Legend of the Iron Flower Box Set (Books 1-4)

by Billy Wong

  His eyes widened. "But what are they, then?"

  Julie shrugged. "She has no idea. Only that the fact they have no visible genitals is of particular significance."

  "No genitals? How do they breed? Could they be constructs of the ancients brought back to life by some unknown event?"

  "Nobody knows, so we're trying to find out. Rose is planning to chase the next ones we find back to where they come from, if they flee that is. We don't know if they ever do, or think any of those we encountered last did. They all died on our blades."

  Derrick winced from a sudden pang. "I wish I could help, but... You're hurt too, Julie. Don't fight again until you're better, okay? Rose can take care of herself."

  "No, she needs me to keep an eye on her," she said slyly, and he wondered what she meant. Then again, he might've had a good idea.

  "Brandon?"

  Julie grinned. "Yep, I have to watch that guy. He has quite the thing for our big friend, or should I say 'the Meatball.' You should've seen him flirting with her while stitching her up."

  "Wow."

  "I think she liked it too, crazy Rose. I have to make sure she doesn't do something she'll regret later."

  He frowned. "Even out monster-hunting?"

  "What, are you saying Rose never got with Finn during adventures?"

  "Right after battles," Derrick acknowledged. "The day after she got a spear between the ribs, even."

  "And there you have it. You know Rose, she isn't exactly infallible in interactions with people."

  "Yeah, especially with her relationship with Finn nowadays, she might be an easy target for temptation." He smiled. "So you're going to be her guardian angel. That's a nice role reversal. Make sure you remember to let her guard you in fights, though."

  "Of course. Get some rest, Derrick. I need you well and up by my side again!" She kissed him, then left him to lie alone in sleepless worry.

  #

  Julie stepped out of the room just before she felt the first hot tear escape her eye. She absently wiped it away, but more came at once and she couldn't stop them from rolling down her cheeks. Walking down the hall which seemed dizzyingly long, her body grew numb with utter fear. Even Derrick had gone down and very nearly been killed, and he was a much better warrior than her. How in over her head was she, really?

  Yet even if Derrick did have strength and experience over her, he was hurt now and needed protection. However much she feared pain and death, she feared losing him more—and if there was anything Rose had taught her, it was that how strong a person could be was only limited by their will. Weak though she might be, she would do whatever it took to protect the man she loved, even if she needed to become as strong as Rose to do it.

  #

  Brandon arrived to watch Rose overlooking Trumil from the roof of his manor, and she felt happy for his company. "It's nice to see you're still strong. I was a little scared when I saw that hit to your back. Thought for a moment it might kill you."

  "Kill me?! It's not too bad at all, by my reckoning. Bled pretty good, but that's it."

  "I realized you were okay when you called it a scratch." He walked closer and put an arm around her waist, waving his other hand to indicate everything they could see from their high vantage point. "All this which is mine might be lost to me already if not for you. Thank you. I'd like to reward you with some land here, for your help."

  "No need to think about that now," she said as she wriggled free of the huge count's grip. "If you really feel a need to reward me, let's wait until this is all over. So what kind of help have you gotten for us for the next thrust?"

  "I called in some favors from nobles in the surrounding areas. We should be able to field a force of four hundred, after we find the source."

  Rose nodded at the vast improvement in numbers, but still had no idea if it would be nearly adequate. "How many of those are men from your own county? Are the towns and fort properly manned?"

  "Half of them will be my own, but I haven't taken them off their posts yet and only plan to when we find the nest. Once we wipe them out there, hopefully there won't be too many stragglers left to deal with."

  It was a decent plan, if their resources would suffice. She hoped they didn't have to ask for troops from Gustrone to aid them. She wasn't above taking help, but knew Crown Prince Lawrence wouldn't be too pleased with having to weaken the capital's defenses to help out a faraway county. Though, there was an argument to be made for not reducing the standing army so much. Peacetime rarely stayed peaceful enough.

  "Have you found Graham yet?" she asked.

  Brandon sighed. "Not a clue as to where he is. Where is your husband, Rose? Shouldn't he be here helping you? I mean, you're putting your life at risk. You got hurt pretty bad back there..."

  "It was nothing. But if you have to know, Finn's busy doing something vital to our relationship. So he's not simply abandoning me to my fate, as it may seem."

  "Isn't your survival the most important thing? I thought you said before that he was on a trip to study magic, not doing something for you."

  "H-he has to do it!" she stammered.

  The count frowned. "What is it he has to do?"

  Be away from her, Rose miserably thought, but instead answered, "He loves me, and I love him. A few months apart won't do us in."

  "Do you like me?" he suddenly asked.

  Rose knew she did, that she'd have fallen for the count in an instant if they had met before her commitment to Finn. "Yes. But I can't..."

  "Having been away for so long, can you say for sure your husband will be back for you?"

  "I visited with him recently." But his question struck a chord, for she wondered if Finn would ever regain human shape.

  "You sound rather uncertain. It's a good thing you have friends whose arms you can take comfort in." He again moved closer, a slight grin on his face as he regarded hers.

  "Thank you for being my friend, but that's all you'll ever be."

  But he leaned towards her and she froze, unsure what to do. Instead of the kiss she'd feared, he whispered in her ear, "You've stolen my heart."

  Blinking, Rose said softly, "I didn't mean to. What did I do? I'm sorry if I gave you the wrong impression."

  "Oh no, I never thought you were trying to seduce me. But your strength, your courage, your sense of humor... It would've been hard for me not to fall for you."

  "Even with all my nasty scars?"

  Brandon lightly touched her cheek and she didn't back away, feeling comforted by the gesture. "You needn't be so ashamed of your scars. I told you, they don't take anything away from you."

  Now he made to kiss her, but her gentle push backed him up. "Don't, please."

  "Nobody would know," he said with a reassuring smile.

  "It's not right."

  "Who says it's not? The same people who say it's improper for a woman like you to fight? That you should know your place and stay at home?"

  She gazed down. "It's different. He trusts me to be his and only his. I bore his children."

  "Still, what harm does it do to seek pleasure with another when your love is unavailable? Will it somehow change you so you are no longer compatible? How do you know he hasn't ever betrayed your trust?"

  "Those are hurtful words," Rose muttered. Though she knew as a dragon, Finn surely hadn't seen any other women, she began to wonder about what could have transpired during their previous falling out a couple years earlier.

  Brandon hugged her. "Sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you. But is it truly such a great sin?"

  "Would you want your wife to share herself with other men?"

  He smiled. "I don't believe in marriage. It's like a chain between two people which can only narrow their horizons. As for the women I've had? I've never cared."

  "Did their men?"

  The count smirked. "They never find out. Or if they do, they daren't do anything about it."

  Rose sighed. "Finn wouldn't sweat a fight with you."

  "Would he bother?"
>
  "Yes," she said, but turned away. She'd noticed Finn's attitude growing less and less agreeable since he'd taken residence in the mountains, and wondered how much he still cared about her. It seemed his only thoughts nowadays were for his own misery, and relief for that misery.

  "Rose, have you felt lonely these past few months?"

  She looked him in the eye. "Of course. I miss my husband."

  "You don't have to," he said as he leaned forward again. She might not have had the will to stop him this time, if not for the noise from the edge of town which made her shove him roughly away to see what was happening. The count too broke off his advances to look in the same direction, and they both saw the numerous faux ogres, which he'd dubbed fagres, stomping their way into town. "Damn, not now!"

  Rose turned to head downstairs, but Brandon grabbed her arm. "What are you doing? You're not going down there."

  "What about the townspeople?" Already, the monsters were killing whoever they saw.

  "We're too outnumbered. Our best chance is to stay in here and pick them off with bows when they get close enough."

  "And just leave your people to die?!"

  "If they can get here, we'll protect them."

  "Not good enough." Shaking off his grip, she walked away.

  She quickly put on her armor with Julie's help, and giving firm instructions to the girl not to follow, made her way to the door. To her surprise, Brandon caught up to her there also dressed for battle. "If you get yourself killed, you won't be dying alone."

  "Thank you," she said as he accompanied her out of the manor. "You're right, we should shoot some of them down first." He agreed, and the two of them began to thin the herd with their bows. To Rose's dismay, they soon found Julie at their side, contributing her own archery. "What are you doing out here? I told you to stay inside!"

  "I'll stay far away from the monsters."

  "Don't worry, Rose," Brandon offered with a grin, "I'll protect her. And you."

  She smiled in spite of her worry, and shot another foe through the face. The town guards also fought, but unprepared and disorganized could not put up more than momentary resistance against their giant foes. As she dodged the occasional spear and continued to bring down monsters, she thought they were making good progress, though things might get rough once the fagres came close. More and more became aware of the humans shooting down their brethren, and started turning their way.

  "Julie, stay back! I'm going in!" Rose readied her sword and shield, not wanting to wait for the monsters to converge on them, and Brandon shook his head.

  "What are you thinking, crazy Meatball?"

  "With these wide streets," she said unhappily, "we're bound to find ourselves facing a swarm eventually. Let's kill as many loners as we can first!"

  "Loners? I don't see too many alone."

  With a grin, she clarified, "Groups of four or less!"

  Smiling at her fearlessness, the count followed her forward. Suddenly he stopped. "Rose, is that a ballista?!"

  She looked, and indeed two fagres were rolling a ballista down the street. "They must have captured it somewhere." Before they got a shot off, Brandon threw a dropped spear into the one closer to the trigger and Rose charged to finish the other. "Otherwise, it would be pretty scary to think they're learning to make them."

  As a fagre dropped dead in front of him courtesy of Julie's arrow which missed his head by inches, Brandon said, "Yes, but let's just kill them and think about it later. And girl, shoot elsewhere, your help is scarier than not having it!"

  They continued to cut through pack after pack of fagres, but noticed that monsters were beginning to get close to the manor. "Julie, get inside!" Rose yelled, but she didn't listen.

  She turned and glared at her student, continuing to yell. Behind her, she heard Brandon shout, "A little more help here would be nice!" Rose turned back to the fight, only to see a mass of fagres coming towards them. "Time to run away?" he suggested.

  "Too late. Get behind me!" Rose braced herself. A heavy rain of spears filled the air, and Brandon ducked behind her as she instructed.

  She blocked most of the numerous missiles with her shield and sword, but one caught her in the upper chest near her shoulder, and another in the thigh. She thought her extra-thick plate which rarely allowed human projectiles to touch her would protect her, but was proven wrong when the fagres' inhuman strength drove the spears through the armor so that they embedded firmly in her flesh.

  Seeing the poles sticking out of her, Brandon asked, "Are you okay?"

  "Just hurts a little. Charge them before they throw again!"

  "There's a lot," he complained. But they were already moving, and running through a second hail of javelins which came sooner than expected, smashed into the massed fagres. "Still okay?"

  She'd been hit again, this time in the side, and indeed felt serious pain. But his constant show of concern annoyed her, and she only answered, "Are you?"

  "Fine! But there's really a lot of them!"

  Rose grunted as a fagre's club knocked her into Brandon. She pushed off the surprised count, who was also getting quite beat up, and struck her opponent's head off. "A lot less than before we got here. What the hell are you doing, Julie?!" The girl had come to their side, poking at the fagres with a long pike.

  "You're hurt, Rose."

  "Of course I am!" she snapped. "The two of us are fighting a veritable army of fiercer ogres. Now get back and make it the two of us again!"

  "I am back."

  "Pike's reach isn't exactly safe distance when your opponents' regular spears are as long as your pike," Brandon put in. "Do as your teacher says."

  "It's fine," the redhead insisted, and impaled a rushing fagre through the sternum. The creature collapsed slain, but Julie could not free her weapon from the bone, and to her alarm Rose spotted a ballista being aimed the distracted girl's way.

  "Julie, move!" she cried, and threw a spear at the ballista operator. Another fagre unintentionally saved its fellow, walking into the path of her cast and promptly falling dead. Rose saw her student still working at the pike, and knew she must not have heard her warning. She darted in front of Julie, readied her shield, and prayed.

  The ballista fired, its huge bolt like a spear thrown by a titan streaking towards the women. Rose never got the chance to see if her incredibly thick custom-made shield, which no single attack had fully pierced before, could stand up to the enormous missile. For at the same time, a spear came streaking right at her face, and as she raised her shield to save herself the ballista bolt flew underneath its rim and struck her squarely in the belly. The irresistible arrow plowed right through all three layers of her armor, hardly slowed. Of course, flesh resisted such a projectile even less and it punched right through Rose's body, carrying her backwards as its head burst out her back. Rose felt herself slam into something soft as she flew, and landed on that same something.

  Through the anguish and nausea that dimmed her vision, she heard Brandon scream, "Rose! Rose!" She sat up, knuckles white around the shaft she clutched in agony, and made to rise. But then she spared a glance for the soft object she had landed on, and recognized it to be Julie. To her horror, the girl was unconscious and bled heavily, and she realized the part of the ballista bolt which had exited her back had gone on to tear an enormous gash in her student's side.

  "Damn it, Julie!" she choked out through blood in her mouth as Brandon fought on alone to hold off the fagres. Despite her own pain, she begged her still pupil, "Wake up, say something..."

  Pressed hard by numerous opponents, the count retreated towards where she sat cradling Julie's head, the two women's blood mixing in a puddle below them. To Rose's chagrin, the ballista crew were reloading their terrible weapon. Brandon looked back at her, and she thought she saw tears in his eyes. "Don't die, please don't die."

  "Tell that to her, Brandon," she gasped. "I'm fi—I'll probably live."

  "You've got a ballista bolt through you," he whispered.


  "I know. We have to kill the fagres."

  "Don't die," he begged again. She stood using her sword like a crutch, and Brandon's voice grew soft with awe. "You can still get up?" The fagres drove forward as a mass, pushing him closer to her. "Go, now! Run, Rose. I'll hold them off for you."

  She shook her head. "I appreciate the offer, but I don't want anyone sacrificing themselves for my sake."

  "You sacrificed yourself. How can you place so little value on your life?"

  "I value my life more than you think. But it's not that easy to take away, either."

  The ballista bolt transfixing her body felt unbearably heavy, so she held onto the shaft and with a scream, hacked off its back end. Only the head of the bolt had passed all the way through her—and barely at that, which would make pulling it out difficult—and she'd bleed a ton more if she removed what was still stuck in her. So she left the rest of the bolt through her torso while she raised the broken shaft, and returned it to the ballista shooter by throwing it like a javelin through its head.

  "Let's kill them now, shall we?" she asked Brandon.

  "Okay," he said meekly. They barreled into the fagres, who fell quickly beneath their furious strokes. "For Rose!" Brandon screamed as he fought, and she wondered if she looked that much like she was going to die. Probably, and she felt like it too. But she went on, and on, forcing herself to dodge several ballista bolts along the way, until the last fagre raised its spear to block only to have shaft and neck severed in one blow. Finally Rose gasped, spit out a great gout of blood, and collapsed to the ground.

  Holding onto consciousness in spite of her hideous wound, she dragged herself to Julie's side. "Julie! Wake up!" The girl was still alive but barely so, white with shock and blood loss. Rose tried desperately to stop the flow of blood from her wound by holding it closed with shaking hands. Brandon staggered over and knelt by her side. She noted that he too was bleeding from numerous wounds, though he at least didn't have anything stuck through his body. "Pick her up," she said, "and bring her inside."