“Bullshit.” Bahz, the pale blonde Seelie that I’d trained with, been promoted alongside, and trusted with my life more times than I could count, glared at the respected Seer along with the rest of us as he reached across his hip and pulled out his sword.
Before I could even grasp what he might even try to do, Myrcedes had begun moving, almost like she’d expected this. I knew for a fact she had left her scythe at the Moonstone Castle, but as she jumped over the podium with her arm outstretched, it appeared in her hand the way the book had just materialized in Tawney’s. I saw Daath and Syrion pull out their own weapons as the rest of the soldiers drew theirs, but everyone froze when the sharp clang of metal rang through the hall.
Upon being lunged at, Bahz had swung his sword quite recklessly. I knew exactly what kind of training he had received, and there was no method the fae army knew of to fight against a scythe effectively. As a weapon, it was less predictable than a sword because of the sharp curve of the blade, but regardless of that, it wasn’t used by anyone besides the reapers of Death. No one bothered training to fight against scythes. The lack of preparation against the weapon was almost a show of good faith to the King of Death, a promise that when their time came, they wouldn’t put up a fight. No one ever imagined they’d be fighting with the Queen of the Middle World, a reaper of Death herself, and defending their lives against a scythe in front of their entire kingdom.
Myrcedes had every opening to do any number of things that would have ended Bahz and his resistance in a moment. He’d foolishly exposed his neck, his chest, and his gut when he swung against a scythe, but she didn’t take a chance to cut any of those. She held her scythe up high as he swung to catch his blade mid-air. The room stared at the two figures, frozen in a standstill. The first to move their weapon would set the other’s free while leaving themselves open to attack. What I found myself stuck on, though, was why Myrcedes hadn’t ended this fight before it began.
The Queen pushed hard with her scythe, knocking her opponent’s blade even further from his center of gravity and throwing him off entirely. Bahz could have recovered easily enough except for the fact that he was standing up against a chair which caused him to trip backward. The whole show might have been hilarious if it weren’t for the collective gasp the room shared when the Seelie Lieutenant lost his grip on his weapon.
The sword was flung from his hand and soared through the air, heading directly for the middle of the crowd behind him. My eyes darted to where Myrcedes was, only then she wasn’t. I watched the remnants of black clouds fade where she’d just stood. Had she world-jumped in the middle of all this?
A scream in the middle of the crowd snapped my attention back to the sword in the air. I watched helplessly as it plunged into the crowd. I felt my breath leave my body as I imagined the worst possible scenario. There was no chance it had missed everyone. I ran from behind the podium toward the crowd which was so thick with everyone trying to get a look at what I could only imagine was a grisly sight.
“Move!” I cried as I elbowed through the creatures. “Move, I can help! I have medical salves, I-”
I froze when I made it through the crowd. There was a circle where everyone had moved away from, and in the center was a wooden chair, identical to the rest of those in the courtroom, with the army blade stuck in the center.
I walked to the chair and pulled the blade out. I brushed past the feeling as I had more important things to worry about, but holding that sword, identical to the one I’d carried for centuries, stirred up a feeling of longing I’d been suppressing for weeks.
Voices chattered around me as everyone discussed what had just happened. I pushed my way into the aisle and looked up to the front of the room. In front of the podium, before the crowd, stood Myrcedes, with her arms around an elf woman holding a baby in her arms. The elf was sobbing into the Queen’s shoulders, crying thanks while the baby in her arms wailed.
I rushed down the aisle to the silver-eyed savior and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Myrcy, you dis… you jumped?”
She looked up at me from over the elven woman’s shoulder. “Of course. I wasn’t going to let Bahz’s stupidity harm anyone else.”
There was a ripple throughout the hall as everyone realized what had happened. The Lieutenant had tripped, dropped his sword, and the woman he’d just accused of trying to manipulate the fae had rushed to save a woman and her baby from his carelessness. Before the elf had composed herself or calmed her screaming infant, the hall burst into cheers and claps.
Myrcedes looked up and around the room. The fae were hollering praises and admiration for her. I looked over at Bahz to see how he was reacting to the whole thing just as he took a step toward me, probably to take back his blade. I adjusted my grip and held the sword up with the point of it in his direction. He flinched to avoid running directly into it, and the room fell silent as they watched.
“I’m less forgiving than she is,” I sneered at him, pushing the blade just close enough so that almost poked his neck. The soldier raised his head to avoid the blade, and he made an expression I knew very well: that of a warrior expecting death any second. When I didn’t plunge the metal straight through him, he lowered his eyes and stared
