by AJ Martin
“But… it’s going to destroy the city! Destroy everything!” she cried. “I was meant to stop him!”
Matthias turned to her. “This isn’t your fault.” He nodded to Thadius. “Keep her safe.”
“Matthias? What are you doing?” Josephine asked as he whipped his staff from behind his back.
He embraced her, squeezed her tightly, then let go and looked deeply into her eyes. “I have to try.” Then he turned and ran to the battlements, vaulting over the edge.
“Matthias!” Josephine screamed and ran to the crenulations, reaching out a hand.
Matthias’s body fell towards the ground. He gripped his staff tightly, embraced the earth power, and stopped in mid air. A shell of air flickered around him, and began to lift him, until he was darting from building to building, using the power to vault up across the rooftops of the city and up the broken pillar.
The dragon began to level the city, a mixture of fire and energy surging out of its jaws in pulses, devastating everything in its path. The dockyards by the river that curled through the city crumbled. People struggling to get out of the city on barges were burned alive in the inferno, their skin popping and blistering under the white hot flame. Houses dissolved with entire families inside. From the Fortress of Olindia the princess, accompanied by Protector Balzan and Thadius watched the destruction.
“I have to do something!” Josephine wailed above the explosions below, and shook her head. “But I can’t find my power!” she said desperately, and grew angry. “When I need you the most you abandon me?” she screamed to the air.
“I’m sorry your shield did not work my dear,” Balzan said with grit in his voice. “But I will rectify this situation!” She looked at him in confusion. His eyes flared with power, and his body began to swirl with green and blue energy as he withdrew from his cloak a small, black stone figurine of a creature with poles attached to its arms and legs, affixed to a base of green stone.
Matthias threw himself up from the pillar, his body surrounded by blazing flames, and landed onto the back of the dragon, grappling at the scaly plates that protruded down across its back. He ran across the armoured skin with grace, stopping himself by a spike protruding from the spine between its wings. Steadying himself he raised his staff into the air, thrust it down into the beast’s armoured plates and channelled. Lightning sparked out of its tip, pouring into the dragon’s muscles. The beast growled, but continued to attack the city below.
“I’m nothing more than a mosquito bite to you, am I?” Matthias growled. He stuck his staff into his belt and unsheathed his sword. “Well let’s see if this gets your attention!” He plunged the sword into the dragon’s skin with both hands, its blade disappearing half way into the flesh. The dragon roared in pain and ceased its attack on the ground below. He threw himself around in the air in an attempt to throw off Matthias, but the wizard grasped at the sword stuck deep into its back like a thorn, his legs sailing through the air. The creature’s beak came at him, and he pulled the blade from its back. He slid down its scales as if he were on ice, and with the sword pointed downwards, sliced a deep gash into the creature’s side. Sikaris screeched and span wildly in mid - air, throwing Matthias off, but he pulled his staff from his belt and with a burst of power thrust himself back on the beast again, where he sliced off one of the spikes along the creature’s spine.
“Come on Sikaris! If you want me, you’ll have to try harder than that!”
Balzan’s body shook with power.
“Protector, what is going on?” Josephine asked.
“Retribution, my dear!” he yelled within the swirls of energy. “I have grown so old that I could not see what was happening on my doorstep! But I can make it right! This is the culmination of my efforts to protect this country!” He laughed. “To think I designed it to ward off my own people!” He threw up his hands, casting a great white light from his palms into the black clouds that now shrouded Crystal Ember. The beam struck the sky, rippling with energy. The clouds glittered and shone and then the beam of power returned, striking the fortress at its highest point. The building glowed with a heavenly aura and Balzan stepped backwards, veins snaking across his cheeks and panted. “This fortress is alive!”
“Alive?” Thadius exclaimed. “What do you mean it’s alive?”
“The Akari created Artefacts long ago, designed to aid them in their tasks. When I left Mahalia, I stole this one from their vaults.” He held aloft the figurine. “The Motekar Stone. Capable of turning an inanimate object into a puppet!” With a deep creaking and crumbling, the fortress began to mutate around them. The keep’s bricks shifted, the buttresses becoming hands and feet and the crenulations morphing into stumpy fingers. The main pillar of the castle shifted, the stone obelisk becoming an almighty stone sword. Balzan turned to Josephine. “Behold our salvation!”
The princess clung to the battlements as the transformation was completed. The stone blade was imbued with a surging, seething energy. It glowed brightly in the dark sky through the thick, black smoke that billowed up from the burning city. Balzan cried out to the sky, laughing loudly.
“Princess!” Thadius called to her. “I think Balzan is losing his mind!”
She looked at the wizard who stared up at the dragon with manic eyes, his hands outstretched.
“Thadius, what are we going to do?” she asked. There was a roar from above, and the Dragon was flapping its wings madly. She could see against the dark scales the red - jacketed form of Matthias. His blade glinted in the flames, hacking wildly at the beast. She flinched as Sikaris’s bony head reached across his own body at Matthias and the blade sliced at the beast’s face. Sikaris knocked Matthias with his beak, sending him spiralling in mid - air, and then its tail smacked him in the face. His staff span away in the sky, like a matchstick in the air as Josephine watched, and he plunged downwards.
“Matthias!” Josephine screamed and stretched out a hand. Suddenly she felt her energy surround her, and she let out a tendril of power that caught Matthias as he fell and slowed his descent. As she tried to bring him to earth safely, the fortress shook and she fell backwards, hitting her head on the stone. Her power vanished again as Thadius dashed to her side to help her up.
Matthias spun in the air, his eyes streaming in the wind that whipped across his skin. Something had held him momentarily in place in the sky, but now he was falling again, faster and faster. He could see his staff spinning beneath him. He reached out with a hand to pull the wooden instrument towards him with a thread of power. Before it reached him, his body met the roof of a building with a crunch. The tiles beneath him shattered, his left shoulder smashing into the chimney, ripping his arm out of its socket. His right leg twisted unnaturally. He collapsed against the flue, the sounds of screaming filling his ears, and then his mind grew hazy as his eyes closed, darkness filling his vision.
“Thadius, can you see him?” Josephine cried as she stared down into the flames.
Thadius looked into the furnace sombrely. He placed a hand on her shoulder. “Josephine. I-”
“No! Don’t say it!” she snapped. “He’s not dead!”
Balzan outstretched a hand holding the figurine, pointing towards the Dragon. “March!” he bellowed. The balcony shook as the fortress clumsily began to lumber forwards. “Now we shall see what the dragon is really made of!” An enormous fireball spewed from its mouth, striking against the fortress, but it did little damage to the hefty stone armour. “Aha! See my girl? The enchanted stone holds against him! We still have a chance!”
With the sword that was once a pillar in both mighty hands, the fortress struck, slicing at the scaly skin of its enemy. The dragon darted out of its way, but the building struck again, catching the beast on its side. Sikaris roared with anger and swooped up further into the air, dodging the slashing of the giant sword as he rocketed up into the clouds, disappearing from view. For a moment the air was deadly calm save for the crackling of the flames below in the city, as building upon building
crumbled to ashes. The wind blew the flame further through Crystal Ember, the entire western section of the city a blazing red - orange light. Josephine could make out the screams of the people below, hundreds trapped in the furnace that surged through their streets. A piercing shriek filled the air and she put her arms to her ears to block the sound.
Out of the clouds a twister of fire span towards the northern side of the city, impacting on the buildings with a surge of blinding light. The earth beneath the firestorm exploded and everything under its heat dissolved into a molten crater. Sikaris sailed down, out of the clouds again, and surveyed the damage below.
Tears filled Josephine’s eyes and poured down her face. “It’s all my fault! I couldn’t stop it! I’ve killed them all!”
Thadius gripped her arm as the fort lumbered towards the dragon again. “Princess!” he wailed above the noise and the wind. “Princess! We have to go!”
“No! We have to stay! We have to help-”
“We can’t help! The city is defeated! Whatever Balzan thinks, that creature is too strong!”
“There’s still a chance. We can-”
“I promised your father I would keep you safe! I promised Matthias. There is nothing more we can do here! We must go. Now!” He dragged her to the doorway. Throwing one last desperate look to the scene from the battlement, Josephine ducked her head through the arch and flew down the steps, leaving Balzan cursing and waving his bony hands at the enemy.
“All these years of isolation and now I can prove my worth! The council has failed to keep the peace, but I will succeed where they haven’t!”
Sikaris stood in mid - air, his wings flapping forcefully. Facing the oncoming fortress, the creature began to open its jaws wide. From his throat, a blue light began to flicker.
Inside the fortress Josephine and Thadius were met with chaos. Soldiers and servants ran in every direction. More than once Thadius crashed into someone who was in their way.
“Where are we going?” Josephine asked, lost in thought and fear.
“To the main gate. We are leaving.”
“What?” Josephine gasped. “But the gate will be in mid - air! The drop will kill us!”
“That is a chance we will have to take! Balzan is not going to win this battle. He-” Thadius suddenly stopped dead on the stairs, staring out a wide arch window. Josephine crashed into him with a thud.
“Thadius, what?” she began, but then she saw what he was looking at. Her eyes widened. From the window the dragon could be seen, a whirlpool of blue light and sparks swirling in front of his jaws, and growing larger. “Oh gods Thadius, it’s going to destroy the fortress!”
The knight shot forward again, yanking her arm and stumbling down the stairs, darting across the wide, open marble - floored entrance room, slipping on the polished surface. “We will not be in it when it does!”
“But all these people! Thadius, we have to get them out! Balzan, the regent-”
“There’s no time!” The knight cried behind him.
“No!” She yanked herself free. “I have to help them!”
“Princess, I know how you feel. But in seconds this place will be incinerated. You can’t help stop the dragon if you are dead.”
She swallowed, a tear running down her cheek. Finally, she nodded, and the knight grasped her hand and pulled her with him again.
The main entrance was bolted shut, its mechanism for opening guarded by two soldiers. As they approached, one held out an arm.
“No further!” he commanded.
“Open the door!” Thadius gasped. “Open it now!”
“I will do no such thing!” the guard sniffed. “We’re under strict orders not to-”
“Open the bloody door!” Thadius growled, so forcefully that Josephine jumped and the two guards reached for their scabbards. Running to the first man, Thadius threw a blow that knocked him clean against the wall and unconscious. The second man, sword unsheathed, swung towards him. Not thinking, Josephine drew her power and pulled the guard away using the air around him, throwing him so hard that he landed and slid halfway across the hall.
Thadius ran to the series of levers on the wall that controlled the locking mechanism.
“We have to get this door open. Help me, princess,” he asked, panting. He heaved against one of the four levers. Shocked by what she had just done to the guard, Josephine slowly walked towards the levers, shaking herself out of her daze as she reached up to pull a second lever downward. The clunk of a lock opening was followed by a rattle of chains as the drawbridge behind the still closed door clattered down. Thadius was on the third switch, forcing the lever down to another satisfying clunk, before helping Josephine with the final lever. With the last switch down, the final lock on the doors slid open. As the fortress pounded its way forwards, the doors swayed open unsteadily, crashing back and forth in their frame. Thadius stumbled his way to the opening, clutching to the stone frame unsteadily. Peering down as far as he could without losing balance as they swayed back and forth, the treetops and buildings below looked tiny. Josephine clutched to his arm as she too peered down and gasped.
“It’s too far! We will be killed!” she wailed. The wind blew her hair in her face and she threw her head to keep it out of her vision. Thadius looked from ground to the dragon, the swirling blue light expanding so that only the tips of its wings were visible behind. In its centre, the light was beginning to flicker and shimmer and sparks burst outward.
“Princess, could you slow us down if we jump?” he asked.
“Slow us down?”
“I just watched you throw a man across this hall! Surely if you can do that you can slow us down if we jump? Break our fall in some way?” The light in the centre of the whirlpool was growing dangerously brighter.
“I- I don’t know how!” said Josephine. “I just did it without thinking!”
“Well then do it again!” Thadius replied and gripping Josephine by the shoulders, threw them both out of the doorway.
In mid - air, hurtling towards the ground, Josephine drew on her energy. She focussed it unconsciously, closing herself to the outside world, visualising two bubbles of air, one around herself, the other around Thadius. It seemed as natural to her as breathing. Slowly they started to stop, until they were hanging by invisible forces several metres from the ground. Josephine let go of the power and they both dropped the rest of the way to the floor. She rolled into a patch of grass unharmed, but Thadius came crunching down onto a block of splintered wood. He growled in pain. There was a blinding flash of blue- white light behind them, and a searing beam of energy shot toward the fortress from the dragon. Where it struck, brick and mortar exploded, showering everywhere, burning straight through the fortress. The stone seemed to dissolve, and in seconds, what little remained of the destroyed fort fell to earth. The pillar- come- sword that had been its weapon flailed from a disembodied arm and crashed down onto the buildings below. Josephine watched in stunned silence. Pieces of stone crashed to the ground around her, as a thick cloud of dust covered the city. Sikaris hovered above a defeated Crystal Ember, barely even scratched.
“Quick, this way,” Thadius gasped, clutching to his bloodied leg and delicately taking Josephine by the arm.
“Where are we going?” She asked, dazzled.
“As far from here as our legs will take us,” he whispered.
“What about Matthias?” she asked. “And Luccius?”
“Josephine, look at the city,” he said sadly. “How could he have survived that fall, let alone the fire that’s choking every building as far as the eye can see? And if Luccius had any sense he will have gotten out by now. Now come on.” He led her clumsily across the debris, through the dust and out of the broken wooden walls out of city.
“No! Matthias!” she cried as Thadius dragged her away.
Luccius shot through the crowds of screaming people, pushing past the mob desperate to escape from Crystal Ember. He was sure he had seen where Matthias had fallen from the sky, s
omewhere nearby. A man leading a woman by the hand crashed into him and he fell down, trampled by people climbing over him. Scrambling to his feet, bruised and crushed, Luccius called Matthias’ name. It would do no good- there was too much noise, too much chaos to pick out a reply. Luccius stumbled into an alleyway away from the stampede.
“Gods damn you Matthias!” he shouted to the air. He pounded his fist into the wall. His ears pressed back against his head. The dust was beginning to sting his eyes. “Where are you?” He kicked at a stick on the floor, and the piece of wood clattered around on the stones. Then realisation dawned what he had struck. He fell himself to the floor and his palm clasped around Matthias’s staff. Clasping it in both hands, he ran out of the alleyway, weaving around the people in the street. He spun around and around, staring from roof to roof. Then he spotted him, a blurry figure leaning against a chimney on a nearby roof.
“Matthias!” he cried, dashing to the house and bursting through the broken door, hurtling up the stairs as he tucked the staff through his belt. He climbed out the upper bedroom window, grabbing at tiles in the dusty mist and pulling himself up onto the roof, crawling across to where Matthias was sitting.
“Matthias!” he breathed, and patted at his friend’s face to wake him.
“What’s happening?” he asked dozily as he came to.
“It’s the dragon, Matthias. It’s levelling the city. We have to get out!” He began pulling Matthias to get up, trying to keep balance on the slipping tiles.
Matthias shook his head. “No. Josephine. We… have to find… Josephine.”
“The fortress has been destroyed!” Luccius said sadly, his eyes glassy with tears.
“What?” Matthias breathed, and looked to the sky where the fortress had lumbered before.
“I’d like to hope that Josephine is still alive, but there is not much we can do to find her now. How could we find her in this?” He started to drag him down the rooftop towards the window.
