by Derek Barton
Auste backhanded him hard across the jaw. “Do not dare use that term with me. Ever.” His voice had devolved into a growl.
He walked away and shook his head. “No, no that cannot be undone. You are far too resourceful and now I see I underestimated your powers as well. I will keep my leverage over you.”
“Take my hands. Take them and my power in exchange for her.”
The Chaos Mage stopped at that suggestion. He turned to face the crowd of witnesses and soldiers and then pointed his finger at one soldier. “I will require your weapon.”
The Wyvernguard crossed his arms over his chest in defiance.
“Corporal Dallary! Give it to him!” The prince demanded.
The two locked eyes.
“He has won. Stop. It is over.”
Auste marched to the soldier and with a sneer pulled the sword from his belt sheath.
The prince stood up, found a barrel in the shadows of the Castle walls and righted it. The barrel was perfect for him to lay his arms across it.
“My sister first, then my loyalty.”
“Yes, yes. Now that we have all these people here. I would not welch on our agreement. After all, Prince Taihven Artadeus, I want you and your sister here. Alive! Alive and well to see what I do, what I bring to all of your lives.” His speech was loud and enunciated as he was in his moment.
Auste stepped into the shadow next to Taihven and held the sword tip at the boy’s neck.
“As your new ruler, your new king, I want you to know why this happened.” He was addressing the crowd now, his new peasantry. “All this nasty bloodshed and all the destruction to your lives. I want…” The Chaos Mage paused and smirked at the prince.
“I want you to tell them, Taihven. Why did I do all of this? Confess it all.”
Taihven struggled inside. While he was desperate for Letandra to be brought back and he wanted this to all end one way or another, he found he could not utter the words. Father had reasons for the banishment and all of his hatred. He just went too far! But had not Auste repaid them back a hundredfold?
“Auste. You have won; you have taken it all. Bring her b—”
“NO! You will confess!”
“Where does this stop? Your father felt wronged and he took revenge upon my father. Then he felt wronged and took revenge upon you and your family. Now you a—”
“CONFESS!” Blood trickled down Taihven’s neck from a fresh cut by the tip.
Taihven tightened his jaw and clenched his teeth. “Bring back Letandra.” The prince’s face was rigid as stone.
The Chaos Mage ripped the sword back and screamed, “It is time to join your fath—”
Auste’s last menacing words were drowned out by an incredible long roar. Both looked up in surprise. On the last remnants of a guard tower stood Akuem. The lizard peered down at them. The mammoth reptile leaped high into the air, its body doubling in size. Taihven dove and rolled away from the albino.
The king of the Balshazra crested high in the air and then descended upon Auste. Its mouth open in an immense grin. Lightning pulsed all along its body.
Realizing far too late, Auste could only issue a howl of mixed rage and terror as Akuem slammed down over him. When the creature’s head ate into the earth, it exploded in a widespread lightning wave. Myriad burnt pieces of lizard and albino human parts rained down upon the courtyard.
All along the standing walls surrounding Wyvernshield Castle, the other Balshazra followed their leader and shed this world to take as many Viestrahl with them with similar explosions.
Taihven laid with his back to the wall. His ears were deafened and bleeding. He held his right arm that was scorched from the released energy. It was his heart though that was broken.
Cheers from all around the Steppe Walls rose as the Viestrahl had had enough. Leaderless and their numbers decimated, the beasts broke off their attacks and began to scatter in every possible direction. The Horde’s back had been broken.
The courtyard was littered with dozens of wounded and dead, but the prince saw more faces of joy and excitement.
Was this war really over?
One soldier, which Taihven recognized as the former farmer Crovar Tandenaar who had testified on his behalf at the trial, tried to pick him up.
“Stop! Stop and get the crystal pieces!” He pointed with the last of his energy to the dirt.
The farmer-soldier gave him a confused glance.
“Just trust your king!” He cursed as he lost his fight for consciousness.
EPILOGUE…
Shaladar 19th ~~
Two weeks had passed.
The city tried to walk the careful balance between two worlds. The one world of cheer and relief that the war had been won. They had still homes and lives to return to. The other world mourned the dead and the losses that many sustained.
While plans for rebuilding Adventdawn's moat walls were in process, others worked on the grim task of performing burials and ceremonies to recognize the lost heroes like Captain Bardun Ruessard and Sergeant Renald Devin.
Three days ago, without much ceremony or ritual, he was crowned King of Tayneva. Everything was in a fog and the days blurred into one another. His grief seemed to have no ending.
His mother and former queen was buried along with his father in the Artadeus Mausoleum.
The albino’s remains were burned. His ashes dumped in a bog renamed Bastard’s Fate Marsh.
Ara Yve Seld and the other surviving Duradramyn healers could not return to Aberrisc due to the destruction of the Eyes of Cinnelel. Taihven considered them the last victims of Auste’s plans.
They took their gifts of land and a hefty reward of King’s coin to make a new life north of the city. This was not the first time they had been cut off from their homes. Still, this added more guilt upon Taihven’s shoulders.
The city remained buried under boulders and collapsed buildings. Yet, life for most of the citizens of Tayneva began to stabilize. Spring was due in a few short weeks.
***
The sounds of the storm outside frightened her; the thunderstorm broke and swept upon the small dale early in the evening and kept building into a massive maelstrom. The walls of her cottage swayed under its wind gusts.
Taliah called out, “Juelip? Juelip come here!” She listened intently for the patter of the husky’s paws as it crossed the room. The young canine whined to her as it jumped upon the bed and laid against her. “You feel it too? Something is wrong.”
Changes in the weather signaled her, warned her — made her more susceptible. As of late, she had to fall back upon her lessons and memories of the time living with her grandmother, Gran Vasha.
The weather brought about a dark power for some of her kin.
Herself, she had had a normal peasant and servitude life up until Auste… Since the incident and her exile, her world had changed drastically.
Taliah had changed.
A sharp intense cramp caught her between the eyes and knots of pain settled into her temples. The blind girl gripped the sheets and cringed. In her mind’s eye, a vision bloomed.
“Come back to me.” A shallow voice called out. It was familiar to her.
A young man, lean and dressed in fine garb knelt on his knees in prayer. Ahead of him on a dais, she saw a podium with a glass casing.
Two others men in armor with barbed pikes at their sides stood in the shadows just on the edge of her vision.
She realized it was King Taihven. He was deep in the Adventdawn’s Vaults. In the podium casing she saw a silver mace and a small box with several green crystals. The new king’s shoulders shook as he sobbed.
“Letandra…” He whispered her name; his voice hoarse by grief.
Taliah’s agony intensified and she wailed aloud in the dark shadows of the room. Unconsciously she rocked violently up and down, her arms were criss-crossed against her chest. Juelip barked with nervous excitement.
The Vault and Taihven disappeared in a swirl of blackness. A new vi
sion opened before her like some macabre play inside the confines of her skull. However, only twinges of a dull ache at her temples remained.
When she opened her eyes, she could not see herself. This was a vision like no other she ever had. Taliah felt herself running, running in a panic among trees and thick ferns; instinct told her she was being hunted. Branches and thorny vines kept cutting at her arms and snaring her legs. She jerked free and kept charging forward — never looking behind her.
Is this me or… am I possessing someone? She wondered. Is this the future? Why am I seeing this?
A massive shadow flew overhead and briefly blanketed her. She glanced up to see a black and red eagle with a split tail fly passed her. Someone sat atop the giant bird. A hooded figure covered in several, ornate ruby shrouds.
The bird and rider swooped high and then banked into a broad u-turn. They stopped short and hovered high above.
“Enough!” The rider roared down at her with an odd, feminine voice. “This escape is over!” In the rider’s hands, she pointed a large staff at Taliah.
“Do you concede, Princess?”
~~THE END~~