by Ben Wolf
Lilly’s eyes widened. She knew of what her father spoke—the secret to becoming a Wisp.
“You alone hold the power to keep this knowledge secret. You alone command the forces necessary to enforce its secrecy. You alone are its protector and guardian… as was I, as was my father before me, as was his mother before him, and back through the ages.”
Her father coughed, and blood tinged his teeth and tongue. He cleared his throat, winced, and then continued, his eyes focused on Kanton.
“In telling you this, Kanton will also know, so I must be assured—”
“I will keep it secret with my life.” Kanton smiled. “You have my word, Premier.”
Lilly’s father stared deep into her eyes and extracted a yellow gemstone from within the folds of his robes, similar to the crystalline crown he’d just placed on her head but richer in color and glowing.
“Lilly,” he extended the gemstone toward her, “this is the Aerostone. It holds the power to promote any Windgale into a Wisp. It is unique in this world; there is no other like it. As soon as you touch it, you will no longer need your cape to fly.”
Lilly marveled at the gemstone with wide eyes, her mind plagued by confusion. Her father had possessed the power to transform any Windgale into a Wisp at any point, and he’d kept it hidden? What did that mean? Why had he withheld it from everyone else?
“Do not share this power freely. You cannot,” her father continued. “In order to maintain control, you must leverage this resource to temper the will of the people. They must not know it exists.”
He winced again, and he almost dropped the stone.
Lilly reached out to grab it, to help steady him, but her father pulled it back.
“Promise me, Lilly,” he wheezed. “Promise me you’ll steward this power as if it were your own life. Promise me you won’t throw it away.”
How could Lilly promise anything to him? He’d hidden the Sky Realm’s most valuable—and most damning—secret not only from her but from every Windgale in all Kanarah.
Now he expected her to uphold that secrecy even after his death? Even after their city had been razed by enemy forces?
Yet as she looked into her dying father’s eyes, pleading with her for this one final request, she found she couldn’t refuse him.
Against everything she believed, and solely for her father’s sake, she replied, “I promise.”
Axel’s back hit one of the marble pillars, and he grunted. The impact pushed the air from his lungs, and he sucked in two short, shallow breaths to compensate, but he had to cut the second one even shorter to duck. A gigantic blade slashed toward him and lodged deep within the marble pillar where his head had just been.
Out of breath or not, this was his chance. Axel shifted to his right and angled the tip of his sword toward the Sobek’s silver armor, then he jammed it forward with all his strength. The blade pierced through the Sobek’s hide just beyond the edge of his armor, close enough to his belly that it dug deep into his torso.
The Sobek curled over with a roar and released his grip on his own sword. His left arm dropped low, then lashed up in a ferocious backhand that sent Axel spinning to the marble floor.
Blood from Axel’s nose warmed his upper lip and tanged his tongue. Could’ve been worse—a lot worse.
Even so, these Sobeks didn’t go down easily. What’s more, now Axel didn’t have his sword—it remained lodged in the Sobek’s torso.
The Sobek roared again and clasped his long, green fingers around the sword’s hilt and slowly pulled it out of his body until he held it before him, its blood-streaked blade extended toward Axel. He hissed again and took a step forward, and dark blood burbled out of his wound and snaked down his leg in several streams.
Great. What now?
A blur shot between Axel and the Sobek, and the Sobek’s golden eyes widened. A deep gash split open on his throat. He dropped Axel’s sword and clutched his throat with both hands. Then he crumpled to his knees, his mouth open, unable to hiss or roar or make anything but gurgling noises.
To the Sobek’s left, Condor materialized. He picked up Axel’s sword, tossed it to him, and then winked before he zipped away again.
Axel caught his sword and started toward the Sobek, whose eyes had already taken on a deathly glaze. He shifted his grip on his sword hilt and rammed the tip of his blade into the Sobek’s eye.
The Sobek dropped onto the marble floor in a growing pool of dark blood, and Axel huffed. Even if Condor hadn’t intervened, Axel would’ve found a way to finish off the Sobek anyway. He always did.
A quick scan of the surrounding battle made him realize that so far, only three of the original twelve Sobeks had gone down, including this one. He stole a glance at the throne and at Lilly, who now wore Avian’s yellow crown on her head as she hunched over him.
“Axel!” Calum’s voice severed his concentration.
Axel dodged an attack from another Sobek and rolled away from the next one. He recovered his footing right way, his sword ready to defend the next attack.
It was then that he noticed that he now faced not one Sobek, but two.
He inhaled a long breath, cracked his neck, and readied his sword.
Lilly’s father smiled at her. “There is one last secret I must impart, and it is this: Once you take hold of the Aerostone, you will indeed unlock your true nature, but you are far more than a mere Wisp. You are a Valkyrie, a royal Wisp.
“It means you are faster than any being in Kanarah, and all but uncatchable because of the royal blood that flows through your veins. In time, you will learn to move as a bolt of lightning, faster than a hummingbird beats its wings, faster than the blink of an eagle’s eye. You are the pinnacle of Windgale perfection, blessed with unparalleled speed by the Overlord Himself.”
Emotion flooded Lilly’s chest, most of it anger. She had almost died countless times because of her stupid cape, and now her father had revealed that he could have promoted her at any time? And on top of that, she would’ve been faster than literally everyone else in the world?
This great secret, the secret that all Windgales could have accessed the freedom to fly uninhibited, if only the Premier had allowed it, really was just a system of control, just as Condor had claimed. And yet somehow, she was supposed to be able to transcend all of that, both in word and in deed?
She’d always flown faster than her friends, and she’d even outflown Falcroné until his promotion to Captain of the Royal Guard, but this whole time her father had kept the truth, the true power, and her true nature from her.
She could have done so much more. She could have helped her friends more, helped herself more.
Maybe she could’ve even saved Falcroné.
“Lilly, safeguard this knowledge. Keep it secret until a Windgale is ready to demonstrate his commitment to the Sky Realm—to you. Do not allow the likes of Condor—” he shot a glance toward Condor’s general direction, “—to interfere with your reign. This is the only way to prevent total anarchy and disorder.”
Rather than pointing out the breadth of destruction around them, Lilly bit her tongue instead and nodded. “I understand.”
Her father sucked in a long shuddering breath. He raised his left hand and touched her cheek with the back of his trembling fingers, and he smiled. “My darling girl. My princess. I’m so glad I could see you once more.”
Before Lilly could say anything else, her father’s eyes rolled back, and he exhaled a sharp sigh. His left hand slipped away from her face and smacked the marble floor at the base of the throne.
“Father?” she asked, her voice shaking. “Daddy?”
Her father didn’t move, didn’t open his eyes, even when she gently shook him.
She had no more cause to hold back her tears, so she allowed them to flow. Her father had engaged in questionable—if not outright immoral—practices, but he was still her father.
And now he was gone.
She buried her face in his chest and wept. First Falcroné,
now her father and mother—all within a matter of days. Did the Overlord delight in her misery? In her suffering? Why else would He blanket her with so much grief in such a short time?
Metal clanked behind her, a reminder of the men who still fought for her to have enough time to hear her father’s dying words. Condor. Calum. Magnus. Riley. If she lost anyone else—maybe even Axel—she didn’t know what she’d do.
Lilly straightened her spine and stood up. She unfastened the cape from her shoulders and let it slide to the floor, then she tossed her father’s crystal crown onto his lap. She’d flown countless times while wearing her cape, but now she no longer needed it. Her father had said she could fly faster without it.
He’d said the capes didn’t matter—only the Aerostone did.
Now she would find out.
She bent down again, took the Aerostone from her father’s grasp, and held it in her hand. It flared with golden light, just like Magnus’s Dragon Emerald had back in the tunnels under Kanarah City, and a cool sensation filled her body like a soft summer breeze flowing through her veins.
As quickly as it began, it ended. The light from the stone reduced to its usual glow, and she released her hold on the Aerostone. It landed on her discarded cape with a dull thunk, and Kanton moved to pick it up next. She didn’t pay him any mind.
Instead, she unsheathed her short sword from her belt and clamped her fingers around it. When she took to the air, the marble floor dropped out from beneath her faster than she anticipated.
After a quick course adjustment, Lilly arced toward the two Sobeks who approached Axel, and she joined him in the fray.
Axel wondered how many more times he could parry the Sobeks’ thunderous blows before one of them managed to knock the blade from his grasp.
He’d done well so far, especially on his own, but even he had to admit he was far overmatched. He wasn’t strong enough, and though he was quicker than the Sobeks, he wasn’t quick enough to avoid both of them for much longer.
Axel braced himself for another swing from the Sobek on his left, but it never came.
Instead, a pink-and-blonde blur collided with the Sobek, and dark blood spurted onto the floor.
Lilly. It had to be—but Axel had never seen her move that fast before.
The other Sobek’s head swiveled in surprise, and Axel took advantage. He sprang forward and lashed his blade. Somehow the Sobek defended Axel’s attack with his sword, and the next thing Axel knew, he lay flat on his back, staring up at the throne room’s black ceiling as the Sobek’s scaly mug leaned into his range of vision.
The Sobek’s tail had gotten him. It snaked back behind the Sobek’s body, and he raised his sword high above his head for a finishing blow.
An armored hand and a shining blade flickered around the Sobek’s neck from behind, carving a long red slit in its throat. The hand and the blade vanished just as fast, and the Sobek froze in place, eyes wide. He clutched at his throat, began to convulse, and then fell forward. Had Axel not shifted to the side, the hulking lizard would’ve landed right on him.
In the Sobek’s place hovered Lilly, still clad in her light pink armor, but no longer wearing her cape.
Yet, somehow, she was flying.
And she also somehow looked more amazing than ever. Axel had to stifle a smirk.
She floated toward him and extended her free hand. “Come on. We’re not done yet.”
Calum fought side-by-side with Magnus and Riley, both of whom proved far more effective against their opponents.
Already more than half the Windgales in Captain Perine’s party had fallen to their Sobek foes. While the group had managed to take down six Sobeks, they couldn’t hold off the other six for much longer, and they certainly wouldn’t be able to defeat them.
Calum couldn’t fault Lilly for taking so much time with her dying father; if he’d had the chance to spend a few minutes with his father or mother before they had to leave again forever, he would’ve savored every last second of it.
But that didn’t make it any easier for the rest of them.
He ducked under a vicious slash and whipped his sword at the nearest Sobek’s chest. He put every last bit of his might into it, delivering a blow that would’ve knocked a grown man to the ground, but his sword just clanged off the Sobek’s silver breastplate as if he were made of steel.
Yet again, Calum just wasn’t strong enough.
In retaliation, the Sobek drove his shoulder into Calum’s chest and sent him skidding across the marble floor until the body of a dead Windgale stopped his momentum.
Behind his Sobek opponent, a group of green reptilian heads emerged in the throne room doorway and then filtered in, some of them Sobeks, some of them Saurians, more than doubling the number of enemies.
From his vantage point, Calum saw Magnus recoil from the Sobek he’d been fighting, and so did Riley and his Wolves. Captain Perine and what few of his men remained also pulled back, and Axel and Lilly, who no longer wore a cape but could somehow still fly, joined them in a tight semi-circle.
Calum pushed himself to his feet and scrambled to join his friends as Condor landed beside Lilly.
“Time to escape, Princess,” Condor said as even more Saurians filtered inside.
A loud slam sounded on the doors to their left, but a large wooden beam anchored the door shut. They couldn’t go that way.
Calum’s head swiveled to the only other set of doors in the room, to his right, but a mound of rubble blocked the exit. He swallowed. “There’s no way out.”
Condor exhaled a bitter sigh. “Then we’re gonna have to fight our way out. Carve a path to our freedom.”
Riley growled. “Easier said than done.”
“We will die if we do not act,” Magnus said. “Stand tall, and beat them back.”
As Magnus finished his sentence, the wooden beam across the doors to Calum’s left snapped, and the doors burst open.
Chapter Eight
Relief flooded Lilly’s entire being as another fifty soldiers, all of them Windgales and Wisps, streamed inside the throne room.
This group wore a mix of purple and orange armor, and they followed a Wisp in black armor with gold accents. His long salt-and-pepper hair matched his thick beard, and his hulking frame towered over the rest of the soldiers.
General Balena—her uncle.
Lilly grinned, and the hopeless desperation in her heart snuffed.
General Balena pointed his sword at the Saurians. “Attack!”
The Windgale soldiers swarmed the Saurians and rained blows down upon them in a thunderstorm of flashing steel. Even General Balena himself engaged in the battle, and Lilly and her friends joined them.
Within ten minutes, the last of the Saurians went down, and the three remaining Sobeks, all wearing silver breastplates, fled the throne room with a dozen Windgale soldiers in pursuit.
General Balena wrenched his sword out of one of the dead Sobeks and hovered over to Lilly, who sheathed her own blade and stared at him as he approached.
“Princess,” he said, his voice much softer than the steely tone he usually employed. He glanced over her shoulder at the throne. “Your father?”
Lilly shook her head, and a flood of emotion swelled in her chest. Tears stung the corners of her eyes.
To Lilly’s surprise, General Balena took hold of her arms, pulled her close, and wrapped her in a sturdy embrace. He’d never been the kind of man to show affection, especially after the passing of his wife, Lilly’s aunt, but Lilly leaned into him nonetheless and wept.
When he finally released his grip on Lilly, General Balena scanned the room. When his gaze landed on Condor, his hazel eyes narrowed and his eyebrows arched down, then he refocused on Lilly. “Falcroné?”
She couldn’t hold back her tears anymore, and they streamed down her face freely. She shook her head again. “No.”
General Balena’s jaw tightened, and his posture straightened. He again glared at Condor. Through gritted teeth, he asked, “H
ow?”
Lilly followed his gaze and wiped her cheeks dry. “Condor had nothing to do with it. Fal saved both our lives, but it cost him his own.”
General Balena’s rigid expression softened, but had Lilly not known him her entire life, she wouldn’t have noticed it.
“Before we freed Lumen,” she continued, “a Jyrak attacked us from the Central Lake. It had me in its hand and was going to crush me, but Fal swooped in and jammed his sword into its finger. That gave Condor enough time to get me to safety, but not enough time for Fal to save himself. He died a hero.”
With a short sigh, General Balena closed his eyes, then he, too, sheathed his sword. Lilly expected he would say something more about Falcroné, his only son, but he didn’t.
“You freed Lumen?” he asked.
The anguish in Lilly’s stomach began to subside, and she nodded. “Yes. Condor got us to the Arcanum, and from there, Calum led us to Lumen, and we freed him. He sent us back to gather an army for him. He means to supplant the King and to unite all of Kanarah under his rule.”
General Balena scrutinized her for a long moment. “You’re not wearing your cape.”
“My father crowned me Premieress before he died. Kanton witnessed it.” Lilly clenched her teeth. “He also told me the secret.”
“Soldiers,” General Balena barked. “Behold your Premieress.”
Every Windgale in the room faced Lilly with their hands up against their chests, their wrists crossed, their thumbs joined in the center and pointed up at their chins. Their fingers angled up and out toward their shoulders like the wings of a bird. The Windgale salute. General Balena and Condor also saluted her, and so did Calum, Magnus, Axel, and Riley.
It was surreal. She’d grown accustomed to Windgales saluting her from an early age, but now the weight of the meaning behind that salute weighed heavily on her shoulders, as if she bore the woes of the entire realm on her back. And now, she realized, she did.