The Rising

by Kristen Ashley

  Aramus grew very still.

  I stared at my brethren, saying through stiff lips, “Cloak yourselves?”

  “Disappear. Become shadows. With only those who have let us into their hearts, those who we are connected to as mates, this coupling smiled upon by the gods, able to see us.”

  “In other words eavesdrop,” I snapped.

  “Spy,” he returned.

  “You’ve been spying on my queen and I?” Aramus clipped.

  “We spy everywhere,” Jorie stated unconcernedly.

  “You say this as if this is not a detrimental matter in diplomatic relations,” Aramus returned.

  “And how is this?” Jorie replied confusingly, taking up his trident and walking our way. He passed us, murmuring, “If you would, follow me.”

  We followed him out of the consular chamber to the open area of the island in the grotto.

  There were Mer floating in the water. Some lazing with fins flapping in the water on smaller islands set around.

  All attention came to us when we emerged.

  “Stand back, please,” Jorie instructed.

  Aramus stood back.

  As for me, I stood behind Aramus who stepped in front of me.

  Jorie watched him do this, and he did not attempt to hide his approval of this maneuver.

  Then he turned, lifting his trident at the side over his head, and he ran across the sand.

  But as he would throw it, he executed a graceful leap into the air and twisted his body around…

  I gasped as he disappeared in a swirl of shimmer that eddied around the trident staff as it soared through the air.

  The three points imbedded in an unoccupied, small island some thirty feet away, the shimmer burst the moment it struck land, and Jorie reformed.

  “Well, I’ll be sirens-damned,” Aramus muttered.

  I fought applauding, but I could not stop clenching my hands to my chest in delight, at the same time wondering, if I had a trident, if I could learn to do that.

  “In this cavern,” Jorie called from across the water, “I cannot show you the full power of the trident. However, rest assured, not only if you’re touching the holder of a trident will you travel with him, it can traverse far. Not from Mar-el to Airen. But, say, for instance, over a mountain range.” He was silent a beat before he asked, “Now, how is that for diplomatic relations?”

  Neither my husband nor I moved.

  Then Aramus did.

  To speak.

  “Can you take things with you?” Aramus veritably barked. “Weapons? Supplies?”

  “If it is carried on your person, yes,” Jorie answered.

  “Do you need to pack?” Aramus went on.

  Jorie looked down to his attractive, but decidedly Mer trousers which were all he was wearing, then back to us.

  When he did, he grinned.

  I preferred bald, bulky, marked and midnight, like my husband.

  But smiling, Jorie was not difficult on the eyes.

  “I have a feeling I’ll be found out as Mer if I don’t at least change,” he jested.

  “Go, now, then follow us,” Aramus ordered. “We’ll leave word at the castle you’re to be treated like a king until my wife and I can attend you. We will not take long, however, and then we shall be away.”

  “Well I hope they treat me like a king, since I am one,” Jorie retorted.

  Aramus didn’t bother to reply.

  He looked down at me.

  “Let’s go home, baby. It’s time.”

  I nodded, guiding him to the edge of the water.

  Before I led us in, I halted as my husband spoke.

  “It was an unusual start,” he called to Jorie and got the other king’s attention. “But from here on, Jorie, King of the Mer, you have my vow to ally our kingdoms for the good of all who make a home in or by the sea.”

  Well, that was well said.

  Pride swelled in my chest.

  Jorie dipped his chin into his neck.

  Aramus dipped his into his neck.

  And then, I led my husband into the water so I could take us home.

  126

  The Legends

  Queen Farah

  Base of the Night Heights Mountain Range

  AIREN

  “I cannot begin to explain how, at this juncture, a renegade witch with an untrained army running amuck in my realm might do irrevocable damage to a mission we both share that it is crucial, in going about it, we find victory,” Cassius stated to the woman standing before him, and he did this through gritted teeth.

  I stood by my husband who, I noted after a sidelong glance, agreed with Cass for he did not appear as angry as Cassius, but I could see he was not happy.

  “Rest assured, Fern has the best interest of this mission at heart, my prince,” the woman, her name Elsa, replied.

  “I’m fully aware of that,” Cassius retorted. “That is not at issue. At issue is the renegade part of my earlier statement.”

  Elsa looked uncomfortable.

  “Where is she?” Cassius demanded.

  “I am not in the know of that,” Elsa answered.

  “It’s my understanding you’re her ranking general here,” Cass replied.

  “Her mission is top secret,” Elsa shared.

  “From her Regent?” Cass bit out.

  “Sire—” she began.

  “Find out where she is. Find out what she’s doing. And report it to me,” he clipped. “We are at war, Elsa. As such, I am not only your Regent, I’m your commanding, gods-damned officer. And there is one thing I do not countenance in my troops. Going rogue.”

  Elsa stared up at Cassius in shock before her face split into an enormous smile.

  For a moment, I did not understand her reaction.

  And then it struck me she was delighted to be considered, and treated, as a soldier.

  “Right away, sir,” she stated crisply.

  “Dismissed,” Cassius muttered.

  She nodded, began to curtsy, stopped herself, instead saluted, and hurried away on her booted feet, wearing trousers, and it was a ridiculous notion on my part in that moment, but she made me want a pair of trousers.

  Cass turned to True and I, as well as Mars and Silence, who were standing with us.

  “They had three hundred and twenty-two women here. They lost three yesterday,” Cassius said. “Bloody three.”

  “You did say they entered the battle closer to the end,” Mars noted.

  “All told, we stood approximately fifteen hundred against twelve thousand. And they lost only three,” Cassius returned, and I knew his comment was not about disappointment (obviously), but surprise…and respect.

  “Apparently, one must not underestimate the concept of right equaling might,” my husband murmured.

  “Three dead, True. But one hundred and seven were injured,” Cass told him.

  “I will assign Luther to them,” True offered. “They’re motivated and they’re organized. If they hone their skills, they could be formidable.”

  Cassius appeared to think for a moment, before he replied, “This might appeal to Nero. He needs something to turn his mind. He can work with Luther.”

  True nodded.

  Mars broke in.

  “This is a good idea, but in the now, we must decide the course for us all,” Mars said. “With your warriors, you and Elena heading to The Enchantments, mine coming up from Firenze to do the same, resources would be too concentrated there if True’s men and mine accompanied you.”

  “I’ve called for more men from Wodell to go to Sky Bay. I can take Farah and Silence and we’ll add to your numbers there,” True put in. “Mars and his men can go with you, Cass.”

  “Lahn shared that things had deteriorated in Dunlyn, and reports from my men verify it. I sense it might be a stronghold. Aramus has sent ships there and—”

  Cassius stopped talking when we all turned to a clamor happening in the makeshift horse corral close by.

  In it were a number o
f battle mounts.

  But also, Sky and Star, Cassius and Elena’s unicorns.

  Both were fretting.

  Star, the mare, was cantering this way and that, as a human would pace.

  Sky appeared to be charging the gate, turning at the last moment before he’d break it, as if saying he wanted free.

  “Open the gate, let out the charmed ones!” Cassius called to the page who it was clear saw to the corral.

  The boy rushed forward to do as told, and I wondered—when the unicorns could magically leap through space, and in a trice, land hundreds of miles away—why they didn’t not-magically leap the fence of the corral.

  The page let them out, swiftly running the gate closed before any of the other horses could get free.

  However, the unicorns did not rush away to find exercise.

  True crowded me and Mars pulled Silence close as they rushed Cassius.

  The stallion paced a circle agitatedly around the five of us as the mare went right to her prince, dipped her neck and butted his hand with her nose.

  “What is it, love?” he murmured, stroking her muzzle.

  But it was the stallion who answered, tossing his head back and braying.

  “What are you saying, Sky?” Cassius called to the stallion, still rubbing Star’s nose.

  True suddenly tucked me close when Sky reared up, striking the air with his hooves.

  This, just as Elena came running.

  “Diana!” she shrieked to the page. “Saddle my mount!”

  The boy rushed into the corral.

  Cassius rushed to Elena.

  “What?” he barked, instantly on the alert.

  “The Enchantments,” she said, her voice naught but a pant. “Cassius, we have to get to The Enchantments!”

  Oh no!

  Sky came up behind her, and before Cassius, or anyone, could ask that first question, she whirled on the unicorn, capturing his jaw in her hands.

  I was shocked the creature didn’t pull away at her panicked movements, but he did not.

  “Will you take us to The Enchantments?” she asked.

  The unicorn jerked back his head in clear assent.

  “Caelus!” Cassius shouted, running toward the corral.

  “Do you need us?” Mars boomed.

  Elena’s head whipped around. “We need everyone.”

  “Oh, gods,” I breathed.

  Mars looked to True, but it was my husband who spoke.

  “We cannot leave them,” he said.

  “We cannot take them,” Mars finished.

  They were talking about us.

  Silence and me.

  “Bloody hell,” True muttered, then pivoted on his boot and shouted to a loitering Dellish squire, “Saddle Majesty and Regina!” he ordered.

  The squire hopped to.

  Regina was my steed.

  I glanced at Silence who was being dragged away by Mars.

  And I received an answer to my unasked question when I heard Mars order a Firenz soldier in Firenzii, “Saddle Hephaestus and Epona. Break camp. We ride!”

  Epona was Silence’s mount.

  It seemed we weren’t going to Sky Bay after all.

  As the purple cleared and Regina’s hooves struck land, at what befell my eyes, it felt like my heart would explode.

  We were galloping full bore toward hell.

  The Enchantments were under attack.

  Hundreds of troops were taking aim with fired arrows shot into the forest, but instead of them soaring through the air and exploding amongst the trees, they detonated against an invisible shield.

  Worse, there were dozens of catapults and trebuchets raining fire against the shield. Buckets of fuel set aflame were detonating against the Nadirii’s protective veil in great swoops of blaze. With each powerful strike, a wave would reverberate, and an opening would form, giving a glimpse of sun and green that was starkly different than the chill, gray, late-autumn day in Airen.

  Our horses had barely taken two dozen strides when, as if they had practiced it, True and Mars broke off in formation, curving to the left, taking Silence and my mares with them, forcing us to the back of the phalanx of Dellish, Airenzian, Firenz and Nadirii warriors who had traveled with us.

  They guided us up a hill and True’s Majesty circled me, my husband’s head whipping this way and that to keep hold on my eyes, as he ordered gutturally, “You stay here, and if danger approaches before I can get a guard to you, you flee!”

  He then rounded Regina, dug his heels into his steed’s sides, and shouted, “Heeyah!”

  They raced forward, with Mars following them.

  Breathing heavily, Silence and I sidestepped our mounts so we were closer to each other, and we stared down at the mayhem below that our beloved husbands were speeding toward.

  The others had engaged in battle and we could hear the clangs of steel and shouts of combat.

  “Not to worry,” Silence decreed, her voice quiet and small, betraying she was not taking her own advice. “The Enchantments have never been broken and our husbands are the greatest warriors of our realms.”

  I did not wish to worry. I knew both of these things, and they should have heartened me.

  But as missile after missile struck the shield and some of the shouts of combat became noises of a different kind, I tried to keep my gaze glued to True and felt my heart squeeze when I lost sight of him in the confusion of the melee.

  My True, so true, charging in without hesitation.

  He was an example of right being might too.

  And in that moment, weakness struck me, for I wished suddenly that he was just a little bit less true in order to keep himself a lot more safe.

  “Oh, balls, no,” Silence murmured, and my attention shifted to her then back to the action and I shot straight on my steed.

  A rift had opened in the veil protecting The Enchantments that not only did not close but also did not hold the missiles at bay.

  They were getting through.

  And with the intensity of the onslaught, The Enchantments were catching fire.

  “This cannot be,” I whispered.

  “Yes, it can. For it is not man doing that,” Silence stated, and I again turned to her to see her gaze no longer to the battle but it was looking beyond me. “It is magic.”

  I twisted my neck and felt my eyes narrow, for along the crest of the hill, some ways away, but still visible, was a line of sorcerers.

  I knew their bent for they were in full chant, precisely placed, arms raised, heads tipped back, calling on their magic to aid the villains’ operation.

  And there had to be fifty of them.

  Further, in the confusion below, our people had not noticed them.

  I turned back to Silence, and the instant I did, she proclaimed, “Your wind. My fire.”

  My wind?

  Her…fire?

  I had no chance to ask after this.

  She’d dug her heels in her mount and started charging toward the sorcerers.

  Without thinking, I followed her, and as I did, as an automatic precaution, I called upon my magic, feeling it gather in the small of my back, a tingle, an itch, a burning.

  Silence was bent over the neck of her horse, but as we grew closer to the line of sorcerers, she sat back, raised both hands, palms open but fingers slightly curled…

  And to my amazement, in them formed two balls of fire.

  She hurled them both toward the first sorcerer.

  His robes caught fire, and on a shriek, he plummeted out of the line, snaking this way and that before throwing himself to the ground and rolling.

  By the gods.

  Silence had command of fire!

  She turned her head and looked down her body at me, shouting, “You!”

  Now I knew what she meant by “my wind.”

  I had something to command too.

  And in this dire time, I had to command it.

  I sat up, brought my hands crossed before me at my chest, then flung them
out to my sides.

  The next sorcerer in line whirled up into the air in a twirl of damp leaves as if caught in a wind funnel.

  I then swung one of my arms to the right and he went flying through the forest.

  “I did it!” I cried with excitement.

  Silence did not share in my excitement.

  She was focused.

  Thus, the next wizard took Silence’s fire.

  I needed to focus as well.

  I did this and the next I sent careening into a tree.

  More fire from Silence, this time, one of her projectiles hit the next wizard in line and another projectile, the one after.

  The skin all over my body raging but my breath coming calm and easy, I caught the next three up in a mighty gale and sent them soaring over the naked treetops, trailing dead leaves in their wake.

  At this juncture, the line of conjurors had noted our attack, thus they started to break formation and scatter.

  “What the bloody hell are you doing?” I heard Wallace shout from behind me.

  “My queen, stop!” Silence’s guard Kyril bellowed.

  We both ignored them with Silence again looking back, down her body to me.

  I jerked my head one way and pulled my reins in that direction.

  She went the other.

  “Gods dammit!” Wally yelled.

  I chased the sorcerers, leaning left to right in my saddle as Regina dodged the trees, all the while hearing Wallace bound behind me at Regina’s heels.

  Sending forth a gale, I caught several of the fleeing men, forcing them back to whence they came, where a wall of fire was opening in a circle.

  I carried on, grateful to Wallace, who noted my gambit and broke from his chase of me in order to bear down on our foes to force some of the wizards into my line of magic.

  We caught as many as we could, which drattedly wasn’t all of them, before Silence and I passed each other on our mounts, and she closed the ring of fire.

  Then Silence, without pause, again tore off on her mount.

  I watched, marveling at her seat on a horse, which was exceptionally skilled, and I noticed she was intent on tracking the sorcerers we had not caught in her corral of fire.

  Kyril raced after her, but as I would do the same, Wallace rounded in front of me, cutting me off, shouting, “Have you lost your bloody mind?”