The field ignited with the soldiers Valice had burnt. Some had already passed, and their bodies turned to ash, providing light for those still fighting. Some ran screaming and others rolled around on the ground.
Aurelie had hardened within a matter of minutes. Adrenalin took over and all her fears disappeared, hiding behind her natural need to survive. Nothing surprised her. Not even when one of her men was lifted into the air by an invisible force, and dropped back down like a sack of flour.
The pool of blood that had gathered around him suddenly rippled and Aurelie saw the print of a boot disturbing the liquid. She sent a bolt of fire toward the pool and a silhouette of a man suddenly burst into flame.
She remembered her first journey to the Icelands and the footprints that trailed from the queen carriage up to her which she found strange. Perhaps the queen's magic died with her, but this was something else entirely.
King Lukas had invisible soldiers. The battlefield suddenly grew more dangerous and Aurelie ignited her hand and spun in a circle making sure her surroundings were clear.
A loud growl sounded behind her and she turned to see a pack of tigers rush down the mountain and leap toward her men. She spread her fire between both her hands and extended them, forming a large ball. Aurelie released the fire and watched it fly toward the mountain, and spread once it touched the ground. It stopped half the tigers but only for a second. They backed away and sought a different entry onto the battlefield. Some ran back and ran the distance to catch enough speed to jump over the wall of fire that crept up and along the bottom slope of the mountain.
Valice shrieked from above and released another fiery breath. The enemy archers had stopped shooting at the soldiers and focused her instead. Her thick scales protected most of her body, but there were soft gaps between the scales that had been pierced.
Aurelie directed her attention toward the archers. She ran to take cover in the shadows where no fire had burned, and hid behind a tree. From there, she focused on the clothing of the archers and one by one they lowered their bows and beat against the soles of their shoes.
There were still plenty left when Aurelie heard a twig snap behind her. Her eyes had not been accustomed to the darkness. To attack she would have to reveal her hiding place. Without giving it a second thought, she pressed her hands into the ground and a wave of fire burst out at her touch. It caught two crouching men and set them alight. Aurelie ran then, dagger in hand.
"Push them back toward the gate!" she heard someone shout.
She cupped her hands over her mouth and shouted the same thing at the top of her lungs. Her voice was barely audible over the moans and clashing of iron.
A guard she passedâNic's manâhad his sword drawn and his eyes looking at the ground below him. A shadow of a crouching man spread across the ground, but no man near him had been in the same position. His blade swung and Aurelie saw its shadow connect with that of the shadow's neck. A man appeared suddenly, clutching at his neck, his mouth opened and the soldier struck him again.
"Look for the shadows at your feet!" the man shouted. "They're invisible!" He turned and ran to a new target.
The further Aurelie ran into the battle, searching for Kirin, as she set fire to the field and created a wall that pushed back the men toward the castle, the more bodies she found she had to jump over.
The army pushed forward, finishing off the men that had been unfortunate enough to end up on the wrong side of the firewall. Aurelie found herself suddenly at the front.
A blue flame flew across the sky. It passed her faster than she could look up to see what it had been and struck Valice. The dragon lurched sideways in the air and swung her head in the direction it came from.
Aurelie saw the same blue flame grow in the distance, revealing the Kara witches that had aligned with King Lukas. They took up the watchtowers and shifted all their power into the ball of blue lightning. Another flew at Valice. She ducked down, but the ball followed and crashed into her, damaging her wing and tore out the scales on her right side. It looked as if it rained down on the enemy, but it had been Valice's blood. For a moment, the lightning looked like it held Valice there. Then another came and another. Valice fought but with every movement, Valice grew slower and weaker.
"Get the archers to focus the watchtowers," Aurelie shouted and heard her command travel backward toward the archers, but she knew that the request came too late. The watchtower lit up again, and Aurelie saw the blue ball rush past her and temporarily shine a blue light over everyone's face. Valice swung right, but she was too heavy and large, and the movement wasn't nearly fast enough.
The lightning hit her metal wing. It spread instantly covering her whole body in a blue shell. Her body convulsed in the air. The dragon's eyes widened and her jaw clamped down hard.
Her men darted past her, fighting off the men who had been fast enough to run away while Valice plummeted to the ground.
"Valice!" Aurelie yelled. Her heart jumped into her throat. She ran, leaping over bodies and pushing away those who stood in her way. A scurry of boots followed closely behind her.
Valice still stirred, and her eyes fought to stay open. Three men lay motionless below the mass of her body. Aurelie put her hands on the top of Valice's head and closed her eyes. Aurelie couldn't come close. Sparks of lightning still traveled along her body.
"I'll make it better," she said, but the dragon showed no sign that she understood her.
Aurelie's heart hammered and her arms felt as if they had lost their weight.
"Get away from her!" she heard someone shout at the top of her lungs. It was Niendry. She stood ten feet away and dark expression that crawled over her features was enough to scare grown men into hiding. Niendry lifted her hand high above her head, and her eyes turned darker than a moonless sky. Dark lines, twirling like lightning, came down from her hands and connected with the bodies of them that lay below her feet. Aurelie saw her lips move and the darkness swarmed around the men's head.
The men rose from the groundâtheir eyes dark with Niendry's magic coursing through themâand fought the group of men that gathered around her. She moved in a straight line, raising every man that lay before her.
Aurelie did not want Valice to be one of the dead things under Niendry's control, so she turned to her, and pressed both hands to Valice's head. If magic had once saved Aurelie's life, maybe it could save Valice too. She thought of the way her grandfather consumed her fire earlier in the battle and tried to remember the feeling of being drained. Instead of releasing fire, Aurelie pictured herself releasing magic instead and the power began to slowly drain from her hands. She felt a vein open that did not contain blood but rather a second set that rushed through her and sent fire swarming into the palm of her hand.
Weakness filled her quicker than she imagined it would. Her head spun and her body lost the last of its weight. Aurelie kept pushing herself. Someone came up behind her. Since Niendry had just been there, Aurelie assumed that she had come closer to take Valice away.
"She will not be one of your dead things!" Aurelie pushed more of her power into Valice. Her hands were scorching hot.
Come on! Come on! Please! Please! Please! Aurelie heart raced. Exhaustion took over and her hands grew too tired to keep up.
"Stop wasting it!" she heard a man's voice respond in a scolding tone.
No. No. No. No. No. No. Her heart knocked against her chest in slow heavy beats. She recognized the voice all too well. Though, of course, it was usually accompanied by a lazy meow of a cat.
Aurelie felt someone grabbed her shoulders and pull her back every so slightly. She felt backward with no extra effort from her Grandfather. Stars appeared in her eyes. The calmness she felt was probably connected to her subconscious need to survive. It was almost a drunken peace.
She felt the prickling of grass beneath her head. Something shuffled around her, and a cold hand took hold of her head. Her grandfather, with his large fingers and coarse skin, spread his hand so his thumb was on her temple and his index finger on the other temple.
She almost winced when he tightened his grip. The heat of her magic traveled through her body, leaving her cold once it passed. It gathered in her forehead beneath his touch. The heat made it difficult to think but she persisted.
Heat drained from her head, and this left her in a daze of sorts. She started to panic and then calmness crashed into her again like a cold ocean wave, washing away everything but clear thoughts. There had been no one near her other than him and the sound from the battle sounded farther away.
"Good girl," he grandfather said.
The blade of her dagger poked into her hip bone. She calculated the movement just like Nina had taught her when she had her pressed into the ground, much tighter than this.
Three. Two. . . Her grandfather shifted, sending her heart into a frenzy.
Three. Two. . . She started again.
Aurelie held her breath. One.
Without opening her eyes, Aurelie whirled up. The dagger shifted and sliced through her leg. Her head spun from the blow and the magic that had been drained from her and the pain caused by the dagger had been the only thing that helped her confused mind track its location. She opened her eyes and saw three versions of him blurred in front of her, his wide eyes glowing with the fire of her magic. Aurelie pulled her dagger out and thrust it upward through the soft space below his chin, aiming for the middle one which was the least blurry one. She heard a crack of a bone as the blade passed it and then his blood covered her hand in a warm velvet coat.
Aurelie pulled the dagger back and stood up, hovering above him for a second. "I really do hope I haven't killed you too quickly," she said as he fell backward, "I'd hate it if you only had a second to realize that all you've done and planned for has failed."
Dawn approached slowly. The line of the skyâwith the moon still round and glowing brightâ turned a light shade of orange.
Aurelie looked around to see where he had dragged her off too and saw Niendry crying over the corpse of Valice about forty feet away. Her dead things fought with the last of King Lukas' men who had yet to retreat to the castle, and behind her, the Kara witches had directed their magic toward the gates of the castle which had been set on fire. They were mere steps away. There was no way Niendry didn't see her. What was she hoping for? Another ghost for her dress?
A loud explosion of stone sounded and a cheer came from the direction of the castle. She saw the shields drop as her men stormed the castle.
"Do you hear that?" She looked down with a tight smile spread across her lips, but her grandfather's chest had grown still. She dropped down to her knees beside him and pushed her dagger through his chest. "Just making sure you're not taking a page out of my book," she said before standing. She left the dagger there and marched toward the castle.
His death did not satisfy her. She wondered whether it was because he died so quickly and then realized that this was not the case. Revenge simply did not heal her wounds like she had hoped it would, and all his death did was prove to her how pointless all the destruction had been. The world was safer without him in it, but she was no less unhappy with him gone than she was while he lived.