The King's Summons

by Adam Glendon Sidwell

  Blaze opened her drawer and found the dwarf-sewn silk to be the finest thing she had ever worn. “Are all the coaches this fancy?”

  “Of course,” the princess said, her eyes closed. “When dwarves travel to visit one another, it’s a big deal. They might stay for months, sharing memories and writing memoirs, debating and playing games, and building new homes. A trip is a thing to remember.”

  The night gown was billowy but short enough to tickle Blaze’s knees. With the stove keeping the room toasty warm, Blaze climbed onto her bunk and let her head hit the pillow.

  But as tired as she was, she wasn’t able to sleep just yet. Her mind was still racing from all that had happened: escaping down the Torch Road, Foruk’s Falls, the Iron Collar. Now that she had a moment of quiet, her thoughts were catching up to her.

  She stared out the window of the train at the passing surface of the tunnel. The occasional stalactite zipped by, followed by openings in the cavern. Bright flashes of blue, green, and white appeared in the window, then were gone.

  Blaze sat up in her bunk. “Princess, what was that?” she asked.

  Princess Sapphire suppressed a yawn. She turned over in her bunk opposite Blaze and rubbed her eyes. She barely glanced out the window as another flash of green passed by.

  This time Blaze saw more: the flashes of color came from pools of steaming, glowing liquid.

  “Ah, we’re deep beneath the surface here,” said Princess Sapphire. “Closer to the core of Crystalia.” The cavern opened up wider than it ever had, and several shimmering blue and green pools came into view. There was even a white one as big as a pond, its surface shimmering like glass, and deep below, what looked like a glowing diamond.

  “It’s magnificent,” whispered Blaze.

  “Some of the loremasters think that when we’re deeper underground, we’re closer to the heart of Crystalia, and therefore, closer to the Goddess’s essence,” Princess Sapphire said. “The Goddess is fueled by compassion and binding things together, not tearing them apart.” She rolled over to face Blaze and pulled back the edge of her quilt. Underneath was her sword. The gem on its hilt pulsed blue. It was brighter than Blaze had ever seen it.

  “My sword draws its magic from the core of Crystalia. I think that when you touched it back in the tunnels, you tapped into that core for a brief moment. That’s what allowed you to overcome the afterchill. It’s the best theory I’ve got, anyway.”

  The glowing pools disappeared from view and the tunnel went dark again as the Everlight Express sped onward. Blaze laid her head on her pillow and stared up at the ceiling.

  “There’s one thing I don’t get,” she said. “Back in Midway, those Crook-Eye Orcs attacked me and my village. They tried to kill you. And now you’re working with them? What happened?”

  “I spared their lives,” said Princess Sapphire. “I let them go, and they saw that Crystalia doesn’t have to be full of vengeance. That made them into allies. And wouldn’t you know it? One of those warriors had a son. I had spared his father’s life.”

  Blaze felt the fire within begin to crackle. It wanted to roar. “I wish my parents were so lucky,” she said.

  “So do I,” Princess Sapphire sniffed. She sounded like she was about to cry. Blaze didn’t think that was possible. Not from battle-hardened Princess Sapphire.

  “But—” said Blaze. She wanted to shout. She wanted to scream.

  “That warrior’s son was Dreck, Blaze,” said Princess Sapphire. She was stern again. “I lost my own mother when I was very young. But you being an orphan does not justify making more of them.”

  Blaze said nothing. The fire within simmered and boiled. How could she forget about that day? It had shaped her. The pain had made her who she was.

  The train rattled on, keeping rhythm with her thoughts.

  Then Princess Sapphire spoke, “There are other sources of magic besides anger, Blaze.”

  Then it was quiet.

  In her dreams Blaze saw the dark jotnar’s red eyes confront her, blazing with hate, burning with destructive power unknown since the cursing of Arcadia.

  She dreamt of Dreck’s oafish elegance. She dreamt of Midway and the halls of the Order of Ember, of Crystalia Castle, and of the creeping Nether Realms bleeding into Crystalia from the Midnight Tower, the mist of darkness seeping from the spawning points, and the goat-hoofed demon Cernonos.

  Then she dreamt of nothing.

  ***

  Blaze was jolted awake by the conductor’s voice. “Breakfast is served.”

  A hatch in the carriage’s roof opened, and for a moment, the train’s clacking sounded loudly. The dimly glowing lamp in the ceiling brightened, and a metal-cased box lowered on a string. When the box hit the floor, a catch released, the hook retracted, and the roof snapped shut.

  “The twins’ brother Gork invented the food delivery system,” the princess said as she sat up on her bunk. The food smelled incredible.

  Princess Sapphire retrieved the box and climbed up to Blaze’s bunk. They ate breakfast in bed: roast mutton, sweet crumpets, and hot tea.

  “When the rest of Crystalia hears about how the dwarves run carriages underground, the whole Reach will be overrun with travelers,” said Blaze.

  “They have to get to the Reach first,” Princess Sapphire said. “And the dwarves won’t build a line to connect Arcadia or the Fae Wood—too much pride, and too much work. And to tell the truth, they have to pay the gnomes from Clockwork Cove to engineer most of it—they hate that.”

  “Arrival in ten minutes,” announced the conductor through the intercom pipe. “Please prepare for disembarking—let us pray the autowinders stop before the gap.”

  Blaze sat bolt up. “That’s not very reassuring coming from the conductor,” she said.

  Princess Sapphire was already dressed and buckling her sword belt. “Better get dressed then. Going to battle in that nightgown?” she asked.

  Blaze flapped the lacey sleeves. “I’d probably burn this up. Better change.” She slipped out of the nightgown and threw on her trousers and tunic. The princess tossed her a coat from the tall, narrow closet at the back of the coach.

  “This? Is it for the opera?” Blaze looked in a hand mirror set in the wall. The bulky coat was made of snow ferret fur. “Snow ferrets—those are fireproof.” The nimble rascals were nearly impossible to eradicate. Their more aggressive cousins in the Dragonback Peaks were known to eat lava and spit it at trespassers.

  “Appropriate for a coach with its own fireplace,” the princess noted.

  That made sense.

  “On the map, the unfinished Everlight Express station appears to be slightly uphill from the nearest spawning point on the way from Cernonos’s camp to Foruk’s Falls,” Princess Sapphire explained.

  “No wonder the station isn’t finished,” Blaze said.

  “Yes, the enemy’s advance has changed many plans. It’s time we changed theirs.”

  “How?” Blaze asked.

  “The canyon has only a few access points, and this spawning point is by far easiest to reach,” said Princess Sapphire. “Once Cernonos gives the orders to march on Foruk’s Falls, all eyes will be forward. Then we bring everything we’ve got to bear on Cernonos—every arrow, flame, and sword. We fight like our lives depend on it.”

  The danger was real, not only to the warriors but to the entire realm. Under no circumstances could the princess’s life be put in jeopardy. Is this—too much of a risk? Of course it was. But unless they pulled together, there was no hope of saving any thread in the tapestry of the Goddess.

  “When we arrive, we’ll need your fire to take down any minions. Don’t get distracted by Cernonos,” said Princess Sapphire.

  “Yes, Your Majesty.”

  “And don’t die either.”

  Blaze nodded.

  “And don’t get captured.”

  Blaze shrugged. “Should I take notes?”

  The coach slowed, then beg
an to shudder violently. Blaze steadied herself against the bed.

  “Hold on to something!” shouted Princess Sapphire. Something was seriously wrong.

  The conductor’s voice shouted through the intercom, “Attention all passengers, we have full autowinder failure; the gears aren’t going to stop us fast enough. Please prepare to disembark at the platform.”

  The carriage shuddered again, and the conductor shouted two final words: “Abandon train!”

  Chapter 17: Dark Jotnar

  Princess Sapphire hurled the door to their coach open. There was a wide, open cavern with a flat platform speeding by just a few feet from the train. Princess Sapphire hurled herself from the open door, tucking and rolling as she skidded across the flagstones. Blaze didn’t know if she could follow suit, when she saw the end of the platform. The cave wall was approaching fast. She was running out of platform.

  Ignoring the fear inside her, Blaze grit her teeth and dove from the train. She slid across the flat stones, rolling and skidding as she landed, the soft fur coat cushioning the impact just a little.

  All around, round-bellied dwarves leapt from the train and rolled to a stop on the platform. The larger orcs merely took the leap and landed on their feet at a run.

  At the front of the train, the conductor took a wild leap. He flew through the air and plastered himself against a “Danger” sign.

  The empty train accelerated as it moved out of view, followed by a horrendous crash and a burst of flame.

  “There goes the Everlight Express,” said Princess Sapphire. “Is the conductor going to be—”

  “He’ll be all right,” Tort said gruffly. “He can hike back down the tunnel.” He raised his ax and then stared at Blaze. “Where are you going—the opera?”

  Bort gave her an approving once-over. “I love a mage with style. I hope you brought your flame to this dance.”

  Blaze balled up her fists. “Let’s smoke this monster,” she said.

  The princess moved to the front of the group. “Silence in the ranks.” She drew her sword and readied her shield. The dwarves and orcs immediately fell into rank. “Our best estimate puts the spawning point only a few hundred yards downhill from the concealed entrance to the station. We can only guess what we will face outside. Follow my lead. Attack when I attack. Don’t stop, even if I fall. Cernonos’s control of the dark jotnar must be broken. It is the only hope for saving the Reach.”

  Princess Sapphire raced silently up the steps, followed by the swiftest of the Crook-Eye Orcs. Blaze hurried to keep pace. Unfortunately for you, Princess, she thought as she came even with Princess Sapphire, I came here for a reason. If it came down to victory or to saving her life, Blaze would save the princess.

  The rush of impending battle made Blaze’s palms tingle with sweat as heat rose up her spine and neck. Nearing the top of the stairs, she lit the spark, and a rush of heat coursed through her. The air around Blaze’s hands warped as the world took on an angry red hue. There was time for feeling sorry for one’s mistakes, a time for looking back, and even a time for rest.

  There was also a time for rage.

  “It’s payback time,” said Blaze.

  They rounded the corner and were met with a wall of packed snow. The exit to the station was buried.

  At a glance from the princess, Blaze stepped forward. She calmed herself, focusing her pent-up thermal energy, then released a jet of fire from her hand.

  It was too wide. She needed more focus. She needed it to cut, not melt.

  Controlling strong fire so tightly was a skill few Ember Mages mastered at a young age.

  Blaze closed her eyes. Come on. She opened her eyes again.

  The fire swelled and then narrowed into a tight plasma column as she straightened her hands.

  She moved the jet of flame across the face of the drift, cutting a body-width slot in the hard-packed snow.

  Blaze fed her stream of fire until the snow was thin enough that light shown through from the outside.

  She kicked at the snow. It broke away in a clump, revealing the mid-morning sun’s sparkling brightness. Light flooded the tunnel. She stepped out into the open daylight.

  What Blaze saw was worse than she’d imagined. They had made a crucial miscalculation: the spawning point wasn’t a few hundred yards away.

  It was only two dozen.

  In the center of a clearing of ice and rock, black mist streamed out from a collection of stone pillars that had collapsed into the shape of a serpent’s gaping jaw. All around the scene, ice curled in tortured shapes, mingled with rust, tar, and ash. Black tar vomited up from the earth.

  Fear congealed in Blaze’s veins, freezing her limbs.

  A band of Rimefrost Orcs and a dozen gnolls surrounded the perimeter. In the center, just a few feet away, the black mist poured into the open mouth and nostrils of a huge creature with cloven feet and black horns protruding from his head.

  Cernonos.

  Already the runes on his armor glowed red with the Dark Realm’s magic. He had already recharged. They were too late.

  Blaze felt paralyzed. She was helpless in the face of such a monster.

  She had to turn back into the tunnel. She had to run. But several Crook-Eye Orcs and the ranks of dwarves were piled up behind her. There was no going back.

  “Now, Blaze,” the princess’s voice sounded in her ear like a whip cracking.

  Fear, if unchecked, could kill her inner flame. Blaze needed raw anger.

  Blaze reached deep. The surge rose within her.

  “Now,” said Princess Sapphire.

  Blaze turned, stretched out her hands and blasted the tunnel opening wide enough for three orcs to emerge at the same time.

  Blaze could feel the fire within rising. Her reserves were building up. She charged forward. Dwarves and orcs streamed out of the tunnel behind her.

  “Attack!” cried Princess Sapphire.

  Cernonos turned, his horns twisting in her direction.

  It was takedown time.

  “Recoil Fireball!”

  In three seconds, Blaze unleashed several concussive fireballs at the pillar behind Cernonos. The shots erupted on impact like gnomish mining sticks.

  The demon sneered as the fireballs whizzed past.

  They slammed into a fragment of stone at the pillar’s base. It cracked under the weight of the ten-ton pillar and sent the twenty-foot-high stone column toppling down toward Cernonos.

  Cernonos turned and raised his arms to shove the falling stone aside. If it landed on him, he would be trapped.

  Blaze spun around as more dwarves charged from the tunnel.

  Where was that dark jotnar?

  And for that matter, where was Dreck?

  Blaze charged forward toward the center of the spawning point, trying to keep a pillar between her and Cernonos as more Crook-Eye Orcs piled out from the station’s secret entrance.

  Cernonos bent under the pillar’s weight. Then he pressed up off his shoulder and tossed it aside.

  Great Goddess!

  Cernonos’s human-like eyes widened in excitement as he tracked Princess Sapphire’s unmistakable silver-blue armor. He opened his mouth and unleashed a torrent of fire. But instead of orange, it was black flame.

  Princess Sapphire crouched behind her shield—it could only last seconds in that blast’s furnace heat.

  Blaze couldn’t let her die. She had to do something.

  Blaze dove in front of the princess and tapped the stream, letting the demon’s magic mingle with her own in a dangerous co-channeling. Stretching her arms to the sides, Blaze parted the fire stream, which curled up and dissipated, leaving enough room for the orcs and dwarves to fan out on either side of the demon.

  He was about to be surrounded.

  With a cry of rage, Cernonos roared for his minions. “Kill them!”

  Before the Rimefrost Orcs and gnolls could respond, a hail of whistling arrows from all sides desc
ended upon the monster. The arrowheads pulsed with magic. Blue lightning from each of the arrows shot outward, combining into a net of electricity that collapsed around Cernonos.

  Cernonos bowed under the crushing attack, his muscles convulsing from the electric shock.

  “It’s working,” cried Princess Sapphire.

  Then the demon thrust his arms outward, obliterating the lightning net. Residual sparks ran over his body and into the ground. He reached outward, his fingers elongating into black tendrils. He thrashed his tendril arms, lashing out across the clearing. The black tendrils caught the dwarf archers, wrapping around their throats, lifting them into the air, and slamming them against the pillars.

  Crook-Eye Orcs raced past the archers, flanking Cernonos and cutting off his retreat.

  Cernonos’s attention was on the forces at the perimeter. This was their chance.

  Princess Sapphire saw it too. She ran forward. Blaze raced by her side—she could divert his fire. But before Blaze could raise her hands to muster a defense, the demon lunged forward, sweeping his long, black horns down at the princess.

  Blaze was caught in the vee between two horns and thrown aside. She landed in a snow bank and climbed to her feet, her body steaming and sizzling. Nearby, the princess lay face down ten feet away at the base of a pillar, helmet askew, hands limp. A dash of blood on the pillar matched a red spot on the princess’s hair.

  “Princess Sapphire!” called Blaze.

  The princess didn’t stir.

  Cernonos didn’t even know we were coming, and he still has the upper hand.

  Following the princess’s orders, the orcs and dwarves continued their assault. They had come up inside the Rimefrost Orcs’ defensive perimeter. By the time the enemy came to Cernonos’s aid, it could be too late.

  Orc swords and Bort and Tort’s whirling axes hacked through the tendrils, releasing the captive archers. The perimeter around Cernonos was closing fast.

  A shadow moved across the scene, turning all from sparkling light to ominous black.

  The dark jotnar.