“Now is not the time!” Loren said, pushing Kae back behind a pillar. “Go, now! I’ll distract them so please, hurry!”
Kae’s mouth fell open to respond, but the princess had already turned her back. Seraphis had helped Haedria up, and the queen and princess were an image of fury. Loren glanced back, towards the pillar where she knew Kae was safe and hiding, and smiled sadly.
“That was not very kind of you, my little dragon.” Haedria purred. She reached a pale hand to her face, wiping the blood off her mouth and leaving a streak of crimson on her skin. “It was quite unladylike, so unbecoming of a princess. What if your mother knew? I assume she would be so displeased, so dishonored to know her little girl has acted so savagely. Perhaps…” The queen grinned. “I could teach you some manners. Seraphis, my dear sister, if you could assist…”
Haedria reached forward and laid a hand on Seraphis’s shoulder. The younger sibling, already in the act of drawing a blade from her belt, pitched over screaming. Twisting, burning markings flowed from Haedria’s fingers and into Seraphis’s skin. Flame rose freely from the markings, starting fires across Seraphis’s leather armor, heating the metal buckles and details to a white hot glow. The warrior princess of Sagna screamed in pain till the very air in her lungs burned out, yet still she moved. She drew her blade and began to advance towards Loren.
“Lind!” Loren screamed, backing away. “Lind, please, I have to help her! She doesn’t deserve this!” She turned back to glance at the dragon who stared curiously back. “There has to be something you can do!”
Lind’s gaze on the princess was passive, watching her every move. Loren kept her eyes on Seraphis, even as the latter raised the sword she wielded. Loren scrambled backwards, unarmed and out of options with Haedria’s twisted instrument of death approaching her, and the dragon did nothing.
Desperation took hold. Loren screamed a challenge at Seraphis, golden eyes glittering with a faint hope that she could do something. Anything. She charged at the flaming specter knowing full well Haedria’s magic could leap into her instead. But maybe, just maybe, Haedria could not control them both.
Lind extended his long neck towards the Firestone Keep, his head hovering just above Loren. He looked down, and exhaled.
The warm gust of air did not accompany dragonfire. It was a comforting and strong breeze that blew Loren forward a few paces, and stopped Seraphis in her tracks. The air steadily blew out Haedria’s magic flames. The inherent magic contained within the dragon’s breath blew away the burned mage markings on both girls, the swirling marks moving across their skin like wood shavings blown off a carpenter’s work.
Seraphis took a step backwards from the force of the dragon’s breath. Then another. She lost her balance on the third, and fell on her back onto the ash-caked stones. She shuddered once, finally freed of the markings that had been burned into her skin for the longest time, and fell unconscious with a sigh. The sword she held clattered out of her hand, melted to the hilt and useless.
“No!” Haedria screamed. The queen reeled back from the dragon’s breath, the sheer force of the wind whipping back her blood red hair and staggering her. The glow of flames faded from the queen’s own mage markings, the swirling patterns turning dark and still. Haedria clamped her hands over her arms, crossing them over her chest and shivering from a slight breeze. “My sister! My magic! What have you done?” the queen’s eyes were wide, manic. Her once cocky grin had become a feral snarl.
The dragon’s breath ended with a soft breeze that made the unconscious Seraphis’s mouth twitch into a comforted smile. Loren saw the other princess’s head fall to the side as if asleep, and had a feeling that it was the first time in a long time she felt anything other than burning heat. Haedria, however, howled in pain. The queen shook violently, shivering in the gentle breeze as if she was caught in a blizzard within the northern lands.
“How dare you? How dare you do this to me? To me! I am the queen of Sagna, you worm!” Haedria screamed. Her mage markings struggled in the wake of the dragon’s breath, trying to keep a glow like a flame that refused to catch.
Loren, stunned, looked down at her own hands. Where Haedria’s markings used to be burned into her skin, raised and tender, now there was nothing. Her skin was clear, healthy, as if never touched by Haedria’s magic. She glanced back at the blue and gold dragon, and understood. The magic of the dragons was one of life; Lind had healed her. He had healed Seraphis, breaking the warrior princess free of her cruel sister’s hold. Loren began to smile, when the queen howled in insult again.
The blood red queen was on her in a flash. In her hand was a dagger with a black blade, carved from a solid chunk of ebonstone. The dark stone glittered menacingly in the light of the braziers as Haedria spun it in her hand, adjusting her grip, and lunged for the princess. The mage markings flickered slowly, haltingly to life, sending a pulse of heat radiating from the queen that dried the very air in Loren’s throat. The markings on the queen’s left hand began to glow fiercely, flames emerging from within the markings and moving fluidly, gathering in Haedria’s palm before forming a twisting, burning whip. The tip sparked against the stone floor, melting gouges into the rock wherever they touched.
Loren took another step back. The princess glanced up at Lind, who stared passively back at her. She knew he would only help so much, and with the dragon pendant destroyed there was no way to order the dragon to move. Down the hall, far
