A blast of freezing air hit the warrior princess, causing Seraphis to stagger and scream. The cold air meeting her burning body exploded into a cloud of mist, obscuring Seraphis from sight. Cassendir took the chance and scrambled farther away to catch his breath.
Kae looked around. The glow of Seraphis’s flaming swords came through the mist. The warrior princess began to recover, swinging her swords through the mist to disperse it. Haedria had rushed forward to grab Loren, while the princess has fallen unconscious from wave after wave of pain.
The huntress didn’t think. There was no time, there was so many things happening. All she saw was her friend in danger of dying, Loren about to be captured by the queen again, and herself in the middle of it all, holding a pendant and a dagger. She was useless. There must have been something she could do. Kae looked down at her hand, at her pendant. The silver dragon stared up at her, looking at her with curious golden eyes. The dragon looked tired somehow, tired and worn. The huntress blinked, unsure of what she saw. Maybe it was a trick of the light, the glow of the many fired dancing across the mist. The dragon seemed to have nodded.
Kae dropped to her knees in a flash, and set the silver pendant on the stone floor. She raised the dagger high above her head. Time seemed to slow down. Out of the corner of her eye, Seraphis had managed to clear the mist. Her eyes were wide, and a flicker of flame danced across her face. The small braids that stuck out from her short red hair and hidden behind her ear, braided by the slave girl Elysia, moved into the light as the warrior princess twisted and brought her swords to the ready. Cassendir’s face was a mask fear. He brought his sword up across his face to block the oncoming blow. He saw the fury in Seraphis’s eyes, in the sure and strong way she moved, in the way her muscles flexed under her skin into movements practiced thousands of times over the years, and knew the next blow may be his last. The queen had her hand outstretched towards Loren, the mage markings swirling up and down her arms with an inner fire that blazed as hot as an inferno.
The dagger came down on the pendant, piercing the silver dragon in the heart. The shine in its inlaid golden eyes faded.
Queen Haedria felt the magic like a blow to the heart. She staggered away from Loren, her eyes finding Kae easily. The huntress held the dagger that pierced through the pendant, transfixed on it and still. Her attention on the pendant was hawk-like, seeing through it and listening to things that weren’t there. Loren began to stir, muttering a name over and over, the burn of Haedria’s magic forgotten.
“Lind?” the princess whispered. Her eyes fluttered open, her irises gold. “Is that you? I’m sorry. I didn’t know. I always thought you were happy.”
The queen’s lip curled into a sneer. The flames that jumped and flicked over her body intensified, scorching the stones that she trod on. Reaching down, she grabbed Loren by the collar of her roughspun prisoner’s tunic and hauled her upright.
“What are you muttering about, girl?” The queen demanded. “Who is Lind?”
Loren’s eyes were unfocused, yet glittered a fierce golden color. Haedria’s eyes widened, the pendant had been destroyed; there was no magic left to Loren. “I didn’t know he was being held against his will. Now he’s free. And he is angry, Haedria. So, so angry.”
“What?”
The princess’s eyes snapped to focus on Haedria’s face. Despite the markings burning on her neck and wrists, the magic shackles were ignored. “You wanted him to come to you, didn’t you?”
The dragon pendant, impaled on Kae’s dagger, began to crumble. The silver cracked and broke apart, fine lines spreading out from the dagger’s point like a spiderweb. The pendant shattered, spreading chunks of silver and gold onto the stones. Kae snapped out of her trance and looked up, dully holding the dagger.
They all heard it at the same time.
A roar shook the Firestone Keep. The firestone pillars around the throne room shook from the force of it, the veins of the firestone pulsing in time to something other than Haedria’s magic. The throne room shook again as something very large crashed into the side of the Keep. The queen lost her grip on Loren, and the princess fell to the ground.
“Seraphis!” The queen called. “Rouse the men, the dragon’s arrived! Leave these to me and go!”
The warrior princess turned back to her queen with a snarl. She raised one sword, then paused as if she was having second thoughts. Without a word, Seraphis turned and ran from the throne room, magic flames trailing in her wake just as another roar shook the castle.
As Seraphis was about to lay a hand on the grand doors of the throne room, they burst open on their own. A stream of armored soldiers, clad in steel emblazoned with the blue and gold dragon of Aldoran, pushed back the princess. Seraphis snarled, leaping back, swords at the ready. The soldiers brandished pikes and hid behind large shields, and began to push her back. The warrior princess lashed out, cutting several soldiers in the thin gap between the bottom of their helm and their breastplate. The soldiers fell, but more surged forward to
