When Claws and Swords Collide

by N M Zoltack

  Running alongside the horse now, Vivian jumped, throwing a leg over and climbing onto her back. The horse galloped even faster now, much to Vivian’s relief, but she did not dare to slow the horse any until they crossed over into the jungle.

  The horse seemed much calmer now and listened with animalistic grace as Vivian twisted them about to look behind them. She could not say how she knew the wraiths would not depart Olac, but that well and truly seemed to be the case. A great wail rose up, the sound twisted and terrible, nearly enough to make Vivian both sick and weepy, but she ignored it and patted the horse’s neck.

  “You did not leave me. Thank you. Only fair, though, you know? I saved your life. You saved mine.”

  Still, Vivian did not feel safe. Even as she guided the horse through the jungle and then the daunting climb over the mountain, she battled fear with every step, and her gaze turned ever skyward.

  Her greatest fear, the worry that prevented her from any sleep at all, was that the dragons would kill her for what she now knew.

  The dragons were going to wage war against the humans. Claws and swords would collide if the humans could not come up with a better method of fighting, and if that were the case, then the humans would become extinct, and humans never had mastered resurrection as the dragons had.

  The humans had a century and a half to grow in strength and might and power, and all they had done was fight over power and acclaim.

  Perhaps the dragons had the right of it after all.

  75

  Bjorn Ivano

  The wraith closed in on Bjorn. Any second now, and it would open its mouth and alert the dragons to his location. The dragons would eat him, burn him, and Bjorn would deserve it. That was why he did not run, did not fight the wraith.

  He deserved to die.

  A pressure on his back had Bjorn jerking awake. He sat up and almost hit into Olympia.

  “I’m sorry,” she murmured. “I didn’t mean to startle you. I just…”

  “What were you doing?”

  Her fawn skin colored slightly. “I touched you.”

  “Why?”

  “Sometimes, you have bad dreams. If I… If I touch your back, you tend to settle. I’ll stop. I…”

  “You don’t need to stop. Thank you,” he said, pointedly not thinking about what it meant that she could soothe away his nightmares.

  “What are your bad dreams about?” she asked after a moment. “It’s fine if you do not wish to discuss,” she added.

  “That wraith we saw…”

  “It ignored us. We’re fine.”

  “What if it should not have ignored us?” he mumbled. “Me, I mean. It should not have ignored me.”

  Olympia shook her head. “I do not understand.”

  “I have reason to fear the dragons,” he admitted.

  “Why?”

  “I haven’t always been a good and decent person.”

  “What is troubling you, Bjorn? You already told me about the man you killed. I understand.”

  “That’s not all I’ve done.”

  They sat in silence. The arrival of the Vincanans on the beach meant that they had to move farther up the coastline, closer to Atlan Castle. They had found another cave to hide within, but they spent most of their time near the mouth so they could watch the waves as they were now.

  “You might feel better if you talk about what happened,” Olympia said after a moment.

  He grimaced and shook his head.

  “You want me to trust you, but you do not finish conversations. You start them, but you do not finish. Bjorn, please…” Olympia hung her head. “If you tell me what is ailing you, I will share a secret with you.”

  “You first,” he said automatically.

  She laughed and wagged a finger at him. “No. I do not trust you.”

  “Then why should I trust you with my secret?”

  “You already know my largest secret!”

  “I suppose that’s true,” he grumbled, “but people won’t hate you for that secret.”

  “The queens will.”

  “Fair point.” He hesitated.

  She patted his hand. For a moment, he clung to her fingers, holding her hand, but then she released it. “Bjorn.”

  The way she said his name could prove to be his undoing. He never should have opened his mouth. Once she learned the truth, she would want nothing more to do with him.

  “The first step to becoming a better man is to face your problems instead of ignoring them,” she murmured.

  “Sabine killed the king,” Bjorn said in a rush. “She killed her husband. Jankin. Sabine killed him by giving him poison.” He sucked in a breath. “I gave her that poison.”

  “I… The king hadn’t choked to death?”

  “I gave her poison. He died.”

  “Why? Why did you give her the poison?”

  “I knew you would…” He pressed a fist to his forehead. “Frost fungus. It’s a specific fungus that grows only in colder climes like Maloyan. Normally, if you wish to poison someone with it, you would do so slowly over the course of a month, but it happened far quicker than that. Why, I don’t know. I told her how to administer it. The poison slowly lowers your body temperature to the point that you eventually will fall asleep with a fever, ironically enough, the body’s way of trying to raise its temperature. Eventually, your heart will freeze. You feel no pain from the poison, but…”

  “Why did you bring this poison to Atlan in the first place?” Olympia asked. She was staring straight ahead, already unable to look at him. Her hands were clasped, her knuckles white.

  “I received a letter along with the invitation to the tournament.”

  “Is that why you won? Was it rigged in your favor?”

  “The tournament was not rigged! I did not cheat! I won fair and square!”

  “How can I know that? You gave the queen poison—”

  “I did not know who she meant to use it on. It was… I felt like it was not my place to ask, and she… You do what the queen asks of you, and—”

  “Or you have a spine, and you stand up for what is right and reject what is wrong,” Olympia spat out. “Regardless of who she wished to use the fungus on, you should not have brought it with you into Atlan!”

  Bjorn nodded dumbly. Ironically enough, he felt as if he were freezing, and he rubbed his arms to warm up some.

  "Go on," he said bitterly. "Say it. You hate me. You want me to go, and I will. I'll return to Maloyan. Or go to Cilla. Anywhere but where you are."

  Olympia finally turned to stare at him with horror in her eyes that slowly melted to confusion. “Why did the wraith not go after you?”

  “But it does,” he muttered. “In my dreams. Every night almost.”

  “The wraith should have… Was it because the dragons hadn’t returned yet?”

  “That’s what I figure,” he mumbled. “If a wraith sees me now, a dragon will eat me.”

  “I can’t believe you do this,” she muttered. “You helped to kill the king.”

  “I killed him. If it weren’t for the poison, he would still be alive.” Bjorn swallowed hard. “I’m a king killer, I suppose you could say, but I would never kill a queen.”

  “Not even if the queen were moments away from killing me?”

  “Well, then, yes, in that instance, I would have no choice.”

  “No choice,” the Li princess murmured. “I have a choice.”

  “And you want me gone.”

  After a moment, Olympia nodded, so Bjorn gathered his things, and off he went.

  Epilogue

  The One True Queen Rosalynne Rivera

  There had not been a royal proclamation yet about Sabine’s fall from queendom, but there would be. Once Vivian returned, Rosalynne had decided. From what her scouts told her about the trek to Olac, Vivian should return in two days’ time, so long as she spent only a day or two at her destination. Rosalynne wished very much to see her sister again.

  If anyone would have wa
rned the queen that being the one true ruler would have granted her an inner strength she had not previously possessed, she would have condemned the statement as a fallacy, but nay, it was a truth. Yes, her father had not truly raised her to lead the kingdom, but Rosalynne had made many a difficult decision even while her father still breathed. Being shoved aside for Sabine as the ruling queen had given Rosalynne so much self-doubt that she had stumbled and fallen many a time.

  No more.

  Rosalynne did not need a husband to rule beside her. She had a growing council to advise her, filled only with people she trusted, and Aldus Perez was not among them. It might be an unconventional council, to be sure, having a knight on it as well as a former servant, even an alchemist, but Rosalynne knew her decisions would be better for their council, and she could heed their advice without fear that they were secretly plotting to undermine her.

  She stood in the throne room, not sitting on her throne but standing before one of the tall decorated rose windows. Light shone down on her, not blindingly, however, and she smiled at the warmth of the sunlight.

  Footsteps sounded behind her, and she turned, hoping to see Ulric.

  Alas, Aldus approached.

  “You should count your blessings,” she remarked coolly, “that you are not imprisoned.”

  “I would seek to advise you yet.”

  “I thought I have made myself quite clear. Your queen does not appreciate having to repeat herself to you time and again.”

  “Ah, but there are those who you seek counsel from whom you do not know.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “If you speak concerning Tatum Hill, I can assure you—”

  “Not her.”

  “Ulric may have been a servant, but—”

  “Not him either.”

  She did not deign to respond again.

  “A certain vicar,” Aldus said.

  There was only one vicar in the castle, only one she ever spoke with.

  “Unless you have proof of whatever it is that you are claiming…”

  “He claims that his only desire is to serve Tenoch. Tenoch, Rosalynne, and not the crown.”

  “You will address me as you would your one and only queen,” Rosalynne remarked idly. “To serve Tenoch is to serve the crown.”

  “So you believe, but what if the fate of Tenoch does not rest with its queen but with the dragons?”

  “You believe Albert Leeson is in league with the dragons, that they will spare him and what? Turn the vicar into the king? My, what an imagination you have, Aldus! Perhaps I will keep you around after all so that you might be a jester. Yes, that is precisely what this castle needs, a jester.” She held up a hand. “You are dismissed.”

  “But, My Queen—”

  “Leave now before I have my guards escort you out of the castle. You can find accommodations elsewhere to live, by the by.”

  “If I am to be your jester, should I not continue to live here?”

  “Do you have any tricks up your sleeves?”

  “I have a riddle.” Aldus cleared his throat. “Tell me, what fills the sky, all of the earth even? What can rip up sprouts and quivers foundations? Yet it cannot be seen, cannot be touched?”

  “That is hardly a riddle at all,” Rosalynne said. “Nor is it comical. It is—”

  “Fire.”

  “No. Fire does not fill the skies…” She turned back to the window, her heart pounding with fear.

  On normal occasions, wind would fill the sky, not fire, but these days were far from normal, and fire well and could fill the skies.

  As it was now.

  A dragon, far too close, belched fire in the air, but he was not alone. Another dragon came up behind him, also breathing fire, and from the west came the third dragon.

  All three of them had come to attack Atlan Castle once more.

  When Claws and Swords Collide is the start of a race to the finish. There is so much intrigue and battling, not just on the field but also in the world of politics. There’s so much more to come!

  If you loved When Claws and Swords Collide as much as I did writing it, please write a review. The more reviews, the more motivated I’ll be to release the next books faster!

  Until the next book,

  N. M. Zoltack

  Other Books By N. M. Zoltack

  In the Eye of the Dragon

  A Time of Turmoil

  The Deceit of Tongues

  Keepers of the Flames

  The Triumphant Return

  When Claws and Swords Collide

  The Might of Magic - coming in May

  Blood and Ashes - coming in July

  About the Author

  N. M. Zoltack loves epic fantasy more than life. Game of Thrones is amazing, and George RR Martin really needs to finish the last books. More than willing to talk theories and it’s up for debate which is better—the books or the show.

  For more information:

  Email nmzoltack@gmail.com

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