The Dragon's Throne

by Emily L K

  “You have ten seconds to open the gate,” Antoni continued, “or we will open it for you. Ten... Nine... Eight...”

  The man scrabbled towards the ladder and the army behind the wall were clamerous as they were forced into formation. Cori raised her hands as Antoni counted. “Seven... Six... Five... Four...”

  She already had the strengthening song ready; she tested the air with her fingertips and found the ghost of wood and stone beneath them. Her Hum drew to the fore, surging into her mind like a controlled tempest. She was strong, she was powerful, and she was deadly.

  “Three... Two... One...”

  The gate exploded. Stone and wood blasted high in the air, raining down on Hale’s army, killing some, wounding others and turning Lautan’s first line of defense to rubble. The soldiers screamed and scrabbled away from the ruined wall in an attempt to regain their formation. They left bodies between them and already the pavement was red with blood.

  Strong, powerful, deadly.

  Her Hum whirled dangerously. She embraced it, letting it suffuse her entire body with energy. Turning slowly, she beheld her own army, first seeing Antoni’s astonished face, and then Cobra’s pale one. Tobin held himself together a little better, staring grimly ahead while the Hiram from Shaw’s army looked positively sick.

  Her eyes finally came to rest on Orin. He watched her with a hard expression, awaiting his Karaliene‘s next order. A grin spread across her face and she could feel her magic behind her eyes; whirling and feral.

  “What are you waiting for?”

  Orin ripped Rowan’s sword from its sheath, thrusting it into the air with a roar. Sunlight glinted off the blade as row by row, the soldiers behind mimicked him.

  The army bellowed as one, and Cori’s grin was hard. They were hers. Her warriors, her strength and might. She turned back to Lautan and as one, they surged down to the wreckage of the wall.

  The thunder of their footsteps matched the racing of her heartbeat. Each breath ripped down her throat, swelling her lungs, reminding her that she was alive. She glanced aside, loose hair whipping across her face. Orin was beside her. He met her eye and nodded. Before them, Hale rallied and pulled their weapons. rows of swords glowed in the sunlight, directed at Cori and her soldiers. She raised her hands and across the front line her Hiram army did the same. They were close enough now that Cori could see the fear in Hale’s eyes, the way they glanced at their fellows and shifted their feet. They wanted to run. She unleashed her magic and a dozen of them were flung back into the ranks, creating a bloody chaos. Alongside her, her Hiram soldiers pushed with their magic too. It wasn’t as powerful as hers, but strength combined, they scattered Hale’s front line.

  Within a few paces, Cori was swallowed by the soldiers charging around her. It didn’t matter; they had intended for her to remain invisible. She did however, immediately discover her weakness as her army swept into the town to collide with the disarranged Hale force. Being pressed in among the bodies of her soldiers meant she could not take an effective swing at the enemy without toppling her own men. She was useless. She didn’t know how to use it, but she pulled the short sword from her sheath and held it ready. It made her feel safer at least.

  The fighting before her was bloody and dirty. Those who could, used their magic to force the enemy back but most used knives, swords and axes. Already the air was heavy with the stench of spilt blood and loosened bowels, and she hadn’t even reached the fighting yet.

  The soldier in front of her convulsed, and she stepped away in time to see a sword thrust through his chest and out his back, glistening red and dripping with his life force. A flick of her hand flung both body and attacker high in the air. They soared away like sacks of meat and vanished behind the enemy ranks. She could now see the front line of attack.

  Cori moved forward, pushed from behind by her own men and women eager to get into the fray. She glimpsed Cobra to her right, his hand darting out, fingers poised like fangs. The woman he aimed at clutched her throat and dropped to the ground.

  The wings of the army were curving around to encase Hale. Nearby, Bretton embed his axe in a man’s skull with a roar. Saasha was near to him, swinging her knife wildly and opening the guts of a man before her.

  A shout drew Cori back to her own situation. The enemy has rallied and was breaking through their ranks. She was being steadily pressed toward the front. A Hale woman moved into her view and she blasted her away with magic.

  “There!” a man called, pointing at Cori with his sword. “Kill her! Kill her!” Suddenly the enemy was pressing forward towards her. Fear bloomed in her chest. She pushed one away with her hand, toppling him into another. Reaching for a woman with her mind, she commanded her to stop. The woman jerked to a halt and someone from Shaw took her head off. She used the same command on another man but there were too many now and they were converging on her quickly.

  Her own warriors rallied around her but Hale’s forces were intent on her only. She shoved with her magic but she only hit one person. Someone else yelled out from her other side and she turned to see a blade descending towards her. She tried to press herself back but there was nowhere to go. There wasn’t even time for a scream to form on her lips.

  And then Orin was before her. The dragon head sword plunged through her almost-killer’s chest before he drew it back and hacked off the arm of another man. He spun towards her, blocking a blow as she ducked under another. Blood ran in rivulets from the blade and gore splattered his vest. His eyes were bright with bloodlust as they roved the scene about them.

  “That sword’s not going to swing itself, Cori,” he gasped, blocking another blow. He lifted his hand and clutched at the air. A Hale man grabbed at his throat in response then was flung to the ground.

  “I need more space!” Cori yelled, “I can’t do anything here!”

  Orin pointed the sword at the sentry tower. “Topple that,” he ordered and she obliged, gasping at the building and yanking it downwards. “To the left!” He roared when she almost pulled it down over their human flanks. Cori adjusted her hands at the last moment, forcing it over a portion of Hale’s army instead and letting it drop. The falling sentry tower made the ground shake and dust clouded the air. She didn‘t know how many it killed but it created a gap for her army to surge through.

  “Come on.” Orin grabbed her arm and pulled her sideways through their own soldiers. They moved away from the main battle and found that the fighting had already spilled into the streets of Lautan.

  “I think we should just try to get to the palace,” Orin huffed as they ran, “Let’s get to the Advisor before Hale falls back.”

  They scrambled around a corner, slipping on the bloody cobblestones as they went. There was a handful of people in the next street and Cori instinctively reached for their minds. She found one she didn’t recognise and told them to stop. A woman in the foray suddenly stilled, her knife dropping from her hand. The person she’d been attacking pushed her away and Cori saw a blur of curly red hair that announced Antoni’s presence.

  “Antoni!” Cori called out as Orin stepped into another street. Antoni looked up, her eyes wild and her face splashed with blood. She darted forward and followed Cori and Orin as they wove through the buildings, dodging around the intermittent fighting. Townspeople were fleeing their homes, creating even further confusion. Cori’s heart pounded in her chest and her breathing came in gasps. Everything moved too quickly and yet time seemed to have stopped.

  They paused only twice, the first for Orin to stick his sword in the back of a Hale soldier choking a Resso soldier with his magic, and the second when Cori accidentally reduced a butcher’s shop to rubble. She’d only been aiming for a handful of men but had over compensated. Needless to say, it would take them a while to dig themselves out, if they‘d survived.

  It wasn’t long before they ran out of back streets and alleys and returned to the main road that led to the palace. The fighting here was furious. Cori glimpsed Lady Bellia and Enya back to b
ack, blocking blows from swords and axes. Bretton pressed his way up the street towards them, swinging his axe back and forth, connecting with a face here and a thigh there. There was a contingent of humans behind him but Saasha wasn’t among them. Cori's heartbeat stuttered; her skin prickled. Had something happened to her sister?

  Orin pointed with his sword. “Those Herthians are fighting against Hale,” he observed, chest heaving. Cori nodded. Some Hearthians still fought with Hale, but it seemed their loyalties were well and truly divided.

  Orin dived into the battle and Antoni followed. The would-be advisor pushed with her magic, distracting the soldiers surrounding Bellia and Enya. Cori stepped into the main street but didn’t immediately join the fighting. The appearance of Tobin and Saul had caught her eye, and they looked to be withdrawing from a heavy attack. Cori moved towards them, flinging the attackers away with her arm or halting them with her magic as best she could but there were too many of them and they were moving too quickly.

  “Orin!” She called, and she saw from the corner of her eye as Orin turned towards his father. It was too late; Rork, the Head of Hale, stepped from among his soldiers with a broadsword in hand. Tobin’s eyes widened and he scrabbled backwards, but he was too slow. Rork plunged the sword through Tobin’s chest. Blood spurted from his mouth.

  Cori stopped dead. She felt as if she’d been hit by the same sword that had felled Tobin. With an unearthly roar, Orin charged forward as did Saul. Rork placed his boot on Tobin’s chest below the blade and kicked him off it. Tobin hit the cobblestones, head lolling and eyes staring. Rork saw Orin and Saul, and then saw Cori. His eyes narrowed speculatively. Before either man could reach him, Rork fell back among his men and vanished into the fighting.

  Cori finally found her feet and staggered forward towards where Orin had crouched over his father’s body. She reached with her mind but there was nothing there. Tobin was already dead.

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  The world about her was impossibly sharp. The pounding of her heart rivalled the clash of metal and ringing blades. Her feet carried her forward and yet seemed to take her nowhere. Eyes darted, taking in the now afternoon sun and the overwhelming crimson that painted the streets. The triumphant cries of the victorious and the screams of the dying were equally penetrating, and they stabbed like a knife. Whether protecting her or trying to kill her, all these people were dying for her. This was real. She had done this.

  Her hands found Orin’s shoulders, and she hit the ground behind him, her knees grazing painfully across the cobblestones. She thought him to be grieving but as she made contact he spun, pulling a knife from his belt and pressing it to her throat in one impossibly quick motion.

  Their eyes locked. His breathing was heavy, and blood caked his skin. His eyes still held the red haze of battle and for a moment she was reminded of Rowan. She didn’t move. He could kill her if he wished, and she could do nothing.

  “Cori!” Antoni was frantic and Cori turned imperceptibly towards her voice. Orin’s knife dropped away. “We have to move!” Antoni gestured first towards the Hale troops who were re-rallying and then toward the road that zigzagged up the cliff towards the palace.

  Now she’d stopped she wasn’t sure she could move again. Muscles screamed their protest. A sharp pain pulled in her thigh. A quick glance down showed ripped pants and a bleeding cut across her leg. When had that happened? Orin caught the back of her vest and lifted her back to her feet.

  “Forward,” he commanded hoarsely.

  “Your father-” she protested.

  He shoved her. “-Cannot help us now. Forward, Cori.”

  Within a few steps they were back among their own soldiers. Several more footfalls and Orin had forced her back to the front line to face the Hale and Hearthian contingents that blocked the road. Beyond them she could see a smaller contingent winding up the road to the palace. She picked Rork from among them, returning to the Advisor to confirm that it was Cori who led the army. A large hand fell to her shoulder, startling her. She twisted, but it was only Bretton.

  “We need to end this, Karaliene,” he told her. “If we go into the night, we’ll have to leave the city to rest and regroup and we cannot afford to lose ground.”

  Cori desperately scanned the fighting. Her own warriors were too scattered up the main road to effectively break through the wall the enemy had created and they were slowly being pushed back.

  “Lift me up. I need to see,” she commanded Bretton. Dropping his axe to his side, he caught her by the band of her pants and hoisted her into the air.

  The world spun as she went up, a swirl of fighting bodies on a red battlefield. Everywhere she looked the war raged on and as Bretton thrust her higher, soldiers in the enemy ranks spotted her and pointed. They surged forward.

  She drew on her Hum. She didn’t know if this would work; Rowan had done it, but she had never mastered the skill of multiple mind control. Her magic spread until she thought it covered her own soldiers then she gave the command.

  Get down!

  It didn’t work for all of them but it worked for many, including a few of the enemy soldiers. No matter. She raised her hands and pushed. Hale and Hearthians fell back like a wave. A second swipe of her hand brought the top of the tavern down on their left wing and a third re-toppled those that were trying to stand again.

  “Forward!” Orin roared at their own men. Cori looked down to see him down on one knee where her command had forced him. She tapped her hand against Bretton’s. He lowered her back to the ground. They moved as a pack, breaking through the line of dazed and injured enemy soldiers and made for the cliff road.

  Cori struggled forward. Exhaustion now weighed heavily on her limbs. Adrenaline was no longer enough to keep her going. She could see it in the faces of the men and women around her too; eyes losing the heat of battle to be replaced with chilling fear. Wounds pained them, and colour drained from their faces. Weapons pointed downwards at the end of shaking arms. When she tried to think of something to say to bolster them, she discovered how parched her mouth was.

  The cliff road was blessedly free of enemy soldiers. The contingent that had gone ahead of them had vanished and the soldiers behind them had been re-engaged by more Shaw and Resso troops. But the road was steep - steeper than Cori remembered - and utterly demoralising.

  A solider staggered in front on her, his hand pressed to a cut on his arm that seeped red into his shirt. Cori’s hand twitched, perhaps intending to help him, but then Bretton was there, hoisting the man to an upright position and clapping him on the back. A little way off she saw Orin handing Bellia a waterskin and saying something in an undertone to her. She drank, then handed the skin back and Orin moved on to the next person.

  This is leadership, Cori thought as she watched Bretton and Orin moving through the soldiers as they made their way up the cliff. Even after their own hardships, especially Orin’s, they put on a brave face and urged their people forward.

  Cori took a deep breath and wove a strengthening song, not to bolster her Hiram magic, but to fill herself. She stood a little straighter and increased her pace until she was walking at the head of their contingent beside Enya.

  “Karaliene,” the captain greeted sombrely. Cori responded with a nod of her head then moved her eyes back to the road.

  They were about halfway up the cliff now, a precarious place to be for they could not easily see above them and the drop below was tremendous. Wind whipped across the face of the cliff, lifting the hair from Cori’s neck and drying the sweat and blood to her skin. She scanned the town below and saw that people were following them up the road. They were too far away to pick out any state colours, but she hoped they were allies.

  Cori’s group made a sharp turn on the cliff face and came head to head with a contingent of soldiers that were descending. Both parties stopped in surprise. In a single breath, Cori saw they were Hearthian, they were fresh and unbloodied and they had the upper hand on this part of the road.

 
; “Weapons,” Cori said, her voice hoarse. Nonetheless, she heard the rasp of steel as swords and knives were drawn behind her. She unsheathed her own short sword, still clean of blood, and drew on her Hum for another strengthening song. Cori was raising her hand when Antoni pushed through the group, knocking Cori’s arm aside.

  “Adriyn!” The red head gasped and Cori could only watch in astonishment as Adriyn stepped from among his countrymen to catch Antoni in his arms.

  “Ho there, you’re alive!” Adriyn cried out joyfully then he grasped a handful of Antoni’s braid and kissed her.

  “What. Is going. On.” Orin moved alongside Cori, staring at the couple before him in bewilderment. He turned slowly to face her and their eyes met. In his she could see everything; his anger, grief and exhaustion. And something else.

  His lips curled in a smirk, and his eyes glittered with an almost hysterical amusement. Cori felt her own lips lift in response. Mad. They were all mad.

  “I suppose that’s how you wanted me to kiss you the other day,” Orin said, his grin widening, “sweep you off your feet and all that?”

  Cori’s smile vanished instantly to be replaced with a scowl. Her retort was cut short by a warning noise from Enya behind her. They turned to see two Hearthian men edging around the lovers towards them.

  “That’s close enough,” Bretton called out. He placed a hand protectively on Cori’s shoulder and the two Hearthian’s halted. One of them raised his hands in surrender and took a step closer.

  “He said close enough,” Orin growled from beside her. He lifted the Karalis’ sword and pointed it at the man, a warning. The man stopped again, raising his hands even higher. “We’re on your side!” He called out. Bretton and Orin stayed silent and Cori followed their lead. Enya, however, stepped forward.

  “Prove it!” She demanded. He pressed a sincere hand to his chest and pointed back to Adriyn and Antoni.