Alni

by K Fisher

  The guard to his left had struck, fist slamming into Alni’s stomach as it took the air from him and took him to the stone ground. The second grabbed his hair, pulling his head upward and cranking his neck to the side as Mallor leaned forward. His breath was hot on Alni’s face, words a slither as his long hair fell into his vision.

  “Now you are on your knees where you belong, boy. Bow to your King. BOW!”

  The guard holding Alni’s hair pushed him once more towards the ground until his cheek was pressed against the cool floor. He tried to fight, hands moving from his stomach to the hand entangled in his messy hair. But Mallor had stood, his foot on the ground in front of Alni.

  “Kiss, boy.”

  Alni thought about kissing the boot and ending the fight. Of groveling and begging for the freedom of his friends and Dora. Freedom that he knew would never be granted by the evil man before him, even if he had once lied and said it would. The fight was over. Alni and the others had been bested and would die, at best, a slow and painful death. If Alni thought he had nothing to lose before, he most certainly didn’t now.

  Such acceptance was the only way of explaining what happened next.

  Holding the stone tightly in his hands, Alni lifted his head from the ground and spat on the boot in front of his face.

  The King growled and kicked forward, his boot meeting the side of Alni’s face with force. He fell backwards with a grunt, hand rising to his face as he moved to shield himself from another blow that was sure to come from the King. Instead, one of the guards reached forward and grabbed Alni’s hand that held the stone. Alni tried to hold on as tight as possible, but the shard was pried from his hand a moment later, leaving him on the ground with nothing.

  The elf approached Mallor, blue eyes looking to Alni through the helmet on his head before looking back to the King. Mallor extended a hand to accept the shard. The guard deposited it in his hand, moving away as laughter bubbled from between the King’s lips. He held the stone up towards the bright lights of the purple flames, the color making Alni’s stone appear to glow in his grasp.

  “So kind of you to finally bring it to me, Alni. Just like your father, you are so…surprising when it comes to what you feel you can or cannot do… especially when faced with real power. I’m afraid I can’t finish things up without our final guest joining us. I’m sure you were so excited to see Silthia was here for the finale. She was such a…good host while I wasn’t able to join you.”

  He turned from where Alni knelt on the ground and faced the flames, stone tight in his grasp.

  “Why don’t you bring in Elladora,” he said to his guards, “I think the Dark Ones are starting to get restless and I don’t want them harming her, yet.”

  Alni’s heart sank, hands sweating as he painfully brought himself to his feet. Behind him, two more elf guards pulled an angry Dora through the corridor and into the room with them. Her eyes were on Alni first, searching him with relief before they turned and froze on Mallor in rage.

  Alni could feel the hatred sizzling the air. His own hand absentmindedly went for his stone for protection. Forgetting for a moment that it was out of his grasp, no seasoned warlock there to help him use magic without it. Without the stone, he was with nothing as he watched the scene unfold before him, only uncontrollable magic at his disposal.

  Dora tried to struggle towards Mallor, but her hands were held behind her back by the guards, their iron grip keeping her from moving.

  “Murderer!” She yelled, shoulders yanking from side to side as she fought her way towards him.

  The guards were nearly dragged behind her, surprised eyes looking to each other before they stood their ground and pulled her back. Mallor was laughing, reaching into his pocket as he grabbed for the other half of the stone. With both pieces in his hand, his entire body was aglow by the magical fire.

  “My dear. You are mistaken. Your father was killed by the enemy. Enemies that have come against us for years and threatened to destroy us all. They must be put in their place and obey, otherwise we will be weak and what happened to your mother and father will happen once more.”

  “They weren’t killed by humans, they were killed by you. Bethinium got me out right on time. Bet you’ve been looking for me, huh, traitor?” Dora’s eyes were wild and bright, no end to her struggle.

  “Ah yes, I saw the warlock fighting and protecting those humans in Glade. Should have known he would not die so easily…” With a sigh, Mallor rubbed his hands together, the stones hitting and rolling against each other.

  “My dear, poor, mistaken child. You have become a traitor yourself, and no matter what claim you have to this throne, no matter the blood that runs in your veins, the punishment for such acts is death. You will burn in the magical fires until you are with your parents, punished for your acts against the Kingdom and your ruler.”

  As the words were spoken, Mallor’s smile grew until it consumed his face.

  “It is a pity you will not get to see the Mystic Dragon reign under my control and the eternal life I will obtain, a terrible pity. It will be mighty…I will be mighty,” Mallor’s words were said almost in a mumble, hands rubbing together ferociously as his wide eyes looked to the purple flames once again with hope and need.

  “Let her go! I-”

  Alni’s cries were cut short as Mallor placed both stones in one hand and extended the other to Alni. Amethyst colored trails of magic left his fingertips and wound around Alni’s head, clamping over his mouth and silencing him like a hand over his face.

  “Do not worry, boy. Unfortunately, as your comrades die in Glade for their treason against the Kingdoms, you too will die here for such acts,” Mallor’s face twisted and feigned sadness as he stayed by the flames and gestured the guards holding Dora, closer.

  “First, I’ve decided to allow you to see the stone combined, Dora. To know what fate your humans will see.”

  Bringing the stones together slowly, Mallor stared down at them with anticipation. The steady rising and falling of his chest danced along the shadows of the walls. There was a vibration through the very ground of the castle beneath them, Alni’s vision swaying as the stone was brought together. The two parts fitting as one perfectly.

  There was a shining golden hue where they met, a magic that danced along the jagged edge and repaired the damage that had been done so long ago. Once it finished merging, the gold erupted and blew against the fire, the energy filling the room; an energy matched with distant roars from outside.

  Alni struggled and screamed against the magic that held him. Iron hands kept him in place as the guards kept him there and away from their King, their own wide eyes staring ahead at what was transpiring. Dora was being drug towards the flames, her eyes wild and afraid as she kicked out towards those holding her, and Mallor at the fire’s edge.

  The purple flames danced in her eyes as the heat consumed everything in Dora’s mind. Her parents’ faces danced in the magical flames as they beckoned their daughter ever closer to death. Dora was screaming, the sound filled with rage and echoing in Alni’s mind long after she ceased.

  Mallor watched with excitement, holding the stone close as he spoke soft words to it. The guards pulled Dora close to the flames and stopped.

  “Just one more spell and immortality is mine…it’s all mine,” the King was murmuring, eyes staring intently at the merged stone at his hand before they darted back to Dora.

  She was close to the edge of the fire and the guards awaited his demand to throw her in. Her screams heightened as she bucked and kicked towards him, narrowly missing his body as the elves held her steady. Mallor opened his mouth, ready to give the word as Alni tried to look away from the scene before him but could not manage, staring at Dora, praying it could be stopped. He was unable to do anything to cease what was happening, trying his hardest to channel the magic as Bethinium had told him, to do anything to be of any use.

  But he had been trying all along, hadn’t he? Nothing was working, the magic refusing to
come to him in his greatest moment of need.

  Dora screamed again and Alni yelled out to match hers as he strained and tried to channel the magic within him once more. Just as the guards pushed her forward, she was yanked back, knocking the guards to the ground as she slid across the ground, as though pulled by some unseen force. The guards holding Alni let go immediately, screaming as they scrambled backwards. They were holding their hands, boils and burns erupting along their exposed skin.

  Alni extended his hands, the guards near the fire falling to the ground with the pressure of his magic and anger that had been released. They were yelling out in pain and alarm, but he could not focus on what they were saying or doing, his eyes were only on the King and the glowing stone in his outstretched hand.

  A roar sounded and Silthia erupted from her position against the wall. Alni made a move to turn towards her in hopes of attacking before she attacked him, but she had moved past his body and away from him.

  Barreling straight towards Mallor and the stone.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Alni would remember what happened next for the rest of his life, the scene playing out over and over again like a bad nightmare as he tried to grasp whether or not it could have been done differently; if only one little bit of the scene could have been changed and a life would have been kept as it was.

  What he would have done differently.

  Silthia’s head was low, spiked tail knocking approaching guards away as she leapt towards King Mallor and the purple flames. Her crimson eyes were narrowed in rage, a clarity so unlike the others under the King’s control; a look Alni knew he had been right in seeing in the first place. She meant to kill Mallor and there was no denying it. Like facing a predator just before it strikes, they were watching the murder of the King by the hands of a dragon, one they believed to be under his control, nonetheless.

  The King took several steps back as he held the stone towards Silthia with hopes to attack her before she reached him, but now whole, the stone was still fusing together, glowing and pulsing in his hand, and not yet coming to his aid.

  Silthia bit down, long fangs tearing into Mallor’s body as he screamed out in pain. At the same time, her weight hit him and forced his body and the stone into the purple flames in the middle of the room. Mallor’s screams of pain slowly started to fade as the flames ate away at his skin, both of them consumed by the magical fire along with the stone. His hands reached to escape, the flames grasping onto them and dragging his body and Silthia’s deeper into the fire, keeping either of them from escape as it destroyed them.

  Alni and Dora were both running towards the flames, desperate to get to Silthia, and to ensure Mallor was kept within until he was gone. Behind them, the clanks of dropped swords and groans from guards that had met Silthia’s wrath sounded as they adjusted. Some rushed to assist their King, despite seeing him already consumed by fire and beyond assistance.

  Slowly, the screaming stopped and only the flames remained. They had caught on Silthia’s scales, reaching high towards the top of the marble room. Alni grabbed Dora just before she reached the fire, arms encircling around her waist as he pulled her away. There was a crackle and a loud pop from within the flames as they rose ever higher. It was impossible to see Silthia now, impossible to see the bodies it had destroyed in its wake.

  Both Alni and Dora stood, eyes on the fire as it roared on and another pop sounded. The flames exploded towards them and Alni’s hand rose to tuck Dora’s head close to him, the warmth of the fire erupting around them, but it did not touch them or harm them, only caressed the sides of their bodies as it launched towards the walls. Almost as soon as it had reached for them, the flames were sucked back into the middle of the room.

  The Stone of Dragons slowly rolled from the depths. It stopped a good foot away and started to shake violently along the ground. There was yet another pop and it cracked in half on the marbled floor. A deep sigh escaped it, loud and long, like air was being let out from within.

  Dora stopped moving, one hand lowering to rest on Alni’s around her waist. They both waited, no one in the room making a sound as the last of the Stone of Dragon’s sigh was relinquished. Following the sound, an amethyst trail of magic oozed, sliding across the ground and into the flames where the stone had rolled from.

  The fire immediately shrank to its original size, lightening until they could see the shapes within. But only the destroyed body of Mallor, charred and dead, hid in the midst of the magical fire, no sign of the dragon that had sacrificed herself to end Mallor before he gained immortality and power over all.

  Alni took a calm step forward, grief hitting him hard and fast, but along with the grief came confusion as he searched for the charred body of Silthia near Mallor. They both moved towards the edge of the fire, murmuring from the guards behind them as they all tried to grasp what had just happened and where she had gone…what it all meant for the stone and the war raging just outside.

  “Well done.”

  Alni knew the voice, calming instantly despite Dora’s head whipping left and right near his chest, searching for the voice’s owner.

  The Mystic Dragon. The fire had not destroyed it as he had thought just a moment before, but still, the sadness remained inside Alni, emerald eyes looking into the flames.

  “Where’s Silthia? Is she…she has to be dead,” Alni said softly, his voice sounding far away and so unlike his normal tone.

  “It is not a sacrifice in vain, but a terrible loss nonetheless.”

  From the flames, a large dragon started to come into fruition, taloned legs pressing against the body of Mallor as the body turned to ash beneath the weight of the dragon. It walked slowly, head low as it emerged from the magical flames around it. They licked against the shimmering opal scales but did not penetrate them. Although the dragon looked just like Silthia, it was larger somehow…not seeming entirely solid as it moved towards them. The creature, compiled of magic, was almost ghost-like in nature, but still Alni could feel Silthia within, knew that somehow, in some way, she was alive. No matter what, that was all that mattered. Silthia…or some part of her, was alive, and the King was dead.

  The eyes of the dragon were the same deep amethyst as the Mystic Dragon when it spoke to Alni before. But instead of fire within telling Alni a story of death, it was clear and bright as Silthia’s had been.

  “Silthia will be filled with my essence for the good she has done, and allowed one more chance to abide by Desin’s rules. Keep her close, she is bound only to you.”

  The voice of the Mystic Dragon was further away, just out of grasp and almost too soft to hear.

  Silthia moved from the flames and looked to the guards behind Alni and Dora, not paying either of the young ones any mind as she snarled. Behind her, amethyst magic blasted upward, breaking and escaping out of a high window as it trailed away from the room and those within. Released magic, mystic magic that was finally freed from evil bonds. A magic that was now lost to Alni and gone forever.

  Yet he did not mourn it, unable to keep the smile from his face as the realization that they were alive and had won settled within him.

  Turning, Alni looked to the guards, expecting to see the Dark Ones present and elves ready to attack the group that had just killed their King. Instead, each and every guard had bowed down onto one knee. Their swords were resting in their outstretched hands as they bowed their heads to them and presented their weapons.

  No, not to them…to Dora. Alni was certain they bowed to the rightful heir to the throne.

  Alni let go of her as she took a few steps forward, looking down at the guards and others that slowly filled the room, driven there by the fight that had just taken place. She seemed hesitant and certain some of them would try to attack, but they only joined the others as they fell to their knees before her.

  Alni had heard stories of how the elves treated the ones on the throne, and how they believed in their old traditions above anything else. He had a hard enough time believing they d
idn’t rebel against Mallor for spitting on their tradition and taking the throne, even if the bloodlines were dead. But, of course, when faced with threatening dragons and certain death, a great many things could be turned a blind eye to or altered.

  But instead of relishing in her victory, Dora turned to Alni, fear in her golden eyes.

  “The dragons attacking…we have to stop them and without control over the stone…how…”

  Alni grabbed her hand and moved swiftly past the guards, behind them he could hear Silthia moving and the guards racing away to give her room. His walking turned to running, Dora racing alongside him as they left the castle and entered the courtyard outside. There were no longer dragons awaiting them or crawling up the black towers surrounding, the grounds eerily quiet.

  Instead, the sky was filled with dragons, small to large as their wings cast shadows on the ground below. None of them flew towards Glade or the Elven lands, instead they flew away from where they had been called to. The sky was black with wings as they escaped towards the Oceans of Yurel, and mountainside. More dragons came from far away, diving upward from the Nevina forests and joining their brethren, called to another location and away from the humans and Glade. Away from the castle that had enslaved a great many of them.

  Away from their attack against the humans and the damage that had been left behind. They were retreating and leaving their task behind, no longer controlled and demanded to kill under the name of King Mallor.

  Free. They were free.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  As things progressed, Alni felt like he was walking on air. After the dragons had left Glade, work was done to ensure villagers were relocated and given safety and food. The elves were ordered to extend their lands and welcome them in with open arms. Fires were extinguished and marketplaces were ransacked for their remaining goods.

  Dora was ushered off by Bethinium, Alni directed to remain with Silthia towards the back of the castle as things were dealt with. Dora’s reinforcements were at the castle, ensuring no elves or supporters of Mallor tried to attack or get to the Princess after word of the King’s death traveled through the Elven lands. The remaining living members of her extended family had been pulled from their homes and brought to the castle to speak and meet with Dora. Whether or not they were loyal to the ways of her father, it was unknown, but something that needed to be dealt with at once before things progressed.