Soul Blaze

by Legacy, Aprille

  Finally, I reached the rooftop. I approached the edge, the wind plucking at my clothes as the rain stung my eyes. I could see the Ularair only a few buildings down from me. I quickly leapt to the next building, rolling as I landed, my swords cutting into my back. Getting closer now, I could see flashes of magic, as the guards began to battle it. The serpent screamed in rage, then spat venom towards the ground. I couldn’t see what happened, but spirals of green smoke rose from where it hit.

  I crossed a few more rooves until I was facing the Ularair’s body. Now that I was running along the edge of the building, I could see what was happening on the ground.

  Sojaya, Petre, Yasmin and Eleanora had joined the fight. Bits of the pavement had been eaten away beneath their feet by the Ularair’s venom. I watched, unable to move, as the serpent suddenly swooped down and snapped its teeth, trying to clasp a guard in its jaws. The man yelled in fear, and fuelled by the sudden rage that took over me, I pulled my daggers from their sheaths and jumped.

  My knives bit deep into the serpent’s scaly body. The creature roared in pain and I struggled to gain my footing. The Ularair bucked, and I almost lost my grip on the knives, but suddenly I felt something reverberate through its body. Glancing down, I saw two arrows in the perfect place for a foothold. I glanced down and saw Eleanora fitting two more arrows to her string.

  I swung my foot onto the arrows and then hoisted myself up and over. The Ularair had long spines down its back, which made the perfect hand holds. It was slimy and wet, having slithered from the ocean. The serpent reared again, and I hung onto a spine desperately. It thrashed about, trying to dislodge me. I watched my knives fall from its body, clattering to the ground far below. Setting my sights on the creature’s head, I began to climb.

  Those on the ground had managed to distract it, but nothing they were doing seemed to have any effect on its health. If anything, the thing seemed to be getting stronger and stronger as it got angrier.

  Over the sound of the thunder, I heard a loud crash. I struggled to look over my shoulder, and saw that the Ularair had started using its tail to smash through buildings. Hoping that Griffin and the others had evacuated this section, I continued my climb up its back, even more desperate now to stop it.

  I reached the head of the serpent, and clung to the last spine as I tried to locate a weak spot. The obvious one was its narrow eyes, but from this angle I’d had to stab back towards myself, and if the thing lunged again I’d probably impale myself. It didn’t seem to have ears, but large fanlike fins on either side of its head twitched occasionally, and it seemed to follow sound. I drew one of my swords, but then hesitated.

  I didn’t know if stabbing its ears would kill it. As angry as I was that it was smashing up my city and threatening my friends, I didn’t want to cause the thing any unnecessary pain.

  As I stood there holding my sword, contemplating what to do next, I heard a scream from below. My body realised who it was before my mind did, and my stomach pitched.

  The Ularair had used its tail to destroy another building. It was such an immense creature that I hadn't even felt the movement. As the building collapsed, Griffin had been pinned under a roof beam. Now the Ularair was using the guard’s distraction to its advantage.

  I needed to kill it. As lightning flashed in the distance, I was struck by inspiration. I let go of the spine I was clinging to and drew my second sword. Looping them once to gain moment, I then drove them into the top of the Ularair’s skull.

  The noise it emitted was the worse I’d ever heard. I’ll take that sound with me to the grave. Windows shattered in the buildings closest to us and those fighting on the ground below covered their ears in a desperate attempt to shield themselves from its cry. But the Ularair wasn’t finished, and neither was I.

  I raised both hands to the sky, calling the lightning to me. It struck my hands with a boom of thunder and I felt the power leap through my body. Grasping the hilts of the swords, I channelled the power of the storm directly into the Ularair’s body.

  I’m not sure when it died, but I hope for its sake that it was as soon as the lightning scrambled its brain. I held the lightning for as long as I could, but the bolt ran out and the serpent began to teeter. It began to fall, slowly at first, but then gained momentum. I grasped the closest spine on its body for support, but as it slammed into the ground with an earth-shattering rumble, I was thrown to the cobbles.

  I felt the impact bruise several limbs immediately, but I barely felt it. Two objects clattered towards me, and I picked them up numbly. The hilts of my swords were charred almost beyond recognition, the blades melted by the heat of the lightning.

  My swords, my two faithful companions, remnants of my past lives, were destroyed. A cry distracted me from my loss. The guards had managed to move the rubble off of Griffin, moving their captain out into the open. Sojaya was leaning over him, her magic glowing maroon in the dim light.

  “He needs to be taken to your friend,” she said as I approached. “I can heal, but not as well as her.”

  I nodded, still holding the hilts of my ruined swords.

  “Is anyone else injured?” I asked the guards. Some had a few superficial cuts and bruises, but Griffin was by far the worse off. His leg had been mangled by the wood and glass that he had been pinned under. I knelt down beside him, ignoring the distance that I’d kept between us since the engagement party.

  “Sorry, Your Majesty,” he gasped. “Thought I could do a better job than that.”

  “Don’t be stupid,” I said, putting the hilts beside him so I could support his head. “We took it down, didn’t we?”

  He leaned back into my embrace, trembling with the effort. “You brought it down, Sky. No one else. Just you.” His eyes met mine with such intensity that I looked away, towards the fallen Ularair.

  Somehow, it looked even larger on the ground than it did upright above the buildings. As Sojaya helped them load Griffin into a hospital cart, I approached the dead serpent. Its head was taller than I, a mottled dark green that would make it invisible in the depths of the ocean. I hesitated, and then reached out and touched its nose, running my hand along its scales until I got to its eye. It was closed, and I was grateful. I didn’t want to look into the unseeing depths.

  The Ularair might have been one of the biggest threats my city had ever faced, but it was magnificent.

  “What would you like us to do with the body, milady?” one of the guards asked from behind me. I mulled it over, remembering what my father had said. The Tsalskinese were the ones most familiar with it, if only in legend.

  “Arrange for it to be sent to the Tsalski Islands,” I said finally. “As a gift to the Emperor. But if it’s no trouble, I’d like one of the scales.”

  “Of course, milady.” The guard hurried off to make the arrangements.

  “You fought bravely, my daughter,” Jett joined me at the Ularair’s head. “I’ve never seen anything like that.”

  Wordlessly, I showed him the hilts of my swords. He took them gently, examining them. “Can they be fixed?” I asked dully. “The blades seem to have melted away,” Jett cast a dubious look at the top of the Ularair’s skull. “Unless you want to go fishing around in this thing’s skull for the metal, I don’t think it’s possible.”

  I accepted the hilts back mutely. I’d suspected as much, but it didn’t make the loss any easier to bear. I’d start my training with a regular sword as soon as possible. In this turbulent time, I didn’t want to be caught without a weapon.

  ~Chapter Twenty-Six~

  A few days after the Ularair had been packed off to the Tsalski Islands, news from Norrimoor arrived. I’d spent the morning with the non-magi, converting more of them into mages. The throne room glowed with the light of new magic, turning it into a sparkling rainbow of colours. It was a beautiful sight to behold, one I’d been quite enjoying until Theresa had stepped up onto the dais.

  I hadn’t seen her in a few days, and it was so rare for her to seek me out that I
’d been rendered mute when she asked to speak to me privately. I followed her into a small chamber off the throne room, leaving behind the new mages with their magic.

  “I have information for you,” Theresa began. “The messenger will be along shortly with the official announcement, but I deemed it in your best interest to be forewarned.”

  “You’re scaring me,” I said. “What’s going on?”

  Theresa pulled the door to the chamber closed, standing with her back to it. “Phoenix has just declared the North independent from the South. He is now free from your rule. As we speak, refugees are streaming towards Castor. They know what’s coming.”

  I couldn’t speak. Theresa was watching me closely.

  “Where’s the border?” I asked quietly. Theresa unfurled a small piece of paper she’d been carrying. It was a little map of Lotheria, with a red line scored across it. I took it from her, looking at it closely. Phoenix had divided our country neatly in half. Riverdoor and Thurin now lay on his side of the border. I crumpled the map in my hand and leant against the wall, fighting back tears.

  “When will the official announcement be made?” I asked, my eyes closed.

  “Sometime this afternoon,” she said. I opened my eyes again, fiddling with the paper in my hands.

  “How do you know this?” I asked her finally.

  She met my gaze steadily.

  “Do you really want to know?”

  She was challenging me. I could hear it plain in her voice. I stood a little straighter.

  “Yes, I do.”

  She sighed and leant against the door, folding her arms. “We intercepted the messenger on his way through Keyes,” she said, her eyes unreadable. “We… convinced him to give us a look at what he was carrying. In addition, my scouts in Gowar and Abdoor have reported troops along what is now the Orthandrellian border.”

  “What do you mean, you convinced the messenger?” I was pretty sure I knew, but I wanted to hear her say it. “We gave him a choice. He could let us see the message, limbs intact, or we’d send him back to Orthandrell minus a few fingers. Obviously, he chose to hand over the message. We’ve modified his memory so that he no longer remembers meeting us.”

  “You keep saying ‘we’.”

  She heaved another sigh. “Since we arrived in Castor, I’ve been assembling a team to keep your royal behind safe and sound. We’re mostly students from the Academy, but we’ve

  encountered a few who have similar interests and recruited them. We’ve stopped three assassins and are in the process of tracing who hired them. I’ve got scouts all over the country. Including,” she grinned wolfishly. “In the newly independent Orthandrell.”

  I gaped for a few seconds. I’d never seen Theresa like this before. At the Academy she’d always been short with me and more than once we’d gotten into heated arguments, which was as animated as I’d ever seen her. When we travelled to Castor and she’d begun to disappear, I thought she would just faze herself out of our group, now that she seemed to be expanding her horizons. But here she was, telling me that she’d actually been doing a better job of protecting the country than I had.

  “This is invaluable information,” I said earnestly. “Thank you.”

  She inclined her head.

  “Theresa.”

  She looked up at me, her expression unreadable. “Truly, thank you. I don’t know how I would’ve reacted to getting this information in front of others. In return, I would like to offer you a budget for your team, to use on whatever you deem necessary to give us the edge over Phoenix.”

  Now it was her turn to look surprised.

  “Really?” She asked.

  “Of course,” I replied. “And when you track down whoever hired those assassins, I’d like a word with them.”

  She grinned again, flicking her long red hair over her shoulder.

  “Of course, Your Majesty,” she said formally. When I emerged back into the throne room, only a few non-magi were left. I settled in for the rest of the afternoon, my eyes on the throne room door. I accepted the thanks of the brand new mages with only nods, but any other time I would join in the celebrations that usually followed during the evenings.

  I’d watched and participated in several of these celebrations, usually held in the middle of the city. After one or two, I’d noticed that they doubled as a soul mate ceremony, the new mages leaving with the other half of their soul reinstated.

  It filled my own soul with happiness to see them reunited. It only reinforced that I’d done the right thing, and for a few precious moments I could forget what had transpired between Phoenix and I, and bask in the happiness of others.

  The sun was setting the throne room alight when I was summoned to the council chambers. I stood, my ladies straightening my dress, having arrived a few moments previously. Nillia quickly redid my hair right there on the dais as Lord Hugh waited for me. When they were done, the girls stepped back.

  “Would you like us to accompany you?” Sojaya asked. I turned back to see Arianta and Nillia also waiting for my response. My stomach turned over as I realised both of their family’s estates were on the wrong side of the newly formed border. They would be hard pressed to get back to them now.

  “I think it would be best if I went alone,” I said. “I’ll inform you of the meeting’s results afterwards.” They curtsied gracefully and trotted off the dais. Inwardly, I thanked Theresa over and over again. I could tell them in person what had transpired, saving them the disgrace of public emotion.

  I followed Lord Hugh to the council chamber silently. When we arrived, I sat in my chair at the end of the long table. The rest of my council had already arrived, including my mother and father. A man I didn’t recognise stood at the far end.

  “This is Lord Brook,” Hugh began. “He has travelled a long way with his message.” I observed the Lord wordlessly, wondering what on earth possessed Phoenix to send nobility. Surely Orthandrell didn’t have so many nobles that it could afford to have them kidnapped. I fiddled with my necklace as I waited for the lord to speak; the Ularair’s scale, about the size of my thumbnail, hung from a silver chain around my neck.

  “Your Majesty,” Lord Brook began. “I bring greetings from His Majesty, King Phoenix of the North. He hopes to find you in good health.”

  “What’s the message?” I asked darkly, in no mood to mess around with formalities.

  Lord Brook cleared his throat and withdrew a scroll, unrolling it to read the text. “’As of this moment, I, King Phoenix of the North, declare Orthandrell independent to your, Queen Sky of the South, rulings. As I deem fair and just, the northern half of the country, Lotheria, belongs to my province. You will not interfere with the affairs of my country, nor dissuade me from this decision’.” He placed a small map of the new country on the table as he finished.

  Silence fell over the council chamber as I allowed my councillors to absorb the information.

  “I’ll have my guards escort you to safe holdings, my Lord,” I said tonelessly. “Excuse us.” Lord Brook bowed sardonically, and I felt anger rise beneath my skin. As my guards led him from the room, I stood, letting the Ularair scale go.

  “By capturing Lotherian soil, King Phoenix has made himself an enemy of my country,” I stated. “I will not allow this act of aggression to go unchallenged.”

  “You’re speaking of war,” a noble from Castor said. She’d gone pale, but her voice was strong. “Your Majesty, we cannot-”

  “Cannot what?” Lord Hugh challenged. “Cannot take back our land? My family’s home lies on the other side of that border. Do you think I will allow it to pass from my hands so easily?”

  Many other nobles were nodding in agreement with him. I turned towards the giant map of Lotheria that had been carved into the wooden wall of the chamber, calling a ball of lightning to my fingertips. Carefully, I burnt a line across the country, copying the map on the table.

  “This is the new Lotheria,” I said, stepping back. “Are you so opposed to war no
w?” The chamber had fallen silent. After a quick evaluation, I realised that at least a third of my councillors had lost their estates to the new border. I could sense the anger rolling through them.

  “Please inform Lord Brook that he is not to leave his rooms,” I told the guards. “He is to be our honoured guest of indefinite stay. Lord Hugh, could you please draft a response to the King’s letter?”

  He nodded.

  “What would you like to say?” he asked.

  A thousand rude responses came to mind, but I pushed them aside. “Tell him that he is unjust in his actions, and if he is unwilling to rescind them, I will be forced to take measures against him.”

  Lord Hugh paused, his quill hovering.

  “My Lady, you know how he will respond.”

  I smiled.

  “Of course. But we must observe the niceties, mustn’t we?” Lord Hugh handed a rough draft of the letter to the council scribe, who hurried away with it, his face white. He knew what he was carrying.

  “My friends,” I said, turning to the councillors. “You know how these actions will proceed. Can I count on your support? Will you follow me into these difficult times?” Every face in that room was hard with determination and sorrow. My mother was watching me forlornly. “If I declare war, will you second it?”

  The chamber was silent for a second. I could smell the smoke of the burnt map on the wall behind me.

  “Yes,” Lord Hugh said, standing. “You will have all the support House Lyon can offer.” Following his lead, every single councillor stood and pledged their allegiance. My fingers were trembling, but I’d long since tucked them behind my back.

  “And so it is,” I said, almost to myself. “If you will excuse me.” I swept from the council chamber, heading upstairs. My feet carried me towards the roof without my realising it. When I emerged into the bright sunshine, I took a deep, trembling breath.