by Ben Wolf
Several flaming logs collapsed onto the floor between the others and Riley’s hiding place, and Calum jumped. “Uh… do you guys think we can take this conversation outside? I don’t think this fort is gonna last much longer.”
Magnus eyed the ceiling. “Calum is right. We must go.”
Condor zipped out the doors first, followed by Axel and Magnus, who carried Oren out with him. Kanton left next, then Lilly and Falcroné. Calum hung back and stared right at Riley’s hiding spot.
“Are you coming?”
Riley growled again. Perhaps he should just die here, in the flames, rather than face the possibility of Condor stabbing him again. He would become a pile of ash, the same as everything around him, and then Condor could never hurt him again.
“Come on, Riley.” Calum extended his hand. “I won’t let him hurt you.”
Another large chunk of the ceiling fell to Calum’s right, and he jumped out of the way.
“Last chance. Come with me.”
Riley closed his eyes and exhaled a long breath. When he inhaled, the smell of smoke and burning wood intensified. Did he want to stay put and add the putrid smell his own burning flesh next?
“Please, Riley?”
Above Calum’s head, the ceiling crackled with flames, and he looked up.
Riley’s heart clenched. No.
He bolted out of the cage as the ceiling collapsed and sprang at Calum with his forepaws extended. Riley’s momentum knocked Calum away from the falling ceiling’s wrath, and they tumbled against the wall adjacent to the doors. Both of them quickly jumped to their feet and rushed outside as the rest of fortress caved in on itself.
“I could’ve been in there.” Riley stared at the dancing flames as the reality set in.
Calum crouched down next to him. “We were in there, but you saved us.”
“I’m sorry I can’t fight anymore, Calum. I just—” Riley bowed his head. He didn’t want to admit it, but he had to. “I’m scared. I don’t want to get stabbed again. And now that Condor’s back, it’s only gonna get worse.”
“Maybe.” Calum placed his hand on Riley’s back and stroked his fur. Were Calum anyone other than himself or Lilly, Riley would have nipped at his hand. “But maybe this is a chance for you to face your fear once and for all, and in doing so, to overcome it.”
Riley sighed, and the phantom pain in his side returned. “That almost sounds worse than getting stabbed again.”
Calum patted Riley’s shoulders. “It may be, but it’s the only way to free yourself from your fear. The next time something like this happens, I may not be around to save you from a burning building. Either you face this, or it’ll eventually get you killed, and that’ll be the end of it. I really hope it doesn’t come to that.”
“Me neither.” Even as Riley said it, he still wasn’t convinced that he meant it.
“Hey.” Kanton landed in front of them with his back to the flaming fortress. “Are you two alright?”
Calum smiled and stood. “We’re a little singed and scraped up, but nothing too bad.”
“Oh. Alright, then. I’m going to tend to some of the slaves. A few of them are in pretty bad shape, but I might be able to help them out.” Kanton leaned close to Calum. “You’d better get back to the group. They’re going to need a voice of reason right about now.”
Kanton zipped away, and Calum looked down at Riley. “You coming?”
Riley steeled himself and nodded. “Yeah. I’m coming.”
Axel voiced more than his fair share of arguments on both of the issues at hand: what should they do with Oren, and what should they do with Condor? Unfortunately, with so many extreme opinions and so much discord, his thoughts didn’t seem to register with anyone.
Then Calum showed up, and everyone started listening to him.
Of course.
Within five minutes, everyone had their say: Magnus insisted they keep Oren alive so that a ruler like Lilly’s father could pass judgment on him for his crimes, but Lilly pointed out that her father’s involvement in the slave trade had compromised his integrity. Therefore, they should just throw Oren in the Blood Chasm where so many of his slaves had died over the years.
Falcroné agreed with her but didn’t agree that they should dole out capital punishment. He thought they should send Oren back to Avian anyway and grant him the chance to bring Oren before the Council of Wisps. When Axel finally got his chance to speak, he shrugged.
“I didn’t come all this way and risk my life to bring down Western Kanarah’s slave trade only to allow for the chance that it might start back up again. If we let him live, that’s a real risk.” He pointed to Oren, who knelt before them with his wrists and ankles bound by the heavy shackles Axel had retrieved from Condor’s cage. “I say we finish him off right now.”
Axel glanced at Condor, who stood motionless at the fringe of their group, watching everything and being watched by Falcroné virtually nonstop.
“You couldn’t even land a blow on me, baby boy, an’ now you wanna kill me?” Oren chuckled amid the blood dripping from his snout. “You’re a funny one, you are.”
“He is our prisoner. We cannot just kill him. It is unjust,” Magnus said.
“Unjust?” Lilly stared at Magnus. “He’s responsible for hundreds if not thousands of deaths over the years. I could even argue that he’s ultimately responsible for Roderick taking you and me into captivity.”
“Oh, it’s been more’an that, I’d wager.” Oren’s jagged smile oozed arrogance—and blood. “We ’ad a logbook in the ol’ fortress. I could’ve given you an exact number if you ’adn’t burned ’er down.”
“Shut up.” Axel glared at him. “Your life hangs in the balance. You wanna live? Start acting like it.”
“You don’t scare me. Not even a li’l.” Oren sneered at Axel. “If you was gonna kill me, you’d ’ave done it by now.”
Axel pointed at him. “I said—”
“I ’eard what you said. You say a lot o’ things, baby boy, but you don’t take no action. You’re jus’ a scared li’l bug, an’ I’m gonna squash you.” Oren bared his jagged smile again.
Axel started toward him, but Magnus held him back.
“He needs to face judgment from a ruler, not from people like us,” Magnus insisted.
“You and I are rulers, Magnus,” Lilly said. “Or at least we will be. A few years from now, we’ll be making exactly this sort of decision for criminals like him.”
Oren laughed. “No one’s like me, ya bugs. Not a one. Nobody could ’ave run this enterprise like I done. Nobody could ’ave built it up from nuffin’ into an empire that spanned Kanarah like I done. Nobody could ’ave—”
The metallic ring of steel leaving a sheath filled the air, and the next thing Axel knew, Oren knelt before them with the hilt of a dagger protruding from his left eye. He convulsed once, toppled onto his side and convulsed once more, and then he stopped moving entirely as blood oozed from the grisly wound.
Condor stood next to him and admired his handiwork, his face fixed in a contented smirk.
Chapter Thirty-Four
“What have you done?” Falcroné roared. He sprang forward, his hand on the hilt of his sword, but Condor met him halfway and held another sword to Falcroné’s throat before he could even draw his.
Axel gawked at the exchange. Condor had moved impossibly fast. And where was he getting all these weapons from?
“You always were too slow, Falcroné. It’s why your own father promoted me to Captain of the Royal Guard instead of you.” Condor locked his eyes on Falcroné’s. “On your knees.”
“Don’t, Condor!” Lilly held up her hand. “Please, don’t.”
“I have no desire to kill Falcroné or any of you,” Condor said.
He stared at Falcroné until he finally knelt down, then he turned his attention to Oren’s body. His usually cheerful voice began to quiver.
“That thing beat me and abused me from the day I first arrived. Day after day, he and his
soldiers chastised me until my back was raw from his whip, yet some of you wanted to grant him the mercy of bringing him before Avian? The very man who sent me to this abominable place?”
Axel glanced at Magnus, whose hand gripped the hilt of his broadsword, still in its sheath. No way he’d get the blade out in time. Condor could kill Falcroné and take to the sky before any of them could so much as think about intervening.
Condor’s voice solidified again, and his optimistic timbre began to return. “Oren got what he deserved. That’s my judgment. And anyway, it’s done now, so if you’re willing to move on, I say we ought to do just that.”
Falcroné swallowed noticeably, but he didn’t move otherwise.
“I’ll even go one step further, if it puts you all at ease. Falcroné, my old brother-in-arms, if you want to kill me, then do it.” Condor pulled his sword away from Falcroné’s throat and tossed it aside. “I won’t resist, and I can die with pleasure knowing that brigand is dead.”
Falcroné’s sword flashed in the moonlight, and he pinned Condor to the ground. Beyond them, the fortress continued to burn like a gigantic torch under the night sky.
“You attacked Lilly,” Falcroné growled.
“Enough, Falcroné.” The hard tone in Lilly’s voice surprised Axel. “He just said he wouldn’t hurt any of us.”
“And you believe him?” Falcroné scoffed, still refusing to take his eyes off his prey. “Forgive me, Princess, but your youthful naivety is hardly enough to prop up this traitor’s word.”
“I know where the Arcanum is,” Condor said.
No one made a sound until Calum asked, “How do you know where it is?”
Condor glanced at Axel, wearing that same cunning smirk as always. Condor had alluded to this piece of information when they were locked in the cell under the Sky Fortress together, but Axel couldn’t convince him to elaborate.
“I’ve been there. A secret reconnaissance mission from before I earned my promotion to Captain.” His piercing blue eyes showed no sign of deception. “I can take you there, too.”
“He’s lying,” Falcroné said. “Everything he says is a lie. There’s not an ounce of good in him anymore, if there ever was to begin with.”
“How’s your shoulder, Farm Boy?” Condor raised his chin and grinned at Axel.
“It feels fine.” Axel rubbed it. “It came out of its socket again when the Wisps dropped me into the cell under the Sky Fortress. He popped it back in for me.”
“He helped you?” Lilly asked. “And… you let him? You wanted to kill him after you learned he’d struck me.”
Axel couldn’t deny that. Even thinking about it now made him want to tear into Condor along with Falcroné, but he had to consider the rest of his experience with Condor as well.
“He was wrong to harm you. No question there,” Axel said. “But when we were in that cell, he fixed my shoulder, didn’t kill me even though he could’ve, and he also hinted that he knew about the Arcanum.”
“You’re sure?” Lilly eyed them both. “What did he say?”
“He said that your father’s scholars might be able to point it out to you on a map, but it’s hard to reach. When I asked him how he knew that, he just told me it was his secret and nothing more.”
Lilly’s eyes narrowed, and she turned to Falcroné. “Let him go.”
“He’s a murderer. He’ll kill us in our sleep, starting with you,” Falcroné said.
“I said let him go.”
“Lilly, you don’t understand how dangerous he—” Falcroné stopped talking when Lilly started toward him. “What are you doing?”
“If you won’t let him go, I will free him from your grasp with my own hands. He knows exactly where to find the Arcanum, which means he is the key to freeing Lumen and liberating all of Kanarah,” Lilly said. “If you think I’m going to let you kill our greatest hope for saving the entire realm, you’re dead wrong.”
Calum stepped toward her with his hands up. “Lilly, we still have the map. Are you sure you—”
“Stay out of it, Calum,” Lilly snapped. “This is between Falcroné and me. A map is only good to a point. We need to free Lumen now, and Condor can to take us right to him.” She faced Falcroné again. “Last chance. Let him go.”
“I’m here to protect you,” Falcroné said through clenched teeth. “Not to follow your every command, especially when you don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Nonetheless, you’d better follow this one.” She reached toward Falcroné, but he swatted her hands away without removing his sword from Condor’s throat.
To his credit, Condor didn’t move a muscle.
Lilly reached for Falcroné again, and again he pushed her arms aside. “Lilly, stop. Your behavior is abhorrent. We’re engaged to be married.”
“I can find another husband,” she countered, her voice cold as ice.
Condor smirked at that, and Axel’s eyebrows rose. He glanced at Calum, whose mouth also hung open.
Falcroné glared at Lilly for a long moment, but he withdrew his sword from Condor’s neck and stood.
Lilly didn’t move. “Help him up.”
“You can’t be seri—”
“I said help him up.”
Falcroné grumbled something Axel couldn’t understand and extended his hand to Condor, who took it and stood to his feet. He nodded to Lilly, who only then relaxed her posture.
She floated over to Condor and hovered off the ground a few inches so she looked him directly in his eyes. “Condor, I’m offering you a chance to join us. Do you pledge your life to the successful completion of our quest and to protect the Sky Realm and its rulers, including me?”
Condor grinned at her. “I’d be honored to serve you, Princess.”
Falcroné fumed at Lilly with wide, angry eyes, but didn’t say anything.
“Your first duty will be to lead us to the Arcanum.”
“It would be my pleasure.”
“Then kneel.” Lilly drew her sword from its sheath and tapped Condor’s shoulders with the flat of the blade. “I reinstate you as Captain of the Royal Guard, answerable only to me.”
“You—you can’t do that!” Falcroné pushed between her and Condor. “I’m the Captain of the Royal Guard, not him.”
“Easy, Fal.” Lilly urged Falcroné back with the tip of her sword at his chest. “You will remain Captain alongside Condor. You are both my Captains of the Royal Guard, and you will both protect me with your lives. Crystal?”
Condor smirked and nodded. “Clear as the purest skies, Princess.”
“No. Not clear. Not remotely.” Falcroné waved his hand laterally in front of his chest as if cutting a person in half with it. “This man tried to kill you and your friends. He stabbed Riley, and he’s responsible for a rebellion that almost resulted in your father’s death and did result in the deaths of more than a hundred people… yet you’re giving him his title back?”
“Yes, Fal. That’s right.” Lilly stared at Condor. “I’d rather earn him as a friend with my trust than have to kill him as my enemy.”
Condor’s eyebrow rose at that remark, but his smirk remained nonetheless.
“I don’t believe this.” Falcroné shook his head. “I don’t agree with it. Your father will never approve.”
“My father approved of Kanarah’s slave trade by sending people like Condor into it for their crimes—the same slave trade that saw me captured and sold to the highest bidder. I’m not interested in his approval right now.” Lilly stared into Falcroné eyes. “You will either accept this development or fly home and await my return. What’s it going to be?”
Falcroné’s jaw tensed.
As Lilly watched the remains of Oren’s fortress burning in the distance, she and the others made camp under the trees of the nearby forest.
The freed slaves had elected to move on as a group toward Aeropolis, led by Chorian, the big Saurian who had intervened to stop the Saurian guard in the fortress basement. They all wanted to ge
t as far away from that place as possible, and many had families and loved ones to return to, so they left after Kanton finished tending to them.
When Condor pulled his shirt off for Kanton to tend to him next, Lilly’s stomach dropped, partly at his physique, but also at the sight of the lattice of red slashes on his back. Some of them had scabbed over, but many looked fresh, as if Oren had whipped him only minutes before they’d arrived at the fortress.
Kanton applied some ointments and some salves and patched the worst of them. Condor put his shirt back on, and Lilly’s racing heartbeat slowed.
The fortress continued to smolder late into the night. To no one’s surprise, Falcroné offered to take the first watch, and he made it clear that it was because he didn’t trust Condor.
What’s more, Riley hadn’t said a word or even made eye contact with Lilly since she’d welcomed Condor into their group. She didn’t blame him for it, but she knew she had to do something to make it right.
After everyone else had fallen asleep, aside from Falcroné, of course, Lilly hovered across the camp to where Riley resided in the shadows. He lay there, perfectly still and totally awake.
The instant her feet touched the ground, Riley’s ears perked up, and he raised his head. The waning light from the campfire reflected in the pair of blue eyes that stared at her from the darkness.
“Hey,” she whispered and sat in front of him. “I wanted to talk about Condor.”
Riley lowered his head.
“I know he stabbed you, and that it happened while you were trying to save me.” Lilly held her breath. “I mean, you did save me.”
Riley still didn’t move.
“It sounds ridiculous now that I’m saying it out loud,” she admitted. “I know I just recruited a man who attacked us both, but I did it because I see something in him that gives me courage and hope for the future.”
Riley blinked slowly. He really wasn’t giving Lilly much to work with. All she could do was press on.
“I don’t expect you to understand, but I hope you do someday,” she said. “I know Condor can help us, and I believe him when he says he knows where to find the Arcanum. More than that, I think he needs someone to believe in him so he can get his life back on track.”
