1214-05-26
Adrian Kundra:
RING.
My father's voice echoes in my mind. His words repeat again and again.
Each time heavier. Each time louder.
"I remember every game I have ever played, and every game I will ever play."
I dreamed once that I had been asleep for years. That my father still lived. He always spoke of the world as if it were a chessboard. He believed himself the king destined to rule it.
RING.
He taught me his skill. Lessons I only now begin to understand.
"Edicts," he called them. A power beyond reason. A force so great that nations were shaped by those who wielded it. Years have passed since edicts were outlawed, yet I still see this world walking the same road toward collapse.
RING.
No, perhaps outlaw is the wrong word. The truth is worse. The ability was not outlawed, it was buried. Those who still possessed it ensured that no others could learn.
RING.
My head pounds. Sleep does not come. The night drags forward like a blade across stone. I tell myself that I cannot rest because I am eager for battle, or because my body is preparing itself. But deep down, I know why. I know what the future holds.
For me and for the world.
I sit astride my horse. I gaze down at the city. The lights flicker faintly. They're dim and scattered.
I cannot look away. I keep watching. I must.
"The emperor has gotten into my head."
The drilling stopped a few days ago. That endless gnawing sound finally ended. For a moment I dared to think this night would be like the others: me on my horse, watching over the quiet, my mount as exhausted as I am. That horse has become my companion, my one constant in this chaos.
And still, I think of her. She means more to me than I wish to admit.
I instruct Rowan to keep watch, to alert me if anything stirs while I fight sleep.
WHOESH.
A sound I do not recognize tears through the stillness. Then a crash, followed by the pounding of hooves. My men jolt to attention. Horses thunder forward. Soldiers surge out from the gates of the city in the hundreds, no … in the thousands.
And at their head, I see her.
The Empress of Wara. She wears her dragon-faced mask, its blue surface gleaming in the moonlight, its carved fangs white. Her voice is deep and commanding. It's altered by the hollow shining mask. She rides a black stallion. Her posture is tall, unyielding.
Her general rides his own white steed. His black armor glimmers with silver trims, and a crimson cloak flows at his back. His face is scarred. His expression is unshakable. He holds his spear upright.
Above us, dragons soar, wings stirring the night air. Their cries rumble like laughter. They are mocking us. They remind us of the power she commands.
Her soldiers carry sealed boxes glowing with an eerie green light. They each bear a small circular seal that I cannot yet read. But the sight of them chills me.
"Adrian Kundra!"
Her voice cuts through the night, deeper and harsher beneath the mask.
"I challenge you. Rulers to ruler. For the right to decide if my people shall leave."
From behind me, Voss mutters, "They are going to leave anyway."
She lifts her spear. "Then let us make it a show."
Rowan rides up beside me. The weight of the coming clash written across his face. He presses a sword into my hand. A shield.
Both feel cold yet I tighten my grip.
I raise my sword toward my own soldiers. "Stay back. This is my fight."
Voss's jaw sets. Rowan pulls their men into a line, holding fast, waiting for my signal
I dismount, boots sinking into the loose dirt. My horse snorts behind me. She's restless. I walk down the slope. Each step is heavy. The shield strapped tight to my arm. The emperor urges her horse forward to meet me. The dragon mask staring down like a beast from old stories.
Our blades meet in an explosion of sparks. Her strikes are relentless. They each crashed against my shield with bone-rattling force. She rides low in the saddle. She weaves her horse into the rhythm of her swings, as though beast and rider fight as one. I parry, slash, thrust. Steel rings across the valley.
I angle my shield, stepping hard. Her horse screams and stumbles. My blade cuts deep into its leg. The beast collapses. She rolls free in a blur of motion, landing on her feet with her katana already raised.
The general dismounts in one fluid motion. His boots hit the ground hard. His spear gleams as he levels it toward me. He circles, trying to flank me while the emperor presses her blade from the other side.
His horse surges ahead on its own, charging forward.
I feel the weight of the moment tightening around me. My shield shakes from the force of the emperor's strike, but my hand moves on its own. I slip a dagger free from my belt.
The general lunges, spear thrust driving straight for my ribs.
I throw.
The dagger whistles through the night and buries itself in the leg of his mount. The horse screams, rearing violently. The general stumbles as the beast crashes to the ground, forced to twist aside to keep from being crushed under his own steed's weight.
He hits the dirt hard, rolling to recover. For a breath, his guard drops.
I surge forward. My shield raised, sword cutting down in a heavy arc toward him. He manages to catch the strike with the haft of his spear. The sparks showered the ground.
The emperor presses back in at once. Her blade sliding against mine. The sparks dancing in the dark.
The two of them move together again, but the stumble costs them their rhythm, and I can feel it.
The clash does not stop. It grows.
The emperor presses me from the front, her general at her side, their blades hammering down in a rhythm meant to break me apart. My shield catches each blow, steel sparking, my arm trembling with the strain.
Then the ground shakes. A dragon slams down behind me. It's wings beating like thunder. Its roar tears through the valley. Cold wind whipping dust into the air.
I grit my teeth and raise my shield high. Steel and claw crash against it at once, a storm of force.
My body jolts back as the dragon erupts upward. It's wings tearing the air, before it dives at me with a scream that rattles my bones. Its jaws snap inches from my face. I throw my shield up, the impact slamming through my arm and driving me into the dirt.
The general charges, spear thrusting down toward my chest. I shove the shaft aside with the edge of my sword. I forced him back just long enough to counter. My blade flashes upward, plunging into the dragon's eye. The beast shrieks. It rears back. It thrashes its head in agony as black blood sprays across the battlefield.
I seize the moment.
I pushed off the ground. I hurl myself into the air, closing the distance with the emperor. Her blade arcs toward me, sharp and flawless. I twist, angling past the edge. My sword meets her katana in a clash that screams like thunder. Sparks explode between us as steel locks against steel.
For a heartbeat, it is only us.
We all converged in the same breath, all meant to tear me apart.
BUT I WILL NOT.
I will not break
I leap back. I barely escape as the dragon's claws tear through the spot where I stood a heartbeat before.
"Is that everything you've got, or are you still holding back?" I say through clenched teeth. My voice comes out broken, edged with a laugh I do not feel.
Neither of them answer.
The emperor's mask tilts. Then she laughs. Cold, sharp.
The dragon surges again, jaws snapping. I pivot and drive the shield into its face, the impact jarring my bones. I swing hard, my blade cutting along its neck. Sparks fly but the scales turn my strike aside. Again it descends, again I block, using the shield as my only cover. My sword finds softer places between its scales, drawing thin lines of blood, but never enough to slow it down.
"You truly are Aldric's son," the emperor says, her laughter ringing across the chaos.
I snarl, slamming my shield up as the dragon dives again. The weight of its body smashes me backward. Dirt explodes under my boots. The emperor and her general strike in unison, blades hammering at the edges of my guard.
And then another shadow falls.
Another dragon drops from the sky. Its massive body crashes into me, piling its weight over mine. Claws rake across my armor as I am driven into the earth. My shield splinters. My ribs scream with each breath.
I hear a wet, tearing sound, then white-hot fire erupts across my nerves. A pulling, ripping agony. My scream tears itself from my throat before I even understand why.
I reached for my sword, but my hand never found the hilt. It took me a moment to understand why. My arm is no longer there to obey.
My vision blurs. Then it goes black.
In that darkness, faces appear.
Liora.
Her name, and the names of all my soldiers, all my generals. Every soul who has followed me into fire. Every soul who waits for me to lead them out.
"Oh Lion," I whisper into the void, "give me the strength to topple my enemies."
Light answers. White and blinding, wrapping around me like flame turned solid. Armor forms over my body, piece by piece, until I stand clad in radiant plates that burn with something more than steel. Even my weapon is encased in it, reshaped, reborn.
I surge forward. My blade cleaves through the neck of a dragon, its head severed in one clean strike. Blood sprays across the ground as its body crashes.
The second dragon reels back, wings thrashing the air.
The emperor and her general charge. Their blades flashing. I meet them head-on. They try to halt me, to turn me back, but nothing can stop the Lion's strength. My sword tears through the general's guard and splits him in two, his body collapsing into the dirt.
The white armor flickers, then begins to fade. My strength bleeds away with it.
The dragon roars and lowers its head. It scoops the emperor onto its back. She points her sword toward me. Her mask slips. Her voice thundering across the battlefield.
"Kill all of them! We will not surrender here!"
Her words echo as my vision begins to dim.
Hands grip me.
Lucius.
His face is set. His movements frantic as he ties a tourniquet around the shredded remains of my arm. He seems desperate to hold the blood inside me.
Then the hiss of magic. Ice volleys whistle through the night. Lucius doesn't hesitate. He throws himself over me. His body is the shield I no longer have.
The world cracks with the sound of impact. His blood sprays across my face. His weight collapses on top of me.
I try to call his name, but no sound leaves my throat.
And then, nothing.