by Tj Dixon
“The king of the elves.” All five of the Aer sisters say as one. I raise a shield fearing the worst.
“Sorry, your majesty.” Jenny says with a grin and flames rise up all around me. My shield holds but then the Aer sisters all blast me with wind slices. Their aim is poor so I manage to dodge with a quick step backwards. As I do so though I feel Kai’s hands both touch the back of my neck.
Kai forms rock from her hands and sends it straight at the back of my neck. It overpowers my shield but hits a second shield. I glance to my left and see a determined expression on Elucia’s face. Not just determined actually, but pained.
“I won’t let you! You’re nowhere near as strong as that monster. I won’t lose to you! Get out of my mind!” Elucia yells at an unseen enemy. Where is he? If we can kill him everyone should come back to their senses.
“Your majesty, over there.” Sakura whispers and points just behind Kai. I don’t think Elucia is going to be able to attack right now, so I’m going to have to do this myself.
I pray my strength is enough and then pour most of my mana into a single lightning strike. The thunder is deafening and even in broad daylight the flash is blinding. It fails to break the enemy’s shield but it breaks his concentration for just a moment. A second lightning strike hits him that makes mine pale in comparison.
I stumble as my vision becomes a flashing blur from the lightning flash and my hearing is just a roaring echo from the thunder. Deafening doesn’t even begin to describe it. I’ve been around Peter for a long time now and I don’t think even his attacks are this overpowered. When my vision finally returns I see Elucia standing in front of me with a worried expression. I look around and see the rest of our group just sitting around in a daze. Even the faeries are spinning in the air.
“Did you get him?” I ask and am relieved that I can hear my own voice over the now dim echo in my ears.
“Yes, look.” Elucia says and points at a blackened corpse that is partly disintegrating as we watch.
“Sakura, can you hear me?” I ask.
“Yes. I apologise for letting him get so close undetected.” Sakura tells me from my right shoulder where she is sitting in a daze.
“Please confirm his death with the other legates.” I tell her.
“I’m really sorry your majesty but I think I will need to recover a little more before I can do that.” Sakura tells me with a wince.
“It can’t be helped.” I tell her.
“What did you think of my attack?” Elucia asks.
“Scary.” I say with a shiver. Elucia looks a little hurt though. “It was impressive and so was resisting the enemy’s mind control.”
“After David, this guy was really weak.” Elucia says unenthusiastically.
“Well I’m glad you’re on our side. I’d hate to ever have to fight you.” I tell her.
“I’d hate to have to fight you too.” Elucia say with a small grin.
“I’m nowhere near as powerful as you. I’d definitely lose.” I tell her.
“I know, but I’d still hate to fight you.” Elucia says.
“We wouldn’t let you lose, your majesty.” Sakura says with a frosty glare at Elucia.
“We’d better leave before the guards try to arrest us.” I say.
“I doubt they’d dare.” Elucia says with a grin.
“Can you port us all back anyway?” I ask.
“Should I port Kai with us?” Elucia asks.
“Do you want to come?” I ask Kai.
“No.” Kai says with a glare.
“Then leave her here.” I tell Elucia who nods and then ports us back.
“She wasn’t very grateful.” Elucia complains as soon as we port in.
“At least we got our kill.” I say.
“I’ll let the other legates know and get our final target.” Sakura says sounding a bit steadier now. She doesn’t leave my shoulder though.
“Hopefully it won’t be long before we’ve secured the loyalty of all the faery legions. I wonder whether the elven tribes will be as easy.” I say.
“If it’s you then it’s definitely possible.” Elucia assures me.
“We have a problem.” Sakura tells me with a wince.
“What’s wrong? Didn’t we get him?” I ask.
“It’s not that. I’m so sorry, but the last target is a dragon.” Sakura tells me.
“We have to kill a dragon?” I ask in disbelief.
“Yes.” Sakura tells me.
“Normally that would be suicide, but with Peter, Juliet, the Kuroneko and Elucia, perhaps it’s not so bad.” I say.
“Since when did I rank up there with Peter and the Kuroneko?” Elucia asks in a slight panic.
“Actually I think just Elucia would be enough if we chose a young dragon.” I say remembering the power of her attack earlier.
“I’m not that powerful!” Elucia protests frantically.
“Unfortunately it’s not just any dragon that we have to kill. It’s the dragon sleeping under what used to be the Mountain Palace. It’s a particularly old, large and dangerous dragon. It defeated the Contractian mages who were sent against it ten years ago led by Lucy before she got cursed into her current mini form. They managed to injure it so it is currently sleeping, but it will wake up as soon as we approach and then we’ll see just how dangerous it really is.” Sakura warns us.
“Is it still wounded?” Elucia asks.
“It should take a hundred years to recover and it has only been ten years so it should be, but nobody knows for sure.” Sakura says.
“I thought they were limited to the empire. What excuse did they give for killing the dragon?” I ask.
“Since the empire has more or less retreated now the contract doesn’t limit them to the empire any more, but they still can’t pick allies or Contractians. The excuse for the dragon was just that it should be a very good test of your power.” Sakura says.
“In other words they don’t think there’s a chance in hell that we can kill it. We’ll definitely need to wait for Peter for this one.” I say.
“I wonder whether even his strength will be enough.” Sakura says.
“Given a choice of enemies I would far rather face a dragon than Peter.” I tell Sakura.
“Me too. There’s no way Peter will lose against a dragon. Taking the Kuroneko and Juliet as well would be overkill.” Elucia agrees.
(Kai)
Dairon and his friends port away. I must have seemed ungrateful, but I don’t have time to worry about that now. I look at the corpse of the substitute and wonder who Elucia’s overpowered attack killed. Most likely an innocent person, but I don’t plan to tell Elucia that. Not that I’ll have the chance.
If the faeries think it’s the leader of our assassins because they intercepted our communications it’s clear who is after my life. We all used code names that had nothing to do with our real identity. Hers was ‘head of killers’. The other code names sounded nothing like a leader of assassins so unless a new assassin’s code name sounds like it then it has to be her.
“Chi chan, I think I’ve had enough of adventure. Let’s go home together.” I say not bothering to speak loudly. She can hear me. I could even whisper and she’d hear, but there’s no point.
“Kai onee sama, I thought you’d never come to your senses.” Chi chan says from right behind me.
“Adventures really aren’t how they’re described in stories. I wish I’d never left.” I say, turning and embracing my ‘little sister’. Her shoulder length soft black hair and even softer pale skin feel so familiar. Her green eyes look as sad as I feel. Even though she’s an adult now she hasn’t grown, so her head is still level with my chest.
“Me too.” Chi chan says with that sad smile.
“I love you.” I say honestly as I pierce her heart from behind with a stone shard grown directly out of my hand. At the same moment Chi chan’s dagger pierces my heart from behind me.
“I love you too.” Chi chan gasps without ever losing
that sad smile as we die together.
I’m sorry Chi chan.
Chapter 12 (Grunti)
“Finished. Swimsuit girl, I mean Lupine, get these over to the copiers. If they work through the night they should have everything ready by the morning just in time for my fans to read with their breakfast.” I order.
“Right away, your majesty.” Lupine says and takes the original that we just spent all week working on, but almost drops it in the inkwell.
“Careful with that!” I yell at just the same time as little Imogen.
“Sorry, your majesty!” Lupine apologises and bows deeply before running off. I watch her back as she leaves. That red one piece swimsuit of hers that she’s got on at the moment goes really with her red hair and soft creamy skin.
“That idiot.” Imogen complains. I look down and see her emerald green eyes are fixed on Lupine’s back just like mine were a moment ago. Now mine take in Imogen’s silk green skirt and shirt clad tiny body. Just like Lupine’s red swimsuit matches Lupine’s red hair they match Imogen’s green hair.
“That’s the most polite you’ve ever been about Lupine.” I comment.
“I have to make allowances for the fact she’s been working with us without sleep for the last forty eight hours.” Imogen says.
“She wasn’t bad. We should have had her help from the start.” I say.
“We don’t normally have so many pages to make or nearly as many background characters.” Imogen reminds me.
“I know! Remind me never to do a hundred page special again.” I tell Imogen.
“We’ll have to do a two hundred page special next time or we’ll disappoint your fans.” Imogen tells me.
“Nooo!” I protest.
“Oh, by the way I had a message from my old boss. We were busy though so I didn’t want to distract you.” Imogen says.
“Who was your old boss again?” I ask.
“Legate Sakura.” Imogen says.
“I’m sure it can wait until tomorrow. It wasn’t anything important, right?” I ask Imogen.
“Peter just wanted help killing this Azrael guy. Any idea who he is?” Imogen asks.
“No idea.” I answer. Then I notice Lupine is back but she still has the original. She’s standing there with her mouth wide open. “What did you forget?”
“Did you say Azrael?” Lupine asks with her blue eyes wide in apparent shock.
“Yes, but more importantly what did you forget?” I ask.
“Azrael is the leader of the Fallen Angels and the biggest threat to dwarven kind. Killing him is vastly more important than the picture book.” Lupine says.
“What, did, you, forget?” I ask as if she were an idiot child. How dare she say it’s more important than the hundred page special edition we just slaved away for an entire week to create?
“You forgot to sign the last page, but what help did Peter want with killing Azrael?” Lupine asks.
“Oh, damn! Thank you Lupine! If it had gone out without my signature I would have looked an idiot.” I say and grab the original from her. I carefully take out the last page and sign right at the bottom.
“Now take this to the copier and really, thank you.” I tell her and kiss her right cheek. She blushes and spins around to take it to the copier. Then she pauses.
“Make sure to talk to General Karina about Peter’s message.” Lupine says and then dashes away.
“What help did Peter want, anyway?” I ask now that the more important matter is resolved.
“Sakura wouldn’t say. She just invited you there. They have someone who can come to get you.” Imogen says.
“It can wait until the morning. I’m exhausted. There’s no telling how long it would take so I need to wait and find out how the special edition is received. Tell her to pick me up tomorrow evening.” I tell Imogen.
“I’ll tell her in the morning. She’s bound to make a big deal out of it and I’m tired too. Actually I don’t think I’ll be up until the afternoon.” Imogen says.
“That’s fine. I think I’ll be the same. Karina did say there was nothing important to deal with at the moment and we’ve finally got the special edition done, so don’t wake me until late afternoon.” I tell her.
“I doubt I’ll be waking you at all, but don’t you dare wake me before late afternoon either.” Imogen says and flutters up to her mini bed on the shelf in our picture book studio.
“Good night.” I say and climb into my own bed in the studio. I’ve been using this one much more than the one in my bedroom recently. The smell of pens, pencils, ink and fresh paper is reassuring. We used to use slate, but the original methods are the best and this is how picture books are meant to be made.
“Wasn’t the next volume out tomorrow?” Imogen asks. Oh, the next volume of that series!
“Actually Peter can wait until the next day.” I say.
“Damn right he can.” Imogen agrees.
“After the last cliff hanger we have to know what happens next. We’ll need to read it at least a few times too to make sure we don’t miss anything.” I say and then fall to sleep for the first time in a week.
I wake up to find Nairon chasing little Miki across my studio. The poor little elf girl that the envoy possessed seems as lively as ever. Perhaps to make up for losing so much of her childhood she seems to be making the most of what is left of it. After everything she went through I’m just glad that she has a chance to enjoy herself now.
“Grunti!” Miki calls out and throws herself on me.
“Ouf!” I grunt as all the air leaves my body. It takes a minute to recover my breath but when I do I ask. “How is my cute little friend doing?”
“Genki!” Miki calls out.
“I wish you wouldn’t teach her weird words.” Nairon says shaking her head.
“It’s not a weird word.” Miki protests.
“It wasn’t me either.” I protest.
“It was me. It means happy, healthy and energetic. Something like that, anyway, probably. My translations sometimes suck when I don’t use translation magic, so I suppose it could be a weird word.” Imogen says stretching both arms and hitting me in the left cheek.
“You fell off your bed again?” I ask.
“Yes, but there’s nothing wrong with waking up in bed with my husband.” Imogen says.
“You’re not his only wife.” Nairon quickly reminds Imogen.
“It seems the first wife is jealous.” Imogen says with a mischievous grin.
“I’m not jealous, but it’s not fair to get ahead of me by pretending to be working on your latest picture book.” Nairon says.
“We weren’t pretending!” Both Imogen and I protest in unison. Miki laughs.
“Do you have any idea how much work we’ve put in to this special edition?” I ask.
“A whole week. Is it really ok for the king to spend a whole week on his personal hobby?” Nairon asks.
“It’s for the sake of my people.” I tell Nairon.
“Are you sure that’s what your people want you to work on?” Nairon asks.
“If they don’t then that’s only because they’re poor ignorant souls that have yet to see the light.” I answer entirely serious.
“I’m sure they’d love to be called that.” Nairon says.
“That’s why I’m devoting my time and energy to educating them.” I tell her.
“General Karina was looking for you.” Nairon tells me.
“It must be Lupine.” I say and glance at Imogen. She nods.
“What have you done this time?” Nairon asks suspiciously.
“I haven’t done anything. Anyway we’d better head off to grab the next volume or they might actually sell out. It’s almost night time. Miki, would you mind getting off me?” I ask realising just how late it is as I see the clock on my bedside desk.
“Wait!” Karina calls out, having just entered the room.
“We can talk when we get back.” I tell her.
“Miki, stop him!” Karina shout
s.
“What do you want with my Grunti?” Miki asks with a scowl. She really seems to have taken a liking to me. I think she may see me as a bit like a dad and Imogen as a mother.
“Peter asked for Grunti’s help defeating the people who made you do all those awful things.” Karina says.
“Really?” Miki asks me.
“Yes, but it can wait until we get back. They left the last volume at a huge cliff hanger.” I say.
“That’s more important than me?” Miki asks with tears in her eyes.
“No! But you’re not in any danger.” I tell her quite reasonably.
“But my friends are.” Miki tells me with a sniff.
“I suppose the cliff hanger can wait.” I admit in defeat.
Damn that Karina and Lupine as well. I’ll have Lupine punished later. Something really embarrassing. Perhaps I should have her compete in a slimy obstacle race. I’d love to have Karina compete too, but then I’d have to explain to Miki why I’m punishing her. Lupine on the other hand is always getting punished for something or other.
“You’ll save my friends?” Miki asks.
“I don’t know whether we can, but I’ll at least talk to Peter to see what help he wants. Imogen, contact Peter and have them pick us up.” I say.
“Thank you Grunti! I knew you wouldn’t abandon my friends. I love you!” Miki says and hugs me tightly. She really does seem like a daughter.
“Take me with you too.” Karina says.
“That’s fine. You can do most of the work.” I say.
“I’ll pick up the next volume so it’s ready as soon as you get back.” Imogen says.
“That’s great! I love you Imogen!” I say.
“Don’t be gross. Just because we’re married doesn’t mean you have to act all lovey dovey.” Imogen says.
“Sorry.” I say quickly.
“Besides I plan to read it whilst you’re gone. I might even spoil the plot for you.” Imogen says.
“I hate you.” I tell her.
“That’s more like the Grunti I know.” Imogen says with an evil grin. “By the way, my old boss says they’ll send someone right away.”
“They just did.” A human girl says from directly behind me. “So is that fat one who’s messing around with the elf girl your king that I’ve heard so much about?”
