by Rosie Scott
“Kai?” There he was, about five cells in, sitting in a lump on the dirty dungeon floor. He wore nothing but a flimsy tunic and pants given to the prisoners, and the clothes practically hung off of his thin form. It was a combination of that and the bags beneath his eyes that proved how weak he'd become from sadness and a lack of good food over the previous days.
Cerin stood, quickly, his pale hands running up the bars as he did so. “Why are you here?” He asked, glancing toward the door to the hallway, where there were sounds of fighting.
“To get you out, of course,” I replied, grabbing the ring of keys from the peg Bjorn had told me about.
“Oh, thank you,” Cerin breathed, leaning his forehead against the bars in relief as he watched me hurry to his cell with the keys. “I cannot apologize enough for misjudging you. I should have known—”
“Shh,” I murmured, trying to remember the order of the keys. “There will be time to talk later.”
Five cells in. Five keys from the—
Crack! Something flew from the direction of the dungeon door, as big and hard and heavy as a stone, and hit me directly in the hand. The ring of keys flew behind me, skipping across the stone floor, the scraping noise coming to a stop only when the keys hit the bottom of a chest against the wall. I stared at my hand, seeing stars from the pain dancing before its shattered bones. I was in a state of shock, for the moment, not yet knowing what had happened to me, and being too dazed to really figure it out.
“Leave him, Kai.” Terran. He stood just inside the dungeon door. A stone hovered above his left hand, but his right was empty. Considering my limp and broken hand, I figured I knew what it had held just moments ago.
“Kai, let me heal you,” Cerin blurted from within his cell, his arms coming between the bars.
In a daze, I walked over to his cell, moving my broken hand toward him. Terran watched, conflicted, as the necromancer began to mend the hand which he had just broken.
“I will let him heal you, but I will not allow him to leave with you,” Terran stated, his eyes on my hand to avoid my gaze. “You need to leave Sera, Kai, and take your friends with you. Father will not take kindly to another slight.”
As my hand healed, the pain began to lessen. The dazed, pained phase of my brain was over, and the situation became clearer. Cerin finished healing me, and I flexed my fingers, ensuring they all worked right.
“This is not a slight. I am merely fixing his injustices,” I retorted.
“He is a necromancer, sister!” Terran breathed, perplexed.
“A necromancer who once saved my life and has just healed the wounds you gave me,” I replied, just as baffled by his argument as he was of mine.
“I do not care what he does—” Terran stopped, frustrated. “There is no getting through to you, is there? You have already caused the death of someone you love, sister. Will you bring about your own demise over a necromancer?”
My heart thudded against my chest, my mind on his selective words. “Whose death have I caused, brother?”
“They are preparing to execute Bjorn for treason, Kai. In a time of weakness, he has aided you in this—this—” Terran waved a hand toward Cerin, a look of disgust and anxiety on his face. “Quest.”
Time slowed. In this one moment, there were five people I cared about, all of whom were at risk. It was as if I would never get a break. Eventually, if this luck of mine continued, someone I loved would be hurt, and there would be nothing I could do about it. I was playing catch-up with the injustices of fate.
And there, barring me from protecting people I cared about, was yet another person I cared about. I stared at Terran for what felt like ages, but was really only seconds. I understood his position. I understood why he felt the way he did about everything. He was Sirius's son, and had always been raised to take his place. Thus, he was now standing as my opposition, and I had to treat him as such. Though he was a grown man seven years older than I, for a moment, I saw him as a little boy again. The boy who had been good to me. The boy that was a ray of sunshine in the darkness that ran through Seran royalty. The fun-loving, optimistic older brother who I had always looked up to and admired.
I swallowed a lump that had formed in my throat, and it scraped painfully down my esophagus. “I love you, Terran.”
Air magic swirled like wind above my palms, as I recited the spell in my head. My brother's eyes widened, as he could tell what I had chosen to do. I released the spell, and as the gust of wind rampaged past the cells and toward him, he threw his own spell to the ground. A wall of earth stretched from the ground to the ceiling before him, blocking the wind, particles of dust and debris flaking off where it hit.
“Do not do this!” Terran screamed, from behind his defensive wall.
“Leave me be, and I will let you go,” I retorted, water swirling in balls above my palms.
“I cannot,” he replied, his voice thick with desperation and sadness.
I said nothing, only thrusting my arms forward to unleash a river of water. It gushed from my hands, rushing toward the dungeon door with the force of a current, ramming into Terran's earth wall, turning the dirt into thick mud, and swirling behind it. I heard my brother scream in surprise as he was engulfed by the water, his wall melting into a thick mess of mud into the cracks of the dungeon floor. The water began to rush back and swirl around my own feet, and flood the cells of the prisoners, some who had been sleeping, and now stirred.
Panic hit me, for I knew Terran could drown. I continued to expel water from my hands, aiming for the doorway. Now that the earth wall had all but melted completely, the force hit the dungeon door directly, tearing it open at its hinges. The rush of water broke through and into the hallway beyond, carrying my brother with it as he struggled to stay afloat. Outside the dungeon, Nyx and Theron were both fighting soldiers, though everyone scattered as the room released its water over their feet.
I dispelled the water magic. I heard Terran sputtering to breathe from down the hallway. The water from my spell was sinking into the cracks of the floors and walls, and the farther it flowed, the lower its level. I hurried to grab the cell keys, that I now found in the back corner of the dungeon due to the water current changing their position.
“Kai, they are going to execute Bjorn!” Nyx yelled through the doorway at me, even as she fought. Thick red blood dripped down her arm from a gash in her shoulder.
“I know,” I shouted back, still in a panic. Cerin exited the cell quickly beside me, going to the nearby chest.
“Kai, keys,” he pleaded. I threw them to him, watching as he found the right key to unlock the chest. In it, he found the things they had taken from him, save for his gold. He rushed to pull his armor on over his jail clothes, and equip his scythe.
I hurried out of the dungeon, my boots squishing through water that had spread this way and that from my spell. At a distance down the hall, Terran watched me, seemingly unwilling to continue our fight. I was fine with that. I didn't want to hurt him. He knew I was much more powerful than him and had access to a wider variety of spells from all of the elements. To continue to fight me would only hurt him.
“Where did they take Bjorn?” I asked Nyx, in a rush. I gave her a shield, while Cerin began to mend her wounds.
“Out front, University Court,” she blurted in response. “Same place they planned to execute Cerin.”
“Let's grab him and go,” Theron shouted, in the midst of a sword fight with a guard. Many laid dead at his feet, and blood mixed with the water puddles in the hall, tinging it red. The ranger, however, was not unscathed, and could not go on like this forever.
“It is a trap.”
The voice was so low, I barely recognized it was Terran. I looked his way, though he refused to make eye contact.
“What is a trap?” Nyx retorted, impatient. More blood escaped from her wound just before Cerin finally closed it.
“They will execute Bjorn, but they are doing it now to draw you to the courtyard.” Terran fin
ally looked up, caught my eyes. His were broken and depressed. “His armies are in the streets. Archers align the roofs and the walls around the courtyard. He will kill you all.” It wasn't a threat, but a statement. Even after I'd fought him, my brother looked out for me.
“If he looks to kill Bjorn, he will have to kill me first,” I replied. I noticed Cerin was leeching from the last guard in the hall with us, before the man fell. The hallway was now eerily quiet. Thanks to Terran, I knew why. Sirius was amassing his armies for us in the courtyard, so he had pulled them from the university.
“Sister...” Terran's eyes glazed over with tears, even as we turned to leave. “Be safe.”
Twenty-two
Outside of Seran University's two thick, large front doors, the courtyard was full of people. They quieted once the light from the large chandeliers of the university spilled out over them, calling their attention to my presence.
If we had expected to be attacked right away, we were quickly disappointed. The only weapons that were thrown at us were the glares of Sirius's soldiers, which were gathered as Terran had predicted. Overhead of us, snow flurries still fluttered down from the sky; it gathered as dust in the crevasses of the ground below, and in the corners of curbs and walls. The sun had set some time ago during our trek through the university, leaving the stars to blink at us between soft collections of ice crystals.
The others followed me as I made my way through the crowd. Surprisingly, they parted for us. Up ahead, on the wooden platform on which Sirius held his executions, both the man I now called father and the man who had once held the position were. Bjorn was on his knees, his thick hands tied behind his back, and his head in the cup of a guillotine. Sirius stood beside him, his own hand on the rope which he planned to use to end Bjorn's life.
My mind fought for a plan. If I went into this fighting, all it took was a flip of Sirius's wrist, and I would lose a man I loved. I knew, however, that Sirius planned on me dying here, along with those I called my friends. He had to have known I wouldn't go without a fight.
When I reached the end of the crowd, a line of soldiers blocked me from moving closer, their swords and shields held before them. I wondered how many of them I knew. I wondered how many of them had been trained by Bjorn himself, and now stood guard at his execution.
Movement waved through my peripheral vision, up along the shadows of the rooftops. I knew the archers waited up there, prepared to loose arrows into my flesh. Cerin and I had prepared before leaving the safety of the university by ensuring the four of us had both shields to fend off physical damage and magical wards to fend off the energy damage of Sera's mages. The shields couldn't last forever, but they would help enough during the initial attack to give us a fighting chance.
“Let him go,” I called out, past the soldiers, and to the man who had raised me. Bjorn could not see me, but he jerked his head in its holder when he heard my voice. “He has done nothing wrong.”
Sirius sneered back at me. “He is guilty of treason.”
“I stole his key,” I lied. “He did not give it freely.”
“Did you also sneak into the university, become him, and then give false directions to the dungeon guards?” Sirius smiled as he watched my reaction to his words. “No, you did not.”
I shook in my boots. I wanted nothing more than to try to hop over these guards and get to Bjorn. I knew that would only cause him to be executed more quickly.
“This—citizens of Sera, is what happens when you consort with necromancers,” Sirius shouted, his voice traveling over the crowd, and his hand pointing at Bjorn. “Even the most loyal are not immune. For if you sympathize with those who would deal with the dead, you will find yourself among them.”
My nostrils flared. I glanced back to Theron. I knew he carried a bow. He had seldom used it during our travels to and from Whispermere, since Silas had been with us. Now, he was my only hope. I moved my eyes toward Sirius, who stood upon the stage. He seemed to understand, and slowly went about switching his weapons.
“Since dear Kai is here to witness the consequences to her actions—let us get on with it.” Sirius looked down to Bjorn. “Do you, in your unfortunate position now, regret your illegal activities?”
“No. I regret ever serving you,” Bjorn replied, his voice somehow calm from his position.
Sirius gritted his teeth. “Give us your last words, so that I may end you.”
“Give 'em hell, Kai.”
I swallowed hard as he spoke to me, my throat thickening with emotion. “Bjorn—!”
Just then, Theron lifted his bow. And just as quickly, the soldiers took note and sprung to action, shouts of attack ringing out from multiple voices. Time slowed, and I watched in horror as Theron's bow was grabbed, the arrow flying just off target, passing by Sirius's face just as he realized what we meant to do. All around me, soldiers began to surround us, and the clash of metal began to ring out.
There I stood, my ears dulled, in the midst of preparing a spell even though I knew I had no time. Sirius had pulled the rope of the guillotine with little more than a flick of his wrist. As the blade fell, reflecting the moonlight back toward the crowd from its thick blade, Sirius started to hurry off the stage, preparing some sort of spell from his palms.
Thump-thump. Thump-thump. The energy from my spells was building in my hands, but the spell wasn't complete. I watched, despondent, as the blade hit flesh, cutting through the spine and throat of the man who was like a father to me, and meeting with its wood holder whilst dripping with his thick red blood. Bjorn's head rolled away from the guillotine, coming to a stop with his eyes facing the crowd. There were gasps and cries from the people watching, perhaps because they had once known him. Worked with him. Joked with him. Behind the execution machine, his body slumped to the side, blood spurting violently from his neck.
Thump-thump. Thump-thump. I dispelled the air magic I'd been building with little more than shrug. In both hands, I began to accumulate fire. I stared into Bjorn's lifeless hazel eyes, completely removed from myself. Somehow, I was aware that Bjorn's death had irrevocably changed me. Somewhere within myself, I was tearing my own heart out with broken nails.
But right here, right now, I wanted everyone dead. They would pay for executing a good man. The people would pay for coming to watch. All of them. All of them would pay.
I rose both my hands to the sky, two glowing orange orbs casting light over those fighting beside me. I heard the hissing and crackling of flame, prepared to be unleashed. Even still, I funneled even more energy into the two spells, seeking maximum damage. Maximum impact.
Sera had left an irrevocable mark on me today, one that was both senseless and brutal. I would be sure to return the favor.
I felt the life begin to be drained from my body. The fire balls in my hands now shook, trembling with immense power, begging for me to release them.
Not yet. It's not strong enough.
Just as I became light-headed from draining my own energy, I released the spell, forcing the energy toward the sky. It was then that I noticed a soldier had just stabbed me through the gut, my blood dripping off of his sword near its handle as he pulled the blade back out. I hadn't even felt it through my rage. Thrusting both hands at him, I leeched from his life force, regenerating some of the energy I'd lost. The man fell within seconds, drained of his life. I turned to another soldier, draining his life. Another, and another.
Even as the skies began to darken above me, preparing to unleash the fire spell, I was preparing another. I let my stomach wound drain blood over my leather armor, paying it no mind. I would heal it later, if we made it out of this mess. There were thousands of soldiers here. That was an abundance of energy I could use to wreak havoc upon Sera and all Sirius held dear.
Then, came screaming. From multiple directions and just as many voices, people finally looked up to the sky to see what I had done. There was a high-pitched whistling in the sky, and the noise loomed louder and louder. I looked up to see my spell in
action, and was pleased to see a fireball the size of a large barnyard animal hurtling toward the earth, the air whistling past the flames as it fell. The courtyard of Sera glowed orange, and the people scattered.
BOOM! It hit in the midst of the crowd. Bodies flew up around the fireball like it had splashed into water, some flying over the courtyard wall and into the merchant's sector on the other side. There were bits and pieces of people everywhere, as if they were the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, overturned and mismatched in piles. I heard pained screaming, and saw grown men running from the point of impact, burning alive. Just feet away, I saw some people had fallen from the impact of the debris alone. The fireball had been so powerful it had upended the courtyard's expensive cobblestone, throwing bits and pieces of it into the crowd like shrapnel.
I heard laughter, and realized it was my own. Though the people were scattering, maybe they had expected that to be the only fireball. Looking up into the sky, I saw at least seven more, and all from my first spell. Using the energy I'd leeched from half a dozen men, I prepared even more. I released the second bout of fire magic into the sky, and prepared for my personal Armageddon.
The next fireball crashed into the side of the university's tallest tower, the one which held Sirius's office. The smoothed stone was caved out of the corner at impact, thick rocks falling to the university below, some breaking straight through the roof from the gravity of its height. As I watched with glee, the remaining two walls of the tower could not hold its weight. Crumbling echoed from above, and the tower began to lean, and then fall, the stones which had once held it popping out to the sides from the pressure. As the tower fell, it crumbled into pieces. Some of it collapsed more of the university's roof, while even more fell into the courtyard, crushing flesh into stone.
Each fireball that fell jolted through my own skeleton, the force of its impact loosening the stones from buildings, walls, and ground alike. I could hear screaming, some of which came from my friends and companions. I attempted to ignore it. Most of the soldiers and citizens of Sera had fled. Those that could, anyway. As for the rest of the soldiers, I sought them out of the crowd and stole their lives from them, only regenerating what I had lost.
