Chapter 6 #3
He nodded and clapped me on the back. “It'll be an honor to fight at your side.”
Gods. Only then did the magnitude of this battle sink in. If this went the wrong way, Sherbrooke and Somerset both stood to lose their heirs. This battle would change The Six Realms of Zanaria forever. The future of the Realms was at stake.
I quickly looked at Prince Tristan. “Where are the princess and Inez?”
He huffed out, “They have a plan.”
“A good one?”
He barked out a laugh. “A foolish one, but if we're to die today, it didn't seem like my last moments with Serena should be an argument.”
“You're not dying,” I said, not sure if I even believed it myself.
“I'll do my best.”
“You have to do better than that. Somerset deserves a king like you who's brave enough to fight for what's right and to stand with your people.” I realized what had to happen as I was saying it.
“If things get bad here, you have to promise you'll take the princess and run back to Altea’s barrier as quickly as you can.
Whatever these winged nightmares are, I doubt they'll survive long without magic.”
He narrowed his eyes. “I'm not abandoning these people.”
“And I'm not agreeing to let the futures of two of the realms die in a single battle. I'm not robbing two realms of their hope.”
“Then you'd better fight hard,” he said. “If this is a sinking ship, I'm going down with it.”
In just a moment, the winged beasts would be upon us. “Shields!” I called. “Ready yourselves! Let's find out if they bleed black.”
Any response was stifled by the slamming of bodies against our shields.
Unlike the barrier, these shields were solid and meant to keep things out.
The shields held for a solid minute, but then a few of the company started to sag under the weight.
We didn't have long. “When the shields come down, be ready.”
More bodies crashed against the shields.
Mangled, charred faces with bulging eyes peered in at us with gaping mouths.
The more I looked, the more horrifying they were.
I knew I needed to pull myself together, though.
If I didn't, the company was going to fall apart, and if they fell apart, we would die.
The only option was to stay calm, which was easier said than done.
A crack appeared in the shield, and it was spreading quickly. “Ready your weapons!”
The shield had only been the first step, I tried to reassure myself. We knew the shield wouldn't hold forever, but seeing it crack was no less frightening.
The shield fell, and for a split second, nothing happened. The creatures still hovered above where the shield had been. Then a couple dove, testing our defenses. Simultaneously, their wings were struck, and a loud roar came bellowing from above that sent fear racing down my spine.
“DUCK!” Inez yelled out.
“Hit the ground!” I repeated, not understanding, but trusting the order.
The rest of the company followed suit. Tristan stayed up looking around, I assumed for Serena, but I pulled him down, just in time, since a blast of heat came rolling over us.
I looked up and couldn't make sense of what I was seeing.
Many of the beasts were fleeing. Behind them, a massive, purple and black-scaled beast with wings the size of a small tower, its mouth streaming fire, loomed.
A dragon! There was a gods-damned dragon here!
I had a moment of panic before remembering our intel that Sherbrooke's curse had come with a dragon. The rumor was that the gods had sent it to watch over the slumbering Queendom.
Of course, the dragon didn't like an attack happening in the Queendom. The dragon let loose a few more streams of fire before the creatures started to turn on it, and even more descended on us, throwing us into madness.
Chaos reigned, but I got to work with my short swords, slicing my way through the mayhem.
The roars of the dragon told me its battle was going just about as well as ours.
I hoped with everything in me that everyone made it out safely.
There wasn't much we couldn't mend back at the capital, but here, as far away from the city as we were, I wasn't so sure.
I felt claws slice through my leather armor and scrape down my back. I cried out, but before I could swing around, the creature was thrown from me. Prince Tristan swung into place behind me, his back to mine. “I've got you,” he said.
“We've got this.” I hoped it was true.
“Absolutely. We've got a day to save.”
My grin lasted only a moment before a splatter of blood landed on my face. I noticed for the first time that I was right. Their blood was an inky black. I had been too busy slicing them open to notice much more than the rancid smell of their blood, like rotting fish.
Now I was noticing how thin their skin was. Almost parchment-thin, they were blessedly easy to cut open. Unfortunately, there were so many of them that it was hard to get the upper hand.
“What do you say we go find our girls?” Tristan asked, pivoting us closer to the center.
I didn't have time to examine why Tristan thought Astra was my girl, I just wanted to find her. I wasn't going to die tonight, and so help me gods, neither was she. If she did, I would find a way to raise her from the dead to give her a piece of my mind.
I hadn’t heard the dragon in a while, and I hoped it was okay. Our attackers were thinning out, and it was starting to look like we might actually come out of this okay.
We were almost to the middle of the fray when we heard a bloodcurdling scream.
I looked around frantically for Astra and spotted her across the fray, blood splattered but otherwise fine. Thank the gods she was alright. Then I saw it was Inez screaming before she took off in a sprint toward us.
No, not us.
She was sprinting toward Serena, who was falling from the sky and plummeting to the ground fast. She wasn’t going to make it in time.
We were closer but I didn’t think I could make it in time either.
Before I could move, Tristan sprinted into action.
Moving faster than anyone should be able to, he sprang up just in time to catch her.
The fall likely would have killed her, since she didn't so much as stir in his arms. The beasts must have picked her up, only to drop her.
If they were trying to take prisoners, the royals were even less safe than I thought.
“Go!” I yelled to Tristan. He looked back at me, panic in his eyes. “Go!” I yelled again, but instead of running for the barrier, he ran toward Inez, who was still a ways away on the battlefield but coming in fast.
I felt a searing pain in my back and realized my mistake too late. It was a rookie mistake. Never take your eyes off the enemy. Yes, the battle appeared to be winding down, but it wasn't over.
I swung around to face my attacker, swords at the ready, and felt claws at my back at the same time as claws raked down my front. My leather armor was just barely holding on. It wasn't meant for so much up-close combat.
I felt blood seeping out of my wounds and was starting to feel lightheaded.
I stabbed and slashed, but the creatures were getting smarter, dodging and weaving my blows.
One got hold of one of my swords. I grabbed a dagger to replace it, but I was in trouble.
More claws raked against my back, and I screamed.
The pain was searing, and I staggered forward into more waiting claws.
I screamed again, not able to keep hold of my weapons.
I tried to reach for my other still sheathed dagger, but I didn't have the strength.
My legs gave out, and I collapsed to my knees. I was going to the gods. I could only hope no one else followed.
A piercing scream sounded, making my ears ring. The creatures held their ears. My head was swimming, but the thought that they had the right idea pushed through. I tried to move my arms up, but fell over onto my side.
As I lay there, waiting for death to claim me, I saw the creatures yanked away by what looked like a large translucent purple string and flung into the distance.
I looked around and saw it was happening all over the field.
I watched them thrown into the horizon before my last blink turned the world black.