Chapter 58
SAPHIRA
The walk across the battlefield felt like an eternity, my legs threatening to give out beneath me with each step I took through the soldiers who paused to look at us and move aside, clearing our path.
Kaeleron loomed beside me, his constant vigil giving me the confidence to keep moving forwards without faltering.
He would catch me if I fell, I knew it in my heart, in my soul, but I wouldn’t collapse. Not like I wanted to. Not yet.
Not until we were home and it was finally over.
Every soldier in our path glanced between us when they noticed us, most of their eyes moving in the same order. Kaeleron. Then me.
Then the mangled head gripped in my claws.
Kaeleron had insisted I be the one to carry the trophy through the battlefield, showing everyone who had been the one to cause that brilliant display of lightning that had claimed Lorien’s life.
I did my best not to think about the weight dangling from my hand, didn’t have the stomach to look at it. The only reason I was doing this was because he was right, and the soldiers needed to see who had been the victor.
They needed to know I had won this battle. For the unseelie. For the Shadow Court. But also to free the Summer Court from an heir who would have become a tyrant king.
The seelie who set eyes on us laid down their arms, many of them bowing their heads and murmuring my name.
The unseelie who set eyes on us pressed their hands to their chests, lowering their heads and whispering my name.
Proving again that they weren’t as different as they wanted to believe they were.
Word began to spread, whispers of my name and that I had ended the battle, that I had saved the Shadow Court.
This was what Kaeleron had wanted. It dawned on me now and I glanced at him, studying his noble profile as he kept his head held high, his expression stern and commanding.
He had wanted his court to acknowledge me in this way, to see me as the saviour and that I had fought valiantly to protect it, to defend it, and had even killed my own half-brother in its name.
Any who might have stood against me because of my blood would have a hard time doing so now without retribution from others within the court.
We had reached the centre of the carnage by the time the whole battlefield had fallen still, the feeling of over a thousand pairs of eyes on me unsettling me.
As Kaeleron had told me, I raised the grotesque trophy I gripped high into the air for all to see.
“Lorien of the Summer Court is dead, slain by my hand. Surrender your arms. This is an order from your heir presumptive,” I hollered.
The clattering of swords being cast aside rang in my ears.
“All Summer Court forces shall return there with me, under the escort of King Kaeleron the Wrathful of the Shadow Court and a contingent of his men who will assist us by teleporting us to the Black Pass. We travel from there to Evergreen Castle.” I wanted to cast the head aside, but Kaeleron subtly shifted his head, shaking it just once.
Great.
I got to hang on to it for a little longer. Bully.
“Those among you who are not injured, teleport a seelie to the Black Pass near Rhyn’s Gate,” Kaeleron called as the soldiers became restless, his deep voice booming over the battlefield to bring his men back into line.
“Enough blood has been spilled this day. Any among you who use this as an opportunity to harm one of the Summer Court shall answer to me. Do I make myself clear?”
A raucous barked sort of sound answered that question, deafening in volume, and the men began to move in a wave of black smoke that swept outwards across the carnage.
Revealing just how many had lost their lives today.
I looked at all the fallen, not distinguishing between the seelie and unseelie. So many males, and females, had gone to meet their ancestors. So many families left without their loved ones.
Tears pricked my eyes.
A soft rain began to fall and I tilted my head back, letting it wash over my face as Jenavyr, Malachi and Neve joined us.
I reached for that connection again, savouring it as it unfurled within me, and I sank into it, into the scent of the earth and the flow of the magic. My right hand warmed and I lifted it to my chest, curling it into a fist close to my heart.
“What is she doing?” Vyr whispered.
“Giving back what she was given,” Kael murmured, his voice soft and holding a note of awe and something else. Something that left me feeling his words were not his own, but rather an echo of something someone had said to him.
Because it was exactly what I was doing.
I let the connection fade as I made a silent promise, a vow that I would bring peace to at least two courts in this beautiful land, uniting two kingdoms so there would be some among her children who would no longer bring her pain.
Starting right now.
I opened my eyes, settling them on Kaeleron where he loomed beside me, my watchful shadow.
“We should go,” I said.
He nodded.
“Go?” Vyr looked from me to her brother.
“The battle is not really done yet. We have another fight to win, and then we shall return to Falkyr to celebrate and remember the fallen.” He placed a gauntleted hand on her shoulder.
“While I am absent, you are in command. Oversee the aftermath here until I return, and offer healing to any seelie who have been left behind.”
She dipped her head and pressed her hand to her chest. “As you wish.”
He took my arm but then looked at Neve where she towered behind Malachi in her dragon form, her amber eyes roving over the dead.
“Return to the castle. You are not safe out here, and I have someone who wishes to meet with you. I believe this reintroduction would be best done in your home, beyond the gaze of a certain dragon.”
She made a low chuffing-chuckling noise that vibrated in her throat and then kicked off, beating her enormous leathery golden wings to batter us with wind before she twisted and soared over the battlefield in the direction of Falkyr.
I wanted to go there too, but there was somewhere else I needed to be first.
I slipped my hand into Kaeleron’s, locking them tightly, and nodded when he looked at me.
Darkness flecked with starlight swirled around me and when it receded, we stood on dark earth spotted with snow, a great wall looming over us.
Most of the seelie had already moved on, teleporting away from the Shadow Court soldiers. I waited while Kaeleron ordered his men back to the Shadow Court, and then teleported him as far as I could into the Summer Court.
We landed among the Summer Court soldiers near the outskirts of Evergreen Castle.
I looked at Kaeleron. “Welcome to Evergreen Castle, King Kaeleron the Wrathful.”
He smirked at me. “I might have already been here once or twice before, but your invitation to come to your court is most gracious.”
Because it meant he wasn’t breaking the accord.
I led him towards the castle, the soldiers falling in behind me to make us appear like a procession, which I supposed we were.
Kaeleron walked beside me, a vision in his black leather armour that matched my own.
Word spread through the lower city as we marched through it, and soon the avenues were crowded with citizens come to see what was happening for themselves.
“Is it an invasion?” A young female in a drab brown dress turned to her older companion.
I stopped instantly and turned to them, keeping my voice soft and tone warm as I said, “No. King Kaeleron of the Shadow Court comes as our ally.”
I looked around, and spotted what I needed near the end of the avenue, close to the gate to the highborn district. I clambered onto the sturdy wooden crate so I was elevated above the crowd, and held up my free hand.
“You know me. I am Saphira, heir presumptive of the Summer Court. Please, come into the castle. I will address you all there. And if any of you are healers, we have injured needing your assistance.”
A murmur ran through the crowd, several people mentioning my name while others nodded in agreement with me.
Kaeleron held his hand up to me, causing another rush of murmured remarks, and some gasps, and I didn’t hesitate to slip mine into it and accept his offer to help me down.
We walked together into the castle grounds, our entourage expanding to include what felt like most of the lower city when I glanced back at it.
The highborn joined them as we moved past their houses and through the garden, and by the time we reached the castle proper, I was beginning to feel nervous.
I had never spoken to so many people and I really wasn’t sure how they were going to react.
I stepped through the main gate.
And found a huge silver dragon blocking my path.
Arianell lay curled like a huge silver croissant, her great head resting on her front paws and wings sleek against the curve of her body.
Her barbed tail twitched as several of the soldiers that formed a large group in the courtyard dared to approach her, none of them looking as if they knew what to do when she didn’t react to them poking at her with their swords.
I stepped around her, gaining their attention, and they were swift to back away from her. When I charted her position against the castle, I realised something.
She was blocking the entrance to the dungeon.
She was protecting Meiryn.
I boldly approached her and stroked my hand along her thick tail, and this time she did react. She opened her pale blue eyes and her elliptical pupils narrowed on me, and then Kaeleron, and then the cargo I carried.
I had almost forgotten about it.
I grimaced as I looked at it and then her. “It’s over. She’s safe now. Thank you.”
Arianell chuffed and then shifted back, her tattered grey dress appearing to cover her as soon as she was back in her human form. She dipped her head. “You are most welcome, little wolf, and now you owe me a debt.”
I smiled and opened my mouth.