“I saw the dragonfire, she is surely dead.” Sairus began to turn away. “I have more pressing concerns.”
“Something is happening to the mountain! Haedria is causing it!” Kae said, even more forceful than before. “You know there is danger, it’s the mountain!”
Warmaster Sairus turned to Kae again. He was about to lift his foot to move, when a tremor suddenly moved through the castle. The Firestone Keep shook violently, the stones creaking and debris dislodging from the walls. A terrible sound ripped through the air, a groan as if the mountain itself cried out.
“We need to leave! Now!” Warmaster Sairus roared, turning to the nearest limping soldier and pulling his arm around his own soldier. “Girl! Can you carry the princess away? Put her on the dragon, he will know what to do.”
Kae nodded quickly, the panic rising in her heart. She struggled to stand and lift Loren along with her, but found herself too weak to carry the princess alone. She turned to Elysia to ask for aid, but the slave girl had turned pale. The Firestone Keep rumbled and shook violently under their feet, forcing them to frantically adjust their footing just to keep standing. Elysia’s mouth opened and closed in a shocked stammer as she threw her arms out to keep balance.
“Elysia?”
“Seraphis!” She screamed suddenly. “My Seraphis!” the slave girl suddenly bolted, running deeper into the Keep even as debris fell from the ceiling, crashing into the pillars and threatening to block the hallway.
“Elysia, no! You have to leave! You’ll die here!” Kae called out, but it was too late. The slave girl had run too far in to hear.
By the main gates of the Keep, the dragon roared. But even the sound of Lind’s mighty call was not enough to be heard over the crashing of the mountain. Mount Volknar shook even more violently than before, bring huge rocks tumbling down from the ceiling. Kae struggled to lift the princess, and tried to scream for help above the noise.
The dragon roared again, and muscled in through the Keep’s entrance. Lind stood before Kae, crouching and angling one wing down to the floor. Kae nodded, and began to haul the princess up onto the dragon’s back, using Lind’s forearm and shoulder to boost herself and the princess up on the shimmering blue scales. Lind turned his head back and pushed Kae and Loren gently towards the center of his back before turning away and walking towards the drawbridge of the Firestone Keep and the town at the foot of the mountain.
Left alone, surrounded by the destruction of her own castle, Queen Haedria Dagan managed a weak chuckle. She lay among the stones and dust, the ashes of her men and of her legacy, and grinned.
The rumbling of the mountain stopped for several, merciful seconds. Then a blast of super-heated air burst through the heart of the mountain, exploding and expanding upwards through the mines of the Firestone Keep, snaking through the tunnels and bursting through the heavy ancient doors that connected them to the Keep proper. Bubbling, roiling magma soon followed, flowing up through the mines and its tunnels, melting and consuming the tools and supports left within the caves. The magma flowed steadily into the keep, bursting through the doors in a wave. The treasury and armory were quickly consumed, followed by various living quarters going up in flames. The queen’s chambers, her private bath, her study and library were destroyed utterly. Then the liquid fire rolled towards the throne room.
The wrath of Mount Volknar was all consuming. Those who did not die from the blast of scalding, burning air, were quickly overtaken by the flow of lava. The sheer heat of it melted the stone of the Keep, heating it within seconds and consuming the rock in a growing the wave of lava. The sound of it was immense, shaking the very stone of the keep with the noise. It roared and bubbled, picking up speed with every inch of its passing. The lava flow easily took over the firestone throne, spilling over the dais and around the firestone pillars. All the firestone it passed and consumed exploded fiercely, sending globs of melted rock flying in all directions. The fiery glow of the lava crept up the hallway.
“Lind! Lind, hurry, please!” Kae cried. The dragon was clear of the Firestone Keep, but lacked the space to take to the sky. Lind roared mightily and leapt onto the wall that circled the main city of Sagna. His claws gouged the stone as he hauled himself to the top. With more space for his wings, the dragon began to flap his wings, slowly climbing into the sky.
Below him, the flow of the lava began to spill out from the main gates of the Firestone Keep, burning the drawbridge on contact, but soon filling the moat that was dug to ward off invaders and continuing on down to the town. As the dragon flew higher up, the haunting sound of Haedria’s laugh, growing fainter every second, rang in Kae’s ears.
Kae clung onto the short spikes that dotted Lind’s spine, holding on for dear life. One arm was looped around Loren, holding the princess close to her. Far below her was a streak of silver, shambling as fast as it could through the Sagnian city. It was the soldiers of Aldoran making their retreat. A blot of dark fur dashed through the line of the soldiers, leading someone that tried frantically to keep up with it, along with a Beastman having a slightly easier time. Cassendir, Kaiten, and Ma’trii were alive, but no one knew for how much longer. The flow of lava was quickly catching up to them.
“They can’t make it away fast enough!” Kae cried. The howl of wind from every beat of Lind’s wings as he circled the sky above Sagna whipped Kae’s words away. She pointed
