53. Keldarion
53
Keldarion
A fire beyond any I have ever known fuels my body. And this is one time I am grateful for the wildness of my beast. Rosalina’s blood stains this ice.
So every single one of these despicable monsters will die.
“Get down,” I growl.
Rosalina obeys, and I stand over her, surveying the surrounding goblins. Something wild has affected them, and they’re not backing down. Why have you sent so many? For her or for me? Another one of your vicious schemes?
A cluster of goblins raise their swords and charge. I swipe them, claws shredding their flesh. Guts paint the ice black. Whirling, I snatch another two, feeling bones break beneath my powerful teeth.
“Look out!” Rosalina cries.
Pain stings my front leg as a goblin slashes with his thorn. I swipe it away and bite the last few surrounding us. Still more goblins pour in from the edge of the river.
“To the forest,” I growl.
Rosalina nods, then pushes herself up from beneath me. She runs, but I notice her awkward gait. The gash on her leg sends another flurry of anger coursing through me. I don’t dare pick her up. If the goblins catch us, I will need to fight them. And I don’t want her near for that.
The forest on the far side of the river draws close as we make it halfway.
“Wait!” Rosalina clutches my fur. “It’s too thin!”
Below us, the ice spiderwebs.
“I’m too heavy,” I say.
She looks around desperately, searching for another way.
“I’ll hold them off,” I say. “The ice is thick enough for you.”
Rosalina looks up at me with glassy eyes. “What?”
“Go,” I say again. And I hope she knows exactly what I mean by it. Go to the forest. Go to the rosebush. Go home.
Without waiting for another word, I run back toward the goblins. A wild elation fills me, and I let the beast consume my mind until I know nothing but the taste of rotten blood, the sound of snapping bones and horrified cries, the putrid smell of decay.
Minutes drift by, or perhaps hours; I no longer comprehend time.
Thorns dig into my flesh and their claws rip my fur. Every bite of pain is nothing more than I deserve. To have sent her away in the manner I did… My body should lay broken in repentance.
And maybe it will.
Another set of goblins crawl onto my back, and I no longer have the strength to push them off.
“Do not back down now!” one of them cries. “He is weakening! We will take him to our prince. A most mighty gift!”
A wild roar fills my throat and I thrash. Death would be sweeter than returning to the Below. A claw digs into my forearm, then a rope.
But that’s a choice these monsters won’t give me.
It doesn’t matter. The pain fuels my fury at myself. My broken body will be trivial reparation for such an unforgivable sin.
“Hey! Stinkfaces!” a voice calls.
No.
Rosalina is still here. Right where I left her, in the middle of the ice.
Why didn’t she run?
“I thought you wanted my head on a pike too?” she yells. “Unless Mother doesn’t actually care.”
The goblins chatter excitedly. “Two prizes for Below. Down they go. Down they go.”
Some move toward her. Rosalina lifts her beautiful crown off her head and plucks a long, straight thorn out. Then plunges it into the ice.
No…
She’s trying to draw them to her. Draw them to where the ice is thinnest. Where it will break under the weight.
Rosalina is trying to save me.
But doesn’t she understand? It can never be that way. No matter what she does, no matter how hard she tries, my doom is already set.
And there is one last thing I can do for her.
I draw myself up on my hind legs, and with a mighty blow, crash down onto the ice. It cracks and splinters. And I hear the furious roar of the river still rushing underneath, great chunks of ice rising around us.
Goblins cry out in panicked fear as they try to run from the collapsing ice, but they can’t escape. Their scrambling bodies fall and are swept beneath the surging river.
The last I hear before the icy water takes me are Rosalina’s desperate screams.
Cold engulfs me. Cold even a beast of Winter will not survive. And I wonder if I will sink all the way to the Below.