Keepers of the Crown

by Lydia Redwine

  Cam was standing but also trembling. She sank to the ice, her already bloodied knees banging into it. She shook, her sobs havingher bent over thecreatureshehadslain. “You...youdid it, Cam…” she panted out. Her fingers curled around the hilt of her dagger. “You did it…” She let her eyes slip shut once. Just for a moment.

  But she wasn’t done. Not even as she bled from her shoulders and the side of her head. Not even as the skin at her lower left leg was ripped open. She rose on wobbling legs, the bloodied stone in one hand and dagger in the other. She wiped the hair from her face, some sweat with it and braced her feet on the ice.

  Cam could not see anything but smoke. Thick, heavy smoke and beyond it flickers of blue flame. She couldn't hear anything either. Her ears were too numb, too full of the chaos to recognize sounds from one another. It all blurred into a single sound of pandemonium.

  Cam stumbled as she coughed. She slipped, nearly slammed into the ice again. She groaned, her tears mixing with the red staining theice. “Crawl, Camaria. Crawl,” shegritted out. A sob escaped, bounced over the ground. She could see the boulder still, even as she coughed and choked the smoke from her lungs. The dragons...their shadows were still overhead, blazing blue fire in their wake.

  She reached the enormous rock, having felt as though she had crawled for a century. One hand. Then the other. The rock was smooth and cool beneath her stiff, numb hands. Cam pulled herself up, her shoulders and then abdomen and then legs until she was resting against the rock’s side. “Up...on top…” she said aloud, barely registering her own voice. Seconds...or centuries later, Cam was laying flat on the rock, the wind whipping from the sea biting at her bloodied face. She sank on her stomach, leaving her back exposed. Her shirt had been ripped open, and the wounds…

  Stung as the wind rippled through them. The sobs wracked her body, coursing through her like an earthquake. She shivered as she collapsed fully onto the rock. Her vision was blurred, but still, Cam could make out the wasteland the armies had now entered, smoke following them. The dragons soaring above them. Blue fire blazed in intervals. Smaller balls of the flame plummeting into victims. The withered grass was laden with frost and brimming with black-cloaked figures.

  Chaos clamored in the air, the sounds too deafening for Cam to discern between them. She saw them fall, going up into flames. Some with the bodies of wolves atop them. They were not outnumbered. There were more of them, but they were human. Humans battling Shadow Bearers, dragons, wolves, and whatever these enormously large birds were. The birds were sweeping down, their claws out to slash the bodies of their victims. They sank their claws into the eyes of the man right beside Cam.

  “We are going to lose.” The last ounce of hope inside her flickered. “I-I’m going now…”There was no telling how deep the wolf had clawed into her back and shoulders, how hard she had hit her head, how much blood was leaking from her.

  Nazeria was doomed.

  Aminon was faster than the sea slamming the shore amidst its

  storm. Aminon was blazing fire with fury more momentous than Riah had seen Leviathan possess. Blue fire scorched the ground, turning the withering grass beneath then into a smoldering shade of gray-blue as if the sun had been swallowed alive by ruthless waters.

  Riah clutched at Aminon and dug his knees into the creature’s sides. He didn’t need to lead the creature, for Aminon could see beyond his own destruction better than Riah could. Riah only saw glimpses of the soldiers below, and every once in a while, Glista, her snow-white hair whipping in the wind, her equally white wolves scattered midst the troops in numbers so large, Riah had lost count long ago. Riah’s stomach dropped as Aminon took a sudden dive, no fire in his wake. “Landing. He’s weakening. The magic is almost gone…”

  Zoka was nearly done too. But the others were still in the air. A shrill caw sounded across the plain. Riah whipped his head as Aminon neared the frozen ground. Gamgee was barreling towards them, his claws out to snatch anything in his path out of the way. The bird landed on the ice, his claws scraping the frozen substance. The sound was shrill and sharp in Riah’s ears. He cried out against it.

  Gamgee halted before Riah. The latter slid off of his dragon, bow, and arrow drawn. “What?” he seethed at the bird. Gamgee lifted his wings and batted them around Riah. Riah cried out in anger, his face boiling. If this bird didn’t stop bullying him, he would carve out its eyes, kill it, and then wear its claws around his own neck. Gamgee jerked his head behind him. Riah saw Glista and remembered. Gamgee was to keep an eye on the dragons and the armies simultaneously and decide when it was best for the dragons to cease using their magic.

  Now was the time. The Nazerians were small enough in number for the creatures to take a break. But the rocs would still soar, and the wolves would still tear the soldiers to shreds. The Shadow Bearers were still summoning fire, slitting throats with blades they produce while folded invisibly into the air. Glista was still moving, ice in her hands, daggers flashing in the air.

  But then, as Riah stood on the frozen plain, watching her from a distance, she stopped. Halted, a body falling at her feet. She was heaving in the air, trying to refill her lungs. Her face was red with exertion where it had always been the palest of white before.

  Riah followed her gaze, his own arms lowering his weapons at his side. And he understood fully why they had ceased fighting when he saw the figure in a rippling red cloak standing on that wall dividing the wastelands from the villages with its hands clawed before her.

  Her dark hair whipped around her face and neck in the wind. Her skin was the deepest brown. Riah ran towards Aminon, his bloodcurdling inside of him. Dread was dancing in the pit of his stomach. He had no expectations, only mountainous fear. Fear of what? He did not know. He was up and over Aminon in a second, and the dragon was lifting enough for Riah to see better. The dragon moved closer.

  And he knew. Her eyes were pools of empty blackness. Full of destruction and a dark fury. Leviathan's power.

  The thorns did not rise slowly but sprang from the ground, jutting as tall as trees which had grown in the mountains of Gnosi. Taller than those which grew in the northern lands.

  The wall of thorns blasted from the earth as though it had been waiting centuries to rise. Nazeria’s main weapon had arrived then. But this magic was not of a human soldier. It was a testament to power. Of someone who had been marked. A Shadow Bearer.

  Against them.

  So this was her. The Marked one who had gotten away for ages of ancient times.

  The Scarlet Spy.

  And Riah knew she was not on their side.

  Aminon rose, his mouth gaping open, teeth bared red. The fire blazed forth, barrelled right into the wall, and the chaos erupted anew.

  Cam screamed.

  Not because of the enormous hole which had been burned into the wall behind them or thefact that shehadn’t seen Fiera since they had reached the battlefield. But because of the blur of gray which had passed over her eyes so suddenly that she fell into the hard body behind her. The hard, scaly body. A slime laden hand clapped over her mouth, and she thrashed against the creature.

  “Sssssstilllll,” the creature hissed. Cam continued to struggle, panic rising as the creature pried her fingers loose from the remaining stone in her palm. The stone slammed into her head, and the world dipped into darkness.

  Riah pushed onward, swinging his sword with both hands at

  the oncoming human warriors. Red blood splattered him at each step, at each plunge of his sword into chests and necks and skulls. Normally, he would have taken his time with the kill. He imagined carving these people up. They were blocking him from his goal to reach the Crown and bring it safely to Leviathan and to Lucius. He didn’t give a damn if it was for Arria to do.

  The thorns crunched under his feet. The wall had been decimated, but another one was rising. And there were thorns spreading over the ground like sickly vines, a disease spreading. But Aminon was behind. The other dragons too. They had used much of their magi
c.

  Riah bounded across the frozen plain, keeping the woman in red in his sight. Her eyes were pools of blackness, and shadows leaked from her. She wasn’t even here. She was far away. She didn’t know what was happening. It was just like...seeing his mother in the Forbidden Forest. Her hands were raised, the thorns creeping from her fingertips embedded in the Shadow Bearers flesh as another rope of thorns circled his neck, squeezing the life out of him.

  An agonizing screech followed by a sickening crunch thundered past his drums as Riah plunged his sword into a woman’s ribcage. She slumped to the ground only to catch on fire. The Shadow Bearers who followed him scorched whatever bodies the dragons had not already destroyed.

  Riah tumbled, falling so suddenly he hadn't time to catch himself. He landed not on the ground as he had expected but something softer. A low groan reached his ears. He could barely register the stabbing pain in his arm and then in his stomach before his eyes slipped up to meet the person he had fallen upon. “My last kill,” the voice muttered.

  Riah’s gaze met the eyes of the person who had driven a dagger into his upper arm and had sliced a thin cut into his stomach with another blade. His heart slammed into his chest, shattering in a thousand pieces at the sight of her blood-caked face and unusually pale complexion.

  When Saffira’s face flashed with recognition, her eyes also filled with a hundred emotions. A mixture of pain, fear, and the fact that she now knew who she had just stabbed.

  “You’re dying,” Riah murmured, still not entirely sure it was her beneath him. It was too shocking even when he had known they would collide eventually. Her hands clasped around his neck, not to strangle but to cling.

  “Riah,” she breathed. Her eyes filled with tears. “Riah don’t do this...I...can’t let you…”

  “Get up,” he hissed, gripping her arm and hauling her to her feet. She staggered against him. He groaned against the pain in his own stomach and clutched the wound. His hand pressed into his own fresh, seeping blood. “You will live, Saff. Now, run!” Her eyes flickered with a question. Her fingers brushed his cheek once, and then her lips against his. It wasn’t really a kiss. More of a whisper. A brush of one last affection. She stumbled into the fogged air. His eyes slipped shut, more so to clench the tears inside than anything else.

  His heart cracked, falling piece by piece into nothing.

  A battle waged within Riah. One in which he didn’t know if letting her go now was the right decision. He told himself that he had already let go and that was why he would not stay with her until she was safe. But yet, if he had truly let go, why had he not killed her?

  Riah ripped himself from the trance just as a blade slashed at his calf. He cried out, anger boiling in his veins. He ripped the dagger from his upper arm and plunged it into the throat of the man who had struck him. He whirled to face another assailant and found to his shock that it was not a human but a Shadow Bearer, slime covered hands gripping his neck and full body slamming him to the ground.

  Thesoundthat fell fromRiah’s mouth was a mix between a groan and an agonizing cry. His hand scrambled to find the dagger that had been dropped. His fingers closed over a cool blade. He found the hilt. The sound of metal against the skull was a victory in his ears. Riah shoved the limp creature off of his body. Where the hell had they come from?

  He scrambled to his aching feet and found that he was facing the wasteland beyond the wall. His eyes caught sight of another Shadow Bearer not in allegiance with Leviathan’s army. And it was dragging a girl.

  Camaria.

  “Glista!” Riah shouted. His comrade was still alive and seemed, for the most part, uninjured. Her snow-white hair was still whipping in the wind as she spun and whirled, blades in both hands. She spun, her eyes blazing with a question, daring him to ask something in the midst of battle. “Cam!” he shouted, pointing. Glista whirled to see Cam as well. A sneer formed on her lips. “I’ll let you take her!” Glista seemed to approve. Before Riah knew it, Glista was bounding towards the sea to where Cam was now being dragged.

  Riah slumped to the ground and grasped at his gut where blood was still pooling against his shirt and armor. His head felt too light, his vision blurring rapidly. “Zoka…” was his broken whisper. “Soselia mekiatia…” he murmured. And she was there, her great white form bulking and blurring everything else from view. Riah didn't need to do anything. She lifted him up herself. Carried him to safety. To where Leviathan was waiting and watching.

  And the remaining army of Riah Drakon and Glista, Lady of the Wolves was scattering, the remainder of the Nazerians too small to regard any longer. For they had a greater intent now. Their lord and leader was here. With the legions of Shedim with him.

  When Cam’s eyelids fluttered open, another cry of alarm

  bubbled up her throat. The same scaly hand which had knocked her unconscious covered her open mouth. It rose a finger to its lips and hissed a “Shhhhh.” Its eyes were white balls above a gaping mouth with two yellowed teeth.

  Cam found that her head was throbbing mercilessly. “What the hell? Where did you come from?”

  “No timeeeeee,” the Shadow Bearer hissed as it bent on all fours and scrambled to grasp Cam’s arm and pull her away. By away, Cam found that that meant even farther away from the wall than the creature had already dragged her. How had this creature dragged her here without both of them being slaughtered?

  Cam glanced towards the wall. Over it. The land was desolate. The Shadow Bearers were gone. Where? The dragons were still circling, some of them alighting on the ground. But it seemed that it was mostly a wasteland of corpses. Blood running as streams between ashen bodies.

  The realization of this felt much the same as her head had felt when the stone had collided with it. This creature had...saved her.

  “Why?” shecriedout. Cam clenchedher teeth against the pain throbbing in her skull. She dragged her body across the ground before bracing her hands against the ice to pull herself up. The Shadow Bearer was now scrambling away from the sight towards the mountains as if nothing had happened.

  The creature whipped its head towards Cam.

  Cam halted her steps in the snow. The creature shook its head. “We promissssssed Adriel would ssssspy on them.” It shook its head again. “We’ve come to fulfill the promisssssse in another...way…”

  Cam understood. The Shadow Bearers of the Air come to fulfill their word. She stood still, now noticing that she was drenched and that the sky was screaming. It was raining, heavier and heavier. But she didn’t care. Maybe it would wash all of this away.

  Cam did not stop the creature when it resumed its getaway. She turned slowly back towards the sight beyond the wall to find that the Shadow Bearers of the Air, as weak as they seemed against the rest, were gliding in and out of those fighting below them. And they were dragging others away, towards where only the people of Nazeria and they knew the opening to the mountain refuge to be.

  The sky burst, the veil of Caelae torn, tears of its Sons cascading

  into the realm below. The snowflakes were driven into the ground by torrential rain. With his hair and clothing plastered to him, Joel surged forward, his bloodied spear gripped in his hand. Fiera was beside him though no one could really tell with all her raven hair sticking to her face.

  For a brief instant, Joel’s memory carried him to the countless times he had stood in a rushing creek or river and stabbed fish with his spear while rain poured all over and around him.

  The rain was washing off the red and black blood which had splattered all over his now scorched clothing. The burns of his skin screamed at him. He ignored the pain even when he felt as though he were walking on daggers. He had lost his left boot as well as all of one sleeve and the sword which had been strapped to his back.

  The fire from the dragons and the Shadow Bearers were merely flickering in the rain. That did not make these enemies any less of a threat, however, as Joel thought grimly.

  A body slammed into him, sending him hurtling into
something equally hard as it was soft. The three figures tumbled to the ground. A gaping mouth with teeth was screeching and hissing at him. The eyes were wild and the hands gripping at his arms, chest, legs. “Leeeeeaveeeee,” it hissed. The figure Joel had knocked over scrambled to its feet.

  Fiera. Her black hair was plastered to her face and neck. Her eyes were blazing. In an instant, she had an arrow in her bow. Her last arrow. And it was poised at the small, wrinkled creature before them. Joel scrambled away, his body slipping in the mud. “I saveeee you!”

  Before Fiera could pierce the creature’s head with her poison-tipped arrow, the creature scrambled into the mist and with another shriek tackled a wolf to the ground. Joel gaped as he watched the Shadow Bearer sink its mouth into the wolf and grapple at it with its knife-like nails.

  Fiera’s hand grasped at his own, and she hauled him up. Every portion of his body either felt as though it were being stabbed or stung from the rain hitting his burns.

  “Damn me to hell, but I think they’re on our side,” he gasped as Fiera swung his arm over her shoulders.

  “We are going to the mountain,” she grunted.

  Now?

  Yes, now.

  There was no one left. Only veils of rain around them. Joel glanced at his comrade. Fiera’s face screamed exhaustion. Joel could barely see anything beyond her, for the rain was so thick. She cast him a wry grin. “You did well, Wolf Slayer.”

  Joel would have returned the grin had he not cried out in pain as the shooting sensation that ran up his leg. He had done well. His spear had penetrated a dozen wolves. Killing animals had always been easier than humans. His head slumped against Fiera’s shoulder.