Liliana stood up as the burning edge of the sun peeked over the horizon.
I suppose it's time, she thought numbly.
She looked around the room one last time.
I'll miss this place, but I will miss the people more. A castle is just a building, after all. It's who lives here that makes it special.
She looked at the sun again.
I will miss my little cottage though. I hope that Grom lives a long and happy life. Perhaps he will join a pack again, find a mate. That would be lovely. He deserves that.
She sighed and shifted her shield to settle it across her back. Then she hooked her helmet on to her belt, put on her gauntlets and walked to the door. She had left her pack on the bed, hoping that someone would find some use for it.
As she made her way through the castle, she ran into a few early risers, who greeted her with smiles and good mornings. Obviously they were unaware of what was going on and Liliana was pleased about that. The last thing she wanted were tears and sad faces. It would have made things so much harder on her.
In the courtyard, things were still and quiet. The sunlight was slowly brightening the area and the sweet smell of growing things wafted past her nostrils, making her smile as it always did. She could hear the distant birdsong that she loved so much and her smile widened even more.
Thank the gods that it isn't raining, was her grateful thought. She would die with the sun on her face.
As she walked past the smithy, Daniel Chase stepped outside and held up a hand to stop her.
“You weren't thinking of leaving without saying goodbye, were you?” he asked her sharply.
Liliana looked at his face and saw the wise expression in his eyes.
“You know?” she asked quietly.
“Aye, I do. It's a fine, brave thing you are doing, do you know that?”
“I'm only doing what any of you would do if you had to,” she disagreed. “It's a small price to pay, after all.”
The smith glowered at her.
“You are wrong, lady. It is a huge price to pay, and I for one do not know if we are worth it.”
Liliana had to smile at his rough comment.
“Of course you are, my friend. All of you are. Now, I have an appointment to keep, and I wouldn't want to be late.”
She offered her hand and Daniel squeezed it and shook it hard. She could feel his strength even through her gauntlets.
“I hope you continue to make your amazing weapons and armor for many years to come,” she told him. “Be well, Daniel.”
“Goodbye lady,” he whispered, his grizzled face suddenly twisted with grief.
She turned away quickly and walked off toward the paddock, not at all sure that she would be able to hold back her emotions much longer.
So much for my brave front, she told herself wryly. I'd better get on with this before my resolve starts to waver.
She rounded the smithy and stopped in surprise. Valiant was standing there, watching her brightly. He nickered at her in greeting.
The stallion was already saddled and bridled, and his tack clean and shining in the morning light.
Liliana walked up to him and stroked his cheek.
“I'm guessing that the smith didn't put your gear on you, did he?” she asked softly. “So, my friend, do you know what we are about to face?”
Valiant pushed his head against her chest and made a noise deep in his throat.
“I see that you do. Good. I'm so glad that I don't have to face this alone. I thought that I was brave enough, but now I'm not so sure.”
The stallion backed up and fixed her with a steady stare. He remained silent but Liliana felt that she knew what he was thinking.
“Thanks for your vote of confidence. Well then, I suppose we had better get on with it.”
She mounted the horse gracefully and adjusted herself until she was seated firmly in the saddle. Then she shifted her weight forward slightly and Valiant began walking toward the main gate.
Liliana looked up at the top of the wall and saw the silhouettes of guardsmen looking down at her. Several of them waved and she waved back, unsure of their identities at such a distance.
At the gate, a small group was waiting for her. Tamara and Sebastian were standing there, along with Veronique and Sylvie.
Oh oh, she thought with a touch of dread. This is going to be difficult.
As she got closer, Liliana saw Chao standing next to Sebastian. He looked small and frail, but he stood there proudly, watching her approach.
Of course Malcolm and Aiden were there as well. They were wearing full armor and stood unmoving, like twin metal statues in the growing light.
Liliana sat back and Valiant stopped next to the group. She looked down at her friends and smiled at all of them.
“Morning, everyone,” she said brightly. “Why the long faces?”
Aiden grunted in shock and Malcolm silently glared at her.
“Don't be ridiculous,” Tamara snapped angrily. “This is no time for jokes.”
Liliana shook her finger at the mage.
“This is exactly the time for it. My friends, will you send me into battle with long faces and angry words? Can we not part on a happy note?”
The group seemed to sigh in unison and she could almost see their tension rise out of them like a thin mist. Sylvie smiled tentatively and her sister did the same.
“There, that's better,” Liliana told them jovially. “Your friendship has been a source of comfort and strength for as long as I've known you and I must admit that I need that right now.”
Malcolm stepped forward. He was the tallest of the group and did not have to look up very high to meet her gaze.
“If there was another way to deal with this damned primal dragon, we wouldn't let you go,” he said to her fiercely. “I want you to know that.”
“I know, Malcolm,” Liliana assured him.
She looked at all of them.
“I know that you all wish there was another way. To be honest, so do I. I don't have a death wish, I promise you. But this is the choice I was offered and I accepted it.”
She slapped Malcolm on the shoulder and he stepped back with a wry smile.
“Now, please open the gates. I'm ready.”
Aiden turned and gestured to the guards next to the winch at the side of the gate. Two of them began to crank it and the gate began to open, hinges squealing as it moved.
When it was open just wide enough for Valiant to pass through, Liliana looked down at her friends again and nodded at them.
“Goodbye, everyone. And please don't be sad. Who knows? I may just win.”
Before anyone could respond or Liliana saw any tears, she looked toward the gate and Valiant moved forward.
They walked through the opening and continued on until they were out of the shadow of the wall. Then the stallion stopped and Liliana looked down the slope at the fields below.
The area was wide and long, hundreds of yards of level ground covered mostly with waving grasses. There were sections that had been tilled and planted with corn and other vegetables, but it was still too early in the season for many of the crops to have grown more than a few inches in height.
She looked all around but saw no sign of the primal dragon.
“Do you think he changed his mind?” she asked Valiant.
He shook his head, his bridle jingling and Liliana urged him forward.
“Neither do I,” she told him. “Just wishful thinking, I suppose.”
The slope down to the field wasn't too steep and they had almost reached the bottom when a distant cry made the stallion halt in his tracks.
Liliana scanned the skies and quickly located a smudge to the west, where the light was still dim. It had to be the dragon.
“Here he comes,” she told the stallion.
Valiant's head swung around until he was looking in the same direction that Liliana was. His body vibrated beneath her and the paladin realized that the horse was actually growling.<
br />
Do horses growl, she wondered. Well, hers did.
“Easy, my friend. Save your energy. We'll need all of it soon enough.”
A breeze from the east ruffled her hair and she smelled salt on the wind. A breath of ocean air.
The vast wings of the approaching dragon grew larger and larger. It had been over five years since Liliana had faced a primal and she had forgotten just how impossibly massive they were. Nothing that big should be able to fly.
As it approached, the dragon's red scaled hide began to glow in the sunlight until it was the color of burning embers. He roared again, a clear challenge, and then dropped from the sky with tremendous speed.
He landed on the far side of the field and the ground beneath Valiant's hooves actually trembled with his vast weight.
Yet the horse stood completely still, waiting for Liliana's signal to attack. For her part, the paladin examined her opponent, part of her admiring his brutal beauty.
The primal must have been over a hundred feet in length, from his horned head to his wickedly spiked tale. He was still so young that his scales were unblemished, and reflected light like copper plates. Liliana remembered how scarred and discolored the hides of the old primals were, but then those creatures had been thousands of years old. If he lived, this Rubrathian would one day look the same.
If he lived, she thought as she looked for a weakness.
Her sword could slice through even dragon scales, of that she was quite sure. And her shield and armor would at least partially protect her from the wyrm's fiery breath, for a short time. But Valiant had no such protection. Would he simply wilt beneath the flames or was he blessed with enough of the gods' power that he could withstand it? She didn't know.
Rubrathian glared at her, his slitted yellow eyes larger than her head. When she didn't move to attack him immediately, he raised his long neck and pulled back his head. Then his maw opened wide and he bellowed a challenge. Fangs like spears flashed in his jaws and his voice shook the air.
“Apparently our friend is getting impatient,” Liliana said, somewhat amused.
What was the rush? Did the dragon have another appointment that he didn't want to be late for?
She actually chuckled at the thought. The entire situation suddenly seemed absurd. A mounted warrior was about to charge a creature fifty times her size. For anyone watching atop the castle walls, it would look like a gnat attacking a bear.
“Well, I don't think that he is going to be scared off,” she said to Valiant. “So we might as well get on with it.”
Liliana unfastened her helmet from her belt and slipped it over her head, buckling the strap beneath her chin. Then she slipped her shield off of her back and secured it on to her left arm. She pulled down her visor to protect her face and made sure that it was seated securely.
Finally she drew her sword and gripped it tightly.
“Do you think that the lady is with us, my friend?” she asked the stallion quietly.
Valiant waggled his ears a few times but didn't otherwise respond.
“Well, I certainly hope she is or this is going to be a damned short fight. Are you ready?”
The stallion quivered under her, his body tense with excitement.
“Me too. So...”
A chilling howl stopped her before she could urge Valiant forward and paladin and stallion both looked to their right in surprise.
Bounding down the slope came a great black shape, moving in tremendous leaps as it descended from the shadows of the western forest.
“Grom!” Liliana exclaimed. “What are you doing here?”
The dire wolf slid to a stop next to her, his tongue lolling out in a lupine smile. Valiant swung his neck around and horse and wolf touched noses in greeting.
“You should not be here, my friend,” the paladin told him. “We're about to face that beast over there,” she pointed with her sword at the dragon who was watching them with narrowed eyes.
“Surely you don't want to do battle with that, do you?”
Grom looked at her boldly, his eyes locking on to hers.
“Oh, I see,” Liliana said, tears rising in her eyes. “Well then, I am honored to have you join us. Are you ready?”
The wolf looked across the fields at the dragon and snarled, his keen fangs gleaming.
“Very well, my friends. Thank you both for this. I don't know how this will end, but we will face it together. Let's go.”
Valiant began walking toward the dragon, lifting his feet lightly almost as if he was bouncing from hoof to hood. Grom trotted next to them, his eyes glued on the primal.
The dragon saw them begin their advance and extended his wings in anticipation. He roared again but this time it sounded more like a mocking laugh than an attempt to intimidate them.
He's laughing at us, Liliana thought angrily. He believes that he's already won. Well, perhaps he has, but this gnat still has a sting, and she has other gnats with her who can sting as well.
Valiant's speed increased from a walk to a trot and then to a canter. Grom kept pace, his long legs now extended as he easily loped alongside.
Liliana extended her sword ahead of her like a spear and covered her body with her shield.
Lady, she thought as Valiant began to gallop. I don't know if you can hear me or, if you can, that you can help me now. But I am going to my death in your name, even though I do not know what it is. Please, bless me with your power so that I can teach this wyrm to fear me, or at least to fear my kind. Grant me a moment of power as I go down into the darkness.
The dragon loomed larger and larger as they raced toward him. Suddenly Grom howled a challenge, making the air echo with his call. Valiant neighed so loudly that Liliana was almost deafened. And then, without warning, her sword blazed with a dazzling pure white light.
Rubrathian pulled back his long, narrow head in surprise and narrowed his eyes against the brightness. Even over the sound of Valiant's pounding hooves, she heard the primal suck in a great inhalation of air. He was preparing to attack them with his burning breath.
Liliana leaned forward, extending her blazing sword even further and aiming it directly at the dragon's chest.
“For the Light!” she screamed just before they struck the thick red scales. Grom leaped ahead at the same time and then all three of them smashed into the great wyrm.
There was a flash of brilliant silver light that blinded the watchers on the castle wall and the primal red dragon screamed so loudly that the sound shattered dozens of windows along the south side of the castle.
When they could see again, Tamara, Sebastian and the others stared down at the site of the battle in disbelief. They saw a huge circle of burning grass and blackened soil, but there was no sign of the primal dragon or of Liliana, her steed or the mysterious wolf they had watched join her.
“But...what happened?” Malcolm asked as he rubbed his eyes. “Where did they go?”
“I couldn't see anything when Liliana struck that damned dragon,” Aiden replied, shaking his head. “What caused that silver flash? I was blinded by it.”
“It was the lords of Light.”
They all turned to look at Katherine, who had joined them unnoticed.
“She was blessed by the goddess at the end,” she told them with a quiet certainty. “I could feel it from here.”
“But then, where is she?” Tamara asked as she gestured at the empty field. “Where are any of them?”
The cleric could only shrug.
“I have no idea. This is beyond my experience. I only know what I felt.”
She looked at the distant area of burning grass.
“But I would hazard a guess and say that we have seen the last of the primal red dragon.”
“And Liliana?” Chao asked quietly.
“Who knows? Perhaps she died and was taken home by the goddess. Or perhaps she will return one day. Only time will tell.”
Katherine turned and walked away and the others exchanged confused looks.
>
“Clerics,” Aiden muttered. “Never a straight answer.”
“Probably because she doesn't know,” Malcolm told him wisely. “But as far as I'm concerned, until we find evidence to the contrary, Liliana survived.”
“And went where?”
“Where she was needed most, I suppose. It's a big world, after all.”
“You're a dreamer,” Tamara told the big man. And then she smiled up at him through her tears. “But I like the way you think. And I agree. Until we know with complete certainty, I intend to assume that our dear friend survived and was whisked away by her goddess to a place where they need her more than we do.”
Several of the other nodded slowly.
“Then that is what we'll tell the people,” Sebastian stated. “That Liliana completed her quest and was called away. It will give them hope, even if most of them don't believe it.”
“And we need all the hope that we can get,” Veronique told them. “So are we agreed? We will all tell the same tale and let the people make of it what they will?”
“Agreed.”
“Agreed.”
“Aye, I agree.”
“Chao?” Tamara said to the conjurer. “Do you agree? We need to present a unified front if this story is going to stick.”
The diminutive man looked from face to face and stared out across the fields for a moment before answering.
“Of course I agree. And I agree because I believe, you see. The lady paladin is unique. She has much yet to do and a long road to travel. We will see her again. I know it.”
He bowed to the group and tottered off, still unsteady on his feet as he slowly recovered his strength.
“You know something?” Malcolm rumbled as he watched Chao walk away. “He may actually be right.”
Epilogue
“Wake up, child. Wake up.”
The sweet voice pulled Liliana reluctantly out of a deep sleep. She had been having the nicest dream, something to do with her childhood and her dear father. She frowned behind her closed eyes as she tried to recall what she had been doing. Playing perhaps? She couldn't remember.
“Come now, you are very late.”
“I'm up, I'm up,” Liliana groaned sleepily as she sat up and looked around.
The First Paladin (The New Earth Chronicles Book 1) Page 31