Shadow of the Crown

by Amber Morant

  Anjuu nodded. "We will. Who knows how much she is pushing for. I'll need the ren zhe with us during the invasion. We're going to be fighting an entire army and I can't get through that city on my own when they're on such high alert now."

  "You can get them. We're leaving immediately. Gather within the capital and await your command. There aren't many of us, but I'm sure the queen will take us in as refugees. From there, we can attack from within."

  "Just be safe, Falor. I don't need you all dying." Anjuu clasped Falor's hand and squeezed. "This won't be easy, but I will keep fighting for you. We'll meet you in the next few days. Be safe."

  Falor squeezed her hand back. She cringed under his strength but held her ground. Anjuu knew this would be the last time she saw the people of Ravencroft. Even if they survived the battle, the world was too huge and the people too cruel. Once Kalio was taken down, she would need to remember his name at the very least and send something to him and his family for all he had done last night.

  Falor released Anjuu's hand and walked over to a large pickup truck. A few people were already sitting in there. Others stayed behind, looking for lost ones that died in the fire or who were too scared to leave Ravencroft to fight after what they had seen last night. War was not for everyone.

  A small squeak pulled Anjuu’s attention away from the crowd. Inside of the bag still attached to Tosh's back was the moon dragon peaking his head out. She smiled and walked over to the dragon. It let out another squeak and puff of smoke.

  "No fireballs for you for a while. Wonder how big you need to be for that or how long it will take." Anjuu lifted the moon dragon out of the back. Unlike last night, when his scales were still soft, they had hardened, and the tips of each scale was sharp enough to slice someone. She would have to avoid petting the dragon backward or face severe gashes in her hands.

  Tosh shrugged the bag off and handed it to Anjuu. "Best to have the dragon's bed with you. Don't want to separate yourself too much more."

  "Thanks." She pulled the back pack onto her one shoulder while holding the dragon in the other. "Are you going to be all right, Tosh? We need to find where the ren zhe are but after last night—"

  "I'll be fine. Please don't bring them up to me." He shoved a hand into the pocket that Anjuu knew he kept the gemstone. "I'll come with you. There isn't much left for me elsewhere and if I die, then it's how I go. Besides, if I stay with you at least we have access to my money without fear of dying by some guard."

  A drow in the crowd examining the bodies perked his head up and looked over at Anjuu. He had a large mustache that hid his mouth, and his body was round enough that if he sat, he would resemble more of an oversized balloon than a drow. The man hobbled over to Anjuu. "You're looking for the ren zhe? Here, for helping last night." The man pulled out a piece of paper and shoved it into Anjuu's free hand. His eyes darted over to the dragon for a moment before returning to Anjuu. "Might not be much to go by, but my brother left this a few nights ago saying he was going to join them." He took in a deep breath and exhaled. "At least, that's what he said he was going to do until they called me. He was in the fights last night. No way was he in a drunk brawl. I know him better than anyone. Sure, some smoking here and there, but alcohol was off limits for him."

  Anjuu looked at the paper and saw that it was a letter with directions to campgrounds nearby. "Thank you. This will help greatly."

  The man nodded and twitched his nose. "At least he didn't die in vain. Just..." He wiped a tear from his eye. "Avenge my brother for me. I'm too old to fight anymore. Ask me twenty years ago and I would have gladly led the cavalry." He pulled something else out of his pocket and held it out for Tosh. "You'll want this too."

  Tosh grabbed what looked like a small key in the man's hand. "What's this for?"

  "I doubt the queen will let escaped scholars roam around so easily soon. You'll want a place to stay when that happens. It's a bunker just outside the capital. Steel door looks like it leads directly into the ground. You won’t miss it."

  "We'll remember this. Thank you again." Anjuu looked over and saw some of the guards looking in their direction. "If you've been able to identify your brother you should leave. I think some of the police might start realizing something's wrong. I don't need you in danger."

  The drow nods and turns back around to wave at the police. "I'm ready to identify my brother. Can we call the coroner?" He walked over to the line of dead men who hadn't been burnt.

  "We should go too, if the ren zhe are nearby then we can get to the castle and stop this once and for all." Anjuu looked down at the letter. It mentioned a campground she knew was on the way to the capital. She crumpled the paper and handed it to her dragon. "Do you eat this stuff?"

  The dragon sniffed the ball of paper then snapped at it, ripping a piece off. He quickly spit it back out with a puff of smoke.

  Anjuu laughed. "OK, I take it you aren't a goat. We'll get you something to eat then and head out."

  Anjuu and Tosh walked the opposite direction of the guards monitoring the crime scene. She just needed to find a convenience store and buy some prepackaged lunch meat. It should suffice for now until she learned of better options for the dragon. He already had rows of sharp teeth, so the fear of him not eating meat wasn’t a worry.

  Anjuu drove the motorcycle down the city streets. The moon dragon was snuggled deep within the backpack. He had devoured three packs of lunch meat before getting full. She could only imagine how much he would eat full grown and she worried if she’d be able to afford that. Tosh was sitting behind her, unable to cling as tight as he wanted with the dragon now on Anjuu’s back. If he would just get used to it, the driving would be much smoother, and they would be able to go faster.

  Up ahead, she could see a traffic jam. Anjuu slowed the bike down to half the speed limit and lowered her glasses. The scanner sped through different traffic reports until it stopped on the most recent article.

  "New shuttles from the capital? What the hell is this talking about?" She turned back to look over her shoulder. "Tosh, you see this?"

  "What are they shuttling them to? The training camps for the new army she's building?"

  Anjuu pulled up to the traffic jam and turned off her bike. Large buses and cattle trucks filled the lanes. Anjuu could hear cries of small children inside along with adults all asking for help.

  "That's not an army recruitment." She stepped off her bike and walked toward the front of the cattle truck. She could see people filling the back. Not a single drow mixed in with the group. "Hey," she banged on the driver's door, "what's going on? Where are they going?"

  The driver peered down. He was an older drow and dressed like many of the other personal royal guards. "Queen's orders. She wants to resettle any of those who lost their homes from the rebellion. That's all I know and I'm getting paid."

  "Just resettling elves?"

  "Queen wants to make sure drow are well cared for in the capital."

  "Where are you taking them?"

  The driver looked up into the sky. "Last I heard, we were heading to the northwest. Some small town called Silverwilde."

  Anjuu took in a sharp breath. She recognized that name all too well. Kalio had mentioned a prison she was building called Silverwilde. The people inside the trucks knew what was happening yet the drows all driving the elves were oblivious. She clenched her hands. She wanted to kill every one of them but had to hold herself back. She needed to reach the capital. Once she stopped Kalio, there would be time to save all of them. For now, she had to keep a low profile.

  "Is this the only ones you are taking?"

  Again, the drow shrugged. "I just listen to orders. Told to drive the truck here then come back. Look, I can't keep talking about this. It's need-to-know information. Come back when you enlist in the queen's army. You look like you could be strong enough to survive the training."

  Anjuu smiled. "You have no idea." She tapped on the man's door. "Thanks for letting me know. Heading to the capital soon, so
it's good to know what's going on before I get there."

  Anjuu walked back to the bike and climbed on. "Tosh, we're skipping the ren zhe for now. We're going to the capital first and then you will return to the campground in my stead."

  A loud roar filled the air overhead. Anjuu looked up and saw Ream flying above them. He circled the convoy a few times before flying back to the capital. Anjuu wondered if Kalio was on his back or if he had gone on his own. She shrugged it off, even if Kalio was there, there was no way the queen could tell it was her on the streets with the convoy.

  "Are you sure? I've never driven a bike before."

  "Good, then you'll have motivation to learn quickly." Anjuu climbed back off so Tosh could slide forward.

  They started out slow, driving through the crowded street. Eventually, Tosh had ahold of the bike and they were back to the speed limit toward the capital. Anjuu noted the sign pointing to the campgrounds and made sure Tosh remembered it. They would reach the capital in under an hour. The moon dragon was sleeping inside of the bag. He was too small to take with her inside of the capital. Much safer going with Tosh at this point.

  She wished the elves back in the convoy well. As a drow, it was hard to say she felt sorry for all of them. She knew so many still looked down on the drow and treated them like second-class citizens. Most likely they were the ones Kalio had chosen as the first to be resettled into the prison. Though the children were innocent and shouldn’t be punished like this.

  The wall surrounding the capital grew larger. It had been far too long since she had seen it. The last time she left, she knew she wouldn't return for some time. But none of it was supposed to be like this. She had wanted to just return to the castle, climb into the queen’s room, and wake up the next day as if none of this had happened. If the queen had simply trusted her and she had stopped the rebellion sooner.

  Anjuu shook her head. She couldn't think like that. After all, she had learned what the queen had done, it was highly likely everything transpiring now would still have happened. Unlike today, she would have still been standing next to Kalio and watching the elves be taken to the prison. Everything that the queen said she would have taken as truth. Now Anjuu saw the picture perfectly and how the darkness had engulfed Kalio's heart. She wasn't the queen that Anjuu had grown up to believe in anymore.

  Tosh slowed the bike down until they reached the wall. He stopped the bike and looked up at the wall. “When I was growing up, I wanted to come here to see the capital. This wasn't how I expected to do it."

  "Good thing you're not going in." Anjuu slid her bag off her back and handed it to Tosh. "Take good care of him. I'll be back, but it's not safe for either of you here. Stay with the ren zhe, tell them I sent you and for Pom to meet me here."

  Tosh nodded, throwing the bag on his back. The moon dragon let out a small snort and a puff of smoke drifted out of the bag. "You should at least give your dragon a name before you leave."

  "You're right. " She looked into the bag at the moon dragon still sleeping. How long would he keep sleeping, she wasn't sure. "Ryoto. It's a name drow would give to the guardians that visited them through history. Perhaps that will be blessing enough that will give him strength to survive until I come back."

  "I'll keep him safe."

  Anjuu and Tosh clasped hands and stood in silence for a moment before Anjuu released him and walked toward the capital. Tosh turned the bike back on and drove off down the road. Anjuu felt a twinge in her heart as she watched them leave. She wondered if she would ever see them again. She was a dragon guardian, but her dragon couldn't fight. Perhaps Devata had farther plans, but now it just seemed the dragon was a symbol for the people to follow.

  She pulled the mask off her belt and looked down at it. The last mask she would ever wear as a shadow. To infiltrate and kill the queen would be just as deadly as leaving the guild. She put it on, feeling the comfort the mask always brought her, hiding her appearance from the outside world. Anjuu's heart grew cold and her focus now remained on her target: Kalio.

  Thirty-Two

  The orders were sent only moments after she had made her announcement on the news for the world to see. Many were more than willing to join the army, including some elves. There were others who were not so willing and had fought against the draft. Their names were quickly recorded and within days they were shoved onto trucks and shipped to Silverwilde.

  Kalio looked out the window of her study. She wondered how many were already shipped out and how many were left. She had made sure Silverwilde was large enough to fit an entire city and maintain its own food by the prisoners, so she never had to send any resources to them. Yet the amount of reports that flooded in of new deportees seemed endless.

  Ream had returned from another scouting mission on his own. If Anjuu had intended on coming to the capital, she would never have taken a direct route and shown her face. She knew the drow all too well, she would have gotten a new mask and found a way to sneak in. Even now, Kalio had many of the known entrances into the castle heavily guarded for this exact purpose.

  A loud boom came from farther in the city. The explosion garnered all of her attention. She searched around but couldn’t see any sign of it. She walked over to her bookshelf and grabbed a small monocular. She brought it back to the window and looked outside. They were still small but Kalio could distinctively tell it was some of her guards fighting a shadow.

  She watched the shadow's movements and weapons. Knives and pistols galore. Kalio lowered the monocular, her body shaking in rage. Despite all the guards, Anjuu had still managed to get in.

  "Idiots, all of them! If they can't stop a shadow, then I'll do it myself."

  Kalio stormed through the halls and down to Ream. The dragon was still grooming its scales when she walked in. "If she wants a fight, then she'll get one. Ream!" The dragon picked its head up. "Get ready, we're going to burn this entire city down tonight."

  Kalio took a deep breath. She had hoped Anjuu would have died long ago. She had raised the drow since childhood. She was like a younger sister and yet she was like all the others who betrayed her. All the people close to her, she should have expected Anjuu to understand the plight of the drow and refuse to let the elves gain control.

  Ream flew above the streets but stayed low enough until they reached where Anjuu was. The drow had managed to steal one of the guard’s rifles and was shooting elemental bullets at the remaining guards who chose to stand and fight.

  Kalio touched her throat. She had a scholar implant a new mark on her neck recently. A vibration filled her throat and Kalio opened her mouth, her voice boomed over the city. "Anjuu, I know it's you. If you're here to kill me, then face me like a true shadow."

  The guards who were still standing in the fight took off running as soon as they heard Kalio's voice. She scoffed at them. Cowards. Anjuu, on the other hand, was now looking up at her with full attention.

  "Ream, land near her. I want to see her face when we burn her alive."

  The dragon nodded and folded its wings, so they dove down. Ream's claws dug into the roof of one of the buildings and let out a loud roar. Unlike the people still on the streets, Anjuu didn't move. Her mask hid her true emotions, but Kalio knew all too well the shadow's face was as emotionless as always. It was the girl’s armor she held onto even when she was told to kill her family so long ago.

  Anjuu aimed the rifle at Kalio and pulled the trigger. It was a fire bullet, which struck Ream and bounced off his scales. "Did you really expect such a weak weapon to kill a dragon? Maybe you did lose your skill as a shadow. No matter." Kalio leaned forward and smiled. "Ream, burn her. Burn them all."

  The dragon obeyed and took in a deep breath. He released a large fireball at the shadow. Kalio watched the fire surround Anjuu and smiled to herself. In just one attack the shadow was finally dead. All the work and money she had put into paying for someone else to kill Anjuu and she did it on her own in one breath.

  The fire subsided and Kalio looked to find Anju
u still standing. She narrowed her eyes. It was the real Anjuu, yet the dragon’s fire did nothing.

  "It can't be. No one can withstand the fire of a dragon unless..." A smile drifted across Kalio's face. "Of course. Devata got to you before we killed them. You were chosen to be the dragon guardian and you got the egg to hatch. Too bad you didn't bring them here to fight for you. At least a battle with dragons would have been far more entertaining."

  Anjuu held her rifle up again. Ream didn't wait for any commands this time, instead he lifted his front paw and swung at the shadow. Anjuu was sent flying into a nearby wall. Kalio nodded in approval and patted Ream on his back.

  "Easy enough. Should have done this long ago." Kalio looked over at Anjuu, her mask was half off her face as her body was slumped over. Even as high ranking as Anjuu was, there was no way a shadow could survive the impact against the wall as she did.

  Ream took back off into the air and Kalio placed her hand on her throat to amplify her body. "People of Narishma. Your savior, the dragon guardian Anjuu, is no more. Don't place your hearts with usurpers like her. Starting today, if you speak against the drow or attempt to disobey my orders, you will be immediately executed. All soldiers on ground, burn down every household that wishes to defy my orders. Devata is gone and my word is law."

  Thirty-Three

  It had already been a year since Kalio had executed almost all the elves in the capital. Yet here Karin was, walking the streets to try and find scraps. Most of the outer buildings were still dilapidated, unused by anyone other than rats nowadays and the occasional hunter trying to hide from the law.

  A voice broke out in Karin's ear. "Karin, you need to focus. If you can't find any weapons tonight the coliseum will collapse on itself."

  "I hear you. We'll find something out here. No way the place has been completely clear."

  Karin paused. Something had caught her eye. In one of the alleys was a small mask. It had slits where the eyes would be and red paint that had faded from age. She turned it around but didn't see a name of who it might belong too.