“The lost princess,” Wynn said. “I found her in the woods.”
“What?” The queen sat up and swung her feet over the side of her bed. She placed her hands on the edge and took several deep breaths. “How can this be?”
“Elric sent me here to get you. The Grendel is here. The shield is broken. Elric is fighting,” Wynn said.
The queen looked out the window and gasped. Then her eyes flashed bright red. “Sidian,” she said between clenched teeth. “This ends now.”
She took Wynn’s hand and led her into the room with all her treasures. She grasped the staff and handed it to Wynn. “Hold on to this. Don’t let it fall.”
Wynn nodded. “Where are we going?” she asked.
“To save my children,” the queen said, her voice a deep and resonant growl. She led Wynn to the icy bridge. The queen transformed in a swirl of silver snow.
Wynn gasped. Her mother stood before her as an enormous white bear with flashing red eyes. She knelt down in front of Wynn, and Wynn climbed on her back. Clutching the staff in one hand, Wynn held on to the bear’s snow-white fur with the other, then the queen charged over the icy bridge and down the stairs. She crossed the empty throne room, and ran out past the courtyard.
With a great roar she raced across the countryside to the black storm ahead.
CHAPTER THIRTYElric
THE GRENDEL’S STORM GREW INTO a tower of black clouds over Elric as he tried to pull Master Elk to safety. The enormous pillar thundered, and lightning flashed within it. The bodies of monsters and fallen elves littered the battlefield as weakened fairies dragged themselves toward the sheltered grove. A stand of elves fought off a flank of monsters as they approached the trees. Elric caught a glimpse of Osmund riding one of the boars as he fought with them.
The light surrounding Flame flickered. Shadow hissed, but still did not move forward. Flame threw a hand out toward her, warning the tigereon off. Elric heard a powerful roar. He turned to see a great white bear charging across the field, with Wynn riding on its back. She tumbled off into the grass.
Flame faltered, and the Grendel lunged toward her. Just then Shadow leaped up and attacked the Grendel, clawing and biting at his shoulder and arm. The Grendel threw the tigereon off him, twisted and stabbed Shadow with his black sword.
Shadow let out a fearsome and terrifying scream.
Flame turned around. “Shadow?” Suddenly she looked lost.
The Grendel laughed as he came forward. Elric left Elk in the grass and ran to meet him. He had to reach Flame in time.
“How sad,” the Grendel taunted as he towered over Shadow’s body. “The last of her kind, and now she’s dead. As you will be too.”
“Shadow!” Flame cried. She turned away from the Grendel, exposing her back to his blade. Elric ran faster and tackled her to the ground.
A chilling blast of ice-cold air hit them. It blew the clouds of the Grendel’s cloak back.
The great white bear met him in a frenzy of black claws and sharp teeth.
Wynn stood up in the grass. She held a staff with a large blue diamond on the top as she watched the ice bear do battle with the Grendel.
The bear backed away and transformed in a burst of light and a flurry of snow.
Elric picked up Flame. He held her hand and tried to pull her toward Elk and the grove, but she called out Shadow’s name again, and threw herself to the ground. She felt in the grass until she touched Shadow’s tail, and she wrapped herself over the wounded tigereon’s body.
They were too close to the queen and the Grendel. It wasn’t safe here. Lightning crackled around the Grendel as the Fairy Queen’s dress swirled around her with the force of a blizzard. Elric found Flame’s sword in the grass and grabbed it. He stood on unsteady legs to protect her.
“Sidian, my brother,” the queen said, holding her head high. “It has been a long time.”
“That scepter belongs to me,” the Grendel growled. “And I will have it. You are weak and broken. You never learned how to become truly strong.”
“You think what you have is strength?” she said. “You are the one who has turned into a shadow of your former self. I pity you.”
“You won’t pity me when I control the palace, and the portals to the Otherworld are mine,” he said. “I know the crystal heart the elves gifted you has shattered. Your magic is broken.”
Elric watched as a crowd of people slowly emerged from the wood, Lexicon and Zephyr among them. Osmund and the boar-riders halted their mounts. It seemed most of the monsters of the Grendel’s army were dead.
Flame cried as she lay over Shadow. Elk wasn’t far away. His body had almost disappeared completely into mist. He was only moments from diminishing to the point where his consciousness would be trapped for all eternity. Behind the queen, Wynn’s head poked up out of the grass. She still held the diamond scepter. Hob perched on her shoulder.
Everyone he cared about was here. This is where it would end. For good or ill, at least they stood together.
The elves began to sing again. He could hear Wynn’s voice as she joined them, though she sang a completely different song. Elric sang under his breath, the prayer he had sung to the queen when he was alone and desperate in the snow, and it seemed like all was lost.
The Grendel laughed, but his voice didn’t resonate with the storm.
The queen glowed with a bright white light. She held out her hand, and Wynn tossed the scepter to her. She caught it and held it high. “My heart is strong,” she said. “My heart is here.”
She raised the scepter to the sky.
A chord of light immediately connected Wynn to the Fairy Queen. It was the same powerful magic he had witnessed when Osmund returned and healed the
