by Olivia Hart
But she was safe.
And I swore that Seraphina would pay for this. No matter how strong she was, she would die, and it would be my hand that held the blade. For now, though, my focus was on my wife.
The burns that had covered her body had healed. Her flesh was whole, but she was drained beyond anything I could have imagined. How could a Queen be drained like this? She pulled her power directly from the Dark Realm.
I leaned down and kissed her. Her eyes fluttered open, and she groaned as I pulled away with a smile. “Welcome back,” I said. She was alive. She was awake. She was okay. I let myself relax just a little bit.
“What happened?” Her eyes shifted away from my face as memories flooded her. “She won, didn’t she? My mother is stronger than me now. How… How’d I get away? I couldn’t fight her. Nothing worked.”
“Luckily, your shadows didn’t fade when you passed out. I shadow walked next to you, grabbed you, and immediately moved to Amra. Amra made a portal, and I jumped through. But…”
I took a deep breath as Rose realized the cost of saving her. “But Amra didn’t come through, did she?”
I shook my head. “No, she didn’t.”
Rose closed her eyes as she began to shed silent tears. “I’m so sorry, Rose. I couldn’t worry about Amra. I had to get you out of there.”
Rose nodded as more tears fell. I took her hand in mine and gave it a tight squeeze. “She’ll pay for this,” I said. “You broke whatever it was that gave her the extra power.”
Rose opened her eyes and slowly pulled herself to a sitting position. “The baby? Did I… Is our baby still alive?”
I smiled. At least there was this good news. “The healers say that the baby is fine. I don’t know how, but it must be made of strong stuff like its mother.”
Rose closed her eyes again and let out a slow breath. “We need to go to war, Sebastian. This isn’t about keeping you or me safe any more. This is about the entire Immortal Realm. Sebastian, she was insane. I’ve never seen her like that. Now she’s strong enough to fight me and possibly win. We have to end this once and for all.”
I nodded. I knew that was the only answer, and I knew that this was the time to tell her about the odd attacks. “Rose, no one can be sure, but we believe that she’s been attacking villages along the edge of the Dark Realm. She hasn’t left any evidence, and they’ve all been odd. No bodies. No scents. No proof that it had anything to do with her. Those villages have always had problems with raids, but these are strange.”
“Why didn’t you tell me before?” Rose asked with a snarl in her voice.
I took her hand and held it in both of mine. “Cara told us not to let you know until it was completely obvious. She said it as a seer. You had to be the soul of the Dark Realm, not just the Queen. That this was the right path.”
“I could have killed her easily a month ago, Sebastian. Now…” She looked away and gritted her teeth. “Now, she’s stronger than me. Now, I can’t make portals. We can’t end this quickly.”
“Yes, but I believe Cara. I don’t know everything, and you don’t either. She doesn’t know why that’s the right path, but she was sure of it.”
Rose shook her head slowly. “What is done is done. We can’t wait any longer, though. No one thought she could do what she’s already done. It’s unheard of, but she did it. We can’t give her any more time. Help me up. It’s time that we stopped waiting for her to move.”
She slowly swung her legs over the edge of the bed, and I pulled her to her feet. Her legs shook slightly as she stood up, and I couldn’t help but worry that she would fall over any moment.
Somehow, even after yet another brush with death, she looked beautiful. Her hair was tangled beyond belief. She wore her favorite nightgown, a simple linen thing without any decoration. Her face held nothing but pain.
She was still the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen.
Rose’s steps seemed to become surer as she moved to the closet. “I’m going to get ready, Sebastian. You call an emergency meeting of the council in five hours. I need to talk to Kral. We have difficulties that only he will be able to help us with.”
“You’ll be okay without me?” I asked, still worried about whether she could support herself after being drained that much.
“I’ll be fine. Do what has to be done, Sebastian. I’ll see you at the meeting. Bring any reports of things that might have been Seraphina’s doing.”
I nodded, and with a last look at my wife, I left Rose to get ready. She was stronger than I’d ever expected.
Chapter 27
Rose
“I have two new projects for you, Kral.” The goblin grinned up at me from his seat at a tiny table made for goblins. Drawings were scattered around, and he had a pencil tucked behind one of his wrinkled ears. He wasn’t wearing the same simple clothes that he once had. He wore a silk shirt with long sleeves and linen breeches that had been embroidered up the side. The outfit had been tailored for his smaller frame, and I was sure that it was the first time that the tailor had been asked to make such expensive clothes for a goblin.
“Yes, Lady. Do you have another project for me?” The excitement in his voice was impossible to miss.
I grinned at him, trying hard not to think of Amra. I didn’t have time for emotions. Not now. Not while so many things had to happen. The pain and loss would hit me soon enough, but I had to push it away. First, a hundred things had to be initiated.
“One, we have sirens. I need to commission what is called a megaphone to utilize their power.”
He scratched his leathery ear and pulled off his cap to slowly crumple it in his hands. “I don’t know what this is,” he said with a frown.
“May I?” I asked as I pulled a blank piece of paper from the stack. He jumped a little bit as he realized that I was going to help design a new invention.
I began drawing a megaphone that was ten feet across at the widest part. “It’s a way to make someone’s voice extremely loud. The sirens will scream into this section, and their voices will be amplified. I don’t know how that will affect the magical properties of the siren’s song, but the battle impact of sirens could be incredible.”
Kral crumpled his cap and began to smooth it out again as he thought about the design. “I don’t understand how it works.”
“It has to do with sound vibrations just like instruments, but it’s a common thing in the Mortal Realm. Build it and we’ll test it. I’m positive that it will magnify the volume of a person. I just don’t know how it will interact with the siren’s song or how much it will magnify the voice at this size.”
He nodded. “Yes, Lady. I can have it built. How quickly do you want to test it?”
“As fast as possible. We go to war in two weeks. We don’t have any more time for preparations, and we may need to build siege engines once we get there.”
“I’ll have a working prototype in two days. What else would you like made?”
“Sunglasses. We need to reduce the brightness of the Court of Light or half of our troops will be blinded. The GSS couldn’t accompany us to the palace because they couldn’t see. We need to be prepared for that ahead of time.”
Kral put his cap back on and said, “Can you draw this out? I don’t know what it should look like.”
I shook my head. “No, but I’ll do better. I’ll get a pair for you to copy. We’ll have to find a different material for the lenses, but you can use the design for the shape.”
“In the meantime, I need you to find all of the craftsmen available. We’ll need thousands of them in the next two weeks.”
“Yes, Lady. It would be better to have more time, but this should be enough if the elves agree to help.”
“They will. Thank you Kral.” I left Kral to his work. The sunglasses were a necessity, but the megaphone could change the tide of the battle. If a siren could control entire groups of enemy troops we would have a significant edge.
I took to the air and flew up the column o
f emptiness next to the No-Walk. One more chat before I met with the council. I landed on our floor and walked to Amra’s room. As soon as I opened her door, I was hit with that sadness. She didn’t spend very much time here. Not now that she’d had friends and was learning about Court duties.
It was so hard to accept that she was gone. She’d been my only friend in the Court of Light. I’d never have survived there without her friendship. She lifted people up, myself included, and I was going to miss her so much.
But Embrys lay on her bed, his long neck curled on Amra’s pillow. “I’m sorry, Embrys.”
A puff of smoke left his nostrils, and I connected to it. “She was a good friend,” was all that it said. No picture was attached to it. Just the feeling of sadness combined with that simple message.
“You’re right,” I said. “She was a very good friend. But she found friends here. You and the gnomes. Even Cara and Andryn and Sebastian were her friends. That was all she had ever wanted, and she’d found them. As you told me, all things die. At least she had a chance to live.”
As I said these things, I knew that they were the truth, but that didn’t take away any of the sadness from losing her.
Another puff of smoke. An image of Amra cuddling up to Embrys, her arm around him as she snored. Even while she slept, she ran her fingers over his scales like a child with a stuffed animal.
“She was too young. Too soft. She wasn’t meant for war and evil.”
“I know, Embrys. I wish more than anything that I’d been able to protect her.”
Embrys shifted on the bed, pressing his head deeper into Amra’s pillow, and I could have sworn that I heard a sniffle.
“I need to know if you’re coming with us when we attack the Court of Light. Seraphina cannot be left alone any longer. She’s too dangerous.”
The next puff of smoke surprised me, and I realized that dragons truly were as passionate as the Fae. An image of Seraphina screaming as he burned her alive. He fed her body his magic so that her body would continuously heal, but he continued to blow magical flames over her.
“I will fight Seraphina.”
I was tempted. More than I wanted to admit. He would be able to fight Seraphina. Even as strong as she was, she wasn’t as powerful as Embrys. But there was a reason that the Ancient One had not allowed the dragons to become involved in the affairs of the Courts.
“You cannot. A dragon’s power cannot be released in this world. Never.”
God, I wished I could use Embrys’s power against Seraphina, but it was too much of a temptation. Even a dragon as small as him was too powerful to bring to war. No, we would find a way to win without risking an end to the Immortal Realm.
He turned his head away from me, and one last puff of smoke rose from him. “You are wiser than I am, Queen Rose. My pain made me forget. I will come with you, but I will not fight. I swear it.”
I nodded. “Thank you, Embrys. We will punish my mother for her crimes.”
He didn’t say anything else, and I left him to his mourning. It was time to see the council.
Chapter 28
Sebastian
I stood outside the Dark Court in the twilight. The funeral was so large that there was no place in the city to hold it. On that rocky ground outside the walls, a pyre had been erected. Normally, a funeral would be held at midnight when the world was shrouded in complete darkness. If the moons were shining, shadows would be raised above the funeral pyre.
But Amra was not a normal citizen of the Dark Realm. She was a spot of brightness in our world, and she deserved to be celebrated for the light that she’d brought us.
Without her bravery, we’d never have been able to break Seraphina’s artificery. She would have grown even more powerful. Possibly powerful enough that our armies wouldn’t be able to contend with her.
Rose and Asli held the torches while the rest of the Dark Court watched silently. There was no body on the pyre, but that didn’t matter. This was to cement her memory in the minds of the people, to remind them of her importance.
A Princess of the Light who had gone against her Queen and helped to save both of the Realms. A half-breed like me. Someone who had become family.
Rose and Asli walked towards the pyre, Rose in her midnight gown made of magic and Asli in a golden dress that had been made specifically for tonight. Tears were in both of their eyes as they crossed the stony ground in front of the walls.
Glinting in their torchlight, their tears were like rivers of diamonds that they sacrificed to the girl who had given her life for Rose and mine. They plunged their torches into the kindling at the base and turned around to come back to the crowd that had gathered. As the pitch-covered wood caught fire and began to roar to life, Rose stepped forward and turned to the crowd.
“Amra was my only friend in the Court of Light. She was the only one who hadn’t let the Court ruin her. She showed me that no matter where you were, you could find joy in the world. In the taste of a sweet roll. In the beauty of a dress. In an exciting new adventure.”
“She had lived without friends or family for a very long time, and she never let the world bring her down. I will remember her for her brightness even when she came to the Dark Court. I will remember her for the way that she loved even when the world was cruel. I will remember her for the way that she forgave.”
“But more than anything, I will remember her as the sister I never had.”
Rose moved back into the crowd, and Asli stepped forward. “I loved Amra. She was the sweetest girl I knew. Sweeter than my own kin. Sweeter than anyone.”
“She brought me here where the people are kind. Where the Queen is good. Where there is lots of food. Without her, I would still live in the woods.”
“She was not my sister. She was too young. I loved her like a daughter.”
“I will never forget Amra, the only glowing gnome I knew. I won’t forget her smile or her laughter. She was the best gnome I knew, the bravest gnome I knew, and the only daughter I’ve ever had. I loved her.”
She stepped back into the crowd next to Sinivyn who had tears on his cheeks as well. I had never known Amra very well. I didn’t feel right to speak for her, but there was another who did.
Embrys stepped forward, and his scales began to glow with a light that I’d never seen before. Bright white like Amra herself. A puff of smoke left him, and I connected to it.
“I have seen your stories to the trolls, Sebastian. You will tell my story for me.”
Not a question or a request. A command from a dragon.
I stepped up next to Embrys and said, “I will speak for Embrys, the dragon that was Princess Amra’s friend.”
Smoke rose from Embrys in the shape of himself all alone. When I touched the smoke with my power, I was ashamed of what I saw, but I translated it for the crowd.
Mists rose around the people, fuel for a play that I’d never expected to create. I wove an image of the day that Embrys was found in the Dark Tower, rushing towards Rose and me. Our immediate fear and attacks against him.
And I spoke his words, “I knew no one in the Dark Tower. I could not speak to anyone. I was alone. The two people I was supposed to help thought of me as an idiot animal. They put up with me and played with me some, but they did not understand me even though I did as they said, regardless of the fact that I am a dragon and they are Fae.”
The mists swirled into another set of shapes. The images in my mind coming to life. Amra petting the dragon and speaking to him while Rose and I were busy with Court needs.
She petted Embrys, and when he moved his head, she began to scratch along his jaw as he enjoyed. “It’s okay. I know you’re smarter than everyone thinks. You just don’t talk like other dragons, do you? If you get scared or need something, come to me. Rose and Sebastian are always so busy. I’m not. I’ll help you.”
Another puff of smoke and another set of images. Amra lay in her bed, and Embrys crawled up next to her. She wrapped her arms around him. “I’m glad you’r
e my friend, dragon. Rose never has time to get midnight snacks anymore. Do you want some?”
Images of them sneaking food from the kitchen flashed through the air, the mist glowing so everyone could see it clearly. Night after night, they found happiness over stolen food and Amra’s stories.
“I only wished to tell my own stories. Stories of my own land, of my own life. Amra asked me about my life, but she did not know how to hear me then.”
More smoke and more images. Visions of Embrys and Amra laughing on her bed telling stories to each other. “But then she learned how to talk to me. I told her all about my own world. About my mother and father. She was the only one who cared. The only one who was never too busy. She was my only friend, and I loved her in a way that dragons do not love.”
One more puff of smoke, and there was no image to go along with it. “Amra was what the world needed. Queen Rose may be the soul of the Dark Realm, but Amra was the heart. The Fae were trusted with the Immortal Realm not because they were smart or powerful. They were given the charge of the world because they loved, and Amra had more love in her than anyone I have ever known. So much that she taught a dragon what it was.”
“I will never forget Amra. The dragons will never forget her. Not here, and not in other worlds. There will not be another Fae whose name lives as long as Amra’s. When she is done resting and returns again from the void, she will hear stories that she told me.”
With that, he stepped back into the crowd and watched the pyre burn. I felt my own tears running down my cheek, and the only thing that I heard from the crowd was soft sobs. The mists dissipated, and I too stepped back into my place beside Rose.