Chapter 81 Ezryn
Ezryn
Rosalina races after Caspian and Kel, and I shift my concentration to the situation before me. I told Rosalina I’d break Dayton and Farron out of this curse, so I will. Whatever it takes.
Stepping back, the blood thundering in my ears drowning out all other sound, I try to make sense of it all. Farron and Dayton would never turn against me. Not of their free will.
But their free will is gone, and in its place, my friends’ bodies are held hostage by the Green Flame. They fan out slowly, eyes flickering with unholy light. A green silhouette glows behind each of their forms as magic pools in their palms.
I look between them. “Dayton, Farron, listen to me. This is not who you are. You must gain control over yourselves.”
“Kill the metal one,” Farron says.
“Kill the metal one,” Dayton agrees.
Instinctively, my hand reaches to the token, but I don’t summon the hammer. “I won’t hurt you.”
A sneer appears on Farron’s lips, one unfamiliar to his face but not unfamiliar to me. I’ve seen Caspian level me with such a look. “Weak. Shall we boil him in his suit or impale him with his own pauldrons?”
“Let’s strip him of his armor, then of his skin,” Dayton growls.
The war hammer materializes in my hand. I give it a few test swings. “Alright. Maybe I’ll hurt you a little.”
My mind whirs, taking in everything I know about the threat and what I have to use against them. The throne room is already a battlefield of huge briars cracking through the stone, slick, ice-covered ground, and shattered pillars. I can use those for cover at least.
There’s movement atop the dais. My brother, his wrists still chained, struggles to stand. He’s come to! Kairyn shakes his head before his eyes begin to search the throne room. For what?
Wrenley. Where is she? She must have woken up before him. I catch sight of her behind the throne. Her arms are wrapped around her knees, her eyes wide and unseeing, and she rocks back and forth as if in a stupor.
“Wrenley! Get out of here!” Kairyn screams. “Run!”
The sound of her name seems to shock her to attention. She turns and stares at Kairyn, a look of horror on her face.
“Run! Go, Wrenley, run!” he roars.
She blinks, then looks around as if seeing things for the first time. Her chest heaves and her hands shake. A trembling thatch of prismatic briars breaks through the stone and seizes her.
“Go, Wrenley,” he whispers. “Save yourself.”
She casts one look back at him before the prismatic briars swallow her into the earth.
No time for distractions. I need to knock these two out before Farron has a chance to turn me into kindling like he did Quellos. Surging first at Dayton, I feint to strike Farron.
Farron dodges my blows as easily as if I were moving in slow motion. He laughs as he ducks under each swing. “You’ll have to do better than that, Tin Man.”
I change tactics, leaping and rolling in a clatter of metal across the icy ground before coming up at Dayton’s side. He backflips away from me before twin knives crafted entirely of green flame form in his hands. He smiles, holding up the knives as if for me to admire, then strolls toward me.
My grip tightens on the hammer, and I fall into a defensive posture. Dayton is dangerous. I’ve seen him in the arena, always thinking twice as fast as his opponent. I’ve lost my fair share of spars to him, Green Flame or no.
He runs at me with blinding speed. It’s all I can do to fend off his strikes, blocking hit after hit with the hammer.
Dayton does a devastating thrust, coming at me with his knives in an X. Two hands on the hammer, I bring it up to block. But he’s too damn strong, energy radiating from every pore. “Th-think of your sister,” I groan.
“I already am,” he replies, voice without any strain. “Thinking about how I’ll come for her next. There will be one ruler and one ruler only. Caspian of the Green Flame!”
A cold sweat breaks across my forehead and runs into my eyes. Is there any part of Dayton left?
I feel a presence at my back and know Farron is closing in to flank me.
“No more playing,” Farron growls. “We burn him. Now.”
Dayton steps away, freeing me for a single moment. But I’m stuck still, watching as Dayton’s hands, arms, and shoulders illuminate with flickering emerald flames. His knives are enveloped by the blaze. Heat scorches my skin, and I know Farron is gathering his flames too.
“Kill the metal one,” they say in unison and release their power.
A force slams into my side, knocking me to the ground and rolling me away from Dayton and Farron. The fire rages over me, its residual heat still hot enough to scorch.
Flat on my back, head buzzing from the crash, I look up to see my brother crouched over me. The tops of his horns are blackened from catching the blaze.
“Come on,” he snarls, snatching my arm and yanking me up with his chained wrists. He shoves me in front of him. “Those pillars.”
Without any other ideas, I listen to him, sprinting across the throne room and then leaping into a pile of rubble. Kairyn follows me, and we crawl behind a collection of smashed pillars.
I lean against one, taking the moment to catch my breath. “You saved me.”
Kairyn rests beside me, head tilted back, staring up at the ceiling. “You need help.”
I stare at his chained wrists. The hands that pointed so condemningly at me. The ones that carved the tips from my ears. The ones that held this hammer to my chest, crushing me beneath his weight.
I pull our mother’s sword out of its scabbard. “Don’t make me regret this.”
Kairyn holds out his wrists, and with a single swing, I cut through the chains. Then I hold the hilt out to him.
“It’s a good sword.”
“I know,” he says. “It’s had good wielders.”
Throwing a look over the pillar, I spy Dayton and Farron stalking forward, their burning green eyes searching the rubble for us.
There’s nothing else to do. I give a signaling nod. Leaping over the pillar, Kairyn and I move in tandem. He arcs the sword down in an elegant swing at Farron’s legs. I wind back and slam the hammer into Dayton’s chest.
“Remember, don’t kill them!” I yell at Kai.
“They certainly don’t agree with you,” he huffs, evading a blast of fire.
I lose myself in dodging and parrying Dayton’s flaming blows, barely escaping a killing strike by ducking down onto one knee, letting the blades cleave the air above me.
Beside me, Kairyn’s strikes are as precise as they are relentless, our mother’s blade glinting.
His form is surprisingly good, much better than I’ve seen before.
Though if he doesn’t watch his left side—
Farron sends a blast of magic straight at Kairyn’s open left flank.
“Kai!” I kick Dayton in the chest and dart toward Farron, slamming the base of his spine with the hammer. He topples to the ground, and I stand back-to-back with Kairyn, hammer extended outward.
Dayton and Farron both rise, strange smiles on their faces.
“They’re unstoppable,” Kairyn says.
“We can’t beat them in combat. There’s got to be another way to subdue them.” I look around. The keep where I spent so many days of my childhood has burst into chaos incarnate. Green flames lick across shattered columns, and one of the walls is caved in, revealing the woods that border the keep.
“There. Outside,” Kai says.
I follow his gaze, but there’s nothing but broken stone and towering fir trees—
A memory flashes in my mind. Another throne room destroyed. The Hall of Vernalion, where Kairyn, in possession of the blessing of Spring, covered the ground with plants and entangled us so thoroughly, no weapon or magic was strong enough to free us.
I take a deep breath and feel my body alight with magic. “Alright, little brother. Let’s see if I can learn something from you.”
“Humility from my big brother? Sure you’re not possessed too?”
I huff a laugh. “Let’s hope we survive this so I can kick your ass for that later.”
Kairyn raises his sword and steps in front of me. “I’ll hold them off. Don’t take too long.”
“I’ll try.”
Kairyn runs forward, his sword parrying a devastating thrust from Dayton as he dodges Farron’s flames. My vision narrows, blocking out everything except the fir wood outside the windows. I reach out with my consciousness, the fibers of my magic surging through the earth, seeking any living thing.
They connect with something great and powerful and strong. Come to me. Obey. Obey.
The trees answer. Their roots rupture through the frozen ground. As if they were sentient, the huge roots propel the trees forward, clambering over the fallen wall and into the throne room. Like massive, wooden sentinels, they march one after another, coming to my command.
My body hums with power. “Kairyn!”
Kairyn kicks Dayton in the chest, then bows his head and charges Farron. His enormous horns send Farron flying. With the moment of freedom, Kairyn sprints back to me. I make my move.
Six firs have made it into the throne room. Using my hand as a conduit, I direct their movements, the great roots spurring them forward. The first one reaches Dayton, who’s just picking himself up off the floor.
Eat. Eat. Keep them safe within your bark.
Roots entangle Dayton, lifting him up toward the trunk.
Dayton thrashes against the hold, but the tree is too strong.
Its bark peels back, branches pulling in.
I feel a great heat in my chest, but I keep pouring every drop of magic I have into these Winter woods.
Dayton lets loose an angry roar. It’s soon muffled as the bark wraps around him, swallowing him into itself.
For a moment, the tree bucks, then shivers, then its branches pull back.
Within its trunk is an imprint of Dayton’s screaming face.
I can’t let up. Another tree reaches Farron, who’s smashed against a pillar.
He shakes his head, but the tree captures him before he has time to get his bearings.
He doesn’t scream or make a sound as he’s engulfed inside the wooden sentinel.
It quivers before revealing Farron’s stern-faced visage, encased in bark.
The throne room is quiet. Kairyn looks to me, then cracks a smile. “Did we—”
Despite everything, I smile back. “I think so.”
Kairyn begins to rattle on about something, a maneuver he used, the weight of the sword. But I can’t make sense of it. There’s a heat in my chest, too hot. I need to get my breastplate off. My insides are on fire.
I look up. The tree that swallowed Farron is alight. My woods, engulfed in green flame.