by Scott Toney
Ashen Cusp
They were in Alexander’s chambers in The Canyon of Eyes. Lilya felt strange sitting atop Alexander. She wasn’t sure about the saddle. She thought about Alexander’s paw. There, she felt the warmth of his embrace and closeness she felt nowhere else in the world. In the saddle she was still with him, but couldn’t feel the direct contact of his warm body to hers.
We are as close as we have always been, Alexander assured her through her thoughts. We share our warmth no matter where we are.
His words in her thoughts comforted her and reassured their closeness.
Amari and Clare had come to wish them off and stood holding hands on the ground. “Be careful,” Clare called up to her from below. “Don’t trust Thomas. I wish you would reconsider and stay with us or join the fighting elsewhere.” Wind from the chamber’s mouth ruffled her dress and she held it still with her hands. There was fear in her eyes.
“I won’t let him harm me, not the way he harmed you or any other way,” Lilya said. “Although I am going to give him the chance to do the right thing by his people, I will never forgive him for the things he has done to you and others. He can change what he has become, but he can never erase what he was.”
“It’s you I worry about,” Clare said. Her hand shook as she held a pleat of her dress. “I’m safe, at least with Amari by my side…”
“Thank you.” Lilya touched her hand to Alexander’s warm back, happy to feel something possibly similar with Alexander that Clare felt with Amari. “Soon we will be home and safe once more.”
Amari sighed. “I only wish we shared your confidence. I would come with you myself, but I am needed here.”
“I understand, Amari.” Lilya eyed Carn as the large man approached Alexander. “I would have been honored to have you by my side.” She eyed Carn and felt leery of him. If she had made a mistake in accepting his offer of protection then surely it was too late now to back out of the deal. “It’s time,” she told him as he strode toward them.
As Amari extended a hand to wish Carn well, Carn strode past, not even meeting his eyes.
“Then I am ready to fly.” Carn grinned as he grabbed onto Alexander’s scales, climbing the dragon’s body until he reached the saddle. He barely fit in the seat behind Lilya and wrapped his arms around her waist for support. “Ye need not fear me,” he spoke lowly in her ear. “Remember, I am here to protect ye.”
Alexander began to move, walking heavily in the cavern and jostling the saddle from side to side as his shoulder blades rose and fell. “And don’t forget whose back you ride on, boy. Above all, I protect the princess.”
Yes, Lilya thought. I do feel safe. She turned toward Amari and Clare as Alexander walked to the chamber’s edge. “Protect the canyon while we are away!” she called to them as they waved to her.
“Be safe!” Clare shouted out to her once more.
As Alexander reached the cave’s edge, sunlight shone down on Lilya almost blinding her. Warmth flooded her skin.
“Hold on tight,” Alexander said as he flexed his wings into the air beyond the chamber and beat them swiftly down, lifting them into the sky and up toward the clouds. The Canyon of Eyes fell away below them. “We should be at Castle Ah before evening.” Alexander dipped one wing lower than the other and turned them in the sky.
“Flight never ceases to amaze me,” Lilya tried to make conversation with Carn. “Isn’t it beautiful from up here?” She held a hand before her and watched the mists of a cloud curve around her fingers.
“I find pleasure in other things.” There was a strange tone in Carn’s voice and he remained silent afterwards.
Lilya watched the land below as they flew. New foliage was abundant in the trees and bushes that had burned with the mercenaries’ attack on Cush. It was refreshing to see her land which had seemed so desolate and destroyed now teeming with new life. Birds flew from the tops of the trees into the sky as Alexander passed them. The green of new birth is tranquil, she thought. What will new birth for Havilah look like once we have unseated Thomas from his throne?
If we achieve peace in Havilah and Thomas vacates the throne then Havilah’s rebirth will be beautiful indeed, Alexander’s words came to her thoughts unexpectedly, but she welcomed his conversation there.
Lilya looked down through parting clouds and saw Cush’s forest stop, giving way to the Pishon River and then to the land beyond. River folk waved up to them as they passed and Lilya returned the gesture. She still hadn’t told those outside of the canyon she was their princess, but was happy that she received their hearts and love, all the same.
“Be watchful and aware,” Alexander spoke to them both as he pumped his wings, moving them faster over the land at the river side. “We will be flying a different route than the river flows and should avoid most opposition that way. But we fly above wild lands now and will be above Havilah before we know it. Thomas could have archers or perhaps something even more foreign in the woods. Prepare your bow, Lilya. I may need your skilled aim.”
“I’ll watch the land and trees,” Lilya assured him as she reached her hand and pulled an arrow from the pack strapped to the saddle. The shaft was slim and strong and she held it, ready at a moment’s need to use it with the bow over her shoulder.
“And if I am needed,” Carn’s deep voice came, “then I can go to the land below and fight there. I know these men. They may well wait in the wild lands. But I will face them all if that is what is called for.”
“Hopefully it won’t come to that.” Lilya scanned the earth below. “We have Alexander’s flame as well, but I appreciate the services you have offered.”
The world below was silent as Alexander soared above it. Sometimes he would fly above the clouds and the sun’s warmth radiated on Lilya’s skin. Other times he would dip below their breaths and it was as if a ceiling of mists wove by above her. She felt the muscles of his back flexing below her when he adjusted his course. It brought an interesting and different feel to their journey.
Hours passed and they spied no enemies below, only foliage and luscious vegetation. Huts spotted the landscape and small farms around homesteads.
“Have all of Thomas’s mercenaries left to fight our warriors?” Lilya asked as she let her guard down and relaxed as they soared through the sky.
“No. I sense them below,” Alexander responded. “They go away from us though. Surely they know we are here, but have just decided there are other things more important than us to deal with.”
“They will come for us. Ye will see.” Carn drew his dagger and ran its blade across his palm, feeling the sharpness of the weapon. “My people will cherish the chance to take you down, dragon.”
An arrow zipped by from below, shooting off above Lilya.
“Ready your bow,” Alexander said as Lilya felt a heat growing in his body.
“What do we do?” she asked.
“We could keep flying to Castle Ah and we would probably be safe. But we have the chance to disrupt their army and divert some forces from joining the other mercenaries in fighting our warriors. I promise you we will survive. They have started this by attacking us first.”
“Then we should meet them below.” Lilya cocked an arrow in her bow and readied others from the saddle’s pouch as Alexander curved to the side and dove downward. Wind gushed across her face as they flew toward a sparse patch of oak trees. She made out the figures of archers in the tree branches and could see other forms moving below.
“There they are!” she called out as an array of arrows zipped by above them. A few arrows ricocheted off Alexander’s tough hide and one almost punched through Lilya’s head before Carn saw it and pushed her head to the side. “Thank you,” she said between deep breaths and fired several arrows into the tree tops. At least one of her arrows hit its mark, knocking an archer from the top of his tree to the ground.
As Alexander descended on the forest he opened his large mouth and released a blaze of flame into the woods. Arrows flew up around them and
screams of men trapped in prisons of flaming tree limbs filled their ears. The leaves of the trees crackled as fire consumed them.
Lilya fired more arrows at the mercenaries on the ground, then leaned forward and held tight to Alexander’s back as he flew in an arched circle around the mercenaries, releasing an inferno of flame upon them.
“That should slow them down,” he said as he lifted up away from the raging fire. With a thrust of his wings he was out of range of their arrows.
Lilya lay still against his back and could feel the temperature of his body cooling as he flew. His wings moved up and down in large thrusts at his sides. “Are there more below us?” she asked as she looked back to the forest and watched as the blaze spread in all directions. Smoke already rose into the air.
“Very few,” he assured her. “Rest assured the ones who are there see the flames and know not to cross us. We may still find trouble further on though and I sense more people of some kind between us and Ah.”
They flew on over fields and forests, and over time felt the heat of the day recede as the sun began its descent in the sky. Midday had come and gone.
Lilya felt her heart sink in disgust as they flew above smoldering villages below. She could see bodies bloodied and mutilated on the ground and yet others run through with pikes and left to cook in the heat. What has Thomas unleashed? She almost wanted to come across mercenaries again so Alexander could exact revenge for the dead.
Alexander lowered one of his crimson wings and curved them to the side before lowering through a patch of clouds. As he did, Lilya could see Castle Ah rising from the ground in the distance, the Pishon River wrapping around before it. It was majestic as the sun shimmered off the jewels in the castle’s face. She sighed and then her heart raced. We are here. What will my destiny bring? What lies ahead for all of us?
“I sense Thomas in Ah’s main hall, but he is alone. There are no others in the castle,” Alexander spoke to them.
“Why would that be?” Lilya wondered aloud as Carn shifted behind her. She suddenly got an uneasy feeling.
I sense something strange in Carn too, Alexander spoke through her mind. But I cannot see his thoughts. Watch him carefully. There is no telling who he truly serves.
As Alexander’s wings pumped and a strong current of wind blew about them, they quickly approached Castle Ah. Havilah’s market and surrounding village had been burned to the ground and nothing but charred ash, bones and beams of destroyed buildings marked the streets. There were also bodies on pikes before the castle’s doors.
“May the gods help us,” Lilya spoke under her breath and shook where she sat.
The one God will be with us wherever we are.
“Perhaps I should stay with the dragon,” Carn’s voice stunned her away from Alexander’s words in her thoughts. “If what he says is true and only Thomas is inside the castle then surely ye can handle him on ye own. With Alexander I can watch for approaching enemies and we can stop them before they reach ye.”
Lilya was stunned. “Why would you come with me and not guard me through the castle doors?” There was a portion of her that was relieved as well, the part that was becoming more and more leery of him.
Leave him with me, Alexander spoke through her thoughts. If he is up to something then I can watch over him.
But why would he want to stay? Lilya thought as Alexander curved in the winds and made a large circle around the castle and its lands. It worries me.
I can protect you better from Carn if he is with me and I will sense Thomas in the castle if he attacks you. I can hear his thoughts as well. He is different from the last time we were here. It feels as if a tension has been lifted from his soul, if that is possible.
Be careful, she spoke to Alexander through her mind before turning her head to look into Carn’s eyes. The ring on his forehead glowed an eerie red and his eyes were dark and glossed over. “You are right.” She acted as if she were conceding something but leaned cautiously forward. “You and Alexander can do more to protect me in the sky.”
Lilya reached into the pack on the saddle’s side and hefted up a rope. She held the girth of it in her lap as Alexander beat his wings and hovered in place in the air before the castle. “Pull up the rope once I’m down,” she instructed Carn as she tied the free end to the saddle and tossed the coiled rope down, watching it uncurl until it flexed and the end swayed down near the ground.
She reached into the pack and withdrew her arrows before reaching behind her and loading them into the holder strapped to her shoulder. “Thank you for coming with us,” she told Carn, “and thank you, Alexander, for all you are and do.”
You’re welcome, milady, she heard his deep, soothing voice in her mind as she held the rope tight and lifted her far leg over the saddle. Her muscles tightened as she held the rope’s braids firm, dangling along the side of Alexander’s body. She could feel his lungs moving as she put hand over hand down the rope and then was beneath him, hanging in open air. The wind from his wings swayed her beneath him.
Hand over hand she descended, being watchful at all times but seeing no archers or other mercenaries. Where is his protection? Why is he alone in the castle? Soon she reached the end of the rope, took a deep breath and let go before her boots thumped to the ground and she braced the dusty earth with her hands. As she stood she looked up to see Carn pulling the rope up and Alexander rising into the sky.
The skin of his wings was beautiful as sunlight shone through them. Lilya pulled a bow off her back and cocked an arrow back, holding it with her fingers in case someone surprised her as she approached the castle. She listened for every noise and aimed the arrow before her. Shivers ran up her arms.
Be aware, Alexander’s voice entered her thoughts as she walked the path with caution toward Castle Ah’s doors.
Her stomach churned as she realized she had stepped over bones that still had flesh on them. She saw the bodies propped up on pikes close by. She looked and wished she hadn’t. There, with eyes picked out of their sockets by birds and dried blood on the body where the pike protruded from her chest, was one of Lilya’s maids. It was Tessera. She had never liked the girl, but was sickened by what she saw. There were lashing scars down her exposed arms and legs. For the first time Lilya smelt the pure stench of rotten human flesh as it wafted through the air.
Stomach acid churned in her mouth as she gagged and swallowed it down. She continued walking but wished she could find a place to let herself cry for Havilah’s people, for Thomas and what he had become.
Wasn’t he a good man once? Where is the boy who seemed to love me, who despised what my father was? She saw Castle Ah’s heavy doors were cracked open as she approached them and her heart beat heavy in her chest. Where is he? She hoped Alexander was listening to her thoughts.
He’s on one of the steps near the well.
Thank you, she thought to him and moved to the doors. She closed her eyes. Please watch over me, she thought to whatever higher power was in the world and then aimed her arrow at the doorway and silently entered.
҉
An anxious rage flowed through Carn’s body as he watched Lilya enter Castle Ah. He touched the hilt of his sword as he perched upon the dragon’s back. He’d have to wait for the right time.
“I know what you are,” the dragon said as he hovered in the air near the castle. “I haven’t told the princess, but I know. What is it that you want? Why did you come with us?”
“I know what you are too, dragon.” Carn listened for the beast’s response. The heat of fire was growing in its body once more. “How do you know you can’t trust me?”
“Because of what spawned you, because of the demon in your heart. When the garden was closed the serpent had children of its own with the evil it had unleashed in mankind. I cannot sense your thoughts but I sense you are one of those children. No good can come of you.”
The dragon’s wings beat differently now, harsher, and Carn drew his dagger from its holder at his side. His forehea
d burned with rage as he stood in the saddle, ran up the beast’s back and pounded the dagger’s point into its scaled neck. The dragon let out a cry of pain and thrashed in the air to try to dislodge him. Carn held tight, knowing that the moment he had waited for had finally come. Warm blood boiled up from the dragon’s neck.
“You will pay!” the beast roared as it unleashed a blaze against its own body to drive him off.
Carn kept his grip tight on the dagger as he swung from the beast’s neck and into open air. With a thrust of his arm he clasped onto one of its scales, pulling himself up and perching once more on its thick neck. He dislodged the dagger and thrust it through the dragon’s scales higher on his neck causing more blood to flow from the beast’s first wound.
With a thrash the dragon tried to dislodge him but Carn had too tight a grip on his dagger’s hilt. No matter how hard the dragon moved its body or head, Carn was sure he had the upper hand. He was out of range from the beast’s flame.
They were above the castle now. “I will have it all once you are gone,” Carn said as he stood suddenly, letting go of the dagger and unsheathing his long sword from his side. The steel shone brilliantly in the sunlight as Carn ran up the dragon’s neck.
“Lilya!” the beast cried as Carn thrust the ornate blade down into the center of its skull. He could feel the dragon’s heartbeat through the steel as he let it go. The creature’s body went limp as its wings stopped and it began plummeting downward toward the roof and the crystal ceiling of the castle’s main room below.
With a thrust of his legs Carn leapt into the air away from Castle Ah, sure he would land soundly on the earth beyond its walls.
҉
The ruby-floored hall was littered with bodies as Lilya entered, and Thomas, the boy king, kneeled at the well in the center of it all. He held his head in his hands and he appeared to clutch his fingers in frustration or rage. He was sobbing and didn’t look up as Lilya approached.
“Thomas,” she almost whispered, aiming her arrow at his skull.
There was a sword sheathed at his side. “Lilya…” he stuttered and forced himself to look up. His face was worn red and the paths of his tears shone down it. “I… I have destroyed my land.” Sunlight streamed through the crystal dome above and dispersed around the king.
“You can still change,” Lilya told him and held her position. “I believe your Mystic is controlling you, or at least has poisoned you in a way. I believe the fruits you are eating possess poison that taints a person’s soul.”
Thomas stood, his knees quaking. He supported himself with an arm on the well. “She said the figs would give me life.” Thomas’s eyes welled with fresh tears. “I have killed so many, destroyed so much. Nothing can recover that, and the mercenaries of Vane are beyond my control.”
She took a step forward, then another. “You can still change. I’ll help you. And together we can heal Havilah.”
“How?” Thomas stumbled as he let go of the well. “There is nothing left to save.”
“Then I will save you.” Lilya lowered her bow and retracted the arrow as she walked to him. “Together we will heal your soul. Through compassion and responsibility we will heal Havilah and by healing Havilah, heal you. I give you my word, Thomas, I will stay with you until you are well.” She placed her bow on the floor and a whiff of rotting flesh rolled over her from a body in the corner of the room. Stand strong, she thought. Every person deserves compassion.
She held out her arms to Thomas and she could see some relief come over him. He rested his head on her shoulder and cried, trembling in her embrace. “Thank you,” the muffled words came from Thomas as he buried his head in her shoulder.
She let him weep and felt his body relax against hers between quakes of emotion. “I think the spell the figs held over you has been lifted. I hate to say this but we need to confine Dora and work to regain Havilah. We need to see if the mercenaries will listen to you.”
Suddenly a roar erupted above the castle and Lilya felt her mind convulse with pain. Alexander! she thought as both her and Thomas shook from the noise.
Thomas stepped away from her and wiped his red eyes, then unsheathed his ruby sword. “What was that?”
Was that you? Lilya called to Alexander in her mind and stared through the crystal dome into the sky above. She saw nothing, only sunlight glistening through the crystal filaments. “I think it was Alexander,” she said as fear filled her and Alexander gave no answer. She picked up her bow and pulled an arrow back against its string, readying it to be used at a moment’s notice. She shuddered and breathed a deep breath. “Should we go outside and see what’s happening?”
“Wait a moment,” Thomas said and backed toward her, his sword held waist level. “Alexander is above the dome. He’s fighting something on his back.”
“Lilya!” Alexander’s voice boomed down from above, reverberating through the hall. His voice was a horrible, anguished noise.
Lilya lowered her bow and stepped forward as she looked up through the crystal dome, struck with fear as she watched Alexander’s massive body plummeting down toward them. She dropped her bow to the floor. “No!” she screamed in horror, lunging forward as Thomas turned and his sword struck through the center of her chest in his attempt to flee.
A flash of blackness and pain burst through Lilya and she crashed to the floor as Alexander’s massive body crushed down through the crystal dome and into the ruby floor. Crystal exploded across the room.
Lilya was thrown by the collision and opened her eyes to look through red sight. She tried to move, to stand, as pain seared through her in waves. It overwhelmed her. Alexander’s skull was planted in the cracked ruby floor and blood flooded from it onto the red stone. It wove like veins down the shimmering ruby toward her and began pooling around her body and in the rest of the room.
“Lilya,” she heard Thomas’s voice but couldn’t see him. He sounded far off, distant.
One of Alexander’s paws curled as it hung limply through the ceiling. Then his large eyes shut, blood seeping through their corners as a puff of warm air filled the chamber.
Pain shot through Lilya and darkness pulsed through her sight. The scent of ash and honey swept into her as darkness consumed her and the last veins of light in her sight went out.
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