by M. A. Larson
Flashes of white and black stained the night sky as princesses and witches did battle. Fires burned and smoke billowed . . .
As she reached the northern edge of the field, she could see Remington and Hossenbuhr still trading blows. Their swords sparked in the darkness, clashes piercing through the sounds of war. Tears welled in her eyes. Suddenly, her loved ones, all those she had lost along the way, were starting to return. First her father, then Basil, and now Remington.
Hossenbuhr’s face was a tight mask of rage. He slashed at the former knight cadet from the left, then the right, but each blow was parried away. Finally, Remington began to counterattack. Using his gloves, he grabbed his own blade and used it to trap Hossenbuhr’s. Then he kicked the King near his hip and sent him flying.
“Remington!”
He turned. The look on his face was one of total shock. “Evie?”
She ran the rest of the way, and they flew into each other’s arms.
“Have you two been fighting this whole time?”
“We’ve had a good break until now, actually. But when he saw those dragons, he flew into a rage. I’m simply trying to convince him that they’re here to help. You’d better step back. I don’t think I’ve quite won him over.”
Hossenbuhr had regained his feet. His chest was heaving and his face was winched into a scowl. He picked up his sword and aimed it at Remington.
“Stand aside, boy. I’ll not let those dragons destroy my portrait.”
“That’s King Boy to you.”
Hossenbuhr charged. With every attack, Remington countered. Their blades flashed in the firelight.
When her sister swooshed by overhead, Evie wheeled to make sure none of the knights had turned their arrows to the sky. Thankfully, they were still focused on the giant. Back in the air, she saw Forbes staring down from the harness. But he wasn’t looking at her. He was looking at the battle between his father and Remington.
His own blade flashed, and he suddenly began to plummet toward the ground, using the handles Evie had sewn into the harness to steer. The fabric acted as a pair of wings, arresting his fall as he glided toward the field below. Still, Evie could see that he was coming down much too quickly.
“Father!” he shouted as Hossenbuhr chopped at Remington’s blade. “Father!” In seconds, he crashed into them, knocking both Remington and Hossenbuhr to the ground. “Father . . . you’ve got to stop . . .”
Remington reached for his sword and sprang up. Hossenbuhr had taken a more direct hit and was slower to recover. But before long, he, too, was standing again.
“Where have you come from?” he roared.
“From there,” replied his son, pointing his sword at the dragon swirling overhead. He grimaced as he tried to stand. “You’re wrong about them, Father. All of us are. We’ve been wrong about them our whole lives.”
“What are you blathering on about?”
“Dragons aren’t monsters. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. They could have killed me a dozen times today, but they didn’t. And they didn’t because Evie asked them not to. And when she asked them to come and help us win the war, they agreed.” He put a hand on his father’s shoulder. “Please. Dad. You can help us win the war, too.”
“What bloody war? My only concern is preserving that portrait!”
“The war between knights and dragons. Can’t you see? We don’t need to live in fear of each other. We can end it, Dad. Once and for all.”
“He’s right, Your Majesty,” said Remington. “Whether I’d like to be or not, I now find myself ruler of the most powerful kingdom in the west. I have armies and allies scattered all over this land. I can help you retake your home. But first you’ve got to accept that dragons aren’t our enemies. Together, we can end a war that’s been fought since men and dragons first met. With Brentano in the east and Diebkunst in the west united, the others will follow.”
“These dragons raised Evie as their own daughter,” said Forbes. “Her father went missing, and I’ve just watched their reunion. I saw the love in both their hearts, and I recognized it.” His eyes began to well with tears. “I recognized it because it’s exactly how I’d feel if I ever saw Mum again.”
Hossenbuhr’s incensed snarl faded. He stared at his son with something akin to pity. “Your mother was too weak for this world. A trait I see you’ve inherited.”
Forbes winced, but he didn’t back down. “Please, Dad. This is our chance to create a new legacy. A chance to live in peace with our enemies. A chance to save lives.”
Sir Schönbecker shouted another order in the distance, and Galligantusohn roared with fury. For a moment, Hossenbuhr looked down, licking his lips. He sees it, too, thought Evie. He’s got to.
The king swallowed dryly. His eyes flicked from Evie to Remington to Forbes. “How dare you,” he finally said, glowering at his son. “How dare you, you soft-bellied piglet. I would mirthfully have cut him down for standing in my way, but how dare you force me to kill you, too.”
Evie looked over at Forbes. All life drained out of him. He looked utterly destroyed, staring at his father with wounded eyes.
“Knights have died protecting this realm from dragons with valor and honor for centuries. And you two weaselly little fools think you know better than they.”
“We don’t know better,” said Forbes. “We know different. Those dragons up there are here to save our lives. To save your life. Doesn’t that count for anything?”
“No.”
King Hossenbuhr lunged at his son. Forbes’s blade flashed in the firelight. A man screamed.
Hossenbuhr’s sword fell to the grass. He dropped to his knees, clutching his stomach. He snarled at his son once last time, then collapsed to the ground.
With the sounds of war thundering all around, the three of them stared at King Hossenbuhr’s lifeless body. Forbes sheathed his blade and stepped forward. He picked up his father’s sword. He turned to Remington. His face was red, his eyes filled with wrath. The sword twitched.
“As the . . . as the King of Diebkunst . . .” He wiped his eyes with his sleeve. “I accept your partnership.” He tossed the sword aside and held out a quivering hand. Remington shook it. Then Forbes turned to Evie and embraced her. She could feel him trembling in her arms.
“You were right,” he said. “Family isn’t an anchor. I can feel my mother inside me now. It’s the lightest I’ve ever felt in my life.”
He looked at each of them once more. The hostility and anger that seemed to be permanently etched on his face had gone. He was torn apart, but he was also free. Without another word, he turned and began to stagger away. He left the giants and the dragons and the witches and the princesses and the knights behind as he walked down the hill toward the forest.
Evie ran to Remington and held him in her arms. The knights shouted and Galligantusohn bellowed, but Evie couldn’t take her eyes from Forbes as he receded into the darkness. She saw the faintest movement as he reached the meadow, then watched until he was gone completely, swallowed up by the blackness of the night.
“I’LL CRUSH YOUR BONES TO MAKE MY BREAD!” roared the giant.
“Again, lads!” shouted Sir Schönbecker. “Rebuild the lines!”
“This is complete chaos,” said Remington. “We’ve got to get organized.”
“The princesses are falling back to Crown Castle. We’ll draw the witches in toward the center of campus. That should leave you clear to handle the giants.”
“Cracking plan,” he said. “Did you just come up with that?”
“I need you to do something for me.” She stared straight into his eyes to emphasize how much she was trusting him. “I need you to keep my family safe. Forbes was right; they’re here to help. But the rest of the knights don’t know that.”
He nodded solemnly. Evie turned to look down at the forest, but Forbes was gone.
�
�I’ve got to go help the princesses. There’s no point in stopping the witches if the Academy is turned to ash.” Her mind raced before finally landing on something. “Calivigne. I’ve got to find Calivigne. She organized these witches, and witches aren’t meant to be organized. If I can stop her, perhaps the rest will fall apart.” She realized that Remington’s eyes had gone vacant. “Are you listening to me? This is rather important.”
He was looking beyond her, and his eyes registered total fear. “It seems you won’t have to look far.”
Evie turned. There, down the flaming field of grass that led up to Pennyroyal Castle and the main courtyard, where the wall had once protected the Academy and all who dwelt within from the horrors of the world, the night itself seemed to be trickling forward. A wave of witches floated out of the forest and poured across the wall. Dozens of flapping cloaks and bony grins and skeletal hands, all soaring out of the trees.
And there, leading them all, was Calivigne.
“WITCHES!”
The cry circulated down the line of knights, which disintegrated into panic and scattered across the field like ants. They raced past the blinded giant on foot and on horse, looking for any sort of cover from the fresh wave of witches floating up from the forest.
Evie’s eyes volleyed back and forth from the witches to the knights. This had been Calivigne’s plan all along. Send in the first wave to soften the Academy’s defenses, to create utter chaos, and then bring the second wave to finish them off.
But Calivigne hadn’t counted on dragons.
Evie filled her lungs with air, cold night air that carried the acrid smoke of battle. Then she shouted with everything she had: “FATHER!”
The word rumbled out of her in a primeval roar, even more dragonlike than the one she’d managed during the first year’s wolf attack. It shook her from the inside in a surge of immense power.
Her father heard her call. He swerved toward the field, passing above like a leviathan in a sea of sky. He dove across the wall of witches, dousing them with fire.
Evie looked over and realized Remington was staring at her with a slack jaw and wide eyes. “You’ve got to teach me that.”
“Get those knights back up here! You need to drive the giants away!”
Galligantusohn bellowed and clutched his eye, brushing arrows off his skin like pinfeathers. Once the smoke of her father’s attack had lifted, the whole hillside was raging with fire. It had slowed the witches, and perhaps even killed some of them, but a huge number were still coming, their black cloaks flapping in silhouette against the ten-foot flames.
“Go! N—” Her words were cut short as Remington leaned down and kissed her. She was silent for a moment, then a wave of embarrassment crashed over her. “Just . . . ahem . . . just keep the boys from attacking the dragons, all right?”
“Of course,” he said with a smile. “Wouldn’t want to get roared at.”
Evie dashed up the road to the center of campus. Everything seemed to be alive with flashing magic and crackling flame. Calivigne had gone, scattered by the dragon. She wheeled past the Wolfseye Keep and raced across an empty courtyard.
“Evie!” came a distant voice. “Evie, over here!”
She stopped, searching the shadows for the voice. There, waving from a stable on the far side of the courtyard, was Demetra. Another one returned, she thought, and her heart brimmed with gratitude. She raced across the cobbled stones to join her friend.
“You made it back!” she said, clutching Demetra tightly.
“So did you!”
“What’s happened? Where’s everyone else?”
“We found some more princesses to help us on the way back,” said Demetra. “We’re desperate to get out there and fight, but there are some really frightened people in here we can’t leave behind.”
“We?” said Evie. “You found your mother?”
“Demetra!” shouted her mother. “Get inside this instant!” Demetra beamed.
Evie followed her into the stable. Demetra’s mother, Queen Christa, and sister, Princess Camilla, were huddled in the shadows with a group of terrified people. The stable was dark and damp and filled with emaciated horses. Even the hay and alfalfa used to feed them had run out during the siege. Evie eyed the group. There were several princesses tending to the others, and a handful of faces she recognized as princess cadets. The rest were parents or siblings.
“Hello, friend!” came a thin voice from the shadows.
“Falada!” She clutched the princess tightly. “I can’t believe you’re here!”
“Nor can I,” said Falada, grinning. “And I’ve already found my favorite teacher!”
“Hello there, Cadet!” came a sprightly voice from atop a hay bale.
“Princess Ziegenbart!”
A square-bodied goat with eyes splayed out from her head stood heroically above. She hopped to the ground, the bell around her neck clanging. “Will someone please take this bloody bell off me?”
Demetra began to untie the bell.
“So, Cadet Evie, we were just discussing our strategy,” said the goat. “What have you seen out there?”
“A second wave has just come up from the forest. Calivigne is with them.”
There were gasps from the parents, who hugged their children close.
“The staff will be in the administrative buildings,” said Camilla. “If we can find the Headmistress, she’ll have a plan.”
Oh, I’m certain she has a plan, thought Evie. But now was not the time for that conversation. “I’ve sent Basil ahead to Crown Castle to gather as many as he could.”
“Basil’s here?” said Demetra with a light in her eye.
“Come on, everyone,” said Ziegenbart. “Let’s get over there and join the battle.”
Demetra hesitated. “Er . . .”
“Yes?”
“What about them?” She nodded toward the people huddled in the shadows.
“I tried telling them being turned to stone was a noble way to go,” Ziegenbart told Evie, “but it didn’t seem to inspire them. Perhaps not the best message to receive from a cursed goat.”
“We can’t just leave them here,” said Falada.
Evie stepped forward and peered into the darkness. A thick musty smell hung in the stable. Someone was crying. “Listen, girls, I know you’re scared. I’m scared, too. But we can’t stay here.” There were sniffles, but no one spoke. “Fear is just someone putting out the lights. Now we’ve got to put them back on again.”
Outside, a witch’s cackle echoed across the courtyard.
“The bad news is we’ve only got two choices. But the good news is we’ve got two choices.” She took a step forward and knelt in front of them. “When the sun comes up tomorrow, there are two different worlds it can find. In one, we’ve lost. We’ve given in to fear and let the witches have it all. We’ve let them destroy the Academy. Our Academy. And without the Academy, the rest of the world is theirs as well. We’ll be remembered as the last class ever to enlist. The last class ever to hope.”
She could feel their eyes, but it was too dark to see them.
“But there is another world, and it’s a world that we can help create right now. We’re all princesses here, all of us who want to live in a world full of kindness. We owe it to every cadet who’s ever come through here, all the princesses who have fought before us. To Christa and Camilla and Falada and the rest. We can do it, girls! Let’s watch the sun rise tomorrow and shine down on us, not the witches!”
One of the first-year girls stood. Then another. A thundering roar from outside shook the stable.
“Well done, Cadet,” said Ziegenbart softly. “I suppose that was a bit more inspiring than the promise of a glorious death.”
Evie’s heart soared as she saw a few more girls stand. “That’s it, stand, girls! They’re going to tell our stories no mat
ter what we do. Win or lose, we will be remembered. So let’s be remembered for our courage, and not for our fear!”
“I’m going,” said one of the girls in the shadows. “I’m with you.”
“No!” said her mother, clinging to her daughter’s arm. “You’ll be killed!”
“I have to, Mother. All of us have to.”
A few more girls stood. Then, one by one, they stepped forward into the dim light. “What do you want us to do?”
• • •
Demetra raced beneath the darkened facade of a castle. She found a vantage point at the end of the wall, then signaled to Evie. She nodded to Ziegenbart, who herded the rest of the team ahead to Demetra’s position.
Camilla had volunteered to take those who couldn’t fight to the Infirmary. She knew of a highly secured area where they would be safe. The rest had set off into the besieged Academy, moving from one darkened position to the next, working their way slowly and methodically toward Crown Castle.
“It’s just round there,” whispered Demetra. As soon as she said it, Evie could picture Crown Castle in her mind. And with it came the face of the Headmistress. A surge of red anger filled her belly. Her stomach coiled even more tightly.
But when she leaned forward to peer around the wall, Crown Castle was gone.
Only a ruin remained. One wall stood tall, but the rest had been toppled, almost certainly by one of the giants. Evie stared in disbelief at the pile of stone that had once felt so imposing. Then she ducked back into the shadows.
“It’s gone.”
“What do you mean it’s gone?” came Falada’s voice from the shadows.
“Crown Castle. It’s gone. We need a new plan.” As Christa and several of the others looked for themselves, what Evie had just seen began to sink in. Crown Castle was where she’d first met Countess Hardcastle. It was where she’d learned who the Vertreiben were. And now it was just a heap of broken stone.
“What do we do now?” said Christa.
