Kingdom of 7 Sovereigns: Wolf

by R. C. Reigh

  “Funny, I was thinking the same thing.” I offered her my hand to help her from the bench. I motioned for her to lead the way back to the stadium with the other.

  “You’re quite different than when we first met,” she commented as if she were trying to figure me out. “I didn’t think you had any respect for humans.”

  “I’m ashamed to say that you aren’t wrong, princess. With the exception of you and your father, I only used to see your people as frail and inferior, but lately I’ve been seeing things quite a bit differently,” I admitted, finding the guilt of that honesty to weigh particularly heavy on me.

  “What changed your mind?” she asked.

  “Cora,” I replied in earnest, and I couldn’t help but stare at the way her face lit up as she nodded.

  “She does have a way with people.” She chewed her lip again.

  I had noticed her nervous tick so many times that I knew what it meant.

  “You two have much more in common than you and I do,” she added.

  A worrisome thought tumbled about in my mind as we walked along in comfortable silence. The good news was that it seemed as if Cora had kept her word and had not told Amelia that we were Fated, but now I was starting to see a new problem presenting itself.

  By not telling her, perhaps Amelia had come to the mistaken conclusion that I had another motivation behind spending so much time with her cousin.

  Amelia

  “Wouldn’t you rather have a chance to be with someone more like her?” I asked, hoping Dane would see it was a genuine question and not a dig again.

  He looked off toward the lake.

  “You are right. We are much better suited,” he said, nodding.

  In truth, it stung a bit more than I had expected when he said it.

  “I’d agree we’d be a good match if it wasn’t for. . .” he trailed off as if he were searching for the right thing to say.

  “If it wasn’t for what?” I urged, keeping my eyes downcast onto the path.

  “Well, the treaty, for one thing. But, honestly, I don’t think I could ever really see her as more than an amazing friend,” he finally said, running his hand through his hair.

  For him, the conversation was obviously an uncomfortable one.

  “How can you be sure?” I pressed as we passed through the gate into the stadium.

  “I’m absolutely certain, Amelia.” He insisted as he stopped to look at me with those sincere honey eyes of his. “I--”

  The sound of his voice was drowned out by the sudden screech of the magical Bastion alarms. My attention whipped to the sky, where a voice seemingly came out of thin air, crackling as it began screeching an announcement.

  “REPORT TO QUARTERS IMMEDIATELY. THERE IS AN ATTACK AT THE GATES. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. REPORT TO QUARTERS IMMEDIATELY AND INITIATE LOCKDOWN.”

  As soon as it ended, the announcement began again. My eyes shot to Dane and then skyward again as the din of people shuffling inside the arena was drowned out by the loud whooshing of wings. Almost as if they were one, the three dragon princes had taken to flight overhead and headed off in the direction of the Bastion gates.

  “Show-offs,” Dane muttered before turning his attention back to me again. There was an uncomfortable uncertainty in his gaze as he watched me and sighed.

  “You’re probably not going to like this,” he said, seeming to be weighing something in his mind, “but, oh well,” he finally decided as he wrapped a strong arm around my shoulder and pulled me in close to him. Shielding me with his protective grasp, he steered us back through the stadium gate toward the towers. His eyes darted from left to right on high alert as we made our way through the crowd, and he veered me toward safety.

  Ushered along in his strong masculine arms, I realized I wasn’t the least bit afraid. Not of whatever was out there and most certainly not of him. When had that changed?

  This is what my kingdom needed.

  As I watched him, I felt ashamed for being so selfish. I had been so determined to make my own choices that I hadn’t even considered giving him a chance to be my choice.

  As we neared the school, Cora rushed toward me, guilt and worry written all over her face.

  “I’m fine,” I assured her. “Make sure the others are accounted for.”

  I watched as Dane and Cora exchanged a glance and an unspoken message passed between them. Cora nodded and headed off to follow my instruction, while Dane continued to escort me toward the turret.

  It wasn’t until we reached the stairs to the Avonlee quarters that he released me. I climbed up the first two steps and then turned back to him.

  “I need to see if they need my help at the main gates.” He bowed his head in farewell.

  “Thank you.” It didn’t really seem to be a sufficient response to the way he had cared for me tonight or for what he was about to do, but I struggled to find better words.

  He just nodded with the same stoic face he often wore.

  “Make sure to barricade yourselves inside and stay safe. I will send a unit to help Cora guard the tower.”

  He quickly turned, and I called out to him.

  “Dane.”

  He turned and looked at me.

  “Please be careful.”

  He nodded again and disappeared around the corner.

  Cora arrived shortly after he left, and once we had our headcount, she closed the iron bars to the stairway. True to his word, a group of wolves arrived to stand watch with Cora and several other skilled Avoleean guards that had been assigned to the Bastion guard by my father.

  Once I was certain all of the Avonleean students were safe and protected, I returned to my room.

  In my heart, I knew there was no way any of the vile creatures would infiltrate the Bastion, there were just too many protections in place, but that knowledge did little to stifle a mounting sense of dread that had started to overcome me.

  Try as I might, I couldn’t keep my thoughts off of the wolf prince at the Bastion gates as I anxiously awaited the all-clear.

  DANE

  “Gods, these things reek,” the youngest dragon prince pulled a sour face as he covered his nose with the crook of his elbow.

  The stench of burning swamp goblins rose up in the air along with a cloud of black smoke.

  “We will hold the gate. Check further down the perimeter for stragglers,” the eldest dragon prince Darron, who was still in full dragon form, commanded the Bastion guards. They dutifully split into groups and headed off along either side of the perimeter wall.

  When the dragon princes had landed in the courtyard, the academy guards had been successfully using defensive magic to keep the horde of goblins from breaching into the confines of the Bastion.

  As soon as the scum saw that backup was coming, they had attempted to flee back into the woods that lined the exterior along most of the acadamies walls. Fortunately, the princes had them surrounded and destroyed the vile invaders in a hellstorm of dragon fire.

  My emissaries and I stayed back within the gates in our wolf forms. Even though there had been a truce between the dragons and wolves for over twenty-five years, I didn’t want one of us to get too close and an “accident” to occur.

  Once the dragons had the goblins barbequed, we shifted and dressed before heading through the gates.

  “A little late to the party.” Dax, the second dragon heir, turned and fixed his eyes upon me. “Looks like your services won’t be needed, wolf,” he snickered. His air of superiority wasn’t entirely unwarranted in his dragon form.

  I had never encountered a fully shifted Dragonian this close up before, and even I had to admit they were pretty impressive. Their massive bodies were covered in an armor of sleek scales, each bigger than my hands. Darron’s scales were comprised of golden and deep woodsy hues, while the second eldest prince was a sleek combination of both black and red. The two of them had huge heads with sharp dagger-like teeth set inside of thick jaws capable of crushing their prey whole.

  “Are
we done here, then?” The youngest prince shifted from foot to foot, almost as if he were distracted by something back at the Bastion.

  The eldest prince examined the smoldering pile of goblins in front of him, seemingly excited that something was going on.

  “What’s your rush, Roarke?” Dax glared at his brother as wispy tendrils of smoke trailed up from his nostrils.

  The youngest prince ignored him. Unlike his brothers, he had opted to return to his human form almost immediately after destroying the goblins, leaving only his dark gray wings exposed behind him.

  “You deal with these nasty little things all the time?”

  I realized that Darron was speaking to me as he scooped one of the goblins from the pile and studied it like it was some sort of interesting science experiment.

  “Yes,” I replied as I watched him.

  The dragons probably didn’t get swamp goblins up in the extreme terrain of their mountains, but I was certain they had their own nuisances to deal with. Darron shifted a little too far left, and his massive dragon tail nearly knocked the thatched roof off of two buildings.

  “Maybe we should scale down,” Dax suggested and, for a moment, I thought I saw a hint of a Cora-worthy eye roll before he started his shift.

  Dax was the brains of the dragon bunch and was already rumored to be the smartest student in the entire school.

  When the brothers completed their shift, they stood before us in winged human forms that were still much larger than any mortal. A pang of jealousy shot through me to see that their clothing easily shifted with them. I had to find out how they did that.

  The sound of something falling on the cobblestone in a nearby street interrupted our awkward mutual attempts to size one another up. We turned just in time to see two sets of glowing, reddish-orange eyes emerging from a cellar. Vampires. They disappeared into the shadows between two of the buildings.

  It wasn’t common to see vampires and goblins in the same place. Even during the Seige of Shadows their attacks had taken place in different parts of Vaalbara, never together. This had to be some sort of unholy coincidence.

  “Don’t worry. We’ll just burn them out.” The youngest stretched his dark gray wings out wide as if to fly toward them, but I called out a warning.

  “No, wait. We can’t risk starting the whole town on fire. Besides, there could still be families inside of those buildings.” It seemed that if left to their own devices, the dragons would have all of Laramidia in flames.

  “He’s right,” Dax replied as he turned his attention back to his brother. Roarke gave him a halfhearted shrug, which conveyed how little he seemed to care either way.

  “I’ll get the bloodsuckers.” I had barely spoken the words when my eyes snapped toward the sound of skittering in the tree line behind the buildings. A second wave of goblins. I pointed into the woods. “You focus on taking them out.”

  “You’re going alone?” Dax tilted up his nose and raised an eyebrow. It was a judgmental stare if I ever saw one.

  “I’ll be fine. This isn’t my first fight with vampires,” I replied.

  “Can we hurry up and get this over with? I’ve got places to be,” the youngest one complained again.

  The eldest nodded, spread his wings, and launched himself into the air toward the sound of the goblins in the tree line. Without a moment’s hesitation, Roarke burst into the air behind him. Dax gave his little brother one last suspicious look before he nodded farewell to me and followed after his brothers.

  “Are you sure?” Ellis grabbed my arm, and his steely silver eyes bore into me.

  “Yeah, I’ll be back soon. Just help the guards and make sure the dragons don’t accidentally destroy the city.”

  My emissaries nodded before we parted in opposite directions.

  *****

  The door to the stone walled cottage slowly creaked and stopped halfway open. With the tip of my sword, I shoved it the rest of the way, cautiously surveying what lie within. There was no movement, no sound, it was almost entirely dark inside, but I knew they were there. I could smell them.

  If these vampires were here, then they were here to harm or kill and needed to be dealt with accordingly. Vampires, especially the younger ones, were like rabid animals. There was no choice but to put them down.

  I had once heard that the kingdom of Kearnox played host to colonies of very old and civilized vampires living in the shadow of the Great Mountain, but that had never been proven to be more than a rumor. Still, the idea of it alone was still unsettling and yet another reason Kessara and her father were not to be trusted.

  I stepped inside the doorway, my eyes adjusting quickly to the darkness. I glanced up to the hand-sawn rafters. There was something rustling in the corner. I was sure it wasn’t a vampire, but rather something their presence had disturbed. Vampires could move entirely without sound when they wanted to. Then again, this entire situation could be a trap.

  I sniffed the air. The house smelt of stale air and unused linen. No one had been living here for quite some time. I felt a tug of relief in my chest. At least I wouldn’t need to worry about any politics concerning Laramidian casualties once I was done here.

  The strong odor of vampire was coming from the small common living area. I made my way toward the stone hearth, suspecting at least one of the vamps may be hiding by it. When I got closer, I could make out its shape pressed against the wall. That tactic may have worked if I hadn’t been a wolf with excellent night vision.

  “Gotcha,” I smirked, and he immediately lunged forward. I swiped at him with my sword. He leapt backward, but the blade still managed to nick his collarbone, and he hissed at me. The gash started healing just as fast as it had appeared. The vampire bared its fangs at me.

  “You may kill me, but that won’t stop what’s coming for you, wolf,” he hissed as I raised my blade. As I began to lower it, I heard a creak in the rafters above me. Reflexively, I began to dive and roll away as another vampire leapt down on top of me.

  It managed to sink its teeth into the flesh of my forearm as we both went tumbling across the floor. I used the force of my roll to propel myself back up to standing, and I quickly blocked the door to prevent either of the vamps from escaping.

  I looked down at the punctures on my arm and growled.

  “Alright, you wanna do this the hard way?” My fangs grew past the snarl on my lips, and my joints began to crack as I started my shift. “So be it.”

  Amelia

  After the sounds quieted beyond the gates, I went out onto our balcony and sat in the darkness. I kept my eyes trained on the gates, hoping to see what might be going on beyond them. Not only was there some manner of vile creatures out there, but the wolves and the dragons didn’t get along. Who knew what kind of disagreements they might get into?

  A soft murmur of voices came from somewhere along the tree line inside of the Bastion. In the dimness below, I saw them emerge from the forest on their way back toward the octagon structure of the school. Three dragon princes, four wolf nobles, and Price Dane, all shirtless and dappled in a dark substance that I quickly came to the gruesome realization was likely blood. They disappeared out of sight below the towers and, moments later, the all-clear came.

  I chewed my lip and wondered. I hadn’t been able to tell if anyone had been injured. I hoped Dane was ok. We may not be friends, but that didn’t mean I wished him physical injury. I paced. There was nothing wrong with sending him a message. It would be the kindly thing to do, from one allied kingdom to another.

  I quickly made my way to the writing desk and wrote a carefully worded note.

  Prince Daneatous of Carpathia,

  Thankfully, we have received the all-clear. For the safety of our people, I hope that our champions are well and that the enemy has been vanquished.

  - Princess Amelia of Avonlee

  I waited for several minutes before a note returned in the handwriting of his emissary.

  Princess Amelia of Avonlee,

  Than
k you for your concern. All of our champions, the Bastion guard, and the professors are well. There were only minor injuries within the collaborative. The goblin advisories have been vanquished.

  Regards,

  His majesty, Prince Daneatious of Carpathia.

  Minor injuries? I guessed if I hadn’t taken the time to be personal, I couldn’t expect him to. A dictated formal letter from one of his emissaries was definitely impersonal.

  I sighed as Cora emerged at the top of the stairwell. She looked to the note expectantly.

  “I saw them return unscathed,” I explained as I held out the emissary’s reply to her.

  “Even Prince Dorran?” she grumbled as she reached for the letter, lips pursed tightly together.

  “Yes,” I said quietly.

  I felt bad for what had happened earlier. Even though I had enjoyed her heat of the moment response, which had been classic Cora, I didn’t enjoy the fact that she had been let down by the dragon prince.

  “That’s too bad,” she said flippantly. “At least he will get my message when he returns to his tower.”

  “You sent him a message?” I asked, trying to feel out just how upset she was about the whole mess.

  “Yeah, I’m not about to go to the dance or be seen anywhere with him. It’s not like I’m crushed or anything. He just tried to make me look like a fool, and you and I both know I’m not having that,” she seethed and handed me back my note.

  As she spoke, a paper dragon flew through the window. She read it aloud and, apparently, the dragon prince didn’t see why his dalliance with the Fae should affect their weekend plans.

  “Can you believe him?” Cora nearly growled.

  Well, she definitely was not broken-hearted over the whole ordeal. I guess I wasn’t surprised. Cora was focused on her training first and foremost, but it was nice not to be the only one with relationship woes for once.