fortified by Zees, gnomes and female Airenzian.

  They simply came out, surrounding them, lining up behind the wolves, cutting off any means of escape.

  The charging squad at the front was easily picked off one by one by archers higher up the road to the Bay.

  Gods, he hoped this didn’t last much longer.

  Frey looked down to where Cass sat astride his horse, watching, just as another AG captain set two squads to charging the road.

  He watched Cass turn his head and look up.

  The Regent nodded.

  Frey looked to the beast at his right.

  “Go, boy,” he murmured, jumped from the railing to the balcony and stood at it, the wind from the dragon’s wings whipping his hair about his head and his mantle about his body.

  The male went straight up from where he had rested.

  And up.

  The female, down the cliff, rose with him.

  He felt his ice princess come up on one side.

  He then felt someone else come to his other side.

  And they lined up at the railing, not only Finnie and Cora, but Circe, Maddie, Silence, Ha-Lah and Farah.

  Frey did not protest.

  It was now done.

  One way or another.

  He just hoped he didn’t have to give the order to affect one of those ways.

  A great noise came from behind them and they all twisted to look.

  The sun in the sky was weak.

  Still, it was blotted out when the entirety of his dragons soared overhead.

  They created a stiff breeze that floa
ted down on them, mussing his hair, as Frey turned around.

  The dragons halted above the standing in the plain, pulling back their heads and chests, their wings flapping, clawed legs stretched out, but long necks arched up with heads down, hovering over the enemy, ready to strike.

  No, it was now, one way or another, it would be done.

  He just hoped it would be the right way.

  Frey held, and they held.

  Everyone held.

  It started at the right flank.

  Soldiers setting their weapons to the snow and taking their knees.

  The long moments it took from the first squad to ripple to the next felt like an hour.

  But then the next laid down their arms.

  And the next.

  The one before it.

  The one behind it.

  Right to left.

  Back to front.

  The wolves slunk back.

  The mermales launched their tridents and disappeared in a whirl.

  The warriors surrounding them and the ones that lined the lane rode in to process the surrender.

  And it was done.

  A New Airen.

  Marian

  Silbury Henge, Argyll Forest

  AIREN

  “Noooo!” Marian shrieked, fighting him as he carried her back to the circle. “You cannot! You cannot do this to me! I helped you get free!”

  “And now you serve a further purpose, my witch,” he said.

  She bucked, scratched, bit.

  “Noooo!” she screeched. “Let me gooooo!”

  He slammed her to her back on the slab in the center of the circle with such strength, her head cracked against it, her eyelids drooped, and her limbs grew weak.

  “I lament you will not see what it is you helped to bring about,” he whispered, his face close to hers.

  All she saw was the gray seeping in at the sides of her eyes.

  She had to fight it.

  She had to stay conscious.

  Get focus.

  She was a witch.

  She had forgotten in her fright, she had magic.

  She had to get her focus and use it.

  In the meantime, she needed to try to reach him another way.

  “Me brutum,” she said desperately.

  “Patrona,” he moaned.

  That moan gave her hope.

  With effort, she blinked away the gray and focused.

  “We could do so many wondrous things, you and I,” she told him.

  “I find I will miss you,” he said morosely.