Before the Dawn

by Kristal Lim

Even one of the most skilled battle maidens to ever be born could not indefinitely withstand the full might of five Lords determined to crush her. So even as Lady Ceirdwyn dealt a fatal blow to one Lord, the other four threw all their spells of destructive magic right at her and finally managed to knock her backwards and bring her to her knees. But still she had enough strength to stand up once more and sneer her contempt for them before they redoubled their efforts at subduing her.

  Finally, she could no longer stand. Her right arm was broken and her sword was wrenched away from her. Even her considerable magicks failed her, too, when she resorted to using them. So the Lords prepared their killing move and she laughed at the fate that awaited her when she saw them raise their arms for one last strike. However, death did not come for Lady Ceirdwyn.

  Raven bore down on the Lords with a scream of rage. His sword flamed with scarlet fire and its blade bit through the arms of the Lord unlucky enough to be caught in its path. The Prince leaped free of his horse and flew through the air with his burning sword pointed at the Lord he had maimed. He landed on the ground with the man's body cushioning his fall and his sword impaled through his victim's face. Then he turned his fierce gaze on the other Lords as his brothers came to his aid and pressed the attack against Silverhaven's forces once more.

  Lady Ceirdwyn staggered towards the chariot that bore the mortals. She shouted a command at the automaton guarding Meran and Trevor, and they watched with wide eyes as the clockwork soldier grabbed her broken arm and, with a brutal move, set it back in place. She growled something that sounded like a curse and clenched her eyes shut, then when she opened them again, the red glow had faded and they were amber once more. She looked at the two humans who had similar expressions of fear and alarm on their faces. "Come," she said, jumping into the chariot with them and taking the reins from the automaton, her broken arm healing rapidly. "The time is running from us. We must get to the lake and trust that my son will join us shortly."

  With a cry, she urged the horses forward and they whinnied and sped their way out of the battlefield. Trevor turned to look back over his shoulder and saw that the fighting was still fierce, but the Princes seemed to have finally gained an advantage over Silverhaven's Lords. He witnessed Brannon and Baydr take down a flying monstrosity together. While Brannon ripped its wings off with his bare hands, Baydr sliced through the creature's throat with his curved dagger. When the monster stilled after its death throes, Trevor saw the broken figure of a Lord emerge from its melting husk. He also saw Rogan grab Raven back from attacking another Lord and point towards their speeding chariot. The two brothers exchanged shouted words and, though he could not hear them, Trevor guessed that Rogan was urging Raven to go and complete the task they had set out to do. The younger Prince looked torn for a moment, then eventually he nodded and summoned his mount. As he rode after them, Rogan also shouted something at Orland and the other Prince immediately turned his horse in the chariot's direction and followed Raven.

  "We are almost at the lake!" Lady Ceirdwyn announced, glancing back at her passengers for a moment. "The water is rising. Those bloody bastards in the castle are going to try to drown us!"

  Trevor saw that she was right. The dark waters of the lake were gathering and creating one huge wave that could sweep them all away. Lady Ceirdwyn reined in the horses sharply and they stopped a few feet away from the edge of the lake where the water was quickly receding from the shore then rising up to form the gigantic wave. Hovering over the water were the two remaining Lords of Silverhaven, both of their eyes flashing with power.

  "Mother!" Raven called out as he finally reached their side. "Be ready to get to the castle!" He turned momentarily at the sound of hoof beats and saw that Orland had joined them, too. "We must kill those Lords before we can get to Benwyr," he said to Orland.

  "Aye," his brother responded, "but that wave has to be dealt with first. We can't allow it to touch any one of us or we are done for."

  "I'll take care of the cursed water," Raven said as he looked at the mammoth wall of dark liquid that soared hundreds of feet into the night sky. "You hold those Lords back from trying to throw a killing curse at my back."

  Orland nodded in agreement, and then the two Princes gathered their magic and unleashed it in force.

  Trevor knew that Raven was a seventh son. He had heard the stories about the power possessed by seventh sons and he had been told that such beings were beyond compare when it came to wielding the forces of magic. But he quickly realized that he had had no true idea of what that really meant until he saw Raven stride forward with full confidence and wrench control over the wave that two of Silverhaven's most powerful Lords had painstakingly crafted. In an eye blink, he turned the water to ice. Raven accomplished this task with incredible ease, and Orland took advantage of the Lords' momentary distraction to attack them with fire and wind.

  While he kept the wave frozen, Raven also aided Orland's efforts to subdue the two Lords as they attempted to fight back. He shielded his brother when one of their opponents called forth lightning and struck Orland where he stood again and again. However, the energies of the bright bolts were simply consumed by the shield, then Orland retaliated by conjuring a whirlwind that chased the Lords through the air. He was grinning at the sight of the two Lords trying to escape his whirlwind when he was suddenly knocked off his feet. The earth beneath him rumbled and split open without any warning, and the whirlwind he had created quickly lost its power and fury. He yelled out in surprise as he fell through the dark hole and Raven echoed the sound, flinging out a hand to try to help his brother. But Lady Ceirdwyn's automaton was quicker, and it was able to grab the Prince before the earth could swallow him completely. It pulled Orland back up and was still helping him to stand when it was suddenly blasted into pieces by a bolt of lightning that did not come from one of the Lords. Orland fell on his back again with a surprised cry.

  Trevor’s eyes narrowed in anger when he saw who had joined the fight. Standing on the dry bed at the deepest part of the frozen lake was Benwyr.

  He walked towards them calmly, his expression giving no sign that he was worried or that he was even aware that a violent battle was raging in his domain. While he walked, the earth beneath his feet flowed and shifted until the rocky lake bed evened out with the shore and the wet mud dried up and took on the hard sheen of stone while the wave of ice jutted out from the ground like an ominous black sculpture.

  Benwyr had set the stage for a confrontation with his brothers.

  His pale eyes were steadily locked on Raven’s face as he came nearer and nearer, and there was even a hint of a smile on his lips. He stopped just a few feet away from where Orland was still trying to get to his feet and, wordlessly, he reached out a hand to help the other Prince. Orland cursed and moved away from him quickly.

  He chose to ignore this and instead spoke directly to Raven. "Brother," he said, "I have not seen you in a while. I heard you had exiled yourself to the human realm after you were freed from my service."

  "I needed the time away," Raven replied simply.

  Benwyr nodded. "But you have finally returned. And here you are now with the rest of our brothers, acting as the King’s executioners." There was no reproach in his tone, but Raven’s eyes clouded with guilt.

  "I do not wish to kill you," Raven said, his voice almost too low to be heard. "If I could do anything to change what is to happen, I would."

  "But there is nothing you can do," Benwyr's slight smile became sharper, uglier. "So, go on." He held out his arms in mock surrender. "Here I am, Raven. Go ahead. Kill me. I won't try to stop you."

  Raven suppressed a burst of bitter laughter. "Please. You wish to die about as much as I do." He shook his head, suddenly pensive. "This was not how it was supposed to end. How did we ever get to this point, when we are now enemies?"

  "Well," Benwyr shrugged, "I guess if you live long enough, everything will eventually happen to you. But it has been a good life, you know. Other than my own blood wanti
ng me dead, I really have no regrets about anything." He paused thoughtfully, then continued, "Except maybe this one thing." The look he gave Raven was suddenly murderous.

  "You betrayed me."

  Both Lady Ceirdwyn and Meran screamed when Benwyr blasted Raven with fire and lightning, sending him flying into the distance. Immediately, the frozen wave of ice began to crack and break apart at its edges, and Trevor flinched away in alarm when a sudden gale blew a few drops of water his way and almost splashed him in the face. Orland cursed hoarsely and hurried to grab at the wave with his magic. He barely managed to take hold of it before Benwyr laughed and knocked him off his feet once more with a gust of wind. But Benwyr abruptly stopped laughing when an invisible force lifted him up into the air then suddenly, painfully, slammed him back against the hard, dried earth.

  Raven came charging back into the battle with his eyes completely red. He looked at his mother. "Go!" he roared. "Get to the castle!"

  Lady Ceirdwyn sprang into action immediately. She whipped the horses into a frenzy and they went rushing off to the dark castle that towered and brooded over them in the distance.

  "You will not take away what's mine again!" Trevor heard Benwyr snarl. He didn't bother looking back to see what was going on with the fight between the two brothers. All he wanted right now was to get to Aline and get her safe. He had seen enough of magic.

  Raven's mother drove the horses furiously and their chariot crossed the frozen lake in a few minutes, all of them ignoring the loud explosions of thunder that boomed behind them as Raven and Benwyr fought. She made the horses leap over the guards who were standing at the lowered drawbridge and the soldiers yelped as they frantically tried to get out of the way. As the chariot flew past the men, she flung a hand behind her and a wall of blinding white fire sprang up from the ground, preventing any pursuit in their wake. Then they were in the castle, where darkness and silence waited for them.

  Meran was the first one to get off the chariot and run into the dark halls, her frantic footsteps echoing and re-echoing in the stillness. "Aline!" she called out. "Gracelyn! Sam! Cassie! Please. Where are you?"

  Trevor tried to run after her, but she was too quick for him. The shadows swallowed her up, silencing her voice, and he soon had no idea where she had gone. "Meran?" he shouted.

  "Silence, boy!" hissed Lady Ceirdwyn as she appeared beside him clutching a long knife in each hand. The metal of the blades glowed faintly in the darkness, providing enough illumination so they could see they were in some sort of hall though they could make out no other details. "The castle waits to lead us astray," Lady Ceirdwyn whispered. "Stay close to my side."

  He swallowed and tried to nod. But a strange sound now distracted him. He heard the rustle of flapping wings and he looked around for the creature making it. "What do you suppose–?" he started to ask Lady Ceirdwyn, but something black and large suddenly swooped down on them and he turned just in time to witness his only remaining companion get snatched away by a shadow and disappear with a muffled shout.

  "Shit!" he cursed and started to run blindly, hoping he was going in the right direction where Lady Ceirdwyn may have been taken. He was actually more worried about Meran, who was mortal and as defenseless as he was, but he also knew that Raven's mother was the best hope they both had of leaving the castle alive. So he resolved to find her first.

  However, after just a few minutes of running, he realized that his task was hopeless. He had no idea where he was going, he couldn't even see where he was going, and the silence was so complete that he couldn't hear his own footsteps or his breathing. The strange darkness within the castle's walls was starting to frighten him, and he felt the hairs on the back of his neck and his arms stand up.

  "Shit," he cursed again, more weakly this time. What the hell was he going to do now? Maybe he should just keep walking and hope that he'd find an exit somewhere. Then he would try to see if he could get someone, like one of the Princes to help him–if they were still alive, of course. He hoped at any rate that Raven was still breathing because, right now, he was the only one Trevor felt like asking help from. Not because Raven was the Prince he knew best, but because Raven was the only one who seemed likely to help him. The bastard did owe him something for all this trouble, after all.

  He didn't know how long he must have wandered around aimlessly, getting more and more desperate and afraid by the moment. Thankfully, he hadn't run into a wall yet because the castle was just that huge but then, without any warning, his feet caught on something and he fell down on his face. The pain was excruciating and, this time, he cursed more fluently and more heatedly. Something warm began to trickle from his nose and the scent of iron permeated the still air. He realized that he was bleeding and, awkwardly, he tried to wipe off the blood with the sleeves of his shirt. It was while he was doing this that he felt something sharp and cold move against his chest and he remembered with a little burst of hope that he was wearing the silver leaf Raven had given him a lifetime ago.

  An idea quickly came to him, one he wasn't even sure was going to work, but he thought he had nothing to lose by giving it a try anyway. He felt for the light chain around his neck and tugged at it until the silver leaf was in his hand. Then, squeezing his eyes shut while trying to remember the short incantation Lady Ceirdwyn had taught him and Meran, he opened his mouth and spoke words in a language that was older than any other a mortal had ever heard before.

  Instantly, the silver leaf blazed with warmth and light. The heat it gave off crept right through his fingers and rapidly spread all throughout his body. The incantation he had spoken was one of Remembrance, and Lady Ceirdwyn had said that it would work by igniting the silver leaf buried within Aline and bringing to mind the most powerful memories she possessed. His hope that it would also work on any other silver leaf was rewarded then. So what it did for Trevor was to overwhelm him with a rush of memories for several seconds that felt like they lasted for hours. Another thing it did was to cast a bright sphere of light around him so he could see where he was and get his bearings somehow.

  The memories were no longer a surprise since he had regained them after his resurrection. He could also handle the power and the vividness they had as they raced through his thoughts, making him experience the shock of remembering all over again. But that was nothing compared to the shock he felt when he saw what the sudden illumination revealed. He was so startled that he gasped and dropped the silver leaf. It lay against his chest, still giving off a warm light though his blood had now turned cold.

  Sitting before him amidst a ring of pale bodies with their throats slit was Aline.

  ~~~

  Chapter 29