She rolled her eyes and put her hands on her hips. “Well, your orders were stupid. Besides, I saved your life, didn’t I?”
“Now, now, let’s not bring mistakes like that up again, shall we?”
Sheila shook her head and pinched my cheek. “Well, go to it, hero. Do your thing.”
I gave her a nod and a wink. “With pleasure.”
Arlan had his sword raised high and was shouting orders to his troops, telling them to bring down the dragon. Heh. Like they really had a chance.
I lurched forward from my position, moving quick as lightning, blade out in front.
“Arlan!” I called.
He spun around, swinging his sword in a wide arc.
I dove, coming in under his guard, forcing my blade upward at the last second. It rammed into his torso and kept going, higher and higher, until it pierced his icy heart.
Arlan shuddered and paled. “My queen,” he said through tight lips. Then he fell to the ground.
“No!” Boudicca cried. “Not again!” She spun around in a rage and hurled some nasty spell at me. I rolled to the side to avoid its blast just in time.
“The game is up!” I shouted at her. “Surrender!”
Boudicca fired another spell at me. This one scored a glancing blow to my broken arm. Icy coldness, pain, and hopelessness washed over me. It was all I could do to scramble back up to my feet, fighting against the darkness that threatened to consume me.
But stand I did, holding my sword aloft, pointed at her.
“Fools!” Boudicca shouted. “This isn’t over!” She fired a bolt of dark energy over her shoulder. It flew through the air and smacked into Mei’s underbelly, but she shook it off and picked up another Iceni, breaking him in half in her massive jaws.
“You think the battle lost, but I still hold all the power!” Boudicca continued. “All of you will die as soon as I complete my spell!”
She raised her arms again and resumed her chanting. All at once, the room started to darken once more, and I felt that same awful burning in my skull.
This time, even Mei and Sheila seemed to be affected, too, and the chaos and carnage stopped while everyone stood still, trying in vain to keep from falling to the queen’s dark spells. I fell down to one knee as I brought my injured hand up the side of my head, cradling it and hoping to all that’s holy that the magic would just stop already.
“Thig spiorad thugam!” Boudicca chanted, finishing the spell.
A massive shockwave of dark magic shot forth from her body, enveloping the room. I thought for sure it would bowl me over and tear my atoms apart one at a time, but when the wave hit me, it only tickled instead.
Boudicca dropped her hands to her sides and looked around like she was all at once victorious and confused. “There!” she said. “It is done! The dragon’s power is now mine to control!” She grinned up at Mei. “Kill him, beast,” she commanded, pointing a bony finger at me. “Kill Damian!”
Mei’s jaw opened and she took in a deep breath, but when the flames came, they weren’t for me. The last of the Iceni warriors met their fiery end a moment later as Mei chuckled and snapped her jaws in Boudicca’s direction.
Boudicca cocked her head to the side. “But how? How is this possible? The spell?”
“Think again, queeny!” I yelled. Quick as a flash, I got to my feet and lunged forward, blade arm first, point aimed straight for her cold, dead heart.
Boudicca grunted and looked down at her shadowy chest, where my blade was protruding from it, with shock in her eyes.
“Heh,” she said, grabbing the weapon and starting to pull it free. “Your futile attempts at war are meaningless, gnat. I am immortal. I cannot be killed by mere steel!”
“Rick!” I shouted at the top of my lungs. I could see him now. He was right there in the doorway, exactly where I’d asked him to be, clutching that big tome of his. His eyes were glazed over, and he was staring up at Mei, mesmerized.
“Rick!” I demanded again. “Now! Do it now!”
I steadied my grip on the sword and pushed harder, determined to keep the blade inserted in her heart. Boudicca pushed against me. Slowly, my grip started to loosen as the blade was forced backward.
“Rick!” I shouted again. “Come on, buddy! Now or never!”
Rick’s eyes flashed for a second, and he shook his head, then looked up at me. “Right!”
He started chanting the words to his own spell. As he chanted, the queen’s body started to thrash and writhe, fighting against the magic that had now been turned against her.
“Impossible!” she cried. “How? How did you beat me?”
“Easy,” I told her, panting hard while continuing to hold on with the last of my strength. “Look at my sword again.”
Boudicca’s eyes lowered until they were looking at the gleaming sword sticking out of her chest. Sitting there in all its glory, was not my katana, but Grax’thor, in the flesh. She looked at her own sword, then, with a look of equal parts horror and frustration as the illusion melted, and it turned back into my good old katana.
“How?” she asked. “How?”
That was the last thing she ever said as an evil spirit. Rick completed his chanting a moment later, and Boudicca let out a massive wail as her shadowy form was drawn into Grax’thor’s blade. She fought as hard as she could, but the magic was more powerful than she was. A moment later, she was gone.
I looked down at Grax’thor, and the blade looked a shade darker than it had in the past. The runes shifted and changed before my eyes, forming a word in English.
Bitch, the letters said.
“Heh. Eternal life’s not so great now, is it?” I told the weapon.
It didn’t answer.
In spite of myself, I let out a slight chuckle. Boudicca was trapped and would never harm anyone ever
