Veria did what she had to do to keep moving forward. Her only goal was getting to the tower.
Strelzar and Andon stayed close on her heels as she rushed through the chaos of the battle.
Behind them, shouts and howls broke out and the ground rumbled. Veria turned around momentarily to see that the Londess troops had reached the front line of the Separatists and Tal'lean forces, who had immediately engaged.
A shadow covered them for a brief second as a boulder, surely launched from one of the Separatists' catapults, flew through the air above them toward the castle.
“Villicrey—Veria! Now!” Strelzar barked, and Veria and Andon immediately latched onto the Earth energy of the projectile, lowering it slowly to the ground in front of them. They cracked it into a hundred pieces, then hurled the pieces in a spraying wall of rock toward the approaching soldiers, each rock that made contact enough to knock them out without killing them.
Another flew above them, and they tried to latch onto it before it made contact but it happened too fast, slamming into the castle gate with a crunch of iron and stone.
“There!” Strelzar shouted, pointing at the gaping hole into the inner courtyard the second boulder had left.
They altered their course and dashed for the entry point, Veria's heart pounding and lungs filled with the sharp, cold air of exertion. She looked over her shoulder as she ran, seeing several black cloaks scattered among the bodies of soldiers that littered the field. Her heart flipped and she felt momentarily sick—in their cloaks, she couldn't tell anyone apart. She only knew Andon was at her right, Strelzar at her left, and Pascha on the other side of him.
“Don't look back!” Strelzar snapped as they neared the castle. A group of cloaked figures slipped in through the opening just before them.
They rushed through it, Veria's body aching and screaming from the sprint across the field, Veria first, then Andon, then Pascha, and Strelzar last. One of the hooded figures in front of them went to open the main door to the castle, but it didn't budge.
“There's a bloody war on, genius!” Strelzar shouted in frustration. “It's locked and barricaded from the inside.”
Tanisca flipped her hood back and Veria sighed as she almost fell to the ground with relief. “Don't antagonize me, Strelzar!” her mother snapped with a scowl on her ruby lips.
“Well then, Pyer, do the honors!” he laughed, gesturing at the door with both hands.
Tanisca grabbed the hand of the cloaked figure next to her, who shook their hood back, as well, revealing a cascade of messy brown ringlets—Aslay—and again Veria filled with relief. But it was short-lived as she started to ask herself where Turqa and Cadit were. A rip of hot orange flames devoured the door within seconds, and Strelzar clapped dramatically and cheered as a unit of soldiers spewed from the newly opened doorway.
“Bravo!” he yelled. One by one, the soldiers dropped to the ground, Andon and Pascha handily doing most of the work themselves. They missed one, who charged at Strelzar with spear lowered.
“Strelzar!” Pascha shrieked as she saw it.
Suddenly, the soldier stopped dead in his tracks and Strelzar held up his hand.
“You really don't want to do that, do you?” he asked, cocking his head, a taunting grin spread across his perfect lips. “I think what you really want to do is lie down and take a very long nap, hm?”
The soldier dropped his spear and lied on the ground, curling on his side and closing his eyes. Strelzar broke into maniacal laughter, but Pascha was unimpressed, storming toward him and punching him in the chest.
“Ow!” he complained, rubbing his chest where she'd hit him.
“Don't do that again!” she snapped. “This isn't a joke!”
His face went serious and he grabbed her by the arms and sharply pulled her into him, crashing his lips against hers for a long, fiery kiss.
Finally, he broke away, and tears filled her eyes.
“Come now, don't cry,” he joked. “No one is hurt yet.” He yelped as she slammed her fist into him again. “I stand corrected...”
But he was right— they were about to enter the castle, where Raken and the Elemental Guard, who would prove much more challenging than the hordes of soldiers they had easily incapacitated, awaited them.
“I'm here!” Turqa shouted behind them. “I'm ready! Oh, thank goodness you haven't gone in yet!” He rushed to Tanisca and took her into his arms.
“Alright, everyone, remember the plan,” Strelzar said. “Shall we?”
They all nodded and filed into to the castle. Veria could feel the tension among them, all of them on edge and on the lookout, but knowing that several of their enemies would be invisible. Veria and Strelzar looked behind them as the sound of footsteps thudded from the doorway, but it was another group of four hooded Magers, who rushed behind them. There were still only about twenty of them making their way into the castle, the rest of their numbers still fighting outside, or not fighting anymore at all...
As they passed the main corridor, a slew of Elemental Guards jumped out of the Regal Chamber and the Dining Hall. Immediately, Magers on both sides flopped to the ground and the Fire from the torches flew wildly around all of them. A hooded Mager's cloak took to flame, and Pascha pulled the Water from the Elemental Guard who had shot the flame to put it out. Sickness lurched into Veria's throat as the Guard wrinkled and crumpled and dried out, turning to a pile of bones and dust as he hit the floor.
“Oh, right!” Strelzar shouted. “I forgot to mention—we are killing now! But only Elemental Guards.”
Several of the Elemental Guards, who had watched their fellow Guard dehydrate into dust in front of them and heard Strelzar's announcement, fell to their knees and put their hands up in surrender. Many others fell to the ground from various effects—Veria noticed many blue-tinged lips and fingers as Strelzar grabbed her hand and pulled her through the hallway, stepping over the bodies from both sides in their path. Andon grabbed her other hand and followed.
They ascended the staircase to the second floor, a trail of black cloaks behind them, rounding the corner into the corridor that led to the tower. Veria stopped dead in her tracks and felt everyone do the same behind her. Raken, flanked by a dozen Elemental Guards, stood at the end of the hall.
“Why are you all stopping?” Strelzar laughed. “I have been looking forward to this all week!”
He pulled flames from several of the torches and marched toward a smirking, taunting Raken.
Veria heard a choked gurgle behind her and she and Andon whipped around to see Pascha fall to the floor, gasping for breath.
“I'd stop if I were you Plazic, and put your silly little flames away, or she dies,” Raken warned.
“Your wife—the mother of your child—you sick bastard,” Strelzar spat, sending his flames back to their origins and staring Raken down. Veria and Turqa dropped to the floor next to Pascha as her sputtering stopped and she rolled onto her side and coughed water up from her lungs. Neither of them saw until it was too late that Andon and Tanisca were storming toward him and his unit of Guards.
Tanisca hurtled flame after flame at him, and he dodged them as fighting erupted on both sides. Strelzar added to her flames, and Turqa jumped up and leaped through the hallway as Raken's freeze took a hold of Tanisca. Veria stood and started to make her way toward them when suddenly, the freeze stopped and Tanisca fell into Turqa's arms. Her head snapped up to the end of the hallway to see Andon shoving Raken to his knees.
“Snap his neck, Villicrey!” Strelzar barked.
Through a constant flurry of bodies and flames, scurrying and swarming in the stretch of hallway that separated her and Andon, Veria watched as he closed his eyes and concentrated, not moving a muscle, one hand resting atop Raken's head, and the other on his shoulder.
“Andon! What are you doing?!” Strelzar shouted as he fought off the Guards that tried to approach Andon. “Kill him!”
Pascha pulled herself to her feet and limped to stand next to Veria. �
��What is he doing?” she muttered.
In an eery unison, both men opened their eyes and looked down the hallway toward the two of them. “I am not sure, but I think I have an idea,” Veria answered.
Raken jumped to his feet and rushed toward Pascha through the fray, his face full of concern and affection.
“Pascha! My dearest!” Raken uttered as he neared her. “My love, we must get out of here!”
“Andon cleared his memory,” Veria whispered as he approached. “Probably everything having to do with his powers, and the Guard. He has no idea what's going on.”
Raken reached his wife and pulled her into his arms. “Oh, Pascha, thank goodness no one has hurt you!” he cried.
She back up and held him at arm's length, her ice blue eyes narrowing at him. “Actually, Raken,” she snarled, “somebody has.”
“Who, my sweet?” he asked.
“You,” she said plainly.
She took another step back as his body started to jerk and convulse, his skin went red, his eyes rolled back into his head and he screamed the most haunting, harrowing howl of agony Veria had ever heard. His skin bubbled as his blood boiled beneath it, and finally, he fell to the ground, the smell of burning flesh filling the air and steam billowing from his ears.
Veria looked up and saw Strelzar and Andon staring at Pascha in silence. Strelzar grinned, and Andon gave her a short nod of approval.
The moment was cut short when Tanisca filled the corridor with an ear-splitting shriek. Veria's heart stopped as she turned to look, watching in horror as Turqa collapsed into her mother's arms and she buckled under the weight.
Andon rushed to her and managed to catch them both and lower Turqa slowly to the floor.
“Pascha!” Strelzar bellowed, and Veria and Pascha sprinted the distance to them.
As they neared, Veria saw the blood, streaming down his arms and covering his hands. Just as she and Pascha knelt down, she heard another rush and whoosh of air and her stomach flipped. Her head jerked up to make sure no one had been hit by the air blade, realizing it was likely meant for her and she had dodged it, and saw the doors from all the rooms in the corridor break from their hinges and fly through the hall. When they neared Andon, who was surely controlling them, he flopped to the ground on his stomach and let them fly over him, making contact further down the hallway with the invisible Elemental Guard who had attacked.
As soon as the wooden planks hit the Guard, Strelzar set them ablaze, and the Wind Mager went from invisible to definitely visible and on fire in instant. He tried to run, but the flames consumed him, and he fell to the ground screaming.
“Pascha, can you stop it?” Tanisca asked, sobbing hysterically as she held her husband in her arms.
“I...I think so, but—it would be better if we could get him down to Claryain, if she's here,” Pascha said in a shaking voice. She looked up at Strelzar with wide eyes as the entire castle rumbled with the impact of some sort of attack, and the sound of thudding boots echoed through the halls around them.
They weren't the only ones in the castle anymore...
“Go,” Strelzar nodded. “Aslay, Andon, go with them,” Strelzar added as Andon approached from the other end of the hall.
“What?” Andon snapped.
“You knew this was coming, Villicrey,” Strelzar said calmly.
“Not yet,” Andon shook his head. “You need me—”
“The stairs to the tower are just around the corner, we've taken out Raken and most of the Guard, and Browan will be alone, if we are to believe your former Master and hers,” Strelzar explained. “Help your family, then go to your children.”
“I can't...” he sighed heavily, a sob catching in his throat.
“We are nearly there, Andon,” Veria whispered, stepping toward him and grabbing his hands. “Please, keep my mother and Pascha safe so they can help Turqa. They need you.”
He swallowed hard and nodded, a tear streaming down his face, which he quickly swept away.
“Ali-mi termertu ar departu,” he murmured as he squeezed and pulled her hands up to his lips and kissed the backs of both before letting go and walking past her. He pulled Turqa to his feet and supported him, and Tanisca stood and propped her husband up under his other arm, and they began a slow trudging march behind Pascha and Aslay.
When they had turned the corner and disappeared, Strelzar sighed and looked at her.
“Well,” he grinned with a twinkle in his eye, “are you ready?”
“Something is terribly wrong with you, Strelzar,” Veria groaned.
“I know, isn't it wonderfully amusing?” he quipped as they walked toward the end of the hall.
They rounded the corner into the corridor that led to the spiral stairs up to the tower. The castle shook again and they exchanged a worried glance as the sound of crumbling, smashing stone sounded much too close to them, then started to run.
In the mad dash to the door that would lead to the end they had been working toward for a year, it seemed to Veria like the rest of the world was going in slow motion around them. She heard the familiar whoosh of air and with a sickening flip of her heart and a rush of hot blood, she immediately pulled up the floor in front of them, just as she had when she had saved Browan years prior, except this time she created a stone wall that closed the entire hallway off.
She stopped sprinting just in time to not crash into it. Her chest heaved as she fought to catch her breath, waiting for Strelzar to run up next to her. Instead, she heard a thud behind her, and whipped around to see him on his knees, clutching his stomach as crimson blood poured into his hand. He fell forward onto one hand, a position she had seen before, and her body remained frozen in place, one hand on the wall behind her as she had been back in the training chamber.
“No matter what happens...”
-XX-
Veria rushed back to him, finally able to overcome her momentary shock. She crashed to her knees next to him and rolled him gently onto his back as he coughed and groaned.
“No...no, no, no, no,” she whimpered as she surveyed the injury.
She couldn't even see it—there was too much blood.
“Birdie, we knew...” he groaned.
“No! We didn't! That's what you always said! We didn't know!” she snapped, frantically ripping at her cloak until she had pulled a sleeve off. She pressed it into his wound and he winced and growled in pain.
“Stop, Birdie,” he gasped. “This is the end. Go end it.”
“No...” she sobbed hysterically. “I'm not leaving you—I'll go get Pascha, we can be back in two minutes—”
“Veria,” he rasped, grabbing her hands in his, covering them in a crimson sheen as he squeezed them affectionately. “Dragon of Kortamant, Daughter of the Diamond, Destroyer of Kings...you have to earn that last one.” He chuckled, which resulted in him coughing up blood. It trickled from the corner of his lips like a scarlet stream.
Veria whimpered. “Stop joking...”
“Alright, I will stop, but only because I have serious things to say, believe it or not, and I doubt I have much longer...” he said, struggling to get the words out through the pain and shallow breaths, and rapidly draining energy. “I love you.”
“I know,” Veria bawled. “I love you, too.”
“Veria, you don't love me like I love you,” he coughed, shaking his head and grinning. “If you had ever thought to listen to my desires in all this time since you'd had the ability to do so, you would know that. You would know that I wished thousands of time for me to be the one to make you happy, each time knowing that I couldn't...that it wasn't me, so then I just wanted you to be happy, no matter what that meant for me. If you had listened, you would have heard me wishing I could stop loving you. But you never did. Because you're better than that. You believe in the best version of everyone.”
Veria fell to the floor next to him and buried her head against his shoulder as violent sobs shook her entire body.
“Please don't leave me,” s
he whispered as tears poured from her eyes, her throat stinging painfully hot.
“I am not going to, Birdie,” he rasped, turning his face toward hers and running a thumb across her cheek. “I am never going to leave you.” He grinned feebly at her as he slipped the bronze cuff from her wrist and let it fall to the floor with a metallic clink. Then, he pulled her face into his and kissed her deeply.
He took a gasping inhale while still locked in their kiss, then slowly sighed his exhale as he pressed his stony lips against hers with urgency. She felt a surge of his energy rush through her body, filling her a hundred times more than the talisman ever had, or any of the times they had merged just by contact. Her skin was on fire and she gasped in shock and pain as it rippled through every inch of her. His hand slipped from her face and hit the stone floor with a soft thud.
She ripped her lips away and scrambled to her knees, but she knew he was gone. She sobbed as she closed his eyes and gently placed his hands over his chest, and slipped the bronze talisman onto his right wrist.
Filled with the Fire he had given her with his final breath, and with a rage coursing through her, she took a deep breath and stifled her crying, then strode back toward the wall.
“I am warning you now, there is nothing you can do to protect your King, and there is definitely nothing you can do to protect yourself!” she shouted through the stone wall. “I am coming through, and you will die the most painful death imaginable, do you understand?”
She felt the disturbance against the debris on the floor as feet scuffled across it, rushing away from the wall, and she quickly and easily turned the wall to molten rock, steaming and bubbling with heat, and sent it flinging toward the location of the retreating feet. She only caught a brief glimpse of the Guard’s visible body before it was consumed by the hot orange liquid, his momentary screams silenced quickly as the magma melted him alive.
Queen of the Earth: Book V in the Elementals Series Page 17
