Chapter Forty-Four
Vil
We hit the ground, and the second Vanessa slid free, I joined her in human form to storm the halls of the Iron Fortress.
“Where will we find him?” she asked, following carefully behind us.
“That coward?” Cruce chuckled. “Easy.”
“Coward?” Vanessa didn’t understand.
“Yes,” I growled. “He’s down here, hiding, waiting for his lackeys to try to stop us instead of taking to the sky and fighting himself. Too worried he might get hurt or die. That’s why we’re hunting him. He won’t show his face, so we have to go after him to end this.”
“He probably knows he’s about to see it all come crumbling down,” she said with unusual disdain.
“Maybe,” I cautioned. “But Adamantine is no slouch in combat when he chooses to fight. We should be wary about rushing in there and confronting him. I doubt he’s alone.”
“Bodyguards,” Cruce grunted in agreement. “But how many?”
“Two, maybe more,” I said, thinking. “We also didn’t see Nik up there at all, did you?”
Cruce thought about it as we moved through the empty halls, the entire fortress eerily quiet. Most of the noncombatants would be in their rooms, taking shelter until it was over, leaving the hallways to echo with any footsteps we didn’t take care to muffle.
“No, I don’t remember seeing him,” he said at last. “Nik always was a huge suck-up, so he’s probably hoping that by sticking around, he’s in line to be promoted to senior councilman.”
“Or, if worse comes to worst, he can stab Adamantine in the back and claim he was staying loyal the whole time.”
I turned to stare at Vanessa. I’d considered the same thing, but I hadn’t expected her to think that way.
“What?” she said. “I like spy movies, okay?”
I just shook my head and led us deeper into the fortress, toward the chamber that the Nine usually occupied. That was where I figured we would find Adamantine.
The door was closed, and nobody was outside. That felt odd, and a glance at Cruce confirmed it.
“Stay back,” I told Vanessa, pushing her around the nearest corner. She didn’t fight, but she did peek around, watching nervously as Cruce and I tiptoed our way toward the door, ears at full alert for even the slightest of sounds.
We reached the door with nothing happening. I flashed three fingers at Cruce. Then two.
One.
We slammed into the door, ripping it free of the frame and using it as a battering ram as we entered the room. We’d become pure steel, with skin a bright silver and swords gathered in our hands.
Two dragons roared and jumped at us from behind, where they’d been waiting above the door on the raised circle that ran around the room. We spun outward, and blades clanged together over and over again so fast the noise sounded like one solid note.
Their surprise attack countered, the two dragons slowly began to give ground. Cruce used his swiftness and perfect technique to foil everything his opponent did, while I used a mix of strength and skill to bring my fight to a standstill.
“You can still surrender,” I snarled as our blades smashed together and we vied for supremacy of strength. “You can find amnesty. All you’ve done wrong is support Adamantine. You can be forgiven.”
“Adamantine is far better to us than you could ever be,” the dragon growled back. “He actually cares.”
I rolled my eyes. “Right. That’s why he’s hiding down here instead of leading the fortress's defense from the front. Because he cares soooo much about you, he’s willing to let many of you die while he does nothing but pretend as if he’s just like you.”
The dragon hesitated as he pondered my words, and at that moment, I drove my head through the crossed blades and into his face.
He reeled from the blow, and I spun, kicking out hard with my right foot.
The blow took him in the chest and sent him hurtling across the steel floor until he hit the wall, his head denting the steel wall panel.
A snarl revealed the presence of Adamantine just as he jumped down from where he’d been hiding behind one of the raised chairs and slammed a fist into my outstretched leg right below the knee.
I bellowed in pain as something buckled, hopping on one leg to try to steady myself while my blade came up in a guard.
Adamantine advanced, but he didn’t favor a sword.
Instead, a three-foot-long double-sided hammer gathered in his right hand.
He twirled it once, the pure steel weapon swinging easily.
Then he smashed my sword aside and lunged, body-checking me.
I tumbled to the ground, my leg still numb below the knee.
Adamantine came in and swung his hammer down, intending to smash my knee to pieces, but I rolled out of the way as fast as I could, letting the thick hammer sink deep into the steel floor, leaving a six-inch indent in it.
“I thought we’d find you here,” I said, getting to my feet, hobbling backward, trying to buy myself time. “Cowering from the fight. Too afraid to risk your neck unless you had no chance. Some prince you would be.”
“Save your words, fool,” the head of the Nine spat, coming toward me.
Gritting my teeth, I summoned a second sword while putting as much weight on my hurt leg as I dared.
Adamantine struck hard and fast, using the flats of the hammer, the sides, the haft, and even once driving the butt of it up through my guard, blasting my arms apart before poking me hard enough in the chest to dent my steel armor.
I returned the favor, carving up his skin and peeling silver strips of steel from his body in several places, but neither of us could gain an advantage. We circled slowly, watching each other warily.
Cruce stood off to one side, his opponent also subdued.
He was ready and waiting for me to ask him to intervene, to join the fight, but I didn’t.
I wanted no claims down the line that I had cheated by having someone help me against Adamantine.
If I were to become the prince, I would do it on my own.
My way. I would prove to everyone that I was superior.
Which meant it was time to show them why royal blood mattered. Why I could be more of a prince, and thus a protector, than they ever could.
“I’m done messing around with you,” I growled. “You sit here in this room that you’ve taken for yourself without any idea where you sit, of the defilement your cowardice makes of this place.”
Adamantine frowned at me, confused. “What are you talking about, whelp?”
The runes etched into my swords glowed brighter as I infused them with more power, more energy. They burned a bright yellow-orange color as I whirled the blades around and sunk them to their hilt into the floor.
“What is this?” Adamantine snapped. “Pick them up. I won’t be accused of killing you while you’re unarmed.”
I grinned at him. “You have absolutely no idea what it means to be prince of the Iron Clan,” I told him.
The room, perpetually dim, began to brighten. Adamantine frowned, then looked up. On the ceiling above us, the intricately carved designs that had sat idle began to glow and writhe.
“What are you doing?” the head of the Nine asked, growing nervous. “Stop it. Now.”
“No,” I snarled and called the room to me.
Silver snaked down in lines from the ceiling as I thrust my hands toward it. Thick ropes swirled down to wrap around my fingers and hands, coating it, while from the floor, more tendrils wormed up my legs.
Adamantine backed away, his eyes growing wide with terror.
“A prince should always strive for peace,” I rumbled, my voice growing deeper as the power of the room infused me. “But when it isn’t granted, he should always be prepared for war. To save his people from harm, he shall put himself in harm's way.”
The ceiling above me was parting and revealing a long narrow hole that rose high into the distance as the last of the silvery steel slithered down and around me.
It coated me as fresh armor, swelling me in size until I was as tall as two, then three, then five men.
My limbs were thicker than tree trunks. The wings that sprouted from my back were incredibly strong and powerful, huge enough that I could just barely spread them out as wide as possible in the entire room.
“Impossible,” Adamantine said.
“No,” I growled, thrusting a hand forward. “Just impossible for you.”
Liquid steel struck him, pinning him to the wall by the wrists, ankles, waist, and neck, sinking itself five feet deep into the rock walls that had been revealed. There was no escaping for him, not now.
Then, with a roar, I launched myself upward. I blew through the protective hatch at the top of the high ceiling and out into the open sky.
Dragons scattered and swooped.
“It is over!” I bellowed, my roar vibrating the very air as I hovered on wings larger than even my dragon. “Lay down your arms and pledge allegiance to your true prince.”
A pair of dragons, one of them Nik, who I hadn’t spied before, swooped on me with fierce cries.
With a contemptuous sneer, I brought my hands together as fast as I could. The sonic blast shattered bones and blew apart the thin membranes of their wings, dropping both dragons from the sky.
“Anyone else?” I snorted derisively.
Silence reigned.
“I thought not.”