It was a cry of warning.
The shaman repeated the call, and the orcs near Blaze began adding their calls to his, like a chorus of wolves baying at the moon.
It was a terrifying sound, even though Blaze knew they were on her side.
She let the touch of fear ignite her spark. The familiar rush of volcanic heat flooded through her.
Guards atop the city wall brought torches to the front gate as Dreck and Orktag arrived beneath it.
“We spotted Princess Sapphire in the woods,” said Orktag hurriedly, out of breath. He spoke so loudly that the still night air carried his voice all the way to Blaze in the woods. “She opened some kind of portal to Crystalia Castle. She intends to bring the king’s guards here, through the portal.”
Orcs barked the information over the walls. There was a rustling on the other side and soon the main gate opened to reveal three hulking Rimefrost Orc captains.
“Princess here!” repeated the largest Rimefrost captain. He motioned to the woods. “Right outside the gate. We take her now! Then we’ll follow the portal to Crystalia Castle—we’ll drink the blood of King Jasper! Battle and glory!”
The orcs hooted and pounded their armor.
“But the princess has powerful magic!” grunted Orktag. “She’s used her magic on this one. His leg is like stone.”
Dreck groaned, dragging his leg behind him.
“Bring all the warriors!” the Rimefrost Orc captain commanded. “The princess is strong and crafty.”
The remaining Crook-Eye Orcs fled from their hiding places in the woods, barking warning cries and charging toward the city walls, as if they were filled with terror.
Blaze ran behind them. She pulled one gauntlet off and let it dangle by its tie to her wrist. It did feel good to be dressed as Princess Sapphire, even if it did mean that she was a target.
She sent a few fireballs in their direction, spreading her fingers to dissipate the fireballs before they harmlessly hit the Crook-Eye Orcs. It would add the perfect touch to the illusion that they were under attack.
She neared the edge of the wood before the open field at the foot of the city gates. There she stopped and, with her one ungauntleted hand, focused her fire into a glowing pillar. If she concentrated enough, she could change the fire’s hue. She focused, sending just the right twist, and turned the pillar a shining white. Then she shaped it, turning it until it swirled into a concentrated sphere. The huge, white glowing orb looked just like the portals back in King Jasper’s chambers at Crystalia Castle: direct access points to the inner castle and the king himself.
Then she stepped out of the woods into the moonlight, in full view of the castle, cape fluttering behind her, helmet visor locked down over her face. Blaze raised her sword.
“That’s her!” cried the Rimefrost captain. “The portal! Come now, you cowards. Fight! Kill the princess!” A line of orcs charged from the city gates, weapons raised. The bait had worked.
Blaze sent a weaker flash toward one of the orcs that dissipated before it hit him. The orc sped up, as if escaping the fireball.
“She is weak! Send the gnolls,” ordered the largest of the orc captains.
They have gnolls! A stab of fear hit Blaze. She tried to steel her nerves. Focused, nonplussed, just like Princess Sapphire would be.
War horns blared out across the city.
Moments later, a pack of wolf-like creatures half as high as the orcs burst out of the city gate.
“Oh my,” said Blaze.
The gnolls were armed with shields and swords, their white fur bristling and their teeth gnashing, the snow churning in flurries as the pack charged toward Blaze, hopping logs and dodging trees as they ran through the forest. They bayed and howled as they ran, sending chills into Blaze’s spine.
What they lacked in size, they made up for in sheer numbers and savagery. There was no chance her fire could stop all of the gnolls.
But she wasn’t out of tricks yet.
She readied a small fireball in each hand, each one more brimstone than flame. She stalled for a moment, then blasted the heavy, snow-laden branches on two trees just in front of the charging pack. The branches shook, then sprang upward, dropping their heavy snow contents onto the attacking gnolls.
Two gnolls were buried in the small avalanche. The next half dozen were thrown off course, scattering between the dense trees and losing their forward momentum. One of the gnolls smacked head-on into a tree trunk. He fell down, whimpering.
The other gnolls regrouped, bounding over a log. There were still so many of them.
Blaze turned and ran.
The distance to the tunnel entrance suddenly seemed much further than she thought.
But it had to be that way. That was the plan. They had to lead all of the orcs out of the city before Blaze disappeared.
As she sprinted ahead, Blaze could tell she wasn’t going to make it.
She looked back over her shoulder. The orcs and several companies of kobolds were still massing at the gates. The gnolls were gaining on her.
I have to give them more time.
Blaze stopped short of the tunnel entrance. She still had two dozen yards to go.
The gnolls formed a semicircle around her, their weapons drawn. They growled.
“Bring it. I’m not out yet,” said Blaze. She tried to stand tall like Princess Sapphire would.
Blaze lifted a large rock and summoned her fire from within. The rock melted instantly. “Magma Storm!”
Using a second heat wave to propel the molten rock, the brimstone jetted ahead, splitting into pieces and swirling in arcs in front of her.
The gnolls howled in pain, their fur singed. The closest gnoll’s wooden shield caught fire, and he tossed it away into the snow. Two more gnolls turned and ran shrieking into the forest.
Blaze swirled the storm of brimstone in larger arcs.
A spear split the air and she dodged, barely missing its stone head as it planted into the snow where she had just stood.
She directed one of the brimstone fragments at the gnoll who had thrown the spear, catching him full in the chest and knocking him backward.
The horde of orcs, much slower than the gnolls, were just reaching the edge of the trees.
She was vastly outnumbered.
Kobold archers loosed a wave of arrows that arched overhead in the starlight.
Blaze tracked as many as she could. At the last second, she let loose another blast.
“Fire Wave!” she cried.
The wash of fire obliterated the arrows, turning them to ash in mid-air. The fallout drove back the rest of the gnolls.
Cries of “Ember Mage” and “Get the princess” rang through the night as more warriors joined the fight.
An orc captain charged to the front of the group, his war hammer drawn. He, just like the other orcs, would be keen to destroy the princess and break the prophecy. They’d want their names immortalized.
Blaze dodged back. At least his charge would keep the kobolds from loosing another barrage of arrows. She was running low on fire. That last burst had drained her considerably.
She looked to the city gates. Warriors were still crowded in the entrance haphazardly donning helmets and boots.
The orc captain swung his hammer narrowly missing Blaze’s back. “Come on!” she cried. She dodged and rolled. How was she supposed to fight an orc captain while she was low on fire?
“Keeping all the fun to yourself?” said a voice behind her.
“Princess!” cried Blaze.
With a rush of horror, Blaze realized the actual Princess Sapphire was beside her. She must have followed her up the tunnel.
“You can’t be here,” said Blaze.
“Oh, yes I can.” Princess Sapphire smiled, her eyes flashing.
She tossed the blue cloak aside and charged the orc captain. A slash of her sword sent him crippled to the ground as the orc horde closed in on her.
Blaze dug deep, squeezing her body for enough strength to hold the channel open.
“Rapid fire!”
She let loose a full auto stream of twelve fireballs that ripped into the enemy line. Each fireball left her colder as she recoiled from the percussive blasts.
The decimated line broke, leaving Princess Sapphire enough time to cut through the tall pine tree trunk with the glowing blue edge of her sword. She retreated back as the hundred feet crashed down, blocking the road with its dense branches and forcing the enemy warriors to run around it.
“Into the tunnel. Quickly,” said the princess.
Blaze’s bones ached with afterchill. She forced herself to move but fell to one knee.
Princess Sapphire grabbed her and hurled her toward the opening.
“You first,” Blaze said. “I have to seal it.”
Princess Sapphire didn’t argue. She leapt into the tunnel opening and clambered down its steep steps. Blaze pulled the hatch after her and collapsed into the tunnel.
“Come on fire,” muttered Blaze to herself.
Blaze reached up and summoned a last jet of fire from her finger, arc-welding the edge of the hatch to the iron tunnel casing in three spots.
“Might hold them for a minute,” Princess Sapphire said. “Now run!”
The royal order did nothing to speed Blaze’s aching muscles.
Shivering, Blaze reached out and looped her arm through the princess’s.
“Saving your bacon again,” Princess Sapphire said. “You’ve really got to learn to do that yourself.” There was a hint of a smile on Princess Sapphire’s hardened face.
“Okay,” Blaze whimpered. She reached out for Princess Sapphire, then Blaze’s vision went black and her knees buckled.
Blaze reached out for something to grab onto and felt her fingers close around a handle as she fell.
Then suddenly, everything flashed white. Her fingers tightened, and warmth surged through her body. She leapt to her feet. Her eyes flew open.
In her hand was Princess Sapphire’s other sword, the long one Princess Sapphire had kept with her. One Blaze had never touched before. The blue gem embedded in its hilt glowed a fiery blue, then white, the light surging up Blaze’s arm and into her body like blue-white flames.
Princess Sapphire’s jaw dropped. “That’s not supposed to happen,” she said. “You . . . you’ve tapped into . . .”
But Princess Sapphire never finished the thought. “No time for that now. We’ve got to move. Go!” she said.
The white fire soaked into Blaze’s skin. Power coursed through her for a moment, then faded into an even warmth.
Princess Sapphire shoved Blaze ahead down the tunnel, then turned, swinging her sword through the tunnel brace beams, notching several wooden supports with a flurry of strikes.
A creak of metal sounded through the tunnel.
“They’re coming,” Blaze called.
“Almost.” Princess Sapphire swung her sword in a direct overhead cut and stepped back.
The tunnel collapsed in a blast of dust and debris. Blaze coughed, trying to catch her breath. The cave-in didn’t stop.
Princess Sapphire collided with Blaze as they raced away from the falling rocks and billowing dust clouds.
At the junction, Blaze followed Princess Sapphire left, toward the Foruk’s Falls entrance.
A hundred feet later, steep steps led up to a hatch. Princess Sapphire pushed it open, and cold, foul air flooded the passage. Blaze peeked her head out.
They were in the middle of a garbage heap behind a tavern. A rotting fish skull stared Blaze in the face.
“Yuck,” said Princess Sapphire as she climbed out and stepped over a pile of rotting cabbages. “But I suppose it is a good hiding place for a secret tunnel.”
Blaze climbed out. She eyed the princess’s glowing blue sword. “What happened?” she said, reaching out.
Princess Sapphire whipped her cape around the sword, hiding it from view. “Not now.” She looked thoughtful. “Later. But not now.”
Blaze leaned over, supporting herself on her knees. She snapped her fingers. No spark. Touching the sword had pushed back most of the afterchill and let her escape, but she hadn’t held it long enough. She would have to recharge.
She looked to Princess Sapphire, still dressed in Blaze’s clothes and blue cloak, as the princess scanned the village, ready to leap into battle once again. For a moment, it was like Blaze was looking at a possible version of herself. Is that what Blaze could look like? A leader who had given herself to a larger cause? So brave. An unstoppable force that could topple armies. Could Blaze give up her life as a rogue for something like that? Would anyone even want her to?
Across the alley, two dwarves were locked in combat with an orc patrol. They were outnumbered two-to-one. It looked like they would fall before the princess could reach them.
But Princess Sapphire moved faster than seemed possible. She drew her sword and leapt to their aid, swinging down on the nearest orc’s iron helmet. It clanged like a bell, and the orc fell flat on his face.
“Ah, hullo,” said one of the dwarves. He ducked an ax blade. His belt buckle was unmistakable. It was Bort. “That one was mine. I’d called dibs!”
“She didn’t know that,” said Tort. He smashed his shield into an orc’s gut. “She hasn’t seen our list.”
Princess Sapphire leapt backward. “You wrote a list?”
“Aye!” both twins cried. Bort pulled a scrap of parchment from his pocket and waved it in the air.
Fighting back-to-back, the dwarves whirled heavy axes in a devastating pirouette. The three remaining orcs dropped to the ground as the massive battle axes cleaved through their ranks.
That’s why they call them the Thunder Twins, thought Blaze.
But the battle was far from over. Waves of Rimefrost Orcs poured out from the side streets.
Suddenly, a gnome—Blaze hadn’t even known there were any nearby—leapt from a rooftop and bounced off an orc’s head, shoving the orc’s helmet down over its eyes. Another gnome pulled a rope snare tight around the orc’s leg. A third gnome dropped a banana peel in front of its foot, while a fourth waited on the ground as the huge orc slipped on the banana peel and fell forward.
The gnome shoved two huge carrots up the fallen orc’s nose and broke them off, while the fifth gnome delivered a gong-strike to the side of the orc’s helmet with a small golf club.
“Gnomes rule!” it cheered in a high-pitched voice as the others quick-bound the orc in a flurry of padlocks and chains they pulled from under their clothing. In seconds the gnomes were searching for their next victim, bounding back up to a rooftop where their pointed hats formed another scheming circle as they laid their next stage of plans.
“Remarkable,” Princess Sapphire said. She folded her arms and grinned.
The gnomes turned and ran along the rooftop, their quiet footsteps pattering away toward their next victim: a kobold shaman crouched behind a cart.
Blaze was just quick enough to notice one of the gnomes drop a stick of mining explosive into a molasses barrel. Another gnome lit it while three more pushed the barrel down the sloped roof. The gnomes leapt in silent cheers, pumping their fists, others expectantly plugging their ears with massive grins on their tiny round faces.
BOOM.
The ice kobold shaman was encased in caramelized molasses, a hard-shell coating of crystalized sugar that ensured a sweet end to whatever spell it had been conjuring.
After another exultant cheer of “Gnomes rule!” the bunch was back in a huddle.
Nearby, the Thunder Twins had wrestled down a kobold between them and heaved it into the bucket of an empty catapult.
A gnome conveniently appeared just in time to release the catapult’s catch, but not before pasting a freshly painted “kick me” sign on the kobold’s tail. The kobold shrieked like an angry pig as it soared out over the castle wall.
Blaze shoo
k her head in amazement. “How did that gnome even get over there so fast?”
Princess Sapphire turned up her hands. “And I thought I had seen it all when it came to fighting styles.”
The waves of Rimefrost Orcs had been broken or pushed back, until only small pockets of resistance remained. The fight within the walls was well in hand.
“We’re ready to wrap things up here,” said Princess Sapphire, with one last swish of her sword.
“What about the enemies outside the gate?” Blaze asked.
The princess pointed to a line of dwarf soldiers on the city wall. In unison the dwarves nocked arrows, drew, and fired.
“The dwarf archers will have reduced our foe’s number by a fair margin. Unfortunately for the enemy, they lost the defensible high ground.”
“But it’s not high ground to an ice giant,” Blaze said.
Princess Sapphire, her expression grave, gave a nod. “We have the city, but we cannot defend it.”
A thought occurred to Blaze. “If you leave,” Blaze said. “Cernonos would follow you. A princess is a higher prize than a city.”
“A fact I have been aware of my entire life.” She inhaled a heavy breath. “Any of my siblings could risk our lives foolishly and all of us would suffer.”
“What? Didn’t you just—”
“Go outside the gates to save you? It was a calculated risk.”
Outside the gates—“Dreck!”
Blaze left the princess and raced across a square, past a row of battered shops, and onto the siege wall. She ran behind rows of dwarf soldiers until she came to the main gate.
Unmistakable in the retreating ranks of Rimefrost Orcs was a medium-size orc with monk’s robe, bound head to foot in ropes.
They had captured Dreck.
Chapter 16: Everlight Express
It wouldn’t have been hard for the retreating Rimefrost Orcs to discover that Dreck was not one of them. As soon as they’d had a chance to look at his tattoos up close, they would have known he was a member of the Crook-Eye tribe. A hostage was a sure way to keep from getting shot in the back by an arrow.
Princess Sapphire ran to the edge of the wall and peered out. “Dreck?”
The King's Summons Page 13
