Silverbrook

by J C Maynard

  Calleneck looked up with tears in his eyes at the muffled sound of his name. Borius and Selenora’s fire was colliding together in a blinding ball of yellow and crimson fire. Borius grimaced, trying to hold her off. He looked at Calleneck and called his name again, throwing Calleneck back into reality.

  “Calleneck!” called Borius, who strained to hold his footing as Selenora forced her full Taurimous on him. “Calleneck!” said Borius again, shaking from the force of the spell. “Remember what I told you Calleneck!” Borius yelled from the pain.

  Calleneck finished Borius’s words in his mind. . . . push to the end for everyone who can’t.

  Borius yelled out, and in an explosion of yellow light, Borius fell to the ground, covered in blood. Calleneck looked back to the Ferrs; he was the only thing between them and Selenora. Directly in front of the army, Fillian and Raelynn stood with their swords drawn and a glistening beast behind them. Their eyes were hopeless, filled with fear of the death that was approaching. Standing on the burning battlefield, Selenora focused a stream of fire towards Calleneck.

  Summoning all the strength left in his mortal body, Calleneck spun around and blasted against it with an iridescent shield of light. Through it, he could see Selenora stepping closer, pressing the fire harder. Calleneck strengthened his shield and widened it as the masked sorcerers began to send fireballs towards the Prince and Raelynn. His feet began to slip on the blackened earth. Screaming in pain, he pushed back harder as the army of the dead marched forward.

  Feeling his Taurimous begin to fail, he turned back to Fillian and Raelynn with a tear in his eye. “Run! Damn it, run!” he said. The force of the blasts overtook him, and the shield began to crack. Memories coursed through his head of the people who had given their lives to save him — from Benja to Aunika, they had made their sacrifice. Calleneck looked to Fillian and Raelynn who remained unmoved. Another tear fell down his face. “I’m sorry . . .”

  Like breaking glass, the shield behind him shattered, and crimson fire enveloped his body. Immense pain took over his body until he felt the cold snow on his chest and the world around him went silent and still.

  ◆◆◆

  Raelynn and Fillian stared at Calleneck’s still body in the snow. Fillian looked around at his army in vain. Selenora and her army of the dead pushed forward, sending fireballs into their ranks. Horses and men flew twenty feet in the air before landing with sickening sounds on pikes. Men writhed and screamed on the ground to rid themselves of the flames that scorched their skin, trying to unclasp their molten hot armor from their bodies.

  A crimson fireball soared toward Fillian, who pulled the reins of his horse, rearing it up on its hind legs. The fireball hit the stallion and knocked Fillian to the ground. He gasped for air and stayed still on the ground; he felt hope drain from his body like blood from a wound, hollowing him out. But a hand reached down and pulled him up on his feet.

  Raelynn looked him in the eye. “I’m going to die standing on two feet . . . and so are you.”

  Fillian swallowed and nodded, unsheathing his sword. The ground in front of them exploded upward in a shower of rock like a cresting wave. Raelynn’s heart beat quickly as the end neared.

  Selenora raised her hands, and a torrent of crimson fire the breadth of the battlefield came soaring toward them. Raelynn held tightly to the sword, ready for the wave to hit, ready to die. The whistling air pounded against their eardrums as it blasted toward them, shaking the ground.

  I’m ready, thought Raelynn, and she closed her eyes.

  And at that moment, the wave of fire vanished in a flash of white light, replaced by a soft gust of cold, whispering air. From the dark sky behind them, the booming roar of a lion thundered through the valley. Raelynn barely looked up before a blinding flash of white fire struck down from the night sky. A bombardment of building-sized, pure white fireballs slammed into Selenora and her followers, sending boulders of earth flying out across the battlefield. A ripple of white light split through the ground like a shockwave, sending the ghostly masked sorcerers in front of them to their knees. In a flash like lightning, the mighty winged lion Fernox landed on the ground in front of them with a torrent of air from the flap of his wings. On his back, glowing in white fire, sat Silverbrook.

  The End of Winter

  Chapter Forty Seven

  Silverbrook stepped off Fernox and onto the scorched earth of the battlefield. With white flames circling her hands, she inched toward Selenora, whose ghostly arms pulled herself off the burning ground.

  Raelynn’s heart nearly stopped as she gazed forward at Silverbrook. Somehow a magic flowed into her mind that confirmed the feeling of family, filling the void of the loss of her father. And Raelynn knew that, for the first time, she was looking directly at her mother.

  Fernox roared behind Silverbrook as she produced a massive wall of light between Selenora’s sorcerers and the Ferramish army that stretched hundreds of feet tall. Silverbrook turned back as the undead sorcerers began to fire at the barrier. “Raelynn!” she said, looking back at her grown daughter. “Raelynn, there’s no time . . . take Fernox and Fillian — go get Kyan in the fortress . . . then kill Xandria.”

  Raelynn stared her mother in the eyes, eyes just like her own. She found herself unable to speak, unable to express what she was thinking — her mother seemed to know everything.

  An endless firestorm of Taurimous smashed into Silverbrook’s barrier of light from the opposite side, threatening to shatter it. Silverbrook strained to hold it up. “Raelynn! Go, now! Take him with you.” she said as she pointed to the enormous winged beast behind them that glistened like ice — the last one left.

  Fernox roared and pounced toward Raelynn and the Prince. The giant shimmering beast sent out a rumble and crouched down. Fillian climbed atop Fernox and addressed his Generals, “Take the army in two flanks around this battlefield and invade the city from the sides!”

  Raelynn slowly stepped forward and grabbed onto the icicle-like scales of the beast, climbing atop its back. Raelynn’s beast flapped its enormous wings, sending out a gust of air across the battlefield. With two different roars, the ice dragon and Fernox leapt off the ground, headed around the city towards the fortress.

  With another blow from Selenora, Silverbrook’s barrier of light shattered and fell to the blackened battlefield. Selenora’s ghostly figure ignited a crimson flame in her hand and stepped closer to Silverbrook. “You think you stand a chance against us?” she said.

  Silverbrook armed herself in circling white light. She lifted her hands at the ready and looked the disfigured, darkened Selenora in the eye. “Madrick sent you halfway into the abyss . . . I can finish the rest.”

  With the force of a hurricane, jets of crimson and white light smashed into each other, releasing a thundercrack that echoed over the valley.

  ◆◆◆

  Freezing wind rushed over Raelynn as the massive ice dragon below her pounced off the ground into the night air. She desperately clung to the iridescent scales of the beast as it climbed into the night. Fifty feet below her, Fillian held onto Fernox as the winged lion followed her skyward. Raelynn looked over the side of the beast to the battlefield below and saw the giant barrier of light separating the Ferramish army and Selenora’s followers shatter. After a few seconds, massive streams of white and crimson Taurimous collided between her mother and Selenora.

  The Ferramish army split down the middle and charged around the sides of the battlefield, cavalry leading the way around the immediate battle to attack the city. The Cerebrian troops in the street sounded off shrill battle horns that pierced through the snowy night. As the Cerebrians re-formed to protect the sides of the city, Silverbrook faced the army of the dead.

  Fernox flew up beside the ice dragon as they streamlined to Xandria’s fortress — and Kyan. Fillian shouted over to Raelynn and pointed toward it, “Watch out ahead, we have incoming!”

  Raelynn looked forward and her stomach churned. The Cerebrian soldiers of the for
tress ignited their oil-soaked boulders for their trebuchets. Twenty catapults swung and rocketed giant fireballs towards them, streaming trails of smoke behind them as they flew through the night.

  Raelynn latched on to the beast’s scales as it flipped sideways, barely missing a fireball. Fernox and Fillian ducked under another that soared over them. Another volley of flaming, oil-soaked boulders flew through the night toward them. Raelynn and her ice dragon spun in the air as the heat singed her back. “Watch out!” she yelled as a fireball smashed into a stone tower that came crashing down. As the debris fell through the air, Fernox banked sideways around the falling tower.

  Fillian heard the whistle of an arrow streak past him as another clipped Fernox’s wing. The lion let out a cry and dove to the side, out of fire. A flaming ball came roaring towards them as Fernox flew behind another building that came crashing down from the impact. Below them, buildings burst into flame after being bombarded by fireballs of the trebuchet launches. War horns continued to sound off through the city as another volley of arrows from Cerebrian troops flew through the air up toward Raelynn. Ahead, the fortress ballistas shot massive iron arrows towards them.

  The ice dragon soared up into the air as arrows flew past. In the distance, the Ferramish soldiers collided with the Cerebrians in the streets on both sides of Seirnkov. Cavalry charged in droves into Cerebrian pikemen as their archers fired over the rooftops into their ranks. Screaming and clashing of metal broke out on the rim of the city as blinding explosions of white and crimson fire from Silverbrook and Selenora thundered at the mouth of the valley.

  The fortress battle horns blared and another massive volley of flaming boulders roared through the snowy air towards Raelynn and Fillian. Fernox and the ice dragon climbed high above the streets of the city as the shower of fire soared towards them. Fernox and Fillian twisted and dodged the fireballs as the volley screamed past them with smoke streaming behind them. Suddenly, a bone-shaking roar split through the air as a flaming boulder smashed into the side of Raelynn’s beast.

  The fire exploded over Raelynn and the beast as it impacted them. Raelynn’s body flew backwards as her grip on the scales slipped. Trying in vain to hold on, she slipped off as the beast began to fall from the sky. The wind and snow rushed past as Raelynn’s body tumbled through the air. Fillian and Fernox dove down vertically, plummeting through the air towards Raelynn and the beast.

  The beast’s wing caught on the wind and whipped it around, smacking Raelynn. Fernox flew around the falling beast towards Raelynn, and Fillian extended a hand, unable to reach her. The buildings below fast approached with only a few hundred feet left. As the ice dragon’s tail whipped around, Raelynn latched onto its scales, pulling herself onto its back as it opened its wings to slow the fall before it crashed into a cathedral roof, crashing it inwards.

  Raelynn reoriented herself as Cerebrian soldiers on the streets below shot arrows up at her. In a few flaps of its injured wings, the beast bounded off the crumbling cathedral and onto the next building, where the roof and rafters crumbled under its weight. We can no longer fly, thought Raelynn, but we can still get to the fortress.

  A platoon of Cerebrian troops entered into a city square below and began to fire arrows at Raelynn and the beast. As another arrow clipped its wing, the beast roared and jumped down to the streets with a giant collision. With another bellow, the beast opened its mouth and launched a snowstorm of ice at the troops, knocking them dead onto the cobblestone.

  As more soldiers funnelled through the streets, Raelynn placed her hand on the neck of her mother’s ice dragon, “To the fortress . . . Kill anyone in our path.”

  The shimmering beast below her let out an earth-shaking roar and pounced forward, shattering glass windows with its razor wings as it thundered up through the streets. Just a hundred feet above flew Fernox and Fillian, staying with Raelynn the whole way. The sounds of battle horns echoed again through the snowy night air as the Ferramish collided forces with the Cerebrians in the streets of the city. In the distance, white and crimson explosions from Silverbrook and Selenora lit up the sky like lightning.

  Crashing back onto the streets, the ice dragon let out another roar and slashed a charge of cavalry with its razor sharp tail. Ahead, a giant barricade blocked the street with archers behind it. Raelynn clung tightly to the icicle like scales of the beast as energy coursed through it and blasted out of its mouth as a hurricane of ice, exploding the barricade and the soldiers behind.

  Flapping its massive wings, the beast pounced forward with Raelynn on its back, following the outline of Fernox and Fillian toward the center of the city. Raelynn held on for her life as the beast leapt up onto a collapsing roof and jumped from building to building, crushing its way up toward the looming black fortress.

  ◆◆◆

  ~Minutes Before

  Silverbrook’s constant stream of white fire toward Selenora allowed Raelynn and Fillian to gain a safe distance over the city. As she held Selenora’s powerful spells away, the Ferramish troops escaped around and marched into the streets of Seirnkov.

  Thrown back by a crimson explosion, Silverbrook picked herself up and looked up into the sky ahead, seeing her giant ice dragon dodge a fireball from the fortress. Another jet of crimson from Selenora sent her to the charred ground.

  Selenora raised both of her hands in crimson fire as her army of undead, masked sorcerers rushed toward Silverbrook. With green and violet sparks shooting from their feet as they ran, the masked followers sent a shower of spells at Silverbrook.

  Silverbrook cast a dome of light over her as the spells hit. Extreme pain coursed through her body as she tried to stand. Her arms were soaked in blood, and beads of red dripped from her nose. But slowly, she stood, lifting her aching body off the scorched earth.

  She stepped forward through the frigid night air toward the half-form of Selenora, who stood there like a ghost, deformed, fallen from her mortal state. Raising her voice toward the sorceress across the burned battlefield, Silverbrook spoke. “You won’t win through sheer force.”

  Selenora smiled and raised her hands. “Of course not.” The earth around them seemed to be bending upward and overhead, pulled by crimson fire. The falling snowflakes froze still in mid air as Silverbrook felt gravity shifting sideways.

  Her feet slipped out from under her and she felt herself falling through the air. Silverbrook quickly sent out a burst of light to hold herself in place as the world warped around her, where the aurora-shimmering sky was now simultaneously below her and above her. Rocks and burning earth morphed and twisted around her like in a dream as Selenora tried to disorient her. In an enormous illusion, Selenora’s followers multiplied by the hundreds into a sea of crimson cloaks and terror-inspiring masks surrounding Silverbrook in all directions, above and below her.

  Through the warped air around her, Silverbrook spotted Selenora sending a volley of crimson embers her direction, and Silverbrook vanished them in a wisp of white light. I can’t kill her followers, but I need to fight Selenora one on one. With blood-soaked hands, Silverbrook cast a spell with an enormous burst of light into the air that only Selenora could block with her Taurimous, and instantly, the warped earth around them returned to the same scorched battlefield.

  Selenora stared in shock around her — floating in the air, frozen in time by Silverbrook’s spell, unable to move, were hundreds of masked sorcerers. Suspended in the air, their bodies were stuck in one instant in time.

  Silverbrook wiped a drop of blood from her nose. “Now it’s just you and me.”

  ◆◆◆

  Kyan’s eyes shot open as a thundercrack rumbled in the distance. He looked around his chamber in a panic after feeling the pain of death from Calleneck and tried to control his sporadic breathing. His heart beat like he was sprinting as he gasped for air. The memories flashed through his head of the crimson fire overtaking his body as Calleneck. Seeing Borius and Aunika lying lifeless on the battlefield. The frightened faces of Raelynn and Fillian sca
rred his mind. They’re all dead . . . Selenora must have won by now.

  In the distance, a low rumble shook the walls, and dust came showering down from the ceiling. Cerebrian guards rushed through the fortress hallways toward the commotion. Another thundercrack rocked the walls; a few stones from the ceiling came falling to the floor.

  Kyan began to shake in his bonds. This is it . . . Selenora’s coming for everyone. She’s broken into the fortress. Kyan’s mind raced as the explosions and yelling grew louder. This is my last body . . . this is the end.

  Kyan clenched his teeth and closed his eyes as a deafening crash collapsed the wall of his prison cell. Kyan balled his fists and prepared for death. But he froze when he heard a familiar roar — the roar of Fernox.

  Kyan opened his eyes and saw an enormous ice dragon shaking bricks and stone off its back, as Raelynn and Fillian ran toward him. Fernox spread his wings behind them and pounced on a Cerebrian guard, tearing him to shreds.

  Kyan stared in shock. “Wh- how did you- I thought you were both dead.”

  Raelynn unsheathed a dagger and sawed through Kyan’s bonds. “We thought you might be too.”

  Fillian helped pull off Kyan’s ropes. “Fernox brought Raelynn’s mother to Seirnkov.”

  “Selenora and her followers are back, but she’s holding them off.”

  At a loss for words, Kyan stood up and hugged Raelynn and Fillian. Fernox growled and pounced toward them.

  Raelynn put away her dagger and unsheathed her sword — Eston’s sword. “We need to get to Xandria while we can. The Ferrs are fighting with the Cerebrians in the streets; my mother and Ferramoor are buying us time.”

  Barely having time to digest Raelynn’s words, Kyan nodded. “Let’s go.”