by K. M. Shea
The ground throbbed as the Chosen forces marched closer and closer.
“Of course,” Phile said.
“It’s time.” General Halvor wheeled his horse around. “To your stations—wait for the princess to attack,” he ordered. Rakel watched him ride to his post, her eyes tracing over his familiar back. Thank you, General.
“I believe that was an order, Robber Maiden.” Farrin raised his eyebrow.
“Are you that anxious to be rid of me? Oh—I get it. You want some alone time with Rakel. Very well then!” Phile said. She gave Rakel a quick, bone-crushing hug, then backed away, her expression fierce even though tears threatened to leak from her eyes. She nodded and threw herself at her horse, mounting up. “Stand proud, Snow Queen. You have no equal.” She rode off, her shoulders straight and her hair—pulled back in its usual ponytail and covered by her red kerchief—streaming in the wind.
Farrin looked from the retreating Phile to Rakel and raised an eyebrow. “Is there something I should know?”
Rakel struggled to smile. “No,” she lied.
A frown tugged the corner of Farrin’s lips down, but he nodded and turned his attention to the incoming army. “Tenebris is in the back, again, though he has positioned himself in the center—which is unusual.” He pointed out the black-clothed commander riding a fiendish horse. “As you can see, there is a bit of a line between the magic users and the regular troops. Try to reach him through there if possible—it should take less magic to clear.”
A tendril of her white hair kept sticking to her lips. Rakel tucked it behind her ear. “I see.”
“Watch for General Halvor’s signal, but you have some time. To begin attacking now would create a disadvantage for our soldiers,” Farrin continued.
Rakel nodded, shrinking when he gazed at her with his piercing gray eyes.
“You’ll do fine.” He slid his hand under her chin, tilting her face up to meet his gaze. “I will be with you, Rakel. The army stands with you. You are not alone.”
She nodded again and, on an impulse, hugged Farrin, soaking in his unique warmth.
Farrin’s arms surrounded her for a few glorious moments, and she felt his lips brush her cheek. I need to let go. I should step away. But she couldn’t. She clung to Farrin, his touch stabilizing her unsettled heart.
Farrin wove his fingers among the hair at the nape of her neck. “Are you alright?” he asked.
“Yes,” Rakel lied. She stepped away and ripped her gaze from him to make the lie more bearable. She settled on Halvor and watched him with bated breath.
The Chosen army marched closer still, spreading across the land like a dark nightmare. She started pulling on her magic, letting its minty flavor and frosty feel settle her pounding heart. She sucked in a deep breath, settled her shoulders, and raised her chin. I will not go down as a coward. I will end this!
General Halvor—barely visible above the tide of Verglas soldiers, even though he was mounted—turned his horse in a tight circle. Knut sounded a beautiful note on his ram’s horn, and all eyes in the Verglas army turned to Rakel.
Farrin, standing next to her, unsheathed his broadsword and crouched—ready to lunge in front of her.
Rakel gripped her magic, her eyes tracing the troops.
Crow shouted “Light ’em up, Princess—ack!” before someone—Bunny most likely—silenced him.
His outburst provoked the resistance troops, who started chanting. “Snow Queen, Snow Queen, Snow Queen!”
Rakel barely heard any of it. Her blue eyes traced a path to Tenebris—who was starting to raise his hands. Rakel threw her arm in front of her, and ice exploded, blazing a crystalline, sword-sharp trail of spikes from the edge of the Verglas army into the Chosen forces. It cut a path straight from Rakel to Tenebris, and split his forces in half.
Tenebris caught the ice before it could encase him, meeting it with a shadowy shield of darkness. Rakel threw more of her powers into her strike, but his shield held.
She pulled back, and up and down the Verglas line, soldiers sounded horns, beginning their part of the fight.
Then Oskar and the resistance opened fire on the Chosen, while Frodi and any of the magic users with long-distance fighting capabilities whipped their powers at the incoming forces. Lightning carved a short path among the Chosen magic users—Bluff’s handiwork—and Verglas soldiers raised their enchanted shields—blocking enemy fire until they met them.
Sword clashed against sword.
Tenebris set off his own attack. His vile magic streaked across the field, moving faster than any of the previous times he had wielded it against her. Rakel threw up a tree-sized shield of ice, blocking it, but she had to grit her teeth and push more power into it to keep it up as the acidic sensation of his magic clashing with hers burned the inside of her skull.
When his power buckled, she pushed forward—shattering her shield and dissolving his attack. She continued to press, creating a cloud of ice swords that sparkled in the bright sunlight and hovered above Tenebris. She threw them at him, creating a deadly rain. She had angled the swords at his back, driving him forward to escape the worst of the blow, even as she and Farrin started to edge into space the Chosen army occupied.
Darkness exploded out of Tenebris, blocking him from the rest of the attack.
I see, that one made him angry. He doesn’t like to be herded, does he?
She was aware of Farrin, whirling his broadsword as he fought off attackers. Often, he was barely visible as he tapped his speed magic. She heard his sword clang and felt several kinds of magic brush at her, but he always stepped in and reflected the attack away, moving around her like a shadow.
Rakel, trusting him to guard her, kept her attention on Tenebris. The cloud of darkness that had protected him swirled above him like an angry storm cloud and divided into two swirls which moved like twin lightning strikes. One strike was aimed at Oskar and the resistance archers; the other was aimed at the front lines where the Verglas infantry fought the remaining Chosen soldiers.
She had to strain to raise ice walls in time, and she shuddered when their magic collided. Her walls held, shattering only when the black magic burned out. Rakel yanked on her magic, her eyes stinging due to the coldness it radiated, and snapped an ice cage around Tenebris, making it thick and uncomfortably cold. She could feel him hammer at it, but it didn’t crack as she forcibly held it together and took a moment to glance up and down the field.
She and Farrin had ventured deep into the Chosen forces—but many Verglas magic users, and even squads of soldiers, had managed to follow them in.
Flames of fire that zigzagged across the field gave her a general idea where Frodi and Eydìs fought. A wolf’s howl echoed above the deafening clang of the battlefield, and Rakel caught a brief glimpse of Phile—easy to spot in her brightly colored clothes—throwing Foedus at a Chosen magic user.
General Halvor’s shouts reached her like a song, giving her an extra nudge. “Angry Owls, move forward—protect the princess’s back! Fourth Regiment, assist the magic users!”
Farrin kicked a man in the stomach, brained him in the head with the pommel of his sword, then flipped him over his back, and threw him to the ground. It took a moment for Rakel to recognize the man he had just beaten the stuffing out of as the magic binder from Kavon’s squad. Glancing back, she saw Kavon’s alchemist—slain—splayed in their trail.
She winced at the rampant shedding of blood, and her conviction built. This must end.
“Are you managing?” Farrin asked.
Rakel winced and reinforced the ice cage in which she held Tenebris as he pushed against it, spiking her mind with pain. “Yes.”
Farrin nodded and brushed blood from a small cut on his face. “Watch out for Kavon and his illusions. Most of the magic users attacking us are in his regiment.”
Rakel started to reply, but Tenebris finally broke through his icy cage. His dark powers puffed up around him like a snow cloud following an avalanche. That he REALLY didn’
t like, she thought as she hoarded more and more of her magic.
Tenebris responded to his imprisonment by shooting his powers up and down the line like fireballs of darkness. The new assaults moved with the speed of lightning, and Rakel grappled to block all of them.
She caught the two strikes against the resistance fighters, the three fired at the magic users, and one of the two aimed at the Verglas troops.
Rakel grit her teeth and strained, strengthening the walls to hold against the black fire—which pushed at them with the strength of a glacier. The shouts and screams of the soldiers hit by Tenebris’s curse brought tears to her eyes, and she sobbed as she pushed back, throwing off his magic.
She barely had time to straighten up before Tenebris nearly hit her with a cloud of his magic. It got so close, Rakel raised her ice shield an arm’s length in front of her. When the forces collided, the darkness pushed with such strength that her ice buckled, slamming into her. She was thrown through the air, but Farrin caught her and planted his feet, leaning in so they didn’t budge when her ice shield—still being pushed backwards—hit them.
Rakel screamed at the burning sensation but threw more of her power into the shield, pushing it back.
Farrin dropped to his knees when Rakel’s ice shield crawled forward, regaining lost ground. He panted, and his forehead beaded with sweat. “Are you wounded?”
“No, but that hurt.” Rakel’s stomach flipped as Tenebris’s magic continued to push down on her shield—which held strong. She slid from Farrin’s grip and stood, her legs trembling.
Farrin planted his sword in the ground to help him stand.
“How are we doing?” Rakel asked, risking a glance at the rest of the troops.
Farrin opened his mouth to speak, but in a heartbeat, he disappeared.
Rakel blinked, startling when he reappeared an arm’s length away, swinging his sword at her. She almost screamed, but when she felt hands close around her throat, she realized who he was really targeting.
Kavon threw off his illusion and leaped backwards, dragging Rakel with him. “Not a step closer, Graydim,” he panted.
Farrin swiveled his eyes to Rakel, who—as she had done weeks ago when Farrin tried to manhandle her in Ostfold—flash-froze her skin. Kavon yelped and jumped away from her, giving Farrin enough space to tap his speed magic and slide between them.
Rakel—re-energized by the rush of adrenaline that surged through her—pushed at her ice-shield, which dispersed Tenebris’s magic like a puff of smoke. She drew her magic to her fingers and raised ice walls to catch the blasts Tenebris lobbed at the Verglas forces. She caught two of the three and blocked most of the third, but pieces of the attack got around the wall and dug into the Verglas soldiers that trusted her to protect them.
Rakel saw two soldiers drop their weapons and shout, their hands clasping their throats as Liv ran to purify them.
That’s it. I have to finish this. This is too evil!
Rakel tried snapping another ice cage around Tenebris. He disappeared in a cloud of darkness, but, hoping to keep him distracted, Rakel threw more of her power into the ice—which was half closed around him like a bear trap—and risked glancing at Farrin.
“We don’t have to fight, Farrin,” Kavon said, his hands in the air.
Farrin wasn’t paying attention. Instead, he studied the ground.
“We could join forces. I don’t like Tenebris’s tactics any more than you do. If we band together, we can beat Tenebris and take the mirror for ourselves,” Kavon continued. “You know you won’t be able to defeat him like this—not for good. You see how your little princess strains against him? She can’t kill him.”
Rakel glared and was about impale the illusionist with a spike of ice, but Farrin sprang at her, thrusting his sword in her direction. Rakel didn’t flinch or doubt him for a moment, but she was surprised when Kavon, holding a dagger near her, appeared in thin air, shouting when Farrin’s sword bit into his shoulder.
The Kavon that spoke flickered and died—one of his illusions.
Rakel felt Tenebris’s power grow, and turned back to him, easing off her magic holding the ice cage in place. Tenebris shot bolts of darkness down on the Verglas army like arrows. Rakel countered it with a wide-spread shield of ice.
When she looked back at Farrin again, Kavon was dead. Farrin grimly turned from his old comrade. “Is he too much? Do we retreat?” he asked.
Rakel shook her head. “I’m signaling to Phile that we’re ready for Liv.”
“Are you certain?” Farrin asked. “I’ll have to leave you to go get her.”
Rakel pushed needle-thin spikes of ice out of the ground where Tenebris stood. He retaliated with another shot in her direction. She caught it with an ice shield but had to lean into it to keep it stable. “I’m certain. It is time we end this,” she said. She glanced up at the sky and crafted a giant snowflake the size of a cottage. It spun in the air three times, then broke into fluffy bits of snow.
She waited, her heart throbbing, as Farrin blocked and reflected a fireball from a Chosen officer. When the snow from her shattered snowflake swirled around her, she threw her magic into her shield and dissipated Tenebris’s cloud of curses. She opened a path that stretched between her and Tenebris, making it treacherously slick with ice.
Tenebris glowered at her and gathered his magic in his hands, but he didn’t notice the glacier she formed behind him. She pulled it towards her, ramming it into him. He was thrown into the icy pathway and skidded towards her.
A huge plume of fire erupted in the Verglas forces—the signal for Farrin to retrieve Liv.
“I’m going. Don’t be afraid to wall yourself in,” Farrin said.
“Yes.” Rakel hastily raised an ice wall when Tenebris bore down on her with fury. She feebly blocked it, hoping to entice him closer. Her lungs squeezed in her chest as she glanced back at Farrin, all the love in her heart screaming out for him. “Farrin…”
Farrin listened as he sheathed his sword.
She struggled to hold back her words and Tenebris’s power. “Thank you. For everything,” she said.
Farrin gave her a quirk of a smile that was warm with affection. “I’ll be a moment.” He tapped his magic and was gone.
Rakel clenched her eyes shut as she leaned into her shield. She wanted to scream with pain—from her crumbling heart and from Tenebris’s magic. Her mouth was dry, and her hands shook, but Rakel shoved more of her magic into her ice, scattering Tenebris’s strike.
Then she initiated her plan. She spun around to face the Verglas forces. With a silent farewell, she clenched her hands into fists and dragged them up. Starting at her feet and radiating out in a U-shape, dagger-sharp spikes of ice shot out of the ground, fitting together so tightly it was impossible to move through them.
The magic pushed the two armies away from her, spreading them out and making it impassable—even for Farrin with his speed magic.
“Tenebris!” she shouted. “We end this now!”
Tenebris laughed as he sauntered closer. His hooded, golden eyes gleamed with glee. “You seek to sacrifice yourself for your troops? How very heroic of you.” Black flames writhed around him, and he smiled, making Rakel get goose-bumps for the first time in her life. “You must know you can’t beat me. We’re evenly matched, but you are too weighed down with your concern for others.”
He’s evil. Already he has wrought irreparable damage. If he is left to run amok he will bring ruin to everyone. I must kill him. I must!
Knowing she needed him within an arm’s length if she wished to follow-through with her intensions, Rakel goaded him, hoping to draw him closer. “I know where the mirror is.”
Tenebris’s smile froze—though his eyes sharpened like a snake spotting prey. “Do you?”
“If you promise to leave Verglas, I will give it to you,” she lied.
Tenebris laughed up at the sky. “Come now. I don’t believe you are that stupid.” He chuckled. “You know I would do no such thing.
”
“Rakel!” Farrin shouted at the other end of the ice field.
“Princess!”
Rakel stiffened her spine and kept herself from looking back. “Why do you want the mirror?” she asked.
Tenebris shrugged. “Why would anyone else want it—except for foolish idealists like you—power. I will unite this world under my banner, and magic users will rule.”
Rakel took several steps towards him and was emboldened when he didn’t back up. She was two horse-lengths away from him when she gestured to their still-fighting troops. “You think this will make you a ruler?” Rakel asked. “Conquering countries and wiping out their population—enslaving people? You’ll bring an end to everything!”
“Then let the world burn, Princess,” Tenebris said with a new smile. “As long as I’ve brought vengeance on this place, as long as every commoner pays with his life for the damage he’s caused, I don’t care.”
“You’re mad,” Rakel said. She glanced over her shoulder. Frodi was slowly melting his way through the ice field, chowing down on food like a madman. Behind him, standing practically on his heels, was Farrin.
She turned away—afraid her resolve would falter if she caught his eye. But he shouted, “Rakel! Stop this!”
“I am rather unhinged. But you can’t stop me.” Tenebris’s tone was factual as he closed the gap between them and stared into her eyes. “Hate is the most powerful force there is.”
He was close enough now that Rakel could grab him and finish him—finish both of them.
But she couldn’t do it. Fear stayed her hand. Yet she knew—she knew!—sacrificing herself for everyone else was the only way to silence the monsters, both the one facing her and the one within her. “Maybe hate is the most powerful,” Rakel agreed as she tried to rally her nerves. “But love is the purest.”
“Is it?” Tenebris asked, his tone frighteningly polite. “Let’s test that, shall we?” Like a viper striking, Tenebris lashed out.
Rakel brought up an ice shield and braced herself, but Tenebris’s magic streaked past her. No! Even before the curse reached its target, Rakel knew who it was meant for. “FARRIN!” She built a massive ice-wall for him, but she was too late. The curse had already wound tight around him, sending him to his knees. His eyes were unseeing, and his breathing was ragged, but he stretched a hand in her direction.
