The Blacksmith Queen

by Aiken G. A.

  Gemma’s words faded off and the sisters slowly locked gazes. They both heard it. Coming from that dark part of the chamber.

  Keeley raised the torch, trying to look farther ahead. That’s when Gemma could see that the ground they stood on abruptly ended a dozen or so feet away, leaving a gap between the ground and the chamber wall. It wasn’t the opening that had their attention, though. It was the sound coming up from that opening.

  Gemma pulled out one of her swords and raised it, carefully moving backward. But not Keeley. No. Never Keeley. She walked forward, pausing briefly to light a few more torches near the crevice, curious as always.

  “Keeley Smythe, you get your fat ass over here!” Gemma urgently whispered.

  “I just want to see what’s making that noise.”

  Gemma snarled and darted forward, grabbing the collar of her sister’s leather armor. She started to yank Keeley back, but her sister fought her. Refusing to stop leaning over the crevice and gazing into the blackness below.

  “Keeley! Come on!”

  “All right, all rig—”

  Both sisters fell back, hitting the ground hard when a claw exploded from the crevice and landed on the ground, talons digging into the stone floor. Another claw followed. Both were covered in black scales with dark red sliding in and around the scales’ seams. Each claw also had a steel cuff on the wrist and chains hung from them, disappearing into the crevice where the rest of the monster resided.

  The claws were so large, Gemma didn’t want to see the rest of that thing. She wanted to go. She wanted to flee. And she had to get her sister out of there. To safety.

  “We have to go,” she told Keeley, pulling at her collar.

  The demon wolves stood near the crevice, barking at what was pulling itself out.

  Without thinking, Gemma accused, “They brought us here to die!”

  “They wouldn’t do that,” Keeley argued, attempting to pull away from Gemma’s grip. “They brought me here for a reason.”

  “Don’t be an idiot! Let’s get out of here!”

  The wolves backed away, still barking as that thing rose from the pit. Eyes. Black eyes glared at them from over the crevice before the entire head made its appearance, followed by the body.

  Scrambling, Gemma and Keeley crab-walked backward, trying to get away from it. The wolves continued to bark and howl, moving back but never running away.

  Gemma felt fear. A fear she could never remember feeling before. It took all her strength and training to stop herself from running away and leaving her sister to her own stupidity.

  Breathing heavily, the creature pulled itself from the pit and Gemma cringed at the look of it. Wisps of sad gray hair grew at the top of its head, as if it had been shorn and just never grew back. The head and claws implied a bigger animal but the beast’s torso was narrow. She could make out the ribs. Had it not been fed?

  And gods, if it hadn’t been fed . . . how the sisters must look to that thing!

  The chains from the wrist cuffs linked to a steel collar around its throat and more chains disappeared into the crevice. Perhaps it was also cuffed on its back claws.

  Keeley was on her hands and knees now. “Gemma?”

  “Yes?”

  “I don’t think we’re going to get the gold.”

  “I know. I do think we should run, though.”

  Keeley nodded and they both jumped to their feet and ran toward the exit. But a scaled tail with a sharp tip lashed out and slammed into them, sending them flying back toward the beast.

  Gemma rolled over seconds before one massive claw came down to crush her. She tried for the exit again, but she heard Keeley scream and saw that the thing had her wrapped in its tail. With her arms pinned at her side, Keeley couldn’t reach her weapon or even use her hands to defend herself.

  Still running, Gemma curved away from the exit and back toward the thing that held her sister. It made its claw into a fist and tried its best to slam her into the ground. She zigged and zagged to avoid that rampaging fist, finally reaching the part of the thing’s tail that rested against the ground. She climbed onto it, glancing at her sister. Keeley was still alive but her face was starting to turn blue. It was crushing her with that blasted tail.

  Once on top of the tail, Gemma started to run up its back. The beast started to move around, trying to reach one forearm behind it. That’s when the wolves attacked, barking and leaping up to bite its underbelly. The thing stood and started to use its back claws to stomp on the wolves. She heard the unmistakable sound of wounded canine but she had to ignore it and keep running.

  She reached the back of its neck and pulled both her swords. She went up a little farther until she began to slide back down. That’s when she raised her weapons and, with a scream, brought them both down in the middle of its neck.

  Rising up on its hind legs, the monster threw its head back and roared. The sound shook the chamber and rocks began to fall from the ceiling.

  Yanking out the blades from the thing’s back, Gemma raised her arms to protect herself but she lost her balance and tumbled back along the beast’s spine until she hit the ground hard, knocking herself out.

  When Gemma opened her eyes again, the tail had unwrapped from around Keeley and her sister was lying on the ground, out cold. The beast, however, was stumbling around. Gemma, at first, didn’t know why. Then she realized blood poured from a gaping wound on its forehead.

  Assuming one of the rocks had hit it, Gemma forced herself up and ran to her sister. She re-sheathed her weapons and grabbed her, trying to drag Keeley over to a safe corner. But as she moved, she felt her strength waning.

  Then the wolves were there and they grabbed Keeley on different parts of her armor. Together, they dragged her through the beast’s twisting legs. They’d just gotten her outside the cavern when it finally dropped to the ground with an impact that shook everything around them.

  Gemma fell beside her sister. She panted and rubbed the back of her head where she’d taken the brunt of her fall.

  The wolves were panting next to them, a few either bleeding from rips in their flesh left by the thing’s talons or nursing broken bones from getting hit with its fist.

  “Thank you,” she said to them. “For helping me.”

  Keeley gasped awake, arms swinging, eyes wide and panicked.

  “You’re okay,” Gemma said, patting her shoulder. “You’re okay.”

  “What . . . what happened?”

  “It’s dead, I think. I don’t hear it breathing anymore. But we shouldn’t wait to be sure.”

  Keeley sat up and nodded. “Yes. You’re right.”

  But the lead wolf ran up and barked at the thing.

  “If you wake that fucking thing up . . .” Gemma warned.

  But apparently that wasn’t its purpose. Because her sister was suddenly crawling over to the wolf.

  “Keeley Smythe, I swear to all the gods!”

  “Give me a minute!”

  Keeley went over to the thing’s side and ran her hands over the scales, stopping where the wolf’s nose briefly rested.

  “Holy shit.”

  “What?”

  Keeley glanced at her, grinning. Then she pulled one of her knives out of its sheath and began cutting away at the thing’s scales. It took a few minutes but finally Keeley faced Gemma and held open her blood-covered hand.

  Gemma leaned in and took a look. “That can’t be all of it,” Gemma complained in disbelief about the flat, circular disk of gold in her sister’s palm. “Tell me I didn’t risk my life for that?”

  “Tell me,” Keeley shot back, “that a sister of mine doesn’t remember how Sichar’s gold works.” Gemma’s head hurt and she could feel that bits of her were becoming decidedly sore. So she wasn’t really in the mood for any of this. When she didn’t answer, her sister said, “With this amount of Sichar’s gold, a true blacksmith can outfit an entire army from helmet to boots and all the armor and weapons in between. This is a fortune in Sichar’s gold.�
��

  “Ohhhhh. Now I rememb—”

  “No,” Keeley cut in, waving her free hand. “I can’t. You’ve disappointed me greatly.”

  “Oh, shut up.” Gemma stood, but not too quickly. “You know,” she reasoned, “if that’s really a fortune—”

  “If?”

  “Maybe you should keep it and fund your own army.”

  Keeley got to her feet. “But we promised them. We promised to get this for the dwarves.”

  “We almost died for this.”

  “I don’t care. I’m not going to go back on my word.”

  “Keeley . . . for all we know, the elves aren’t the only ones that have a deal with Beatrix.”

  “If there’s one thing I do know about our sister . . . she has never cared about anything that has to do with blacksmithing. And that’s all the Amichai dwarves care about. Besides, Beatrix’s word may mean nothing at the end of the day, but mine does. I’m taking this back to them. Like I promised.”

  “It’s foolish.”

  “Fine. It’s foolish,” Keeley muttered as she turned to look down at the thing that had tried to kill them.

  With her back turned, Gemma couldn’t help but smile a little. Yes, it was definitely foolish that Keeley would return something so valuable to the dwarves when they had done nothing to get it themselves, but she loved that her sister was true to her word. It would probably get her killed one day, but you know . . . everything had a downside.

  “I feel so bad for him,” Keeley said, still gazing at the thing on the floor.

  “Are you kidding?” Gemma asked. “It tried to kill us.”

  “He saw us as a threat.”

  “It saw us as dinner.”

  “Because he was being starved. Look at these chains. They were using him for something.” She shook her head. “It’s just cruel.”

  “Keeley . . . I know what you’re thinking. And don’t you dare—gods-dammit, Keeley!” Gemma exploded when the cuff around the thing’s neck fell to the ground.

  Only the best blacksmiths—and the daughters they taught—knew that all dwarven cuffs had a secret release mechanism. It was a way for dwarves to ensure they never got trapped in their own chains.

  “You are ridiculous!” Gemma yelled.

  “Don’t be so dramatic,” Keeley sighed out as she walked toward the exit. “It was just the neck cuff. If he truly isn’t dead, he still has the leg cuffs binding him. But now he has a chance to be free.”

  “All that sounds great, Sister, except that the neck cuff was the only one imbued with protective magicks.” Gemma pointed at the runes burned into the collar. “The others aren’t.”

  Keeley stopped, looked at her sister. “What kind of protective magicks?”

  Gemma shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m sure something that helps to keep it bound here.”

  “See? That’s just cruel. He shouldn’t be bound anywhere. He should be—”

  “Keeley, I don’t want to hear it.”

  “Fine.” They again started toward the exit but Keeley abruptly stopped and looked down.

  “What’s that?” she asked.

  “What’s what?”

  “What we’re walking on.” Keeley bent over and lifted something up. “What the hells is this?”

  Gemma leaned close to see what Keeley had spread all over her hand. “That’s hair.” Very lush. Very black with some red streaks hair.

  As one, the sisters’ gazes lifted and they stared at each other.

  “Or maybe,” Gemma said with dread, “it wasn’t a protective spell but a binding spell.”

  “A binding spell?”

  “That can prevent something from being at, shall we say, full strength.”

  “And once that binding spell is removed?”

  Gemma didn’t answer. She really couldn’t at the moment. Not when she heard that . . . breathing behind her. The loud breathing of a very large, very pissed-off animal.

  Without turning around, Gemma screamed, “Run!”

  * * *

  Caid continued to pace in front of the cave entrance.

  “Where the fuck are they?” he finally asked his sister.

  “I don’t know. But I’m not waiting any longer.” She pulled out her steel spear, hitting a latch that caused the weapon to extend several more feet. “We’re going in and we’re going to find—”

  The roar that exploded from inside the cave caught them all off guard, but only Quinn was crazy enough to immediately move in closer. Then he laughed.

  “I love these women!” he crowed, oblivious to any danger. As always.

  Caid grabbed his brother by the hair and yanked him back, seconds before the Smythe sisters charged from the darkness of the cave, the demon wolves right behind them.

  “It’s not my fault!” Keeley chanted as she ran by him. “It’s not my fault! It’s not my fault!”

  Gemma was right behind her sister until she spun around to face the entrance.

  “Move back! All of you!” she roared.

  Then Caid heard it again. They all did. That angry, ball-shrinking roar. One Caid had never heard before and prayed never to hear again.

  A few seconds after that he heard horses and turned to see Lord Elouan riding toward them, leading a well-armed company of elven soldiers. Nearly a hundred, if he were to guess. A much larger force than their small travel group. Even with the extra centaurs they’d brought with them.

  “What have you done, woman?” Elouan bellowed at Keeley as soon as they were close enough to hear.

  “Don’t blame me for this!” Keeley argued. “You’re the one who had him chained up in there!”

  “That thing is not a ‘him.’ It is an ‘it’ and you let it free!”

  “I thought it was dead!”

  “All of you shut up!” Gemma yelled, her arms raised high, palms out. She closed her eyes, lowered her head, and unleashed a spell that shook the ground. The top of the cave entrance crumbled and stones crashed down until there was no way in or out.

  Gemma dropped to one knee and Keeley rushed to her sister’s side. She helped her back up.

  “You all right?”

  “I’m fine.”

  “Here.” Keran handed her a flask. “Drink this. Get your legs back.”

  Gemma tipped her head back and took a long drink, but when she was done, her eyes grew wide and the arm not resting against her sister dropped to her side.

  Caid and Laila turned to see what had her attention. It was the elves. They’d all unsheathed their weapons.

  “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Laila demanded. Caid now stood on one side of her and Quinn on the other. Their small band of centaurs were arrayed behind them, ready for whatever came next.

  What should have the elves concerned, though, was Quinn. He was no longer smiling and laughing. He was no longer delighted by the situation. Some wild animal attacking them was just good-hearted fun. But elves unleashing weapons near their sister . . . ? That was literally a call to war.

  “I just realized what a wonderful opportunity this stupid human has given me,” Elouan said. “Sad, though, how devastated your mother will be when she finds out that you, your brothers, and all your human friends were killed by that thing.” He smiled. “It will be such a sorry tale I’ll tell.”

  Before Caid could move, Keeley stepped in front of all the centaurs. Right by her side were Gemma and Keran. She had her hammer out and she was so angry, her entire body was shaking. So angry, she couldn’t even speak. So angry, she could do nothing but point her massive hammer at the elven lord.

  “Ahhhh, Queen Keeley,” Elouan said with great sarcasm. “You’re as pathetic as your sister said you were, and you deserve what she’s happily planning for you and anyone idiot enough to foll—”

  Caid and everyone else stumbled back when Elouan’s blood splattered a good number of them as giant jaws slammed shut around the elf and bit down, cutting off his words and the top half of his body. His horse galloped off with the lor
d’s legs and waist still attached; the feet in the stirrups. His hands were twitching on the ground.

  The top half of Elouan, however, was still screaming as he was swallowed down. A few seconds after that, his sword and shield were spit onto the ground.

  Caid raised his gaze to what now stood atop the damaged cave with its black horns on its massive head and long black and red hair blowing in the wind. Its black scales appeared to pulsate because of the glowing red line running between each one. But it was the wings that had them all gaping silently. Those massive black wings that stood spread out from its back.

  In that instant, everything changed.

  “Kill it!” one of the elves screamed and the bombardment of arrows began. Not just from the elves but the centaurs as well.

  The dragon stumbled back a bit, swiping at the projectiles fired at him. A few hit their mark but not enough to take the creature down. Now he just seemed pissed.

  He took in a deep breath and Caid lowered his bow.

  “Fuck,” he heard Laila gasp because their instincts were warning them. Those instincts all horses had. Even those only half horse.

  Caid grabbed Keeley, and his siblings grabbed her kin and they started running. Running as fast and hard as they could.

  As he ran, Caid looked over his shoulder. The dragon’s long neck snaked down and it opened its maw. That’s when it released . . .

  “Holy gods!” Caid cried out.

  Because the dragon didn’t unleash fire. It was lava. A violent spray of lava that soaked the remaining elves. He could hear their dying screams as the elves burst into flame or simply melted from the lava that covered them.

  “It’s not a fire dragon!” Caid yelled to his sister. “It’s—”

  Elf bodies were tossed in front of them, forcing them to turn or jump over them. More flew at them, hitting some of their comrades and knocking them to the ground.

  Caid pushed Keeley to his back. “Hold on!”

  “Caid! Wait!”

  Caid would have ignored her, but big back claws slammed hard onto the ground right in front of them, forcing the centaurs to rear up on their back legs to prevent them from running directly into the beast. The horses running with them, one of which carried poor Samuel, darted around the dragon and kept going.